Cycle Oregon 29 is in the books. It happened last week and now there are 2,000 or so people sitting at work with souvenirs, sore legs, and constant questioning from co-workers who ask, “You did what?! Why?!”.
Team Estrogen Inc., an online cycling apparel retailer based in Hillsboro, is closing its doors after 18 years in business.
TeamEstrogen.com co-founder Susan Otcenas told Bicycle Retailer & Industry News last week that price competition and the changing behaviors of customers led to the decision to call it quits. Here’s more from BR&IN:
“We were never about price and discounts, and the world has changed. There’s a fundamental tension between the kind of hands-on customer service and high-quality staff we’ve always had and the customer demand for lower prices and free shipping,” Otcenas said. “The consumer has spoken that they value those things, and I totally understand it, but as a small company, it’s hard to compete in that space if that’s the main focus. It’s a race to the bottom, and we’re choosing not to go down that road.”
This post is written by Jerry “AJ” Zelada, a Portland-based optometrist, citizen advocate, and former chair of the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
I am one of the 891 users of OreGo (the State of Oregon’s experimental new road tax program) who paid the road use tax this past year. As readers here might recall, I was critical of the gas tax increase because the consumption of this resource is declining and will decline even further as auto and light truck efficiency increases and electric car numbers increase. And while I did vote for it, I am still opposed to taxing a resource rather than taxing actual use.
The OreGo program is a good tax mechanism. The program uses a simple plug-in device that measures miles driven. You are taxed 1.5 cents a mile and given credit for your expected payment at the pump. It is subtracted from a simple ‘wallet’ account. OreGo is also about data. It produces solid information about usage beyond miles driven; but the focus is so motor-vehicle oriented, we may miss including tax income for active transportation needs.
Skjelse Rapoch thought she’d just had a very bad crash while riding her bike. Now the police her family thinks she might have been attacked.
It happened Tuesday night while Rapoch was riding on the Columbia Slough path en route to Portland International Raceway where her husband (who works at Velo Cult Bike Shop) was competing in a cyclocross race. Details of the incident are scarce because Rapoch doesn’t remember anything. It was only after she was recovering in the hospital that she spoke to police and began to put the pieces together.
“What we initially thought was a terrible bicycle accident,” her family says, “is the result of something far more sinister…. it would appear an individual(s) was hiding along the path and hit Skjelse in the face with a rock while she was riding by.”
According to statements from Rapoch and her family, the police are now investigating this as a possible assault (update: the police say there is no evidence to suggest it was an attack).
A rider who found Rapoch says they saw a lone suspect fleeing the area as they rolled up. Rapoch says police have found a bloody rock has been found nearby that matches her facial trauma.
Welcome to the Monday Roundup, where we’ve gathered (with help from readers) the most interesting stories and links from the past week…
Nabbing unsafe passers: Police in Birmingham (UK) are riding bikes undercover-style to catch people who pass them too closely.
Chicago #1 Bike City: Bicycling Magazine’s new rankings are out and Chicago has earned the top spot. The magazine’s editors felt it was Chicago’s turn at the top in large part because of their progress on physically protected bike lanes. San Francisco is ranked second and Portland came in third.
Speaking of protected bike lanes: The NYC Dept. of Transportation has been under fire from advocates for not doing enough to make streets safe for bike riders, so they’re doing a media push to tout their record-setting pace of building 18-miles of protected bike lanes this year.
They got the wrong guy: A man who was biking in Brooklyn says he was assaulted physically and verbally (with a racial slur) by two people inside a car — but somehow he’s the one who spent the night in jail.
Ah September. As the fall months slowly start getting cooler, wetter, and darker in the mornings, you can always count on your friends at Pedal PT for monthly FREE COFFEE FOR BICYCLISTS to keep you warm (and caffienated) on the morning bike commute- Thanks for being part of the bicycling community!
When: Tuesday – September 20th- from 7 to 9am.
Where: Clinton and 25h Ave- (in front of Clinton St Video)
See you soon!
-The Pedal PT gang:
Kevin, Jake + Marisa . .and our NEW Student PT, Steve (from South Carolina!)
Remember the gas tax increase Portlanders voted in favor of back in May? Now the first project is ready to happen and PBOT is (rather wisely) adding some pomp and circumstance to it.
Check the release below for an event in southeast Portland on Monday:
A man pepper-sprayed a family in northeast Portland on Tuesday night and he remains at-large.
According to police, the suspect was riding a bicycle and the family was in and around their car at the time of the incident.
The case is being investigated as a bias crime because the victims – some of which were children – are black and the suspect is described as white or Hispanic. The suspect also allegedly made a racial slur during the incident.
Please read the police statement below and contact them with any information.
Gas prices? What gas prices?
The great gasoline plunge of late 2014 hasn’t cut the rate of Portlanders biking to work, at least not in 2015.
In fact, drive-alone commuting among Portland residents hit a modern-day low last year — the fifth such record in six years — and public transit commuting jumped to a modern high of 13.4 percent.
Over one year after Portland City Council unanimously supported a commitment to Vision Zero, the task force assembled to help lead us there has released its action plan.
I’ve seen a lot of elected officials on organized bike rides over the years. Usually they look uncomfortable and their bike doesn’t quite fit: As if it’s obvious they’re doing it mostly for the photo-op.
Brookings Mayor Ron Hedenskog is different.
Today on Cycle Oregon, Mayor Hedenskog joined us for the ride from Gold Beach to Brookings. The last time he did the ride was 1988 — the inaugural edition.
I accompanied him for about 30 miles and got a personal tour of the route. Hedenskog knows the area well. He moved to the coast in 1966, his dad was a commercial fisherman and his father-in-law ran a 400-acre sawmill on the coast in the 1950s — a full decade before the Coast Highway was even built.
