BikePortland

US DOT Secretary in Portland for ‘Smart City’ pitch, shares his views on transportation

US Transpo Sec Anthony Foxx in Portland-2.jpg

US Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in Portland yesterday.
(Photos: J. Maus/BikePortland)

It’s a united front of support for a transportation project the likes of which we’ve never seen. And hopefully U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx was just as impressed as we were.

Yesterday the Portland Bureau of Transportation hosted over 50 notable leaders and elected officials from a variety of backgrounds to sit in on a roundtable with Foxx as part of their massive effort to win the $40 million “Smart City Challenge” prize. Portland is one of seven finalists for the grant award and Foxx is currently touring each city before making a final decision in June.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Welcome to this week’s roundup! I’ve reviewed 70 videos this week so I can share the best. Today’s first video (above) combines the beauty and history of Italy with some great road bike trials riding. Brunotti is super-talented. The “reverse front manual” is especially cool. (it’s from Giro, but there are no spoilers)

Chloe Eudaly.
(Photo via Eudaly campaign)

Looks as if Portland’s sitting transportation commissioner will get to spend the next five months running against the candidate for whom he had nothing but praise Tuesday night.

Commissioner Steve Novick took 43 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election, sending him toward a runoff with what many people (including him) seemed to assume would be the relatively well-funded architect Stuart Emmons.

But Chloe Eudaly, owner of the independent bookstore Reading Frenzy and a co-founder of the Independent Publishing Resource Center and the tenant-focused Facebook community The Shed, has spent the last 20 hours first eating into Emmons’s lead, then (at 7:30 pm Wednesday) zooming past him for a lead of almost 1,000 votes.

By that point, Eudaly had 14.8 percent of the vote to Emmons’s 14.2 percent. It was a thin margin, but there are probably fewer than 10,000 votes left to be cast for either candidate (assuming that the two continue to take about 30 percent of the vote between them). Eudaly’s gains over Emmons have been not just growing but accelerating with almost every new release of ballots, making the chances of an Emmons rebound seem slim.

Susan Peithman speaking at a community forum in 2011.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

The need for culture-change at the Oregon Department of Transportation is something we talk about a lot here at BikePortland. So we were thrilled to hear that the agency is on something of a hiring binge in their active transportation section. And it comes at an important time — ODOT’s advisory body is set to adopt a major update of the state’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Mode Plan tomorrow.

The big news is that former Bicycle Transportation Alliance and PSU Transportation Research and Education Consortium staffer Susan Peithman has just been hired as the Active Transportation Policy Lead. This is a welcome injection of fresh perspective into an agency that’s trying shed its cars-first reputation. Peithman isn’t just a whip-smart advocate and former consultant (with Alta Planning + Design), she’s put her volunteer time into the policies she’s now going to help steer. Peithman, who lives in northeast Portland and is a relatively new mom, had been vice-chair of the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee for the past three years.

You might also recall Peithman’s past cycling exploits from coverage here on BikePortland. There was the time in 2012 when she was part of the winning team at the Rapha Ladies Prestige race in San Francisco, and she was also one of three Portland women who attempted to ride the entire Tour de France route. Also in 2012 Peithman was the BTA’s representative on the controversial North Williams Avenue Traffic Safety Project.

Get ready to show off your knowledge of the city while displaying your fold-and-roll skills — the Brompton Urban Challenge is coming to Portland!

#BUCPDX

Saturday, July 16th 10:00 am at Clever Cycles (900 SE Hawthorne).
2-4 riders per team (and at least 1 Brompton)
All profits benefit BikePortland.org
Registration now open

We’ve partnered up with Brompton, Ortlieb and Clever Cycles to organize a fun event for Brompton lovers of all stripes. And guess what? Proceeds from the event will benefit BikePortland.org!

This is the 2nd season of the Brompton Urban Challenge. Last year 15 cities around the world hosted an event including: Budapest, Milan, Paris, and Amsterdam. This season there are 16 Challenges around the world and this is the first year it has come to Portland (where Brompton has its USA headquarters, by the way).

We’re still planning the event and can’t wait to share more with you. Here are the details so far (taken from the official event registration page):

— The Brompton Urban Challenge (BUCPDX) is a photo-based scavenger hunt on two wheels. Participants will spend the day exploring Portland, interpreting clues and completing challenges while uploading their crafty and clever feats to social media. This is not a race! We’re here to have fun and build community.

Read more

Job: Staff Physical Therapist – Pedal PT

Job Title *
Staff Physical Therapist

Company/Organization *
Pedal PT

Job Description *
Great opportunity for a Physical Therapist to join our small, hard working, coffee + bike-loving Pedal PT team!
Our office is a full-service manual therapy-focused outpatient PT/injury care clinic, with a specialty in cycling injury + bike fitting. This position is part time (20hr/week) initially, working towards full-time as caseload and clinic volume accommodates.

Candidates should have strong interest in helping bicyclists (as well as non-cyclists alike), and would like to learn (or have pervious experience) in performing bike fitting at a clinical level. 2+ years of outpatient clinical and manual therapy experience preferred.

Benefits include:
– Bike commute to work every day(!)

– Full service bike-friendly facility: indoor bike parking, service equipment, changing rooms

– Spend quality, 1-on-1 direct care with clients- 1hour evaluations, 45min-1hr follow-up

– Full cloud-based EMR, paperless charting, billing

– Strong community involvement (Free Coffee for Bicyclists events, Community Run/Walk, Educational Clinics)

– Excellent mentoring, learning opportunities

– Be part of a small, growing independent, PT-owned + operated practice serving a unique niche in our community

– Continuing Education benefits

– Flexible scheduling/PTO benefits

– Incentive pay for clinic goals

– Simple IRA retirement contribution after 1 year

– And more!

How to Apply *
To apply, and for more information:

E-mail us at: info@pedalpt.com and be sure to include “Pedal PT – I want this job” in the headline.

Please include your resume, two (2) previous employer contact numbers, along with any other professional references you may have.

Candidates will also answer these 3 questions to be considered for interview:

1) Why do you want to join the team at Pedal PT?

2) Describe a time when you exceeded a customer/patient’s expectations

3) Briefly describe a time when you failed at something and how you handled it. What did you learn?

We look forwards to hearing from you!

Ted Wheeler is Portland’s next mayor; new local gas tax will improve streets

Ted Wheeler crosses Tilikum Crossing during Sunday Parkways in September 2015.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland

Portland’s next mayor is a Multnomah County commissioner turned state treasurer who embraced protected bike lanes and more neighborhood greenway traffic diverters from almost the start of his run for office.

Ted Wheeler was drawing 58 percent of Portland’s primary vote Tuesday night, easily defeating opponents Jules Bailey and Sarah Iannarone, among others.

Wheeler also set himself apart on transportation issues by endorsing a local gas tax to improve Portland streets on the day he announced his campaign — a position that rapidly became conventional wisdom among local politicians and won a narrow victory Tuesday night.

Bike commuter Jim Parsons in Washington County.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

The Portland metro area seems to have already discovered how to slow the growth of traffic congestion, the city’s bicycle planning coordinator said Friday. But it’s not investing in it very quickly.

Between 2000 and 2014, the three Oregon counties in the metro area added 122,000 new commuters. And inside the Metro urban growth boundary, less than half of that net growth came from people driving alone in cars.

It will close tomorrow. But by the end of summer it should be much-improved.(Graphic: Portland Parks & Recreation) — It will close tomorrow. But by the end of summer it should be much-improved.
(Graphic: Portland Parks & Recreation)

We’ve got some bad news and some good news.

The bad news is that tomorrow (Wednesday, May 18th) the Portland Parks & Recreation bureau will close a key path in Washington Park: the entrance to the park off W Burnside and NW 24th place. It might seem like a little path that isn’t important in our transportation network, but a fair number of people rely on this path as a connection between the west side and downtown Portland. Thankfully the closure will only last one day.

The original notice from PP&R didn’t include anything about a detour, but in a follow-up email here’s what they suggested: Use NW 23rd to Vista Ave, then to Park Ave into Washington Park.

I’ve had 3 instances in the past month of drivers on NW Lovejoy between 23rd and 25th passing me (on bike) with a line of cars in front of me waiting on a light or stop sign. What gives? Is it the yellow dashes in the road where there should be a double-yellow line? Maybe there shouldn’t be a line at all.

In other parts of town, I’ve noticed that cars don’t often pass a bike that is moving at 20 MPH, however in NW Portland, cars seem to want to pass me no matter what speed I am travelling. Maybe this is part of the reason why biking in NW is much less popular than we would expect.

Why am I riding here? well the NW Marshall bike route ends at NW 22nd so anyone wanting to continue towards the west hills on Cornell Road would need to end up on Lovejoy eventually.

Bikes on TV shows and the endless possibilities of cities

A scene from Episode 2 of "Girls" on HBO. — A scene from Episode 2 of “Girls” on HBO.

This post is by our “Gal by Bike” columnist Kate Laudermilk. She previously wrote about how she’s been influenced by Portland’s silly group rides.

—

There’s something noteworthy going on in movies and television lately — especially those taking place in New York City. There’s a theme that, while seldom discussed, speaks volumes: Bikes.

They can be found lurking in frame after frame of shows like “Girls“, “Broad City”, and movies like “Francis Ha”. Much like the iconic bike next to Jerry Seinfeld’s bathroom or the cruiser tucked away in Carrie Bradshaw’s hallway — but in a new New York City — one built by Janette Sadik-Kahn.

The Oregon Department of Transportation is hosting an interesting event. They’re asking people to ride a bicycle (or walk) through a work zone to see what it’s like first-hand.

The event happens tomorrow (May 18th) in front of ODOT’s headquarters in Salem where the agency has set up a temporary work zone to demonstrate how their crews are using new materials to ensure safe passage by people using feet and bikes. The event is part of the state’s Transportation Safety Month and it’s being done to help kickoff the summer road construction season.

“Have you ever ridden a bike through a work zone? Sound daunting? How does ODOT protect bicyclists and pedestrians in work zones?” reads an ODOT media advisory about the event. “Come find out! Bring your GoPros! Show the unusual perspective of riding through a work zone on two wheels.” (Love how they assume biking through a work zone is “unusual”.)

According to ODOT someone crashes in a work zone every 19 hours in Oregon (about 477 a year) and about seven people die in those crashes annually. Statistically, the most common cause of work zone crashes are people simply not paying attention and driving too fast for conditions.

US DOT Secretary in Portland for ‘Smart City’ pitch, shares his views on transportation

Weekly Video Roundup: Steel Bridge model and how highways wrecked American cities

Late returns push bookseller Chloe Eudaly toward runoff with Novick in November

Good news: ODOT just added four new staffers to head up active transportation efforts

Announcing the Brompton Urban Challenge – coming to Portland July 16th

#BUCPDX

Job: Staff Physical Therapist – Pedal PT

Ted Wheeler is Portland’s next mayor; new local gas tax will improve streets

Even in suburban Oregon, drive-alone trips are a shrinking share of new commutes

Washington Park path at Burnside and NW 24th to close for improvements

Problems riding on NW Lovejoy between 23rd-25th

Bikes on TV shows and the endless possibilities of cities

ODOT hosts event to highlight bicycle access through work zones

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