BikePortland

Metro releases plan for $50 million Hillsboro-to-Banks biking and walking path

Red: short-term. Green: mid-term.
Blue: long-term.
(Image: Metro)

An arrow-straight railside trail between Hillsboro and Forest Grove would be one of the first phases of a planned bikeway through the heart of Washington County.

The Council Creek Regional Trail is a vision for a mostly off-road connection between Hillsboro, Forest Grove and Banks — which will also connect the westernmost stop in the MAX system with some of Oregon’s best rural bike routes, including the beloved Banks-Vernonia Trail and a possible future connection to the Pacific Coast.

When we last checked in on the planning process, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance was urging planners to choose the shorter, straighter “Rail 1” route between Hillsboro and Banks rather than a winding creekside alternative to the north.

According to the master plan published last month, the straight railside route was chosen, meaning that this is also likely to become, someday, a popular transportation connection west of Hillsboro.

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Front of Southwest Bicycle on Multnomah Blvd.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Another day, another story to share about bike theft.

This time it happened in southwest Portland, far away from our usual reports of the daily thievery that plagues the central city. And it happened at a bike shop.

Nate Gibson, an employee of Southwest Bicycle on the corner of Multnomah and Capitol Hwy, says someone took two new bikes they had on display in their parking lot right outside their front door. This isn’t Nate’s first brush with bike theft. You might recall his heroic role in wresting back a high-end racing bike from a thief this past summer.

Nate tells us the theft happened last night as he was closing up the shop. Here’s his version of events:

ODOT has finished up their big project on Denver Avenue north of downtown Kenton. Check out the announcement below and stay tuned to our Front Page for photos and thoughts soon…

ODOT, Kenton mark completion of North Denver Avenue area improvements

The Oregon Department of Transportation is inviting neighbors to help celebrate the completion of its Oregon 99W: N. Victory Blvd. – N. Argyle St. Project during a short event at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 24 the Paul Bunyan Plaza in Kenton, 8433 N. Interstate Ave.

During the event, participants will hear about the project from ODOT and neighborhood leaders. Project staff will then provide walking and bike tours of the newly improved facilities.

“We want to thanks the neighbors and local businesses for their patience and cooperation during the construction,” said ODOT Region 1 Manager Rian Windsheimer. “These improvements will contribute to the growing vitality of Kenton and will create a safer experience in the corridor for all users,” he said.

The improvements include:

Image from TriMet video of serious injury collision

TriMet has just released a statement about the collision on the Tilikum Bridge on October 11th that left Carole Barkley with serious injuries.

Read the statement and watch the video below:

Plans for downtown Milwaukie’s bike network.
(Image: Milwaukie)

One year after Milwaukie voters elected two vocally bike-friendly politicians to their city council, Milwaukie is lining up some significant investments.

The biggest new one in the works, a crosstown neighborhood greenway on Monroe Street, will get its first public meeting at city council on Nov. 3.

“We have consensus on council to make this a top priority,” Milwaukie City Councilor Karin Power said in an interview Wednesday about the city’s work on an “all-inclusive bike-, pedestrian- and street-safety program.”

Milwaukie doesn’t have a citizen biking or pedestrian advisory committee. But public support for biking and walking improvements has led to something interesting: the city’s public safety committee has broadened its focus and is now taking a lead role on infrastructure planning.

Carole Barkley (before the collision).
(Photo: David Loftus)

It has happened. And I hate to say that I’m not surprised.

On Sunday October 11th, Carole Barkley was hit by a man riding a bike near the Tilikum Bridge. The woman was walking her dog (the dog was not injured) near the west end of the new bridge when the collision occurred.

We received the email below last week from David Loftus, Carol’s husband (emphases mine):

“My wife was hit, hard, by a cyclist near the west end of Tilikum Crossing bridge on Sunday morning about 9 a.m. The collision knocked her down and put her in the hospital for more than two days with four broken ribs, a separated shoulder, a chipped vertebra, lots of cuts and abrasions, and attacks of vertigo.

She was walking our six-pound dog (who was fortunately unhurt), and specifically waited for the pedestrian crossing signal at the east end of the Orange Line MAX platform. Presumably the cyclist had a red light, but my suspicion is that he wasn’t looking for a signal under the presumption that he’d passed the big intersection at Moody and Meade and was free to climb the bridge heading east.

Read more

Bike lane blockage (and what you can do about it)

We’ve all seen it. Probably dozens of times. A sign or other hazard placed in a bike lane by a construction crew doing official work in the public right-of-way.

On Monday, BikePortland subscriber Kim Isaacson saw a particularly egregious case of this. Kim was riding south in the bike lane on SW Broadway. As he rolled toward the I-405 overcrossing at SW Jackson he came across a large reader-board sign. The sign was completely blocking the bike lane.

Being the well-informed citizen that he is, Kim took a few photos and emailed the City of Portland as soon as possible. To help ensure her issue would get some attention, Kim emailed not only safe@portlandoregon.gov, but also the city’s permitting manager and PBOT spokesman Dylan Rivera. He also cc’d BikePortland.

The issue on Clinton.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Here’s the latest on the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s effort to decrease the amount of people driving on SE Clinton…

A trial traffic diverter is now set to be installed at Southeast Clinton Street and 32nd Avenue, instead of Clinton and 29th as first proposed. In addition to the east-west diverter, it’ll use semi-diverters to prevent turns onto Clinton from 32nd while allowing traffic on Clinton to turn either north or south.

That’s in addition to the trial diverter planned at Clinton and 17th.

That revised proposal has raised objections from some neighbors, just as the initial one did. While some nearby residents are reportedly organizing to oppose the latest plan — possibly at a mostly unrelated town hall this evening attended by Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales — the city has delayed installation to allow a second open house early next month.

The Signal will offer extensive bike parking and car parking spaces will be optional.
(Rendering courtesy Metro)

Beaverton is looking to get a slice of Portland’s walkable-bikeable apartment boom.

Tomorrow morning, developers and city officials will break ground at the vacant lot at Southwest First Street and Angel Avenue in Beaverton’s streetcar-era Old Town neighborhood, officially kicking off construction of The Signal.

The four-story building will be about two blocks from Beaverton High School, half a mile from the Beaverton Transit Center and 2.5 miles from Nike headquarters.

Kyle Gunsul’s stolen Kuota.

This article was submitted by Bryan Hance of Bike Index. It originally appeared on his blog at BikeIndex.org.

The theft

Just over nine months ago, someone broke into Kyle Gunsul’s house and stole his bike.

They did a good job, too. Portland locals might remember Kyle’s post to the local racing listserv detailing his burglary:

“… (the burglar) removed the porch light, broke a locked gate, came through a window, busted down two security cameras and busted through another gate. They ONLY took the bike. They were feet away from my living room with computer and stereos but they knew what they were coming for. Was definitely cased.”

In addition to registering with Bike Index, Kyle got the word out. Photos of his stolen Kuota Kharma made the rounds on Nextdoor, Twitter, Facebook, and the usual local bike email lists. After that, though, Kyle’s bike did what most stolen bikes do – it disappeared.

Until July.

There’s a fantastic pair of events coming to town on Thursday.

Remember David Bragdon? Yep, our former Metro president. Well, he went off and moved to New York and worked for the Bloomberg administration for a while. Now he’s leading a non-profit called TransitCenter, a group that advocates for “improving urban mobility.”

TransitCenter is sponsoring two events on 10/22 that will offer lessons and insights about the “role of citizen activism influencing transportation reform.” Learn more in the press releases below.

“There ought to be some higher level of consequence when you use a deadly weapon to kill someone, even if you didn’t do it on purpose.”
— Ray Thomas, lawyer at Swanson Thomas Coon & Newton

There’s a gap in Oregon law that has outraged citizens and hamstrung prosecutors for many years. It’s a gap that makes it all too common for someone to receive a mere traffic citation when their actions while operating a vehicle lead directly to a serious injury or fatality.

This maddening situation first made major headlines here on BikePortland following our tragic October of 2007 when Tracey Sparling and Brett Jarolimek where killed in traffic collisions. In both cases the person behind the wheel of a large truck turned across a bicycle lane that was already occupied and two people died as a result. Despite those actions, the District Attorney declined to pursue criminal charges in either case.

The problem here isn’t with the DA’s office. The DA is constrained by Oregon law which currently has a yawning gap between the culpability threshold of a traffic ticket and a more serious criminal charge.

“There ought to be some higher level of consequence when you use a deadly weapon to kill someone, even if you didn’t do it on purpose.” That’s how noted lawyer Ray Thomas described the problem to us when we published a story about this gap in 2010.

Metro releases plan for $50 million Hillsboro-to-Banks biking and walking path

Two new bikes stolen from outside Southwest Bicycle

ODOT completes new path, other changes to North Denver Ave

TriMet releases video, statement on Tilikum collision

Milwaukie carves a new path: widespread support for better biking

Woman walking near Tilikum Bridge suffers serious injuries in collision with bicycle rider

Bike lane blockage (and what you can do about it)

City pushes Clinton diverter proposal to 32nd, sets new open house

New 78-unit apartment will include downtown Beaverton’s first bike wash

Guest article: A stolen bike that took nine months to recover

The theft

Event: Community activism and transportation reform

Wonk Night (10/26) will focus on Oregon’s negligence gap

Latest Headlines

‘Better Sheridan’ project brings safer street to South Waterfront

Your guide to finding the ‘Wildwood’ crows by bike

My journey to that ‘Hard Rock glow’

Off-Road Cycling Master Plan: A decade later, what has changed?

From the Archives

The 10 busiest bicycling spots in Portland