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Mayor Adams’ office releases 100 day plan update video

Mayor Adams’ Transportation Policy Director
Catherine Ciarlo in screenshot from
new video.
-Watch it below-

Mayors Sam Adams’ office has just released a video address giving an update to Portlanders on his 100 day action plan as it pertains to his transportation agenda. The video (watch it below) is in the form of a monologue from his transportation policy director (and former executive director of the Bicycle Transportation Alliance) Catherine Ciarlo.

In the video, Ciarlo says “Mayor Adams set out an ambitious agenda for transportation and we feel good about the progress we’ve made,” and it addresses the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project, the Portland Streetcar, the cycle track, and the new bike parking corral.

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Oregon Public Broadcasting focuses lens on biking

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

OPB’s Oregon Field Guide
has a major crush on biking.

Oregon Public Broadcasting’s (OPB) Oregon Field Guide program has begun to reflect our state’s decidedly bike-centric personality.

The program, which covers all of Oregon’s natural, artistic, and social splendor, has had several segments devoted to biking recently.

Back in February, the show featured Cascade Huts, the hut-to-hut mountain biking company based up on Mt. Hood that opened back in 2007. Watch that episode here.

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Kidical Massers bring message for more money to City Hall

Kidical Mass-10

How can the city say no to
a face like this?
-Slideshow below-
(Photos © J. Maus)

Last Friday, about 100 people — most of them families with kids in tow — rode to City Hall as part of a special edition of the BTA’s monthly Kidical Mass ride. The goal was to raise awareness about the city’s budget that currently threatens to lop off about 40% of funding for Safe Routes to Schools programs and is non-committal in terms of funding for promised new bike boulevards.

Riders met up at three locations throughout the city before coming together for a rally and hot cocoa on the steps of City Hall.

At the rally, people held signs that said, “Safe Routes to School is Kids on Bikes”, “Funding Safe Routes = Healthy Families”, and “Portland Needs Safe Routes!”. The BTA’s Michelle Poyourow took to the mic and urged the crowd to keep tabs on upcoming opportunities to weigh in on the the budget (the Mayor releases his version on April 28th) and to contact City Commissioners and urge them to fund bike projects and programs.

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Press Release: BTA opposes Columbia River Crossing project

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Below is the full text of the BTA’s press release in opposition to the CRC project:

BICYCLE TRANSPORTATION ALLIANCE FORMALIZES OPPOSITION TO COLUMBIA RIVER CROSSING

Monday, March 22, 2009 – The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) announced today our opposition to the massive freeway expansion, known as the Columbia River Crossing, that is being planned between Portland and Vancouver.

Widening the freeway to move more cars will generate more traffic in Portland and in Clark County, will speed up climate change by releasing more greenhouse gases, and will spew pollutants into the air around N Portland and Vancouver neighborhoods.

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BTA shifts tone, issues statement opposing the CRC project

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“Expanding the freeway and constructing six new massive interchanges will do tremendous damage to the bike friendliness of communities around the project.”
— From a press release issued today by the BTA

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) issued a statement today in opposition to the Columbia River Crossing project. The statement is by far the BTA’s most strongly-worded criticism yet in the 18 months they’ve been tracking the project.

After Mayor Sam Adams and Portland City Council (and soon thereafter the Project Sponsor’s Council) voted in support of building the new I-5 bridge to a size that could accomodate up to 12 lanes, many BTA members and others in the community felt like the project had taken a major turn for the worse.

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Why the City of Eugene opposes the Idaho Stop law

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The letter from Eugene’s
bike program coordinator in
opposition to the Idaho Stop bill.
(Download PDF)

Last week, when the Idaho Stop Law bill — which would allow bikes to treat stop signs as yields (adopting a law similar to one already on the books in Idaho) — was in its first hearing down in Salem, one surprise that emerged was a letter of opposition sent from the City of Eugene to the House Transportation Committee.

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance‘s government affairs director Karl Rohde said he was “surprised” about Eugene’s move. Rohde told me this morning that none of the people the BTA works with in Eugene had warned him that there might be opposition to the bill.

Rohde said Eugene’s opposition to the bill also came as a surprise to BTA board member and Eugene resident Paul Adkins (Adkins is also president of Eugene’s local bike advovacy group, the Greater Eugene Area Riders (GEARs)).

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The Monday Roundup

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Intextication; more “resisting arrest”; slowing growth; failed bike lanes; the true cost of driving; coffeeshop on the Hawthorne; make your own bike bell

Time for the news roundup, folks:

– A bad sign for the bike economy? Trek has furloughed 300 employees from one of its plants.

– Is “intextication” the new drunk driving?

– Virginia has outlawed the cul de sac, saying all new subdivisions must have through streets.

– In Millville, Pennsylvania, three police officers caught themselves on video tackling a teenage woman from her bike and beating her in the course of pulling her over for riding on the sidewalk. She was convicted of resisting arrest and has now filed a civil suit.

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Bikes will take center stage at City Club

Tony Pereira's new singlespeeds-23.jpg

New bikes await customers in
Tony Pereira’s SE Portland shop.
(Photo © J. Maus)

The City Club of Portland is set to host a special edition of their Friday Forums series entitled, “It’s All About the Bike”.

The City Club is a Portland institution that began nearly 100 years ago and whose members read like a who’s-who of social and political power brokers in the city. It’s where Mayor Sam Adams gave his first “State of the City” and it’s a common forum for Governors, statesmen, and titans of local industry.

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Mayor announces first of four bike corrals promised in “100 Days” plan

Kryptonite Racks in the Pearl-2.jpg

PBOT will remove and then reconfigure
these racks on NW 13th at
PNCA. They will also add 13 more.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Mayor Adams can tick an item off his list of promises to fulfill in his first 100 days as Mayor.

Adams’ office has announced the first of four new bike corrals that will go up around Portland in the coming weeks. The new racks are coming to NW 13th street adjacent to the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) in the Pearl District. Slated for installation on Tuesday of next week, the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation plans to install 13 new staple racks in the place of two motor vehicle parking spaces.

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Lovejoy crash victim asks for help with bills, bike

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Asha Laura Whittle.
(Photo: Asha Laura Whittle)

Asha Whittle’s story could have been tragic.

Judging from the nature of the collision (she and her bike were dragged across the intersection), photos taken at the scene, and comments from police and other first responders, when I first reported about her crash earlier this month, I expected that she had sustained major injuries.

Fortunately, she suffered only minor injuries. She left a comment a day after the crash saying she was “miraculously fine” and is now out of the hospital and trying to get back to life as usual.

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