I was drawn to Dan’s comment partly because of his writing “voice” — it goes down easy, and is unpretentious and authoritative at the same time. Like someone who knows what he is talking about, but parked the ego at the door.
Here are Dan’s ideas for sparking a resurgence in cycling:
I have spent 45 years riding my bike everywhere, including over 35 years commuting and riding for fun in and around Portland. In my view, marketing ain’t gonna cut it.
For example, there’s a bike lane on Beaverton-Hilldale Highway, which is an important transportation corridor to the west. And even I hate riding on it. I used to ride my bike to meetings and events in downtown Portland, parking and locking it on the street. The idea of doing that now is laughable. People in cars have become more and more lawless, and the streets more dangerous. To really make bikes a meaningful part of our transportation system, here are a few ideas:
1) Step up enforcement of traffic laws — a lot. 2) Build more off-street bike paths. This includes both in town and long-distance bike paths to far-away places. 3) Create a secure, staffed bike parking facility downtown. 4) Improve and maintain existing bike infrastructure, including sweeping. 5) Tax gas and cars a lot more. 6) Close some streets downtown and in business hubs and create pedestrian areas. 7) Provide tax advantages for buying and using bikes and electric bikes. 8) Crack down on bike thefts and theft rings. 9) Dramatically increase civil and criminal penalties for drivers that hit, harass, or otherwise harm cyclists. 10) Elect leaders who think of cycling as a form of transportation at least equal in importance to all others, not just a niche segment to wink at now and then to be politically correct.
Many will dismiss most or all of these suggestions as unrealistic, and indeed perhaps they are in early 21st century America — even in a place that at least thinks of itself as progressive like Portland. But in other places in the world, all of these things are simply reality — and they work. Marketing is basically wishing something will happen. We need to do the hard work to try to make it actually happen. We get the society we collectively decide to make.
Here are the most notable stories our community came across in the past seven days…
Open streets forever!: I love that advocates in San Francisco put an open street project on the ballot… and won! Now a two-mile section of a coastal highway will be permanently closed to car users. What street should we do this for in our region? (SF Gate)
Echoes of North Williams: A debate over a road diet and bike lane in a Washington DC neighborhood reminds me of the conversations about race Portland had in 2011. (Washington Post)
Pedestrian solidarity: This article about the pitfalls of walking in cities in India is a good reminder that pedestrian advocacy is a global pursuit and there are advocates working to make it better across the globe. (BBC)
Daylighting in effect: A new law passed in California requiring cities to prohibit parking near intersections in order to improve safety and visibility. Now the question is, will the daylighting happen and will the law be enforced? (San Francisco Standard)
The state of state-owned roads: A solid rundown of why urban highways (“stroads”) are so bad and the relationship between city and state governments — with a nod to Portland’s 82nd Avenue. (Vox)
Bollard considerations: A rare bit of new research on how different types of bollards impact bicycle users. (Forbes)
Bikes in national parks: Every national park in America (not just Arches National Park) could benefit from a traffic plan that embraces cycling — especially now that e-bikes are so popular and readily available. (Clean Technica)
Get more out of your bike: If you got a new gravel bike this past season, it could become a really solid around-town bike through winter with a few key changes. (Cycling Weekly)
Paris growing pains: It’s not all good news in the budding cycling capital of Paris. All the new cyclists have spurred a backlash due to how chaotic their traffic behaviors can be. (Le Monde)
According to a description of the grant application provided by Metro, the funding will be used to invest in walking schools buses and bike bus programs. The aim is to see what happens when these activities are funded and supported by more than just a parent or two and if the availability of a safer route to school and supportive school environment gets more families to leave their cars at home.
Bike parking at Roosevelt High School. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
The pilot activities will take place in the Roosevelt High School cluster in north Portland with programming at five elementary schools (Astor, James John, Sitton, Rosa Parks, César Chávez), one middle school (George), and one high school (Roosevelt). That cluster has 68% students of color, a 45% absentee rate, and 43% of the families have low incomes. Metro crash statistics reveal that the routes kids at these schools take are much more dangerous over average than the region at-large. The grant application also cited concerns with gun violence as a reason families don’t walk and roll to school.
“The combination of school demographic needs, crash data, and strong community infrastructure are why this pilot project area was chosen,” reads the Metro project description.
Metro applied for the grant. In addition to PPS, partners on the project include nonprofits Oregon Walks and Community Cycling Center, Portland State University, and Portland Bureau of Transportation.
The grant will allow Metro to pay adult leaders at elementary schools to to establish weekly walking school buses and bike buses. There will also be monthly events to bolster the programs and encourage participation. Two elementary schools in the program will receive “learn to ride” education and teachers will receive training on bike and pedestrian safety.
For high schoolers, the program will fund transit trainings that will include a field trip to ride the TriMet system. And students will receive hands-on training on how to use the Biketown bike share system.
The grant will also fund an annual adopt-a-bike event and free bike locks and helmets for students. Social media training, so bike bus leaders can spread the word about their program and reach more families, will also be part of the program.
While this is mostly a planning and organizing grant, there will be some investment in demonstration projects. Temporary wayfinding for the walking and biking routes will be installed and there’s a plan to paint “traffic gardens” on the campus at each elementary school. “Temporary or pop-up circulation improvements to guide traffic during pickup/drop-off times,” is also included.
Everything will be analyzed and evaluation by PSU’s Transportation Research and Education Center to see how the various interventions are impacting safety and perceptions about walking and biking to school.
If the pilots are deemed successful, Metro and their partners will integrate walking schools buses and bike buses into more schools and “apply lessons learned regionwide and support broader implementation of the most successful initiatives.”
Work is expected to begin July 2025 and will take place over three years. This news comes just weeks after the nonprofit Oregon Walks received a nearly $1 million grant through the Portland Clean Energy Fund to develop walking school buses citywide.
Balto on Instagram a few hours ago.
“It is a wonderful day for children’s mobility,” said bike bus leader Sam “Coach” Balto. “SS4A is incredibly meaningful funding. A humongous ‘thank you’ goes to the staff at Metro who are always open to try new things and take risks.”
Roger Geller (black shirt) leading a bike tour in 2023. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Roger Geller has been the City of Portland’s bicycle coordinator for over 30 years. For most of that time he worked for a city that was a leader in his field. That’s not the case anymore and Geller has a plan to put Portland back on top.
In 1997, early in Geller’s career, Portland was the first American city to add color (blue) to bike lanes. 11 years later Portland was still an innovator, becoming the first US city to install bike boxes in 2008. Then we layered something even greater on top of infrastructure accolades: the best bike culture in the world.
Between 2007 and 2014 Portland was one of the greatest cycling cities in the world. What we lacked in ridership and bikeway infrastructure compared to great northern European capitols, we made up for with a cultural milieu so steeped in cycling it was the envy of Dutch planners and its tendrils reached anyone who spent time here. Industry, events, political support, economic development, advocacy groups, racing, media — the influence of biking was everywhere!
Geller in 2012.
As head bike planner for the the Portland Bureau of Transportation, Geller was a key architect of that golden age. So when things started to cool off in 2014 or so (following a few years of shaky politics for cycling), Geller felt the shift. In a new white paper released this week, Geller wrote, “Portland’s bicycling strategy has not been producing desired outcomes since 2016,” — a notable acknowledgement from the city staffer largely responsible for that strategy.
“I think it’s really important for the city to demonstrate its commitment to bicycling by taking potentially disruptive actions.”
After a decade or so of stagnation and decline, there are signs of life for cycling in Portland. And Geller thinks the time is right for a local cycling renaissance.
At the Tuesday night meeting of the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee (Geller has been PBOT staff liaison to that committee to for at least 20 years) Geller unveiled a 14-page plan he calls, “a comprehensive program to immediately focus on increasing ridership.”
After painting a picture of cycling’s political heyday for a new crop of BAC members, Geller said, “And here we are today. And I can’t remember the last time I heard any elected official say something positive about bicycling. It’s kind of dropped off the map.”
To get it back on the map, Geller wants to act fast — maybe even circumvent the city’s typical approach of incremental, politically-safe progress. Geller’s thesis is that how we get around is simply a rational choice people make. And right now, more people choose to drive than to bike.
“So how do we get people to choose to ride a bicycle rather than to drive a car? I think that is our challenge,” Geller said.
A typical response to this is to build more and better bike infrastructure. At a rally outside City Hall in 2010, before Portland City Council voted to adopt the Bike Plan for 2030, advocates held signs that said, “Built It!” as in, “built it and they will come.” Even today the “paint is not protection” mantra remains strong.
“You can’t watch anything on TV during the football season without seeing five Bud Light ads over the course of an hour right? That’s the level of campaigning that I want to do for biking. That’s what I think we need.”
Geller acknowledges that great cycling facilities matter, but those can take years to design and install. “We don’t have time to wait to build protected bike lanes on every roadway where we want them,” he said. Instead, Geller wants to go big on marketing, lean on existing advocates and early adopters, make bold yet inexpensive capital investments, and organize mass bike rides that will convince people to hop on a saddle.
Here’s an excerpt from the plan’s introduction:
Portland has strong policies and plans to reduce motor vehicle miles traveled. But, unless there is a dramatic shift in local politics and culture, Portland will be unable to rely on similarly strong driving reduction incentives to encourage increased bicycling. Portland will instead need to rely on persuasive tools to re-elevate the possibility of bicycling, on providing compelling reasons to do so and creating opportunities for a new generation of Portlanders to discover the joys and benefits of biking in the city.
Portland needs to re-awaken an awareness of bicycling and its many benefits. A reinvigoration of bicycle culture will create forums through which bicycling can re-enter Portlanders’ collective consciousness as a desired transportation choice. Through multiple polls and surveys, we have clear indication that Portlanders are interested in such a choice8 . Here is where we need to summon faith in our product (bicycling and what it creates) and our policies that elevate it as a tool toward achieving our desired outcomes.
Geller knows talk of marketing and communications will rub some infrastructure-first folks the wrong way. But in his calculation, Portland’s problem isn’t a lack of good bike infrastructure. Our problem is that not enough people are using it.
“This might be a controversial statement,” he said at the BAC meeting Tuesday night. “But I think there’s really not much we could do more immediately that would create safer conditions for biking than just getting more people out biking.”
Ordinary Portland bike traffic (these are not group rides) in 2013 and 2016.
That’s the “safety in numbers” philosophy. And it works in practice. I’ve experienced it in places like Amsterdam where there’s no bike-specific facility to ride on, but it feels safe because there are people on bikes all around me. It’s also why so many people love Sunday Parkways or mass group rides during Bike Summer. And Portland has already tasted this phenomenon when bike traffic would spike during peak hours on streets like N Williams and NW Lovejoy back before The Decline.
How does Geller think we can get a massive number of Portlanders on bikes as “quickly as possible” (his words)?
His plan outlines six categories of action:
All actions are to be considered in the context of how they can contribute to messaging about bicycling and the city’s intent.
Capital and programmatic elements to display bold steps to both demonstrate institutional / leadership commitment and to get people to pay attention.
Undertake actions that will inspire and activate advocates for bicycling, including opportunities for volunteering, proposed capital improvements and campaigns.
Create an organized framework of rides to provide easy access to multiple ride opportunities.
Initiate and execute a professional marketing campaign to promote bicycling.
Start immediately with inexpensive efforts that feature rides, home-grown messaging campaigns and capital improvements.
He wants to hire a professional firm to poll Portlanders and figure out effective messages — then put them on billboards, run ads on social media, infiltrate all City of Portland communications with pro-bike messaging, and so on. And he wants the city to stop dithering and start doing. While large-scale capital projects with lots of curb work and concrete aren’t part of this plan, Geller thinks striping bike lanes in certain places and re-allocating lane space away from parked cars could be done quickly with great effect.
“I think it’s really important for the city to demonstrate its commitment to bicycling by taking potentially disruptive actions,” Geller said, in response to a question from a member of the public about PBOT’s reluctance to make driving less convenient (something that’s politically difficult, but imperative to influence choices).
Stop and note: This is a city employee saying he feels it’s time for his own agency to take “potentially disruptive actions.”
What does he mean by that? Geller, like many of us, is tired of PBOT plans gathering dust on a shelf. He used the example of Central City in Motion — a plan now 11 years old that still hasn’t reached its promise.
“Central City in Motion for example,” Geller said on Tuesday, “calls for bike lanes on 11th and 12th through southeast and northeast Portland. If we striped those bike lanes, eliminated a travel lane, or eliminated on street parking — whatever we choose to do — that would gain people’s attention and demonstrate a commitment on the part of the city to follow its policies and achieve its goals.”
Read that again. This is a leader who works in the same agency that removed a newly-installed bike lane because a few neighbors said it was a hardship they weren’t given proper notice about (by the way, it’s been almost a year since they were removed and PBOT has made no announcement about putting them back).
Once a project is in the news and people are paying attention, Geller says that’s the moment to deliver the message. For Geller, the message (which would have been professionally crafted beforehand and city staff would have been trained to deliver with confidence) should be something like: “‘Yes, it is important to us to limit driving for these reasons, or to encourage bicycling for these reasons.'”
Before your cast stones at Geller’s plan because it relies mostly on words and intentions, keep in mind he’s operating from the very reasonable assumption that the power of marketing and trends is the best option at our immediate disposal. It’s a pragmatism forged from three decades working in government under a dysfunctional political system (that is thankfully gone in six weeks).
“We don’t have the tools Copenhagen has. We can’t make gas $8 a gallon. We’re reluctant to make parking very expensive. We can’t have the registration cost of a car be 100% the cost of the car,” Geller lamented at the meeting. “So we don’t really have those strong financial tools that help with the decision making in those other places. So we have to find something else that resonates with people and encourages them to choose [bicycling].”
If Geller had it his way, he’d fund this plan with a $40 million budget over a few years. That kind of money, he said half-jokingly, would allow him to “run the Bud Light campaign for biking.”
“You can’t watch anything on TV during the football season without seeing five Bud Light ads over the course of an hour right? That’s the level of campaigning that I want to do for biking — both at the grassroots and a high-end, professional level. That’s what I think we need.”
The man the Oregon Department of Transportation tapped nearly five years ago to deliver billions of dollars in freeway expansion projects in the Portland region is leaving the agency.
According to Willamette Week, ODOT Urban Mobility Office Director Brendan Finn has taken a job as chief of staff for Multnomah County Commissioner Vince Jones-Dixon.
Finn was the first ever director of the office and assumed the role just six months after it was launched. The Urban Mobility Office (UMO) was created in 2019 (initially called the Office of Urban Mobility & Mega Projects) with the goal of completed a suite of freeway expansion projects funded in the 2017 legislative transportation funding package known as HB 2017. That bill included earmarks for several megaprojects that ODOT claimed would reduce congestion in the region: the I-205 Tolling project, the Regional Mobility Pricing Project, the Boone Bridge Improvements project, the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvements project, and the I-205 Improvements. The projects became known as ODOT’s “Urban Mobility Strategy” and it was Finn’s job as UMO Director to get them done.
(Source: ODOT)
Finn earned a salary of $222,650 from ODOT in 2023 and oversaw a staff of 37 FTE with annual payroll of around $4.5 million. I’m not yet aware of why Finn left, but he appears to be taking a big paycut. A typical chief of staff at Multnomah County makes about $130,000 per year.
The last five years at the Urban Mobility Office have been a roller-coaster and Finn has been sitting on the front row.
When he took his position in 2020, the I-5 Rose Quarter project, which will widen I-5 through the Lloyd Center and adding highway covers with surface street improvements and real estate development on top, was in shambles. It lacked support from the City of Portland and ODOT was taking heat from activistsand elected officials. Even Metro called ODOT’s assessment of the project “inadequate” and “highly misleading.” In June 2023, Finn became emotional and walked out of an I-5 Rose Quarter advisory committee after members expressed disappointment about a lack of funding and progress. While there’s been some great news for the project earlier this year, it’s still dogged by lawsuits and lacks funding to be completed.
Finn’s mission received another big blow back in March when Governor Kotek paused work on the Regional Mobility Pricing Project. That plan that would have added tolls to freeways in the Urban Mobility Strategy that would pay for the projects and for continued operation of the Urban Mobility Office (UMO) itself. The lack of funding from ODOT and other sources to complete the projects has put the UMO in difficult straits.
Prior to leading the UMO, Finn was a transportation policy advisory for former Governor Kate Brown and previous to that he was a chief of staff for former Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman.
ODOT has yet to name a replacement for Finn. Stay tuned to see how his departure might impact the UMO and it’s projects going forward.
Display of shoes representing traffic victims at Portland’s 2016 World Day of Remembrance. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Time to plot your weekend strategy and I’ve got some suggestions for you. Be advised there are a lot of slippery leaves out there — so watch those corners!
Saturday, November 16th
Dig Day at Rocky Point – 9:30 am at Rocky Point Trails (Scappoose) Local bike shop Cyclepath and NW Trail Alliance are building new trails (yes, new trails!) at Rocky Point and they need your help to make it happen. Get out and help create new places to ride. More info here.
Bike Milwaukie Harvest Ride – 10:00 am at Great American Espresso (Milwaukie) Join bike advocates in the city just south of Portland for a ride that will peep fall leaves and end at Bobs Red Mill so you can stock up on grains and oats for the winter. More info here.
Mitchell Point Tunnel Dedication Ceremony – 11:00 at Mitchell Point Tunnel (Gorge) An extremely rare and historic opportunity to be the first to peer through the restored picture windows that have been closed for over 70 years. As I mentioned in a story last week, access to the site is tricky and they aren’t letting bikes all the way through. More info here.
Motorhead vs. The World Ride – 6:30 pm at Eastbank Esplanade (SE) NakedHearts:PDX will bring the loud sounds on this hard rockin’ ride that will be an homage to influential band Motorhead. Maybe a mosh pit so get ready to get your freak on! More info here.
Sunday, November 17th
Back in the Saddle Again – 9:30 am at Gateway Transit Center (NE) If you’re just getting back into cycling or want an excellent way to introduce yourself to group road riding, look no further than this ride led by experienced and welcoming Portland Bicycling Club leader Ann Morrow. More info here.
Ladies Flat Clinic – 10:30 am at Trek Slabtown (NW) The wonderful Maria “Bicycle Kitty” Schur will show you how to fix a flat at this ladies-only event inside the warm and cozy Trek store. More info here.
World Day of Remembrance – 11:00 am at Portland City Hall Families for Safe Streets and other local advocacy groups have come together for this event that will bring attention to lives lost on our roads. Rally outside city hall. Enough is enough! Note: There are a few group rides from districts to downtown. 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.
Advocates got a first-person view of what’s in store with the Interstate Bridge Replacement project during a bike ride last month. (Photo: Oregon Walks/Just Crossing Alliance)
“People should be aware of the realities of what happens on the Vancouver Waterfront, where the transit stations are at 100 feet. People can’t visualize that. They can’t make sense of that. That’s 10 stories into the air!”
That was Oregon Walks Executive Director Zachary Lauritzen during an interview with BikePortland yesterday. Oregon Walks is a member of the Just Crossing Alliance, a large coalition of advocacy groups working to “right-size” the Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) Program. The IBR will add new lanes to five miles of freeway and enlarge seven interchanges of Interstate 5 between Portland and Vancouver. It’s estimated to cost $7.5 billion and many (including Lauritzen) believe it will ultimately cost $10-12 billion.
With that price tag, members of the JCA feel like we shouldn’t settle for anything less than world-class cycling and transit facilities.
With just five days left in the all-important public comment period for the project’s Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS), the JCA has released a four-page “Active Transportation and Transit Vision” (PDF) and they want everyone in the region to amplify their concerns via an official comment on the project. The vision document points out the inefficient use of space in the current design and the need to “future-proof” the biking and transit facilities.
Details of pages in the JCA Active Transportation Vision.
Lauritzen and several other coalition members formed an Active Transportation Working Group (separate from the full JCA coalition) to take a closer look at the biking, walking, and transit elements of the project. Other members include The Street Trust, Bike Loud PDX, Bridgeton Neighborhood Association, and advocates from Vancouver.
To be clear, the JCA isn’t working to stop the project. They want to make it less bad.
That transit-station-in-the-sky Lauritzen warned me about, is just one of several things he and his group are deeply concerned about. The bike path for instance, is on the opposite (east) side of the new MAX light rail transit line and there’s no elevator to get folks from the Vancouver waterfront up to it.
If the project is built with the design currently being proposed by Washington and Oregon departments of transportation, people biking north and south would be forced one mile out-of-direction. That’s because the IBRP team has made the bike path route down a half-mile spiral ramp near downtown Vancouver and the waterfront. Lauritzen says they call it the “Vancouver dip.”
Looking south from Vancouver at official project illustration. Red arrow marks the half-mile ramp on the bike path. Note how bike path is on opposite side of the bridge from transit.
The JCA want the biking and walking path to be on the same side as transit (to take advantage of multimodal options) and they want the path to remain elevated all the way to the last transit station (at Evergreen Blvd).
“Those two things [bike and transit routes] have to be together. That path needs to be with the transit, so people can step off of the MAX and get on their bike, ” Lauritzen said. “It’s called ‘multi-modal transportation’ for a reason.” “What the plans are now is you step off the MAX, you go out of direction underneath the road, up some stairs, then on some ramps and then you’re on the path.”
There’s already an elevator the MAX station in the plans, which is another reason the JCA workgroup wants the bike path next to it. The IBR team has planned the bike path on the east side because of what they say are space constraints on the west side, where the new, wider freeway is already forcing them to demolish several buildings.
The Street Trust, Oregon Walks, and other groups helped lead a bike ride to get an in-person, up-close look at what the IBR plans have in store. Lauritzen said the group stood at a spot on Hayden Island and looked north at the highest point on the lift mechanism of the current bridge. “That’s where the new bridge is going to be, and people [on the ride] were just like, ‘It’s going to be that high?’ People were blown away.”
Another takeaway from the bike ride was that gaps in the existing bike network at the edges of the project boundary must be addressed. The IBR team likes to talk about the new protected bike lane on Expo Road, but on the other side of the project, the multi-billion dollar design would drop bicycle riders onto dangerous sections (“no man’s land” JCA says) of NE Marine Drive and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
The IBR project team is leaning on transit and biking traffic to help meet its GHG and environmental goals, but the JCA Active Transportation working group believes it will take much better designs to get people to use those modes.
Lauritzen says getting a high volume of public comments into the official record is key to forcing the hand of the project team to address these concerns. His group doesn’t have the threat of killing the project to give them political leverage, but if enough people amplify active transportation concerns, it could give IBR partner agencies pause.
“The bridge design has to be approved by all the jurisdictions — Metro, TriMet, City of Portland, etc., — and those entities have very specific active transportation, transit, climate and VMT [vehicle miles traveled] goals,” Lauritzen said. “We are saying, ‘If you don’t follow our recommendations, you’re going to get to the end of this project and you’re not going to be able to those partners in the face and say, ‘These are going to happen.’ So make those changes now, make these investments now in your design, so that on the back-end you can approve this’.”
Lauritzen says every comment counts. Even if it’s just a few sentences.
(Background photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland. Inset: Auditor report cover)
The Portland City Auditor has released a report on the transportation bureau’s Vision Zero program. Vision Zero, a framework for decision-making with the goal of no traffic deaths, was adopted by Portland City Council as a goal in 2016. Since then, the annual fatality trendline has spiked upward. The auditor noted progress on some safety projects; but found incomplete work on other fronts. The report says the Portland Bureau of Transportation needs to refine its approach to equity and, “systematically evaluate whether its safety projects reduce traffic deaths and serious injury crashes.”
For several years now, the Portland Bureau of Transportation has weathered criticism about its Vision Zero program. The idea, adopted from road safety experts in Sweden, first came to town in 2010 when a public health researcher visited Portland and called the question: “Why do we allow these deaths to occur?” The idea grabbed hold of cycling and transportation advocates were eager to have a mechanism to build urgency for safer street designs and more human-centered mobility policies. By 2015, Vision Zero had firmly ensconced itself as one of the top priorities at PBOT.
Nine years later, the Vision Zero is more commonly the punchline of criticisms than the proud rallying cry many of us hoped it would be. While I quibble with the lazy scapegoating and lack of self-reflection from many who question its value as an organizing principle, the facts are inescapable. Whatever PBOT is doing is not keeping up with the threats posed on our streets by dangerous driving. When Vision Zero first gained favor in 2010, we had just 26 people die on Portland streets. We’ve averaged around 70 fatalities for the past three years and are on track for another tragically high tally this year.
Slides from Auditor report.
The audit focused on PBOT’s Vision Zero work since 2019 when the bureau made it a key part of their strategic plan and council adopted an update on the program. In that 2019 update, PBOT listed for main strategies: protect pedestrians, reduce speeds citywide, design streets to protect human lives; and create a culture of shared responsibility. The audit assessed progressed on the first three of those strategies.
When it comes to protecting pedestrians, the report gave a mixed review. PBOT completed key projects like new signal timing and traffic calming projects, but hasn’t added as many streetlights or filled as many crossing gaps as their plan calls for.
The next critique from the report won’t come as a surprise to anyone: The Auditor found that PBOT has done a good job reducing speed limits, but hasn’t done enough to make sure they’re enforced — either by automated cameras or via police. In the first seven years of the speed camera program, PBOT had installed just nine cameras at five locations. Officials have blamed everything from contractor and supplier issues, to design problems, vandalism, and electrical challenges for the delay. The logjams appeared to be resolved last year.
The best grades given to PBOT in this report are in their efforts to redesign streets and corridors. “The bureau did well in most of its strategy to design streets to be safer for everyone,” the report states.
While its clear PBOT has ticked off many important boxes on their Vision Zero plan, the main takeaway of the Auditor’s report is that PBOT isn’t doing enough to prove the projects are actually making roads safer. Not only is PBOT not do routine systematic evaluations of completed projects, the Auditor said, “We found confusion within the Bureau as to what constitutes a Vision Zero project.”
Here’s more from the report:
Without systemic evaluation of safety outcomes, the Bureau is missing the opportunity to create more alignment between the work they do on safety projects and the overall goal of Vision Zero. A more systematic approach would allow trends to be identified and analyzed to better understand the outcomes of completed projects, and which may need to be altered or dropped. As traffic deaths continue to increase it is vital that the Bureau consistently evaluate completed safety projects so they can see which are working best at shifting the trend towards the intended goal of zero traffic deaths and serious injuries.
Given how important equity has become as a “north star” for PBOT in recent years, the report’s advice on the subject is notable. The Auditor says PBOT’s current approach to making sure safety focuses on areas with a higher percentage of low-income people and Portlanders of color, puts too much emphasis on large-scale corridor projects. The report says PBOT should focus on a more micro level. This insight came from audit staff who joined a series of community walks in east Portland and learned:
There are many dynamics at play within the city that impact where people live, play and congregate, which present more opportunities for equitable safety improvements if other sources of data, such as community stories, are used. The current methodology for incorporating equity in its decision-making may prevent the Bureau from considering other opportunities to address safety needs equitably, such as smaller-scale improvements that may evolve out of these other sources.
The City Auditor made three recommendations for PBOT: create a plan that closely ties safety projects to expected outcomes; install all promised speed cameras; and make sure a revised Vision Zero approach zooms into “smaller-scale improvements” to address equity goals.
None of the findings will come as a surprise to PBOT staff or leadership. My hunch is many folks in the bureau are glad to have this audit as a way to get more attention on their work. It will be interesting to see how Vision Zero changes and how these audit recommendations are operationalized under the new government structure and their new boss, Deputy City Administrator of the Public Works Service Area Priya Dhanapal.
Detail of North Portland in Motion Plan showing narrowing of N Wall at Fessenden via curb extensions.
“This is a huge deal.”
– Mike Serritella, PBOT
The Portland Bureau of Transportation has scored another windfall from the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF). On Tuesday evening, at the monthly meeting of the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee, PBOT announced they’ve received a $5 million grant to implement bicycling and walking projects from the North Portland in Motion Plan.
“This is a huge deal,” said PBOT Senior Planner Mike Serritella, who leads the project.
PCEF is managed by the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS). It’s funded by revenue the city collects from large retailers (1% tax on corporations with $1 billion in national revenue and $500,000 in revenue in Portland) and is dedicated to “community-led projects that reduce carbon emissions, create economic opportunity, and help make our city more resilient as we face a changing climate.” The fund plans to award $750 million in grants over five years.
NPIM launched in 2021 and PBOT released a slate of recommended projects in May 2023. While the projects are very exciting, this is just a planning document that comes without any built-in funding commitment. PBOT has many plans like this on the shelf gathering dust, just waiting for the funding stars to align. Now they have.
Because PBOT is so accustomed to operating with limited resources, many of the projects recommended in NPIM are relatively inexpensive. “These are small-scale projects identified in the plan,” Serritella said at the meeting. “So that $5 million commitment gets us a huge way forward on the plan.”
Plan area.
In April, the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee BAC wrote a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler and the rest of city council that stated: “Adopting this plan is a critical part of ensuring a long overdue vision for safe mobility in the quadrant.”
The funding comes from PCEF’s Strategic Program 30: Active Transportation and Small Capital Projects and is part of a tranche of PCEF grants PBOT won earlier this year. The grant marks just the latest good news from PCEF when it comes to bicycling and transportation funding. In May 2024 the fund was a lifesaver for the PBOT budget when it injected $49 million to PBOT projects and programs. PCEF is funding a $20 million e-bike rebate program, and its community grants have injected millions into local transportation nonprofits.
I haven’t seen the application and it’s not clear to me yet which specific NPIM projects PBOT will build with this $5 million. But with Serritella and a solid crew at the helm, and with lots of momentum behind the projects in the plan, I have no doubt this amazing funding news will lead to key upgrades in north Portland in a short time-frame.
Some projects in the plan have already been built. And last night Serritella said, “We’ll continue to build more projects as soon as it stops raining.”
The NPIM plan is expected to be considered for official adoption by Portland City Council in December.
A street painting in east Portland has earned bragging rights as the largest in the city. In September, people who live in the Argay neighborhood partnered with the Portland Bureau of Transportation on a mural that spans 835 feet on Northeast 131st between NE Shaver and Prescott. The mural is 44 feet wide and a total of 36,000 square feet of painted pavement.
PBOT has granted permits for street paintings for many years and while research shows they have positive safety impacts, PBOT says much of that safety comes from the relationships people make with others in their community while coming together to make the projects happen.
The new mural on NE 131st emerged as a priority after the City planned to address speeding and other safety concerns on the street. In a survey of several dozen residents on the street 75% of them said the street is unsafe and 80% of respondents blamed speeding and aggressive driving as the main culprit. Gun violence has also plagued the area — much of it from people using cars to launch their attacks.
The concept for the mural design was created by local youth from Parkrose High School. The nonprofit Pathfinder Network helped connect PBOT to students impacted by gun violence and the City provided $10,000 for a nine-week training where the students helped design and build a traffic safety project. PBOT staff won a $25,000 Bloomberg Asphalt Art Initiative grant and worked with 200 volunteers to set the mural into motion. The design includes a river and natural landscape scene with clouds and butterflies. In addition to the painting, PBOT has installed a traffic circle and speed bumps.
“It’s pretty awesome to be part of something this big with a powerful meaning behind it,” said Mariah, one of the Parkrose HS students who worked on the project. “I’ve never done something this big before, let alone in a public space.”
In a recent email newsletter about their public plaza program, PBOT wrote, “The NE 131st Place mural not only adds beauty but reinforces the power of collaboration, local engagement, and youth leadership in addressing critical neighborhood concerns.”
Position: Lead Bicycle Mechanic
1 FTE: Tuesday-Saturday. Requires occasional evenings and Sundays
Reports To: p:ear Works Director & Shop Manager
Compensation: $50k (Fluency in Spanish – $55k): Benefits include 3 wks. paid vacation, health, dental, 2% Simple IRA match, short-term disability, 8 paid sick days
Bike Mechanic Job Description
As our lead bicycle mechanic, you are a dynamic individual who will help support our non-profit community bike shop and youth internship program in East Portland. bike works supports Portland’s Eastside communities, providing low cost, low barrier access to bike education, repair and sales of refurbished bicycles and parts.
Required Qualifications & Competencies
● Committed to personal growth with a high degree of humor + emotional intelligence
● Creative Visionary
● Must be a positive and strong role model, have a collaborative, team-oriented
work style, and strong strategic and problem-solving skills
● Must be committed to non-violence, trauma informed care compassionate
responses
● Must have awareness of one’s own identity, an understanding of differences,
and an excitement about building relationships cross-culturally
● Strong commitment to advancing equity and inclusion and creating and
maintaining a diverse environment
● Ability to learn and build on the varying cultural and community norms of p:ear youth and the p:ear donor community
● Self-initiating, independent and highly motivated
● Strong leadership skills and capacity to work in a deadline-oriented, chaotic
environment
● Willingness to take risks and seek innovative solutions
● BBI/UBI or similar certification or equivalent work experience
● Excellent customer service and communication skills
● Able to work independently, problem solve and complete tasks with minimal
oversight
● Must possess a valid driver’s license
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
● Exemplifies compassion and understanding around the barriers of homelessness and underrepresented populations in the community
● Maintain an organized and efficient work environment
● Proficiently execute assembly, repairs and maintenance for all types of
bicycles, particularly used and older bicycles
● Represent bike works and p:ear and its mission positively and professionally
● Identify barriers and recommend solutions to better serve the community
Mechanics
● Properly assess and determine bike repairs and recommend customer options
● Repair and refurbish bicycles to be sold in the shop, as well as to be donated
● Track parts used per repair/refurbishment
● Maintain a neat and organized workspace
● Maintain a high level of professionalism
● Perform quality control checks and 2nd checks on bikes built
Shop Operations
● Assist Shop Manager with a variety of tasks, including maintaining an inventory of new and used parts, placing orders with distributors as needed, maintaining shop tools and restocking as necessary
● Assist customers in the shop with purchases and bicycle repairs during sales
● Strong proficiency with bicycle tech
Community Programming Liaison
● Help maintain and support programs with community partners
● Build and sustain relationships with the East County community
● Represent p:ear and its mission positively and professionally
● Work on integrating and developing long term proposed strategies: community outreach, youth and adult classes and bicycle programs
● Participate in Sunday Parkways, Free Bikes 4 Kids, as well as the occasional Community bike ride events (Safe Routes to School, Oregon Walkways etc.)
p:ear Intern Support
● Develop healthy, mentoring relationships with youth interns
● Maintain appropriate boundaries
● Help youth set and achieve individualized professional development goals
Physical Demands
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; use hands to finger, handle or feel; and reach with hands and arms.
● Able to sit or stand and walk throughout the scheduled work shift
● Ability to lift and/or move up to 75 lbs
Travel
Some local travel expected for this position.
AAP/EEO Statement
It is the policy of p:ear to provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, genetic information, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, p:ear will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.
Other Duties
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.
How to Apply
Bike Works by p:ear promotes the bicycle as a vehicle for social change to leverage possible opportunities for homeless youth and build resilient and diverse communities. p:ear’s non-profit bike shop works to make bicycling accessible and affordable to Portland’s east side communities. Our full-service bike shop provides an array of services, from minor adjustments and tune-ups to full bike overhauls.
p:ear’s Bike Mechanic School serves as a conduit from which our shop’s intern mechanics became educated and trained in the art of bike mechanics. Under your guidance p:ear youth interns will continue to build their mechanical hard skills as well as develop the soft skills of customer service, time management, problem solving and independence to name a few.
Cover letters and resumes can be sent to: nathan@bikeworkspdx.org with “Bike Works Mechanic” in the subject line. This position will remain open until full. Email only, no phone calls please – phone calls will not be returned.
Are our streets more or less likely to look like this with our new city council? (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
With nearly all ballots processed, we can say with confidence who will sit in 11 of our 13 City of Portland positions next year. Local media outlets have called 10 of the 12 city council seats and the mayor’s office and the remaining two aren’t likely to change. So, how did cycling, walking, transit and transportation reform in general fare? Pretty good. While a few of the true bicycling believers didn’t get elected, there’s a solid majority of folks who “get it” when it comes to the need for making Portland a place where people drive less often. And maybe even one or two who might emerge as the next great champion for cycling.
And we’ll have a very diverse city council. Politically-speaking we’ll have a mix of five progressives, three centrists, and four moderates (give or take). But let’s start with Mayor-elect Keith Wilson.
You should have a good sense of where we stand with Mayor Keith Wilson based on my story last week. The only other thing I’ll add about him is this: Now that he’s got the power, will he follow-up on his promising background and actions on the campaign trail and become a strong champion for transportation reform? There’s a big gap between being a vocal supporter of something and actually helping move the needle once you get into office.
My questions right now are: Will Wilson spend real political capital to push cycling and discourage driving? Or will he become a “let’s make the system work for all modes” kind of guy and take the easy road of incrementalism for cycling, walking, and transit — while driving continues to dominate? How will he deal with the the significant block of voters who voted for candidates (Terrence Hayes and Noah Ernst in District 1) who ran on pro-driving messages? We’ll have to wait and see.
Let’s turn our attention to council districts.
District 1
Candace Avalos (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)Loretta Smith (Photo: Campaign Website)Jamie Dunphy (Photo: Campaign Website)
Winners: Candace Avalos, Loretta Smith, Jamie Dunphy* (*small chance that Noah Ernst or Terrence Hayes could take Dunphy spot)
Cycling advocates in Portland have long hoped to gain ground in the eastern part of our city. The story in District 1 is what could have been. I was very surprised that neither Steph Routh or Timur Ender earned a seat. Based on their personal and professional backgrounds, those two were among the top transportation reformers in the entire election. Despite that, and rather surprisingly in my opinion, neither candidate made transportation a key big of their platform or campaign conversations. Perhaps they felt bike lanes and road diets are too unpopular with many District 1 voters?
Thankfully, we still have a strong advocate in Candace Avalos, who won her race by a wide margin. Avalos made transportation one of the six pillars of her platform and she’ll be the standard-bearer for active transportation in District 1. She also had very strong answers to the BikeLoud PDX candidate questionnaire, calling for a protected bike lane network, expansion of Biketown, and bike purchase subsidies for people in need. Avalos is the only District 1 winner endorsed by Street Trust Action Fund. She owns an e-bike but doesn’t ride it much.
I was surprised to see Loretta Smith win, but her name recognition and firm public safety stance likely carried her through (as did supportive rankings from people who voted for other moderate candidates like Noah Ernst and Terrence Hayes). She’s also a known quantity with voters after having served seven years on Multnomah County Commission; but she had lost her last three races for local office and didn’t earn a single major media endorsement in this race. Smith doesn’t have a transportation background and it wasn’t part of her platform.
Jamie Dunphy could be a strong voice on transportation. His professional background is in government and nonprofit leadership and his passion lies with the local music scene. His first contact with BikePortland was in his role as an organizer of the lawsuit against Live Nation and their desire to build a venue in the Central Eastside. He was concerned the development might have a negative impact on nearby bike routes. That being said he doesn’t own a working bike at the moment and he’s not someone who bikes regularly. During the campaign he signed a pledge to support the Green New Deal and said he would not take money from police or fossil fuel organizations.
No one in this district rides a bike regularly and two candidates with strong support in the bike community fared very poorly in the vote count. Add in the fact that blatantly pro-driver candidates Noah Ernst and Terrence Hayes not only finished in front of Routh and Ender, they are close to taking Dunphy’s seat. Regardless of how that last spot shakes out, transportation advocates who want progress for cycling and transit in this district will need to remain on high alert.
District 2
Dan Ryan (Photo: Campaign Website)Sameer Kanal (Photo: Campaign Website)Elana Pirtle-Guiney (Photo: Campaign Website)
Winners: Dan Ryan, Sameer Kanal, Elana Pirtle-Guiney
The big shock in this district was that Nat West finished 5th, with only half the votes of the winners. Given the number of contributions he amassed, his business background and strong brand behind his name, I expected him to win one of the seats. Similar to the absence of Routh and Ender in District 1, West who would have been a loud voice for transportation reform and the community lost the possibility of a true cycling champion on council.
Thankfully, D2 still has a cycling and transportation majority. Sameer Kanal and Elana Pirtle-Guiney are both solid on the issues and were both endorsed by Street Trust Action Fund. Kanal and Pirtle-Guiney both included transportation in their platforms. Kanal called out Safe Routes to School in his voters pamphlet statement. Pirtle-Guiney could be the strongest cycling champion in D2. She’s a former daily bike commuter who biked during the campaign and has biked with her young child (now 8 years old).
Asked by BikeLoud what she would do to make Vision Zero succeed, Pirtle-Guiney said,
“We need to make a decision about whether we are a safe city for all modes of transportation, or a fast city to get through. Realistically, making streets safer for bike and pedestrian users means we have to slow cars down and make more spaces and more space (different things, and both important) for bike and pedestrian users. This will be inconvenient for a lot of people but we don’t get safer without it.”
I don’t think current City Commissioner Dan Ryan will oppose bike-related policies or projects, but he won’t be a shoo-in either. Ryan has spoken ill of the SE Division project because the center median and bike lanes make it hard for him to make u-turns while driving his car. He also campaigned with law-and-order moderates and is the most well-known councilor-elect who was endorsed by Rene Gonzalez. An interesting dynamic to watch with Ryan is how his relationship with Mayor-elect Keith Wilson will play out. Ryan might not have a majority behind his policy approaches on council, but he and Wilson have been friends for over 40 years and Wilson called him someone he trusts deeply in his acceptance speech last week.
District 3
Steve Novick (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)Angelita Morillo (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)Tiffany Koyama Lane (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Winners: Steve Novick, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo
This district, perhaps not surprisingly, elected the most progressive slate of candidates. They also happen to be the strongest trio when it comes to bicycling and transportation issues we tend to care about here on BikePortland.
You already know a lot about Steve Novick thanks to his former turn as city commissioner and I shared recently how he’s still thinking creatively about how to make streets work better for bike riders. He made transportation a part of his platform and approaches it from a climate change lens.
Tiffany Koyama Lane has commuted to school on a scooter, so she intimately understands what it’s like to be vulnerable on our streets. She also earned the Street Trust Action Fund endorsement and goes into detail about safe streets, vision zero, transit expansion and more on her campaign website.
Angelita Morillo bought and began riding a bike during her campaign (it had a flat last I heard, so I hope she’s fixed it!). I have no doubt she will be a strong voice for cycling and low-car life on council. She grew up without a car, is a daily bus rider, and she brought up transportation reform on the campaign trail many times.
Southeast Portland transportation needs are in very good hands with these three. I’ve also noticed that Koyama Lane and Morillo have become good friends and they have a nice rapport with Novick too. If this trio works together on transportation, and perhaps form a bloc that attracts four other councilors, amazing things could happen.
District 4
Olivia Clark (Photo: Campaign Website)Mitch Green (Photo: Campaign Website)Eric Zimmerman (Photo: Campaign Website)
Winners: Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, Eric Zimmerman (Eli Arnold)
Just like we expected D3 to be the most progressive, District 4 (West/Sellwood) ended up most moderate. It also has one of the strongest champions for cycling on council in Mitch Green. Green doesn’t bike exclusively, but hops on his RadPower e-bike about three times a week for commuting or errands. He’s also a frequent transit rider.
Green told the Bike Happy Hour crowd back in March that,
“If we want more folks in the city getting on their bicycles, we need to make serious capital investments to change the built environment. You have to feel safe on a bicycle. You can only do that by making investments from the budget, not just little nudges on the margins. You have to show up and make the expenditures. That’s something worth fighting for.”
We’ll see how much Green is willing to have that fight — and whether he can get others to support him — come January.
Clark and Green might see eye-to-eye on street policies. Like Green, Clark was endorsed by Street Trust Action Fund and she’s ridden bikes before (although not regularly like he does). I haven’t spoken to Clark yet, her platform didn’t include transportation, her answers to the BikeLoud PDX questionnaire were very short and superficial, and she hasn’t spoken to the media much so I don’t have much knowledge about her transportation views.
Zimmerman is a bit of a wild card to me. My hunch is that he’ll be great on transportation. Zimmerman has deep experience in local government and has gotten hard things done before (like setting up homeless shelters at the County and working on tough issues in Portland City Hall under Ted Wheeler). His website calls for more protected bike lanes. And instead of bashing PBOT or their projects, he offers constructive criticisms to make their approach work better on the ground like calling for more standardization of lane designs, more education for e-scooter users, and so on.
Overall
Portland’s council election gives progressives a lot to be excited about. There’s five that should be reliably progressive: Avalos, Kanal, Koyama Lane, Morillo, and Green. That leaves them in the minority and means they’ll have to find votes from centrists (Dunphy, Pirtle-Guiney, Novick) and moderates (Smith, Ryan, Clark, Zimmerman) to get anything done. The electorate and the candidates moved a few steps to the center from 2020, but not far enough to begin the Rene Gonzalez era that felt imminent months ago.
Green in D4 is the closest thing we’ve got to a councilor that will ride to work and be a true champion, but it’s not clear if he’ll want to assume that role. With West, Routh, and Ender not making it in, I don’t see anyone at this point who bike advocates can lean on as their councilor. But overall, I feel like the issues BikePortland cares about are in really good shape — especially if Steve Novick is elected council president (a real possibility in my opinion).
It’s also fun to note that we have a strong Bike Happy Hour majority in City Hall with 8 of the 13 elected officials (12 councilors and one mayor) having attended and/or spoken at one of our events: Kanal, Pirtle-Guiney, Novick, Koyama Lane, Morillo, Green, Zimmerman, and Mayor-elect Wilson!
How are you feeling about the new city council? I’d love to hear from you.
Comment of the Week: Winning over a palm tree skeptic