The message below came to us from a reader via Facebook. I’m sharing it here with permission from the victim.
(Photo by the victim’s spouse.)
Today, Feb 8, 2020, my spouse and I were returning from a ride along the esplanade. I’m a bit slow because I’m recovering from a full hysterectomy and appendectomy. My husband was waiting for me along the curb headed north on N. Williams just after Broadway.
As I was crossing N. Broadway (during green light in bike lane), a Dodge Ram 2500 began to approach me with driver revving the engine billowing black smoke and squealing the wheels. At one point his truck stopped next to me and the white male driver stepped on the gas pedal with his brakes on and started fish-tailing until the backend of his truck almost hit me. It was terrifying.
I was sitting outside a taqueria, waiting for my to-go order as we do, and I saw, or rather mostly heard, a kerfuffle over bike locks. I wasn’t quite close enough to see exactly what the scenario was for myself, and as it was two people getting a bit heated, I wasn’t about to physically insert myself to get details, but the scene was:
Guy One comes out. Goes to get his bike, and finds another bike is locked to it. Stands confused.
Guy Two comes out, says something about Guy One being a jackass and not leaving any space on the rack for anyone else, so he locked his bike to Guy One’s bike.
We’ll be seeing more Rivendell builds from Golden Pliers, like this pleasing Hunqapillar. (Photo: Golden Pliers)
With all the doom-and-gloom news about local retail lately, I’m eager to share good news from the bike shop front.
Golden Pliers on North Skidmore and Interstate has been a bright spot ever since they opened two years ago. For a very small shop where the owners still put in most of the hours, Golden Pliers seems to have found a workable niche.
This week they announced news that will help expand that niche a bit: Golden Pliers is now an authorized Rivendell Bicycle Works (adding to their current offerings from Crust, All-City, Velo Orange, and Surly) dealer. Rivendell is a small but mighty brand from northern California that has retained its culture and values through many changes in the bike industry. Their steel bikes offer ride qualities and designs you can’t find from any other company, are wonderful for unpaved adventures and urban rambling, and they have a devoted Portland fan base. Their previous Portland area dealer, Rivelo, passed along the business when owner John Bennett decided to retire late last year.[Read more…]
One of the raised protected bike lanes TriMet will build along the new SW Corridor line.
TriMet’s new SW Corridor light rail line will have a vast impact on how we get around the region — not only for where it will take us (without a car), but for how it will change the streets and neighborhoods it runs through.[Read more…]
Significant? (Graphic by Cupola Media via No More Freeways PDX.)
There’s a good reason why the Oregon Department of Transportation abhors delay when it comes to their freeway expansion megaprojects: Because the longer reporters and advocates have to dig into the details, the more dirt they find.[Read more…]
10 years ago next week Portland City Council passed the Bicycle Plan for 2030. Now scrappy local bike advocacy group Bike Loud PDX wants to make sure they don’t forget about it. [Read more…]
A couple summers ago, our family would go on big bike outings down and around the Smith & Bybee Wetlands area (it’s fun, you should try it!). My tweens and husbeast would go speeding up ahead of me, while I struggled behind, pulling the hard-bottom Burley trailer, our picnic stuff, and our kindergartner. It was easily over a hundred pounds.
I’d get home afterwards and my husbeast and I would compare notes and it would just irk me that Strava recorded me having a leisurely bike ride with minimal effort while it recorded him, half as sweaty, as having a vigorous one. I looked all over the app trying to find a way to change some sort of effort or cargo-pulling settings, but there was no such thing.
I have no plans on going pro. I realize I am privileged to say I don’t diet or track much of anything health-related in any earnest effort, but data sure is fun. Why is it that just because the data is there to observe, we need it? Or we need it to be correct? It’s not like I was going to change anything in my life if the data was accurate. I just wanted my little gold star, dammit [Read more…]
Paths like the Tualatin River Greenway are good examples of projects that could be funded from the new program. (Photo: City of Tualatin)
Here’s what the State of Oregon is doing with that tax you pay on the purchase of new bicycles: The Oregon Department of Transportation has just launched a new program that could provide an estimated $14 million to multi-use path projects statewide.
The Oregon Community Paths program is the evolution of the active transportation portion of the state’s Connect Oregon (Lottery-backed) program. When the legislature passed a transportation funding bill in 2017 (HB 2017) they shifted the 7% of Connect Oregon that went to bicycling and walking projects into a separate program named the Multimodal Active Transportation Fund. That fund now also includes revenue from the bicycle excise tax that went into effect in fall 2017 and the federal Transportation Alternatives program.
According to ODOT Tourism and Scenic Byway Program Manager Sandra Hikari the Community Path Fund will start awarding grants in 2021. The $14 million estimate is for a three-year grant cycle ending in 2024. Asked for examples of projects that will compete well for the funds, she pointed to the Bear Creek Greenway in southern Oregon and the Tualatin River Greenway in Washington County. [Read more…]
Left to their own devices, the Oregon Department of Transportation would already be deep into the design and pre-construction phase of their I-5 Rose Quarter project right now. But because of their own hubris and blind ambition to “deliver” freeway expansion mega-projects at any cost and consequence, ODOT’s boss has forced them to delay.
On January 24th, the Oregon Transportation Commission published a memo (PDF) with 11 actions ODOT must take, “to more fully involve the community in decisions around the project and better evaluate alternatives to help reconnect the Albina community.” One of those actions is to create a community advisory committee. ODOT opened the application period for that committee on Wednesday.[Read more…]
