Contributor Catie Gould is co-chair of Bike Loud PDX and is sort of obsessed with tracking climate change news.
I had plenty to digest over the Thanksgiving holiday, including an important new progress report on the global battle against climate change.
Last Tuesday the United Nations released its annual Emissions Gap Report. This annual report tracks country-level progress on Paris Climate Agreement goals, and outlines not just our failings (which there are many) but also potential pathways to decarbonization in which urban policy is a major player.
In hopes of spicing up my Thanksgiving table conversations, I read all 108 pages of the report. What I found was both interesting and depressing (of course).
First, some context about where we are.[Read more…]
Our friend Joe “Metal Cowboy” Kurmaskie has stepped up to organize BikeCraft this year. With the big event coming up this weekend, I asked him to send over mini profiles of the vendors and a bit about what to expect.
Take it away Joe!
BikeCraft 2019 is set for November 30th and December 1st (a bit earlier this year to be closer to peak shopping season) at the DoubleTree Hilton in the Lloyd. This is the first BikeCraft to be held at the DoubleTree, a venue that’s much larger and cozier than years past.
The bike-centric holiday gift bazaar showcases makers of all types gather to share their arts, crafts, books, accessories, apparel, and other interesting creations. Here’s a list of current vendors… [Read more…]
Amid all the talk about how to “fix congestion” there’s one cheap and relatively simple solution staring us in the face: dedicated lanes for efficient vehicles like bikes and buses.[Read more…]
Portland Fire & Rescue and the Portland Police Bureau have arrested a man who admits to setting several fires in northeast earlier this year. One of the fires damaged the roof and exterior walls of Lumberyard Bike Park and a storage trailer owned by the nonprofit NW Trail Alliance.
Allen Singerhouse is accused of starting the August 29th fire that began near a vacant lot at NE 82nd and Siskiyou. The fire quickly spread south toward houses and businesses across the street from Madison High School. In the end it caused more than $1 million in damages. [Read more…]
This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by BikeCraft, Portland’s cycle-centric holiday gift fair that’s coming up November 30th – December 1st at the Lloyd Doubletree (1000 NE Multnomah).[Read more…]
“This feels quite a bit bigger than bike racing. This is an event for the city and for Sellwood.” — Erik Tonkin, race organizer
Portland’s cyclocross season ended with a bang on Sunday as our community embraced an exciting new venue and event. Bridge City CX was truly an instant classic.
560 racers signed up for a challenging and fun course many said was the best they’d ever ridden. There were slippery s-turns, fast straightaways, and long sections of deep sand on the Willamette riverfront. Toward the end of the day the tide pushed up and left racers with just a few inches of dry sand.
Open Men 1/2/3 winner Carl Decker, a veteran pro who’s raced bikes all over the world, said after his race that, “This was as good as any course I’ve ridden. It was quintessential ‘cross.”[Read more…]
Just about the only thing better than the recent announcement of a new cyclocross race at a close-in venue this coming Sunday (11/24) is to see how the community has come together to help make it great.
The response to this new race has been huge.[Read more…]
My visit to the Portland Freight Committee (PFC) earlier this month led to an interesting revelation: Turns out, members of this influential committee think the use of large freight trucks on North Lombard should be prioritized above everything else. To say the committee is skeptical of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s plan to remove two driving lanes to make room for a bike lanes and other updates is an understatement.
Reader Lenny Anderson took notice.
Lenny knows a thing or three about how freight advocacy works in this town. Before retiring in 2013, he spent 13 years improving access to-and-from the industrial district on Swan Island (home to UPS, FedEx, and others). Known to many as “Mr. Swan Island,” one reason Lenny was so good at his job is that he understood the way to move more freight was to encourage bicycling and transit use and remove as many single-occupancy automobile users as possible. “Every two people that ride down here is a semi!” he once said.[Read more…]
“You’ve got a major freight street here, and again, major freight streets are being turned into multimodal parkways. I don’t understand that.” — Portland Freight Committee member
A shared bus and bike lane in Paris. (Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)
It’s time for bike, e-mobility, and transit riders to team up against the real enemy. With the Rose Lane project underway and e-bikes on the horizon, Portland should consider more carfree lanes.
– A guest opinion from Portland resident Henry Miller[Read more…]
