Portland, Oregon wins bike friendly honors

[depakid]

Portland has a lot to offer bicyclists.

Amenities include: Bike lanes, blue bike lanes, sharrows -- "shared-lane marking," in Portland bicycle-speak -- and green bike boxes being painted this spring at about a dozen intersections.

On Tuesday morning, this bike-proud city celebrated an honor that recognizes its efforts to better accommodate bicyclists: the coveted Platinum designation as a bike-friendly environment. League of American Bicyclists bestowed Portland as the first major metro area to earn the designation.

"We have accomplished in Portland," Scott Bricker of Bicycle Transportation Alliance said, "a tremendous amount in the 18 years that bicycling really has been a focus of the city. And we're still trying to catch the next big wave. Currently, I think we're at base camp. Base platinum. It's like the single-degree black belt."

The criteria for earning platinum are based on what League of American Bicyclists calls its 5Es -- engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation and planning. It's spawned a lively competition nationwide for recognition by the group and its Bicycle Friendly Community Program.

Diane Chalmers, vice president of Chris King Precision Components, said Portland's reputation lured the company to the city in December 2003 after 27 years in California.

"We came to Portland not only because of the bicycle culture that existed at that time, but because of the promise of the future here," she said.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1209525929199200.xml&coll=7
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Related story: Portland goes platinum

Over the past eight years, the city has invested about 0.7 percent of its transportation capital budget on building a better bicycling network. That has spurred an astonishing 6 percent of Portlanders to use a bike as their primary commute vehicle. Another 10 percent cycle as their secondary commute.

The payoff is huge for public health, for air quality, for reduced traffic congestion -- and for the civic pocketbook. Economist Joe Cortright insists that unlike cars -- which suck money out of our economy and ship it to distant auto manufacturers and oil companies -- bicycles generate a "green dividend" that keeps billions of dollars circulating through our local economy.

That's money Portlanders get to spend on everything from microbrews to mortgages. And that Portland gets to spend on everything from police officers to potholes.

http://www.oregonlive.com/editorials/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1209513307175140.xml&coll=7

[swag]

1. I love the bike lanes, and the new "bike boxes" should improve safety

at some of the more dangerous intersections.