Year: 2024

Comment of the Week: The problems with bespoke funding

In a week of strong comments, Charley’s stood out for its even tone and thoughtful analysis. Writing in response to last week’s post about the political tightrope the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) walks because of unexpected revenue windfalls, Charley broadened his critique beyond PCEF to include a certain type of ballot measure.

This comment is so polished, it’s almost as if Charley was angling for Comment of the Week. And you know something? that’s OK. Put some effort into it, write a short op-ed, that’s what we’re here for.

Here’s what Charley wrote:

PCEF is one example of a taxing and funding policy that has been used to fund popular ideas, but has some real flaws. In short, it would be nice if we could actually direct our local governments’ funding priorities, rather than create these easily mismanaged, bespoke funding mechanisms!

Other examples are the Multnomah County Homeless Services Tax and Portland Arts Tax.

Characteristics:

  • a voter approved ballot measure,
  • with a bespoke tax,
  • which was marketed to voters as a way to fund a popular priority (such as addressing climate change),
  • and which ends up being used to patch holes in the budget which are caused by the government’s other spending priorities.

It works like this: voters feel that their local governments aren’t adequately addressing some issue (arts funding, climate resilience), and advocates get a ballot measure passed by arguing that the ballot measure will force the City to address the priority.

As I see it, these measures are voters’ attempt to direct a local government’s budget prioritization, because the elected leaders don’t seem willing or able to change the prioritization themselves. Voters could theoretically vote for individual candidates that agree with their preferred policies, but the issues at stake in elections haven’t been specific enough to resolve this mismatch

Practically, all of our local candidates are “for” affordable housing, the arts, and climate resilience. Especially in City Council elections, it hasn’t mattered what a candidate runs on, because the Mayor could put them in charge of completely unrelated bureaus!

Some flaws:

Since these taxes haven’t changed the real priorities of these governments…

  • The taxes add to the existing tax burden, rather than re-direct funding. We all just pay more taxes, rather than, for example, diverting funding from auto-oriented road projects to bike-oriented projects.
  • The funds are subject to diversion. For example, while the Arts Tax was marketed to local arts organizations as a way to get steady funding, they’ve seen little steady money from the tax, even though the local arts community lobbied the public in support of the measure, and the public understood the tax to be of great benefit to these organizations.
  • Sometimes, governments just literally don’t spend the money (Multnomah County Homeless Services Tax).
  • There’s little democratic accountability. One can’t just vote the Arts Tax out of office.

I seriously think people are fed up that local governments don’t address climate change, fund the arts, or make more housing and would be happy if they perceived that City had made these kinds of things priorities in the budget; they may not be thinking about the total amount of taxation, or the fact that the money will end up going other places!

Thank you Charley. One characteristic of a good comment is that its sparks other good comments. Take a peek at the responses, they are worth reading too.

Monday Roundup: Cost of cars, call for bollards, cougar attack, and more

Welcome to the week. Hope you are able to enjoy “spring break” even though it doesn’t feel that spring-y out right now.

Here’s what our community has been talking about for the past seven days…

‘Hell on earth’: It was striking to me how similar the anti-urban cycling arguments are in Paris to the ones we hear in America. (The Telegraph)

Trails momentum: A new US DOT program funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will give a boost to carfree path projects nationwide — it’s just a shame that so far only $45 million is on offer. (Associated Press)

The woes of car ownership: It’s truly jaw-dropping how much of American life is influenced by cars and car ownership — especially when you consider the financial strings cars attach to their owners. (Streetsblog USA)

Cougar attack: The woman who was attacked by a cougar in Washington last month is now telling the amazing story of how she and her riding buddies managed to fight back against the big cat. (KUOW)

Acknowledging a mistake: At least the EPA now fully admits that their own fuel economy standards are to blame for the massive shift in the American vehicle fleet to larger trucks and SUVs and the death of the sedan. (The New Republic)

Call for bollards: A horrific crash in San Francisco that killed a family of three has local activists calling for stronger leadership, stronger protection, and stronger enforcement. (Streetsblog SF)

Drugged-up: I had never heard of the Enhanced Games, where athletes are encouraged to take drugs before the competition. Now I’m curious if any cyclists — drugged-up or clean — will show up. (Canadian Cycling Magazine)

Third place for whomst?: A tony new club on the Central Eastside has at least one local journalist lamenting how a much-needed “third place” is now pay-to-play. (Portland Mercury)

Cleaner cars: President Joe Biden announced stronger emissions requirements that could force a much quicker transition to electric cars and pundits call it one of the most significant climate regulations ever. (NY Times)

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.

Podcast: In the Shed with Eva & Jonathan – Ep 16

It’s Friday, and you know what that means… Yes it is time for our weekly podcast featuring the wonderful Eva Frazier and I! We were graced with Eva’s presence before she jets off once again — this time to beautiful Kearny, Nebraska where she’s got a date with a few thousand sandhill cranes.

In addition to amazing bird migrations, here’s what else we talked about:

  • Eva’s wife’s Robitussin-induced fever dream.
  • What is Eva’s favorite place to ride?
  • Albina Vision Trust and the highway caps.
  • Eva’s idea to charge property tax for on-street parking spots.
  • Sunday Parkways: The good, the bad, and the should.
  • Weekend lanes and automated bollards are the Next Big Thing.
  • Our big ideas for that sweet, sweet PCEF grant funding.
  • Thoughts about Jonathan’s upcoming interview with Portland Police officer and city council candidate Eli Arnold.
  • BikeLoud’s women biking survey aftermath.
  • Bike Happy Hour Birthday party planning.
  • And more!

Thanks to Brock Dittus of Sprocket Podcast fame for our fantastic theme music. Listen in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Man hit while bicycling downtown has died from injuries

Henderson’s bike was found in the bike lane on this section of SW Alder just east of 3rd Ave.

40-year-old Johnathan Henderson moved to Portland four years ago and spent most of his time riding his beloved singlespeed “fixie” on downtown streets — filling one delivery order after another. Around 9:30 pm on March 12th, he was involved in a collision with the driver of a Land Rover SUV near the intersection of Southwest Alder and 3rd. The impact with the SUV knocked Henderson to the ground and he was taken to the hospital in a coma. He died on March 18th at 3:02 pm.

Police have yet to release an update about the death or details of the crash (their initial statement is here), but BikePortland has learned that Henderson’s bike came to rest in the bike lane on Alder just east of the SW 3rd. The SUV was stopped in the left-most lane. This section of Alder is known to be stressful because it’s a de facto on-ramp to I-5 via the Morrison Bridge. SW 3rd is one-way southbound and Alder is one-way eastbound.

While police continue their investigation, Henderson’s family and friends are reeling at their loss. His family — who he hadn’t seen for many years — arrived from out of state to be around his bed at the hospital. His close friend and neighbor, Filly, is managing Henderson’s belongings and memorial details.

“He was really my big brother,” Filly shared with me in a phone call a few minutes ago, struggling to speak through the sadness.

Johnathan Henderson.

“I saw him the day before and he was just stressed about bills and stuff. He was living day-to-day just hustling and doing deliveries for UberEats and Instacart.”

Henderson loved riding his “Indigo 96” fixed gear. Filly said he’d put over 11,000 miles of delivery miles in Portland and was pulling 40-mile a day shifts. When he wasn’t knocking out a delivery, he was doing local group rides or hanging out with his dog “Callie” (short for SuperCaliFunkyPuppy). A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Henderson moved to Portland from Detroit by himself and found his chosen family through bicycling. He was a mainstay at the Thursday Night Ride (“TNR”), where he was a proud corker he kept the ride safe. On the Tuesday he was hit, Henderson had just peeled off from a weekly, social, fixed-gear ride.

He would often leave rides early to make a delivery. Filly said whenever a big order came up on his phone, he’d jump on it because he needed the money. He also didn’t want to do it anymore. “He’d tell me, ‘I really want a job so I can stop this delivery bullshit. It’s stressful and cars aren’t paying as much attention nowadays. I just want something stable’,” Filly said.

Some days he’d make deliveries just to make sure Callie would have food. “He just loved that dog so much,” Filly recalled.

Henderson also loved his bike. Filly said it was gifted to him by a stranger and that it had 20 years of life as a courier bike in San Francisco before it fell into Henderson’s hands. “He was just so excited to ride it all the time,” Filly shared. “He was always trying to get me motivated to ride with him, like, ‘Come on! Let’s go do laps around Ladds!'”. When Henderson moved in next door to Filly, they weren’t friends right away. But once they realized they both rode fixies, “That’s how we connected at first,” Filly said.

Henderson’s love or riding comes through in this LinkedIn profile he wrote (and that Filly urged me to share):

Self Employed, Partnered with Uber Eats Delivery. Delivering meals from various Restaurants within the Downtown Portland Area, via Fixed Gear Bicycle. I absolutely love doing deliveries on bicycle, not only do I get to deliver great food, I get to enjoy all the sights, and discover new locations to eat, and while I do it, I get to stay active and in great physical condition.

Providing great customer service, and delivering smiles to everyone I deliver to, plays a big role in my own mental health and wellness. Before this job, I had worked in customer services as well as the food service industry, which, unfortunately, did not leave much time to myself, and maintaining my own mental and physical health. Unfortunately, I had to resign from those positions because of the issues that were becoming more predominate, worsening my depression and physical health. I am now much happier with where I am at, and has made me more goal oriented and mission driven, in my pursuit to become a Peer Support specialist for military veterans with PTSD as well as other mental and physical disabilities.

Filly admired his friend’s riding skills. “He’s hyper-conscious of traffic and cars. He’s skilled as shit,” she said.

Now Filly plans to paint Henderson’s beloved bike white and place it as a ghost bike where it came to rest on that Tuesday night. There’s also a memorial gathering and ride planned for April 26th, the day Henderson would have turned 41.

But organizing those events will have to wait. Today, the emotions are still too raw. “We’re all feeling it. I’m feeling like I’m in that whirlwind still where I’m angry and sad.”

— Henderson is the 17th person to be killed while using Portland roads so far this year. We had 12 fatal crashes by this same time last year. Stay tuned for more details about the memorial gathering and ride on April 26th.

UPDATE, 3/25: PPB have released an update. They say: “The preliminary investigation reveals that the cyclist entered the intersection against a red light and was struck by a sport utility vehicle (SUV) that had a green light. The driver has been cooperative. No arrests have been made or citations issued.”

As Ladds 500 grows, organizer feels pinch of expenses

When David Robinson launched the Ladds 500 in 2016, he had no idea it would become a phenomenon. I mean, who would want to ride 500 laps (about 100 miles) around Ladd Circle Park? Even Robinson’s self-deprecating slogan, “Let’s do something stupid!” didn’t seem like the best way to attract the masses.

But over the years, this event has become a favorite on Portland’s bike fun calendar. As the first big event of the year, it’s much more than a ride and it has blossomed into a community gathering where friends are eager to meet after a long, dark winter. Last year about 400 people crowded into the park (a planted roundabout where eight streets come together) and now Robinson is feeling the growing pains of success.

Organizer David Robinson at last year’s Ladds 500. (Jonathan Maus – BikePortland)

As an all-volunteer event, costs for things like porta-potties and the permit have traditionally been offset by a few community sponsors and from sales of commemorative patches and stickers. As crowd have swelled, however, so too have expenses. More people means more sanitation facilities are needed and the cost of the event permit has tripled since 2020 and now sets him back about $1,200 — about a quarter of the total event budget.

“Demands have continued to scale from a financial perspective,” Robinson shared in a conversation with BikePortland Thursday. “I keep getting more [porta-potties] every year and then the lines are still halfway across the circle. I’ll need about 6-8 this year at $250 each. It adds up and the big hole in my pocket was scary going into this year.”

Thankfully, as word spread in the community, a fundraising effort has been “wildly successful so far” and Robinson says the event will survive for at least another year. “Community support allows me to make decisions regarding event logistics without having to worry about whether I (as an individual) will be reimbursed,” Robinson said.

So mark your calendar for April 13th, grab some friends, make a team, and get ready for what Robinson calls, “A celebration of the inane, and bikes, and spring.” And remember it’s not a race, it’s a relay.

— Follow @ladds500 on Instagram for updates. Find a PayPal donation link here.

Jobs of the Week: Dirty Freehub, Community Cycling Center

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Job: Seasonal Mechanic (Spring 2024 Opening) – Community Cycling Center

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Seasonal Mechanic (Spring 2024 Opening)

Company / Organization

Community Cycling Center

Job Description

UNION/NON UNION: Non Union
HOURS: Part time or Full time
COMPENSATION: $21 per hour
TERM: Seasonal
SCHEDULE: 4-5 day week, workdays may vary, hours
may fluctuate, will work evenings and weekends
REPORTS TO: Processing & Production Manager
and Retail & Workspace Manager
BENEFITS: Sick Time, $200 Used Parts Allowance

Organizational Overview

We love Portland and bikes. So we put our two loves together 30 years ago, creating a nonprofit organization on a mission to broaden access to bicycling and its benefits.  Our goal is to help build a healthy, sustainable, and vibrant Portland for all community members. Our vision is to help build a vibrant community where people of all backgrounds use bicycles to stay healthy and connected. We believe that all Portlanders—regardless of income or background—should have the opportunity to experience the joy, freedom and health benefits of bicycling. This is the motivation behind everything we do. 
 
The Shop Department of the Community Cycling Center consists of a DIY Workspace and retail storefront, regular salvage sales, and occasional pop-ups and events. This department is a revenue stream to provide funding for community programs.

This position splits time operating out of our warehouse work space and the retail storefront at our membership based workspace in NE Portland. Here at the CCC we value and support one another through the work we do and are committed to working collaboratively to meet our goals. We acknowledge and value diversity and its many intersections. We are proud that people of color, women, neuro-divergent, gender non-conforming and LGBTQIA+ folks choose to work at our organization. We encourage more people from varied and diverse backgrounds to join our lively, talented team.

The Community Cycling Center is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity, equity and inclusion. Individuals with diverse backgrounds, abilities and experiences are encouraged to apply. 

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY
The Seasonal Mechanic is responsible for working service, retail, and production shifts which include the refurbishment of used bicycles and teardown of donated bikes for recycling and to harvest used parts. Based on qualifications, Seasonal Mechanics may also work shifts in the Alberta street DIY Bicycle Workshop. Those shifts will involve monitoring the appropriate use of tools, checking out the correct specialty tools for a variety of projects, enforcing safety and cleanliness guidelines, and answering questions and providing guidance to people using the workspace.Seasonally, shop staff will need to provide retail support at pop-ups and events. Staff in all positions at the shop will also be responsible for providing support to the Programs department as needed. This may include working mechanic shifts at one of our free service events or locations, providing ride support at events, or assisting at a learn to ride event.

Working under the direction of the Shop Leadership Team, they will cultivate the delivery of consistent quality, help meet sales goals and support staff working in their department. Experience in a high-volume shop environment, clear communication skills, and proven effectiveness in supporting staff are crucial to the success of this position.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Production Shifts
• Assess and repair bicycles for retail sale and for use in our programs
• Perform teardowns to harvest parts and recyclable material from donated bikes
• Under the direction of shop leadership and senior staff, work alongside staff to produce quality bicycles and reach inventory and sales goals

Workshop (TBD based on skill)
• Monitor member’s use of the shared workspace
• Be prepared and able to answer any mechanical or bike related questions customers may have, guide them to a resource, or be able to help them research the answer with enthusiasm
• Observe tool and equipment use and instruct proper use of tools and equipment
• Be able to confidently help customers complete projects from beginning to end if they buy one-on-one time with a mechanic
• Instruct organized classes on a variety of bike related topics including but not limited to brake adjustments, shift adjustments, bike care and maintenance, flat repair, tubeless setup and maintenance, wheel build and truing, etc.
• Make sure members are following all safety guidelines for working in the space Sales and Service (TBD based on skill)
• Assist customers with the purchase of used bikes, and new and used parts and accessories during salvage sales, pop-ups and events, and from the retail store at the workshop
• Provide service on customer bikes at the Alberta store
• Perform a la carte, on the spot repairs on bikes during salvage sales, and at pop-ups and events

Programs
• Provide mechanical support to programs for ongoing projects and programs events as needed

General
• Participate with all staff in the ordering process to ensure we have adequate workspace supplies and inventory to support the department’s operation
• Participate in regular tool audits
• Moving & lifting bicycles up to 50 lbs. is a regular part of this job but reasonable accommodation can be made

Other Responsibilities
• Help advance the mission of the Community Cycling Center across all departments
• Contribute to a standard work environment – answer phones, maintain a safe, clean & organized workspace
• Work as directed by senior staff to contribute to the training and support of less-experienced mechanics, including youth interns and apprentices
• Other duties as assigned

REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
• Customer service experience
• Familiarity and working knowledge of a large variety of new and used bicycle related components and materials
2+ years of professional bike mechanic experience
• Experience supervising, training and supporting staff
• Strong interpersonal communication skills
• Strong organizational skills including the ability to manage multiple assignments simultaneously
• Ability to meet project deadlines and account for detailed objectives
• Experience and success in creating inclusive work environments where people from diverse backgrounds feel safe and welcome
• Ability to lift, bend, squat, climb and more—this is a physically demanding job but reasonable accommodations can be made

PREFERRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
• Attention to detail and a methodical approach to accomplishing tasks
• Experience with workflow improvement methods
• Experience in a high-volume bike shop
• Valid driver’s license
• Experience with Lightspeed POS, Excel, Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe
• Proficiency in Spanish

How to Apply

Please send your resume, cover letter, and (3) references by email with “Seasonal Mechanic” as the subject line to Jobs@CommunityCyclingCenter.org. No phone calls, please.

NON-DISCRIMINATION POLICY
The Community Cycling Center is an equal opportunity employer. We will not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, age, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, citizenship, veteran status, marital status, sensory disabilities, physical disabilities, mental disabilities and/or any other bases protected by state and federal law. We take proactive measures to ensure against discrimination in hiring, compensation, promotions, and termination of staff, selection of volunteers (including board members) and vendors, and provision of services. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, customers, clients, volunteers (including board members), subcontractors, vendors, and other members of our community.

How to Apply

Please send your resume, cover letter, and (3) references by email with “Seasonal Mechanic” as the subject line to Jobs@CommunityCyclingCenter.org. No phone calls, please.

PCEF committee: Community groups must play large role in grant applications

From PCEF website

The Portland Clean Energy Fund Committee is walking a tightrope: If they play too hard-to-get when it comes to opening up revenue from their corporate tax earnings to City of Portland bureaus, they risk stoking the ire of City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez who is desperate for bureau funding and is poised to refashion the tax and refer it to voters for a complete overhaul to get it. But if the committee compromises too much with Gonzalez and City Hall, they risk alienating the powerful sea of nonprofit groups who helped pass the policy and support it wholeheartedly in its current form.

PCEF was passed by voters in 2018 as a 1%  tax imposed on large retailers with $1 billion in national revenue and $500,000 in revenue in Portland. It aims to invest in climate change-related projects that will benefit low-income and Portlanders of color who are on the front lines of extreme weather and other climate threats. So far the fund has been a boon to bicycling and has dedicated $80 million to an e-bike purchase subsidy and other programs. It’s also helped save the PBOT budget thanks to a $112 million injection into the transportation budget from Commissioner Carmen Rubio (who oversees the fund through the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability).

But there’s still money to spend. Thanks to a spike in corporate profits and a delay in tax filings after the pandemic, the fund has amassed a huge sum — an estimated $540 million — beyond projections. That has left PCEF’s coffers swelling just as the City of Portland’s coffers are nearly empty. That dynamic has set up a tug-of-war around how the money should be spent and who controls the pursestrings. Gonzalez wants the money for police and fire bureau needs and Rubio is going after the interest to fund Portland Street Response — neither of which have a connection to climate change.

A document made public today lays out for the first time how the PCEF Committee proposes to balance these competing forces in the next allocation of $158 million.

The committee has been under pressure to make a recommendation to Portland city council about how to spend that additional revenue. They laid out three options for how do so at a February 15th meeting. Two of the options included a “rapid timeline” that would come up with a process to allocate the funds by May (in time to be included in the Mayor’s proposed budget). A third option called for a longer timeline that would give the committee time to solicit more collaborative proposals and would allocate the funding by this fall.

The first two options were better for city bureaus who want money immediately; but the third option would allow PCEF to more closely adhere to the policy that underpins the program — a policy that mandates a more collaborative approach where nonprofits play a significant role in allocation decisions. But the details of option three were limited, and PCEF committee members felt they couldn’t vote until it was fleshed out.

The proposal released today lays out four eligibility requirements for applicants who want one of the $20-$100 million grants: Funded projects must “meaningful and measurable reduction or sequestration of greenhouse gas emissions”; the primary applicant must be a nonprofit or government entity and demonstrate support from a community coalition, and all applications must include a community benefits agreement. The last eligibility requirement is perhaps the most important: The aforementioned coalition must include, “At least one non-profit community-based organization with a minimum of eight years’ experience in conducting community engagement in Portland focused on PCEF priority population.”

If those requirements are met, then applicants must go through a two-step process: submit a letter of interest (LOI) and then, if approved, they can submit a full application. The PCEF Committee expects to invite four to eight applicants to submit full proposals. The deadline for LOIs would be May 10th and project recommendations would be made in early September.

While this proposal likely isn’t exactly what Commissioner Gonzalez would prefer, it also clarifies the eligibility of city bureaus and gives him and all other members of council an opportunity to benefit from PCEF. Whether it’s enough to make him reconsider his previous stance on PCEF remains to be seen.

This proposal will be shared publicly for the first time at the PCEF Committee meeting that begins at 6:00 pm tonight (3/21). Once it receives support from the committee, it will then be forwarded as a recommendation to City Council where conversation will continue. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: The PCEF Committee voted in support of the proposal at their meeting Thursday night. Now it goes to city council. The Oregonian reported Thursday night that Commissioner Rubio has abandoned her plan to use funds from interest on PCEF revenue.

Weekend Event Guide: Worst Day Ride, Tracklocat, bike swap, and more

You never know what you’ll see at the Worst Day of the Year ride. (Jonathan Maus – BikePortland)

This week’s Event Guide is sponsored by the Worst Day of the Year Ride, one of Portland’s iconic group rides that is sure to brighten your mood with all types of creative and zany costumes and silly folks inside them. Register and learn more here.

Have fun out there!

Saturday, March 23rd

Volcano Ride 2 – 6:45 pm at Irving Park (NE)
This ride will get to the center of your heart, where the magma flows inside of you. Led by NakedHearts:PDX will lead this “meditative” ride. More info here.

Dead Freeways Ride – 10:00 am at Wallace Park (NW)
Join local historian and Zinester’s Guide to Portland author, Shawn Granton for his annual exploration and discussion of freeway fights of yore. You’ll ride to locations where freeways were prevented and where they were ripped out. More info here. – Cancelled.

Spring Bike Swap – 11:00 am at Baerlic Brewing (SE)
It’s baaack! Grab goodies from local bike tinkerers, makers, and artisans as you gear up for spring and summer riding season. More info here.

Tracklocat 3 – 1:30 at Ladds Circle (SE)
An alleycat race that’s an inclusive mix of cyclocross, singlespeed, fixed-gear track bikes, and whatever else shows up. Expect six checkpoints an bring $5-10 to contribute to the winner’s pot. More info here.

Ride Westside Spring Kickoff – 2:00 pm at Beaverton Central MAX Station (West Side)
Get to know the best bike routes through central Beaverton with a merry band of bike advocates and bike-curious Beavertonians. Loop begins and ends at the awesome BG’s Food Cartel pod for food and conversation. More info here.

Sunday, March 24th

***Worst Day of the Year Ride – 9:00 am at Lucky Lab (SE)***
The quintessential Portland costumed bike ride that’s been an institution for many years. Entry fees benefit Community Cycling Center. More info here.

Guerilla Gardening Seed Dispersal – 12:45 pm at Laurelhurst Park (SE)
Help boost Portland’s bloom by spreading native seeds all around southeast. Bring a spice shaker or something else to scatter your seeds. More info here.

— Don’t see an event? Please tell us about what’s going on in your neighborhood by filling out our contact form, or just email me at maus.jonathan@gmail.com if it’s easier.

Survey reveals depth of abuse women experience while biking

(Jonathan Maus – BikePortland)

“We’ll be targeted if we’re assertive… But cyclists need to be assertive to be safe.”

– Survey respondent

The most recent counts by the City of Portland estimate that only three out of every 10 bicycle riders are women and the gender split hasn’t budged since counting started in 2006. In east Portland, the City tabulated just 17% of all bike riders as women. As we ponder the reasons for this disparity, a survey has revealed one factor that’s causing it: the high rate of demeaning interactions and aggressive behaviors some women experience while riding.

A survey conducted in February by nonprofit BikeLoud PDX asked women to describe the worst or most common incident of abuse they’ve experienced while cycling. A shocking 311 out of the 329 women and non-binary people who answered that question reported some level of traumatic incident. The woman who led the survey project, Cathy Tuttle, analyzed the results and found that 229 respondents experienced a Level 3 Trauma (swearing, honking, catcalling, rolling coal, etc), 53 experienced a Level 2 Trauma (deliberate close pass, tailgating, menacing, etc), and 29 experienced a Level 1 Trauma (hit and run, throwing projectiles, aggressive stalking, etc) — the most severe category of abuse.

The vast majority of these aggressive behaviors came from people driving cars. Respondents said 88% of the aggressors were in cars, 7% were identified as homeless people and 5% were other bike riders.

In a summary of the survey results made public Monday, Tuttle shared several examples of the responses. I’ve pasted a few of them below:

A man screaming “get the f*ck off the road” repeatedly while I was cycling on a low traffic route downtown, revving their engine constantly and pulling up too close behind me. I finally got off the road, shaking and crying and called 911. The dispatcher told me there was “nothing we can do, it’s not illegal.” She didn’t want me to report the behavior, even though I had the license plate.

I had a driver stop to tell me that I needed a rear bike light so they could see me. I didn’t respond so the continued to verbally harass me. When the light changed they followed me and kept trying to yell at me. Eventually I came to park and biked into it so they couldn’t follow me. I was scared to bike for a while after that.

A woman yelling out her (passenger) side window “hit the bitch” after I pointed to the stop sign that they were rolling through when I had right of way.

Tuttle also included a longer response from someone who took the survey that is worth reading (edited slightly for brevity):

After he physically threatened me with his car, and after honking, I was told by a man, “I’m going to kill you the next time I see you” while I was biking — legally — on a typically busy (but not at all busy right then) 3 or 4-lane one-way road that has no cycling-specific infrastructure and doesn’t see much bike traffic, but which was at the time a crucial connector that I needed to be on to get across a freeway without going extremely far out of my way…

He didn’t yell it. He said it slowly, deliberately. I’ll never forget it. It wasn’t inflamed reactive rage; it was a slow, methodical, simmering threat. He looked right at me. I can still hear it many years later: I’m going to kill you.

I’ve had men in SUVs and trucks deliberately swerve into me, almost, but not quite, hitting me more times than I can count. This is a cross-Oregon problem, in urban, suburban, ex-urban, and rural areas, all of which I’ve biked in extensively. I’ve been called a dumb c—, a stupid b—-, and other misogynist slurs, again, more times than I can count. I’ve also been treated to yelling misogyny from male street joggers, who run in the street against traffic all the way to the side of the road, right where cyclists typically are… This is weirdly common in Portland, and they are often very rhetorically and even physically aggressive. I’ve also been in collisions with street joggers, and their dogs, and I, the cyclist, have always been the more injured person, so it’s a real problem actually. I’ve encountered groups of 3 men jogging with 2 or 3 huge dogs who are taking up literally the entire street and are very aggressive when confronted with a cyclist — me, one woman — trying to get to work.

Once I was biking to work in Portland with a male cyclist who was behind me, and a truck deliberately swerved into me at a high rate of speed to threaten me or worse, and the man who was biking behind me chased the driver down and yelled at him because he saw it all happen in a way I did not have the vantage to and he was pissed. The truck driver was likely annoyed by my male companion, who he encountered first, but didn’t do anything. Then when he encountered me, he became enraged and deliberately tried to intimidate me by swerving into me. If anything had “gone wrong,” I’d probably be dead now, due to the speed of the driver. Still have a pretty visceral reaction to light blue Leer-brand pick-up truck toppers to this day because of this decades-ago incident.

None of these described incidents are rare, aberrant, unusual, or even, really, worthy of note anymore, but they’re the specific ones that come immediately to mind with no thought at all, but that are representative of a whole problem. They happen ALL THE TIME, for seemingly no reason often. The misogyny comes out almost immediately, reflexively. I feel that if a female cyclist doesn’t preemptively display deference to motorists — of any sex, but especially male — they will be targeted, and if we’re assertive, then all the more so. But cyclists need to be assertive to be safe. Male cyclists too often seem like they’re not our allies (aside form the aforementioned male cyclist — this was actually a rare instance in my experience). The dismissive ‘male glance’ is real, on the bike as in all of life. I can distinctly recall men realizing another cyclist (me, almost 50) is behind them, at a red light or whatever, and looking back, only to discover a woman who is older than he is, on a not-interesting-to-him bike, with no interesting blingy gear on it, and have him turn away, barely able to acknowledge I was there at all. What was he expecting to see? A sexualizable object young enough to be worthy of his attention? Men are far more sexist than they can admit. As many jobs become more gender-integrated, men find new ways to assert their male supremacy. There seems to me to be a distinct strain of “biking everywhere with no infrastructure makes me a man” in the Portland bike ecosystem and it’s detrimental to a lot of folks, not just cis-gendered adult women.

We live in a deeply sexist society and misogynist backlash to feminist gains is observantly real across both dominant culture and most if not all subcultures. Women already experience this whether they have the interpretive lens to see it or not. Many women I know just don’t want to be extra-burdened by the physical and emotional danger of biking routinely for transportation, because they’re already burdened enough in a way men just aren’t.

The responses to this survey give us all a lot to think about and should add urgency to create a better cycling environment in Portland.

Tuttle based her survey on one conducted by the Women’s Freedom campaign in London. She said after hearing similar responses to their survey, bike advocates in London built an entire campaign around it with rides, petitions, letters to city council, etc.

What should Portland do to address this problem?

— Read the survey summary here.

New draft plan for Alpenrose site is good news for bicycling

Preliminary plan for the proposed Raleigh Crest development on the Alpenrose Dairy site. North is to the right.

The Hayhurst neighborhood association presented preliminary plans for development of the Alpenrose Dairy site last week at their March 11 open house about the property. The group obtained the draft plans through a public records request, and shared them at the neighborhood meeting and with BikePortland.

The 51-acre Alpenrose campus holds special importance to cyclists because of its Velodrome, which closed permanently in 2021 after 60 years of operation. But it was also home to an operating dairy, Little League playing fields, and a faux frontier town. So overlapping communities have strong feelings about the future development of this property, including the neighbors who live closest to it in southwest Portland.

I have been keeping an eye on the plans because new development is the main avenue through which southwest Portland is supposed to get bike lanes and sidewalks. But because most of the southwest lacks a formal stormwater conveyance system, the city often only requires developers to fulfill frontage improvements in a rudimentary way. What I have been waiting to see is if development of the Alpenrose property would bring a safe place for pedestrians and cyclists to travel along SW Shattuck Road, the two-lane collector which fronts the site to the east.

According to these preliminary plans, the answer is yes, and that is a very pleasant surprise for me. In the cross section below, you can see a design for a multi-use path separated from the roadway by a “stormwater facility,” and also a curb.

SW Shattuck Road looking south with drainage ditch to the right.
Plan drawings acquired by Hayhurst Neighborhood Association.

Keep in mind that this has not been approved. The permitting log on PortlandMaps shows that the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) and the Bureau of Environmental Services (BES) each approved a “Concept Review” with corrections on March 12th. [UPDATE: 3/22/24 9:20 — the permitting log actually says “Approved w/corr,” I assumed the “corr” meant “corrections” but it could also mean “correspondence” or anything else that fits.] Hopefully the MUP isn’t something which will be corrected away. And, to be honest, I am confused about the process. The preliminary plans are quite finished, and are much more detailed than I would expect to see given that there doesn’t seem to have been a Public Works Alternative Review (PWAR) meeting. My limited experience is that a developer doesn’t go forward with the expense of a detailed plan without knowing what the city expects to see.

I put in a public records request to BDS last week for any recent PWAR forms and was told that PWAR was a PBOT matter, and that PBOT hasn’t “yet received the Public Works Alternative Review for this location.” My understanding from Marita Ingalsbe, president of the Hayhurst Neighborhood Association, was that the developer intended to file plans in mid-April.

A mid-April filing doesn’t leave any time for the back-and-forth a PWAR often entails.

So I don’t know exactly what is going on, except that stuff is going on and, knock on wood, things seem good with the Shattuck frontage. I am not going to follow-up with a flurry of further public records requests (for example, for the “corrections” to the concept plan, or trying to time when PWAR forms will arrive at PBOT). But things are happening and perhaps we will have firmer information in the near term. Stay tuned and please contact me if you have any information to share.

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From the Archives

Escape from Portland with this easy loop on quiet forest roads above Trout Lake