Happy Velotine’s Day: A bike love guide
(Photo © J. Maus)
News
Bikes on sidewalks: Could Washington County be held liable in tragedy?
“Signing any sidewalk as a bicycle path increases the likelihood of tort settlements even years later.”–FHWA Course on Bicycle and Transportation Planning The recent tragedy in Beaverton leaves many unanswered questions. Among them is whether or not Washington County contributed to a dangerous situation by designating a sidewalk as the bike route — a practice … Read more
Lance wants his hometown to “evolve into a place like Portland”
Lance at the Oregon Convention Center last Saturday.(Photo © J. Maus) The national bike movement might have just found its most important (and famous) ally: Lance Armstrong. After just bumping into Lance at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show held in Portland last weekend, I noticed a story published in his hometown newspaper today about … Read more
Police identify a suspect in Hummer road rage case
Portland Police Bureau detectives say they’ve identified a suspect in the case of a road rage incident that took place in Northwest Portland just over two weeks ago. The victim — who claims he was nearly run down, threatened with a baseball bat and then punched in the face by a man in a Hummer … Read more
Sizer issues executive order on crash investigations; unveils new code procedures
Traffic Division Captain Larry O’Dea(Photo © J. Maus) In an executive order issued on Monday (2/11), Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer made official what I reported on one month ago — new language has been added to the list of crash investigation criteria that will have a major impact on bike-involved collisions. At last night’s … Read more
A ghost bike and a rally for Austin Miller
Bike safety advocates at a memorial gathering earlier this evening for Austin Miller.(Photos: Jim Parsons) About 15-20 bike safety advocates held a brief rally tonight at the site of yesterday’s fatal bike/bus collision on SW Farmington Road just west of Murray Blvd. Participants held signs and placed tea lights and flowers at a ghost bike … Read more
PDOT unveils bike box marketing slogan, graphics
At tonight’s meeting of the Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee, PDOT Project Manager Rich Newlands unveiled the marketing materials intended to educate Portlanders about the new bike boxes coming this spring. Here is the centerpiece design of their “Get Behind It. The Bike Box: Portland’s new green space” campaign:
Vancouver City Council approves all-ages helmet ordinance; hearing planned
Evan Manvel and Andy Clarke on the streets of downtown Vancouver.(Photo © J. Maus) The Vancouver (WA) City Council unanimously approved an all-ages helmet ordinance at their meeting yesterday. The ordinance was initially drafted to only apply to kids under 18 and was then re-written as an all-ages law at the suggestion of a local … Read more
‘SmartTrips’ leads to fewer car trips in Southeast
SmartTrips materials are delivered by bike.(Photo © J. Maus) PDOT’s Transportation Options Division has announced that their “SmartTrips Southeast” program led to a 9.4% reduction in drive-alone trips in the target area. The program — which uses individualized marketing techniques to encourage participants to walk, bike, and take transit — was focused on over 20,000 … Read more
Tonight: Memorial planned for Austin Miller
Austin Miller Hal Ballard, acting executive director of the Washington County Bicycle Transportation Coalition has organized a brief memorial service tonight for Austin Miller, the 15 year-old who was killed after colliding with a bus in Beaverton yesterday. The service will begin at 5:00pm tonight at the intersection of SW Murray and Farmington Road. Ballard … Read more
Beaverton commuters weigh in on deadly intersection
Yesterday’s tragic bus/bike collision in Beaverton that claimed the life of 15 year-old Austin Miller occurred at an intersection that is known to be tricky and dangerous. The precise mechanics of what happened are still unclear, but we do know that Miller was struck by the #52 TriMet bus as he entered SW Farmington Road … Read more
Update on my technical difficulties
As many of you know, the site was completely down yesterday. My server crashed due to too much traffic. The culprit was my coverage of the Handmade Bicycle Show. I worked with my host to fix the problem, and they tweaked the server as much as they could, but they said the traffic was simply … Read more