Witness says bus driver “didn’t like cyclists”

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The TriMet/bike incident has the spread across the country, but unfortunately of all the parties involved only the cyclist has made a statement. TriMet has been silent (they sent me a statement but it did not address this issue specifically), the driver is deceased, the passenger has not been found, and no witnesses have stepped forward, until now.

OHSU employee Phillip Wilmarth was seated in the middle of the bus and his account of that morning adds useful context about why the driver and passenger acted the way they did.

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Reactions to the maelstrom

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oregonian_easyriders
[From the Oregonian]

It’s been a crazy week around here.

The Randy Albright/TriMet thing has spilled over from my site to the local media, the blogosphere, and now to the national media (someone saw the video on Fox TV in Utah). The result is an avalanche of comments (101 on this blog at last count) and emotions from people on all sides of the issue. And I hesitate to say “sides” because I’m afraid this whole thing is becoming more about which side you’re on rather than recognizing that we all have a right to the road and life is much better when we peacefully coexist.

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ODOT publishes bike law summary

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I don’t think this could have come at a better time. Misinterpretations of bike laws are the basis of many false arguments. Now that ODOT has finally published a summary of all the bike laws pertaining to bikes in the Oregon Revised Statutes this shouldn’t be as much of a problem.

You can download the PDF here.

It would be much more useful to also have it posted as a web page, so if they don’t have plans to do that soon I might reformat it and do it myself.

Thanks goes to local cyclist Brian Scrivner for squeeking his wheel about this and to Sheila Lyons at ODOT for making it happen. This is, according to Michael Ronkin (ODOT’s Bike guy), “a good example of advocates and public agency staff working together.” Way to go!

Wallet-sized crash checklist

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Checklist: What to do when you're hit.

After I posted Austin Ramsland’s great checklist for what to do after you’ve been hit, a few people wondered if we could make a portable version. Thanks to the help and suggestions of readers, I found out about PocketMod, a nifty little service that can convert PDFs into handy, wallet-sized booklets.

I downloaded the program but before I spent any time with it, another reader was nice enough to do the work for me (thanks Jason!). He sent me the formatted file, I figured out how to fold it, and voila!…my very own, wallet-sized checklist. Now I just hope if I get hit I’ll be able to see straight enough to read the small print.

Here’s how to make yours:


Join us on the Super Legal Ride

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Tonight is the Super Legal Ride created by super-advocate Elly Blue. The first one got some media attention (Portland Mercury and KGW-TV) and its goal and execution has come into question on the Shift email list.

The debate revolves around whether or not it’s a good idea for cyclists to advocate for a new law that allows us to treat stop signs as yields. This is an important debate because it gets right at the heart of how society and the law think about bikes. We’re already considered a vehicle…but are bikes different enough from cars that we deserve a different set of laws? I think so.

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Help me get to the National Bike Summit

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As I just reported, there’s a contingent from Portland going to the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C..

I’ve been wanting to go the the Summit for years but never really considered it until now. The schedule looks awesome and just think of all the bike people, the ideas, the conversations! Imagine me explaining Chunkathalon, Pedalpalooza, Bridge Pedal, Zoobomb, and Midnight Mystery Rides to some nice folks from Nebraska! And it would be cool to share my perspectives on the creative and diverse Portland bike energy with all those bikey bigwigs.

But I doubt there are many regular guys with blogs that show up to things like this, especially with the travel expenses and the $350 registration fee. The BTA has invited me to tag along with them and share some cheap floor space in their hotel, but there’s still the plane ticket and the $350 to get in. I’m almost committed to going, it’s the lack of funds that gives me some hesitation.

I really don’t have the money to go, but what if just a handful of the 2,662 unique visitors I’ve had in the last three days (and the 1113 of those who visited more than once) pitched in a few bucks via those handy donation buttons in my sidebar? Or grabbed one of the few remaining BikePortland.org T-shirts (now $15 with free shipping)?

I hope to bring you the scoop live from D.C. and pour everything I learn at the Summit right back into this site.

Thanks for reading.

Portland to open National Bike Summit

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Portland has been given the opening slot to kick off the National Bike Summit being held March 1-3 in Washington D.C.. According to the official schedule, a “distinguished panel of Oregonians” will be telling the crowd (a who’s who of advocates, lobbyists and industry leaders) how to make their communities more bike-friendly and how to apply lessons they learned from their recent trip to Amsterdam.

Evan from the BTA tells me that the panel will include him (he’s Executive Director), Bike Gallery owner Jay Graves, urban planner Mia Birk and City Commissioner Sam Adams.

BTA website goes live

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The BTA’s long-awaited website is live. I think you’ll like it. I do. Big kudos go out to the talented folks at Grapheon Design for donating their skills to the cause.

I think it’s pretty cool they’ve got a blog. Evan just posted something about the Albright/TriMet thing that’s worth a read (and I’ll forgive him for linking to the Oregonian’s coverage instead of mine)*. I tried to comment but it didn’t let me…hopefully that will be resolved soon.

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Inside Portland’s smallest bike shop

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Visit to PSU Bike Co-op

The Portland State University Bike Co-op is a tiny, self-service shop located in a parking garage in downtown Portland. It opened up in October 2004 and it serves the estimated 1500-2000 daily bike riders at PSU. I stopped by yesterday to check it out…all 136 square feet of it. Yes, that’s small. In this picture I’m standing on one side of the shop and Ian (the manager) is at the other. Pretty hard to believe you can run a bike shop from a space like this, but Ian pulls it off with flying colors.

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The Erik Tonkin Column

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I’m happy to announce that local professional ‘cross racer Erik Tonkin will be publishing a weekly column here on BikePortland.org. Well, not exactly here…I went and made him his own space.

He’s gotten off to a great start with this article about how his friends help beat him up in mock races around Reed College in preparation for the World Championships.

Erik leaves this morning for the Netherlands and I’m looking forward to posting his race reports before the mud dries. Good luck to Erik and the entire Oregon contigent!

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From the Archives

Opinion: If we’re serious about cycling, let’s get serious about cycling infrastructure