City crews installed sharrows on
6th Street in Newport this morning.
(Photo: Daniella Crowder)

The small coastal town of Newport, Oregon continues to show exciting signs of life for bicycling.

Reader Daniella Crowder (she’s also co-owner of the Bike Newport bike shop) tells us the City of Newport is installing sharrows this morning on 6th Street. Crowder says she thinks Newport is the first coastal community in Oregon to use sharrows.
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Rap-tivism at its best.
(Still from video by Joel Batterman)
– Watch the video below –

As an advocate, what do you do when you feel passionate about a project and want to convince others to share your perspective? If you’re former Portland resident and now Detroit-based transportation activist Joel Batterman, you get out some Legos and planning documents, write a rap song, set it all to music and make a hilariously wonky and informative video.[Read more…]

Demonstration of a residential bike corral
in Eugene by Paul Adkins.
(Photo: Paul Adkins)

A Eugene resident has submitted a proposal to the City of Eugene to install on-street, residential bike parking corrals. On-street bike corrals are common in Portland, but we’ve yet to extend the idea into residential areas.

Noted bike advocate Paul Adkins and Chair of the local Neighborhood Council, is behind the proposal. According to the We Bike Eugene blog, Adkins feels like public parking shouldn’t discriminate when it comes to vehicles. “There is no reason that streets should accommodate cars and not accommodate human powered vehicles.” Here’s more from We Bike Eugene:[Read more…]

What happens in places that have a mandatory, all-ages helmet law on the books? Do injury rates decline? Does bike ridership go down? That’s the conventional wisdom; but is it true? Nearly three years after passing such an ordinance, the effect of Vancouver’s helmet law is difficult to ascertain. Our Vancouver correspondent Marcus Griffith took a closer look and found some surprising results.[Read more…]

Kent Meyer, 78, of Hazel Dell,
testified that “Our transportation system in this
country is focused on the automobile,
and we’re paying a price for it.”
(Photo: Michael Andersen)

More and more, the suburbs are making big-city bike values their own.

The latest sign: Clark County, Portland’s more auto-oriented neighbor to the north, passed a 20-year, $91 million* bike plan today with votes from two conservative rural Republicans and full-throated support from the chamber of commerce. (*Note: Like Portland’s bike plan, Clark County’s plan is almost completely unfunded at this time.)
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The new Delta Ponds Bridge in Eugene in all of its “visually strking” glory.
(Photos: OBEC Consulting Engineers)

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Cascade’s David Hiller with a
souvenir newspaper clipping from
a trail access battle.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The twists and turns to the bike advocacy drama up in Seattle just keep on coming. After Cascade Bicycle Club — a non-profit bike event and advocacy group with 13,000 members — abruptly fired its longtime leader Chuck Ayers back in October, it set off of a messy feud between the Board of Directors and the group’s membership base.

The firing, said the Board, was a result of Cascade wanting to take a different, less aggressive and confrontational tone in its advocacy work. Much of that tone was set by Ayers’ right hand man, advocacy director David Hiller. Hiller is a confident advocate who understands the trench warfare it takes to make change against the status quo. His style is self-assured and sometimes rough around the edges; but it’s effective.[Read more…]

[This story is by Portlander Ryan Hashagen (owner of Portland Pedalworks), who is traveling through Latin America for business and to investigate cycling culture, infrastructure and policies.]

Guadalajara’s Via Recreativa (like our Sunday Parkways) occurs every week and attracts 150,000 people.
(Photo © Ryan H.)

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Seattle news site Publicola reports that Seattle Children’s Hospital has stepped up with a $2 million investment for biking and walking infrastructure. Here’s a blurb from the Publicola story:

“Children’s plans to spend around $4 million over the next 20 years improving Northeast Seattle’s walkability, bikeability, and drivability as part of the hospital’s expansion and its Comprehensive Transportation Plan. The hospital will invest $2 million on bike and pedestrian improvements around the Ravenna and Sand Point neighborhoods, $1.4 million on general capital investments “in line with Seattle’s priorities,” and $500,000 on intelligent transportation systems (essentially “smart” signals that improve traffic flow and predict congestion).”

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Concept drawing of a proposed two-cycletrack on Valencia Street in San Francisco.
(Image: RG Architecture)

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