The Tram reflected in an OHSU building as seen from the Go By Bike valet lot.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

I know it’s eight months away, but I thought you might want to start saving up for an e-bike…

The Portland Aerial Tram will close for track maintenance from June 23rd through July 30th, 2018. That’s 38 days where you’ll have to find a different way up the hill. If you need or want to bike up to Marquam Hill for the campus and facilities of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), your ride will go from 180 seconds to about 30 minutes. Or maybe not (keep reading).

The Tram is a crucial link between South Waterfront and Marquam Hill for 7,000 daily commuters. OHSU data shows that of the 10,000 employees who work on the hill, about one-fourth of those who take the tram use a bike to get to campus. The Go By Bike valet at the base of the Tram averages over 328 bikes in its parking lot every day.

If a bunch of people decide to hop in a car during the closure this summer, it could be a mess. Not only are the roads leading to Marquam Hill relatively narrow, parking is extremely limited (Metro has reported an eight-year waiting list and an average monthly fee of $128) and spots must be maintained for patients and their visitors. Hopefully a large percentage of people will continue to bike. But it won’t be easy…
[Read more…]

(Photo: PBOT)

All eyes will be on the Portland Aerial Tram as the beloved transit mode turns 10 years old this weekend. While the Tram deserves all the attention, a big part of its coming-of-age story is the symbiotic relationship it has had with cycling.
[Read more…]

The valet in 2012. It’s co-funded by OHSU and the private bike shop that operates nearby.
(Photos: J.Maus/BikePortland)

One of Portland’s most unusual experiments in privately funded bike promotion keeps growing and growing.

[Read more…]

OHSU Transportation Options Coordinator John Landolfe and Go By Bike owner Kiel Johnson hoist the second bike-share rack into place in the South Waterfront.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Pushing to grow its workforce without pouring precious cash into garage construction, Portland’s largest employer continues to roll out bike-transportation improvements.

Next week, Oregon Health and Science University plans to became the latest major company (following Nike and Intel) to introduce a private bike-sharing system for moving quickly around its campus.

“Basically we just copied what Nike does and made it blue,” said Kiel Johnson, owner of the Go By Bike shop and valet, of the 13-bike, two-station system. His team will operate it.

[Read more…]

Even where it isn’t blocked, Naito’s existing goatpath often spills over during festivals.
(Photo: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

A week after Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick’s office called out Naito Parkway for failing to provide “a minimum level of safety for the traveling public” along Waterfront Park, other central-city institutions are weighing in.

[Read more…]

A Portland Fire & Rescue truck slid on ice
on Sam Jackson Park Road yesterday.
(Photo: PF&R)

A man crashed while bicycling downhill on SW Sam Jackson Park Road yesterday. Then, when Portland Fire & Rescue responded to the crash, their fire truck slid on the ice and smashed into a guard rail.

According to Portland Fire & Rescue, the crash happened during yesterday’s morning commute. When they arrived, the man who crashed his bike was up and walking around. Here’s more from PF&R about the conditions that led to the crashes:

“The ice was reportedly caused when the drainage along the side of the road became blocked with leaves. This caused water to flow over the roadway and subsequently the cold weather created ice.”

[Read more…]

Amsterdam? Nope. That’s the new bike parking area
in the South Waterfront District as seen
from the Aerial Tram.
(Photos © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is often featured on this blog for their bike-sensitive projects and programs. We’ve shared OHSU’s sophisticated encouragement methods used in their Bike Incentive Program, how they are incorporating bicycle use into new buildings, how they’ve contributed important academic research about bicycling, and so on. But it wasn’t always that way.

A scan of our archives show that the institution has taken an awesome trajectory from our first report on them in 2006 when we shared rumblings from staff and students that school brass didn’t respect bicycling.

My how things have changed (at least for folks who use the tram).

In their latest effort to do everything they can to make biking easy and convenient for their thousands of faculty and staff, OHSU (which has a “Gold Bike Friendly Business” rating from the League of American Bicyclists) has renewed a lease with a bike shop that is open for business under the west side of the Aerial Tram, they’ve added even more bike parking, and they’ve expanded their bike valet service. I paid the shop a visit last week to find out more…[Read more…]

Detail from rendering of
dedicated entrance to bike
parking facilities.

Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) — a school that has grabbed our attention several times in the past for their encouragement of bicycling among faculty and staff — has a new building in the works and they say it, “will set a new standard for the quality of bicycle facilities.”

Those are lofty words, so we got a closer look at the plans from Campus Planning and Development Director Brian Newman.[Read more…]

OHSU introduced its popular
free bike valet program in 2011
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) released its Bike Program Report for 2011, including results from their member survey and an update on their online trip log.

As John Landolfe, OHSU’s Transportation Coordinator, says at the beginning of the report, “2011 was a banner year for biking at Oregon Health & Science University.”

[Read more…]

A winter bike commute workshop
at OHSU.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has earned a ‘Gold Bicycle Friendly Business’ rating from the League of American Bicyclists.

OHSU is Portland’s largest employer with 12,400 employees and is the largest organization to ever win a gold or higher designation from the League. The award was announced last month but League representatives presented OHSU with the award today.[Read more…]