Cycling News & Blog Articles

Call it a litmus test, a Rorschach blot — maybe a new question for the Meyer-Briggs personality quiz? But the topic of working from home … well, let’s say it brings out a lot of personality. That personality was on full display in the comments to our post on Alta Planning and Design’s move to the west side of the river. As Jonathan wrote, the move was “part of their strategy to lure more employees into the office.”

WFH (work from home) can be such a hot-button issue that I hesitate to say anything about it. But at least let’s describe the range of the phenomena. It extends from taking one day a week at home, to making home in another state. Yep, some folks have put hundreds, even thousands, of miles between themselves and their employer, and are real happy with the arrangement.

PTB is not buying it. Here’s why PTB thinks going to work matters:

Not everyone loves WFH. My role at work won’t allow it, but there are some here that can, and during the height of Covid, did. I thought it sucked. I hated Zoom meetings. There’s something very human that is lacking when your only interactions are online. It would be one thing to Zoom with someone in a different time zone, but when that person is a couple miles from where you’re at, goddamn, something about it irks the hell out of me.

And it clearly irked my coworkers because once vaccines rolled out they did what I thought we were all waiting to do once they were available; they came back to work. Didn’t we all hate being home and not seeing people? Vaccines were gonna help us get back to normal life, yeah? Then a bunch of office workers decided, nah, fuck it, this spare room office life is legit…I’m staying. You’re the master of your own isolation, same goes for me. I’m going out and leaving the house, thanks.

Waterfront Park is nice to look at, but it could be so much more! (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

A task force convened by Oregon Governor Tina Kotek with the goal of breathing life into downtown Portland revealed its recommendations this morning. While I’d hoped tactical urbanism or some sort of streets and/or transportation-related remedies would get more prominent billing, the group has decided to focus on more traditional approaches.

“Gov. Tina Kotek in the coming months will press to increase police presence downtown Portland, outlaw public drug consumption, take protective plywood off of buildings, and step up social services for those struggling on the streets of Oregon’s largest city,” reads an OPB story published this morning that summarizes the recommendations.

While anything that makes downtown streets look and feel safer will encourage people to use transit, their feet, and bikes downtown — there’s nothing transportation-specific in the 10 immediate priorities the governor wants to focus on.

A stronger — and safer — connection between the Park Blocks and the river on Salmon is a great idea. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Preliminary alignment of future Red Electric Trail.

The Portland Parks & Recreation bureau wants your help to design the future Red Electric Trail.

As we shared back in June, Parks won a $750,000 federal pandemic relief grant to finalize the design and planning for a half-mile section of the Red Electric Trail between SW Shattuck Road and SW Cullen Boulevard in the Hayhurst neighborhood. Since our last report, city staff have held several open houses and done other outreach and have come up with a preliminary design. A new survey that closes this coming Monday (December 11th) aims to iron out a few last details before the design can be completed and the city can come up with a cost estimate. Those two steps are crucial to getting this project funded and built!

The alignment of the paved path will head east from Shattuck (across the street from the Alpenrose Dairy site), through a community garden, park, part of Hayhurst Elementary School, then along SW Cameron Road.

Parks planners have broken the design down into five segments. Starting from Shattuck and moving east, the plan for the trail would include:

View of I-5 going over Hayden Island and the Columbia River from north Portland.

While the effort to expand I-5 between Portland and Vancouver and replace the Interstate Bridge (a.k.a. the Interstate Bridge Replacement Program, or IBR) lumbers on, many questions remain about the $7.5 billion project — especially how it will impact Oregon’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

A question on that topic came up during an exchange last month between a Portland cycling advocate and the project’s engineering manager. It was a notable back-and-forth that shows how project staff justify claims that the freeway megaproject will actually lower vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and won’t be terrible for the climate.

The exchange took place during a meeting of the PBOT Bicycle Advisory Committee on November 14th. It was between committee member David Stein and Casey Liles, engineering manager for the IBR. Their comments have been slightly edited for clarity.

David Stein:

Here’s a dose of good in a situation that started out bad: Yesterday before Bike Happy Hour I swung by Ota Tofu on Southeast Stark to deliver a check for $1,215. That was the amount nearly 50 of you donated to Cole so she can buy a new bike after hers was flattened by an errant driver last Thursday.

Cole was getting coffee across the street from her job at Ota when she saw someone in an SUV swing off SE Sandy right into the on-street bike parking corral her bike was locked to. That now-destroyed bike was how Cole got to and from work, and when I talked to her about what happened, it was clear she could use help buying a new one. With the check I dropped off, and some donations that were sent directly to her, Cole should have enough to find a solid, reliable bike.

Thanks to everyone who stepped up to help a complete stranger. And to the handful of folks who offered to loan her a bike, or in some cases, even give her one! The generosity of our community helps restore my faith in humanity. I can’t wait to see Cole’s new bike and I’m glad we were able to keep one more person on a bike in Portland.

It’s do-whatever-it-takes-to-stay-dry season. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to the weekend.

Hope you’re hanging on through repeating rivers of atmosphere pelting down on our city. If the rain has got you down, consider one of the events below to brighten your mood.

This week’s guide is sponsored by the Rapha Archive Sale, a great opportunity to score deals on quality gear. See details on the event below.

Friday Morning Hill Ride – 10:00 am at Portland Orchestra HQ (SE)
Like the steep stuff? Show up and ride with others who are so inclined. More info here.

Looking northwest at the diverter on NE Fremont and Alameda. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The City of Portland says a neighborhood traffic diverter that was vehemently opposed by many residents of a northeast Portland neighborhood is working as planned.

When the Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association put the planned diverter on Northeast Fremont at Alameda on a meeting agenda in March 2022, over 70 people logged on. Many of them voiced concerns that the expected safety benefits of the project would not be worth a loss of convenience while driving and/or an increase in cut-through traffic.

The Portland Bureau of Transportation proposed the diverter to improve safety on NE Fremont (a neighborhood collector street), make it easier for bikers and walkers to cross at Alameda, and reduce the amount of drivers on the Alameda/37th neighborhood greenway route. Even though PBOT’s plan was to only make it a pilot project, the BWNA board voted it down 7-4.

View looking north across Fremont from Alameda.

I recently took out my grandmother’s sewing machine, after 10 years of storing it under the bed. I was inspired by the Sew Many Bikes Pedalpalooza ride, which life has twice prevented me from attending, but I am keen to learn from anyway. In addition to the sewing machine, I also had a friend teach me a knit stitch, and on a recent evening I put on an old record (yes, on a turntable) — one that had been unopened in its package for decades — and I sat in a chair to listen and knit.

It struck me particularly (as I bemoaned my inability to join the summer’s Sew Many Bikes ride) that sewing and biking is a most fitting combination. Folks who sew are doing something slow in the face of fast fashion. They could more easily buy their garments, yet they are doing the slow work of making their own outfits, not unlike a person riding a bike, who could ride in a faster car, but who chooses the slower way. Something slow, something lovely, something that takes work. But is totally worth it, both in the achievement of the end, and also for the joy of the journey.

Yes, a Pedalpalooza bike ride got me thinking about an entirely slow life, and how much it might be preferred to a fast one. Slower things, like biking, books, old records, and sewing machines. 

“Maybe choosing to bike is only part of what we need. Maybe we have been trying to fit biking into a car-centric lifestyle. And what we need is a completely different framing.”

122nd north of Glisan, where police say the victim was found.

One of Portland’s most prolific killers has struck again. Portland Police say Tuesday night just before 10:00 pm, a person was found dead on Northeast 122nd Avenue just north of Glisan. They believe the victim was walking prior to being hit and killed by someone driving a car.

Last night’s fatality was the 14th in past five years (2019 – 2023) on this street alone. Eight of the victims were on foot. This section of 122nd is about 75-feet wide with seven lanes used by drivers and a 30 mph speed limit.

122nd Avenue has been the focus of many speeches and plans over the past decade; but it remains a ticking time bomb of traffic tragedy and we’re years away from completion of infrastructure changes.

10 years ago this week, then Portland Bureau of Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick elevated the importance of making changes to 122nd Avenue when he lobbied for a “street fee” that would have allocated $20 million for better bus service on the street. That street fee would never come to pass, but it didn’t stop PBOT from working with TriMet to set aside $8 million for updates aimed at improving safety and adding a frequent service bus line.

Susan Peithman. (Photo: ODOT)

Susan Peithman, a former Portlander who was a staffer at the nonprofit advocacy group, The Street Trust and a serious bicycle racer, is now interim director of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Climate Office.

Peithman will serve in the position while current Climate Office Director Suzanne Carlson rotates over to serve as administration of ODOT Public Transportation Division for one year.

Peithman will be the third person to lead ODOT’s Climate Office since it was established in spring 2020 in response to former Governor Kate Brown’s executive order on climate change. The office’s main charge is to monitor and inform ODOT’s progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. Peithman’s varied background in the transportation world should serve her well in leading that effort.

Peithman moved to Portland in 2007 with an expressed goal of getting a job in the “nonmotorized transportation” world. How do I know that? Because she was quoted saying it in a glowing NY Times profile of Portland’s bike culture in 2007. And Peithman did just that, by landing a job at Alta Planning + Design and then becoming a policy advocate at the nonprofit Bicycle Transportation Alliance (now The Street Trust) in 2009. Her experience in that role included time on the advisory committee for the controversial North Williams Avenue project.

The One Main Place building sits at the confluence of several green bike lanes on the west end of the Hawthorne Bridge at SW Main and 1st. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

An urban planning firm that has played a major role in Portland’s reputation as progressive transportation epicenter over the past two decades has just raised their profile by moving into a new downtown office building.

According to Portland Business Journal, Alta Planning and Design will move its 60 local employees into the penthouse floor of the One Main Place tower at the western landing of the Hawthorne Bridge. That means they’ll be neighbors with TriMet, who leased 95,000 square feet in the same building in 2022. Alta currently works out of a building in the Central Eastside Industrial District.

The PBJ reports that Alta was drawn to space — not just because rent is cheap downtown these days — but because, as principal Katie Mangle puts it, “It was important to walk the talk.” Alta wants to be part of the movement to revitalize downtown Portland after years of bad PR following the racial justice protests, the pandemic, and a wave of public drug use, crime and homelessness that have kept many people away.

Alta Principal Katie Mangle (left) talks with Bike Happy Hour attendees in August 2023. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Plastic delineator wands once stood in the buffer zone (marked with red “X”) in the center of this photo of the southbound bike lane on NE 57th north of Fremont. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

A few weeks ago I received an email from Mark Falbo, a Portlander who grew up in the Cully neighborhood over sixty years ago. Mark told me about a safety concern on NE 57th/NE Cully Blvd where it curves just north of NE Fremont. He said dozens of white, plastic delineator wands installed by the Portland Bureau of Transportation to protect bicycle riders and walkers, had gone missing.

“They have all been eliminated from cars and trucks running over them,” Mark wrote. “It’s a very dangerous corner to ride a bicycle through because of its history of people running into the chain-link fence after crossing the bike lane.” Mark had seen the video of the horrific collision on NE 21st that led PBOT to install concrete barricades to protect the bike lane. “As with the dangerous situation faced on NE 21st, this particular corner in Cully warrants immediate action by PBOT to prevent a very likely accident.”

When I rolled over on Sunday, I found out Mark had every reason to be concerned. I counted 19 plastic wands that were no longer standing in the buffer zone of the southbound bike lane on each side of the “T” intersection with NE Failing. The result is a bike lane that is unprotected from car drivers — just as they negotiate a curve at around 30 mph (speed limit is 25 mph).

Dana Deardorff. (Images: Portland Velo via Facebook)

Approximate location of collision circled in red.

Friends are remembering a dedicated group ride leader and Portland Velo Cycling Club member who was killed in a collision while cycling in Washington County in November.

According to a statement released today by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, 78-year-old Dan Deardorff was riding northbound on SW Roy Rogers Road just south of Al’s Garden Center between SW Beef Bend Rd and SW Elsner (about 10 miles southwest of downtown Portland) at around 11:38 am on Monday, November 20th. Police say Deardorff “veered across lanes of travel” and collided with a driver who was going southbound. “[The driver] was unable to stop before they impacted,” the Sheriff’s office wrote.

The driver called 911 and stayed at the scene to perform lifesaving duties. Police say impairment is not considered a factor and an investigation is ongoing.

Our post on the passage of Metro’s Regional Transportation Plan inspired many fine comments, most of them centered on the quote we highlighted from Metro president Lynn Peterson, “When 67% of the people in Clackamas County get up in the morning and have to go to three other counties to work — commutes that are not not easily done by bike or pedestrian or bus or transit or even by auto at this point — then we have some real equity needs within our region.”

Peterson was justifying the need for road expansions. But BikePortland commenters got to the essence of the region’s challenges with a discussion about proximity and travel distance.

Once again, a comment by Todd/Boulanger caught my attention. He makes the point that Metro solutions to the “work, housing, school” destination conundrum seem to emphasize road expansion, over creating better integrated communities.

Here’s what Todd/Boulanger wrote:

I love Lynn’s past work at Lake Oswego and WSDoT, but reading her highlighted quote, I have to wonder if she has now been fully captured by the vehicular status-quo at Metro.

The Crown Zellerbach Trail awaits you (if you have enough layers and gear to stay warm!). (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Welcome to the weekend.

With cold and rain settling in, this week’s guide is a bit sparse. But if you’re hearty enough to brave the conditions (and/or committed enough to your winter base miles training) there are a few options. And if you get bored, I highly recommend a pedal to your local bike shop. They’re ready for your holiday shopping and need your support!

Friday Morning Meander – 10:00 am at St Matthew’s Anglican Church (NE)
Join members of the Portland Bicycling Club for this 13-15 mph paced ride through North Portland with stops for coffee and treats. More info here.

Charity Bike Sale – 9:00 am to 3:00 pm at 1750 Blankenship Rd (West Linn)
Big used bike sale that will benefit nonprofits that give free bikes to kids. More info here.

Welcome to the week. Hope you’re enjoying all the rain. Isn’t it magnificent?!

Here are the best stories we’ve come across in the past seven days — from sources you can trust.

Tunnel vision: There’s new momentum for an I-5 tunnel instead of a bridge over the Columbia River thanks to two engineers who’ve built a life-like model of what it would look like. (Clark County Today)

Bike to the future: A French company has invented an e-bike that doesn’t need a battery and stores energy created by operation of the bike in an on-board supercapacitor and all I can think about is Doc and his flux capacitor from Back to the Future. (Euronews)

Protestors wore red and assembled outside Metro headquarters before the vote. (Photos: Sarah Risser)

At their meeting Thursday, members of Metro Council voted 6-1 to pass the most powerful and influential transportation plan in the region. The 2023 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) includes over $68 billion in investments on 771 projects across 24 cities and three counties. It also enshrines policies that will have vast influence on how funding and capital project implementation decisions will be made for the next five years.

It’s important to keep in mind that the RTP doesn’t fund specific projects. It is just a “menu, not a funded plan” according to Catherine Ciarlo, Metro’s planning director. Local jurisdictions identify available funding and propose specific projects they’d build if/when the dollars become available. That being said, the 578-page, federally mandated plan sets into motion how cities and local jurisdictions must plan road and mobility networks.

Thursday’s vote updates the 2018 RTP that was set to expire December 6th. That abbreviated timeframe meant Metro Council had no choice but to adopt it lest they wanted to throw the entire region into a chaotic federal funding blackout. That reality was not normal. The vote was supposed to happen months ago, but Metro’s Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT) that develops the RTP, saw their agendas “blown apart” (in the words of Metro Councilor Christine Lewis) for several months due to the need to discuss tolling, which set back the timeline.

The foregone conclusion that the RTP would be adopted Thursday didn’t stop dozens of activists from climate group Extinction Rebellion (XR) from airing strong concerns during a pre-meeting protest outside Metro headquarters in northeast Portland.

A rider pedals north on SE 12th just before Salmon. More photos below. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The City of Portland has installed a very helpful new link in the inner southeast bike network. There are now double-buffered bike lanes on SE 12th between Madison and Salmon. The Portland Bureau of Transportation completed striping the new bike lanes in September.

“This new stretch of bike lane connects two important pieces of infrastructure in SE Portland: the Central City in Motion Hawthorne/Madison improvements and the Salmon Neighborhood Greenway,” wrote PBOT in a social media post Wednesday.

The bike lane is unprotected and offers only paint as a separation from other road users; but the “double-buffered” design means that there is space between the one general purpose lane to the left of the bike lane and the door-zone of parked cars on the right. The previous cross-section included two general purpose lanes and two lanes for free car parking. PBOT swapped the eastern general purpose lane for the new bike lane.

This a nice connection because 12th handles a lot of bike traffic from the Ladds Addition area (and points south) and the new bike lane connects directly to the popular greenway on SE Salmon. At Salmon, PBOT has previously installed a concrete barricade to tame traffic and the street has a 15 mph “Shared Street” advisory speed limit. It also leads to a nice little coffee place (Good Coffee) on the corner of Salmon and 12th.

Mangled bike racks and bike didn’t stand a chance against an SUV driver. (Photos sent in by a reader)

The driver of an SUV slammed into an on-street bike parking corral on SE Stark this morning. The collision flattened and/or uprooted six City of Portland-issued staple racks and a bicycle that was locked to one of them.

A reader sent us photos of the aftermath and I just had a quick call with a person named Cole, who happens to be the bike’s owner. She was across the street around 8:00 am this morning and witnessed the driver turn onto Stark from Sandy. “They drove straight into it and took all of the racks out. And my bike is totaled,” Cole said.

Cole said the driver was headed north on Sandy and turned right on Stark. The bike corral is on the southeast corner of the Sandy/Stark intersection right in front of The Slammer Tavern. The location is just two blocks east of the crossing I wrote about yesterday — the one where many drivers are ignoring the law and driving through a gap in a median that’s supposed to be bike-only.

“[The driver] says he didn’t see it,” Cole added, recalling a conversation with the driver, whose vehicle is still parked on Sandy with its bumper on the ground and a very bent wheel. “The whole thing is kinda’ sketchy. I don’t know how you couldn’t see it!” she said.

Detail of event flyer showing tunnel model. Aerial view from Columbia River looking north into downtown Vancouver. (Photo: Bob Ortblad)

What if, instead of a new bridge over the Columbia River between Portland and Vancouver, we built a tunnel instead? Ever wondered how exactly that would work? At an open house in Vancouver later today (Friday, 12/1) you can see a real-life model of the idea and learn more about it from the guy who’s been pushing the idea for years.

If you’re a regular BikePortland reader, you have probably heard of the “immersed tunnel” concept for the Interstate Bridge project. We profiled the concept in February 2022 and introduced you to its main advocate, a retired engineer and dedicated transportation activist named Bob Ortblad. Ortblad hasn’t just proposed a tunnel instead of a bridge, he’s been an outspoken critic of the current Interstate Bridge Replacement Program (IBRP) design and the staff who’ve repeatedly dismissed the tunnel.

Ortblad believes a tunnel is better than a bridge for myriad reasons; including safety, land use, and environmental impact — but IBRP leaders have dismissed the design. In posts made to social media, they say the tunnel isn’t feasible because it wouldn’t have off/on-ramps, would cost more than a bridge, and would have “significantly more environmental impacts.” Ortblad strongly disagrees and has accused IBRP staff of “manufacturing consent” for a bridge.

Photo of the model.