Councilors listen to a staff presentation on the project.
(Words and photos by Patrick Croasdaile)

At their work session last night, the Wilsonville City Council voted to accept a $1.25 million federal grant to perform a feasibility study on the French Prairie Bike-Ped Emergency Bridge over the Willamette River. As we shared last week, this was a crucial step in this project’s evolution and it wasn’t a sure thing. In the end, it seems like the potential bike tourism this bridge would make possible is what made councilors comfortable with voting yes.

When the topic of tourism came up at the meeting, Councilor Richard Goddard said that it had changed the conversation about the bridge and allowed him to think about the bridge as a different kind of asset. Council President Celia Nuñez was also supportive of the grant. “[This bridge] gives us an economic development opportunity,” she said, “and allows tourism dollars to pour into the community”. She continued, “if we can be visionary enough to expand transportation options for the city, then that is right on spot.”[Read more…]

Wilsonville Mayor Tim Knapp (R) chats with OHSU Nursing student Jen Akeroyd about active transportation links in the region.
(Photos: Patrick Croasdaile for BikePortland)

[Read more…]

The lot is almost ready.
(Photos: Patrick Croasdaile)

‘Cartlandia,’ the bike-centric food cart pod on the Springwater Corridor Trail we told you about back in January, is about to open.

I caught up with the man behind the development (who also did the Mississippi Marketplace in North Portland), Roger Goldingay, to get an update and learn more about this exciting project.

Cartlandia is set to open on May 1st, and will have the capacity for around 35 food carts — all accessible directly from the Springwater Corridor Trail through dedicated, paved entrances along the path. [Read more…]

Miller addressed the BAC on Tuesday.
(Photo: Patrick Croasdaile)

Tom Miller, the former Chief of Staff for Portland Mayor Sam Adams who was appointed Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) back in January, formally introduced himself to the Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC) on Tuesday night.

His words offered a striking contrast from his predecessor Sue Keil (and in some regards, his boss, Mayor Sams Adams). He spoke of the bureau’s communication missteps, his intentions to put forward bold ideas and the political realities that those ideas will have to overcome.[Read more…]

A bill introduced in Salem this morning, HB 3622 (PDF), is being watched by biking and walking advocates for its possible impact on school transportation funding.

Authored by Rep. Betty Komp of Woodburn, the bill seeks to revise the method of calculating transportation block grants from the State School Fund distributions by allowing “district school [boards] to determine distances for which school [districts] will provide transportation. […] Allows Superintendent of Public Instruction to impose sanctions on school district for failure to maintain safe school buses and school activity vehicles.” [Read more…]

The panelists: L to R: Dr. Philip Wu,
Olivia Quiroz, Mychal Tetteh, Noelle Dobson.
(Photos: BikePortland/Patrick Croasdaile)

In recent years, the fields of public health, equity and transportation policy have become increasingly linked. At a breakout session at the Active Transportation Summit yesterday, advocates and experts came together to learn more about why these issues are linked and discuss how to make that link stronger.

According to Dr. Phil Wu, a pediatric obesity specialist at Kaiser Permanente, “There’s no way to deal with obesity unless we start dealing with issues of transportation.” [Read more…]

Inside the WashCo BTC’s Frans Pauwels Memorial Bicycle Center.
From left to right: Volunteer Al Martinez, Hal Ballard, and founding staff-member Mark Norbert.

[Read more…]

[Publisher’s note: Our news intern, Patrick Croasdaile, happens to live in Clackamas County so he’s a bit closer to the action down there than I am. In the story below, he shares a roundup of Clackamas County bike news gleaned from a recent meeting of their biking and walking advisory committee.]

County Planner Lori Mastrantonio-Meuser
indicates the scope of the Clackamas
Regional Center Ped/Bike Connection Plan.
(Photos © P. Croasdaile/BikePortland)

The Clackamas County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (CCBPAC) held their second meeting of the year on Tuesday night. They covered a lot of ground. While the committee spent the majority of time reviewing the upcoming Clackamas Regional Center Pedestrian and Bicycle Connection Project, topics such as bicycle facility improvements on Highway 43, the Oregon City bridge shuttle, and the County’s application for an Oregon Scenic Bikeway all received considerable discussion. They even touched on Safe Routes to Schools.

First, we got an update on the proposed bike improvements to Hwy 43 we first told you about back in December.[Read more…]

Lewis & Clark students on last
year’s Bike to Eugene Challenge.

A group of Environmental Law students from Lewis & Clark College will embark on a one-day, 140-mile trip from Portland to Eugene on March 3, 2011. Their final destination is the 29th annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) at the University of Oregon. They call themselves Team Eugene and they’ve dubbed their journey the Bike to Eugene Challenge.

According to Team Eugene member Liv Brumfield, they have opted to “travel to the largest environmental law conference in the world, twelve hours by bicycle, instead of two hours by car,” as a means of reducing their carbon footprint and demonstrating the benefits of bicycling as a mode of transportation. Their motto for the year is “bike more, drive less.” They hope to inspire others at Lewis & Clark to do the same.[Read more…]

The view of today’s hearing for many.
(Photo: Patrick Croasdaile)

At the House of Representatives’ Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure listening session held this morning in Vancouver, WA, many would-be participants never got the chance to be heard.

I happened to arrive at the committee meeting 35 minutes early, yet was eight people shy from getting in. By my estimation, only a third of those who showed up for the event actually made it into the Clark Public Utilities Community Room. Seeking a way around the barriers to entrance was met with a remarkably hostile response from Clark Public Utilities staff. [Read more…]