The Portland Police staged an unannounced stop sign enforcement action this morning in inner southeast Portland. Unlike previous “enforcement actions” that were highly publicized beforehand and with signage in the road, this morning’s operation was more covert and unexpected. Check out the reaction to it on the Shift email list and a bit more, including … Read more
Critical Mass defies a neat definition. It is simultaneously revered, despised, and tolerated. Regardless of what you think about it, it’s important to remember that everyone does the ride for different reasons, and every city’s Mass has a different vibe. Here in Portland, our ride is completely civil and law-abiding. Cyclists and cops even have … Read more
The Portland Bike Forums are officially open for business. My feedback and testing crew have been playing around with them for a few weeks now so there’s already some good information posted. My goal is to provide a place where all Portland cyclists can connect, interact and share experiences. I also hope it becomes a … Read more
[Click to enlarge] A few months ago I got a call from one of the editors at Bicycling Magazine. We’d met at last year’s Sea Otter Classic and I of course went on and on about what’s happening in the bike scene up here. I told him about everything from wonky ridership stats to Chunkathalon, … Read more
During Euro ‘Cross Camp, Geoff Proctor and I concluded that he (with USA Cycling) really nailed it when they made a top-30 finish at a world cup tantamount to discretionary selection to our world championship team: it is, in fact, really tough to finish in the top-30 at a WC. Consider the American results at … Read more
Clicking through my feedreader today I came across a great post and inspiring photos by local cyclist and inventor Todd Fahrner. Taking advantage of a glorious break in the weather, Todd followed his neighbor to the store to pick up groceries with her two kids…all by bike. The trip was was made smooth and easy … Read more
The TriMet/bike incident has the spread across the country, but unfortunately of all the parties involved only the cyclist has made a statement. TriMet has been silent (they sent me a statement but it did not address this issue specifically), the driver is deceased, the passenger has not been found, and no witnesses have stepped … Read more
[From the Oregonian] It’s been a crazy week around here. The Randy Albright/TriMet thing has spilled over from my site to the local media, the blogosphere, and now to the national media (someone saw the video on Fox TV in Utah). The result is an avalanche of comments (101 on this blog at last count) … Read more
I don’t think this could have come at a better time. Misinterpretations of bike laws are the basis of many false arguments. Now that ODOT has finally published a summary of all the bike laws pertaining to bikes in the Oregon Revised Statutes this shouldn’t be as much of a problem. You can download the … Read more
After I posted Austin Ramsland’s great checklist for what to do after you’ve been hit, a few people wondered if we could make a portable version. Thanks to the help and suggestions of readers, I found out about PocketMod, a nifty little service that can convert PDFs into handy, wallet-sized booklets. I downloaded the program … Read more
Tonight is the Super Legal Ride created by super-advocate Elly Blue. The first one got some media attention (Portland Mercury and KGW-TV) and its goal and execution has come into question on the Shift email list. The debate revolves around whether or not it’s a good idea for cyclists to advocate for a new law … Read more
As I just reported, there’s a contingent from Portland going to the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C.. I’ve been wanting to go the the Summit for years but never really considered it until now. The schedule looks awesome and just think of all the bike people, the ideas, the conversations! Imagine me explaining Chunkathalon, … Read more