The Monday Roundup: Finnish urbanism, cities defying DOTs and more

helsinki

Helsinki plans to add 250,000 residents by 2050 by
creating a “networked” transportation system
that would make a combination of modes more useful
than car ownership.
(Renderings: Helsinki Strategic Urban Planning Division)

Happy holidays! Things will still be a little slower than usual on BikePortland this week but we’ll have new posts each day this week. To start things off, here are the bike links from around the world that caught our eyes:

Finnish urbanism: If your children become urban planners, it looks like they’ll be taking study tours of Helsinki to see how it’s done.

Civic disobedience: Is your state’s DOT blocking cities from making their streets safer, fairer and more prosperous? Then your city’s DOT should take a lesson from the gay marriage movement and start making changes without permission, argues Transport Providence.

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Southeast Ankeny and 15th may get new diverter this spring, city says

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
ankeny at 15th

The corner of Southeast Ankeny at 15th, midafternoon on Tuesday. The Imago Dei church is on the left.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

One of the city’s first bike boulevards may be on its way to a quick upgrade.

Southeast Ankeny Street would get additional speed bumps and a new diagonal traffic diverter at 15th under a plan advanced by advocacy group BikeLoudPDX, endorsed by Portland Bicycle Planning Coordinator Roger Geller and tentatively backed by the Buckman Community Association.

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Q&A: Earl Blumenauer is a little bit worried for the city he helped build

Blumenauer interview-1

Congressman Earl Blumenauer: on the inside looking out — and hoping for a generation of advocates to pass the torch to.
(Photos: J.Maus and M.Andersen/BikePortland)

The biggest problem in Earl Blumenauer’s professional life will never be holding onto his job. There aren’t many safer gigs in the country.

Instead, Blumenauer’s challenge is how to make his job count. And one way he’s done so has nothing to do with Congress.

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Collision on Springwater a reminder to ride cautiously on shared paths

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Springwater path in Boring.
(Photo: Clackamas County)

On Friday I picked up an incoming call on the BikePortland hotline and heard a very sad story.

Mary LaLiberte, an “almost 70-year-old” by her own description, called to share her experience on the Springwater Corridor path outside her home in rural Boring, Oregon. On November 30th, Mary was walking on the path when someone riding a bike zoomed up from behind her.

As the man approached came up from behind her, all she heard was “Left!,” so she moved to the left, only to step right in his path. “And he was going so fast he wasn’t able to stop in time.”

“He was going so fast when he collided with me,” she recalled, “that I actually flew up into the air and hit the pavement.” The man who hit her was riding “one of those very skinny-wheeled bikes” and was in “full racing regalia,” Mary said. She told her friends that she, “Got nuked by Lance Armstrong’s brother.”

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The Monday Roundup: Philly’s racetrack gamble, a bike trailer camper and more

sheward partnership velodrome

A proposed bike race track in
Philadelphia.
(Rendering: Sheward Partnership)

Here are the great bike links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:

Racetrack gamble: As Minnesota’s only velodrome considers closing rather than putting up $850,000 for repairs, a private company is building a $100 million bike racing arena in Philadelphia.

Bike camping: You can now purchase a camper trailer for your bike. (Hope for low winds.)

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Comment of the Week: Lawsuits, the quiet pressure behind city decisions

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
clinton speed

Traffic on SE Clinton.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

As we wrote beneath the last Comment of the Week post, BikePortland has decided to be the only blog we’re aware of that pays for great comments. The person whose thoughts we select for this feature gets a crisp $5 bill in the mail, as a way for us to appreciate the site’s amazing discussion community. So watch your email — we might be in touch.

Street safety matters to cities. So does street comfort. But only one of those issues will land you in court.

That’s the insight shared this week by BikePortland reader paikiala, responding to the discussion on Wednesday’s post about a guerrilla traffic diverter installed on Clinton by anonymous activists.

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PBOT hopes new signs, markings fix tricky Williams Ave intersection

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Williams Ave & Stanton - observations-4

The person in the truck was legally required to turn left at this intersection; but a weak design — coupled with a bad decision by the vehicle’s operator — led to an abrupt merge in tight quarters with other road users.
(Photos by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Now that construction of the North Williams Safety Project has nearly wrapped up, it’s time to address how specific parts the new design are working — and how they’re not.

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Weekend Event Guide: Holiday lights, braving the elements, makers, and more

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
Riders in the storm-16

Don’t let the rain keep you down. (Rob Sadowsky doesn’t.)
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to your menu of weekend rides and events, lovingly brought to you by our friends at Hopworks Urban Brewery.

You know what’s great about this town? Even with the cold/wet weather and the holiday season craziness, there are still fun bike rides and events to take part in.

Whether you are looking for a group ride or an event that lets you connect with other biking fans, there’s something for you in the roundup below. I have a feeling many of your bike rides this weekend will be of the shopping variety. If you do plan on doing some gift-buying by bike, remember to lock up your bike well and don’t let yourself become a bike prowl victim by leaving stuff in your bike bags.

Have a great weekend!

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The BikePortland Podcast will again take your questions

BikePortland Podcast crew

Team Podcast: Michael Andersen (L), Lillian Karabaic,
and Jonathan Maus.
(Photo: BikePortland)

It’s the end of the year, and that means the next couple weeks here on BikePortland will be rich with retrospectives and analysis from 2014 and predictions for 2015.

One of those will be part of a new tradition: the annual question show on our podcast. This is a fun endeavor where the three of us — Jonathan, me, and producer Lillian Karabaic — take questions from listeners and others and address as many as we can, on air, in 25 minutes. The only restriction: the questions somehow have to be about either the year past or the year to come.

Last year, we tackled subjects like proper use of crosswalks, the latest improvements to the Springwater Trail and the Nobel Prize for Physics.

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City makes deal to legalize Uber, sharpening deadline for safety requirements

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
Riding Portland's urban highways-8

Uber inside?
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

If Portland’s street safety advocates hope to put special requirements on Uber drivers, they’d better move fast.

On Thursday afternoon, city officials reached a deal that will make Uber and similar ride-summoning services legal by April 9. In exchange, Uber promised to suspend its service in the city starting on Sunday.

According to Willamette Week, the first local outlet to report on the city’s deal:

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From the Archives

The good, the bad, and the ugly on the Oregon Coast Bike Route