Sketch by John Liu for BikePortland.

This is BP subscriber John Liu’s second article. The first one was about right-hooks.

This series of posts is meant to share riding skills for people who want to take extra precautions against drivers who are distracted, careless, aggressive, inexperienced, or simply fallible humans and for drivers who don’t ever want to hurt or kill a cyclist through poor driving.

Don’t read this post if you want to know a cyclist’s or driver’s “legal responsibility” or you want to know what cycling “should be” like in an ideal world. As bicycle operators, we can ignore everything I write about here, and we may still be legally “in the right”. And dead.

About me: 40+ years of riding bikes in cities, 30+ years of driving in cities, 10 years year-round bike commuting in Portland, licensed driver with motorcycle endorsement, zero bicycle-car collisions as either a cyclist or a driver.
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A great city for biking must have great drivers.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

This post was submitted by BP Subscriber Alex Reed.

We all know driving is a challenging endeavor that carries grave responsibility – lives are on the line. But even driving according to the law dependably is difficult – much less going beyond the law to be truly courteous and helpful to other road users.

Here are some ideas I’ve found useful – starting with how to obey the law. If you don’t drive, please share this with your friends and family that do.

8 Tips To Help Get You to A+, 100% Lawful Driving

1. Take a deep breath – don’t rush.
If you’re reading this for tips, I bet you already obey the speed limit without fail. But don’t forget the Basic Speed Law (layperson’s version: don’t drive too fast for conditions)! There are tons of places and times where the speed limit is way too fast. Don’t be in a rush. Opting for slower and safer is better than just going on autopilot at the speed limit. As we leave the summer, allow more and more extra time for less than ideal conditions.
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Looking north toward Highway 26.
(Photos: Naomi Fast)

– Words and photos by BP Subscriber and Washington County Correspondent Naomi Fast

I took a tour of some of Washington County’s hot-off-the-asphalt-truck bicycle infrastructure, and my verdict is in: it’s worthy of inviting guests from Portland to come check it out.

So come take a virtual ride with me!
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A near-right hook on Southwest Broadway.
(Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

This article was written by BP Subscriber John Liu.

This is the first of a series of planned Subscriber Posts on how to ride a bicycle defensively in the imperfect city.

Why read this post?

This post is meant to share riding skills for people who want to take extra precautions against drivers who are distracted, careless, aggressive, inexperienced, or simply fallible humans. And for responsible drivers who don’t ever want to hurt or kill a bicycle rider due to their driving.
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Here is my list, in no particular order:

The Steel Bridge lower deck/floating Esplanade. Created thanks to the Bike Bill and Street Trust lawsuit, this is the most spectacular of the crucial bridge and waterfront connections that made Portland’s eye-popping biking boom of the 2000s happen. The floating section of the Esplanade is one of the city’s most wonderful public spaces.[Read more…]

End of the path and start of a small but very significant gap between Chimney Park and the Marine Drive path in St. Johns. (Photo: J. Maus/BikePortland)

This post was written by a BikePortland subcriber.

As a daily bike commuter and a long time road cyclist in places with pretty horrid biking conditions, riding in Portland has generally been great in contrast when I’m out riding by myself or my fellow roadie friends. Since March, however, I’ve been training for the Cycle Oregon weekend rides with my two teens, ages 17 and 13. And as our rides have started stretching out into 40-50 miles and we’ve started collaborating on where to go ride, all of us are noticing The Gaps.
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I only have week to go before I can get on my bicycles. I am not just looking forward to the naked bike ride but really looking forward to rolling through the air on my two wheels. The Why: the accident, the surgery, the recovery are my personal equivalent to the good, the bad, and the ugly in reverse order. I had shoulder surgery on Mar 24 and my orthopedist-surgeon told me multiple times you cannot bicycle for three months.

The cost of a bicycle accident triggers many thoughts about dollars, aging, and attitudes. The top muscle (supraspinatus) was completely torn from the bone. With age, this muscle (as well as many other ones) develops micro-tears. As one ages, more tears become larger, pain increases, and accidents have greater consequences pushing up the cost of medical treatments. For me it was simply a fall-over with a cargo bicycle caused this big rip.

Citylab.com published an article by John Metcalf at the beginning of June describing the increasing costs of bike injuries. He stated that there has been an increment of a 120% ‘bump’ in hospital visits featuring bicycle crashes since 1990. More than 800 deaths from car-on-bike crashes occurred in 2015 in the US. He reported that a serious non fatal ‘accident’ in 1997 cost an average of $52,495 which included medical expenses, missed work, and reduced quality of life. This figure jumped to $77K in 2013.

Metcalf went on to report that the total bike injuries costs have increased nearly $789 million per year from the late 1990s and to near total of $24 billion in 2013 (yes 24 billion). Additionally, there are more older-cyclists. There were nearly 2 million bicyclists in 2001 over the age 45 and in 2009 this number reached 3.6 million. I could not find the number of these riders in this decade. Federal data shows biking rates among people between the ages of 60 and 79 are soaring. ‘New trips by seniors account for 22 percent of the nation’s growth in adult biking,’ according to People for Bikes. Growth rates of older bicyclists are larger than younger age groups of new bicyclists.
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Every day, millions of people move throughout greater Portland’s communities. This is a journey we share: Shoulder to shoulder on transit, lane by lane on streets and highways. Wheels turning, feet stepping, we go many miles — or just down the block.

Our ability to get around -– to cross bridges, travel highways and streets, catch a bus or MAX, walk or bike to our destinations -– is something we often take for granted.

But every mile we travel depends on the decisions and investments of past generations of Oregonians. Those investments have shaped the community we’ve become.

As we grow and greet a changing world, how can we ensure the region’s streets, roads, transit and bridges still work for everyone? What are the top challenges we face? What can we learn from elsewhere?

Metro’s latest Regional Snapshot takes a look at the transportation system we’ve built together, and the future we could create next. With stats, maps, videos, personal stories and more, it’s a detailed exploration of the connections that knit the region together and the people who use them. Take a look at http://oregonmetro.gov/snapshot.

Paving on Multnomah County rural roads

A contractor has begun paving several rural roads in east and west parts of Multnomah County. When one lane is being paved, flaggers will alternate two-way traffic in the open lane. There will be a one-day close of SE Stark Street on Wednesday, June 14 between SE Kerslake Road and the Stark Street Bridge.

The road sections being paved are:

SE Orient Drive (from Gresham City limit to the Clackamas County line): June 12-15, 8 am to 7 pm. Highway 26 is an alternate route.
SE Stark Street (from SE Kerslake Road to the Stark Street Bridge over the Sandy River): June 14-19, 8 am to 7 pm. This work will require a one-day closure of Stark Street on Wednesday, June 14. The Historic Columbia River Highway is an alternate route.
SE 172nd Ave. (from SE Foster Road to north of SE 170th Ave.): June 19-20, 8 am to 4 pm. SE Foster Road is an alternate route.
NW Sauvie Island Road(a 400 foot long section north of NW Lucy Reeder Road): June 21, 7 am to 7 pm. Flaggers will direct two-way traffic. No nearby alternate route.
Dates are subject to change due to weather or other factors.

Travelers should use alternate routes when possible to avoid delays on these roads during work days (Monday to Friday). Traffic using side streets and driveways adjacent to the paving may experience brief delays during a rolling closure.

Multnomah County maintains 300 miles of roads and bridges. For information, visit www.multco.us/roads or follow us on Twitter @MultCoRoads.

Shop Warming Party to celebrate our new space!

Sunday, June 25th from 5-9pm at 1926 N Kilpatrick St.
Music/Snacks/Drinks/Party/Prizes!

The North Portland Sunday Parkways is that day from 11am-4pm. We’ll be on site at Kenton Park doing small repairs for bicycles in need! Join us after!