2024 Archives

Opinion: Why our war on traffic deaths is stuck in a quagmire

The last two days have been a stark illustration of the quagmire the City of Portland finds itself in when it comes to the war on traffic deaths.

On Wednesday as I packed for a Portland Police Bureau press conference about the disturbingly high number of fatal crashes so far this year, we received word of yet another person who was killed while walking on our streets. 67 deaths so far, the PPB says, and the 24th person who was on foot when it happened.

75-year-old Hong Huynh was walking southbound across SE Division at 109th when he was hit and killed by a driver. Huynh was in a crosswalk and had made it across three of the four general traffic lanes. As Huynh approached a median on the southern side of the intersection — a median installed in 2022 with the expressed purpose of making people like him safer — a driver slammed into him. I looked beyond yellow police tape in news photos and saw Huynh’s shoes and winter gloves lying in the street.

Driver’s view of the crossing at SE Division and 109th. A man was hit and killed just before reaching the median island on the right.

At the press conference held just four hours later, a PBOT spokesperson and the leader of the PPB’s Traffic Division tried to convince the assembled press corps that they care deeply about safety and are doing everything they can to prevent deaths and serious injuries.

For their part, PBOT can say they did do a lot to prevent this latest death on Division. They spent $11 million in 2022 on the Outer Division Safety Project, which (in tandem with TriMet’s FX2 transit investments) aimed to improve safety on one of the most notorious arterials in the city. Huynh crossed at a location with a center median island and two yellow caution signs warning drivers of the presence of pedestrians. The robust center median filled in what used to be a center turn lane.

But it wasn’t enough.

Huynh also crossed at a location without a marked crosswalk or signa. And he had to cross four driving lanes, the same number that existed before PBOT’s “safety” project. And with a posted speed limit of 30 mph, the driver would have had to begin braking nearly half a block away to avoid killing Huynh. According to PBOT traffic data, 73% of people at driving eastbound on SE Division at 109th drive over the speed limit (image, right). That’s over 20,000 speeding drivers every day.

Yesterday I heard from Scott Kocher, a Portland-based lawyer and advocate who specializes in traffic law. “Recent PBOT projects on this stretch of outer Division did not address high speeds, doubled car lanes, and missing crosswalks,” Kocher shared. He said Division’s long straightaways and high number of speeders means it still has too many unsafe crossings and its design was “predictably deficient.”

“Division is nowhere near a Vision Zero facility,” Kocher added. (It’s also notable that Huynh was hit just a few yards from where PBOT removed a section of the center median one year ago in order to restore a center turn lane after an adjacent business owner complained.)

PPB Sergeant Ty Engstrom mentioned the SE Division collision at the press conference Wednesday. And even though Sgt. Engstrom knew very little about what happened out on that road a few hours earlier, he went out of his way to absolve the driver of responsibility. “The driver of the vehicle did not appear to be going… uh, speed did not appear to be a factor. They stayed [at the scene]. They were cooperative. No impairment appeared to be a factor in this particular case.”

No one asked Sgt. Engstrom about the crash or the driver who hit Huynh. He offered those details unsolicited.

When I got back to work from the press conference and watched video footage of the crash shared by KATU-TV Wednesday afternoon, I saw the driver plow into Huynh with what appeared to be very little to no braking and at a relatively high rate of speed. I immediately thought of how Engstrom’s comments at the press conference painted a much different picture.

And it turns out the driver wasn’t as innocent as Engstrom made them out to be. Yesterday the PPB said the driver, 38-year-old April Oneal, has been cited for careless driving.

Less than 24 hours after Huynh was violently killed by a careless driver, PBOT posted a video on social media reminding walkers to look both ways before crossing the street. The video is set to throbbing music and features two people dancing to the rhythm. It’s done in the cute style of trendy online content. This blame-the-victim framing flies in the face of the “Safe Systems” approach to traffic safety PBOT claims they adhere to. That alone would be offensive and inappropriate. But given what happened to Mr. Huynh, comments made at this week’s press conference, and words PBOT’s lead Vision Zero staffer shared at the World Day of Remembrance event last month — it’s unfathomable why PBOT uploaded that video.

What’s even harder to believe is that even given all those factors— and the dozens of people who’ve expressed concerns about it via social media comments — the video remains up as of this morning.

With the daunting task of eliminating deaths and serious injuries on our roads staring them in the face like never before, PBOT and the PPB have taken refuge in deflecting responsibility away from their organizations — and away from the most dangerous users of the road. Both agencies say they could achieve Vision Zero with more funding and both agencies say a fatality-free future depends on a “culture change” and people taking responsibility for their actions.

But as Mr. Huynh’s tragic death shows, the City’s business as usual response, means people will continue to die as usual.

PBOT and the PPB do a lot and it still isn’t enough. I see two lines on a graph where one line for our car-centric system, dangerous driving and all its consequences spikes way up — and the other line for the City’s incremental improvements ticks up just slightly. The gap between the two is where people are killed. We must close that gap. Putting a hand out for more funding and pointing fingers doesn’t meet the moment.

I agree we need to remind every Portlander that we are all in this together, but we must not lose sight that “all” includes government. To quote a church sign marquee I’ve seen for years while riding up North Williams Avenue: When it comes to changing culture on our roads, the City of Portland should use a mirror, not a telescope.

‘Tis the season to sweep up the damn leaves ourselves

Screenshot from video by Michael Reiss shows him towing a sweeper behind his bike. (Watch video below)

Southwest Portland resident Michael Reiss was so tired of leaves piling up in the bike lane, he took things into his own hands. I’m not talking about grabbing a broom and clearing a small section. He bought a high-powered gas sweeper, attached it to his electric recumbent trike, and then made several passes of a major bike route.

The result: A two-mile stretch of SW Multnomah Blvd is now clean and clear of leaves from the outside bike lane stripe to the fog line and hundreds of pounds of leaves are now in a ditch. Reiss’s DIY hack worked well he’s since bought an even larger sweeper.

Reiss is part of a long line of resourceful, fed-up Portlanders who take matters into their own hands when it comes to keeping our bike lanes free of debris like leaves, glass, and gravel. Reiss has been sharing his sweeping exploits on the Bike Loud PDX Slack channel. Bike Loud has been testing a bike lane sweeper for over a year now. The group maintains a schedule where volunteers can sign up for shifts to use the trailer. They also created a dedicated Slack channel to talk all things bike lane sweeping. When Reiss uploaded a video of his sweeper in action the other day, I had to talk with him and learn more.

He said his motivation comes from being a nice husband. “My wife bikes to OHSU from where we live just south of the Fred Meyer in Burlingame,” Reiss shared in a video interview today. “In the last couple of weeks, Terwilliger has been basically impassable.”

Reiss said the City of Portland swept the bike lane once, but within days it was full of leaves again. “That’s my wife’s bike route, so this is sort of a honey-do list,” he shared with a laugh.

Anyone who rides in southwest knows that leaf season on a bicycle is especially treacherous. Not only does the hilly area have a lot of massive trees, but there are fewer bike routes overall. So when a major bike thoroughfare like Terwilliger — or Capitol Highway or Multnomah — become essentially closed by leaves, it’s a bigger deal than in some other parts of town that have alternate ways around.

Reiss’ trike with sweeper attached. (Photo: Michael Reiss)

Reiss loves solving problems and this type of project is just the type of thing he said his brain likes to focus on. He and someone else he met through Bike Loud found the used sweeper on Craiglist for $300 and then Reiss fashioned a hitch and tow bar and screwed it on. After a few test runs showed potential, he picked up an even larger unit and continues to tinker with its power settings and configurations.

Beyond the power and electrical considerations, the tricky thing is setting the angle on the brush in a way that pushes the leaves aside while also making sure it pushes down on the pavement hard enough to make progress, but not so hard that it slows down the cycling. Reiss is an expert at modifying electric-bikes, so he’s used his assistive motor to great success. “The sweeper angle is only 15-16 degrees, so you start pulling all that weight and you’ve got to go slow and wait for the sweeper to push it off to the side,” he shared with me today.

Another consideration is that, so far at least, Reiss’ sweeper doesn’t play nice with pedestrians. He’s trying to tweak the angle of the brush and the speed of the brush motor so that the leaves get piled up nicely and don’t get blown on the sidewalk.

All these issues have likely been hammered out by the creators of the Bike Lane Sweeper, so I was glad to hear that Reiss has been in contact with them to share ideas and feedback. He hopes to help Bike Loud purchase one of the new sweeper models in the near future.

In the end, Reiss’ DIY effort illustrates frustration with the city for not keeping up with bike lane maintenance. The Portland Bureau of Transportation has made strides in recent years, but there are still more lane miles then they can tackle in a timely fashion.

Good thing we’ve got gung-ho folks like Reiss and others who take matters like this into their own hands. And I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Reiss and his sweeping experiments. His ultimate plan is to use a cargo trike (like the one ice cream sellers use) and mount the sweeper to the front so it’s easier to control. And future versions will be converted to electric power.

“I’ll pound away at this project until it works,” he shared. “Or until it becomes stupid or somebody else does something that eliminates the need for it — or until I get bored and move onto another project.”

If you see a recumbent pulling a loud sweeper in southwest Portland, steer clear and give Reiss a big thumbs-up!

Portland officials struggle with dangerous road culture and rising fatalities

Portland traffic safety officials held yet another press conference on Wednesday to highlight a disturbingly high number of fatal traffic crashes. And like similar events held recently, those officials pinned some of the blame for deadly streets on cultural issues and the erosion of behavioral norms that began in 2020 with the Covid pandemic and have hung around ever since.

“We’ve adopted this culture where folks feel like they can drive however they want.”
– Ty Engstrom, PPB Traffic Division Sergeant

The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) has tallied 67 deaths on Portland roads so far this year — a pace that puts us on on par with last year’s record-high number. PPB Traffic Division Sergeant Ty Engstrom offered historical context for that number to the group of media outlets assembled in a conference room inside a police facility in northeast Portland yesterday.

“I looked at numbers all the way back to 2000. And the last five years have all been higher than the prior 20 years before that,” Sgt. Engstrom said.

“This is a cultural issue that we need to address,” he continued. “We’ve adopted this culture where folks feel like they can drive however they want. That what is going on in their life is more important than the other people around them, and we need to have a culture change where we here in Portland — whether you live here, work here, commute through here, are visiting here — you respect the life and sanctity of life of everybody around you.”

Engstrom said the pandemic put Portlanders on a path of driving dysfunction. Here’s more of what he said:

“It created an atmosphere where people felt like they could get away with things. And it has not gone back to way it should be. I think that we have developed this culture where Portland is a playground and there’s no repercussions, and people get away with things here, and you can come here to drive fast speed, race, do donuts, weave in and out of traffic, whatever you choose to do, and there’s no repercussions…

We’re trying to do what we can to change the culture.”

These words felt hollow coming from Sgt. Engstrom, since he played a key role in perpetuating the dangerous behaviors he now laments. In 2021, Engstrom held a press conference with the specific intent to send a message that traffic laws weren’t being enforced in Portland. That dangerous gambit was exposed later as a political stunt to curry political support for a larger PPB budget.

Engstrom’s tactics worked, depending on which side of this cultural dysfunction you are on. Traffic behaviors grew much worse, but in 2023 the PPB was able to re-launch its Traffic Division. Now Engstrom says he’s hopeful police staffing will continue to grow beyond the seven-member team that currently patrols during an afternoon shift.

Engstrom shared at the press conference that PPB currently has a dedicated, seven-member Traffic Division team that patrols the streets seven days a week from 5:00 pm to 3:00 am (there are two teams total who share this shift). That timeframe was chosen because that’s when the PPB sees the vast majority of serious injury and fatal crashes, as well as when intoxicated and impaired drivers tend to be on the road. Engstrom said the current plan is to re-assemble a day shift traffic patrol team “in the future sometime” as bureau staffing levels rise.

Joining Engstrom behind the microphones was Portland Bureau of Transportation Public Information Officer Dylan Rivera. He said the multiple fatalities over the holiday weekend was, “Really shocking and should be alarming to everyone.”

Rivera said PBOT needs to do more, but he also repeated a new mantra that the issue of road safety transcends the transportation bureau. “This is bigger than PBOT. This is bigger than Portland police. This is about our community,” Rivera continued. “This is about public health, behavioral health, substance use disorders, many of the mental health and other behavioral health crises we saw emerging during the pandemic played out on our streets and contributed to traffic deaths that spiked in 2020 and continue to stay high.”

In an interview with BikePortland after the press conference, Rivera said that so far there are no specific proposals on the table for how other agencies like TriMet or Multnomah County can help PBOT achieve their goal of zero traffic deaths (a.k.a. Vision Zero).

How can PBOT and PPB encourage safer driving? Automated enforcement is one solution. Rivera said PBOT has installed 12 new speed and intersection cameras in the past year alone and that by early 2025 there will be 40 total cameras on the streets. While that is progress, Rivera made it clear more cameras are needed. “We need to do a lot more. We need more cameras on more high crash corridors, and so we are working to push our contractor to get more cameras on the streets.”

That view is shared by City Councilor-elect (and former PBOT commissioner) Steve Novick. At an event last month he said he’d support enforcement cameras on “every goddamn intersection in the city.” I shared that quote with Sgt. Engstrom and asked if PPB would support such a massive camera increase.

“That’s a lot of cameras,” Engstrom responded. “That’s a lot of intersections all over the city. And I do know that from behind the scenes, that’s a lot of personnel that it’s going to take in hours to because you have to review all those and you have to approve them, and so that’s a daunting task. But I absolutely support, you know, increased enforcement and education on streets.”

Camera enforcement will only reach its potential if drivers have legible license plates. The lack of visible plates and unpaid vehicle registration fees are symptoms of the sick state of driving culture. Engstrom and Rivera both said the lax enforcement since 2020 is over.

“I’m sure there are people out there that are avoiding putting their license plates on to try and get away from some of those tickets,” Engstrom said. “But that is absolutely illegal. You must have those license plates and registration, and our officers are absolutely able to issue citations for that type of behavior.”

And Rivera admitted that backing off enforcement during the pandemic (a decision that came from the state and federal level, due to pandemic-related issues) had a negative impact on safety and compliance. “What we learned is, when you give people an inch, they take a mile… now we need to get back to normal. We need everyone to understand that we need to get back to the culture of following the vehicle registration rules, displaying plates… It’s not okay to drive around with expired registration.”

Cameras are not a panacea and it will take a much more holistic approach to achieve Vision Zero.

To end deaths and serious injuries, PBOT’s Rivera said a lot more funding is needed. He says the agency needs “a major investment” from the Oregon Legislature in the 2025 transportation funding package. And lobbying for that effort will come from a new, 12-member Portland City Council. Rivera said PBOT believes the new councilors “understand the urgency and the funding crisis that all of transportation faces.”

That crisis has left PBOT in dire financial straits for years. Budget gaps last year led to the prospect of laying off 100 staffers and the coming budget doesn’t look much better. “We need to go from scarcity to bigger investment, and we believe the legislature, the governor and the city council understand this, understand the serious, seriousness of it, and will take action next year.

Moving the needle on road safety will take more than a larger budget or a culture change among road users. The agencies themselves need a culture change. PPB needs to do more with the budget they have, stop playing politics with their services, and rebuild community trust. And PBOT needs to communicate more urgency to the public about what’s at stake.

Last month, Rivera shared a controversial statement in an interview with a KPTV reporter who did an in-depth story on Vision Zero. Pressed on why deaths continue to rise nearly a decade after declaring a Vision Zero goal, Rivera said, “It’s taken generations to build the streets we have for speed instead of safety. It’s going to take decades, potentially generations, to redesign them.”

That framing frustrated some activists who felt it sent the wrong message to survivors of deadly traffic crashes and everyone who wants safer streets about how long the community should expect to wait to feel safer using Portland roads.

I asked Rivera to clarify what he meant by that statement. Here’s how he responded:

“It was in the context of the transportation funding crisis. That was in the context of facing layoffs among the people who could make our streets safer, and saying, ‘How come traffic safety investments aren’t working well?’ Traffic safety investments aren’t happening! Traffic safety personnel are facing layoffs. Instead of talking about what new projects we can do, we have a budget based on band-aids and borrowed cash.

We have had a rise in traffic deaths on our streets since the onset of the pandemic, we have had a flat to declining public investment in the things we know can reduce the severity of those crashes.”

While PBOT sees more funding as the most important tool to reduce crashes and deaths, PPB says its all about getting more officers on the streets.

Sgt. Engstrom said PPB staffing numbers are at “the bottom of the dip” and that in the next couple of years they’ll have more officers and will be able to increase Traffic Division officers.

One place PPB staffing issues have led to a tangible difference for Portlanders is in handling the growing number of hit-and-run cases. “We used to have full-time officers here and all they did is hit-and-run cases and follow ups. We lost those positions when we lost the Traffic Division and it hasn’t been able to come back yet.”

“There are, unfortunately, a large number of hit-and-run cases that don’t get the follow up that they deserve.”

Weekend Event Guide: Trail maintenance, Gaza solidarity, and more

Trails and leaves have dried out thanks to all this sun, so we’ve got prime cycling conditions — as long as you’re ready for the cold. And there’s rain in the forecast for Saturday. So you get 10 more degrees of warmth but it comes with water falling from the sky. Hopefully not a lot!

Have fun out there.

Saturday, December 7th

Plant Trees By Bike – 8:45 am at St. Johns Church (N)
Nonprofit Friends of Trees is hosting this community tree planting event and they want folks to pick up and deliver trees by bike. Grab your trailers and head on over. More info here.

Rocky Point Trails Dig Day – 9:30 am at Rocky Point Trails (Scappoose)
Grab a shovel or whatever tool suits your fancy and help build new off-road cycling trails with NW Trail Alliance. Earn your turns! More info here.

Marine Drive Trail Clean-up – 10:00 am at Made in Oregon Parking Lot (NE)
Join SOLVE for a group effort that will pick up garbage and debris on and around the Marine Drive bike path east of 122nd Ave. More info here.

Adaptive Cycling Ride – 1:00 pm at Portland Saturday Market (Waterfront)
Are you in need of a special bike to suit your needs? One that offers more power-assist, better balance, or other features that might be hard-to-find or understand? Nomad Cycles wants to help. Come out and learn more about adaptive mobility and test ride a few different types of bicycles. More info here.

Gaza Sunbirds Solidarity Ride – 2:30 pm at Colonel Summers Park (SE)
The Sunbirds are a paracycling club based in Gaza and this ride will join a global movement of solidarity. Expect a protest against Palestinian oppression with fellow bike lovers. More info here.

Light the Night Bike Ride – 4:00 pm at Rockwood Market Hall Plaza (Gresham)
The City of Gresham, Bike Works by P:ear and Multnomah County have come together for a special Safe Routes to School event that will mix a safe group ride with holiday cheer. More info here.

Sunday, December 8th

Overlook Neighborhood Ride – 9:30 am at Stacks Coffee (N)
Join Nic Cota for a social and meandering roll through the beautiful Overlook neighborhood in north Portland. 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.

Oregon’s regressive bike tax might see changes in 2025

Oregon has had a $15 tax on all new bike purchases for almost six years now. It passed as part of the House Bill 2017 transportation funding package and went into effect January 1st, 2018. At a meeting on Tuesday that included state lawmakers, Oregon Department of Transportation staff, and leaders from various interest groups, there was an that made it seem like a change in the tax is imminent.

The Bicycle Excise Tax was a political compromise stuffed into HB 2017 in order to lessen the blow of other taxes targeted toward car owners, buyers, and sellers. It was not strongly opposed by advocacy group The Street Trust, who wanted to pass a bill in order to garner set-aside funding for Safe Routes to School and it hoped it would give cycling and active transportation advocates an answer to the perennial bad faith argument that, “bikes don’t pay their fare share.” The tax raises an average of about $833,000 per year on sales of about 51,000 new bikes purchased in Oregon (or by Oregonians from online sellers). The $5 million raised so far has been put into a grant program that funds off-highway paths.

The tax was discussed at the final meeting of a workgroup convened by the Oregon Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation that is setting the groundwork for a new transportation spending package that will be proposed in the coming session. In that meeting, Oregon Department of Revenue Policy Coordinator Xann Culver shared a presentation about the tax to inform the lawmakers and advocates in the workgroup.

In response to Culver’s presentation, Duke Shepard, a workgroup member and senior policy director for Oregon Business & Industry (a nonprofit advocacy group based in Salem) said, “It struck me as puzzling that it’s a $15 fee regardless of the price of the bike.” It’s a good point, given that the tax begins at bikes costing as little as $200. That triggered a conversation about the tax.

House Representative Susan McLain (D-Hillsboro) was one of the architects of HB 2017 and is now a co-chair of the Joint Committee on Transportation. She responded to Shepard by saying that, essentially, there wasn’t enough time to analyze the fairness of the bike tax and $15 was just the number they came up with. “We hadn’t had a bike tax before,” McLain said. “And so the idea of even having a bike tax was a big lift.” McLain added that they wanted a number high enough to make the tax worth it, but not high enough so that it discourages bike use.

Note that some 2023 Q4 receipts are still being tallied.

But what we’ve been left with is a regressive tax that is much higher than a similar tax on new cars that was also passed in HB 2017.

State of Oregon Senior Economic Mazen Malik was also in the meeting. He called the $15 the “least acceptable compromise at the time” and that a 7.5% tax on the retail price of new bikes was also considered. “The idea was primarily to start this process [of a bike tax] and see if it sticks, and then if the progressivity element needs to be injected into this subsequent legislatures would look into that.”

For Oregonians who purchase a $200 bicycle, which is about the cheapest you’ll find even at a big box retailer, the $15 bike tax equates to 7.5% of the total purchase price. By comparison, Oregon’s “vehicle privilege tax” (also passed in 2017) that’s charged to car dealerships, is just .05% of the retail price of a new car. For a $20,000 entry-level car, sellers pay tax of just $100. If they paid at a rate similar to the bike tax they’d pay $1,500.

Put another way, in the current system, the tax rate on an entry-level bicycle is 15 times higher than that of an entry-level new car.

That point was made by Oregon Trails Coalition Executive Director Steph Noll at Tuesday’s meeting. “That $15 tax is such a higher percentage that what our vehicle privilege tax is,” she said. “So if we’re looking at making it more progressive, even if we were to double the current bike tax, it really doesn’t do much towards filling the revenue gaps that we are looking at.”

House Rep (and now Senator-elect) Khan Pham, who was facilitating the meeting, echoed Noll’s sentiment. She said that even if a bike tax raised $1 million per year it would be an almost unrecognizable amount amid the multiple billions Oregon needs to raise. Changing the bike tax is, “Something that we definitely do need to address in the coming up, the upcoming session,” Rep. Pham said. “Because you’re right; those are very different price points, and we want to make sure we’re being equitable.”

E-bikes are banned at Multnomah Falls Lodge and one man is working to change that

A.J. Zelada has seen the future of cycling in the Columbia River Gorge and it looks a lot different than it used to. There will be a lot more bicycle users and most of them will be on electric bikes. With some popular destinations in the Gorge managed by the US Forest Service, which still regulates e-bikes as motor vehicles, Zelada is worried that current policies and a lack of parking spaces will choke off growth of cycling in the “waterfall corridor” just as its popularity soars.

The current ban on e-bikes on the plaza outside of Multnomah Falls Lodge is an illustration of how outdated USFS policies that put e-bikes in the same vehicle category as cars and trucks set up a clash with the Oregon Department of Transportation’s adopted policy goal of making the corridor more transit and bicycle-oriented. Zelada thinks the ban is a bad policy and he’s working hard to change it.

Zelada in the Gorge with disability rights activist Juliette Rizzo in 2023. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

“Cycling has changed. Cycling in the Gorge is no longer men in lycra cycling for health benefits. They want to see waterfalls, not count the speed nor the miles ‘conquered.’… and no different than a vehicle, they want a parking place.”
– A.J. Zelada

Zelada is a long time cyclist and advocate who’s passionate about the Gorge. He was appointed by the Oregon Governor and served eight years on the Oregon Department of Transportation Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, he’s a board member of the Friends of Historic Columbia River Highway and in 2019 he created the Gorge Pedal bike ride.

Zelada has seen the rise of e-bike traffic in the Gorge, especially around Multnomah Falls (Oregon’s top tourist attraction). In summer of 2023 he observed 88 e-bikes arrive at the plaza outside Multnomah Falls Lodge at once. Those bikes overwhelmed the plaza as there were not enough places to park. USFS Recreation Staff Officer Stephen Elgart said in a June meeting of the Historic Columbia River Highway Advisory Committee that the bikes, “generated a safety concern.”

“The useful space in the plaza was impacted as bikes surrounded the planters,” Elgart said. “The USFS considers e-bikes motor vehicles, which are prohibited at the plaza. We are working with our partners to find spaces to put them.”

These concerns spurred the USFS to post a “No E-Bikes on Plaza” sign near the plaza entrance. Zelada thinks that’s a mistake and he wants the ban lifted. He also thinks the USFS should provide more (and better) bike parking and adopt a more bike-friendly stance in general.

“Cycling has changed. Cycling in the Gorge and also our nation is no longer men in lycra cycling for health benefits,” Zelada writes in his bike count report. “They want to see waterfalls, not count the speed nor the miles ‘conquered.’.. and no different than a vehicle, they want a parking place.”

Wanting to get ahead of the issue and gather data to inform policy conversations, Zelada and another volunteer worked with the USFS this past summer to install wildlife cameras and then analyzed the footage to get an accurate count of bikes on the plaza outside the lodge. That footage became the basis of a 19-page report published by Zelada that will present to the Historic Columbia River Highway Advisory Committee at their upcoming meeting on December 12th.

Zelada and his team photographed 10 different days during July, August, and September of this year. When the images came back they counted a total of 567 bicycle users. Of those, 67% were e-bikes. They also noted that a majority (62%) of e-bike riders parked longer than 30 minutes. By comparison, nearly 80% of all “pedal cyclists” (non e-bikes) parked less than 30 minutes and one out of four of them parked for less than 10 minutes. Zelada says this insight suggests non e-bike riders are just stopping for the bathroom and e-bike riders are more likely to be tourists stopping at the gift store and taking in the views of the falls.

(Photos from wildlife cameras installed in the plaza.)

Out of 80,000 total images snapped over the 10 days, Zelada saw just one person riding a bike on the plaza.

The counts make the issue clear: e-bike users need a safe and secure place to park, and the current policy banning them from the plaza makes that very difficult. Zelada says the ban at the lodge is at odds with USFS policy on several fronts.

“US Forest Service policy dictates regulations of e-bikes on USFS roads, trails, and grasslands. It does not have a policy for plazas,” Zelada states in the report. “The plaza is not a road nor a trail nor a grassland; it is a concrete plaza created in 1965.”

Zelada also notes in his report that the USFS encourages their own employees of the lodge to bike to work. “So staff using an e-bike for commuting would not be allowed to park their e-bike on USFS land,” Zelada writes.

“Workers at Multnomah Falls wouldn’t be allowed to use an e-bike to get to work, because e-bikes aren’t allowed on the plaza,” Zelada told me in an interview last month. “So there’s a schism between intention and reality. and upper-level management is being very restrictive about the prohibition on USFS land despite fact that their policy on e-bikes doesn’t really say that.”

To remedy the situation, Zelada wants USFS to lift the ban the e-bikes and create bike parking areas to manage demand.

Zelada believes this sight along a cliff just west of the lodge would be ideal as a bike parking zone.

One area Zelada has in mind is just west of the lodge along a wide shoulder that currently lies behind Jersey barriers. It’s a perfect spot, Zelada says, because it’s close to the plaza and has no other foot traffic. But USFS engineers say it’s too dangerous. “Studies do not indicate we will be able to add bike parking in the areas blocked by jersey barrier after the Eagle Creek Fire anytime soon,” Elgart said back in June.

Zelada believes safety concerns are nearly ubiquitous in the Gorge and that — despite concerns from USFS engineers — the location for a physically protected bike parking zone along the highway and near the plaza that could hold nearly 70 bicycles would be “ideal.”

Overall, Zelada feels like agencies with jurisdiction in the Gorge need to adopt a holistic bike-friendly policy in order to welcome riders into the corridor. The State of Oregon has spent hundreds of millions on the Historic Highway State Trail project in recent years with the specific intent of attracting cyclists. It behooves everyone to be on the same page when it comes to having policies that will allow Oregon to make good on that investment.

Elgart with USFS says they’re still collecting data and monitoring e-bike increases. “We do not have a date for when policies will be revised.”

Meanwhile, Zelada is sharing his report with everyone he can — including top brass at USFS. He’s playing a masterful inside-outside game, just as you’d expect from someone with decades of advocacy experience. When I talked to him last month, Zelada clearly understood the bureaucratic hurdles preventing a simple solution here. But he was still frustrated. “My goal is to get more parking. Come on! Let’s do something!” he exclaimed.

— If you’d like to learn more, tune into the livestream of the December 12th Historic Columbia River Highway Advisory Committee meeting. You can also download Zelada’s report as a PDF here.

This small shift could save Oregonians $1,500 and prevent 67 traffic deaths per year

Some people, upon hearing cycling and transportation activists talk about new road designs or different infrastructure funding priorities, respond with statements like, “but not everyone can bike” or “some of us need our cars.” What’s lost in these debates is that even a relatively small shift in how we get around, Oregonians — and the state of Oregon itself — could see major positive impacts.

As part of their preparation to build a 2025 transportation funding package, the Oregon Legislature is hosting meetings to educate lawmakers and hear input from experts (I mentioned these workgroups in my previous post about the budget). In a November 20th meeting of one of these workgroups, Miguel Moravec from the Rocky Mountain Institute shared a presentation about how Oregon would benefit from a shift in mode choice.

RMI is a nonprofit think tank that started during the oil crisis of the 1970s and now provides research and analysis “to advance the clean energy transition.” You might have heard about their widely-used induced demand calculator tool, which is used by The Street Trust in their candidate training program. Moravec brought a different tool to the legislative working group: something RMI calls their “smarter modes calculator.” Using that calculator across a 2024-2050 timeframe, Moravec based his presentation around what would happen if Oregon was able to shift just 20% of its current driving miles to other modes like walking, cycling, or transit.

According to Moravec, if Oregon residents shifted just one out of every five auto trips to a non-driving mode, every household would save $1,457. “This is a literal stimulus check-sized boost,” Moravec said. (Or about $500 larger than the size of an average “Oregon kicker” rebate.) RMI’s household savings number is based on the fact that the average cost to own and maintain a car in the U.S. is about $12,000 per year and the average Oregon household owns two cars.

Other benefits of a 20% vehicle miles traveled (VMT) reduction would include: 488 fewer deaths per year due to improved air quality and more physical activity, and a reduction in crashes that would save 67 lives and prevent over 1,000 injuries per year. If that’s not enough to sweeten the deal, a 20% shift would prevent 25 metric tons of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere. There’s a cost to road crashes too, and RMI’s calculator reveals that Oregon would save $35 billion just by putting down their car keys and lowering road exposure time.

There would be other livability and urban planning benefits as well. Moravec used a case study of Arlington, Virginia, to show how when city planners made non-driving modes more attractive, they also boosted the local economy. “Clean transportation choices in Oregon can stimulate Main Street economic activity, and it’s a virtuous cycle because as residents’ need to drive decreased, the area became more desirable to live.” More human-centric places create a stronger tax base for local governments, Moravec shared, a benefit that is amplified when fewer car trips lead to savings on road maintenance costs.

To unlock all these benefits, Moravec said lawmakers cannot just hope people change behaviors on their own. The legislature must support and implement laws and programs that entice fewer car trips. What type of policies do this? His presentation pointed to congestion pricing in New York City, as well as a state payroll tax and casino tax. In New Jersey, lawmakers have passed a tax on corporate incomes to fund transit. Colorado and Minnesota have a fee on home deliveries from the likes of Amazon to fund transportation options, and Minnesota is expected to raise $700 million a year from a combination of regional sales taxes.

Keep in mind this presentation was being heard by a very influential and powerful group of lawmakers, advocacy leaders, and ODOT staff that included: Co-chairs of the Oregon Legislature Joint Committee on Transportation Senator Chris Gorsek and Rep. Susan McLain, Oregon Transportation Commission Chair Julie Brown, and many others.

Rep. McLain expressed interest in the home delivery fee and Rep. Kevin Mannix wanted to know more about the funding package passed in Minnesota.

This was just one of many presentations that has been shared with lawmakers in recent weeks and months. I’ve been impressed with the amount of information and feedback that’s being processed during these workgroup meetings and can’t wait to see what type of proposals end up on the table once the legislative session begins next month.

Governor’s budget lays out $1.7 billion transportation funding gap

With today’s release of Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s 2025-2027 budget, the contours of big debates about transportation funding and priorities are coming into focus.

Kotek’s budget puts funding for the Oregon Department of Transportation at $7.3 billion over the next two years — that’s about $1.75 billion over what ODOT is asking for. That gap doesn’t mean ODOT gets more money. It means Kotek assumes the legislature will make up the difference in the 2025 session when they hammer out what’s expected to be a massive transportation funding package. That package is being viewed as a necessity, not just to build and maintain infrastructure, but to keep ODOT afloat.

ODOT says they face a severe financial crisis due to three main causes: declining gas tax revenue, high inflation that makes projects more expensive, and many strings attached to available funding.

The agency’s requested budget of $5.7 billion includes unprecedented layoffs and other cuts they say, “would be devastating to ODOT’s ability to maintain and operate Oregon’s transportation system safely and reliably.” To balance their budget, ODOT says they’d have to fire 1,000 employees — including 164 staffers from Region 1 alone. ODOT is dependent on the Governor and lawmakers to bail them out and the next eight months will reveal how political considerations mesh — or don’t — with state priorities.

With this challenging road ahead, members of the state’s Joint Committee on Transportation spent their summer break hosting 12 town halls and roundtable discussions in cities across Oregon. They heard a bevy of concerns and perspectives from over 1,100 Oregonians and are now using that feedback to inform in-depth discussions about what to fund — and how to fund it — in three months of meetings hosted by JCT members.

13 meetings have been held since mid-October. Three workgroups meet twice a month and are focused around three categories of interest. The workgroups are named: “Back-to-Basics Maintenance and Preservation”; “Public and Active Transit,” and “Finishing 2017 Priority Commitments.”

That last workgroup is grappling with how to fund the “unfinished business” of House Bill 2017, which are two mega-projects included in the previous transportation package and are billions of dollars short seven years later. ODOT and some lawmakers maintain that voters were “promised” the completion of expansions to I-5 through the Rose Quarter and I-205 through Clackamas County and Oregon City (including a new Abernethy Bridge). While some experts disagree about what was promised, the conventional wisdom in Salem is that getting those projects done in the 2025 package is essential to rebuilding trust in ODOT and the legislature.

I’m still working my way through the 13 meetings (they’re about 2-3 hours long each) and will be reporting out what I’ve learned from them in the days ahead.

As for the Governor’s budget, it doesn’t include any ideas for how to raise new transportation revenue. And the legislative workgroups haven’t made any official proposals yet either. But those are coming soon as conversations sharpen in the coming month.

Some of the ideas I’ve heard tossed around are: indexing the gas tax to inflation, expand the payroll tax to fund public transit, expand the current “vehicle privilege tax” (the one half of one percent tax dealers pay on sale of new cars), a bicycle tire tax (yes, seriously), EV charging taxes, congestion pricing, fees tacked onto home deliveries, and many more.

As ODOT triages its budget and difficult votes loom over lawmakers, we are entering a very interesting phase of debates about transportation funding and priorities that will shape our state for years to come. Strap in and stay tuned.

NOTE: 8:45 am on 12/4: There’s always confusion around ODOT and state budgets because planning is done on a two-year cycle. In this case, I’ve learned since this was posted that the Governor’s number of $1.7 billion is an annual estimate of what ODOT needs and ODOT estimates they need about twice that number. That means the number the legislature might ask for could be upwards of $3 billion.

Monday Roundup: Victim blaming and martyrdom in the ‘war on cars’

Happy post-holiday Monday! Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving break and are staying warm.

Before we embark on another week of news and content, let’s look back at the most important stories we came across in the past week.

Campaigns matter: The residents of Berkeley, California elected a new mayor who campaigned on a platform for safe streets and beat an incumbent who opposed walk and bike infrastructure. (SF Chronicle)

A cycling martyr: The Mayor of Paris says a man who was killed while cycling by a road raging SUV driver should be recognized as a hero for his work as an advocate and a symbol that the French city refuses to end its war on cars. (NY Times)

Language matters: An effort to improve the way police and media talk about traffic crashes is bearing some fruit in the UK as new research based on the Road Collision Reporting Guidelines has been published. (Road.cc)

Show me the money: Turns out that even with all the overhead associated with collecting more parking fine revenue in Portland, it is still a revenue-positive endeavor. (Willamette Week)

Road diet homework: If you want to sharpen your responses to people who oppose road diets for nefarious reasons, read this opinion piece that does so with a very reasonable and pragmatic tone. (Minn Post)

Blaming pedestrians: A controversial story amplifies voices that believe there’s simply no way to eliminate traffic deaths as long as some people don’t take more steps to be safe while walking. (San Francisco Standard)

Words about the ‘war’: Another perspective about the ‘war on cars’ is that it’s just complete and total hogwash with no basis in reality. (The Toronto Star)

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week. The Monday Roundup is a community effort, so please feel free to send us any great stories you come across.

Weekend Event Guide: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Bike the Lights, and more

Lots of fun and interesting holiday-themed rides the next few days. Check out a few I’ve heard about below…

Thursday, November 28th

Un-Thanksgiving Ride – 9:30 am at Irving Park (NE)
Join veteran ride leaders Max and Tom for a recognition of National Day of Mourning and an “Un-Thanksgiving.” They’ll bike to Whitaker Ponds and then venture to the nearby Native American Youth Association headquarters to hear native speakers. More info here

Rocky Point MTB Ride – 9:30 am at Rocky Point Trails (Scappoose)
Get in a solid off-road ride with fellow MTB lovers from NW Trail Alliance. Hit the “more” link for required paperwork to ride at Rocky Point. More info here.

Thanksgiving Day Ride – 10:00 am at Wilshire Park (NE)
Portland Bicycling Club will lead this 15-20 urban meander that will include a coffee stop at Pioneer Square and an optional jaunt to Sellwood Bridge. More info here.

Land Back Ride – 2:00 pm at Colonel Summers Park (SE)
“Thanksgiving is built on genocide. We are biking on unceded land. Playlist will feature Indigenous artists from across the globe.” More info here

Thanksgiving Orphan Ride – 2:30 pm at Dawson Creek Park (Hillsboro)
A faster-pace ride meant for everyone who finds themselves alone with their bikes on this day. More info here.

Friday, November 29th

Black Friday Forest Park Ride – 10:00 am at Fat Tire Farm (NW)
Join the “Trail Sisters” for some off-road fun in Forest Park. More info here.

Sunday, December 1st

Entry Level Gravel Group Ride – 10:00 am at River City Bicycles (SE)
Join the welcoming and fun Sorella Forta Cycling Club for a ride that meets in Central Eastside and rides up into Forest Park for some unpaved action. More info here.

Bike the Lights – 4:15 pm to 9:30 pm at Portland International Raceway (N)
The annual “Winter Wonderland” festival of lights and a chance to ride the PIR track carfree! A must-do experience. Tickets required. Dress for the cold and bring friends. See Shift Calendar for two group rides to the event. 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.

So long, farewell

Lisa at Bike Happy Hour #38. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

I’m throwing in the towel.

After four years of writing for BikePortland, and almost as long moderating your comments, I’m pretty worn out. That’s about 150 stories, and a hundred or so “Comment of the Week” posts.

And I’ve loved it. Writing for BikePortland is not something I ever planned for or expected to do, or even knew I wanted to do, but I so appreciate that Jonathan took a risk and gave me this opportunity.

The timing is right for me to step back. I’ve covered the Southwest in Motion roll-out, Capitol Highway and other southwest projects, active transportation policy, the rose lanes, TriMet’s Forward Together plan, charter reform, the election results, and land use. To be honest, I don’t expect much more to be happening, transportation-wise, in the near to medium future in southwest Portland. (Probably some big announcement will come out next week just to put a point on me not knowing what I am talking about.)

Last year I joined the board of SWTrails and I plan to step up my involvement with that group. So I’ll still be around, and might even contribute a post or two — just like other occasional contributors.

A couple words about Jonathan. It’s been a pleasure for me to work with him. He’s an excellent editor, and I was surprised to discover how much I like being edited. I have also learned a lot from him about how to put together a news story. Thank you Jonathan, and here’s to spending time with you in the queues.

And to all you commenters, I really did read all your comments, and enjoyed it for the most part. BikePortland has a good thing going with our comments sections and I think BP is one of the few places on internet where commenters can have meaningful conversations with people they might not completely agree with. Keep it up, and go easy on JM, moderating well is a lot of work.

Adios!

Come and hang out with Lisa at Bike Happy Hour tonight! 3:00 – 6:00 pm at Migration Brewing on N Williams Ave.

— Browse Lisa’s posts on her author page.

Special guests and free raffle at Bike Happy Hour this Wednesday

Kate, Bill, Kiel, Eva, Gil, Joe, Ruben, Abe, Ted, Aaron, good food menu, house-made beer, and more!

Yes I know it’s a holiday week and lots of folks aren’t on their regular routines. But if there’s one thing I want people to know about Bike Happy Hour, it’s that it never takes a week off. We are definitely getting together this Wednesday from 3:00 to 6:00 pm at our new location (Migration Brewing on N Williams Ave) and I’ve made it a bit more special with special guest speakers and a free raffle.

First, I’m excited to share we’ll be joined by District 1 (East) Councilor-elect Jamie Dunphy. Jamie, 40, is a government relations director for the American Cancer Society. He isn’t a big bike rider and isn’t what I’d call a cycling advocate, but I’m sure he’d support policies to make cycling better. His passion is in the music scene. The way he talks about building awareness and strength for that scene is similar to how many of us like to talk about the local bike scene. He loves to walk his daughter to school in the Parkrose neighborhood. This will be Jamie’s first time at BHH, so let’s welcome him into our community with open arms.

Left: Jamie Dunphy (Photo: Dunphy campaign) Right: Marnie Glickman (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

District 2 (North/Northeast) candidate Marnie Glickman didn’t get a seat on council this time, but she’s continuing to make her voice known online and off. As you know our ride-along interview and conversation on the podcast, Marnie gets it when it comes to how cycling can fit into our transportation system. She attended the recent World Day of Remembrance event at City Hall and I’ve noticed her posting on Bluesky about wanting to be a leader in the community.

Jamie and Marnie will be on the mic around 5:00 pm. If anyone else has something to share, the mic is open. Just show up and grab it.

After open mic we’ll have a prize raffle featuring awesome stuff from: River City Bicycles, Showers Pass, Portland Design Works, Adventure Cycling, and HGNR (U.S. distributors for Dumonde Tech chain lube). The raffle will be free to enter. Just come out and you’ll have a chance to win.

And have I mentioned Migration has agreed to $5 pints for our group? That’s $2-3 bucks off the usual price.

Hope to see you Wednesday 3:00 to 6:00 pm. Don’t forget we have a new location: Migration Brewing on N Williams Avenue. Bike racks on the sidewalk out front or come around back via the alley and park there. See ya there!