🚨 Please note that BikePortland slows down during this time of year as I have family in town and just need a break! Please don't expect typical volume of news stories and content. I'll be back in regular form after the new year. Thanks. - Jonathan 🙏
A sidewalk-colored bike lane (described here as a “concrete shoulder”) set off by slightly raised striping is the state’s preferred alternative for bike lanes on a reconstructed Powell Boulevard east of Interstate 205. The state-run road carries about 20,000 motor vehicles daily. (Image: ODOT)
After an advisory group agreed that it wanted an upcoming rebuild of outer Powell Boulevard to include raised bike lanes, the Oregon Department of Transportation says they’re not practical after all.
Instead, it’s drawing the ire of some (though not all) advisory committee members by saying there won’t be any vertical protection between bike and car traffic on the busy state-run street.
Hales spoke in the new public plaza on SW 3rd yesterday. (Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Portland Mayor Charlie Hales offered a very unexpected admonition during an informal, invite-only meeting yesterday. It was a veiled criticism of Portland’s transportation advocates — and bike advocates in particular. Yes, you read that right, bike advocates: the group many Portlanders (mistakenly) assume wields unlimited power in City Hall.
Hales’ comments came at the end of a brief speech he gave while standing in the new Ankeny Plaza on SW 3rd in front of about two dozen advocates, city staffers, and other local leaders. His remarks were mostly about his support for Better Naito, the importance of great public spaces and the city’s new “livable streets strategy.” But then he ended with a plea for more support from advocates — many of whom were standing right in front of him.
I happened to have my recorder on. Here’s the transcript (with my emphasis added):
Left turns from NW 9th Avenue onto Lovejoy Street toward the Broadway Bridge. (Photos: J.Maus/BikePortland)
In the city with North America’s largest streetcar system, on-street rails almost rival automobiles as a factor in collisions that injure people on bikes.
Among bike-related injuries in Toronto that resulted in emergency-room trips, the study found, 32 percent directly involved streetcar tracks and more than half happened on streets with streetcar tracks. And in what lead author Kay Teschke described as “a surprise to us,” 67 percent of track-related injuries happen away from intersections.
PCC groundskeeper Eric Roberts and his new work truck. (Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)
Human brains tend to work more efficiently in quiet places. For college campuses with many acres of foliage and greenspace to maintain, the use of power tools and motorized vehicles is often at odds with a serene learning environment.
Portland Community College thinks they have an answer: bikes. Or, more specifically, three-wheeled cargo trikes.
This video, posted to Instagram and Twitter last night by Trail Blazers star guard CJ McCollum, says just about everything you need to know about Portland’s new bike share system: It’s fun, it’s easily accessible which encourages spontaneity (McCollum said his ride was done on an impulse, probably as a celebration of his new contract), it’s considered cool enough for a stylish and respected NBA star to ride (thanks Nike!), and it appeals to a much broader swath of Portlanders than regular old cycling does.
These are just some of the reasons why after just one week, Biketown looks like a huge success that’s making people sing and smile (just like CJ) all over town. In fact, over 7,000 people have taken a Biketown for a ride in the first 7 days.
Here are the latest numbers from Biketown’s operator Motivate Inc as of 2:00 pm yesterday (Tuesday):
Two days after Kiel and I got engaged, I turned over in bed to see an all too familiar crazed look in my lover’s eyes. This look is almost always accompanied by some cockamamie idea that I, at first, am vehemently against and then end up going along with anyway. I had a split second to make a very important decision — close my eyes again, pretend to sleep, and wait for the idea to pass, or be a good fiancé and ask him what was on his mind. Being the selfless partner that I am, I went with the latter.
There are all of these societal expectations that you feel like you need to adhere to and NONE of them include sticking all of your guests on bikes.
“Let’s have a bike wedding!” he said, his eyes dilating with delight.
The next ten minutes or so were filled with me intermittently shouting out potentially disastrous scenarios of having a wedding by bike. All the while Kiel sat back waiting for me to finish — he knew I would eventually tire. Of course, in the end, we had a bike wedding. Of course it was amazing. And, of course, nothing went massively wrong. Let’s go ahead and just write my epitaph right here, right now: “Kiel Johnson is, and was, (almost) always right.”
Planning a wedding can suck your soul right clear out of your body if you let it. There are all of these societal expectations that you feel like you need to adhere to and NONE of them include sticking all of your guests on bikes and making them parade around. But, that’s precisely what we did and, you know what? The world is still spinning!
Mayor Charlie Hales speaking at Salmon Street Fountain prior to a bike ride of Naito Parkway this morning. (Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
The City of Portland will take down the “Better Naito” project this Sunday night, whether it returns as a permanent bikeway and walkway someday is up to us. That was the message Mayor Charlie Hales gave a group of advocates, city staff, and agency representatives this morning.
This project has been a dream of Hales for almost two years.
When more people use cars on a street, it becomes less and less efficient. When more people use mass transit, it becomes more and more efficient. (Image: Nick Falbo)
There’s no mystery at all about what this would look like on inner Powell Boulevard. Everyone with some measure of power who has considered the issue knows the answer. But for some reason, the millions of public dollars spent talking about that possible answer have never resulted in a street-level picture of it.
The booth at the entrance to Woodlawn Park was buzzing with activity all day. (Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)
If we’re going to take a bite out of bike theft in Portland we need the whole community to step up: Police, bike shops, city bureaus, and citizens like you and me.
At this checkpoint at Salmon Street Fountain, the teams had to re-enact a fish ladder by passing a folded Brompton between each other while holding a basketball between their knees (that last part was just for added fun). And yes, they got wet! (Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland unless noted otherwise.)
A bike scavenger hunt? With folding bikes and a salmon theme? That’s a thing? Yep! And it all went down last weekend on the streets of Portland.
The inaugural Brompton Urban Challenge — a.k.a. Great Salmon Run — was a big success! Thank you to everyone who showed up to play and all the volunteers and crew who helped make it happen.
I spent most of the day filling 2 dumpsters with trash that homeless people had collected and put in bags along the SpringWater Corridor. It’s an amazing community that is safe and mostly not even seen from the bike path.
Amanda Fritz and her park rangers continue to violate their oath and put a variety of restraints ( exclusions, citations, written warnings) on the peaceful assembly protected by the Oregon Constitution. Cops did this to bikes for a long time:
Everything I observed in my court case ( URL above ) was made more obvious to me at the time because I was teaching at Jefferson High. My African American students would constantly tell me about being abused by cops for being black. I did not want to write that then, but I will say it loudly now that #BlackLivesMatter and the cycling community should be more supportive.
When the city Sit Lie Ordinance was tossed out for the 5th time by the courts I took my very young daughter to read the Oregon Constitution to Amanda Fritz and Sam Adams.
Please stay tuned to the Bike Portland Subscriber pages so that cyclists can show more solidarity with the movements of #blackLivesMatter and not evicting the residents of the SpringWater corridor
Per-person car ownership is down 7 percent since 2007 and miles driven are down 8 percent. (Photos: J.Maus/BikePortland unless noted)
Last month, we wrote about the 38,501 additional cars and trucks that would be in Multnomah County right now if its residents still owned cars at the rate they did in 2007.
What does it cost to own 38,501 cars? Or more to the point, what does it not cost to not own them?
For that post, we focused on the amount of space those nonexistent cars would take up. They’d fill a parking lot almost exactly the size of the central business district, for example.
But what about the money that isn’t being spent to move, maintain, insure and replace all those cars, and can therefore be spent on other things? How much money have Portlanders collectively saved by having a city where car ownership (or ownership of one car for each adult) feels less mandatory than it used to?
