🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
The Timber Logjam ride is a symbol of modern adventure cycling culture. Without formal organization or promotion, word of the ride spread through social media. And by Saturday, as welcome sun beat down through frigid air on the Banks trailhead of the Banks-Vernonia State Trail, about 70 people were on their bikes and ready to ride.
Ominous cloud: In what appears to be the most tangible impact so far of Trump’s influence on infrastructure, his administration has cancelled a project that was set to electrify a popular commuter rail line in the California bay area.
DIY anti-speeding trick: A town in Scotland has happened upon a novel method of cracking down on fast drivers: Hairdryers.
Don’t widen roads. Please: As Oregon appears set for another road-widening binge, it’s worth brushing up on your reading about why this method of “congestion relief” is a bad idea. We came across two great explainers this week: One from The Plaza Perspective and one from Driving.ca.
More housing = less congestion?: As Portland girds for freeway widening debates, it’s time to consider the link between congestion and the lack of affordable housing.
No to red light cams: As Portland expands its automated enforcement programs we’re watching how other states handle the issue. In Florida, a place with the worst road safety record in the nation, a ban on red light cameras is moving forward.
Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman apologized to residents of the Jade District in person last night for a spate of fatal traffic crashes on outer Division Street.
Speaking as the new commissioner-in-charge of the transportation bureau, Saltzman stood in front of a mostly Chinese-speaking crowd and said, “We’re sorry and we’re bound and determined to do something about that.”
18 months ago in the exact same room as the meeting Saltzman attended last night — the Jade/APANO Multicultural Space on the corner of 82nd and Division — the City of Portland launched their Vision Zero effort. The Bureau of Transportation didn’t plan on coming back, but since that celebratory launch five people have died and three others have suffered life-altering injuries on outer Division. When two Chinese immigrants died trying to cross the street in separate collisions within just hours of each other back in December, PBOT swung into action and has been listening and formulating plans ever since.
Last night in a meeting hosted by the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, PBOT kicked off a community process slated to end with a plan adopted by City Council this fall.
The City of Portland took another step today toward fulfilling a promise they made last summer: To make the Biketown bike share program more accessible to people who are unable to ride conventional bicycles.
If all goes according to plan, adaptive bikes should be available for use by this summer.
To refresh your memory, this issue caught the Portland Bureau of Transportation off-guard last summer, just weeks before the scheduled launch of the Biketown program, when a local advocate for people with disabilities began to question the equity of a bike share system that wasn’t accessible by all of Portland’s bicycle riders. That advocate was Chloe Eudaly, who notched a victory on this issue when PBOT promised to find a solution and then went on to earn a victory at the ballot box when she became a Portland City Commissioner.
Eudaly’s prodding set PBOT on the path toward researching options and gathering information from adaptive bike users.
Today PBOT launched a survey to garner focused feedback on their plan. According to a press statement, PBOT will make adaptive bicycle rentals available through existing bike rental businesses that located near popular bike paths. Once the system is up-and-running, people who ride hand-cycles, three-wheeled trikes, and side-by-side tandems, would be able to rent one of the bikes near paths like the Eastbank Esplanade or the Springwater Corridor through a City-subsidized program.
Portland Police are looking for a tan SUV after its driver was involved with a high-speed hit-and-run crash last month.
It happened about 2:30 pm on January 27th in the eastbound lanes of the Hawthorne Bridge just east of the Willamette River near the TriMet bus stop on the viaduct. Amazingly, so far the biggest lead the police have in the case is footage from a handlebar-mounted camera taken by a person who happened to be cycling nearby.
As you can see in the video below, the driver was going very fast and was unable to control his/her vehicle. They ran into two other vehicles, causing one to roll, which, according to police, “nearly struck a person riding a bicycle.” Luckly there were no injuries. The driver didn’t stop and is still on the loose.
The City of Portland is putting the finishing touches on designs for a major new nature center and “iconic” entrance to Forest Park. Now is the time to share your comments so that the resulting project is as welcoming as possible to people who arrive by bicycle.
How are things looking out there on the bike lanes you use the most?
Since our post last week there’s been big progress on some key bikeways we’ve been watching and I’m curious how the clean-up is going for you.
In particular, and since we helped make such a big deal out of it to begin with, I want to share the progress on Highway 30 and the St. Johns Bridge.
Sweeping has happened on the bridge sidewalk. It’s not perfectly clean; but it’s a vast improvement. I got some video the day it was swept (2/17):
The weekend is right around the corner and we’ve got some great ride and event ideas to tempt you with. But before we get to them…
Have you noticed our events calendar yet? It gets better every day and in our biased opinion it has become the most comprehensive bicycling and transportation advocacy calendar in Oregon. We listed over 70 events this month alone (and it’s only February!). It features a wide array of events — from advocacy meetings and town halls, to weekly group rides and special events.
It’s easy to keep up with all the events: you can read this weekly event guide; check out the calendar pages in monthly, weekly, or daily views; and if you follow @bikeportland on Twitter you’ll get an update each morning with a link to7 the day’s events. If you want to help keep this resource strong, please support us via a financial contribution, subscribe or become a business partner (we offer weekly sponsorship of this Weekend Event Guide, and a whole lot more).
OK, now let’s get to the events this weekend…
As if the snow and ice and gravel wasn’t enough — now we are dealing with the scourge of potholes.
Potholes are nothing new, but this winter’s storm has created an alarming amount of new ones. They’re everywhere! Old ones are bigger and more treacherous, while new ones creep up where and when you’re not expecting them. For people using a car, a pothole can damage your wheels and rims. But for people on a bike the risk is greater. In addition to equipment damage, potholes can lead to crashes and injuries.
Today the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) announced what we hope will be a salve for our wounded streets: “Patch-a-thon” is the city’s new initiative that will aim to attack potholes with more maintenance crews. Here’s more from the official statement:
“Starting tomorrow, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) will launch Patch-a-thon, a new initiative to fill the numerous potholes caused by this season’s many winter storms.
We love seeing local bike companies expand their product lines. It demonstrates that our bike economy is strong and that the spirit of innovation from our local bikey brain trust is alive and well.
Today we’ve got words and pictures of two new products now available from two Portland companies: Showers Pass and Islabikes USA.
This is a guest post from former news editor Michael Andersen.
The top executive of Portland’s mass transit agency said this week that the Portland region has four top transportation priorities, and three of them are to expand capacity of urban freeways.
The Oregon Department of Transportation needs your comments on the 2018-2021 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) — a list of capital projects the agency will move forward with over the next four years. There are 170 projects currently on the list and 70 of them are in Multnomah County.
ODOT estimates they’ll have about $32.5 million to spend in Region 1. Before the shovels start turning, you can still influence the details of these projects and ODOT makes commenting very easy.
What do I mean by influencing details of projects? Here’s an example: One of the projects will spend $3.3 million on “safety improvements” on the northbound and southbound I-205 exit ramps at SE Division Street. ODOT will make “lane adjustments”, widen the ramps, adjust signal timing, add new signage, and so on. Given that Division has relatively well-used bike lanes in this location that connect directly to the I-205 path, are there elements of this project that could improve bike safety? Do you think ODOT planners are thinking about how bike cross-traffic might be improved with this project? If you ride that section of Division, you can share your concerns and insights directly on this project at the ODOT STIP website.