Love this graphic.
All the “progressive environmentalists” out there enamored w electric cars need to keep in mind that “EVs” only help us with the cost you can see above the water. H/t
@Reddit
@velomuerto
I don't understand why ppl think "people don't have license plates or they obscure their plates" is a good argument against automated enforcement cams. The solution is: If plate can't be read, you get a ticket.
Driving home from vacay just now and see this dude riding in the shoulder of I-90 outside of Coeur d'Alene w an “Armed Cyclist” jersey, safe passing flags, dozens of taillights. Absolutely epic.
last night I stole back our car that was recently stolen. got a tip it was parked in Roseway n'hood. We found it and I just walked up to it and hopped in and drove it home. This, after stealing back my bike from under a bridge several years ago. Feeling like a true Portlander!
We waste millions a year replacing damage done by bad drivers. If any other road user group was responsible for so much destruction and taxpayer costs, there would be widespread demands to have them banned.
Bad drivers want all the freedom and none of the responsibility.
if you're a transpo planner/consultant can you do me a quick favor? Go into your computer's inventory of bicycle icons/characters and delete the ones that look like someone is in the tour de france. Thanks!
Look at power the police have of controlling crash narratives here. All they have to do is decide on what happened & include it in a crash statement & the entire media apparatus will repeat it w/o doing any reporting or waiting for full investigation.
That moment when the Abernethy Bike Bus joins with the Clinton Bike Bus at Ladd Circle is something everyone should witness at least once in their lifetime. One of the Seven Wonders if the Modern World 🤣🚲🚌🚌❤️.
@BikeBusWorld
@CoachBalto
my god that grill is up to his shoulder. If you report on this show and don't talk about how deadly and irresponsible and terrible these designs are for humans outside these things, you are not doing your job.
Even calling it a “PEDESTRIAN safety crisis” puts onus on walkers.
What we’re having is a “dangerous driver crisis” and a “shit road design crisis” and a “auto industry that sells death machines crisis”.
holy shit this photo of our riverfront on the central eastside. what have we done?!
😲😭
(taken from
@OregonDOT
2020 Portland Region Traffic Performance Report )
You know people will "baby-proof" their homes to keep babies safe from hurting themselves? They do that bcuz babies cannot be trusted to make good decisions & they will always act selfishly, regardless of consequence.
Planners & engineers need to take same approach w drivers.
🚴🏼♀️🪥"I don't identify as a cyclist in the cultural sense of the word, any more than I would consider myself a toothbrushing enthusiast, simply because it's something I do a couple times a day." - Melissa Kostelecky at council testimony last week
Another time, i was talking to a state trooper after a truck driver killed a biker on a rural road & asked him if the driver would be cited for unsafe pass. Cop said, "come on, he's already been through a lot...." I mean srsly, ppl need to hold police accountable for this shit
Pretty wild that Rene Gonzalez typed "I appreciate you" in reference to Andy Ngo. Ngo's approach to journalism and his content isn't something a Portland mayoral hopeful should be showing support for.
after years of terrible (and largely unfair and inaccurate imo!) national headlines,
#Portland
gets this amazing coverage and it's bikes front-and-center. (you're welcome!!)
This is what "getting back to normal" looks like to me.
In Portland, Oregon, a group of parents and one teacher came together to create an alternative way of getting kids to school while clearing road congestion.
@byjacobward
shares more details about the “bike bus” where hundreds of students ride together through the neighborhood.
i know from experience police are often extremely biased toward & sympathetic to truck drivers. I talked to truck driver once who killed a biker. He told me cop looked him in the eye at crash scene & said, as if coaching him, "You didn't see her. You didn't see her, right?"
right now i'm working on a case where police claim an experienced biker swerved in front of a passing truck just before being hit. I request police investigation/report. They deny my request. Family is suing, says DA is protecting the truck driver.
if you're a journalist and your response to record pedestrian fatalities is to frame your story solely on police claims that so many ppl are being killed because they don't have enuf funding and/or officers, you are a police PR person, not a journalist.
In the state of Oregon you can get a license and start driving a car (w some restrictions) at age 15.
But you have to be 16 or older to ride an e-bike.
This makes no sense to me and feels like just another example of the paternalistic attitude we have toward cycling.
Extremely impressed at this brand new separated cycle track on
@OregonState
campus! More of this please! Imagine if they built a loop thru campus, then connected to downtown Corvallis. This is how we can love the needle.
This is such a terrible idea. The police should never broadcast stuff like this!
There's no reason to do this other than PR. They did the same thing last week re: traffic safety.
PPB, please stop using your platform for politics.
Due to critical incidents happening today and PPB's staffing shortage, officers are responding to Priority 1 and 2 calls only right now and response times may be delayed for certain calls.
I hope one thing that comes from this new awareness of police culture is that journalists STOP publishing police press statement verbatim. We've pushed that for years re: traffic crashes and same goes for protest (and all other) statements.
Be the media, not a police PR service!
One of my tricks when photographing large bike rides is to look for inclines or declines in the street because it allows you to see more of the group in one frame. Often means I have to hustle ahead and look back. I love how this one turned out!
Got a text from my principal that our superintendent shared this photo of the
#BikeBus
in his slide deck with district leaders today. Thank you again to
@BikePortland
for taking this amazing photo.
Portland should pass a city ordinance that makes it illegal to sweep, rake, or blow leaves from a sidewalk or parking median strip, into a striped bike lane.
when men refer to female politicians by their first names it's a bit of a red flag to me.
saw it happen a LOT w/ "Jo Ann" (Hardesty), and now seeing it "Tina" (Kotek).
unless you know someone as a friend or on personal level, always use titles/last name for gov't officials.
little nugget. The
@portlandpolice
Sgt. that's been at Traffic Division for 10 yrs admitted that it was a political stunt to host a press conference in 2021 just to tell Portlanders that they were not enforcing traffic laws... and he knew it "could make things more dangerous"!!
Just so impressed with
@VancouverUS
Waterfront! It comes alive on warm nights. So many people. Excellent infrastructure/design. This is what’s possible when you invest in world class public space.
So many of us out here working and fighting every day to make roads safer and build more humane communities.
Then he just tweets this out. What a gut punch. An utter disappointment.
On my watch, the great American road trip is going to be fully electrified.
And now, through a tax credit, you can get up to $7,500 on a new electric vehicle.
Anyone know this dude? Would really love to meet him and learn about his bike. Saw on Bridge Pedal. By far the nicest custom rig I've ever seen in this town. His matching helmet was like the mic drop.
#pdxbikes
the problem w some progressive policies in portland is that the excellent ideas are not followed up w excellent implementation, leaving them (progressives & their ideas) open to public ridicule & political losses.
the problem is bad follow-through, not bad ideas/values.
OK so this is pretty wild... If you live in Portland, there are now four — 4! — e-bike rebate programs simultaneously in the works and/or possible. Local, regional, state and federal. If they stack well together, folks might just get free e-bikes. 🤯
Later today in the Shed I'll sit down with Perrin Smith, a north Portland resident who recently completed a stunning achievement: He has walked every single mile of every single street and alleyway in Portland!
Got any questions for him?
Remember in the 1970s when the US gov't wanted to give Portland region $$100s of millions for a freeway to Mt. Hood & ppl organized & said, "No thanks! We'd rather spend that on light rail and bike lanes!" And it happened.
Let's keep that in mind in the coming months.
just going to put this out there... Cafes/restaurants/bars/businesses in Portland need more coat hooks! Not everyone shows up a short walk from their car. Some of us have very wet jackets & other stuff that we'd love to hang up. Thanks!
really disturbing that Portland city councilor-elect
@reneforportland
has chosen to leave up a link to an IG account of a self-described "ultra-MAGA" Islamophobe.
This type of thing is why I never interviewed him in the primary.
quietly pleased that my 16-yr old daughter's friend got a speeding ticket via the NE Marine Drive photo radar camera for going 12 mph over the limit (47 in a 35). They were shocked it was $170 fine. Good lesson for them. Safer streets for us. Thx
@PBOTinfo
So many bad headlines abt what happened last night.
Here’s what I would write:
Man drives through freeway closure, uses car to murder protester in Seattle
Summer Taylor, one of two demonstrators who was struck by a car while protesting in Seattle, has died. The second protester, Diaz Love, remains in serious condition.
not sure what makes me more mad about thi... that a driver plowed through someone I know w/o stopping for a red signal... Or that so many people are so biased they are unable to see this as a clear case of careless, distracted, reckless driving and are hellbent on victim blaming.
CW: On bike ride to World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims event today,
@bikeloudpdx
member Mark Linehan was hit by van driver who ran a red light on SE Division/119th. A hit-and-run. Thankfully Mark is not srsly hurt. Video via
@amitzilight
#pdxtraffic
#pdxalerts
We've got to do something about this! Happens way too often & has serious consequences. We either need to give delivery trucks more space (taken from driving space) or build bike lanes that are impossible to drive over).
Cute little curbs & unenforced laws are not enough.
Using this type of language is extremely irresponsible & dangerous. Homeless ppl already face extreme hate from others & this is how you validate and mainstream hate. You can be frustrated by homeless issue/policies w/o making statements like this.
City Code has banned unsanctioned camping since 81.
Our city is overrun & under siege - it is time to enforce our laws, to the extent we can, with the resources we have.
Help those who want help.
Send home - or to criminal justice system - those who prey on our compassion.
RE: Commish Gonzalez/TriMet thing:
- There's a strong "defund public transit" push among many on the right.
- Many on the right see a champion in Gonzalez.
- Gonzalez (and/or his ppl) knows what he's doing.
- Gonzalez (and/or his ppl) believe the right/center-right can win.
This is what vision zero leadership looks like. No Portland official has ever talked like this. This is also what I was talking about recently when I was saying in some cases, leaders need to name and shame bad drivers for being horrible.
h/t
@BIKABOUT
This afternoon, a driver killed a 4-year-old girl and seriously injured her mom before fleeing the scene at Teutonia/Vera.
@MayorMKE
called a press conference, saying, "that is straight bullshit, that is straight garbage. It pisses me off."
@Reddit
@velomuerto
And these are just environmental impacts! There's a lot more to add to the underwater list:
- Noise pollution
- Death and destruction from traffic crashes
- Social isolation
- Poverty/debt due to purchase/maintenance costs
- etc etc etc etc
pretty wild to watch the
#Portland
#bikebus
led by
@CoachBalto
get so much major national attn. This WaPo piece is just one of several I've heard abt/helped w in the past week. Happy to share my pics to spread this as far and wide as possible!
Tried to go for a walk, but still doesn’t feel safe to me. Too much ice. Bummer that the only way to get around is by car. (Or crampons if you’ve got em)
Really cool bit of activism by
@OpenPlans
in Brooklyn today. They’ve furnished a studio apartment in 2 car parking spaces in underground garage as part of their campaign to repeal parking mandates. cc
@pdxshoupistas
@Parking_Reform
@andersem
Oregon gives rebates to people who buy electric cars, trucks, motorcycles, and even "neighborhood electric vehicles" (aka golf carts).. .but not e-bikes? doesn't seem right.
SMDH
The place where Jean Diaz was killed by a reckless driver at a bus stop on SE Cesar Chavez & Taylor runs through a n'hood & is across from a library — yet it is inhospitable & dangerous to everyone not inside a car.
just amazing to see how this has taken hold.
can't stop wondering why this type of thing never happened before, given all the money and time and orgs and planning we have around Safe Routes to School. This is the work of one PE teacher!
20% of Alameda students joined the
#BikeBus
this morning. Over 110 students are starting the school day already receiving much needed physical activity. And it’s 100% clean for the environment.
Weird to me that
@KATUNews
has to frame the bike bus as "exercise, sustainability ride" instead of just kids getting to school. Wonder what they'd call kids being driven to school in a car... a "sedentary, earth-killing ride"??
People that do this (turn right across a xwalk on a green walk signal WITH PEOPLE IN THE XWALK are the WORST!! (took this pic today at E Burnside & 122nd)
extremely careless and irresponsible thing to say. Will only make an already volatile situation worse. The lack of concern for vehicular violence Wheeler and PPB showed during 2020 protests was a red flag I raised at the time. These cars should be treated like loaded guns.
"Without a progressive champion, it’s up to us to keep the new conservative-leaning Council in check for the next two years." - former city commish Chloe Eudaly in her newsletter just now, lamenting the loss of outgoing commish Jo Ann Hardesty
File this one away:
"If we do a road diet, or lane reallocation, changing 4 lanes for cars into 3 lanes w some bike facilities, we're going to see about a 35% reduction in crashes for everybody when we do that." - Jessica Horning, ODOT bike/ped program manager in a meeting today
just had a lawyer tell me he received justice for a family in a fatal bike crash last year... and that it would not have happened w/o a story from
@BikePortland
. that kind of stuff is what keeps me believing in what i do.
ummm nope we don't hope that! or we shouldn't hope that.
seems bad that the director of Portland's budget office hopes people start doing the one thing every single one of our adopted plans and goals says we don't want to have happen 👀
Oregon law (ORS 814.410 (1)(d) requires people to ride bikes "at a speed no greater than an ordinary walk" when entering/approaching a crosswalk.
Let's extend that law to car users! Imagine all the lives we could save.
This plan map of the
@IbrProgram
really makes it clear why backers of the project never mention anything other than the "Bridge". this is a massive freeway expansion project - majority of which has nothing to do w a bridge.
It’s weird to me how much of the conversation about crime in Portland happens without any mention of the massive, well-funded gov’t agency whose job it is to prevent it.
How do you reduce right-hook collisions? Create as much space as possible between the right-turning drivers and the bike lane, & force drivers to make sharper turns so their head is pointed in direction of rider.
@PBOTinfo
did an amazing job at this on new SW Broadway bike lanes
Just met w GM of the Heathman Hotel on Broadway. She wants to make sure the bike community knows they are welcome… and that she loves the bike lane!! We’re gonna do a Get Together event there soon 😎😎💯
Was just biking on N Rosa Parks and some dude I’ve never seen before pops his head out of car window and hands me a copy of Portland Tennis Quarterly and says, “BikePortland inspired me to do this.” 🥹🥲💕
I still cannot believe that Portland mayor
@tedwheeler
said BLM protestors were "attempting to commit murder" earlier this month. That was such an irresponsible thing to say. Just beyond bad.
just wrapped a video call w
@CommMapps
abt Broadway Bike Lane Scandal. He still denies knowing that his bureau director was planning to move forward w a major project. He denies he ever signed off of any plans, despite email from PBOT director saying she consulted him.
I don't like being lied to. What these folks have done - seemingly for no reason other than to appease business interests - erodes trust in
@PBOTinfo
at a time when their morale and budget are at their lowest point ever. Just a terrible move all around.
was just explaining the broadway bike lane scandal to a local journo who asked for it in the simplest terms and it really dawned on me how absurd and outrageous the entire Mapps/Williams plan was.
btw,
@Commissionerry1
Dan Ryan deleted the Police Reform page on his campaign website, but google still has it. It's very hard for me to square what he said on that page with what he did in council yesterday. look fwd to him living up to his words.
i've spent years beating the drum that too much of Oregon's climate & transportation staff/leadership/elected officials overlook and/or marginalize non-driving investments & this feels like a great example of the consequences of that culture
With $197 million to fight climate change, Oregon doubles down on cars
- Of the $66 million going to transportation, $52 million will go toward e-car rebates and $14 million will be spent on charging infrastructure.
A 4-mile freeway closure on I-5 this weekend seems like a neat chance to see what will happen to traffic once we decommission I-5 through Portland. The green lines on this ODOT detour map are the ring system we need to keep freeways out of the city.
Mayor Wheeler has extended the state of emergency in Portland through noon Monday. He asks members of the public to get license plates of people dressed all in black and report them to the police. "Our job is to unmask them, arrest them and prosecute them."
Am I the only who thinks it's weird that a lot of bike advocates push for creation of 3 classes of e-bikes, adding further regulations, while will still don't do something similar for cars? We need more regs on cars, less on bikes imo.
transportation and urban planning are arguably the things that made Portland such an enviable city for so many years... so it's interesting to me that when the city is on the ropes and needs help getting its groove back, there's relative silence at city hall about it.
hi city of portland employee. I realize you are hungry and need your chipotle, but there's a parking lot around back and it's never ok to park in a bike lane like you did here on NE 7th & Weidler yesterday. (photo from a reader, who also reported it)
portland literally had a city commissioner in charge of
@PBOTinfo
who said her top priority was carfree streets downtown.
27 months later and I'm not aware of anything major progress toward that... certainly nothing like San Diego has just done. smdh
h/t
@thecasualroadie
still can't believe someone did this to my neighborhood.
View is looking north from N Mississippi area after ODOT destroyed hundreds of homes to build I-5.
Well now that’s interesting. 🤣🤣👀😲
(Heathman is on Broadway, and their former GM went to local media in Dec 2022 to complain abt Broadway bike lane.)
Can’t wait to meet the new GM!