Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Mark Twain’s 1895 master plan for biking in Portland

Mr. Twain in 1871.(Photo: Wikipedia) Just came across (via @cascadebicycle on Twitter) an amazing bit of Portland bike history via the Seattle-based Crosscut blog. 115 years ago today, America’s beloved nomad, author and commentator Mark Twain visited our little logging town and had some pretty big ideas about biking. Crosscut’s Knute Berger was researching Twain’s … Read more


Guest article: Oregon’s first bicycling governor: T.T. Geer, 1899-1903

[Editor’s note: Eric Lundgren is Oregon’s preeminent bicycle historian. He is working on a book about Portland’s “golden age of cycling,” and has provided his historical perspective to this site in the past. He provided this article about our first bicycling governor in honor of the state’s Sesquicentennial this week.] Governor T.T. Geer(Image courtesy of … Read more


Buffered Bike Lane with a bike symbol and arrow pointing forward

Talk: Portland’s Cycling History

Portland State University Center for Transportation Studies Fall 2007 Transportation Seminar Series Speaker: Eric Lundgren Topic: The Wheels of Fortune: Weather Prophet Pague, Governor Geer, & Portland’s Original Network of Cycle Paths A little over a century ago Portland was building and enjoying a network of dedicated bicycle paths. For a brief and glorious half-decade, … Read more