Temporary Lanes

The first section of the Eastside Streetcar tracks have been laid, starting from the North end, and now preparation is happening further down Grand Avenue for more tracks to be laid. Currently, they are working on the sewers at the East end of the Hawthorne Bridge, on which about 20% of all traffic is bicycles. So, when they are blocking the bike lane, they create a temporary one.



Just a simple reality of bicycle traffic - there is enough that it has to be accounted for.

Positive Reinforcement

Often it's the simple things that make a big difference, and one of the most frustrating things as a cyclist is that often it is impossible to trigger traffic signals with a bicycle. This means you have to get off your bike, walk over to the sidewalk, push the pedestrian crosswalk button, walk back into the road, get back on your bike - and if a car pulls up in the meantime, you've lost your place in the road, and you have to "go to the end of the line" so to speak. Or the alternative that some use - run the red light when there's nobody coming.

However, simply allowing a cyclist to trigger the traffic signal with their bicycle removes the inconvenience and the temptation to disregard the signal. These have been popping up all over the place in Portland lately, and they've been a very welcome addition to the roads. Simple positive reinforcement to make it more appealing to everyone to obey the law and keep the roads in order.

Spring has arrived!

We've been having gorgeous weather lately, and while it's still a bit chilly, the sun has been out and I've actually been looking forward to going outside, rather than looking forward to getting back inside.

I had the chance to get out and about on Monday, as I had the day off for President's Day, and spent most of the day on my bike. It was one of the best days I've had in a long time, down in the Pearl District for brunch, and then riding all over North and NE Portland. My rides to and from work this week have been equally as pleasant, and have resulted in some good photos as well.

Hope you all are enjoying your riding, wherever you are!

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The monetary benefits of bicycle infrastructure

A commenter on my last post mentioned that I wasn't very specific about the monetary benefits of implementing the Portland Bicycle Plan, that is, of adding bicycle infrastructure and making it more attractive to ride bicycles (or walk) rather than drive. I started writing a comment in reply, but figured that would make a pretty good post all on its own, so here it goes.

There are a lot of potential benefits - firstly, much of the reason our roads are in bad shape, is that we have so many cars driving on them so often. If we can get more people riding bikes and walking more often, the roads will last considerably longer, as bicycle tires and feet do exponentially less damage to the roads. I think about this a lot, as many of the sidewalks in Portland are still there from as early as 1909, and are still serviceable. Busy road surfaces however, have to be repaved every few years in order to remain smooth, due to the volume of automobiles driving on them.

What many cities in Europe have found out, is that pedestrians and cyclists are better shoppers than those who arrive in automobiles. They are more able to stop on a whim, browse casually, and for those who don't own a car, the fact that they aren't spending loads on owning and operating an automobile all the time means they potentially have more money to spend. Many major shopping districts in European cities are car-free, and they thrive.

Active citizens are healthier citizens, and more productive citizens, and the city, as well as companies, pay money to support healthcare costs for the citizens of a city. An active lifestyle is one of the best preventative medicines, and countries in Europe have done studies that show the monetary benefits of having their workforce healthy and productive due to being regularly active are massive.

Traffic. We spend hours and hours sitting in our cars, wasting fuel, wasting time, polluting the air. Our streets simply cannot handle the volume of traffic we currently have, and we are expecting growth. Not only can we not afford to tear up our neighborhoods to build bigger roads (from a community point of view), we can much more easily afford to add bicycle infrastructure to our existing roads than build more roads. Portland's entire 300 mile network of bikeways cost about the same as 1 mile of urban freeway. Granted, some of the stuff in the Portland Bicycle Plan is more expensive that what we have done so far, but it is still miniscule compared to the cost of building and maintaing automobile-only roads.

There is no shortage of news and information on this, and I'm sure a google search will provide many more specifics, studies and discussions on the topic. Here is a study from the European Cycling Federation to start (http://www.ecf.com/3379_1), and I know Mikael at Copenhagenize has also posted a number of times about this.

Obviously, people are still going to drive. I'm still going to drive, sometimes. However, currently 80% of trips in the U.S. are by single-occupancy automobile, and about 40% of all trips are 2 miles or under. The more people we can encourage to not drive when they don't really need to, the better, in so many ways. Not just better for the "cyclists", but better for the city, better for the citizens, better for the businesses, better for the people who improve their health and save themselves money.

Portland Bicycle Plan

The Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030 has unanimously passed a vote in city council, and Mayor Sam Adams has proposed an initial $20 million funding source to get actual implementation of the plan started as quickly as possible, perhaps in the next month (talk about quick creation of jobs!).

Here's to a new era of transportation in Portland - new light rail line just added, new streetcar loop going in as we speak, new transit/bike/ped bridge in the works as well as restructuring bridges to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians, Oregon Department of Transportation allocating funds for calming of arterial streets in Portland, and now the bicycle plan. Hopefully this will make waves in the U.S. as a whole, and people will start to realize this kind of stuff is not only "green", not only for special interest groups, but simply a good financial investment, and a good investment in the health of our cities and citizens.

We're making our way to more pleasant, equitable and healthy public spaces, and I have to say, I'm excited.

Abandoned?

Mikael did a post recently about abandoned bicycles, and how, in a city with a lot of bicycles, one will simply see abandoned bicycles around. After reading that, I started noticing them around Portland as well, and especially in our new neighborhood, so I thought I would take a few pictures and do a short-ish post of my own.

In Portland, abandoned bicycles get treated different ways in different places, it seems. Maybe it depends on the type of bicycle as well.

Often times anything removable from the frame gets pilfered, and the frame just sits, sad and forlorn. This seems to happen especially on bikes with quick-release components:



This one even lost the pedals:



Sometimes, much like in Copenhagen, they simply sit around forever. This little Raleigh has been sitting a couple blocks from our apartment, locked up, with the chain off for at least 5-6 months since we moved in. Just last week I noticed someone had crushed the basket on the rear rack, but nothing else seems to have changed:



I pass this one on my way home every day, and while it looks basically in-tact, I've never seen it move - though I could swear I saw it one day with no seat, and then again with the seat another day.



These two again are near our apartment, and have been sitting there at least the 5-6 months we've lived in the area.



This little mixte has a beautiful headlight, but also seems to have been relegated to sitting in the year-round rain.



Sometimes you find abandoned bikes in strange locations. This one is at our grocery store, and has been sitting there for the last few days with a flat tire. I've seen this bike there before, so I think it either belongs to someone who works there, or someone who frequently shops there.



My guess is that this isn't a big enough problem for the city of Portland yet that they're making any concerted effort to remove abandoned bicycles in most parts of town (unless someone complains), so we'll probably start seeing a lot more of them, before we start seeing them disappear. They always make me wonder what their story is - who owned them, why they are there, and why they were left behind.

...Except Bicycles

It's getting more and more common to see the words "Except Bicycles" on traffic signs around Portland:







And these are turning up in a few places as well - hopefully we'll see more of them!