BikePortland

East Portland sidewalks win big in latest PCEF grant awards

The Portland Bureau of Transportation is set to receive $20.6 million to build sidewalks in east and northeast Portland. And they’re also a partner with TriMet on a $55 million project award that will result in new sidewalks to connect to a forthcoming bus upgrade on 82nd Avenue. The funding is just the latest grant award PBOT has received from the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), a tax on big corporations passed by voters in 2018.

The PCEF Committee recommended eight projects from the Collaboration for Climate Action program for funding at a meeting this morning. That program has over $150 million in available funding to be awarded over five years. In addition to the two transportation projects, the committee also recommended projects to replace City of Portland fleet vehicles with EVs, help more Portlanders install solar power, make schools more climate resilient, and more.

Among the eight projects are PBOT’s “Sidewalks to Schools” — a $60 million list of 19 sidewalk projects (above) that would help connect 17 public schools with better, safer infrastructure. The PCEF committee downscoped the project to $20.6 million, so the award will allow PBOT to build all nine of its Tier 1 projects. The projects — which include 90 new ADA ramps, street lighting and planting of 180 new street trees — are in Cully and the southern part of Council District 1.

PBOT Director Millicent Williams introduced a presentation on the project at a PCEF Committee meeting last night. PBOT Pedestrian Coordinator Gena Gastaldi was also there. She said the completion of the Tier 1 projects will impact 17,000 households. “These projects are all on PBOT Safe Routes to School primary investment routes and will provide critical connections on our pedestrian network near schools,” Gastaldi told the committee.

Gastaldi also touted how the grant funding will be an, “incredibly efficient use of PCEF funding.” That’s because PBOT won’t use it to pay for any city staff time and PBOT has either already completed and/or nearly completed all the required design, engineering, and neighborhood outreach. All that’s left to do is build them. And because these projects are so shovel-ready, Gastaldi said the three Cully projects will be built as early as summer of 2025.

In addition to $20.5 million awarded directly to PBOT, TriMet was awarded $55 million for their 82nd Avenue Transit Project (a separate but closely related effort to the Building a Better 82nd Avenue Plan that was adopted by Portland City Council last week). A portion of that will allow PBOT to build an additional 26 blocks of sidewalks on 82nd to ensure better access to the new bus rapid transit (BRT) line when it opens in 2029.

This continues a very successful effort by PBOT to earn PCEF grant awards. This latest announcement pushes their total to nearly $200 million.

PCEF was created to benefit the communities that are most impacted by climate change. It also has a stated goal to not just reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but to also help build stronger communities by partnering with nonprofit organizations and making strategic investments in workforce development.

For Oregon Walks Executive Director Zachary Lauritzen, news of this recent grant was another dream come true. His group recently won over $900,000 from PCEF to launch walking school buses.

At last night’s PCEF committee meeting, Lauritzen, who said he was “genuinely jumping for joy” upon hearing the news, offered gratitude and shared important context about why east Portland needs all the help it can get:

“East Portland used to be outside the city of Portland, and the design standards were different. They didn’t require sidewalks when development happened. When [east Portland] was annexed into the city [in 1981] there was no plan to finish those sidewalk networks. And so here we are, 40 years later, with thousands and thousands of kids who don’t have safe routes to school… It’s kind of a hopeless feeling, hearing again and again from families about their fear for the safety of their child to do the simple act of walking to school.”

It was Lauritzen and Oregon Walks’ volunteers who did the community organizing to identify and build support for these projects. Even so, Lauritzen gave high praise to PBOT for being such a willing partner. “I’m super excited that a big bureau like that could have their ears to the ground. That they could hear from us and say, ‘Yeah we’ll go for it’.”

Go deeper:
— PBOT Sidewalks to Schools grant application
— 82nd Avenue Transit Project grant proposal narrative

A tour of bike parking gems in southeast Portland

Words and photos by first-time contributor Alison Grover, who’s been biking in Oregon since 2017.

It’s a chilly December evening in the Buckman neighborhood of Portland. I’m sipping tea while scrolling on my phone. It’s warm and toasty in the comfort of my home, but outside, the sun has set and the wind is whipping. Then comes a familiar question. What should we do for dinner? And should we bike or drive there?

It’s so hard to motivate on these cold nights, but I remind myself: I love the freedom and social quality of biking. I love not having to search for (car) parking. I love reducing my carbon footprint. And knowing that my destination has a secure, accessible place to lock my bike seals the deal and gives me an added peace of mind. I am more eager to patronize businesses that go the extra mile to accommodate bikers. And many times, secure bike parking is the deciding factor between biking or driving.

With that in mind, let’s take a tour of my favorite bike parking in southeast Portland. This is not an exhaustive list. And it’s slightly Buckman-centric. But all of these places give me the sense of safety and security that I look for in quality bike parking.

One more thing before our tour starts…

Here are the important qualities I consider when choosing where to lock my bike: rain shelter, lighting, proximity to building entrances, rack spacing, rack quantity, and the style and heft of the rack itself. On top of those, I also value separation from vehicle traffic and proximity to people. I want bike racks to be separated from speeding cars so that I can finagle my U-lock and cables in peace. And I want my bike to be safely in view of window shoppers, outdoor dining folks, and shop employees, whose sole presence can deter theft. The more eyes on my bike, the better.

Great Separation from Drivers

When I’m locking up my bike, I’m always fumbling with my U-lock and cable and dropping my keys. It’s a scramble! I prefer to spend this chaotic time up on the sidewalk, as far away from speeding car traffic as possible. I like when bike parking is located on a quiet side street rather than directly on a main thoroughfare. Well-sited bike racks can increase cyclist perceptions of safety while decreasing stress.

Bike corrals at Hinterland Food Carts (SE Sherman St & SE 50th Ave) and Oma’s Hideaway (SE Division St & SE 32nd Ave) are both integrated into the sidewalk. It feels safe to be elevated above street level.

The Zed Food Court (SE Reedway St. & SE 92nd Ave), which is next door to Zoiglhaus Brewing, has gone a step further than putting bike corrals on the sidewalk. Bike racks are placed within a pleasant outdoor dining zone, well away from street traffic. Similarly, the Bollywood Theater (SE Division St. & SE 30th Ave) provides an artistic metal bike rack onsite, inboard of the sidewalk, fully separated from the street.

Although the bike racks at Cartopia Food Carts (SE Hawthorne Blvd. & SE 12th Ave) are old and bent, I appreciate that they are situated up on the sidewalk and protected from the busy intersection by a bollard-buffered bike lane at street level. I would feel even safer when locking my bike here if these racks were made of a thicker metal material. Portland Community College Southeast campus (SE Division St & SE 82nd Ave) has integrated a cluster of bike racks and even some bike lockers into the pedestrian-oriented center of campus. (More on those racks in this 2022 BikePortland post.)

Great Proximity to People

I prefer to park my bike in view of people. Whether they are people working in stores with a clear view through the window, people eating outdoors at a cafe, or passersby on the sidewalk, their attention can help deter bike theft from happening in the first place. Here, visibility functions as a front-end security measure, whereas a strong, secure bike rack and bike lock function as the last line of defense, preventing an attempted theft from being successful. Using a combination of both will ensure that your bike is as safe as possible while parked.

On-street bike corrals at the Bagdad Theater (SE Hawthorne Blvd. & SE 37th Ave), Por Que No? (SE Hawthorne Blvd. & SE 47th Ave), and Taqueria Los Punales (SE Belmont St. & SE 33rd Ave) offer bike parking in highly social locations; adjacent to a plethora of shops, restaurants, and grocery stores that generate pedestrian traffic and an outdoor dining population.

Market of Choice (SE Belmont St. & SE 11th Ave) and Whole Foods (E Burnside St. & NE 28th Ave) have located their bike parking next to busy, social entrances. To improve these racks, quantity could be increased at both locations, and the Whole Foods racks should really be thinner in diameter to better accommodate a U-lock.

Revolution Hall (SE Stark St. & SE 13th Ave) bike parking is fully in the pedestrian zone. Racks are surrounded by multiple clusters of outdoor tables and nearby dog park visitors, building tenants, roof deck visitors, and people queueing for concerts. To improve this facility, the quantity of racks could be increased. The recently completed Holgate Library (SE Holgate Blvd. & SE 79th Ave) has public bike racks at highly visible locations at the front and back main entrances. Large windows also allow people inside the building to see the bikes.

Covered

This final category of bike parking facilities exemplifies businesses that achieve both great separation from cars, great proximity to people, and they have a roof protecting bikes from the elements. Yes, a few of these are technically in Northeast, but they’re close enough to Southeast that they deserve to be included.

Portland Rock Gym (E Burnside St & NE 12th Ave)

Hope you enjoyed this tour of bike parking. Aren’t we lucky to live in a city where we have so much excellent bike parking?!

— Story and photos by first-time BikePortland contributor Alison Grover. Alison has a master’s degree in Landscape Architecture and has bike commuting in Oregon since 2017.

Here’s one reason you might see a car on the Springwater path

Screenshot of Cars Succ / Greenway.PDX instagram post.

People driving cars on the Springwater Corridor path has become something of a sensitive topic of late. With an increase in dangerous drivers on our streets, carfree places are more cherished than ever.

So when folks smash through the sanctified space of what’s supposed to a cycling only area with deadly vehicles, it’s understandable why many people have a strong reaction.

Last month a Portland bike rider came across someone parked smack-dab in the middle of the Springwater path between Oaks Amusement Park and the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge parking lot turnoff. It wasn’t a drunk driver and it wasn’t someone accessing their camping site.

The bike rider happened to be the man behind a popular Instagram account known as Cars Succ. Suffice it to say he wasn’t super happy to see the car on the path. He also had his video camera rolling to document his confrontation with the driver.

The owner of the Cars Succ account pulled over and asked the driver why he had parked on the path. The driver said he works with the nonprofit Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon and that he drove on the path in order to reach one of their clients. “We’re allowed to be out here as long as we have our hazards on,” the driver claimed in the video.

Mr. Cars Succ then expressed his concerns, suggested that the driver used a bike instead, and rode away.

I was curious about whether or not some nonprofits are allowed to drive and park on the Springwater path, so I reached out to Portland Parks & Recreation.

I heard back from Public Information Officer Mark Ross. Ross said, the mental health professional seen in the video was working under contract with the City of Portland’s Navigation and Outreach Teams. These teams are part of Portland’s efforts to help people who live in outdoor campsites throughout the city.

Ross said these crews sometimes need to reach people who live in areas far from trailheads and parking lots. “Some City staff and essential partners are allowed to drive on the path during emergency situations,” Ross told BikePortland. He added that PP&R has reached out to the specific nonprofit whose employee was on the path that day, “to ensure that safety is paramount in their protocols as they continue the valuable work to assist people living outdoors.”

PP&R says they will “iron out some nuances” in the policy and will do more collaboration with the nonprofit to make sure all path safety protocols are being followed.

As for the anonymous rider behind the Cars Succ account? He’s connected with a local bike advocacy group and told me today, “We’re trying to work on finding a solution that lets [that nonprofit] do their work activities on the path without a car.”

PBOT’s new ‘enforcement agents’ will take over camera citation review from police

Among the many issues we debate when it comes to road safety, there are a just a few that many sides agree on. One of them is the use of automated enforcement cameras to catch speeders and red light runners. These cameras are much more efficient and safer than police officers. They also work. At a press conference last week a Portland Bureau of Transportation spokesperson said, “We know in a matter of days and weeks, these cameras are able to drop the average speed — virtually eliminating excessive speeding.”

Since our major foe in the war on traffic deaths is kinetic energy, when people slow down we save lives. It’s that simple. But while these cameras do the job, they take valuable time away from other police work. With an estimated 100,000 citations a year via the 40 or so cameras PBOT expects to have in operation by 2025 (based on average citations per camera listed in a PBOT report to the legislature in 2022), that’s a lot of desk time for police officers.

When I asked Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division Sergeant Ty Engstrom at a press conference last week about adding even more cameras, the first thing that popped into his head was this administrative overhead. “That’s a lot of personnel it’s going to take because you have to review all those and you have to approve them, and so that’s that’s a daunting task.”

As per Oregon law, every citation issued by a camera (or a mobile radar van) must be reviewed by a “duly authorized traffic enforcement agent” — which since 2016 has always meant a police officer. This includes not just review of the citation itself, but details relating to the ensuing Multnomah County court case triggered by each one of them.

But that era is coming to an end. By next year, the Portland Bureau of Transportation hopes to bring some of that citation processing in-house.

Thanks to a push from PBOT and other safety advocates, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 4105 in 2022. That bill allows Portland to use non-police staff to process and review camera citations. So why is Sgt. Engstrom still hung up on the “daunting” amount of officer time it takes? Because even though the bill has been on the books for nearly two years, PBOT isn’t quite ready to take over processing responsibility from PPB.

After last week’s press conference I reached out to PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer to ask about the status of implementing the new authority given to them in HB 4105. “PBOT is currently developing the program that will result in PBOT staff reviewing and issuing citations for moving violations from the automated enforcement cameras,” Schafer said.

Once the PBOT agents are on board, the plan is to divide responsibilities on reviewing the cases and citations. PBOT has three types of automated enforcement: “dual enforcement intersection cameras” that capture speed and traffic signal compliance, cameras mounted inside mobile speed vans, and fixed speed cameras along high crash corridors. Schafer said PPB will continue to handle the first two and PBOT will take over responsibility for fixed speed cameras.

With 32 of these cameras currently up and running and more to come in the months and years ahead, it will be imperative to create an efficient processing workflow. And with PBOT taking on some of these duties, it will reduce workload on PPB officers and free them up to handle things like crash investigations and other more serious crimes.

It’s unclear how the shift in personnel from PPB to PBOT might impact the total camera program revenue. For the two years of 2021 and 2022, PBOT reported revenue of $1.37 million (about 70% of which goes to state of Oregon and the remainder pays for operation of the program with any leftover funds going to safety projects). In those two years PBOT spent about $173,000 on PPB staff expenses. With double the amount of cameras on the street in 2025, program revenue should rise commensurately.

Schafer at PBOT says they plan to begin hiring the new enforcement agents early next year and the program should be operational by the end of 2025, “if not sooner”.

— Learn more about PBOT’s automated enforcement camera program and see a list of current locations on their website.

Job: Mechanic – FT or PT! – Oregon E-Bikes

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Mechanic – FT or PT!

Company / Organization

Oregon E-Bikes

Job Description

Come join our team in Hood River! We are looking for full-time and part-time Service Techs to start 2/1 or sooner (open to a later start date for the right person). Experience with e-bike is a bonus but not a must. Our shop is fun, welcoming and unpretentious. We don’t care what bikes customers ride, just that they ride! Work 4 days a week on the off-season, PTO, health insurance and retirement benefits. Email us now to chat! amy@oregon-ebikes.com, jodie@oregon-ebikes.com

How to Apply

Email us now to chat! amy@oregon-ebikes.com, jodie@oregon-ebikes.com

Oregon tops nation in ‘Safe Routes’ participation, but funding needs loom

Oregon has become a national leader walking and biking to school. Our state had the highest rate of school participation out of 48 states in America who participated in International Walk and Roll to School Day on October 7th.

The news comes from from the Oregon Department of Transportation and is based on numbers from the National Center for Safe Routes to School. That organization crunched data from the 2024 event and found that 210 schools registered for the event out of a total of 921 K-8 public schools. That percentage was higher than California, Virginia, Washington D.C., and Massachusetts.

“The enthusiasm for Walk & Roll to School Day across Oregon reflects our shared dedication to building safer, more connected communities,” ODOT Safe Routes to School Program Manager Heidi Manlove said in a statement. The participation number is almost back to what it was prior to the Covid pandemic. In 2020, just 61 schools participated. But in 2019 the number was 263 schools.

Now imagine if ODOT actually funded the Safe Routes to School program at the level it needs.

It’s clear that House Bill 2017 (the previous transportation spending package passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2017) has helped spark more school-based biking and walking programs statewide. That bill carved out $10 million per year starting in 2018 and $15 million per year starting in 2023 from the State Highway Fund for Safe Routes to School. The funds are distributed through a grant program that can be used to build infrastructure projects or for educational and encouragement programs.

While the amount was unprecedented and hailed by advocates at the time, it’s not nearly enough to keep up with demand. On August 21st, ODOT’s own Safe Routes to School Advisory Committee wrote a letter to Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) Chair Julie Brown and ODOT Director Kris Strickler. The purpose of the letter was to push back on ODOT’s low-ball estimate for what the program needs going forward as lawmakers look to pass a new funding bill in 2025.

In a document shared at an October 16th meeting of the Joint Committee on Transportation Public and Active Transit Workgroup, ODOT pegged the annual Safe Routes to School need at $50 million per year. That number was based on the average of all project requests in each grant solicitation cycle since the passage of HB 2017.

Slides shown to Joint Committee on Transportation from Metro (left) and ODOT (right).

But leaders of the ODOT Safe Routes to School Advisory Committee say that’s not enough. They say schools request five times the amount available every two-year cycle. In 2024 there were $138 million worth of grants requested for Oregon’s $30 million in available funds. “With this recent oversubscription, as well as the ongoing issue of cost increases for construction projects that we have had to mitigate for with our existing funds, we believe the investment in Safe Routes to School could benefit from up to $75 million per year over the next 30 years to effectively meet the needs of every school in the state.”

The fact that an ODOT committee is publicly asking for more money than ODOT themselves should raise eyebrows. It speaks to the frustration of having a very impactful and popular program that is starved for cash while ODOT continues to pour money into freeway expansion megaprojects statewide. At a meeting of the OTC last week, commissioners approved another $72 million for the $815 million (current estimate) I-205 Abernethy Bridge project — a project whose cost has risen 228% in recent years.

As insiders and lawmakers survey the political landscape ahead of the 2025 legislative session, the debates about program-level funding are likely to get heated. Governor Tina Kotek has outlined a budget that assumes the legislature will raise at least $1.75 billion to pay for transportation projects and programs like Safe Routes to School. But with ODOT saying they need twice that amount it’s unclear what they’ll sacrifice to get a bill passed.

Safe Routes to School is likely safe, but whether it gets the funding it truly deserves is anyone’s guess.

Comment of the Week: What the police say (and don’t say) in crash statements

Welcome to the first Comment of the Week since former writer of this column, Lisa Caballero, bid us all adieu. And boy do I miss her help!

Y’all left 515 comments last week. While I do scan and/or read all of them prior to hitting “approve,” I’m not sure I can really digest entire threads and engage and interact with them to the extent they deserve. (Not sure if it’s clear to everyone reading this but BikePortland is essentially a one-person operation.) That being said, I will continue to try and I’m not ready to give up on COTW just yet.

Going forward, I’ll be even more reliant on your nominations. So pretty please, if you read a comment that you think is insightful, productive, smart, fresh, informative, provocative, etc., please reply with a comment that includes “comment of the week” or “COTW”. That way I can do a search for those terms on Monday morning and see all the best comments.

This week I’ve chosen a comment from qqq. It was in response to my opinion piece about one of the reasons the City of Portland is having a difficult time reducing traffic deaths. qqq was clearly annoyed at the police crash statement about a recent fatal collision on SE Division, where the Portland Police Bureau (once again) went out of their way to absolve the driver. Here’s the comment:

“… the next thing the police do regularly after saying the driver cooperated, etc. is say the pedestrian or cyclist victim was ‘wearing dark clothing’, ‘was not wearing hi-viz clothing’, ‘had no rear light’, ‘had no helmet’, etc. – all things that aren’t required by law, but that sound like they are because the police are pointing them out.

Yet I’ve never once seen a police statement saying that the driver’s vehicle lacked anything that wasn’t required: ‘The car lacked a backup camera, ABS brakes, traction control…’. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a report mentioning a legal problem with the car, other than no license plate: “’The car’s headlight was burned out, the tires were bald, the windshield was darkly tinted, the mirror was missing, the side window was obstructed…’).”

And as we learned in this specific case, the driver on SE Division was indeed in the wrong and was cited for careless driving.

qqq makes an excellent and accurate point. It adds fuel to my idea that PPB should adopt a crash statement template; sort of like a Mad Lib-style form where they just fill in key facts and don’t make any subjective statements whatsoever.

Thanks to Fred for the nomination. And thanks for all the great comments last week.

Monday Roundup: Sprawl’s splendor, our driving addiction, a cycle train, and more

Welcome to the week.

Here are the most notable stories and other items our community flagged from the past seven days.

This week’s sponsor is Vvolt Electric Mobility, a Portland-based company that is rethinking personal transportation.

Hit by a nice driver: A Portlander was hit by a driver while walking on NE Broadway and it turned into an interesting relationship that included free weed and a hug. ((In)Action Substack)

Disrupting driving: Turns out getting people to switch from driving to other modes is really hard because of how our brains are wired, but science has answers about what can help flip the switch. (Slate)

E-bike rebates: California is about to turn on their long-awaiting e-bike rebate program. The good news is folks can receive up to $2,000 to buy a bike. The bad news is there are only 1,500 vouchers to go around. (Electrek)

Federal immunity in Salem: A DEA agent actively working a case was given immunity by an Oregon judge for his role in killing a bicycle rider with his car. (The Oregonian)

How Philadelphia protects cyclists: Always interesting to see what other cities are doing to protect bicycle riders. Of particular note is a bill passed by Philly City Council that increases fines for drivers who park in bike lanes. (The Conversation)

Black cycling revolution: It took too long, but due to a critical mass of riding clubs and community organizers, there’s finally a foundation of cycling culture for Black people across the globe to identify with and plug into. (The Guardian)

Get on the “cycle train”: Love this forgotten history of an event organized by bike shops in the 1940s that carted cyclists from L.A. to San Diego on a train just so folks could enjoy a bike ride in a new city for the day. (Forgottenmadness_la on IG)

Unenforcement: A report found that police officers in New Jersey nearly stopped writing traffic tickets after leadership planned to scrutinize them for racial injustice. (NY Times)

Loser Lane: A brilliant activist created an arcade-style game to make a point about the terrible policies of Toronto’s Doug Ford. (Momentum)

Suburban splendor: There are systemic (and unsurprisingly very partisan) reasons why most Americans say they would prefer to live in sprawled-out suburbs rather than a walkable city. (The Washington Post)

Thanks to everyone who sent in links this week. The Monday Roundup is a community effort, so please feel free to send us any great stories you come across.

Podcast: In The Shed Episode 33

Happy Friday everyone. It sure was nice to have Eva back in The Shed after a few week holiday hiatus. This episode was meaty! Here are a few of the things we talked about:

“How’d She Get There?” segment was Sellwood to Lake Oswego (including some very scary options).
Why Eva is creeped out by lobster-style bike gloves (something about the devil).
Michael Reiss and his amazing leaf sweeping work.
Why I think it’s time for PBOT to privatize bike lane maintenance
I went on a huge rant about all the Vision Zero drama going on with PBOT, the PPB, and so on.
The 82nd Ave Plan that was just adopted at City Council and why some transportation advocates don’t like it.
Why pitting bikes against transit (like PBOT is doing on 82nd) is a no good, very bad idea.
The new Bike Happy Hour location on N Williams Ave.
Closure of Cynergy E-Bike Store.
And more.

Thanks for listening!

Cynergy E-Bikes is latest shop to call it quits

An all-electric bike shop in southeast Portland is calling it quits. Cynergy E-Bikes on Southeast Powell Blvd and SE 36th had been in business for 10 years changed ownership five years ago.

In an email to customers this week, owner Sami Khawaja said “We are throwing in the towel.” “We simply cannot compete with the internet and Amazon,” Khawaha added. “We have no choice but to move on. We wanted to personally thank you all your support and business over the years.”

This is the fourth bike shop to close its doors so far this year: Gladys Bikes closed in February, Citybikes stopped doing business in September, and Kenton Cycle Repair shut its doors in October.

Electric bike sales have boomed in Portland in recent years. We’ve seen shops increase their inventory of e-bikes, and in the case of River City Bicycles, they decided to dedicate an entire location to battery-powered wonders. This is the first all-electric shop I’m aware of that has stopped doing business.

Khawaja says while the retail shop will close, Cynergy will continue to service bikes of customers. “We will continue to service bikes at our current location until we find a business to sublease our space. At that point we will move to a new smaller and less expensive location.”

The shop is now having an “E-Commerce E-Screwed Cynergy E bikes” sale and everything is being discounted 20-50%. The sale includes e-bikes, helmets, apparel, locks, tires, and so on.

Check out CynergyEbikes.com for more information.

Opinion: Why our war on traffic deaths is stuck in a quagmire

The last two days have been a stark illustration of the quagmire the City of Portland finds itself in when it comes to the war on traffic deaths.

On Wednesday as I packed for a Portland Police Bureau press conference about the disturbingly high number of fatal crashes so far this year, we received word of yet another person who was killed while walking on our streets. 67 deaths so far, the PPB says, and the 24th person who was on foot when it happened.

75-year-old Hong Huynh was walking southbound across SE Division at 109th when he was hit and killed by a driver. Huynh was in a crosswalk and had made it across three of the four general traffic lanes. As Huynh approached a median on the southern side of the intersection — a median installed in 2022 with the expressed purpose of making people like him safer — a driver slammed into him. I looked beyond yellow police tape in news photos and saw Huynh’s shoes and winter gloves lying in the street.

Driver’s view of the crossing at SE Division and 109th. A man was hit and killed just before reaching the median island on the right.

At the press conference held just four hours later, a PBOT spokesperson and the leader of the PPB’s Traffic Division tried to convince the assembled press corps that they care deeply about safety and are doing everything they can to prevent deaths and serious injuries.

For their part, PBOT can say they did do a lot to prevent this latest death on Division. They spent $11 million in 2022 on the Outer Division Safety Project, which (in tandem with TriMet’s FX2 transit investments) aimed to improve safety on one of the most notorious arterials in the city. Huynh crossed at a location with a center median island and two yellow caution signs warning drivers of the presence of pedestrians. The robust center median filled in what used to be a center turn lane.

But it wasn’t enough.

Huynh also crossed at a location without a marked crosswalk or signa. And he had to cross four driving lanes, the same number that existed before PBOT’s “safety” project. And with a posted speed limit of 30 mph, the driver would have had to begin braking nearly half a block away to avoid killing Huynh. According to PBOT traffic data, 73% of people at driving eastbound on SE Division at 109th drive over the speed limit (image, right). That’s over 20,000 speeding drivers every day.

Yesterday I heard from Scott Kocher, a Portland-based lawyer and advocate who specializes in traffic law. “Recent PBOT projects on this stretch of outer Division did not address high speeds, doubled car lanes, and missing crosswalks,” Kocher shared. He said Division’s long straightaways and high number of speeders means it still has too many unsafe crossings and its design was “predictably deficient.”

“Division is nowhere near a Vision Zero facility,” Kocher added. (It’s also notable that Huynh was hit just a few yards from where PBOT removed a section of the center median one year ago in order to restore a center turn lane after an adjacent business owner complained.)

PPB Sergeant Ty Engstrom mentioned the SE Division collision at the press conference Wednesday. And even though Sgt. Engstrom knew very little about what happened out on that road a few hours earlier, he went out of his way to absolve the driver of responsibility. “The driver of the vehicle did not appear to be going… uh, speed did not appear to be a factor. They stayed [at the scene]. They were cooperative. No impairment appeared to be a factor in this particular case.”

No one asked Sgt. Engstrom about the crash or the driver who hit Huynh. He offered those details unsolicited.

When I got back to work from the press conference and watched video footage of the crash shared by KATU-TV Wednesday afternoon, I saw the driver plow into Huynh with what appeared to be very little to no braking and at a relatively high rate of speed. I immediately thought of how Engstrom’s comments at the press conference painted a much different picture.

And it turns out the driver wasn’t as innocent as Engstrom made them out to be. Yesterday the PPB said the driver, 38-year-old April Oneal, has been cited for careless driving.

Less than 24 hours after Huynh was violently killed by a careless driver, PBOT posted a video on social media reminding walkers to look both ways before crossing the street. The video is set to throbbing music and features two people dancing to the rhythm. It’s done in the cute style of trendy online content. This blame-the-victim framing flies in the face of the “Safe Systems” approach to traffic safety PBOT claims they adhere to. That alone would be offensive and inappropriate. But given what happened to Mr. Huynh, comments made at this week’s press conference, and words PBOT’s lead Vision Zero staffer shared at the World Day of Remembrance event last month — it’s unfathomable why PBOT uploaded that video.

What’s even harder to believe is that even given all those factors— and the dozens of people who’ve expressed concerns about it via social media comments — the video remains up as of this morning.

With the daunting task of eliminating deaths and serious injuries on our roads staring them in the face like never before, PBOT and the PPB have taken refuge in deflecting responsibility away from their organizations — and away from the most dangerous users of the road. Both agencies say they could achieve Vision Zero with more funding and both agencies say a fatality-free future depends on a “culture change” and people taking responsibility for their actions.

But as Mr. Huynh’s tragic death shows, the City’s business as usual response, means people will continue to die as usual.

PBOT and the PPB do a lot and it still isn’t enough. I see two lines on a graph where one line for our car-centric system, dangerous driving and all its consequences spikes way up — and the other line for the City’s incremental improvements ticks up just slightly. The gap between the two is where people are killed. We must close that gap. Putting a hand out for more funding and pointing fingers doesn’t meet the moment.

I agree we need to remind every Portlander that we are all in this together, but we must not lose sight that “all” includes government. To quote a church sign marquee I’ve seen for years while riding up North Williams Avenue: When it comes to changing culture on our roads, the City of Portland should use a mirror, not a telescope.

‘Tis the season to sweep up the damn leaves ourselves

Screenshot from video by Michael Reiss shows him towing a sweeper behind his bike. (Watch video below)

Southwest Portland resident Michael Reiss was so tired of leaves piling up in the bike lane, he took things into his own hands. I’m not talking about grabbing a broom and clearing a small section. He bought a high-powered gas sweeper, attached it to his electric recumbent trike, and then made several passes of a major bike route.

The result: A two-mile stretch of SW Multnomah Blvd is now clean and clear of leaves from the outside bike lane stripe to the fog line and hundreds of pounds of leaves are now in a ditch. Reiss’s DIY hack worked well he’s since bought an even larger sweeper.

Reiss is part of a long line of resourceful, fed-up Portlanders who take matters into their own hands when it comes to keeping our bike lanes free of debris like leaves, glass, and gravel. Reiss has been sharing his sweeping exploits on the Bike Loud PDX Slack channel. Bike Loud has been testing a bike lane sweeper for over a year now. The group maintains a schedule where volunteers can sign up for shifts to use the trailer. They also created a dedicated Slack channel to talk all things bike lane sweeping. When Reiss uploaded a video of his sweeper in action the other day, I had to talk with him and learn more.

He said his motivation comes from being a nice husband. “My wife bikes to OHSU from where we live just south of the Fred Meyer in Burlingame,” Reiss shared in a video interview today. “In the last couple of weeks, Terwilliger has been basically impassable.”

Reiss said the City of Portland swept the bike lane once, but within days it was full of leaves again. “That’s my wife’s bike route, so this is sort of a honey-do list,” he shared with a laugh.

Anyone who rides in southwest knows that leaf season on a bicycle is especially treacherous. Not only does the hilly area have a lot of massive trees, but there are fewer bike routes overall. So when a major bike thoroughfare like Terwilliger — or Capitol Highway or Multnomah — become essentially closed by leaves, it’s a bigger deal than in some other parts of town that have alternate ways around.

Reiss’ trike with sweeper attached. (Photo: Michael Reiss)

Reiss loves solving problems and this type of project is just the type of thing he said his brain likes to focus on. He and someone else he met through Bike Loud found the used sweeper on Craiglist for $300 and then Reiss fashioned a hitch and tow bar and screwed it on. After a few test runs showed potential, he picked up an even larger unit and continues to tinker with its power settings and configurations.

Beyond the power and electrical considerations, the tricky thing is setting the angle on the brush in a way that pushes the leaves aside while also making sure it pushes down on the pavement hard enough to make progress, but not so hard that it slows down the cycling. Reiss is an expert at modifying electric-bikes, so he’s used his assistive motor to great success. “The sweeper angle is only 15-16 degrees, so you start pulling all that weight and you’ve got to go slow and wait for the sweeper to push it off to the side,” he shared with me today.

Another consideration is that, so far at least, Reiss’ sweeper doesn’t play nice with pedestrians. He’s trying to tweak the angle of the brush and the speed of the brush motor so that the leaves get piled up nicely and don’t get blown on the sidewalk.

All these issues have likely been hammered out by the creators of the Bike Lane Sweeper, so I was glad to hear that Reiss has been in contact with them to share ideas and feedback. He hopes to help Bike Loud purchase one of the new sweeper models in the near future.

In the end, Reiss’ DIY effort illustrates frustration with the city for not keeping up with bike lane maintenance. The Portland Bureau of Transportation has made strides in recent years, but there are still more lane miles then they can tackle in a timely fashion.

Good thing we’ve got gung-ho folks like Reiss and others who take matters like this into their own hands. And I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Reiss and his sweeping experiments. His ultimate plan is to use a cargo trike (like the one ice cream sellers use) and mount the sweeper to the front so it’s easier to control. And future versions will be converted to electric power.

“I’ll pound away at this project until it works,” he shared. “Or until it becomes stupid or somebody else does something that eliminates the need for it — or until I get bored and move onto another project.”

If you see a recumbent pulling a loud sweeper in southwest Portland, steer clear and give Reiss a big thumbs-up!