Category: Biking

Evening Bike Commute

Distance: 13.5 miles
Riding time: 90 minutes
Max speed: 20.4 mph
Average speed: 8.9 mph
Temperature: 45º
Soundtrack: none
Route:

  • 164th to Old Evergreen Highway
  • Old Evergreen Highway to Interstate 205
  • Interstate 205 bike path to Airport Way
  • Airport Way to 158th Ave
  • 158th through subdivision to Fremont
  • Fremont to 156th Ave
  • 156th to home via “the private drive”
This was my first ride since mid-December and, more notably, the first ride from my new job. Although the route seems straightforward, I did not note all the sidetracking and goose chasing I did because of my unfamiliarity with the route. At one point the bike route sign pointed to a road that was marked “Dead End” with another sign. Since there was a bike path only yards away, I took that instead. 10 minutes later, I’m on a freeway ramp getting onto Interstate 205. I had to turn around and ride the shoulder in the wrong direction in order to get back to the aforementioned “dead end.” It did, however, lead me to the Glenn Jackson Bridge which has a bike path that runs down the middle of the bridge between the 8 lanes of auto traffic. The bridge spans about 2 miles and over a mile of that is downhill. Still, when I reached Airport Way I was pretty exhausted and limped home the rest of the way.

Rare Saturday bike ride

Distance: 14.4 miles
Riding time: 87 minutes
Max speed: 32.3 mph
Average speed: 9.9 mph
Temperature: 60º with lots of rain
Soundtrack: Science Friday (return legs only)
Route:

  • Drove the van to Marine Drive and 43rd
  • NE Marine Drive to N Vancouver Ave
  • N Vancouver Ave to NE Broadway
  • NE Broadway across Broadway Bridge to NW Broadway
  • Broadway to Alder (and office)
  • Alder to Waterfront (for rally)
  • Max to NE 148th
  • 148th to Halsey to 162nd to home

Yesterday I attended the We Are All Traffic rally underneath the Hawthorne Bridge. Prior to the rally there were a number of memorial rides that originated at spots where bikers had been hurt or killed by cars. I chose to join the one where Bob Verrinder was struck while crossing Marine Drive back in October. Most of the people on the ride were Verrinder’s friends and members of the same cycling club.

The weather was good for riding up until the point the ride actually began. About a half mile after we started pedaling the rain was coming down in sheets and I was soaked to the skin before we were even halfway downtown. I remembered that I had stashed some spare clothes at work so I detoured there before joining the rest of the crowd under the Hawthorne Bridge. The rally went great and I really enjoyed all of the speakers but especially Siobhan Doyle and Susie Kubota. Most of my bike heroes (Jonathan Maus, Joe Kurmaskie, Ray Thomas) were there which also was cool.

Afterwards, I grabbed lunch from the nearest open food cart (gyros) and returned to the office long enough to eat it. I took the usual route home for bad weather which mostly involves reading on the Max.

Another lawyer speaks up for cyclists

Another lawyer is convinced that the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) is biased against bicyclists. Robert Mionske makes the case in a recent column for VeloNews. In that column, he talks about the three recent cases reckless driving accidents in where motorists were not charged after hitting a cyclist as a result of breaking the law. In each of those cases, the Portland police cited specific reasons that those motorists were not charged or even ticketed for a moving violation. Mionske introduces a fourth example where the PPB did cite a cyclist even though their previously stated criteria for doing so had not been met. In other words, the PPB has a double-standard for determining whether an accident should result in an investigation, criminal charges and/or a traffic citation. That standard is heavily biased in favor of motorists to the detriment of cyclists.