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Ballots for the November election don’t mail until this weekend and our endorsements don’t come out for another week, but the Bicycle Transportation Alliance has pulled together a handy survey of political candidates’ stance on bike/ped issues.

The whole questionnaire and responses from candidates in all state races is online here. Some highlights:

John Kitzhaber comes out with a pretty bold promise—he’ll support using some of the highway transportation fund for non-highway projects, like supporting public transit or pedestrian infrastructure.

Chris Dudley, in standard form, declined to respond.

Metro President candidate Bob Stacey waxes on about the importance of promoting non-car transportation for Oregonians who cannot drive and promoting development that makes walking and biking safe.

His opponent, Tom Hughes, did not respond.

All of the Democrat house reps for Portland are pro-bike, but Ben Cannon pitched this interesting idea on the questionnaire:

I will introduce a bill this session that would aid in both formal and informal car sharing for those times that bike and transit-commuters need access to cars. These changes would also allow car owners who choose to bike commute to rent out their cars to neighbors and others, mitigating insurance and maintenance costs.

Sort of like Couchsurfing meets Zipcar?

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

6 replies on “Which Election Candidates Suppport Bikes?”

  2. “All of the Democrat house reps”

    Democratic.

    It’s the “Democratic Party”, not “Democrat Party”. When referring to a single person in the party, it’s “A Democrat”, otherwise it’s “Democrats” or in this case “All of the Democratic house reps”.

    I bring this up only because the right-wing over the past decade or so has been pushing the incorrect use of the Democratic party name in an effort to annoy people, telegraph disgust/disrespect, etc. This childish behavior is especially common with the teabagger set and their enablers.

    We wouldn’t want the Mercury to accidentally perpetuate a linguistic meme best retired in the third grade.

  3. (And yes, I’m aware of the name change from “teabagger” to “tea party” and its similar controversies about what those adherents want to be called by others. I used the original form here to prove a point.)

    Back to bikes!

  4. Bob Stacey gets it: you can’t divorce our urban form from how we choose to get around. The two go hand-in-hand.

    Bob Stacey has dedicated most of his life to creating great communities, and when I worked with him, almost always commuted via bike, walking, or transit.

    Hughes, on the other hand, is backed by developers who want to blow out the urban growth boundary and expand onto farmland (and has been doing some lobbying for them).

    Suppose that’s why Stacey earned the endorsements of the Sierra Club, OLCV, and folks like Clackamas County Chair Lynn Peterson, Kitzhaber, Roberts, and Blumenauer.

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