🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏

Once again, bike lane bollards torn out by auto traffic on NW Lovejoy

A man riding down NW Lovejoy
yesterday, alongside what used
to be plastic bollards.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

It looks like PBOT will have to head back to the drawing board in their effort to create separation between bike and auto traffic on the NW Lovejoy ramp leading down from the Broadway Bridge.

About a month ago, PBOT installed 34 plastic bollards (a.k.a. wands) on the ramp in order to prevent people in cars from driving in the bike lane. (The presence of newly installed streetcar tracks is causing some people to straddle them, thus putting their vehicle into the bike lane.)

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State of Oregon plans ‘Governor’s Ride’ to mark historic event

Governor Geer, bike lover.
(Photo: Oregon State Library)

Remember Oregon’s tenth governor, Theodore T. Geer? He’s the great Oregonian who, in May of 1900, rode his bike from the capital in Salem to Champoeg to establish a monument to an historic vote that took place there in 1843. That vote paved the way to Oregon statehood and the monument stands today as the focal point for the Champoeg State Heritage Area.

To honor that ride and Governor Geer’s role in the founding of Oregon, the State of Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is organizing a bike ride that will retrace his route. The inaugural “Governor’s Ride 2012,” will be part of Champoeg’s annual “Founder’s Day” festivities (which have taken place at the monument since 1901).

Champoeg State Heritage Area Park Ranger Bob Woodruff got in touch with us to share more…

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Hit someone biking and then flee the scene? Think again says PPB

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

“To me, driving off and leaving a bicyclist or pedestrian laying on the side of the road is one of the most cold-hearted things a driver can do. We’ll go after them every chance we get.”
— Sgt. Todd Davis, Portland Police Bureau

The Portland Police Bureau takes hit-and-runs seriously — especially when they involve someone walking or biking. I know their response to incidents doesn’t satisfy everyone all of the time; but in my experience, when they have enough evidence to work with, they go after suspects until they find them.

So far this year, I’ve learned of two arrests that have been made. In both cases, the person driving the car hit someone riding a bike and then fled the scene. In both cases, the PPB opened an investigation and made an arrest.

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White Bianchi Vigorelli 2004

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Year: 2004
Brand: Bianchi
Model: Vigorelli
Color:White
Size:63
Serial: H4J06576
Stolen in 97219, OR
Stolen:2012-01-17
Stolen From: The bike was stolen from our house.
Neighborhood: Ash Creek (near Garden Home)
Owner: chris dern
OwnerEmail: cjkkdern@msn.com
Reward: $200
Description: There was a River City Bicycles sticker on the down tube.
Police record with: Portland
Police reference#: 12 4517
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

Black Trek PDX

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Brand: Trek
Model: PDX
Color:Black
Size:19 inch
Stolen in Portland, OR 97214
Stolen:2012-01-24
Stolen From: Shed in the backyard of my house, which is located on 38th and Hawthorne
Neighborhood: Richmond
Owner: Joel Stein
OwnerEmail: joalstein@gmail.com
Description: It’s a black Trek PDX with black fenders, a Meat Cheese Bread sticker, a Die Antwoord sticker, a Fools Gold sticker, and a HUB sticker. The gear device on the left handlebar is twisted slightly downward and is missing the plastic casing.
This registrant has documented proof of ownership of this bike

Drunk walking, calories, and funding: A few tidbits from TRB Annual Meeting

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In case you haven’t heard, the Transportation Research Board’s 91st Annual Meeting is being held right now in Washington D.C. It’s a major event in the transportation world that attracts the best and brightest thinkers and policymakers from around the country.

I’ve been following updates from the event via Twitter and two quotes have been shared hundreds of times. Here’s the first one:

On 350 calories, a bicyclist can go 10 miles, a pedestrian 3.5 miles, and a car 100 feet.

That was tweeted by @AurashKhawarzad and I’m not sure who the original source was. I’m also not sure how you convert car movement into calories, but it’s a fun way to look at the numbers.

And then there’s this quote (paraphrased by tweeters) from famed transportation researcher Todd Litman:

“Best urban sustainability measure: “whether or not you are able to walk home from a bar drunk.””

One more quick note about TRB. With the transportation funding debate heating up, a Streetsblog DC reporter attended a session on the topic. Check out what he found out in this story, Is Doing Nothing a Politically Acceptable Way to Pay For Transportation?

Bikes, Obama, and the State of the Union

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Obama spoke cards-1.jpg

I believe it’s time for a
new transportation vision.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Tonight, President Obama will give the annual State of the Union address. While there’s zero chance he’ll mention bicycling, there is a chance he’ll mention transportation investments (likely in the context of creating jobs).

If you were writing the speech, what would you have him to say about biking and transportation?

Go ahead, suspend your grip on reality and imagine that transportation is a non-partisan issue and that bicycling isn’t a polarizing political football and favorite public scapegoat.

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Ask BikePortland: Are runners required to have lights while using paths?

Dark paths require caution.
(Photo © J. Maus)

This edition of Ask BikePortland comes from reader J. Long. Mr. Long emailed us after he was involved in a collision with someone who was jogging while riding his bike on the Springwater Corridor at night.

“Hey Jonathan, Two nights ago I was riding my bike home on the Springwater [Corridor] between OMSI and Oaks Park.

I hit a female jogger and we both went down hard. As a cyclist I am always worried that somebody may have been hurt; but as I was laying on the ground she just got up and jogged away while I was a little dazed and trying to get untangled from my bike.

Are there rules for joggers to have reflectors or lights as there are for cyclist’s on multi-use paths?”

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Portland company to launch GPS bike tracking device

Kris Akins
(Photos courtesy Kris Akins)

A few years ago, I called a GPS bike tracker the “Holy Grail” of bike theft. If someone could just develop a discreet, affordable GPS device that would allow someone to track their bike after it was stolen, I thought, we would have a potent weapon against the scourge of bike thieves.

Now a Portland company says they’ve done just that.

Veteran entrepreneur Kris Akins has started several successful companies over the past 33 years. After having two bikes stolen from her garage, she looked for a device that would allow her to track the bike on her mobile phone. When she couldn’t find one, her entrepreneurial spirit kicked in and BikeTrak was born. Akins bills the patent-pending product as, “the first GPS-powered security device for your bike.”

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The Oregonian’s commute columnist weighs in on Broadway Bridge pole issue

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

A new pole for the streetcar (marked
with orange/white stripes) has
narrowed the entry to
the Broadway Bridge path.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

As the story unfolds about how and why Portland Streetcar Inc. installed a utility pole on the Broadway Bridge bike/walk path, it is becoming more clear that they made a bad move.

We’ll have more to share on this story in the coming days; but for now, check out what The Oregonian’s “Hard Drive” columnist Joseph Rose thinks about it (taken from a news roundup he published today):

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