- Esther Harlow
- First ever bike breakfast on the Morrison Bridge
After 12 years of process and a last, disappointing two week delay, the Morrison Bridge bike/ped path is FINALLY opening. For real, guys. And nothing like a 51 degree day with chance of thunderstorms to celebrate a path that should make biking to work safer and more comfortable.
Today at 12:30 pm, bigiwgs like County Commissioners Jeff Cogen and Deboroah Kafoury are cutting the ribbon on the just-completed path separated from car traffic on the south side of the bridge. But last Friday, Shift 2 Bikes christened the path in its own way, hosting the first ever breakfast on the Morrison bridge, handing out donuts and coffee to bike commuters.
I’ve snuck over the bridge on my bike a couple times this month, partly out of spite over the delayed official opening and partly just to check it out. My thoughts: it’s great to be separated from cars, I feel super safe from traffic, but it’s a pretty small path, really. The 15-foot-wide path is supposed to fit two way bike traffic and two way pedestrian traffic. That’s going to be pretty tight. Especially if we’re also making room for delicious donuts and coffee.
Has anyone else ridden the path yet or walked across the bridge? Joys? Concerns?
I drink your bridge. I drink it up!
Look everyone, BIKES!!1!
I’ll take it home after work to check it out. Honestly though, nothing beats the Steel Bridge.
What ever happened to the idea of a pedestrian/bike bridge over 1-405 between Nob Hill and the Pearl? Budget problems?
it came down to money– it was gonna be really costly to move the bridge, strip the lead paint (as required by EPA) and such.
http://bikeportland.org/2008/05/06/adams-w…
I’m happy about this because it’ll be another alternative to wave in the face of whiny twats who complain about the Hawthorne Bridge bike lanes being “overcrowded.”
Some of the bikeportland commenters expect a utopian bubble where everyone’s nice all the time and doles out congratulatory handjobs for every timid, greenwashed piece of fluff they participate in. It’s as if they do all their grocery shopping at New Seasons.
@Chunty: I really do expect congratulatory handjobs. They’re wonderful.
It’s nice to have, but man, Water Ave really needs to be repaved.
Any longtime pedestrian-user of the Morrison can tell you that the “modern” standards of structural engineering to which it was built permit much larger deflections than do the “ancient” standards of the Broadway, Steel, Burnside, Hawthorne.
We get bounced around a lot when a heavy vehicle, exiting I5 at speed, hits the movable section in the middle. Remember! a cell-phoning lady drove over the barrier into the river there several years ago. My friend Gabe was killed there riding his motorbike between late night jobs.
I intend to check it out once. Then I’ll avoid it like the plague! I do not intend to be the third recipient of THE CURSE OF THE MORRISON!
Sarah: merely “Shift”… the website address shift2bikes.org (as well as shifttobikes.org) was registered only because shift.org was already taken (and still being sat on by a scumbucket domain squatter).
I know, it’s a teeny quibble.
Thanks Brian. I called it “Shift 2 Bikes” because I wasn’t sure if people know what Shift is and wanted to make clear it’s a bike group.
Do most people know what Shift is? Besides people who are in Shift, I mean?
Thanks for the link, Chunty. Tell Graham to give you a congratulatory handjob. 🙂
I remember when they decided not to re-use the Sauvie bridge, but had the impression there were other options on the table. Like “build a brand new one” or something. Wishful thinking, I guess.
Smirk – I didn’t know what Shift is, if you’re taking a poll.
Chunty FTW! Also, I don’t know what Shift is.