It was the first time the SAC has discussed design options since last June, when initial designs presented by the Portland Bureau of Transportation were rejected because the community had not been given a sufficient opportunity to weigh in on the outcomes. This time, the options were designed to meet specific criteria that the SAC had agreed upon at the previous meeting, where “safety of all road users” was listed as the top priority. Each of the designs was accompanied by a list of the outcomes it would address.

Option 1 (see diagram below) includes a left-side cycletrack and one lane for motor vehicles, plus two parking lanes, one of which would buffer the cycletrack from the auto lane.

Option 2A would include a right-side buffered bike lane with one motor vehicle travel lane and turn lanes. Option 2B would include the same configuration as 2A but only in segments 2 and 5. Option 3 would leave the street configuration as it is today. Download PDF to see all four design options.

The BTA supports a design that makes N. Williams safe for all road users, with a focus on a safe, convient and accessible corridor for people who ride bicycles. We agree with PBOT’s assessment that Option 1 would do the most to meet the shared goals of the community and increase safety for people walking, biking, driving, and riding transit on North Williams.

More coverage:
BikePortland
Oregonian

To learn more and sign up for rides on the calendar, come to our spring volunteer kickoff event!

Spring Volunteer Kick Off!
When: Thursday, March 1, 2012, 4:30pm-6:00pm
Where: BTA office, 618 NW Glisan suite 401
Why:  The 4th and 5th graders of Portland are looking forward to riding with you!

Got some elbow grease to lend? Ask LeeAnne about the monthly “wrenchfest” where volunteers help fix up the bike fleet as quickly as the kids can break them. (This happens on the 3rd Saturday of every month)

Questions? Contact LeeAnne Fergason, leeanne@btaoregon.org

We’ve just announced the date and theme for the BTA’s 2012 Alice Awards + Auction. Mark your calendars!

Alice Builds the Future City
May 5, 2012
Pure Space (1315 NW Overton Street, Portland)

Come with your friends and enjoy an evening of cocktails and dinner while you bid on a wide array of fun and exciting auction items. Together, we will honor the 2012 Alice Award winners for outstanding bicycle achievements in Oregon.

Every year the Bicycle Transportation Alliance holds an awards banquet to celebrate our work and to honor those who have made significant contributions to building the bicycle movement. In 2012, the Alice Awards + Auction looks to the future of our communities, cities, and the state of Oregon. We invite you to help us envision the future of bicycling in Oregon by nominating someone for an Alice Award, entering the centerpiece design competition, donating to the auction, and attending the event on May 5.

Alice Award Nominations
The BTA’s Alice Awards are the highest honor for bicycling in Oregon. This year, we will honor Alice winners who have made significant contributions to our shared vision for the future. Do you know someone who has contributed to building the future city, region, and state? Nominate that person for an award!

Future City Centerpiece Design Challenge

The BTA invites architects, designers, planners, and artists of all sectors to enter the Future City Centerpiece Design Challenge. A panel of expert judges will select up to 40 centerpieces to display at the dinner and be auctioned off to support the work of the BTA. Awards will be bestowed on the top three entries and a selection of submissions will be displayed in public as part of a formal design exhibit. Click here for the official rules.

Donate To The Auction

Join the many local and regional businesses that support the BTA with a donation to our silent or live auction. Showcase your product or service and support the BTA at the same time. Our guests love bidding on locally made products, food, wine, trips, and of course – BIKES! To donate, click here.

Tickets

Coming soon!

As soon as the obstacle was brought to our attention, the BTA reached out to Portland Streetcar to ask if it could be removed. At first we were told that it would be impossible to move. Therefore, we asked for alternative mitigation. In the end, Streetcar acted appropriately and with great consideration to make modifications that will minimize the obstruction.

I’m glad that Streetcar is responding to our concerns about the pole placement. The managers of Streetcar have been open and engaged in discussion throughout the process. I’m hopeful that we’ll end up with something that we can all live with, and we will ensure that future designs do not result in obstructions to bicycle traffic

I’d like to thank Chris Smith, a long-time bicycle advocate, and a member of the board of Portland Streetcar Inc., for helping throughout the process to make this possible. We also thank Portland Streetcar for being a great collaborative partner.

Principal Debbie Ebert and her family.

Tell me about a walking or biking memory you have from childhood?
Oh, wow. It’s hard to pull out just one story, since I walked and biked all throughout childhood. I rode my bike well into high school every day. That’s just how we got around. Then we moved and I was too far away to bike or walk. But then in college I sold my car and bought a bike again!

What do you like the most about the BTA’s bike and pedestrians education programs?
The presence of the instructors in the schools who are getting kids to actually DO the work of biking and walking. You can’t duplicate it any other way. You can’t just show a video or give a short presentation. The kids’ response is amazing. They just love it. It is great to see the kids learn how to ride.

If you could improve one thing about either/both of these programs what would it be?
The first year, the Safe Routes to School program had a part time liaison at each school and that was really helpful. When that position was cut, we really felt it. Our school has missed our liaison. I see the potential of what we could do with additional resources and leadership. Getting people to help is not a problem — it’s that leadership position we really miss.

How did you end up as the principal for Russell Academy?
I was in the right place at the right time. I was a teacher at Russell Academy when D.R. Rose had just been offered the superintendent of Canby. I went through a a rigorous hiring process and then became the principal. It’s been an interesting transition to go from teaching at a school to leading it.

What do you love the most about Russell Academy?
The staff is amazing. I don’t think that in my career that I ever have or ever will work with a more talented group of teachers. I am just blown away by the talent in that building.

Join the BTA’s Walk+Bike Ambassador team this spring.

We are hiring three temporary, part-time Walk+Bike Ambassadors who will support and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s Bike Safety Education program from March 28th through June 11th. The Bike Safety Education program is a ten-hour class including on-bike and on-street training taught to 4th and 5th grade students at 40 elementary schools throughout Portland. In the 2010-2011 school year, the BTA’s Walk+Bike Ambassador team taught more than 4,000 students this ten-hour curriculum.

Click here to see the full job description and how to apply.

Many people deserve credit for this success, including the engineers who designed the bike facility, but today we want to give special recognition to the freight company drivers.

Franz Bakery‘s professional drivers operate the longest vehicles that can legally be operated on Oregon’s roads–triple trailers over 100 feet long. The fact that NE 12th, where Franz Bakery has its headquarters, is remotely comfortable for bicycling is a credit to Franz Bakery’s drivers’ professionalism and care.

And THAT’s why, on this day of expressing love for one another, every Franz Bakery driver and mechanic is receiving a unique, volunteer-made Valentine from the BTA.

Session One: In the Classroom

During our first session, students review key pedestrian safety skills and practice on a plastic roadway. We start the class with introductions before we jump into the “Pedestrian Safety Rhyme:”

Stop every time at the edge of the street
Use your head before your feet
Make sure you hear every sound
Look left, look right, look all around

Sidewalks: Why do pedestrians like sidewalks? Students come up with a number of reasons, but the main one we can agree on is that there are NO cars driving on the sidewalk. It’s important to remember that sometimes cars may drive across a sidewalk in order to access a parking lot or a driveway.

Parking lots: Students learn why it’s important to make eye contact with drivers exiting and entering a parking lot before walking in front of their cars, and to never take a shortcut across a parking lot. We discuss situations where it is safe or unsafe to walk behind a car when it is in its driveway.

Crossing the street: The crosswalk is the safest place to cross the street because people driving cars know to be aware that people might cross, and they know they should stop for them (although our experiences on the second day will sometimes show that people still won’t stop for us). The first day wraps up with some student volunteers demonstrating what they’ve learned on the plastic roadway.

Session Two: On the Street

For our second session, the ambassador scouts out a good route to take the class on a walk and give everyone a chance to try crossing the street. Students are asked to cross with a partner (both have to agree that it is a safe time to pass), as a class group (turn off your conversations while in the crosswalk), and alone (look left, look right, look all around). We check for cars in their driveways and determine if the cars are parked or if they might start moving in the near future.

I am consistently amazed by two things in this class:

1) Second graders, once they know the rules and steps they should take, are usually ready to be responsible for their own safety. Second graders are very safe and predictable pedestrians.

2) A surprising number of drivers express indifference and sometimes open outrage at having to stop at a marked crosswalk in front of a school so a 7 or 8 year old child can safely cross the street.

A friendly reminder for readers

We teach our students to be responsible for their own safety, which means they are never supposed to step in front of a moving car. So when you are driving or biking, if you are going to stop for pedestrians, please come to a COMPLETE stop for them. After all, it’s against the law not to.

Jessica Roberts was one of the people who couldn’t stand the bridge’s narrow lanes and sidewalks as she biked across it daily to get to college. Her frustration put her on a path that led her to work as the BTA’s metro-area advocate and eventually become a planner at Alta Planning and Design. Her path also led her to Richard Marantz, a bicyclist, river user, SW resident, and retired engineer, who was perfectly suited to wrap his head around the complications presented by the county’s plans to build a new Sellwood Bridge.

Richard was so well-suited and well-informed that Jessica asked him to represent the BTA on the project’s Citizen Advisory Council. He quickly became the go-to expert on Sellwood Bridge progress as it related to bicycling. Six years, a few BTA staffers, and quite a few designs later, Multnomah County is slated to begin construction of a new Sellwood Bridge complete with access to Riverview Cemetery and protected space for people walking and riding bicycles.

Photo: Matteo Luccio

Ready for the next challenge, Richard, along with Ed, is helping the BTA to form the Project Advisory Council. This is a carefully-selected group of BTA members who, like Richard and Ed, are plugged in to projects and bike-related committees in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties. As council members, they will keep the BTA apprised of developments on the various committees on which they sit. Their collective knowledge and time are a tremendous asset to our advocacy team. By pooling our resources with those of our members, we hope to be a much more engaged and effective local advocacy machine.

The 19 individuals who attended this week’s introductory meeting serve on everything from Clackamas County’s Bike/Ped Advisory Committee to the Advisory Committee for the realignment of Oleson Road at Beaverton-Hillsdale. By submitting a simple web-based form after their meetings, members will help the BTA to remain involved with conversations on important committees that we would otherwise not have the capacity to staff.

The current Senate transportation bill dilutes walking and biking programs. To improve the bill, we’re asking senators to vote for the Cardin-Cochran amendment on the floor to guarantee local governments a voice in transportation decisions, allowing them to build sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that keep people safe.

In the House, we are asking representatives to oppose the House transportation bill. Despite the fact that walking and bicycling infrastructure is a low-cost investment that creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway spending, the House bill eliminates dedicated funding for walking and biking.

Please contact your Representative and Senators today and ask them to save our streets. Click here to send a message to your members of Congress through the League of American Bicyclists’ Action Center.

As written, the Senate’s transportation bill removes dedicated funding for walking and biking and allows state DOTs to opt-out of safe street programs. The Cardin-Cochran amendment would improve the bill by ensuring that local governments can apply directly for funds to build walking and biking infrastructure.

Tell your Senator:

• Local governments deserve a voice in transportation. The Cardin-Cochran amendment ensures that cities and counties have a voice in making transportation decisions for safer streets in their communities.
• Safety matters. Bicycle and pedestrian deaths make up 14% of all traffic fatalities, but only 1.5% of federal funds go towards making walking and biking safer. These programs provide funding for sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that make streets safe for all users.
• Active transportation is a wise investment. Walking and biking infrastructure is low-cost, creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway spending, and is critical to economic development for main street America.

Please take action TODAY! 

On the other side of Congress, the House is considering a transportation bill (HR 7) that reverses 20 years of progress in making streets safer for people. Despite the fact that walking and biking make up 12% of trips but receive only 1.5% of federal funding, the House bill eliminates dedicated funding for walking and biking. It’s time to defeat this bill.

Tell your Representative:

• HR 7 takes us back to the 1950s. HR 7 takes us back to a 1950s system by eliminating dedicated funding for biking and walking AND kicking transit out of the highway trust fund. We need a transportation bill to meet 2012 needs, not 1950 needs.
• HR 7 doesn’t invest wisely. Federal transportation laws should invest our finite resources in cost-effective, efficient infrastructure solutions that create jobs and keep the economy moving. The House bill eliminates walking and biking, despite the fact that walking and bicycling infrastructure is low-cost and creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway funding.
• HR 7 makes streets more dangerous for kids. By repealing the successful and effective Safe Routes to School program, the House bill makes the streets more dangerous for kids on their walks and bike rides to school.

Congress needs to know that that finding effective, efficient transportation solutions to keep people safe on the streets should be a national priority. Please contact your representative and senators today.

Washington County has a street funding source known as the Major Streets Transportation Improvement Program (MSTIP-3d) that is funded through local property taxes. While some of the funds from the previous MSTIP programs have been used to create bicycle lanes and sidewalks, critical gaps remain in the bicycle and pedestrian network that make the system unusable by all but the fearless.

How you can take action: 

Please email your County Commissioner and Board Chair Andy Duyck and ask them to support using MSTIP-3d dollars to help build a safe and complete bicycle and pedestrian network. Ask them to:

1. Prioritize road projects that close existing gaps in the pedestrian and bicycle network.
2. Include world-class bicycle facilities on all new roadway projects using the MSTIP-3d funds.
3. Allow for the $3 million match fund to be used for multi-modal projects that help complete the bicycle and pedestrian network.

Your support is critical to make change in Washington County. Use the sample message at the bottom of this email, or click the name of your commissioner (find your commissioner here) to send an email with the sample message included.

Commissioner Andy Duyck
Commissioner Greg Malinowski
Commissioner Roy Rogers
Commissioner Dick Schouten
Commissioner Bob Terry

The BTA will be following the progress of MTSIP-3d decisions. Please stay tuned for future action alerts.

—–SAMPLE LETTER—–

Dear Chair Duyck and Commissioner _____,

My name is [Insert Name] and I live at [Insert Address]. As a citizen of Washington County and your constituent, I encourage you to support safe and healthy streets for all road users. While much of our current system has bicycle and pedestrian facilities, critical gaps remain in the network that render the system unusable for all but the fearless and people who have no other option.

Being safe and comfortable walking and biking in my community is critically important to me. The MSTIP-3d fund provides us with an opportunity to prioritze the health and safety of Washington County residents. I strongly urge you to support the following initiatives when making decisions on MTSIP-3d:

1. Prioritize road projects that close existing gaps in the pedestrian and bicycle network.
2. Include world-class bicycle facilities on all new roadway projects using the MSTIP-3d funds.
3. Allow for the $3 million match fund to be used for multi-modal projects that help complete the bicycle and pedestrian network.

I look forward to hearing back from you about your position on these important issues.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

Build Relationships

In order to be effective with legislators it is important to get to know them and their districts. Spend some time learning their biographies, whether it’s their educational background or their previous profession, to try to understand how your legislator’s experiences might guide their policy interests. Get to know the legislator’s district in terms of demographics, local issues, the economy, and any unique challenges they might face. With this base of knowledge you are better prepared to make your case in the appropriate context, build support for your issue, and be on your way to building a relationship.

Equally important, give legislators a chance to get to know you and your interests before you ask for support in the middle of a decision-making process. Invite them to your neighborhood or office to take a tour of a recent project or area in need of attention. Let them know how your work improves peoples’ lives. Bring local supporters to tell personal stories that demonstrate the human impact of policy decisions. Take the time to listen to elected officials and get to know their concerns. This process of getting to know each other over time will help you find shared policy interests and opportunities to work together.

Most of the actual work you do with an elected leader will be with their staff. It is vital to build strong working relationships with your field representatives and key policy staff. Focus on providing brief, clear communication that is directly relevant to your work. This will allow you and staff members to hone in on specific actions each of you can take to support your shared policy interests. Avoid sending long rambling emails, unfocused questions, or asking them to read a lengthy research project. Serve as a reliable resource and community partner, and over time, you can build trust and develop more frequent communication.

Bring Good Information

To build support for our issues, we need to provide both facts and personal stories that bolster our case. We need to make the case in a way that connects real challenges and real success stories with our desired policy change or decision. It is best to bring the facts and figures and provide them as background documents that support more personal stories.

For example, we might want to generate a list of all the bike and pedestrian projects built in a certain Congressional district with the federal Transportation Enhancements program. We can highlight the jobs created during construction and educate legislators about the health, environmental, and economic benefits proven through research. When we combine good information with a good storyteller, someone from the district who is knowledgeable, well spoken, or well respected, we have  a better chance of connecting with lawmakers.

Follow Up

In order to be successful we must follow through on our commitments with legislators and be persistent in our approach. Too often we attend a single meeting or send a single letter and move on to the next issue. After you make a specific request, it’s important to continue to reinforce your message by sending a thank-you  card, following up with an email to summarize the meeting and list action items discussed, and attending additional meetings and public events while carrying your message. Stay in touch with your legislator’s staff on a regular basis. Clear and consistent follow up will produce results.

This level of relationship building and effective advocacy requires an investment of time. Doing so will pay dividends in the long run through increased access with decision makers and a greater support for your particular policy goals.