BikePortland

Weekend Event Guide

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

The Sandy Ridge Super D race
series kicks off Sunday.

Welcome to the weekend folks. Just because it’s a little wet and cold outside, doesn’t mean you won’t find lots to do on a bike. Check out the events below and use the comments to share anything we left out.

Saturday, March 19th

8:30 am: Cycle Club Riding Clinics
Racer Sara Fletcher and trainer Kara Carlson from NW Personal Training will lead a series of clinics geared toward increasing your endurance and bike handling skills. This is a paid group session. See the website for more details.

Check out these two great volunteer opportunities that just popped up. One is with the Community Cycling Center’s youth bike clubs program and the other is with the City of Portland’s Transportation Options division.

From the CCC:

Starting in early April 2011 we’ll be implementing six Bike Clubs in North and Northeast Portland. Our Bike Clubs are free, youth earn-a-bike after-school programs where 9 to 12 year-olds from families with a low income learn safe riding skills, basic bike maintenance, and build their confidence as road users.

We are seeking enthusiastic community members to help support student success throughout the program. Working with two trained bicycle safety instructors, you will gain experience in experiential education program facilitation, safe bicycling, bicycle mechanics, and working with diverse and low-income youth.

From the City of Portland:

Want to help on guided bike rides or walks? Want to share your knowledge of how to get around Portland using active transportation? Come join us as an Ambassador!

The City of Portland Transportation Options Division is looking for volunteers. This is an opportunity to get hands-on experience with the Options staff to reach out to Portland residents through guided walks, guided bike rides, and outreach at community events, such as street fairs and farmers markets. Our focus area this year for SmartTrips is North and NE Portland.

Ambassadors are amazing volunteers that represent the Bureau of Transportation and present information to encourage pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers and transit riders to travel safely together. As part of our SmartTrips program, Ambassadors will assist on guided Ten Toes Walks, Senior Strolls, and Portland By Cycle and Women on Bikes rides. By being an Ambassador you will have a great time while seeing some of North and NE Portland’s beautiful neighborhoods. We also have opportunities to volunteer with our Safe Routes to School and Portland Sunday Parkways programs.

We offer two dates for the training – April 19 or April 27, both 6-8pm, to prepare Ambassadors for the summer. If you are interested in becoming an Options Ambassador, please fill out an application at: http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?&a=329510&c=34749.

Cheers,

Advocate hails ODOT’s plans for SW Barbur

Packed meeting last night to hear
about ODOT’s plans for SW Barbur.
(Photo: Kiel Johnson)

Advocates are hailing the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) plans for a new crossing treatment on SW Barbur Blvd. The plans were unveiled at a meeting held in Southwest Portland last night.

As we detailed yesterday, the crossing in question is in front of the Rasmussen Village Apartments, about 3/4 of a mile south of the intersection of Barbur and SW Hamilton. Kiel Johnson, a citizen advocate who co-founded the Friends of Barbur activism group, was at the presentation last night and he’s “ecstatic” about what he heard.

If you’re a complete streets advocate, this case in Maryland should definitely be on your radar screen.

According to the Washington Post, a Circuit Court civil jury found the state of Maryland liable in the 2008 death of a woman who was killed while walking on stretch of road that did not have a sidewalk or guard rails.

Here’s more from the Post:

Landslide on the Springwater Trail south of
downtown Portland.
(Photo: Ben McLeod)

Heavy rains have caused a landslide that’s just a few feet away from the paved Springwater on the Willamette trail. Reader Ben McLeod sent us a photo of the situation a few hours ago. McLeod tells us the slide is located just about 300-500 feet south of the Ross Island boathouse.

This map, created by PSU researchers in September 2009, shows bikeway network gaps. Areas with green outlines have high minority populations.
(From Equity Gap Analysis of Portland’s draft Bicycle Master Plan – PDF)

Many Portlanders are headed up to Mt. Hood later today to attend a public form on the proposed Timberline MTB Park. As we reported last week, the project in its final comment period and the Forest Service is looking for feedback on their Preliminary Assessment of the project.

Local advocacy group, the Northwest Trail Alliance is urging their members to attend the forum to show their support of the project and two local bike shops — Bike Gallery and Fat Tire Farm — are organizing carpools to the event.

As we shared a month ago, Clackamas County is set to break ground on an exciting new six mile bike/walk trail from downtown Milwaukie to the City of Gladstone. The press release below has details on the groundbreaking ceremony slated for Tuesday, March 22nd:

North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District sets Trolley Trail groundbreaking ceremony for March 22

North Clackamas Parks and Recreation District, Clackamas County and other partners are working to build the future Trolley Trail. The groundbreaking will be Tuesday, March 22, at Stringfield Family Park, 3614 SE Naef Road, the trail’s main trailhead.

The Trolley Trail is about six miles of bike and pedestrian trail that connects neighborhoods from downtown Milwaukie to the City of Gladstone and beyond. The trail, beginning construction now, will follow the historic streetcar right of way that ran in the area from 1893 until 1968.

Elting Northwest of Gladstone was selected as the general contractor. Construction is expected to be completed by late fall.

The trail will be constructed to the approved final design and the only changes anticipated are those that may come about once construction begins and the conditions on the ground.

The project is currently anticipated to take about nine months to build. It is expected that the contractor will build the trail in segments. The exact sequencing is not available yet but will be shared when details are known. NCPRD will be working to provide timely construction updates to the community and interested parties as possible during the course of the project.

Construction is a dynamic process and by its nature disruptive. There may be trail closures and street detours during the course of the work.

‘Trains down the middle’ video creator has Portland roots

Rap-tivism at its best.
(Still from video by Joel Batterman)
– Watch the video below –

As an advocate, what do you do when you feel passionate about a project and want to convince others to share your perspective? If you’re former Portland resident and now Detroit-based transportation activist Joel Batterman, you get out some Legos and planning documents, write a rap song, set it all to music and make a hilariously wonky and informative video.

State Representative Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland) is sponsoring a bill (HB 2250) that would require the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Commission to enter into talks with the City of Portland about the possible state acquisition of Forest Park.

Here’s the entire text of the (very brief) bill:

“The State Parks and Recreation Commission shall make reasonable efforts to arrive at an agreement with Portland Parks and Recreation to acquire Forest Park.”

Greenlick lives adjacent to the park (it’s also in his district) and during a public hearing on HB 2250 held last month, said the park’s long-term health and stability is, “Extraordinarily important to me.”

Event Name: Showers Pass Photo Contest
Event Start Date: 15 March, 2011
Entry Deadline: 15 April, 2011
Web Site: http://showerspass.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/showers-pass-photo-contest-2/
Event Description: It’s time to break out your cameras, get on your bikes, and enjoy some spring riding – Showers Pass style. We are looking for a few great photos of our loyal customers in their favorite Showers Pass gear. Winners will receive :

A coupon for 60% off on one Showers Pass item to use within a year (up to $156 value)

photo credit in our catalog

your very own Tri Vest

5 copies of the Showers Pass catalog with your photo (released in September 2011)

All photo submissions will be rewarded with a 20% off coupon good for one year.
To enter: Email your photos to info(at)showerspass(dot)com with your full name, location of photo, phone number with photo contest as the subject line by April 15th to qualify. Winners will be selected and prizes will be distributed by April 22nd.

Weekend Event Guide

Saturday, March 19th

Spread the bike love with these two great volunteer opps

Advocate hails ODOT’s plans for SW Barbur

Incomplete street costs state of Maryland $3.3 million in lawsuit

Parks Bureau monitoring landslide near Springwater Trail

A short guide to ‘transportation health equity’

Portlanders rally to attend forum on Timberline MTB park

Trolley Trail groundbreaking ceremony set for Tuesday

‘Trains down the middle’ video creator has Portland roots

Bill asks State of Oregon to consider acquisition of Forest Park

Event: Showers Pass Photo Contest (4/15/11)

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