Last night I had a few minutes to kill on my way to an event, so I posted up on North Williams Avenue to observe some bike traffic (as one does).
If you’re new here (welcome!), People on Bikes is a portrait gallery series BikePortland launched in 2011. It’s basically a way to appreciate the beautiful diversity of cycling and develop a deeper understanding of bike culture in a specific location. In addition to busy bike corridors across Portland, we’ve shared galleries from New York City, Miami, Amsterdam, Colombia and Copenhagen.
You can take whatever you want from these images. I personally find it interesting to have a snapshot of what riders look like at a given time and place. As I browse the gallery, I look at the type of bikes folks are riding, how they’re riding, what type of gear and accessories they’re using, and what type of person is on the bike.
What do you see when you look at these photos? Are folks on e-bikes or fast road bikes? Flat bars or drop bars? Are they on a training ride or just getting home from work? Or both? Are they Black, white, brown, small, large, tall or short? How many women? Are most of the riders young or old? Do they use panniers or a backpack? Are their bikes expensive or cheap? Do they look happy, relaxed, or stressed? Are they wearing bike-specific clothing? Helmets?
The location is North Williams Avenue at Tillamook and I was there from about 5:50 to 6:10 last night. Keep in mind, this is a random sampling and I didn’t exercise any editorial judgment in which photos I selected. I tried to shoot every person that came by. If anyone didn’t make the gallery, it was because the image wasn’t good.
View all 32 images below (reminder that if you click the first image, you can use your arrow key to move through the gallery):
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— Browse more People on Bikes galleries here.
Thanks for reading.
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Nice assortment of bikes and people. A lot of nice steel semi custom and old school bikes.
If we are into the 3rd year of the E-bike revolution, it’s not happening…
A steady increase in disc-brake bikes from previous sessions.
BB: yes this sample only had 3 e-bikes (9%)..lower than I would have thought too for a commuter route.
If Jonathan had done a similar count in front of our family house (while we fed him wine, crackers and cheese) on the Columbia Street Bike Highway PBL (Vancouver)…ebikes would have been over 30% and up to 50% of all bikes.
This is on a commuter route to downtown. I know the route I follow, which is to my kid’s daycare, I pass a lot more parents hauling kids in electric cargo bikes. Because damn those kids get heavy.
Check NE Going Street or Alameda for examples. A lot of e-bikes there. Although maybe it’s selective memory, I dunno.
I’d estimate about 50% of commuters going up the Greeley hill /adidas bikeway are e-bike riders
Great mix of bikes and set-ups. I really enjoy looking at the different combos of paniers / backpacks, frame bags, handlebar bags, etc. Also of note was a DIY(??) electric bike (#22) ala the battery mounted on a peugeot – tho maybe that’s a model I’ve just never seen.
That is definitely a retrofit. Classic.
Nice drum brakes, too. Helps if you’re getting that E-power and need disc braking-power/more brakes in wet weather, but just have rim brakes as an option.
Do folks know the seat height is adjustable on most bikes?
From my brief time working in bicycle retail, I was surprised at the amount of customers who were more concerned with their feet being able to be flat on the ground while seated (and not moving) than they were with accurate seat height while pedaling.
As a Cyclist (TM), my experience has been that there is a ton of stuff you never learn unless you’re specifically seeking it out, and it’s really hard to even know what to seek out. I didn’t get a bike fit until recently (late 30s) and until then, the only wisdom I knew about bike fit was to put the seat height so that my legs mostly extend if I have my heel on the pedal. And I only ever heard that when buying a bike, from REI, so if you didn’t do that you’d just guess on your own.
Fun gallery. Lots of really cool bikes in there. Gotta say, I’m surprised by the number of single speeds I see! I am heavily dependent on gears for any incline.
I only see 3, one of which is an ebike conversion. I suppose it’s subjective but 2or 3 out of 32 doesn’t seem like that many. Used to see a lot more fixed gears when that was a trend.
The Dutch style bikes almost certainly have internally geared hubs.
Ah, ok, the internal hubs make sense. I was thinking those were single speeds.
Still don’t get people who ride single speeds around Portland lol.
Some people enjoy the control and skill that it takes to ride single-speed bike well.
Still don’t get people who judge what or how other people ride.
Lack of helmets for sure.
KC: Yes some adults ride without helmets in Portland. (Its not the law in Oregon like the requirement in Vancouver WA…which is NOW the largest city in the state of Washington with such a law now, since Seattle, Spokane & Tacoma cancelled their adult helmet laws.)
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2023/nov/06/shawn-vestal-spokane-city-council-quietly-repealed/
https://downtownonthego.com/about/no-helmet-requirements
If one treats these photos as an informal ‘statistical sample’: then 27 of 33 riders (82%) were using helmets. This is pretty typical % in past Portland research (my memory) and much better than most cities.
27 of the 33 riders have helmets
It’s still, as I remember someone saying about the Williams bike lane a few years ago, a sausage fest, a.k.a. 25% female-presenting riders, a bit less than the ~29% for N. Portland in last year’s bike counts. Not a ton of racial or age diversity either. Still work for us all to do!
Yes, but we need safer streets for that to happen. Every study on what prevents females from riding says safety is the biggest factor.
Re: race – At the end of the day, the truth is there is not a lot of racial diversity in Portland, so that plays a big factor in the makeup of ridership.
Go to rides in Los Angeles or the Bay Area and you will see a much more diverse crowd. It has to do with the demographics of the city and that racial demographic needs to usually have a critical mass of representation to truly feel comfortable to come out in any real numbers.
The design of the lane itself might have something to do with it. Every block the bike lane turns into a “Sharrow in a turn lane” situation, putting you in direct conflict with drivers. I can see how it would discourage people who would be more likely to be abused by drivers to avoid using it in favor of Rodney.
News Flash!: There are still cyclists rinding on North Williams?! 😉
On thing that surprised me was not seeing at least 1 Portland BikeTown bike in the sample of photos. I would have thought 20% of the bikes might have been bikeshare in this neighborhood.
In my anecdotal experience – and when I use bikeshare myself – people on Nike bikes tend to stick to greenways. Either that, or they’re riding on the sidewalks of whatever arterials they drive on to get around.
This is an interesting observation. I’d love to see some analysis to see if the anecdote holds up. If there are significant differences in route choice between bikeshare users vs people predominantly riding their own bikes, that could be a really useful data point for looking at gaps in our infrastructure.
I remember BP posting the Biketown heat map in the past. Could be interesting to see how that compares with Strava or RideWithGPS heatmaps.
Now that I’m thinking about it, it could also be cool to see if Strava or RideWithGPS can separate ebike heatmaps from their traditional heatmap. I’d be interested to see if there are any significant differences in route choice depending on whether riders have an electric assist (apologies if this has already been done).
I wish people on bikes was more of a regular feature….
I wanna know what percentage of people knew they were being photographed but didn’t wave. #18 seemed like one, and I guess #17 and #23 had to look away since they are probably famous.
I was surprised to see only 4 people wearing gloves. After falling at a slow speed and getting a nice 1″ x 1″ square of road burn on my palm (and then having to go to work & struggle to lift things while it healed for the next few weeks) I never ride without gloves on.
Another anecdote: In 40+ years of year-round transportation cycling, I’ve never fallen at slow speed.
PS: I’ve crashed many dozens of times at high, even reckless, speeds but that’s a different thing altogether.