Go get some this weekend! (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Time to plan your weekend. And of course, it’s going to be hot out there, so plan accordingly. That means not just prepping for heat, but you should also check official event pages to make sure organizers haven’t cancelled.
As you make plans, consider grabbing a Gorge Pass. It’s just $40 for unlimited rides for you and your bike on any of the Columbia River Gorge transit shuttles. Find bike routes and custom itineraries at GorgePass.com/bikes.
Friday, August 19th
Loud n’ Lit Redux – 9:00 at Irving Park (NE) The first one in June was so frickin’ massive that everyone wanted to do it again. This time around the original creators of the ride — Dutch and Sysfail — will be leading and they’ve got at least one big surprise for everyone who shows up to party. More info here.
Saturday, August 20th
Bike Scavenger Hunt – 12:00 pm from your own home The Community Cycling Center has gone all-out for this one. Start at your home and use clues to ride all over town finding fun treasures and completing activities en route to a big party in Woodlawn at the end. A fun-draiser for CCC programs to boot! More info here.
Portland Criterium – 1:00 to 8:30 pm at North Park Blocks (NW) The Big Day is almost here. Be a part of history as this major race hits downtown with a full day block-party vibe with something for everyone. Don’t miss the street sprints and Pedalpalooza ride for non-racers, and then settle into the Park Blocks with food, drinks, DJs, friends, and amazingly fast bike racers. More info here.
Weird Portland Ride – 1:30 Ankeny West Cart Blocks (SW) Join the Unipiper, artist Mike Bennett, Olive & Dingo and other colorful folks for an exploration of the people and places that Keep Portland Weird! More info here.
Kidical Mass North Portland Kids Ride – 1:30 at Peninsula Park (N) Meet other cycling families on a short and fun 3-mile loop of wonderful parks and playgrounds. More info here.
Sunday, August 21st
Sunday Parkways East Portland – 11:00 am to 4:00 pm (E) Roll with your fellow Portlanders on a carfree loop around east Portland that will take you to cool parks filled with activities, food, live music, and more! It’s the last one of the season so make the best of it. More info here.
Have fun out there this weekend! And remember to check out the Gorge Pass and thank them for supporting our work.
CORRECTION, 8/12 at 8:57 pm: This post initially had the North Portland in Motion Ride under Sunday. It is on Saturday. I regret any confusion this may have caused.
View of the tracks looking west from Bob Stacey Crossing toward SE 12th Avenue and downtown Portland. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
People are fed up with being at the mercy of Union Pacific trains that rumble through inner southeast Portland every day. The trains create an impenetrable barrier (unless you risk hopping through them) and long traffic delays that have frustrated locals and everyone who uses nearby roads and bike paths for many years. Now, thanks to a new federal grant program with funding to mitigate the impacts of problematic railroad crossings, something might finally give.
The tracks come into Portland from the southeast via Brooklyn Yard and follow SE McLoughlin Blvd up to SE 17th Ave, then line up with the Willamette River’s eastern bank until they veer north up to Vancouver (or vice versa). The portion of the tracks north of Powell Blvd and south of Stark St causes the most disruptions, with frequent blockages for people trying to go north-south through the area. Recently, the problem has worsened because of changes in Union Pacific operations to increase train lengths, making it much more difficult to get around them.
This area also lines up with heavily-used bikeways and obstructs what would otherwise be some of the smoothest bike routes in the city. For example, you might have an uninterrupted ride west on the Clinton Street greenway toward the Tilikum Crossing before having to stop at the tracks. People traveling from south of the tracks might have easier access to the Tilikum, but they suffer the same fate when trying to go north.
While people biking and walking have more options for crossing the tracks compared to someone stuck in their car these options aren’t always available. Most notably, the Bob Stacey Overcrossing elevators over the tracks at SE 14th are notoriously unreliable, making it impossible to use for people who can’t climb the stairs and/or lift their bikes up them.
People using public transit suffer as well. I’ve watched the MAX orange line train depart from the Clinton and SE 12th Ave station without me because of an unrelenting freight train, and passengers on the TriMet bus lines that run through the area are stuck in the same situation as people in cars. And TriMet’s $175 million Division Transit Project to bring faster bus service to the Division corridor opens next month on a route that will use the Tilikum Crossing to travel from inner southeast to the south waterfront. Major train-related blockages are incompatible with an “express” bus route.
“The train blockages encourage unsafe behavior. Drivers might try to beat the gates if they see a train might be sitting there for a long time, and people walking and biking will sometimes hop the trains, which is really unsafe. We have a high level of community concern [about this].”
-Zef Wagner, PBOT
The advocacy
A train rolling north near Water Ave and SE Taylor Street. (Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
Last year, members of the Central Eastside Industrial Council and Hosford Abernethy and Brooklyn Neighborhood groups put together a Change.org petition asking the Portland Bureau of Transportation to address the frequent train blockages, saying railroad intersections in this area “need major improvements to keep the roads safe for all and easy to commute, and address concerns of increased carbon emissions.”
In the comments section of the Change.org petition, people recounted their experiences waiting at the train tracks with real emotion and said it hurts local businesses and impacts where people decide to live.
“I moved to SE Portland thinking it was a reasonable commute from work. That was because I had been lucky enough to avoid the train the first couple times I visited. Now I plan pretty much every trip around avoiding this train, which adds time driving longer routes or through construction zones. It’s ridiculous. Can’t wait to move out of this area for this reason.” one commenter said.
“This regularly impacts my travel and more recently I am just avoiding this area and nearby businesses altogether due to chance of being stuck behind trains,” another person wrote.
At Tuesday night’s City of Portland Pedestrian Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting, PBOT planner Zef Wagner said the city hears these concerns and are working to tackle the problem – or at least start to figure out how.
The federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed last year includes a grant program for railroad crossing elimination projects across the country, providing funding for “highway-rail or pathway-rail grade crossing improvement projects that focus on improving the safety and mobility of people and goods.” This is a $600 million national competitive grant program with $18 million allocated to planning studies, which PBOT wants to snag $1 million of to conduct the Central Eastside Railroad Crossing Elimination Study.
Josh Hetrick (in black) led a ride about the tracks back in April. (Photo: Taylor Griggs/BikePortland)
“We think this would be really competitive for this program, because those train blockages encourage unsafe behavior. Drivers might try to beat the gates if they see a train might be sitting there for a long time, and people walking and biking will sometimes hop the trains, which is really unsafe,” Wagner said at the meeting. “And we have a high level of community concern [about this].”
With this study, PBOT would look at the feasibility of more grade-separated crossings or undercrossings, as well as potential non-infrastructure solutions like wayfinding to give people information ahead of time about when trains are coming. Grant applications are due in early October, and Wagner asked the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committees to consider writing letters of support for the project.
Brooklyn neighborhood advocate and self-appointed train track crossing educator Josh Hetrick has advocated for more access across the train tracks. He said he sympathizes with people aggravated by this problem and has felt it himself, too.
“When long blockages occur, there are tons of cars idling. Our neighborhood already has some of the worst air quality in the city (due to highways, the rail yard, heavy freight traffic, a TriMet garage, and other industrial sites) and idling emissions just compound that,” Hetrick told me. “It’s just one more thing to deal with each time you leave the house and need to cross the tracks. You don’t have to wonder ‘Can I use the road today?’ with most other roads.”
I was inspired to create our own family bike camp after hearing about my mother-in-law’s stories of home-made summer camps.
Too often, summer fun seems to be prohibitively expensive, but with a little creativity and effort, it can also be free. Here’s an idea for creating a Do-It-Yourself Family Bike Camp. All you need is your bike, your home-packed picnic, and your sense of summer adventure…
I was inspired to create our own family bike camp after hearing about my mother-in-law’s stories of home-made summer camps. She and her friends couldn’t afford to send their kids to camp, so every summer they decided to plan a week of camp fun which they made up themselves. This summer, I was fortunate enough to be able to send my oldest son to the WashCo Bikes Saddle Up Summer Bike Camp (he loved it!), but I needed something fun–and cheap–to do with the rest of us. My other kids were too little to send to camp, but I made the vow to get all of us up and ready for a week of bike outings, as if we were going to bike camp too.
Every morning, we loaded up a full picnic, waters and sunscreen, then scrambled to get my son to his camp on time. We biked the 2.5 miles to his drop-off, then began our own “camp” adventures for the day. We rode to multiple parks and even found a new-to-us favorite with hiking trails and nature play. While my oldest son had a blast pedaling all over town, enjoying visits to parks, a splash pad, the library, and an ice cream shop, we basically did the same, and actually crossed paths with him multiple times. It was the most biking we have ever done, and the most time we’ve spent outside, as we rode over 10 miles a day, and stayed out at parks all the way until naptime. It was one of the most fun weeks of our summer. Indeed, I daresay it made bikers of us all!
Here are a list of suggestions for planning your own DIY family bike camp:
Check the map for fun destinations. Pull up a map of your community and look for all the bikeable parks, libraries, shops and greenspaces. You may be surprised at all of the places you’ve overlooked, forgotten about, or never visited. Put together a list of new places to visit, along with your current favorites.
Extend your range. Pick one challenge destination to get you biking a little farther. Often, the most fun camps are the ones that challenge kids to accomplish something hard. Don’t be afraid to challenge yourselves; it might be the most fun thing you do all week.
Check your community calendar. Are there any events or festivals you can bike to? Storytime at the library? Outdoor market? Don’t forget to check the BikePortland Calendar for more ideas.
Make a bike plan. Pick out destinations and routes for the week. Be sure to pre-test any unfamiliar routes.
Get creative. Think about some camp-y activities you can do yourself that don’t involve much equipment. (Go ahead and Google ideas, or check out a book of summer activities from the library.) Here are a few suggestions to get you thinking:
Create a scavenger hunt to do at your local park.
Make nature boats from sticks and leaves to race in a creek.
Get wet at an outdoor sprinkler pad or splash in your local river/swimming hole.
Take sketch books and colored pencils and try nature drawing or journaling.
Pack your favorite chapter book or poetry book and do a read-aloud under a nice shade tree.
Bring a speaker and music to help you sing goofy songs or even have an outdoor dance party.
Be fully present. I admit that I didn’t actually make up special camp activities (but I am planning to do so next year.) Instead, I decided to let my kids lead our playtime at various parks, giving them the opportunity to enjoy lots of unstructured outdoor nature play. If you don’t have time or resources to plan games and activities, don’t let that deter you. Kids are the most excited to have your full attention. Little kids are thrilled if you will just play tag or hide-and-seek, or spin in circles until you all get dizzy. Simply pledge to keep your screen device turned off, and focus on your children. It can be a great week, even if you don’t plan anything except to bike to some parks and be fully present when you get there.
Set an alarm. Pick a morning leave time and stick to it. If you have gotten in a habit of sleeping late this summer, challenge yourself to leave earlier than you normally would. You’ll beat the heat, enjoy the freshness of a morning ride, and be able to pack in a full schedule of activities by lunch time.
Stay outside. It might be tempting to head home early, but challenge yourselves to stay outside and away from screens. You’ll come home sweaty and tired, just like real summer campers.
Pack well. Pack extra snacks, a picnic lunch, lots of water and sunscreen. Get as much prepared the night before as you can. (Pro tip: Try packing all of your ingredients in your bag and assembling lunch at the park. I like to throw a loaf of bread and my jars of PB and jelly in my pack, along with a block of cheese, fruits & veggies, a knife and small cutting board. I often find it easier to prep lunch while my kids are rolling down the slide, than when I am trying to get us out the door in the morning.)
Do a bike check. A flat tire could really mess up your plans. Fill up with air, and remember to pack a patch kit or spare. Check that helmets fit. Also, see if bike seats are at proper heights–we finally adjusted these mid-week and everyone was happier!
Invite friends. The more the merrier! Group rides are especially fun and sociable. It’s also a lot easier to play tag with other kids along for the trip. Try some old-fashioned fun, like a game of capture the flag or kickball.
End with a treat. Ice cream? Popsicles? Home-made frozen juice pops? Reward yourselves for a week of biking with something cool and sweet.
Add a tent? I meant these suggestions as a biking day camp, but you could try overnight bike camping, perhaps by taking a small tent to a friend’s house and camping out in their backyard.
There are still a few weeks of summer left. Enjoy them while you can! Usually, the hardest part is getting out the door. You can do it. Happy biking.
Cross-section of New Water Ave south of Clay (L) and overall circulation plan.
The plan to create a new district surrounding the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) has been in the works for almost 15 years. Tomorrow, proponents of the plan to redesign 34 acres of land in Portland’s central eastside will ask the city’s Design Commission to review their proposal – the most concrete action yet toward breaking ground on the transformative development project.
If all goes according to OMSI’s plans, the project would come with a major new bikeway.
OMSI is a favorite destination for Portland tourists and locals, located near a slew of multimodal transportation options – including MAX light rail, streetcar, bus, bikeways and even a (dormant) submarine. But the museum is located in an industrial part of town with few other nearby attractions.
Before/after of circulation plans through the district.
If it comes to fruition as project boosters want, the OMSI District will include a new waterfront education park and create new access to the Willamette River. It will also be the site of major new residential and mixed-use development, with plans to build up to 1,200 new housing units alongside new restaurants and businesses.
The success of these plans hinges on a major redesign which project proponents say will allow the district to safely accommodate people biking, walking and rolling through the neighborhood while also maintaining car and freight access.
OMSI wants to realign SE Water Avenue, which forms the district’s spine, to the eastern edge of the plan area. This would split the street into two – “New” and “Old” Water Aves – which would serve different purposes for people traveling through the area. There would also be a Loop Road to the south of Old Water Ave and a “central pedestrian spine” running through the district.
“New Water Avenue will allow freight and vehicular traffic heading through to points north or south the center of the plan area on a street with softer curves and fewer access points, while Old Water Avenue is prioritized for pedestrian activity and local service and loading access,” OMSI’s land use review application states. Plans for New Water Ave show 12-feet of dedicated cycling space split between 2 bicycle lanes (six feet each) next to 37-feet split between three, 12-13-foot wide standard travel lanes (which seems excessively wide for a road like this).
SE Water Ave just north of Tilikum Way. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
New Water Avenue will be “the most direct and convenient route” for through car and truck traffic and include a two-way bikeway along the west side of the street. This new bike route would provide a connection from the central eastside to the Tilikum Crossing Bridge and would also connect the Hawthorne Bridge with the Springwater Corridor path.
Old Water Ave will also have the two-way, 12-foot bikeway — except for one block in front of the main plaza where the plans show the bikeway vanishes and is replaced with a bus lane.
But as we’ve pointed out before, the existence of this New Water Ave wouldn’t be a deterrent to people biking on the Eastside Esplanade or within the OMSI district. Old Water Ave will integrate a two-way cycle track as well, and the plan is to include 12-foot-wide sidewalks with 8-foot through pedestrian zones, street trees, and landscaping.
Advocates for the Green Loop around Portland’s central city foresee the OMSI district playing a key role in the future active transportation circle. With two carfree bridges on either side of the district – the Tilikum Crossing and the new Blumenauer Bridge – its in a good position to offer active transportation connections to the rest of the city.
Because this project is so large, it won’t be able to receive approval without significant conversation between the involved city bureaus and organizations. There is already some design pushback beginning to emerge: a staff report released earlier this month includes a skeptical memo from PBOT’s engineering department, which states “while the layout and general geometry of the existing and new public streets acceptable, the details including lane widths, stacking lanes depth, location and design of protected bike lanes, and the number and location of new traffic signals is still under review.” They note a particular concern with how cyclists will enter the new district just south and north of the site. All of this will be up for conversation at Thursday’s hearing.
The Design Commission plans to review the OMSI district plan from 4-6 pm at tomorrow’s hearing. You can register to testify here, and stay tuned for updates as the plan moves forward.
KATU screenshot (note crosswalk behind the SUV) on the left. Nicole Funke tweet on the right.
Tuesday was another day that illustrated how Portland has a long way to go to make its streets — even one with a much-heralded recent investment — safe for people not inside cars. Even on Southeast Hawthorne, where the Portland Bureau of Transportation recently completed a major project billed by Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty as a significant upgrade in pedestrian safety, we see that the consequences of car-dominance are no match for a few median islands, signs and paint.
Portlander Nicole Funke shared on Twitter that she was “pretty beat up” after being hit while walking in the new crosswalk on Hawthorne at 38th. “Been a pedestrian for 38 years and finally got got by a Volkswagen while crossing Hawthorne. The driver took PBOT’s fancy new zebra crossing as a suggestion, I guess.”
Arrow points to crossing where Nicole was hit.Looking eastbound toward 38th on Hawthorne.(Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Also yesterday, just a half-mile south of Hawthorne on SE Powell Blvd, we learned from local news coverage that a 15-year-old person riding a bicycle was hit and very seriously injured while crossing SE Powell at 45th. KATU says the victim has “life-threatening” injuries. We can see from KATU’s photos that the car driver was operated a large SUV and headed eastbound when the collision occurred. There’s significant front-end damage to the vehicle so the person must have either been driving at a high rate of speed and/or slammed into a curb.
SE 45th Ave in 2007 City of Portland plan.
The location is adjacent to Creston Park. There’s a neighborhood greenway route just one block west at 43rd. A BikePortland reader heard about Tuesday’s crash and told us they filed an official complaint about the 43rd Ave crossing in January 2021. Their main concern was “lack of visibility of cyclists at the intersection”. The complaint has worked its way through PBOT’s process and they plan to install bike boxes on 43rd and 42nd (its an offset crossing) sometime this summer. It’s unclear if our readers concerns are directly related to what happened to the bicycle rider yesterday.
SE Powell is a state highway and is and owned/managed by the Oregon Department of Transportation.
We hope the victim will make a full recovery, but in my experience when the Portland Police Bureau says “life-threatening” they really mean it.
These are just some of the collisions that have happened recently as Portland remains a hostage to dangerous drivers and street designs that don’t do enough to rein them in.
CORRECTION, 8/29: This story originally said PBOT owns and manages a section of SE Powell from 99th west. That is wrong. Powell is all under ODOT jurisdiction. I regret the error and any confusion it might have caused.
Note: You can now swipe or arrow-click through our photo galleries! (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
The Carry Shit Olympics event drew a wonderful mix of people and bikes to Peninsula Park in north Portland Tuesday night. In true everything-is-a-cargo-bike spirit, some people showed up on bikes with pannier racks, there were a few traditional bakfiets front-loaders, a few longtails, a homemade rig, and even an electric, off-road trike with big knobby tires.
The event was organized by Zack Reinhardt (@zackpizzabikes on Instagram), a 30-year old cargo bike evangelist who moved to Portland from Pennsylvania three-and-a-half years ago. “I basically just wanted to put on a cargo bike race a little bit more relaxed and underground than DRT [Disaster Relief Trials, the large-scale event that happened back in June],” he told me at a checkpoint along the route.
Here are just some of the bikes that showed up:
The mix of riders was amazing to see. Several folks showed up with kids in tow and my estimate on the age-range was 6-60+ (see them in the video below). They received a manifest at the start and had to navigate to checkpoints throughout north Portland from Overlook Park to Kelley Point Park. At those stops they had to pick up a variety of cargo. There were extra points for filling up a bag with trash found along the way, or for interesting ground scores.
Why put on an event like this? For Reinhardt, it was just an excuse to have fun on a summer weeknight in Portland during Pedalpalooza. But there’s also an advocacy element:
“I think cargo bikes really have the potential to really change how people live, and they have the potential to save the world, change how a lot of people are living, change how we go about our lives, both in the city and outside the city. So I think this is a good way to kind of show folks what those kind of bikes are capable of.”
At the end spot on a beach in Kelley Point Park, Reinhardt tallied up the scores and volunteer Anthony Dryer was there to grab photos of a few of the winners:
Ben and Sarah nabbed 1st place!Ashy won youngest solo rider.Shawne and Eliza finished 2nd!Michael came all the way from Paisley, Oregon and got 3rd.(Photos: Anthony Dryer)
Check out a few more actions shots in the gallery below:
Lisa Olivares has over two decades of nonprofit management experience and holds a Master of Urban Planning degree the group says will help them, “move into new areas of land stewardship and trail building.” The Portland-based nonprofit that maintains, builds, and advocates for off-road trail access across the region, has been run by volunteers for over 30 years.
NWTA launched in 2009 as part of a rebrand of the old Portland United Mountain Pedalers. Since then their membership has skyrocketed along with the miles of trails and acreage they’ve helped open for cycling. Stub Stewart, Gateway Green, Sandy Ridge, and Rocky Point are just some of the excellent riding areas NWTA helped create and continues to steward. In recent years they’ve expanded to offer many social rides, monthly clinics, youth skills programs, in addition to their bedrock service of volunteer trail maintenance work parties.
“This is a historic moment for NWTA.”
– Bob Lessard
Bob Lessard, a former NWTA president will now serve as director of operations. In a statement from the group this week, Lessard said, “I am very excited to have Lisa at the helm… [She] brings a degree of nonprofit management experience that will benefit the organization and its members in many ways. Volunteers are still our number one asset, but it takes constant attention and leadership to grow an organization and to keep it running smoothly. This is a historic moment for NWTA.”
You can meet-and-greet Olivares and the entire NWTA crew at a member meeting on September 27th at Hopworks. Stay tuned for details.
Charging station in downtown Portland. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Last week, the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability (BPS) released a new draft proposal for its Electric Vehicle Ready Code project, which would amend city zoning code to require electric vehicle charging at new multi-unit dwellings. But advocates for electric bikes – who frequently lament being left out of efforts to expand electric vehicle usage – will notice bikes are missing from the equation yet again.
As we pointed out when we looked at the discussion draft for this code amendment back in May, the plan acknowledges there is a need for alternative forms of transport, like electric bikes, to substitute for car trips in order for the city to meet its climate goals.
“Fundamentally, the number of private vehicles must decrease, the distance travelled must shrink, and alternative forms of electric transport (including electric buses, electric- scooters and electric bikes) must substitute for car trips,” the document states.
But that’s where the conversation ends. Neither the discussion draft nor the most recent draft proposal provides a plan for less private vehicle ownership and more e-bike usage through added charging facilities.
Even with tax credits for electric cars, these vehicles can be prohibitively expensive for broad adoption. And although they’re certainly better for the environment than cars that burn gasoline, e-cars have their pitfalls. E-bikes can serve as transformative, climate-friendly car replacements – but only if people can easily use them.
The crux of the plan is to require new multi-unit and mixed use developments with five or more units to provide the conduit for electric car charging infrastructure at 100% of parking spaces if the complex provides six spaces or less, or 50% of spaces when more than six are provided. The amendment won’t require developments to include parking spaces – but if they do, they need to follow these rules.
The lack of access to charging facilities for all electric vehicles – cars and bikes – impacts people of color and people who make low-incomes the most. As such, this impedes on the city’s equity goals, which is something they’re trying to tackle with this amendment.
“Access to EV-charging facilities in multifamily housing is key to ensuring equitable access,” the document states. “Renters…represent a greater portion of low- and moderate-income and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) households. To date, these households have largely been unable to benefit from electric vehicles.”
“It’s kind of ridiculous that we’re bending over backwards to support cars but we’re not doing anything for e-bikes when the environmental benefits of e-bikes are so high.”
– Chris Smith
It’s true that people who live in multi-unit dwellings have a more difficult time accessing charging facilities for electric vehicles. But the logic applied to electric cars in the draft document, which states the “adoption of electric vehicle use is slowed by lack of familiarity and concerns about the availability of charging infrastructure,” also applies to electric bikes.
People who live in apartment or condo complexes may not be able to lug their bike to their unit to charge it if the battery isn’t removable, and the bikes can take up a lot of space in a small home. Having accessible charging infrastructure would make e-bikes easier to use for a lot of people.
It’s worth asking if e-bike owners would actually use charging facilities if they were provided alongside e-car charging in multi-unit dwellings. Portland’s major 2019 bike parking reform made it a requirement for bike parking – and outlets – to be included in many new multi-unit dwelling developments, so people should have access to more optimal places to charge them than in a parking lot with questionable security. But e-bike charging infrastructure needs deserve the level of attention electric car charging receives, so advocates say they should at least be included in the discussion for policies like this.
“My reaction is that it’s disappointing and kind of ridiculous that we’re bending over backwards to support cars but we’re not doing anything for e-bikes when the environmental benefits of e-bikes are so high,” Chris Smith, a Portland transportation activist and former member of the Planning and Sustainability Commission, told me.
Beyond the infrastructure itself, any time we update city code it’s an opportunity for government to send a message that they support and encourage non-car transportation, which in turn impacts whether or not the population at-large views e-bikes as a viable car alternative.
The next step in adopting this plan will be a BPS hearing on September 13, which will be open for public testimony. You can register to testify at the draft hearing here.
Many of you already saw my photos and reflections from Bridge Pedal on Sunday. While out there I was also working on a brand new thing: interviews by bike. It’s a thing I’ve been wanting to do for years, but has taken some time to get the headspace and gear to the point where it could actually happen. So without further delay…
Welcome to the first Biked & Mic’d! Think Carpool Karaoke without the singing or the car, and with random strangers I see biking around. After testing it out last week on North Willamette Blvd, I took my setup out to Bridge Pedal. It was so much fun! I think this format has some exciting potential and I can’t wait to keep making it better. (By the way, if any City Hall staff see this and are down for me to interview your boss, just drop a line!)
It’s always fun how many people I see at events that I already know. In this episode you’ll see a mix of new faces and folks you might recognize including: Tina Ricks who I recently featured in a video out in Washington County, veteran bike advocate Ted Buehler, Beaverton City Councilor-elect Kevin Teater, Pedalpalooza Super-Volunteer William Hsu, and I even bumped into PBOT City Traffic Engineer Wendy Cawley (don’t worry PBOT communications team, I didn’t ask her any tough questions!).
Give it a watch and please let me know what you think. I’m open to feedback and keep in mind this is my first attempt at a new format (and frankly, I have no idea if anyone will actually like this because I’ve only showed it to my family.)
And I also want to thank Tern Bicycles for the HSD e-bike loaner. It makes this interviewing-by-bike thing so much easier (especially when I’m going up hill as you’ll see in the video). If folks are interested, I will do a separate post with a detailed breakdown of my bike and camera gear set-up.
Alexis Vazquez and Nanette Beyale. (Photo: Carter Silago)
Event poster.
Portland’s first Native & Indigenous bike ride is coming up on August 27th. Organizers have been working hard to make this an event to remember, and they have an action-packed agenda. The day will start with a 9-mile, party-pace ride (for Native and Indigenous folks only) from the downtown waterfront area to Laurelhurst Park and end with an event open to everyone at the Native American Student and Community Center at Portland State University. The post-ride gathering will start at 5:00 pm, and there will be fry bread, vendors and music to enjoy, as well as free paletas (popsicles) from Ice Queen for the first 50 people.
Alexis Vazquez is organizing the ride and event with their partner Nanette Beyale. Vazquez identifies as both Puerto Rican and Taíno, and moved to Portland from Brooklyn, New York about five years ago. Beyale has been in Portland for about a year, moving from Navajo Nation in New Mexico. They created this event for Native Americans and people like Vazquez who identify as Indigenous to places outside the U.S.
For people who want to join the ride but don’t own a bike, or who want to ride an electric bike, can access a $50 Biketown credit by filling out a waiver here. Portland bike group Chingonas Outside will provide helmets to those in need and Vazquez recommends reaching out to them via Instagram for more information.
Vazquez shared more details about the event with me via email.
“It’s great when you have a bunch of people that come together not only because you share the same interest in biking, but because you share the same interest in building a community and space for one another.”
– Alexis Vazquez
What inspired you to organize this ride?
[Beyale and I] have been inseparable since last October, and we’ve come to love cycling together. We grew to find a sense of community through the amazing work Will Cortez, Chingonas Outside, and the whole family at BikePOCPNW have brought to Portland. We found a space that we felt at home at due to the fact that [these groups] were created for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), and it made us want to be part of that and bring that feeling to our specific communities as well.
It’s great when you have a bunch of people that come together not only because you share the same interest in biking, but because you share the same interest in building a community and space for one another.
What has the organizing process been like?
It was grueling but paid off big time. We chose our venue, vendors and entertainment very carefully. We are ending the ride and hosting the end event at PSU’s Native American Student and Community Center, our food vendor is Native-owned Sisters Fry Bread, and our DJ is Indigenous as well. Even our photographer is Navajo!
We wanted donations and sponsorships to come from outside our Native and Indigenous communities, which is why we partnered up with people like Biketown/Lyft, Pedalpalooza, Trek Bikes, Fat Tire Farm, and CyclePath. We wanted to have all of the allies of our community help us put this on for our people that will be riding with us.
The funding will provide payment for the venue first as a priority. Any additional donations will be given to the Native and Indigenous vendors/affiliates.
What would a successful ride look like? Will it be an annual tradition?
A successful ride to us is even if only five people showed up, that they felt they had a space, made some friends and enjoyed the sense of community we are attempting to create. Depending on how it goes, we might announce at the ending event if this will be annual or not!
The Multnomah County Circuit Court has ruled against the Portland Business Alliance (PBA) challenge to a voting and governance measure slated for November’s ballot. The PBA had argued that the broad package of changes referred to the ballot by the Charter Review Commission violated the state constitution’s single-subject requirement.
In today’s ruling, Judge Stephen K. Bushong concluded that the measure does not violate that requirement.
This is the second charter reform defeat this summer for the PBA. In July, the City Auditor’s office declined a PBA request to conduct a constitutional review of the proposed reforms, responding that the Auditor only reviews “initiatives”—measures brought to the ballot via signatures—not “referrals” to the ballot made by governing entities. Despite that setback, the PBA unsuccessfully pressed forward with this same argument to the Circuit Court.
In response to the ruling the co-chair of the Charter Review Commission, Melanie Billings-Yun, told BikePortland that:
The court has agreed that the Portland Charter Commission has developed an indivisible and comprehensive plan for bringing meaningful change to our city government. As Judge Bushong so rightly said in his ruling, “All the provisions in this package of reforms are properly connected to the unifying principle of reforming the structure and operation of city government.” That unifying principle is creating a governing system that is accountable, responsive and representative of all the people of Portland. Now Portland voters will have the power to choose a better future for our city.
Today’s decision brings to a close a strange interlude in which the City Council has been in the awkward position of watching the City Auditor’s and Attorney’s offices defend the legality of recommendations made by the council-appointed Charter Review Commission, even as council members’ reaction to the full package of those recommendations ranges from tepid to testy.
The Charter Review Commission (CRC) is an independent body of 20 volunteers called together by the Portland City Council every ten years to review and recommend changes to Portland’s city charter, the constitution of the city. Each Council member is allowed to nominate four charter commissioners who are then subject to Council confirmation. A super-majority of 15 out of 20 CRC commissioners can refer their recommended changes directly to the voters. By a comfortable 17 to 3 vote this past June, the current CRC referred its package of amendments to the November ballot.
Mayor Wheeler summed up the relation between the City Council and the Charter Review Commission in the June 29 Council meeting in which the CRC informed the Council of their recommendations:
You have voted with your super-majority to refer this directly to the residents of the City of Portland. Obviously, you are their body, not our body, and our comments here are truly for informational purposes only, as opposed to policy making.
As of today’s Circuit Court ruling, the fate of changes to Portland’s form of governance and method of electing city officials will be in the hands of November’s voters.
Between now and November, however, the charter reform measure will face organized opposition. Both Commissioner Mingus Mapps and former Council candidate Vadim Mozyrsky have political action committees which will oppose the full suite of changes proposed in the measure. As BikePortland previously reported, Mapps’s Ulysses PAC will host forums on alternatives to the current measure, and Mapps himself plans to put forward a draft alternative proposal for the Spring 2023 ballot.
Mozyrsky has teamed up with Chuck Duffy and Steven Moskowitz, former staffers of late Mayor Bud Clark, to form Partnership for Common Sense Government which brashly opposes the ballot measure.
But the measure also has a growing number of proponents, including the City Club of Portland, the League of Women Voters and the Urban League. And a recently formed group, Portland United for Change, is a coalition of organizations working to support the CRC measure.
Cassie Wilson (left) leads out the ride. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
“I had never really looked into attending group rides. I never thought those rides were accessible to me.”
– Cassie Wilson
“Bike fun” is a colloquialism often used here in Portland to describe that thing where people get together to socialize and ride bikes, often with a theme in mind. Pedalpalooza (now in its third spectacular month with hundreds of rides logged) is a cornucopia bike fun. If you see people dressed up in various costumes or in matching colors riding around together with a mobile sound system or two leading the way, that’s bike fun.
What we had never seen, was a group ride led by someone who relies on an adaptive bicycle. That is, until this past Friday when Boring, Oregon resident Cassie Wilson led a Harry Styles-themed ride along the Willamette Riverfront in southeast Portland. It had all the trappings of any other Pedalpalooza ride, except several of the bikes looked a bit different. It was also the first ride I’ve ever been on where one of the participants rode a wheelchair.
Adaptive bikes is a catch-all term for bikes that have special designs and/or components that make them possible to ride for people unable to pilot a standard, two-wheeled rig. They can run the gamut — from the highly customized one that armless, aspiring politician Michael Trimble rides daily around Portland; to having just one extra wheel for balance. Even a tandem is an adaptive bike. It’s similar to “cargo bikes” in that we create a special label for it, but just like every bike is a cargo bike if it’s carrying something, any bike that has an adaptation that makes it easier to ride could be called an adaptive bike.
Some of you might recall when I rode a handcycle in 2007. But it would be nine years later before adaptive bikes made major headlines. In June 2016, just as the City of Portland was about to launch its long-awaiting bike share system, a disability rights activist posed a very uncomfortable question: Would the new system be accessible for everyone? Would there be adaptive bikes to rent?
Friday’s ride was an amazing display of this continued trajectory of acceptance of adaptive bikes and their riders into Portland’s cycling community.
“Because I need an adaptive bike and I’m not strong enough to go very far,” said Wilson before Friday’s ride. “I had never really looked into attending group rides. I never thought those rides were accessible to me.”
As we shared in a Q & A with Wilson earlier this month, she has a form of dwarfism and stands 3-feet, 7-inches tall. Thanks to Adaptive Biketown she’s able to rent a hand-cycle that fits her to a tee. As she and other riders got settled into their bikes, a supportive crowd of a few dozen — several dressed in their Harry Styles best — milled around the big, red Albertina Kerr building on the Eastbank Esplanade between OMSI and the Hawthorne Bridge.
Oh the fashion!
When it was time to roll, Wilson pumped her arms, rolled to the front and the group headed south to the Springwater Corridor. We rode about 1.5 miles to a lookout point where Wilson led the group into a dirt singletrack trail. All the riders embraced the off-road challenge, and with a little push from supportive friends, everyone made it back onto the smooth Springwater path.
As Harry Styles hits boomed from a massive speaker strapped to the back of a bike trailer, everyone rode together back to the starting point. New perspectives were gained by all.
I was struck by what had happened: It takes a very special cycling and civic ecosystem to create something like this. It filled me with joy as I packed up my gear for the ride home and thought of something Wilson had said to me. What’s with the Harry Styles theme? I asked. “Why not?” she replied. “Music makes everything more fun. I really wanted to show people that group rides can be accessible, include everyone, and still have a fun theme.”
