BikePortland

From BMXer to advocacy pro: 6 questions for Mychal Tetteh

Mychal Tetteh with what he described as
“my favorite bike … the Schwinn
‘Tuskegee Tornado’ Sting Ray.”
(photo courtesy Tetteh)

When the Community Cycling Center announced last week that it had selected its former shop director Mychal Tetteh as its new CEO, quite a few people who know him applauded the choice.

But plenty of Portlanders haven’t yet met Tetteh, 31. And he’s got plenty to say — and, we suspect, plenty to do. Here’s what the Benson Polytechnic High School ’00 grad told us about his early days dirt-biking across Portland and the reasons race matters to local biking.

When did you start biking for fun? What about for transportation?
Fun on a bike started when I found out that I could stand a cinderblock on end to get on my brother’s BMX bike. It has been awesome skid-outs and weak bunny hops ever since. Getting myself across town to school at MLC was my first foray in cycling as a bicycle commuter. Before that, it was the way I got to Devil’s Ditch in Laurelhurst Park.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Scene of right hook NE Couch and Grand-1

It might never happen to you,
but just in case…
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

What should you do if you are in a collision with a motor vehicle? First, be prepared. While the odds may be pretty good that you will never be involved in a collision there are several tips you can follow which will make any collision less of a disruption in your life. An understanding of the fundamentals of insurance, medical services, and the legal system will help you after your collision.

This article is a very basic primer on these areas.

If you are in a collision

If you do get in a collision with an automobile while riding your bicycle, make sure that you obtain complete and accurate information about the driver. It is an unfortunate fact of modern life that some people with driving and insurance problems carry false identification. Make sure that the driver shows you an official document such as a driver license or other photo ID as well as a certificate of current insurance coverage before they leave the scene of the collision. If they will not do so, then call the police.

Shoulder on Oregon Coast Route north of
Gold Beach after an ODOT repaving job.
(Photo: Sent in by reader)

As we reported on Friday, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has repaved many miles of state highways in a way that shows complete disregard for bicycling and creates unsafe conditions on some of Oregon’s premier bicycle touring routes. The situation occurs when a new layer of pavement is applied over an existing road. Instead of laying it down across the entire width of the road and shoulder, ODOT (and/or their contractors) are only going about 1-2 feet from the fog line. This is leaving a gravel mess in some cases, as well as what one commenter called a “death ledge” between the old and the new pavement that is placed smack dab in the middle of where people ride. This ledge could force people to ride even closer to the fog line, which puts them even closer to fast-moving cars and trucks on roads that already lack adequate bicycle safety treatments.

ODOT is currently looking into the issue and we expect a formal statement sometime this week.

However, since our story was published, we have heard that the paving problems are much more widespread that just on one section of the Oregon Coast Bicycle Route. In addition, by not applying the new pavement layer across the entire shoulder ODOT (and/or their contractors) may have skirted their own pavement design guidelines.

Reddit user “SpanishMoles” shows off the damage.

A man who was bicycling down Martin Luther King Jr Blvd in northeast Portland on Sunday was allegedly the victim of an assault. After he posted a photo of his injuries to user-powered news site Reddit, a community of strangers has started donating money to help rehabilitate his injuries.

Yesterday morning, Reddit user “SpanishMoles” posted: “Some kids threw a traffic cone at me while I was riding my bike down MLK. Any other shitty areas I should avoid?” He called the police, whom he says were “helpful”, but they had no luck finding the three young kids who he saw throw the cone at him.

As you might expect, comments poured in and the online discussion touched on many different issues including: SpanishMoles’ route selection (most people avoid riding on MLK, which is a state highway); whether or not the assault happened because he was on a bike, or simply because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time; and so on.

The new Garmin Virb.
(Image: Garmin.)

Here’s the bike news that caught our eyes this week:

Garmin camera: The GPS maker is competing with GoPro with a new $400 action camera that connects wirelessly to a mobile app on your phone and the company’s other hardware. There’s a $300 version with fewer bells and whistles.

Helmet lawsuit: Easton-Bell Sports won a lawsuit brought by a man who suffered brain injuries while completing a long ride. The California company said he’d been wearing it improperly.

The Vermont St. Bridge on
SW Barbur Blvd.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

For months now, the Oregon Department of Transportation has been reluctant to embrace the idea of re-allocating space on SW Barbur Blvd in order to improve traffic safety for all users. ODOT sees the road as a major arterial highway that must move as many people in cars as possible at all times (even though Interstate 5 is just a stone’s-throw away).

Back in December, when asked about the possibility of doing a “road diet” on SW Barbur, former ODOT staffer Jilayne Jordan told The Oregonian, “Barbur is the alternate route to Interstate-5, and we don’t like to reduce capacity on those routes.”

Always a good time at Sunday Parkways southeast.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

It’s going to be a gorgeous weekend here in Portland. In order to point you in the direction of some good bikey fun, here are three big events you won’t want to miss.

Portland Design Works Turns Five
Hooray for this great local company. Portland Design Works founders Dan Powell and Erik Olson set up shop in Portland five years ago. Since then, they’ve built an impressively robust line of bike accessories and have created a solid niche for themselves in the industry. Their products have a great mix of form and function, and they are also great guys who make our community a better place.

Scene of fatal crash on SW Barbur Blvd-2

Barbur Boulevard is dangerous even when a
driver doesn’t decide to flee a crash.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Nobody expects to kill a person with their car. This means that the moment you do, your only basis for decision is usually something you heard once from a friend.

And as Portland deals with two major recent hit-and-run cases involving people on bikes, some victim advocates are saying that Oregon needs to do more to spread the idea that it’s morally reprehensible to flee the scene of a collision.

“What’s happened is that Mothers Against Drunk Driving and all these other great organizations have done incredible work over the last 20 years,” Joshua Shulman, a Portland lawyer who works on civil injury cases and has researched the topic, said Friday. “And I’m so glad that they have, because drinking and driving is awful. But one of the side effects of harsh penalties is to make people more likely to avoid them.”

ODOT failed to extend a new layer of pavement
into the bicycle riding area of a long
stretch of Highway 101.
(Photo: Jeff Smith)

A recent repaving job by the Oregon Department of Transportation on the popular Oregon Coast Bike Route on Highway 101 between Yachats and Florence has raised eyebrows among veteran bike tourers, transportation department staffers, and national bicycle advocacy organizations.

It all started with an email sent yesterday from Jeff Smith, a veteran Portland Bureau of Transportation employee and a bike touring enthusiast, to ODOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Sheila Lyons. Smith — who sent the message from his personal email account and not as a PBOT employee — included a photo and a detailed description of what he called an “extremely annoying at best and dangerous at worst” section of repaving.

According to Smith, a 25-mile section of the popular Oregon Coast Bike Route from Yachats south to Florence has been re-constructed with a new layer of pavement that abruptly ends just a few feet past the fog line. Here’s more from Smith’s email:

CCC CEO Mychal Tetteh.

The non-profit Community Cycling Center has announced that Mychal Tetteh will be their new CEO. Tetteh takes over from former executive director Alison Graves, who left the organization back in March.

Tetteh is a familiar face in the community and at the Community Cycling Center. He worked at the CCC for six years from 2005 to 2011, rising to the position of Director of Shop Operations before leaving for a job at the non-profit Village Market in the New Columbia neighborhood. Tetteh is currently the Executive Director of the Major Taylor Cycling Club of Portland, a non-profit that promotes bicycling among African-American communities across the region.

In a statement released this morning, CCC Board Chair Kathryn Sofich said Tetteh can “hit the ground running,” because, “he already has established relationships with our partners and a deep understanding of the issues they face as it relates to bicycling, equity, health, and more, ensuring that our work remains relevant to these communities in the future.”

Three great job opportunities have been posted to our Job Listings this week. Check out more details via the links below…

Sales/Mechanic – Seven Corners Cycles!
Membership Growth and Rides Coordinator – Cascade Bicycle Club
SoupCycler Extraordinaire – SoupCycle

Portland police have arrested a Lake Oswego woman in connection with a major hit-and-run last week on Southwest Barbur Boulevard.

Here’s the news release from the Portland Police Bureau:

29-year-old M. A. Clinton of Lake Oswego turned herself in to officers at Central Precinct this afternoon. She has been booked into jail on two counts of Felony Hit and Run.

The charges come as a result of the hit and run crash on Friday August 16, 2013 at 12:50 a.m., that left the victim, 20-year-old Henry Schmidt, injured on the side of the road on Southwest Barbur Boulevard near the Capitol Highway ramp.

From BMXer to advocacy pro: 6 questions for Mychal Tetteh

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