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Citizen advocate nears Forest Park mountain biking goal

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Gateway Green Kick the Dirt event-27

Frank Selker
(Photo © J. Maus)

Frank Selker, the man with the mountain bike plan for Forest Park, is just 20 people shy of his goal to get 100 new, mountain-bike loving Portlanders to join the Forest Park Conservancy (FPC).

When we checked in with Frank last month, he was halfway to his goal. Today, he emailed to tell us that he just got the latest membership numbers from January. “I believe we are up to 80 cyclists,” he wrote, “and close to $6,000 in contributions to the FPC.”

Back in December, Selker challenged the community to step up and join the FPC — a non-profit group that works closely with the Parks Bureau as stewards of the park — in an effort to make a statement that it was time to move forward with talks about opening up more space for bikes in the 5,000 acre park. Currently, there is just 1/3 of a mile of trail that is legal for bikes to ride on (bikes are allowed on all the park’s larger, fire access roads).

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Portland gets award from EPA for senior biking program

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized the City of Portland Bureau of Transportation for their work in encouraging seniors to adopt a healthy lifestyle. A key component of that effort is the PBOT’s Senior Cyclist Program.

The Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging Achievement Award was given at the recent national Smart Growth Conference. According to a report on the EPA’s website, Michelle Pirzadeh from the EPA said, “The City’s action merits national recognition because it improves the health and well-being of the community and its older citizens.”

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TriMet looks to add more bike capacity to WES

The WES has newly designed
hooks, but fewer of them.
(Photo: Jim Parsons)

TriMet’s new Westside Express (WES) commuter service officially opened at the end of January to big celebrations, but people that showed up to ride the train with their bikes in tow, quickly found that the WES has less — as in, less hooks for bikes.

Max Campos rode the train on opening day and he was immediately concerned that the WES comes equipped with just two bike hooks per car instead of the four that exist in other trains in the MAX system. After he rode home on the WES, Campos wrote on the Shift email list, “I’m concerned about this….On the train ride back both hooks in my car were full and I thought ‘oh god, and the thing isn’t even open yet!'”

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Portland will host Oregon bike polo championships

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Bike polo in Alberta Park

Bike polo at Alberta Park will decide the
state championships in March.
(Photo © J. Maus)

Get your mallets ready bike polo fans, Portland is set host the first-ever Oregon Bike Polo Championships.

On the weekend of March 7th – 9th, the best bike polo players from all over the Northwest will vie for the championship crown. Organizer Drew Kinney says qualifying matches will be determined at Pier Park in North Portland on Saturday and then the finals will be held at Alberta Park on Sunday. Kinney expects polo players from Corvallis, Eugene, Seattle, and Canada to compete at the event.

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Metro urges state to re-think its federal stimulus project list

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Chair of the Oregon Transportation
Commission, Gail Achterman, is in
the driver’s seat on how our state
spends its federal stimulus money.
(Photos © J. Maus)

The Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) is meeting this morning in Salem to discuss which infrastructure projects will get built with money from America’s recently passed economic stimulus plan.

The OTC is a five member panel that is housed within the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and appointed by the Governor. They meet once a month and their job is to establish statewide transportation policies and manage the transportation network.

As the OTC solidifies their final, $350 million project list, some agencies are encouraging them to take a deep breath and re-think their priorities.

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One year after Austin died: What has the BTA done?

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The ghost bike for Austin Miller.
(Photos: Jim “K’Tesh” Parsons)

On February 11, 2008, 15-year old Beaverton high school student Austin Miller was collided with a TriMet bus when he merged from a sidepath on Murray Road into a bus stop on SW Farmington Road.

The tragedy sent shockwaves through the region. It raised questions about the legality of sidepaths, riding conditions in Beaverton, and more.

The crash (and perhaps the resulting lawsuit filed by Miller’s family in June) also spurred TriMet to take a serious look at they train bus operators and at where other other potential bus/bike conflict areas might exist.

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Bike, streetcar plans will hold joint open houses

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“Both projects are focused on a livable future for Portland. And this joint presentation opportunity gives us an excellent opportunity to specifically address the issue of how well bicycling and streetcar can play together as we build our livable streets.”
— Ellen Vanderslice, project manager for the Bicycle Master Plan Update

The City of Portland Bureau of Transportation has announced that the upcoming public open houses for the Bicycle Master Plan Update project will be combined with open houses for the Portland Streetcar System Plan.

Ellen Vanderslice, Bike Master Plan Update project manager, says she believes this new scheme has several benefits. When I asked her why PBOT decided to combine these important events, she gave several reasons.

PBOT has been asked to shave millions of dollars from their budget and, according to Vanderslice, putting these two open houses together is an “opportunity to save the taxpayers money.” It’s also, she says, a result of, “a motivation for staff to look for efficiencies.”

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