BikePortland

Mayor Hales shares his thoughts on paving and the PBOT budget

Mayor Hales at a City Council
PBOT budget work session yesterday.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

At an event last night I was able to grab Mayor Charlies Hales for a few minutes to ask him for his thoughts on the major PBOT budget move that was unveiled yesterday.

At a City Council budget work session, Hales’ interim director of PBOT, Toby Widmer, unveiled a plan that would take $7.15 from existing budget items and put it all toward street paving and maintenance. Among the places Widmer “realigned resources” for more paving is a $1.2 million sidewalk project already funded and slated for construction this summer in East Portland on SE 136th between SE Powell and Holgate (about 0.52 miles). Another Widmer realignment victim is PBOT’s ADA curb ramp program which is being asked to give up $500,000. According to PBOT sources, that chunk equals about 30% of the entire program (which has annual budget of $1.7 million).

Asked about the proposal last night, Hales distanced himself from it. “It’s a bureau budget. It’s just a starting point.”

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title
Bike Mechanic – Alaska Business

Company/Organization
Sockeye Cycle Co.

Job Description
Hiring Bicycle Mechanics for the 2013 season for our Haines and Skagway locations. Must be 23 or older and available to work a minimum of 3 months between 4/1 – 9/30. Apply online at www.cyclealaska.com or call 877-292-4154 for more information.

How to Apply
www.cyclealaska.com

Bill would remove mandatory driving test for people with limited vision

I figured I’d post interesting bills I come across here on Page Two. If they warrant more attention, I’ll consider a Front Page story.

Senate Bill 288, “Eliminates requirement that person with limited vision condition take driver test every two years.”

The bill was introduced by state Senator Brian Boquist (R-Dallas). Current law calls for people with limited vision to take an actual driving test every two years. According to the law, the test must be “an actual demonstration of the person’s ability to operate a motor vehicle without endangering the safety of persons or property.”

The bill would amend the law to remove the driving test provision and swap it out for a requirement to be examined by a licensed vision specialist every two years and the specialist must certify to the DMV that, “the person meets the vision requirements” as laid out in existing Oregon driving laws.

An aide in Sen. Boquist’s office said he submitted the bill, “for one of his constituents.” The bill is slated for a public hearing and possible work session on Thursday (2/21) in the Senate Business and Transportation Committee. We don’t expect it to get very far, but we’ll keep track of it just in case.

“Symbolic” bike tax proposed in Washington should sound familiar

North Portland Bikeworks new location-11-10

Don’t forget to add tax.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The Seattle Times reported today on a $10 billion transportation funding package introduced by state lawmakers. The package includes a provision that would levy $25 tax on the sale of all bicycles over $500. The tax would be one of six revenue streams and would be expected to raise a mere $1 million per year.

Interestingly, a bike sales tax is not a foreign concept here in Oregon. In fact, it has been supported in the past by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Metro, PBOT Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller, and even Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer.

Cielo’s new Overlander.

PBOT Interim Director Toby Widmer
at a City Council budget work session today.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

With the ink on the paving audit barely dry, Mayor Charlie Hales’ interim director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation Toby Widmer, made a sweeping budget proposal during a City Council budget work session at City Hall today. They call it the PBOT Resource Realignment.

Widmer announced a $7.15 million proposal that would “realign” funds in the existing budget in order to do more paving and maintenance. The proposal includes:

$4.5 million is savings from debt service on Sellwood Bridge bonds (this money was originally slated for the City’s general fund, Hales is attempting to keep it all for PBOT);
$1.2 million from a sidewalk project slated for SE 136th Ave;
$950,000 from the Downtown Marketing Initiative program;
$500,000 from the City’s ADA curb ramp program.

Cover of paving audit.
– Download PDF –

Portland has a major backlog of street paving and maintenance. That’s the main finding of a new report by the City Auditor that came out yesterday (PDF). If that doesn’t sound like huge news; that’s because it isn’t. The maintenance backlog has been a major issue for many years. What’s different this time is that City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade pins the blame for the problem on poor “stewardship” of the system by Bureau of Transportation staff and City Council.

The audit is just the latest red flag raised by the Auditor’s office on this issue. Since May of 2006, they’ve released seven audits relating to street paving and maintenance. In the audit released this week, Griffin-Valade accuses the City of, “not adequately protecting the condition of street pavement.” Despite data showing the maintenance backlog only getting worse, Griffin-Valade said City Council “chose to invest in competing transportation priorities without an overall strategy.”

The audit named those competing priorities specifically as funding for the Portland-Milwaukie light rail line, streetcar operations, and new sidewalks. All three of those refer to significant funding commitments made by former Mayor Sam Adams. Much to its credit, the audit never mentioned spending on “bike lanes” or “bike projects” as an example of a “competing priority.”

SE Division. Time for a diet?

After months of working with the Mt. Tabor Neighborhood Association to make SE Division Street safer, the Portland Bureau of Transportation now plans to open up a road diet project for further public feedback. And today, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) stepped in to throw their organizational weight behind it as well.

Dubbed the Division Street Lane Reorganization Project (road diet must not poll well), the project would transform SE Division betwee 60th to 80th from its existing four standard lanes into three standard lanes and two bicycle-only lanes.

National Bike Summit 2010 - Lobby Day-22

Next month I’m headed to the League of American Bicyclists’ National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. I’ll also attend the National Women’s Bicycling Forum which takes place on March 4th right before the Summit begins. In addition to covering those events, I plan to stay several extra days to soak in the D.C. bike scene, observe that city’s infrastructure, visit with advocates, interview transportation officials, and so on.

This will be my seventh Bike Summit since 2006 and I’m looking forward to reconnecting with the national advocacy scene. The League has adopted a theme of Bicycling Means Business so we can expect a heavy dose of bikenomics woven into the regular programming. The list of speakers looks interesting, with outgoing US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood slated to be there, as well as the likely-outgoing New York City DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Other speakers include members of congress and, somewhat surprisingly, Yolanda Cade, Managing Director of Public Relations for automobile lobby group, AAA.

Jennifer and her Linus re-united.
(Photo: Jennifer Cree)

We have a long tradition of sharing bike theft recovery stories here on BikePortland. While we’ve seen just about everything from police chases to citizen stings, one of the most common ways bikes come back is through the diligence and courtesy of well-meaning bike shop employees. In fact, one of our first-ever reported recoveries — in March 2006 — was thanks to quick-thinking shop employees.

Earlier this month, Portland resident Jennifer Cree got her beloved bike stolen, then got it back a few days later. And

Below, she shares the story in her own words:

Year: 2005
Brand: Sub
Color:hot pink
Stolen in Portland, OR 97217
Stolen:2013-02-16
Stolen From: northeast portland, alberta area
Neighborhood: northeast
Owner: Esther Hockett
OwnerEmail: teamestrogen(at sign)gmail.com
Description: Hot pink road bike with purple fork. bull horn handlebars, black front basket. orange bell. sparkly blue top tube coozie.
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

Yellow Cannondale R700

Brand: Cannondale
Model: R700
Color:Yellow
Size:54cm
Stolen in Portland, OR 97206
Stolen:2013-02-18
Stolen From: Fremont St. and 50th Ave (in front of Pizza Nostra, on bike rack).
Neighborhood: Beaumont-Wilshire (Fremont St), Central NE Portland
Owner: Emily Matson
OwnerEmail: emilycmatson@yahoo.com
Description: Yellow Cannondale R700 (road bike with dropped cross bars). Some scratches on frame. Light on front handlebars. Small black bike bag on stem at back of bike, contained a multipurpose bike tool and tube.
Police record with: Portland PD
Police reference#: 13-151205

Mayor Hales shares his thoughts on paving and the PBOT budget

Job: Bike Mechanic (in Alaska) – Sockeye Cycle Co.

Bill would remove mandatory driving test for people with limited vision

“Symbolic” bike tax proposed in Washington should sound familiar

Cielo goes for adventure with new ‘Overlander’

Proposal looks to “realign” $7.15 million in PBOT budget for paving, maintenance

Paving, street maintenance audit hits (mostly) familiar notes

BTA gets behind push for bike lanes, road diet on SE Division

Headed to D.C. for the National Bike Summit (and more)

Shop owner does the right thing and recovers a stolen bike

hot pink Sub 2005

Yellow Cannondale R700

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