BikePortland

Bikes and more at Earth Day

[Your friendly bike valet.]

Spring is here and with it comes hordes of Portland cyclists, eager to ride without gloves and rain jackets. Saturday’s Earth Day Celebration at Sellwood Park was overrun with bikes. Luckily, volunteers from Shift to Bikes were on hand to offer free, attended bike parking.

The bike parking area was part of the Better Transportation Fair which featured lots of bikey fun. Get Lit’s Jeff Bernards was on hand giving away free bike helmets, Citybikes’ Tim Calvert was showing people how to make bike buckets, volunteer Carl Larson was manning the Shift table, and there was a place to test-ride utility and cargo bikes.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Allan Folz is the third cyclist in as many weeks to successfully defend himself in court. Earlier this week, he fought a citation he got while riding to work in Beaverton back in February (read his story in the Forums). His victory follows the cases of Sean Barrett and Mike Reuter who also took the initiative and won respect from a system that still caters to car culture and leaves cyclists guilty until proven innocent.

We’re still many years away from garnering the same respect in the system as motorized vehicles, so it’s up to us to demand it. We need to educate ourselves and be willing to fight for our rights when necessary. Here are some great tips from Allan about how your can increase your chances of victory in court:

I love when I wake up to emails like this:

“Jonathan,

Wanted to let you know I recovered the bike yesterday.

I can’t be sure, but it looks like the response posted on BikePortland.org had a lot to do with the bikes current “owner” contacting me to arrange a return. It was a pretty sketchy dealing, with cops involved and stuff, but my baby’s back home again.

So thanks again for keeping this website running. It’s a great public service.”

The City of Portland has announced more details about the upcoming Portland Bike Summit. It will be held at PSU’s Smith Center (1825 SW Broadway) on June 17th from 8:30 to 1:30.

[PDOT Transportation Planner,
Paul Smith]

City Transportation Planner Paul Smith just submitted a guest post over on Sam Adams’ blog. It’s in response to a “small but vocal” group that has been giving Sam flack because they think bike projects get too much love in the transportation budget.

Sam has asked Paul to look more closely into this and come up with the hard numbers. Not surprisingly, it turns out that bikes receive only “a tiny fraction of PDOT’s total budget” according to Paul.

The Portland Office of Transportation Options is in high gear. They’re in the midst of the Northeast Hub Project, a comprehensive program that aims to encourage walking and biking in Northeast Portland.

Yesterday I gained clearance to the top-secret Hub headquarters to check out the operation.

Transportation Options are the folks behind many of the innovative and fun outreach programs in Portland. They do things like the Summer Cycle ride series, the Women on Bikes program, and they give away tons of free bike maps and other goodies at community events throughout the year.

[Happy and secure.]

Back in March I said I would give away a Kryptonite Evolution U-lock to a randomly selected bike theft victim. To be eligible, you had to list your stolen bike and provide me with a case number from the Portland Police Bureau.

The first winner is Jay Fields! Jay lost her blue Trek hybrid to theives back on April 4th. Here’s what she had to say about winning the lock:

“Thanks so much for the lock and for this program — it helps to take the sting away from having a bike stolen and instead emphasizes all the wonderful, kind, and helpful people in our community.”

Bike polo is one of the most challenging and fun things you can do on two wheels. I played last summer with the Axles of Evil crew and it was awesome. Blood was spilled and although I barely held my own against their mallet mastery, it was a hell of a good time.

I spilled blood, scored the game-ending goal mid-crash, and felt like I was baptised into the sport. But not everyone is looking for such an intense introduction.

[Joe and the boys taking a break from the
bikes in Colorado. Photo by Julien Campmeil]

North Portland resident and author Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie will be presenting from his latest book at the Wordstock Festival this weekend. Back in November, I posted about Joe’s cross-country bike ride with this two sons, Quinn (7) and Enzo (5). His book based on the ride is called Momentum Is Your Friend: The Metal Cowboy And His Pint-Sized Posse Take On America, and he’ll be reading from it at Wordstock this Saturday at 10AM.

Of all the magazines I get, the only one I make a big effort to read each week is The Economist. The Economist is one of the most well-respected publications in the world and it is available on newsstands across the globe. So what does this have to do with bikes?

Well, I was perusing my latest issue when lo-and-behold the name Evan Manvel jumped out at me. Upon closer inspection I was stunned to see a letter to the editor from none other than the Executive Director of our very own Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Here’s the letter:

[Coming to Bagdad Theater.]

Bike Gallery is throwing their weight behind a fundraiser for the Glenhaven BMX and Skate Park. The park, scheduled to be built later this summer, will be located in Northeast Portland (82nd and Siskiyou).

On June 8th Bike Gallery will host a showing of, “Joe Kid on a Sting-Ray: The History of BMX” at the Bagdad Theater (3702 SE Hawthorne). According to Bike Gallery rep Barb Grover, every cent of the money raised will go to the park:

The Tour of Georgia is the biggest professional bike race in North America. The six stage race draws the top teams and cyclists in the world. Among them is Portland’s very own Doug Ollerenshaw, a member of the Health-Net Maxxis team.

A few months ago I rode along with Doug on a training ride around Sauvie Island. Now, due to the wonders of his new GPS-enabled cycling computer, we can all ride along with him at the Tour of Georgia. Check out this link for a list of rides (including a recent training ride up on Skyline Blvd.) and click around to view all sorts of neat information including his heart rate and elevation charts.

Bikes and more at Earth Day

Cyclists fight back in court…and win

Another stolen bike recovered!

Bike Summit plans announced

City planner takes on bikes in the budget

City’s “Hub” project off and rolling

First U-lock winner announced

Polo for the people coming to Alberta Park

Metal Cowboy wheels into Wordstock

BTA director goes global

BMX park benefit coming to Bagdad

Ride along with Portland pro at Tour of Georgia

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From the Archives

Portland’s invisible machine: Behind the scenes at the World Naked Bike Ride