BikePortland

Inspiration from Seoul: An ambitious plan to increase biking

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Bike elevators for bridges are just
one way Seoul, South Korea hopes
to reach 10% bike mode share by 2020.
(Graphic: Chosun Ilbo)

Seoul, South Korea, a city with just 1.6% of their population regularly using bikes (Portland is at 6% by comparison) has set an aggressive plan to bump that up to 10% by 2020.

They’ve launched several initiatives to reach that goal (like parking and shower facilities at subway stations, bike elevators to get to bridges, and more), but one of them in particular caught my eye because it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot myself – re-allocating existing roadway space to bike traffic.

Traffic on the Hawthorne Bridge.
(Photo � J. Maus)

This just in from the Multnomah County Public Affairs Office:

Hawthorne Bridge to close Sunday for maintenance

The Hawthorne Bridge will be closed to road and sidewalk traffic on Sunday, October 26 from 7:00 am until as late as 5:00 pm so that electrical controls for bridge openings can be upgraded. Motor vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists will not be allowed on the bridge, which will be in the raised position much of the day. The bridge lift span will remain open for river traffic to pass. The work is not weather-dependent.

Alternate river crossings include the Burnside, Morrison, Marquam and Ross Island bridges. TriMet bus lines that normally cross the Hawthorne Bridge will be rerouted across the Morrison Bridge during the closure.

Updated: SW Broadway bike lane closes due to sewer line burst

Red circle shows location of busted sewage line (map).

The bike lane on SW Broadway between Montgomery and Harrison will be closed for up to a week due to a busted sewer line.

Here’s the story from KGW:

The city is just beginning its investigation into the burst pipe but says auto traffic will narrow to two lanes and a popular bike route along the SW Broadway corridor will be closed for up to a week, according to city spokeswoman Sheryl Cook [correct spelling is Cheryl Kuck — Ed.].

A reader (thanks Andrea) brought a sad story from Los Angeles to my attention.

Here’s the snip from a report in the LA Times:

“A woman in her 60s died this morning after being hit by a teenage bicyclist in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles police said.

The woman was crossing the street in the 600 block of Palisades Drive just north of Sunset Boulevard shortly before 7 a.m. when she was hit by the 16-year-old boy riding his bicycle…

“He’s just devastated,” Thomas said of the boy, who sustained cuts and bruises.

It was not immediately known how fast the boy was traveling, but it was still dark outside when the accident occurred. Authorities also did not know if the woman suffered fatal injuries when she was struck or when she fell to the ground.”

It doesn’t happen very often, but it does happen.

Full story at LATimes.com.

Cars are the new cigarettes: America’s other deadly habit

Stop sign in Vancouver BC (click for
larger version so you can
read the fine print).
(Photo � J. Maus)

Close readers of this site might recall that on several occasions I’ve written that, “cars are the new ~~smoking~~ cigarettes.”

It’s something that came from my continued bewilderment that, while most everyone realizes the multitude of negative impacts that come with America’s love-affair with cars, we are just now (and hardly still) beginning to think of them in the same way as cigarettes. That is, as something that is very dangerous, has broad public health implications, and claims the lives of thousands of people each year.

Way back when, cigarettes were cool. Everybody smoked them. From housewives to movie stars, nobody considered the negative impacts of puffing away (like lung cancer, asthma from secondhand smoke, and so on). But, as people started dying by the tens of thousands (including two Marlboro Men), suspicions grew.

I was wondering when we’d hear from AASHTO — the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (the “voice of transportation” a.k.a. the highway lobby).

This just in (via Traffic World and Carfree USA):

“AASHTO is weighing a $544.5 billion proposal for the next highway reauthorization bill…

Such a proposal would be almost double 2005’s $286 billion surface transportation bill, which was seen by many in the transportation community as a disappointment.”

It will be important to monitor how AASHTO and Transportation for America both position themselves for the upcoming funding battle.

Metro will present findings from European trip (get a sneak peek here)

Portlanders in Copenhagen. That’s PDOT’s head traffic
engineer Rob Burchfield on the left (in blue).
(Photo: Mikael Colville-Andersen)

A delegation of Portlanders from Metro’s Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails recently completed a week-long exploration of bike policies, culture and infrastructure in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Findings and recommendations from the trip will be presented at the final meeting of the Committee (which was launched back in May) on November 10th at Metro headquarters (600 NE Grand Ave.).

New Hindsight glasses from Nike.
(Photos: Nike via Gizmodo)

A reader (thanks Austin!) just gave me a heads up on an interesting new product idea from Nike.

Gadget blog Gizmodo reports that the new Hindsight glasses “are designed to do one simple thing: stop cyclists from getting hurt on the roads.”

How do they do this?

“It’s winter and cold and dark, but that doesn’t mean you need to sit around and get blob-like.”
— from the Pain in the Park website

Jeff Henderson (the man behind the Oregon Trout City of Portland Triathlon) and his partner Jonathan Eng (a personal trainer) are launching “Pain in the Park“, a new series of free cross-training workouts that will take place at parks throughout Portland.

On his website, Henderson writes that he launched the workout series because, “It’s winter and cold and dark, but that doesn’t mean you need to sit around and get blob-like.” He also writes that the workouts will focus on fun.

The ghost bike for Tracey Sparling (at the corner of W. Burnside and 14th in downtown Portland) with fresh flowers placed by family members on the one-year anniversary of her death.
(Photos � J. Maus)

A memorial sculpture and stencil (since removed) for Brett Jarolimek at the intersection of N. Interstate and Greeley.

[via Streetsblog]

Nobel Prize winning economist and NY Times columnist Paul Krugman has given some powerful punditry to the recently launched “Build for America” campaign. In an Op Ed piece published last week, he wrote:

“..right now, increased government spending is just what the doctor ordered, and concerns about the budget deficit should be put on hold.”

Inspiration from Seoul: An ambitious plan to increase biking

Hawthorne Bridge closed to bikes all day Sunday

Updated: SW Broadway bike lane closes due to sewer line burst

LA Times: Woman killed when struck by cyclist

Cars are the new cigarettes: America’s other deadly habit

Highway lobby gets in line for $544 billion

Metro will present findings from European trip (get a sneak peek here)

With ‘Hindsight’, Nike looks to improve bike safety

New workout series will take pain to the parks

One year later: Remembering Tracey and Brett

Nobel Prize economist: Now is the time to spend on infrastructure

Seminar: Bicycling in Davis

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From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland