THE NEW PORTLAND BICYCLE MASTER PLAN will be presented to Portland City Council on Feb. 4th at 2:00 pm. It has recently been endorsed by the Planning Commission. The present plan was created in 1996 and needs to be updated. The new plan provides a blueprint for making Portland a world-class bicycling city, reducing the causes of climate change, improving public health, promoting prosperity and building a close-knit community. It will set the course for the next 20 years. The plan will include an “80% Strategy” which will get Bike Boulevards within one-quarter mile of 80% of Portlanders and a “World Class Strategy” which will include Cycle Tracks and “low stress” bikeways similar to Copenhagen, Amsterdam and other world class cycling cities. For more information or to write a letter endorsing the plan, go to www.portlandonline.com/transportation/BicycleMasterPlan .
Plans to close the ARCH BRIDGE CONNECTING OREGON CITY WITH WEST LINN for renovation have been delayed for 9 months to 1 year. This is good news for cyclists as the bridge had been scheduled to shut down in January, 2010 for up to two years. This would cause a major inconvenience, especially for the Oregon City business district. It is also a popular cycling route with no convenient detours. Federal officials asked ODOT to conduct several additional reviews including innovative contractor bids, minimizing “unknowns” and developing a mitigation strategy for problems. When Open Houses are held I’ll keep you informed so we can attend or send letters.
IF A CYCLIST IS HIT IN AN UNMARKED BIKE LANE (SUCH AS AT AN INTERSECTION) HE/SHE IS NOT PROTECTED BY LAW. In Portland a woman was the victim of a “right hook”. The driver was cited for “failure to yield to a bicycle”. The driver admitted she turned without checking her blind spot. The judge came to a different conclusion. Because the defendant’s failure to yield was in an unmarked portion of the roadway (i. e. intersection), she cannot be judged liable for the violation. Three experienced bike lawyers felt the judge had made an error in his interpretation of the law. Possibly the legislature will have to clarify the law. It gives you an additional reason to be careful when you are on the road.
PORTLAND BIKE COUNTS HAVE SHOWN THE FIRST DECLINE IN 5 YEARS. I am one of hundreds of volunteers who count bikes at intersections every summer. I was surprised that my counts were down. But then I found out that bike counts were down across the board. Here are some of the findings:
- Bike traffic on the 4 main bike-friendly downtown bridges (Hawthorne, Broadway, Steel, and Burnside) and at 100 non-bridge locations citywide have shown an annual decrease of 8% and 5% respectively.
- Compared to 2008 counts, overall bike use in Portland decreased 6%.
- Helmet use is down from 80% in 2008 to 77% in 2009 (women wear helmets 8% more often than men).
- The amount of female riders went down 1% in 2009 — from 32% to 31%. The decline in male ridership at the 100 non-bridge locations went down 4% in 2009.
Were numbers for all modes down? Did lower gas prices have something to do with the findings? Did higher unemployment factor in? We don’t know and the full report is scheduled to be released soon.