Portland
I returned last weekend from a week in Portland, Oregon. I kept a keen eye out for signs of its platinumy bike status, and I am here to tell you: they were everywhere.
As readers of this blog know, I have opposed plans to grant Tucson a “platinum” award for its bike-friendly community, because I think we don’t quite deserve it yet, and I’m afraid if we get it we won’t keep trying to do better. I am particularly concerned about our police department’s lack of interest in following up on assaults on bicyclists and in properly handling motor vehicle/bicycle accidents.
Now though, I think maybe Tucson has fallen behind in many ways. Portland creams us.
A lot of it is in the little things, like the dedicated parking in the street (see photo above). Also I notice that Portland very often paints the curb yellow where there is a bike rack on the sidewalk, which gives cyclists a safe entry into the street. But it’s the big things, too. For example, everybody I talked to there was really proud of the efforts their city was making for bicyclists. Bicyclists seemed to know about and appreciate the steps Portland is taking for cyclists. Here it so often seems like an afterthought.
I’ll post more pictures and more discussion in the coming days.
–Erik Ryberg
November 11th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
One does not need to travel to Portland to see their Platinumy bike status. All you have to do is compare their Platinum level bike blog site (www.bikeportland.org ) to Tucson’s bronze level equivalent (www.tucsonbikelawyer.com ). Bikeportland.org goes the extra mile in highlighting all sorts of bike news from their region. I guarantee just as much is happening in Tucson but one wouldn’t know it here, cause no one is reporting any news, except for the occasional bike tragedy.
November 12th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I applaud Erik and Lauren’s contributions in bringing actual issues and news with regards to Tucson’s cycling community to us on a regular basis. Perhaps they do not have the sheer number of articles or news that a major bike blog like bikeportland does, but they definitely bring up issues that do need addressing. If you feel there is relevent bike news in the city of Tucson that Erik is not reporting, please share! I am definitely interested in all things bike-related, especially in the city that I live in.
The fact of the matter is that Portland IS a better city for cycling. I would like to see Tucson get there as well, but I definitely agree with Erik in regards to platinum status. If we want to be judged as equal to the best cycling cities in the country, the city has to earn it. This is a good city for cycling, but it definitely has room to improve.
November 12th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
All I can say is, if my little blog gets a bronze medal in any contest that includes bikeportland.org, then I am really happy! Bikeportland.org is a spectacular website and obviously a labor of love. I personally don’t have that kind of time, but if you want to create such a blog for Tucson, I salute you and will be delighted to link to it.
EBR
November 12th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I’d love to see a website dedicated to all the good things Tucson does for cyclists. Can’t imagine it’d get updated much.