Maintenance staff from the McMenamins company allegedly cut the Tracey Sparling ghost bike from outside the Crystal Ballroom early this morning: SPARLING BIKE: Photo courtesy of Crystal Ballroom box office staffer Tony Cameron… Maintenance staffers from McMenamins first started talking about clipping the bike two weeks ago, says Crystal box office staffer Tony Cameron. “I […]
Bikes
Posted inBikes
Idaho Stop Sign Law Gets House Hearing
Bikeportland Editor Jonathan Maus has been live blogging the Salem hearing on the planned Idaho Stop Sign law today if you’re interested in all the nail-biting details. Bottom line: There’s been no vote, but the committee chair says there are “conflicting messages” about whether or not the law is a good idea, according to Maus. […]
Posted inBikes
Alice Awards: Hot Bikes, Hot Glue.
Saturday night under the glaring lights of the Oregon Convention Center, Sprockettes rubbed shoulders with city bureaucrats at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s annual dressy Alice B. Toeclips Awards fundraiser. During the night, TriMet announced it would spend $1 million from the stimulus on bike parking and the BTA handed out awards to several bike advocates, […]
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Sam Promises to Save Bike Budget
City Club sold out today for Mayor Sam Adam’s State of the City speech. The crowd was a lot of city planners and gray haired types (actual fur coat spotted in the audience) and Matt will post later about how the speech went. But I wanted to get up real quickly one of the questions […]
Posted inBikes
Bike Budget on the Chopping Block
It’s red alert over at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance blog, where staffers just found out this week what the global economic meltdown means for Portland’s bike budget – a 40 percent cut to one of the city’s most visible programs, Safe Routes to Schools. Last year the budget for Safe Routes, which hires “bike ambassadors” […]
Posted inMedia
Bicyclists Hope “News Cycle” Buries Stop Sign Controversy
“We were hoping to do some advance media on this in December,” says Karl Rohde, public affairs director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, “but we kept getting buried in the news cycle, whether it was by snow storms, scandals, or budget cuts. Nobody in the media cares about us right now.” Or perhaps that’s what […]
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Animals Riding Stuff Tuesday!
So you’ve seen a monkey riding a bicycle, and a monkey riding a dog, but have you ever seen a dog riding a bicycle? Look how this dalmatian mounts his ride with ease and pride. My only concern is that it he isn’t wearing a helmet. BTW, based on my limited Japanese language skills, I […]
Posted inBikes
The Masked Biker Speaks!
Or at least, someone claiming to be the masked biker, speaks! This is a rumor that’s been doing the rounds for the last couple of weeks, that a masked bicyclist is riding around town, offering to repair flats and generally help out with bike problems, for free. Now, someone claiming to be the biker has […]
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Jury’s Out on Rev. Phil Taser Case
Originally posted 12:10PM, moved up to now with the verdict! One night last June, Portland bike activist Phil Sano was stopped by police for not having a bike light and wound up on the ground, tasered five times and cited for resisting arrest. Today, the jury heard the closing statements in the case against him. […]
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Portable Bike Lanes—Now with LASERS!
Sure, Portland has a shit-ton of bike lanes. BUT THEY’RE NOT EVERYWHERE. Now Altitude Inc. has developed Light Lane— a system which projects a virtual bike lane around your cycle to fool drivers into not running over your ass. LASERS! BIKES! Oh, the myriad of evil applications. Check out more here! Hat tips to BuzzFeed!
Posted inBikes
Hey. What’s The Idaho Stop Law?
Hey. Good question. Karl over at the BTA blog has posted 17 of the most frequently asked questions about it over there this morning: This law would make it legal for bicyclists to treat stop signs like yield signs. A cyclist approaching an intersection controlled by a stop sign, would be permitted to roll through […]
Posted inBikes
PDOT Makes Janky, Pastel-Colored Graphs
A few months ago, I rode through an intersection near the Franz Bread Factory and noticed a man off to the side, staring at me and scribbling something in a notebook. I stopped and asked him, “What are you doing?” “Watching you,” he replied, revealing his Portland Department of Transportation credentials. For months, PDOT staff, […]