Cycling News & Blog Articles

Portland City Council District 2 (N/NE) candidate Mariah Hudson joined me for a brief interview today. I was first introduced to Mariah through her role as chair of the PBOT Bureau & Budget Advisory Committee. When I heard she was running for council and was a daily rider who bikes with young kids, I knew I had to chat with her.

The interview above (and just posted to the BP YouTube channel, which you should subscribe to!) is part of a new series, “15 Minutes With” where I chat with interesting folks for 15 minutes (or so). Thanks for your patience while I dial things in and make this part of our regular offerings. I’ve got an exciting list of folks I want to talk to; but if you’ve got ideas or want to be interviewed yourself, please send me an email – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Now, back to Mariah…

In our interview she shares that she’s got two kids in Portland Public Schools (first and seventh grades) and is a daily bike commuter from the Alameda neighborhood to OHSU where she works in public health communications. Mariah is also on the PPS budget committee and has served as a leader of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods. Asked why she’s running for council, Mariah said, “To try and make a difference, to clean up the city, to help people with safety so that my kids and others will want to live here and can afford to live here in the future.”

Mariah rides a Rad Power Radwagon, longtail e-cargo bike and said, “It’s been a game changer, especially in terms of going into work.” Having the e-bike has made her 10-mile round trip commute often quicker than driving and she can show up to work without being sweaty.

Council candidate Sarah Silkie hears an answer to her question from BHH regular Melissa Kostelecky. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

If you missed Bike Happy Hour last week, you missed hearing from three more Portland City Council candidates. That brings the count of candidates we’ve heard from this election cycle up to 11.

Last Wednesday candidates Deian Salazar (D1-E), Jesse Cornett (D3-SE) and Sarah Silkie (D4-W) hopped on the mic. We got to know a little about each of them and heard what makes them tick.

At just 23 years old, I was really impressed with Salazar. In true Bike Happy Hour form, he made an effort to meet every single person in the room. His remarks focused on how he wants to get homeless Portlanders into job training programs to, “get the skill sets and they need in order to stay out of poverty, and to have a decent living wage.” Asked how he moves around the East Portland district, Salazar replied, “I’m not rich enough to be able to afford a car. So I often walk and take the bus. I’ve been considering getting back into cycling… what I really want to do is build a lot of new bike infrastructure, because I think we should not be requiring cars for everyone to be able to move around the city.”

Cornett described himself as being an advocate for the vast majority of his career. He shared tales of shadowing U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and said the “proudest moment” of his work so far was being a legislative lobbyist for an effort that resulted in 55,000 Oregon migrant farm workers getting health care coverage. Cornett is currently the policy advocate for Oregon Recovers, a nonprofit that advocates and provides services for people suffering from addiction. When it comes to transportation habits, Cornett has a bike but rides it infrequently and mostly gets around by car or his own two feet.

The corner of SE Ellis and 48th where Melissa Kostelecky saw an elementary student on a bike get hit by the driver of that grey Subaru Monday afternoon. The child rolled out of the curb cut right behind that maroon SUV that is parked too close to the corner. (Photo: Melissa Kostelecky)

“Just saw a kid get hit by a car right across from Woodstock Elementary,” read a message from Portlander Melissa Kostelecky posted to a local advocacy forum on Monday. “This is exactly why we need to get on the city to enforce daylighting.”

Daylighting, or what the City of Portland refers to as “vision clearance at intersections” is a way to improve visibility by prohibiting on-street auto parking all the way up to the curb. It’s a well-known concept to local road safety advocates and one that should be well-known to local elected officials and policymakers.

Over the years we’ve seen lots of attention on the issue in the form of advocacy campaigns, promises from leaders, even a lawsuit from a bereaved family of a man killed as a result of poor intersection visibility. Despite all that, Portland has still not made enough progress on ridding corners of the scourge of parked cars.

Kostelecky was shaken-up after watching that crash on Monday. Luckily the child on the bike and the driver were going slowly and the driver was able to react before serious damage could be done. Kostelecky has since filed a report with police and with PBOT’s 823-SAFE system just to make sure it’s accounted for.

The location of a bicycle crash in 2019 that led to a lawsuit against ODOT. Note the patched pavement in the lower right (smoothed over in this Google Maps image).

I have long urged people to avoid the trap of bad-faith arguments about whether or not a particular bicycle ride is for recreation or transportation. The suggestion that some bicycle trips are less important because a person is recreating has always struck me as a sneaky, paternalistic attempt to marginalize cycling.

We often hear people point out that a bicyclist in spandex is less important than other road users because they’re just training or on a fun ride; but we never hear people frame car trips in the same way. People driving cars are always doing serious things, the thinking goes, and people on bikes are just out on a lark. It’s a distinction with a difference, because trips made for “recreation” will always have much less political power than those made for “transportation.”  And in that context, once you cede this semantic ground, bad things are more likely to happen.

An example is a legal case that involves the State of Oregon and a man who crashed while biking on the Historic Columbia River Highway in 2019. This case was brought to my attention in October 2022 by a local attorney named Charley Gee. Gee had seen a story on BikePortland about Oregon’s Scenic Bikeways program and wanted to warn me that the Oregon Department of Transportation might use the status of certain bike routes as a way to shirk liability for maintaining safe roads.

Gee shared a lawsuit he filed against ODOT on behalf of a client (who asked to remain anonymous) who was riding on the Historic Columbia River Highway on April 24th, 2019. His client crashed while riding over a depression in the road that was left after repair work by an ODOT contractor. The crash happened about 200 feet west of the Stark Street Bridge (see photo above) and resulted in a fractured right femur (that required surgery), major bruising, and a torn rotator cuff. Gee sought $1.04 million for his client.

— This is a guest article written by Andrew Lindstrom, who writes about infrastructure, transportation and urban spaces on his City Hikes blog.

TriMet has a problem, but it’s not the one you’re thinking of. Safety and rider comfort is still a big deal, and they are certainly struggling on that front – but I want to focus on a more pressing issue, the nuts and bolts of schedules and service changes. This all began with a supposed upgrade of part of the #17 to Frequent Service (“every 15 minutes or less most of the day, every day”) which resulted in no additional buses being run. It bugged me then, and it bugs me now so let’s take a look at the history, mystery, and wonder of the scheduled service on the 17-Holgate/Broadway.

To begin, we should understand what the service was back in the ancient days of 2021. The simplest way to do this is looking at the schedule, so let’s take a peek.

Holes in the pavement where a Road Closed sign once stood. (Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Vandals have destroyed a neighborhood traffic safety project in Rose City Park. Apparently angry about a plan to limit driving access to one direction on NE 72nd Drive through Rose City Golf Course, someone sawed off two metal poles that held up a large “Road Closed” sign and discarded them a few yards away near the trunk of a redwood tree.

Based on what I saw from a visit to the park this morning, it’s clear someone used a high-powered saw to cut the poles and bolts. They were also in a hurry because I found bolts and washers hastily strewn about the area.

According to posts on Nextdoor and photographs sent to BikePortland, the suspects took multiple trips to the intersection to complete their job. They also sawed off bolts that held up a “Left Turn Only” sign and a sign that was posted nearby that reads, “72nd Drive Closed at Tillamook, Use 82nd.” The signs were thrown down a ravine and discovered yesterday.

BikePortland has asked the Portland Bureau of Transportation for comment, but has yet to hear back. Someone who posted on Nextdoor shared an email from a PBOT staffer who confirmed the vandalism on January 23rd. “We are aware of the issue and are looking into mitigation options,” the staffer wrote.

It’s brutal out there. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

The gravel put out by PBOT to help cars and trucks get around for a few days during the storm, has created a massive and dangerous mess citywide: Bike lanes and road shoulders are a mess and millions of tiny little pebbles are creating slip hazards for bike tires. As we work to convince everyday folks to give biking a try, these conditions work against our transportation goals by telling Portlanders, “We don’t care about people who use bike lanes.”

Tired of waiting for the city to do its job and concerned about the safety of cyclists, this is the year Portlanders are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to getting the gravel out of bike lanes. Thanks to an innovative product and can-do attitudes, local bike advocates are leading the charge.

Since we shared in August that nonprofit advocacy group BikeLoud PDX would partner with California-based Bike Lane Sweeper creator Pierre Lermant, the two have become close collaborators. BikeLoud’s “sweeper” Slack channel has 44 members and it’s active with feedback and knowledge-sharing that appears to be pushing the product forward.

Lermant and his design and engineering partner Cedric Eveleigh have moved onto Version 2.0 and are currently designing V3. In late September, Lermant and BikeLoud Vice-chair Kiel Johnson met with PBOT Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller to discuss ways the city could help. They agreed to do run a trial where volunteers leave bags full of gravel along streets, then city trucks come through and pick them up.

Local bike advocate Joe Perez rolled up to Bike Happy Hour Wednesday night flying his flags and towing the Bike Lane Sweeper. (Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Happy weekend everyone! I love putting these guides together because nothing builds community like rides and events. Just want to remind you that I try my best to track everything, but I always appreciate an email or other message about the event you’re hosting or ride you’re leading.

Thanks and have a great weekend.

Rain Coat Ride – 9:30 am at Lents Park (SE)
Join Portland Bicycling Club’s wonderful Ann Morrow as she leads you on an intermediate-paced journey of a large swathe of the city. More info here.

Forest Park Off Road Ride – 10:00 am at Fat Tire Farm (NW)
Join the FTF crew for a casual loop on Leif Erikson through Forest Park that will get you in the dirt and in a great mood for the rest of your weekend! More info here.

Next Saturday (February 3rd) Portland will welcome two members of the Navajo Nation who will be in town to promote a screening of the new documentary film, In the Dirt. The film tells the story of a group of Native American cyclists who bring mountain biking to a reservation in New Mexico, and then watch how a community flourishes around it.

A local screening is being organized by Ruandy Albisurez. Roo is founder of Warpaint, a nonprofit that fosters community for Black, indigenous and people of color who love the outdoors. Roo is also community manager for Northwest Trail Alliance, an off-road cycling advocacy group based in Portland.

In a recent interview (watch below or on our YouTube channel), I asked Roo to update us on what he’s been up so since we last checked-in with him about a year ago, how he got connected to the Native American MTB scene, to share more about the documentary and the people behind it, and what he’s got planned for the big screening event next Saturday.

Check out our interview below and scroll down for links about the film and to grab tickets to the local screening.

Tell us about Rezduro:

Welcome to the week.

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

Carbon admissions: Never one to shy away from controversy, Eben “Bike Snob” Weiss says that only pro racers fully benefit from carbon fiber bikes and regular folks like you and I should never buy them. (Outside)

Thank you, San Francisco: In a bid to reduce traffic deaths, a California state senator has introduced a bill that would require speed governors in new cars that prevent the vehicle from going more than 10 miles over the speed limit. (SF Standard)

Jonathan’s post last week about the DA in Polk County reversing his decision and deciding to pursue criminal charges against the driver who struck and killed Adam Joy was bittersweet. On the one hand, it looked like BikePortland’s coverage might have had some influence on the decision. That’s to be noted, and several commenters did.

On the other hand, nothing is bringing back Adam Joy, so any sense of accomplishment is tempered by that tragedy. That’s a hard note to hit, but one commenter found appropriate and moving words to mark the turn of events.

This is what Cooper wrote:

This situation is a prime example of effective, appropriate advocacy. A journalist, attorney and Adam’s family didn’t give up or give in to their grief. Sadly, this confluence of individuals speaking out is not present in many situations. It is difficult for everyone involved, but not giving in is the core to a moral, just society.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.