Cycling News & Blog Articles

Detail from PBOT’s new gravel clean up map. View it here.

Gravel in bike lanes has been a thorn in the side of Portland cyclists for many years. I realized today that as far back as 2007 BikePortland has shared stories of woe from Portlanders concerned that the gravel sprayed onto the road by the Portland Bureau of Transportation after snow or ice storms becomes a hazard long after the storm (and the need for the gravel) has passed.

One of the issues we struggle with is a lack of transparency about how long it will take PBOT to sweep it back up, and where they are focusing efforts to do so.

I’m happy to report that this year, PBOT has taken a great step forward in not only transparency, but in having focused attention on clearing gravel from bike routes. They’ve published a new map that shows a live view of where gravel pick-up is happening. As of 10:30 am this morning, PBOT had swept 299.4 miles of roads. Of those roads, 17.9 miles of protected bike lanes have been swept.

Makeshift memorial on Wallace Rd in Polk County where Adam Joy died. (Photo sent in by a reader)

“He said, ‘I have been troubled by this case and have been thinking about it and I’ve decided the right thing to do is to present this case to the grand jury.'”

The driver of a large truck who had several prior speeding tickets and hit and killed Adam Joy while he and his young son were on a bike ride in rural Polk County last summer would have gotten off with only minor traffic citations if not for the work of the family’s lawyer, a story on BikePortland, and a change of heart from a district attorney.

Joy, a beloved teacher who lived in Portland, and his 15-year-old son, were bicycling on Wallace Road about 10 miles southeast of McMinnville on June 10th, 2023. The pair were training for the Seattle-to-Portland bicycle ride. Robert Weeks was driving his 2011 Ford F-350 truck behind them and was involved in a collision with Joy. Joy died at the scene.

The initial police report claimed Joy, “fell over into the travel lane” and that, “even though the [driver] slowed when passing, the rider of the bicycle was run over” — phrases that Oregon State Police Communications Director Capt. Kyle Kennedy told me during a phone call on June 22nd were, “intentionally vague on the details, but not misleading or inaccurate.”

A truck driver encroaches into the buffer zone of a bike lane on North Skidmore Ave. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

In recent years, the Oregon Department of Transportation has slowly but surely added buffer zones to create wider bike lanes on many road projects. In some cases, they’ve implemented road diets and narrowed the existing lanes to make more room for bike riders. These shifts represent progress from ODOT to build a system more accessible to walkers and bikers. They also follow a general consensus among safety and road design experts that wider driving lanes lead to higher speeds, that more space is needed to make cycling attractive to more people, and that lanes used for driving have historically been wider than necessary.

But for trucking industry representatives and other ODOT advisors, concerns about narrower lanes have been percolating for years. As we reported in September 2022, tensions between ODOT advisory groups that represent trucking and active transportation interests revolved largely around the lane width debate. For people who drive large freight trucks (and their advocates), every inch matters. They say their vehicles simply don’t fit on some Oregon lanes and drivers are forced to steer into the buffer zone of bike lanes to avoid oncoming traffic.

When they encroach into buffer zones, they not only risk striking a bicycle rider, they are also concerned about lawsuits if a crash happens.

Now trucking advocates want to change Oregon’s bike lane law to make driving on the buffered portion of a bike lane legal. They also want to add a definition of “buffer space” into the Oregon Vehicle Code. Two members of ODOT’s Mobility Advisory Committee (a group that focuses on how road projects impact freight routes), Oregon Trucking Association Government Relations Policy Advisor Mark Gibson and Associated General Contractors Board Member Walt Gamble, shared a presentation on the issue at a meeting of ODOT’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee on Tuesday.

Kevin Schmidt in his PedalPT office, showing off the Portland Bike Stand. Watch interview with Schmidt below. (Photos: PedalPT)

46-year-old South Tabor resident Kevin Schmidt has been a licensed Physical Therapist for over 20 years. When he stopped a driving a car in 2005 and began to ride his bike into work everyday, neck pain got him down. He didn’t know anything about bike fit, so his first stop was a local bike shop. When changes to his bike didn’t help, his frustration grew.

“Then I had my lightbulb moment,” he recalled during an interview with BikePortland Tuesday (watch it below). “I asked the guy at the shop what the heck was wrong with my neck, and he said, ‘How the hell should I know, I’m not a Physical Therapist’.” Schmidt realized his PT training didn’t include anything about bike fitting or cycling, so he learned everything he could. Then in 2012 he opened PedalPT, a bike-specific physical therapy office on the cycling thoroughfare of Southeast Clinton and 25th, and never looked back. “A lot of people laughed at us initially, but here we are, 12 years later, we’re crushing it and it’s been great.”

Now Schmidt is about to embark on another new journey. Early next month he’ll receive the first batch of a new product he’s spent six years developing: the Portland Bike Stand, a trainer he says is the highest-quality on the market.

At PedalPT, Schmidt and his staff put most clients on a trainer — one of those things that clamps into your rear axle and allows you to sit on your bike and pedal. Inspiration for the Portland Bike Stand came when trainers they were using would break, not be able to handle heavier riders, and could not fit the diverse range of bicycles that rolled down SE Clinton St. and into the office.

After being cooped up all last week, and having to cancel Bike Happy Hour for the first time in 40 weeks, I’m ready to get out and see your beautiful faces. I hope you’ll consider joining us tomorrow (Wednesday, January 23rd) at Ankeny Tap & Table (2724 SE Ankeny) for our weekly gathering.

We have two special guests who will be joining us: Portland City Council candidates Sarah Silkie from District 4 (Sellwood and west Portland) and Jesse Cornett from District 3. Both candidates reached out to BikePortland and want to learn more about bicycling. Sarah, a Portland Water Bureau employee and mom to three young kids, asked specifically about my opinion on parking-protected bike lane designs and whether I preferred them over standard bike lanes or a sidewalk-level facility. And you already know about Jesse from his recent interview on the BP Podcast. This is a great chance to bend their ears and make sure they understand how important cycling is to our city. Each candidate will share a short stump speech and then will be available for questions. As per usual we’ll open the mic around 5:00.

And of course Bike Happy Hour is open to everyone and you don’t need to be a special guest to just show up. Other council candidates are always welcome.

Also this week I’m happy to have fresh name tags and Regulars Club cards for everyone who needs one. I also plan to bring some BikePortland postcards so folks can write out notes of thanks to PBOT for all their hard work this past week dealing with the storm.

Bike lane conditions on N Rosa Parks near I-5 ramps on Sunday, January 21st. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Many transportation bigwigs came together around a table inside the EcoTrust building in the Pearl District this morning for a meeting of the Regional Tolling Advisory Committee. On hand were RTAC members including: a VP of the Portland Metro Chamber, the director of the Oregon Trucking Association, the directors of the Oregon and Washington transportation departments, several Metro councilors, commissioners from Multnomah and other counties, etc.

The Street Trust Executive Director Sarah Iannarone, also an RTAC member, was only able to attend via Zoom. Why? Here’s how she opened one of her comments:

“I’m sorry I’m not there today. The bike lanes aren’t quite as clear as the motor vehicle lanes, so it’s not super safe for me to be commuting down there. So I appreciate you allowing me to Zoom in.”

Yes, the good news is this tragic and terrible storm is behind us. But the bad news is — just like the trauma and damage this storm inflicted on many Portlanders will linger — so too will terrible bike lane conditions and dangerous roads that put everyone outside of a car at risk.

Attorney (and BikePortland advertiser) Chris Thomas of the Thomas, Coon, Newton & Frost law firm, shared his expertise on liability in the comments section of our recent post about a case involving Oregon’s recreational immunity law: “In fact, recreational immunity is alive and well,” wrote Thomas.

Thomas reminds readers of the meat-and-potatoes of how civil trials work, and explains what is happening behind the scenes.

Here’s what Thomas had to say:

Thanks Jonathan for your coverage here. This is a complex issue and I want to share a few thoughts and points of clarification.

Welcome to the week.

Here are the most notable stories our community came across in the past seven days…

Timur talks: One of the candidates I’m most excited about is Timur Ender who’s running in Dist 1 (East Portland). Don’t miss his recent interview on a local podcast. (Progress Portland)

‘Cross props: Portland’s very own Clara Honsinger (who nabbed bronze at a race in Belgium over the weekend) is featured prominently in this fun story on cyclocross from a major mainstream outlet. (Washington Post)

Jesse Cornett is running for District 3, which encompasses (roughly) southeast Portland from the Willamette to 82nd, and I-84 to the southern border. He’s an intriguing candidate, not just because he was a “body man” for Senator Bernie Sanders and worked on his presidential campaign, but because of his long political resume here in Oregon. In 2008 he narrowly lost a race for the Oregon State Senate and in 2010 he ran for Portland City Council. I interviewed him during that campaign, so it was fun to sit down with him again today — 14 years later.

Our conversation touched on a wide range of topics, from policing to homelessness — to whether or not Portland’s goal of 25% cycling mode share by 2030 is possible.

Check out a few of our exchanges below:

If you’re on council would you support the idea of reducing space for driving so that we can put other things in its place?

My necessities for a recent housing search in Portland… and the front rack bag I crammed it all into. (Photos: Erin Bailie)

Hi! I’m Erin Bailie, and I’ll be moving from Seattle to Portland (Sullivan’s Gulch neighborhood) in February. By day I work a tech job in product/research, and I love using bicycles as my primary means of transportation. In my 30-something years I’ve lived a lot of bike lives: I’ve been bike commuting since second grade, sometimes I do track racing or go bikepacking, and I love Pedalpalooza. Reading BikePortland has been part of my morning routine for years, and I can’t wait to chronicle some of my thoughts as a newcomer to town. 

Though my husband Jonathan and I will be new to Portland, Portland won’t be new to us. Over the past few years, we’ve found any excuse we can to visit for the weekend. We’ve driven, taken Amtrak, and once we even rode the whole way to Portland (thanks, STP!). When the opportunity knocked for Jonathan to take a job in Portland, we couldn’t say “yes!” fast enough. 

The month before our move, we spent a week in Portland with the sole purpose of finding housing. Each day played out in a chaotic frenzy: I crammed my necessities and laptop into a front rack bag and rode from our lodging in Richmond, to rental showings across northeast and southeast, to co-working spaces to dial into meetings — and tried to find a gluten-free lunch somewhere along the way.