BikePortland

Another sign of bike lane disrespect

My view of NE Sandy
this morning.
(Photos © J. Maus)

On crowded Portland streets, where taking the lane isn’t comfortable or necessary, people on bikes are usually expected to ride in a 4-5-foot wide bike lane. With cars speeding closely by on one side, and sometimes with cars parked just inches by on the other, I get pretty sensitive when something degrades the quality of that lane.

We’ve reported about various forms of bike lane disrespect in the past; from their use as loading/drop-off zones, the dangers of “door zones”, to them being the permanent resting place of gravel. (Another big issue with Portland’s bike lanes is the epidemic proportion of lanes where the paint stripe has been completely worn off…but that’s a story for another day).

Metro Councilor Robert Liberty
gets the prize for best-dressed
biking politician today.
(Photos © J. Maus)

It’s not everyday that you get a free spread of food, coffee, free bike tune-ups, and a shot at raffle prizes just for biking into work.

And it’s not everyday that you can see your Congressional representative, your Mayor, and two members of your regional government getting to work under their own power. But that’s what happened this morning at the annual Bike to Work Day event hosted by the Lloyd Transportation Management Association.

Riding to the event down N. Vancouver, I pedaled in a pack of about 12 other people. I also noticed a lot of bike traffic in and around the Lloyd District. The event itself had a solid, yet tame, turnout.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

BikePortland Neighborhood Get Together: Milwaukie

When: Monday, May 18th, 5pm – 7:30pm

Where: Cha Cha Cha, 11008 SE Main Street, Milwaukie

Details:

Anyone who lives, works, commutes, or otherwise spends time in Milwaukie or the vicinity is invited to join us.

This is an informal social event for people invested in biking to meet each other, talk shop, compare notes, and generally have a fun evening. Come discuss bike routes, connections, and pavement maintenance, the new MAX light rail line under construction in the neighborhood, and more.

These monthly get togethers are in a different neighborhood each month. So far we’ve visited St. Johns in February, Multnomah Village in March, and Outer Southeast in April. All were great chances to meet people we generally only interact with online, and to learn firsthand about issues in parts of Portland we don’t regularly visit. Check out reports and learn more about these events on our Get Together page.

Sucky commute? Turn the rage into action at new website

Screen shot from MyCommuteSucks.org

“Don’t you wish there were a place where you could just vent all your transportation troubles? Well, the wait is over. Let it all out and take action.”

That’s the battle cry from MyCommuteSucks.org, a new site launched today by non-profit group Transportation For America.

According to E-advocacy Coordinator Stephen Davis, the core purpose of the site is to share and read awful commute stories and then contact Congress to urge them to improve the system (there’s also a section for good commute stories, but ranting is where the passion is).

Last year, the Lloyd Bikettes made
their debut on Bike to Work Day.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Today is Bike to Work Day!

Here in Portland, the day isn’t met with the same kind of fanfare as in some other cities (where the idea of biking is much more of a novelty). But even so, there’s at least one big event planned today — the annual Bike to Work Breakfast hosted by the Lloyd District Transportation Management Association (their mission is to improve access and mobility in the Lloyd District).

Portland Mayor Sam Adams, with his new carfree commitment and fresh off a trip to the Velo-City conference in Brussells, might stop by Oregon Square (6th and NE Holladay) between 7:30-9:00 this morning to join the fun.

Looking east on Prescott. Green
paint in foreground marks where
bike came to rest.
(Photo: Elly Blue)

This evening around 5:30 pm, a 36-year old man on a bicycle was fatally wounded when he attempted to cross NE Prescott Street at NE 57th (view map below).

According to investigators, Sandy Bass Jr. was headed north on NE 57th on his way to pick up his son at Rigler Elementary School. He was struck by a white Subaru that was headed west on Prescott.

Performance will open at
SW 18th and Alder this weekend.
Google Street View)

Performance Bicycle, Inc., the nation’s largest chain of retail bike shops and a juggernaut in the industry with their online and catalog sales, will have a grand opening for their new downtown Portland store this weekend.

As we reported back in February, Performance will open their doors at 1736 SW Alder St. (just a few blocks from PGE Park).

The Sellwood Bridge affects the
bikeability of Milwaukie.
(Photo © J. Maus)

We’ll be bringing our next BikePortland Get Together event to Milwaukie, Oregon, our neighbor to the immediate south.

Anyone who lives, works, commutes, rides through, or otherwise spends time in Milwaukie (or its general vicinity) is invited to join us.

Milwaukie seems to be quietly experiencing a bicycling renaissance.

Back in 2007 the city held a series of Transportation System Plan meetings, out of which came a more coherent vision for biking in Milwaukie, as well as a bike map has been created and bike parking has been installed downtown. Another result was the grassroots formation of MilwaukieBIKES!, a group centered around an email listserv and billed as “a convenient communication hub for the bicycling community of Milwaukie, Oregon.”

So far, in our coverage of the Hawthorne Bridge Crash, we’ve heard from an eyewitness and the two people who collided. We’ve also discussed both infrastructure and behavior-based solutions.

But one important party to this issue has been left out: pedestrians.

It’s hard to determine what exactly caused Erica Rothman’s harrowing crash, but it’s likely that the presence of people on foot played a role (Rothman had veered to the left to avoid them). On that note, I’d like to share an idea from Ron Richings. (Richings is the guy I mentioned in my editorial on Tuesday who put quite a bit of thought and advocacy work into this issue last summer.)

Riders on a multi-day trip
near Champoeg State Park.
(Photo: Matt Picio/CycleWild)

The State of Oregon’s “Scenic Bikeway” program has taken a nice step forward. This week, the State’s Bicycle Recreation Coordinator, Alexandra Phillips, unveiled a website that features detailed maps and route information on the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway.

The Willamette Valley route is the first officially recognized scenic bikeway in the state and it’s referred to as “a prototype” for others yet to come. The 127-mile route begins at Champoeg State Heritage Area just south of Wilsonville and ends at Armitage County Park just north of Eugene.

Download the study here.

Portland-based Upstream Public Health has just released an important new statewide study that draws a clear connection between transportation policy decisions and people’s health.

The study — Oregon’s first-ever statewide Health Impact Assessment (HIA) — was commissioned by Upstream and funded by the Northwest Health Foundation. Upstream collaborated with Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) and an advisory committee made up of a diverse range of experts from the planning, health, transportation engineering, and advocacy fields.

Reader Jimmy C. tells us that local custom frame builder Rob Tsunehiro of Tsunehiro Cycles has bikes on display at Legare’s (1532 SE Clinton St.). They’ll be there through the end of this month.

If the event flyer below is any indication, this is something worth taking a look at….

Another sign of bike lane disrespect

Electeds get into spirit at Bike to Work Day event

BikePortland Get Together — Milwaukie

Sucky commute? Turn the rage into action at new website

Bike to Work Day open thread

Fatal bike/car crash on NE Prescott at 57th

Performance looks to make big splash with Portland opening this weekend

Join us south of the border for our next Get Together in Milwaukie

Could a new plan for pedestrians help Hawthorne Bridge congestion?

Oregon’s prototype “Scenic Bikeway” now has online home

New study: Less driving would make Oregon healthier

Tsunehiro bikes on display at SE Portand cafe

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