BikePortland

New heatmap feature continues hot streak for Portland-based Ride with GPS

Screen Shot 2020-09-28 at 3.08.53 PM — There are all sorts of cool things you can do with the heatmap. Compare the route density and intensity east and west of I-205 in Portland.

Screen Shot 2020-09-25 at 11.41.42 AM — The Bike Theft Task Force booth at a Sunday Parkways event in July 2016.
(Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The leader of the Portland Police Police Bureau’s Bike Theft Task Force (BTTF) says the unit has lost its only source of funding and will have to significantly scale back its work for the foreseeable future.

Officers with the task force had been doing regular bike registration events in partnership with Portland Parks rangers over the past few months. Last week Officer Dave Sanders took to the BTTF Twitter account to make the news public: “We are sorry to have to cancel this and other planned events,” he wrote. “Funding for our bike theft program is currently being suspended. Though the police bureau sees the value of these community efforts, we are facing larger budget cuts within our bureau that prevent us from continuing.”

Screen Shot 2020-09-21 at 11.14.43 AM — Construction of the trail (dashed yellow line) could begin soon.
(Map: BikePortland)

The Oregon Department of Transportation has made a new promise regarding their controversial I-5 Rose Quarter project.

Asked Friday by the host of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Think Out Loud radio show about how much power the forthcoming Historic Albina Advisory Board (HAAB) would have to influence the project, ODOT’s Director of Urban Mobility Brendan Finn said they’d have, “A tremendous amount of power and influence in how this project shapes out. They’re going to help reshape it with us.”

Finn was a guest on the show along with Oregon Walks‘ Claire Vlach and John Washington, CEO of Flossin Media, and the chair of the Soul District Business Association — both of whom were members of the I-5 project’s Citizen Advisory Committee which was abruptly disbanded earlier this month.