The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has announced another shift in their approach to transportation planning and it couldn't come at a better time. As recent national research and major news headlines continue to reflect a move away from automobile use among major swaths of the American public, and as highway funding levels nosedive, smart transportation agencies are beginning to adapt.

To respond to these changes, ODOT has announced "Intermodal Oregon" a new initiative that will help the agency "move away from a siloed and highway-centric approach to business." Here's how ODOT describes the transition they're going through (emphases mine):

Like all public agencies, ODOT is facing challenges and changing expectations from the public. Funding is increasingly constrained, and because our footprint as an agency is not financially sustainable, we need to be more efficient. At the same time, economic and demographic trends are shifting the public’s transportation needs and behaviors, driving a need for more transportation options.

These forces all point toward the need for ODOT to evolve as an agency, moving away from a siloed and highway-centric approach to business. While ODOT began life as the Oregon Highway Department a century ago, today we are much more. While highways will long remain the core of our portfolio, today we have extensive involvement in rail, freight, public transportation, active transportation, and interfaces with aviation and maritime resources. Governor Kitzhaber has challenged ODOT and the state’s transportation leadership to reenergize this multimodal transformation.

You can think what you want about ODOT; but these are pretty big words coming from a large public agency. What's even more encouraging about this announcement is that it continues a trend and fulfills recent promises made by ODOT Director Matt Garrett.

It started in July 2011 when Garrett announced the formation of a Active Transportation Section within the agency. That news led to talk of a new era at ODOT and a palpable sense of excitement from close observers and active transportation advocates.

Then in April 2012, Garrett said he'd scrub the term "Highway" from the agency. He changed the formal name of the "Highway Division" to "Transportation Division" and said it was part of his effort to "provide transportation options" and to "create an organization that can speak with a holistic transportation voice." Evidence of that "holistic" voice came a few weeks later when Garrett announced ODOT would combine the agency's two largest pots of active transportation funding into one in order to fund better projects.

The Intermodal Oregon announcement continues the trend at ODOT toward thinking about transportation in terms of how to solve problems with the best tools available, instead of simply defaulting toward more — and wider— highways. (Unfortunately, due to the 2009 Jobs & Transportation Act, ODOT is required by law to build dozens of new highway projects in the coming years.)

Today's announcement was made by ODOT's Transportation Development Division Administrator Jerri Bohard and Highway Division Administrator Paul Mather. In a joint statement published on the ODOT website, they wrote, "In the future, ODOT will be shaped by its functions and multimodal decision making will be integrated throughout the agency... As we continue this journey of agency evolution, the voices of our stakeholders will be critical to ensuring that we have the right end in sight and chart the best course to get there."

ODOT won't change overnight; but this continued evolution is very promising. Stay tuned.

Where timber once ruled the economy, mountain biking is providing new hope. That's the story for a growing number of rural communities throughout Oregon. The trend isn't new; but it's maturing to the point where policymakers can no longer ignore it. On the heels of a major report from Travel Oregon that showed a $400 million annual economic impact from bike-related travel, Linfield College Professor (and bike race promoter) Jeff McNamee is garnering headlines for his research on the economic benefits of mountain biking events in small Oregon towns.

Jeff McNamee

McNamee shared his research at the Oregon Active Transportation Summit last month. McNamee and his two student assistants analyzed the economic impact of three events (two in Bend, one in Oakridge) and surveyed a mountain bike outfitter/touring company. Specifically, they analyzed spending and other impacts from the High Cascades 100 Endurance Race and USA Cycling Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships in Bend and the Mountain Bike Oregon event in Oakridge. They also surveyed customers of Cog Wild, a mountain biking guide company based in Bend.

The three events drew over 1,700 people from over 28 states and several countries (65% were from out of Oregon). Taken together, the three events and the touring company customers led to $2.6 million in direct tourism spending, $3.7 million in sales and 52 local jobs.

While Bend has a well-established reputation as a host of major bicycling events and they're far from a small and struggling rural economy, this economic impact is especially important in a town like Oakridge (a small town southeast of Eugene with about 3,000 people). McNamee's research showed that Mountain Bike Oregon alone pumped $1.2 million into the Oakridge economy.

The mountains, forests, and rugged landscapes that surround many of Oregon's small rural towns are perfect for mountain biking. We shared another example of this in March with our story about a rancher in eastern Oregon who is reinventing his business as a mountain biking destination. And there are many other examples: Oregon Bicycle Racing Association Executive Director Kenji Sugahara recently noted the attendance at the annual Echo Red-to-Red mountain bike race doubles that towns population and the small town of Cascade Locks in the Gorge has developed a mountain bike trail system that now supports a weekly mountain bike race series.

McNamee's research and the support of bicycle tourism from Travel Oregon couldn't come at a better time. Many of Oregon's small timber towns are struggling to find the Next Big Thing for their economies as federal subsidies and budgets to support timber lands dwindles and leaves them with few traditional options. Developing good trails and positioning themselves as a mountain bike destination isn't a silver bullet; but it can be the spark that keeps these communities alive and opens their communities up to other possibilities.

— Download The Economic Impact of Mountain Bicycle Events in Oregon (PDF).

Metro will host an open house tomorrow (5/23) for their Regional Active Transportation Plan. The plan will be the region's first specifically tailored to bicycling, walking and access to transit. The planning effort has been underway for well over a year and is set to wrap up by the end of next month. In summer of 2014 the plan's recommendations and a list of prioritized projects will be proposed for adoptions into the Regional Transportation Plan.

The plan's ambitious scope includes: the creation of a new set of design guidelines for bicycle facilities; an update to regional biking and walking maps; integration of the existing active transportation network; identification of a network of 'Regional Bicycle Parkways'; a recommendation of strategies for implementation, and more.

In other words, this is a big deal. As its projects get adopted into the RTP, Metro's Regional Active Transportation Plan will give regional policymakers the crucial political breathing room and decision-making framework they need to make real and significant investments that could vastly improve bicycling conditions.

In developing the plan, Metro created an existing conditions report that laid out the massive potential and challenges our region has for realizing a transportation system that is more oriented toward bicycling and walking. Here are some of their findings (taken from their own Household Activity Survey, the State of Safety report, and Opt-In survey results):

• bicycling is growing at a faster clip than any other mode in the region;
• of all the bike trips made in the region, 58% are made by people with an income of $75,000 a year or less;
• 75% of our region's bike trips are made by "white persons" and 25% are made by "non-white persons";
• however, "non-white persons" make a larger percentage of their trips (3.3%) by bike than "white persons" (2.7%);
• women make 35% of all bike trips in the region;
• about 59% of all auto trips in the region are under three miles;
• only 34% of all bike trips are for work, while 53% are for social events, errands, or recreation;
• while 18% of all trips in the region are made by bicycling and walking, they get only 3% of capital transportation funds;
• Portland has 68% of the entire region's serious bicycle crashes;
• over 52% of all bicycle crashes occur at intersections;
• an average of 88% of survey respondents from Clackamas, Washington, and Multnomah said they are either "somewhat" or "very" interested in biking more often for transportation.

To develop the regional active transportation network, Metro kept the above findings in mind and overlayed them with a list of over-arching principles (like making facilities safe, connected and easy-to-use) and an evaluation criteria. The four main evaluation criteria were: access, safety, equity, and increased activity (as in, does the network increase the number of bike/walk trips).

At the City of Portland Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting last month, Metro's Lake McTighe, a project manager in their active transportation department shared the three "network concepts" they have come up with in order to model performance against the criteria. The three concepts (see below) are made up of "Regional Bicycle Parkways" which Metro describes as, "the highest functional class for bicycle facilities" that "form the spine" of the network.

There's the "Grid" concept:

- Click to enlarge -

The "Spiderweb" concept:

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And the "Mobility Corridors" concept:

- Click to enlarge -

Metro analyzed each of the concepts to determine how each one influenced the rate and nature of bike trips. Another important part of this plan is Metro's use of a bicycle traffic demand model. This is a big deal because transportation planners have never had a way to test how different types of facilities impact bicycle traffic. Auto traffic demand models are very sophisticated and they dominate transportation planning as a result. Metro has been working with researchers at Portland State's Oregon Transportation Research Education Consortium (OTREC) to create the model and it's finally starting to bear fruit. McTighe says they can now use the took to "look at how bike project might create new bike trips, change trips from driving to biking" and so on.

Another tool Metro is rolling out in this plan is the "Bicycle Comfort Index". This tool can also give them a more sophisticated understanding of how different network concepts and facility types will impact the rate and nature of bicycle use. They use auto speed, auto volume, and the number of lanes on a roadway to determine a route's BCI value. "We're interested in getting at that 60% of people that are "interested but concerned" so it's about understanding that the existing of a bike lane isn't enough to make people feel comfortable bicycling. We're not just saying, 'OK, we've got a bike lane so we're done.'"

All this analysis can tell Metro where the high demand routes are and whether or not those routes are comfortable to bike on. If they find a high demand route with a low comfort index score, a project that improve bicycling on that route could be bumped up on the priority list. (One of the interesting findings so far is that diagonal routes, regardless of whether a bike lane is present or not (like Sandy Blvd), show high bicycle traffic demand.)

There's a lot more to this plan than I've outlined. Before you go to the open house tomorrow, your homework is to check out the PDF of McTighe's presentation to the Bike Advisory Committe last month. I also asked McTighe this morning what she's most interested in in terms of feedback. She said they are still developing the recommend networks and how projects should be prioritized and she shared a list of questions they'd like your answers to:

• How complex and dense should the regional bike and pedestrian networks be (keeping in mind that we want to prioritize and focus investments)?
• How important is the quality of the experience (quiet, comfortable, green, wide path) compared to utility (directness of route, ease of reaching destination)?
• What is most important when considering location routes: nature beauty (near trees, rivers, and so on); direct access to shops and restaurants and services; separation from traffic; complete protection from traffic even if taken somewhat out of direction; avoiding hills?
• What are the highest priority projects people would like to see built?

Be there:

Regional Active Transportation Plan Open House
5 to 7 P.M. Thursday, May 23
Metro Regional Center, Council Chamber (600 NE Grand Ave)

Pedalpalooza kicks off in just over two weeks and the buzz is really starting to build. The official calendar already has 129 events listed and I can sense growing chatter and excitement amongst lovers of bike fun throughout the city. I wanted to bring your attention to some nifty rides and remind you that the deadline for submitting one of your own — if you want it to appear in the printed calendar — is tomorrow (5/22) at midnight. The benefit to having your ride in the printed calendar is that it gets inserted into an issue of the Portland Mercury and gets passed out all around town.

Below are a few gems I noticed on the calendar so far...

The 8-Bit Bike Ride (June 8th) will be a "ride down retro lane, 8-bit style." The ride leader, Zed Bailey, is encouraging everyone to show up wearing their favorite retro video game costume. The ride meets at Avalon Nickel Arcade on SE Belmont for pre-ride video-game playing. He even made this cool video promo...

Even former Portland Mayor Bud Clark is leading a ride. Join Bud and his art-loving friends on Bud Clark's Expose Yourself to Art Ride (June 20th). The inspiration for this ride comes from the iconic and famous "Expose yourself to art" poster which features Bud flashing a statue in downtown Portland 35 years ago. The ride will tour Portland's great public art and it's co-sponsored by the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

Pedalpalooza is not just about quirky costume rides. It's a huge soup of different bike fun flavors sure to please nearly anyone. For instance, Cycle Wild founder Matt Picio is leading a Beginner's Bike Camping ride on June 22nd. Matt will lead a group out to Stub Stewart State Park for an overnight bike trip perfect for beginners. They'll take MAX out to Hillsboro and then ride just 22 miles north to the park, most of it on the carfree Banks-Vernonia Trail!

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These rides are just a tiny sampling of what's in store next month. Take a look at the calendar and consider adding a ride of your own.

The City of Tigard is planning a major, region-wide "mock emergency" exercise on Thursday and they want to include cargo bikes. Tara Harper, a consultant working on the event, was inspired by her involvement with the Disaster Relief Trials in Portland last summer and says cargo bikes would be uniquely suited to the task.

The exercise is based on a bioterrorism attack that creates a massive public health emergency. The entire population will be at risk unless they receive medicine that's doled out at a "Point of Dispensing station". Tigard will test the POD station concept for the first time on Thursday and officials from many other regional jurisdictions will be on hand to observe it. The medicine would be flown in from other areas and the challenge is to get the boxes of treatments and supplies to the POD stations as fast as possible. With traffic jams and other unforeseen circumstances, vehicles are needed that can operate regardless of traffic conditions.

"Everyone's going to die if they don't get medicine," Harper shared today, "I have to have backup plans. Traffic might be snarled and I need a way to get around traffic and cargo bikes can easily ride around traffic jams and ride on bike paths." The cargo biking volunteer would be dispatched to a helipad on the outskirts of town where they'd pick up boxes of medicine and deliver them to a POD station.

Harper said she's looking for at least one cargo bike operator to be participate in the exercise; but so far she hasn't found anyone on the west side. "I'd really like to have the ability to demonstrate the use of cargo bikes and not just say to the commanders, 'We could use bikes but I couldn't find anyone to volunteer.'" Harper said she loved the concept of using bicycles in disaster response situations after seeing it first-hand at last June's Disaster Relief Trials. In an emergency, Harper says, "Bikes are one of the best individual grassroots resources you can have."

If you'd like to participate in this exercise, contact Tara Harper at via email at until [at] tarakharper [dot] com or call her at (503) 545-8140.

Our story last week about a lawsuit against the Timberline Mountain Bike Park has sparked a lot of conversation. Several people commented and contacted me to express concerns that I failed to offer adequate context to the story. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups that have signed on as plaintiffs to the lawsuit, strongly maintain that their stance is not about bikes at all. Rather, they say their concerns are about the broader environmental impacts, the private developer that will construct the park, and a feeling that the U.S. Forest Service has not fulfilled its obligations within the public process around the project.

In our story last week, I included an email from Kenji Sugahara, the executive director of the Oregon Bicycle Racing Association, to Brian Pasko, the director of the Sierra Club's Oregon chapter. In that email, Sugahara questioned the Sierra Club's actions and requested their immediate withdrawal from the lawsuit. Today I want to share Pasko's response to Sugahara because I it adds some important context to this debate (emphases mine):

Hi Kenji,

Thank you very much for this note and for your past support of the Sierra Club's work in Oregon. I want to assure you that the Sierra Club did not approach this litigation lightly, nor should our involvement in this lawsuit imply that we oppose increasing the level of mountain bike recreation opportunities on the Mountain.

We chose to engage in this lawsuit because we believe that this particular proposal is not appropriately located and the environmental costs vs. recreational benefits are just too high. In contrast, we chose not to oppose a similar proposal on Mount Bachelor because its location is much better suited to this type of bike park.

Additionally, we appreciate and admire IMBA's exceptional trail maintenance work. It is our understanding that the trails on this proposed bike park would not be trails open to the public and managed by IMBA or other volunteer trail crews, but would instead be maintained by the private owners at Timberline for their economic gain.

More importantly, we are pursuing this lawsuit in part because we believe that the Forest Service has fundamentally failed in its obligation to fully evaluate the potential for additional mountain bike recreational opportunities in the Mount Hood National Forest. We too are disappointed that the Mountain bike and environmental communities are being divided over a debate about the location of a single privately-owned bike park, when instead we should be engaged in a collaborative effort to substantially expand the publicly accessible mountain bike trail system forest-wide.

The Sierra Club believes that the Forest Service should be carrying out a robust analysis and implementing a formal stakeholder process to expand mountain bike opportunities on our national forests. We are keenly interested in working with the mountain bike community to achieve this goal. In fact, we are meeting with leaders in IMBA and others in the next few weeks to discuss this and how we can move forward together.

I appreciate your concerns about our involvement in this litigation, and hope that I have given you some assurances that the Sierra Club is very interested in partnering with the mountain bike community to convince the Forest Service to do better recreational planning on the Mount Hood National Forest. I hope that this is the start of a continuing dialogue with you and others about how we can work together to make that a reality.

Thanks,
Brian
Chapter Director
Sierra Club - Oregon Chapter
1821 SE Ankeny Street

— For more on this story, browse our Timberline Mountain Bike Park story archives.

Earlier this month we learned that bicycle-related travel pumps $400 million into Oregon's economy each year. Now Travel Oregon, the state's tourism development and marketing organization, has embarked on the second part of that research project: a comprehensive look at the economic impact of bicycle-related industry.

Travel Oregon released the Bicycle Industry Survey yesterday to begin data collection for the study. Here's more from them from the email announcement:

The bicycle industry in Oregon is a unique and growing part of our economy. To get a better handle on the size, characteristics and growth of this industry, a research project has been launched to gather current data that is not available from any existing sources.

The survey looks to gather information from bicycle and bike-related manufacturers, retail and repair shops, event promoters, and others. It includes questions on the location and size of businesses as well as general sales data.

This will be the first ever research into Oregon's bike industry. In 2006, Alta Planning found found that Portland-area bike companies account for $63 million in economic impact and 800 jobs each year. Those numbers were updated in 2008 to $90 million and 1,150 jobs. In 2009, Oregon Business magazine reported that the statewide bicycle economy was worth $150 million per year.

Since 2009, the amount of bike-related industry in Portland has soared. New companies have moved here and existing companies have grown. I suspect similar trends in other parts of the state, especially in the Eugene area.

When the tourism study is combined with the results of this study, we should have a more complete — and impressive — figure to demonstrate the value of bicycling in Oregon. And of course neither of these studies quantifies the economic impact of using bicycles for transportation (however we do have some research that bicycling customers spend more).

This study is being done by Dean Runyan Associates as part of the same project that brought us the tourism study. The work is being done with $100,000 in funding that comes primarily from Travel Oregon, with a $10,000 grant from Bikes Belong and a $10,000 matching grant from Cycle Oregon.

— Take the survey online and please pass it around to everyone you know in the bike industry.

One of the best things about bicycling in Portland isn't even in Portland. It's a small town called Vernonia. Situated a perfect day's ride from Portland (about 50 miles, or less if you take MAX to HIllsboro), Vernonia is nestled in the woods at the end of about 20 miles of the smoothly paved Banks-Vernonia Trail.

This past weekend I packed up a few panniers and joined some friends for an overnight bike ride out to Vernonia. On the way out we rode through some great new trails and rural backroads through Washington County; and on the way back, we opted for logging roads and dirt trails that led us to Scappoose. Even under grey and wet skies all day Saturday, it was fantastic riding.

But what made this weekend so great wasn't just the pedaling and the good company, it was the town of Vernonia itself. From the easy and comfortable camping at Anderson Park, to the hospitality of locals we experienced at Black Bear Coffee and the Cedar Side Inn.

(Before sharing more photos and thoughts, I want to give credit for the route to two guys: Our fearless leader Carl Larson; who organized the weekend as a bachelor party for a mutual friend; and Ed Groth, whose knowledge of the backroads proved invaluable.)
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We started our ride from southeast Portland and headed to northwest. I took it as a good omen that we passed by the Brewcycle on our way out of town...

Our route was to take NW Saltzman Rd (in Forest Park) up and over the hill; but instead of riding on the shoulder of Hwy 30, we opted to take Leif Erikson instead...

Once up and over Forest Park, we bombed down into Washington County via Springville Road. But again, instead of taking narrow roads that can sometimes be nerve-wracking with a large group, we took a left turn onto a dirt road between a subdivision and a farm en route to the paved trail at Kaiser Woods Park...

Our friend Timo is getting married this summer. This adventure was undertaken in his honor.

The paved trails that criss-cross Washington County are great, and more of them are popping up all the time. However, the crossings and connectivity are still very bad in some places. In the photo below, we're riding the sidewalk of NW Kaiser Rd trying to find the continuation of the path...

And here's the bridge on a new section of the Rock Creek Trail near Allenbach Acres Park...

One section of the trail took us alongside a driving range and there were golf balls all strewn about...

Pretty soon we were beyond urban development and into gorgeous farmlands and quiet backroads...

This barn was built in 1921...

When it was time for lunch, King Torta in North Plains was just what we needed...

Back on the road, the rain kept falling but it was never a downpour...

This is the St. Francis Catholic School on NW Harrington Rd...

When we finally reached the Banks-Vernonia Trail, it was smooth and stress-free sailing all the way to camp...

After we set up our tents, we walked a few blocks into town and had dinner at Black Bear. It was late, but the waitress had her chef re-open the kitchen just to serve us. That was very nice. Then after dinner, we walked across the street for some dancing, karaoke, and toasting of our soon-to-be-married friend at the Cedar Side Inn...

The next morning we awoke to this idyllic scene at Anderson Park...

The next morning we set out for Portland; but instead of heading back south toward Washington County, we went north on Nehalem Hwy (47)...

If you're going to get a flat, Vernonia Lake City Park isn't a bad place to do it...

Just before Nehalem Hwy split into Scappoose-Vernonia Hwy, we left the paved road for Columbia Forest Road. This is a gravel and dirt road owned by a private timber company. Motorized access is prohibited, but it's open to biking...

It sure beats the highway...

Despite puddles and a few bumps and rocks, the Columbia Forest Road was in great shape...

After about 7-8 miles, the Columbia Forest Road turns into the Crown Zellerbach Trail. What a gem! It was so exciting to ride this for the first time...

(This was just a very short section.)

The CZ Trail ended right at Highway 30 in Scappoose. From there it was a straight shot south back to Portland. Riding on the shoulder of Highway 30 isn't too bad, but in sections I think there was more gravel than on some of the logging roads! It would be great if Multnomah County would sweep the bike lane every once in a while...

This was really a fantastic loop that I'd recommend to anyone who's looking for a little off-highway adventure. Check out a map of the route via RidewithGPS.com.

People who ride bikes at night consistently overestimate their visibility to other road users, a new study has found.

They also overlook a few tricks, like reflective strips around the ankles and knees, that can help the most.

The report, led by Joanne Wood of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia and published in next month's issue of Accident Analysis & Prevention, asked both regular and occasional bike riders wearing black clothing, fluorescent or reflective vests, and vests with reflective strips to estimate the point at which an approaching driver would be able to spot them. Different lighting setups were used, too.

People wearing black clothing on their bike at night, or just a reflective vest, were far too optimistic. They thought drivers would see them from nearly twice the distance drivers actually tend to.

Meanwhile, riders correctly estimated that they were more visible to other road users when wearing retroreflective strips on their knees and ankles. But the strips are actually more effective than people thought.

To see how people's ideas measure up with reality, check out the chart below. The black bars indicate the distance at which people riding bikes thought they would be spotted in each type of clothing, and the grey bars indicate actual visibility:

These figures included tests with three different types of lighting on the bikes: a flashing light, a steady light and no light.

"The bicyclist’s overestimates are greatest for conditions in which actual conspicuity is minimal and they underestimate the effectiveness of vest plus ankles and knees," Wood's report summarized. "This study provides the first quantitative data to support the suggestion that bicyclists overestimate their own conspicuity to drivers at night."

Here's another important finding: if you bike more often, you tend to get a better sense of just how invisible you can be at night:

"Less frequent bicyclists rated themselves as visible at longer distances (M = 85.19 m) than did frequent bicyclists (M = 58.89 m)," the study found.

A couple other interesting notes:

• At night, reflective vests are much more effective than fluorescent ones. Bright orange or yellow vests are great for catching people's attention during the day. But many of us don't realize they're not much use at night. "Fluorescent materials have little conspicuity benefit at night since they are activated only by ultraviolet radiation (which is generally not present in headlights and streetlights). The bicyclists … appear to believe, incorrectly, that the conspicuity advantage of fluorescent materials is as useful at night as it is in daylight. Thus bicyclists, who habitually wear fluorescent as opposed to retroreflective materials, may dangerously overestimate their conspicuity at night."
• Riders think flashing lights increase visibility. Though the data is less conclusive about whether steady or flashing lights are better, this study found that people think flashing bike lights are the most visible.
• Reflective strips have to be moving to do much good. "It is only when those retroreflective strips are mounted on the moveable joints that they substantially increase bicyclist conspicuity," the study wrote. Why don't people tend to realize this? The authors have an idea: "from a bicyclist’s perspective, retroreflective material does not necessarily appear to be particularlyvisible. It is only when the retroreflective material is viewed under specific viewing conditions (e.g., moving in a characteristic pattern, illuminated by the vehicle’s headlights, and viewed from a position proximal to the headlights) that its effectiveness becomes clear."

Obviously, keeping everyone safe on our streets at night is a joint effort that requires vigilance and caution by everyone who's getting around. Fortunately, Portland has enough bikes on the street that it makes those of us who use cars more careful when we're driving at night. But this study is a great reminder that our intuition about these issues isn't always right – it helps to know the facts, too.

— Portland Afoot editor Michael Andersen will be contributing regularly to BikePortland for the next few weeks as we start working out more details of the collaboration announced earlier this month.

About 80 local business leaders and bike lovers packed the second annual Portland Employers Bike Summit Friday to swap advice and anecdotes exactly like Sam Blackman's.

The award-winning young tech CEO spoke at one of the afternoon's panels to show how his company, the fast-growing digital video startup Elemental Technologies, saves money and attracts top-notch employees by putting low-car commuting at the heart of its workplace culture.

Even before Blackman and his two co-founders started paying themselves, they were renting a workspace with bike parking and showers and buying a TriMet pass for every Elemental employee.

Sam Blackman, CEO
Elemental Technologies
(Photo: Elemental
Technologies)

As Elemental has scored big contracts to provide streaming video services to companies like HBO Go, Major League Baseball, and ABC News, it's needed to grow fast – from 18 local employees in 2008 to 90 this year. And of those 90, only 15 percent drive to work alone in their own car.

Another 49 percent ride transit to Elemental's Broadway office, 15 percent bike, 11 percent walk, 8 percent carpool and two people (2 percent) use carshare vehicles.

In another world, Elemental could now be spending $235,000 a year on employee parking. Instead, its generous commute benefits cost a quarter of that:

A slide from Blackman's presentation shows the savings.

"This year we're going to double the employee count again," Blackman said. "So all of a sudden we'd be looking at half a million dollars spent on parking if we were a conventional business."

Elemental, which remains venture-backed and cost-cautious, has also used bike repair and maintenance seminars, internal prizes for participants in the Bike Commute Challenge and (starting next year) "Elemental Rental," an internal bike share service that employees will be able to use for commutes and midday errands.

To be fair, Blackman's numbers here don't include the rental premium Elemental is paying for its downtown location, bike storage and showers. But the numbers also don't include what Blackman described as the most important value proposition for Elemental: recruiting and retaining a happy,  healthy workforce.

Blackman said bike benefits are becoming essential to local tech companies as they scramble for talent.

"For our business, which is all about trying to recruit world-class engineers so we can compete effectively on a global stage, it's a hugely powerful recruiting and retention tool," Blackman said. "We have to move people from all over the country to Elemental because it's hard to find engineers here in Portland, and the fact that we can show them this bike culture is very very valuable in their willingness to uproot their family and come to Portland."

Tech startups in particular, Blackman added, "are having to build out very nice bike facilities to try and attract the kind of employees that they need to try and build their businesses fast."

Friday's bike summit, hosted and led by Regence Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Oregon, was also co-organized by the Lloyd Transportation Management Association, the Portland Bureau of Transportation, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and my own organization, Portland Afoot.

Regence spokeswoman Samantha Reese said Monday that the company, which sells health insurance plans to employers around the Portland region, wanted to host the event because of its commitment to environmental sustainability and "plain old healthy lifestyles."

"We saw it as an important and necessary opportunity to share information about best practices with other employers," Reese said. "When we're all participating in that, then it's a healthier community at large."

— Portland Afoot editor Michael Andersen will be contributing regularly to BikePortland for the next few weeks as we start working out more details of the collaboration announced earlier this month.