We know you like to ride your bicycle, and we know you like to make your community a better place, so why not do both at the same time?

Thanks to Meals on Wheels (with big help from the amazing bike-trailer designers at Burley), you can. Your fellow community members, including long-time Bike Gallery customer Ted Forgeron, have been doing it for years!

To learn more, head over to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, tomorrow (Saturday), May 18, and visit their information table. The excellent Mary Gagnon will show you how easy and rewarding it is to help senior citizens without using internal combustion.

If you can’t make it this weekend but would like to know about volunteer opportunities at Meals on Wheels (bike-centric or otherwise), you can contact them at 503-736-MEAL (6325). They would love to connect you with their wonderful community of seniors!

Mike Mann is the Language Arts teacher and Walk+Bike Coordinator at Dexter McCarty Middle School in Gresham. He was entered into a drawing for a Columbia backpack for tracking how many students walked and biked last week as part of the Walk+Bike Challenge. 

Congratulations to Mike and the 228 students who walked or rode to school!

We asked Mike to share some of his thoughts on the Challenge.

BTA: What is your favorite story from the Walk+Bike Challenge so far?

Mike: My favorite memory so far has been the excitement of my first period students when I enlisted them last week in making sure all the first period classrooms in the whole building were stocked with Tally posters and/or tally booklets. My students went out in pairs, made sure the classrooms were stocked, and explained to the teachers how to use the items. They felt like they had a role in promoting biking and walking, and are going to visit each class once a week to trade out the posters and make sure kids are filling them out.

BTA: Do you recommend the Challenge to other schools? Why?

Mike: EVERY school should participate because it promotes a healthy alternative for students and staff, and it comes at the perfect time of year to spend time outside enjoying our area’s beautiful spring weather.

Join Mike and 135 other schools across Oregon as they increasing the number of kids walking and biking, one student at a time.

Its not too late to sign up for the Walk+Bike Challenge!

“Here is a pic taken after one of the Friday group rides with the members of Infy Blr Dc team. We are trying to popularize biking as one of the means of commute here in Bangalore, India. This website is helping us a lot in bringing in competitive spirit amongst our riders and also encourage them and many others to ride more frequently.

From left to right – Vinay Shankara (Captain), Venkatesh G. Angirasa, Amol Sharma (Alternate Captain and also our Commute champion of April month J), Guruprasad Iyer, Satsang Randhelia (Doing bike salute ).”

The Pleasant Valley Neighborhood Association entered to win a Solar-Powered Rapid Flash Beacon as part of a Facebook-based contest sponsored by transportation equipment company Carmanah Traffic. The Rapid Flash Beacon, like the one ODOT installed on SW Barbur, would help draw attention to trail users crossing SE Jenne Road.

If they win, it will be one of the first Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacons (RRFB)’s installed on a Multnomah County-controlled road and county engineers are excited about it. Budgets are tight and it’s great to see neighborhood associations going through new channels to improve their streets.

This crossing is up against stiff competition, though. As of yesterday there were 33 other entries including two others from Portland both of which call for improved crossings of outer SE Division St.

While Division is gaining well-deserved attention as a high-crash corridor and will hopefully see improvements from the City of Portland soon, the Jenne/Springwater crossing is in an unincorporated area where improvements are unlikely to be made without some external support like what Carmanah is offering with this contest.

To “cast your vote” Carmanah asks folks to “Like” your entry of choice on their Facebook page. The process is a little cumbersome and requires a Facebook account, but generating online hype for Rapid Flash Beacons is a good thing. It shows municipalities that citizens are demanding better, safer crossings. Hopefully, regardless of which crossing Carmanah chooses to reward with one of their beacons, this campaign will help cities recognize and address problem crossings.

To vote for one of the Portland projects, “like” one of the following posts on Carmanah’s Facebook wall:

Jenne Road and the Springwater Corridor Trail (BTA’s pick)

SE Division St between 122nd and 162nd

SE Division St and 142nd Ave

Holly is the Walk+Bike Coordinator at Sexton Mountain Elementary in Beaverton which won a drawing for participating in the first week of the Walk+Bike Challenge. During the first couple days of May, students at Sexton Mountain made 536 active trips to school! Go Sexton Mountain!

We asked Holly to share some of her thoughts on the Challenge.

BTA: What is your favorite story from the Walk+Bike Challenge so far?

Holly: Even though it’s early on, I can’t tell you how awesome it is to see so many kids getting to school under their own power! Kids that usually get a ride are now keeping our crossing guards very busy!

BTA: Do you recommend the Challenge to other schools? Why?

Holly: Absolutely! In addition to promoting good health and earth-friendly actions, it builds community and helps facilitate an awareness in the neighborhood of child safety.

Sign up your school before the Walk+Bike Challenge is over!

Yesterday evening I left the office and rode to Universal Cycles where the Bicycle Transportation Alliance was hosting the first of four service stations scheduled throughout May.

Along with snacks from Zipcar, a little work on my bike from Universal, and some great information about mountain biking from Northwest Trail Alliance, I also had a chance to talk with the two BTA volunteers who were directing traffic into the station.

If you were like me, and were riding east along SE Ankeny yesterday evening, the first person you ran into was Christi Utz.

Christi moved to Oregon a few years ago and has been a BTA member for a year and a half. She doesn’t ride her bicycle to work, only because she works at home. She does, however, use her bicycle for errands around town and her son is a frequent rider too. She told me about how she got rid of her road bike after moving to Portland because her step-through bicycle is better equipped for short trips around town. In the long run, Christi is hoping to get a folding bike she can take with when she travels for work.

The next volunteer you might have passed was John Mardis.

John’s been a BTA member for several years and has volunteered with the BTA on a number of occasions, most often with our bicycle safety education program.

By John’s estimation, he’s been involved with our bicycle safety education program for around 6 years, which means he’s helped half a dozen graduating classes of children learn how to ride their bicycles safely and comfortably. Some of the kids he’s helped are now getting very close to being adults. They all know how to ride safely and legally because John, other volunteers, and our instructors believe kids should have the skills and access to ride their bicycle.

All the traffic passing by SE 22nd & Ankeny, and the smiles on John and Christi’s faces, got me excited for the three other service stations scheduled this month.

Thank you to Christi, John, Zipcar, Universal Cycles, and Northwest Trail Alliance for joining the BTA at yesterday’s service station!

• Widen existing bicycle lane from 5′ to a 10’ buffered lane
• Widen travel lanes from 9.5’ to 11’
• Improve the turning radius at the Lovejoy-Broadway intersection.

In other words, by simply repainting the lanes on the ramp to match the lanes on NW Broadway from Hoyt to Burnside, we can dedicate more space to people on bicycles while providing wider travel lanes for cars and trucks. This project is small but important, and it serves as a fantastic example of the kind of collaboration we should strive for as we rebuild and maintain our transportation system.

We wanted to help make sure this was a winning idea, so one of the first things I did was speak with BTA Board Member Lanny Gower. Lanny works at Con-Way Freight and serves on the Oregon Trucking Association’s Policy Committee. He also rides his tandem bike to work everyday and is committed to safety on the roadway, regardless of how you travel. He helped us work “across the aisle,” so to speak, and engage with the right stakeholders to make sure that in addition to building a safer bike facility, this project benefits truck drivers who need to travel on this stretch of street.

Lanny’s help, and the support of other freight stakeholders allowed us to grow the understanding of, and support for, these improvements. Before we gave a presentation about the project to Portland’s Freight Advisory Committee on May 2nd, we engaged a handful of freight advocates who made it easier for us to come to a common understanding about the benefits of the project.

Today, even though there are certainly differing opinions about the value of this project, we should have the support we need to go forward and improve the street. In the community of Portlanders who are actively engaged on bicycle issues there is a consistent argument that we need/lack political leadership to make these types of improvements. Clearly political leaders have a role to play, but the argument that our fate lies in their hands is false. As people who ride bikes it is our job to become more savvy in our approach to building and wielding support for the issues we care about. It is our job to go out into our community and make it easy for elected leaders to say yes.

In the case of NW Broadway we are strongly in support of the wider, more comfortable, and safer bike lane. We also appreciate that our friends who drive trucks (including my uncle who is an owner-operator with Watkins Shepard) have a little more room to deliver goods downtown. When we can find opportunities to work together, even when the conversation is hard, we should be leading the way. I believe we call it the Oregon Way.

Photos: Jaime Donoho

Saturday night’s event highlighted the impact of the BTA’s bicycle safety education programs. By teaching children to ride safely we are creating generations of responsible residents on bicycles, some of whom have already grown into leaders in our community.

Congressman Peter DeFazio, recipient of this year’s Bud Clark Lifetime Achievement Award, was unable to attend but spoke to the audience in a video from a bike shop in Eugene.

DeFazio described the long, hard fight he and others have gone through to get bicycle transportation and Safe Routes to Schools the funding they both deserve. Even thought he’s been fighting hard for funding since the 1990s, DeFazio enthusiastically said he’s “not done yet” and wants to see full funding restored for Safe Routes to Schools and the development of a nation-wide network of rural roads that are truly safe for bicycling.

Later in the evening the BTA honored former Bike Gallery owner Jay Graves for his lifetime of service to bicycling and to Portland. Graves had previously received the Bud Clark Lifetime Achievement Award recipient so, instead, he was awarded with a lifetime BTA Membership.

As Trek Bicycle Corportation President John Burke pointed out, “Jay Graves was into bicycle advocacy long before any retailers around the country.” More than simply influencing his local community Burke explained how Graves built his “greatest legacy…by sharing his experience with other retailers around the country.”

The BTA also wants to thank Jonah Luke who treated the crowd to two enjoyable songs throughout the evening.

Jonah’s talents were highlighted in the live auction where he teamed up with Executive Director Rob Sadowsky and Susan Otcenas, BTA Board Member and co-founder of TeamEstrogen.com, to give one lucky guest a catered dinner and private concert. Green Clean added their services to the package as well to ensure clean up after the concert will be a breeze.

Another lively exchange of bidding came about when a trip for two from LifeCycle Adventures and BTA Board Member Adnan Kadir came up for auction. Along with a terrific two-day adventure, the winning bidder walked away with airfare from Alaska Airlines.

At the end of the evening, attendees also enjoyed a delicious scoop of Salt & Straw ice cream. Not only did Salt & Straw donate dessert for all the guests, they also included an ice cream party for 100 for the live auction, which went to another lucky attendee who purchased a golden ticket earlier in the evening and who now is surely in good standing with 99 of her hungriest friends.

Finally, we want to thank every single BTA Member, whether they attended Saturday’s event or not. Without the support of our generous members our work wouldn’t be possible.

After all the excitement on Saturday we’re already looking forward to 2014′s Alice Awards!
Roll on, future city.

The reason we are sharing this communication on our blog is because we think it is important to understand how, as bicycle advocates, we are building relationships and partnerships with leaders from across the community to help find solutions to our shared problems and grow support for our cause.

Dear Bob Hillier and Roger Geller,

We would like to connect with both of you to discuss an opportunity. Members of the Freight Advisory Committee have been meeting with the Bicycle Transportation Alliance to think about a way we can work together on our shared goals of safety and mobility for all modes.

As we think about our commercial corridors in the City of Portland, whether they are designated as Streets of Citywide Significance or just function as major arterials, we realize that they present some of the toughest challenges ahead for accommodating an increasing number of safe trips while preserving freight access. One of the ideas we have been kicking around involves developing some focused design recommendations, ideas that freight and bicycle stakeholders can support, for long term improvements on these major arterials.

In places where our existing freight and bicycle master plans overlap on these busy streets we’d like to sit down with you two, the keepers of those plans, to discuss how we can best meet the multiple demands for safety, mobility, and access for all users of the road. It would be great to think through the long term goals we share and design options that help us achieve those goals, before the projects become a line item in the budget or a grant request.

We would like your help in, first, finding the streets where the bicycle and freight plans overlap, and second, thinking about design options that maximize benefits and minimize impacts at those locations. We know this could be a long and challenging conversation, which is precisely why we want to get started now, in a series of meetings, so that we can develop a useful resource for later, when we are ready to begin construction.

We look forward to working with you to answer questions and concerns about this approach. Hopefully we can find time in all of our schedules to meet during the month of April.

Sincerely,

Pia Welch, Fed Ex

Debra Dunn, Oregon Trucking Association

Jeff Swanson, Working Waterfront Coalition

Gerik Kransky, Bicycle Transportation Alliance

(Affiliations listed for identification purposes only)

See the full 2013 Bicycle Friendly State Rankings.

Every year, our partners at the League of American Bicyclists compile a comprehensive analysis and ranking of the bicycle-related safety, policies, infrastructure, and funding in all 50 states. Their work helps us understand whether or not Americans have the option to ride bikes on safe streets in our communities.

Every year Oregon scores well and in the 2013 Bicycle Friendly State rankings we came in at #3, up two spots from last year. Third place may sound good, but we certainly have room to improve.

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance exists to make our streets safe, convenient, and accessible to people riding bikes so we thought we would share some thoughts on the new ranking from a few staff members.

Rob Sadowsky, Executive Director

Each year I look at the League’s ranking and wonder what is going on. It is good to see Oregon move up. I don’t think this is because we did anything better than last year, just that we were evaluated more fairly. I also look at my former state, Illinois, and say, you’ve got to be kidding. 9? Arizona at #10? Maybe this is a contest more about who sucks less.

Some examples: Oregon has the most comprehensive state complete streets and funding package. We set aside 1% of state gas tax dollars and require all roads to accommodate bicycles and pedestrians when constructing new roads or reconstructing roads. Yet our mandatory side path sets us back down. The grades also measure expenditures of federal funding and don’t seem to take into account the State’s contributions. These are not apples to apples policy issues and I’ll take our funding and policy package over any other states, any day.

So, I’m feeling kind of mixed emotions on this report. A little blue, a little, meh. The one thing I know is that we can and should do better.

Gerik Kransky, Advocacy Director

To me, our focus in Oregon is clear. We absolutely must face the reality that we do not yet have a complete transportation system. When a person drives a car in Oregon, we can be sure that a road exists in decent condition to get them to their destination. We cannot make the same statement about people who want to use other forms of transportation. We need to invest in more safe options for getting around.

On the plus side, the Oregon Department of Transportation (OODT) is committing the majority of our upcoming statewide Surface Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) to fixing our existing roads. This is the right approach in the face of a growing maintenance backlog. What remains to be seen is how much of a commitment Oregon will make to enhancing our local streets by providing more safe options for people who want to ride a bicycle, walk, or take transit.

We have the nation’s most comprehensive statewide requirement to build complete streets with a complimentary dedication of 1% of state gas taxes to bicycling and walking projects; ORS 366.514 – The Bicycle Bill – is solid public policy. There is a good reason Oregon is close to the top. But the challenge we face is that many existing roads do not provide safe options and transportation officials use loopholes in the letter of the law to undermine its spirit.

My opinion is that we should use this ranking as a reminder of our fantastic statutory requirement, excerpted below, and the opportunity we have as advocates to hold leaders accountable to building a complete transportation system. “… Footpaths and bicycle trails, including curb cuts or ramps as part of the project, shall be provided wherever a highway, road or street is being constructed, reconstructed or relocated. …”

Susan Peithman, Advocate

I’m a competitive person and the fact that we’re #3 and not #1 drives me crazy.

I can rattle off a million reasons why Oregon is the best state in the US to ride bicycles. However, the reason why, in my opinion, Oregon should be #1 is because we are the best example of per capita spending on bicycle and pedestrian projects. I think the key indicator to bike friendliness is whether or not a state is willing to put money where their mouth is by funding infrastructure, education, encouragement and safety programs.

In my three and a half years at the BTA I’ve seen Oregon move from 8th in 2011 to 5th in 2012 to 3rd in 2013. I believe the progress is a result of the hard work of folks over the last decade to fight for funding at the legislature and ODOT to dedicate money for active transportation programs such as the ODOT Flexible Fund and the Urban Trails Program. However, the new structure of the Federal Transportation Bill led ODOT to restructure their programs, which resulted in the loss of all but a paltry sum of our dedicated funding.

Without dedicated funding, I doubt we’ll ever get to #1 and we’ll have to fight hard to stay in the top 5. We must continue to advocate for and communicate the benefits of bicycles in our communities and work to set aside funding for active transportation. The BTA wants Oregon to be #1 and we need your help to get there.

Carl Larson, Advocate

8th, 3rd, 4th…I’m happy as long as we’re NOT #1. Oregon is a great state for bicycling and this designation reminds us that we can get even better.

At third, we’re leaders who have more work to do. At third, competitive people like Susan Peithman are furiously working to be #1.

At #1 we’d risk losing sight of the larger reality: even in the top-10 states, people don’t ride bicycles as much as they’d like. If these states want to offer bicycling as a safe and attractive transportation option, they’ll need to aim higher than the bar that Washington state is setting — more funding, smarter laws, better integrated education, and safer road design.

This list gives lower-ranking states good feedback on how they can improve and where they can look for examples and guidance. The list does not, however, define the upper reaches of our nation’s potential.

Will Vanlue, Communications Manager

I’m decidedly confused about Oregon’s ranking this year. It’s nice to be in the top three but, like a lot of states, we earned fewer points over all than in past years. We’re basically tied with states #4 and #5, Minnesota and Delaware, and we’re not that far ahead of any state in the top 10, as far as ranking criteria is concerned.

It’s easy to look at a list like this for an answer to the question, “Where’s the best state to ride a bicycle?” Is it “better” to ride a bicycle in Washington than it is in Oregon? The answer depends heavily on which part of each state you’re trying to ride in. Urban Washington looks a lot different than rural Oregon, and vice versa.

My take-away from this year’s ranking is really how much ground everyone in the US has to make up to get anywhere near the safety, accessibility, and comfort of other countries’ transportation networks.

Our ranking feels less like evidence that Oregon “is better” than 47 other states and more like evidence we’re improving at a slightly faster rate than most places in the country — yet at the same time, more slowly than Colorado and Washington. Sometimes trajectory is more important than position.

I absolutely love riding my bike!  Especially on these beautiful, sunshine days, but even in the rain, I love it. I love the feeling of freedom, fresh air, and exercise.  I love nodding to other cyclists, sharing the joy of riding.

Recently, however, I was getting discouraged because I noticed my left shoulder was hurting after any ride that was more than 15 minutes long.  What a drag!

So, I became a detective…  What was I doing on my right side that I was not doing on my left side?

The first thing I noticed was my left hip was not moving.  My right hip went up and down as I pumped my right leg, but my left hip stayed stationary no matter what my left leg was doing.  So I started purposefully moving my left hip when my knee was bent and down when my leg was straight.

This felt strange at first, but good.  When I scanned my body to see what else I felt happening, I noticed that my left shoulder moved more when I consciously moved my left hip.  When my hip didn’t move, my left shoulder stayed held up by my ear.

For a few weeks I spent some of each ride focusing on my hips and shoulders moving, especially my stubborn left side.  With this new movement, my shoulder and neck didn’t hurt after my ride.

Now, if I start to feel the little inklings of pain in my shoulder, I know that a few minutes of focusing on my hips will ease my shoulders.  It’s awesome what a little extra awareness can do!

The next level of investigation I took on with my riding and self-use was to see if this increased hip movement would allow me to ride without hands.  Turns out that if I do my old habitual way of biking, I will always steer off to the right and have to grab the handle bars. If I do my new way of biking with my left side active, then I can ride without holding on.  Now I practice this trick on quiet streets.

There is so much that can be learned with just an extra dose of awareness.  I would love to hear about any investigations you have done to get to the root of discomfort while biking.

And if you want to learn some simple movement exercises that will enhance your comfort while riding, as well as information about bike fitting, check out these upcoming workshops: http://www.feldenkraisportland.com/workshops.

When my class and I were on our community ride last week, we rode by the Mayor’s house.  Nancy, Mayor Hales’ wife, came out to walk their dog and talked to those of us who were at the end of the line of students.  I told her what we were doing and about the bicycle safety program.

She was very impressed and said, “The mayor will love to hear this! I wish I had my camera.”

And last night at our annual auction, I only heard praise about the program from our parents.

Thanks again for a fabulous week!

Do you have great stories about a bike safety class?
Send them to LeeAnne and we might share them here on the blog!