Portland used to be America's self-styled "Bicycle Capital." Then city code enforcers killed the enormous downtown mural proclaiming as much.

We used to be a reliable pick for "Bike City USA," as ordained by the lycra-clad editors of Bicycling magazine. Then we plummeted, losing out to New York. And Chicago. And Minneapolis.

Now, there's a new threat to Portland's cycling smugness, and it's not coming from bureaucrats or East Coast editors. It's coming from inside the house.

Moved by what he says is a lack of inspired projects and continually unsafe streets, Portland cycling advocate Will Vanlue is asking the League of American Bicyclists to rescind a coveted "platinum" rating it bestowed on the Rose City in 2008.

The designation may be the most substantial validation Portland's ever received—signaling the city's gone above and beyond its peers in terms of bicycle inclusion. To date, we're the only major city to have secured a platinum rating.

But Vanlue—a former staffer at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance—says it's fraudulent. In a change.org petition he launched earlier today, he makes a case that the League should downgrade Portland, and he uses the organization's own criteria to make the case we're no paragon. The petition was first reported by bikeportland.org.

Among Vanlue's arguments:

•"City officials frequently adapt street designs to fit pro-motor vehicle, anti-bike opinions."

•"Tourism campaigns often over-sell the promise of a safe, comfortable experience, setting up visitors for a shock when they try to travel by bicycle in Portland."

•Portland, after years of delay, still doesn't have a bike share system.

•"Portland Police Bureau officers, as a matter of policy, do not report or cite people in motor vehicle crashes that result in minor injuries."

The platinum rating has been a point of contention among cyclists in recent years. There's a notion that Portland's formerly staggering success in luring residents to their bikes has stalled out, and that maybe it's because everyone's been made complacent by all the outside approval.

Vanlue tells the Mercury his petition—it's got 151 "signatures" as I write this—is more about having an honest discussion about where we stand.

"We cant be going around saying look at this great job we’re doing," he says. "We need to talk about what's working in Portland, what's not, and where we need to be."

Portland crushes other big cities in one important category: An estimated 6 percent of residents commute by bike. But it's proven impossible, so far, to move past that number, and the city's stated goal is to get 25 percent of commuters biking by 2030.

At the same time, Portland's watching other cities build ambitious bike-centered infrastructure while less lofty projects here cause intractable fights over parking spaces.

Vanlue's especially critical—along with many others—of one of Portland's latest high-profile bike lane projects: the North Williams Traffic Safety Project. A left-side bike lane installed as part of a facelift on N Williams eliminates conflict with TriMet buses, but throws bikes and cars together in the same lane on a busy commercial stretch.

"There are a million and one ways you could have done that project differently," Vanlue says.

There's no telling, of course, whether this petition will hold any actual sway. Vanlue says he's e-mailed back and forth with the League of American Bicyclists about it.

And by the way, it's added 22 signatures in the last 15 minutes.