BikePortland

Williams Avenue project gets funded with $1.47 million state grant

N Williams Ave Open House-N Williams Ave Final Open House-26

Project rendering.
(Fat Pencil Studio for PBOT)

Changes are finally coming to North Williams Avenue.

After a long and arduous public process that began in January 2011, we can finally look forward to a host of much-needed traffic safety improvements on this busy bikeway corridor.

Yesterday in Salem the Oregon Transportation Commission approved a list of eleven projects that will improve biking and walking conditions across the state and among them is $1.47 million for the North Williams Avenue Traffic Operations and Safety project.

Travel Portland, our city’s official tourism and marketing arm, has debuted a new video that highlights bicycling. The goal of the video (watch it below) is to entice tourists to come here by showing them how bicycling is such a large part of our local culture.

The video features copywriter and illustrator Alexander Barrett, who opens the 41 second ad with, “As one of the country’s most bikeable cities, Portland has a ridiculous amount of bikes.” He then goes through a bunch of different bike types including a tall bike, a cargo bike, and even the “Pedal Powered Talk Show” bike built by Portland-based Metrofiets and piloted by show host Boaz Frankel. Check it out:

Keep calm and carry on.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

I hate to do this.

I get a lot of emails, Tweets, and sometimes even phone calls about collisions, close-calls, and other scary incidents involving people on bicycles. The vast majority of the time I just take in the information in and do nothing about it. After all, there’s a lot of traffic out there and I don’t think every time a person on a bike has an unfortunate experience it merits a blog post.

Not only that, but I constantly debate with myself whether posting about these things will only create more fear among readers, when overall, riding a bike is not dangerous.

However, earlier this month I received three emails in less than one week that shared three different and equally troubling road rage incidents. Given that, I felt that the community should know. I’m sharing the emails verbatim below in hopes of raising awareness that intimidation and harassment remains a part of Portland’s transportation culture:

Public opinion not based on facts.

The Oregonian published two letters in today’s paper that allow a falsehood to go unchecked and that further perpetuate the incorrect notion harbored by many readers of that publication that bike-related spending by the City of Portland is both bad policy and out of control (neither of which are true of course).

The letters came in response to a story about the Hawthorne Bike bike counter that ran online on Sunday (3/17) and also ran in Monday’s print edition (page A6).

The online version of the story, Portland bike counter: Nudging 1 million trips over the Hawthorne Bridge, mentioned “the city’s $20,000 bike counter,” in the opening lines. Much lower down, in a “quick facts” section of the story, the reporter noted (correctly) that the counter was “donated to the city by Cycle Oregon.”

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Year: 2012
Brand: Surly
Model: Long Haul Trucker
Color:Large
Size:Dark Green
Stolen in Portland, OR 97266
Stolen:2013-03-20
Stolen From: SE 83rd and Duke
Neighborhood: Lents
Owner: J Justus
OwnerEmail: justus.jennifer(AT)yahoo.com
Description: Brown handlebar wrap was starting to come off.
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

New Portland-based crowdsourcing startup has local bike industry roots

Screenshot of CrowdSupply.com.

A Portland-based crowdfunding startup that launched this morning has strong cycling roots. Crowd Supply, a twist on the Kickstarter concept, was co-founded by noted web entrepreneur Lou Doctor and Scott Torborg. Doctor is also co-founder and Chairman of the Board at Velotech, which is the parent company of Western Bike Works, BikeTiresDirect.com and other e-commerce properties. Torborg is an MIT-trained hardware engineer and son of Jay Torborg, the co-founder and CEO of Velotech.

With these two and other “bike geeks” (as described by Crowd Supply Project Manager Patrick Croasdaile) on the Crowd Supply team, it should come as no surprise that two of the 10 initial projects launched by the company are bike-related. But before I get into those, it’s worth noting how Crowd Supply works.

Our friends at Portland Design Works shared a link to a 2010 YouTube video this morning with a simple exclamation of “YES!”

The video shows bicycle drag races being held in a California shopping mall parking lot in the 1970s. It’s amazing footage from the era of banana seats and ape hanger bars. One racer even has parachutes that deploy at the end of his run, just like a real NHRA funny car. Check it out…

Year: 2009
Brand: Jamis
Model: Quest
Color:Black/white
Size:54cm
Photo: http://www.jamisbikes.com/usa/thebikes/pdfs/09_quest.pdf
Stolen in Portland, OR 97214
Stolen:2013-03-19
Stolen From: SE 9th at Burnside, from the bike rack on the side of Doug Fir Lounge, between 7:30 PM and 10:30 PM
Neighborhood: East Burnside
Owner: Noah Enelow
OwnerEmail: nhenelow(at sign)gmail.com
Reward: Dinner at a Portland restaurant ($100 max)
Description: Black and white Jamis quest road bike, black bar tape, small dent in the crossbar, Eco Rack on the back, brackets for head and taillights, carbon fiber fork but steel frame
Police record with: Portland PD
Police reference#: 13-22224
This registrant does not have proof of ownership of this bike

Black Nishiki Road Bike 1980’s

Year: 1980’s
Brand: Nishiki
Model: Road Bike
Color:Black
Photo: http://i.imgur.com/Ty0tFI7.jpg
Stolen in Portland, OR 97214
Stolen:2013-03-17
Stolen From: SE 32nd Place and Hawthorne
Neighborhood: Hawthorne
Owner: Scotti Warren
OwnerEmail: scottileona(AT)me.com
Reward: Yes!
Description: Black Nishiki Road Bike with step-through frame, teal “Nishiki” decal and other teal stripe decals on frame. Black fenders on the front and back tires. Vintage Mickey Mouse bell that no longer rings on the handlebars. Also had a large U-Lock on the left handlebar that could only be taken off by unlocking the lock or undoing the brake cables.
Police record with: Portland Police Bureau
Police reference#: T13002486
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

Bike access projects for Cully, Foster, Broadway make first cut for ODOT grants

A PBOT project to improve safety for bicycling
on Broadway between N. Wheeler and Ross
is in the running for state funding.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The Oregon Department of Transportation has released an updated list of projects to be funded and constructed through their 2015-18 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). For ODOT Region 1 (which includes Clackamas, Hood River, Multnomah and parts of Washington County) the program splits $127 million between a “Fix-It” pot and an “Enhance” pot to the tune of $60.5 million and $66.4 million respectively. “Fix-It” projects “maintain or preserve the existing system” (primarily new signals, bridge repairs, and paving), while the “Enhance” projects “expand or improve the transportation system.”

The list released by ODOT today for public feedback is a 150% list — meaning they will further narrow down the list based on your comments.

For context, this is the first time ODOT has ever doled out these funds in this manner. Prior to last summer (when ODOT announced the changes), the STIP program had 22 different individual programs. All these dedicated funding pots have been simplified down to just these two.

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) has a new front in their effort to teach people about bicycling: They now offer college-level bike training courses in partnership with Portland State University (PSU) and Portland Community College (PCC).

The PSU class, Bike PDX: How to Commute by Bicycle, will be offered in two different sessions during PSU’s spring term which begins April 1st and runs through June 18th. Students can accrue one course credit for completion of the class.

Here’s the course description:

Year: 2003
Brand: Trek
Model: 5200
Color:Blue/silver
Size:52 cm
Serial: SWL 1749838
Photo: http://www.bikepedia.com/QuickBike/BikeSpecs.aspx?Year=2003&Brand=Trek&Model=5200&Type=bike#.UUi5eqWLrIo
Stolen in Portland, OR 97215
Stolen:2013-03-16
Stolen From: SE 52nd and Lincoln
Neighborhood: Mt Tabor
Owner: Bonnie Sailer
OwnerEmail: sailerb(replace with at sign)gmail.com
Reward: Yes
Description: Women’s road bike.

Blue/silver Trek 5200 with US Postal Service branding. Women’s saddle with cutout, surprisingly beat up compared to condition of bicycle.

Sorry don’t have a photo of mine, but the link shows what the bike looks like. On mine the handlebar tape and seat were gray/black, not blue.

Please call, email, or text with any leads! Thank you for reading!

Best,
Bonnie
540-878-8500
Police record with: Portland PD
Police reference#: 13-21507
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

Williams Avenue project gets funded with $1.47 million state grant

Tourism org uses bikes to sell Portland

A Portland road rage roundup

The Oregonian’s unfortunate letters about Hawthorne bike counter – UPDATED

Large Surly Long Haul Trucker 2012

New Portland-based crowdsourcing startup has local bike industry roots

Portland needs bicycle drag races

Black/white Jamis Quest 2009

Black Nishiki Road Bike 1980’s

Bike access projects for Cully, Foster, Broadway make first cut for ODOT grants

BTA now offers bike education courses at two local colleges

Blue/silver Trek 5200 2003

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