Meet D2 City Council candidate Tiffani Penson

Tiffani Penson (center in black) at an Oregon Walks event in Peninsula Park Saturday, September 21st. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

It’s hard to exist in Portland these days and not bump into something related to November’s big city council election. With 90 or so candidates for 12 spots, and with just six weeks left in the campaigns, candidates and opportunities to meet them are everywhere.

On Saturday I only had to walk a few blocks from my house to Peninsula Park for one such opportunity. Oregon Walks was hosting their District 2 Candidate Walk and I figured it’d be a nice place to meet people. I was glad I went because I was able to meet a candidate who I’ve been meaning to connect with but haven’t talked to yet: Tiffani Penson.

Penson has lived in D2 all her life. In fact she lives in the same house she grew up in on Northeast Ainsworth. She also has a degree from nearby Concordia University. For nearly 20 years, she’s held various titles at the City of Portland — both at the Portland Building in city bureaus and at City Hall where she worked for former commissioner and mayor Sam Adams (among others). Penson is currently manager of People + Culture, a city position she helped create and that she describes as helping the city “operationalize its core values.”

“I’ve worked for the city for over 20 years, so I know the operation,” a confident Penson said, as she described her role in building the education policy team for Adams and sharing a long list of roles (including two elected terms as Portland Community College board chair) and projects she’s been involved in. From Adams, Penson said she, “Learned a lot about how you move policy.” She also counts former commissioner Randy Leonard as a big supporter and mentor.

Asked what she thinks D2 needs, Penson talked about struggling renters. “When I talk about housing, I’m talking about folks that are working in rent burdened and people who are retired and on fixed-incomes,” she said. “We can keep them in [their housing]. We can we can keep them in!,” she emphasized. “It’s cheaper to keep them in, and we can do low barrier vouchers.”

When Penson mentioned her priority to “clean up streets,” I asked her if that included people living outside on them. “I’m gonna be honest with you,” she replied, “I support the camping ban because you’re only as sustainable and healthy as your people. We’re not doing a good job of taking care of those folks out there.” Penson, who’s been endorsed by city commissioners Rene Gonzalez, Mingus Mapps, and Carmen Rubio, said the “unprecedented” amount of money raised for homeless services in Portland isn’t being spent wisely and that we have to balance offering services and infrastructure for homeless Portlanders, “And then at the same time, we’ve got to say, ‘Hey, you can’t sleep out here either’.”

Penson said as a kid she’d hop on the bus from the Concordia neighborhood and ride it all the way to Catlin Gabel School in the west hills. She wants kids and older people to have that same ability to move around freely and safely. “Livability is huge. I want good public safety. I want good 911, fire, and police,” she said.

According to Penson, Portland is woefully under-staffed when it comes to police officers. “We only have 97 officers for north and northeast Portland!” With the current number of officers hovering around 900, Penson thinks a city of Portland’s size needs at least 1,000 officers. This outlook is one reason she earned an endorsement from the Portland Police Association (PPA).

Penson said she understands concerns about the Portland Police Bureau’s (PPB) track record and culture, but feels it’s possible to address those and increase the size of the force at the same time. “As I said when I sat down with the police union: We have to work together and solve for the systemic issues around policing.” Penson said Portland needs to bring everyone together and work on issues like training and accountability, but at the end of the day we need more cops on the street.

“The data shows everybody wants policing,” Penson said. “Black, white, male, female, everybody wants safe, accountable, responsible policing.”

When it comes to transportation, Penson is primarily a driver unless she’s walking in her neighborhood. As for biking, she said, “I love that people do it. It’s just not my thing.” Penson used to bike and take transit as a kid, but no more. She became animated when I brought up the odd speed bumps outside her home on NE Ainsworth. She wants them to work better, but feels people don’t slow down at all. “I think the contractor mis-poured them or something,” she said.

In D2 specifically, Penson said she wants bus service to be better. “And I’ve even met with those Frog Ferry folks, and I think it’s kind of cool,” she added.

When I went back to the speed bumps to talk about the safety of bike riders on NE Ainsworth (a street the City of Portland sees as a much better bike route in the future), Penson wanted to make one thing clear: “You can’t take away parking. It’s a narrow street and parking’s already hard. The folks that live in that neighborhood, a lot of them are older, and not everybody has driveways or garages. So I’ll never advocate for that, and it’s not a wide enough street.” (Note I simply brought up cycling and didn’t suggest taking away parking or building a dedicated bike lane.)

Asked about the I-5 Rose Quarter project, Penson didn’t say if she supports the freeway expansion. Like nearly everyone else, she is excited about the Albina Vision and capping the existing freeway with lids, but when I pushed her on whether she supports widening the freeway to get those things, she said, “We’re just going to see how that plays out. I’m glad we have people like [Albina Vision Trust Executive Director] Winta Johannes and [former board member] Rukaiyah [Adams] at the table. I trust them 100%.”

Before we went our separate ways, Penson wanted me to know she believes Portland needs, “A good, multimodal transportation system,” and that it, “has to serve everyone.”

She also got in a swipe at North Williams Avenue. “That street is so nerve-wracking to me. There’s so much happening on that street,” she said, as I nodded in agreement. “I know a lot of older Black people who don’t even drive up that street no more, because it’s too stressful. You got bikes, you got pedestrians, you got busses. It’s just a lot on the street, so a lot of them don’t even come up the street.”

That was sad to hear, given how much effort went into the Williams Avenue redesign just over 10 years ago. But maybe it’s time for another look at how it’s working. If Penson is one of the three D2 reps elected in November, that just might happen.

I also met another new-to-me candidate at this Oregon Walks event, Bob Simril, and I’ll share thoughts from my chat with him in a separate post.

Community Cycling Center lives! Org hits key fundraising goal

18 days ago the nonprofit Community Cycling Center (CCC) said a financial crisis would force them to close their doors after 30 years of service unless they raised $115,000 by October 1st.

Today the organization announced they’ve blown past that number with six days to spare.

According to the “Save the Community Cycling Center” campaign website, supporters have pitched in $123,389 as of 9:48 am this morning. In the past two weeks, CCC staff have worked overtime. Three staffers and their board chair have come to Bike Happy Hour to hear feedback and answer questions, supporters have offered free services and prizes in exchange for donations, they hosted an open house at their shop on NE Alberta Street, and they held a big used bike and parts sale.

“The work on the Save the CCC campaign is not done yet, but the most critical phase is behind us because of the generous investment of our supporters,” wrote CCC Development Director Brittany Morris in an email to BikePortland this morning.

CCC Executive Director Ruben Alvarado (left) and Development Director Brittany Morris (right) at Bike Happy Hour last week.

CCC Executive Director Ruben Alvarado shared the news on Instagram today, saying, “We weren’t sure if this organization was going to make it past October,” and that the community has sent them the message that, “that the Community Cycling Center is worth salvaging.”

Alvarado said they knew the $115,000 goal was “wild” and he expressed gratitude and joy and having reached it. For an organization that has made its name by giving bikes a second chance, Alvarado said he and his staff know now how that feels.

Morris, who also runs the “Save the CCC” campaign, told BikePortland that beyond donations coming into the organization, she and other staffers have been busy making changes. “Leadership has been focused on increasing the cost-effectiveness of operating a business like CCC. This has included both major financial changes, such as downsizing Director roles, and smaller changes, such as reducing our Zoom subscription. At this point, every cent spent must be carefully analyzed, while also identifying ways to increase revenue,” Morris shared.

Now that shutting the nonprofit’s doors after 30 years in business doesn’t have to happen, Alvarado said the CCC is still, “in a vulnerable state.” Moving forward, the ultimate $395,000 goal by January 2025 might need to be adjusted, but that decision hasn’t been made yet. Regardless, Morris says, “Let’s not allow this incredible success overshadow the fact that more funding is still needed in the coming months.”

Ranked-choice voting: A deep dive nerdfest for the curious

None of the District 4 candidates thought that Portland had “gone too far in accommodating bicycles” at a September 9th forum at Lincoln High school. (Photos: Lisa Caballero/BikePortland)

Are there other vote distributions and incomplete ballot scenarios that might derail arriving at three winners?

This is a continuation of last week’s post about Portland’s upcoming election using a new way of electing city leaders: ranked-choice voting for three representatives each, in four new geographic districts, or what is sometimes called proportional ranked-choice voting (RCV).

As I warned, this will be the more technical of the two posts. If all you want to know is how to correctly fill out your ballot, you don’t need to read this. However, I regularly come across Portlanders who have a tech or analytics background, and who want more information than just basic instructions. And many other people are curious for a deeper understanding about how all this works. This post is for them. It’s a long post for BikePortland, but each section can stand alone. I view the whole thing as a resource for the curious.

In preparing the post, I spoke or exchanged emails with four people: James Eccles, Voter Education Lead from the Portland Elections Office; Deb Otis, the Director of Policy and Research from Fairvote; my friend Dan, who has a PhD in Computational Neuroscience; and Chris Donnay, a Mathematics PhD candidate from Ohio State who will soon be starting as a lab manager at the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group (MGGG). I decided not to summarize the written responses from the experts, it’s all there for you to evaluate, straight from the horse’s mouth.

At the very end of the post, I apply what I’ve learned to the Mayor’s race. Ready? Let’s go…

My question

One can easily construct artificial scenarios which have a close to zero probability of happening, but which theoretically might confound the RCV algorithm. For example, say 100,000 District 4 voters each rank only one candidate, and their choices are evenly distributed among the 30 candidates. All the candidates would pretty much receive the same number of votes, there would be no vote transferring, and also no clear winners. Obviously, that’s a possibility in the abstract, but also unlikely to happen in the real world. But are there other, more probable, vote distributions and incomplete ballot scenarios that might derail arriving at three winners?

My question to the experts ended up being some version of,

“Do you know of anyone who has modeled the probabilities of the vote not producing three (25% + 1) winners? One could imagine this happening if a significant number of voters didn’t fully rank 6 candidates, and if the vote totals were somewhat evenly distributed.”

Here’s how they responded:

Portland Elections Office

My first query was to the Portland Elections Office, and I received a nice long reply from City of Portland Elections Analyst and Voter Education Lead James Eccles:

One thing I will note is that our Elections Code is written such that we will always elect three winners as long as there are at least three candidates in the contest. We will continue with tabulation until either three candidates have passed the 25%+1 threshold or all but three candidates have been eliminated.

I do not know the exact mathematical probability of this happening, but our research has shown that it is a rare event. At some point it would become mathematically impossible, but even with voters averaging just over 3 rankings per ballot it is very unlikely.

Fairvote compiles all available cast vote records for US RCV elections and has authored some studies based on this data. A couple of important highlights from those studies include that “A median of 68% of voters rank multiple candidates” and that in elections with 5+ candidates that number rises to 74%.

A little further down that page referencing the same studies, they discuss the impact of inactive, or exhausted, ballots on the outcome of RCV elections. If a ballot reaches the point where it no longer has any rankings for active candidates, we consider it an exhausted ballot. They note that in a data set that includes 300 elections between 2004 and 2022 that although voluntary abstention (what we are talking about here) is the highest cause of exhausted ballots, it is still only occurring 7.8% of the time in multi-round elections. If the numbers in Portland follow this trend, our number of exhausted ballots would not be high enough to cause the outcome we are discussing. (They also make an important point here that in typical single-choice elections that result in a runoff election, the rate of voter participation greatly declines between the first and second election. Far more than we are likely to see in drop-off between the first and last round of tabulation in our elections.)

When we were first writing the election code for RCV in 2023, we also asked the Ranked Choice Voting Resource Center and Fairvote to conduct some additional analysis on our behalf related to how the number of rankings available might impact how many rankings a voter used. In the summary of those findings, they found that:

“Ballots that allow more rankings tend to invite voters to rank more candidates.”

“In races with 3 winners, voters tend to use 2-3 rankings. However, the races with three winners are also the ones that have rank limits. So, in races that attract a similar number of candidates but allow more rankings voters tend to rank 3-5 candidates.”

These were both factors in our decision to have six rankings in Portland elections.

Fairvote

Fairvote is a nonpartisan national organization which promotes ranked-choice voting (RCV) and proportional RCV, and which advises cities and states across the country. Fairvote’s Director of Policy and Research Deb Otis responded to me via email (emphases hers):

I don’t know of any modeling on the likelihood of any winners finishing below the 25% threshold, but we do know that it’s possible. If that happens, the candidate who is the “last one standing” closest to the threshold will be elected. From my perspective, that’s not really a problem. The nice thing about proportional RCV is that the vast majority of ballots will count towards at least one winner, even if they become exhausted before the count is complete. So even with a crowded field and a six-rank limit, most ballots will be impactful and most voters will have someone they ranked earn a seat.

For reference, the average number of ranks used in the Cambridge MA city council and school board races in 2023 was 7.3 and 4.6 ranks, respectively. 85% of people ranked one of the top 3 winners.

So I’ll bet some modeling on likelihood is possible, but I also don’t see that as the marker of whether RCV was successful at giving more voters a voice and giving more groups a seat at the table. So even with a crowded field and a six-rank limit, most ballots will be impactful and most voters will have someone they ranked earn a seat.

My friend Dan

Dan got his PhD in Computational Neuroscience, and now works analyzing big data sets using statistical tools. He mentioned to me when we talked that he had once taught a college-level math class which had a unit in voting schemes. He started our conversation by saying, “No voting method is perfect.” What can trip voters up with RCV is that the “winner” might not be the first choice of a plurality of voters. Second-ranks can pull a candidate who didn’t have the most first-rank votes over the 25%, or 50% threshold. This might not seem fair to some voters.

“What can trip voters up is that the “winner” might not be the first choice of a plurality of voters. This might not seem fair.”
— Dan, my (very smart) friend

To be honest, I had contacted Dan hoping to coax him into doing some quick-and-dirty data modeling, but he put that notion to rest in short order, saying that without a way of limiting the inputs, the possibilities became “astronomical” and not possible to analyze.

Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering Group

The last person I spoke with was Chris Donnay, a mathematics PhD candidate who will soon begin working with MGGG. (MGGG is the group which advised the Charter Reform Committee on the different voting schemes and district configurations that would give the most Portlanders an electoral voice.) Chris told me, “I’ve never seen Single Transferable Vote (STV) not produce the target number of winners, with either real or synthetic data sets.” He agreed with my friend Dan that this is a difficult modeling problem, and that it can become a “combinatorial explosion,” but that MGGG had empirical data which allowed them to limit the parameters, and that, yes, the group had done a partial model.

Chris was confident that the Portland elections would work, but added that there are often “some surprises” the first time a city or state uses RCV. He mentioned the same issue that Dan did, that sometimes the candidate who receives the most first-rank votes doesn’t end up being the winner.

What all this might mean for the Mayor’s race

I could see the issue that both Dan and Chris mentioned, of the candidate receiving the plurality of first-rank votes not becoming the “winner,” happening in the race for mayor.

Let’s assume that Commissioner Rene Gonzalez is the front-runner. It’s not a stretch to imagine Gonzalez garnering most of the 1st-rank votes, say 38%. And perhaps Carmen Rubio coming in a close 2nd, with 35% of the 1st-rank vote.

But there also seems to be a sizeable “anyone but Rene” contingent. If it goes into a second round of tabulation, and more voters who ranked Keith Wilson or Mingus Mapps as their first choice, go on to rank Rubio, rather than Gonzalez, as their second choice, possibly Rubio could cross the 50%+1 threshold with more votes (1st-rank + 2nd-round transfer votes) than Gonzalez receives. That would make Rubio the winner despite Gonzalez receiving more 1st-rank votes. And I could see that being controversial among people new to this system.

Get ready to rank!

How to Design a Bikeway – Part 1

Bikeway Design Workshop participants consider the Brent Toderian adage, “You can’t justify a bridge by counting the number of people swimming across a river.”
(Photos: Aaron Kuehn)

[Publisher’s Note: This is the first part of a three-part series by Portlander Aaron Kuehn. Aaron is the outgoing chair of BikeLoud PDX, a local bike advocacy nonprofit. He recently completed the bikeway design workshop offered by the Transportation Research and Education Center based at Portland State University.]

My name is Aaron Kuehn. I’m a design nerd, and for the past year I was the chair of BikeLoud — Portland’s outspoken bicycle transportation advocacy group. I think everyone has a role to play in designing great streets, so get out your colored pencils and some sheets of paper, and join me as we design our own excellent bikeways…

As Portland savored the last sparkling swigs of Bike Summer, I went back to school for a weeklong Bikeway Design Workshop with 17 transportation professionals to learn how to design better streets for biking.

Summer group rides are a joyful pleasure, with safety in numbers and party vibes transforming almost any street into a great bikeway temporarily. Sustaining that experience year-round, outside a group ride, requires excellent bikeways.

Portland has a reputation as a Mecca for bikeway design. People attend this workshop from around the US to experience our infrastructure gallery in person, and hear from the luminaries responsible. I was there to pry back the craggy layers of Portland’s streets, to scrutinize the design process, and to share what I learned with you.

30% plans – Let’s go!

Let’s start on a 30% plan, just a rough draft of our bikeway, or what someone might refer to as a, “concept of a plan.” If you are feeling under-qualified, buck up! Sixty years ago Jane Jacobs, an activist without a degree or formal training in urban planning, exposed the entire car-centered urban planning field as a destructive and misconceived “pseudoscience.” You are part of the solution.

Things you’ll need:

Paper
Extra paper for revisions
Pencil with eraser
Colored pencils (especially green), or a computer
Tape measure
The MUTCD, or another big book to prop up your final design

Step 1 – Planning to fail

Look at you over-achievers already starting on your road diets — brake check — pencils down. Our new bikeways should work together and build toward a bright future, to catalyze social changes in our community that we desperately need. Before you get started with the fun stuff, read this entire 586-page Metro Regional Transportation Plan first. Just kidding!

Even the Oregon Department of Transportation just starts by drawing pictures of unrealistic hyper-expensive projects that ignore our regional transportation vision: “Everyone in the greater Portland region will have safe, reliable, affordable, efficient, and climate-friendly travel options that allow people to choose to drive less and support equitable, resilient, healthy and economically vibrant communities and region.”

Portland also has a 20-year Transportation System Plan, and a Bicycle Plan for 2030. The objective of the Bicycle Plan is to enable 25% of trips to be made by bike! The rosiest internal assessments show a long ride ahead.

Don’t let strategic planning, or a lack of progress on regional goals stand in the way of your design process. Your project is underway and the clock is ticking.

Step 2 – The user

Once you get the hang of drawing bicycles — which is the hardest part of bikeway design — you are going to want to show people riding them. But what kind of people? Portland’s long-time bicycle coordinator in a fedora, Roger Geller, wrote a legendary paper that first identified the four types of bicycle riders. He postulated most people are “interested” in bicycling, but also “concerned” about its safety. The bicycle riders in your design should look “interested but concerned.” You should also show riders of all-ages-and-abilities, which should get your creative juices flowing.

Acknowledging that our designs must facilitate all kinds of people to ride bikes opens up new design options. Your bikeway can be anywhere on the page now, not just squeezed over to the right by the parked cars, where only the ‘strong and fearless’ dare ride.

Step 3 – The network

If you are doing a perspective drawing of your design, or even a cross-section, you will need to show some context for your bikeway. Does it connect two parks or neighborhoods? Is it a way to get to school, or to the store? Which streets will your bikeway traverse?

With 55,000 streets in Portland, if each street segment was a brain cell, the network would be as complex as a slug brain. Slugs aren’t very smart, but they can design transportation networks — using desire lines.

Like slugs, bicyclists leave a shiny trail behind that can be observed in the right light. Location based services on phones, e-scooters, or bikeshare show the popular street segments and routes that people actually prefer – the slug trails. Lots of slug trails are on streets without existing bikeways, or on streets with bikeways that need a refresh. Pick one of those “desire lines” for your bikeway, and you will be ahead of state-of-the-practice designers.

Step 4 – Political willies

Drawing bikes and people is hard enough, does your design need to show cars too? Portland answered this in the 2009 Climate Action Plan. According to the “Green” Transportation Hierarchy, people walking and riding bikes should be the most prominent elements in your design, and cars should be considered last.

“Green” Transportation Hierarchy as adopted in the 2009 Portland Climate Action Plan.

If you don’t show cars at all, people might get offended and say your design doesn’t look like a real street. You might hear there is not the political will to build your design, or there is no reason to build a bikeway without the traffic volumes to justify it.

The hysteria and passion people have for defending driving is a result of motonormativity, where attempts to reduce car use are interpreted as an attack on personal freedom. Because motonormativity is prevalent not just in drivers, but pedestrians, cyclists, transportation engineers, and throughout society — if your design doesn’t show cars you’ll have some explaining to do.

Set up at least one meeting with community members and other stakeholders to gather their feedback. Engineers still use the Decide Announce Defend (DAD) strategy during community meetings to ward off costly revisions, but you can use sticky notes, a multilingual survey, or other engagement tools to capture public sentiment.

Another way to involve the community in your design is to invite them to participate, or even make budget decisions. Sincere dialogue between project partners, like the City and the public, builds trust and begins the process of identifying the real interests that underlie our steadfast positions. When our real interests are identified, it’s easier to create designs that successfully respond to them.

Step 5 – Fieldwork

If at any time you feel stuck, or just need to exercise your legs, go out into the field for a site visit. Riding your bicycle is an important part of the design process. Imagine you are a real person riding on your future bikeway, what would you want? You can tell when a bikeway is only designed on paper — go ride it!

Our 30 Percent Plans are taking form. In the next part we’ll move onto 60% plans and incorporate the community feedback we received and make some big decisions using standards and best practices.

— This series is by Aaron Kuehn, a veteran cycling advocate, Bike Happy Hour regular and former chair of BikeLoud who rides a Marin Pine Mountain with hi-viz streamers. Read the full series here.

Oregon House Rep. Khanh Pham says statewide hearings have amplified transit needs

If you’ve heard about the statewide “Transportation Roadshow” hearings on a possible 2025 funding package, but haven’t been able to attend one, tomorrow is one of your best chances to participate. On Wednesday, the Joint Committee on Transportation will host the sole virtual hearing of the 13 stops on their “roadshow” tour.

The deadline to register for your two-minute online testimony slot is this afternoon, so be sure to head over the event website and take care of that right away. While you’re there, check details for the final two stops in Happy Valley (Thursday) and Hillsboro (Friday).

You might recall back in June when I reported on the first stop on the tour that took place in Portland. I’ve since lost touch with the hearings, so I decided to welcome House Representative Khanh Pham into the Shed (virtually!) for a short interview. Transportation is a major part of Rep. Pham’s work and she’s a member of the Joint Committee.

In an interview this morning (watch it above or on YouTube) we talked about what Pham has heard in testimony so far, what’s at stake for our future, and how you can give effective testimony. As someone who has attended seven of these listening sessions so far, she was full of insights.

Asked if there were any themes from testimony she’s heard so far, Pham mentioned rural transit. “We often think of public transit as an urban priority, but actually if anything, I’ve heard more support for public transit in rural communities where they don’t have any other option,” she shared.

Pham says what she’s heard from Oregonians about the need for better transit has definitely strengthened her resolve to fund more of it. “Transit has been so critical to folks across the state, folks in addiction, folks who are elderly, folks who are have disabilities, young people — anyone who just doesn’t want to drive a car.”

In the previous transportation funding package passed in 2017, legislators created the Statewide Transportation Improvement Fund (STIF), and given what Pham said about rural needs, there’s a good chance that program could get a significant boost if a new package is passed next year.

Has she heard anyone clamoring similarly for bigger freeways? “Absolutely not,” she said. “I have heard virtually no… very little testimony about widening any Portland area freeways.” The way Pham sees it, the immediate needs are so acute, that it’s, “Left little room for talking about these huge megaprojects.”

“We’re going to have to make some tough choices about what we truly we need to prioritize.”

Listen to the full interview in the player above or on YouTube.

Learn about tomorrow’s virtual hearing here. And check the Oregon State Legislature website for more information and the agenda for the last two hearings in Happy Valley (Thursday) and Hillsboro (Friday).

Meet the guy who circumnavigated Portland’s urban growth boundary by bike

The dividing line between urban and rural in the Portland region isn’t just an intangible idea. It’s a politically significant demarcation known as the urban growth boundary (UGB). For many of us who like to ride far beyond the city center, the line has a visceral impact. We can not only often see the border in pavement and rooftops, but we can feel how our relationship with the land changes as we pedal beyond it.

Few people in our region know what these changes look like more than Portlander Linus Unitan, a third-year medical student at Oregon Health & Science University. On Sunday, Unitan rode for over 17 hours to complete an impressive, 234-mile circumnavigation of the UGB. His ride took him as far north as Kelly Point Park, east to the Sandy River, south to Oregon City, and west to Forest Grove.

I talked to Linus in a video interview Monday morning. You can watch our conversation in the player above, on YouTube, or read the slightly edited version (and view photos of the ride) below.

Jonathan: Tell us what you’ve just done!

Linus: I rode all the way around the metro area’s urban growth boundary, it was about 235 miles or so. The route was very much a subjective endeavor, because a lot of the route goes places where there aren’t roads or there aren’t bridges. So I tried to stick to the streets. I tried to stick to where the bridges are, and yeah, just went around the whole thing, 234 miles or so. It was a great ride.

Jonathan: Back up just a little bit here. Tell us who you are.

Linus: I am a third year medical student at OHSU. So that’s kind of kind of my day job at the moment,. I’ve been riding bikes for little over two years now, got into the scene through Pedalpalooza, and then it just sort of spiraled from there. I realized I was into this more distance stuff. So I did a few centuries, a few 200 km rides every now and again.

Jonathan: Why the urban growth boundary? What about that route attracted you?

Linus: I kept going on these long rides that would stretch outside of town, out into kind of more rural areas. And oftentimes, when I reached the edge, I would find these suburban housing developments that were just being built — like they had just laid the streets down, but there weren’t any buildings yet. And you can ride on these streets and go to intersections with stop signs that are stopping non-existent traffic, and you feel like you’re very much still in the middle of a field, and yet there will be houses there within a couple years. So it’s a very surreal place. And I thought, I need to find more of these. So there’s big ones in Happy Valley, there’s big ones in Bethany, and these were areas that were added to the urban growth boundary in the late 90s and early 2000s, so I figured I just need to see where more of these places are and doing the whole route was a great way to find them.

Jonathan: The usual places hear about the urban growth boundary are pretty wonky urban planning, you know, Metro regional government kind of spaces — not bike route spaces. So are you into urban planning? Is that part of the interest for you?

Linus: I am interested in the policy that informs the lived reality that we’re in. I feel like Oregon in particular, it’s progressive environmental history when it comes to even getting the urban growth boundary to exist at all is just super fascinating. But when it comes to making the decisions and negotiating between all the interested parties, Oh man, that is super complicated. I’m just going to ride my bike.

Jonathan: Given the fact that you’ve been on literally the front line of the UGB — something that’s often the subject of major debates — do you feel like you have any deeper sense of the issue personally?

Linus: It’s hard. There are a lot of different people who want a lot of different things and existing in these spaces, standing at intersections where there aren’t any houses yet, but houses are soon to be, you definitely get a sense of, ‘Okay, there, there will be a thriving community here before too long.’ And these suburban developments where the houses all kind of look the same, can still have really, really diverse groups of people living in them. And we need housing, right? I can preach about how density is good, all I want, but that’s coming from a very urban perspective, right? And there will be people who want to live suburban lifestyles, and maybe there should be houses for them? It’s a really complicated thing to witness.

Jonathan: I’ve been at those areas where I can tell that the development is just starting, I’ve felt a little wistful, sometimes like a sense of loss. Do you feel any sense of loss when you’re out there?

Linus: I don’t know about loss. Change for sure. You definitely notice the really, really sharp lines between houses on your left, and then just fields on on your right. So definitely, definitely change. But I still ride out in Beaverton a fair amount. I feel like you can still get some good riding in even in communities where people live and we’re just so lucky to have the urban growth boundary.

Jonathan: Can you recall a most memorable, or your favorite part of the ride?

Linus: My favorite part was the first rays of sunlight hitting right as I was crossing the I-5 bridge in Wilsonville. I’d done 100 miles in the dark, the freeway shoulder was gnarly, loud, gravel and debris everywhere. The sunrise after all that was out of this world. Four hot air balloons to the south. Just amazing.

Jonathan: What bike did you ride?

Linus: I rode a titanium road bike that I bought off Craigslist from a guy who was moving to Spain and selling everything he owned. So it cost me $1,000 and it was worth every penny. I love that bike.

Jonathan: Tell me about the pro tip you unlocked with the loaf of bread hanging from your bike for safety [something I saw Linus post on his Instagram story yesterday].

Linus: I had reached maybe mile 125 or so and desperately needed a store stop. There was a 24-hour Plaid Pantry in Oregon City, and then it was just closed Safeway after closed Safeway, until I got to Sherwood. Sometime after dawn, I desperately needed food, and so I’m walking around this Safeway, I see the like, you know, pile of clearance baked goods. And being a medical student, wanting to save some money, I reached for this loaf of bread and didn’t have a great way to carry it on on my bike when when I was riding. So I tied it to the back of my bag and had it just sort of hanging there loosely. And from for the rest of the day, the cars were pretty kind to me. I didn’t get coal rolled at all. I didn’t get people passing too close to me.

I don’t know what it was, but I feel like I unlocked some sort of secret where people see this loaf of bread hanging off of the back of your bike. And it’s some grand humanizing thing, like maybe they see you are also a human who also enjoys to eat bread so like, ‘I’m going to be kind to you.’ It reminded me a lot of in Lord of the Rings when Samwise Gamgee has this backpack with cast iron pans hanging off of it, which seems ridiculous when you realize the journey that they’re on, right? But that backpack looks a lot cuter with the pots and pans hanging off of it. So maybe, maybe, the more we can do to humanize ourselves, the better, right? We’re still humans when we’re wearing lycra and biking down the road. People should always be kind to each other, but boy does it help when you can kind of advertise your humanity in some way!

Jonathan: Anything else that you want to say?

Linus: If here’s some crazy ride you want to do, just do it. It’s so much fun. You get to see so much. And if you eat and you hydrate and you keep an eye on your electrolytes, you are capable of so much more than you know. So just go out there and do it. You’ll have a blast.

View the route on Ride With GPS:

Frog Ferry is back as boosters pin hopes on new Portland government

“Dead in the water,” “going into hibernation,” and “very bad news.” These are the quotes we last read about the Frog Ferry project, an effort to launch passenger ferry service on the Willamette River. But now project backers are seizing the massive change in Portland’s government structure and hope a new slate of elected officials that come into office next year will give the ferry another look.

It’s been nearly a year since we last checked in on the ambitious project. In our story last fall, former transportation commissioner Mingus Mapps announced he would not support the addition of Frog Ferry to the Regional Transportation Plan project list — a required step that would position the project for state and federal funding.

But that was then, and this is now. This morning at what she hopes will be a future ferry terminal, Frog Ferry Executive Director Susan Bladholm and her team of supporters will host a press conference. “It’s time for Portland to do big things again!” reads the statement sent to local media in advance of the event. “The new city charter enables bold innovative ideas. It is time to come out of hibernation and activate Portland. It’s time for Portland to do big things again!”

Bladholm will have significant support by her side, including noted river advocate Willie Levenson from Human Access Project and Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA) Board Chair Xavier Stickler. The DNA fully supports Frog Ferry, calling it “thoroughly researched, eminently feasible, and urgently needed.”

To underscore those compliments, Frog Ferry’s press release boasted a number of reasons their project is worth supporting:

Name a proposed Portland project that:

Is affordable with federal Infrastructure Bill dollars available for green passenger ferries

Fits criteria for the adopted Portland Climate Investment Plan: $100M for green transit

Can be operational within three years and is a transit mode that is in demand

Offsets 3,170 metric tons of CO2/year (growing to 95 million lbs. C02 with seven vessels)

Will build community resilience

Will activate our waterfront; Is a proven best practice around the world

Will connect Portland with its largest green space

Will reduce commuter time and foster a broader transit network

Will encourage more people to live car free?

Frog Ferry says they need about $9 million to launch a proof-of-concept service between Cathedral Park and Riverplace in downtown Portland. That trip would take 25 minutes and cost $3 (one way) per passenger.

With the city’s budget still on life support, it will be interesting to see how — or if — candidates talk about this project on the campaign trail, and whether they believe it’s something that will earn them voters in council districts two (north Portland) and four (west side of the river and Sellwood).

Portland candidates: You’re always welcome at our weekly Bike Happy Hour!

This week at Bike Happy Hour marks one year since we hosted our first candidate for Portland city council. And with the election around the corner and campaigns heating up, our crowd is eager to hear from more candidates.

Last September, District 1 candidate Timur Ender delivered his first-ever stump speech at our little gathering. He was the first of around 40 (I have lost count) candidates who’ve shown up since. Over the course of the last year, dozens of community leaders have introduced themselves to us and shared their perspectives on important issues.

Since the big collab between BikePortland and BikeLoud back in July brought 28 candidates together on one night to fix flat tires in front of a very appreciative crowd, we’ve missed having candidates on the patio. Last week I had a bunch of people ask me, “Do you have any candidates speaking tonight?”

So consider this post an open invitation to join us. All candidates are welcome. You don’t need to warn me ahead of time unless you want the added bonus of extra promotion. We meet every single Wednesday 3-6 pm rain or shine all year round. So put it on your calendar and pop on by. And if you’re someone who cares about bicycling and/or you already consider yourself a BHH regular, send your favorite candidates a note and pass this message along.

Thanks for coming out and for supporting the community. See you Wednesday!

— Bike Happy Hour

UPDATE, 4:50 pm: ~~Mayoral candidate Keith Wilson will join us. He’ll be there at 5:00 and will share a short speech and I might ask him a question or two, but otherwise, he’ll be available for some mingling as well~~. Keith will be joining us next week. Sorry for any confusion.

City staff recommend denial of Alpenrose land use permit

Presence of wildlife gives city staff pause. (Photo: From residents of Hayhurst neighborhood association submitted as part of the permitting process)

Land use can be a snoozer, I get that. But the decision made here is what will determine what type of bike facility we get, if any.

City of Portland staff recommended denial of the Land Use permit for the proposed 263-unit Raleigh Crest development on the Alpenrose site a week ago Friday, concluding that “all of the relevant standards and approval criteria have not been met.” Although the denial was based on several issues, the most complicated of them seemed to involve a wildlife corridor located on the southernmost edge of the property.

The pinch-point of the corridor is the area just north of the intersection of SW Shattuck Rd and Vermont St. Not only is this location tricky for wildlife, it’s also not a great place to be on a bicycle or walking—but wildlife has federal and state protection.

Here’s an excerpt from the decision that talks about the wildlife issue:

… the site is a critical connection point for the movement of wildlife between the upstream habitat areas along Vermont Creek up to Gabriel Park and the extensive downstream habitat areas starting at Bauman Woods and the confluence with Fanno Creek and beyond into the Fanno Creek habitat corridor. Thus, wildlife mobility is a key functional value of the site and the ability of wildlife to continue to move through this corridor should be preserved and carefully considered in any redesign of the SW Shattuck crossing. Any increased barriers to movement (e.g., proposed retaining wall, fall protection fencing, increased vehicular traffic, etc.) and reduction of wildlife mobility through this corridor must be mitigated, as they could have adverse long-term impacts on local wildlife species, particularly semi-aquatic mammals such as beaver, river otter, muskrat, and mink as well as the flightless ducklings of locally breeding waterfowl, such as mallard and wood duck. Beaver are of particular concern because of their status as a keystone species in wetland ecosystems and the important role they play in creating and maintaining the habitat used by a wide variety of other species in this wetland complex.

Bureau of Environment Services model of habitat connectivity. Yellow marks highly sensitive areas which are constricted. The red arrow indicates the wetlands surrounding the Shattuck/Vermont intersection.

Recap

When BikePortland last checked in on the proposed development of the Alpenrose site, the city had just approved (in concept) the developer’s proposal to build a multi-use bicycle and pedestrian path (a multi-use path, or “MUP”) along the property’s SW Shattuck Road frontage. This was a big win for cyclists and pedestrians because it meant that the city was accepting the design’s bio-swales as adequate for treating stormwater run-off from the MUP.

Readers might have noticed that the MUP stopped short of Vermont Street. SW Shattuck Rd narrows as it passes through a wetland and over Vermont Creek, and loses the width needed for the MUP. In a configuration which is common in southwest Portland (which lacks stormwater pipes under the road), Shattuck runs through the wetland on a berm which has a pipe, or culvert, running perpendicular to the road to allow Vermont Creek to pass underneath it.

Maybe this is more than you want to know, but it is the size and shape of the culvert which is tripping up the Bureau of Environmental Services approval. The bureau wants Raleigh Crest to upgrade the culvert to allow safe passage for bigger animals, and BES is also concerned that a proposed retaining wall on the west side of Shattuck will block that passage.

What happens next

Bobcat enters wetlands off SW Shattuck Rd.

Denial of a permit is not the death knell for this project that one might think.

Permitting and Development staff prepare the report for, and make recommendations to, the Hearings Officer, and it is the Hearings Officer (HO) who makes the decision to approve the permit or not. The public hearing for the project will be this Wednesday, via zoom. The HO bases their decision on the staff report, the applicant response, and on comments from the public.

The public and the applicant are allowed to testify, and one thing I will be listening for is the developer’s stance toward the denial. The developer has a choice, they can comply with staff requests, or push back against them. The issue of proportionality might arise, in other words, “who should pay and how much?”

Proportionality

Proportionality falls under the Nollan-Dolan body of jurisprudence, a series of court cases which have limited the public works requirements jurisdictions can exact from developers. In this case, the city is arguing that, because of the harm to wildlife caused by the increased traffic Raleigh Crest will bring, the developer should bear responsibility for improving the Shattuck-Vermont intersection and the wetlands around it.

An obvious argument the developer can make is that the city has neglected this street for decades and that, therefore, the city should shoulder part of the cost of fixing it, that it shouldn’t be the developer’s responsibility to fix a subpar street.

What makes it a proportionality issue is the need to determine what portion of the cost each party should be responsible for. This can be settled through negotiation, or it can go to court. If any party disagrees with the HO’s decision, they can appeal it to the Portland City Council, to the state Land Use Board of Appeals, and to Oregon courts.

Why Land Use is important

Land use can be a snoozer, I get that. But the decision made here is what will determine what type of bike facility we get, if any.

Also, we are in the middle of a national housing crisis that is being partly attributed to permitting and zoning complexity (and to NIMBYism), so understanding the process a developer and city go through before a subdivision can be approved might shed light on the price of your rent.

Finally, land use and transportation, which should go hand and hand, have largely become decoupled in southwest Portland. This disconnect leads to gaps in the cycling network, and to the southwest having the least sidewalk coverage in the city. Development of the Alpenrose site will possibly let readers watch the birth of a gap in real time.

Comment of the Week: On bias in journalism

Emotions ran high and so did the comment count. As the mayor’s race grows increasingly contentious, I’m expecting the BikePortland comments sections to reflect that and to become pretty turbulent places. It’s probably inevitable that some of that froth blows back onto BikePortland itself.

Deep into the thread of the Street Trust/Carmen Rubio story, after readers had exhausted all that could be said about traffic tickets, some turned to the subject of bias in reporting. I wrangle with that topic nearly every day, and I imagine Jonathan does too.

After some back and forth between Jonathan, myself and several commenters, Phillip Barron took up the theme and did right by it in a few thoughtful paragraphs.

Here’s what he wrote:

The idea that journalism is not objective is really not all that controversial. Neither is the idea that bloggers can be journalists. But nor does that mean that newspapers are worthless or that any blogger is a journalist. I have no problem with Fox Vanilla’s thought above or with classifying BikePortland as journalism. It seems pretty obvious that Jonathan and Lisa are journalists; they report on what they (and an ever changing team of writers) deem newsworthy for the bike-interested readers of Portland.

A good wikipedia page cites its sources, which if you were curious, you could follow and see if you accept those references. Or, perhaps, you will accept references to what you seem to think is the standard bearer in journalism, the NYTimes.

The NYTimes seems not to have a problem with either admitting that journalism is produced with bias (1) or with acknowledging that blogs are organs of journalism.(2)

Instead of thinking of these terms in binaries (either one is biased or one is not; either one is a journalist or one is not), I find it more useful to focus on where bias takes place. In journalism, bias affects everything from what a journalist thinks is newsworthy, what an editor thinks deserves front-page coverage, which articles a layout editor decides deserve photographs, which op-eds a publisher chooses to print, how much rope an editor will allow an investigative journalist when the IJ is looking into a scandal involving the newspaper’s owner (I’m looking at you, Washington Post) and so on. Bias affects photographers in how they frame a shot and, as Errol Morris (while writing for the NY Times) notes, what they leave out. (3) We all become much better readers of journalism the more we are actively aware of these biases.

(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/opinion/the-public-editor-is-the-new-york-times-a-liberal-newspaper.html 

(2) https://archive.nytimes.com/mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/judge-clarifies-that-bloggers-can-be-journalists-just-not-one-in-particular/ 

(3) https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/which-came-first-part-three-can-george-lionel-and-marmaduke-help-us-order-the-fenton-photographs/

Thank you for taking the time to write that, Phillip. You can read Phillip Barron’s comment, and the rest of the back and forth, under the original post.

Job: Bicycle Mechanic Educator (Walk N Roll Program Representative) – Intercity Transit

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Job Title

Bicycle Mechanic Educator (Walk N Roll Program Representative)

Company / Organization

Intercity Transit

Job Description

Intercity Transit’s Walk N Roll education program improves transportation access, increases independence, and inspires a healthy lifestyle through activities that encourage Thurston County residents to walk, bike, roll and ride public transit for transportation. We are currently recruiting a Bicycle Mechanic Educator to serve as a Walk N Roll Program Representative. They will oversee the operations of the Walk N Roll educational bike shop, provide bike mechanic education and oversee the repair and maintenance of bicycles that support Walk N Roll’s bike education programs. They will also serve as Intercity Transit’s Employee Transportation Coordinator.

If you have:
• Ability to lead and educate others.
• Ability to create a welcoming community space for people of all races, ages, genders, abilities, and backgrounds.
• Basic skills in bicycle mechanics.
• Proven ability to manage competing priorities effectively and work independently.
• High level of personal accountability for the quality, safety, and impact of your work.
• Proven ability to work in a collaborative environment and complete projects within a team.

Then this position is for you!
Intercity Transit is looking for a Walk N Roll Program Representative to oversee all operations and programs related to the Walk N Roll educational bike shop. They will be responsible for implementing bicycle mechanics education, programs, classes, and related activities. We are looking for someone to expand our bike shop education programs while creating an inclusive community space. The Walk N Roll Program Representative will also serve as Intercity Transit’s Employee Transportation Coordinator overseeing the agencies Commute Trip Reduction program.

It’s an exciting time to join IT!
Build a career you enjoy, in an agency that is a nationally recognized urban transit system with diverse services and strong community support. Intercity Transit provides fixed route transit, ADA paratransit and vanpool services in Washington state’s capitol city of Olympia in addition to the neighboring communities of Lacey, Tumwater, and Yelm. This is an exciting time with great opportunities, and we invite you to join us in our mission to provide and promote transportation choices that support an accessible, sustainable, livable, healthy and prosperous community.

As a Walk N Roll Program Representative, you will:
• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the Walk N Roll educational bike shop. Responsible for creating and maintaining a safe, organized, and inclusive educational space. Monitor inventory and order bicycle parts and tools.
• Implement and maintain systems for the retrieval, storage, inventory, and repair of donated and fleet bikes. Ensure program bikes are properly repaired and in safe riding condition.
• Coordinate, promote and implement bike shop educational activities, events, and classes.
• Handle the waste stream for unsalvageable bikes and bike parts.
• Source, recruit, train, and track bike shop volunteers.
• Develop curriculum and provide bike mechanic and maintenance instruction and training to youth and adults.
• Provide technical oversight for bicycle repair to volunteers, community members and youth.
• Coordinate and implement a community bike and wheelchair maintenance and repair program.
• Coordinate bike distribution and repair clinics for adults in need.
• Support other bike, pedestrian, and transit education, activities, outreach, events, and classes.
• Collaborate with other Walk N Roll staff and volunteers, Bicycle Community Challenge Representative, and marketing staff.
• Serve as Intercity Transit’s Employee Transportation Coordinator overseeing the Commute Trip Reduction Program (CTR). Facilitate committee meetings; prepare agendas, minutes, and supporting documents. Track data, create reports, attend networking sessions, and send communications to Intercity Transit employees about the CTR program.
• Supports other Walk N Roll and marketing and communication activities. Provides administrative support to the WNR program.
• Performs other duties of a similar nature or level.

Are you the one we are looking for?
• Associates degree or a specialized certificate training in education, bicycle mechanics, bicycle riding safety, or another related field OR an equivalent combination of education and experience sufficient to successfully perform the essential duties of the job.
• Experience with leading adult and/or youth education.
• Experience leading, coordinating, or recruiting volunteers is desired.
• Ability to get a Washington State driver’s license by the date of hire and be willing to submit to a criminal background investigation, the results of which must meet the agency’s hiring criteria.
• Safe, legal, and competent bicycling skills.
• Ability to work with people of all ages, races, genders, abilities, and backgrounds.
• Willing to learn how to safely operate program van and trailer.
• Computers, basic desktop publishing, database and/or spreadsheet design; modern office procedures, methods, and equipment.
• Ability to work Tuesday-Saturday schedule with consistent evening hours.

What’s in it for you?
• Receive a competitive salary of $30.47 – $41.17 an hour in addition to annual general wage/cost of living adjustments typically received in January and step increases in July (if not at top of salary range).
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and eligible dependents.
• PERS Retirement Plans (through Washington State Public Employee’s Retirement System) along with voluntary deferred compensation plans (401k and 457) with employer match up to 6.2%.
• 12 to 25 vacation days per year depending upon date of eligibility and length of service.
• 12 days of sick leave per year depending upon date of eligibility.
• Up to 48 hours of floating holiday time.
• Paid Bereavement leave for qualifying family members.

How to Apply

Ready to jump on board?
We would love for you to apply! Please submit a complete electronic application online at www.intercitytransit.com/employment. Your application package must include a letter of interest and resume that clearly explains how you meet the qualifications of the position. Be advised, we will not consider incomplete applications. Intercity Transit’s preferred method of communication is via email, so an accurate and active email address is essential.

Completed applications must be received by 5:00pm on Sunday, October 13, 2024.

Intercity Transit is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer and strives to provide a culturally diverse workforce. Intercity Transit does not discriminate in employment or service on the basis of race, creed, color, origin, age, sex, religion, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability.

We also take pride in being a drug free workplace. Note that Intercity Transit is subject to requirements of the Federal Drug-Free Workplace Act and FR Part 40 & Part 655, which prohibits the use of marijuana at any time while employed by Intercity Transit.

Monday Roundup: Rivendell, the toll of unpaid tickets, drop-off lines and more

Hello everyone. Happy Monday. I’m really excited for the week! Lots of cool stories to work on and to share from our writer Lisa Caballero, family biking columnist Shannon Johnson, and a special guest contributor Aaron Kuehn of BikeLoud PDX.

This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by The E-Bike Store, your source for excellent electric bikes. Come visit their north Portland showroom right across the street from Peninsula Park.

Here are the most notable news items our community came across in the past seven days…

Bike share price cap: I like any policy that treats bike share more like public transit, so it was neat to see this new bill introduce in New York City that would cap the price of a bike share ride to be no higher than the cost of a subway or bus ticket. (Streetsblog NYC)

Dangerous drivers: When drivers slam into a convenience store or building it becomes a meme. But the same epidemic of terrible, irresponsible driving can also lead to much more serious things like this natural gas pipeline fire in Houston that was caused by an errant SUV driver who struck a valve. (NBC)

School drop-off lines: A venerable outlet delves into the reasons behind nightmarish school drop-off lines and makes a solid mention of Portland’s bike bus efforts, including a link to this here website! (The Atlantic)

The Rivendell Way: I have long admired how Grant Petersen runs his bike company, so reading this wonderful, in-depth profile about this guy who has always stood out from the crowd for the right reasons, was a joy. (The New Yorker)

Delivery logistics: I put the role of cargo bikes making last-mile deliveries squarely into the “we don’t talk about this enough” category when it comes to making our city more humane and climate-friendly. (EuroNews)

Toll of tickets: There’s a lot that’s shocking about this article that describes some of the similar issues we’ve faced here in Portland with the Rubio revelations, but what really gets me is how the irresponsible headline contributes to the problem. (Washington Post)

Bike Angels: I don’t hear about anyone Portland doing this with Biketown as much as I used to, but it appears as though the citizen bike share rebalancing hustle is alive and well in New York City. (NY Times)

Canadians and cars: Transportation is very political in Ontario, Canada as Premier Doug Ford seems to be making a bid for votes by saying he’ll make bike lanes harder to build and speed up car-centric road projects. (CBC)

Justice for traffic violence: Imagine a third-party evidence-sharing tool that would allow road users to upload content of illegal behaviors to be reviewed by the authorities for possible enforcement action. That’s what’s in the works in Scotland. (Road.cc)

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.