BikePortland

Bicycle rider injured in collision on Highway 30 near St. Johns Bridge

Screen Shot 2020-05-20 at 10.34.28 AM — Photo from the scene.

(UPDATE, 12:36 pm: We know now the victim is Merritt Raitt, a well-known local rider. Read more about him in a note at the end of this post.)

This morning a man riding a bicycle was hit by a car driver while trying to cross over lanes of Highway 30 just north of the St. Johns Bridge.

The collision hasn’t been reported by authorities or on other media outlets, but we received details about it from a reader who was driving nearby and pulled up a few minutes after it happened.

According to our source (who pulled over to help the rider) the bicycle rider was riding northbound on Highway 30 and had just gone under the St. Johns Bridge. He then tried to merge across two lanes in order to enter the left turn lane that would take up onto NW Bridge Avenue to access NW Germantown Road (or the bridge).

hawthorne- — The proposal calls for a reduction of driving access to make room for a curbside bike lane separated from moving traffic by a parking lane. (Illustration by Scott Mason)

Whether it’s the Coronavirus Effect, a general sense of lawlessness, lack of concern about consequences, or all of the above — the Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division has been very busy with dangerous drivers recently.

You’ve likely seen the headlines about a spike in speeding. This is happening for the aforementioned reasons and because the pandemic has opened up more space on the roads. Any armchair traffic engineer will tell you that when people have more space to operate a vehicle they will use it to go faster (like 107 mph in a 45 mph zone) and take more chances.

Now we have hard data from the PPB about how this phenomenon is playing out locally.

While some Portlanders ride bikes and walk around their neighborhoods with relative ease, that ostensibly simple act isn’t so easy for many others. Local nonprofit leaders who work with immigrants, people of color, and families that rely on social services, paint a much different picture of neighborhood mobility.

In the case of Oregon Walks, Executive Director Jess Thompson said in a recent member newsletter that many people they serve, “Are not feeling safe leaving home during the pandemic.” “Too many folks do not have enough (or any) access to face coverings or reliable information about how to walk ‘Covid-aware’ and more safely when they walk out the door.”

Portland Bureau of Transportation Commissioner Chloe Eudaly has announced another element of the Slow Streets Safe Streets initiative.

Business owners can now fill out a short online application to request that space on their block be repurposed from parking to a “temporary 5-minute pickup/drop-off parking space.”

This part of the program was hinted at when it was launched on April 28th. It’s part of a three-pronged approach that aims to change how we use neighborhood greenways, busy streets, and main streets in an era of increased social distancing.

We’ve got forums!

I’ve been holding back on this announcement because I didn’t want to waste your time if they didn’t pan out. But after launching quietly at the end of March, today we’ve passed the 100-user mark on the new BikePortland Forums and that gives me the confidence to officially announce them here on the Front Page.

BikePortland has always been about fostering good conversations, sharing information, and inspiring people to go out and use it. It’s why we invest so much in our comment section and maintain daily discussions here on the blog as well as on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (not to mention old-fashioned emails and all those private messages).

So why add forums into that mix? Let me count the ways…

Screen Shot 2020-05-18 at 11.15.32 AM — Let’s close this gap! (Map graphic: BikePortland)

“If we want Portland to be taken seriously as a pedestrian and bike-friendly city, we need people to feel safe walking and biking, wherever they may be.”

Screen Shot 2020-05-15 at 2.35.36 PM — Riders navigate around a person’s tent on the I-205 multi-use path. (Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

The bad news is many Portlanders have lost their jobs in the past month. The good news is we’ve got a few leads for you.

If you’re looking for a new gig, check the links below…

– Mtn Bike Sales Specialist – The eBike Store

– Mechanic – Sellwood Cycle Repair

– Bike Delivery Rider – Jimmy John’s #1410

– Customer Experience Specialist – Velotech, Inc.

– Mountain Bike Mechanic – Fat Tire Farm

Bicycle rider injured in collision on Highway 30 near St. Johns Bridge

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