Platinum: A Nine-Part Initiative For America’s #1 Bicycling City

This puts Portland on the bike path to be the best city in the country. Cycling to work is the best medicine for many of our ills. It improves our health and enviroment. Reduces foreign oil dependence and traffic congestion. Saves our roads and bridges from wear and tear. Best of all, cycling is so inexpensive.
Congratulations to Portland for winning Best Overall in Bicycling Magazine's (03/06) Best Cycling Cities issue. Keep pedalling.

I commute by bicycle every day, and thank my lucky stars that I live in Portland and have that option. Most people are not so fortunate. It looks like the improvements I would suggest (web-based bike route finder, better connections, more bike lanes) are already being planned. My only ongoing concern is bike safety education. Our couple of sunny days last week brought out a lot of bicyclers who don't normally bike; I saw lots of people dressed in black on black bikes with no lights or reflectors blasting through red lights and stop signs, or going the wrong way up busy streets. I guess there is always Darwinian selection to reduce that population, but probably obeying traffic laws and wearing bright colors would be less messy.

OUESTION: What do the OHSU Tram and bicycle infrastructure have in common?
ANSWER: The costs keep rising. Both have platinum price tags. The tram cost is currently at 55 million plus. As for bicycle infrastructure; the costs are far more than a miniscule amount of any budget. Here are but a few examples: $165,000.00 (15 percent of eleven million) for exclusive bike lanes on Naito Parkway that will take up approximately 15 percent of the street surface, 3.6 million dollars for the proposal to convert NW Flanders into a bicycle boulevard and 1.5 Million for Morrison Bridge bike lanes. Other examples include millions of transportation dollars spent for the East Bank Esplanade transportation corridor and Steel Bridge connection (shared with pedestrians), to widen the sidewalks on the Hawthorne Bridge to accommodate bicycles that wiz by pedestrians at a high rate of speed, for the Portland International Airport area bicycle infrastructure, connections and paths, for the NE Tillamook Street make over into a bicycle boulevard, and to clean bike lanes including those on the Hawthorne Bridge approaches so bicyclists don

Terry,

I hope you are well. It was good to talk with you at the city budget forum at David Douglas School the other night. Thanks for your passionate email.

If you read the recent congestion report, you know this region is headed towards transportation gridlock caused by congestion. Meanwhile, construction costs are going up through the roof while transportation funding is flat or declining.

With an avalanche of new money for transportation unlikely, our key focus is to be smart and creative in getting the most capacity out the $6.5 billion local transportation system that we already have.

Eliminating non-repeating delays is one cost effective way to speed up traffic. For example, up to 50 percent of congestion is due to non-repeating delays, like vehicle crashes.

A high percent of vehicle crashes are due to driver distraction. Hand held cellphones are a preventable driver distraction. Other cities have banned hand-held cellphones. I have to go to the state legislature to ban them in Portland. I will.

Another way to get the most out of our $6.5 billion local transportation investment is to prioritize the swift movement of certain kind of trips over others.

Portland is the third most dependent city on trade in the US. So, for example, a high priority for me is to ensure the swift movement of freight throughout the region.

People who drive alone to get from one point to another when they have another viable travel options are my lowest priority for speed of travel.

Not everybody can realistically use transit or a bike, so I am not talking about them. But for those that do, the swift movement of freight is more important to me than moving someone driving alone who has other travel options.

That

Where's the website for reporting crashes? I was hit last week (driver made an unsafe left turn -- totally his fault, agreed his insurance company) and the police still haven't returned my calls. How do I get this statistic recorded?

As a year-round bicycle commuter since 1993, I've seen how well-planned, effective, and fiscally responsible PDOT's bike improvements have been. I'm glad to see my hard-earned tax money go to something so worthwhile.

I can not get out of this town quick enough. We have child.. need i say more

Terry, $165,000 out of $11 million is actually equal to 1.5%. Also, $165,000 is approximately $60,000 LESS than the median house price in Portland - a steal for bike lanes that, once built, will allow Portlanders to commute on.

Note - bicycle commuters do not pollute. No air, water, or noise pollution. They take up far less space on the roads. They do not impinge upon freight movement. They do not scare pedestrians away and kill them when they run them over. They take up hardly any space when parking. They DO NOT wear down the road like automobiles and heavy trucks do - you could essentialy pave a bike lane, and come back maybe 100 years later to repave it; whereas you have to repave a street with cars every 10-15 years.

Bikes are a great investment - and requires hardly any upkeep.

Also, bicyclists are going to live a lot longer than you are. Please play nice and pay your taxes. Thank you.