How cool is it not to have to stop at stop signs? Even for this relatively law-abiding chica, it’s pretty darn cool. And I mention this because in Idaho, on a bike, you don’t actually have to stop for stop signs. Probably most of you know this. It’s called the…
When you’re trying to get somewhere by bicycle, a bike-specific map is a pretty amazing resource. Granted, in a pinch any map will do, but a map that specifically delineates the lower-traffic routes, the multi-use paths, and the streets that are to be avoided at all costs (or at least…
Earlier this month–January 10th, to be exact–Washington Park officially became a pay-to-park destination. The Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, Children’s Museum, Oregon Zoo, the huge playground and the archery range: all of those have parking spaces that fall under Portland Parks and Rec jurisdiction, and now they all cost money. (a…
Sometimes, a bike route I take a lot falls out of practice for me. Generally, it’s because I stop doing something that I have been doing, like when I graduated from school and stopped going to SW Portland as much, or when I stopped teaching Bike Club and thus stopped…
There are some excellent multi-use trails in and around Portland. The Springwater Corridor comes to mind, for example: over 20 miles of awesome, paved, off-street path that will take you all the way from Portland to Boring. The Springwater’s kind of a pathy institution, a sort of jogging-walking-biking superhighway on…
A few weeks ago, I biked out to Oxbow Park for a friend’s birthday. Since it’s so much more lovely, I always take the longer Springwater Corridor out there instead of SE Division St–and this time, when I got to the end of the paved section, I saw this: I’ve…
I’m a little incensed whenever I come to bike infrastructure that looks like this: (not 20 feet before, there’d been an actual bike lane. Then suddenly it’s a turn lane for cars too?) East of 82nd Avenue, SE Division actually has fairly nice bike lanes in both directions. They’re a…
I don’t want to sound like Ms-I’m-so-entitled here, but it really annoys me when roads are paved like this: This is not exactly bike friendly. Granted, at least that part way off to the right is sort of pavement, but the super-groovy, rattles-your-bones, collects-all-the-glass sort of pavement we’re talking here…
The Springwater Corridor, along the east side of the Willamette River, is one of the major human-powered superhighways in Portland–every day it’s full of bike commuters, joggers, walkers, birdwatchers, joyriders, you name it. But on the other side of the river, there’s also a lovely multi-use path which is sometimes…
You may remember the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway that I wrote about back in the day, a 132-mile, bike-friendly route from Champoeg State Park to Eugene. Well! It just came to my attention that Oregon Parks and Rec just opened five new scenic bikeways, ranging from an approximately 20-mile loop…