Sam Seeks Platinum

Tom,
Great to run into you and Sam at the recent Kids Pedal event. There's no doubt we live in America's most bike-crazy town. The diversity and energy in our bike community is truly inspiring and I look forward to helping with the Platinum effort any way I can.

Let me know if you'd like to meet up for a ride sometime.

--Jonathan Maus

I should mention that Boulder, CO is determined to beat us to the first Platinum city. They have something like 14% of all trips made by bicycle already, while Portland (depending on how/when/where you count) has something around 5%. That's going to be our biggest challenge, and one that will bring with it greater rewards than Platinum desgination if--or rather, when--we succeed: getting more people on bikes, more of the time.

Readers, I challenge you: what trips do you make now by car that you could make by bike? How about making that change for just one trip in the coming week? Could you keep doing it? If everyone in Portland committed to even just one trip by bike instead of car per week, we'd really get somewhere.

So did Andy or the League of American Bicyclists ever get back to you on what it takes to be a Platinum level city?

anyone building a list of people who want to help w the platinum project? sign me up.

After talking with Greg Raisman at the Office of Transportation about how expensive and difficult infrastructure changes are...it seems to me that getting more people on bikes is the easy part.

Budgets, politics, civil engineering..that sounds like the hard part to me.

Sam & Tom-

Good to see you both at the recent Bike Gallery event. In pursuing platinum for PDX, here's a high-visibility, high-impact infrastructure idea: www.biketree.com.

Putting BikeTrees at some of Portland's MAX stations (and maybe along the Downtown Mall?) would:

- increase the "capture area" of suburban MAX stations by giving cyclists (e.g. people who live w/in a mile or two of every line) a dry & secure place to store their bikes on a Biketree(s) at every MAX platform.

- Keep more bikes off of the MAX, where riders often gripe about "greasy bike chains," especially during rush hour.

- reduce the amount of MAX platform space dedicated to bike lockers. (Biketrees have a tiny footprint, but store up to 12 bikes each)

- make it easier for MAX/cyclists to commute to/from the suburbs by combining the MAX with a bike ride -- either at the beginning or at the end of their commute..

- add a piece of high-profile visual infrastrucure highlighting Portland's commitment to bicycles/bicycling.

- help extend the "bike culture" out to the suburbs.

This seems like a natural for the next round of MTIP... What do you think?

steve - these things are CRAZY thanks for turning me onto the idea. do you have any experience w them?

folks should check out the movie about bike trees here http://www.biketree.com/aboutbt.htm

Here's an editorial from the June 21st Corvallis Gazette Times. Looks like an interstate rivalry is brewing...

http://doiop.com/platinumeditorial

Steve, I see that part of the Bike Tree concept is bike sharing. This would seem like a critical component to reduce bikes on MAX. Is FlexCar going to provide this service?

Personally, I'd rather find a way to put more bikes on the OUTSIDE of vehicles (in addition to bike sharing). My commute trip involves biking to the Pearl to get on the 96, then biking from the end of the line to my office in Wilsonville. Most days both bike racks on the bus fill up at the point of origin for the bus!

Commissioner;
There are numerous ways in which to encourage cycling in Portland. One is safe connections. I would be interested in a forum on improving access across Powell Blvd. Another inexpensive connection project is the proposed bikeway along Sullivan's Gulch (I-84) http://www.pdx.edu/profiles/4746/
Finally Alta planning has been successful at shared lane markings when bike lanes aren't feasible.

http://www.bicycle.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/dpt/bike/Bike_Plan/Shared%20Lane%20Marking%20Full%20Report-052404.pdf

Hundreds of good ideas exist. We need only implement them.

I recently noticed an amazing infrastructure development on NE Mississippi that I sure hope will continued elsewhere. Adjacent to a popular coffee shop, one full parking space has been converted into a sizable bike parking area. I am not sure exactly what the capacity is, but when you see ten bikes locked in a space normally occupied by a single car (usually single occupancy), it really reinforces the fact that bicycles DO play an important part in easing congestion. Rewarding them with secure off-sidewalk parking seems like a pretty fair exchange (for starters).

Ethan, I'm glad you like that bike parking project on N Mississippi. It came out of the hard work of neighborhood advocates and business owners, visionary city employees, and BTA staff. Best of all, it was very inexpensive, and so successful other businesses in that district want one.

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, it's a car parking space converted into a high-capacity bike parking area.

I see on-street bike parking like this as a real complement to some of our best neighborhood business districts that still, unfortunately, suffer from woefully inadequate pedestrian and bike facilities. For example, the crowded sidewalks on SE Belmont and SE Hawthorne are always full of bikes blocking the sidewalk--not that it's our fault, because where else are we supposed to park?

It would be a great way to enhance the bike- and pedestrian-friendliness of the district to help get bikes off the sidewalk while still welcoming bicyclists to the district by providing good, dedicated parking.

Since the number of cars that can park in districts like that is limited, helping more people walk and bike to businesses supports local merchants as well as helping people lead active lifestyles and choose environmentally-friendly modes.

My dream is to have bike parking areas like this all over the city. I imagine one outside of the Laurelhurst theater, another outside of the Bagdad theater, one on Alberta, several downtown (not to appear movie-obsessed, but how about outside of Fox Tower?), Sellwood...the possibilities are endless, and at about $5000 a pop (cheap for a transportation investment) they're very doable.

From the comments above one would think no one drives a car in Portland. As one of the posts above notes, only 5% of trips are by bike (and I'm not sure that's not optimistic.)Is Sam going to work equally for those of us who drive cars? That would be the other 95% of us.

Don,

Working for bikes is working for cars. Platinum designation for our city is not so much about expanded infrastructure as it is about increasing the number of trips made by bike. Increasing this number frees up road capacity, easing the burdens that increased car and freight trips (from increased population) mean for our region.

Not to mention, the entire region is facing deterioriating roads, need for greater capacity for freight and others and, of course, very limited funds to build/rebuild. Building more roads are then costlier and tougher than expanding options for travel. So, until we get a higher gas tax--our states large source for transportation funds--or Portland gets a higher share of its gas tax from the state (I think we get about $0.64 on the dollar) or greater federal funds for transportation make it here, we are looking at some tough choices ahead.

Getting folks to think about biking more is a cheap way of stemming this issue--and decreasing emissions--but it certainly isn't going to solve it. Sam managed to free up $1 million for decreasing the backlog on our unimproved streets, but I am quickly learning that this is a small dent in a very large backlog.