4/25: Hello readers and friends. I'm still recovering from a surgery I had on 4/11, so I'm unable to attend events and do typical coverage. See this post for the latest update. I'll work as I can and I'm improving every day! Thanks for all your support 🙏. - Jonathan Maus, BikePortland Publisher and Editor
Pain is temporary, the view is forever. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
It’s officially spring riding season in Portland. If the amazing sunny weather isn’t a sign, then the Ladds 500 is. Lots of good stuff to choose from this weekend as folks sharpen their quads and quivers for lots of riding to come.
Ladds 500 – 10:00 am at Ladd Circle Park (SE) “It’s spring, let’s do something stupid,” is the official slogan of this beloved event that has turned into a phenomenon. It’s a party in the park and a pedaling frenzy in the street. Weather will be perfect, so will the vibes. Learn more about the event by browsing stories in the BP archive. More info here.
Reach the Beach Training Ride – 10:00 am at Sellwood Park/Oaks Bottom (SE) Join an experienced ride leader from Portland Bicycling Club on a 50-mile, brisk-paced (15-17 mph) road ride that will help get you in shape for the big Reach the Beach ride on May 18th. More info here.
Trail Maintenance at Stub Stewart State Park (Washington County) Join NW Trail Alliance for a fulfilling day of earning your turns and help fellow volunteers get the freeride area ready for a busy season of riding. If you love riding, or just love nature and want a perfect excuse to spend the day immersed in the woods, this is the event for you (and the whole family!). More info here.
Sunday, April 14th
Dig Day at Sandy Ridge – 9:00 am at Sandy Ridge Trailhead (Sandy) Help maintain the trails at one of the best MTB riding areas in the region and spend a day in the dirt with some awesome folks. Hosted by NW Trail Alliance. More info here.
Southerly Ladies Series – 10:00 am at Trolley Trail Trailhead (SE) Join a crew of wonderful women for a “chill pace road ride” to Oregon City where you’ll be awe-inspired by an overlook of Willamette Falls. Led by Maria “Bicycle Kitty” Schur. More info here.
West Hills Climb-athon – 10:00 am at Bethany Village (West Side) Brooks, Old Germantown, Rock Creek, Logie Trail, McNamee and Newberry. If you love to climb, you should know those names. Come out and sharpen your uphill skills on these iconic summits and share in the pain with fellow cyclists. Led by Portland Bicycling Club. More info here.
Monthly Overlook Ride – 10:15 at Stacks Coffeehouse (N) Join a leader of the Overlook Neighborhood Association to explore nooks and crannies of this beautiful place while connecting with other bike lovers. Casual, social ride that starts at a great coffee place for drinks and snacks. More info here.
Corvidae Bike Club Ride – 2:00 pm at Peninsula Park Fountain (N) This is a welcoming group that knows how to have fun and takes care of each other while doing it. Expect a no-drop vibe where all bikes are welcome and bring your sense of adventure. More info here.
Sellwood-Moreland Nature Ride – 3:00 pm at Sellwood Riverfront Park (SE) Get your 15 minutes of fame as ride leader and filmmaker Amit Zinman documents this classic Portland ride on his BikeStuff PDX YouTube channel. Expect to be on camera. 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.
The scene outside Aladdin Theater Tuesday night. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Note: Audio from this event is now a BikePortland Podcast episode and can be listened to in a player at the end of this post.
How do you go from an engineering consultant to a celebrity that can pack a theater with 600 people on a weeknight in Portland in just a few short years? Upload consistently excellent videos about city planning to YouTube.
That’s the path Ray Delahanty took to become what the host of last night’s event, Lilian Karabaic, called a “YouTube celebrity for deadpan urbanist humor.”
Delahanty was chosen as the special guest speaker for the Portland State University Transportation Research and Education Center’s Ann Niles Active Transportation Lecture. Niles, who died in 2011, was a Reed College graduate who moved to Portland with her husband Phil Niles (who was in the crowd last night) after a career in academia. In Portland, Ann Niles became a dedicated transportation and urban planning volunteer and advocate who worked in support of projects like the streetcar, MAX light rail, bike lanes, sidewalks and more.
Niles would have likely been annoyed if she showed up to the theater last night on her bike, only to find almost no bike parking. The lack of spots meant folks had to walk several blocks to find a place secure enough to store their bikes during the show. Once everyone got inside, all was right with the world as they were treated to a fun, casual and free-flowing conversation between Karabaic and Delahanty.
Lilian KarabaicRay Delahanty
Karabaic is host of OPB’s Weekend Edition and a journalist focused on finance and transit. Delahanty is a PSU grad and former Portland resident who’s worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation and had a 15 year career as a planner and project manager for consulting firms and private agencies. He started his YouTube career in 2021 and now has about 225,000 subscribers and puts out one video per week with titles such as, “10 Suburbs That Are Becoming More City Like,” “10 Cities That Destroy Their Downtowns With Parking,” and “Why Americans Live So Far Away From Everything.”
On stage, Karabaic’s bright pink outfit and huge turquoise bike earrings, contrasted with Delahanty’s subdued grey pants and blazer. Their presence mimicked their fashion choices as Karabaic’s ebullience balanced out Delahanty’s calm and reserved delivery — the same one that makes his videos so easy to watch, digest, and like.
While Delahanty offered excessively diplomatic answers to some of the night’s juiciest questions (like how to bring more women and people of color into the planning field or which project was his favorite to work on), there were some fun exchanges and his fans learned a lot more about the man behind the mic.
Asked an audience question about how he balanced ethical issues of working on projects (like freeway expansions) he knew were harmful to land use and transportation goals, Delahanty replied:
“You have to be able to earn a paycheck, so you might have to sometimes work on projects that you don’t have the highest opinion of. But as you advance in your career, look for opportunities to gravitate towards the projects that are inspiring to you — not just in terms of the way you want the world to look, but the things that get you excited to get up in the morning and to go to go to work every day. It’s hard to do that if you’re working on projects that you genuinely think are harming society.”
To which Karabaic followed-up with, “You have to have people that care about moving those goals forward, even if they are working on a massive highway expansion, because you need to have those voices in the room. And also, you’ve got to feed yourself, and you can’t eat ethics for breakfast.”
And while Delahanty said he loves being his own boss (a huge change from working in the public sector), he made it clear that he still is beholden to a lot of daily feedback. Last night Karabaic asked if there was any viewer comment he’s received that became lodged in his head long after he first read it.
Delahanty shared that a commenter on a video about Miami wrote, “What you’ll notice, as you travel around Miami, is it’s walkable urbanism for the rich and abject car dependency for everyone else.” “And that was harsh,” Delahanty acknowledges, “But Miami is almost like the most extreme version of that. And so that really still sticks in my head.”
Asked to name his favorite arterial and favorite new bridge in Portland, Delahanty answered with Sandy Blvd (he used to live in Hollywood neighborhood) and the Flanders Bridge between northwest and the Pearl District.
“It’s such a short distance and you don’t feel like you’re leaving the street environment. You feel like you’re still in an urban setting and it’s so short that you don’t reach a point where you’re like, ‘Oh God, I’m over freeway!'” he said about the Flanders Bridge.
The crowd was eager to cheer for anything wonky. A mention from an audience member that they’d like to, “See I-5 filled in altogether at the Rose Quarter,” got one of the largest cheers of the night. So too did Delahanty’s admission that he builds spreadsheets to help with many major life decisions — like which city to move to and which neighborhoods to live in.
But the loudest cheer of the night came when Delahanty announced the current video he’s working on. After he hinted that it was about Portland, Karabaic asked for a three-word hint.
“Historic streetcar system,” Delahanty replied, and the crowd responded as if the Timbers just scored a match-winning goal.
Delahanty and CityNerd’s popularity gives veteran and aspiring urbanists hope — especially those of us who live in Portland. It’s nice to know we can still pack a large theater to hear about someone who makes a living ranking transit systems on the internet. Beyond that, there might be something else at work here: Most of CityNerd’s viewers are from Portland and Seattle, which made Karabaic wonder out loud if Delahanty’s work has tapped into many peoples’ strong urge to find solutions to the persistent problems our cities face.
Whatever nerve he’s struck, last night leaves no doubt of Delahanty’s influence.
CityNerd superfan Blaise Lewis.
As I packed up to leave the venue, a man named Blaise Lewis approached. “Do you know Ray?” he asked. He then gave me a copy of a short comic book he made called, “All Board: The Condensed History of Portland’s Light Rail.” Lewis wanted me to give it to Delahanty because, he said, “He was my inspiration, he’s the reason I went back to school for planning.”
Asked what he thought about the event, Lewis said, “I never thought I’d see him in person, so it’s kind of like meeting your hero I guess.”
— Meet Delahanty at Bike Happy Hour later today. He’ll show up to the Gorges Beer Co patio at 4:30 and can’t stay too long so get there right at the time if you want to say “hi”.
Screenshot of DirtyFreehub.org. Inset photo: Linda English.
Linda English, a runner-turned-cyclist and tech industry retiree, has built something very special. Linda and her crew have uploaded about 300 gravel ride routes onto DirtyFreehub.org and the site has become a must-browse for anyone who seeks adventure on two wheels. I’ve watched the site’s impressive growth over the past decade — right along with the explosion of interest in riding drop-bar bikes on unpaved roads.
I talked to Linda a few days ago about the site, the rise of gravel riding in Oregon, the projects she’s working on, and more.
Based in Bend, Linda says about 200 of the routes she’s uploaded are in Oregon. In addition to being a resource for cyclists, Linda’s work has become recognized for its role in economic development in rural Oregon towns. Dirty Freehub (a nonprofit) has secured contracts with agencies like Travel Oregon and the Oregon Coast Visitors Association to develop routes specifically with tourism in mind.
“It’s what we call ‘drip tourism’,” Linda shared with BikePortland. “where instead of having two or three hundred people show up to an event, which is really stressful for a really small town, we can just sort of run people through there. It’s just been this explosion. We can go into tiny little places like Paisley, Oregon, and create ride guides out there. And the next thing you know, there’s people out there and they’re just loving it. And the town loves it too because it’s economic development.”
Linda’s goal isn’t just to inspire epic rides. She also wants people who use Dirty Freehub to gain a deeper understanding of the people and places they ride through. DF’s ride guides feature all the mapping and GPS details you need to have a successful ride, and they also include bits of local knowledge, like where to find the best food and local lore. The site also offers podcasts that feature interviews with locals — like a logger who shares their fear of riding on popular cycling roads, or a farmer who shares how their life is different than a city-dweller. “It’s really cool to get cyclists to be a little bit more compassionate. We’re really interested in how to break down that rural-urban divide,” Linda shared.
A recent project Linda has embarked on is a series of “All Access” routes that are geared toward entry-level riders. All routes in this category are less than 25 miles and perfect for folks with adaptive bikes, electric bikes, or those who aren’t able to deal with elevation gain or a tricky gate that’s hard to navigate around.
Asked her favorite place to ride in Oregon, Linda said, “That’s an impossible question!” But she mentioned Baker City and Joseph (eastern Oregon) and said one of the “secret places” she loves is Madras. “I’ve lived in Bend for a long time and we’d just drive right through Madras on the way to Portland. But you get out on some of those roads out there and it’s stunning. It’s just so quiet out there, it’s really, really fun.”
Do yourself a favor and check out DirtyFreehub.org. And get to know more about the site and woman behind it by listening to our conversation. You can hear it in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Last night I had a few minutes to kill on my way to an event, so I posted up on North Williams Avenue to observe some bike traffic (as one does).
If you’re new here (welcome!), People on Bikes is a portrait gallery series BikePortland launched in 2011. It’s basically a way to appreciate the beautiful diversity of cycling and develop a deeper understanding of bike culture in a specific location. In addition to busy bike corridors across Portland, we’ve shared galleries from New York City, Miami, Amsterdam, Colombia and Copenhagen.
You can take whatever you want from these images. I personally find it interesting to have a snapshot of what riders look like at a given time and place. As I browse the gallery, I look at the type of bikes folks are riding, how they’re riding, what type of gear and accessories they’re using, and what type of person is on the bike.
What do you see when you look at these photos? Are folks on e-bikes or fast road bikes? Flat bars or drop bars? Are they on a training ride or just getting home from work? Or both? Are they Black, white, brown, small, large, tall or short? How many women? Are most of the riders young or old? Do they use panniers or a backpack? Are their bikes expensive or cheap? Do they look happy, relaxed, or stressed? Are they wearing bike-specific clothing? Helmets?
The location is North Williams Avenue at Tillamook and I was there from about 5:50 to 6:10 last night. Keep in mind, this is a random sampling and I didn’t exercise any editorial judgment in which photos I selected. I tried to shoot every person that came by. If anyone didn’t make the gallery, it was because the image wasn’t good.
View all 32 images below (reminder that if you click the first image, you can use your arrow key to move through the gallery):
The patio will be poppin’! Come on out and join us.
Hope you can swing by Bike Happy Hour tomorrow (Weds, 4/10), because we’ve got two special guests and ample opportunities for activism. We’ll hear from Portland City Council candidate Rex Burkholder, learn about an exciting project from a group of Portland State University students, and activists from BikeLoud PDX will meet up for their bi-monthly Bike Loud Action Mixer (BLAM).
Burkholder is running for a seat in District 3, which encompasses (roughly) southeast Portland from the Willamette to 82nd, and I-84 to the southern border. Burkholder is an advocacy veteran and former Metro Council member who’s well-known in local cycling circles. In late 1990, Burkholder co-founded the Portland Area Bicycle Coalition, which in 1992 incorporated as the nonprofit Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) which grew to prominence in the 1990s. The BTA changed its name (and its mission) to The Street Trust in 2016.
Burkholder was a leader in the successful “Outdoor School for All” effort in 2016. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
After he left the BTA, Burkholder was elected to Metro Council in 2000 and held that position for 12 years. He ran for Metro president in 2010 but didn’t win the race. After that, he went into consulting and worked on various environmental advocacy issues. Burkholder now finds himself in a highly competitive race to represent southeast Portland on city council.
At Happy Hour, we’ll give Burkholder the mic to tell us why he deserves our votes and he’ll be open to a few questions from the crowd. Show up around 5:00 to hear Burkholder’s speech.
After Burkholder, we’ll learn what Strategic Minds Consulting Group is up to with their Future Sandy project. Strategic Minds is a group of PSU Urban and Regional Planning students that includes: Afroza Hossain Misty, Anchal Cheruvari, Heather Rector, Holly Querin, Katelyn Dendas, and Symeon Walker. They’ve teamed up with BikeLoud PDX to flesh out a plan to re-think Sandy Blvd as a multimodal corridor.
Future Sandy study corridor map. (Source: Strategic Minds)
Sandy is currently a high-crash corridor without any dedicated space for bicycling; but its diagonal layout has long made it a very attractive candidate for a bikeway. With repaving plans in the near future, advocates want to make a potential bikeway project shovel-ready if the opportunity for a big redesign presents itself. The scope of the Future Sandy project is from NE 14th to 28th.
Members of Strategic Minds will be at Bike Happy Hour from 4:00 to 6:00 tomorrow. They’ll be conducting an interactive map exercise, so please take a few minutes to check out their table and information. They’ll ask folks to identify bike routes around Sandy and which destinations are important to them. The more folks they hear from, the better. Speaking of which, be sure to take their online survey (closes April 30th).
And if all the talk about the future Sandy bikeway gets your blood pumping, hook up with BikeLoud PDX for their BLAM session. The BLAM is a meet-up where all ideas are welcome. Show up with your idea for how Portland can reach 25% bicycle mode share by 2030 and connect with others who can help you put it into action.
Can’t wait to see you all tomorrow! In addition to this stuff, we’ll have some time for open mic, so come and promote your ride/product/business/idea/song/poem, or whatever.
— Bike Happy Hour is every Wednesday from 3:00-6:00 pm at Gorges Beer Co patio (SE Ankeny & 27th). Join us for great food, drinks, and company. Everyone is welcome!
Hi everyone! I’ve been away from the Shed since Thursday on a family trip, so that’s why things have been slow around here. I am back now and slowly getting the gears turning again. (And yes, I realize it’s Tuesday.) Also note, the Weekly Reader (our weekly email newsletter that you should sign up for) will come out later today.
Without further ado, below are the most notable stories our community has come across in the past seven days…
Safer transit in Portland: Dismissing public safety fears is just as extreme as calling for a police-oriented, law-and-order approach says this opinion column about how to create a more safe and welcoming environment on TriMet. (Portland Mercury)
Cash for e-bikes: Another state has seen the light and will pay its residents to purchase e-bikes. Starting this summer, Minnesota will launch a program that will offer a purchase incentive of up to 75% of the price of a new e-bike, or $1,500 max. (Clean Technica)
The ubiquity of hit-and-runs: A harrowing story from Utah where hit-and-runs have become so common that it took officials a while to figure out that some of them might be linked — and intentional. (Salt Lake Tribune)
Historic declaration: An unprecedented coalition of European legislative bodies adopted a new plan they hope will, “unleash the full potential of cycling”. (Global Cycling Network)
Fentanyl and car crashes: Another reason we need to offer excellent alternatives to driving and make road designs as safe as possible is that far too many people end up driving cars while high on fentanyl. (Streetsblog USA)
But, we aren’t Paris!: The ascendancy of the French capital as a major cycling city continues to inspire as a new study shows the mode share scale has officially tipped from driving to cycling. The reason? A lot more bikeways criss-crossing the city. (Forbes)
Take back the streets: Portlander Cathy Tuttle says it’s time for women to speak up about the violence and harassment they face while biking. Her op-ed follows up the survey she conducted for BikeLoud PDX. (Momentum Mag)
Our Guest Post last week by Don Baack focused on southwest Portland’s problems with getting pedestrian and bicycle networks built. The area relies on private development — and the city’s frontage requirements that are supposed to accompany it — to cobble together its networks. The area has the worst sidewalk coverage and most incomplete bicycle facilities in the city, so obviously this system is not working very well.
HJ jumped in to say that it’s not just southwest, that West Hills struggles with the same problem. But HJ added another wrinkle — jurisdictional control. And boy is that true!
When we say “jurisdictional control,” people usually think of all the ODOT-owned orphan highways, but the complications also extend to the ragged edges of our city borders. County lines, unincorporated county lines, and city-borders don’t respect the layout of surface streets, and the locations where they intersect end up being some of the most dangerous spots in the area.
Not just SW. This is happening all over the west hills. For example the French American school is planning a big expansion. They just took over the rest of the corner at Cornell and Miller and will be developing it.
Word on the street is they have tried to work with the various road agencies that control the edges of their property (poor guys get Washington County, Multnomah County, and PBOT to deal with) to get bike lanes and sidewalks established, but have gotten stonewalled. The impact of the school on local traffic has become outright dangerous, yet parents that live a mere block away have no safe way to walk their kid to school. So they drive.
Will anything change with their new development? I’m skeptical. But if we don’t make it happen with this project, which is on the Ronde PDX route, it never will. Locals have been begging for this area to get addressed for over 30 years and the demand lines in the dirt are well worn.
It would be a major step forward to getting folks out of their cars as a sidewalk and or bike lane on Miller in particular would give people in the area safe access to both basic essentials such as groceries as well as public transit.
Nobody seems to want to help because it’s a jurisdictional nightmare spot and because it’s at the edges of everything. CPO1 has declined as it’s the edge of their area and they want to focus further in, BikeLoud never looks past the west edge of downtown, WashCo Bikes doesn’t care because non-Washington county spots are involved. Please tell me how are we supposed to fix this spot?!
Thank you HJ. I don’t have an answer, maybe someone else has an idea. It’s the same problem on SW Scholls Ferry Rd — unincorporated Washington and Multnomah counties, with a tiny stretch of Portland. It seems like an impossible street to fix.
Corner of SW Broadway and 5th Avenue looking east. I-405 and the surface route of Hwy 26 create a no-man’s-land for people walking and on bicycles. (Lisa Caballero/BikePortland)
A few weeks ago the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Bicycle Advisory Committee (BAC) grappled with a thankless task, choosing between six patches PBOT had presented to it for routing cyclists into downtown from Terwilliger Boulevard.
That area surrounding the southernmost segment of I-405 serves as a surface street exchange for the confluence of three highways—Interstates 5 and 405, and Highway 26—and also Barbur Boulevard. Trying to carve a safe route for cyclists or pedestrians through the resulting jumble is like solving a Rubik’s cube. You can understand why a transportation planner might shout, “don’t touch that!” It’s pretty complicated.
On- and off-ramps from I-405 affect many surrounding surface streets
I say “patches” because PBOT doesn’t have the authority to really fix the underlying problem, which is the area’s numerous freeway on- and off-ramps. Those ramps are zones of hazard punctuating any PBOT safety effort. Truly addressing the problems in this area would require a lot of money, and ODOT’s cooperation.
So the BAC was being asked to recommend the best workaround for getting cyclists from Terwilliger Blvd to the intersection of 4th and Broadway—the portal into PBOT’s $17 million 4th Avenue project which, when completed, will be the main northern bike route through downtown.
The comments from readers into this post fascinated me. I pulled up a map and followed along as each commenter described how they navigated the mess. The riders fell into two main categories, those who approach downtown from the south using Barbur Blvd, and those riding in on Terwilliger. There was some discord between the two groups, and a side discussion arose about how PBOT determined route priority, why was routing Terwilliger riders onto Barbur more important than fixing the 6th Avenue/Broadway crossing? Which road got the most use?
But no one is more invested in fixing the 6th Avenue crossing than veteran bike advocate Keith Liden. Reader’s might remember BikePortland’s ride-along with Liden just last year, and his relatively inexpensive suggestions for making the intersection safer. In fact, making 6th Ave north of the intersection safer for cyclists is already part of the Southwest in Motion (SWIM) plan, project BP-02, “6th Portal to Central City,” and it comes with a relatively inexpensive $15,000 price tag.
Liden emailed Jonathan and me last week, “I’m really getting fed up with PBOT’s way of operating in a black box and prioritizing projects with no logic …” What had raised Liden’s ire was his discovery that PBOT had made a formal cost estimate, and had received project approval from ODOT, for a new project at the same location as SWIM’s BP-02.
The new project is for a rapid flashing beacon and pedestrian crossing of 6th at Jackson, and is estimated to cost nearly a million dollars.
Liden wrote PBOT:
Thanks for this information about the proposed pedestrian crossing improvements at 6th and Jackson. While I completely support improving this pedestrian crosswalk with an RRFB, it’s extremely discouraging to hear that the much less expensive and equally important bicycle improvements here will be kicked down the road until after $1 million drops from the sky to fund the RRFB (in other words, another decade +). This demonstrates PBOT’s consistent lack of interest for the plight of cyclists entering the city from Terwilliger for 25 years and counting. Other than Moody, this and 4th are the next busiest bike entries into downtown from SW.
So why keep passing on any meaningful safety improvements for cyclists by placing this in the queue after an expensive project with probably no chance of being funded for years? The anticipated 4th/Barbur project will help some cyclists, but it will be a cumbersome detour for many who are simply headed for destinations along 6th, PSU, or westerly portions of downtown. There’s no substitute for a safe bicycle entrance on 6th.
Liden raised some good points, and it looked to me like the rerouting of cyclists from Terwilliger to 4th Avenue could be interpreted as backing off from a commitment to making 6th Avenue improvements.
I reached out to PBOT’s Communications Director, Hannah Schafer, to see if she could clarify the status of SWIM project BP-02. She took the time to look into the situation and responded to me with substantive answers which I will quote directly:
BikePortland: Has the Terwilliger/4th Ave project superseded the need for BP-02? Has BP-02 been shelved? If not, what priority does BP-02 currently have?
PBOT: Because SW in Motion has limited funding opportunities at this time, PBOT staff are exploring the feasibility of including RP-02 Terwilliger to 4th Connector as part of the larger capital project to save on costs and increase the benefit of the SW Fourth Avenue Central City in Motion Project for people biking from SW via Terwilliger. BP-02 will still be prioritized as a Tier 1 project when additional SW in Motion funding becomes available.
BikePortland: I’ve been told that PBOT received ODOT approval for an unfunded pedestrian RFB at Jackson and 6th, separate from the BP-02 bike lane improvement project at the same location. So it looks like BP-02 has become a lower priority than these other projects. Can you tell me what the PBOT thinking is concerning 6th Ave bike improvements north of 405?
PBOT: PBOT and ODOT staff collaborated on a concept design for a pedestrian crossing improvement at SW Jackson and 6th that utilized an RFB. While the design concept had the support of both agencies, we were unable to identify design and construction funding for the improved pedestrian crossing. The bicycle connection is similarly unfunded at this point. PBOT would like to implement both pedestrian and cycling improvements here but lacks discretionary funding to do so.
BikePortland: Also, south of 405, are bike facility improvements planned for 6th between Sheridan and Broadway?
PBOT: PBOT staff are exploring bike improvements on 6th from Sheridan and Broadway. Funding for this connection has yet to be identified.
My interpretation of those responses is that the Terwilliger to 4th connector is a strategic response to underfunding, and is indeed a substitution for improving the crossing at 6th, and implementing SWIM BP-02.
After studying the BikePortland comments, I came away thinking that many riders heading east currently stay on 6th, and save their turns until after crossing over I-405. It’s an interesting situation, because any right turn prior to Harrison is prohibited, yet some cyclists do it anyway (the MAX runs along the east side of 6th).
The BAC is meeting is meeting next Tuesday, April 9th and on the agenda is, “SW Terwilliger Improvements: from Sam Jackson to Caruthers-4th (6:15-6:55):”
Continuing the March meeting discussion about Terwilliger, Roger Geller will discuss the results of the BAC’s April 4 field visit as well as two additional desired improvements on the corridor: 1) continuing the outbound bicycle lane on Terwilliger to the intersection with Sam Jackson; improvement to facilitate a left turn from 6th to Sheridan to access Barbur Blvd. Following discussion, the committee will consider drafting a recommendation regarding these improvements.
None of those desired improvements Geller lists cover the 6th and Broadway intersection. So there you have it, the underfunding of SWIM, a surface street quagmire caused by freeways, and murky prioritizations.
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County rendering of new design coming to Hawthorne Bridge offramp (SW Main) approaching SW 1st.
Two annoying sections of the very popular Hawthorne Bridge bikeway will get significant changes thanks to a project set to begin this spring.
At their meeting yesterday, Portland City Council passed an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Multnomah County, giving them a green light to break ground and complete a major bridge maintenance project. The County owns and operates the Hawthorne Bridge, and they plan to spend $9.5 million on a paving and repair project. The IGA passed Wednesday allows Portland to pay the County $220,00 to build two key bits of infrastructure that will have a big impact your bicycling experience over the bridge.
Currently as you ride westbound into downtown from the Hawthorne, bike riders transition from the sidewalk path onto the street-level bike lane just after the off-ramp to Waterfront Park. According to PBOT, the County will widen the westbound sidewalk all the way SW 1st Avenue, creating a shared pedestrian and bicycling space. PBOT plans and County design renderings shared with BikePortland (see below) show an 11-foot path split evenly between a green-colored bikeway and a sidewalk.
Westbound approaching SW 1st (Source: PBOT)Eastbound bus island. (Source: PBOT)County rendering of bus island.
The County refers to the design as a “bicycle slip ramp.” The new raised bike lane will be five-feet wide, separated from a five-foot wide sidewalk. There will be a one-foot wide yellow stripe between them. The raised bike lane will return back to street level at the bike box at SW 1st.
The other change will be on the eastbound side on the viaduct. Currently, there’s a TriMet bus stop just after you pass over Water Avenue that requires the bus operator to drive over the bike lane to service the stop. According to PBOT, the County will build a new bus island at this location that will allow the bus operator to pick riders up without weaving across the bike lane. PBOT’s plan drawings show that the bike lane will be colored green and will go up onto the island, behind a bus waiting area. Bicycle users and bus riders will need to use caution and treat each other with respect to minimize the risk of collisions or dangerous passes.
The County expects to break ground on this project in spring and it should be completed before the end of summer. Seet plan the plan drawings to get more details and stay tuned for updates.
When it comes to promoting the creative, vibrant street culture and fabric of events that make Portland, Portland, Umbrella is arguably the most important nonprofit in the city. Why? Because they provide the financial and legal foundation for many of our most beloved traditions.
I’m talking about things like the upcoming Ladds 500, the World Naked Bike Ride, Pedalpalooza, Breakfast on the Bridges, Better Block PDX, Disaster Relief Trials, and more. As a registered 501(c)(3), Umbrella pops up to protect projects and events that would struggle to handle major legal details like event insurance, alcohol permits, tax ID numbers (to accept donations), mailing addresses, and bookkeeping, on their own.
Umbrella is possible thanks to its board members — generous, benevolent folks who understand the value of community-based street culture and want to see it survive and thrive. And now you have an opportunity to become one. That’s right, Umbrella is looking for a few good folks to join their board.
Being on the board requires attendance at meetings (once a month for an hour or two) and a minimum commitment of two years. You can learn all about what it entails here.
And yes, that makes being an Umbrella board member sound pretty boring. “But it doesn’t have to be,” reads the board description. “There’s something really wonderful about attending an event for a project that you have supported, and you look around and go, ‘Wow these folks are doing such cool stuff – I’m so glad we could help make this happen.'”
So maybe this is the next step in your involvement with the great events, rides, projects, and people you’ve met in the Portland transportation scene. If you’re intrigued, check out the application to join and make sure to fill it out by end of day on April 13th.
Might not be tank top weather, but still fun to be had! (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
Hope you’ve got time to ride this weekend. Have some extra fun for me because I’m out of town until Tuesday (not a work trip).
Scroll down for some excellent ride options…
Friday, April 5th
Woodstock & Creston Park Crawl Bike Bus – 1:00 pm at Creston School, 2:00 pm at Woodstock (SE) Join parents and kids of these two elementary schools for a tour of parks that will help build confidence of young riders, connect the community, and spread the good word about the bike bus. More info here.
Some Sorta Social Ride – 5:30 pm at Something Cycles (E) Shop ride with some fun-loving folks who like old-school MTBs, but all bikes are welcome! Route will include unpaved Leif Erikson Road in Forest Park. More info here.
Saturday, April 6th
Intermediate Women’s Road Ride – 9:00 am at River City Bicycles (SE) The wonderful Sorella Forte Cycling Team will lead a special “Double Volcano” ride of about 24 miles and 1,400 feet of climbing. No-drop with a 14-16 mph pace. More info here.
Saturday Social – 10:00 am at Lents Park (SE) Portland Bicycling Club ride leader Bud Rice will guide you on a 20-30 route that explores many neighborhoods. More info here.
PhysEd Games Ride – 10:30 am at Peninsula Park (N) Do you miss gym class? OK, don’t answer that. This ride will bring back just the good memories with fun new games adults like to play. More info here.
Strong Towns PDX Hangout – 11:30 am at Cafe Yumm! PSU (SW) Local chapter of urbanist group Strong Towns will get together to socialize and trade ideas and insights. Come hang out with fellow lovers of great cities and transportation advocates. More info here.
Nomad Cycles Rummage Sale – 12:00 to 4:00 pm at the shop (NE) Find great deals on hard-to-find parts. Keep in mind that Nomad is an e-bike specialty store, so make sure to leave time to meet the staff and see what they offer. More info here.
Sunday, April 7th
Roubaix Day Ride – 9:30 am at Trek Bicycles Slabtown (NW) Paris-Roubaix is a beloved spring classic race and what better way to enjoy it than with a group ride over local cobbles? Join staff and friends of the new Slabtown location of the Trek Bicycle Store on an 18-mile route at a casual pace with a group hangout afterwards. More info here.
Sunday in Helles, a Paris Roubaix Ride & Viewing Party – 10:30 ride, 1:00 viewing at Gigantic Taproom (SE) Local bike club the CX Pistols will host a spirited pre-ride to get you hungry and happy before a viewing of the Paris-Roubaix race (a.k.a. “Sunday in Hell”). Expect a “spirited” loop on the ride geared for experienced riders. Or just come straight to the taproom for the party and cheer on your favorite pro. More info here.
Guerrilla Gardening Seed Dispersal – 12:45 pm at Laurelhurst Park (SE) Imagine biking around and tossing native seeds onto the ground and learning about the history and legacy of guerrilla gardening. Bring a spice shaker to help with dispersal. Some seeds provided, but bring your own if you’ve got ’em. More info here.
Roving Ride – 4:30 pm at Columbia Park (N) This new ride series from NakedHeartsPDX will help you get familiar with destinations far beyond the central core. Expect a slow, social pace where everyone is welcome. 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.
