We’re not big on traffic updates here on Blogtown, but the Steel Bridge will be closed at night for the next two weekends, which will cause headaches—particularly, TriMet notes, to Monday morning commuters who ride a bus or train across the river. TriMet’s going to have shuttles in place for Max riders, but it’ll be […]
Bikes
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Dress Like Your Bike
You might remember Caitlin McCall’s Quick Study line of bike clothing that doesn’t look like bike clothing, featured in our last Bike Issue, as well as her Dress to Ride project, in which she and photographer Shola Lawson profile interesting Portland women who use a bike as their primary form of transportation. And now, just […]
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How Can Alta Operate Without Bixi? By Partnering With the Bankrupt Company’s Arch Enemy
In this week’s paper, we questioned how Alta Bicycle Share could be so sanguine about rolling out programs in Portland, Seattle and elsewhere after its main supplier, Montreal-based Public Bike System Company (also called Bixi), filed for bankruptcy. The company just offered up its answer in a press release. Alta has announced it’s teaming up […]
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PBOT Director’s Former Boss Now Advising the City’s Bike Share Contractor
PBOT Leah Treat The former boss of Portland Bureau of Transportation Director Leah Treat is now acting as an adviser to Alta Bicycle Share, which is laboring to satisfy a contract with PBOT. Gabe Klein, who oversaw Treat’s work at transportation departments in Washington, DC, and Chicago, recently stepped down as transportation commissioner in the […]
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The Company That’s Supposed to Sell Us Bike-Share Bikes? Bankrupt.
As Portland works feverishly to launch a 750-unit bike share system this year, there’s a bit of worrisome news. The Canadian company we’ve been planning to source those bikes from filed for bankruptcy yesterday. From the New York Times: OTTAWA — The Canadian company that designs and builds the bicycles and supporting technology for bike-sharing […]
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Bike Share “Could Take Some Time” And Might Need Public Loan, Leah Treat Says, But It’s Worth It
PBOT PBOT Director Leah Treat Leah Treat, Portland’s transportation director, is concerned something’s been lost lately in discussion of a bike share system here. With yet another delay seeming more likely every day, and sponsorship negotiations going hot and heavy behind the scenes, Portland Bureau of Transportation staff say the benefits of our incoming bike […]
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Targeted Bike Share Sponsor is Already Developing Branding
The city hasn’t announced a sponsor for Portland’s forthcoming bike share system, but it’s close enough to an agreement with one big-money sponsor that branding is being hammered out. Earlier this month, transportation Commissioner Steve Novick told the Mercury “significant commitments” were on the table for bike share—which has struggled all year to secure millions […]
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Novick: City Has “Significant Commitments” for Bike Share
Portland’s tardy, apparently cash-strapped bike share system has “some pretty significant commitments” from potential sponsors, transportation Commissioner Steve Novick tells the Mercury, in what may be the strongest statement on the state of the project to date. “On the money side, I feel much better about it than I did three months ago,” Novick said. […]
Posted inBikes
Dress to Ride
When I was first introduced to Caitlin McCall’s road-tested collection of bicycle clothing that doesn’t look like bicycle clothing, Quick Study, I was so impressed that I devoted an entire page to it in the last Mercury Bike Issue. Now, she’s working on a project called “Dress to Ride,” documenting the bike style of Portland […]
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Wanna Increase Cycling? Mere Bike Lanes Are No Longer Enough
Matthew Billington When the City Club of Portland released a report on bicycling in late May, much of the coverage—ours included— centered around some of the more sensational findings. For instance, the report’s suggestion than an excise tax be levied on new bike purchases. I actually found most of the report sort of predictable at […]
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Mercury Now Delivering Downtown Papers… by Bike!
If you’ve been downtown or in Northwest on Wednesday mornings, you’ve probably already noticed that the Mercury has started a new system of newspaper distribution… by bike! We’ve teamed up with the fine folks over at Cargo Bike Couriers to get rid of the vans we used to use, and deliver 10,000 papers each week […]
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Fixed-Gear Catharsis
Sometimes I think we all want to talk about fixed-gear bicycles here on Blogtown, but we’re too ashamed or afraid to admit it. Well I’m breaking the silence. Here’s a sentimental video about a scrappy group of guys with the baffling willingness gumption to pilot their fixies from Portland to San Francisco. Four dudes, 800 […]