BikePortland

Portlanders bike back to school (photos)

Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Trillium Charter School on North Interstate.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Schools in Portland are back in session as of yesterday, and that means the biking to school season is upon us once again. (That, combined with the Bike Commute Challenge and the all the regular Portland bike traffic, often makes September feel like the busiest biking time of year.)

Yesterday we asked readers to tweet us photos of the bike racks at their kids’ schools with the hashtag #bikebacktoschool. Check out a few of the images below…

Less than a day has passed since the ‘Build Gateway Green’ crowdfunding campaign began — and it’s already raised well over $8,000 in donations from over 60 people. The goal is $100,000 and conventional wisdom dictates that if someone raises 30% of the total in the first week, they are likely to make it all the way.

As we shared yesterday, this public crowdfunding campaign for a state-run project is a first for Oregon (the state is managing the fundraising campaign, but the park will be managed and run by the City of Portland). Governor Kitzhaber’s Oregon Solutions team is betting that a new park full of bike trails and other amenities in green-space-starved east Portland will spur enough grassroots donations that institutional funding sources will realize the project is worth investing in.

Portland’s bike wonk crowd turned out in force.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Dozens of curious Portlanders visited bike-culture hub Velo Cult Wednesday night to pore over a series of ideas for how to transform our city in the way the Dutch people decided to start reshaping theirs forty years ago.

“Though we remain America’s best city for bicycling, Portland has stagnated something fierce at a time when many other cities are recognizing the value of bike-friendliness,” event contributor Brian Davis wrote yesterday in a preview for PortlandTransport.com. That perspective captured the attitude of many who attended.

Cover of Bikenomics

As she writes in her new book Bikenomics, Portland-based bike writer Elly Blue backed into bike activism in her mid-20s, when she realized that bikes advanced so many of her other wishes for the country.

Almost a decade later, Blue has organized years of observations about the economic benefits of biking into a 194-page book of deeply rational arguments that’s poised to make a splash. It’s studded with stories from her reporting around the United States and anecdotes from her own life and work. Yesterday I talked to Blue, 35 (founder of Elly Blue Publishing, a columnist for Bicycling.com, self-publisher of the quarterly zine Taking the Lane and a former managing editor here at BikePortland), in an email conversation about the country’s most underrated biking city, one of her frustrations with this very blog, and that one time she finally learned to drive.

You’re the queen of bike statistics. Pick your favorite.

Always nice to see bikes and freight getting along.
(Image: Daimler Trucks North America)

When you run the numbers, human-powered machines often make good sense on city streets. Leave it to the logistics experts at Daimler Trucks North America to calculate that they make good sense on the floor of a truck factory, too.

At Daimler’s Western Star truck plant on North Portland’s Swan Island, utility trikes are taking over for electric carts in moving truck parts to the manufacturing line. Workers at the plant are putting 18 of the trikes to use. They are Torker HD models and have a cargo capacity of 300 pounds. The bikes were purchased from and assembled by Crank Bicycles in southeast Portland, which customized the gears for the plant’s 5 mph speed limit.

The Lloyd Blocks project — adjacent to the new buffered bike lanes on NE Multnomah — is underway.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Dozens of new apartment buildings intended for low-car Portlanders are popping up across the inner east side, but the one where work just started two weeks ago will be the biggest one of all.

Secretary of Commerce (and triathlete)
Penny Pritzker.
(Photo: US Dept. of Commerce)

In the latest nod to Portland’s reputation as an epicenter of the bicycle industry, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will visit United Bicycle Institute (UBI) in North Portland on Friday.

The Department of Commerce announced the event as part of Sec. Pritzker’s nationwide “listening tour.” “In these discussions,” reads a media statement, “Secretary Pritzker will hear about their priorities, concerns and ideas on how the public and private sectors can work together to strengthen the economy and create American jobs.”

UBI has been chosen as a tour stop because, the Dept. of Commerce says, it’s, “the bicycle industry’s leading technical school.” The North Portland campus (they also have a campus in Ashland) offers courses in bicycle repair, frame building and professional mechanic certification. While at UBI, Pritzker will meet with staff and hold a roundtable discussion with representatives from the local bicycle industry.

The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has announced that a newly paved section of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail will officially open to the public on October 31st. But there are two ways you can get a sneak preview and earn bragging rights as one of the first people to ever ride across this exciting new path segment.

ODOT and the Oregon Parks & Recreation Department are hosting a special dedication ceremony for the new section of path on September 14th. The event is part of three days of “Historic Highway Revived” festivities based in the small town of Cascade Locks. Why Cascade Locks? Well, the small town of about 1,150 people is about to see a bicycle tourism boom. Once the State Trail officially opens, people will be able to ride from Troutdale to Cascade Locks without making one pedal stroke on the busy, noisy, and dangerous shoulder of Interstate 84. It’s 27 miles of cycling bliss on winding, tree-covered, scenic roads — many miles of which are completely carfree.

A trip to Delft, a city in the Netherlands
that makes ample use of automated bollards to
prohibit driving during certain hours, sparked
inspiration for “Going Dutch” event.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

By now, we’ve all seen and heard numerous examples of Dutch bike infrastructure; but specific examples of how Dutch-style treatments would look applied to Portland roads is something we need more of. That’s why I’m excited to share news of an event happening tomorrow night at VeloCult (NE 1969 42nd Ave) that will do just that.

“Going Dutch” has been put together by one of Portland’s young rising stars of road design and urban planning: Jesse Boudart. Boudart, a recent graduate of Portland State University who’s currently an transportation analyst with Kittelson & Associates, traveled to the cycling paradise of Delft in the Netherlands back in July. While there, he viewed the city with a specific eye toward how its bike-friendly road designs could be applied in an American city.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for thousands of Portland students and the Police Bureau plans to beef up enforcement to make sure they get to school safely. And, taking safety one step further, they’re also urging parents to leave the car at home and walk and bike to school instead.

According to a statement from the PPB, they will perform “high visibility patrols” around all Portland schools as part of what they’re calling a “Back to School safety campaign.” The plan includes dozens of officers and the use of photo radar units to help enforce traffic laws in school zones. The effort is being done in partnership with the Bureau of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program.

Portlanders bike back to school (photos)

$8,000 and counting: Gateway Green off to quick crowdfunding start

Dreaming in Dutch: Six young planners’ visions for Portland

Radically sensible: 8 questions for Elly Blue, Portland’s pop bikenomist

Portland truck factory replaces electric carts with pedal-powered trikes

Will Portland’s biggest apartment project wake the sleepy Lloyd District?

U.S. Sec of Commerce will visit United Bicycle Institute in North Portland

Two chances to get sneak peek at new Gorge bike path

“Going Dutch” event will show what’s possible in Portland

Portland Police team up with PBOT for ‘Back to school’ enforcement

Record turnout as ‘cross season gets rolling

Latest Headlines

Why did Oregon lower the legal age for e-bike riding?

Jobs of the Week: Mokwheel, eLock, Go By Bike, Velofix, Northwest Hub

Robotaxis will need to jump through these hoops before operating on Portland streets

Here’s the new ‘complete street’ coming to Cully Blvd

From the Archives

With six kids and no car, this mom does it all by bike