Month: March 2024

Video: Bike parking policy update with Chris Smith

Few people in Portland know more about our city’s bicycle parking policy than Chris Smith. During my chat with him yesterday he shared a history of the issue and we talked about recent efforts by the City of Portland and State of Oregon to roll back code requirements that encourage more bicycle parking. You can watch our conversation above (along with helpful graphics spliced-in along the way), or find it wherever you get your podcasts.

Smith is the consummate transportation reform activist who’s been involved with numerous efforts and projects over the years. I first knew him as creator of the excellent blog Portland Transport (first mentioned on BikePortland in 2005!) which still serves our community as a repository of KBOO Bike Show episodes. He’s also the inventor of the “Transit Appliance” — a wonderful device that posts transit arrival times and can be found at bus and MAX stations citywide. Smith has also been a candidate for Portland City Council and Metro Council. Smith has fought freeway expansions for nearly two decades and was a major voice against the Columbia River Crossing project and a co-founder of the group No More Freeways. And those are just some of his bona fides!

Smith was pulled into bicycle parking specifically for his expertise in how bikes mix with transit gleaned from his long-time position on the board (and as vice-chair) of Portland Streetcar Inc. (the private nonprofit contracted by the City of Portland to help plan and manage the streetcar). After the City’s Bicycle Plan for 2030 passed in 2010 and ridership skyrocketed, Smith was tapped to help update the code so that the hordes of local riders would have a proper place to park their bikes. BikePortland worked with Smith to host two events (one in 2013 and another in 2018) to garner input on the bike parking code and that effort led to a major update that passed Portland City Council in 2019.

Then Portland lost its bicycling mojo, the housing shortage became a crisis, and the politics shifted. As we reported here in detail over the past year or so, Portland’s vaunted bike parking code was put on the chopping block by Bureau of Planning & Sustainability Commissioner Carmen Rubio as part of a “housing regulatory reform” package. In my conversation with Smith, you’ll hear how and why this all went down, as well as the lessons he’s learned along the way.

We also talk about Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s big housing bill passed just this week by the Oregon Legislature. One of them, Senate Bill 1537, included a relatively unknown provision that gives cities the ability to adjust their bike parking requirements to spur housing production.

Below are a few highlights from our conversation (which you can also listen to via our podcast in the player below):

Jonathan Maus:

“It also is worth saying that there was some really valid criticism [of our bike parking code]. You and I are working in the policy realm talking about words in a code. But people implementing this stuff down at the design review office or the permit office, they actually have people telling them what they can and can’t build and I think maybe one of the lessons here is this stuff can get pretty complicated and very troublesome. And we had somebody on the board of The Street Trust who was one of the biggest critics of the bike parking requirements. And I think probably had something to do with swaying the adoption at Planning Commission of rolling them back.”

Chris Smith:

“Right. It got really interesting politically for me because I had two groups that I consider myself a member of, the bicycle community and the pro-housing community…I’m a member of Portland Neighbors Welcome and I’m a member of BikeLoud PDX, who said, ‘What? You’re going to take away our parking? Come on!’ So I actually spent some energy trying to make sure those two groups didn’t go at each other’s throats”

Chris Smith:

“The [required bike parking] ratios got tweaked down. So instead of 1.5 and 1.1 [per dwelling unit], they go to 1.0 and 0.7 in the outer pattern areas. And that’s in effect for five years. So it’s not forever. And to my mind, that kind of makes sense in terms of balancing economics.

But the alcove standard [something Smith fought for in the bike parking code update to encourage higher-quality, in-unit bike storage] went away permanently, and I think that’s going to be a problem because if, if half the parking we build is ineffective in-unit parking, the it’s more like we have 0.5 left. Right? The other thing that was taken away was a standard we put in that a small percentage in large buildings had to be larger cargo bike spaces… So for five years [Portland is no longer] requiring building spaces for cargo bikes. And I think we got to have a public policy discussion about where those go.”

Jonathan Maus:

“I think the production of housing absolutely trumps in many ways, the ability to bike to that housing. But I wonder if you have any thoughts about that? Is it a choice between housing production or bike parking, and how can we avoid that going forward?”

Chris Smith:

“I think maybe one lesson I’ve learned is that 2019 package [of bike parking code updates] was kind of a gold-plated package. It was our first shot since the 1990s [to update the code] and we went for it; and we were successful in landing it. And maybe we overreached a little bit and I think we have room to go back and tweak that a little bit with some of the bike room standards and whatnot.

But, maybe we overshot a bit — it’s still the case that our Comprehensive Plan calls for us to have a 25 percent bicycle mode share by 2030. And the fact that we are not getting that mode share has some pretty devastating consequences in terms of traffic congestion in the city. Right? And if we don’t get there, eventually, we have to spend a lot more money on roads that we don’t have.”

Jonathan Maus:

“Do you have any faith there’ll be an opportunity to bring up bike parking [code revisions] sooner than later [the five-year sunset council passed]? Especially with the whole entire council change that’s going to happen in Portland with a bunch of new councilors and maybe more people who could spend some time on the policy side of this?”

Chris Smith:

“I hope. And I’ll be advocating for addressing some of the standards issues before that like the in-unit parking standard and what do we do about cargo bikes question. I’m a little bit dubious that we can revisit the [required bike parking per unit] ratios before the five years just because of the real impact and housing economics. I wish I could believe we’d be out of the housing crisis in five years. Given how many units we’re down compared to where we need to be – I don’t know that. So I’m much more focused on the standards and making sure that what we build is effective.”

And there was one question Smith wanted to make sure I posed to you. Please read it below and share your response so he can accurately represent our needs in his advocacy…

Chris Smith:

“I’m still fascinated by the bike room versus the in-unit question: Who wants to store their bike in their apartment versus in a bike room and why? Because to me, it seems like the vast majority of people, at least cycling for transportation, would want to be in a bike room. If you have a $10,000 racing bike, sure you might want to put that next to your bed. I can understand that. But for folks who are cycling for transportation, what do people really think about that?”

You can watch our full conversation along with helpful graphics by watching the video above, or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Weekend Event Guide: Singing, bikepacking, art of Foster, and more

Bikepacking curious? (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Here are some fun things to do for bike lovers this weekend…

Friday, March 8th

Singing Through the Gorge – 12:00 noon at Ankeny Rainbow Road Plaza (SE)
Join Bike Happy Hour regular and musician Steve “Chezz” Cheseborough on a ride to the Gorge to attend the annual retreat of the Portland Folkmusic Society. (More info here)

Art of Foster Ride – 2:00 pm at Portland Mercado (SE)
Local filmmaker Amit Zinman is making videos of Portland’s classic loop rides and wants you to help make his scenes more beautiful. This is the first in a series so stay tuned for future versions. (More info here)

Midnight Mystery Ride – 11:45 pm at Apex (SE)
Should be a clear and brisk night — perfect for riding to a mystery spot with friends old and new. (More info here)

Saturday, March 9th

Hike to the Willamette River – 9:00 am at Ida B Wells H.S. (SW)
Join nonprofit SW Trails for a spirited walk/hike from Hillsdale down to the river where explorations of newly opened trail along the water could be in the cards. (More info here)

Milwaukie to Oregon City Ride – 10:00 am at Milwaukie Station Food Cart Pod
Get to know the Trolley Trail on this ride led by WeBike, whose events are for, “Women, trans, and non-binary folks, which includes, but is not limited to: trans men, trans women, cis women, agender, gender queer, gender fluid, gender nonconforming and Two Spirit people. (More info here)

Sunday, March 10th

Overlook Neighborhood Ride – 9:30 am at Stacks Coffeehouse (N)
Come together with neighbors to explore the ‘hood of Overlook and its myriad charms and you imbibe and treat yourself to yummy drinks and treats from a great local coffee place. (More info here)

Rocky Point Hill Ride – 10:00 am in North Plains (Wash Co)
Get into some punchy climbs as you explore beautiful farm roads above Highway 26 in Washington County with the always organized Portland Bicycle Club. (More info here)

Bikepacking Meet N Greet – 3:00 pm at Lords Luggage (SE)
If you have plans to head out into the wilds on your bike this year and want to get your questions about logistics and gear answered by nice folks with loads of experience, roll over to this event. (More info here)

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

Let’s talk about running on neighborhood greenways

(Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

A few days ago a reader emailed to share that a person riding a bike shouted at them for running on Southeast Clinton Street. “I was yelled at by a cyclist to run on the sidewalk,” the person (who also rides bikes) shared. “I responded that no, I would not run on the sidewalk because it was a neighborhood greenway.” After this random argument with a stranger, the person got home and took stock: “Was I the a**hole here?” she asked me. “Is it legal to run in the road on a neighborhood greenway?”

I figured it’d be a great question for the Ask BikePortland column. But as I got the post together, I realized I’d actually already answered that exact question in 2012 (there are 17,882 posts on here, so yes, I will often forget what I’ve already written!). But what I didn’t have in 2012 was the ability to make a video and share it on social media. So I made a video instead and shared it on Instagram and TikTok this morning. Watch it below:

So what’s the answer? Turns out Oregon law (ORS 814.070) says if you are a “pedestrian” (or runner) you must use the sidewalk if one is available. And if there’s no sidewalk, you must stay as far to the right “as practicable.” Since SE Clinton has a sidewalk, technically the cyclist in the above situation was right. It’s similar to the mandatory bike lane law some of you might be familiar with — and just like how activists are working to erase that law, I’d love to see an effort to change this one so that pedestrians could have a bit more legal right to be on the road.

After all, sidewalks (similar to bike lanes) are often obstructed and unfit for running, and riding right next to parked cars is stressful and dangerous. Not only that, but as I point out in the video, City of Portland policy is to create greenways so they prioritize not just cyclists, but everyone who isn’t inside a car.

You might hear all this and think, “Who cares what the law says, streets are for people and cyclists should just be nice to each other and chill out!” and I’d agree with you to a certain degree. But keep in mind that if a collision were to happen, what the law actually states is very important. Once a case gets to court, or an insurance adjuster’s desk, or a cop’s report, what it says in the ORS will determine who is at fault and who bears responsibility for any damages.

Got a question? Ask us! If I can’t answer it myself, I know someone who can.

ODOT will build protected intersection to boost bicycling safety in West Linn

ODOT concept drawing of the new intersection.

West Linn, a city about 12 miles south of Portland, will be one of the first places in the state where the Oregon Department of Transportation builds a protected intersection. Protected intersections are considered the gold standard of protection for bicycle riders and walkers because they come with raised corner curb islands, physical separation from other road users, better visibility at crossings, and other safety elements.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is in the final design stage of a protected intersection on Willamette Drive (OR 43) at Marylhurst Drive/Lazy River Dr. The $7 million project is part of a larger streetscape project that includes a continuous cycle track and other safety updates on Willamette Drive between Mary S. Young park and the city’s northern limit near Marylhurst University.

Here’s more about the project from a recent ODOT update:

Protected intersection designs are intended to extend the safe environment for bicyclists and pedestrians through use of raised corner islands, forward stop bars for bicyclists, and well defined marked crossings. These defenses make it clear to all users where bicyclists are, provide physical protection in the queuing area, and further increase bicyclist visibility by allowing them early entry into the intersection ahead of right turning vehicles.

Existing conditions
Protected intersection on SE 162nd and Division.

ODOT also says the project will reduce crossing distances and come with updated signal operations to reduce conflicts.

The protected intersection concept made a big splash in local planning and engineering circles when it was proposed by Portland-based planner Nick Falbo in 2014. Falbo was inspired by Dutch examples and he’s largely credited with pushing the concept into the mainstream in America. Falbo went on to work at the Portland Bureau of Transportation and has recently left that job for a private company (he’s based locally still, but the company he works with is based in The Netherlands). You can learn more about the design at Falbo’s website, protectedintersection.com.

There are a few examples of protected intersections in Portland. West Burnside at 19th is a partial one and TriMet installed a few on SE Division as part of the FX2 project.

The West Linn project is expected to break ground in early 2025. Learn more on ODOT’s website.

Bike path among newly released visuals of Interstate Bridge megaproject

New visualization released yesterday.

The folks working on a new Interstate Bridge and expansion of I-5 between Portland and Vancouver released new visualizations yesterday, including our best view yet of the potential new bike path.

The new drawings were released at a meeting of the Executive Steering Group, one of several committees formed to garner feedback on the (estimated) $6-7.5 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement Program. The ESG is made up of agency leaders and elected officials from Portland and southwest Washington. ESG members have already adopted a set of desired outcomes for the future bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Among them are that the new bikeway must “feel safe” and be “separated from moving vehicles” and that the path environment is “visible and connected.” They’ve also expressed a desire for bikeways to be “high quality,” “convenient,” and to “connect to important destinations.”

The ESG and IBRP team are currently finalizing their Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (Draft SEIS), which is due out later this spring.

IBRP Administrator Greg Johnson presented the visualizations at the meeting (where he also said they’re working on new videos that will explain how bicycle riders and walkers will make their way through the corridor). Johnson stressed that the drawings shown yesterday are not final and are, “Not for decision-making or narrowing options.”  “These are just to give perspective on the size of the bridge as related to, if you’re standing on the ground on Hayden Island or on the Vancouver Waterfront.”

The IBRP released 12 visuals in total — three for each possible bridge option currently being analyzed in the Draft SEIS: single level, movable span, and double-level. 

As he shared the slides, Johnson acknowledged, “This [bridge] is going to be a bigger bridge than currently exists.” “And this will have impacts on Hayden Island, but we think there will also be very positive impacts by reconnecting the island and providing access from Tomahawk Drive from east to west and by making a walkable community on Hayden Island.”

For the visual of the bike path specifically, Johnson said, “We haven’t determined the full width of what what this active transportation pathway would look like.”

See all the drawings below:

Hayden Island West Side

Hayden Island East Side

Vancouver Waterfront West Side

Vancouver Waterfront East Side

Note the spiral bike path in these drawings. The ramp to connect to the bridge for non-drivers will be very long and circuitous because it must reach a height of 116-feet and have a maximum slope of 4.5%.

While it’s interesting to see more details about what the future bridge might look like, I can’t help but wonder why none of the new visualizations offer us a look at any of the seven new interchanges or new frontage roads, or a detailed view of what it will look like to drive on the five miles of wider freeways. The team of PR consultants and agency leaders behind this megaproject, which has $1 billion commitments from Oregon and Washington and recently won a $600 million grant from the US Department of Transportation, have a long record of hiding the true nature and scope of this project. Almost all the IBRP public communications focus on “bridge replacement” when the fact is only about $500 million of the project’s $6 to $7.5 billion estimated cost will be for the bridge.

The less popular and more controversial aspects of this project like the additional freeway lanes and interchange ramps that will incentivize single-occupancy car use, lower the quality-of-life for everyone in the region, and were recently called out as being indicative of a “climate time bomb” by advocacy group Transportation For America, are rarely shown.

In a public comment period at the end of the meeting, persistent IBRP critic and retired infrastructure expert Bob Ortblad had a warning for ESG members. “This group should remember the history of the Embarcadero Freeway and the Alaskan Way Viaduct and how they despoiled their waterfront. Imagine if both of those were build side-by-side, they would equal the width of each of the two IBR bridge approaches on Vancouver and Hayden Island.

If these approaches are built, our children will tear them down.”

Join me March 19th for a ‘Policy Talks’ panel on safe streets

Flyer by Portland for All

Hope everyone’s having a good Tuesday and enjoying a bit of sunshine and dry skies. This is just a quick post to share a thing I’m doing on March 19th with some great folks on an important topic. I’ll be on a three-person “Policy Talks” panel hosted by local nonprofit Portland for All. The title of the panel is, “Creating streets safe in every community.”

Portland for All is an all-volunteer group that is organizing around ideas. Their website says they were, “born out of conversations folks were having with friends and neighbors concerned about the challenges facing our City, and all of the negative rhetoric about this place we call home,” and that they believe, “there is a hopeful, positive, and inclusive future that’s possible for our City.” This is the third event in their Policy Talks series. The first two were about public safety and homelessness.

Joining me on the 19th at this virtual event will be two folks you’ve read about a lot on BikePortland over the years: former Oregon Walks executive director and current Metro Councilor Ashton Simpson, and veteran community advocate and current Portland City Council (D1) candidate Steph Routh. It just so happens I’ve already had both Ashton and Steph on our podcast. I spoke with Ashton in March 2022 during his run for Metro Council and I shared an interview with Steph from Bike Happy Hour back in November.

To give you a sense of the focus of our upcoming panel, here’s the blurb from Portland for All:

Portland is known as a city with great transit, cycling, and walking – yet not every community has safe access to all these choices. Many people across the region do not own a car and rely on transit, biking, and walking to get around. Despite our reputation, our streets have become increasingly unsafe – we’ve seen record traffic deaths in recent years. These changes have occurred under new City Council leadership and as budget deficits have emerged with fewer people commuting to work generating lower gas taxes. In this webinar, we will focus on why traffic deaths have increased, and what steps we need to take to make our city streets safe for everyone.

The questions we’ll grapple with include what we see as the key problem Portland faces in our efforts to stem traffic crashes, how to get at the root of the problem, what it will take to get folks to stop driving so dang much, and how to talk about all this stuff without fighting with folks who see things differently.

It should be a spirited chat and I’m really looking forward to it. You can RSVP here and find info on past Policy Talks here.

Closer look at new carfree path through Rose City Golf Course

A runner takes advantage of the new path. View is looking north onto NE 72nd Drive from NE Tillamook. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
PBOT graphic.

After its first iteration was destroyed by driving advocates, the newly hardened carfree path through Rose City Golf Course (built as a key section of the 70s Neighborhood Greenway project) has survived for a few weeks. Given that it’s now made of concrete poured onto the ground and in the form of multi-ton barriers, it would take a mighty effort to remove it.

I took a closer look at the project yesterday and experienced the anger some folks in the neighborhood feel about the project first-hand.

While I was standing in the golf course parking lot taking video and photos, a full-sized Chevy pickup rumbled toward me (you can see the truck in a photo in the gallery below). I ignored it at first, then a window came down and I heard yelling in my direction. I bent over and peered into the rolled-down passenger-side window to pay attention to what an older mas was saying to me. I felt his anger and hatred immediately — even though we exchanged no small talk. He didn’t ask me any questions or try to understand what I was doing out there. He just went right into tirade-mode: “You have nothing better to do with your time than film people going up this hill?!! You’re a bike Nazi! I bet you got beat up in high school!” It was all so random and strange, yet I understood exactly what was going on (I’m well-aware how our society has become tremendously tribalist and divided). I actually felt bad for the guy. I barely replied. Just looked at him with a shocked face. “I’m just documenting the infrastructure!” I replied. “The infrastructure? Yeah it’s really messing things up for everyone who lives up on the hill! I’m glad you got beat up in high school! You bike Nazi!!”

Looking northeast from golf course parking lot. I didn’t realize it at the time, but inside that truck is the dude who yelled at me.

This man — who’s probably someone’s loving grandpa, friend, and well-loved community member in other circles; yet has nothing but blind hate for a middle-aged stranger in a puffy jacket standing in a parking lot doing his job (note that I didn’t film at all) — then sped away, squealing his back tires and recklessly exiting the parking lot of the Rose City Golf Course.

This is now the city we live in. Where PBOT does a project to establish a safe street that requires drivers to alter their routes and some people get so mad they destroy the infrastructure, scrawl “F*** PBOT” graffiti nearby, and then verbally assault someone they don’t know. Sigh. And no, I didn’t get it on video because it could have escalated the situation and I didn’t want the man to feel antagonized. As it was, if he ever reflects back on that moment, I hope he recalls that I was absolutely shocked at his behavior and that I was calm and nice to him in response.

OK, back to the project…

Looking south toward NE Tillamook.
Looking west into golf course parking lot.
Looking north toward NE Sacramento.
Looking north toward NE Sacramento.
Looking south toward NE Tillamook.
Looking north. Note two marks where old sign was once installed.
Looking east from golf course parking lot.
Looking east from parking lot.
People drive through this median to go northbound.
Rider using the new path.
Looking northeast from parking lot.
Looking north from Tillamook.

As I shared last month, the new installation includes three Jersey barriers: one to block drivers from exiting the golf course parking lot, and two to block drivers from going north on NE 72nd Drive from NE Tillamook. There are also four long sections of low-profile concrete curbs and two speed bumps. Unfortunately, because it’s still physically and geometrically possible for a driver to fit their car into the northbound lane, many people still drive north (see video below). It’s truly astounding how otherwise upstanding people will choose to blatantly disregard laws meant to protect people just for their convenience. We should never normalize that!

I was only there for a few minutes and saw one driver exit the golf course parking lot through the enter-only lane, then drive north — in the wrong way in the southbound lane (video below). I also talked to a bike rider who said he uses this stretch of 72nd Drive often and says drivers still drive north. I also noticed deep tire tracks in a planted median that separates the parking lot from NE 72nd Drive. It’s clear people are driving northbound from the lot, then crossing over a gap in the concrete curbs as soon as possible. It appears that the Portland Bureau of Transportation will have to install a continuous barrier along the entire easternmost lane of NE 72nd through the golf course if we want to keep drivers out of the carfree path.

This driver is disobeying signage and barricades to drive the wrong way through Rose City Golf Course.

There is also standard and ample signage that makes it clear no turns are allowed onto the northbound lane that the lane is closed to drivers, and so on. But alas, like many other locations throughout Portland, the only way to stop some drivers from breaking the law is to make it geometrically impossible and/or to have a conspicuous law enforcement presence 24/7. It’s pretty sad that so many drivers behave like entitled little toddlers and we have to essentially baby-proof our infrastructure to make sure they don’t hurt themselves or others. Grow up people! Life in a city requires you to defer your selfishness and sense of entitlement to others so that we can all exist safely.

I didn’t want to make this an op-ed, but folks leave me no choice. Back to the project itself…

The good news is that the current design is a huge step above what was there initially. I saw many people out walking and jogging, and it was a dreary, cold, drizzly night. When the sun comes out, this new path will be poppin’! I hope we don’t have to rely on human traffic to reinforce the rules for drivers and that either PBOT returns to make it even more robust and/or these miscreant drivers exchange their pettiness for precaution and find a different way around.

Maybe we should plan some events to activate the new path even more. Let’s set up a temporary mini-golf course in the street!

Have you used this yet by bike, on foot, or in your car? Let us know how it’s working — or not — for you.

Video below posted to our Instagram today:

Friend of ‘Dino’ shares what happened before he was run down by a driver

The homeless camp on SE Belmont where Bentley was hit. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

A friend of David “Dino” Bentley, the man killed in a violent vehicular rampage on Southeast Belmont Street on February 25th, says the incident was the result of a disagreement between the driver and people who lived at a street encampment. According to a BikePortland commenter who says they once lived at the camp where Bentley was killed, the driver, 22-year-old Shane McKeever, wanted fentanyl and became aggressive when he couldn’t get it.

Someone named Belynda Wagner wrote a comment on our story about the crash Monday night sharing details of what she believes happened in those early hours of Sunday morning prior to McKeever running down Bentley and driving his car into the well-established encampment on SE Belmont between Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Grand Ave.

Wagner’s comment is a window into what might have happened that morning, the brutal nature of street life, and Portland’s ongoing struggle to take care of people who live here.

Read her comment below (edited for clarity):

“It would have happened no matter what. That boy wasn’t out to kill David. He was after my son “Grumpy.” The kid [driver] is a psychopath. I myself have camped in the same place. In fact it was me that moved the fence back to make a community dog space that was safe. Or safer… No matter where we go, people take our belongings, shoot at our camps, pick fights with us when they’re drunk or high, burn down our camps and our tents, hook our tents up to the back of pick-up trucks and drag them….you name it. I got hit by a car on the job as a flagger. It ruined my life. I don’t make enough money now to rent a tea cup. Let alone a house or apartment. And I’m native to portland. Born at ohsu in 1980 at 11:59 pm on April the 16. I’ve lived here my whole life.

David (red shirt) in an undated family photo. (Courtesy Let Me Go On / Facebook)

I’ve seen this big city turn into a big city. It used to be just a small town in the middle of no place special. It was once a place you could leave your cars unlocked, your house open, let your kids run free, and it was so safe. I miss Portland as it used to be. Listen folks. You can all sit here and call it a “homeless problem” or whatever. But the truth of the matter is that it’s a mental health problem. Yes the boy [the driver/suspect] was there 10 mins before he got in that stolen car and ran over David. He was there fist-fighting in the street. Hand-to-hand combat with my son [not by blood, Wagner calls herself a “street mom”] . The boy was there trying to score some fentanyl. Wrong camp everyone there told him. ‘We won’t help you kill yourself,’ is what he heard. No one here does that crap nor will anyone here help you acquire it. We are 100% against it. The boy didn’t like that response. He wanted to get verbally disrespectful. He was asked to leave. He refused and pulled a knife on my son. My son responded by grabbing a bigger knife and said ‘Okay, if that’s how you want to play.’ The boy said, ‘no.’ And then threatened to run everyone at the camp over.

At that point David wasn’t even there. The kid left. About 1-2 mins after, the kids walks westbound on Belmont, and David had rolled up on his bike. [David] said both his backpacks and longboard had been stolen, so to keep eyes open. About a minute and-a-half after stopping, David was struck from behind.

That boy needs some serious help. It’s not a dangerous road problem, it’s not a homelessness problem, that little boy is just friggin’ mentally not okay. Not on any level. This is a mentally sick and drug-addicted child. The kid shouldn’t even be in jail. That boy needs the state mental hospital and a straight jacket.. and a whole lot of mommy hugs. That boy was fucked up early on in life. An unfit parent hurt that child and now he sits alone in county jail. Where he will unfortunately not make it out of alive… He’s marked.

The boy still needs mental help. He made a 180-degree turn and went back to run over the other people. Because it was meant to kill my son not my brother. Yes, shots were fired… 5 at the windshield. He wasn’t hit nor did anyone else die. But he did get the picture once those shots were fired. Otherwise I don’t think he would have stopped until he had killed everyone there. Those warning shots stopped that car, and he got out and ran in fear for his life. Those shots stopped 4 more people, innocent people as well, from dying. And all of this was due to that kid wanting a drug no one had or was willing to help him obtain because they do care.

Let’s keep that in mind folks. Not all of us homeless people are bad. Most of us are not. Most of us are just like the rest of the community. Normal. Just normal without enough income to be normal inside. Let’s get this boy some help.

David just rolled up this time at the wrong time. And it all happened so fast in such a short window of time there wasn’t even anyway of knowing that he intended on making good on his threat.

Leave the camp alone. Leave the road alone. Stop putting it on being a homelessness problem.

Face the facts that are in your faces: Decriminalization of drugs was stupid. This is the unfortunate results of idiots in an office not thinking clearly and creating a country-wide disaster. Portland voters are ultimately responsible for this shit in the end. But just continue to turn a blind cheek to the harsh reality and truth. Keep on voting without thinking. Clearly it’s working wonders.”

An obituary for Bentley posted to Facebook yesterday said he, “loved life and lived it vibrantly, leaving a mark on everyone he met,” and that, “he lived his life to the fullest, never losing his unique spirit. His departure has left an empty space in many hearts, and he will be profoundly missed.”

A memorial ride for Bentley will take place on Saturday, March 30th at 1:00. Meet at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. The ride will cross the river and end with a vigil where Bentley last lived and BikeLoud PDX will help his friends and family install a ghost bike.

Podcast: In the Shed with housing researcher Michael Andersen

Michael and I outside the Shed.

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 comment, 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.

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