NE 33rd Avenue, where bike lane striping will be removed next week. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
“It’s 3:00 am on a Sunday morning and what sounded like a [street] sweeper was not a sweeper — it was a striping crew getting an early jump before the rain and putting in a bike lane on fresh pavement on 33rd with no prior notice or notification. Pause and imagine that moment and imagine the emotions that would bring forth.”
That was how Portland Bureau of Transportation Policy, Planning and Projects Group Manager Art Pearce described the context of what happened when city crews installed a new bike lane on NE 33rd Avenue back in September. Pearce attended a meeting of the PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee (PBAC) Tuesday night to explain why he decided to move forward with removal of the bike lane. Pearce was at the same meeting last month to explain how PBOT erred when they installed it in the first place and that they’d pause a planned removal to get more feedback from adjacent residents.
At Tuesday’s meeting Pearce shared more about what PBOT staff heard in those conversations over the past month. His comments and a pointed exchange with a member of the PBAC help explain the city’s frame of mind and shed light on their controversial decisions.
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“Despite our best intentions, we triggered, I think, emotional harm to the adjacent neighbors,” Pearce told the committee. And then continued a few minutes later:
Screengrab of Pearce at Tuesday’s online meeting.
“We triggered and connected to a perception that Portland is intentionally trying to ostracize and push out certain members of our community through these improvements, and are connecting to a narrative that is not true, that this is all part of the master plan to really disregard the needs of a whole set of Portlanders.”
David Stein, a member (and former Chair) of the PBAC and the PBOT Budget Advisory Committee, responded with frustration. Stein shared that the conduct of PBOT makes it increasingly difficult for him to support the agency.
“It just seems like there are so many ways to get out of building bike infrastructure,” Stein lamented. “And we always talk about we have these plans and policies that are great. And then we have all these great ways of just getting around them, or not handling them in a way in which we can actually build the infrastructure we’re supposed to build.”
“… we don’t seem to have the language, or the skill-set, or something, to the navigate these conversations to build what needs to be built.”
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Stein said what happened on NE 33rd is part of what he sees as a troubling trend for projects that end up in controversy and delays when certain voices object (like on North Williams Avenue, 7th/9th Greenway, SW Broadway, NE/SE 28th) then said PBOT’s record these past few months is “wearing on me” as a member of the budget committee who’s being asked to advocate for more city transportation funding. “I have to ask myself, ‘For what?!’… I don’t want the general funding to go into this and then it be used to just circumnavigate any placement…”
At that point, Pearce interjected forcefully:
“PBOT has continued to build a number of bicycle facilities all over the city during the same period that we had process missteps on Williams, and a really challenging conversation around 7th, and now 33rd. I think you’re producing a narrative that is not accurate. So I guess I would caution you from that.”
“I know that this is frustrating. I know that you feel that way,” Pearce continued. Then he shifted to a new explanation for why PBOT is more prone to mistakes in recent years:
“We have 120 Quick Build projects we are frantically working on trying to get ready to deploy and budget reductions have been happening year-after-year on my team. This is what happens when we end up with less staff spread more more thinly across our portfolio while trying to still deliver these projects. There’s a direct connection to your role on the BBAC [Bureau Budget Advisory Committee] and our ability to invest in the amount of process to be able to do city transformation correctly.”
Another bit of new information we learned at Tuesday’s meeting is that PBOT has come up with a new, “middle path” design of the bikeway on 33rd that Pearce feels, “Is the right answer”. The only thing needed for it to be installed is a “real respectful conversation to occur,” and Pearce believes that conversation is impossible as long as the bike lane is on the ground.
“The answer is not putting in bike lanes in the dark of night,” Pearce said.
There’s never a wrong time of year to explore the amazing winery roads in Yamhill county. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Welcome to the weekend.
The annual Peacock Lane holiday lights display starts tomorrow and the first three nights are carfree! Find out about a group ride to that event and much more in this week’s guide. And remember, we list meet-up times and rides usually leave about 30 mins later (always best to check website ahead of time for latest info).
Friday, December 15th
Techno Christmas Peacock Lane Takeover – 6:30 pm at Lloyd Center (NE) It’s the first of three carfree nights on Peacock Lane, one of the best places to revel in holiday light magic in Portland, and this ride is an invite to get out there and get funky w’ cha dance moves. More info here.
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Saturday, December 16th
Family Trail Day – 9:00 am to 12:00 noon at Gateway Green (NE) Northwest Trail Alliance and Warpaint host this event where you’ll get to dig and scoop and make Portland a nicer place by helping maintain the bike park at Gateway Green. More info here.
Inn Between Holidays Ride – 12:30 pm at Goose Hollow Inn (SW) What better way to mark the holidays than with a jovial jaunt to pubs that have the word “inn” in the name? More info here.
Clue Murder Mystery Ride – 1:00 pm at Irving Park (NE) A whodunnit bike ride the likes of which you have never experienced. Come dressed as your fave Clue character! More info here.
Artisan Show and Peacock Lane Ride – 3:30 pm at Ankeny Rainbow Rd Plaza (SE) Come to the Bike Happy Hour location and browse gifts and crafty wares from local makers before a group ride to see the lights at Peacock Lane (leaves 4:30). More info here.
Sunday, December 17th
Wine Country Out West – 8:30 am at St. Honoré Bakery (Lake Oswego) Join PDX Long Rides for a 84-miles of chill-paced riding to get into gorgeous wine country east of Lake Oswego. Route loops out around Yamhill and back. More info here.
CycleCats Do Tualatin and Lake Oswego – 9:30 am at Vera Katz Statue on Esplanade (SE) A just under 40-mile jaunt that will take you up and over Riverview Cemetery and beyond with a group of fun-loving, not-too-serious serious riders. More info here.
Southerly Ladies Series – 10:00 am at Trolley Trail Trailhead (SE) Lady-powered bikes only says veteran ride leader Maria “Bicycle Kitty” Schur. She’ll lead you on an excursion south to find hidden gems in and around Milwaukie. More info here.
Nomad Patches Pop Up Market – 12:00 noon to 4:00 pm at Golden Pliers Bike Shop (N) Check out the cool and affordable patches and stickers made by a local artisan. Perfect gift possibilities and added bonus of a visit to Golden Pliers where they’ve got loads of nifty things to ogle and often nice drinks and snacks to enjoy. More info here.
— Don’t see an event? Please tell us about what’s going on in your neighborhood by filling out our contact form!
The plan would spend $2 million a year (for five years) on sweeping bike lanes six times per year. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
It’s been a roller-coaster week for the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT). On Tuesday they announced controversial plans to remove a new bike lane, and on Wednesday we learned a judge ruled against them in a lawsuit that could expose the city to major liability for not complying with the Oregon Bike Bill.
But also yesterday there was very, very good news: City Commissioner Carmen Rubio announced a plan that would inject $112 million into PBOT as part of $540 million in unanticipated revenue from the city’s Clean Energy Surcharge (CES), a 1% tax on retail gross revenue earned within Portland on tax filers with a total gross income of $1 billion or more, and a Portland gross income of $500,000 or more. The CES is the revenue source for the Portland Clean Energy Fund (which Rubio oversees as commissioner-in-charge of the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability) which was created to fund projects and programs that help low-income and people of color fight climate change.
The funds pegged for PBOT would be spread over five years and would be used to: buy new streetcars, sweep bike lanes, build small bike/walk/transit projects, continue community programs like Safe Routes to School and Sunday Parkways, and purchase LED streetlights. This funding would be in addition to the $20 million PBOT received from the PCEF Capital Investment Plan passed by City Council in September.
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The largesse is possible because forecasted revenue from the CES is expected to be $540 million over initial estimates. The City Budget Office chalked up the higher forecast to a strong retail sales growth trend, weakening inflation, and more e-commerce sales which tend to be concentrated in corporations that pay the tax.
The funding for PBOT could not come at a better time. The bureau’s finances are floundering as agency leaders plan a cut of $32 million (one-third) from their already-dwindling annual discretionary funds. PBOT’s budget has been battered for years by a loss of revenue from parking fees, limitations from the State Highway Fund, and inflation that has driven projects costs way up. Pandemic-related shifts in travel behavior would be the nail in the coffin if PBOT doesn’t find some sort of lifeline.
“This funding will help PBOT fulfill a key priority of our bureau, the city, and PCEF: making low-carbon travel options safe, accessible, and convenient for all Portlanders,” PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer shared in an email to BikePortland this morning. “We are currently assessing how this will impact our overall budget shortfall. We anticipate this funding will help us keep jobs and programs that otherwise would have been cut.”
Below are the five PBOT projects that would receive funding (taken from document shared by Rubio’s office). Keep in mind these figures are spread over five years:
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Streetcar Capital Replacement – $30 million: Replacement of the Portland Streetcar fleet to ensure continued operation, affordable and efficient service. Continued operation of transit system that carries over 9,000 passengers per day, including high percentage of priority populations. Thirty-nine percent of all affordable housing in Portland is directly on the Streetcar line.
Active Transportation Operations – $10 million: Sweep and maintain almost 400 miles of bike lanes, approximately 6 times annually. Direct benefit to people using active transportation in providing safe, clean and accessible bike lanes to use throughout the year.
Small Active Transportation Capital Investment Program – $20 million:Deployment of small capital projects that complete biking and walking networks and make transit work better, providing community members with safe, convenient ways to get around while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Prioritized benefit in building projects in areas that are identified as equity areas using PBOT’s equity matrix. Projects come from plans prepared in partnership with community and allow City to deliver on commitments made in those processes.
Community Programming, Education and Encouragement – $15 million: Continued community programs including Sunday Parkways, Safe Routes to School, bike, pedestrian and neighborhood greenway system coordination and outreach, citywide climate mobility encouragement. Programs use PBOT’s Equity Matrix to determine program focus areas, and also include funding for community partner organizations. Direct benefit to over 100 schools, making it safe, convenient and fun for children of all abilities to bicycle, walk, and roll to school and around their neighborhoods. Sunday Parkways events deliver community benefits throughout Portland, providing a safe, car free space for people to walk, bike and roll.
LED Streetlights – $37 million: Support conversion and installation of LED streetlights and associated green energy costs. Indirect benefits of better illumination & safety in neighborhoods.
This $112 million for PBOT is a portion of $282 million spread across five other bureaus. A second tranche of $258 million will go toward five specific projects that includes $100 million for production of “green affordable housing”, $100 million for protection and maintenance of 240,000 street trees, and other clean energy projects.
Rubio’s plan must still jump a few hurdles before it becomes official. The PCEF Committee will weigh in on it at their next meeting in January. The committee will then make a recommendation to Portland City Council who will have the last word before it’s fully adopted. The timing of a final council vote could be around when Rubio announces her mayoral candidacy — a decision that could influence this funding plan because two of her colleagues on council, Rene Gonzalez and Mingus Mapps, are already campaigning for that job.
Come help us build out our private, on-prem cloud. Do you love modern container tooling but long for the days where costs mattered and hardware was appreciated? If so, come join us in building out the next iteration on our scalable, redundant infrastructure powering our website and mobile apps.
This position requires you to be within 2 hours of downtown Portland, Oregon. This is not a datacenter job, however the occasional management and updates to our physical machines is essential to the job. Historically, this is less than 10 days per year of actual datacenter related work (the bottom of the stack), with the bulk of the job being the middle (Linux and Kubernetes) and top of the stack (containers, services). This is a fully remote position aside from the datacenter work, though we have a small office we maintain in Portland to let people escape their home environment on occasion.
About Us:
Ride with GPS is on a mission to help people go on better bike rides, more often. We have a website and mobile apps that help riders discover the best places to ride, and provide tooling for them to build and distribute their own great bike rides, complete with cycling friendly turn by turn navigation. While our product is predominantly focused on cycling, we support all types of outdoor recreation. We are all about the journey and experience, not the time or athletic achievements.
Responsibilities:
The following lists a significant surface area of responsibility. It is a list of TEAM responsibilities, not individual responsibilities. For this hire, it is important we have someone to take ownership of the bottom layer, while participating as a team in various aspects of the middle and top layers of the stack. We don’t expect unicorns, rather we rely on well distributed team responsibilities, and finding the right person to complement our existing skills. Additionally, we are strong believers in finding people who have the ability to learn, rather than trying to just find people with existing skills. Don’t treat the below as a hard filter, reach out and talk to us if you think you are a good fit but might be light on relevant experience.
The bottom layer:
– Maintain our rack of Ubuntu Linux machines hosted at the Pittock in Portland
– Spec, order, and deploy new hardware as needed
– Occasional networking changes and work
The middle layer:
– Linux system administration
– Kubernetes deployment and administration
The top layer:
– Deployment and monitoring of various databases (you don’t have to be a DBA). MySQL, Superset, Redis
– Various DevOps related software (Jenkins, Docker + docker-compose, Helm, etc) that we use to deploy our services
– Satellite services (Open Street Map based tile, routing, and geocoding services, custom microservices for a variety of tasks, etc)
Qualifications:
Be an enthusiastic, engaged professional who wants to do great work and work with great people.
Email careers@ridewithgps.com with a cover letter including a brief description of relationship to the outdoors, if any, as well as your resume. Being a cyclist or active outdoors oriented person is not a requirement, though we do find it helps make the job more enjoyable, and lets people have greater autonomy to make decisions.
Email careers@ridewithgps.com with a cover letter including a brief description of relationship to the outdoors, if any, as well as your resume. Being a cyclist or active outdoors oriented person is not a requirement, though we do find it helps make the job more enjoyable, and lets people have greater autonomy to make decisions.
Remember a few years ago when the Portland Bureau of Transportation decided there were just “too many cars” on NE Tillamook near Grant High School to keep the neighborhood greenway route on that street? That realization led them to shift the route one block south the NE Hancock east of 33rd Avenue and they’ve since made significant changes to turn it into a bike-friendly street.
The big challenge with this route is how to get greenway users from Hancock and 42nd across Sandy Boulevard at 43rd. Sandy is a stressful street to cross (illustrated by a recent serious injury collision involving a very experienced bicycle rider) because it’s on a diagonal and has four lanes of drivers with no shoulder and a 30 mph speed limit. Adding to the equation is Kelly Plaza, a one-block section on the north side of Sandy between 42nd and 43rd that meets Sandy at an oblique angle.
BikePortland hinted at the Kelly Plaza issue back in early 2021 and now PBOT has released detailed plans for how they’ll make the crossing work.
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Green marking is western entry to Kelly Plaza from 42nd.New path along north side of Sandy adjacent the plaza.Connect to Hancock on south side of Sandy View through Kelly Plaza eastbound from 42nd & Hancock.View through Kelly Plaza westbound from Sandy..
According to newly released drawings (above), PBOT will build a new cycling path on top of what is now an on-street parking lane. That path will then orient riders to cross Sandy with a bike-only signal that will help make the east-west connection onto Hancock. PBOT will add green striping to help guide bike riders across and warn other road users of the presence of a cycling route.
When it comes to getting bicycle riders through Kelly Plaza. A now outdated PBOT graphic showed striped bike lanes along the southern edge of the plaza that would connect to the new path along Sandy; but I didn’t see those stripes in the latest plan drawings. When I asked PBOT to clarify what they plan to do in the Plaza, spokesperson Hannah Schafer said, “Initial concepts considered striping bicycle facilities through the plaza, but after considering existing uses and community feedback, the design shifted to focus on improving accessibility to Kelly Plaza and how best to help people bicycling cross NE Sandy Boulevard.”
What PBOT means is that bicycle users will be encouraged and welcome to ride through the plaza, but it will be a shared-space environment with no striping or dedicated space so folks need to ride with caution and courtesy for others. That makes sense given that the plaza is more like a park than a transportation facility.
Construction on this project will start early next year and is expected to be complete before spring. More info on the project website.
Starting pay is 35,000 a year with 15 days of PTO. Health benefits are offered. Product stipend.
MVC USA is seeking someone for our warehouse in NE Portland. The position performs various warehouse functions (picking, packing, shipping, receiving, etc.). Applicants should be highly motivated with an attention to detail and a team player. The position is full-time Monday through Friday 8-5.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Picking and packing orders correctly, quickly, and efficiently
Shipping orders using UPS/FedEx shipping software
Receiving inbound products and putting away on shelves
Keeping warehouse neat and clean
Helping with physical inventory counts
Processing returns from customers
Other duties as assigned
QUALIFICATIONS
Must be detail oriented and organized
Must have a positive attitude and be highly motivated
Must be punctual and keep a good attendance record
Comfortable working in a fast-paced work environment
Ability to multi-task
EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS
High School Diploma
Warehouse experience preferred
Basic PC skills, Word, Excel, Outlook
Use of UPS WorldShip/FedEx Ship Manager a plus
Our office/warehouse is in the Hollywood/Laurelhurst district of NE Portland and close to MAX and bike routes. Full-time positions offer competitive salary, health care, 401k, profit sharing, PTO, and a generous product allowance.
MVC is a premium cycling apparel manufacturer its world headquarters in Italy. The US headquarters in Portland OR represents two cycling brands: Castelli and Sportful. We have a history of product innovation and performance that goes back over 75 years. Our products have been used by Tour de France winners, World Champions and Olympic Gold Medalists.
The Castelli/Sportful team strives to create an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. Companies that are diverse in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, and perspective are proven to be better companies. More importantly, creating an environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best work. We welcome all applicants.
How to Apply
Please send your resume to tgonzales@castelli-us.com . Inquiries without a resume will not be answered.
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Ramras ruled Tuesday that a lawsuit filed against the City of Portland for lack of compliance with the Oregon Bike Bill can move forward.
The decision could have vast implications on how the 1971 law, that requires a minimum investment in bicycling and walking infrastructure in tandem with major road projects is applied going forward, and could result in the City of Portland being mandated to build dozens of bike facilities.
The two law firms representing the plaintiffs, Forum Law Group and Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost (TCN&F)*, have a long history of cycling and transportation-related experience and expertise. Reached for comment today, lawyers from both firms told BikePortland they are eager to move forward into the discovery phase where they’ll be able to interview City staff about project decisions and compel them to produce detailed documentation.
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“I think [Judge Ramras] got it right. It’s nice to finally get past this preliminary legal question and get into the the merits,” said Chris Thomas with TCN&F. “We are now entitled to learn exactly what’s been happening at the City with respect to these allegations.”
And Scott Kocher with Forum Law Group said, “I’m really thrilled. We’ve got an opportunity now to have real accountability about whether the City has complied with the Bike Bill or not. It’s no longer like ‘Pretty please, pretty please,’ it’s an equal playing field, we’re at the table, and we’ve got a judge calling balls and strikes — instead of us just begging for scraps.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs say their clients suffer because the City of Portland has not adequately invested in bike-specific infrastructure. Oregon Revised Statute (ORS) 366.514, aka the “Bike Bill”, states that, “reasonable amounts shall be expended as necessary to provide footpaths and bicycle trails,” on streets that have been “constructed, reconstructed, or relocated.” There are exceptions, but the decision-making process for when the law is triggered is opaque and even challenging for agency staff to follow. It is often difficult for the public to verify if a road authority like the Portland Bureau of Transportation or Oregon Department of Transportation is following the law and why they might choose to ignore it for a specific project.
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City of Portland attorneys urged the judge to dismiss the case based on three arguments: The plaintiffs don’t have a “legally recognized interest” or “standing” to bring the case because they can’t prove a specific safety interest beyond what any other Portland road user experiences; the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries are (according to court filings) “not imminent or concrete because they are based on their subjective fear that it is unsafe for them to bicycle on certain City streets”; and that the proper mechanism to enforce the Bike Bill is the State Highway Transportation Fund.
In his ruling Tuesday, Judge Christopher Ramras disagreed on all three fronts.
In his five-page decision, Ramras cited a 2016 case (MT & M Gambling. 360 Or 544) where the Oregon Supreme Court found that, “a person who… is the statute’s intended beneficiary, has standing to seek a declaration as to the statute’s validity, meaning or effects.” Ramras wrote that the plaintiffs in this case, “belong to the class of people that the [Bike Bill] was intended to benefit, i.e., citizens of the state of Oregon who have an interest in safe paths to access via bicycle for work and recreational purposes.”
And Ramras appeared to agree with lawyers for the plaintiffs that the City’s alleged failure to comply with the Bike Bill exposes these bicycle riders to greater harm because they are forced to take alternative routes or accept an, “increased risk for collision with a car that would be lessened if the city complied with the statute.”
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On the matter of whether or not BikeLoud itself has legal standing, Ramras pointed to filings from the plaintiff’s lawyers that includes the fact that a high percentage of their members ride bicycles regularly compared to the general public. “This… shows that a ruling will impact BikeLoud’s members in a manner distinct from the general public,” Ramras wrote.
From here, it’s very likely the case goes into discovery where evidence from both sides will be used to litigate the facts of each location (the plaintiffs will also be allowed to add additional locations if they choose). If the judge ultimately decides in favor of BikeLoud, there could be a number of different outcomes. Those might include: a negotiated settlement where the City of Portland dedicates a certain amount of funding to mitigate harms experienced by the plaintiffs, a requirement by the judge for the City to add bicycling and walking facilities at specific locations, or some other remedy that satisfies the plaintiffs.
It’s still very early in the process, but regardless of what happens next, Kocher and Thomas both agree this is a step forward.
“We just cleared the first hurdle, and the first hurdle was the biggie,” Kocher said.
“The more court decisions we have that interpret this important law and provide guidance about how it how it can be used, is helpful for cycling, advocacy and state,” Thomas said. “It’s absolutely an important step in clarifying who has the right to bring cases under the Bike Bill, and I think that alone should be celebrated.”
*Disclaimer: Forum Law Group and Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost are financial supporters of BikePortland.
People who live along Northeast 33rd Avenue in the Concordia Neighborhood received a flyer on their doorstep earlier today. The flyer states that the City of Portland plans to remove bike lane striping between Dekum and Holman on December 18th and 19th. (Note: The flyer is not on Portland Bureau of Transportation letterhead because it comes directly from S-2 Contractors, the firm PBOT has hired to do the work.)
The flyer was delivered before PBOT made any announcement about the project but I have just confirmed with the city that the removal will happen. ***Scroll down for updates and comments from PBOT staff***
The first time these bike lanes were slated for removal (November 1st) people stood in front of the contractor’s truck and prevented the driver from moving forward. The spontaneous protest came as bike advocates were caught off-guard and sought to defend a vital link in the bike network between the Holman neighborhood greenway and existing bike lanes over NE Columbia.
The protestors were successful. PBOT paused the removal and chose to do more direct outreach to nearby residents. The reason PBOT claimed they needed to remove the bike lanes in the first place was because of an administrative error. The agency manager in charge of the project, Art Pearce, said people who live on 33rd were told about the new bike lanes only on the morning they were striped. He chalked it up to PBOT simply “dropping the ball.”
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In addition to what PBOT says was an oversight in their outreach process, the fact that some of the people strongly opposed to the bike lane are longtime Black residents, loomed over their decision.
For the past month or so, PBOT has left the bike lane in a state of limbo. They’ve left the striping alone, but decided to not enforce parking rules. They have also held individual talks with residents to help inform how best to move forward. According to PBOT, two staffers, Capital Project Manager Scott Cohen and Quick Build Program Delivery Manager Lisa Patterson were the staffers who did the one-on-one outreach. PBOT also hosted a community meeting in early November that they say 16-18 residents attended.
BikeLoud PDX, the nonprofit advocacy group whose members and leaders stopped the removal last month, has also reached out to residents. They passed out a flyer with an invitation to discuss the issue to every house in the project area.
With this new flyer delivered today, it now appears PBOT has made their decision. I have not yet learned why PBOT decided to remove the bike lane but am scheduled to chat with their spokesperson soon. I’ll update this post as soon as I can.
UPDATE: In a phone call with BikePortland a few minutes ago, PBOT Policy, Planning and Projects Director Art Pearce, Capital Project Manager Scott Cohen, and Communications Director Hannah Schafer explained the rationale behind their decision.
Art Pearce:
“We had worked on some additional design options and were hoping that we could navigate some sort of mid-level change [to keep the bike lane in place and satisfy concerns], but in the work of doing the direct outreach, have discovered — I think even more so — the degree to which this un-notified and un-consulted change has touched on a degree of rawness and sensitivity from community members — in particular, the multi-generational Black families that live adjacent to this location.
We believe the only respectful answer at this point is to take a step back, acknowledge the impact (despite our good intentions), remove bike lanes, give this conversation a little bit of time to cool off and then figure out what a path forward should be. But we’re really just not able to have a respectful conversation while we have those facilities still in front of all those homes.
… The plan is that we need to do the removal, but we need to let neighbors know that there’s still an unmet transportation need so we still have to come up with a resolution. But we need to give this a little bit of time.”
Hannah Schafer:
“We still see a need to identify a way to improve the connection in this area, so that’s not off the table, it’s just that we can’t move forward with a constructive conversation with community while the existing bike lanes that were put in without notification are on the ground.
It’s important to emphasize that yes, there is a component of this that is tied to historic disenfranchisement of members of the Black community, but that’s not entirely what this is about. That’s just one component of it. We didn’t just hear from members of the Black community who were opposed to this and were taken aback by the fact that we had put in a bike lane without any notification. It’s really important that this is not a ‘bike versus Black community’ issue.”
Scott Cohen:
“The pain and frustration and anger with the City over past decisions were definitely communicated as part of this and were frankly seen as a line of decision making, not something you know — how we felt — we made a one-off mistake. That was not how it was received.”
The contours of conversations about how much space should be given to various users of the new Hood River-White Salmon Bridge are quickly coming into focus. Members of the Columbia River Gorge Commission where given an update on the project this morning and some of them see a red flag in the lack of space initially allocated toward non-car users.
Washington and Oregon have decided to spend an estimated $520 million to replace the current bridge because it’s over 100 years old, is quite narrow, and has no dedicated space for bicycling or walking.
Planning work began in earnest in 2018 and BikePortland first covered the project in 2020 when it reached a major planning milestone. From the get-go, some advocates worried that the conceptual design language called for only one 12-foot-wide path to serve two directions of cycling, walking, and other non-car users. That one path would be adjacent to 40 feet for drivers who would have two, 12-foot lanes and two 8-foot wide “breakdown” shoulders (so people could move aside and let traffic get by in the event of a fender-bender or other emergency).
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Screengrab of Columbia River Gorge Commission meeting 12/12/23.
The Gorge Commission was shown a presentation by Michael Shannon, a project manager with HTNB Corp, an engineering consulting firm. Shannon shared a new digital video of a conceptual rendering of what the future bridge could look like.
After seeing the presentation, Commission member (and former Metro Councilor) Robert Liberty raised his hand. He highlighted the management plan for the project that mandates the new bridge, “shall include facilities for pedestrians and bicyclists that are be wide enough to safely accommodate and encourage walking, bicycling and other uses.” Liberty then explained that a standard width for bike lanes on bridges is five feet in each direction and another five-to-six feet for pedestrians.
“So that’d be 15 to 16 feet, but the rendering and the cross-section state 12-feet. When the [Historic Columbia River Highway] bike trail on the [Oregon] side is completed, the volume of traffic is going to be considerable,” Liberty said. He then painted a picture of bike riders mixing with walkers and groups of people posing for a family photo.
In response, Shannon said it’s a challenge to balance all the needs of the project with a fixed budget. He added that the width of the bike path has been a “topic of discussion” and he assured Liberty that the designs shown today are merely at an early, 5-10% level of detail. “There will be more design refinements to look at on that,” Shannon promised.
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Shannon also acknowledged that bridge engineers have flexibility when it comes to lane widths. He said they could consider adjusting the width of the shoulders to give more room to the path. Another option he mentioned was creating a bike lane on the main bridge deck that’s, “More geared toward e-bikes or the professional road users who don’t really like to be mixed in with the pedestrians and casual recreational users.”
It’s unclear why Shannon referred to some cyclists as “professional road users.”
The project currently has $119 million in the bank ($80 million from Washington, $25 million from Oregon, $14 million from federal government) and needs $400 million more — including $105 million from Oregon.
The current estimate for the bike/walk path is about $50 million.
While Liberty appears to be ready to champion a significant increase in the width and quality of the path, two members of the public who spoke during the open comment period shared a different perspective.
“The main purpose of this bridge is to move cars. It’s not to move people and bikes and everything else,” said a commenter named Mary (who also objected to the planned tolls that will help maintain the bridge). “It’s a crossing that is needed for economic reasons, but its main purpose is moving cars and trucks to keep commerce going.”
Another woman agreed with Mary, saying, “The principal responsibility of the bridge is to move traffic, it’s not to be the Golden Gate Bridge or whatever… it is for the most movement of transport and commerce and people who want to move from one side of the Gorge to the other for purposes of returning home from shopping or moving visitors to the area from one side to the other. I can’t imagine that a lot of people are going to be stopping at one side of the bridge or the other to take a photo.”
Shannon said the project hopes to have a final environmental impact statement and official “record of decision” from the federal government by spring of next year. Construction would then begin in fall 2025 with the final design in place by the end of 2026. The new bridge is expected to open in late 2029.
Views of NE 57th Ave near NE Failing. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
The Portland Bureau of Transportation has replaced nearly two dozen plastic flex-posts that were uprooted from their place in the buffer zone of the bike lane on Northeast 57th Avenue in the Cully neighborhood.
We posted about the missing protective materials in this important curved section of the bike lane between NE Failing and Fremont on Tuesday. And by the end of this past weekend, new posts had been installed. I went and took a look at them yesterday just for good measure and was happy to see new, bright, white posts where there were previously none. This bikeway needs all the help it can get while we wait another three years (at least) before the city builds a more robust solution with concrete curbs.
For their part, a PBOT comment on social media yesterday made it seem like they simply were unaware the posts were missing. “Thanks for making us aware of this,” they wrote in response to the BikePortland story. I appreciate that PBOT is using this as an opportunity to promote their complaint-driven system for keeping roads maintained, but I find it hard to believe no PBOT employees had noticed this situation in the past several months.
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Regardless, I’m just happy PBOT responded and acted to fortify the bike lane a bit. I hope the posts do their job of encouraging more people to bike and walk and protecting them better while doing so — while also discouraging people to drive dangerously. Of course, if these plastic posts were tall concrete curbs, I wouldn’t have to hope!
On that note, a reader sent me a photo taken earlier this morning that showed a PBOT crew at the scene. I’m not sure if they were already replacing uprooted posts or what, but hopefully these new ones stick around a while and don’t waste too much PBOT time and resources re-installing them.
If you see missing posts or other maintenance issues or road hazards, please call PBOT’s 24/7 maintenance dispatch hotline at (503) 823-1700 or email pdxroads@portlandoregon.gov. “If it’s not reported, we may not know it needs to be fixed!” PBOT says.
William Henderson at a BikePortland Wonk Night event in 2015 (left), during our online interview on Friday (center), and at a Bike Happy Hour in April 2023. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
On Friday afternoon, I was only a few minutes into my interview with Ride Report Founder and former CEO William Henderson when I threw my notes aside and realized they’d be useless.
BikePortland has covered nearly every twist-and-turn of Henderson’s journey in the transportation data industry since our profile of him in 2015. So I prepped notes with a timeline of the past eight years that included: how he turned a passion for bike advocacy into a piece of hardware that counted bike trips (a gadget we proclaimed would “change bike planning forever”) and earned the interest (and investment) of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, to a successful app that set him on a different course; how he became a “smart city” darling and raised $13 million from venture capital firms; and how his company launched data dashboards to track bike share and e-scooter fleets for Portland and dozens of cities worldwide.
So imagine my surprise when Henderson said at the beginning of our chat that, “Bike counts are not the most important conversation,” and that, “we need to challenge that idea that quantification is the place to start,” when it comes to bike advocacy and pushing for systemic transportation reform.
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Henderson’s self-reflective skepticism made more sense after I learned he majored in math and philosophy at Reed College, only got into tech (he worked at Apple and Square before creating the Ride Report app) to pay back student loans, described himself as a reluctant capitalist, and once dabbled in monasticism.
With flowing hair looking like it wanted to break free from his headphones during our online conversation, Henderson opined, “You can’t unbuild the house with the master’s tools.” An urbanist and bike advocate at heart, the “house” in this metaphor is America’s car-centric transportation system. “What I’ve come to understand is that bike counts are ultimately vehicle thinking translated into, ‘Okay, now let’s apply that to bike planning.'”
Henderson thinks the zeal advocates show for boosting bike counts is the same dead-end, “volume thinking” that has led to massive freeways and bloated transit projects.
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Instead of being focused on a higher mode split percentage and a turnaround of our cycling decline, Henderson thinks the entire premise and practice of “bike advocacy” needs to be re-assessed in light of the new, post-pandemic reality where neighborhood proximity has replaced the old, hub-and-spoke model where downtown was the center of our planning maps.
Henderson still believes accurate and robust bike counts are essential tools for planners, but it’s clear he has moved to a different place, philosophically:
“We’re still thinking about the bike as, ‘Can it compete with the car as a way to bring people downtown and back home on their commute?’ I don’t think people actually believe that’s the best way to measure bikes, or that it’s the most impactful thing that bikes can do for our community. But that’s actually how the system works, because we just took car culture, car thinking and engineering, and translated it over to bikes.
We need to really step back and say, ‘What are we really trying to do here?’ We’re not trying to compete with the car on its own merits, because that doesn’t work.”
Hear my full interview with Henderson in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts. Visit the BikePortland Podcast page to browse more episodes.
Waterfront Park is nice to look at, but it could be so much more! (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
A task force convened by Oregon Governor Tina Kotek with the goal of breathing life into downtown Portland revealed its recommendations this morning. While I’d hoped tactical urbanism or some sort of streets and/or transportation-related remedies would get more prominent billing, the group has decided to focus on more traditional approaches.
“Gov. Tina Kotek in the coming months will press to increase police presence downtown Portland, outlaw public drug consumption, take protective plywood off of buildings, and step up social services for those struggling on the streets of Oregon’s largest city,” reads an OPB story published this morning that summarizes the recommendations.
While anything that makes downtown streets look and feel safer will encourage people to use transit, their feet, and bikes downtown — there’s nothing transportation-specific in the 10 immediate priorities the governor wants to focus on.
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A stronger — and safer — connection between the Park Blocks and the river on Salmon is a great idea. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
One of the recommendations that caught my eye was listed under the second of three priority tiers (which are referred to as, “Early 2024,” “Actions Throughout 2024,” and “The Decade’s Work”). It had to do with activating public spaces. The Task Force said they’ll work with Prosper Portland and Travel Portland to pursue grant funds and make it easier for people to hold events in public spaces and improve public space amenities to encourage people to attend them. Work like that makes downtown a more attractive cycling destination and could encourage more ridership.
Another recommendation listed under the “Decade’s Work” category was to, “Make downtown a worthy destination.” Underthat heading, the Task Force suggested a “better activated” Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Folks in BikePortland circles have been shouting this from the rooftops for years! Let’s swap some of that grass for more programmed spaces and create a world-class park that lures bike riders from all over town. The recommendation also says the park should have, “flexible spaces for recreation,” which to me sounds like maybe a bike skills park and/or pump track? Or maybe a dirt trail that winds along the river and through the trees that could be shared by bike riders and runners?
And I loved this line: “The Salmon Street corridor could better connect the waterfront fountain and the Park Blocks.” How about a physically-separated green lane on Salmon for bikers, walkers, and other small, slow, low-impact transportation vehicles that connects direction to the future protected bikeway on SW 4th?
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The only direct mention of transportation infrastructure was the (no kidding) very last item listed. Under the heading of “Support major transportation infrastructure to catalyze development,” the Task Force report said, “Realizing transformative Central City redevelopment projects over the next decade will require major infrastructure investments. Given the scale of infrastructure costs and local funding limitations, the City will need match funding from state and federal partners to move these projects forward with urgency.”
(We’ll remember this when Portland Bureau of Transportation applies for a big grant to fund the Green Loop and lawmakers say they don’t have money because they spent it all on freeway expansions.)
Overall, I’m glad the Governor took initiative to add urgency to getting downtown Portland get back on track. But given that the public outreach survey conducted by the Task Force included many responses from folks saying they’d appreciate better transit, walking, and biking downtown; and the Task Force website encourages people to go on a bike ride to aid downtown’s recovery — I think they could have gone further on the transportation front.
One saving grace here is that PBOT is already ahead of the game and has recently convinced City Council to make their street plaza program permanent. That policy groundwork will pay off big-time if/when the recommendations in this report begin to bear fruit.
