BikePortland

I just stopped a theft in progress

The bike, with light tucked under the bars
for safe(r) keeping.

It started with a gut feeling and ended with a guy riding away shaking his head after his failed attempt to steal a light off someone’s bike.

A few minutes ago I was walking on SW Oak Street between 5th and 4th on my way to the post office with two big boxes in my hands (mailing out posters to our 100 first subscribers!) when I saw a guy riding toward me. The first thing that caught my eye was that he was biking on the sidewalk. I also noticed he had an old bag slung over his shoulders. I have spidey senses for everyone on a bike downtown. I notice them all. It’s what I do. This guy in particular set off signals in my head not only because he was riding on the sidewalk but his head was on a swivel as he seemed to be checking out parked bikes.

He could have just been a generally bike-curious dude like I am. Or he could have been a thief. It was just a hunch; but a hunch that comes from years of covering bike theft and seeing how this stuff goes down. As we both came closer to a nice new Kona cyclocross bike I thought to myself: If he stares at it and then stops, gets off his bike and approaches it, I’m going to watch him closely.

And sure enough, that’s what he did.

This woman is waiting at the first-ever red light at North Cook and Vancouver.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Golden scissors, a red ribbon, coffee and pastries, television cameras and a large crowd that included Bureau of Transportation staff, business owners and neighborhood advocates.

From the looks of this morning’s event at the intersection of North Vancouver and Cook you’d think the city was celebrating the completion of a major project or milestone.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

A Hillsboro police photo from the aftermath.

Two police officers and the City of Hillsboro are on course to defend themselves in a jury trial over their choice to Taser a man who they’d stopped for biking illegally beside Tualatin Valley Highway.

The man who was tackled and Tasered in the 2012 incident, Jermaine Robinson, had been riding after dark without a front light on his bike, and the officer who stopped him says Robinson had been crossing the Southeast 13th Avenue crosswalk against a “don’t walk” light.

After the officer, William Blood, pulled his car over to confront Robinson, Robinson refused to give his name and (according to Blood, but not Robinson) seemed to be preparing to pedal away. Blood’s colleague Brian Wilber then shot him with a Taser twice.

Key concepts in the NACTO guide.
(Photos: NACTO)

After a year and a half of lobbying, the Oregon Department of Transportation has formally recommended that its street designers look for ideas in one of the country’s most progressive bikeway design books.

The Urban Bikeway Design Guide by the National Association of City Transportation Officials was one of the country’s first official documents to include design elements like protected bike lanes, bike boulevards, floating bus stops and bike-specific traffic signals. Some of its concepts are already in Oregon’s in-house bikeway design guide, but NACTO has asked allied states and cities to endorse its guide in order to lend legitimacy to the designs in less progressive states.

Metro volunteer Randi Wexler passes out a survey card at the west end of the Tilikum Bridge.
(Photo by M. Andersen/BikePortland)

Have you been wondering why someone shouted questions to you as you rode across the Tilikum Bridge today?

Freshly paved path from bridge to what will eventually be an off-highway connection to Willamette Park.
(Photo: Multnomah County)

Multnomah County has made major progress on the Sellwood Bridge project and at the start of next month they’ll flip the switch on a traffic change that will impact your bike ride.

The Portland Progress Dashboard.

Last week at the Ann Niles Transportation Lecture, Los Angeles Transportation Director Seleta Reynolds said the overwhelming majority of her job is good management, not the clever policymaking that everybody usually wants to talk about.

Here at BikePortland, we’re guilty of talking a lot about clever (or not so clever) policymaking. But this year, the Portland Bureau of Transportation is also going through some operational changes that are worth knowing about.

Under Director Leah Treat, PBOT is working to be more precise and public about the status of its many projects. And a new tool on its website looks a lot like a gimmick but is actually a pretty good new way to keep track of everything the city is up to.

Bike theft is a topic that gets lots of air play these days. We probably know the basic facts, but, curiously no one has so far produced a statistic that would help us understand the probability of having a properly U-locked bike stolen (here in town, or anywhere). Gerald Fittipaldi recently ventured that upwards of 95% of bikes stolen on the PSU campus were *not* locked with a U-lock, but beyond that all we hear are anecdotes. One would think that the Bike Theft Task Force would have some figures.

Vancouver is one of the busiest bike corridors in the city and the signal came as part of the N Williams Traffic Safety Project.

City press release below. More coverage to come…

PBOT, local organizations and community representatives to switch on new traffic signal at North Vancouver and Cook on October 14

(Oct. 12, 2015) On Wednesday, October 14, Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Leah Treat will join local businesses and community members to activate the new traffic signal at North Vancouver and Cook and highlight the positive impact of the North Vancouver Avenue and Cook Street Local Improvement District.

Read more

In their own words, here’s what Portlanders are saying about Clinton traffic diverters

In their open-ended comments about traffic diverters and speed bumps proposed for Southeast Clinton Street, one Portlander after another has chimed in to support the concept of making Portland’s most important bikeways more comfortable to bike on.

“Please fix things before my girlfriend moves to Detroit,” one frustrated Clinton Street user wrote.

As we reported last month, people who’ve participated in the city’s very public open house and its online survey have been overwhelmingly in favor of the diverters. But as fans and critics of the city’s plan both organize politically, the city has received memorable comments on both sides of the issue. Here’s a selection of what they said, lifted from results of the open house and online survey that we requested under the state’s open records law.

Starr Walker raced her bike yesterday,
and it was stolen just a few hours ago.
(Photo: PolerCX/Instagram)

Three seemingly unrelated bike thefts in the past four days have Portland’s close-knit racing community feeling frustrated and fed up.

It started Thursday night and we just got word of another bike stolen a few hours ago. In that period five high-end racing bikes have been nabbed by thieves. The incidents don’t appear to be connected, but it’s rare that so many expensive bikes used for racing would be stolen in such a short period of time.

Please be on the lookout for these bikes:

— Shawn Small, founder of Ruckus Composites, got his custom mountain bike stolen last Thursday night. The bike is a one-off that he made and custom-painted himself. He has ridden it on the Oregon Outback and raced it at a 24-hour event. The bike was stolen from Southeast Portland. See details and photos below…

I just stopped a theft in progress

Why the new traffic signal at N Cook and Vancouver is such a big deal

Federal trial lined up for police who Tasered Hillsboro man after bike infraction

Oregon is 8th state to officially endorse progressive street design guide

Metro is doing a 12-hour bicycling survey on the Tilikum Bridge today

Checking in on the Sellwood Bridge project

Full speed ahead: City’s new transportation dashboard tracks progress

How Much (Statistical) Protection Do U-Locks Offer?

New traffic signal at N Vancouver and Cook will be turned on Wednesday

In their own words, here’s what Portlanders are saying about Clinton traffic diverters

Theft of several high-end race bikes has Portlanders on edge

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From the Archives

With six kids and no car, this mom does it all by bike