The Monday Roundup: NYC aftermath, vision zero fire truck, Uber’s strange ad, and more

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This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Left Coast Bicycles, offering mobile bike repair at your home or workplace throughout the Portland Metro area.

Here are the best stories that came across our desks last week:

Auto industry funds anti-walking propaganda: Treehugger breaks down how America’s “culture of fear” — filtered through an American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons PR campaign supported by auto manufactuers — is shifting blame for unsafe streets away from drivers and onto walkers.

Beer bikes banned: Amsterdam has outlawed those huge, pedal-powered “beer bikes” after many complaints of rowdy tourists made them a “nuisance”.

Residential bike parking: Portland’s ubiquitous blue bike staple racks rarely reach into residential areas. We need more places to park near homes. What to do? The Dutch use “bicycle hangars” and other neighborhood facilities.

Vision Zero fire truck: San Francisco officials purchased new fire engines with many features that aim to make them safer for use in dense urban areas where lots of people walk and bike.

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Portland’s new era of transportation activism

SE Division Takeover-9.jpg

Bike Loud PDX organized a rally on SE Division Street in 2016.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

People who use a busy section of Willamette Boulevard in North Portland will be safer by the end of this month (if all goes according to plan). It’s an improvement we waited seven years for and it happened in just a few days, all thanks to smart and quick action by handful of volunteers who care deeply about the safety of our streets.

The astounding speed of the progress we just witnessed on Willamette is just the latest in a string of successes that can be tied directly to the actions of Portland’s considerable army of unpaid transportation reform activists.

The lineage of this DIY activism is a proud tradition in Portland and goes back far beyond my time on this beat; but it seems to be gaining steam of late due to a variety of factors — all of which were present on the Willamette Blvd effort.

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Friends and family launch fundraiser, will celebrate Boyd Littell’s life Sunday

Courier Boyd Littell and his work bike-13.jpg

Boyd Littell in January 2016.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

An outpouring of heartfelt remembrances and grief have followed the untimely death of Boyd Littell (he was known as “Gee” by his family). Now his family and friends have come together to raise money for a funeral and burial in his hometown of Norman, Oklahoma.

Littell is the 40-year-old musician and professional courier who died early Tuesday morning. Police found him in Colonel Summers Park lying next to his bike with a wound on his head. The cause of his crash remains unknown.

According to a story in the Norman Transcript, Boyd moved to Portland in 2014. His passion was music and the hip-hop band he played drums in, ADDverse Affects, was on a skyward trajectory. After “taking Norman by storm,” Boyd and band co-founder Josh Azzam came to Portland to seek new musical horizons.

In the past few days I’ve heard from Josh and other people who were close to Boyd.

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Willamette Blvd celebration planned as media and some neighors react predictably

Should be striped in the next few weeks.

In case you missed it (it came as an update to a previous story), the Portland Bureau of Transportation announced a plan Tuesday to update lane striping on Willamette Boulevard in order to create more space for bicycling.

The additional space required for re-striping the street will require removing automobile parking on N Willamette from N Rosa Parks Way to N Woolsey Ave
— PBOT

After a paving project kicked off last month, a neighborhood group called Friends of Willamette Blvd seized the opportunity to re-stripe the street. They launched an online petition and encouraged people to email City Hall demanding better bike access between Rosa Parks and Woolsey (the boundaries of the paving project). The response was overwhelming (415 people in less than 24 hours) and it persuaded City Commissioner Dan Saltzman to direct the Portland Bureau of Transportation to re-stripe the street.

PBOT released their new plans for Willamette just four hours after we reported Commissioner Saltzman’s promise. Friends of Willamettee Blvd volunteer Kiel Johnson announced shortly after that they’re hosting a potluck on Saturday November 18th to celebrate.

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Gal by Bike: A day with the people who make Biketown tick

Motivate employee Nissy Cobb tests the tech during a service call.
(Photos: Kate Johnson)

Our “Gal By Bike” columnist Kate Johnson recently spent a day embedded with Biketown mechanics and rebalancers. She last wrote about guerrilla artwork on neighborhood greenways.

Selfie in full safety regalia.

One fine evening in July of 2016 I just so happened to find myself on a corner outside a warehouse in inner southeast Portland.

Biketown was just days away from launching and the anticipation throughout the city was palpable. Thanks to a truck outside the building, I was able to peer into the windows and see a full fleet of 1,000 loud orange bikes lined up like readied soldiers. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I still well up a bit just thinking about that sight. That room wasn’t just filled with bikes, it was filled with hope — hope that the title of “best bike city” wasn’t just a fluke and hope that we were on the precipice of a great transportation revolution.

Since that day, I have imagined Biketown headquarters to be absolute mania. I envisioned bikes swarming to and fro, bike stands littering the entire warehouse floor — each manned by a mechanic tirelessly torquing their wrenches as sweat beads on their forehead. Much like the New York Stock Exchange — but with bright orange bikes. This is not at all what I found when I visited the headquarters last week. As it turns out, keeping a giant operation of 1,000 bikes and 100 stations going doesn’t have to come down to chaos and hustle and bustle. The folks at Biketown are working smart, efficiently, and having “the most fun you’ll find in any office in Portland” as one employee put it. After spending a day watching how Biketown functions, to say I was impressed would be an understatement.

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Weekend Event Guide: Art, Evan Deutsch, cyclocross, future of transportation, and more


The Weekend Event Guide is sponsored by Abus Bike Locks. Thanks Abus!

I hope you have some extra time this weekend because we’ve got a solid slate of things to do.

And take a look at what’s up tomorrow: An all-woman panel at City Club, a women’s support group campout, and a ride that partners with The Street Trust’s Women Bike program. See anything in common?

Scroll down for our selections. And have a great weekend no matter what you end up doing…

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A one-woman show about bikes, played on bikes, is coming to Portland

A performance piece that “extols the liberating power of the bicycle for women over the last 150 years” and “a theatrical song cycle about the bicycle as muse, musical instrument, and agent of social change,” will make its Portland debut on November 10th.

Portland theater company Boom Arts is hosting Canadian artist Evalyn Parry who will perform her solo work, “Spin”. In addition to her three shows there are bike rides and other events planned throughout the weekend. Local organizations, businesses and personalities including Gladys Bikes, The Sprockettes, Microcosm Publishing’s Elly Blue and PBOT Sunday Parkways manager Linda Ginenthal will be involved.

Here’s more about the show:

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Opinion: Living with vehicular violence in America

Interstate Avenue.jpg

(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

What happened in lower Manhattan is a nightmare.

Unfortunately it’s a recurring one for many of us who ride bicycles in cities.

The idea that cars are weapons is not new to us. What’s new — now that even more innocent lives have been lost — is that thinking of cars as weapons isn’t as radical of an idea as it was 24 hours ago.

Cars are weapons. When someone drives one it becomes a loaded weapon. But unlike guns, cars are used by nearly everyone, everywhere, everyday. And unlike guns, cars don’t attract attention from authorities and they carry none of the constroversial stigma that guns do. On the contrary, cars and trucks are incessantly glorified in ways that normalize reckless disregard for everyone on the road except the all-important, all-powerful person behind the wheel. “Keep streets mean,” is Dodge’s irresponsible tagline.

Yesterday everyone saw just how “mean” streets can get when a man opened fire with a rental truck on that bike path. It has been officially tagged terrorism by authorities, making it just the latest in a disturbing global trend. Terrorist groups like ISIS encourage followers to use cars to inflict mass murder. These extremists have found our gaping weak spot. Like a Trojan Horse, weaponized automobiles are an easy way to breach America’s trillion dollar homeland security complex.

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Job: Outdoor / Lifestyle / Bike PR Agency Seeks Intern – ECHOS Communications

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title *
Outdoor / Lifestyle / Bike PR Agency Seeks Intern

Company/Organization *
ECHOS Communications

Job Description *
ECHOS – echoscomm.com – is a brand communications agency focusing on outdoor, lifestyle, fashion and consumer tech clients. We offer our world-class brand-communications, PR, marketing, and advertising services, whether as digital, video, print, events, or guerrilla. From media relations to corporate-communications strategies to flawless event execution, we are known for always exceeding our clients’ expectations and over delivering on their objectives.

The internship position is a significant team role to fill at ECHOS, with the opportunity to build a strong foundation of PR and first-hand experience within an agency. Must be able to come in 2-3 times a week (10-15 Hours).

Internship Role Overview:
• Support PR team with media research, list building, media coverage report research and
development, copywriting and editing, scheduling, etc,
• Develop press releases, press kit materials, blog posts, fact sheets, etc.
• Assist in coordinating and implementing events, interviews and meetings
• Support all media relations initiatives including developing creative story angles
• Make pitches and informational media calls
• Maintain files and reports
• Track media coverage and develop monthly client reports
• Format and post blogs using WordPress
• Maintain and produce support materials such as photos, press kits, and other collateral

Desired Qualifications:
• Experience in an office environment, preferably in a PR/media relations-specific role
• Understanding of public relations, and the roles and responsibilities of a PR professional
• Flexibility to work in a fast-growing, dynamic environment
• Professionally driven to build relationships on clients’ behalf
• Ability to think creatively and strategically about individual pitches and campaigns
• Sound judgment and proven problem-solving capabilities
• Positive, confident, and personable
• Excellent organization and planning ability
• Sharp eye for detail in all internal and external communications
• Excellent time management; ability to prioritize with flexibility
• Advanced Microsoft Office skills, particularly in Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as Google
Drive;
• Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop, InDesign and other design suites preferred
• Experience with WordPress
• Knowledge and interest in tech industry trends and events, in outdoor lifestyle (cycling,
snowsports) and/or consumer products

Compensation commensurate with experience.

How to Apply *
Send resume and cover letter to Jacob@echoscomm.com, and tell us why you’d rock as a member of our team!

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