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Just before 9:30 pm on Monday night, a man riding a bike died while crossing the train tracks near SE Oak and Campbell Streets in Milwaukie (about seven miles south of Portland).

According to the Milwaukie Police Department, it was a southbound Amtrak train. On KGW‘s newscast tonight, they reported that there were several cars waiting at the train crossing arms (which were down) when “all of the sudden, a man on a bike rode past the cars and onto the tracks.” A Milwaukie police detective interviewed by KGW said the train was honking. There is no explanation at this time why the man on the bike continued onto the tracks.
[Read more…]

This substandard bridge in SE Portland’s
Brooklyn neighborhood would be improved
with TIGER II grant funds.

A partnership between TriMet, Metro, and the cities of Portland and Milwaukie could lead to a series of significant biking and walking improvements along the yet-to-be built Portland to Milwaukie light-rail line. TriMet is the lead applicant in a $13.2 million TIGER II grant request that would include a new multi-use path, a new biking and walking-only bridge in Milwaukie, and several other components along the rail corridor.[Read more…]

New on the streets of Milwaukie!
(Photo: Matt Menely)

The City of Milwaukie (which borders Portland to the southeast) has installed its first of 212 bikeway network signs. Milwaukie resident Matt Menely spotted the first one, which is located near SE 28th and Monroe.

The Bikeway Signage Plan project began with a series of public meetings in February 2009 and the signs are a part of Milwaukie’s Bike Plan which was adopted by City Council in December 2007.

The installation will be done in three phases and the first phase includes 48 signs. According to City of Milwaukie planner Brett Kelver, they have $10,000 allocated for the first 40 signs. The signs cost $250 (fabrication and installation) each and money for the project comes from a fund for biking and walking projects set aside with 1% of Milwaukie’s state gas tax revenues. The signs are similar in style to signs the City of Portland began installing back in late 2005.

What’s the purpose of the signs? Here is a list of benefits as laid out in the Milwaukie Bicycle Wayfinding Signage Plan (which was developed by Alta Planning):[Read more…]

The Sellwood Bridge affects the
bikeability of Milwaukie.
(Photo © J. Maus)

We’ll be bringing our next BikePortland Get Together event to Milwaukie, Oregon, our neighbor to the immediate south.

Anyone who lives, works, commutes, rides through, or otherwise spends time in Milwaukie (or its general vicinity) is invited to join us.

Milwaukie seems to be quietly experiencing a bicycling renaissance.

Back in 2007 the city held a series of Transportation System Plan meetings, out of which came a more coherent vision for biking in Milwaukie, as well as a bike map has been created and bike parking has been installed downtown. Another result was the grassroots formation of MilwaukieBIKES!, a group centered around an email listserv and billed as “a convenient communication hub for the bicycling community of Milwaukie, Oregon.” [Read more…]