🚨 Please note: BikePortland is currently on hiatus and only publishing guest articles. Learn more here. Thank you. - Jonathan 🙏

Comment of the Week: Bike trail advocates should take a lesson from dog parks

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No leash in Normandale Park, no problem – now.
(Photo: Michael Lin)

“When everyone breaks the rules, the rules bend.”

That was the hesitant declaration of BikePortland reader axoplasm, responding Friday morning to Thursday’s report about the organized resistance to mountain biking trails by people whose private property abuts the public land where they’d be built.

Axoplasm isn’t so much responding to this latest twist in Portland’s quest for singletrack, but more to the seeming futility of the quest itself. (As another reader, Charley, put it, “We’re not trying to build a lego tower to the moon, just open some trails to people who ride bikes.”)

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Job: Operations Manager – Motivate International (operator of BIKETOWN)

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Job Title *
Operations Manager

Company/Organization *
Motivate International (operator of BIKETOWN)

Job Description *
About BIKETOWN:

Bicycle sharing is a sustainable, healthy, and community-based transport option that enhances urban livability and mobility. Under contract with the City of Portland and with sponsorship from NIKE, Inc., Motivate International is excited to announce the beginning of its operation of Portland’s bicycle sharing program, launching this summer. The system will include 100 stations and 1,000 bikes. Motivate is the largest operator of bike share systems in North America.

Overview of Position:

The Operations Manager will have overall responsibility for the ongoing bike share operations within BIKETOWN. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: hiring, training, and managing key operational staff; overseeing station installations and moves; overall management of key functional groups, including identification of process improvements; and otherwise ensuring all safety and performance standards are met or exceeded. This position reports to the General Manager in Portland.

Responsibilities:

– Work under the direction of the General Manager to ensure successful operations.
– Oversee training, scheduling, and management of the “Street Team” to conduct bike and station repairs and daily bike redistribution.
– Lead hiring process of short-term launch team and hiring for core operations team.
– Design schedules and procedures to ensure that required customer service, station cleanliness, station maintenance, and rebalancing metrics are met and improved, as needed.
– Ensure that safety-related processes are in place and that all staff follow appropriate safety procedures.
– Work within BIKETOWN processes to manage the maintenance, distribution and cleanliness of the bikes and stations.
– Maintain a working relationship with remote customer service center staff to ensure that systems are functional and customer service needs are handled quickly and efficiently.
– Act as manager for station relocations and deployments.
– Work in partnership with the bike mechanic lead and other operations staff to ensure timely and productive workflows and continuous operational improvement.
– Manage vendor relationships and coordinate purchasing and tracking of BIKETOWN equipment and supplies, in collaboration with General Manager.
– Ensure all vehicles and equipment are maintained to -manufacturer recommendations.
– Ensure operability of all safety gear and technical equipment.
– Assist GM with metrics tracking and reporting.
– Fill gaps in operations team capacity as needed, including execution of duties in the field.
– Assist in occasional public-facing activities.
– Other duties as assigned.

Required Skills and Experience:

– 3 + years of operations/logistics background, including proven experience managing operations teams.
– High proficiency in Excel, Word, Microsoft Project, Google Applications, and the ability to learn new software.
– Valid Driver’s License and acceptable Motor Vehicle Record.
– Familiarity with Portland area geography and street layout.
– Ability to understand technical aspects of the software and the hardware capabilities and needs of a bike share system.
– Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Strong analytical and problem solving skills.
– Organized thinker, with the ability to self-direct under a high pressure environment with changing deadlines.
– Ability to coordinate and maintain strong ongoing relationships among multiple parties, including employees, manufacturers, subcontractor(s) and clients.
– Sense of humor and strong teamwork/collaboration orientation.
– Demonstrated personal and professional commitment to the vision, mission and values of sustainable transportation.
– Ability to report to work at the BIKETOWN operations center in Portland and/or field locations, as needed.
– This position may require frequent or prolonged standing, sitting, bicycling, driving, bending, stooping, and lifting up to 50 pounds.
– This position may require hours which exceed 8 hours per day and/or 40 hours per week.
– This position may require occasional travel.

Preferred Skills and Experience:
– Previous technical and/or mechanical experience is preferred

How to Apply *
Application Deadline:

Please apply on the company website. Here is the link to the application: https://www.appone.com/MainInfoReq.asp?R_ID=1272873

Applications will be accepted through April 17, 2016. Please submit your application on or before this date.

Mayoral candidate David Schor: The BikePortland Interview

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David Schor in the BikePortland office March 24. He’s pushing for a government that offers more or better services, starting with affordable housing, and charges higher taxes to provide them.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

Every mayoral candidate talks about helping low-income renters. But only David Schor has a plan for raising enough money to do so in a major way.

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Two by two: Reflections on a crash that hits close to home

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Lisa George’s recovery fund has
raised over $3,300 in just one day.

This essay is by Aleta Wright

Two women, two bikes, both 52 years of age. Two months separate our two bicycling collisions. Both of us were hit while riding lawfully in a clearly marked bike lane. We both have been smashed by the left hook. We both suffer from broken bones and recoveries of an unknown duration well into the future.

Lisa George, the woman who was hit while biking on N Williams Avenue last week, could have been me.

And the similarities don’t end there. Turns out we both have the same employer, Portland Community College. Technically, after my bike collision and two-night hospitalization it became clear that I would need to retire from PCC so that I could cash out my PERS retirement. I need to have some form of income as I complete my rounds of physical and occupational therapy. Two months out my broken bone is surely healed. I consider myself lucky to have escaped being hit, flipped and splayed across the intersection on Dartmouth in Tigard with just a broken scapula. I am blessed to be alive, ambulatory and on the way to healing and recovery.

The uninsured driver who hit me got a $200 traffic ticket.

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Get ready for NW Portland Week!

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A rare bit of cycling-specific infrastructure on NW Marshall in the Pearl District.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

The BikePortland reporting team will be stationed in northwest Portland all next week (4/11 – 4/15).

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Jobs of the Week: King, CCC, Universal, Athletes Lounge, Islabikes, Old Town Pizza

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Looking for a new place to spread you cycling wings? We’ve got six hot and fresh job opportunities for you.

Learn more about each one via the links below…

–> Lead Mechanic – Athletes Lounge

–> Sales Person – Universal Cycles

–> Customer Service Representative – Chris King Precision Components

–> Prep Cook & Bike Deliver – Old Town Pizza & Brewing

–> Mechanic and Customer Service Advisor – Islabikes

–> Bike Camp Instructor – Community Cycling Center

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We packed the bike racks at Blazers Bike Night!

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Becky Morton brought her whole family along! (And who let that weird guy with the cape bomb this photo!?)
(Photo: Becky Morton’s sister)

The seventh (not quite annual) Blazers Bike Night is in the books. We packed the bike racks at the Moda Center and the Blazers won the game and clinched a spot in the playoffs. What a great night!

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Big changes in store as BTA sets to launch new ‘Bike More Challenge’ in May

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BTA staff promoting Bike Commute Challenge-2

A rainy day for the commute challenge in September 2014.
(Photos: J.Maus/BikePortland)

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s popular and friendly competition among Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces is shifting to springtime and making some big changes.

It’s now called the “Bike More Challenge” and it starts next month instead of in September.

Other big changes for 2016: The BTA now invites participants to log all bike trips, not just work commutes; the entire contest runs on a new software platform, and you can get extra points for encouraging someone else to sign up.

“You can log your ride to the grocery store, your recreational ride, whatever,” BTA spokeswoman Sarah Newsum said Thursday. “Sometimes the bike commute is a big leap for some people, having to show up for work after biking.”

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Anti-trail group influences bike access plans for Metro’s North Tualatin Mountains project

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Hank McCurdy in a Youtube video posted
by the Tualatin Wildlife Alliance. McCurdy
lives adjacent to the Tualatin Mountains and
is opposed to new trails.

Once again improvements to cycling access in an off-road area near Portland is in jeopardy because of opposition from people who claim the new trails will harm wildlife.

Back in November we shared exciting news that Metro planned to develop two parcels (out of four) in their North Tualatin Mountains Natural Area just north of Forest Park. Unlike the City of Portland, that so far has failed to adequately manage bike access in its parks, Metro worked with mountain bike advocates from the early stages of this project in order to create a plan that included a significant amount of new singletrack trails. The first draft of the plan released in November included about 10.6 total miles of unpaved roads and trails that would be open to bikes in the Burlington Creek and McCarthy Creek parcels. We called it “a historic step forward” for off-road cycling in Portland.

But things have changed in the past four months. Metro has altered the initial plan amid increasing pressure from people who oppose biking in the area.

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