2024 Archives

Podcast: In the Shed with housing researcher Michael Andersen

The one and only Michael Andersen rolled over to The Shed on Friday and I’m excited to share our 50-minute conversation with you.

If things would have gone differently, Michael and I might have been working together here in my backyard. Seven years ago, Michael was BikePortland’s news editor, a position he held from 2013 to 2016. I’m typically pretty humble about what happens around here, but I have no problem saying that Michael and I were kicking ass. We had such a great complement of skills when it came to this weird type of community transportation journalism that we do. It just clicked. I loved working with him and — from the Real Estate Beat column, to his detailed coverage of “low-car life” (a phrase he popularized) and national cycling trends (he was working half-time for national nonprofit People for Bikes) — I loved what we produced together.

Why’d he leave BikePortland? He shared something during our chat Friday about that for the first time. “Because I couldn’t have two children simultaneously,” Michael said. “BikePortland was so all-encompassing that I felt like I couldn’t have done them both of them justice. So, I had to choose my son. Sorry about that.”

I still don’t forgive him, but I’ve learned to move on. Just kidding! And it feels great to know that Michael went on to much bigger things as a major part of Sightline, a well-respected think tank with nearly two dozen staff that research, develop policy, and write articles about stuff like housing, climate change, environmental economics, democracy, transportation, and so on.

All this is to say it was really nice to have Michael over for a chat. We of course talked a lot about housing, the politics of density (although he doesn’t use that word and prefers “proximity”), biking, Portland politics, and much more. Here are a few highlights.

On the co-housing development he lives in today in the Cully neighborhood:

“I think it’s a perfect example of the sort of thing that low-car life makes possible because the whole development wouldn’t have penciled if there had been demand for more than 20 parking spaces for those 23 homes. But as it is, the developer couldn’t actually sell three of the parking spaces because not enough people wanted to buy them.”

On his work at Sightline:

“… We are not trying to get everybody to live closer to each other. What we want as a society, is to let everybody who wants to live closer to each other — and in so doing, cut their energy use in half — should get to do so. We desperately need that to happen, because otherwise our electric bills are going to keep going up, and the world is going to keep being destroyed by pollution and everything else. And it’s not that everybody is ever going to want to live closer to each other. But, to the extent that it is possible to get people to do so, then we should let people do so.

And we have so many rules and laws that make it either illegal or overly expensive to make that choice to live closer to each other. And so my job at Sightline is to try and call attention to that fact and say, ‘This is a really stupid set of rules that are forcing people to live further from each other, to be disconnected from each other socially, to use more energy, use more money than they really need to, or than they really want to.

A lot of environmentalism is getting people to do things they don’t want to do. Whereas, I feel like with bike advocacy and housing advocacy, a lot of it is actually letting people live the way they want to. And so that’s really joyful.”

On the state of the pro-housing movement:

“I think the housing movement is at one of those peaks right now. There’s a lot of attention. There’s more funding than there has been. There’s more narrative energy. And I think there are electeds like Tina Kotek, the [Oregon] governor right now, and even the Portland City Council, who are not a boat rocking crew for the most part, but do have this consensus that something needs to be changed on housing, even if they don’t really know what it is. So right now the challenge is to capitalize on that energy and get as much done while we can.

I’m on the older side of this housing scene, and, and I feel like I need to tell the young people, ‘This is not going to last. We don’t have forever. We need to get stuff done while we can.'”

And asked to bring folks up to speed on where the housing issue is in Portland today, Michael went back 100 years. He shared how racism and classism spurred zoning laws in 1924 that largely created the urban form we have today.

Then, during an exchange about Portland’s cycling rise and fall, Michael noted a poster of the Sprockettes I have on my wall (the Sprockettes were an all-female mini-bike dance team that ruled Portland streets for 15 years between 2004 and 2019) and we came up with the “Sprockettes Test” as a measure of proximity and good urban planning. That is to say, those little bikes weren’t comfortable to ride long distances, so maybe it was Portland’s relatively compact urban form that allowed the Sprockettes to flourish and get around to gigs easily.

Toward the end of our conversation, I asked Michael what he wants BikePortlanders to understand about the housing issue:

“I think most bike people have an intuitive sense of the fact that transportation and housing are really closely associated and you can’t do one without also thinking about the other.

I think the key idea that I’m trying to communicate lately is that we cannot change the status-quo without changing the status-quo — that the source of the cost of housing is all the rules that we put around housing and not all those rules are bad. Some of those rules are good. Like, you should be able to enter a building in a wheelchair without an assistant. But that’s not free. It’s not free to require compliance with the Fair Housing Act. So we all pay for that and maybe that’s fine, but what we need to do is figure out what are the least bad rules to get rid of.

And the top of my list of bad rules are getting rid of the mandate that you’re not allowed to share walls, not allowed to share roofs, not allowed to share kitchens in many cases.

And beyond that, there’s a zillion little rules, but every little additional rule we add, adds a little bit more cost. No one rule is the deal breaker, but they all add up. And so we’ve got to figure out which are the least bad ones, and we’ve got to have an argument about it.”

Michael also shared who he likes for Portland Mayor, and much more. Listen in the player at the top of this post or find our show wherever you get your podcasts.

Comment of the Week: Living in the ‘dead zone’

This comment came in early last week, in response to the first of two BikePortland posts about a man killed by a driver on Southeast Belmont and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The posts caused a whiplash of reaction as the details of the story emerged over several days. What had begun as another dangerous infrastructure story morphed into an intentional-act-of-violence story. Between them, they managed to touch upon all of our frustrations and hot-button issues. The constant was that people living on the streets are vulnerable.

This thoughtful comment by SD remained relevant even as the story changed. SD stepped back from the immediate incident to notice the cityscape that car infrastructure creates, specifically “dead zones,” and why those locations might appeal to someone living outside. It got me thinking about how a city takes its form, and how it forms the people who live in it.

Here’s what SD had to say:

An important point that may be missed here is that the interviews with the residents of this camp show that they are aware of how dangerous it is because of speeding cars, yet they choose to be here. Relative to other dangers or difficulties they face, the risk of cars, noise and exhaust are acceptable. I hope that people who read this story take a moment to consider how hard it is to be homeless. Homeless people are in many cases trying their best to be out of the way of society, but at the same time need to be close enough to meet basic needs and have the safety of being in a place where someone might hear you if you scream for help.

The other point is that car infrastructure creates dead zones in cities that most people avoid because it is harsh and repulsive. These dead zones are tolerable to homeless people because they meet other needs. If you laid out a map of Portland and gave someone that task of finding outdoor places for homeless people to sleep and camp that balanced the needs of the homeless with the desires of the housed population, I imagine that most people would choose these car infrastructure dead spaces as prime spots. I know that some people think we can sweep and starve the homeless problem out of existence, but the continued reemergence of these camps argues that this type of passive aggression is not a solution.

I keep thinking about Williams talking on OPB about pedestrian deaths in Portland and how she essentially said in a coded way that pedestrian deaths in Portland were due to homeless people and rhetorically minimized and shrugged off the problem.

Thank you SD for sharing your insights. You can read SD’s commen t, and some other good ones too, under the original post.

Monday Roundup: Antifa superhighway, climate time bomb, a perfect bike, and more

Welcome to the week. It’s going to be a great! Let’s get started.

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

Move over, crime train: Joe Kent, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress in southwest Washington opposes the project to replace the Interstate Bridge on grounds that it is an “Antifa superhighway” that would bring crime by Portland’s “drug addicts and criminals” into Vancouver. (The New York Times)

Perfect bike, Portland roots: Argonaut is now based in Bend, but Ben Farver started the company in Portland and it’s great to see him win high accolades for his carbon fiber bike in a major cycling publication. Congrats Ben! (Cycling News)

Bad company: Initial stats on pedestrian deaths nationwide reveal Oregon is not only not making progress to reduce them, we are on the wrong site of the death rate overall. (Ars Technica)

We must incentivize e-bike purchases!: When you acknowledge the full plate of benefits e-bikes offer our people and planet, it’s clear governments should do more to subsidize them (The Conversation)

Bike scouts: The idea of disaster relief by-bike is alive and well in the Philippines, where success using bikes after a major typhoon has evolved into official programs that lean into its community-building — as well as live-saving — potential. (South China Morning Post)

WTF NPS?: After 39 years of hosting the iconic Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day (RAMROD), the National Park Service has said the event can no long use its roads, rendering it effectively dead. Organizers are scrambling to reverse the decision. (Seattle Bike Blog)

Babboe no: If you or someone you know rides a Babboe cargo bike, I have some very bad news: The frames can fail and the company knew and tried to cover it up. Woah. (Road.cc)

Say it ain’t so, Joe: A week after US DOT Sec. Pete Buttigieg promoted a massive freeway expansion boondoggle in our own backyard, national nonprofit T4 America dug into his boss’s signature achievement and called it a “climate time bomb” because it overwhelming funds new roads and expansions over transit and other, smarter investments. (The Guardian)

Parking in bike lanes can be deadly: San Diego County will pay $3 million to the family of a man who hit the back of a city-owned truck while on a bike ride. The truck was parked in a bike lane without any warning signage. (NBC San Diego)

Limiting car speeds: Get used to the phrase “intelligent speed assistance” (ISA) because it is slowly becoming more mainstream as the scourge of high speeds force action, and the tech has proven to work in functioning democracies like the ones they have in Europe. (Vox)

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: Crash survivor and safety advocate Sarah Risser

Sarah Risser with the family of Jason Ruhmshottel at a ghost bike installation earlier this month. (Jonathan Maus / BikePortland)

Imagine losing someone you love deeply in a traffic crash. Now imagine being seated next to them when it happened. That’s the tragic reality Portland road safety advocate Sarah Risser experienced in January 2019.

I talked to Risser this week to learn more about the work she’s doing to help families deal with grief and to help our community acknowledge the crushing toll of traffic deaths. But before I asked Risser anything else, I asked her to share the story of her son 18-year-old Henry Zietlow, who was driving their car on a snowy road when “a clearly negligent and reckless” driver coming the opposite direction crossed the centerline and slammed into them.

“It was just heartbreaking,” Risser recalled. “He was a beautiful beautiful young man. Just coming into his own.”

That crash radicalized Risser. “It didn’t have to happen. It was preventable,” she shared with me. And in a moving essay she published last fall, Risser wrote, “Once I began to see how much we’ve sacrificed to our auto-centric lifestyle, I couldn’t unsee it.”

Sign installed by Risser on SE Belmont this week. (Jonathan Maus / BikePortland)

In this chat I’ve uploaded to our podcast (listen above or wherever you get your podcasts), Risser and I also talked about her memorial sign project she’s begun in partnership with BikeLoud PDX, The Street Trust, and Oregon Walks. With a design inspired by the national nonprofit Families for Safe Streets, Risser has erected about 13 of the signs around Portland so far. They state, “Our Neighbor Was Killed Here” and include information about how to get involved with advocacy and supportive resources for survivors. She plans to keep posting them.

Risser said she embarked on the project for two reasons: to increase awareness of road deaths and to show how widespread the issue is citywide (note that the signs go up for all deaths, not just bicycle riders or walkers). “These crashes are happening all over Portland. The hope really was that an individual might see a sign on SE Belmont and see another one on Naito Parkway and then begin to realize, ‘Yeah, this is a really big issue,'” she said.

Sometimes just being out on the street, installing the sign itself, is a powerful experience.

On Tuesday, Risser visited SE Belmont where David Bentley was struck and killed this past Sunday. As people noticed what she was doing, Risser recalls they were suspicious and assumed the sign was a “No Camping” notice. But as they looked more closely at the sign, Risser said, “They expressed a lot of gratitude, and a fair amount of emotion. They thanked me repeatedly for putting up the sign and for drawing attention to the issue.”

“Usually when I go to put up a sign, I’m just there by myself,” Risser continued. “But there was another situation recently where a motorcyclist had crashed and I just happened to be there. It was a coincidence when the family members showed up to put out flowers. They expressed a huge amount of gratitude and said to me that they want safer roads and we really need to draw attention to this issue.”

When Risser isn’t telling Henry’s story or volunteering with BikeLoud, she finds happiness in other pursuits. She’s a competitive rower and a member of the Willamette Rowing Club. “I also love photography. I love birds and birding and I really try to balance the hard work of road advocacy, which can be a little bit triggering at times, with other things that just bring me great joy. I’ve also joined a little improv group. We do street theater!”

Risser is in the market for a new e-bike and she hopes it might help her become 100% carfree. And as spring approaches, she’ll use it as her birding-mobile. “When I was living in Minnesota, I had an e-bike and I would put my camera bag in the back and off I’d go. It was so joyful and I’d find beautiful birding spots. And it was all the things that I loved combined. And I’m really hoping to do that again this spring.”

— Follow Sarah Risser on X at @Henryz_mom.

Jobs of the Week: Bike Clark County, WashCo Bikes, Castelli, Clever Cycles

Need a job? Want a better job? Just looking for a change? You are in the right place. Don’t miss these recent job announcements. Remember, you can always stay abreast of jobs as soon as they get listed by signing up for email updates.

For a complete list of available jobs, click here.

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New to Portland: One ride, many types of infrastructure

My cap doesn’t lie. (Erin Bailie – BikePortland)

My husband and I recently took advantage of the weather and went for a “fun ride” – that is, a ride without a specific timeline or destination in mind. I’d call it a recreational ride, but the distinction between commuting and recreating is a blurry line and I don’t want to enforce a false dichotomy. Our plan followed our typical formula for a weekend outing: see something neat (the trails at Powell Butte) and eat something tasty (lunch at the Mercado carts in Foster-Powell). The dose of vitamin D from the sunny skies was an added bonus.

During the ride, my husband and I marveled at the many different types of infrastructure we encountered, and the nuances between them.

The Ride

Our ride started in our neighborhood, Sullivan’s Gulch. We zig-zagged on neighborhood greenways through Laurelhurst, North Tabor and Montavilla neighborhoods. In Montavilla, we transitioned from greenways to our second mode, a designated bike lane on East Burnside, where the MAX tracks occupy the center of the road.

Several bike lane miles later, we encountered our third mode: the unpaved trails of Powell Butte. The giant park map at the entrance and easy-to-spot trail markers made it easy to ensure we stayed on trails where bicycles were allowed.

We exited the park and made our way to the fourth mode: the Springwater Trail, a multi-use path set apart from vehicle traffic. After a few miles on the Springwater, we turned onto Foster Street and found our fifth mode: a stroad which has a bike lane frequently interrupted by cones and debris. While on Foster, we stopped at Portland Mercado to enjoy lunch from the food carts there. After leaving Foster, we traced Neighborhood Greenways through Foster-Powell, South Tabor, Richmond, and Sunnyside to make our way back home.

Over lunch, my husband and I discussed the different modes we had encountered that day. His favorite was East Burnside, when we rode in a bike lane alongside auto traffic and the MAX. I was genuinely surprised – we had ridden our gravel bikes so we could enjoy trails, and I expected him to say Powell Butte! He shared that riding alongside the MAX reminded him of riding in Europe, and that the auto traffic on Burnside was a lot more tolerable than, say, Foster.

Often we had to ride in between the painted white lines to avoid cones or debris in the lane.

As I reflected on my own favorite, I was surprised by my own answer – I found riding the Springwater most enjoyable. There was plenty of space to share the path with pedestrians and other cyclists. As we entered the Springwater, I remembered comments from BikePortland readers about encampments along the trail, but I never felt threatened or obstructed by those who live along the path.

Though Powell Butte was a welcome break from pavement, the shared-use trails were crowded with folks eager to get out in the rare February sunshine. I found myself stopping and starting often to yield to hikers. Next time, I’ll plan to ride there on a weeknight… or I’ll just bring my hiking shoes and leave the bike at the park entrance.

For both my husband and I, riding along Foster was the least-favorite part of the route. The bike lane was often blocked by cones, and it wasn’t clear if the cones were placed by PBOT or local businesses. But, Foster redeemed itself in one key way: at several points, the cars around us were caught up in a traffic jam while we had the bike lane completely free for travel.

One my favorite things about moving to Portland has been getting to know the places around me as I fill in my mental map. The breadth of bike infrastructure makes it possible to do this on two wheels. What’s your favorite type of infrastructure to ride on?

— Read previous New to Portland posts here.

Exciting times for Old Town as Broadway Corridor, North Park Blocks projects move forward

(Source: City of Portland Bureau of Transportation)

It’s not everyday that plans for a new street come across my desk. Read that again: Not new plans for a street. Plans for a new street! Yes, the Portland Bureau of Transportation will finalize designs this year and break ground next year on new streets in Old Town. Specifically, they plan to extend NW Johnson and Kearney Streets from where they currently end at NW 9th about one-tenth of a mile east to NW Station Way/Union Station.

The work is part of the Broadway Corridor project, a redevelopment of the 34-acre former US Postal Service distribution site being led by Prosper Portland. Not only will this site be home to new commercial and residential units, it will also be a key link in the future Green Loop, a biking and walking path that will eventually ring Portland’s central city. The Broadway Corridor has been in the planning stages since at least 2015 and reached a major milestone last month when demolition of the USPS facility was completed. Now that the slate has been wiped clean, it’s much easier to get excited about building on top of it. It’s even more exciting to see what type of street design PBOT will build when given the chance of starting from scratch.

On a new website for the NW Johnson & Kearney Street Extension Project, PBOT gives us our most detailed view yet of what we can expect. The conceptual cross-section drawing shows a street with two general lanes, an on-street parking lane, and a wide sidewalk separated from a two-way cycle-track by large trees.

Check out the latest drawing below of what a brand new NW Johnson Street between 9th and Union Station could look like:

It’s 4 images. Click to enlarge each one.

PBOT says in addition to the extensions of Johnson and Kearney, they will also build new bike lanes on NW 9th between Lovejoy and Johnson (this will create a stronger connection between existing bikeways on the Lovejoy viaduct that connects to the Broadway Bridge and the neighborhood greenway on Johnson).

To pay for this project, the City of Portland created a local improvement district (LID) with Prosper Portland. A LID is where a group of property owners share the cost of new infrastructure and get generous terms on a long-term loan to pay for it — with the first payment not due until after the project is completed.

Green shaded rectangles show North Park Blocks extension project area. Red building in lower left is Union Station. View is looking south from NW Lovejoy.

If you’re as excited about this as I am, you should get plugged into a related project: the North Park Blocks extension being managed by Portland Parks & Recreation. That project will extend the existing linear park that exists between W Burnside and NW Glisan north to Hoyt (behind Pacific Northwest College of Art, which is why some folks refer to this as the “PNCA Block) in order to tie into the Green Loop and Broadway Corridor. The result will be a new, 30,000 square foot park. There’s already an advisory committee that has met and ideas the planning and design process is expected to continue through this fall with construction starting in spring 2026.

It just so happens that the first community open house for this project is tonight (Thursday, February 29th). Learn what the future will bring and how you can get involved by dropping in any time at PNCA (511 NW Broadway) between 6:00 and 8:00 pm.

These projects could not be happening at a better time as Old Town emerges from the pandemic and Portlanders begin to demand excellent public spaces where we can enjoy our city.

Advocates push for e-bike task force bill as clock ticks on session

With just 10 days left in the legislative session, e-bike advocates are making a big push to get a key bill over the finish line. Typically the formation of an official state task force isn’t something folks get excited about. In fact, pushing an important issue into a committee is something many of the advocates lobbying for House Bill 4067 might, in other circumstances, fight tooth-and-nail.

But what HB 4067 would do, establish a new Oregon Department of Transportation Task Force on Electric Mobility, is considered a vital step forward in the effort to legitimize e-bikes, scooters, and a range of promising lightweight electric vehicles. Since BikePortland first reported on this bill before the session began back in January, its importance has grown considerably because of its close connection to another e-bike bill, HB 4103.

When HB 4103 passed the House this week (note that both bills originated in a joint committee and therefore aren’t subject to deadlines like single chamber bills) it was stripped of its most consequential provisions. Heralded as a compromise between lawmakers and advocates in Bend and Portland, there was a general agreement that its substantive proposals needed more debate and discussion so that a more comprehensive and effective bill could emerge next year. E-bikes are so popular and their impact on the mobility of Oregonians could be so vast, the thinking goes, advocates want to make sure any new laws or new regulations help reach that potential instead of kneecap it.

That’s why The Street Trust and its partners put out an action alert yesterday urging members to contact lawmakers and telling them to pass HB 4067. After it passed the Joint Committee on Transportation alongside HB 4103, the task force bill was referred to the Joint Committee on Ways & Means. Why? Because all bills that have a fiscal impact on the state budget must be approved by Ways & Means.

The current price tag is $200,000. That money would be used to pay for administrative overhead and staff needed set up the task force.

If the bill passes, Governor Tina Kotek must appoint 19 members who will, “work to address the problems not solved by HB 4103,” The Street Trust states in its action alert. The background and expertise required of each committee member is prescribed in the bill, which lays out specifically what type of appointees are needed. Here’s the roster, taken from the bill text:

Two members who represent the Department of Transportation.
One member who represents a local government parks and recreation department.
Three members who represent electric micromobility device operators, manufacturers or businesses.
One member who represents law enforcement and emergency medical services.
One member who represents a city with a population greater than 500,000 and one member who represents a city with a population of 500,000 or fewer.
One member who represents a county government.
One member who represents a metropolitan planning organization.
One member who represents a public university.
One member who represents the insurance industry.
One member who represents a nonprofit organization with statewide experience on transportation electrification and micromobility.
One member who represents roadway users with disabilities.
One member who represents an association that represents motor vehicle users.
Two members who represent active transportation organizations.
One member who represents mixed-use trail users.

And what these folks must work on for the coming year is also clearly spelled out in the bill. Their marching orders are to:

Review the existing Oregon laws relating to micromobility and personal mobility devices;
Examine whether safety and education requirements should be required for motor vehicle users, electric micromobility device manufacturers, retailers and user groups;
Examine how electric micromobility devices can be best utilized to promote equity, safety and climate goals in the transportation sector;
Examine best practices for the use of electric micromobility devices, including but not limited to use on highways, bicycle paths, bicycle lanes, public lands, public spaces and mixed-use trails;
Examine statutory definitions of electric micromobility devices;
Address electric micromobility devices for commercial use;
Examine provided education and certification programs relating to electric micromobility devices

And there won’t be time to dilly-dally, because their recommendations must be submitted to lawmakers by December 1st of this year, in time for the 2025 session.

If those sounds like important issues to you, The Street Trust says you should reach out to three lawmakers who are in position to move the bill forward: Senate President Rob Wagner, House Speaker Dan Rayfield, and Joint Committee on Ways & Means Co-Chair Tawna Sanchez.

Here’s what we know about the violent, heartbreaking incident on SE Belmont

Violent and allegedly intentional actions led to the death of 49-year-old David “Dino” Bentley on Southeast Belmont in the Buckman neighborhood early Sunday morning. What initially seemed like the result of a dangerous street design mixed with the inherent risks of people who live in homes made out of fabric and thin wood pallets on the sidewalk, now seems to have been something much different.

I spent time at the scene Wednesday afternoon, I’ve reviewed the court documents, and have watched and read local news coverage to try and understand what happened, and why.

Here’s what I know so far…

The man who drove his car into Bentley, 22-year-old Shane McKeever, is currently being held on charges of Manslaughter in the First Degree and Reckless Driving. The probable cause affidavit filed at the Multnomah County Courthouse on Monday relays a harrowing tale that began with what one witness described as an argument. “The suspect [McKeever] walked into the camp and started to argue with everyone,” one man told a Portland Police officer who responded to the scene. “It seemed like the suspect was looking to cause issues.” There was also an allegation from someone in the adjacent encampment that McKeever “threatened to run over their camp.” Then McKeever allegedly got into his car and made good on those threats.

According to the court docs, which were based on witnesses both on the ground and one person who saw it from a window of his apartment at the Grand + Belmont building, McKeever first hit Bentley by driving (an allegedly stolen car) from SE Belmont (under the Morrison Bridge viaduct) across Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, then continued eastbound on Belmont. A different witness estimated McKeever’s speed at 40-50 mph. Bentley was sitting stationary on his bike, either in the bike lane or on the southern sidewalk of Belmont between MLK and Grand with his back toward the approaching driver. A video from KGW shows the impact left a large dent in the hood of the medium-sized Chevy Malibu sedan and smashed-in almost the entire windshield. The witness in the apartment building heard the loud impact and told police McKeever then turned around in a nearby driveway and drove back (westbound) on SE Belmont and “appeared to be intentionally trying to run people over in the camp.” It was at this point that witnesses heard 4-5 gunshots.

McKeever stopped the car about 10-feet east of MLK and tried flee on foot. He was eventually approached by witnesses and ultimately apprehended by police on SE Belmont a few blocks west of MLK.

David Bentley (victim)

Selfie by David Bentley posted to his Facebook page on December 23rd.

David Bentley, who went by “Dino” on the street, seemed to have a lot of friends. He had been living on the streets of Portland for years and KGW interviewed him during the heat wave last summer, when he told one of their reporters: “I don’t want to die out here. I don’t want to die just another homeless guy, just another number.” Mayor Ted Wheeler said in a statement that Bentley was well-known to local outreach workers, that the Mayor’s office was “sad to learn” of Bentley’s death and that the incident was a, “sobering testament of how dangerous living on the streets can be.”

I’ve spent some time trying to track down people who knew Bentley in hopes they can paint a fuller picture of him. So far I’ve only managed to find someone who calls Bentley a brother. The person posted a direct message on their Facebook page late Sunday night that she’d sent to McKeever. “My heart is so broken,” the message read. “Why did you hit my brother with your car?… Why did you run? How come you didn’t get out and try to help my brother? But rather try to run over my son too?”

Shane McKeever (suspect)

McKeever has had many run-ins with the law in his short life. According to his record, he’d been charged with five felonies and two misdemeanors (for theft) since 2021 — not including his current charges. Those charges include multiple counts of criminal mischief, assault, menacing, unlawful use of a weapon, and contempt of court for failing to appear. He’s been convicted of two separate domestic violence assaults.

Photos and messages shared by McKeever on what appears to be his Facebook page, paint the picture of a young man who embraced “the hustle,” liked to smoke, and celebrated handfuls of cash. He also shared that he didn’t receive a lot of guidance in life from people close to him and that he was homeless and lived in his car for at least seven months in 2021. That same year, McKeever wrote that he, “never had a father figure growing up to teach me how to take care of something like this,” and that he, “never had a family base.” He was also married and he and his wife had a daughter in 2020.

McKeever is scheduled to be arraigned on March 5th.

Looking northwest across MLK from where Bentley’s body came to rest. Notice drivers are crossing MLK, not turning off of it.

The Infrastructure

I’ve heard a lot of concern from the community about the design of this block of SE Belmont between MLK and Grand. I observed it from all angles yesterday and the concerns are valid. It’s also notable that the intersection of Belmont and MLK is circled in red and labeled as a “difficult intersection” in the official City of Portland bike map (see graphic at right).

One reason it’s a high-stress area for bicycling and walking is that it’s a relatively narrow (about 15-feet wide) street striped with a bike lane that handles traffic between two very wide (about 50-feet), car-centric and busy urban arterials. Belmont is clearly a recommended bike route because it has sharrow markings from SE Water (near the river) and the buffered bike lane where Bentley was hit. The buffered bike lane was striped in late 2017 or 2018 and it helps Belmont connect to bike lanes further east. In the bike network, this section of Belmont is a couplet with westbound Morrison St. one block north.

The presence of viaducts overhead and the columns that support them adjacent to this little stretch of Belmont reduces visibility. The stressful, multi-lane arterials on either side also contribute to driving behaviors that don’t always keep safety of non-drivers in mind. That being said, the left-turns from MLK onto Belmont have such bad visibility and require such a tight radius, that I didn’t see a lot of speeding or dangerous driving around that movement. The curb at the Belmont/MLK corner bulbs-out a bit, which helps protect the bike lane by creating a shadow of protection. Being out there I realized it’s much easier for drivers to reach dangerous speeds when they come from Belmont west of MLK.

As you can see in the video below, drivers (or bike riders) who cross MLK Jr. Blvd from Belmont face four lanes of relatively speedy, one-way traffic.

Homelessness

This is as much a story about our continued struggle to house all Portlanders, as it is about a traffic crash.

While I was out there yesterday, a crew from Rapid Response Bio Clean, a company paid by the City of Portland to address homeless camps, drove up in one of their big box trucks. Workers got out and talked to the folks who live in the tarp-and-pallet shelters being used as homes by many people adjacent to where Bentley was killed. They were probably informing them that the camp will be “swept” this coming Monday, March 4th. An “Illegal Campsite” notice — posted to the same pole as a memorial roadsign erected by road safety activists earlier this week — went up on February 23rd.

Where will these folks go next? Will it be just as close to dangerous traffic? Will they move into shelters? Are there even enough places for them to find a bed? As long as people continue to live so close to deadly vehicular weapons, should we consider emergency road design changes to respond to the reality of these ticking time-bombs of traffic tragedy?

Conclusion

Given what we know so far, it feels like there isn’t one clear thing that bears responsibility for the events that unfolded early Sunday morning. It was a violent act carried out by a repeat offender who never got the help he needed, in a city where far too many people live precariously close to large deadly weapons on four wheels that can careen into them at any time — whether their drivers intend to or not — and far too often with heartbreaking consequences.

Job: Bicycle Mechanic – Clever Cycles (FILLED)

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Sorry. This job has been filled.

Project to make N Delaware Ave bike-friendly breaks ground in March

N Delaware crossing Rosa Parks Way. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

In the coming months there will be a new neighborhood greenway established in north Portland. The project will create a more bicycle-friendly street on a 1.3-mile stretch of North Delaware between Sumner and Terry.

Delaware is already an important north-south street in the bike network, but it’s currently listed on the official city bike map as a “shared roadway” — one step in quality below a neighborhood greenway. Delaware connects the campus of Adidas North American headquarters near Willamette Blvd in the south and crosses important east-west bikeways such as Ainsworth, Rosa Parks, Bryant and Lombard. Delaware also provides direct access to Arbor Lodge Park, Chief Joseph Elementary School, Portland Village School, and Kenton Park.

To make it safer and more welcoming for bicycle riders, the Portland Bureau of Transportation announced in an email to nearby residents earlier this month they plan to begin construction at the end of March.

Carfree block of N Delaware between Saratoga and Bryant where there’s a school on one side and park on the other.

The plan calls for:

19 new speed bumps,

green crossbike striping at N Killingsworth,

green bike boxes at N Rosa Parks (along with parking removal at the corners and a ban on right turns during red signals),

and sharrow pavement markings, new wayfinding signage, intersection daylighting, and turned stop signs along the entire route.

Changes at Rosa Parks Way will be especially welcome. This intersection was the site of a very serious injury collision in 2016 that left a man paralyzed. It is also a busy cycling route for families coming and going to Chief Joseph Elementary School who want to use the existing protected bike lanes on Rosa Parks.

A few blocks north of Rosa Parks, between Saratoga and Bryant (an existing neighborhood greenway), PBOT has already made Delaware a carfree street. This section is between an elementary school and a park and is a safe place for kids and their families to play! In 2015, volunteers erected a covered bike parking area in the street.

Delaware emerged as a “Tier 1” recommendation during PBOT’s North Portland in Motion planning process.

Also of note in this project is PBOT’s decision to not address the problematic crossing at Lombard. You’ll recall that the Oregon Department of Transportation completed a major bikeway project on Lombard in 2022, but they downgraded the bike crossing at Delaware. PBOT is aware of the issue, but says they don’t have enough funding to make changes at this time.

Learn more about this project on PBOT’s website.

Protected bike lanes and new pavement coming to Outer SE Stark

View looking west on SE Stark at 115th. That’s Ventura Park on the right.

One of Portland’s deadliest streets will get major changes with a project set to break ground in the coming months. The Portland Bureau of Transportation announced last week they will repave Southeast Stark Street between 108th and 122nd this spring. In addition to new pavement, PBOT will add protected bike lanes on both sides of the street.

It’s all part of the larger Safer Outer Stark project that launched in 2019. Stark has a gruesome history as a high-speed stroad where people in cars, on foot, and on bikes run a higher than average risk of death or serious injury from a traffic collision. SE Stark and 122nd is known as the highest crash intersection in the entire city. Advocates have pushed PBOT for years to make a large safety investment on outer Stark and the city has responded. PBOT has split the $20 million project into five phases. The first two are complete and the one that will repave and add bike lanes this spring is phase three.

This 0.7 mile section of SE Stark begins just east of the Stark-Washington couplet at Mall 205. The width of the road is about 60-feet and it currently has four general purpose lanes and a center turn lane. The stretch between SE 113th and 117th runs along the south side of Ventura Park and has a 30 mph speed limit. Despite doing a complete repave, PBOT will not reduce the number of general travel lanes. See the before/after graphics below shared in a PBOT video about the project:

As you can see in the image above, PBOT plans a buffered bike lane with a concrete curb.

After this project is complete, PBOT will continue with the last two phases in 2025 when they’ll build six new crossings at SE 111th, 119th, 128th, 137th, 141st, and 151st. The last phase of the project will extend safety and crossing upgrades — as well the protected bike lanes — all the way to the city border with Gresham (SE 162nd).

Funding for the project comes from a mix of sources including $11 million from the city’s General Fund, $6 million from the state transportation package passed in 2017, $2 million in System Development Charges, and $1 million from the Fixing Our Streets program. Learn more at the Safer Outer Stark project website.