A five day closure of the Tram starts next week. The closure of this crucial connection between the South Waterfront and OHSU will provide an interesting preview of how users will handle the 38-day shutdown coming up this June.
Volunteer activism is alive and well in Portland.
When is the last time you sent someone a hand-written note? Maybe doing that more often was one of your new year’s resolutions that needs a nudge?
For the second year in a row the Community Cycling Center will set up a letter courier system in their retail bike shop on Northeast Alberta to commemorate St. Velotine’s Day — which they call, “an emerging tradition celebrating all-analog affection.” For one day the CCC will buck the growing digitization of our lives and encourage people to send hand-written notes to one another in a bid to boost positive community spirit.
Here’s more from the CCC:
Instead of jotting a quick email thanking a friend or coworker, imagine having that note manually typed on a mid-century Olympia typewriter, then couriered by bike within Portland city limits to surprise and delight its recipient on February 14th. That is precisely what Cycling Center staff and volunteers intend to do for hundreds of messages.
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From now through February 14th (which is traditionally Valentine’s Day, if you haven’t realized yet), anyone can stop into the CCC Bike Shop (1700 NE Alberta) and order a velotine for a $10 suggested donation. Once typed up and sealed with a kiss, it will be queued for bike delivery on Valentine’s Day.
This would be a great way to tell your friends and special someones that you appreciate them!
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
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Changing America’s dysfunctional traffic culture begins on the street in front of where you live.
It will take a lot more than signs and paint to win the battle against traffic violence — but both of those things are part of the fight. The Portland Bureau of Transportation has a new way you can aid their “Vision Zero” efforts: They now offer free ’20 is Plenty’ yard signs. Their goal is to help educate us about speed and give everyone a bit of a fair warning before the new 20 mph citywide residential speed limit goes into effect on April 1st (no foolin’).
Here are the times and places you can pick up a free sign:
Every second Tuesday of the month at 6:00 to 8:00 pm in City Hall Lovejoy Room (1221 SW 4th Ave)
Introductions/Announcements
Committee orientation
Chair Rithy Khut and Vice-Chair Elliot Scott will provide a brief welcome and orientation to new members.Greetings to new members
Leah Treat, Director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation, will provide remarks to this newly formed iteration of the Bicycle Advisory Committee.Portland’s bicycling efforts: an orientation for new BAC members
Roger Geller, Portland’s bicycle coordinator, will present an overview of Portland’s efforts to “create conditions that make bicycling more attractive than driving…” (Comprehensive Plan Policy 9.20).New bicycle-pedestrian bridges
Dan Layden and Nicole Pierce with PBOT will present current design considerations and timelines for the Sullivan’s Gulch and Flanders Street bridges. They are seeking committee input on cross-section design.Support for Build Portland
Emily Tritsch, with PBOT, will seek committee support for dedicated Build Portland funding for a range of transportation projects.Committee Business
Adjourn
This story is from our Washington County correspondent, Naomi Fast.
We need to talk about on-street auto parking in Beaverton.
A big picture glance at Beaverton Traffic Commission meeting agendas shows that over the past couple years, on-street car parking is a consuming and intersectional problem. Residents have been asking the city to lower speed limits rather than rely on parked cars for traffic calming, as well as further restrict on-street car parking. But the parking restriction requests are coming in for two different reasons: some are concerned about safety while traveling on car-cluttered roads, while others are concerned about people sleeping overnight in vehicles on the street.
Biking as transportation is — thankfully — being acknowledged somewhat in the search for solutions. However, some advocates are concerned certain proposed bike lanes (on a section of 5th, specifically, which the Bicycle Advisory Committee endorsed) were being used by the city to justify a new ordinance that would, in effect, evict houseless people from staying overnight in vehicles on the street. Washington County just enacted their own ordinance prohibiting camping on-street in RVs. Like Portland, Beaverton is struggling to house all its residents. The city has even decided to apply for an Urban Growth Boundary expansion.
But today, I’d like to outline a seemingly small detail of the bigger parking problem. It’s an example of the kind of mundane traffic decision that should be considered from a carfree person’s perspective, as part of the equity consideration.
And I think it’s worth a call-to-action for people whose preferred or primary mode of travel in Beaverton is a bicycle.
The weekend is right around the corner and now is the time to tidy up your plans.
Our guide this week has two special “BP Picks!” — which means we’re working hard to feature these events because the organizers support BikePortland. If that’s not added reason to check them out I don’t know what is.
So don’t miss a night of great bicycle stories on Friday at Live the Revolution and then join hundreds of your fellow Portlanders for the traditional Worst Day of the Year Ride on Sunday. Here’s the full menu…
We’ve seen this sad movie before: After seemingly incessant traffic violence on our streets, people join together with tears in their eyes and frustration in their hearts to implore our government agencies to do more to make our streets safe.
This time Oregon Walks and the Rosewood Initiative will lead the way. They’re hosting a press conference Thursday morning to draw attention to terrible conditions on outer SE Stark Street after a woman was killed by an auto user at 148th Street last week. That was the third fatal traffic crash at or near that same intersection in less than a year. In a statement (below), Oregon Walks Executive Director Noel Mickelberry is calling on the City of Portland to declare an official emergency on SE Stark in order to immediately reduce the speed limit from 35 to 30 mph.
Mickelberry hopes the Portland Bureau of Transportation will take a similar approach to the emergency declaration they successfully pursued on SE Division last year.
Here’s more from the Oregon Walks press release:
“PBOT believes there was evidence to justify the State Engineer to reconsider his decision and leave the bike lanes in place. ODOT has communicated to the City that they will not reconsider that decision.”
— Dylan Rivera, PBOT
The bike lanes on SE 26th Avenue approaching Powell Boulevard are on life support.
In a saga that has spanned nearly 30 months, PBOT appears to have finally acquiesced to the Oregon Department of Transportation’s demand that a pair of bike lanes that have been in use since the 1980s be removed in favor of the state’s preferred route for bicycle users two blocks east on SE 28th. It all comes back to a deal struck by PBOT and ODOT two years ago.
In order to build a new traffic signal and crossing at the intersection of SE 28th and SE Powell for their 20s Bikeway project, PBOT needed a special permit from ODOT and the blessing of State Traffic Engineer Bob Pappe. ODOT, who owns and manages Powell Boulevard, agreed to that permit only on the very specific condition that once the new signal was up and running, PBOT would remove the bike lanes on 26th.
Sorry, this job has been filled. Browse more great jobs here.
Job Title *
PT Bike Valet Attendant
Company/Organization *
Go By Bike
Job Description *
Go By Bike, under the aerial tram, is looking for a friendly, outgoing part time afternoon valet attendant. The job responsibilities include parking and unparking bikes, and closing up/cleaning the shop at night. You spend a lot of time outside in the largest bike parking spot in North America. No bike mechanic skills are necessary but being able to fix a flat is definitely a plus. We’d be happy to teach you. You must be reliable, have a positive attitude, and work well on your own. Wages start at $13/hour with a 50/50 health insurance option. Mon-fri 3:30pm-8pm with paid holidays and sick/vacation time.
How to Apply *
Email a one-two paragraph cover letter explaining why you would be a good match for this position and a resume. Position to start ASAP.
The Bureau of Transportation has kicked off a project that aims to make it safer to travel between the Lloyd District and Woodlawn neighborhoods.
The $552,000 Lloyd to Woodlawn (L2W for short) neighborhood greenway project will utilize either NE 7th or 9th and will stretch from Weidler in the south to Holman in the north. Once completed, the route would connect the buffered bike lanes in the Lloyd District to existing neighborhood greenways on Tillamook and Holman. It would also include a safer crossing of Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
PBOT has scheduled the first open house for the project on February 27th.
[Publisher’s note: Welcome to our Family Biking column! I’m thrilled to share Madi’s insights and experiences here on BP. Please give her a warm welcome and let’s thank Clever Cycles for helping bring this content to the community. — Jonathan]
Hi. I’m Madi.
I bike for all the typical reasons — it’s cheaper than driving, it’s safer than driving, it’s simpler than taking the bus, it’s healthy, it doesn’t pollute, it’s usually faster than all other modes of transportation — but mostly because it’s tremendously fun. Even with kids. Especially with kids. I love to share that sense of fun and ease with others in the hopes of encouraging more families and individuals to bike even just a little bit more often. I’ve found focusing on the fun stuff to be an effective way of promoting bicycling as transportation (but I also reserve the right to discuss statistics and badmouth car traffic).
I ride with my two sons, aged 10 and 8, and our conveniently-basket-sized dog. I’ve been family biking since my first son was one year old and have gone through several bike iterations along the way. I like to think there are a lot of different right answers and very few wrong answers when it comes to choosing a family bike.