Faster buses are coming to 82nd Ave, but will it be “some” or “more”? (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Remember back in April when I shared a TriMet survey about transit on 82nd Avenue? The agency has revealed results of that survey, and if you love bus priority lanes, you’re going to want to keep reading…
The specific issue TriMet was curious about had to do with business access to transit — or “BAT” — lanes. TriMet’s survey queried public opinion on three project options: to have some BAT lanes, which would be three miles of transit priority lanes between Clackamas Town Center and NE Killingsworth; more BAT lanes, essentially a continues bus-priority lane the entire seven-mile length of the project; or to widen three intersections to make room for more transit lanes while not reducing lane capacity for car users (LOL).
It’s worth noting that the “some BAT lanes” option would be the cheapest of the three with an estimated price tag of $8.4 million (out of a total project cost estimate of $351 million). Doing BAT lanes the full length of the project would cost twice that amount, and the cost to widen three intersections would be four times that amount.
(Source: TriMet)
After tallying 1,414 surveys responses, despite its extra cost, the “more BAT lanes” option came out on top. 70% of respondents said more BAT lanes would be worth it, compared to 58% who said the same of some BAT lanes. On the flip side, only 21% of respondents wanted TriMet to invest in intersection widening. The results were first shared at a meeting of TriMet’s Community Advisory Committee last week.
Looking closer at the results, even survey takers who identified as drivers want more transit-priority lanes. 67% of drivers chose more BAT lanes — and even a majority (54%) of folks who own and/or manage a business on 82nd Avenue said more transit lanes should be the priority. Overall, this was a clear illustration that many Portlanders want better transit, even if it reduces driving capacity, increases traffic diversion onto other streets nearby, and costs more.
Oregon Walks Executive Director and 82nd Avenue Community Advisory Committee member Zachary Lauritzen is a major proponent of building transit lanes the entire length of the project. “If we can put full transit lanes all up and down 82nd Avenue,” he shared as part of his testimony to the Portland City Council Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Monday. “It slows down vehicles. It enhances people on the bus. It makes the pedestrian and cycling experience better. This is a concrete example where you all need to give political cover to our PBOT leadership and say, ‘We’re going to do this because we care about this. We’re prioritizing this.'”
TriMet hasn’t made a decision about the final design and project scope yet. Like many major infrastructure projects, the Trump Administration has cast a cloud of uncertainty by threatening to suspend funds for anything that’s not a freeway megaproject. Of the project’s current $351 million cost, about $200 million is assumed to come from federal sources.
Yesterday I shared a (hastily written!) recap and video of the big celebration of cycling and Vision Zero at Portland City Hall. But what happened afterward at a meeting of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee was just as important. Advocates lined up and delivered one piece of powerful testimony after another — all as high-profile leaders of the transportation bureau and Public Works Service Area looked on.
I rewatched all the testimony and have pulled out just some of the highlights into the short video above. It features mic-drop worthy remarks from: bicycle advocate extraordinaire Joseph Perez, David Binnig with BikeLoud PDX, Abernethy Elementary School Bike Bus leader Lauren McCune, and Oregon Walks Executive Director Zachary Lauritzen.
Watch their remarks in the video above and read the text below:
Joseph Perez:
Portland City Council has not invested in safer roads, so PBOT has installed signs. I think signs and paint are like thoughts and prayers.
Previous mayor and council required PBOT to cut its budget. Is it any wonder Vision Zero appears to be stalled? It seems antithetical to a Vision Zero commitment if this city council were to tolerate or perpetuate any cuts to PBOT.
David Binnig
A lot of us have served on work groups and task forces and advisory committees — and then seen those recommendations not followed or not funded.
Lauren McCune
We always point to a lack of funding, but no amount of money is sufficient. Our car-centric transportation system has an insatiable demand for more more pavement, more speed, more fuel, more money, more lives.
When our Abernethy bike bus launched in 2022 it had a couple dozen riders. Fast forward to May of 2024 and we had hundreds. There is an incredible latent demand for bike riding, yet the consistent and widespread demand for better bike and transit infrastructure is deprioritized.
Our Vision Zero commitment must be paired with a commitment to reduce vehicle miles traveled. If not, we have to ride faster just to stand still.
So we ask that Portland’s renewed commitment to Vision Zero renews our vision to build a city where driving reflects its true cost to society, so our residents instead walk, bike, roll and take transit. We can’t do this with the status quo, and we can’t do this without each other. We’re ready to ride together.
Zachary Lauritzen:
This resolution won’t change anything. It’ll be actions that change something.
We built a transportation system that is intentionally made so vehicles can go far and fast, and so now we’re asking for the hard work of saying we’re going to change that, and that starts today.
There was a proposed budget to reduce Vision Zero by $277,000 and if we’re serious about this, we don’t cut Vision Zero. We just don’t.
We know why this is happening. We know the interventions that are needed. You have a staff at Pbot, the Vision Zero team that have a well of knowledge. They need the money and they need the political cover to do it.
These actions will make some people mad. Slowing down vehicles will make some people mad. Enforcement will make some people mad. But you’ve got to do it.
And so today is the beginning of a journey. And I hope you have the political courage to pass this, and then be ambassadors to your colleagues and really invest and make a change. This was the hand you were dealt. The question is, how do you play that hand?
Red star marks the spot where a rider slipped on these yellow bumps. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
(Photo: Shane Dixon Kavanaugh)
A Portlander suffered a nasty fall on Monday while biking westbound on the Hawthorne Bridge. Shane Dixon Kavanaugh (yes, that Shane Dixon Kavanaugh) took a trip to the emergency room after his front tire slipped on on a piece of yellow tactile warning bumps and he was flung face first into the guardrail. Thankfully he’ll make a full recovery; but he’s sustained a welt on his head, a black eye, scrapes and bruises on his leg, and his brand new Cannondale was badly damaged.
After learning about Kavanaugh’s crash, I talked to him about how and where it happened and I feel it’s worth sharing this incident more broadly to raise awareness of this to help prevent anyone else from suffering the same fate.
Kavanaugh, a veteran bike commuter, said he was in the bike lane and riding down hill, about 300 feet west of where the bikeway splits and riders can choose to go down to Waterfront Park/Naito Parkway, or continue into downtown to SW 1st/Main. Just before he came to the intersection with SW 1st and navigated a slight bend, his wheel veered onto the yellow strips and down he went. The ground was slightly damp due to recent rain.
At the split. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)Kavanaugh’s front wheel. (Photo: Shane Dixon Kavanaugh)
Multnomah County made several significant design changes to the bikeway at this section of the Hawthorne Bridge viaduct late last year. As I reported at the time, the County raised the bike lane to be at equal level with the sidewalk. To more clearly delineate space used by walkers and bikers, they made the bikeway green and added a wide strip of plastic, tactile warning bumps between the sidewalk and bike lane. In my coverage (both on BikePortland and in an Instagram video), I mentioned the potential for slipping, but didn’t share an outright warning. There was a bit of chatter about this in the comment section, with someone asking out loud: “I wonder how long until someone on a bike slips on the linear tactile?”
The county has used these same yellow warning strips on other parts of the bridge and viaduct, but other sections are either on uphills and/or straight and flat, which might make folks less likely slip on them. Perhaps there could be a yellow caution sign near the split similar to bike-specific warnings near streetcar tracks. Or maybe these type of plastic bumps pose unnecessary risks to bike users on downhills?
The yellow bumps are typically used as aids for people with vision or other disabilities. But in this case, they are being used to separate path users.
Keep all this in mind as you ride on this section of the Hawthorne. And if you’ve experience a fall or bobble here, or know of anyone who has, please let us know so we can get a better sense for how big of an issue this might be.
(Check out the video above for the most important clips from the speeches and one-on-one chats with: Mayor Keith Wilson, city councilors Tiffany Koyama Lane, Olivia Clark, and Loretta Smith, and local bike bus leader Lauren McCune.)
It was a big morning at City Hall for transportation reformers as elected officials and advocates came together in the City Hall atrium to renew Portland’s dedication to being a city where folks on foot and on bikes can not just exist on our streets safely, but feel and spread joy while doing it.
Bike bus advocates waltzed in accompanied by a loud boombox, there were pothole donuts, city staff dressed up in uniforms including a traffic cone, people were making buttons and there were more high-fives than handshakes — it was a vibe I haven’t felt inside City Hall for at least a decade.
It was a three-fer: Bike bus advocates showed up (with a booming loudspeaker) to kick off Bike Bus Week, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson made an official proclamation that this is the start of Bike and Walk to School and Work Week, and City Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane formally proposed her Vision Zero resolution at a City Council meeting that directly followed the morning festivities. The mood was jovial and optimistic. That might be because cycling and bike bus advocates just tend to have that kind of energy, but it also might reflect that the political stakes were not that high. That’s because Koyama Lane’s resolution merely states intentions and forms a task force — it includes no dedicated funding or strong policies that might move the needle on getting more people to walk and bike.
When I put in the form of a question to Councilor and Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chair Olivia Clark, she said, “I think you need to watch what happens [at city council] on Wednesday.” Clark said that’s when budget amendments will be discussed. “So just hold on to your bike helmet,” Clark added, which I took as a pretty big clue that there will be funding for Vision Zero up for discussion eventually.
An ebullient Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
I also asked Councilor Koyama Lane to respond to folks who feel her resolution doesn’t go far enough. “I think those feelings are really understandable,” she said. “I think that skepticism makes sense, and we’re going to have to earn trust back.” But she didn’t stop there. Koyama Lane spoke with confidence that she and her team (working directly with advocacy groups and community leaders) are committed to “giving Vision Zero more visibility.” One concrete step she’s taking to achieve this is to put forward a budget amendment this week that will pull an existing Vision Zero program employee out of the Portland Bureau of Transportation and assign them to the Deputy City Administrator’s office.
Later in the council meeting, Koyama Lane said, “I’m ready to spend all my [political] capital on this.”
Koyama Lane has clearly been in contact with Portland’s amazing stable of road safety advocates, many of whom showed up to the event today.
Abernethy Bike Bus leader Lauren McCune.
Lauren McCune is a mom, the leader of the Abernethy Elementary School Bike Bus, and an organizer with Bike Bus PDX. In a moving speech, she talked about how the bike bus has a profound impact on kids and parents in her community. “Bike buses work for one reason,” McCune said. “Because people are awesome. When citizens have the tools and the environment to make better choices, we will make better choices; but our transportation system often pushes people to make choices that are actively harmful to our bodies, our communities, our kids and our planet.”
“If Portland is to walk the walk and once again, be the most livable and green city in the country, then all of us will be the ones leading the way. Now is the time to show up. Now is the time to ride together,” she continued.
After the rally and speeches in the atrium, Councilor Angelita Morillo also mentioned she plans to unveil Vision Zero-related amendments Wednesday. Morillo has three separate amendments that seek to reallocate additional police funding in the Mayor’s proposed budget to PBOT and target specific investments on Cesar E Chavez Blv that would total $800,000. “To me, traffic safety is public safety,” Morillo said, “and that when we talk about transforming our roads and our infrastructure in a way that keeps people safe as they are going about their community, that’s community safety too.”
That position might make for an interesting conversation with Mayor Wilson. In his remarks this morning, he reiterated strong support for biking and walking. Wilson said his administration is “absolutely focused” and that, “It is time for us to double down on making sure that every time you bike and walk to work we ensure that you get home every day to your family safe and well.”
Browse photos from the event below…
Bike Bus PDX brought a crowd and waltzed in with loud music.Stacey Triplett, AARP.High fives!L to R: DCA of Public Works Priya Dhanapal, Councilor Olivia Clark, Councilor Angelita Morillo, PBOT Director Millicent Williams.Councilor Loretta SmithOregon Walks Executive Director Zachary LauritzenPortland Mayor Keith Wilson
Here are the most notable stories that came across my desk in the past week…
Cycling that’s not boring: Promoters of ‘Formula Fixed’ — a new brand of bike racing with fixed gears, no brake levers, and courses in arenas similar to car racing — say their new creation will bring cycling to the mainstream sports world and spur a “cultural movement on wheels”. (Cycling News)
Vision Zero homework: Since it’s a big week for Vision Zero politically here in Portland, it’s a good time to revisit some of the policy and historical underpinnings of the concept. This is a solid overview from an unlikely source. (Asterisk Mag)
Cycleauto: A French company has created a modular cargo bike system that is more akin to pedal a pickup truck than a bicycle. (New Atlas)
Delay for cleaner trucks: The State of Oregon has decided to delay enforcement of a their Clean Truck Rule because of pressure from truck manufacturers. A lawmaker who owns a trucking company said the delay is “common sense.” (The Oregonian)
Toronto’s tricks: Ontario Premier Doug Ford has not let up on his efforts to remove bike lanes. Now the political debate is about forging some sort of compromise where bike lanes are removed on some major arterials, and added in other places. (The Star )🔒
Bikes and traffic: Major bikelash against bike lanes on a bridge in the Bay Area has included a high profile rally with a worker’s union that strongly opposes the bike lanes because they say they cause traffic backups. (San Francisco Chronicle) 🔒
What’s with the bus wraps?!: A transit advocacy group in Denver is trying to pass an ordinance that would ban agencies from covering their vehicles with advertisements, saying it blocks the view of passengers. (Greater Denver Transit)
Better than Amsterdam?: Paris continues its ascension as a top cycling city with a new report that says, based on several key metrics, that it’s a better city for cycling than Amsterdam. Damn! (The Guardian)
Speed enforcement: A new law passed in Washington will require drivers that have been found guilty for driving way too fast to install special devices in their cars that will limit their speed. (The Oregonian)
Washington wins on parking reform: Parking policy plays a major role in how we get around, and advocates say Washington has now passed some of the strongest rules to tame parking lots in the entire country. Here’s an excellent overview of how it happened. (Sightline)
Video of the Week: University of Washington students have created a handlebar-mounted sensor that logs close calls. (UW News)
Clever Cycles is Portland’s original shop devoted entirely to bicycles as primary transportation. We serve urban households seeking practical alternatives to car dependence—think electric cargo bikes, folding bikes like Bromptons, and family haulers that turn errands into joyrides.
We are seeking a skilled and thoughtful mechanic to join our service team. If you enjoy building and servicing e-cargo bikes, thrive in a high-volume environment, and don’t mind when someone gushes over their Brompton, you might be a perfect fit.
What You’ll Be Doing:
-Build and service e-bikes, especially cargo bikes
-Work confidently with Bosch and Shimano systems
-Diagnose and repair hydraulic brakes
-Build wheels (or want to learn!)
-Provide excellent customer service to everyone from daily commuters to growing families
-Assemble new bikes efficiently and with pride
-Keep the shop flowing in a high-volume environment
What You Bring:
-Prior shop experience, ideally in a fast-paced setting
-A solid mechanical foundation: brakes, drivetrains, wheel truing, etc.
-Enthusiasm for e-bikes and urban transportation
-Comfort speaking with customers and solving problems with a smile
-A willingness to take Bromptons seriously (because our customers sure do)
What We Offer:
-Hourly pay: $20–$28 depending on experience
Benefits:
-Paid sick leave
-Paid vacation
-Partially paid health insurance (company match)
-Retirement plan
-Employee discounts on bikes and gear
How to Apply
Email your resume and cover letter to hr@clevercycles.com
A person cycling westbound on N Ainsworth Street near N Concord this morning. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
North Ainsworth Street between Willamette Boulevard and Peninsula Park is a hidden gem in the bike network. It’s an extremely popular cycling street due to its direct east-west connections, low-stress crossing of I-5, relatively few traffic signals, and low number of car drivers. Despite its heavy bike traffic however, it has almost no bike-specific infrastructure and as the volumes of car and bike users increase, it’s headed toward a breaking point.
Thankfully, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) plans to save the day with a $400,000 project that will raise the profile of Ainsworth as a major cycling street and improve its safety for all users. The goals are to lower driving speeds and volumes and establish Ainsworth as a low-stress neighborhood greenway. Based on recommendations in the North Portland in Motion (NPIM) plan passed by City Council last year, PBOT officially launched a project in April that will bring significant changes to the street. The project is still in the development phase and some of the NPIM concepts will need to be vetted with Portland Fire & Rescue before more detailed designs can be finalized.
This is welcome news for folks who ride on the street — especially whoever recently plastered the corridor with homemade, pro-bike signs. If you’ve been on the street lately, you’ve probably noticed them. “Ainsworth Neighbors Ride Bikes,” “Ainsworth is for Bikes,” “Ainsworth Slows Down for Bikes,” the signs read. According to the person who posted them (who I’ll keep anonymous for now), it’s all part of the process of raising the street’s profile. “Ainsworth is sort of in a grey zone,” he shared in a phone conversation this morning. “So many people use it to bike and walk, but it doesn’t seem to have tipped over the threshold to being a biking and walking street.”
Looking west from N Concord.Sign at N Michigan.Sign at N. Michigan.Looking east from N Concord toward Interstate.Recently installed bike boxes at N Interstate.This is the lowest stress crossing of I-5 in the area. PBOT plans for buffered bike lanes here.Looking east toward I-5 overcrossing from Ockley Green School.Westbound at N Gay where the road suddenly narrows.Another view of the sudden neckdown headed westbound at N Gay.The Omaha Treeway would extend into the intersection.
The activist who posted the signs added he’s also trying to send a message to drivers, who use Ainsworth as a convenient cut-through and alternative to nearby (and larger) neighborhood collector streets N Killingsworth and N Rosa Parks Way. “Those are so close by,” he said; but he also realizes drivers like Ainsworth for the same reasons cyclists like it. “It’s a quick way for drivers to zip over the Greeley and Interstate; but to me that feels like an abuse of that road with Rosa Parks and Killingsworth so close by.”
PBOT has several changes in mind they hope will influence how — or if — people use the street. Their plan isn’t finalized and a public design process will kick off this summer, but the NPIM recommendation gives us a clue about what’s most likely to come (see below).
Detail of concept for Omaha Treeway extension.(Source: PBOT North Portland in Motion Plan)
Between N Michigan Ave (already a neighborhood greenway) and N Interstate, PBOT will add buffered bike lanes to separate drivers from bike riders. This will require removing parking on the north side of the street between N Maryland and Minnesota. PBOT will add a new crosswalk and median island outside Ockley Green Middle School and a leading pedestrian interval (LPI) will be added to the signal adjacent to the school at N Interstate. To further calm traffic in front of the school, NPIM calls for an expansion of the curb zone between N Interstate and N Maryland in order to reduce the crossing distance. These changes near the school are also designed to improve the existing dangerous chaos by many drivers during drop-off and pick-up.
Then from N Interstate to Willamette Blvd — where the road narrows — PBOT will apply neighborhood greenway design standards and use traffic calming and modal filters to achieve the desired effect. The plan is to install bike-friendly speed cushions and “sharrow” pavement markings between N Willamette and Denver. The largest change could come to the intersection of N Ainsworth and Omaha, a wide street with a “treeway” in the middle of it. PBOT wants to extend the Omaha Treeway across Ainsworth, cutting it off completely to drivers while allowing bicycle riders, emergency vehicle drivers, and walkers to filter through (they’ve done a similar treat at NE Mason and 72nd).
PBOT just kicked this project off in April and they hope to begin construction and complete the project this fall. Whether the final product mimics the NPIM recommendation or not, remains to be seen. PBOT will do more outreach in the coming months. Stay tuned for updates.
Shannon and the bunch on one of their many park adventures. (Photos: Shannon Johnson)
Hello BikePortland Community,
I have postponed writing this in hopes I wouldn’t need to write it. I had so many biking hopes and dreams and plans, so much that I still wanted to do, explore, and write about. So many bike adventures that I thought were yet to come! Indeed, last summer I started saving up money to buy a custom bike of my dreams from Splendid Cycles, a human-powered XL cargo bike that rode like a dream. I was even thinking about having another baby and was excitedly plotting how to situate a car seat in the box of my new Splendid Mama-bike. I thought the new custom cargo bike would be my “forever bike,” one that I would use to carry my groceries and grandchildren 20 years from now. I wanted to bike on my own power, farther and faster and fitter. I had lots of wild bike plans. I even bought a used 18-foot canoe and we were halfway through building a trailer for it to tow behind my anticipated Splendid Cycle–the nearest put-in spot is 2.5 miles away, and I wanted to take all the kids, car-free. (I love that the folks at Splendid didn’t think this was a crazy idea–they were 100% supportive of finding ways to do all things by bike.)
I had other plans and dreams for other types of biking too. Mountain biking was something new that I wanted to try. My oldest son got a mountain bike and we were planning to start mountain biking together. We went out to a great beginners’ spot (Chehalem Ridge) and I had the most fun that I have had since I was a child. I thought our mountain bike adventures were just getting started.
My cargo bike got a flat tire and I couldn’t muster myself to fix it. I looked every day at the totally deflated tire and thought, “That’s fitting. That’s how I feel.” I quit biking entirely, and the tire stayed flat
I was also planning to save up and buy folding bikes for all the kids, so that we could do carfree adventures in Portland and anywhere public transit could take us. With a big family, we can’t ever use the bike racks on the front of buses, and it’s even difficult for all of us to fit bikes on the MAX, so folding bikes have been another item on my biking wish list. I also dreamed that someday we might go bike-packing and bike camping, that we might travel to other cities and bike in new places, that one day we might even go bike-packing across the United States, or through Europe or South America–or all of the above!
But then my personal world fell apart last October. A family member suffered a devastating medical diagnosis and treatments have, so far, been unsuccessful. At the same time, I suffered a painful personal crisis, followed by financial struggle. The life I thought I had crumbled. It was like experiencing a private earthquake. My cargo bike got a flat tire and I couldn’t muster myself to fix it. I looked every day at the totally deflated tire and thought, “That’s fitting. That’s how I feel.” I quit biking entirely, and the tire stayed flat.
I had always, primarily, biked for joy. It made me feel carefree, playful and fun. I had previously biked myself out of depression, and held onto biking as a key support of my mental health and sanity as a mother to five kids. But now, as I looked at my cargo bike, I felt like I was looking at a vehicle from another life. Biking was something I did before my world collapsed, back when I had been happy, when my life made sense, when I had hopes and dreams that felt attainable. That all feels like an inaccessible past, far-away, never to be returned to again.
Part of me knows I am wrong to leave my bike unridden in the garage. But I guess emotional wounds may take longer to heal than even double-knee-replacements. I have been walking a lot. Walking can be sad and slow. The joyful pace of biking has felt too discordant with my personal suffering, as if riding would be lying. I am too deeply depressed to straddle a bicycle with my children, a bicycle that I associate with happiness.
My husband finally managed to replace my flat tire, but my bike still sits. We had some car trouble, so I did manage to ride a few times, out of necessity–but not for joy. My children have asked why we are walking, and when will we bike again? The answer is that I don’t know. My heart is broken, and I don’t know how to repair it. For now, I can walk, one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. It feels like all I can do.
I hope that this is just a hard season, temporary and passing. I hope it’s true that “time heals all things.” I hope that I can find a way to bike again with my children, to embrace joy again, and laugh as the wind blows in our faces.
Until then, I am stepping away from BikePortland as the family biking columnist, a role I have cherished. I grew so much as a mother and cyclist while writing here. My memories are happy ones. My children blossomed too. The older ones bike themselves around town, and love it. The younger ones are eager to join them. Together we learned how to enjoy living locally, riding to nearby parks and destinations, finding extracurriculars that were bikeable. Our family life flourished, as we spent less time driving and car-commuting, and more time together on bikes and closer-to-home. We grew closer to our neighbors and our community. We became more thoughtful about the choices we make, how we live, and how we relate to the world.
BikePortland, it was a beautiful ride. I enjoyed hearing from readers. I loved learning from you and sharing encouragement across the internet. And I am thankful that BikePortland is still here. Hopefully I’ll be back someday.
In the meantime, I am thinking about trying a new kind of biking, to see if I can develop a new relationship to cycling that isn’t laden with the brokenness I currently feel. At the moment, my cargo bike is full of broken dreams, and the money I had been saving for the custom cargo bike is long gone. But I have managed to ride my simple hybrid bike a few times, on my own. Perhaps that is my bike-path forward. I am wondering if I might be able to try road cycling, building up speed and distances that I wouldn’t ever attempt with kiddos in a cargo bike. I’m not quite sure how to make the jump from riding a few miles around town with my children to “training” and riding long distances on my own — the intimidating, lycra-type of riding. I don’t know if I can do it. But Jonathan is going to be back in the saddle with new knees. I’m hoping I can find a way back too.
The scene outside the theater on opening night of Filmed by Bike 2023. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Happy Bike Month! I rode myself to Bike Happy Hour yesterday and it was so nice to be back out on the streets. I’m hoping the next few weeks I’ll be out there again with my cameras and such.
Also, if you haven’t already done so, now is the time to hit up your local bike shop to make sure your bike is in perfect working order for the upcoming onslaught of amazing rides. Speaking of which, see this week’s picks below. And happy biking!
Filmed by Bike
Don’t miss your chance to see inspiring and beautiful films inspired by cycling on the big screen at the historic Hollywood Theater. Beyond just watching cool movies, Filmed by Bike is about meeting other cinephiles, learning directly from filmmakers, fun parties, prize raffles, and more. The fest kicks off Friday and runs through the weekend. Each screening has a specific theme. For ticket and screening info, check out the official event website. Or go straight to the daily schedule to plan your weekend.
Friday, May 16th
Basic Bike Maintenance Workshop – 3:00 pm at North Portland Library (N) Hosted by the City of Portland, this event will empower you to fix your own bike. Bring your rig to practice on. More info here.
Filmed by Bike Opening Ride and Happy Hour – 4:00 pm at Steeplejack Brewing Company (NE) Enjoy a pint at Steeplejack and then join The Street Trust for a ride to the theater where you’ll take a group photo under the marquee before the first screening begins. More info here.
Friday Night Bikes – 6:00 pm in Forest Park (NW) Roll into the woods for this unsanctioned night of head-to-head racing on a 1.3-mile section of gravel road. More info here.
Saturday, May 17th
Good Dirt – 9:00 am at Rocky Point Trails (Scappoose) Grab your trail bike and join the good folks from River City Bicycles and NW Trail Alliance for a fun ride followed by a chill and grill session in the parking lot. More info here.
Bike Milwaukie Monthly Ride – 10:00 am at Milwaukie Bay Park Ride to Willamette Falls in Oregon City via the Trolley Trail and Clackamas River Trail. Expect a chill pace with fun stops along the way for sights and food. More info here.
Saturdays in May Southeast Edition – 10:00 am at Clinton Street Plaza (SE) Get plugged into bike activism with folks from BikeLoud PDX who will lead this ride while sharing insights on different types of bike facilities and what it takes to make our city a better place to ride. More info here.
Anti-Chevron Ride – 2:00 pm at Irving Park (NE) Revolutionary Bicycle Club wants you to join their resistance movement against this oil company. They plan to stop at Chevron stations to raise hell and raise awareness of the company’s many misdeeds. More info here.
Ride for Recovery – 4:00 pm at Colonel Summers Park (SE) Celebrate sobriety and wellness on this ride that caters to folks in recovery, or those helping them along the way. Expect an 8-10 mile route at a casual pace. More info here.
Sunday, May 18th
Sunday Parkways Southwest – 11:00 am to 4:00 pm (SW) The open streets season kicks off in southwest with a two-mile out-and-back carfree biking route and a separate, 3.6-mile walking route between Gabriel Park and Spring Garden Park. More info here.
“Motherload” Movie Screening – 4:00 pm at Tigard Public Library (West Side) Motherload” is an award-winning documentary that uses one mom’s relationship with her cargo bike to explore themes of modernity, transportation reform, urban planning, and mental and physical health. More info here.
— Did I miss your event? Please let me know by filling out our contact form, or just email me at maus.jonathan@gmail.com.
Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane speaking at a traffic safety event on November 17th, 2024. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Like a coach at halftime to a team that’s way behind, Portland City Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane wants to remind us that we are still a “Vision Zero” city and we need to get out there and start acting like it. Next month will be the 10th anniversary of when Koyama Lane’s council predecessors passed a high profile resolution that stated, “no loss of life is acceptable on our city streets.” Since then our Fatality Tracker has tallied 564 deaths on our streets.
Councilor Koyama Lane has been a persistent voice in support of Vision Zero since taking her seat in City Hall in January. And she told us she would be. In November 2024 she fought back tears at a rally in front of City Hall to mark the World Day of Remembrance for Victims of Traffic Violence. “This shouldn’t be normalized,” she said. “This isn’t a topic that we’re just supposed to talk about when we’re running for office… we will keep fighting.”
On Monday, Koyama Lane will return to the City Hall steps to host an event that will mix the seriousness of Vision Zero with a dose of celebration. Before a meeting of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee where Koyama Lane will introduce another Vision Zero resolution, she’ll join Mayor Keith Wilson, street safety advocates, and her council colleagues for an official city proclamation to make the week of May 19th, Portland Walk and Bike to School and Work Week.
Event flyer.
“Whereas, creating a bike- and walk-friendly community grows the economy of Portland, advances traffic safety, moves us closer to our climate goals, and supports student learning outcomes,” reads the text of the proclamation. “And Whereas, increasing the number of people safely walking and biking to school or work can reduce wear and tear on our streets, mitigate traffic congestion, reduce noise and greenhouse gas emissions, and improve air quality.”
Koyama Lane wants to strike a tone that is urgent, yet hopeful. “Walking/rolling, biking and transit are the most joyful, healthy, connecting, and cost-efficient ways to get around our city,” reads a statement from her office. “Yet ten years into Portland’s commitment to Vision Zero, we still have a long way to go to ensure that walking/rolling/biking are safe, attractive, and convenient for everyone. We can get there, together.”
While Monday will mostly be an awareness-building effort aimed at increasing the public and political urgency around making streets safer ahead of what’s expected to be a very busy bicycling season; there is one significant piece of policy proposed in Councilor Koyama Lane’s resolution. She wants to re-convene a Vision Zero Task Force.
The Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) created a Vision Zero Task Force as part of an action plan recommendation in 2017. The group’s members were a mix of high-ranking Portland Police officers, community and advocacy organization leaders, city staff, and elected officials. They met 11 times before being unexpectedly disbanded in 2021. At the time — a moment of massive upheaval and re-examination of policies citywide due to the racial justice protests — former PBOT Director Chris Warner said the move was needed to “evolve” the city’s Vision Zero engagement. The idea was to shift away from a traditional task force approach and launch in its place a, “model of community accountability that engages an even broader set of stakeholders.” Perhaps PBOT succeeded with that effort, but after the task force dissolved there was no longer a public and transparent venue to easily keep tabs the city’s Vision Zero efforts. Late last year, the Portland City Auditor gave PBOT mixed reviews in an assessment of Vision Zero work.
PBOT has succeeded in many elements of what it takes to make Vision Zero a reality. They’ve integrated the concept into their policies and projects (they also use the phrase ‘Safe Systems Approach‘ to clarify that Vision Zero is the goal, but ‘Safe Systems’ is how they will achieve it), and they’ve kept the concept relevant and in the public eye. But for most Portlanders, the only thing that matters when it comes to judging the city’s progress on Vision Zero is whether or not fewer people are being injured and killed on our roads. And with an alarming upward trend in traffic deaths every year since 2015 (except for this year), most Portlanders would say the program has failed.
Councilor Koyama Lane wants to turn the tide and raising the profile of the program and reconvening the task force are her first steps.
If city council passes her resolution, they’ll consider (since resolutions aren’t binding, they won’t be forced to) setting up a new Vision Zero Task Force that will be led by Deputy City Administrator (DCA) of Public Works and Public Safety Priya Dhanapal and co-led by the DCA of Community and Economic Development Donnie Oliveira. The task force will be, “staffed with key program and technical Bureau staff from across the City to collaborate on actions that support the City’s goal to eliminate traffic deaths.” The resolution also calls on PBOT to update the Vision Zero Action Plan and calls on the city to develop partnerships with external agencies including ODOT, Metro, TriMet, Multnomah County, and the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. The DCAs would then report quarterly to City Council on their progress.
In a scarce funding environment at PBOT and other city bureaus, it will be interesting to hear how new city council members plan to tackle traffic deaths. Will they hide behind budget woes, or will they propose innovative approaches? Either way, at least Councilor Koyama Lane has called the question.
Looking west on SE Powell Blvd at 80th, where man riding a motorcycle was killed Tuesday.
Another person has been killed while using SE Powell Blvd. While the number of fatal traffic crashes citywide are less than half what we had at this date last year, that is no solace for South Tabor Neighborhood residents who say the dangerous conditions on this state-owned urban highway is “no less than an emergency.”
Police say a motorcycle rider was involved in a collision with someone driving a van around 2:00 pm on Tuesday. The rider sustained serious injuries and died later that day at a nearby hospital.
That person is the 16th road user to be killed on SE Powell since 2022 — half of whom were bicycling or walking prior to being hit. 11 people have been killed on Powell in the four-mile stretch between SE Foster and 140th since Sarah Pliner was killed at SE 26th on October 4th.
South Tabor Neighborhood Association Chair Juan Cummings is beside himself. “In a sane world, we wouldn’t tolerate a single unnecessary death,” he wrote in an email today. “If a factory had dozens of deaths in a few years, the business would cease to exist, and managers would be facing criminal charges.”
Powell is owned and managed by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), and the agency is working on making repairs and upgrades needed in order to transfer jurisdiction to the City of Portland. That can’t come soon enough for Cummings and other nearby residents who are sick and tired of dealing with this deadly ticking time bomb in their neighborhood.
The STNA will host a meeting Thursday (May 15th) night at 7:00 pm at All City Church (2700 SE 67th). They’ve invited staff from ODOT, TriMet, and the Portland Bureau of Transportation. A staffer from City Councilor Angelita Morillo’s office is also expected to join.
It’s only been two months since the last time these folks came together to voice concerns and demand action from government agencies to help keep them safe. A meeting back in March came after an 86-year-old man was hit and killed while walking across Powell at 67th. I expect calls for action will be even louder this time around.
“We don’t want to talk anymore,” Cummings wrote today. “We want shovels in the ground.”
The City of Portland will bring its popular Sunday Parkways open streets event back to downtown this summer. It will be the first time since 2019 the event graces our wonderful central city; but there’s more to this event than meets the eye. When the Portland Bureau of Transportation announced this year’s four Sunday Parkways back in March, I wondered why the downtown edition was the only one they didn’t reveal any route info for. Last night it began to make a bit more sense.
At a meeting of their Bicycle Advisory Committee on Tuesday PBOT revealed the route (above) of the September 14th Downtown Sunday Parkways. The event will feature a loop of carfree streets stretching from SW Harrison to SW Oak Street. The bulk of the 2.3-mile route will consist of a one-block couplet of SW Park (along the South Park Blocks) and SW Broadway, with an east-west spur from the Park Blocks to SW 2nd via SW Harrison (through Portland State University) and SW Mill. It’s not the highest-profile set of streets we could have had, but SW Broadway through the heart of downtown will be very cool to experience carfree.
Slides shared by PBOT at the Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting Tuesday night.
PBOT staffer Rachel Lobo said the route is, “Based on the moment in Portland we’re in right now,” and that they are, “Really wanting to support our local businesses, organizations, and the arts and culture that is downtown and help people rethink what it means to visit Portland’s living room.” The idea, the staffer said, is to, “create a vibrant, block party style event in the heart of downtown.” Highlights on the route will be Directors Park, Pioneer Square, the PSU Farmers Market, Lovejoy Fountain, the Cart Blocks on Burnside, and so on.
And what will make the event even more intriguing is how PBOT plans to tap into the local bike bus revolution and entice Portlanders to come downtown by bike from their neighborhoods. For the first time ever, PBOT will offer guided rides on vetted (and possibly even signed) routes to entice folks to pedal downtown. “We feel this is a great opportunity to showcase to people how to get downtown bike bike,” Lobo said at last night’s meeting. “We feel like the bike bus model, which has been so popular with kids and adults is a great way for us to be that support system for people.”
PBOT is eyeing seven different routes for these “guided neighborhood rides” and is looking for volunteer ride leaders that would ferry folks along each one of them. The rides would begin at community gathering spots like bike shops, community centers, and schools. In addition to getting more folks downtown, PBOT’s goal is to use the rides to educate people about safe bike routes and empower people to ride more — and maybe expand their sphere of confidence beyond their own neighborhood.
The routes are still in draft form and PBOT is asking BAC members, bike bus leaders, and anyone who’s part of an existing riding group to volunteer as ride leaders.
The idea was very well-received at the meeting. Jessica Fletcher, a bike bus leader in St. Johns who was at the meeting to encourage PBOT to do more to make streets on bike bus routes safer, spoke up to say, “I felt like doing a standing ovation, because it really reflects the movement of the bike bus that it is now implemented by the city, and it is very powerful.”
