Cycling News & Blog Articles

At an online meeting next week hosted by local activism group Bike Loud PDX you’ll get the chance to hear from a leading expert on the connection between America’s pervasive car culture and a startling rise in deaths of vulnerable road users.

Angie Schmitt’s new book, Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America (Island Press), is due to come out on August 27th and has already received an excellent review from Kirkus (a big deal in the publishing world).

In the book, Schmitt breaks down the policies and products that have contributed to a 50% rise in pedestrian deaths in the last decade.

After finally opening last summer following years of major lawsuits and then facing impacts of a viral pandemic, Timberline Bike Park has had a rough first year.

But with snow clearing from upper sections and thanks to many hours of trail maintenance, the mountain is ready to welcome customers starting tomorrow, July 10th. It’s perfect timing for everyone itching to ride their new bike and bust out of their neighborhood quarantine rut

An announcement yesterday said four trails will be rideable during this phased opening: Gravy Train (long green, beginner/flow trail), Re-Align (blue intermediate machine built flow trail), The Rock (blue hand built intermediate trail), and Camino de Michoacán from Norm’s down (black advanced trail). Timberline says more trails will open within the next few weeks.

Unlike our Oregon Department of Transportation whose seems to be carrying out a policy to rid their highways of everything but people in cars, the Washington Department of Transportation announced yesterday that it’s getting on the open streets train.

Imagine that. A state DOT voluntarily banning automobile users from lanes and even complete roadways all in the name of safety and health.

“The Safe, Healthy and Active Streets Program (PDF) allows temporary lane reallocations on some state roadways to allow walkers and cyclists more space to maintain physical distance, and to provide greater access to businesses along ‘main street’ highways,” reads the official WashDOT announcement.

The initiative is a joint effort of the state’s health, economic and transportation departments.

Portlander Devin Bailly likes to suffer. He’s known in local cycling circles as that crazy guy who loves climbing and is one of the caretakers of the three toughest bike routes in Portland: Ronde PDX, La Doyenne, and Giro PDX. Those three routes rise an average of over 7,000 feet each in only about 50 miles (trust me, that’s tough).

But Bailly knows his suffering is a choice. The death of George Floyd and rise of the Black Lives Matter movement has made him acutely aware that for too many Americans the lifelong suffering from racist actions and policies is never a choice.

To help support the movement Bailly has leveraged his social network, expert route-making skills, and passion for climbing hills into a campaign he calls “BLMtoPDXBikes”. In its first month the effort has raised over $25,000 and he’s looking for more people to get involved — whether that means hopping on a bike or hopping online to be a sponsor or donor.

Here’s how it works:
— Make a donation to a non-profit organization working to advance racial justice.
— Email the receipt(s) to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
— Campaign sponsors will match your donation.
— BLMtoPDXBikes will email you back a receipt verifying the matching donation was made.

There’s good news and bad news about TriMet’s upcoming project that will close the upper deck of the Steel Bridge for four weeks in August.

First the bad news: The project means the upper deck will be closed to all users — including bicycle riders. That’s unfortunate because the sidewalk and lanes of the upper deck are a nice option for biking on when you’re in a hurry and/or don’t want to deal with crowds on the Waterfront-Esplanade path. This is especially true for folks wanting to keep a distance from others.

The good news is that TriMet will finally make significant upgrades to this major bottleneck on the aging and ailing Steel Bridge. This means more reliable service at a time when we need our transit system to be as strong as possible to compete with driving trips if/when downtown commuter traffic ever gets back to normal.

With so many people hopping on bikes these days, there’s a growing demand for fun and safe places to ride them. This is the first of a series of mini-guides that will introduce (or re-introduce) you to some of Portland’s best cycling destinations.

Swan Island. Sounds dreamy doesn’t it? Almost tropical. This little patch of land just two miles (as a crow flies) from the trendy shops on Northwest 23rd Avenue, is a study in contrasts: Beautiful natural sights next to behemoth industrial buildings; quiet, carfree bike paths next to load highways full of huge trucks.

But don’t let that scare you! While Swan Island is woefully disconnected from our cycling route network and will never reach its potential until we build more safe cycling infrastructure, I still recommend putting it on your ride rotation — even if you have young kids in tow.

Read on for our bike-centric mini-guide to Swan Island.

Yesterday (July 6th) at 2:52 pm, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler emailed his three City Council colleagues and every city bureau director with a clear message:

“Effectively immediately, we are directing all City Bureaus to suspend all operations until further notice related to the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project. This includes attending meetings, providing technical support or responding to project emails. Any resumption of City staff services will be at the direction of the Portland City Council.”

Six hours later Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) crews began drilling into the pavement on North Flint Avenue. They were doing work for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) specifically for the I-5 Rose Quarter project It’s not clear if PBOT was doing work for the Rose Quarter project or not. An ODOT construction notice said crews would do work in this same area, at this same date, and at this same time. If the work was related to the Rose Quarter project it would be in direct violation of the stoppage order issued by Mayor Wheeler.

Zed Bailey beamed into Portland in 2012 and wanted to take our already legendary bike fun scene to the next level. They were bursting with creativity and volunteered to lead rides and help galvanize the spirit of other bike-loving Portlanders.

Sonder, who was also known as Cory or Zed Bailey, died last month in Hilo, Hawaii at the age of 41. According to sources who confirmed the details with family and the Hilo Police Department, Zed died by suicide.

Zed moved to Portland from Salt Lake City Utah where they lived for eight years. While in Utah, Zed created the “SaltCycle” blog and built a community around cycling. The blog is now defunct but the SaltCycle Facebook Group is still active and has over 2,600 members.

While in Portland, Zed was a regular attendee of Zoobomb and in 2013 took a leading volunteer role with Shift, a local nonprofit that promotes free bike fun and hosts events like Breakfast on the Bridges, Midnight Mystery Rides, and Pedalpalooza.

We’re happy to report that the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) is removing guardrails they installed late last month on the Historic Columbia River Highway near Troutdale.

On June 24th, ODOT installed three sections of guardrails on the west side of the highway along the Sandy River. They were noticed by a BikePortland Forum user who expressed concerns that the placement of the guardrails on the paved shoulder reduced valuable cycling space and created a safety hazard on a relatively narrow, high-speed road. This highway is part of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail and it’s a crucial cycling route for thousands of people each year.

Last week we wondered how the Oregon Department of Transportation could possibly carry on with their I-5 Rose Quarter project without support from a key organization or Portland’s top elected leaders.

We’re about to find out.

The City of Portland just pulled even further away from ODOT’s beleaguered project. But that’s just one of the updates worth sharing. Here’s what you need to know…

Cease and Resist

Remember last summer when Multnomah County closed NW Cornelius Pass Road for a major project and the detour sent thousands of drivers onto popular and usually quiet roads like Newberry?

Unfortunately they weren’t able to finish the project as planned and it’s about to start up again for round two. Fortunately, the County says things might not be as bad this time around.

From July 19th through the end of September, the County plans to close Cornelius Pass Road between Highway 30 and Skyline in order to complete a road safety project. No one rides Cornelius Pass Road because it’s such a busy highway and there are much better options nearby. Unfortunately, all the car and truck drivers need to find options too — which means rural roads in the general area are likely to see extra motorized traffic the closure. (Last year the detoured traffic on Newberry was especially hard to swallow because it came right after it was carfree for many months due to a landslide repair.)

The good news is this project shouldn’t create as many hazards and headaches for bicycle riders as last year.

What is with people using cars and trucks for nefarious and violent actions lately?

This morning around 2:00 am someone driving a blue pick-up truck bashed into the front of the headquarters Nomad Cycles PDX on Northeast Sandy Blvd (just east of 57th). Shop owner Brad Davis says the driver intentionally broke through the front door. Once inside, the thief stole a prototype bicycle off the showroom floor and then sped away.

According to Davis, people who live upstairs from his business were awaken by noise and shaking. They looked out and saw the driver slamming into the building.

Vehicular violence: A man sped past a closed section of freeway in Seattle and intentionally drove his vehicle into peaceful Black Lives Matter protestors. He hit two people. One person, Summer Taylor (on left in lead image), died from their injuries and the other person, Diaz Love, is still hospitalized. Seattle Police arrested Dawit Kelete and charged him with two counts of vehicular assault.

No more traffic police, Part 1: A budget proposal in Berkeley, California could make them the first city to redirect traffic law enforcement funds away from police and toward unarmed city staff.

No more traffic police, Part 2: City councilors in Los Angeles have also proposed taking traffic law enforcement out of the hands of armed police. Their proposal would increase the use of automated cameras and use department of transportation employees to issue citations instead of armed cops.

Self-enforcing: There are a lot of traffic laws that make no sense for armed police response. This article from Fast Company says automated cameras and better infrastructure design could help further minimize the need for police.

When we interviewed U.S. Congressman Earl Blumenauer in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election he said, “If four years from now the places that can make the most advantage of transportation investments don’t get that help, that’s going to be not just a missed opportunity in terms of safety and economic benefits of transportation — it’s going to be a lost political opportunity as well.”

Yesterday, just four months before that four-year deadline, Rep. Blumenauer and his colleagues in the House of Representatives (led by fellow Oregon congressman Peter DeFazio) seized that political opportunity and successfully passed H.R. 2, the Moving Forward Act.

The bill invests $1.5 trillion in infrastructure projects and programs including $500 billion for transportation-related needs. The League of American Bicyclists has heaped praise on the legislation, saying, “This bill is transformative – it’s the first bill to approach real reform in almost 30 years… and will move the country forward in building a safer, cleaner, more equitable transportation system that better meets the needs of everyone.”

Among the highlights are several of Blumenauer’s top priorities that he’s been pushing for years including a stronger tax benefit for people who ride a bicycle to work, a policy tweak that would allow transit agencies to invest in bikeshare systems, and funding for Vision Zero plans. Blumenauer introduced a total of nine bills that were included in the Moving Forward Act and five of them are related to transportation:

In case you haven’t heard there’s a bike boom going on around here. Lots of bike buyers and bike riders and the same amount of bike shops means places are slammed with business and need help.

If you want a new job in the bike biz, now is a good time to start poking around. Check out our most recent listings below.

– Accounts Payable Specialist – Velotech, Inc.

– Bike Mechanic – Vancouver Cyclery

– Sales Associate – West End Bikes

We’re still trying to learn more about why the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) installed three sections of guardrails in the paved shoulder of the Historic Columbia River Highway north of Interstate 84 last week. These guardrails narrow valuable space used by many bicycle riders and their dangerous placement increases odds of stressful passes and collisions.

The fact that ODOT did this without any public notice and on one of the most important and valuable cycling routes in the state is unconscionable and just the latest example of the agency’s negligent stewardship of our transportation system. We’ve reached out to ODOT leadership for further comment and clarification but haven’t heard back.

Since our story posted on Monday, we’ve read dozens of comments expressing grave concerns and outrage. Now homeowners who live along the road where the guardrails were installed are defending the project, saying the guardrails are necessary to thwart illegal campers and to make the road safer for drivers.

For over a month now, Portlanders have been taking to the streets every night to protest the killing of Black people and the racist policies and police brutality that contribute to it.

At almost every march there’s been a cadre of two-wheeled escorts patrolling intersections, directing traffic, and doing whatever is necessary to keep protestors safe. “Corking,” the act of placing your bicycle and body in an intersection in front of crossing road users so that a large group of people can go through without stopping at signals and stop signs, has been a part of protests many years.

But not everyone knows the drills. And when tensions mount in the street, it’s good to know some basic ground rules — especially if you’re white.

The current number one priority at Portland’s transportation bureau is a permit program that aims to help restaurants spread into the street so they can serve more people safely. The Healthy Business program is part of a larger Safe Streets Initiative that’s altering public right-of-way to improve safety and create more space for physically-distanced commerce.

By some accounts the program is working well. Since it was launched at the end of May, the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) says they’ve issued well over 200 permits so far and rave reviews are coming in for the street dining plazas.

But is the program working for everyone? Are Black-owned businesses getting a fair shot?

Bad news: Covid-19 is here to stay for the foreseeable future. That means you’ll need to wear a good mask to keep yourself and others safe.

Good news: You can find great masks and face coverings made in Portland and your purchase will help support local bike-related businesses.

Here are some of our favorites:

BlaqPaks

It’s been 116 days since the last officially sanctioned bicycle race happened in Oregon.

The coronavirus crisis forced the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association (OBRA) to cancel all races on March 12th. What was expected to be a four week hiatus turned into nearly four months. Dozens of events have been cancelled statewide, resulting in a major blow to OBRA’s finances, a hit to promoters’ pocketbooks, lots of frustrated athletes, and a loss of tourism dollars for the many cities and small towns that host races.

That sad streak will be broken this Sunday when racers show up to Blodgett, Oregon (just west of Corvallis) for the 33rd annual Mudslinger cross-country mountain bike race.

This is the first race with a newly-required Covid-19 mitigation plan vetted by OBRA’s medical advisory team. That means it will look and feel a lot different than any mountain bike race in Oregon history.