Eva Frazier joined me (BikePortland founder and editor Jonathan Maus) for our 40th episode of “In the Shed” — the show where we chat about whatever comes to mind. In this episode we touched on a bunch of good stuff:
Thanks for listening. And thanks to all BikePortland financial supporters and monthly subscribers. Please become a paid subscriber of BikePortland today so we can keep making cool things for you to read, watch, and listen to.
Listen in the players above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Here’s a fun little clip of when Eva shared about the upcoming Week Without Driving:
New speed cushions coming to this section of N Ainsworth, which will hopefully prevent folks from driving like this person. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/Bikeportland)
The City of Portland is nearing construction on a project that will help North Ainsworth finally achieve its true potential as a key east-west cycling thoroughfare. Already a bike route in name, the street has suffered for years from having too many drivers going too fast too often. With new bike lanes, traffic calming measures, parking removal, and other changes coming to the street, Ainsworth will soon move closer to becoming the low-stress street it’s meant to be.
As I reported back in May, Ainsworth is primed for major upgrades since it was cited as a top priority in the North Portland in Motion Plan. It’s a street that is supposed to be a major bike route — and it actually is in terms of people who ride on it — but its design leaves a lot to be desired. It currently has almost no dedicated bike infrastructure in the very popular section between the North Michigan Avenue neighborhood greenway and Willamette Boulevard. That segment also passes Ockley Green Middle School and connects to several major north-south bike routes.
That’s why the Portland Bureau of Transportation will break ground this fall on a $400,000 project to add buffered bike lanes, install speed bumps, and make other important changes to the street. Below are the elements of what PBOT is calling Phase 1:
A leading pedestrian interval (LPI) at Ainsworth and N Interstate. This is where the “walk” signal goes green before the main signal so that people on foot get a head start into the intersection.
“Fire-friendly speed cushions” will be installed west of N Interstate to reduce traffic speeds. Hopefully they’re installed more effectively than the previous ones PBOT installed further east on Ainsworth.
A new buffered bike lane between N Michigan and Interstate. This is the section that goes over the I-5 bridge. PBOT plans to prohibit curbside parking on two blocks between N Maryland and Michigan (see map) to make room for the bike lane.
To gain more room for the bike lane and reduce the presence of cars in front of Ockley Green Middle School, PBOT will prohibit parking on the south side of Ainsworth for one block between N Maryland and Montana.
Below are new graphics from PBOT to help explain the changes:
Phase 2 of the project will include a public outreach process to determine the best design for using modal filters and diversion tactics to reduce the number of car users between N Denver and Greeley (this is the diversion plan for the Omaha Treeway I mentioned back in May). PBOT needs to find a solution for getting auto traffic volumes down to acceptable neighborhood greenway thresholds in the westernmost portion of the project. “The goal of this phase is to emphasize N Ainsworth St as a local street and meet speed and traffic guidelines for neighborhood greenways,” PBOT says.
Once PBOT hears from the community, they plan to install a pilot diversion treatment at N Omaha by spring of next year if not sooner.
PBOT will spend the rest of this summer doing design and public outreach, with some initial elements being installed this fall. The new bike lane should be completed by next spring. For more on this project, see PBOT’s website.
Portland’s street art is second to none! (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Happy weekend everyone. It’s the final weekend of Bike Summer, but that doesn’t mean summer biking is over! Quite the contrary. We’ve got lots of great days and nights for riding ahead. And of course our awesome community will make sure there’s always something fun to do if you need the motivation to get out there.
One quick note about start times in this guide: I often share the meet-up time, which means the ride will leave a half-hour or so later. But I also always assume folks will click the “more info” link and verify details before heading out. Have a good one!
Saturday, August 30th
Asian Snacks and Friendship Ride – 9:30 am at Peninsula Park (N) “Close our bike summer and come join the Asian Snacks and Friendship Ride. Indulge in treats from some of the best Asian/Asian-American owned establishments that Portland has to offer.” More info here.
Bike Buddy Appreciation Roll-Out – 10:30 am at Ladds Circle (SE) “Join us for a summer ride to thank the Bike Buddy Portland community! Whether you’re a Bike Buddy, from Bike Loud, or a community partner, celebrate with us!” More info here.
Portland DSA Ecosocialists Punks N Rec Ride – 1:15 pm at Abernethy Elementary School (SE) “Do you support Medicare for All, Taxing the Rich, or more bike infrastructure? Do you like the policies of Bernie Sanders, AOC or Zohran Mamdani?You may be a democratic socialist! We’ll be jamming out to some punk hits old and new.” More info here.
Delta Carts Opening Celebration – 4:00 to 10:00 pm at Delta Carts Food Cart Pod (N) I personally love this place and the bike route to get there is really cool. You should go check it out and what better excuse than there big opening party! More info here.
Nomad Cycles 10 Year Anniversary Party and Kickstarter Launch – 5:15 pm at Oregon Park (NE) Ride to the party at this amazing local bike shop and help them launch their house-made e-bike brand. “We’re going to have a group ride that meets at Oregon Park and roll together to Nomad Cycles for the big party. All wheels are welcome. Please feel free to join us at Nomad Cycles anytime after 6pm.” More info here.
Sunday, August 31st
Sunday Social from Sellwood Park – 10:00 am at Sellwood Park (SE) Expect a 20-30 urban jaunt led by an experienced ride leader from Portland Bicycling Club. More info here.
Patagonia’s River Romp – 10:00 am at Patagonia Portland on W Burnside (SW) Hosted by the crew of the downtown Patagonia retail store, this ride is a, “cruise from our Portland store down to the riverfront, along the river and across the Sellwood Bridge. From there it is up the river along the Springwater and back up to the store.” More info here.
Street Art Bike Tour – 4:30 pm at Around Portland Bike Tours (SE) “You’ll learn about graffiti culture and some of our long-time favorite artists and the city’s newest darlings, pass by or visit cool old import shops filled with art inside and out, learn how the art culture is connected to the protest scene, stop for a treat if desired, and leave with a phone packed with vibrant photos!” 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.
About 50 local middle and high schoolers gathered at Gateway Green last night for weekly mountain bike team practice. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland – View full photo gallery at end of post)
Portland has become a hotbed of scholastic mountain biking — despite a dearth of easily accessible local trails to ride and train on. That was part of what I learned last night when I met up with the Portland Metro Composite Mountain Biking team for their weekly practice at Gateway Green Bike Park.
PMC MTB is made up of riders from middle and high schools throughout the city. They’re a part of Oregon Interscholastic Cycling League which is sanctioned by a group known as the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA). Oregon’s program began in 2017 and has grown steadily ever since. They just had their first race of the season on Saturday and Team Director Duncan Parks was eager to congratulate the 50 or so riders and coaches who showed up for a weekly practice session last night.
“Make our circle nice and tight everybody, bring it in so we can hear,” Parks exclaimed as he shared remarks before practice. “I hope everyone is feeling stoked after the first race weekend,” he continued. “If you raced on Saturday, give yourself a pat on the back.”
Parks (in images above) and a crew of volunteer coaches (including a few who don’t have kids on the team and love riding and teaching so much they show up every week) deserve a pat on the back too. The team has swelled in recent years to 74 riders — with about one-third of them being females. “We’re really proud of that,” Parks shared in an interview after the riders fanned out across the park to different coaching stations where they worked handling, trail-riding, and other skills. “We really push getting enough girls together so we have a critical mass, because we’ve found that when girls have other girls to ride with, they stick with the sport and they really thrive.”
Roosevelt High School Senior Eliana Umberhandt is a living testament to that statement. She’s been on the team since 2019 (when she was in sixth grade) and can remember when she was one of just five girls on the entire squad. “I kind of suffered through the first two years, being kind of alone, and I didn’t really feel like I was getting the skills like everyone else was. And then when we got two new girls when I was in eighth grade, I decided they weren’t going to have to suffer like I did”
Umberhandt reached out to other women in the Portland bike racing community and began organizing all manner of group rides. “This past Monday,” she shared with me through a smile, “Some of the high school girls and I did a century together… it’s been really fun for me to see how this community of girls has evolved, from just me being the only girl at practices when I was 12, to me being almost 18 and seeing all these little sixth-grade girls — and they’re smiling and their parents are coming up to me and telling me how much their girls love this team.”
Eliana Umberhandt
In addition to riding together, the team volunteers at trail-building work parties. Liam Danon was eager to tell me about his experience doing trail maintenance work at Rocky Point. “We can build the berms, mend the trail with a hose and rakes and stuff. It’s really fun!” When I asked why a kid his age seemed to like doing yard work in his free time, Danon replied, “It’s just fun. You get to be with your biking community and you can ride the trails later and say, ‘Hey, I built that!'”
Liam Danon
Team Director Parks and his coaching staff have built something very special. But their growth has been limited by an issue that has plagued off-road cycling in Portland for decades: the lack of nearby trails to ride on.
“Training spots are a real challenge for us,” Parks said. Read trail riding opportunities are about an hour and-a-half drive from Portland. That means it’s impossible to train and practice on the type of terrain they compete on during the week. Instead, they make do with local park where they lay out cones and test the limits of their creativity trying to recreate natural obstacles. Gateway Green is great, but it offers just two miles of total singletrack.
Caleb Griffin
“We urgently need more access to ride close-in for a weekday practice,” Parks continued. “Forest Park huge, but almost nothing is legal for bikes in terms of singletrack. Firelane 5 is great, but it’s like this long [holding fingers about 10 inches apart]… the riders are ready for something new.” Parks described opportunities to improve bike trail access at Forest Park, including a location in Northwest Industrial Area where Portland Parks recently built the park’s first dedicated parking lot and a new entry to Firelane 1. Unfortunately, Parks didn’t make any improvements to bike access and the current route offers only an extremely steep unpaved road climb. “We could build a great singletrack that would connect what is essentially an unused parking lot, to the whole heart of Forest Park, and we’ve got the riders to do it: This team put 300 [volunteer] hours of build time in last fall.”
17-year old senior Caleb Griffin said “there’s not much going on” in the way of bike trails near his home in southeast. His closest place to ride is Mt. Tabor. “It’s fun, but there nothing for mountain bikes only. Everything is over-ridden and over-populated, so it makes it kind of sketchy and unsafe for walkers and bikers.”
The success of this team and the joy expressed by its riders can’t be fully dampened by a lack of trails. Umberhandt and her teammates have made lemonade out of lemons and the energy and excitement around among the riders for the upcoming season was palpable.
“I’m definitely excited for this season, as it’s my last year on the team,” Umberhandt shared. “To see that this is the legacy I will be having on the team, where I started this community for everybody,” she said before trailing off in thought. Then she bubbled up and added, excitedly: “It’s made college applications really easy because I already have all this awesome material for my essays!”
— Learn more about the team at pmcmtb.org. View a short video of this story on YouTube.
Looking east on NE Broadway from 13th or so. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Do we have a new contender in the race for the best bikeway through a business district in Portland? With such a strong neighborhood greenway network, Portland has historically been relatively slow to install bike lanes on major commercial streets. I’ve long held that North Williams Avenue — even with its shortcomings — is the best example we have of a viable bike lane through a business district.
But after riding Northeast Broadway on Tuesday, I believe we might have another street that deserves consideration.
As I first reported 15 months ago, the Portland Bureau of Transportation once again seized an opportunity to make major striping changes to a street that was scheduled for a complete repave. The (very sensible and correct) thinking from PBOT is essentially (my words, not theirs): ‘We will have a blank slate after the repave, so we will restripe/redesign the street in a way that reflects adopted goals and visions.’ No specific changes are guaranteed on these “pave and paint” projects, and PBOT responds to what they think the community demands and will support.
Project area
In the case of the NE Broadway Pave & Paint project which PBOT began last summer, they had early support from both the adjacent business and neighborhood associations, so they were able to remove one of the general travel lanes and replace it with a bike-only lane.
Since the road is now fully open to traffic and PBOT has only a few more finishing touches to add, I felt like it was time to go grab a first look.
(More images below.)
Please keep in mind while you look at these images (and when you watch my video coming out later today) that PBOT still plans to add: a few short segments of concrete curbs to separate lanes, more signs and pavement markings, and signal timing adjustments. The work is expected to be 100% complete by the end of September. (See their separate page for project construction for the latest updates.)
The scope of this project is NE Broadway from NE 7th to 26th. PBOT was intentional in choosing those boundaries because 7th and 26th are well-established neighborhood greenways. Starting westbound from 26th, the first change is a new buffered bike lane to 24th. The road is still two-way in this section and PBOT didn’t make any lane reallocations here — that starts at 24th. The old cross-section had six lanes: three general travel lanes, a bike-only lane, and two car parking lanes. The new cross-section has five lanes: two for general travel, a bike lane, and two parking lanes.
Kris Perry, Cutters PDX
Kris Perry, a barber at Cutters PDX near NE 24th, said he supports the project. “It’s quieter,” he shared with me in a short interview. “The immediate thing I notice is the parking. The thing I hear from my clients the most is, ‘Oh, they took the parking away!’ It’s frustrating while it’s happening, just because of all the change; but honestly, I see the goodness in it. I’m excited for the safety of it, the families, the walkability of Broadway especially — it’s exciting!”
“I think it’s going to have a positive impact,” Perry added. “I think it might slow down traffic, but I don’t think that’s such a negative thing, not in Portland. Not today.”
Another barber at Cutters also shared how quiet the south side of the street had become and how he’d seen folks enjoying drinks at outdoor tables on the sidewalk. I talked to a group enjoying drinks at Swift Bar between NE 19th and 20th. They had a mix of feelings, and several of them were frustrated and angry about the changes. They said they wouldn’t use the angle parking because it was dangerous and they worried drivers wouldn’t stop as they backed out. Another person noted my “BikePortland” hat and remarked, “Oh you’re the one behind this. It’s you and the spandex mafia!”
Bike riders have almost double the space in the new configuration, while folks who use cars have one less lane, fewer places to park, and several blocks of angle-parking. Angle parking is something PBOT doesn’t do very often, but it was a compromise here as a way to maintain parking spaces in a way that calms traffic and creates a wider buffer between sidewalk users and people driving.
The other big compromise that everyone is talking about is the bike lane design. Unlike what has become PBOT standard practice of keeping the bike lane against the curb and making a “parking protected” bike lane — what we get on Broadway is a bike lane in the street with parking on the right and moving traffic on the left. I’ve reported previously that this was a budgetary compromise given the meager $500,000 budget (not including the paving work obviously) PBOT had to work with. (I’ve asked PBOT if they’d like to share anything else about that decision and will update this post if I hear anything new. UPDATE at 10:44 am: See end of story for PBOT statement.)
While the bike lane is not physically protected, PBOT has added two-foot buffer zones on each side, so at 12 feet it’s wider than the adjacent lanes for car users.
In addition to less space for driving and more room to ride bikes, PBOT has lowered the speed limit from 30 mph to 25 mph. When you get west of NE 21st, the speed limit drops again from 25 mph to 20 mph.
The change with perhaps the biggest impact on the street are the five new crosswalks (at 11th, 13th, 17th, 19th, and 22nd) and numerous concrete median islands at intersections. These medians and crossings are a huge deal given the context of a bustling business district with a lot of foot traffic and bus transit use. To take just one example, I observed folks crossing at NE 19th — which has new concrete medians in the roadway, one at each corner — and drivers always stopped quickly. And what I loved was that they weren’t going fast to begin with. It’s an ironclad road engineering law that as space for driving shrinks, people drive more slowly. I have zero doubt the before-and-after analysis will show a significant drop in driver speeds.
Look at the before-and-after of NE Broadway and 19th:
From a cycling perspective, the new bike lanes are straightforward. There is a chicane at every intersection, where you’ve got to turn toward the curb to avoid the median, but that’s a great excuse to slow down a bit and be alert when crossing. My concern with this design is that some drivers will think this is a right-turn lane. I actually saw that happen twice while I was out there. I’m sure PBOT has prepared for this, and there will likely be more signs and markings to help prevent it.
The only real hot-spot I experienced on the route is at NE 16th. It’s a busy intersection because of a busy convenience store driveway on the northwest corner followed by a bus stop and new bulb-out waiting platform. Other than that, the fact that drivers have to cross over the unprotected bike lane to get into parking spots is not ideal. My hunch however, is that given the changes PBOT has made, combined with the presence of more bike riders in the future and the general caution people tend to drive with in dense commercial areas — the interactions between bike riders and car drivers will be more annoyances rather than serious injury or fatal collisions.
As I reached the western terminus of the project at NE 7th and was thrust back into the past in a narrow bike lane where I felt much more powerless and insecure, I couldn’t help but think of the Broadway Main Street project PBOT earned a $38 million federal grant for and was all ready to build. That project would have connected these changes all the way to the Broadway Bridge through the Rose Quarter — but the Trump Administration took that money back and the project is on ice.
I’ll take what I can get and this feels like a positive step forward. Prior to these changes, NE Broadway was not a very popular bikeway. I personally would almost never use it and preferred the NE Tillamook neighborhood greenway just a few blocks north. But now with a smooth road, more space to ride, slower drivers, and a design that tells me and everyone who uses the street that bikes belong on Broadway, I plan to use it a whole lot more.
And for what it’s worth, Mayor Keith Wilson is also a fan. He mentioned the project on my ride with him Wednesday morning, saying, “You have a dedicated bike lane on Broadway now. It’s beautiful.”
What about you? Have you ridden this yet? Have the changes piqued your curiosity enough to add Broadway to your bike routes?
UPDATE, 10:30 am: I asked PBOT to explain the rationale for implementing a buffered bike lane instead of a parking-protected bike lane. Here’s what they said:
The Broadway Pave & Paint Project is delivering a 12-foot-wide bike lane, one of the largest bike lanes in NE Portland, wider than the lane on N Williams Avenue, which has historically had among the highest rates of bike traffic in Portland.
This bike lane was designed to fit the $500,000 budget and tight schedule of a pavement maintenance project that also delivers extensive pedestrian safety and ADA access upgrades. This is the first significant change to the corridor in 30 years, though from a transportation perspective it is an interim improvement that sets up the area well for a new vision in the future, as funding becomes available.
Even with its limited budget, the design of the NE Broadway project makes it easier to install a parking protected upgrade at a later time. That’s because the design provides an immediate reallocation of space to bike and pedestrian safety and main street improvements, with a lane reduction for motor vehicle traffic.
We considered a parking protected bike lane for NE Broadway within the tight budget that would have been required.
On a high-traffic corridor, we need to provide vertical physical elements to provide effective protection of people using bicycles. Concrete separators and other civil elements would be required–which would add significant construction cost, and additional time for design and construction.
In our experience, lower-cost parking protected bike lane designs result in a low-quality project, with limited physical protection, unnecessary curb zone trade-offs and high maintenance costs.
When we use plastic delineator posts to create parking protected bike lanes, the posts are frequently knocked down. This creates an on-going maintenance cost for the bureau, diverting labor and funding from other needs.
In a bustling business district such as NE Broadway, plastic posts would also create a negative appearance of the bicycle infrastructure and the business district it is intended to support.
When it’s completed, this will be among the best “main street” bike lanes in Portland and a vast improvement over the previous condition. It places bike traffic in a buffered lane adjacent to two low-speed travel lanes and provides physical protection at intersections–where crashes, near misses and other conflicts are most common.
There is strong support from the businesses on NE Broadway for a corridor redesign to happen as soon as possible that includes additional improvements for people walking and biking, including a willingness to accept some on-street parking impacts.
I joined Mayor Keith Wilson for his ride into work this morning. It’s the first time we’ve met up since his successful campaign for mayor when he showed up to speak at Bike Happy Hour several times. I did my best to record the interview as we biked, so sit back and have a watch and/or listen as we tackle all types of topics on the 30-minute ride from North Williams Ave to City Hall.
I was prepped for a chill conversation about biking (since I have a more formal sit-down interview scheduled with him next Wednesday at Bike Happy Hour — you should totally come!), but in typical Mayor Wilson fashion, he got right into a bunch of serious issues and was well-researched and ready to go. Heck, we didn’t really do introductions and he was talking about tolling on I-5 and its impacts on bike safety.
It was a good conversation and shows the depth of knowledge, candor, and work ethic that have become hallmarks of Mayor Wilson’s approach to the job.
I just finished putting this together and don’t have time to share all the highlights since I need to run off to Bike Happy Hour (today, 3:00 to 6:00 pm at SE Ankeny Rainbow Road Plaza, Gorges Beer Co.). I’ve shared a PDF of the transcript below if you’d like to scan the text.
Be aware of a significant closure of the Springwater Corridor Trail path in southeast Portland early next month. Portland General Electric tells BikePortland there will be two sections of closures that will begin in early September.
A reader sent us an image of a sign and said when she called the Portland General Electric number, no one she spoke to could share any details about how the closure would impact the path. “This will have a big impact on lots of people’s morning commutes (mine included) so I thought more investigation may be warranted.”
I reached out to a spokesperson at the Portland Parks Bureau, who connected me with PGE Community Engagement Manager Alex Cousins. Cousins said PGE crews are scheduled to replace four transmission poles along the Springwater between September 8th-12th. Since they are high voltage lines, the path will be closed in two sections on those days from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm. Here are the exact details of the closures, according to Cousins:
Going east to west, the first closure will be from SE Stanley to SE 55th. That detour utilizes SE Firwood St. The second closure will be from SE 55th to SE Johnson Creek Blvd. That detour utilizes SE Rainbow Lane, SE Brookside Drive and a short segment of SE Johnson Creek Blvd. There are bike lanes and crosswalks on that segment of Johnson Creek.
As for why PGE customer service reps didn’t know anything about this? The contractor put up the signs before the reps were notified. It happens sometimes!
If this is your commute route or if you ride here and you experience the detour, please keep me posted on how it goes. And thanks to reader Shyla O. the heads up and the photo.
NOTE, 8/28 at 8:05 am: This post was initially published with incomplete information from PGE that described one, longer closure. Sorry for any confusion.
Fresh pavement marking on the NE Going Neighborhood Greenway near 26th. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
What’s better than rolling to school with the kiddos on a low-stress neighborhood greenway emblazoned with sharrows, 20 mph speed limit signs, speed bumps, safer crossings, and hardly any stop signs? Doing it on a route that has cool, new “Bike Bus” pavement markings and caution signs.
In the latest sign of how the rise of bike buses in Portland have influenced city policy, the Portland Bureau of Transportation debuted new signage and markings on several routes. It’s all part of a $650,000 plan (funded in part by a Metro grant) to make bike buses even better, and it’s happening just as thousands of parents, ride leaders, and students across the city head back to school on two wheels.
The pilot project will aim to educate communities about bike bus routes around nine schools: Alameda Elementary School, Abernethy Elementary School, Creston Elementary School, Glencoe Elementary School, James John Elementary School, Maplewood Elementary School, Vernon K-8 School, Vestal Elementary School and Woodstock Elementary School. In addition to the pavement markings and bright yellow “Bike Bus” signs (see below), PBOT will also install lawn signs in residential yards along routes, support school staff with positive messaging, and evaluate the project by counting traffic and conducting school surveys.
This is just one of many ways PBOT is working to make the school trip by bike better than ever. Last year they completed 55 projects near schools (including new crosswalks, sidewalks, paths, lowering speed limits, and so on) and they’ve got more planned this year.
As Portland heads back into the school season, police issued a statement yesterday saying they would have, “a visible presence in and around school zones,” the first few weeks of the year to make sure folks drive 20 mph or below. Even Mayor Keith Wilson has weighed in on the importance of being safe on the road as kids head back to class. “As is the Portland way, thousands will be walking, biking and rolling to get there, just like I did with my kids,” Wilson said in a statement yesterday. “It’s up to all of us to watch out for our students and keep them safe.”
PBOT and city leaders plan to join a bike bus in southwest Portland this Friday to help keep the momentum going.
Screenshot of Joint Interim Committee on Transportation Funding meeting on Monday.
Oregon lawmakers got their first taste of what folks think about the latest attempt to pass a transportation funding package when they hosted a public hearing at the capitol Monday afternoon. Known as Legislative Concept (LC) 2, the package would raise about $6 billion over the next 10 years through a myriad of taxes. That amount represents a striking compromise and pales in comparison to where lawmakers began their journey in early June when the package was valued at nearly $15 billion.
Left on the cutting room floor was funding for popular programs like Safe Routes to School, Oregon Community Paths, the Great Streets program, and funding for jurisdictional transfers or state-owned orphan highways to local road agencies. That’s partly why a coalition of environmental justice, active transportation and land use advocacy groups who are typically very supportive of more transportation spending came out as neutral on the proposal. They don’t like the amount of fee increases for electric car owners and how it doesn’t include dedicated funding for popular safe street, walking and bicycling programs. Indi Namkoong, an advocate with Northeast Portland-based nonprofit Verde, said LC 2 would, “provide temporary life support” for Oregon’s transportation system and acknowledged it would fund much-needed transit services and keep Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) jobs in tact. “However, we can’t get around the fact that LC 2 leaves many of our communities’ most pressing needs unaddressed,” Namkoong continued. “Now more than ever, affordable options like transit, walking and biking are a lifeline for us, ensuring we aren’t forced to take on yet another massive new cost in the form of car ownership, which outstrips the payroll tax for most Oregonians many times over.”
Testimony at the hearing was a mixed bag of criticism, support, and opposition.
The sharpest opposition was mostly from people who don’t want to pay more taxes. Some of they also oppose the bill because they feel like ODOT should live within their means, they don’t think biking and public transit are an core function of the state, and that ODOT should not get rewarded for years of mega-project cost overruns and lack of fiscal responsibility.
“Oregon doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending and misallocation problem,” said interior designer and social media influencer Angela Todd of PDX Real. Todd, whose platform reaches thousands of Oregonians a day and is part of a growing conservative, anti-tax, anti-government media ecosystem, accused lawmakers of taking part in a “special interest loop” where state funding is funneled to projects that benefit public unions, “and other groups pouring money into campaigns for bigger government while government turns around and enriches them at the expense of Oregonians.” “That cycle is draining taxpayers,” Todd added. “It’s ruining our state.”
Todd’s concerns are echoed by nearly all Republican lawmakers, who worked together on a very coordinated “No new taxes” campaign in the week leading up to the hearing. Three Republicans who sit on the Joint Interim Committee on Transportation Funding (where Monday’s hearing was hosted) — Representative Shelly Boshart Davis, Senator Daniel Bonham, and Rep. Christine Drazan — used time prior to public testimony to push different approaches to fixing ODOT’s funding problems that they say wouldn’t require new taxes. Boshart Davis asked ODOT staff about transferring funds from capital projects to operations and maintenance (which can be done, but would require a change to state law), Bonham said project labor agreements with unions aren’t worth it and that expenditures like the Climate Protection Program, “creates a slush fund for environmental nonprofits”, and Drazan asked ODOT staff about cutting vacant positions.
While none of those concerns were new to Democrats, who are prepared to pass the package on a party-line vote if necessary, one Republican has emerged as a strong vote in favor of the proposal. Rep. Cyrus Javadi, who represents Oregon’s north coast region, published a subtle yet stinging takedown of his own party’s tactic on his Substack yesterday. Titled, “The roads don’t care about your talking point,” Javadi’s post rebutted Republican talking points and told his constituents that raising taxes is, “the only adult option on the table.”
“Being conservative isn’t about pretending math doesn’t exist,” Javadi wrote, as he invoked conservative icon Ronald Reagan. “It’s about responsibility. It’s about stewardship. It’s about making sure we hand the next generation… a safe road to drive on. Ronald Reagan raised the federal gas tax in 1982. Why? Because he believed in a use tax. You drive, you pay. That’s not socialism. That’s fairness. That’s accountability.”
That stance is music to the ears for Democrats and Governor Tina Kotek. So was the powerful testimony of several ODOT employees who showed up to the hearing in a personal capacity to plead for funding that would save their jobs. ODOT drone pilot and content producer Julie Murray told committee members she has flourished in her role covering emergencies and documenting road conditions. “The agency developed me, molded me into a perfect fit, and the layoff will throw all that away… We are investments worth keeping,” Murray said.
Democratic party leaders and Governor Kotek are likely feeling a bit better about getting this proposal through after Monday’s hearing. They have the backing of mayors from major cities, county commissioners from all over the state, the Oregon Trucking Association, driving advocacy group AAA, and many important stakeholders.
That said, ODOT critics from the left and right have made major gains in the past three months in pounding home grievances about ODOT’s terrible record of fiscal irresponsibility and general lack of accountability. That, combined with a well-organized statewide coalition of safe streets, transit, and active transportation supporters who are eager to boost funding for their needs, should make for many more transportation conversations when the full legislature returns in 2026.
But before that, there is still work to be done in Salem. The special session is slated to begin this Friday and committee members have promised they’ll take more public testimony at future hearings.
Author and advocate Anna Zivarts at an event in North Portland Saturday. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Anna Zivarts is the voice of non-drivers. Through her advocacy with Disability Rights Washington and recently released book, When Driving is Not an Option, she has helped define and organize the 35% of all Americans who do not drive. She took the train to Portland on Saturday to speak and connect with a few dozen of them at an event that aimed to build interest in the upcoming Week Without Driving, a national campaign now in its fifth year that raises awareness about those who live without cars — and why better public transit is vital to their quality of life.
Zivarts, whose visual impairment prevents her from driving a car, shared her story along with several dozen others who stepped up to the mic at a gymnasium inside Charles Jordan Community Center in North Portland. Collecting those stories and getting them heard by policymakers and elected officials is Zivarts’ stock-in-trade. Beyond sharing stories, Saturday’s event was about networking and building community. Attendees were encouraged to socialize and a free lunch helped seal the deal.
While hearing stories about transit struggles was validating for many in the crowd, the folks they were meant for weren’t in attendance. Board members and local elected officials had promised to attend, and their presence got top billing on event flyers, but only one showed up (TriMet Board Member JT Flowers) and he got word right before the event began that his wife went into labor, so he left to be with her. The absence of decision makers underscored the importance of the work Zivarts and Portland groups like Bus Riders Unite, Sunrise PDX, Verde, The Street Trust, and many others are doing to give transit riders a stronger voice on important issues like bus service plans and perennial budget cuts.
Osman AbdelrahmanKaren WellsSky McRude
Osman Abdelrahman moved to Portland one year ago. As a blind man, he wanted to live in a place with good public transportation. “So I looked up online and found a good address,” Abdelrahman shared with the crowd. “Theoretically the commute time should have been 36 minutes [on the bus]; but when I got there, I realized the hard way that there is an inaccessible road between me and the nearest bus station, so I couldn’t use that one in order to get to work.” Instead of the 36 minutes he planned for, one dangerous road turned Abdelrahman’s commute time into one hour.
Northeast Portland resident Karen Wells used her opportunity to speak to sing the praises of her favorite bus line and encourage others to help her save it. “I’m a loyal fan of the 17,” she said, “And TriMet has been threatening to pull the section of it I use for the last three years.” Wells urged everyone in the audience to join her in texting and emailing TriMet to tell them to keep it running.
Sky McLeod, who’s also blind, grew up in Los Angeles where she said, “There’s no public transit whatsoever. I mean, barely.” She appreciates TriMet in Portland, but also wanted us to know their system has a long ways to go before it’s efficient and a viable option to the efficiency of driving. “I tried to meet up with a bunch of blind friends, and we all lived either in North Portland or Southeast — and so we could either meet downtown, or half of us would be able to hang out and the other half couldn’t,” McLeod shared. If the groups of friends took the bus it would take over an hour. The same trip by car is just 10 minutes.
For Zivarts, these stories are all too common. She personally experienced the power of great public transit when she moved away from rural Washington and lived in New York City for a few years. “I had this huge freedom because there was a subway and it ran 24 hours a day. I didn’t have to think about being able to go somewhere,” she recalled.
Through events like the one Saturday and the upcoming Week Without Driving — which runs from September 29th to October 5th and will have over 500 hosting organizations in all 50 states this year — Zivarts is turning up the volume of voices too often left out of transit policy and funding conversations.
If Zivarts’ latest campaign is successful, transit riders like the ones who showed up Saturday, won’t have to speak and hope they are heard — they’ll be right at the table with an equal voice. That’s because Zivarts passed a law in Washington last year that gives transit agencies permission to appoint transit riders onto their boards as voting members, instead of those spots being filled by elected officials who often have zero experience using transit. “They don’t understand transit,” Zivarts shared with me in an interview Saturday. “They want to cut taxes and defund transit, and that’s not great for folks who rely on transit. So we want to the voices of people who are using those systems in the room.”
In the Portland region, TriMet’s board members are still appointed by the governor. And on a statewide level, lawmakers are headed back to Salem this week to try and pass a payroll tax increase that will help stabilize public transit budgets across Oregon.
“I hope the elected leaders and transit board members who aren’t here in the audience today, can listen and hear your stories,” Zivarts shared with the crowd. “Because I think it does start with those stories and by sharing sharing your experiences of trying to get around your community without having access to a car.”
“Non drivers exist,” Zivarts continued. “And it’s way more people than you recognize because it tends to be folks who are low-income and disabled and live in really rural areas, or who are seniors, or youth and children — and we just don’t think of those people as having the same valid mobility needs as you know somebody else who has a car and the income to pay for that. We just need to remember that if transit service is cut, the impact that’s going to have on people who really don’t have other options.”
Here are the most notable stories of the past seven days…
Thoughts on e-bike speeds: “If a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged, what do you call a cyclist who’s been hit by an e-bike rider? I’ve been mulling the question since I was struck broadside by an e-Citi Bike rider in Brooklyn Bridge Park earlier this summer.” (Streetsblog NYC)
Gamifying safe driving: A popular app used by drivers in South Korea is being lauded for making roads safer because of how it gives drivers a safety score each time they make a trip, essentially creating a competition to see how can drive the best. (Korea Herald)
Managing Parkinson’s: The story of a couple who once enjoyed major cycling adventures together, then had to adjust when one of them was diagnosed with Parkinson’s yet decided to keep pedaling through it. (Rails to Trails Conservancy)
Cycling for Israel: Several professional cyclists are sharing publicly that they are relieved to no longer race for the Israel Premier Tech team because they didn’t like having “Israel” emblazoned on their jerseys and being associated with that country’s war against the Palestinians. (Bike Radar)
Car free, but mobility rich: The Brits have discovered Culdesac, the master-planned Arizona community that was built as a carless utopia. (BBC)
Take cycling seriously, take bike regulations seriously: “The Dutch police have rolled out a new mobile device on which e-bikes can be mounted by the roadside. Once on the device, the capacity of the e-bikes can be tested to determine if they comply with Dutch law.” (Sticky Bottle)
Slow cycling: “For decades, urban cycling in North America has been shaped by high-performance gear, aggressive riding styles, and male-dominated narratives. But as more cities invest in protected infrastructure and car-free zones, a broader, more inclusive cycling culture is emerging.” (Momentum Mag)
DIY urbanism: Brilliant work by Strong Towns volunteers in San Diego, where folks are painting curbs red to help with the city’s official effort to enforce California’s intersection daylighting law. (NBC San Diego)
Some of the folks featured in the episode. L to R, top to bottom: Brad Davis, Brad Wilson, Gary Fisher (center), Mark Dinucci, Oscar McBain, Megan Dean, Natalie Peet, Mike Smith, Wendy Downs, Dave Levy, Dylan Wiggins. Not pictured: Brian Tucker, David Bonilla, Jeremy Gomez, John the Johnster, Megan Lofton, Brenda Martin. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
In this episode I share 16 short interviews with folks I bumped into at the MADE Bike Show on Friday, August 22nd. The show runs through this weekend, so you should totally go check it out if you’re hearing this any time before August 25th!
