BikePortland

The Street Trust and Biketown kick off program to reel in new riders

Friday’s group on the Tilikum Crossing Bridge. (Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)

“There’s definitely an interest in BIKETOWN, but accessing it is still a barrier for a lot of people.”
-André Lightsey-Walker

Last Friday, transportation advocacy non-profit The Street Trust (TST) held their first event in a series of group rides to help new people get comfortable riding around the city using Biketown, Portland’s electric bike share program. These rides are part of the recent partnership between the two organizations to leverage TST’s outreach with the bike share program’s financial resources (it’s managed and sponsored by Lyft and Nike respectively, in partnership with the Portland Bureau of Transportation) and paint the town Biketown orange – or at least get a few new people signed up for the program.

TST and Biketown want to bring more people into the Biketown for All program, which makes it almost free to use the bike share service for people who make below a certain income and meet the criteria for assistance programs like SNAP or FAFSA. But many people who are eligible to join the program may not know they qualify for it or even how to use the bikes at all. André Lightsey-Walker, TST’s Policy Transformation Manager who’s heading the Biketown partnership, said he was able to sign one new person up for the service at Friday’s ride.

About 10 people showed up for the ride, which was a relaxed loop around Portland’s central city meant to ease people into the experience of using Biketown. I tagged along and talked to a few people who used the bike share service for the first time that day.

Lightsey-Walker planned the ride route to be (mostly) car-free so people could ease into the experience as much as possible. The group met near the Moda Center and biked south via the Eastbank Esplanade before heading across the Willamette River on the Tilikum Crossing. From there, we made our way back up north using the Naito bikeway, crossing the river again using the Steel Bridge lower deck.

One of the people at the ride was a man named John Bernstein. Not only was this Bernstein’s first time on a Biketown e-bike, but he said it was also his first time riding any bike in 20 years.

“The more people TST can support in shifting from driving alone to e-bikes and bike sharing, the more voices we’ll have in our movement for increasing e-bike and bike share funding and expansion.”
– Sarah Iannarone, The Street Trust

“I feel like a kid again! I’ve rediscovered my youth,” Bernstein told me. When we made it to the end of the loop, Bernstein was so thrilled by the experience he didn’t want to stop, so he headed off to that evening’s Friday Night Ride to keep trying out his newly-rediscovered bike legs.

Seeing this kind of reaction is awesome. But there’s one potential problem: as we’ve covered in the past, some Portland bike advocates are concerned there aren’t enough shared bikes to accommodate all the people who want to use them.

The Biketown rental rack at the Moda Center was well-stocked, but I passed several empty stations on my way to and from the ride, and I have a hard time squaring that with the desire for an ever-expanding user base. But TST and Biketown staff have expressed optimism about the program despite what many think may be a supply shortage.

In July, TST director Sarah Iannarone told me she thinks with more public interest in bike share, increased program funding (and thus more bikes) may follow.

“The more people TST can support in shifting from driving alone to e-bikes and bike sharing, the more voices we’ll have in our movement for increasing e-bike and bike share funding and expansion,” Iannarone wrote in an email. “Engaging and empowering riders from historically underserved communities to lead these conversations will be critical to ensuring that e-biking and bike sharing really works for the Portlanders who need it most.”

TST has now had the chance to gauge community response at last week’s ride. When I asked Lightsey-Walker how he thought it went, he was enthusiastic.

“Personally, I’m feeling great about the ride. I think it highlighted that there’s definitely an interest in BIKETOWN, but accessing it is still a barrier for a lot of people,” he said. “I think as the program continues we’ll get more clarity about what the most significant barriers to access are (and how they vary from community to community) and hopefully, we can work with Lyft, PBOT, and BIKETOWN to secure investments and resources to alleviate those barriers.”

The next TST/Biketown ride will be this Friday’s El Grito ride. That event will be co-led by Peter Do, who is one of the newly-appointed Biketown Ambassadors working with TST to act as a community liaison and further their outreach efforts.

Woman hit by a driver on SE Hawthorne reflects on infrastructure changes

Southeast Portlander Nicole Funke has walked across SE Hawthorne Blvd countless times. As a pedestrian and transit advocate who travels around Portland without a car, Funke knows about the dangers cars and their drivers pose, and she does everything she can to keep herself safe while getting around.

But after a recent run-of-the-mill grocery trip to Fred Meyer last month, Funke was struck by a car driver while crossing Hawthorne at 38th Ave. The collision illustrates how even people with her level of neighborhood familiarity and awareness of traffic risks are vulnerable when put up against car-centric street design and careless drivers.

The incident happened on August 15th around 7:30 pm. Funke recounted to BikePortland that as she waited to cross Hawthorne at 38th to head south, she looked around to make sure the coast was clear before continuing. Someone was driving slowly up to the crosswalk in the westbound lane (where the black minivan is above), giving her the impression they were going to stop. But the driver continued through the crosswalk, and right as Funke had almost crossed the westbound car lane, he hit her while going about 15 mph.

“I think a lot of drivers just take those crossings as a suggestion.”
-Nicole Funke

“I ended up folding around the front of his car, and when he stopped it threw me back a few feet,” Funke told me on a Zoom call earlier today.

She landed a few feet outside the crosswalk on her right hip, sustaining injuries on her elbow and face along the way. She said the driver got out of the car – he claimed he didn’t see her because the sun was in his eyes – and multiple passersby stopped to help her.

Funke thankfully left the scene of the crash alive that night. But that doesn’t minimize her experience: she sustained painful injuries from the incident that she’s still recovering from, and has had to spend the past few weeks dealing with the logistics of medical bills and insurance claims, which is not the ideal way to spend late summer days. And Funke is understandably shaken up from what she went through.

“I’ve always been a cautious, defensive walker, and this has made me even more so,” Funke told me. “It’s tough because I’m someone who really relies on myself to get around.”

The crosswalk Funke used that evening was installed last year by the Portland Bureau of Transportation as part of their Hawthorne ‘Pave and Paint’ project. The crosswalks installed as part of the project included median islands to reduce the exposure to Hawthorne traffic and included enhanced signage to increase visibility of the crossings. That wasn’t enough to prevent Funke from getting hit.

As we recently learned, many people who frequent Hawthorne on foot notice car drivers won’t always stop for people waiting to cross the street. Funke thinks more serious infrastructure measures need to be taken so people driving will actually stop at crosswalks.

“My big takeaway from this is that I believe if there was a pedestrian crossing light there, he would have stopped, he would have seen the light and he wouldn’t have continued through,” Funke told me. “I think a lot of drivers just take those crossings as a suggestion.”

Something else Funke gleaned from the incident is how important it is for victims to know how to advocate for themselves in situations like this. She said she was grateful for all the help she received from people passing, including someone who was a former trauma nurse and made sure Funke got the medical attention she needed and had all the relevant information from the person driving.

“I was so shaken that I couldn’t really advocate for myself. If there was nobody around, I probably just would have walked home in a daze,” Funke said. “I feel that I better understand how I could be helpful if I witnessed a crash.”

Ultimately, Funke decided not to press charges against the driver who hit her.

“I think that he made a really poor decision, but I don’t think it was malicious,” she said.

Instead, she said she will continue to champion safer street design on Hawthorne and around the city.

“Any time I have the ability, I will advocate for safer streets, especially further out east where the infrastructure is so terrible and people are incredibly unsafe walking around.” Funke said. “I think we just need to keep being voices in the community for that.”

How Ranked Choice Voting works (and how it could give bicycling a bigger voice in City Hall)

A creative explanation of how Single Transfer Voting works, from Minneapolis Public Radio

Its aim is to make sure every voter has some influence, in proportion to the popularity of their choices.

You know an issue is hot when you go to a Labor Day weekend party and people are talking about it. The issue is Ranked Choice Voting (RCV), and it will be on the ballot this November as part of the Charter Reform referendum to reorganize city government.

More precisely, voters will be voting on a specific type of RCV called Single Transferable Vote (STV).

As BikePortland previously reported, the Portland Charter Commission has proposed a package of changes to voting and city governance after grappling for a year and a half with how to improve the way we run our city.

I wanted to better understand how the STV method was implemented, and I have a hunch that some BikePortland readers would also like to take a deeper dive. So if you are someone who isn’t satisfied until you understand the details, I’ve pulled together a wonkish explanation of STV, and how the method could give bicycling concerns more voice in city government.

The Big Picture

It helps to think of the opinions and candidate preferences of voters as a big conglomeration of information. A good voting method extracts as much of that information as possible so that the candidates we put in office best reflect what voters want.

Ranked choice, single transferable vote is a nuanced way of extracting information about voter preference. Its aim is to make sure every voter has some influence, in proportion to the popularity of their choices. In this way, the fullness of your opinions is captured, even when your first choice is for a candidate who has no chance of winning, or alternatively, who is sure to win.

I don’t understand that 25% bit

The arithmetic of voting for different numbers of candidates. (source FairVote.org)

On the ballot this fall is RCV with STV in multi-member districts. That means you will rank candidates who are running in your geographical district. The city will be divided into four districts, with three candidates elected to council from each one.

The arithmetic of having three winners is that each candidate will need to capture over 25% of the total vote in their district. Let’s walk through that.

If you have a voting system with only one winner (N = 1)—like we do now—that candidate will have to capture one more than 100 divided by (N+1) votes to win. That comes to 100 divided by 2, or 50% of the vote. That’s what we are used to.

With two winners, N = 2, it becomes 100 divided by 3, or 33% of the vote. Three winners is 100 divided by 4, to arrive at the 25% from the method proposed on our ballot (see table above).

Another way to think about it is that the threshold is set so that it is mathematically possible for only N candidates to get enough votes to win. That’s just the arithmetic of voting.

Here is how tabulating the vote works

This is the fun part. And honestly, there is a short YouTube video from Minneapolis Public Radio which does a fantastic job of explaining tabulation in only 2 minutes and 42 seconds using colored sticky notes, dry erase markers and hands. Their explanation is delightful and will satisfy most people.

Here goes my explanation, it’s a little less delightful, but is tailored to being a cyclist in Portland.

The first pass of vote counting is similar to what we are used to—count how many first choice votes each candidate got.

It’s the next steps that differ. Any candidate who passes the 25% threshold is a winner. But how far did they make it beyond the threshold? We are accustomed to declaring elections “landslides” and talking about “mandates” according to how how strong a win is, so the next step—the actual transfer of votes—might take some thought to get used to.

Any win above 25% has “surplus” or extra votes beyond what is needed to win. It is the number of surplus votes a winning candidate receives that will be transferred to other candidates, in proportion to the votes each candidate received as the second-ranked choice of those winning voters.

In other words, the second-ranked choice of all the voters of a first-pass winning candidate are counted and the fraction of the total vote each candidate got is calculated. Those fractional proportions are then multiplied into the number of surplus votes and distributed to other candidates proportionally.

Why it matters for bicycling

I might have lost you in the previous paragraph, so let’s talk bicycles. Let’s say there is an election, and the big issues are police reform, law and order, and renter protection. Under our current system of winner-take-all voting, improving active transportation infrastructure—better bike facilities—can’t break through those hot-button issues.

But under RCV STV you might get a candidate, call her Catherine, who advocates for better bike infrastructure. It’s her main issue. She gets 10% of the vote on the first round. Candidate Joan, who is an incumbent and whose main issue has always been police reform gets 50% of the vote, so she has a surplus of 25% of the district vote. She’s a winner.

Let’s distribute Joan’s 25% surplus votes to other candidates. Looking at the 2nd-ranked choice of Joan’s voters, we see that a whopping 50% of them chose Catherine. Half of a 25% surplus is 12.5% so Catherine’s total vote count becomes 22.5%—the bike advocate has got a shot at winning!

There is a third candidate, Pascal, who is the law and order candidate. He wins with 30% of the vote, or a 5% surplus. Let’s redistribute that surplus. It turns out that 60% of Pascal’s voters chose Catherine as their 2nd choice candidate. That’s 3% of the total district vote which gets added to Catherine’s column, and she too is now a winner with 25.5% of the vote!

And that is how issues which have trouble breaking through to become a “hot-button” number one issue, but which nevertheless have strong community support, can gain representation on the City Council. These are called “minority” positions. I point this out because this is distinct from positions held by racial or ethnic minority voters, and there is a tendency to conflate the two.

The takeaway

Importantly, the process does not lose ranking information. Both Joan and Pascal will know that a large percentage of their voters want better bike facilities, and you might end up with the two of them—opposites on the police issue—supporting Catherine as she pushes bike issues on council.

Moreover, because a candidate might be angling to be the 2nd or 3rd choice of a competitor’s voters, they would be wise to avoid running a campaign that angers those voters who are not ranking them as 1st choice.

Finally, RCV STV does away with primaries. Historically, the turnout for primaries is low, which means that a small percentage of highly motivated voters determines the selection of candidates that the larger voting public will see in the general election.

Not quite done

Of course, there is more to STV than my explanation covers. The process may make several passes through the data, reaching 3rd- and 4th-choice candidates, and beyond. Also, there are methods for eliminating the bottom scoring candidates when it becomes mathematically impossible for them to win. Their lower-ranked voter choices then percolate up to candidates who can still feasibly win.

This video, also out of Minneapolis, goes into greater technical detail about STV starting at minute 20:51. I don’t know what software Portland will be using to tabulate votes if charter reform passes this fall, so there might be differences in details, but the Minneapolis video gives a good general explanation of the methods and addresses some of the “what ifs” that come up.

Got other questions or observations about charter reform? Let us know in the comments.

Organizers call inaugural Native and Indigenous Bike Ride a success (Photo Gallery)

This story and photos by Jarrette Werk originally appeared on Underscore News

Pedalpalooza’s first ride geared exclusively toward Native and Indigenous riders drew attendees from as far away as Arizona.

Forty Native and Indigenous community members, ranging from young children to elders, plus a dog named Ocho, attended Pedalpalooza’s inaugural Native and Indigenous Bike Ride on Saturday, August 27, 2022.

“Imagine what we could do if we made it an every year thing. It could just get bigger and bigger.”
– Nanette Beyale, organizer

Organizers Alexis Vazquez and Nanette Beyale say they’re pleased.

“So many people came together for this,” said Beyale. “Imagine what we could do if we made it an every year thing. It could just get bigger and bigger.”

The 7-mile, party-paced ride rolled out at 3 p.m. from the Hampton Opera Center on the east side of the Willamette River. Riders headed to Colonel Summers Park, then crossed the river to breeze along the scenic South Waterfront. The finale was a celebration at Portland State University’s Native American Student and Community Center with fry bread, music and vendors.

Scroll down to view the photo gallery:

Nanette Beyale, Navajo Nation, explains the expectations and rules to the 40 attendees of Pedalpalooza’s inaugural Native and Indigenous Bike Ride. Beyale, a Portland State University architecture student, says she organized the ride with Alexis Vazquez to build community and create a safe, fun space on bikes for Native American and Indigenous community members in the Portland metro area. “So many people came together for this, even in the first little bit — just imagine what we could do if we made it an every year thing,” Beyale said. “It could just get bigger and bigger.”

Elisha Bishop, right, delivered three bags of Blue Bird Flour to event organizers, Alexis Vazquez and Nanette Beyale, and community member Lisa Graham. Bishop, a member of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, is an avid cyclist and a 2022 rider for Ride For Racial Justice, a nonprofit on a mission to dismantle systemic racism in cycling and ensure access to resources, education and community for BIPOC cyclists. “I work for the Gila River Indian Community in the Community Manager’s Office as a data analyst, but outside of work I organize community bike rides,” he said. In February of this year, Bishop organized the Gila River Bike Tour, a three-day, 60-mile bike ride across the reservation, and he also organizes family-focused community rides, ranging between 4 and 8 miles. Bishop planned a stop in Portland to attend the Native and Indigenous Bike Ride while on his trip from Arizona to Seattle to visit family. He said he wanted to attend to show his support, but also to learn how he could hold a similar event in Phoenix or Tucson, Arizona.

Reigning University of Oregon Miss Indigenous, Angela Noah, and another student traveled up from Eugene to attend the event. “My favorite thing about the event is I felt excited to see Portland and walked away with new networks and friends who share the same passion of biking and centering healing in the community,” Noah said. Noah, who is White Mountain Apache and Choctaw, and uses she/they pronouns, is a planning, public policy and nonprofit management major and co-director of the Native American Student Union at UO. Noah is inspired to bring the Native community in Eugene together through similar events and looks forward to the Native and Indigenous bike ride becoming an annual event. “I’ll for sure be riding again next year,” Noah said.

Ocho, a three-year-old Maltese Shih Tzu crossbreed, poses for a photo while sitting quietly in the basket of her owner’s bicycle.

River City Bicycles, a Portland-based bike shop, provided free pre-ride checks for any services riders needed. One rider needed help adjusting the seat of their new bike, and others needed tire pressure adjustments.

A young girl with a unicorn helmet sits in a makeshift basket on the back of her father’s bike and looks at the unique windows of the OHSU Robertson Life Sciences Building on South Porter Street in Portland.

Alexis Vazquez, who identifies as Taino, a group of people Indigenous to what is now Puerto Rico, and uses they/them pronouns, keeps an eye out for broken glass and other hazards as they lead the riders eastbound on Salmon Street toward the first stop at Colonel Summers Park.

Ocho (in bicycle basket) and her owner follow the group to Colonel Summers Park for the first scheduled break of the 7-mile Native and Indigenous Bike Ride on Aug. 27, 2022.

A cyclist tends to the wounds of a fellow rider who fell from their bike and scraped their elbow at the beginning of the event.

While looking for a place to take a group photo that could fit all 40 attendees, the Colonel Summers Park’s water fountain sprayed unsuspecting riders.

Gregory Topete, 34, is a first-generation Mexican American. His mother emigrated from Jalisco, Mexico to California in 1979, nearly a decade before he was born. Topete moved to Portland in 2016 and is actively involved with BikePOC, a Portland-based BIPOC cycling community. “The whole genesis of me participating in this ride was because of an ask from Alexis,” Topete said. “They asked if I could help scope the route out and be a corker as well.” A corker places one’s bicycle and body in an intersection in front of crossing road users so that a large group of people can go through without stopping at signals and stop signs. “The corker is there to ensure a driver doesn’t try to sneak by a gap in the group,” he said. “It allows all the riders to stay and ride together, rather than splintering off into smaller groups.”

UO Miss Indigenous Angela Noah, left, traveled from Eugene to attend the event. Noah used the $50 BIKETOWN credit offered to all riders in order to participate.

Corkers wait for the light to turn green so they can ride ahead and stop traffic at a busy intersection in downtown Portland.

With a stalled train blocking the bicycle route, riders improvised, carrying or walking their bicycles up the stairs of a nearby overcrossing bridge. There was also an elevator big enough to squeeze in four riders and their bikes.

Nanette Beyale helps Alexis Vazquez push their heavy electric bike up the stairs of an overpass bridge.

After all riders safely crossed the overpass bridge, they headed to Portland State University’s Native American Student and Community Center.

Forty riders ranging from young children to elders, plus a dog named Ocho.

Underscore is a nonprofit collaborative reporting team in Portland focused on investigative reporting and Indian Country coverage. They are supported by foundations, corporate sponsors and donor contributions. Follow Underscore on Facebook and Twitter.

Portland International Raceway officials directed traffic onto a bike path

Note: Video has no sound. Filmed by Jonathan Maus.

On Sunday afternoon I was biking home from Vancouver. As I headed west on the Columbia Slough path toward North Denver Avenue and began to roll down the path under the overpass, a large box-van came rumbling toward me. Given that this is a bike path, I was shocked to see a driver there. However, since I knew there was a big event (Indycar race) at Portland International Raceway, I figured the van was part of the event and needed some type of special access to the path.

Before I share what happened next, please realize I’m actually a very reasonable person. Despite the caricature some haters on the Internet like to draw of me, I’m not one of those people who get irate whenever any driver blocks a bike lane for any amount of time. Yes it bothers me when bike lanes are ignored and disrespected, but we live in a city and I realize that people need to do things, not everyone in a car is evil, sometimes things just suck, and sometimes we just have to move on.

So while I was a scared and surprised at this one utility van coming at me, I was prepared to simply gesture my dissatisfaction at the driver and move on. But as I rounded the corner there were more drivers coming at me. A line of them! On a bike path!

Now I was mad.

When I see a sign like this, I think there might be a bump in the road, not a 4,000 vehicle coming at me. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

I quickly realized someone at PIR made the decision to direct traffic leaving the venue directly onto the path. I watched dozens of drivers motor down the path, totally unaware they were sharing it with bicycle riders. And I watched bicycle riders use the path totally unaware that there would be multiple drivers coming in the opposite direction. Since it was an underpass, there was also a downhill-uphill involved. Combine that with the clueless path users (some of whom just watched a car race!) and a sharp corner with reduced visibility and you had the recipe for a collision.

Once I realized what was going on I rolled into PIR and started yelling my concerns at a traffic worker. He said he was just following orders and didn’t care about what I had to say (I don’t blame him). I didn’t have time to hang around, but as I started to leave, I noticed three Portland Police Bureau SUVs drive toward me as they left the event. I gestured to the first officer to roll his window down. Still on my bike, I described to him what was going on. The officer’s reaction was very disappointing. He looked at me like I was crazy and then said, “It’s pretty obvious [what’s going on], just ride around them,” or something like that. He clearly thought it was no big deal (despite not really taking time to understand my concern).

That first officer pulled away before I was done talking, so I flagged down another one. The next officer just looked at me and said, “Yeah, it’s a big mess,” as he continued to drive away.

(Graphic: ODOT with BikePortland additions)

Background

PIR is owned by the City of Portland Parks & Recreation. I’ve reached out to their office and will share details from them when I hear back.

This bike path used to be a section of North Schmeer Road. However, in 2014 the Oregon Department of Transportation (who owns North Denver Ave because it is Highway 99W), closed it to cars as part of a road realignment project (see graphic above). As I reported at the time time, “Currently the northbound transition from Denver Avenue to Schmeer is a rarely used section of the road with pavement that’s in terrible shape. ODOT plans to repurpose that road and make it open only for walking and biking.”

Please note that I don’t think it’s totally unreasonable for PIR to temporarily use this path for exiting car traffic after large events. However, when you put drivers in the same space as bike riders, there must be significant traffic controls in place. On Sunday there was only one orange “Caution” flag up. I saw it and like all the other bike riders out there, continued to ride. Nothing about “Caution” says, “There are cars and drivers driving directly at you ahead.” PIR should have placed either: Directed traffic somewhere else; installed hard barricades with “Bike Path Closed” signage; or they should have placed a human flagger on both ends to make sure no conflicts happened.

If we want people to ride bikes, we must respect the spaces we tell them to use.

We have enough problems with people using this path illegally, the last thing we need is our own government adding to the mess.

I hope this never happens again.

Job: Shipping Specialist – Velotech, Inc.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Shipping Specialist

Company / Organization

Velotech, Inc.

Job Description

Velotech, Inc. is a locally owned business that has operated in Portland since 2002. Velotech is the parent company of BikeTiresDirect, Western Bikeworks, and Trisports.

We are always hiring! We have flexible schedules that accommodate multiple needs. Whether you are seeking full time, part-time, or something in between, reach out and let us know what you are looking for. We love to promote from within, so if you are looking to get your foot in the door, this could be a great entry point.

This position is responsible for picking, packing and shipping customer orders. Qualified Shipping Specialists also execute product put-away, clean their work area, execute physical counts, and available for general physical and/or minor administrative labor.

Starting rate is $17.25 per hour.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:
Pick incoming web orders and warehouse pick up orders
Pack and ship orders according to supervisor’s guidelines
Maintain accurate inventory through regular cycle counting
Assist receiving department with put away of new items
Maintain a clean and organized workspace
Assist with any projects, or assist in other departments as instructed by supervisor
Perform all duties in a safe manner and report all safety concerns immediately to supervisor

MINIMUM JOB REQUIREMENTS:
Wear closed toe shoes at all times in warehouse
Be able to lift 25 lbs above your head without assistance
Stand for long periods of time
Be able to lift 50 lbs without assistance

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, & ABILITIES:
Excellent communication and organizational skills
Solid knowledge of cycling products
Ability to work in a high volume, fast-paced environment
Ability to work independently or with others to manage multiple task with minimal supervision.

BENEFITS
Generous Employee Discounts
Flexible Schedules
Medical/Dental/Vision for all full & regular part-time employees
Paid Time Off – up to 15 days your first year
Quarterly ‘Get Outside’ days

PHYSICAL/MENTAL DEMANDS:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee frequently is required to use hands or finger, handle, or feel objects, tools or controls.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand; walk, reach with hands and arms, stoop, kneel, crouch and sit for extended periods of time.

The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, and the ability to adjust focus.
The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

This description is intended to provide only the basic guidelines for meeting job requirements. Responsibilities, knowledge, skills, ability and working conditions may change as needs evolve.

Velotech is an Equal Opportunity employer.

How to Apply

If interested, please click on the link to apply:
https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=4367&clientkey=F102FCECFB43ED66CAD0C8276CB962A9

Book Review: Confessions of a Recovering Engineer

Confessions of a Recovering Engineer (Wiley, 2021) is an unusual book by a man who I imagine is charismatic in person, Charles Marohn. BikePortland readers who are not already familiar with Marohn will have probably come across the word he coined over a decade ago, “stroad.”

Marohn is the founder of Strong Towns, a movement that advocates “for cities of all sizes to be safe, livable and inviting,” and the concept of a “stroad” is central to his philosophy, kind of like how some branches of Christianity require a devil.

If I keep reaching for religious terms it’s because the book has a moral undercurrent—almost a quest for compassion—that both gives his criticism of the engineering profession its outrage, but also an overall tone of poignancy to his writing.

“You could write this entire book without leaving this city.”

“Stroad” is the nemesis, but roads and streets—and understanding the difference between the two—are the pillars of Marohn’s vision. A road is a “high-speed connection between two places,” and a street is “a platform for building community wealth.” (The second chapter of the book is titled The Difference Between a Road and a Street, that’s how fundamental the concept is to him.)

Urban planners have somewhat embraced this view, but Marohn is bolder than most. He argues that most traffic signals in cities should be replaced with roundabouts, and that traffic speeds should be slashed:

The result of traffic signals is an environment of aggression, where a green light licenses a driver to take ownership of public space to the exclusion of others … Reducing street speeds can increase traffic flow and reduce travel time for most trips, especially when traffic signals are replaced with continuous flow intersections. There is little to no need to create gaps in traffic flow when speeds are low.

His recommended speed for a street is 15 mph. (“For streets, where we need complexity in order to build a productive place, traffic needs to flow at a neighborhood speed (15 mph is optimum)…”)

In a book chock full of ideas, a couple more jumped out at me:

Relying on congestion as traffic calming. The pandemic has created a natural experiment:

With the virus-induced drop in traffic volume, what is being revealed is the overengineering and unsafe design of that occurs throughout our transportation system. Remove the traffic congestion that routinely thwarts high speeds and drivers naturally feel empowered to utilize the full capabilities that have been engineered for them. Speeds go up, and so does the rate of fatalities.

About shovel-ready projects, he writes:

Having gone through the lengthy process of planning and design, when the moment of decision came, local leaders opted to accept their sunk costs and table the project because they could not justify spending local money on it. That is a bad project. Then overnight, with federal stimulus providing the option of using someone else’s money, these projects suddenly became an excellent use of resources.

Marohn illustrates his ideas with engaging stories from cities throughout the US. About a third of the way through the book, however, I noticed that I was substituting streets in Portland for all of his examples. You could write this entire book without leaving this city.

He is a great storyteller, but he also gets into the weeds with the old saws of traffic engineering, like Level of Service and 85th percentile speed measurements, and at one point annihilates a report used to justify a freeway expansion.

The book even ends with a confession (spoiler alert). Marohn shares a final crash story: A driver of a new SUV, music blaring (I’m already disliking this person) gets in a doozy of a classic crash. A left-turning driver who failed to keep her wheels straight while waiting for on-coming traffic to clear, is rear-ended and pushed into the intersection—directly in front of the approaching SUV. The SUV veers, but nevertheless sends the car spinning, and then goes on to level a stop sign, take to the air for a moment, and finally meet a big tree which exacts revenge for the stop sign. A smell of sulfur and smoke ensues.

It wasn’t until several paragraphs into this crash description that I realized that the driver of the SUV was our author, in the palm of whose hand I had been sitting for the previous 223 pages. The entire chapter is a tour de force, and a powerful end to a thought-provoking book.

Find this book on Powells.com.

Comment of the Week: Bystander death and the ‘cost of doing business’

“… we will continue to see solutions that play around the edges of addressing a sick culture addicted to going nowhere fast.“

Welcome to the Comment of the Week, where we highlight good comments in order to inspire more of them. You can help us choose our next one by replying with “comment of the week” to any comment you think deserves recognition. Please note: These selections are not endorsements.

We ended the week with a post about a car-racing driver who killed a bystander on SE Stark as she waited for a bus.

This is a heartbreaking story, and BikePortland writes too many of them. Faced with yet another death, it is hard for commenters to find words that express their frustration, anger and feeling of impotence.

But ITOTS wrote a few profound paragraphs which describe the breadth our problem.

Here is a portion of their comment:

Put another way, Oslo reached vision zero in 2019. But take an average busy Oslo street or intersection and plop it down in the US, and I don’t think anyone here would call it a Vision Zero Design (TM). Everyone here can imagine a couple hoonigans jamming down that street at 50-70 mph. I’m not saying the Oslo street isn’t significantly better than a Stark. I am saying that in America, that’s not gonna get us where we’re supposed to be going.
For all the carnage our streets produce, the way they function today clearly has beneficiaries and supporters. Clearly these deaths, the so-called “cost of doing business”, are worth it—that the balance between benefits and burdens is roughly correct (access/mobility/thrills vs deaths/injuries/fears/environmental and public health impacts). Until this balance is actually seen to be publicly and institutionally incorrect, we will continue to see solutions that play around the edges of addressing a sick culture addicted to going nowhere fast, not able or willing to see beyond the bottom of a bottle, the glowing rectangle in their hand, a sense of responsibility to anything that’s not securing the next dopamine hit, let alone what’s in front of the hood of their speeding automobile.
Yes this problem is systemic (i.e. doesn’t only rest on individuals making bad choices), but there are multiple systems involved and I too often hear people setting culpability squarely on the quality or condition of infrastructure (as if we are automatons that can only do what the world around us tells us to) when that same infrastructure (or similar) can host street fairs and pedalpaloozas that transform it, curb to curb, not because we changed concrete and asphalt but because enough of us decided temporarily it should be a different kind of place. Of course there are cracks in this edifice (see: pissed-off and entitled drivers barging their way through Sunday Parkways, but again that disposition is a cultural product that not just a few people in this comment section spent time justifying in its most recently recorded instance).
But the presence of cracks in one of the pillars is fine. Because the point is this is a multivariate problem which needs a multi-pillared solution and that if places like Stark all must be transformed before people can stop dying on our streets, Portland, let alone America, won’t have the time, resources, or will to get there.

Thank you ITOTS for taking the time to write such a thoughtful comment. You can read ITOTS’s full comment, and the other comments as well, under the original post.

The Monday Roundup: Driving is the new smoking, bike bus tech, and more

Welcome to the week.

Here are the most notable stories our writers and readers came across in the past seven days…

Better than corkers: A bike bus in the UK has been given permission to use signal-altering technology to allow all the students to safely get through the intersection. (The Guardian)

Bad habit: I have always loved the framing of “driving is the new smoking” and now someone has written an excellent breakdown of why this is such an apt metaphor. (Greater Greater Washington)

This article is a monstrosity: A writer forgot to leave his personal biases at the door when he sat down to write an article about e-bikes that should have been labeled an op-ed. (The Atlantic)

Carfree subsidy: Tucked inside California’s wide-ranging suite of new policies to address climate change is a $1,000 tax credit for people who live without a car. Yes, the state is paying people to not drive. (Washington Post)

Regulating cars and trucks: In the effort to level the power dynamic on our streets, what’s happening in New York state with speed limiters and truck/SUV design regulation legislation is one of the most interesting issues to watch. (Streetsblog NYC)

Car danger doc: “Part of the film’s message to non-wonks is that car culture has been so firmly embedded in the US — in its collective consciousness, its physical infrastructure, and in the language itself — that we rarely consider how it got there,” writes a review of a new PBS documentary on traffic safety. (Bloomberg)

Car-speak: We cannot unseat the dominance of cars until we understand how pervasive their influence is on our lives. This article is a great introduction to a new book that demonstrates how the windshield perspective has “colonised our thinking.” (The Guardian)

Parking and biking: We cannot created truly bike-friendly cities until we get the parking monster under control, says Portland’s own Tony Jordan and Catie Gould! (People for Bikes)

Idaho Stop, but for walking: California’s Freedom to Walk bill would do for walkers what the Idaho Stop did for bikers: Decriminalize behaviors that are natural and safe and only exist as traffic violations because of our misguided prioritization of drivers over everyone else. (California Bicycle Coalition)

Be careful what you campaign for: A mayoral candidate in Winnipeg pledged to reduce bike theft, then got his bike stolen shortly thereafter. (CBC)

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week!

Photo Gallery: Het Meer Cyclocross Race

These tough junior races must have felt like they were summiting Mt. Hood as they trudged up the sand on the beach at Vancouver Lake Park. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Just popping in real quick on this Labor Day holiday to show you some of the hard work of local bike racers…

The cyclocross season blasted off Sunday with a full menu of races at Het Meer, part of the Harvest CX series put on by Zone 5 Promotions. Riders from all over the region descended on Vancouver Lake Regional Park just across the Columbia River in Washington. From kiddies to juniors, beginners to pros, there was a diverse display of racing talent on display.

While the course didn’t have much in the way of elevation gain, the high temps and brutally-hard beach section sapped strength of even the strongest racers. The sand was too soft and deep to ride through, so racers had to run down it, then trudge along the shoreline, then dismount again and carry their bikes back up the beach. It was brutal!

Here’s the full gallery:

Congrats to all the racers. Stay tuned for more ‘cross coverage as the season heats up (and hopefully the weather cools down!).

PBOT will remove tree and traffic circle on NE 7th at Tillamook

Looking south on NE 7th Ave at Tillamook

A map that illustrates the detours as part of the closure. Full text description of closures and routing is in the body of the release. — The intersection getting a makeover. This illustration shows the car traffic detour routes for the next 4-6 weeks. (Source: PBOT)

Say your goodbyes to the big tree and traffic circle at NE 7th and Tillamook because the City of Portland is about to remove it.

The traffic circle is good at calming traffic, but it also reduces visibility and often creates unexpected behaviors when people cut it the wrong-way and/or don’t adhere to proper yielding etiquette.

Tillamook is also a popular east-west bike street and PBOT thinks removing the traffic circle from this offset jog with 7th will make the intersection less stressful. This project’s also means the area surrounding the intersection will be closed to car traffic for 4-6 weeks.

This is part of PBOT’s Lloyd-Woodlawn Neighborhood Greenway project to “establish a low stress walking and biking route” connecting neighborhoods in NE Portland to the Lloyd District and the Blumenauer Bridge (and everything south of I-84). PBOT is also working on a project to make it safer to get to the Blumenauer Bridge via 7th from the south, which they say they’ll begin construction on later this month. And they’ve already completed a Rose Lane project at NE Couch as another established bike route to the new bridge.

Below are two more views of what the 7th and Tillamook intersection looks like now today:

Looking east on NE Tillamook at NE 7th Ave

According to a map PBOT released with this project announcement Thursday, they will install a “two-way bicycle lane” on Tillamook one block east and west of this intersection. We aren’t clear if that’s just during the construction zone or exactly what this will look like, but we’ll report back when we learn more.

The changes at this intersection may seem small, but it’s important to have as little friction as possible on this north-south corridor. The city just spent $19 million on this bridge, so people need to be able to get there!

It will be interesting to see how people respond to the intersection being closed to car traffic. Tillamook is a greenway, which ostensibly means it should be very low-car already, but this closure will give people walking, biking and rolling a chance to see what navigating the area is like when they don’t have to avoid car traffic. (People on Twitter are already calling on PBOT to make it carfree permanently!)

Construction on this project will start on Tuesday and go until next month. Stay tuned for updates as the Blumenauer Bridge corridor continues to unfold.

Closer Look: Protected intersection and bike lane on W 19th at Burnside

Before (view is north on W 19th from Burnside.)

The City of Portland’s West Burnside Multimodal Project wrapped up in 2018 and I’m afraid to say after a few initial stories in 2016 we never followed up on it. So let’s remedy that, shall we?

One of the more interesting elements of the project is the protected intersection on 19th. It’s a one-way street southbound that connects folks from the Pearl District and northwest neighborhoods into the Providence Park (where the Timbers and Thorns play), Goose Hollow, and downtown area. As the Portland Bureau of Transportation has made it a better bikeway over the years, the crossing of Burnside — a busy, four-lane arterial — has become a glaring gap in their vision for a safer network.

Adding to the issues at this location is a major break in the grid with SW Alder breaking off from Burnside west of 19th at a diagonal, and with 18th curving across the arterial. There’s also a major bus line and lots of foot traffic and business driveways to deal with. Suffice it to say there’s a lot going on here.

Looking north from 19th across Burnside.

PBOT’s method of creating some sanity at this intersection included protected bike lanes, medians, and a bunch of striping changes.

On 19th, they installed two large concrete median islands on both corners on the western end of the intersection. The idea is that bicycle users and walkers now have more protected space and shorter crossing distances at these corners where there is a high-volume of right-turning drivers and a relatively wide cross-section. They’ve also added green coloring and “cross-bike” treatments to further highlight the bikeway.

I found it to work reasonably well when I was out there a few days ago. The transition from southbound on 19th to eastbound on Alder (and the brand new bus/bike lane) wasn’t as smooth as it could have been however. There was a bit of confusion in which signal to use and with people coming off Burnside at a high rate of speed, there’s a chance for mix-ups. Overall, I like having curbs, medians, and colored bike lanes because I think it scares drivers a bit and forces them to slow down and take notice of other road users.

As I researched this post I saw that the initially preferred design (above left) from PBOT included a large grassy median space (circled) on SW Alder just east of 19th. Unfortunately that didn’t make it to the final design. I asked PBOT why. They said because SW Alder has limited right-of-way,

“The project team determined that that space was more valuable to the north given the projects goals of increasing safety and access across and along W Burnside, a High Crash Corridor. The final design enlarged and extended west the floating island between W Burnside and Alder, allowing for accessible pedestrian access to the transit stop from the west side while also permitting pedestrians to walk continuously along the south side of W Burnside without detours (which they were unable to do prior to the project).”

When I posted a video of the intersection on Instagram and Twitter, I heard from several folks who don’t think this works well. Here’s a sample of the feedback:

“I used to bike it often and really think it improved driver behavior here. Given it was retrofit the issue I’ve seen is because it’s a standard width lane many drivers think it’s a right turn lane.”

Love it :), I just wish there was signal separation, or at least a leading bike/ped interval. Ideally it would come from curbside lanes on 18/19th so there wouldn’t be an awkward shift right at the intersection.

“This is such an awful intersection, getting right hooked all the time, to me a classic example of good intentions and bad design.”

“Since it’s installation I’ve seen more people nearly get hit by right turning on to burnside cars. The angle the car now has to turn leaves the cyclist bombing down a hill to be in the vast majority of vehicles blind spot.”

“I use it all the time. It’s great!”

“Personally, I experience some confusion there as a cyclist and delivery driver. I’ve witnessed motorists using the wrong lanes for heading south, or turning onto Alder. McDonalds feeds its post-drive-thru traffic right into it as well. As stated above, it’s green and a bike lane so I’ll take it over nothing, but regardless of my transportation mode I approach it with some trepidation.”

What do you think? Do you ride this? If so, what do you think about it?