Cycle City, USA

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



Cycle City, USA
How Portland plans to become the first world-class bike city in America.

by Jay Walljasper
posted Nov 29, 2010


It’s become a cliché that Portland is America’s most livable city, a hotbed for innovative ways to support green policies, public spaces, pedestrian amenities, transit, and, of course, bicycles. In fact some people are growing weary (and the rest of us envious) of hearing about how great things are in Oregon’s largest city.

When it comes to bicycling, at least, the cliché is true. Today Portland sports the highest share of bicycle commuters (6-8 percent) of any large U.S. city. It’s also the only large city to earn the League of American Bicyclists’ coveted platinum status as a bicycle-friendly city.

But Portland wasn’t born with bike lanes. “No one in the 1970s or ‘80s would have singled out Portland as a great town for biking,” admits city Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller. Its current success is the result of 20 years of transportation planning with bikes in mind.

That knowledge makes the city pretty ambitious about what it can accomplish over the next 20 years.

Earlier this year, the city council unanimously approved the 2030 Bicycle Master Plan, which envisions Portland as “a world-class bicycling city” with three times the bikeways it has now. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/cycle-city-usa

[eilen]

1. +100000 k&R

[MissB]

2. Dh just took off on his morning commute

to downtown Portland on his bike. He usually crosses the river to ride along the river and then crosses back into town. Lovely ride.

Portland has put a lot of money into bike lanes, but it is not without controversy. The decision to put green boxes at difficult intersections is probably the best thing done so far.

[YOY]

3. I just got hit today biking in.

Bam. Flew 5 feet. Just fine got up dancing.

Pedestrians asking me if I was OK.

A cop saw it all. He was concerned with who to give a ticket to. I told him to not give one to anyone.

Damn rain and a nasty intersection.

We both should have been more aware.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

4. Ahhhh... My future home (hopefully)!........

I've wanted to live in Portland since my college days. Hopefully becoming an RN will finally allow me to move there.