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

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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

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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

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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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DeFazio leads trio requesting GAO investigation into bike/walk safety

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Rep. DeFazio in September 2010.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio — who likes to mention in speeches that he’s the only member of Congress who has ever worked as a bicycle mechanic — is taking his fight for safer bicycling to the United States Government Accountability Office.

Citing a “troubling increase in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities in recent years,” Rep. DeFazio has joined with fellow House Democrats Rick Larsen from Washington state and Eleanor Holmes Norton from the District of Columbia to request a GAO investigation into the issue.

In a statement released today, the trio said they want the GAO to investigate, “trends and causes of accidents involving pedestrians and bicycles and to make recommendations about improving safety.”

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With or without Vision Zero, a safer Barbur might be an economic win

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An organized ride on Barbur last year.
(Photo: J.Maus/BikePortland)

A few times each day on the wooded four-lane stretch of inner SW Barbur Boulevard, state data released last week suggest, someone decides to hit the gas and zoom through at an average 55 mph or more.

And about a dozen times each year, Barbur’s crash history suggests, someone on this part of Barbur loses control of their vehicle and hits something. Once or twice a year, someone dies.

Since narrowing the road in this stretch to one lane in each direction appears to make many fewer people choose to hit the gas, a redesign that would replace one of the northbound lanes with a bike lane and walking path in each direction could be seen as a perfect test case for Vision Zero. That’s the principle, endorsed by Portland’s transportation director, that safety is always a higher priority than convenience when it comes to road design.

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Teen involved in throwing bricks at bike riders implicated in high school shooting

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The law has caught up to a teenager who threw bricks at three men riding their bicycles in northeast Portland back in April.

16-year-old Marquise D’Angelo Murphy was picked up by police in Keizer, Oregon Tuesday night in connection with a shooting at a high school in north Portland on December 12th. Murphy was also arrested by Portland Police on April 20th for his role in the brick-throwing incident that injured Adrian Richardson.

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Tonight: BTA hosts first-ever Bike Advocacy Clinic

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The Bicycle Transportation Alliance wants more of the community to step up and become their own advocates for better biking. Tonight they host a Bike Advocacy Clinic that aims to give people with bike-related concerns and issues the tools they need to fix them.

The BTA has done free bike legal clinics for many years, but this is the first time they’ve offered a clinic on advocacy. The group’s engagement manager Carl Larson said today that they recognize there’s, “A need for informed advocates in our community and we can’t tackle every little problem.” “With some basic tools and and tactics,” he added, “our members and the public can make biking better.”

It’s sort of like getting to tap into the BTA’s 25-years of lessons and expertise. Topics that will be covered at tonight’s clinic will include messaging, defining success, figuring out who holds influence on your issue, finding allies, and the difference between pressure and persuasion.

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Portland Commissioner Nick Fish “sad” after getting his bike stolen

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East Sunday Parkways-2

Commissioner Fish on his bike in May 2011.
(Photo by J. Maus/BikePortland)

Portland bike thieves’ latest victim works in City Hall.

Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish got his bike stolen last night. According to an update to his personal Facebook page, Fish parked his bike in the racks in front of 24 Hour Fitness in Hollywood and went in for a workout. When he returned 30 minutes later his bike was gone.

“I have been reading about friends who had their bikes stolen recently,” Fish wrote, “Well, tonight I joined the club.”

The bike, which was locked with a cable lock, was a grey and black Trek hybrid that Fish says he bought with his Obama stimulus check.

Fish isn’t the first high-profile city official to get his bike stolen. Back in September 2013, Bureau of Transportation Director Leah Treat got her beloved bike stolen after leaving it overnight outside the Portland Building on SW Madison. Fortunately for her, it was recovered a few days later.

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