Comment of the Week: Slow Skyline Boulevard down, don’t widen it

If drivers simply slowed down, riding on Skyline could always be this pleasant.
(Photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

We’re long overdue to put the spotlight on a great comment.

Our Comment of the Week goes to noted local activist and lawyer (and BikePortland supporter) Scott Kocher.

On Wednesday he shared insights about a road he knows very well: NW Skyline Blvd. His comment came on our story about Multnomah County’s online open house that seeks feedback on their 20 Year Road Plan. One project on that list would consider “augmenting shoulders” and possibly providing, “enhanced shoulder bikeways.”

Here’s Scott’s comment:

“I agree: slow Skyline down, don’t widen it. I met a surgeon once who lives on Skyline (and doesn’t bike) who commented to me that he figures Skyline must be “littered with dead bicyclists.” His phrase not mine, and I think it reflects a common misunderstanding. To my knowledge which goes back roughly 20 years, nobody has ever been killed cycling on Skyline. The VZ Crash Map (data from Portland to Newberry/McNamee) is consistent with that: No deaths and 4 injuries in 10 years. Nobody is texting except on the few straightaways because you’d drive off the road. Likewise if you’re driving drunk you won’t make it very far. There aren’t many intersections. The curves keep speeds much lower than on other thru routes in the area. The people who ride up there tend to be almost as fast as the vehicles (most of them, in most places), which means a relatively small speed differential. There’s poor separation but it’s a gradual approach, with more time to avoid a crash, and lesser injury if a driver did god forbid rear-end somebody. My only near miss up there in 18 years was a (near) left hook: driver coming the other way turning left into her driveway apparently didn’t see 4 riders wearing hi-viz with 500-lumen flashing daytime headlights. I’ve seen some very bad passes. I’ve seen the aftermath of roadway departure crashes. If left hooks, bad passes and roadway departures are the problem, wider shoulders won’t help. Wider shoulders might well encourage more speed, more cut-thru traffic, and more crashes.

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If PBOT complied with the 20MPH Ordinance (Skyline is a non-arterial in a residence district) then people who want to drive fast would have to slow down, modestly increasing drive times and reducing cut-thru traffic off Hwy 30 and Hwy 26. People who live there would have a place to walk and jog and walk dogs without fear instead of being shut in. Everyone, including people who want to bike or e-bike, would receive the level of safety guaranteed to them by the the 20 MPH law and Ordinance. Which went into effect 14 months ago. How about it?”

What I like about Scott’s comment is that he uses a mix of data, direct personal experience, and calm reasoning to bolster his points. He also shares how current policy could impact the issue and paints a picture of what Skyline could be like if he got his wishes. Then Scott ends with a subtle call-to-action.

Thanks for the comment Scott.

But wait! There’s more! Here are a few other great comments that have come in recently:

— Don’t miss El Biciclero’s eloquent and though-provoking explanation of why we really don’t have any true “bikeways” in Portland.

— maxD shared several very strong points of concern about ODOT’s plans for lids over I-5 as part of their Rose Quarter project.

– Esther reminded us about the power of inclusive language.

Thank you for bucking the trend of not reading comments.

While it takes vigilance and dedication to the conversation, I believe our comment sections helps the community learn and grow together. It takes all of us working together to make them a helpful resource. Please do your part by: writing productive comments, flagging inappropriate ones (contact me directly), and nominating great ones by typing “comment of the week” as a reply.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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Look what just came out of The Vanilla Workshop

The Speedvagen Ready Made Disc OG. Built in Portland.
(Photos: The Vanilla Workshop)

Portland’s framebuilder scene has changed a lot since its heyday more than a decade ago. At one point it felt like a new builder would arrive on the scene every month. Builders were the toast of the town and were invited to display their creations everywhere from City Hall to City Club and even the Portland Airport.

The boom has passed and the number of local framebuilders has shrunk back to just a handful. The builders that remain are mostly the ones that seemed to have always been here. Sacha White is one of them.

White’s Vanilla Bicycles were some of the most coveted bicycles on the planet. “What Tiffany is to pearls, Sacha White is to bicycle frames,” was how he was introduced to a group of business leaders at an event in 2007. Now known as The Vanilla Workshop, a collaborative approach to business White launched in 2015, he and his team of bicycle artisans continue to set standards in the industry.

The Vanilla Workshop’s Richard Pool recently got in touch to share their latest “Ready Made” offering from the Speedvagen family. White stopped making only one-off, custom bikes long ago. Like other builders, he realized it’s impossible to scale-up and get more of your bikes on the road when you make everything by yourself with your own two hands. White found a niche doing small-batch builds. Vanilla’s Ready Made bikes are semi-custom. They start with a stock geometry and design and build a run of sizes. Customers can then choose a parts kit, paint and which braze-ons (attachment points for racks, pump, bottles, fenders) they’d like.

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Their latest Speedvagen Ready Made model is the Disc OG. Here’s more from the company:

“The Speedvagen Disc OG is presented without preciousness. There are no frills, the Disc OG is a dedicated hand crafted tool for road riding and racing. It’s a workhorse. Following our Speedvagen method of stripping away all that isn’t necessary we landed on a bike that is ready to rip and easy to work on, or upgrade later. The frame design uses our own Speedvagen tubing, signature seat mast, hour glass seat stays, head tube and race ready stock geometry, perfect for long days in the saddle or sprints to the line.”

The bike comes with a standard build kit that can be upgraded and customized to your wishes. The base price is $5995 and it takes $500 to reserve one. Wait time is just 2-3 months, a relative blink of the eye compared to the 3-4 year wait back in Vanilla’s custom days.

More details on their website.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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Jobs of the Week: Community Cycling Center, Breadwinner, Bike Clark County, Rapha

Spring must be approaching because we’ve had five new job listings come in this week. If you’re looking for a new position or want to get your foot in the door of our local bike industry, we’ve got some excellent opportunities for you.

Learn more about each one via the links below…

–> Bike Camp Supervisor (seasonal, May – Sept.) – Community Cycling Center

–> Bike Camp Instructor (seasonal, summer) – Community Cycling Center

–> Customer Service Advisor – Rapha Racing

–> Customer Service and Sales Manager – Breadwinner Cycles

–> Bike Mechanic – Bike Clark County

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For a complete list of available jobs, click here.

Be the first to know about new job opportunities by signing up for our daily Job Listings email or by following @BikePortland on Twitter.

These are paid listings. And they work! If you’d like to post a job on the Portland region’s “Best Local Blog” two years running, you can purchase a listing online for just $75. Learn more at our Job Listings page.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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Mint Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Stuff these shells with mint and ricotta, then bake them with Italian sausage and tomato sauce. They're amazing! These stuffed shells are perfect for a family meal or a potluck.

Continue reading "Mint Ricotta Stuffed Shells" »

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Fun Facts about Toilets

Content originally published and Shared from http://perfectbath.com

Can you imagine life without toilet paper? Just thinking about it makes you feel nervous, right? Some people find talking about toilets quite disgusting, but there are actually many interesting facts about them. Here are some:

Photo by Renee Verberne on Unsplash

What did people use before toilet paper was invented?
Well, what you used for your personal bathroom needs before the invention of toilet paper depended to some degree on your social status and your geographical location.

If you were wealthy, then you might use wool, or a soft – and washable – rag. The Ancient Romans used sponges on sticks and then soaked in water.

If you were not so well off, then the most common thing to do was simply to grab a fistful of grass, leaves or straw to do what needed to be done.

In some parts of the world, going to the toilet always meant just going to the nearest river or stream and letting the current carry the waste away. Any wiping was done just by hand. That is why in India and some parts of the Middle East it is considered offensive to eat or pass food at table with your left hand – because that’s the one that you would use in the river.

In many European countries today, the use of toilet paper is considered dirty and unhygienic. In these countries the most common practice is a thorough, soapy wash and rinse afterwards using a ‘bidet.’ This is a sort of low basin with hot water tap and soap that you sit on and is usually placed next to the toilet for convenience. Source: Owlcation

Are toilets really dirty?
Contrary to popular belief, the toilet seat is the cleanest part in the bathroom since most people take great care to ensure its clean before sitting on it, according to University of Arizona microbiologist Charles Gerba. The bathroom door handle is also a less germ-infested part, since bacteria cannot thrive on cold, dry surfaces for long. Source: MSN

How do most people put the toilet paper on the holder?
Over $100,000 US dollars was spent on a study to determine whether most people put their toilet paper on the holder with the flap in front or behind. The conclusion: three out of four people have the flap in the front. Source: PlayBuzz

Are you surprised about some of the facts above? If you enjoyed this, then you should check out other articles here on our blog. We also offer the latest toilets available on the market – browse our website for options!

 

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Wonk Night Wednesday (3/6): Let’s talk about the I-5 Rose Quarter project

What’s the purpose of this proposed overcrossing at NE Clackamas street? Is it only to dress up the plan drawings and hide the widening of the freeway beneath it? (Graphics: ODOT)

While the fact that the Oregon Department of Transportation wants to widen I-5 through our central city gets most of the attention (reasonably so), an estimated half of the project’s $500 million price tag will be spent on surface streets and non-freeway infrastructure.

If the I-5 Rose Quarter project ever gets built, what does ODOT and the Portland Bureau of Transportation have in mind for people who use this area on foot, on bikes, and other low-impact mobility devices? What can we do as a community to make sure that if we make a big investment in the Rose Quarter, we get the most possible bang for our buck? What can you do to influence this project?

If you have questions, are maybe feeling a bit overwhelmed by ODOT’s environmental assessment (EA) documents, and want to learn more about where things stand on this mega-project, we’d like to invite you to a special Wonk Night next week.

Join us this Wednesday (3/6) at 6:00pm in the offices of Lancaster Engineering (321 SW 4th Avenue, 4th Floor). We’ll have Q & As with smart people, break into groups and delve more deeply into the EA, learn from each others perspectives, and ultimately — set ourselves up to have a strong influence on the project.

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On Wednesday night we’ll be joined by leaders from the community including volunteers from Bike Loud PDX, engineers and planners from Lancaster Engineering (our host), reps from No More Freeways PDX, Planning & Sustainability Commissioner Chris Smith, City Observatory economist and writer Joe Cortright, Iain MacKenzie from Next Portland, and others.

Everyone is welcome (agency staff too!). The goal of the event is to connect with each other, raise awareness about the project, and help us all make well-informed comments about the EA. And you’ll note that our event is the night before ODOT’s big public open house on the project (that was no accident).

In conclusion, I’ll leave you with comments about the project made by PBOT Commissioner Chloe Eudaly earlier this month:

“We are prioritizing public engagement because this project is one of the most significant transportation efforts in recent years. It will have an enormous impact on how people from across the region and even across the state travel to, through, and around Portland. I want to ensure that this project reflects our values, particularly our commitment to equity, sustainability, and safety.

ODOT and other state transportation leaders need to hear that the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project must do more than make it easier to merge on highways in the Rose Quarter. Consistent with Central City 2035 (adopted by City Council in May 2018), a project that focuses exclusively on the comfort of highway drivers is unacceptable. This is why the City partnered with ODOT to ensure that this venture prioritizes the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. It should make it dramatically easier and safer for people walking, biking, taking transit, and driving in the Rose Quarter.”

Bring your questions, some snacks and some drinks to share (we’re trying to roust some donations but not sure if anything will come through in time), and please consider joining us.

Wonk Night: I-5 Rose Quarter project

Wednesday, March 6th, 6:00 to 8:00 pm

Lancaster Engineering – 321 SW 4th Avenue, 4th Floor)

(If you’ve never been to a Wonk Night, read the recaps below to get a sense of how they go.)

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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How activists and students collaborate with PBOT to get real projects on the ground

The crosswalk, bike lanes and plaza that exist today on SW 3rd Avenue at Burnside started as astroturf and tape laid down by Better Block PDX.
(Photos: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)

Most close watchers of the Portland transportation world have heard of Better Block PDX. They’re the scrappy group of tactical urbanism activists who burst onto the scene by creating a public plaza in auto parking spaces along a block of SW Harvey Milk Street in 2013. They went on to lead successful projects on SW 3rd Avenue and Naito Parkway that led to permanent changes in our streetscape.

What you might not realize is the reason they’ve been quiet for the past few years isn’t because they’ve gone away. It’s because, instead of classic tactical urbanism that often involves rogue actions like human-protected bike lanes and the unsanctioned deployment of traffic cones to slow drivers down, they’ve been working behind-the-scenes.

“The Pathway program is an amazing opportunity in applied learning for PSU students… they get to bring ambitious ideas to life.”
— Jihane Nami PSU Institute for Sustainable Solutions

The success of Better Naito unlocked a key realization for Better Block. During that project they strengthened partnerships with graduate students in Portland State University’s Masters of Urban and Regional Planning program. The aspiring engineers and planners developed detailed traffic plans and crunched data before, during, and after the project. When the City of Portland’s Bureau of Transportation realized the value of this work, and began to trust it, something powerful happened: Everyone involved realized the power of collaboration.

When former PBOT Commissioner Steve Novick literally jumped up-and-down with praise for Better Block’s work on Naito at its launch in 2016, it was a tangible validation of the group’s trajectory.

Former PBOT Commissioner Steve Novick was an ardent supporter of Better Block.

Better Block has spent the past three years working with PSU students to develop plans for a host of other transportation projects submitted to them by the community via their annual request for proposals. The relationship has matured into the PSU Project Pathway, a program that integrates tactical urbanism into the academic curriculum.

For the past two years, this collaboration has been supported by PSU’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions (ISS). In addition to managing the Pathway program, ISS has funded a Better Block intern. Private engineering firms such as Nelson Nygaard and David Evans and Associates, Inc. have also played a major role.

ISS Project Manager Jihane Nami says the program is, “An amazing opportunity in applied learning for PSU students: not only do they wrestle with real-life planning, communication and engineering issues; they also get the opportunity to work alongside professionals across the city to bring ambitious ideas to life.”

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A total of nine projects have gone through the Pathway since 2014, including four of the projects that will be built in the first phase of the City of Portland’s Central City in Motion plan.

Due to start construction this summer with a $25 million budget, the CCIM plan bears an indelible imprint of Better Block’s Pathway program.

Jason Nolin, a Master of Urban and Regional Planning student who worked on one of the projects, sang Better Block’s praises in a statement shared by the group. “Our team studied how to improve the pedestrian environment along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and SE Grand Ave — a challenging knot to untangle with the freight traffic, the businesses, the streetcar, the car-centric urban form, and the sheer volume of cars pushing through,” Nolin said. “Better Block’s awareness of the city and understanding of technical restraints — and opportunities! — encouraged us to come up with really clever ideas.”

Better Block volunteer Ryan Hashagen recently contacted us to share a rundown of each project and explain how the students were involved:

Project #1 – Better Burnside Bridge
During the 2016 academic year Master of Urban and Regional Planning students created a transportation plan with alternative designs for a protected bike plan and dedicated bus lane on the Burnside bridge.

Project #3 – Grand/MLK Pedestrian Project
As part of the 2018-19 Project Pathway, Planning students created a community engagement, design alternative, and an evaluation criteria plan for pedestrian, bicycle, and transit improvements along the Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Grand Street couplet.

Project #5 – Better Madison Bus Lane Project
During the 2017-2018 academic year Planning and Civil Engineering students created a traffic control plan and designed street alternatives to decrease congestion on SW Madison Street between SW 5th Ave and SW 1st Ave.

Project #17 – Better Naito
During the 2015 academic year Civil Engineering students created an alternative analysis and facility design plan for a more bicycle, pedestrian, and community friendly Naito Parkway. This project was seasonally implemented during the summer of 2016 through 2018 and is being considered as a permanent project in Central City in Motion plan.

This is Portland at its finest. Where activists collaborate with academics and city staff to make real and lasting changes to our city.

And there’s a role for you to play too: If you have an idea for how to re-imagine the public right-of-way, make sure your submit a proposal to Better Block. Their current RFP closes March 8th. Who knows, maybe your project will be the next one to get built.

— Jonathan Maus: (503) 706-8804, @jonathan_maus on Twitter and jonathan@bikeportland.org

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