Oh man, today is your lucky day to be reading Blogtown. We’ve got four pairs of tickets to Urban Assault Ride, the huge, crazy bike scavenger hunt New Belgium hosts every year in Portland. It’s a giant alley cat ride, where you complete obstacle courses and get clues and get drunk and win bikes. This […]
Bikes
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Bike To Work Breakfast Tomorrow
Free donuts on my commute? Oh, well, yes please… Tuesday, May 12, 7:30 to 9:00 am – Pioneer Courthouse Square The City of Portland Transportation Options Division is hosting our annual Bike to Work Breakfast for cyclists on Tuesday, May 12, in celebration of National Bike to Work Week and Bike Month. The event will […]
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Campaign for Fatter Cyclists
$60,000,000 could build one mile of urban freeway in Portland. Or, it could build the country’s best bikeway network, with over 300 miles of bike lanes and super safe bike boulevards. That’s what I learned this week at the open house for the city’s 2009 Bike and Streetcar Plans, which is getting public comment on […]
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Statewide Bike Funding: Possibly Doomed.
There’s been a big hubub this week over who or what killed the Idaho Stop Law, I wanted to add in two cents about some bike policy that’s maybe more important to the state and maybe also doomed. I blogged yesterday about the Bicycle Transportation Alliance-backed bill to increase state funding for bike/ped infrastructure (bike […]
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Screw Your Bianci, I Ride a Bike Made of Money!
At the Oregon Bike Summit in Salem today, I’m hearing all about the positive impact bicycles have on the state economy. The cash dollar angle of bicycle infrastructure should provide incentive for non-cyclists perhaps even legislators who cyclists have called dumber than a block of wood to support funding bike lanes and programs during this […]
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Republicans With Shaved Legs & More Salem Sights
I was up before sunrise today to trek down Salem for the biggest bicycle law lobby day of the year, the Oregon Bike Summit. First lesson learned: there is nothing more hilarious than politicians wearing Spandex. Senator Atkinson (R-Grants Pass) wore his special star-spangled socks to give the opening morning pep talk to the more […]
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Idaho Stop Sign Law Dead: No “Special Rights.”
The proposed Idaho Stop Sign law has died a death in Salem, having failed to win adequate support from legislators in the House of Representatives. The proposed law, which would allow bicyclists to treat stop signs like yield signs, got a contentious hearing in the house transportation committee back in March and went back for […]
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Win Tickets to Filmed by Bike!
The always-popular Filmed by Bike fest starts tomorrow, promising all kinds of drunken bike movie revelry. One event that’s sure to sell out will be tomorrow night’s opening night party—in which two blocks of SE Clinton will be shut down for beer-garden-fueled revelry, with bike-centric flicks screening inside the Clinton Street Theater. The one guaranteed […]
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City Moves to Regulate Pedicabs
Unlike taxis, limos and towncars, Portland’s pedicabs are completely unregulated by the city. But today the board of Portland’s Private For-Hire Transportation Board voted to approve regulations that will bring pedicab training and licensing under city control for the first time. The board was not originally planning to regulate pedicabs when it embarked on the […]
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BTA Fires Key Bicycle Lobbyist
People working on bicycle policy issues in Salem received a shock on Friday when they tried to call or email Karl Rohde, the well-known lobbyist for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. That afternoon, Rohde’s email auto-reply informed all interested parties that Rohde no longer works for the BTA. Rohde’s firing from the BTA is surprising not […]
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Another Great Reason to Drive a Car!
Conveniently timed to follow up on Oregon’s knuckle-headed debate over whether the state should tax bikes, the IRS announced today that anyone who buys a car this year will receive a tax break of up to $49,500! Because acres of free parking, thousands of miles of highway and a $15 billion bailout apparently weren’t helping […]
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McMenamins Reinstalls Sparling Ghost Bike
McMenamins has replaced the Tracey Sparling ghost bike outside the Crystal Ballroom, according to Crystal box office staffer Tony Cameron—who called the Mercury yesterday to blow the whistle on the absence of the bike. SPARLING GHOST BIKE: REPLACED THIS MORNING… “I think they put it back up after the Mercury put up its story,” says […]