“Convening a nearly 25 member stakeholder group with people from the bicycling community, PDOT's safety engineering team, freight haulers, Portland Police Bureau, Multnomah County, bicycle lawyers, and others, who have tackled the bike safety issue from multiple angles.”

Once again another city transport advisory committee appears to be a stacked deck (probably the same usual subjects who serve on the majority of them) weighted this time to rubber stamp bike boxes. Missing from the list is quantitative representation from the primary financial stakeholders of the road, motorists in general and commuter motorists who pay the gas taxes that fund the roads. Without them this committee simply lacks credibility.

Also, obviously missing from any of the safety proposals is increased enforcement to require bicyclists to comply with ALL traffic laws. Just yesterday on an Eastside arterial observed was a bicyclist who cut away from a bike lane without signaling making a left turn directly in front of moving car and then blew through the stop sign at the end of the block on the cross street. Later observed was a another bicyclist stopped at a red traffic signal doing the usual I can’t wait pedal dance (not placing one foot on the pavement) in the auto travel lane. Immediately after a car went by on the cross street, the bicyclists blew through the red traffic signal making a left turn while other motorists waited for the signal to change to green. Both of these incidents were intentionally performed. Sam wants to increase police patrols on area freeways but continues to turn a blind eye towards bicyclists who willfully and routinely abuse the law.

Furthermore, the proposed bike boxes will have no effect at intersections (like Interstate and Greeley) when bicyclists moving toward the intersection are traveling too fast for the conditions or down the hill and unable to stop for slow moving vehicles making a turning movement such as a garbage truck. As proposed, bike boxes where bicyclists are allowed to cut off drivers will only add to the friction and set up more civil war type conflicts between motorists and bicyclists. Bike boxes also give bicyclists a false sense of security while at the same time inflating their arrogant egos in that they think they own the road and can do no wrong, including jumping through traffic signals on red lights, blowing through stop signs and ignoring all other traffic control devices. Additionally, this is NOT Europe. Bike boxes will only confuse out of tow drivers making them even more dangerous. Bike boxes are the WRONG way to go.