55 years ago, 1,200 Portlanders joined bike ride to demand carfree space

Portland has a long and interesting bicycling history — from the ‘1896 Cyclists Road Map‘ printed long before cars were sold, to elected officials who biked to City Hall long before the term “bike friendly city” existed and the modern, massive group rides that grab global attention. I’ve shared that history on BikePortland over the years. And now, a recent photo shared by City of Portland archivists on the Vintage Portland blog, have spurred yet another foray into our pedaling past.

Titled, “Neighborhood Bike Ride, 1971,” the black and white image is encircled in the front wheel of an illustration of a penny farthing bicycle. We know from the blog post that the image came from the 1971 Parks Annual Report. The image shows dozens of people on bicycles in a clearly happy mood, rolling down a wet street and wearing heavy jackets. Despite the clearly cold and wet weather, smiles permeate the scene.

What was going on 55 years ago that would get this many regular folks (as opposed to racers or an organized parade or political event) on bikes? It was the oldest photo of a large group bike ride I could ever recall seeing.

Thanks to online commenters, we know these folks are on Northeast Broadway between 6th and 7th and that it was part of a group bike ride that happened in early March, 1971. After learning that, all it took was a search of The Oregonian archives to find out more about the ride.

“Portland’s first crosstown bike ride, sponsored by the Bicycle Lobby and the Parks Bureau, attracted 1,262 bicycle enthusiasts,” reads the story, which was published on March 8th, 1971. The group rode in a loop from the Portland Art Museum to the Lloyd Center and back. According to the report, the riders showed up in “heavy rain showers” and “gusty winds” to advocate for, “increased use of bicycles in place of cars.”

The ‘Bicycle Lobby’ was a group of volunteers led by Sam Oakland, a Portland State University professor who organized bike advocates and played a key role in the landmark “Bike Bill” passed by the Oregon Legislature in 1971. That law is widely considered the first “complete streets” law in the country because it mandated that a minimum of 1% of all state transportation funding be spent on bicycling and walking facilities. Oakland received a lifetime achievement award from The Street Trust (then called the Bicycle Transportation Alliance) in 2011 and died in 2014.

On that wet Sunday in 1971, Oakland had Portland City Commissioner Neil Goldschmidt riding along with him. Oakland and his fellow advocates were working with Goldschmidt to build support for an event that following April that would close a portion of downtown to car use. This campaign for carfree space by the Bicycle Lobby likely had a big impact on the City’s 1972 Downtown Plan. As BikePortland shared a few years ago, that plan, proposed 13 carfree sites across downtown where people could ‘talk, play, look, think and enjoy’ the city without the noise, dirty air, and other dangers associated with cars.

Oakland not only had a champion on City Council, according to The Oregonian, the carfree downtown event also had the support of Chamber of Commerce and the Retail Merchants Association.

As we fight against the scourge of cars today and for more space to safely exist in our city, I find it extremely inspiring and comforting that folks like Sam Oakland and these 1,262 people also fought for these same things.

— Learn more about Portland’s fight for carfree spaces downtown,