Jonathan is on a well-earned family vacation. He may cover this in more depth later.

Photo of Samuel Chiriac from his gofundme memorial.

There was a traffic violence fatality on Mt. Scott over the holiday- Samuel Chiriac, 16, was a passenger in a car being driven by Seba Pop, 17. Seba Pop was driving in a three-car caravan, and “passed one of his friends in the oncoming lane and missed a sharp turn, driving off of the roadway and crashing. Dense fog may have played a factor in the crash.” (source: Portland Police)

This was a half mile away from where Karla DeBaillie was killed in August by Mary Dieter while DeBaillie was on a bicycle.
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When I started getting seriously interested in bicycles a few years ago, I already knew they were pollution-free, cheap, healthy, quiet, nonlethal and space-efficient.

What threw me for a loop, when I was talking to other Portlanders who were already interested in bicycles, was that they kept talking about community. Biking (and walking, and public transit) connected them with their neighbors and surroundings in a way that driving can’t.

The idea, it turned out, is backed up by science.

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Plenty of room for changes.
(Photo: Google Streetview)

The street that once ran along part of Portland’s eastern border is now one of its most important corridors, and it’s lined up for some changes — which may even include a new bikeway.

On Saturday, Oct. 10, the 82nd Avenue Improvement Coalition will host a community forum about the urban highway’s future. It’s convened by the Asian-Pacific American Network of Oregon, the force behind an effort to keep strengthening the identity of the Jade District near 82nd and Division; by state Sen. Michael Dembrow, one of the forces behind an effort to bring 82nd Avenue from state to local control; and by the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, which is updating its zoning maps in ways that could push the street away from its current highway-on-the-edge-of-town atmosphere.

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Yes, apparently city engineers sometimes use the Unipiper to designate bike lanes. We’ll call it affectionate good humor.
(Images from a city engineer’s design dated April 2015)

Well, this would definitely be odd if it happened.

Despite a continuing gusher of evidence that adding some sort of vertical separation to bike lanes makes them much better at getting people to actually ride bicycles, the City of Portland was, as recently as April, drawing up “preliminary” plans for an entirely new street in the South Waterfront that had a bike lane painted into the door zone of a road bed.

Two days after we emailed him about the plans, city spokesman Dylan Rivera said the sketch (which is dated May 5, 2015 and lists April 2015 as its “date approved”) was “per the 2009 city council approved street plan for the area” and that “we are considering other options.”

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All too common view on one of downtown’s “best” bikeways.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

I’m not one to get upset and complain at every little biking injustice I come across everyday; but when things reach a point of absurdity and highlight a larger problem, I think it’s reasonable to make a fuss.
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There’s reason for hope.
(Photo J Maus/BikePortland)

This week is Bike Week in east Portland’s Rosewood neighborhood and it’s also the launch of the much-needed cycling spark that east Portlanders have been waiting for.

As we learned first-hand back in June, once you cross over I-205 on a bike everything changes. There are no longer bike shops on every other corner, the streets feel a lot less welcoming, and you suddenly feel like a fish with no school to swim with. [Read more…]

Corner of 15th and Killingsworth.

Residents of the Vernon Neighborhood in northeast Portland are organizing opposition to a proposed 7-Eleven at the corner of NE Killingsworth and 15th (map). Among their list of concerns about the potential store are how it would impact traffic safety — particularly among people walking and biking.

In a newsletter emailed out on Wednesday, the Vernon Neighborhood Association said after an “overwhelming majority” of residents at a recent meeting expressed concerns about the store, they have decided to oppose the development. In addition to the fact that the new 7-Eleven would be within one block of three locally and minority-owned convenient stores, the neighbors say they are, [Read more…]