If you know this intersection, you can immediately see why this striping design is problematic. These two bike lanes are connected and riders go straight here while drivers cross from left to right on an off-ramp. (Photo sent in by a reader.)
(UPDATE, 3:30 pm: County has completed changes and it works much better now. Watch video below for current conditions.)
A Multnomah County redesign of the eastbound bike lane on the Hawthorne Bridge viaduct will be rolled back after negative feedback. One BikePortland reader said the design contributed to being hit by a car on Monday.
The focus of concern is the offramp from Hawthorne to SE Clay/Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd — a section of the bike lane that has been known for close calls and high stress for many years. Bicycle users continue straight at the off-ramp while many drivers turn right. This creates the need for safe decisions by both parties. Riders have to look far over their left shoulder to make sure either no one is coming or the person in the car sees them and will stop. It’s a delicate and often dangerous dance.
As part of a $9.5 million repaving and maintenance project, the County made several changes to the viaduct in both directions. BikePortland covered the project back in April, but I was unaware anything would be done to the off-ramp location. I’ve heard several bits of grumbling in recent weeks about the changes, but chalked it up mostly to folks just getting used to something new. Then I heard from a reader Monday.
“I was hit by a car while riding eastbound on the Hawthorne Bridge this afternoon,” they wrote. “A driver was turning right onto the ramp for MLK and sideswiped me. She stopped and claimed she didn’t see me.”
Fortunately the rider suffered only road rash and a bruised foot, but it set of alarm bells when I learned the design was recently changed. “That intersection has always been dangerous but I think the county has made it worse with the recent redesign,” the reader shared with me.
I shared the reader’s photo and message on Instagram yesterday and heard more negative feedback:
“A guy and kid were almost hit right in front of me Saturday night by a speeding pickup. Definitely the closest call I’ve seen in a long time—it is so bad.”
“It’s AWFUL what were they thinking!?”
“It’s horrible and dangerous.”
“Almost got creamed here on my bike on Sunday with hella families on scooters after Portland marathon.”
This reaction made it clear something was very wrong with the design. I fired off emails to the City of Portland and the County but haven’t heard back from either. That reader who was hit also reached out to the County and heard back from an engineer in the bridge division yesterday.
Original design (left) and new design that will be rolled back (right). (Photos: Multnomah County)
The County engineer said, “The original configuration [above left] had cyclists going into the intersection at an approximately 45° angle in which they would slow down to cross. The current configuration (installed according to plan) was intended to have cyclists actually slow down more or even stop in order to avoid situations like this.”
The plan the engineer refers to was shown to the Multnomah County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee in October 2023 (see image below).
(Source: Multnomah County)
The County staffer went on to say they’ve received “a lot” of feedback about the new design, so they plan to alter the design, “to be similar to what was previously in place.” The final striping changes should already be installed and final markings should there by the end of this week.
It’s unfortunate that someone at the County felt making such a harsh angle in the bike lane — and then hoping it would slow riders down — was a good idea. Not only do designs like that usually make things worse because people don’t want to slow down, but it shows how drivers are held harmless while bike riders have to shift behavior and use irregular designs in deference to them. That is the opposite of how we should design streets. Why not alter the driving lane in a way that forces drivers to slow down and be safe?
Road authorities should never experiment on bike lanes. As we saw with this person who got hit, it only takes a bad design in place for a few hours for something serious to happen. These are people! Not a petri dish!
If anyone has an updated photo or wants to share how it looks now, please do.
The County advisory committee meets again tonight and I expect this topic to come up. I’ll report back any updates or details I learn.
UPDATE, 3:30 pm: The County has made changes to the design. See video below for current conditions. Note that green cross markings are still to come.
Candidates on stage as moderator Jeff Mapes asked a question about transportation.
Leave it to Jeff Mapes to seize his opportunity as moderator of last night’s mayoral debate to ask the top candidates a transportation question.
Mapes notched over 40 years as a reporter for The Oregonian and Oregon Public Broadcasting and in 2009 wrote Pedaling Revolution, a critically-acclaimed book that chronicled the rise of bicycling in America at a time when Portland was riding very high as a cycling city. I recall hanging out with Jeff at the National Bike Summit in 2007, which he attended as part of his research for the book. Mapes also once labeled Portland’s cycling advocates as a “micro-constituency” and the “bicycling base” of former mayor Sam Adams.
His question to mayoral candidates Liv Osthus, Carmen Rubio, Rene Gonzalez, Mingus Mapps and Keith Wilson came at the very end of last night’s debate hosted by City Club of Portland. And based on the way he asked it, it was clearly a bonus question Mapes had up his sleeve. “We’re not on live TV, so you know what?” Mapes said, “I’m just going to ask one more question.”
We’re lucky he did, because the responses were interesting and relatively meaty given that campaigns have been focused heavily on homelessness and public safety. Below is Mapes’ question and answers from each candidate in the same order as last night (answers edited for clarity), followed by my takeaways.
Mapes
“Traffic congestion is worse than it was before the pandemic, transit is struggling, the road maintenance backlog is humongous, and we’re far from meeting safe street goals. How do you have a positive vision for how we can better move ourselves around the city?”
Mingus Mapps
“As the former commissioner in charge of PBOT [Portland Bureau of Transportation], this is a space I know well. Here a couple things every Oregonian and every Portlander needs to know: The systems that we use to fund our transportation system are fundamentally broken. It’s a sad truth. The funds that we use to fill potholes and to build bike lanes basically come from parking meter revenues and gas taxes. Our parking meter revenues are down because lots of people are working from home one or two days a week, and gas taxes are going down because cars are much more efficient. Frankly, this is one of the questions we’ll be dealing with in the next legislative session, and that’s also why it’s very important that you have a mayor who’s tuned into transportation issues. In the next year we need to work with our state legislature to develop a new system for funding our transportation system. Ultimately, I believe that’s going to be a vehicle miles traveled tax. I don’t think there’s a lot of controversy around that. There’s a lot of work that we need to do between here and there, and we need our state partners in order to implement that, but I think that’s the way forward. The other thing that we really need to continue to focus on is to build a multimodal transportation system so that you can get where you want to go, how you want to get there. As your commissioner in charge of PBOT, those are the values I brought to this work, and when I’m your mayor, those are also the values I’ll bring to leading the city.”
Liv Osthus (who, by the way, I will interview next week)
“So here’s the confluence of all my favorite ideas. I love public transit. I know that TriMet is Metro, but I whenever I travel, I just I have a fetish for public transportation. So I envision our TriMet being the biggest public art project on the West Coast. Let’s partner with our communities to connect them with TriMet. The Frog Ferry, I love that too… but partner with artists to make TriMet so vibrant, make it free. Everyone will ride if it’s free! The public safety aspect, it will be safer if it’s free and everyone rides and it and it’s a very wholesome place. It will be inspiring for our people suffering from addiction, even they’ll be like, ‘Gosh, I want to get sober for that!’ And then PBOT needs help because not as many people are driving, there’s more cycling because not as many people are driving and it’s safer. That’s my vision. So please next mayor, whomever you may be, take it and run.”
Carmen Rubio
“I absolutely agree with Liv, I 100% support free transit. We need to really focus on multimodal transportation, because this is a new way, and climate change is here people, and we need to start acting like it. I also think that we can think about how we increase the greening of our public transit as well. And I think there are multiple new opportunities to figure out how we cross investments in funds like PCEF [Portland Clean Energy Fund], with with transportation and TriMet, and some of those things are discussions that are already happening. So it’s very exciting. And we do need to explore other ways to address revenue challenges and our declining revenue for transportation, so we do need to push and work with the state for the solutions and for those partnerships so that we can continue to do our basic services that we’re required to do as a local jurisdiction, and also make sure that we’re putting safety infrastructure in so that we can maintain our safe streets.”
Keith Wilson
“I’ll tackle it from the congestion standpoint. So congestion has increased 250% since about the mid-90s for all the so we’re spending more and more time in a car. The unfortunate thing is, is that we led the nation just a matter of seven, eight years ago with walking, biking and transit. We’ve lost that. It’s gone down by half. So the TriMet goal for 2030, is for 120 million riders. Today, it’s 60 million riders. That’s their goal, and they have to achieve that, because if they don’t, all of us just are suffering more and more delay and frustrations. So we have to make sure that we have a public safety system and a transit system that are tied together. When we use our transit for a cooling shelter or a warming shelter without providing basic shelter for those, we’re misusing that very important transit system, and then it feels and or is unsafe. On our multi-use paths, when we’re trying to bike to the Gateway parking garage, and we’re going through a humanitarian crisis, and we don’t bike anymore. These are things that I’m hearing from people that used to bike to the transit system to use it in a multimodal situation. We’re forcing families to then drive their kids to school. We’re forcing bus drivers that are uncomfortable or feel unsafe in a job that they should have as a routine and caring for their customers, which is you and me. We need a safer system in Portland. We need to improve livability, and then we need to invest in walking, biking and transit and protected systems so we can move from our cars and move faster to work.”
Rene Gonzalez
“When I chose to start my professional career in Portland, I thought of it as the most European city in 2000. A place where you could walk, where you cycle, where you took public transit. It is, and certainly was, a central part of our identity as a city that we embrace all those various components. I will say, in recent years, at times, that’s also become dogmatic. It was never a ‘war on cars.’ It was walk, cycle and take public transit because it was healthy, because it was social. And so I just want to maybe observe in recent years that it’s become a little bit more brutal. And I would also submit when you’re talking about in east Portland of your single mom with two kids, and you get to a doctor, you’re still going to use your car; and if you’re working in the outer suburbs and you work downtown, you’re likely still going to need to use a car to get to work. So I think we have to acknowledge sometimes the classism in public transit discussion can go too far. I echo Commissioner Mapps’ points on stabilizing funding for transportation our region. This is a really tough nut to crack, and we’re just going to have to partner with various government parties going forward on that. I also want to call out that I think a lot of the congestion in our region is in the suburban areas. We do have some in the city, but we’ve got to get I-5 expansion done. We’ve got to get the Interstate Bridge project done. That is a major congestion point on the West Coast. It’s frankly an embarrassment for us, and we’re not protecting the climate when cars are idling on I-5.”
Thank you Jeff Mapes!
These were the most substantive comments on transportation we’ve heard from leading mayoral candidates to date. Here are some of my takeaways…
Mapps didn’t really answer the question. Instead of sharing his vision, he went into the same spiel about funding he mentions whenever transportation comes up. Yes that’s an important element of the conversation, but I think people want to hear a more decisive answer, some new ideas, and/or something closer to a true vision beyond a milquetoast, “we really need to continue to focus on is to build a multimodal transportation system.” And the fact that Mapps still hasn’t explained why PBOT planned to redesign a downtown bike lane and make it less safe, despite warnings from experts on the agency’s staff, doesn’t give anyone a reason to trust him on this issue.
The answer from Osthus should be turned into a t-shirt and advocacy slogan. I’d certainly buy a sticker that says, “I have a fetish for public transit!” I also noted her enthusiastic tone and it was clear she sees streets with more bike and transit riders as being an important part of Portland regaining its mojo.
Rubio was likely relieved that her problem with parking tickets and license suspensions never came up. Her answer to Mapes’ question was interesting for its full-throated support of free transit. But it made me think: If she believes in free transit, what has she done in her past four years in office to support that? This is the first time I’ve heard her mention that policy. I know she wasn’t in charge of PBOT, but I’m not aware of anything she did to advocate for PBOT transit programs like the Rose Lane Project and I haven’t heard anything about her working with advocacy groups that work of free transit or fight for lower fares such as OPAL’s Bus Riders Unite.
Wilson’s answer had solid scope and clarity. I was glad he didn’t connect the entire answer to ending unsheltered homelessness, the issue that defines his campaign, but that I think he often talks about too much at the expense of other important issues. In his answer, Wilson deftly made the very important connection between the quality of transit and bike path experiences and whether people will choose those modes. He’s been to Bike Happy Hour several times in the past year and his conversations and time spent in our community shone through in his answer. His ending plea to “invest in biking and walking and transit and protected systems” was strong and needed.
The answer shared by Gonzalez was also very clear. His idea that encouragement to walk, bike and take transit more being, “dogmatic” and “a little more brutal” in recent years was very interesting. These choices are a key part of how Portland can solve our transportation problems and they are main elements of our climate and transportation plans, so of course that’s the messaging folks hear from the City of Portland. And by his own admission, Portland has a strong legacy of being “the most European city” and a push to not drive is just baked into this city’s DNA to some degree.
Gonzalez is a regular bike rider and transit user, but he’s also the best politician in the race. By far. He’s a confident speaker, he has a distinct vision, and he knows exactly what his supporters and donors want to hear. That’s why he mentioned expanding freeways (which, by the way, when you create more room to drive and if there’s less idling in the short-term, there will eventually be more cars and more idling in the long-term) and marched out the classic “some people need to drive” strawman. It was also unfortunate that he doubled-down on the same unhelpful class framing that his friend and ally, District 1 City Council candidate Terrence Hayes, likes to make.
Except for Osthus, who likely earned some rankings with her optimism and passion for Portland, I don’t think last night’s debate moved the needle much for any candidate. Gonzalez is still a strong favorite, but I think Wilson is a legit dark horse at this point. Since many Gonzalez and Rubio fans won’t rank either as their second choice (or might not rank them at all), Wilson will likely receive a ton of second-place votes. Add those to his likely large haul of first-place votes and he could surprise everyone.
Kids are almost universally afraid of the dark. Even in their safe spaces, with their own comfort items and the safety of being at home with their family, the darkness of night can still feel scary to a child. They can’t see. They don’t know what is lurking in the darkness. Monsters and imagination fill the corners of the night. Kids move tensely, nervously, until the space is lit.
Knowing this, I’m not surprised my children complained about riding bikes in the dark. They are afraid and they don’t like it. Can’t we just drive instead? They ask. I try not to force my children to do something that makes them uncomfortable. When it comes to night biking, the danger of darkness has more reality than the ubiquitous monster-under-the-bed: they’re afraid that cars won’t see them. And that’s a very legitimate worry.
Last year we tried to mitigate this fear by picking up my son from swim practice. He rode his bike to practice in the daylight, but by the end of practice, winter darkness fell thickly round. My husband or I would ride out to meet him, accompanying him home so that he didn’t have to ride home alone at night. Still, he didn’t like riding at night, even with a parent along. Our presence wasn’t enough to make him feel safe.
All my children share these fears. But if we give up on night biking, we’ll have to drive most everywhere come fall/winter. It gets dark early. And I really don’t want the coming of the night to force us into our minivan, especially for our short-distance trips (many of which are less than a mile).
This fall, I’ve been trying to troubleshoot the various scenarios that push us to drive, to see if I can find solutions that will get us out biking more often. For example, biking often takes more time, and when we’re worried we’ll be late, or when we are simply feeling overwhelmed with all of our “to dos,” we drive to save time. To address this, I’ve been trying to do a better job with advance planning and preparation.
They were so excited, they begged me to take them for a night time bike ride.
We are trying to get ready-to-go earlier, and leave earlier, so that we aren’t tempted to drive at the last moments. I have also begun to do big-batch-bulk cooking, which doesn’t sound “bike related” — but it is! I have a garage freezer full of dinners, lots of soups, chilis, and pasta-bakes. I have dinners that are ready to just warm up and eat, which means I am not feeling stressed about getting home and cooking–which would otherwise have been a reason to drive and not-bike, because I wanted to save a few minutes and the energy expenditure of pedaling. With dinner already made (on the weekend or slow days when time is plentiful), I can enjoy an evening bike ride home, without feeling stressed about the cooking.
As for that night biking problem, the solution I’ve found are wheel spoke lights. I don’t know why it took me years to finally invest in these! My children love them. They were won over immediately. As soon as the first set was installed, the kids were captivated and all begging for their bike to be next. They were so excited, they begged me to take them for a night time bike ride.
So out into the night we’ve gone, and the lights are brilliant. My husband has laughed at how incredibly bright and visible we are — like our own, lit-up bike parade. Cars have stopped and stared at us, and noticeably slowed down when passing us. The change in driver behavior has been striking. My kids recognize they are brightly visible, and they feel confident and empowered to ride at night.
On a particularly late ride, my daughter exclaimed, “That was so much fun! We were the only ones on the road!” With the low traffic and bright lights, I might even feel safer to night-time bike with the kids than in daylight during rush hour. With the bright flashing lights, my kids are visible even when behind a parked car. The lights alert drivers they’re coming, before their body or bike is visible around an obstruction.
These wheel spoke lights have turned night biking from a scary dread to a favorite activity.
My son said he was the talk of swim team practice and everyone thought his wheel lights were so cool! And for the first time, he decided to make the night-time ride home on his own, wheel lights blazing.
— Some local bike shops carry lights like this. But I’d call before heading over. You can also find all sorts of wheel lights for sale online by searching for “wheel lights.”
Council candidates from every district participated in the Week Without Driving. L to R: Timur Ender (D1), Marnie Glickman (D2), Rex Burkholder (D3), Chad Lykins (D4). (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
The emergence of Week Without Driving on a national scale is one of the most promising developments in low-car/no-car activism in years. Launched for the first time in 2021 by Washington-based disability rights and transportation advocate Anna Zivarts, the annual observance is an excellent excuse for politicians, policymakers, or just regular folks to drive less.
As our planet and our local election heats up, and transportation emerges as a campaign issue, there was no question some Portland candidates would give it a try last week (the official dates of the challenge were September 30 to October 6th). And if it wasn’t on their radar, The Street Trust Action Fund put it there by asking them to participate as part of their endorsement process.
I’m aware of nine city council candidates who participated. Eight of those replied to my queries about it and seven sent me their responses in time for this post. I asked each candidate the same three questions (plus an open-ended one): 1) Why did you do it? 2) What two experiences would you like to share?, and 3) Did it change how you see transportation in Portland?
Below are reflections about Week Without Driving from seven Portland city council candidates…
Timur Ender, District 1 (East)
Timur Ender (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
I participated in Week Without Driving because how we view our streets shapes public policy. I think this campaign presents an opportunity for people to have different experiences and to see their neighborhood from a different perspective. It also pushes people to plan and execute on what their multimodal choices would be if they needed to use them.
One memorable experience I had occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. My day started at 6:30 am taking our foster child to school and ended at 10:30 pm biking back from a soccer game. As I was biking in between different events, I heard my oldest child playing at their friend’s house before school. I wasn’t aware they were going to be there. I biked over to her, wished them a great day, and gave her a hug and a kiss. It was the only time we saw each other that day. In the middle of a hectic day within the midst of a 15-month long city council campaign where I’ve sacrificed hours away from my kids and family, that moment meant a lot. Had I been in a car, I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t have heard them playing— nor would I have been driving on that local street in the first place.
I don’t think it changed how I view transportation issues as we frequently use transit, biking, and walking as a family but I did appreciate the opportunity to participate. (Learn more about Ender here.)
Marnie Glickman, District 2 (N/NE)
Marnie Glickman (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
I decided to participate because I want to learn firsthand what it is like for one-third of Portlanders who do not drive or cannot afford to drive a car.
It was harder than I thought it would be. As a person living with multiple sclerosis, there were two days when I felt too weak to ride even my electric trike. I also discovered that it was easier for me to stay home (even during the final stretch of my campaign) than venture out into the city. Carrying my lawn signs onto the line 24 bus was too challenging for me.
The experience changed how I see transportation because I discovered how much more difficult and time-consuming transit was without a car and the ability to cycle in Portland. I can imagine a little more easily what life is like for so many Portlanders who are struggling to get from one place to another safely.
Portland’s transportation system should facilitate the safe movement of humans of all shapes, sizes, and abilities. Our transportation system needs to connect people together and build resilient, thriving communities without harming the environment and wildlife. (Learn more about Glickman here.)
Nat West, District 2 (N/NE)
Nat West (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
For most weeks in a given year, I don’t drive. So this wasn’t so much a challenge for me as an opportunity to highlight alternative modes of transportation and participate in a bigger conversation. I really like the timing of this week as the seasons are changing. There are a lot of people who use more active modes when the weather is nicer but retreat to their cars when the rains come. So this week was hopefully an opportunity for people to experience a few chilly mornings on their commutes. As a daily cyclist, I really enjoyed seeing so many other people getting around via other modes like transit and walking.
On Friday morning, I got hit from someone running a stop sign on SE 7th. That’s the second time I was hit on that stretch of road this year. There is clearly work to be done, not just there but in many places of Portland. I also want to share that I went to a conference on Friday with a few hundred attendees and only saw two bikes there. So despite the publicity of the week, I don’t think the message got around to a lot of people.
I’ve been campaigning on transportation policy, and specifically safe streets for the last eight months, so I can’t say this week changed my perspective. But I’ll take every opportunity to talk to voters about larger bigger community efforts to engage more actively with transportation. It’s easy to ignore a single person riding a bike every day, but harder when you see many people talking about not driving.
I noticed quite a few other City Council candidates participating in Week Without Driving using various modes, but I didn’t see any mayoral candidates talking about it. Considering the bad driving records of Carmen Rubio and Rene Gonzalez, this dichotomy may be a sign of differences in vision in the new government come January. We may end up with some elected officials who clearly think the rules of the road don’t apply to them, and others who feel the impact of those bad behaviors. (Learn more about West here.)
Jesse Cornett, District 3 (SE)
Jesse Cornett (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
I rarely drive any longer. For health and for lowered expenses, I enjoy my pedal-powered alternatives. This past week I was vexed by flats, which lead to unanticipated car trips. I finally got new tires and rim tape yesterday, so I hope the deflating trend is over!
I would estimate that 95% of my trips since June have been by bike, including to Council Crest (for fun) and Edgefield (for music!).
I feel as if I see the strides that have been made in the past decade for bicycle safety and better understand our transportation system because of my shift back to two wheels.
I’ve had one minor crash and surprised how easily I’ve been able to make minor repairs on. (Learn more about Cornett here.)
Rex Burkholder, District 3 (SE)
It was great to have an excuse to break out the trailer and do some serious shopping without a car.
Rex Burkholder (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
I try to make every week a week without driving, but sometimes, when the rain is pouring or I have many destinations to get to and I’m tired, having a goal of not driving — for all the very good reasons not to drive a car — gets me over the hump and back on my bike.
First, I got a lot more mileage in on my bike, with having to canvass voters in a large geographic area as well as attending voters forums, I was going from one end of town to the other more than usual.
Second, is that I did drive a car one day to take my partner, Lydia, to Kaiser to get a cast on her broken wrist. She has not been able to ride a bike (and is very frustrated) after breaking her wrist when she tripped hiking. She also has difficulty driving so I was her willing driver that day. Transit would have been an hour trip with two transfers to get to Kaiser, a taxi trip, or a 10 minute drive. We make choices.
As a regular bicycle user and walker, my experiences weren’t that much different.
I think that we should require all City of Portland employees, at least those working in transportation, and our future councilors and mayor as well, to experience a week without driving to understand what many Portlanders experience everyday — those who have no choice but to walk, take transit, or cycle due to income, age, disability or other situation that makes driving a car impossible. (Learn more about Burkholder here.)
Chad Lykins, District 4 (West/Sellwood)
Chad Lykins (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
I did the week without driving both because I’m a big supporter of active transportation and because I wanted to show solidarity with those for whom driving is not an option. To make it work, I had to rig my bike up for more carrying capacity for delivering yard signs. I was able to do some tasks on a bike that had previously been more challenging. Also, I finally got to ride my bike to a Timbers game at Providence Park. The bike parking there is amazing!
I would point out that the Week Without Driving isn’t just about bikes. I thought a lot about people who have various disabilities that prevent them from walking, riding, or driving. Our city needs to be a place where all people are able to get around. (Learn more about Lykins here.)
Mitch Green, District 4 (West/Sellwood)
Driving less is important to me, and I realize I’m still car-dependent for accomplishing certain things during the week out of convenience or necessity. A Week Without Driving felt like any other week because I’ve always challenged myself to use other ways of getting around like the bus or biking even when I’m privileged to own a car. I put in extra effort to bike everywhere first, then took transit when biking for the entire day wasn’t feasible. I still rode 6 out of 7 days, with the exception of Thursday when I had multiple interviews nearly back-to-back.
Mitch Green (Photo: Mitch Green campaign)
What I didn’t expect when I took the pledge was experiencing a health issue that made walking painful for a few days and required bedrest per doctor’s orders. I thought I could still bike easily when the pain subsided, but it wasn’t. My campaign manager also got her bike stolen the previous week, and these events amplified just how much more planning, coordination, and effort it took to get around when we depend on biking and walking as our primary modes of transportation. Campaigning involves traveling to several locations throughout the day back-to-back, while transporting ourselves and materials.
A Week Without Driving amplified a lot ot the experiences my southwest Portland neighbors have told me when talking to them at doors –hundreds of them – over the past few weeks. In West Portland Park, Hayhurst and Maplewood, walking to school or a bus stop can be long and treacherous with hills and without sidewalks. Trip-chaining or going from one location to another, especially for families with young children or family members with disabilities, can be much easier with a car. For people who are bike and transit-dependent, they have to negotiate schedules, consequences for lateness, decisions about safety and comfort, and costs in a way that aren’t as relevant to people who can easily drive around. (Learn more about Green here.)
Nearly twenty years ago, a commercial real estate investor named Ted Gilbert had an idea: What if we turned a vacant lot between two freeways into a park that would give east Portland a marquee destination?
On Saturday, Gilbert was on hand as the vision he had in 2005 could finally be experienced. It was made even sweeter with the addition of a new path and bridge recently completed by TriMet that connects the park’s south end directly to Gateway Transit Center.
“If you hate Gateway Green, blame me because it was my wild idea,” Gilbert shared in a short interview with me just before he walked on stage to share remarks at the big celebration hosted by Portland Parks & Recreation, TriMet, and nonprofit Northwest Trail Alliance.
“I didn’t know anything about mountain biking when we started, but it was this vision as a bike park that grabbed everybody’s attention.”
– Ted Gilbert
Ted Gilbert, the commercial real estate investor who hatched the plan.Linda Robinson, the parks advocate who shepherded the idea.Lisa Olivares, current leader of cycling nonprofit partner.
Gilbert began the project in 2005 as away to give the Gateway area a civic rebranding and more green space. The area was the most parks-deficient in the entire city and its economic reputation needed a boost. His time on an urban renewal committee wasn’t going anywhere, so he made a cold call to the former Oregon Department of Transportation Region 1 Director Jason Tell (ODOT owned the land). “I asked him if he’d be willing to put this underutilized piece of land to a higher community purpose,” Gilbert shared.
As it turned out, that higher purpose was a bike park.
“I didn’t know anything about mountain biking when we started, but it was this vision as a bike park that really grabbed everybody’s attention. It really resonated with people,” said Gilbert. Aided by dozens of enthusiastic cycling advocates organized by NW Trail Alliance and his “partner in crime,” Linda Robinson, who would later head the nonprofit Friends of Gateway Green, the park opened its first phase in 2017.
Robinson formed the friends group in 2009 and spearheaded early fundraising efforts. In her remarks Saturday, she said now that construction is complete, Friends of Gateway Green will become a different kind of organization. “We’re transitioning into an organization that helps activate the park. We hope to work with partners to hold all kinds of events here — not just bicycle events, but music events, walking events all kinds of things,” she said while making a pitch for new board members who want to be involved in the park’s next era.
The park needs more leaders and volunteers. It also needs dirt.
Portland Parks Capital Project Manager Ross Swanson has overseen the city’s work on Gateway Green for the last 10 years. He said the type of clay dirt needed to make great bike trails isn’t in great supply at the site, so they need to import most of it. “I have feelers out into the construction industry about where to find clay soils. If they’re looking for a place to dump it, we have a spot.”
Several people I spoke to Saturday love the dirt at Gateway Green. One young girl and her mom said they do laps of the single track and then race each other on different tracks in the skills park area. Asked if she likes to jump, the girl said she has started doing the gravity line trails that begin atop the highest point in the park’s southern end, and one time she accidentally defied gravity and launched into the air. “She was super nervous,” he mom said. “But now she’s found inner strength.”
“That line is probably my favorite now. So yeah, just follow your heart,” the girl added.
Helping kids gain confidence on two wheels is exactly what NW Trail Alliance dreamed of when they got involved with the project in 2008. The group’s Executive Director Lisa Olivares said they’ve organized thousands of volunteer hours as the official trail steward of the park. “They’re out there with shovels, they’re brushing back the trails, just doing all the work that’s necessary on a weekly basis.”
In addition to being, “the place” to ride off-road in Portland, Olivares said Gateway Green has a political function as well because the success and popularity of the park proves the demand. “We are excited for more spaces like this and more trails that we’ll be able to get our bikes on throughout the city,” Olivares said.
While NWTA works on more off-road trails citywide, Gilbert wants someone to pick up the torch he and Robinson lit. In his speech Saturday, Gilbert said, “We’re not finished with wild ideas yet,” and then he raised his arm and pointed west from the stage toward towering hills of Rocky Butte just on the other side of I-205.
Gilbert revealed that when he made that first call to ODOT in 2005, the former regional director said, “By the way, we have some acreage on top of Rocky Butte. Would you like that too?” “So we did some research,” Gilbert continued. “We found out that in addition to ODOT, there were total of five public agencies that owned a total of 80 acres contiguous land [on and around Rocky Butte]… Can you imagine if we combined that 80 acres of land connected… on the west side of I-205 with the east side? We would have a one-of-a-kind project anywhere in the country.”
“Perhaps someone here today, one generation or another, will be inspired by those ideas. I hope so, because I sincerely believe if a good idea can happen anywhere, it can happen here.”
— See action from the celebration, including interviews with Gilbert, Olivares, Swanson, and others in the video player above or watch it on YouTube.
I liked this week’s comment because it comes from the reader every writer wants — a person at the receiving end who puts some work into it. Charley read a wonky article (The Alpenrose hearing: Nollan and Dolan), clicked into an even wonkier critique by Keith Liden, and then made all that information his own and thought about it.
He collected his ideas (which went beyond Nollan/Dolan or Liden’s Alpenrose critique) and took the discussion to a different level.
Keith Liden’s prepared testimony was very readable, and seemed convincing. Impressive work.
One comment (about the City wondering why more people don’t ride bikes) made me think of both the City’s elected leaders and the City’s voters in a new light: I think *both* the elected leaders and voters are overstating their support for policies related to bicycle safety, pedestrian safety and CO2 reductions.
The way I see it, the elected leaders are representing voters’ preferences pretty well: most voters like the sound of “let’s fight climate change,” and like the sound of “pro-bike,” but aren’t personally invested in either cause.
I mean that literally. What amount of their own money would voters be willing to spend on climate mitigation? Voters are more enthusiastic about taxing “rich people” or “corporations” to fight climate change, but directly taxing the middle class is clearly unpopular.
Similarly, many local people like bikes and want safety for riders… but clearly there’s a good bit of local pushback against new bike lanes, or other safety treatments.
Surely, some of these are not the same people! I mean, many people who oppose bike lanes also don’t give a hoot about bike riders’ safety.
However, I think there’s some overlap: how often do we hear someone say “I’m a bike rider, too, but bike lanes are not a good fit for my street because we need on-street parking.”
As regards elected leaders, I’ve never gotten the sense that any are *particularly* invested in cycling as a solution to our problems.
Many are of course happy to sign off on some amount of funding for safety improvements, and some have even gone to bat on controversial issues (Sam Adams over BES funding, iirc; Hales on off-road cycling). But more often we have examples of public support and behind-the-scenes disinterest or opposition (Hardesty, Mapps, Fritz).
Perhaps I’m being too cynical about this. Even if it’s not as strong as preference falsification, I’d still argue that politicians and voters overstate their support for cycling and climate mitigation. Most local voters want to think of themselves as environmentally-minded citizens, so candidates flatter us by adopting “pro-bike” positions, etc. That’s the mechanism by which the transportation safety hierarchy adopted by the full City Council, but is ignored (as Liden expertly points out) when it comes to accommodating the housing development at Alpenrose.
I do not mean this as some kind of denunciation of rank hypocrisy! I think bike/pedestrian safety and climate mitigation are hard and expensive nuts to crack. There are differences in impact that create entrenched opposition to change, and fully funded solutions would require enormous sums of money.
It’s no surprise that some people feel hopeless, or conversely, that some people maintain a kind of blissful ignorance as to the true costs of either project. Most of us feel “on edge” to one degree or another. Who really feels economically secure? Secure enough to devote a substantial part of our income to climate mitigations? Few people feel physically secure enough to risk commuting by bike, much less give up owning a car.
Even then, we’d still like to see positive change… just as long as it doesn’t cost us too much.
Tech won’t save us or them: Don’t be fooled by the charm offensive from Big Auto that wants to convince Americans that the path toward safer cars is better technology. Just design safer and smaller cars, damnit! (Slate)
Rad goes big box: Ubiquitous e-bike brand Rad Power Bikes has signed a deal to sell into Best Buy, and some bike industry insiders see it as a sign of desperation. (Bicycle Retailer & Industry News)
Firefly activism: A cycling advocacy group in Manila has grown into a force after one person stood up with a provocative question: Can you see the fireflies? (Christian Science Monitor)
What the bleep? California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have required new cars to have audible speed warning devices. (Politico)
Cost of transit: A report done to boost support of a major investment into public transit in Vancouver, BC found that current service costs the region about $1 billion every year — or around $1,000 per household — in added transportation costs. (Metro Magazine)
Cost of driving: Cars are just so bad, man. Even if the cost of lives or cost to our planet don’t make you sick, consider that a recent study found about one-third of all drivers who financed their vehicles owe more than their car is worth. (Jalopnik)
A lot of pedaling, indeed: Cyclist Lachlan Morton rode all the way around Australia, a distance of 8,800 miles, at an average of 280 miles per day for 30 days. Damn. (The Guardian)
Bike to fly: Portland Airport officials need to do some research and consider doing something similar to what they’re doing at Washington National with secure bike parking stalls so folks feel comfortable not just biking to the airport for work, but to fly as well. (Fast Company)
Hope you’ve had a great week. Eva just rolled away and we had a good ol’ time chatting it up for this week’s In The Shed episode. Check (mostly) all the fun stuff we mentioned in the links below.
The brilliant interview video expert Aaron Parecki who’s helping me set up a video studio in The Shed. By the way, please support BikePortland so we can continue to invest in the quality of our offerings.
Thanks for listening! And we appreciate all the paid subscribers and BP advertisers that continue to make this podcast — and all the things BikePortland does — possible. Please become a paying supporter today at BikePortland.org/support.
Gateway Green’s new south entry plaza (left), the new TriMet bridge into the park, and one of the new gravity line trails. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
In many ways, this Saturday is the grand opening Gateway Green never had.
This 25-acre bike park nestled between interstates 84 and 205 in east Portland opened in 2017, but that was well before the full plan of trails and amenities had been built out. And just when the final phase of construction was complete, Covid hit and scuttled any official celebration. Then by the time masks came down, TriMet construction fences went up as their Better Red project closed a large portion of the park.
Today there’s a lot to celebrate: TriMet’s project is complete and they’ve built a new bridge and path that leads directly between the park and their Gateway Transit Center, providing a much easier, safer, and direct connection for visitors. (Getting people on bikes to this park is very important because it has no on-site car parking.) And Portland Parks & Recreation has built a new entry plaza on the south end, complete with new benches, plantings, signage, downhill “gravity line” trails (where you don’t have to pedal), and more.
PP&R has worked with nonprofit NW Trail Alliance to put finishing touches on the trails and other amenities. The two new gravity line trails offer about 160 yards of new berms and ramps. Add the new south entry plaza to the existing entrances at the west and north, Gateway Green now welcomes visitors from the I-205 path with the respect and infrastructure fitting of a park of this stature.
“This is the grand opening that we never had. Now we are ready to celebrate.”
– Linda Robinson, park co-founder
On that note, I rode TriMet’s new bridge Thursday and loved how much easier it was to connect to from the Gateway Shopping Center. It will also give first responders a quicker route into the park whenever necessary.
On Saturday from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm the city and NWTA will offer loaner mountain bikes, face painting, a prize raffle, bike skills challenge stations, and other fun activities. If you’ve never checked out Gateway Green, this is a great opportunity to explore what it has to offer. Or if it’s been awhile, you owe it to yourself to give it another look.
The idea behind Gateway Green was first hatched in 2006 by Gateway area property developer Ted Gilbert and longtime parks advocate Linda Robinson. Their vision, first presented to BikePortland in 2008, was made real by dedication, private fundraising, and financial and administrative support from PP&R and the Oregon Department of Transportation (who sold PP&R the land it was built on).
“This is the grand opening that we never had,” wrote Robinson in an email this week. “Now we are ready to celebrate.”
— Need even more inspiration? Turns out Saturday is also National Take a Kid MTB Day! Event info here.
Come out and see a new and improved Gateway Green. (2021 photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Welcome to the weekend. Well, almost. It’s time to make a plan and get the most out of your time to ride.
Here’s what I recommend…
Saturday, October 5th
Oregon Cyclocross Championships – All day at Alderbrook Park (WA) Who’s got the best legs and will earn the fabled champs jersey this year? It all comes together at a really fun-looking course and the weather should be perfect. More info here.
Gateway Green and Take a Kid MTB Day Celebration – 10:00 am to 2:00 pm at Gateway Green (NE) Portland Parks & Rec and NW Trail Alliance are teaming up for a big party to celebrate the completion of a new southern entrance to Gateway Green Bike Park and a new TriMet bridge to get there! More info here.
Bike Farm Ride – 10:00 am at Bike Farm (NE) Join Portland Bicycling Club for a meet-up at the DIY maintenance and advice center run by Bike Farm, then enjoy a 13-15 mph paced ride through the city checking out our great central city bikeways. More info here.
Bike to Day of Action – 1:15 at Ladds Circle Park (SE) Join a grassroots show of solidarity to a the International Day of Action protest in north Portland being held to mark one year of genocide by Israel against Palestinians. More info here.
Sunday, October 6th
King Farmers Market Ride – 10:00 am at Alberta Park (NE) Join Opie (the dog!) and Paul and their fun crew for a group ride to the wonderful weekly market at King Elementary School. More info here.
Coyote Wall Underbiking Extravaganza – 10:00 am at the Trailhead (WA) Join Portland bike shop Something Cycles and their merry band of underbiking (using older-school bikes without all that fancy suspension and whatnot) fans for an epic MTB ride. More info here.
Coraline’s Curious Cat Trail Ride – 12:00 pm at OMSI (SE) Tom Howe will take you on a route that could be your very last chance to see the collection of interesting cat statues that are currently strewn about Portland. More info here.
E-Bike Ride – 2:00 pm at Portland Saturday Market (SW) E-bike shop Nomad Cycles is hosting this ride that will meet at the market an hour before lift-off, then will mount steeds and roll up the west hills to the Rose Garden. More info here.
— Did I miss your event? Please let me know by filling out our contact form, or just email me at maus.jonathan@gmail.com.
Terrence Hayes in The Shed yesterday. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Once I read City Council District 1 candidate Terrence Hayes’ recent fundraising email to supporters titled, “Portland’s War on Cars,” I knew I had to sit down and talk with him. In this interview, I share my concerns about the way he chose to frame our transportation challenges and Terrence explained why he wrote it. But that was just the start of an interesting conversation that included exchanges on everything from the future of 82nd Avenue (he supports a dedicated bus lane) to policing (he wants more boots on the ground), local politics (he says progressives in his race are flip-flopping on public safety), and more.
Among a field of nearly 100 candidates in the coming election, Hayes stands out. Not only is he the cousin of Quanice Hayes, the 17-year old who was murdered by a Portland Police Bureau officer in 2017; but Terrence served nearly 13 years in prison for shooting someone in the leg in 2003. Since then, Hayes has established a successful business and has become a community leader in gun violence prevention.
Given that past, it’s a bit surprising that he’s very proud to be endorsed by the Portland Police Association, the union that represents Portland Police Bureau officers. He also wants to add hundreds of new police officers to Portland streets as a key part of his public safety platform. That stance, and the endorsement of City Commissioner and mayoral candidate Rene Gonzalez, has put Hayes in an interesting political position in traditionally progressive Portland.
“Well, you know, we always want to capture folks’ attention and anytime you say something like that, you’re going to capture attention… Remember, I’m always speaking from an east Portland point of view. When I’m talking to folks in east Portland, what they’re always complaining about is our lack of sidewalks, our lack of paved roads and safe roads. And they really feel that the biking and all that, got ahead of the other things in transportation that they would have liked to focus on because most of them commute to work, commute to schools, commute to the grocery stores — and a lot of them was long commutes.
I’m simply talking about prioritization. When our transportation is safe, our buses, when we have more bus routes, when we have more MAX routes, right? Especially from east Portland into the city — then we actually can create pathways for less cars and safer for bikers.
And so, no! I don’t want faster cars. I got kids, man! I don’t want people dying and getting hurt. But what I do want us to approach infrastructure in our roadways holistically. I’m using the words to challenge everybody.
So kick my tail and hold me accountable. But when you look out of a lens of east Portland, we’re still looking at the difference between the privilege of biking in relation to people that work from home, people that can afford, in whatever way, to not have to drive a car, drive their kids to school, drive for work, school and groceries. Right. So I’m looking through a particular lens. Bridge building don’t always mean you don’t say the tough things. It just means you’re present to hear everybody out. No one can never accuse me of not hearing you out.”
Do you support a dedicated transit lane or a high-priority transit lane on 82nd Ave?
“For sure. Again, I’m going to die on a hill that 82nd itself has always — and should always — look very vibrant and interconnected.”
Your 17-year-old cousin was murdered by a Portland Police officer, and now you’re not only endorsed by their union (PPA), but you also support putting more officers on the street?
“Yes because if the national data says that we’re behind on officers, the amount of officers you need to create a safe city, no matter my personal emotion towards the action of an officer, it doesn’t change the data. Now you have to understand that when we took this loss as a family, what we’ve always demanded was better training, better decision making and policy change. If you look at what happened with my family and what we said publicly, we never became an abolitionist family because of this trauma. We’ve decided police are not going nowhere. We’re not having that discussion with people. What we want to talk about is getting better versions of policing.”
What have you seen from the PPB that gives you hope?
“It’s because I have the same hope for them that I have in anybody that’s caused harm. That they can do better. And because I humanize people. Again, there’s not an example for me as a Black man that I can’t point to all segments of American culture where they’ve caused harm to Black folks, right? And so for me, I’m looking at PPA and I’m saying, ‘Y’all need somebody who’s going to be honest, be clear, and still have your best in mind. And I think I can be that person.
But let’s be clear about something: I love my community. I’m doing this for my community.
Black people didn’t want to ‘defund’. We wanted to define. I’m talking to people in the Black community and they’re saying, we never asked for this. We just want it to be treated well. So I actually bring that voice. I have not varied. I have not compromised. I have not become a different version of myself when I did my PPA endorsement.
I said ‘My cousin was killed by an officer and I never want to see a young black man down the barrel of a police officer.'”
When talking about policing, I’m seeing what are considered progressive candidates in your race, when asked, ‘Do you want more police or not?’ they don’t say, ‘No.’ I think that is a really interesting change from previous years…
“The folks in my district that are more progressive was definitely pushing for defunding and everything else during that time. So they can politically change up if they want to. But when you start looking at the track record, it’s political suicide. They’re pivoting because they don’t want to have to answer for those positions that they built their heels on two or three years ago. They are pivoting because we were wrong as a city and we made a lot of decisions as a city that has caused more harm. Instead of defining, we defunded.”
How are you different than Rene Gonzalez?
“I think my lived experience makes me different. What I like, and where me and Rene meet in the most healthy way to me, is public safety. Being willing to make the hard decisions about public safety, willing to consider that both public safety — in a sense of accountability and restorative justice — should be something that’s on the table at all times. But I’m different because my lived experience will always lean me towards the compromise more than a very hard stand on anything.
I do like Rene. I think he’s an organic leader. It doesn’t mean I’m going to agree with you on everything.
And I think in the extremity of politics in our city we’ve created an extremity: either we agree on everything or we agree on nothing. And I just don’t live in that world.”
Just before he voted in support of the Portland Clean Energy Fund, Rene Gonzalez said: “Deeply embedded in this ordinance is… permanent racial grievance. And as a frame of a public policy going forward, I question if that’s the way we should be defining issues.” Do you agree with that?
“No, I don’t. I don’t agree that it doesn’t always have a place. I certainly believe it has a place.”
On what’s next for Portland:
“Listen, we got the WNBA coming, right? Caitlin Clark, hate her or love her, she done brought something new to this space. We all talking about it. We talking about a baseball team in our city. Come on, man! As we bring finances back to our city, we won’t have to fight about bike lanes or sidewalks. We just have the money. We can tax folks, get the money, and we can do both/and right? I want to be a both/and candidate. I know I’m gonna’ get my butt kicked sometime when I say things, but if you listen to the heart of what I’m saying, I am a both/and candidate.”
The teen was riding in this bike lane southbound SW 124th just north of Tualatin-Sherwood Road.
The Tualatin Police Department says a 15-year old Tigard High School sophomore died while riding an “e-bike” early Wednesday morning. According to TPD it happened on SW 124th Avenue near SW Myslony Street, an industrial area just north of Tualatin-Sherwood Road about 20 miles southwest of Portland. The boy’s name was Mikah Cavalcanti-Chun.
I wouldn’t typically cover a crash like this given how far it is from Portland and other circumstances, but I’ve decided to take a closer look because of how this is being incorrectly reported by the police and local media — and how this death is already sparking conversations about the safety of battery-assisted bicycles.
According to TPD, the bike rider was found dead by a passerby and police don’t believe any other road user was involved. Police say they found, “an adult male laying on the ground near a tree, with an e-bike nearby.” A cursory investigation at the scene leads TPD to believe the rider, who they refer to as an “e-bicyclist”, “may have lost control of the e-bike, which led to him hitting the curb and then a tree.” A reporter for KGW (NBC in Portland) said he spoke to TPD officers who said the teenager, “hit some debris in the bike lane” prior to losing control and colliding with a tree.
Screenshots from local TV report on the crash.
There aren’t many other details available yet beyond what I’ve shared above.
It’s notable however, that the police are calling this an “e-bike” and the rider an “e-bicyclist” who “lost control” while also stating in their press release that, “e-bikes are capable of traveling at speeds up to 35 mph.” If police are implying that the vehicle this young man used was capable of going 35 mph, it should not be referred to as an “e-bike.” At those speeds, it’s much more accurate to say he was riding some sort of e-moped or e-motorcycle.
Oregon law defines an “electric assisted bicycle” as being, “incapable of propelling the vehicle at a speed of greater than 20 miles per hour.” According to the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles, even a “moped” has a maximum capable speed of only 30 mph. By saying this teen was an “e-bicyclist” on an “e-bike,” police and media create confusion and a misleading and inaccurate narrative that can have real consequences for legal e-bike riders.
On January 1, 2025, Oregon will adopt the three class system of e-bike definitions which will add a 28 mph max (without throttle) class of e-bikes to state law. That new law came about only after a teen was killed by the driver of a minivan as the teen biked across a street in Bend last summer.
We saw how that tragedy in Bend sparked responses based on paternalistic impulses, ignorance of e-bike technology and bicycle law, and a tendency to blame victims. To be clear, there’s a wide chasm in performance, safety risks, and ride characteristics between the e-bike I can buy at the bike shop in my neighborhood and the 35-mph+, mostly throttle-powered, fast electric mopeds and motorcycles available online and in other retailers that we often see law enforcement agencies and the media confuse with “bikes.”
I’ve reached out to TPD to clarify what type of vehicle was being used in this crash. I’ll update this post when I hear back.
The Amyet S8, which TPD have confirmed to BikePortland as the electric moped/motorcycle the teenager was using.
UPDATE, 10:20 am: I have just confirmed with TPD that the teen was riding an Amyet S8. On the seller’s website, it’s advertised as an “electric bike” having a top speed of 35 mph and it comes with a dual-battery, 2000W motor — twice the legal size of an e-bike. Regardless of what the company or the police say, this is not an “e-bike” according to Oregon law. I acknowledge the law isn’t keeping up with these products, but I think calling this person’s vehicle an “e-bike” and referring to him as a “bicyclist” in any form is misleading and risks creating a backlash against legal electric bikes.
In fact, according to this handy guide created by Oregon DMV (see below), this product might not even fall into the e-moped or e-motorcycle category given its speed and the requirement to have a license and registration. The fact is, products like this do not meet any federal safety guidelines and are likely not allowed on any road under Oregon law. That’s why when police mislabel it and the local news shows b-roll of bicycles and calls it an “e-bike” we are doing a disservice to legal riders and threatening their rights to the road.
UPDATE, 2:45 pm: Nonprofit transportation advocacy group The Street Trust has issued a statement to news editors and reporters in order to inform them that the vehicle involved in Wednesday morning’s tragedy was not an “e-bike.” Here’s an excerpt from the email just sent by The Street Trust Executive Director Sarah Iannarone:
It’s important to note that the vehicle involved in this crash was capable of 35 mph. Oregon law currently limits e-bikes to 20 mph. Mopeds are allowed to travel 30 mph. The vehicle involved is legally classified as a motorcycle. Referring to it as a standard e-bike leads to confusion and unfairly stigmatizes legal e-bikes, which are designed for lower speeds with safety in mind. This tragedy underscores the dangers of illegally modified and out-of-class vehicles on our streets and the unbearably high costs paid in human lives when we fail to implement sensible regulations, educate our young people and families, and build forgiving infrastructure.
