Sorry, this job has been filled. Browse more great jobs here.
Neighborhood, advocates raise concern about Naito’s new gap
These buffered bike lanes south of the Broadway Bridge don’t cut the mustard. Advocates want physical protection to keep up with best — and safest — practices.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
It took PBOT nine (nine!) years to close the first “Naito Gap” — a section of Naito Parkway’s bike lane that unceremoniously disappeared near the Steel Bridge.
The Oregon Timber Trail is ready: Are you?
At long last the Oregon Timber Trail is open for business.
After a soft-launch back in March, the 668-mile backcountry mountain bike route is now fully mapped and all the resources you need to research and plan your trip can be found on the official website.
Industry Ticker: SE Portland’s Renovo launches ‘Aerowood’ road bike
While there’s been a bit of a shakeout since the artisan bike maker heyday of years past, Portland is still home to many great builders. One of them is hardwood bike specialist Renovo. Under the tutelage of Ken Wheeler, the company (celebrating their 10th anniversary this year) has found a solid niche.
Their latest is the Aerowood endurance bike. Learn more in the press release below:
Want to transform a street? Propose your idea to Better Block PDX
Ever since Better Block PDX popped onto the scene in 2013, this all-volunteer group of tactical urbanists has captured our imagination. Their daring and creative street transformation projects have had a real impact on how we experience transportation. And more importantly, their projects have influenced hearts and minds of thousands of Portlanders, including many of whom work at 1221 SW Fourth Avenue.
Long before Better Naito became a City Hall darling, the idea was hatched by Better Block volunteers over beers and pizza. In years past, the group would choose its projects based on an internal and informal process.
Now for the first time they’ve opened up the decision-making to the public. If you have an idea for how to make a section of streetscape better, Better Block wants to hear from you.
A TV station interviewed me about the bike tax. Here’s what I said – (Video)
Until last week, I probably expressed more of my thoughts about Oregon’s new bike tax on Twitter than I had here on the blog.
Sometimes when I have a lot to say about a complicated, or sensitive, or generally unwieldy issue, it’s hard for me to organize all my thoughts into coherent sentences (I know, a bad trait for a writer).
So when a KATU (local ABC affiliate) producer reached out last week and asked if I’d be on their Your Voice, Your Vote show, I was happy to oblige. I was on the Sunday morning news show five years ago and had a great experience. Back then the topic was a proposal to license bicycle riders. After both myself and the man proposing the idea had a chance to explain our views in a neutral setting, the proposal went away and was never heard about again (hmm, I wonder why?).
Then and now, I relished the opportunity to explain my views in a calm and professional format with an experienced broadcast journalist as moderator. It’s the opposite of arguing on the Internet.
Job: Bike Share FT – Holy Spokes
Job Title *
Bike Share FT
Company/Organization *
Holy Spokes
Job Description *
Holy Spokes is looking for an upbeat, self motivated individual for our bike share team in Beaverton!
Duties include:
-Bike rebalancing
-Routine maintenance
-Special event setup
Bike mechanic experience is NOT required, although the maintenance does include some basic ability with tools.
Clean driving record is a must – a driving background check is required to operate our fleet vehicles.
Schedule would be full time Monday through Friday.
Beginning wage is $14/hr.
How to Apply *
Submit resume/cover letter to info@holyspokespdx.com
The Monday Roundup: Lance, gentrification via bike share, family biking and more
Welcome to the week. Here are the best stories we came across in the past seven days…
Latinos and family biking: A Harvard study about cycling preferences showed that Latinos and Latinas are, “far more likely than other Americans to say that friends or family are a major factor in their choice to ride.”
Bike share a gentrifying force? But in the Latino Cultural District of San Francisco, residents and business owners successfully blocked a bike share station based on the belief it would lead to gentrification. The SF Examiner also reported that business owners feared they’d lose auto parking.
Lance is back: Floyd Landis isn’t the only former pro bike racer pedaling back into the public eye after drug scandals ruined their careers. Mr. Armstrong has found a massive audience for his Tour de France podcasts and likely has a bright future in the media.
Going carfree, more easily: The Frontier Group says cities should create transportation policies that make it easier for people to choose to live without owning motorized vehicle.
Distracted walking crackdown: In Honolulu a proposal would make walking while using a smartphone more illegal than driving with one.
No touchy in WA: New distracted driving law in effect in Washington says you cannot touch your phone for any reason while driving. And you can’t scarf down your lunch either.
Advertisement
Slow down on ‘self driving’: We’re seeing more and more headlines based on concerns that the auto industry is moving too fast with plans for self-driving cars.
How bike riders will fare: NPR looks at the latest efforts to make biking next to self-driving cars safer. (Our advice: The ultimate solution is to vastly improve bikeway infrastructure, which will lead to more predictable cycling behaviors.)
Bus-only inevitability: A town in Massachusetts had the guts to put up a few traffic cones in an auto parking lane to create a bus-only lane. It worked so well the bus lane is now permanent. Why can’t Portland do this?
Projects over products: The mainstream media is obsessed with the idea that cool new bike products will be enough to create a biking revolution. (Hint: It won’t, only great bikeways will do that.)
3,000 car parking spaces for Nike: The sneaker giant announced a $1 billion (with a “b”) expansion in Beaverton that will come with 3,000 new parking spaces. I sure hope the City of Beaverton gets them to pay for excellent bikeways to and from the expanded campus.
No helmet needed: From Canada, some sensible talk about why it’s not always necessary to wear a helmet while biking.
Innovation over maintenance: Great NY Times opinion piece about the curse of pursuing new projects and “innovation” instead of making what we already have great. Bike advocates suffer from this too — always attracted to a new project instead of fixing gaps and making existing bikeways excellent.
Thank you to all our readers who sent in suggestions or flagged articles on social media.
— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org
‘Adaptive Biketown’ program brings new riders to the fore
Handcycles, trikes, and tandems are now part of the Biketown mix.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Portland now operates the nation’s first partnership between a private bike shop, a bike share system and a city government to provide access to adaptive bicycles.
Adaptive Biketown is the latest evolution of our bike share system. But more importantly, adaptive bikes and the people who ride them are now a part of our city, our bikeways, and our community in a way they weren’t before.
City of Portland set to lower bike commute mode share target
For the past eight years one of the strongest organizing principles for Portland-area bike advocates has been the stated goal of having 25 percent of commute trips made by bike by the year 2030.
Now, in what appears to be a sign of backpedaling, the City of Portland wants to decrease the bike commute mode share target to just 15 percent — a 10 percent reduction.
The change comes as the City redefines several “system performance measures” in stage three of its Transportation System Plan update process.
Portland born and raised, the OttoLock hits a bike security sweet spot
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Q: What do you get when a cyclist, an engineer and a businessman walk into a bar?
A: A stolen bike.
At least that’s how the joke used to go before the OttoLock came along.
Designed and engineered in Wilsonville by Otto Designworks, the company got started in 2015 after a successful Kickstarter campaign for their first product: an app and tool that helped people adjust derailleurs. With the OttoLock, the company seems to have found its stride.
Word-of-mouth for the product ignited early on in large part because one of the idea generators and spokesmen is professional cyclist Jacob Rathe (whom you might recall from our story on him when he made the U.S. National Team in 2008). We first covered the OttoLock nearly a year ago when it was still in the prototype and design phase. Now that it’s starting to show up in bike shops around the country, it’s time for a closer look.
Here are my impressions after using it for several months…
Former pros Floyd Landis and David Zabriskie launch hemp oil product in Portland
David Zabriskie (left) and Floyd Landis.
(Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)
(Photos J. Maus/BikePortland)
It takes moxie for someone whose name is closely associated with a controversial drug use to make his comeback drafting off a product derived from a controversial drug.
That was my thought when I heard former professional bike racer and Tour de France winner Floyd Landis would come to Portland to launch his new product, Floyd’s of Leadville CBD Hemp Oil. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is derived from the stalk and seed of cannabis (hemp) plants. It’s non-psychotropic so it won’t get you high, it’s categorized as a dietary supplement and it’s considered a more natural alternative to ibuprofen.
I can say Landis is no stranger to drug use and not even mention his positive urine sample that stripped him of that 2006 Tour de France crown — just four days after he celebrated it on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. That’s because he broke his hip during a training ride in 2003 and turned to opioids to escape the pain. Three years later, after achieving the biggest victory of his life only to be labeled a “doper” and ultimately thrown out of the sport he loved, Landis used the drugs to escape reality. He eventually switched to marijuana, a move that might have not only saved his life, but could help him create a new one.
Now 41, Landis is ready to re-enter the public eye as CEO of a company he founded last year in marijuana-friendly Colorado with former teammate and friend David Zabriskie.
Both of them spent a few days in Portland this week to launch the product at River City Bicycles (a well-known local shop whose owner, Dave Guettler, is a marijuana advocate).