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

City hires project manager for high-profile downtown protected bike lane project

The project management gig that one local planning pro has referred to as the “job of the year” has been filled.

Rick Browning, an architect and urban designer with a long history in Portland, will start work May 28 on a federally funded project that’s widely expected to implement the first substantial protected bike lanes in downtown Portland — indeed, some of the only low-stress bike infrastructure in downtown, which has by far the city’s highest concentration of bike commuters.

The $6.6 million Central City Multimodal Safety Project might also look for ways to improve the awkward bike connections to bridges like the Burnside, Steel and Hawthorne or even crossings of Interstate 405 to the west.

As it has been in other U.S. cities over the last few years, the downtown protected bike lanes would be a companion project to a planned bike sharing system that the city continues to say will launch in 2016.

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Job: Customer Service Representative – Stages Cycling – FILLED

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Sorry, this job has been filled. Browse more great jobs here.

Job Title
Customer Service Representative

Company/Organization
Stages Cycling

Job Description
We are adding two new members to our Customer Service team, and looking for friendly, thoughtful, technically minded individuals to assist in communication and technical support.

-One Full Time CSR (M-F 9-6)

-One Part Time CSR (Sat-Mon, hours TBD)

– Provide sales and technical support to our domestic consumer and dealer accounts
– Communicate with customers via inbound and outbound phone calls and internet contact
– Interact with other departments in Portland and Boulder office through appropriate channels
– Work directly with warranty team to achieve timely resolution as needed
– Respond to customer service “tickets” submitted via email, the website, and social media
– Provide exceptional customer experience in all communications with customers
– Stay up to date on internal communication regarding our product updates, relevant competitor products, industry developments, internal processes, customer facing processes, warranty and other technical support processes, trouble-shooting techniques, and other relevant information
– Participate in Customer Service team meetings and trainings
– Other tasks and projects as assigned

QUALIFICATIONS AND EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS

Knowledge of and experience with common bicycle drivetrains and components, especially in regard to bottom bracket standards. High level of organizational skills. High level of flexibility and creative problem solving. Ability to work independently and self-manage duties and tasks. Ability to use customer management and order processing systems, with training. High level communication and interpersonal skills, including high-volume telephone and written correspondence.

Intermediate communication skills: Ability to read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, and procedure manuals. Ability to write routine reports and correspondence. Ability to speak effectively with customers or employees of Foundation Fitness/Stages Cycling.

Intermediate math skills: Ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts and percentages. Ability to apply concepts of basic math.

High reasoning skills: Ability to solve practical problems and deal with a variety of concrete variables in situations where only limited standardization exists. Ability to interpret a variety of instructions furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form.

How to Apply
Please send resume to jobs@stagescycling.com, along with a short cover letter detailing your background and why you feel you’d be a good fit for this position.

Stages Cycling is an Equal Opportunity Employer for all applicants and employees.

Update on SE Powell collision: Driver has 2 careless driving convictions and Mayor mentions protest

Screenshot-2015-05-10-at-11.15.12-AM-540x268

On the mayor’s radar.

A few updates to our top story:

— The man who was driving the truck that collided with Alistair Corkett on Sunday has two prior convictions for Careless Driving. According to our legal sources, 42-year-old Barry Allen was charged with Careless Driving in November 2013 and Careless Driving and Unsafe Operation of a Vehicle in May 2009. Allen was convicted on both charges after failing to appear. He has two other prior run-ins with the law, including convictions in 1998 for driving without insurance and failure to renew his automobile registration.

Allen has not been cited for a traffic violation. As per standard procedure, the Portland Police Bureau will complete their investigation than hand the case over to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office. After the DA makes a decision about criminal charges, the police would then decide whether or not to issue a citation.

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A third-party view of that u-lock-throwing-road-rage story

ulocker

Screen Grab from OregonLive.com. David Robinson
is on the right.

You know the drill. A provocative photo and/or incident illustrates the long-running “bikes vs cars!” narrative and then all heck breaks loose. Comment sections light up, the BikeSnob takes his cut, then the story gets piled onto our collective mental legacy about how we get along — or don’t — out on the streets.

Over the years I’ve gotten tired of these types of stories. The fact is, people yelling at each other and doing emotionally-charged things to each other is not news. It might be worth publishing if you’re in the content business, but if you ride a bike everyday you’ll know that jerk behavior — on both sides of the windshield — happens all the time.

Given how much attention the recent U-lock throwing incident got (over 1,600 comments on OregonLive!), I didn’t even plan to post anything about it.

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Utah and Massachusetts jump past Oregon in bike-friendly state rankings

Look Forward

Riding in Salt Lake City.
(Photo: Jake Cain)

For the second time since the League of American Bicyclists began ranking U.S. states’ bike-friendliness in 2008, Oregon didn’t make the top five.

As it has in every year, Washington led the 2015 ranking that the League announced on Monday. Washington was followed this year by Minnesota, Delaware, Massachusetts and Utah, then Oregon at sixth.

Though Oregon’s slip from third in 2013 (its all-time peak) to fifth last year to sixth this year certainly has echoes of the recent #DowngradePortland campaign launched by local bike advocates in an effort to persuade the League to rescind Portland’s “platinum” rating as a bike city, this statewide ranking is different. It’s also a ranking rather than a rating system, based on a 100-point scale that the League bases on a national questionnaire.

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Campaign looks to raise $50,000 for man who lost leg in Sunday’s collision

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward
alistair

Screen grab from GoFundMe.com.

Bryant Howard, the cycling coach of the victim in Sunday’s collision has started a fundraising campaign to help offset medical expenses. Alistair Corkett lost his leg when he was involved in a collision with a man driving a truck on SE 26th Avenue at Powell.

In the last hour the “Put Alistair back on his bike” campaign has already raised nearly $2,000 and the goal is set at $50,000.

Howard’s message posted at GoFundMe.com says Corkett is currently in the intensive care unit at OHSU where he’s recovering from his first round of surgeries. “As you can imagine,” it says, “he’s in a great deal of pain and is facing a lot of uncertainty about the road ahead.”

Here’s more from the message:

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