Another notch in the growing enthusiasm around this year’s Bike Summer (a.k.a. Pedalpalooza) festival happened in southeast Portland last night. Fans of the three-month-long cycling smorgasbord rolled into a parking lot off Southeast Belmont and 34th for the first ever Bike Summer Merch Pick-up Party.
DJ Ninety6Vino set the mood with chill tunes while flanked by colorful balloons, vendors shared their art, and lots of great folks got together with a shared eagerness to adorn themselves and their bike with Bike Summer pennants and shirts.
The event was held in the parking lot outside Rendered.co, the screen printing company responsible for Bike Summer’s posters and other items. They were helping folks print their own free, custom-designed bandannas. Also on hand was Nia Musiba, the 2024 Bike Summer Artist and a bunch of other cool people.
Armando Luna, the “Bike Fun Mayor of Portland” shows off his free bandanna!Vin on the turntables.Christian, Ernesto, and Esteban.
I chatted with Musiba, Bike Summer Director Meghan Sinnott, and several ride leaders and Bike Summer superfans in the video above. Watch it here or over on Instagram.
Traffic on the St. Johns Bridge. View is looking east toward Forest Park. Note that the sidewalk width of five feet does not meet standards for a “shared-use” facility, which means bicycle riders have less legal standing to use it. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
The St. Johns Bridge should have bike lanes. And it could have, if advocates nearly two decades ago chose to sue the Oregon Department of Transportation when the state agency completed a major renovation and failed to seize a golden opportunity to provide adequate bicycling access.
I recently spent time observing traffic on the bridge and came away even more shocked at how unacceptably inaccessible the bridge is for everyone not inside a car or truck. When I first shared images from that day over on Instagram, the response reminded me how many people share my concerns for what this bridge is like today, and my dreams for what it could become in the future.
Before I share some of those responses, let’s recall our history…
Four lanes for drivers in 1931. Four lanes for drivers in 2024. Maybe time for an update? (Library of Congress)
In 2003, ODOT began a major rehabilitation project. They spent $38 million to replace and repave the deck, repaint the towers, upgrade the lights and so on. But before ODOT re-striped the lanes with the same four lane, 40-foot wide cross-section the bridge had when it opened in 1931, they considered an alternative plan. ODOT put together an advisory committee (that included representatives from a bike advocacy group, TriMet, freight business owners, and so on) and commissioned a report from an engineering firm to analyze options and inform the decision.
In 2003, David Evans & Associates published that report. And guess what? They determined there would be, “No capacity constraints or operational flaws on the bridge that would prohibit the implementation of any of the striping options.” Central to this finding was that all roads that lead onto the bridge have just one lane in each direction and are controlled by traffic signals. Their analysis showed that while travel time across the bridge would increase (exact amount I’m not sure of), traffic would only slow and there would be no congestion on the deck.
But despite that study, despite clear concerns about safety and demands for bike lanes that bubbled up during the City of Portland’s 2004 St. Johns/Lombard Plan, and despite grumblings from the nonprofit Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now The Street Trust) and other bike advocates, ODOT caved to pressure from freight advocates and re-striped the deck exactly as it had been for the previous 74 years.
Families headed home from Forest Park and a multi-day ride in Washington County, negotiate the lane.(Photos: Jonathan Maus)
ODOT’s final decision on the striping plan came just one month after I started BikePortland, and I haven’t done the research to fully understand what happened. But I do know how it made me feel. My first post on the subject on May 12th, 2005 was published a few days after I heard the news and you can sense my anger from the get-go.
The Street Trust also objected to ODOT’s decision, saying in an op-ed published to their website that, “Under pressure from special interests, ODOT simply ignored the facts at hand. The result, if it is allowed to go forward, is a bridge that will continue to be unsafe for the quarter of the area’s residents who cannot drive.”
Portlanders tried to object. Letters were written to the Oregon Transportation Commission, there was even a naked bike ride protest, but ODOT ignored it all. They claimed a minor widening of the existing sidewalk and larger alcoves were “bike safety improvements,” but the truth was then — and remains today — that the sidewalk is not even technically wide enough for bicycle riders to share with walkers and riding a bike on the bridge is a harrowing experience.
ODOT installed sharrows seven years later. While I appreciate having my legal right to the road reinforced, those tiny patches of paint don’t do much for my blood pressure when drivers are bearing down on me at 35-plus mph.
Scene from the Mitch York Memorial and Protest Ride on November 3, 2016. Ghost bike for Mitch York. (Photos: Jonathan Maus)
Garrett’s contrition validated for me why many of us felt The Street Trust should have sued ODOT for failure to comply with the Oregon Bicycle Bill that requires the agency to build adequate bike facilities whenever a road is reconstructed. I never learned exactly why they didn’t file that lawsuit, but I recall hearing there was some concern they might lose on a technicality and the precedent would end up weakening the Bike Bill in the future.
I can’t change the past, but I’ll never forget ODOT’s role in making us so unsafe on this bridge that I love and hate with equal passion.
Cross-section concepts by Ben Guernsey. (@benguernsey)
“Even with good skills and being comfortable at speed in traffic,” wrote Portlander Ira Ryan in an Instgram comment. “I still feel like each trip over the bridge could be my last… It only takes one glance at a phone by a driver to kill a human on a bike. Terrifying.”
Another commenter who walks across the bridge four times per week said, “I have long wished for a protected bike/ped lane on each side… I wait for a truck mirror to hit my head.”
One reader, Ben Guernsey, even created a conceptual design of how he’d change the lane configuration to be safer for everyone.
While I think Ben’s idea should be given serious consideration, the ultimate solution is to get freight traffic off the bridge entirely. These large, loud, fume-laden trucks should have a bridge of their own so they aren’t routed through downtown St. Johns and dense residential areas. And that’s exactly what is recommended in ODOT’s Westside Multimodal Improvements Study that wrapped up late last year.
Whatever steps we take next can’t come soon enough. As these photos show, there’s clear demand by non-drivers to use our beautiful, iconic bridge without fearing for their lives, shouting to hear companions over the traffic noise, or breathing toxic exhaust. Surely we can re-imagine this bridge before the its centennial celebration in 2031.
It must include these vital connections… Anything less would be yet another missed opportunity at a time where we cannot afford them.
– PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee
In a strongly worded letter to Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Millicent Williams, the city’s Bicycle Advisory Committee has called on PBOT to expand the scope of its 4th Avenue Improvement Project. The May 16th letter urges the city to fill a “critical gap” in the connection to downtown from the south — and from OHSU — and lists further improvements that should be completed “within the time frame of the current SW 4th Avenue Improvements Project.”
The BAC effort stands in contrast to the curious episode earlier this month when the Portland Metro Chamber (formerly the Portland Business Alliance) thrust the 4th Avenue project into the news with a letter to Commissioner Mingus Mapps calling on him to cancel it. Mapps and city staff have since assured the community it’s moving forward as planned.
The BAC’s letter focuses on an area south of the project boundary and is a follow-up to a committee discussion we covered back in March about how to get bicycle riders from SW Terwilliger/6th over to the new infrastructure coming to SW 4th. The BAC wants the 4th Avenue project expanded and says its current scope is “missing a major opportunity.”
Here’s an excerpt from the letter that lays out their argument:
With SW Broadway improvements ending at SW Clay Street, and SW 4th Avenue improvements currently planned to end at SW Sheridan, neither project fills the critical gap to Terwilliger envisioned by Southwest in Motion [an already-adopted PBOT plan] to connect a neighborhood with 10% of the city’s population and a major medical service provider and Portland’s single largest employer to the Central City. This represents only one of three feasible routes to the Central City; the other two involve cresting the West Hills or surviving Barbur Boulevard which is a high speed High Crash Corridor owned and largely ignored by ODOT.
Specifically, the letter urges PBOT to include the following additions to the 4th Avenue project:
Add a right turn bike box on Terwilliger/6th at Sheridan to prevent congestion queueing in the existing bike lane
Bike lanes on both the left and right sides of Sheridan from 6th to 4th Avenues to maintain the existing right-side bike lane for people turning right to go south on Barbur, while also empowering people on bikes to cross over at either 6th (or 5th with a full intersection bike box) and then stay on the left side.
Move the existing bike lane on 4th between Sheridan and Caruthers to the left side to avoid conflicts with the bus and other vehicles (and will encourage a turn from the new left lane on Sheridan) and continue the left-side lane over the freeway overpass to match the rest of the SW 4th Avenue Improvements Project. Add pedestrian signal actuation for left-side cyclists at 4th and Caruthers.
Add a bike signal cabinet that attracts northbound bicycles on Barbur using the right-side bike lane to cross over diagonally to the new left-side bike lane on 4th.
Also, to complete the connection, fix the gap where the bike lanes drop off at SW Sam Jackson and Terwilliger. Extend the northbound lane on Terwilliger through the intersection with a turnaround where bikes can use the pedestrian phase to cross (and make the response immediate).
Fill the gap for the eastbound lane on SW Sam Jackson by bringing cyclists up onto the path (with separation from pedestrians and in a way that maintains the historic lighting) through the intersection.
Graphics from Southwest in Motion Plan (project RP-02). Image on right shows possible bikeway on SW Sheridan. (Source: PBOT)
The idea for improvements along SW Sheridan Street originated as project RP-02 in the Southwest in Motion plan. PBOT, in a recent SWIM “Implementation Update,” added the design of RP-02 to its list of feasible projects citing recent project budget changes that made its inclusion possible.
As PBOT’s Communications Director, Hannah Schafer, told BikePortland last month,
“Because SW in Motion has limited funding opportunities at this time, PBOT staff are exploring the feasibility of including RP-02 Terwilliger to 4th Connector as part of the larger capital project to save on costs and increase the benefit of the SW Fourth Avenue Central City in Motion Project for people biking from SW via Terwilliger.”
But the BAC suggestions go beyond the north-side bike lane the Sheridan project originally envisioned and even though the BAC says it will work to help PBOT secure additional funding to meet their requests, it’s unclear if PBOT will be willing to oblige.
The BAC noted in its letter that “The quality of bicycle facilities are defined by their weakest link.” In southwest Portland, that weakest link often seems to occur where the going gets toughest. With this letter, the BAC is trying its best to prevent yet another dicey spot in the network arising between differently funded projects, in this case, Southwest in Motion and its better-funded cousin, Central City in Motion.
BikePortland has reached out to PBOT for a response to the letter and will update this story when we hear back.
Riding next to geese is a quintessential Portland experience. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)
It’s almost the weekend and we’ve got another wonderful menu of things to do on your bike.
But first, a big “Thank you!” to this week’s Event Guide sponsor and local pedal-assist electric bike company, Vvolt. They not only design and sell great bikes right from their showroom in inner southeast Portland, they’ve also stepped up to be a BikePortland advertiser. Give them a click and support the companies that support us.
Friday, May 24th
Tina Turner Celebration Ride – 7:00 pm at Colonel Summers Park (SE) We lost this magnificent singer one year ago, but her music and voice will live on. Come out and enjoy a high-quality mobile sound system playing Tina’s greatest hits, with a focus on her work with Tibetan chant master Dechen Shak Dagsay. More info here.
Saturday, May 25th
Warpaint Gravel Social – 9:00 am at Thurman Gate Forest Park/Leif Erikson Road (NW) A chill, intro to the unpaved realm awaits you on this BIPOC-only ride through Forest Park. No one gets dropped and led by fine folks. More info here.
Tigard Murals Ride – 9:30 am at Tigard Library (West Side) Join the inimitable Shawne “Mural Mondays” Martinez for an exploration of public art in Tigard and environs. More info here. https://vvolt.com/
PSU Farmers Market Ride – 10:00 am at SE Clinton & 41st (SE) Join a merry and social crew for this weekly jaunt from inner southeast, across the Tilikum Bridge, and into downtown to purchase and peruse wonderful food and other items at the market. More info here.
Pedal Prehab – 2:00 pm at Laurelhurst Park (SE) Bike Summer is soon upon us and your bike isn’t the only thing that might need a tune-up. This ride will be led by two PT practitioners who will start with a pre-cycling stretch and help you get your body ready for the season. More info here.
Sunday, May 19th
Clever Cycles Parking Lot Sale – 11:00 am to 5:00 pm SE Hawthorne & 10th (SE) It’s the first annual blowout parking lot sale from Portland’s OG cargo and family bike shop. Save loads, carry loads, have loads of fun. More info here.
Ride + Cocoon = Joy – 2:30 pm at Cathedral Park (N) Experience the undeniable attraction of entering into an enclosed fabric cocoon with friends and/or strangers and allowing the love and proximity of other humans to help you heal your mind and heart. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. More info here.
Sunday Social – 10:00 am at Gateway Transit Center (NE) Bud Rice from the Portland Bicycling Club will lead this 20-30 mile ride through the city. Expect an intermediate pace of 13-15 mph. More info here.
Note: The guide initially included a “Sunrise Coffee” event for Saturday morning; but that event will happen next Saturday, June 1st. I regret the error and any confusion it might have caused.
— Did I miss your event? Please let me know by filling out our contact form, or just email me at maus.jonathan@gmail.com.
Design concept for Heights Bike Garden on Mill Plan Blvd in Vancouver. (Jonathan Maus / BikePortland)
Vancouver’s first-ever traffic garden will open in June.
According to the City of Vancouver, The Heights Bike Garden will, “Provide a fun, community-serving space at the site of the former Tower Mall.” The location — a large development site bordered by Mill Plan and MacArthur boulevards — is about two miles north of Portland’s Marine Drive (as the crow flies over the Columbia River) and about a six mile bike ride from the Kenton neighborhood in north Portland.
The Bike Garden will be a space off the street where kids (and I assume, people of all ages) can learn basic rules of the road and get experience with cycling and traffic rules without the dangers posed by car users. Often referred to as “traffic gardens” these spaces have been common in Europe since the 1950s. BikePortland first reported on one in Utrecht in 2009. Since then, gardens have sprouted throughout Portland and Washington County. In 2020 we shared how the onset of Covid boosted interest in the concept and at that time there were nearly two dozen traffic gardens on the map.
Vancouver’s Heights Bike Garden is taking advantage of an empty parking that will someday be the Heights District, a mixed-use neighborhood currently in development. The design was created by First Forty Feet (with help from Discover Traffic Gardens) the firm behind the Heights development. According to the City of Vancouver, this is the largest traffic garden the firm has ever worked on.
If you’d like to help paint the design and make the vision a reality, the City of Vancouver is looking for volunteers for two events on the weekend of June 1st and 2nd. Fill out this form if you’re interested.
The City will host a grand opening celebration on June 8th from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at 5411 Mill Plain Blvd. Vancouver Anne McEnerny-Ogle and other members of city council will be in attendance and local nonprofit Bike Clark County will provide bike safety lessons.
Rose City Recreational Trail Proposed Trail Sections for Schematic Design Analysis. (Source: City of Portland)
Turns out cycling access might be a larger part of a major trail project at Rose City Park and Rose City Golf Course than city staff initially let on.
Two weeks ago we shared concerns from off-road cycling advocates that Portland Parks & Recreation had launched the $4 million Rose City Recreational Trail planning process in a way that ignored cycling. The park and golf course bordered by residential areas and 82nd Avenue, was recommended as a location for unpaved cycling access in the city’s Off-road Cycling Master Plan (ORCMP). That plan reflects a top priority of Northwest Trail Alliance, a nonprofit, to give Portlanders more opportunities to ride off-road in the urban context.
But despite the master plan’s recommendation, Portland Parks staff chose to exclude cycling from the current user survey and framed the project at a public launch meeting last month as a walking trail. Half the project funding comes from a Metro grant that clearly includes off-road biking trails as one of the eligible uses of funds. However, a Parks slide made it appear as though a “Metro grant requirement” was that the project result in “pedestrian trails.”
And when asked at the meeting if bikes would be allowed on future trails, a Parks project manager told a member of the public, “We’re not sure yet.”
After a Parks spokesperson stopped answering my emailed questions about how they treated cycling in this project, I reached out to Parks Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office.
Ryan’s Chief of Staff for Parks Kellie Torres got back to me yesterday and said via email the project is still evolving and that, “In fact, there is an upcoming survey and community meeting in which feedback is being sought— which includes questions and opportunities for cycling.”
Then Torres shared a map with four different trail segments (above), two of which she said could be open to bike riders.
Here’s what Torres wrote about the trails:
Red Trail: Currently does not exist. Looking at a paved ADA accessible Multi-Use paved pathway with soft-surface shoulder(s) potentially for bikers. East-West connector
Green Trail: Currently exists, 3’-4’ Wide Nature Trail. Community feedback was this trail was too narrow for both bikes and pedestrians. We will improve/enhance soft surface trail.
Orange Trail: Currently exists, 6’-8’ gravel shoulder along NE 72nd St. PP&R worked with PBOT to create a one-way only for cars from the north to the south and bike/pedestrian access in 2 directions. We will enhance consistency and safety, and potentially provide opportunity for Off-Road Cycling.
Yellow Trail: Currently does not exist, and it presents slope, access, and golf challenges [Which she defined as, “The proximity of fast-paced bikes to errant golf balls.”] We would build soft surface “Nature Trail”.
Red Circles indicate connections and opportunity zones. Orange Box is exploration of creating “Safe Routes to School” corridor for children walking to Roseway Heights Middle School.
Torres also shared that a second community meeting will be held in mid-late summer and there will be a forthcoming survey to garner feedback on cycling.
I’ve also heard that advocates with NW Trail Alliance are actively engaged in productive discussions with Parks surrounding how this project evolves.
Stay tuned for more opportunities to provide feedback and attend future meetings.
Portland bicycle riders doing their part to raise PBOT revenue. Just kidding. This photo is from a protest against oil companies in 2012. (Jonathan Maus / BikePortland)
Commissioner Mingus Mapps and leaders of the Portland Bureau of Transportation can breathe a sigh of relief this morning as their 10-cent per gallon gas tax was approved by voters last night.
Known as Fixing Our Streets, the program will now pump an estimated $70.5 million into city coffers over the next four years. While its success was never seriously in doubt, there was mild consternation given the extremely sour mood of some voters and a popular narrative that Portlanders are feeling overburdened with local taxes.
Last night’s election results show Measure 26-245 with just over 70% support. This is the third time Portland’s local gas tax has won the favor of voters. In 2016 it squeaked by with just 51.3% of the vote (thanks in part to organized opposition from gasoline retailers) and in 2020 nearly 77% voted to increase the price of their fuel to help PBOT pay for road projects and maintenance.
PBOT toyed with increasing the tax to 15-cents per gallon, and making the tax permanent, but those options didn’t poll well so the agency opted for caution and stuck with the same formula as 2020. The revenue will be evenly split between three categories: paving on on busy and local streets; traffic safety infrastructure on school routes, busy streets, and neighborhood greenways; and something PBOT calls, “community street services” which includes responding to pothole repair requests, fixing streetlights and signals, and so on.
PBOT rank-and-file should feel better about last night’s election too. A recent slide shown by one of PBOT’s financial experts at a meeting of their budget advisory committee earlier this month said the Fixing Our Streets revenue will help the bureau pay for 45 positions over the next four years.
The current cross-section with five lanes for car users was established in 1996.
The stars are aligning for inner Northeast Broadway to become a true main street where people are prioritized over cars. In the coming years we could see a major transformation of this key east-west corridor as a mix of federal funding and a local paving project create a golden opportunity for a redesign between the Broadway Bridge and NE 24th.
As BikePortland reported back in March, the Portland Bureau of Transportation won a $38 million federal grant to create a “civic main street” on Broadway between the bridge and NE 7th. Conceptual drawings of that project shared publicly in September show cross-sections with wide, physically-protected bike lanes, narrower general purpose lanes, a dedicated streetcar lane, and two lanes for driving cars instead of the three that exist today.
Now there’s another opportunity to extend this cross section further east to NE 24th. Sometime this year PBOT will begin formal design and outreach for a project to repave NE Broadway from 11th to 24th. As BikePortland reported in 2022, the project is on PBOT’s paving list and planners have just enough funding (an estimated $300,000) to install new pavement and then paint new lane striping.
PBOT slides first shown in 2022.
As we’ve seen with other “pave and paint” projects, PBOT will have a clean slate and will have the option to repaint the lanes in a new configuration. Since NE Broadway is classified in Portland’s Comprehensive Plan as a “Major City Bikeway” and with funding already secured for the project on the inner portion of the street to the east of this paving project — the odds are very good a new configuration could be in the works.
In a PBOT document that lists all paving projects for the five years between 2023 and 2027, the NE Broadway project is in the “calendar year 2024” category. In a column labeled “Bicycle improvement opportunities?” PBOT wrote: “Potential to remove a travel lane and enhance the bike lane. Needs planning and project development work. Consider extending west to 7th Ave.”
That “consider extending west to 7th” was written before PBOT had won $38 million to upgrade the bridge to NE 7th, so it’s very likely the “pave and paint” project will extend west from NE 11th to connect to NE 7th.
And an update to the design would almost certainly result in less space for using cars and more space for bicycling, walking, and transit.
Rendering of NE Broadway by illustrator Owen Walz for The Street Trust in 2014.
Efforts to make a better bikeway on NE Broadway have been around for at least a decade. In 2014 the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now The Street Trust) made bike lanes on NE Broadway one of their main priorities. Staffers worked to garner feedback from business owners and educate the community on why it was needed in addition to the existing neighborhood bikeway on NE Tillamook.
But while many Portlanders are eager for a new design that vastly improves bicycling, local business owners and other area interests might have different ideas about the future of Broadway. That 2016 Better Block installation is remembered by many local advocates for how it backfired after some local business owners weren’t on board with the idea.
Members of the Sullivan’s Gulch Neighborhood Association have been meeting as a “Broadway-Weidler Working Group” since last fall to strategize on how to get changes over the finish line. They want fewer cars on Broadway because they know it will lead to a safer environment and more travel capacity overall. According to meeting minutes, their ultimate goal is to decouple Broadway and NE Weidler, make Weidler a quiet neighborhood street, and then re-introduce two-way traffic onto Broadway. (According to sources, PBOT estimates returning Broadway to two-way traffic would cost over $10 million and there are no current plans to move forward with that idea.)
Currently, the section of Broadway between 7th and 24th is 56-feet wide and has five lanes for drivers and a narrow, door-zone bike lane. There are three general travel lanes and two on-street auto parking lanes. The bike lanes were installed in the late 1990s and have never been updated. With reductions in driving since the pandemic, three lanes for driving on this section of Broadway seem like overkill.
If PBOT chooses to, there is plenty of room to reduce space for car users and add a wider, physically-protected bike lane, a dedicated mass transit lane, and medians for safer crossings. They don’t currently have any extra funding in the “pave and paint” budget, but they could lay out the striping today and identify more funding later. With the $38 million in federal funds, they’ve got bureaucratic inertia to shake more funding from the trees.
This section of Broadway would be a very important link in the bike and transit network. It would connect to busy north-south bike routes (like the NE 7th Greenway), several TriMet bus lanes, and the Portland Streetcar.
While PBOT hasn’t begun official public outreach on the project, we expect that to begin soon. Stay tuned.
“Am I doing the right thing? Am I taking a frivolous risk and putting my children in harm’s way?”
It’s been a challenging few weeks. I have two newly independent riders: my hesitant nine-year-old daughter and my exceptionally eager six-year-old son. As we have memorialized the loss of a 12-year-old boy in our community who was fatally struck while riding his bicycle, the risks of cycling have weighed heavily on me. And my children can tell you that weight has burdened our rides.
I have over-coached my kids, yelled out so many commands that everyone is left confused and frustrated, then had us pull over every two blocks to give a lecture on the safety risks we face and to correct riding mistakes. I’ve cried and worried, and I am still having nightmares about one of my kids not returning from a bike ride.
So, why are we still riding?
I ask myself that. I wrestle with it. Am I doing the right thing? Am I taking a frivolous risk and putting my children in harm’s way? What if the worst happens, what if… I can barely handle the thought.
Then I approach it from the other direction: What would our lives be like if we stopped biking? And what kind of life, what kind of decision-making, would we use to lead our family? How are we going to make any decision in the face of risks?
To the first: I firmly believe that biking and walking more (and driving less) is a better way to live. It’s better for our mental and physical health, our engagement with our community, for our environment and society. Biking brings our family great joy, and it has helped me to avoid depression – bringing me great happiness instead, a happiness shared by my children.
I am also a strong proponent of child independence: Currently my oldest son bikes himself to swim practice, youth symphony rehearsals, the library, and his favorite board game store. This is the lifestyle my husband and I dreamed of, and worked hard to provide for our children. We chose a house in an urban area where we could walk/bike to multiple places, and have access to public transit, specifically with the idea that we wanted to provide access to activities, friendships, culture and adventure for our kids — without them needing us to drive them in a car.
Biking isn’t just a recreational activity that we could trade for something else. It’s an important piece of a lifestyle we’ve cultivated and it’s a manifestation of our values and beliefs. Giving it up would be giving up something of ourselves, of who we are, of what we believe and value and how we put those beliefs into practice.
But that question gnaws at me: Is it “worth the risk”?
The truth is, we face all sorts of risks. And death by car is a very real one. I won’t downplay it. But it’s a real risk when riding in a car too – giving up bike riding doesn’t eliminate that risk. And the leading cause of death for children has recently been due to gun violence or “firearm related injuries.” What am I doing to avoid that risk? How does one, individually, prevent the risk of getting shot? I don’t even know how to go about preventing that. Drowning is a risk too, and yet we still go to the coast and splash in the waves. Do I worry about that? Yep. But am I willing to let my fear of drowning prevent us from enjoying time in the water? Nope.
Our lives are full of risks. I can’t prevent something terrible from happening to myself or my children, no matter what transportation decision or other life choices we make. As for how we handle risk as a family; I want to empower my children to pursue their dreams, and even to encourage them to take worthy risks and make sacrifices. I want them to learn to bravely pursue what they believe is right, and to work for what is right, to sacrifice for it, and even to take risks in pursuit of it – especially when those risks are for the common good, or the good of people beyond themselves.
Ultimately, I keep biking because I believe it’s the right way for us to live. And even though I am afraid, I am more unwilling to let fear dictate how we live. So when I get all the kids out on bikes, or when I wave my son off to bike himself to swim practice, I hold on to this: this is the right way for us to live. Sometimes living what we believe means taking risks, and it takes courage. But biking is good. And it’s right. And so, our family continues to bike.
Newly paved portion of the Ch-ak Ch-ak Trail in Troutdale. View (I think!) is looking northeast east with Sandy River to the right. (Photos: Frank Stevens)
(Map: BikePortland)
An exciting extension of the 40-Mile Loop route in Troutdale is nearing completion. Reader Frank Stevens shared images of a newly paved path along the Columbia River just north of Blue Lake Park. The new path, which was officially named the Ch’ak Ch’ak Trail by the City of Troutdale in October 2023 (the name means Bald Eagle in the Chinuk Wawa language) hardens an unimproved dirt road that some cyclists have enjoyed for years.
As BikePortland reported in 2016 when the project was first developed, this connects a gap in the 40-Mile Loop and includes a total of 2.1 miles in new paths: a 1.8 mile segment from Blue Lake Park to Sundial Road (see green lines on map), and a 0.3-mile segment near Harlow Road adjacent to the Sandy River. The new sections of path connect to existing paths to create a three-mile connection from NE 223rd Ave to NE Harlow Road and I-84 where it crosses the Sandy River.
Looking east from NE 223rd with Columbia River on the left.ScreenshotLooking east from NE 223rd with Columbia River on the left.Looking southwest toward Marine Drive from NE 223rd Ave.
Most importantly the newly expanded path gives bicycle riders a safe, carfree alternate to NE Marine Drive, NW Frontage Road, and Graham Rd — all of which are high-stress, busy roads with a large volume of truck traffic.
The project is part of the Portland of Portland’s Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Park (TRIP) development. The path is funded by the Port, Oregon Department of Transportation, and the City of Troutdale. The 700-acre site used to be an aluminum plant and now the Port wants to create an industrial zone that the EPA says will support 3,500 jobs. The Port of Portland owns the property, which is adjacent to the Troutdale Airport.
According to a Port spokesperson, paving was completed last week and finishing touches and signage should be installed in the next few weeks. No official opening date has been released but it should be sometime in June. A grand opening celebration is being planned for September. Stay tuned for exact details.
In related news, a separate project will connect this path directly to downtown Troutdale. The Sandy River Greenway Trail will connect to the existing path under I-84 along the west bank of the Sandy River. Construction on that project is expected to begin this summer.
Tiffany Koyama Lane (L), Jeremy Beausoleil Smith (R)
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at Bike Happy Hour this week! Last Wednesday it was warm and the patio was full. We turned the misters on for the first time this year and it was glorious.
This week we have two special guests confirmed so far: city council candidates Jeremy Beausoleil Smith and Tiffany Koyama Lane. They’ll both be on the patio for meeting and greeting. And as per usual, we’ll give them an opportunity to share a speech and answer your questions.
Beausoleil Smith is running to represent District 4 (Sellwood and west Portland). On his website, he says he’s running for council because he can bring a, “careful balance between building the most robust Social Safety Net in our nation and being a good steward of the Portland taxpayer dollar.” Beausoleil Smith is a husband, parent, and works as a project manager in Portland State University’s Capital Projects & Construction Department.
Koyama Lane is a leading candidate in District 3 (southeast). She’s a public school teacher and union organizer. I couldn’t find a platform or any detailed proposals on her website. Koyama Lane says as a city commissioner she’ll, bring her values and leadership to lift up all Portland communities and fight for a safe, connected, housed city where everyone can thrive.”
Another note about Bike Happy Hour this week, I’ve decided to push T-Shirt Night back one week due to weather. It’ll be cool and cloudy this week, and next week (5/29) will be much better t-shirt weather.
Hope you can join us Wednesday. If you want to hear from these candidates, be sure to show up around 5:00 pm when open mic begins. Also, remember that open mic is for everyone so if you have something to share, step up and speak! (Note: If there’s a downpour, we’ll be across the street inside Ankeny Tap & Table.)
The driver was finally stopped thanks to this bollard at SE Spokane at Sellwood Park.
Kyle Lewis was out for an evening spin. He planned to do a loop from his home in the Buckman neighborhood south to Milwaukie. A few miles in, while pedaling on the Springwater Corridor path about one-third of a mile from the entrance at SE 4th and Ivon, he heard something strange: a car’s engine.
“I heard them coming up behind me,” Lewis shared with BikePortland. “I looked over my shoulder and had just enough time to swerve onto the grass before the car blew past me on the pavement doing what felt like at least 45. It was just extremely close. It must have grazed me. They didn’t slow, stop, or make any attempt to avoid or warn me.”
“We assumed it was an e-bike hauling ass. Then we realized it was a Mini Cooper coming straight toward us.”
— Erica Silveira
Kyle is just one of several Portland bike riders who are lucky to be alive after a drunk driver plowed onto the popular carfree path around 8:30 pm Thursday night. Bradley Krueger, a 43-year-old with with two prior convictions for driving under the influence, steered his Mini Countryman compact SUV onto the Springwater at its northern entrance and drove south three miles before he and his car were finally stopped by a bollard at SE Spokane.
(Map: BikePortland)
The spot where Krueger blasted his way onto the path is one of the busiest cycling locations in Portland according to City counts. It’s considered a relaxing, safe place that many riders use to avoid more stressful routes and interactions with drivers.
Erica Silveira and her partner had dinner in Sellwood and were riding north on the Springwater to get ice cream in southeast Portland. “Since it was dusk we figured it was safer to take the trail rather than the roads,” Silveira shared with BikePortland, acknowledging the irony of her decision. After stopping for photos of deer grazing at the edge of Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, Silveira looked up and saw a bright light heading toward them. “We assumed it was an e-bike hauling ass,” she recalled, “Then we realized it was a Mini Cooper coming straight toward us.”
Silveira and her partner were about one mile south of the SE Ivon entrance, just west of SE Holgate. With a cliff and the Willamette River on one side and a chain link fence and railroad tracks on the other, there was no escape as the light and fear intensified. “We got as far to the right of the trail as we could,” Silveira recalled. “It had to have been going over 40 mph, and it came within two feet of us.”
The SE 4th and Ivon entrance to the path. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)Bent bollard at SE 4th and Ivon entrance. (Aaron Kuehn)
Aaron Kuehn wasn’t lucky enough to have a near-miss, but his run-in with Krueger could have been much worse. Kuehn was riding south near Oaks Bottom when he was clipped from behind. “I hear him coming up behind me on the long straight stretch, and think it’s a monster e-bike or something, but I didn’t turn around to look. And then he hits my hand and handlebar, sending me down,” Kuehn recalled in a message to BikePortland.
Kuehn, who happens to be chair of cycling advocacy group BikeLoud PDX, says he was shocked and angry.
There’s a bollard at the SE 4th and Ivon springwater entrance. But according to several witness statements and the condition of the bollard, it was likely in place when Krueger decided to drive over it. After he was almost hit, Kyle Lewis turned around, went back to the entry point and found the bollard in the grass a few yards from its base.
“This is vehicular violence,” Kuehn said, in a statement to BikePortland. “The driver did nothing to avoid people walking and biking and plowed straight toward them.” “That they were inebriated isn’t the point, it’s what they chose to do when they were,” Kuehn continued. “They chose to commit a highly violent act with their vehicle that could have been so much worse. If the other people on the trail hadn’t jumped or veered out of the way, if I had been a couple inches to the left, we would have suffered severe injuries.”
Cars on bike paths in Portland has unfortunately become a relativelyregularoccurrence. From what I’ve heard from readers, and based on past stories I’ve covered, most of the people who drive on paths are not as reckless or dangerous as Krueger. The drivers are typically coming or going from a tent encampment. Portland Parks has struggled to find a solution that keeps miscreant drivers out, while still making it easy and welcoming for legal path users.
Another issue with this specific case, according to what Kuehn has learned in the days since he was hit, is that the bollards at SE Ivon and SE Spokane are routinely removed by City of Portland work crews and vandals. If the bollards aren’t returned to their base or secured properly, they won’t deter drivers like Krueger. Kuehn plans to urge Portland Parks & Recreation to upgrade the bollards so something like this is less likely to happen again.
Because the bollard at SE Spokane did its job, Krueger was arrested after his three-mile rampage and cited with felony hit-and-run as well as four additional misdemeanor charges including; reckless driving, driving under the influence, criminal mischief, and recklessly endangering another person.
Kuehn plans to press charges if given the opportunity. He believes Krueger should no longer have the privilege of driving a car.
At his first court appearance on Friday, May 17th — despite this being his third DUI charge — Krueger was given a bail amount of $2,500. With the required 10% deposit, he was released after paying $250 and is due back in court May 28th.
