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

BikePortland is 10 years old. Let’s have a party!

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Can you believe we’ve survived for 10 years?

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Michael and I recording our subscription
promo video a few nights ago.
(Photo by Guthrie Straw)

A full decade of your comments, crazy stories, controversies, tragedies, triumphs, rides, meetings… It has been one hell of a journey.

As of this morning we’ve published 11,281 Front Page stories and 307,136 comments. That’s a lot of memories!

We have so much to celebrate. Thanks in large part to your recent outpouring of support (we’re up to $16,000 and counting!), I am relieved and excited to say that BikePortland has never been stronger.

To look back at our amazing decade and start the next decade off on the right foot, please help us celebrate.

Roll on over to Velo Cult (1969 NE 42nd) on October 2nd for our 10th birthday bash.

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We’ll have a cake, food, wonderful drinks of all kinds, live music, a prize raffle, a speech or two, and a whole lot more. Bring your best and worst BikePortland memories. In the spirit of how we do things around here, everyone will be welcome to step up to the mic and share their thoughts and perspectives about our little blog.

Name tags will be provided if you want to share your username in hopes of meeting your dearly beloved comment-friends.

Oh, and what’s this I hear about a new subscription program? Show up, learn all about it, and then sign-up to help us keep BikePortland strong for another 10 years.

You are all such a huge part of what we do that I couldn’t imagine marking this milestone without you.

    BikePortland’s 10th Birthday Party
    October 2nd at 6:00 pm
    Velo Cult Bike Shop and Tavern (1969 NE 42nd)
    Families encouraged! It’s an all-ages venue
    Facebook event

Hope to see you on the 2nd!

What’s the point of bike share? This survey explains it well

Bike share demo-11-10

A bike share demo in Portland, 2011.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

In the last two days, we’ve reported in detail about the new bike-sharing system that Portland finally seems poised to secure next week.

All of these operational details have prompted a lot of discussion around a simple, fundamental question that everybody (including me, when I started reporting on bike sharing four years ago) tends to struggle with. What exactly is the point of bike sharing?

The charts below should help a lot.

Read more

Reed College renames Bike Co-Op for Mark Angeles

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
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Screentshot from Reed Magazine blog.

The Reed College Bike Co-Op is now named the Mark Angeles Memorial Bike Co-Op.

Mark Angeles was the 22-year-old Reed graduate who was killed in a collision while biking on SE Gladstone back in May. Angeles was an active member of the Reed community and was manager of the Co-Op.

“Mark Angeles had an enduring impact on the lives of students, staff, faculty and many others beyond Reed,” wrote Reed’s Vice President for Student Services Mark Brody in an email last week. “We miss him dearly.”

On Tuesday Angeles’ friends and family organized a memorial event and bicycle ride in his honor.

Read more

As city preps for public bike share, it weighs rules for a private competitor

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
spinlister parking

Will the bikes keep circulating?
PBOT thinks it’s important that they do.
(Image: Screen grab from Spinlister video)

Fourth in our four-post series about bike sharing in Portland.

Portland’s prospects for a public bike share system are looking as good as they ever have. Three of the city’s five council members said Wednesday that they’re excited to back a bike share deal, and a staffer for a fourth told us the proposal “looks great so far.”

Meanwhile, a different launch still seems to be in the works: a completely private bike-sharing system, a new product scheduled to be tested here in Portland by the peer-to-peer bike rental firm Spinlister.

Read more

Long-delayed Portland bike share rose from the dead. Here’s why that might make it better

Bike share demo-9-8

A 2011 bike share demo in Portland. The city has scrapped its 2012 plan and is rebooting with a unique set of new ideas.
(Photos: J.Maus/BikePortland unless noted)

Second in a four-post series today about bike sharing in Portland.

There’s a case to be made against Portland’s new bike share plan. But that’s coming in a few hours.

First, let’s consider a more interesting argument: the possibility that because of its three-year series of mishaps, Portland could wind up with a much better system than it would have without them.

Read more

Portland overhauls bike share plan, braces to launch with or without a sponsor

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Next week, Portland will consider a contract to put 600 “smart bikes” like this one (from Orlando’s Juice system) on the street by next July at no cost to the city.
(Photo: City of Orlando)

First in a four-post series today about bike sharing in Portland.

Nine years after being one of the first U.S. cities to float the concept, the City of Portland plans to announce today that it’s finally ready to launch a public bike sharing system.

The key to the plan, which would be required to launch by July 2016: the city is planning to skip a generation of bike-sharing technology and launch a system that uses “smart bikes” with built-in GPS and self-locking mechanisms. The revised system would be 20 percent smaller but about 55 percent cheaper than the one the city originally planned.

Read more

PBOT adding full-time staffer to help implement Vision Zero projects

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(PBOT graphic)

The City of Portland is continuing on their march toward Vision Zero.

After City Council unanimously passed a resolution supporting the concept back in June and followed it up with a spirited kick-off event last month, they are now hiring a full-time staffer to help make it a reality.

The Transportation Safety Program Specialist position will pay between $59,000 and $79,000 per year depending on experience and qualifications.

Here’s the official job description from the City’s jobs page:

Read more

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