The St. Johns Bridge is one of four Portland spans that won’t be included in this year’s routes.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

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Portland from the Marquam Bridge. Great views of downtown on a pretty day. Picture by Jeremy Kitchen.

Did you ride Bridge Pedal? The weather was perfect, and I saw lots of families having a great time riding and enjoying the views.
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Steel Bridge crowds without
10,000 event riders.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Cascade Bicycle Club, the group behind the Seattle-to-Portland Bicycle Classic has announced a last minute route change. This Saturday and Sunday, an estimated 10,000 riders (most of them on Sunday) will roll across the lower deck of the Steel Bridge en route to their final destination at Holladay Park in the Lloyd Center. [Read more…]

The man behind Bridge Pedal,
Rick Bauman.
(File photo)

Continuing the drumbeat of dissatisfaction with this year’s Bridge Pedal is a front page story in the Metro section of today’s Oregonian that details the problems with the ride and grievances experienced by many participants.

Reporter Helen Jung opens the article with, “Officially, it’s called the Providence Bridge Pedal. But the annual bike ride over Portland’s bridges earned a new name Sunday — Providence Bridge Ped-debacle.”

Her story reveals new information about the now infamous Ross Island Bridge bottleneck:[Read more…]

[Updated (see below) at 10:20am, 8/13]

The back-up before the Ross Island Bridge. (File photo)
View the full gallery or watch slide show below.

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Bikes rule the city during
Bridge Pedal.
(File photo)

It’s that time of year again when the entire city surrenders to bicycles for the annual Bridge Pedal ride.

This Sunday close to 20,000 people are expected to register for their once-yearly chance to contemplate freeway bridge views undeterred by the noise and risk of motorized vehicles, and to ride free and proud, unfettered by inconvenient traffic laws and the confines of bike lanes.

Call it Critical Mass for soccer moms, or a massive waste of time. Whatever you think, there’s no denying that it is a cycling spectacle like no other.
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Usually when I go to an event like Bridge Pedal I’m running and riding around like crazy, trying to get good photos and talk to as many people as I can. I enjoy that tremendously, but this time I brought the family along to savor the spectacle with them (and 18,000 or so fellow Portlanders). It was nice to just ride and not be in full reporter mode.

We planned on doing the 10-bridge route, but arrived at the Morrison Bridge only to hear that the route was closed so we started with the 8 and 6 bridge riders.

Once at the start, I noticed Rick Baumann, the man behind it all. I can’t imagine the amount of stress on this guy’s shoulders that must come with shutting down so many roads and bridges and trying to make 18,000 people happy.
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Bridge Pedal head honcho Rick Baumann just sent me these photos of the 2006 Bridge Pedal commemorative helmet.

Graphic designer Michael Morrow and his Portland-based company Nutcase Helmets, have created what is sure to be a popular item. I was lucky enough to grab one of last year’s helmets (thanks Ric!) and I’m looking forward to adding this one to my collection.
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[PLEASE NOTE: This post is from 2005. If you’d like to comment on the 2007 Bridge Pedal, please do so here. Thanks.]

Sam Adams, recently voted “Best Local Blogger” and “Best Member of the City Council” by the Willy Week, is asking for your feedback about how to make next year’s Bridge Pedal even better.

There were several bottlenecks where we were forced to walk and I’ve also heard of several people that were accidently mis-led on the route. Sam is especially interested in the logistics and planning of this event because he was recently given the responsibility of transportation issues for the city of Portland.

So get over to Sam’s blog and leave your input.