🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏
The River City Bicycles CylcoCross Crusade kicked off in fine fashion this weekend. With a big double-header at Alpenrose Dairy in southwest Portland, we are now in the thick of Portland ‘cross season. And by thick, I mean thick mud.
Via email from G.M. on October 7th:
I witnessed part of a car-bike accident this afternoon just before 6pm on 20th just south of I84. The cyclist seemed to be hurt pretty bad – he went down face first – though he was conscious and one officer said he wasn’t going to be admitted with trauma. Along with other witnesses I gave a statement to the police. The one witness who saw the whole thing thought it was the driver’s fault. I am wondering if there’s any way to find out whether the driver was charged with anything. I am pretty sure he would have driven away if I hadn’t told him to get out of his car.
This happened Friday, September 9th to reader L.W.:
Last Friday I was riding to a medical appointment and had dismounted my bike at Northeast 47th and Broadway waiting for the cross traffic to clear. Entered the intersection on the foot walking my bike when an oncoming van/truck with left turn indicator on entered the intersection and hit me.
Thank goodness I was on foot and I was able to jump back although was still injured. The driver would not have stopped except I dropped my bike and ran after him to get information to follow up. He was yelling at me because I was not “in a marked crosswalk” and I cited him the Oregon law as he had California plates and didn’t think I had the right-of-way on foot.
Six weeks after closing its doors for good, Portland’s only triathlon shop has found new life in an unexpected place: Another bike shop.
Early Saturday morning Western Bikeworks announced an agreement with Athletes Lounge. Western Bikeworks has locations in northwest Portland and Tigard and is one of the city’s largest bike shops. In addition to their two retail locations Western Bikeworks does a robust online business as one of four e-commerce bike brands owned by Portland-based Velotech Inc (they also run Cyclocross.com, UrbanCyclist.com and BikeTiresDirect.com).
According to a statement, Athletes Lounge owner Gary Wallesen and an undisclosed number of his former staff will now be employed by Western Bikeworks in order to, “expand the areas of expertise” into trisports. Wallesen has also been hired to spearhead a new e-commerce site at AthletesLounge.com in the coming months.
This week’s Monday Roundup is brought to you by Bicycle Fitting Services, who reminds you that it’s the perfect time of year to dial-in your fit for maximum power and comfort.
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Welcome to the week. Before we get started, here are the best stories we came across last week…
Onion on arm signals: If you need a quick laugh after last night’s depressing presidential debate, check out The Onion’s treatment of hand signals.
USDOT talks tough on Vision Zero: But it’s mostly just talk. Still. A big show was made of federal commitment to road safety, but we’re not holding our breath that they have the guts to do what it takes to really tackle the problem.
Begging for change: A man waited 26 minutes for a “walk” signal in Seattle. Thankfully he recorded it and shamed SDOT into examining the cause of the delay.
Water taxis gaining steam: NYC is planning one and now another one has been approved between San Francisco and Berkeley. Can you imagine a water taxi connecting St. Johns and north Portland to the South Waterfront and downtown?
The Handmade Bike & Beer Fest got off to a solid start tonight in north Portland. This event, hosted by the Oregon Bicycle Constructors Assocation, has teamed up with the Oregon Brewer’s Guild this year to offer a wider variety of craft beers to go along with the craft bikes.
Good news everyone: the Bureau of Transportation has found a new design for their Foster Transportation and Streetscape Project that allows them to continue the westbound bike lanes on Foster all the way to 52nd.
This is a big deal because the plan that passed City Council two summers ago dropped the bike lane at 54th and led westbound Foster bike riders on an annoying zig-zag to the north in order to reach 52nd and eastbound riders would have been led south of Foster to Center Street in order to reconnect to Foster a few blocks east of 52nd — all because PBOT didn’t want to remove a few blocks of on-street auto parking.
At the time, Foster-Powell area resident Brett Holycross told us the zig-zag was, “A shame for an otherwise great project.”
News of the new design leaked out at the City’s town hall event on the new gas tax in east Portland on Tuesday. Members of BikeLoudPDX attended the event and reported back about what they heard from PBOT’s Foster Streetscape Plan Project Manager Rich Newlands. “The bike lanes on Foster will extend to 52nd Ave! This made my day,” wrote Dan Gebhart.
Interesting study released today by Portland Streetcar:
Along Portland’s streetcar route, each new housing unit adds a regular streetcar rider
Portland, Ore. – Portland Streetcar released brand new data Thursday on the relationship between housing development and streetcar ridership, offering insight into future demand for streetcar systems around the country.
In a study of housing construction and streetcar ridership over the past 15 years, ECONorthwest found that each new housing unit built along the streetcar corridor has added one new regular streetcar rider. With over 17,000 housing units built along the corridor since 2001 and another 8,000 in the pipeline in just the next two years, that adds up to a lot of riders. To accommodate increasing demand, Portland Streetcar is developing plans to add vehicles and expand the system to reach new areas of the city.
This new data adds to the growing body evidence that shows streetcars support city and regional goals for both increasing mobility options and improving economic opportunity.
More detail about the data, including a PDF containing a chart and infographics, is available at https://storage.googleapis.com/streetcar/files/Portland-Streetcar-A-Tool-for-Better-Cities.pdf
More information about Portland Streetcar’s ridership and economic impact can be found at http://portlandstreetcar.org/about-us/planning-reports
We’ve covered many bike theft stories over the years; but we’ve never heard of anything quite like what we learned from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office this morning.
A 13-year-old girl in Cedar Hills (seven miles west of Portland) called the police to report a bicycle that she suspected was stolen. The amazing thing is that the bike was given to her by her mother and she told the responding officer it was probably stolen. She was right. She also disclosed that her mom had forced her to steal all sorts of things from apartment complexes and donation drop-off locations.
Deputies investigated and found out that the girl’s mom — 33-year-old Beaverton resident Lara Kent and her partner, 37-year-Jack Harman Jr. from Portland — had a U-haul van and a storage unit stuffed with stolen goods. They tracked down the van and the storage unit and ultimately arrested the duo.
Among the 70 stolen items recovered were jewelry, checks, mail, license plates, new clothing, 10 bicycles and one electric scooter that belonged to Portlander Cheryl Evans.
Travel Oregon invites you to join the Oregon Bicycle Tourism Partnership (OBTP) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 28 at the Riverbend Community Room in Bend – 799 SW Columbia. A no-host social will follow the event from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.
Learn more and register today! – Please link to https://fs22.formsite.com/TravelOregon/form23/index.html?1475607559560
Please email Development@TravelOregon.com or call 971-717-6211 if you have any questions or comments about the upcoming meeting or about the Oregon Bicycle Tourism Partnership.
This weekend the race series that defines cyclocross in Portland will turn over a new leaf as it launches into its 23rd season. First held in 1993 — before many of its current participants were even born — the River City Bicycles CycloCross Crusade has grown past its adolescent years and is settling into adulthood. The antics the series is known for are by no means coming to an end; but you might notice a slight smoothing of the edges and a shift from partying to professionalism.
We fell a little behind with the week, so now you get to see a few weeks worth of great job opportunities in one big post.
If you’re looking for greener pastures in the bike world, have a look at the listings below and see if there’s anything worth chewing on. Good luck!
–> Bicycle Technician – Islabikes
–> Mechanic/Salesperson – Crank
–> Bike Mechanic and Bike Valet – Go By Bike
–> Shipping Specialist – Velotech
–> Customer Experience Specialist – Velotech
–> Warehouse, Picker/Packer, Product Assembly – HGNR Inc
–> Director of Customer Success – Ride Report