🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and is not publishing new content. Learn more here and stay tuned for updates. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏

New York City’s big bus breakthrough

No longer a dangerous traffic snarl.
(Photo: Streetsblog NYC)

Like their bold reclamation of Broadway Boulevard and Times Square Plaza a decade ago, the New York City Department of Transportation has once again changed the game.

They’ve pushed through serious opposition to create bus-only lanes on one of the busiest streets in Manhattan. Neighborhood groups filed a lawsuit to stop the project, claiming spillover traffic would choke nearby streets and the lack of auto access would doom the neighborhood. A court overruled those claims and allowed the project to go forward. Over a day in, the opposition’s fears have not come to pass (big surprise). The new service has been so successful that the Wall Street Journal reported bus drivers had to slow down to keep their schedules.

Read more

ODOT employee taken off Vision Zero Task Force following Twitter rant

Tiana Tozer at a PBOT Vision Zero event on September 26th.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

A series of tweets last week by a State of Oregon employee has led to her removal from a City of Portland task force.

Following her participation in a Portland Bureau of Transportation Vision Zero event on September 26th, ODOT Region 1 Transportation Safety Coordinator Tiana Tozer turned to Twitter to respond to critics. Many people felt her responses — which included statements like, “Well listen up Stoopid… No matter how much we engineer our streets, some idiot, like you, will still find a way die on them” — were inappropriate, especially for a State of Oregon employee.

Read more

Racing can continue (for now) at Alpenrose Dairy, despite sale

Racers compete at Alpenrose Velodrome on land adjacent to the dairy that’s soon to be under new ownership.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

This weekend the 50 acres of land around Alpenrose Dairy in Portland’s southwest hills will be teeming with cyclocross racers and fans. The hills, kitschy village, and velodrome have provided a route for the kickoff event of the River City Bicycles Cyclocross Crusade for many years. This year a dark cloud has hung over Alpenrose as race organizers worried that a sale of the dairy would result in them being kicked out for good.

Read more

How car parking makes new housing much more expensive

Townhomes at NE Couch and 53rd Avenue, currently selling for $729,000 each. But if parking isn’t needed, the most profitable project would be mixed-income condo buildings with average prices near $280,000.
(Photo: Michael Andersen/Sightline)

We’ve been on the car-housing beat for many years now, so when housing expert and Sightline reporter Michael Andersen says he’s never seen a more clear-cut example of how Portland can choose housing for people or housing for cars, I think it’s worth your attention.

Andersen just published a story about a policy in front of Portland City Council today that would reform “mid-density zones”. Among the details of the Bureau of Planning & Sustainability’s Better Homes By Design proposal is one that Andersen finds “almost shocking its clarity.”

I’ll let Andersen explain (emphasis mine):

Read more

Big transportation ideas highlight Portland mayoral candidate’s ‘Green New Deal’ plan

Iannarone campaigned on the Hawthorne Bridge during the recent Climate Strike march.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone is no stranger to bold ideas. She spent years working at Portland State University leading educational tours for visiting leaders that focused on our city’s legacy of transformative urban planning decisions.

Now, as Iannarone campaigns to unseat Mayor Ted Wheeler, she’s unveiled a “Climate Justice” policy plan that would be transformative in its own right. Iannarone’s “Green New Deal” plan (PDF) comes out just two weeks after a City of Portland report found that carbon emissions from the transportation sector are “increasing dramatically.”

Read more

Medians, new bike crossings coming to NE Tillamook at 21st

(Conceptual renderings of NE Tillamook and 21st from City of Portland)

The City of Portland says they’re all set to start building a set of safety updates at a tricky, off-set intersection on the Tillamook Neighborhood Greenway.

Read more

Latest Headlines

I’m going on hiatus

Come to BikePortland’s 20th birthday and beer collab release party!

Big day for PBOT budget as new revenue proposals head back to Council Wednesday

Monday Roundup: Paris in Brooklyn, ‘Trail Towns’, e-bike reviews, and more

From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland