🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler released a draft version of his Climate Emergency Declaration (PDF) yesterday. The document sets new goals for carbon emission reduction and it issues a call-to-arms for actions to address climate change impacts with an emphasis on a just transition for “frontline communities” (which are defined as, “Black and Indigenous people, communities of color”.)
Wheeler’s cover letter to the official declaration takes on an urgent tone: “We must make the right decisions now to bend the curve to protect our communities and save our planet,” he writes. “2020 is our year for putting the policies, strategies and actions in place that will aggressively reduce our carbon emissions.”
The transportation sector is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in our region and Wheeler’s declaration mentions transportation-related policies several times. Later today, Wheeler and his council colleagues will consider the Rose Lane Project, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s plan to allocate more road space to transit vehicles which in many ways perfectly embodies the type of actions he calls for in the declaration.
I don’t want to jinx it, but we’re 44 days into being an “Idaho Stop” state and the sky hasn’t fallen. I haven’t heard of any crashes caused by confusion over Oregon’s new law, and there have been (remarkably) zero biased news stories or crazy op-eds about it.
How safe is it for bicycle riders to share a “transit only” lane with bus and streetcar operators?
“As our population booms and we have smaller and smaller right-of-way to share, biking really needs to have a lot more direct focus from the Commissioner.”
— Jamey Duhamel, policy director for Commissioner Chloe Eudaly
A big thing happened at last night’s Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting: A current City Commissioner (via a staff person) expressed a direct interest in bicycling and said they want to make it a bigger part of their portfolio.
If so, a reader witnessed the crash, snapped a photo of the driver’s license plate, and wants to help you get justice.
Another piece of Portland’s vaunted local cycling industry is soon to be gone: High-end cycling apparel and lifestyle brand Rapha Racing LLC is moving its North American operations from Portland to Bentonville Arkansas.
According to North America Marketing Director Jake Rosenbloum, the move will be finalized by March 1st. “Portland has been an incredible home for the Rapha brand over the last 10-plus years,” he said in an email today. “Throughout our time here, the Portland-based team have helped to inform and define what Rapha is and means not just to the US, but around the world.”
Rapha made Portland for its U.S. headquarters in February 2008. Back then I asked company co-founder Luke Scheybeler why the London-based apparel brand chose Portland, he said, “Portland is so obviously a center of cycling, there’s an amazing bike culture here and a real appreciation for it. It just feels right.”
The message below came to us from a reader via Facebook. I’m sharing it here with permission from the victim.
Today, Feb 8, 2020, my spouse and I were returning from a ride along the esplanade. I’m a bit slow because I’m recovering from a full hysterectomy and appendectomy. My husband was waiting for me along the curb headed north on N. Williams just after Broadway.
As I was crossing N. Broadway (during green light in bike lane), a Dodge Ram 2500 began to approach me with driver revving the engine billowing black smoke and squealing the wheels. At one point his truck stopped next to me and the white male driver stepped on the gas pedal with his brakes on and started fish-tailing until the backend of his truck almost hit me. It was terrifying.
“I chose safety and my burrito.”
I was sitting outside a taqueria, waiting for my to-go order as we do, and I saw, or rather mostly heard, a kerfuffle over bike locks. I wasn’t quite close enough to see exactly what the scenario was for myself, and as it was two people getting a bit heated, I wasn’t about to physically insert myself to get details, but the scene was:
Guy One comes out. Goes to get his bike, and finds another bike is locked to it. Stands confused.
Guy Two comes out, says something about Guy One being a jackass and not leaving any space on the rack for anyone else, so he locked his bike to Guy One’s bike.
Guy One says things.
Guy Two says things back.
They part ways grumbling.
