[MarkDaMan]

Portland ranks first in nation for biking to work
Census - The bureau director chooses the city to release 2005 commuting data
Thursday, June 14, 2007
JAMES MAYER
The Oregonian

A larger share of Portlanders commute by bicycle than in any other large city in America, eight times the national average, according to the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, who took note of the statistic during a presentation Wednesday at City Hall.

The city's love affair with bikes is not new, but it's nice to be noticed by the nation's top people counter.

"It's like a Swiss city, clean, with trains and bikes everywhere," said Louis Kincannon.

The census director chose Portland to release an analysis of 2005 commuting data to highlight the usefulness of the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey, which will take the place of the long-form census questionnaire in 2010.

The survey found that 3.5 percent of Portland workers commuted by bike in 2005. Ranking second was Minneapolis at 2.4 percent, then Seattle, at 2.3 percent. The national average for cities with more than 65,000 population was 0.4 percent.

"It's not surprising" that Portland ranked No. 1 in bike commuting, said Scott Bricker, policy director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Portland has been ranked the nation's top cycling city in national cycling magazines in recent years.

Bricker said Portland has been working to improve cycling in the city for the past 10 or 15 years, and it has really paid off in the past two or three years. "This isn't peaking," he added.

Jonathan Maus, an advocate who runs the blog BikePortland.org, said the 2005 census data has been available since August, but he has focused more on the fact that bike commuting in Portland doubled in five years.

Portland looks better than the national average on other transportation measures as well.

Despite rising fuel costs, commuters continued to favor driving to work in 2005, but less so in Portland than in many cities. The survey found that 77 percent of Americans drove to work alone, compared with 62.4 percent of Portlanders.

In Portland, 13.3 percent of commuters took public transportation, twice the national average, but less than Seattle at 17 percent.

"With each succeeding year, we'll be able to see how people respond to changing circumstances, such as rising gas prices," instead of having to wait 10 years between census counts, Kincannon said.

Other commuting highlights:

About 3.6 percent of Americans worked from home in 2005. Portland ranked second behind San Francisco at 5.3 percent.

Boston had the highest percentage of employees who walk to work with 13 percent. Portland with 4.3 percent was more than the national average of 2.5.

The 2005 estimates are based on an annual, nationwide household sample of about 250,000 addresses a month.

James Mayer: 503-294-4109; jimmayer@news.oregonian.com

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1181786143276160.xml&coll=7

[PDX City-State]

This is old, but no one posted it. It's a pdf, so hence the link:

http://media.wweek.com/attach/2007/04/17/21_LedeChart.pdf

[Black Box]

DUH, of course it is.

[brandonpdx]

It's all relative of course; but ranking 1st in the US in bicycle commuting is small potatoes on a world scale.

[der Reisender]

Does anybody else think its pretty good how well the big cities of the NW do in these regards compared to other places in North America? For relatively young cities with little in the way of dense historical centers like some of the eastern seaboard cities (and particular Portland's lower overall city density) to put up strong numbers like these says something good about how we plan out here. Our cities stack up pretty well against others in our peer group, but i'm not naming other city names, i dont want to be getting in trouble

Portland Seattle Vancouver
Public transit 13.3% 17% 17%
Walk 4.3% 6.9% 17%
Bike 3.5% 2.3% 3%
SOV 63.3% 58.4% 50%

Funny how the lower SOV rates correlate to higher densities...

Note- Vancouver numbers are from a City of Vancouver study cited in the Transportation forum, pdx/sea numbers come from the census data (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2007/Pub_Trans_Tables.xls)

[SFUVancouver]

I think these cycling figures are just the thin edge of the wedge as downtown populations and close-in suburbs increase in tandem with rising fuel costs. I'm heading down to Portland for my first trip on Monday and I am very excited.

Here are the Vancouver transportation numbers that were mentioned earlier. Bear in mind that these figures only apply to the City of Vancouver and not Greater Vancouver. The figures for the latter are not encouraging at all and are about to get even worse with the highly controversial "Gateway Project" of highway widening and bridge construction.

The following represent the City of Vancouver's findings ten years (1994-2004) after initiating the City of Vancouver transportation plan. (All figures apply to the 578,000 people in the city proper, out of a metro population of 2.2 million)

How we get around
Vancouver at large
Single Occupancy vehicle: 50%
Walk: 17%
Transit: 17%
Vehicle with passenger: 12%
Bike: 3%

To Downtown Vancouver
Transit: 30%
Single Occupancy Vehicle: 30%
Walk: 27%
Vehicle with passenger: 9%
Bike 3%

Vancouver Transportation Priorities (from highest to lowest)
1. Walking (highest priority, manifested in a good and improving public realm)
2. Biking
3. Transit
4. Goods Movement
5. Single Occupancy Vehicles (lowest priority, manifested by a zero increase in road surface area in a decade)

Mode-specific Updates
Vancouver at large
Walking: Up 44% in the decade to 310,000 trips a day. 27% of trips to downtown and 65% of all trips within downtown are on foot. 17% of all trips within Vancouver at large are on foot. For what it is worth, proportionately more people walk to work in Vancouver than in Montreal, Toronto, Seattle or Portland and this is thanks almost entirely to the fact that 100,000+ people live downtown.

Cycling: Up 180% in the decade to about 50,000 trips a day. Approximately 2,700 trips a day into downtown alone during the morning rush hour, equaling 50-60 full transit buses. Bike network doubled to 170km during the measured period of time. Vast majority of bike trips are not into the core.

Transit: Up 20% in the decade to about 330,000 trips a day. Trips to UBC increased by 62% in two years due to the UPASS. Growth in transit ridership is outpacing all other major Canadian transit systems.

Vehicles:Down 10% in the decade to about 390,000 trips a day. The number of vehicles entering the City of Vancouver has fallen 10%, the number entering downtown has fallen by 7%, and vehicles trips, including carpools represent only 10% of all trips within downtown.

[CUclimber]

I'm glad to be doing my part. I have an incredibly easy commute (just 1.5 miles from Lair Hill to downtown), but I know at least a dozen other close friends, a dozen people in my small office building, and tons of others who do the same.

Hell, even my yuppie dad bought a Vespa to commute to the golf course from his house. :p

[der Reisender]

how do we NW forumers commute?

i live in irvington and work downtown, taking either MAX or riding my bike, depending on just how rainy it is, although if i was picking a census box i'd go with public transit as my 'primary mode'. one thing i love about portland is waiting in a queue of 10 bikes for a light to change...its a nice type of congestion

[zilfondel]

Bus, bicycle, and scooter; in that order. I live on the eastside close in off of Stark street, go to school and work downtown.

[herb]

put some hills in there and see how you guys do.

I'm actually taking my bike to Portland on Amtrak, looking for a place to live. Right now in fact. Wish me luck.

[zilfondel]

Oh, we've got hills in Portland. Thank god they're not like Seattle or San Fran, but the West Hills are a pretty damn big deterrent for normal people to bicycle from downtown to SW/Beaverton.

[65MAX]

^^^^
Deterrent? You haven't driven Cornell through Forest Park, have you? I can't believe how many cyclist tackle that hill every day, all day long.

[tworivers]

I bike pretty much everywhere, although I enjoy walking too.

I live in inner NE between Fremont and Alberta and have a 5 mile commute to my job in SE, but also ride downtown a lot and have an art studio in the CEID.

I ride the MAX and streetcar when I have the opportunity. When the weather is particularly bad, or I'm feeling exhausted or lazy, I'll ride Interstate MAX up the hill, then ride east.

Good luck, herb. Welcome to town.

[nehalem5]

Oh, we've got hills in Portland. Thank god they're not like Seattle or San Fran, but the West Hills are a pretty damn big deterrent for normal people to bicycle from downtown to SW/Beaverton.

Interesting thread...at least 3 times a week I ride over the west hills to hillsboro. less in the winter, but its amazing how many people I see riding up there in them hills, both ways. I'm no lance armstrong, but every time I'm feeling really great and making good time up a hill, someone always passes me like I'm going still. Its like a superrace of human cyclists up there, I've never seen anything like it.
The beauty of the west hills is that there are so many ways to get over them from Portland, some roads have 4-5 cars per hour. Descending into the sprawl is another story, but that 26 bike path is a blessing. I do find that if you choose to descend west via skyline or cornell (insane), its best to just take up the whole lane, that way cars wont take chances trying to pass you.

Herb, if you are cycling masochist like myself and apparently lots of others in Portland, check out this website that calculates the %grades of roads in the west hills. (I think it undercalculates the steepness of some roads)
http://www.lclark.edu/~kolitch/cycling.html

[zilfondel]

Hmm, I was actually thinking about access to SW Portland, like along Barbur... that's a pretty long and steep hill that I think most people would rather not attempt...

but you guys are right - the hills in town here are pretty tame. Still, riding around SE/NE Portland seems easier than riding to downtown.

[Black Box]

I only bike to work. Sometimes I walk to work. I walk and take the bus on weekends. If I ride my bike on weekends, it is for leisure.

[brandonpdx]

walk

[MarkDaMan]

Bus or Bus to MAX, depending on traffic, and sometimes car to transit center and than MAX.

[designpdx]

I take the bus mostly. I am a fair weather biker. I try to bike a couple of days a week during the 'dry' season.

[GreenCity]

I bike or bus to work/school from inner SE, work is on Killingsworth and about 45 minutes on either my bike or the bus. That hill on 33rd north of Grant H.S. can definately be a challenge some mornings.

[pdxman]

Streetcar for me baby! Probably one of the few, but proud, who use it as a commuter tool. Otherwise i'll walk or bus it if i need to. I do have a car and use it if i have to venture out to the suburbs or make the occasional trip down to salem.

[Dougall5505]

bus bus and more bus for me

[mhays]

How about a bike tunnel through the west hills? Well, that would be a tall order, as it were, but there's precedent: The 2,000-foot I-90 trail through Mt. Baker in Seattle. It's the top level of a three level tunnel built during the I-90 reconstruction project about 15 years ago.

[zilfondel]

^^^ Well... we already have one, really. You guys have seen this video, right???

_a5fKStH0LI

[mhays]

I kept waiting for that guy to die. Was it all downhill?

[MarkDaMan]

^yep

[der Reisender]

that looks like the zoobomb route, isnt it?

[zilfondel]

yes it is... yes it is. Now you know how they do it - except at night! :whip:

[65MAX]

Yeah, that route's 100% downhill. But the zoobombers usually go through Washington Park don't they? Past the rose garden, then down Burnside.

[MarkDaMan]

Improving Portland, one bike at a time
New BTA executive director takes on the city that cycles
POSTED: 06:00 AM PDT Thursday, October 25, 2007
BY NATHALIE WEINSTEIN
Daily Journal of Commerce

Every major city has an iconic mode of transportation. For New York, it’s the subway. For San Francisco, it’s the streetcar. Portland’s may just be the bicycle.

And that’s why the Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s new executive director, Scott Bricker, has his hands full.

The recent deaths of two Portland bikers have raised issues on how safe bikers and drivers really are on the city’s roadways.

“The biking community is really tight,” Bricker said. “We see that come out when there is a death of a cyclist.”

In 2005, the BTA completed its Blueprint for Better Biking, which surveyed more than 900 cyclists and identified 40 projects to improve biking in Portland.

“Clearly, bicycle safety tops the bill,” Bricker said. “Cyclists stated that riding bikes near and around cars was their top concern. They preferred bike paths and bike boulevards.”

So Bricker went to work with city Commissioner Sam Adams on the Safe, Sound and Green Streets project, which aims to add more than 100 miles of bike boulevards to the city.

“Bike infrastructure is cost-effective,” Bricker said. “Adding a bicycle box is putting paint on the street. The estimate for the bike boulevards is $25 million, which sounds like a lot, but traffic signals costs $250,000; bridges costs billions. It’s not a lot of money when you look at the miles.”

In addition, the BTA plans to have educational programs for cyclists and motorists to increase awareness in both parties.

“Everyone should take a couple seconds to be safe and courteous,” Bricker said. “We are hoping to educate cyclists so they are courteous and respectful and, at the same time, motorists should be respectful of cyclists and pedestrians.”

Another aspect of creating a bike-friendly culture in Portland, Bricker said, is encouraging non-bikers to put the pedal to the test.

“When we encourage cycling among peer groups, people support each other and start riding,” Bricker said.

One area the BTA is targeting, he said, is biking for businesses. Bricker hopes to institute a bike rental program, like one currently offered in Paris, so people commuting to work can have access to bicycles.

He hopes that, by creating more bikers, especially downtown, traffic and parking issues will decrease.

And by creating more bikers, Bricker said, the BTA can aid local businesses.

“Some businesses have realized that one car spot could be eight to 12 bicycles in the same space,” Bricker said. “Eight bikes instead of one car is more business.”

Portland has six such bike spaces installed, with three on Mississippi Avenue, two on Belmont Street and one at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Bricker has high hopes for greater bike accessibility, and he predicts another 120 miles of bike routes and the completion of a trail connecting downtown to the St. Johns Bridge in the next decade.

And the number of bikers, he said, will keep on growing.

“The young and the restless want to have a lifestyle where they can be active, and that’s a big part of their culture,” Bricker said. “If you go to a party (in Portland), the funnest part is riding to the party.”
http://www.djcoregon.com/articleDetail.htm/2007/10/25/Improving-Portland-one-bike-at-a-time-New-BTA-executive-director-takes-on-the-city-that-cycles

[tworivers]

The NYT has practically written a book about PDX this year.

In Portland, Cultivating a Culture of Two Wheels

Cyclists have long revered Portland, Ore., for amenities like on-street bicycle parking.

By WILLIAM YARDLEY
Published: November 5, 2007

PORTLAND, Ore. — Susan Peithman did not have a job lined up when she moved here in September to pursue a career in “nonmotorized transportation.” No worries, she figured; the market here is strong.

Now, business owners like Tony Pereira, a bike builder, are part of the city’s growing cycling industry.

“In so many ways, it’s the center,” Ms. Peithman, 26, explained. “Bike City, U.S.A.”

Cyclists have long revered Portland for its bicycle-friendly culture and infrastructure, including the network of bike lanes that the city began planning in the early 1970s. Now, riders are helping the city build a cycling economy.

There are, of course, huge national companies like Nike and Columbia Sportswear that have headquarters here and sell some cycling-related products, and there are well-known brands like Team Estrogen, which sells cycling clothing for women online from a Portland suburb.

Yet in a city often uncomfortable with corporate gloss, what is most distinctive about the emerging cycling industry here is the growing number of smaller businesses, whether bike frame builders or clothing makers, that often extol recycling as much as cycling, sustainability as much as success.

Like the local indie rock bands that insist they are apathetic about fame, many of the smaller local companies say craft, not money, is what drives them.

“All the frame builders I know got into this because they love bikes,” said Tony Pereira, a bike builder whose one-man operation has a 10-month waiting list, “not because they wanted to start a business.”

Mia Birk, a former city employee who helped lead Portland’s efforts to expand cycling in the 1990s, said the original goals were rooted in environmental and public health, not the economy.

“That wasn’t our driving force,” Ms. Birk said. “But it has been a result, and we’re comfortable saying it is a positive result.”

Ms. Birk now helps run a consulting firm, Alta Planning and Design, which advises other cities on how to become more bicycle-friendly. In a report for the City of Portland last year, the firm estimated that 600 to 800 people worked in the cycling industry in some form. A decade earlier, Ms. Birk said in an interview, the number would have been more like 200 and made up almost entirely of employees at retail bike stores.

Now, Ms. Birk said, the city is nurturing the cycling industry, and there are about 125 bike-related businesses in Portland, including companies that make bike racks, high-end components for racing bikes and aluminum for bikes mass-produced elsewhere. There are small operations that make cycling hats out of recycled fabric. Track, road and cyclo-cross races are held year-round, and state tourism groups promote cycling packages. There is Ms. Birk’s firm, which had two employees in Portland in 1999 and now has 14. There are nonprofit advocacy groups and Web sites, including www.bikeportland.org, that are devoted to cycling issues and events in Portland.

And then there is the growing, high-end handmade bike industry, which was made up of just one or two businesses a decade ago but now has more than 10. The Portland Development Commission is working with a handful of the bike builders to improve their business and accounting skills and help them network with one another.

This month, the city will be the host of a trade show featuring bike builders from Oregon, which locals say has more makers than any other state. And early next year, the North American Handmade Bicycle Show will bring its fourth annual event to Portland for the first time. It is expected to be the largest national show so far.

Sam Adams, a city commissioner in charge of transportation, joined development officials to help lure the show to Portland. It seemed a natural fit. The city regularly ranks at the top of Bicycling Magazine’s list of the best cycling cities and has the nation’s highest percentage of workers who commute by bike, about 3.5 percent, according to the Census Bureau. Drivers here are largely respectful of riders, and some businesses give up parking spaces to make way for bike racks.

“Our intentions are to be as sustainable a city as possible,” Mr. Adams said. “That means socially, that means environmentally and that means economically. The bike is great on all three of those factors. You just can’t get a better transportation return on your investment than you get with promoting bicycling.”

Although the city has worked to help drivers and riders share roadways, two cyclists were killed in October when they were hit by trucks, and questions persist over whether enough is being done to protect cyclists.

Mr. Adams said he was preparing a budget proposal that would spend $24 million to add 110 miles to the city’s existing 20-mile network of bike boulevards, which are meant to get cyclists away from streets busy with cars. Doing so could “double or triple ridership,” he said.

The streets were not always so crowded with cyclists. Andy Newlands, by most accounts the first person in Portland to start making bikes by hand, got into the business in the 1970s. Back then, he said, young men would come to him for help piecing together racing bikes. Now, he said, “More and more it’s some guy with a wife and kids and a BMW and all that, and he wants a handmade bike.”

Thirty years ago Mr. Newlands sold frames for under $300. Now a new bike might cost the buyer well over $5,000.

“There’s so much mass-produced stuff out there that there’s just kind of a little bit of a backlash,” he said. “People like a handmade product.”

Sacha White, who was a bike messenger before he started Vanilla Bicycles, one of the most prominent bike makers in Portland, said city officials embraced not only cycling but also the niche industry that has grown out of it, something he considered striking given the size of most operations. His company, among the largest of its kind, has six employees including himself.

“I think the biggest thing that’s come from the effort the city has put into this is the vote of confidence,” Mr. White said, speaking of bike riders and bike makers. “They want us here.”

Ms. Peithman, the recent Portland arrival, had lived in Chicago until September, where she worked for the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, a nonprofit advocacy group. She decided to move here on her own without any job prospects based “90 percent on the bike thing,” she said.

“I’m a long-term-thinking, spreadsheet kind of girl,” Ms. Peithman said. “This is the most rash thing I’ve ever done.”

[tworivers]

Yeah! This plan should be a vehicle to get us to the next level and beyond. All policy critiques aside, as a person who spends a lot of time on my zero-emission, human-powered, winter-blues-killing machine: I'm excited.

http://bikeportland.org/2010/02/11/the-bike-plan-live-from-city-council/

[urbanlife]

Yeah! This plan should be a vehicle to get us to the next level and beyond. All policy critiques aside, as a person who spends a lot of time on my zero-emission, human-powered, winter-blues-killing machine: I'm excited.

http://bikeportland.org/2010/02/11/the-bike-plan-live-from-city-council/

It makes me want to construct the single speed I have been planning.

[NJD]

Trolley Trail finally is on track
By Dana Tims, The Oregonian

http://media.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty_impact/photo/up-the-pathjpg-fef187ddb525cd2b_large.jpg


Almost from the moment the last freight train rumbled along a rail line linking Oregon City with Portland in 1968, the calls began to convert the corridor into a pedestrian walkway.

This summer, 42 years later, construction will begin on the historic six-mile route fittingly dubbed the Trolley Trail.

When completed, in mid-2011, the $4.5million project will provide the last link in a 20-mile loop tying in the Springwater Corridor and Interstate 205 biking/hiking path.

"It's been a long time coming," said Thelma Haggenmiller, an Oak Lodge resident and leading voice of the advocacy group Friends of the Trolley Trail. "But I never thought for a minute that this day wouldn't arrive."

Support for a trail that now appears on every significant multiuse trail map in the metropolitan area has grown exponentially through the years. Gone are the days when Haggenmiller, seeing the topic pop up on one area agenda or another, burned the phone lines to mobilize her core boosters.

"I called them my troops," she said with a laugh, referring to the six other Trolley Trail die-hards who showed up anywhere, anytime the trail was being discussed. "We've been at this so long now that two of them have since died."

Any attrition, however, has been more than made up for by new supporters. Haggenmiller's Friends of the Trolley Trail e-mail list now numbers more than 300. Another 100 supporters don't have computers, but can rely on regular calls from Haggenmiller with updates.

In addition, key players at Metro, Clackamas County and the various citizens groups and special districts that serve the highly populated stretch between Milwaukie and Gladstone are now lined up solidly in support.

"All of us consider this a really critical linkage in metro-area transportation plans," said Carlotta Colette, whose Metro Council district includes the proposed trail. "The chance to complete something as special as this was far too important to even think about passing up."


Walking into the past

The route itself is steeped in history.

When the East Side Railway Co. began service in 1893 along the 16-mile stretch between Portland and Oregon City, it represented the nation's first interurban railway line.

In a key parallel development, the electricity that propelled the cars was generated by hydroelectric power at Willamette Falls. Overhead lines carried the rest of the electricity generated there into downtown Portland in what is regarded as the nation's first long-distance transmission of electrical energy.

Within two decades, the railway service had caught on, extending from Vancouver south to Eugene and Corvallis and from Gresham west to Forest Grove and McMinnville.

Before East Side Railway built its streetcar line, things couldn't have been more different. The area between Portland and Oregon City had few roads, none of them paved. Getting anywhere fast generally meant finding a boat and striking out on the Willamette for points up- or downriver.

Arrival of the streetcar, arguably, dictated how things developed from there. It's no coincidence, after all, that the communities of Milwaukie, Oak Grove and Jennings Lodge are all situated along what became the streetcar corridor.

Passenger service, because of the increasing post-World War II reliance on automobiles, ended in 1958. Freight service continued for just another decade.

Haggenmiller, who moved to Oak Grove in 1967, still remembers the huge piles of rail ties pulled up and stacked at the end of Southeast Concord Road in 1968 as the line was being decommissioned.

By the mid-1970s, much of the trail had become overgrown with weeds and brambles. Only two or three sections could even be walked.

"It was pretty clear that it was the end of an era," Haggenmiller said. "What a lot of people didn't know back then that it was also just the start of another."


Trail's end, and beginning

Trolley Trail advocates are quick to credit local-government support with getting the project this far. No one, however, claims much of anything has moved quickly.

It's going on a decade now, for example, since Metro purchased the right of way needed to build the trail. The money needed to buy the land had been approved six years before that, when the region's voters in 1995 approved a bond measure to buy new parks and open spaces.

Some of that delay resulted from local officials needing to turn to federal coffers for cash, said Michelle Healy, a senior planner with the North Clackamas Parks & Recreation District. Stringent federal regulations, calling for things such as archaeological and hazardous materials studies and wetlands-identification projects, added at least five years to the project's running time, she said.

Now-scrapped plans by Clackamas County to take advantage of Trolley Trail construction to run a new sewer line connecting Milwaukie's Kellogg Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant with the Tri-City Water Pollution Control Plant in Oregon City tacked on another two-year delay, she said.

The trail's master plan was completed in 2004. Project managers have spent the interim lining up four separate grants needed to help pay for construction.

Now the project is finally poised to move ahead, with a multiphase construction schedule. The idea is to avoid tearing up all of the six-mile line at once, only to have part of it remain that way if anything unexpected arises.

"By waiting until we had all the money in hand, we can still build it in one fell swoop," Healy said. "But we'll still do it in a prudent manner, one step at a time."

In the end, said Lynn Peterson, Clackamas County Commission chairwoman, the credit for moving the Trolley Trail from dreams to completion belongs to "the folks on the ground."

That is to say, Thelma Haggenmiller and her "troops."

Haggenmiller, for her part, is just happy to see the project finally take off.

"I dream about this trail," she said. "I wake up thinking about it. And long after I'm gone, it's still going to be a treasure for everyone to use."

— Dana Tims: 503-294-5918


Historic route

1891 — Oregon City and Southern Railway, a subsidiary of East Side Railway Co., purchases right of way and builds railroad from Oregon City to Portland.

1893 — Passenger service begins on what is the nation's first interurban railroad line.

1930 — After a number of mergers and takeovers, Portland General Electric is formed to assume the line's electric operations, including streetcars. Portland Traction Co. forms to operate the railways as a subsidiary of PGE.

1958 — Passenger service ends.

1962 — Portland Transit sells the interurban lines to Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads for freight operation.

1968 — Rail service is abandoned. Most rails and ties are removed.

2001 — Metro and North Clackamas Parks & Recreation District buy the right of way for a multiuse trail.

2010 — Trolley Trail construction scheduled to begin in August.

2011 -— Trail is expected to be completed by summer.

— Dana Tims, The Oregonian

[NJD]

Oh, and if anyone is interested in the Portland 2030 Bike Plan (http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=44597&a=279844)

[65MAX]

Great news, and a long time coming. I guess this eliminates the trolley ROW as an option for extending MAX to OC. Max should stay on McLoughlin into OC anyway, IMO. More opportunities for redevelopment and additional density along McLoughlin.

[bvpcvm]

I'd wager the right of way along that trail isn't wide enough to handle max anyway: I'll bet it was all single-tracked.

[65MAX]

The trolley probably was mostly single tracked, but the ROW is 40', wide enough for double tracked MAX. The main problem is having MAX run right through so many back yards. The NIMBYs would have a field day.... they would be saying, literally, not in MY back yard.

[urbanlife]

Oh, and if anyone is interested in the Portland 2030 Bike Plan (http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?c=44597&a=279844)

Thanks for that, I was about to do some hunting to find it because I wanted to read this all the way...though I usually support anything that involves improving the infrastructure of a city. :tup:

[Eco_jt]

now I just have to purchase a bike...I live in the north end of the Pearl, and when I need to goto south waterfront, I know a bicycle will get me their at least twice as fast...but I still haven't broken down and bought a bike yet...

...I was interested in those fancy electric assist bicycles...lol, but they sure are pricey.

As far as the bicycle master plan, I think it's great for Portland. Hopefully, the city can invest in some more fancy bicycle traffic lights in busy intersections like in The Netherlands =)

[urbanlife]

now I just have to purchase a bike...I live in the north end of the Pearl, and when I need to goto south waterfront, I know a bicycle will get me their at least twice as fast...but I still haven't broken down and bought a bike yet...

...I was interested in those fancy electric assist bicycles...lol, but they sure are pricey.

As far as the bicycle master plan, I think it's great for Portland. Hopefully, the city can invest in some more fancy bicycle traffic lights in busy intersections like in The Netherlands =)

If you want to buy a built bike, go to Rivercity Bikes on MLK near Morrison. They were amazing to me when I bought a bike from them a couple years ago. Very knowledgeable and didnt act like dicks whenever I asked them a question about biking and what I needed to know in a bike I was buying. Plus when I told them the amount of money I was looking to spend, they didnt scoff at me and tell me I should go to KMart for a bike (yeah, some asswad at the Bike Gallery actually said that to me because I didnt want to spend $1200 on a bike.)

[Eco_jt]

:previous:

Thanks, will check them out. How much did you end up spending? out of curiosity... just so I can get an idea. Yeah, I wouldn't be thrilled about dropping over 1k on a bike. I can't believe you've been told to go to Kmart...how rude!

[urbanlife]

:previous:

Thanks, will check them out. How much did you end up spending? out of curiosity... just so I can get an idea. Yeah, I wouldn't be thrilled about dropping over 1k on a bike. I can't believe you've been told to go to Kmart...how rude!

The bike I went in to buy was 320 and I ended up buying a bike that was 390 because I liked it more, they were more than happy of selling me the cheaper one.

Of course, now I have been doing research with what parts I want to build my own single speed bike, which I am hoping to get started on this spring...that will be an exciting little project for me to do.

[Eco_jt]

sweet, well I might go check them out then for sure, ...later this weekend =P

[zilfondel]

I bought my Gary Fisher Wingra from River City 2 years ago for about $450. I think they went up in price, but you can get a decent commuting bike for under $500 at River City.

[JordanL]

You can get an electric assist bike with a 20 mile range for as little as $500.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Currie+Technologies+-+E-Zip+Trailz+Men's+Electric+Bike/9301463.p?id=1218080799495&skuId=9301463

[MarkDaMan]

http://media.oregonlive.com/commuting/photo/bikemuralpdxjpg-89e48e0294e08f23.jpg

Downtown Portland's new 'Bicycle Capital' mural: Will it become as famous as 'Keep Portland Weird'?
Published: Monday, July 30, 2012, 4:36 PM Updated: Monday, July 30, 2012, 4:47 PM
By Joseph Rose, The Oregonian

http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2012/07/downtown_portlands_new_bicycle.html

Visitors from around the world seek out Portland's "Keep Portland Weird" murals. So why not blast the city's love affair with bicycle from the aging bricks of a downtown building?

Todd Roll, owner of Pedal Bike Tours, said the iconic black-and-yellow "Weird" murals inspired him to pay to have "Welcome to America's Bicycle Capital" painted on the side of a downtown building.

That and the fact Portland is the nation's Big Daddy of two-wheeled commuting.

"We've been here looking at a four-story blank wall," Roll said of the building that houses his bicycle tour business at 133 S.W. Second Ave, about a block from one of the city's two "Keep Portland Weird" murals. "We went with (Pedal Bike Tours') tag line."

Featuring chunky white letters and a cool minimalistic bicycle symbol, the billboard is an eye catcher. Ironically, it also towers over one downtown's busy parking lots.

Roll declined to disclose how much he paid for the mural, but said it would stay up for as long as the building's owner allowed it.

"It's intended to be a piece of civic pride," Roll said.

This year, Portland reclaimed Bicycling magazine's coveted Bike City U.S.A. crown from Minneapolis. So what happens if the Rose City drops in future rankings?

Doesn't matter, Roll said. The mural's up. The paint's dry. "It's one of the things that Portland is famous for," he said. "Chicago is known as the city of broad shoulders. No one's going to take that away from them. No one's going to take this away from Portland."

[PacificNW]

On the subject of bicycles...I thought some of you might enjoy some history:

http://vimeo.com/39401575

[NewUrbanist]

"It's one of the things that Portland is famous for," he said. "Chicago is known as the city of broad shoulders. No one's going to take that away from them. No one's going to take this away from Portland."

Hilarious! I almost dropped my cheese and crackers.

[audiomuse]

Any updates on bicycle infrastructure in the Portland area? I've read that the bike mode share is around 7% now. That's amazing

[audiomuse]

Check out these bicycle traffic pics on NW Broadway this morning! It's amazing to see so many people commuting by bicycle!

http://bikeportland.org/2013/05/06/bike-traffic-on-nw-broadway-shows-need-for-re-design-86376