Cycling News & Blog Articles

A clean energy advocate, bike lover, and fabricator in northeast Portland has launched something that will change Portland streets forever: the Boom Bike — a 100% human-powered mobile soundstage, pedaled behind a trike that can carry 500 pounds of cargo and broadcast live music to a massive audience.

Cully neighborhood resident Mike Cobb built the Boom Bike based on a design by Xtracycle co-founder and carfree musician Kipchoge Spencer. Cobb is no stranger to pedal-powered projects as you might recall his role as an organizer of the Disaster Relief Trials or how he hooked up pedal-powered generators for Dakota Access Pipeline protestors at the Standing Rock Reservation in 2016.

I got an up-close look at the Boom Bike during a visit to Cobb’s workshop last week.

Cobb has known Spencer for years and once worked as a mechanic on his global, bicycle-powered Pleasant Revolution music tour back in 2010. Cobb reconnected with Spencer in 2020 to build five Boom Bikes as part of a massive parade in support of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

Cobb says his latest creation is, “The pinnacle of bicycle powered sound.”

The relation of land use to transportation was in the air last week. On different threads, from different starting points, last week saw many conversations arrive at a discussion about density, what is needed to have a transit network that works well enough, for enough people, in enough areas, that it can replace car trips—and if that is even feasible.

There were a lot of strong comments. I wish I could just bundle them. My favorite ones noticed that there seems to be a disconnect between this site’s heartfelt debates about the density/transportation conundrum and what our elected leaders are actually doing.

And it’s more than just debate and talk, Portland eats volunteer time, and the time of city employees too, on its plethora of advisory committees whose advice frequently winds up on a shelf collecting dust. What gives?

This pithy comment from Watts captured the absurdity and frustration of the present moment. Plus, and this is a once-in-decade-phenomena, Fred, Damien and Prioritarian all seemed to agree with him. Think about that!

Welcome to the week.

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

More youth e-bike laws: A California rep from San Diego County wants to ban e-bikes for the 12 and under set and require state-issued IDs and a riders test to get one before hopping on for everyone else. (Rancho Santa Fe Review)

Decriminalize jaywalking: Washington did a statewide analysis of people stopped by police for crossing streets in an illegal way and found disturbing trends in who gets stopped, how they are treated by police, and other things that show legal reform around “jaywalking” cannot happen soon enough. (Streetsblog USA)

My husband came home from a shopping trip on Saturday, grim-faced and quiet. “A kid on a bike got hit by a car,” he said. I looked at him for more information. “Is he going to be okay? How do you know it was a kid? Did you see the crash?” “I saw the kid’s bike under the car,” he replied, and shook his head. He didn’t see the collision, or glimpse the victim, but from the position of the bike under the car, and the swarm of cop cars that responded, he suspected the worst.

The worst was confirmed by local news reports: A twelve-year-old boy named Joseph Michael Brausen was killed while riding his bike after a collision with a driver of a car just a few blocks from our home in downtown Hillsboro.

Although police and news reports say the collision occurred at or near the intersection of SE 10th Ave and Baseline St, my husband clarified that the car was facing west on the alley by the Starbucks”— that’s SE Gumleaf Lane at 10th Ave.

I wanted to pay my respects, bear witness, and try to figure out what happened, so I rode to the place my husband described. Sure enough, at the exact spot, the family of 12-year old Michael Brausen was there, tying balloons to a nearby pole and trying to put up signs with phrases like “Slow Down” and “Speeding Killed My Son” — but the wind kept blowing the signs down. I felt stupidly helpless and pathetically useless. What good are my tears or condolences to the family who lost their son forever?

Christina Cuanalo places flowers at a ghost bike installed for her brother Jason Ruhmshottel while BikeLoud volunteers Sarah Risser (purple jacket) and Steve Cheseborough (red), his mother Jill Ruhmshottel (white flowers), and other members of Jason’s family look on. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

A few hours ago, a ghost bike was installed where the Smith & Bybee Wetlands path crosses North Portland Road just south of Marine Drive. Jason Ruhmshottel was struck and killed by a driver while riding across this intersection on September 19th, 2023.

Today at the site, Jason’s family — his mother Jill Ruhmshottel, sister Christina Cuanalo, brother-in-law Mario Cuanalo, and niece Michelle Ruhmshottel — met advocates from BikeLoud PDX and held a small ceremony to mark the memorial site with the bike, flowers, and photos.

BikeLoud volunteer Sarah Risser took on a project to make roadside memorials for crash victims (more on that later). This was her first time coordinating a ghost bike. She met the family, and along with other BikeLoud volunteers, they attached signs to the bike and then Mario placed it along the busy road.

Risser knows the pain the family is going through, since she lost a son of her own in a traffic crash. “As a mother who has lost a son. I think there’s a general hesitancy that a lot of people have about showing up for the family or publicly honoring the loss of a loved one. I think in most cases it’s a great comfort to the family to have the community show up and to have the community express love or acknowledgement because it means a lot.”

Crowded parking in Kerns neighborhood. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Portland’s transportation bureau walked slowly away from the edge of a financial cliff on City Council budget work session on Thursday. Battered by years of revenue loss made worse by not charging road users enough for the service of safe streets, and a change in travel behaviors exacerbated by the pandemic, the Portland Bureau of Transportation was an agency on the brink when they approached council for help five months ago.

With a $32.4 million shortfall and the prospect of laying off 118 full-time employees that would have been “gutting to the bureau” (according to its director), something had to give. In a proposal shared for the first time yesterday, we learned that PBOT will plug about one-third of that revenue hole by charging drivers more to park and register their vehicles. Combined with funding from the Portland Clean Energy Fund and the expected (but not guaranteed!) passage of the Fixing Our Streets local gas tax renewal in May, PBOT has chiseled that shortfall down to a manageable $4.6 million and just four full-time positions (which likely won’t result in any layoffs).

PBOT’s budget was presented at council yesterday along with the budgets from the water and environmental services bureaus (it was the first time all three bureau directors teamed up under the “Public Works” banner, a nod to the upcoming change in government that will group bureaus into “service areas” to encourage collaboration).

How PBOT will avoid falling over the cliff.

Grab a bike. Find some friends. Get out there. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

It’s almost Friday, time to plan your weekend.

Here are some fun things to do for bike lovers this weekend…

New to Portland Ride – 12:00 noon at SE Caruthers Plaza on Eastbank Esplanade (SE)
The City of Portland wants to welcome you to our wonderful biking scene with a classic ride around the Willamette River on some of our best paths. More info here.

Curated Winter Light Fest Ride – 6:45 pm at Oregon Convention Center (NE)
Join a Portlander who happens to have a huge sound system on their bike as they share a route of their favorite Winter Light Fest installations. Note: This ride isn’t part of the official festival. More info here.

A carfree path on NE 113th between Glisan and Oregon that Timur helped get built when he worked at PBOT. The path connects a neighborhood greenway to nearby schools via a planned signalized crossing. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

I’m excited to bring you this interview-by-bike with Portland City Council District 1 candidate Timur Ender. Timur is running to represent east Portland and he invited me on a ride on Tuesday to get a closer look at his district.

I’ve known Timur since he was fresh out of Lewis & Clark Law School. He showed up to one of our Wonk Night events in February 2013. Timur was a volunteer for tactical urbanist group Better Block PDX and was one of the leading organizers of their Better Naito pilot project that ultimately became the official City of Portland project that we all love riding on today. Timur has worked as transportation policy advisor for former City Commissioner Steve Novick and served a five-year stint at PBOT as part of their capital project team.

In short, I could think of no better person to give me a tour of bike infrastructure in east Portland!

In this episode, you’ll hear Timur and I talk about various bikeway treatments and projects as we pedal a loop (view route map below) from NE Glisan and 102nd, down to SE Powell, then over to 162nd and up to Glendoveer Golf Course. (Don’t worry about getting lost, we call out cross streets at regular intervals. Also note that photos above are in order.) Hear how vital shortcuts and opportunism (like his idea to pave a path through gravel on NE 113th between Oregon and Glisan to connect to a planned new traffic signal as part of a Safe Routes to School project) are key to making cycling better in east Portland.

Gladys Bikes owner Cassie Hidalgo in 2021. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Three well-known Portland bike shops will go through major changes in the coming weeks.

11 days from now there will no longer be a bike shop on SW 10th and Salmon. The Trek Portland Downtown store will close on February 18th and re-open March 1st in a new building 1.2 miles away. And Gladys Bikes, the small but mighty shop that opened on NE Alberta Street in 2014 plans to call it quits. And in a serendipitous cycling situation, Golden Pliers Bike Shop on NE Skidmore will move into the old Gladys Bikes location and take over their lease.

Trek Portland Slabtown will be the new name of the downtown Trek store and a major upgrade as they move out of an older building and into brand new digs on the corner of NW 21st and Raleigh. An employee at the downtown store told BikePortland he’s “pretty excited” about the move. “We had a lot of issues with all the normal downtown shenanigans. I’m looking forward to being in a part of a town that’s a little bit more alive, has more foot traffic, and maybe a little less open drug use.”

The lack of downtown commuters has hurt Trek Portland’s downtown location hard. The new location is in a fast-growing part of northwest where new, multi-story residences and numerous retail business have sprung up in the past few years. If your bike needs repairs, the shop plans to keep their service department open during the move and will send out a truck to pick-up and drop-off customer bikes.

The lovely crowd from last week. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

It’s Wednesday, and you know what that means… It’s time for Bike Happy Hour (BHH). This will be our 44th week! Hard to believe we are approaching a one-year anniversary.

Last week we had so much fun sharing time and space with Roo and Luis from Warpaint. Thanks to everyone who showed up and hung out with us in the Ankeny Rainbow Road plaza. Speaking of plazas, if you missed our latest “In the Shed” podcast, Eva and I talked about the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s 2023 Street Plaza Annual Report. In addition to the fun fact that 90% of over 2,000 people surveyed told PBOT they want these carfree spaces to continue. That’s a lot of support. Another fun nugget in the report is where PBOT gave a nice nod to Bike Happy Hour. Here’s an excerpt from the report:

“Among other events, Ankeny Rainbow Road proudly hosts the cherished “Bike Happy Hour”, which started this year. This weekly event, held Wednesday evenings, brings together cycling enthusiasts and community members in a celebration of urban cycling culture.”

Isn’t that nice?!

A fledgling nonprofit with an outlandish name that launched in Portland six years ago, now sees itself alongside 17 other organizations statewide who have come to the same conclusion: “Highway expansions are pulling our country into an environmental, budgetary, and public health crisis and it’s time to end this destructive, unsustainable practice and set a responsible course toward a cleaner and more equitable future.”

No More Freeways formed to fight the I-5 Rose Quarter project in 2017 and has been stalwart in its mission ever since. Today they are one of 195 organizations who signed onto a letter that pressures elected officials to put a moratorium on highway expansions. That line above is just the opening salvo in a call-to-action that not only demands no more freeways, but also offers a prescription to repair our ailing transportation infrastructure machine.

The organizations, led by national nonprofit America Walks, are marshaling their respective troops to contact lawmakers and urge them to pause all existing highway projects until climate, equity, and maintenance goals are met. This demand is similar to what Portland-based activists have been asking the Oregon Department of Transportation to do on the I-5 Rose Quarter project for years now: Complete a full and transparent environmental impact statement before investing more money and time into the wrong kind of project.

In today’s statement, the signees call for “community-first infrastructure” which they define as, “increasing frequent, reliable, and accessible public transportation; policies that build homes close to jobs and amenities; and making neighborhoods healthier, quieter, and safer.”

State Capitol building in Salem in 2009. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Note: If you are aware of a transportation-related bill that’s not on this list, please contact me.

The 2024 session of the Oregon Legislature kicked off Monday and now there’s a 35-day sprint to make new laws before the gavel comes down. It’s a short session (Oregon only has full sessions on odd-numbered years), so pundits like to say the only things that will get attention are major bills from the most powerful players. But you never know, and judging by the hundreds of bills already filed, it appears many lawmakers are willing to roll the dice.

I’ve spent a bit of time wading through the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS) and have found a bunch of bills that have transportation implications. Note that there are some bills we expect to see that I could not track down. Those include: A funding request for safety upgrades on inner SE Powell Blvd; a change to bike lane law being pushed by trucker advocates, and a bill to clarify Oregon’s recreational immunity law. I’ll update the list below if/when I find those and any other bills that may come to my attention in the coming days.

Check out the list below to see the bills BikePortland will be keeping an eye on this session…

Barriers keep people out of bus lanes. (Photo: Smart Growth America)

Garrison Christian is a 20 year old undergraduate student at Portland State University. He is studying Urban Planning, with hopes of becoming a professional transportation planner.

Garrison Christian at a recent Bike Happy Hour. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

As most of you already know, 82nd Avenue is going to be redesigned by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) in the coming years. This is our chance to make it much better. In this post, I’ll share my ideas for how to achieve a safer, more equitable 82nd.

The street faces many challenges for safe transportation. 82nd is a high crash corridor, with multiple pedestrian deaths over the past 5 years, including one at SE Flavel Monday morning that marked the second one so far this year alone. Sidewalks along the corridor are particularly narrow, often with utility poles blocking the right-of-way. Many sidewalks lack ADA curb ramps, and 82nd is home to TriMet bus line 72, the highest ridership route in the entire Portland metro area.

PPB Traffic Division social media post. Inset: BikePortland Fatality Tracker yeart-to-date traffic death toll.

New roadside memorial sign program offers hope these deaths won’t go unnoticed.

On Sunday, February 4th at 8:46 pm, the Portland Police Bureau Traffic Division posted to X (formerly Twitter): “Extremely excessive speeds in Portland this week. Mustang: 137 in a 45 on Marine drive racing a motorcycle. BMW: 122 in a 60 at I-84/148th Ave.”

Three hours before that post, a pedestrian was killed by a car driver on SE Foster and 97th. And 24 hours after that post, two more people who were walking on Portland streets were hit and killed by car drivers. One of them was killed while walking on SE 82nd near Flavel in the early morning hours of Monday morning. The driver in that collision did not stop and police are still looking for the suspect. The other person was killed while walking at NE Gertz Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd on Monday evening. Police who responded to that scene said they received calls about, “a person struck by multiple vehicles.”

The deaths on 82nd Avenue underscore the urgency for design changes being drawn up by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and help explain why many local advocates don’t feel the city is going far enough to keep people safe.

Last week’s post about PBOT’s newly released design for 82nd Avenue brought out an interesting bunch of comments. I liked reading all of them, I think because they were so authentic. Not too much internet grandstanding, mainly just people sharing their thoughts. Altogether a “no drama” group of responses.

There was one calm comment which has kept worming its way into my mind over the past few days. Clearly this commenter hadn’t yet picked up that confident and commanding internet “voice.” The comment’s lack of bombast was endearing, even kind of soothing.

Here’s what a commenter named “E” had to say about bike riders on 82nd:

I live near 82nd closer to the southern city limit and drive on 82nd often for groceries/shopping. I see more people biking on 82nd (they have to use the inadequately narrow sidewalk to do so) than on some other commercial streets in Portland. Whereas I would never want to bike along that street in its present form, my guess is that a lot of people are forced to bike on it to get to businesses that serve their basic needs or to and from work. At the same time, I think these folks are hardly going to participate in PBOT’s outreach sessions and take the time to fill out surveys or make their voices heard. I think that there is a real need for bike facilities along 82nd, which would most likely not be reflected in PBOT data.