(Photo: City of Portand)

I spoke to Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty on the phone last Friday. We covered a lot of ground. The interview below has been slightly edited for clarity and brevity.[Read more…]

Blumenauer at this morning’s JPACT meeting (lower right).

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer dropped into a meeting of the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) Thursday morning to share an overview of what to expect from the Biden Administration.[Read more…]

NoPo to downtown results.

If you use Apple devices and rely on a bicycle to get around Portland, we’ve got some good news. Apple Maps has just expanded its cycling directions feature to our wonderful city.
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Evelyn Amara Ferreira

A member of the Portland Bureau of Transportation Pedestrian Advisory Committee (PAC) has decided to resign from the committee for what she says is the agency’s, “inability to respond swiftly and proactively to the crises we are facing, the lack of creative thinking and solutions, and reasons why we need to see more action from the agency.”

Evelyn Amara Ferreira, a walking and sustainability advocate who’s also CEO and founder Earthen Exchange, has served three years of her four-year term on the PAC. In a letter sent Tuesday to other members of the committee (read it below), Amara Ferreira said, “This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but I’m finding it difficult to be an active participant on the committee and bring my full and generally optimistic self to the table.”

The move comes one week after members of the PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee excoriated the agency for its handling of a recent project where BAC members did not feel respectfully engaged in the decision-making process. [Read more…]

Oregon Walks Executive Director Ashton Simpson.

Ashton Simpson took over as leader of the nonprofit Oregon Walks back in January. Before that, the Russell neighborhood resident and active volunteer for transportation issues ran for statewide office.

I reached out to him last week to get his perspective on the debate around the Hawthorne Boulevard paving project. Our chat went longer than expected.

Below is a slightly edited version of our conversation:

Any thoughts on the Hawthorne decision?

“I wasn’t involved in it at all. Outside of what was released yesterday [Tuesday, February 9th], I didn’t even know that project was happening. I’m still trying to get wrap my head around the organization and all the things that go along with it. But I did talk to someone on our Plans and Projects Committee and her and I both agree that what they proposed now is better than what is out there today. Granted, it was a big loss for a bike lane on that road, especially for those who live in that community. I wish that could have been added on. But at the same time, we had limited space requirements and they’re trying to fit a lot of stuff in there. [Read more…]

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Breaking ground oh so soon.

On Wednesday, Portland City Council voted to allow construction to begin on Better Naito Forever and the Red Electric Trail Bridge — a total of $5.1 million in projects that include physically protected cycling space. But it didn’t happen before one last bit of drama.[Read more…]

Riders on the I-205 path, built with State Highway Fund dollars.
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Eugene-area Senator Floyd Prozanski will play a big role in whether or not a major effort to boost bicycle spending in Oregon will get the green light. [Read more…]

Looking east on Hawthorne near 35th.
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Portland’s Bicycle Advisory Committee was supposed to discuss which type of bike lanes would work best on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard at their monthly meeting Tuesday night. Instead of an optimistic strategy session that might have ended with a letter from the group with a bike lane recommendation, the discussion was punctuated by frustration and anger as news sunk in that there would be no bike lanes on Hawthorne at all. [Read more…]