bicycle commuting

Rita Hibbard's picture

Rainy Portland makes a really serious move to bike commuting - 25 percent on bikes by 2030

Oct. 7, 2009
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Portland wants 25 percent of its commuters on bikes by 2030. I am impressed. Not only is it green, but it's hardcore.

Because, you know, it rains in Portland. It's gray, sloshy rain. Rains all day. Rains from the ground up, and sky down. If you livrita_hibbardweb2e in Portland, or Seattle, and you spend any time at all on a bike, you know what I mean. When it rains so much and you're commuting, the rain comes up to meet you. And it's gray, dirty rain by that point. But I digress.

I admire this move by Portland. It's in the city's official Bicycle Plan for 2030.  I took a look at this plan, and it calls for an expansion of the city's network of bikeways from 630 to 930 miles.  Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, all you other west coast cities that pride yourselves on being green? What say you?

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    • Rita Hibbard's picture

    Apply civility and good road planning to stem the road rage against cyclists

    Sep. 25, 2009
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    If we are going to share the road, push the green commute and all, some motorists seriously are going to have to reconsider their attitude toward cyclists. That's what Bill Schneider concludes in New West, and as a longtime cyclist, I have to agree. He points out that the majority of drivers are courteous and get the "share the road" idea, but that a small but dangerous minority seem to viciously hate cyclists and go out of their way to show the hate by throwing bottles, veering close to cyclists at high speeds, yelling obscenities. You get the idea. Worse, speaking from personal experience, you never know when the haters are going to emerge from behind the wheel.

    Those who share this point of view, or even sympathize with it, will be pointing out here that cyclists do stupid things.  Not all of them stop at all the stop signs, for example. Sometimes they inconvenience motorists by riding side-by-side in a lane. Highly annoying. Okay. But as Schneider points out, not all drivers obey 100 percent of the road rules. Think about it.  Have you ever seen a driver talking on a cell phone? Rolling through a stop sign? Running a red light? Should we throw missiles at the driver, swerve dangerously close or "tap"  him with our fenders just to each him a lesson? Would that fix things? We call that road rage. It's against the law.

    You can tell Schneider and I are on the same page. Read his column. It's a good one.

    The conflicts between cyclists and drivers are legendary, but perhaps a little road engineering would help. In Vancouver, B.C., recently, cyclists recently took a confrontational attitude in a ride by members of a controversial bike advocacy group called Critical Mass, active in many cities.

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