Comments on: Rise in cycling creates puzzles for Portland

By: neighborhood development articles & a new PDC Grant opportunity « CHURCHOFTAM

Thu, 27 May 2010 19:49:16 +0000

[…] in our hood; one is about the recent nearby redevelopment of Williams and the other is about reinventing the bike corridor. it will be interesting to see what happens in the future for Williams.. I think the focus on […]

By: Anita Van Asperdt

Anita Van Asperdt — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:45:43 +0000

It is great that Portland is growing its alternative transportation network. I grew up in the Netherlands and there are many good solutions that my home country has to offer. For example a bike lane can be located between the sidewalk and the parking lane that way only a shy buffer is needed between the parked cars and the bike lane, this saves about 3 feet of space.
I am also a big advocate for designing our bikeroutes so kids and teenagers will be encourage to use them. Biking to school not only is healthy and helps our environment it also gives kids a sense of being independent. This sense is developmentally very important and something we do not provide our kids and teenagers these days.
In the Netherlands kids learn how to bike safely in so called “traffic gardens” they even earn a traffic diploma. My dream is to see those being developed in Oregon as well. If anyone is interested in learning more about traffic gardens please feel free to contact me.

Anita Van Asperdt
anita@landcurrent.com

By: Brett

Brett — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:40:35 +0000

As portland grows its alternative transportation networks, definitive education of both drivers and riders who share the routes needs to be addressed. Both drivers and riders are militant about sharing transportation routes – I see examples every day of the animosity growing between users.

Further, financial responsibility of ALL users (both human and machine powered) to maintain and create transportation routes will need to be defined as one group lessens and the other grows. I know I point out the obvious, but I haven’t seen anything proposed by either group of users or the governing bodies of how to share or supplement costs.

I enjoy and use both means of transportation. As I use one method more and reduce my consumption of fossil fuels, I also reduce the taxes paid on that fuel. On my bicycle, I don’t pay road taxes, registration nor title fees – all of which support some sort of infrastructure maintenance or development.

As a cyclist, I believe we need to step up and carry our fare share and not rely solely upon the generosity of automotive related users and other public funding. We need to be more active in the financial needs of these bicycle specific projects.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 12 May 2010 16:42:16 +0000

Something will have to be done. I’ve been cycling on that route for several years. Increasingly you see dangerous situations groups of seven or eight cyclists will bunch together and some will pass slower cyclists without much room — parked cars on the right and traffic going 40 mph on the left. the bikes spill into the traffic lane. Cars often can’t move over because of other cars to their left. The bike traffic will increase too if there’s another round of development of apartments that will appeal to the young workers who will be drawn to the bike-friendly nature of the area. That seems likely. Once the weather gets better for good this summer that corrider will be packed with bikes. Developers and business owners will see the draw and put in more businesses and living units that appeal to that crowd and it will continue to grow. It has been interesting to watch how it’s developed from being mostly a wasteland only five or six years ago.