The Springwater Trail is much
more than just a park.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Last month we shared the news that the City of Gresham had decided to close the Springwater Corridor Trail at night. They said they were doing it “for everyone’s safety” and to bring the trail in line with their other park facilities.

Opposition to the idea came as soon as it was announced. The concern was raised because for thousands of bike commuters every day, the Springwater is much more than a park, it’s a key transportation corridor.

According to official counts of daily bike traffic on the trail by the City of Portland in 2007, an estimated 2,500 people on bikes use the trail each day (that’s based on a count done at the Oaks Bottom area during peak commuting hours and extrapolated over a 24-hour period. The same count found 1,800 daily riders pass by the trail at SE Spokane.).

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Yesterday we shared the story of Carl Larson, a BTA staffer who was irked when he was charged a $50 fee by JetBlue airlines simply because he had a foldable bike in a piece of luggage.

The story traveled around the web and was noticed yesterday evening by someone at JetBlue. Then, a few minutes ago I got a response via email from Morgan Johnston, JetBlue’s manager of corporate communications:

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for helping to bring this to our attention. We pride ourselves on our customer service and when we’re faced with a situation where policy doesn’t make sense in practice, we’re always ready to correct or clarify. On reading your article, and Carl’s post on BTA4Bikes.org I reached out to our Airports team to address the policy which lacked the definition needed to accommodate situations ‘outside the norm’ such as customers traveling with folding bikes.

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Folding bikes, like this Bike Friday Tikit,
fit easily into standard-sized luggage.
(Photo © J. Maus)

A staffer at Oregon’s largest bicycle advocacy organization wants budget airline JetBlue to change their baggage policy.

In a story published on the BTA blog yesterday, Carl Larson described what happened when he tried to check a box for his flight from JFK to Portland:

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This pothole was chalked up
on the Pothole Ride last year.
(Photo: Heather Andews)

The Portland Bureau of Transportation just issued their latest press release about the big winter storm. This time, the focus is on potholes.

PBOT is urging residents to report potholes* because the “heavy snowfall caused treacherous conditions for motorists…” (Hey wait, don’t potholes pose an equally, and even more severe potential hazard to cyclists?).

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Gravel on N. Interstate Ave.
Photo taken yesterday (12/6).
(Photo © J. Maus)

Since the outset of what has become an epic Storm of 2008 (stories, photos), we wondered how the Bureau of Transportation would handle the perennial problem of gravel on the roadways — and especially the gravel that inevitably ends up all over the bike lanes.

On December 16th, we reported that the City had their hands full with the storm, telling people who bike that they’d just have to wait until crews could clean it up.

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Yoga and bicycling have more in common
than you’d think.
(Photo provided by Ellee Thalheimer)

In Portland, sometimes it seems like there are nearly as many yoga instructors as people on bikes. In fact, those two populations often seem to co-mingle.

A number of yoga studios around town offer deals for patrons who show up to class by bike, and a growing number of yoga instructors are taking the yoga-bike connection a step further by offering classes specifically tailored to the needs of everyday bikers, with particular attention on the muscles that are used the most in cycling. (These bike specific issues, and some suggested yogic solutions, were thoroughly outlined in Yoga Journal a few years ago.)

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Graph from survey results on travel mode
into the central city.
Click to enlarge
(Kittelson & Associates, Inc.)

As part of their ongoing Central Portland Plan and the Central Portland Transportation Plan, the City’s Bureau of Transportation commissioned an analysis of parking conditions in the central city.

As part of that work, Kittlelson & Associates, Inc. (the planning firm the city hired), did a survey to find out which travel modes people use to get to the central city. [Note: The boundaries of the "central city" used in this analysis were Johnson/Naito Parkway/Burnside and 15th in the northwest and Burnside/Naito/Jackson and 18th in southwest.]

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Adams, looking confident at
a party in City Hall last night.
(Photos © J. Maus)

During his speech at the swearing-in ceremony at Parkrose High School yesterday, Mayor Sam Adams laid out his top three priorities; jobs, education, and sustainability.

There was no mention of bikes specifically, but it’s clear that “sustainability” is where Adams plans to push two-wheeled travel. Here’s a look at what he said about sustainability, interspersed with my thoughts.

After painting a picture of this planet’s “potential environmental doom”, Adams said there’s a “silver lining to this toxic cloud”:

“Portland is the ideal starting place for this nation to get serious about environmental sustainability. We can show what’s possible, setting an example the rest of the world can follow. And we can prove sustainability pays off.”

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In yet another sign that bikes are good for business…

The venerable Sunset Magazine (devoted to “Living in the West”) shares a trip to Portland with readers in their January 2009 edition. Their “Northwest weekend” section features a day trip to North Williams Avenue and the focus is on the area’s bike-ability and bike-friendly vibe.

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Sam was all smiles last night.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Last night at City Hall was the big, public welcome party for Portland’s new mayor Sam Adams. There was lots of food and free beer and by all accounts it was a wild and zany night.

Before things really started getting crazy, Adams and each of the four commissioners addressed the crowd briefly. Adams said he feels Portland’s authenticity and quirkiness (that was on display all night) will help us stave off economic hard times and that he has “faith in Portland’s willingness to take on challenges”.

With a broad grin, Randy Leonard told the crowd he’s been holding himself back for the last few years (a joke, given his outspoken demeanor) and that, “Now Sam’s going to let me go.”

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This graphic is from 1923.
(Photo © Retro Image Apparel)

The Retro Image Apparel Company is the latest addition to Portland’s growing “bicycle industrial complex”. The company designs and markets bike jerseys adorned with vintage poster graphics and iconic characters like The Grinch and Popeye.

I spoke with the owner of the company, Roger Mallette, yesterday. Mallette said he has moved into a 4,000 square foot warehouse on SE Madison (at 2nd) that he’s sharing with bike apparel retailer Doug Dugay and his BicyclingHub.com business (I profiled Dugay in November 2007 at his previous location on SE Water Street).

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Rebecka Hartkop, Tina Brubaker, Miranda Moon and Susan Peithman from Team Veloforma/ZYM at a time trial event in May.
(All photos: speithman on Flickr)

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The monthly KBOO Bike Show will ring in the New Year in style on Wednesday. Show founder/co-host, and veteran Portland bike scenester Ayleen Crotty has announced that their January 7th show will be a live, on-air party that will feature up-and-coming local band, Blind Pilot.

Here’s the word from Crotty as posted on her ORBike.com blog:

“Cyclists are invited to the station to share their wishes for a bikey new year, and reflections on the amazing year that we just had.”

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The cover

This morning I received an advanced copy of a long-awaited new book by Jeff Mapes; Pedaling Revolution: How Cyclists are Changing American Cities.

Mapes is the senior political reporter for The Oregonian (he also writes a politics blog) and, while I’ve known about this project for a long time, he’s kept the details secret. I’m excited to dive into this book and see what he’s come up with.

For the past few years, I’ve watched Mapes tote around his notebook interviewing folks in the local and national bike scene. But this book goes far beyond Portland’s borders. Mapes’ book shares the impact of bike culture and activism in places like New York City, Davis, Chicago, and others. He also has a chapter titled, “Learning from Amsterdam”, based on his findings from a trip he took to that bike mecca back in 2005.

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PBOT traffic safety expert
Greg Raisman.
(Photos © J. Maus)

In 2008, there were no fatal bike crashes in the City of Portland. After a tumultuous 2007, when we had six fatal bike crashes (two of them very high-profile), this was welcome news by many in the community.

To gain more perspective on this statistic, I asked Greg Raisman, the chief traffic safety guru in the City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) a few questions. Raisman thinks that it’s not just people on bikes that are safer, but that as bike traffic grows, all road users have a lower risk of being involved in a fatal crash.

Here’s the Q & A we did via email:

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It may be a true sign of change when the Wall Street Journal suggests that giving up your car could be good for your personal finances and the economy as a whole.

In his December 22 column, A real auto bailout: Escape your car, WSJ staff columnist Brett Arends wrote:

Last week, the auto industry finally got its bailout.

But is it time for Americans to rescue their own finances from their cars?

…Forget lattes and store-brand cereal. If you really want to see where your money is going, take a closer look at your car. Foreign or domestic, it doesn’t matter. It’s a cash guzzler, and it is probably costing you more than anything else except your home.

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Happy new year, everyone!

- There has been a lot of editorial page pontification in the last week about what our cities’ transportation policies should be in 2009. Here are a handful:

• The Hartford Courant, which I’ve been reading, wants better public transportation and restoration of historic train stations.

• The Toronto Star calls for a transformation of the city with more carfree streets and better walkability.

• The Jakarta Post (which doesn’t have permanent links to their stories) says “Let’s be friendlier in 2009!” and asks for more carfree spaces and safer streets.

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First we had an insane snow and ice storm and now I hear that the Portland region is being pelted with record rain.

A few hours ago, reader John P. sent me this photo of the Springwater Corridor
Trail (at mile marker 10.5) along with this comment:

“The cool thing about riding it right now… there’s so much oil and crap floating on the water you don’t have to worry about oiling your chain later.”

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[BikePortland.org's Managing Editor Elly Blue is currently on an East Coast Tour. This is the latest dispatch from her trip.]

The Devil’s Gear is a focal point
for New Haven biking.
(Photos by Elly Blue)

When I lived in New Haven a decade ago there wasn’t much of a bike scene. People biked, as did I — but I never had the sense of being part of a movement, or a community, or that bicycling was anything more than a fun but somewhat embattled way to get to work.

That’s all changed now.

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This ghost bike was stolen, then
returned by a regretful thief.
(Photos © J. Maus)

Looking back at the 1,385 stories published on BikePortland.org in 2008, we thought it would be fun to take a look at the ones that you read the most. I looked up our top ten stories by total number of pageviews* and here’s what I found (some results I expected, others surprised me).

1. Man on a bike is tackled, then tasered by Portland Police (6/11/08)
This unfortunate incident was by far the biggest story of the year. It was picked up by local and national media and created a huge buzz across the Web. By the way, the civil criminal component of this case will go to trial in mid-January.

2. Road rage incident sparks media frenzy, spurs us-them mentality (7/10/08)
Opening with a photo of the Oregonian front page headline “Cyclist clubs driver with his bike,” this story was my response and analysis of the impact of mainstream media coverage on stereotypes and conflict on our streets.

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