What an amazing way to launch Bike Summer 2025! Thousands met up at Peninsula Park in north Portland for the 23rd annual event that includes three months of free, fun bike rides.
I’ll have a recap video and more thoughts Monday, but here’s the photo gallery. Sorry couldn’t snap everyone! Y’all looked amazing out there. Big thanks to Pedalpalooza organizers and Cycle Homies and all the volunteers who made this day so memorable!
Thanks for reading.
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Here is where Bike Summer rides are listed:
Shift2Bikes.org
The crowd seemed bigger this year (than last). It was a beautiful day and this was such a a good way to spend it.
It always gets me inspired to come up with better decorations for my bike.
Honest observation: I assume a lot of Bike Portlanders get angry when the “street takeover” people block roads with with their cars. To them it’s just harmless fun.
So tell me how blocking streets for “bike fun” is fundamentally different?
Hi Colin,
It’s funny you mention this. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’ve previously drawn parallels between street takeovers and mass bike rides like this. I’ve shared the opinion that street takeovers should be respected in some ways like some of our bike cultural stuff because it’s an important social outlet and community for a lot of people. But my comments were in the context of concerns around how police respond to them.
To be clear, the fundamental difference is that those street takeovers are inherently dangerous and their participants are using large, steel vehicles with powerful motors that can easily — and often do — hurt and killed people. In the 23 years of Pedalpalooza rides, I’m not aware of anyone’s bicycle inflicting that kind of harm on another person. And of course there’s the environmental impacts, which are really terrible with takeovers, but are actually beneficial with bike rides.
These rides are more akin to a large parade than a street takeover. Innocent, fun, community-building, great for the planet, welcome to all ages and abilities — and a bit frustrating for drivers who have to detour around them.
What would be more interesting to me is finding out the ratio of people who are driving to the event then unloading their bike versus those biking from home to the event site, doing the ride, then heading home on their bikes. Out here in NC we have to design every event with lots of free car parking or else we’ll get hardly any participants, whereas I remember in Portland many people would bike several miles to events, do the ride, then head home by bike.
Arguably that ratio of bikers versus drivers has something to do with how good bike facilities are in a given city, but I’d have to agree with the PBOT staff who said that much of the ratio is really cultural – how likely locals are willing to brave the traffic to bike to events no matter the conditions – rather than the relative quality of the overall system.
You must be real fun at parties David. Kidding!
I hear you on this. I think a lot more people drive-and-ride at Sunday Parkways than at this ride, but I did see some folks around the park unloading bikes. Most everyone I saw doing that had either very young or older folks in their party. It’s hard to compare this to other cities, because there are so many different factors at play.
I saw several people (all healthy looking 20-something adults) driving/unloading bikes for the most recent Ladd 500, for example, and the streets surrounding the event were much more “parked up” than normal with cars with bike racks.
I’m sure a majority rode to that event, but it struck me as kind of funny/sad/ironic.
What’s funny/sad/ironic about it? Ladds isn’t an anti-car protest, its just a fun event. I drive every year to Ladds because I live in St. Johns and riding down there adds another two hours and 23 miles to my day and physically can’t carry a tent, cooler, and food down there. Carrying a lot of heavy stuff a long distance you otherwise couldn’t is the most valid use case for cars.
Pedalpalooza doesn’t really happen outside of the central city and its kind of absurd to expect people who live an hour or more away by bike to just be able to have the time and energy to add 20+ miles onto the ride.
That’s just how it strikes me.
I don’t think more than a dozen people drove their bikes to Peninsula Park.
I think people who drove there were the performers, musicians and others with delicate masks and equipment to carry.
I recently injured my knee and had to drive there and I parked my car at 5924 N Commercial (less than 500′ from Kerby & Ainsworth) at 2:59pm
Some people rode their bikes more than 10 miles to the start line.
Certainly some people drive their bikes to places just like people who drive to Moda Center to walk inside an arena when they could’ve taken MAX instead.
I think people who ride bikes in Portland typically ride their bikes to bike rides in Portland.
check out the smiles, the friendliness, the courtesy of one to another, the lack of entitlement, the human-ness. That is a start for the difference…join us on a bike, Colin.
I was there yesterday, but couldn’t help but feel like I was making my community’s day a little more stressful by blocking roadways.
As for the smiles, the people at “street takeovers” largely seem to be enjoying themselves too. Even when there’s violence.
The thing is, that ride made at most a handful of already angry drivers (because they’re driving) frustrated for a few minutes. I saw they were doing a very excellent job redirecting traffic on main roads around the ride. I didn’t see any huge backups. This wasn’t rush hour.
Contrast this with the thousands of people who were moving around the city by bike, having a great time doing something fun. You can’t please everyone but this gets pretty close to pleasing everyone involved.
Hi Colin,
I will also point out that, for the most part, large group rides like this are actually using the street as intended — moving people from place to place. The “blocking” that happens is because there are a heck of a lot of people on bikes doing that movement at the same time. When a lot of cars try to use the street to move from place to place, they will also sometimes “block” streets — and that’s an accepted phenomenon. That use of the streets as intended is one fundamental difference between a bike ride and a “street takeover.”
I always thought streets were for more than just transportation.
Hi Colin,
Would a “street takeover” be fun if it were sanctioned and permitted by the city? Probably not, but a mass bike ride would be. That’s one difference.
As pointed out in other comments, the key difference is that we are using the street to move people from A to B. We are not “shutting down” the street.
As I cork the I make these points to drivers.
I was pleased with the lack of conflicts yesterday. Placing corkers a block away to give drivers an alternative exit really helps reduce conflict.
What a tribute to All Bodies All Bikes All Ages All BIkePartisan (wishful) Portland culture.