CommissionerSam.com

Burn Fat, Not Oil: Making Portland the "Mostest" Bike-friendly City in North America

"Whether or not you ever ride a bike, each Portlander should support our efforts to get more people on bikes," said Sam. "It cuts down on car congestion, it reduces pollution, and it makes bike riders healthy."

<> Bicycling Magazine, after 10 years of naming Portland the best bicycling city in the USA, finally came up with a new category in 2006 just for Portland - Best Overall City for Bicycling - to give others a chance at number one in their own population categories. Why? It is our innovative programs, from designated bike-only areas at traffic signals, hundreds of miles of safe and convenient bikeways, Pedalpalooza (a month long bicycle festival), to free bike lights given out by Portland's Traffic Police Division, that make riding in Portland practical even for new cyclists. The Eastbank Esplanade and Springwater Corridor got a shout out getting cyclists from the heart of downtown to farm country by bicycle. Providence Bridge Pedal - where two-wheeler take over 10 city bridges and close down part of the interstate freeway system is second in size only to New York City. It comes down to momentum: pedal around Portland and your can see it for yourself.

Bridge Counts are way up!Portland's bikeway network - bike lanes, low-traffic bike boulevards, and off-street paths - grew 232% since 1991. During that same period, the number of bicycle riders daily crossing the four main bicycle bridges in Portland increased 322%. This increase was especially noticeable on the Broadway, Hawthorne, and Steel Bridges, where combined daily ridership went from 2,115 in 1991 to 10,786 in 2006. Until 2004, increases in riders mirrored infrastructure investments in bikeways. The Burnside Bridge is the only bicycle bridge without an increase in ridership - and it is the only bridge that has had minimal infrastructure improvements for cyclists. Since 2005, Portland Transportation and the energized bicycling community have focused on encouragement and educational efforts such as new bikeway signage, Safe Routes to School programs, and the SmartTrips individualized marketing approach reducing car trips and increasing bicycling. This has led to skyrocketing increases in ridership - 15% and 18% increases in 2005 and 2006 respectively.