Bicycle Parking at the Portland Airport
I’m writing this on an iPhone so I’ll be brief. I spent the afternoon walking around downtown Portland, and everthing about this city is set up to support cycling and encourage people to use bikes for transportation.
On-Street Bicycle Parking
From bike paths to the airport, to hooks and space for bikes on trains, to bike boxes and covered bicycle parking, the City of Portland has set up the infrastructure to allow massive numbers of people to seriously use bikes for their everyday needs.
It is apparent that it’s working. From the moment I hit the ground, bikes were everywhere. What other U.S. city has full bike racks at the airport???
The other thing I’ve been struck by it the overwhelming number of practical bikes people are riding. There are almost no crappy hybrids or mountain bikes that people are trying to shoe horn into becoming transportation bikes. While there are a number of fixed gear bikes out there, touring and true city bikes prevail.
Portland bike box
This actually makes sense when you think about it. Your tolerance for inappropriate bikes is small when you ride to go places everyday. Tomorrow I’ll have unpacked my bike and will tackle the city on two wheels myself.
Speaking of tolerance, mine is running thin with blogging by iPhone, so I’ll sign off now and write more later.
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on Sep 18th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
The extent of my jealousy can hardly be expressed. I’ll be on the next plane!!!
on Sep 19th, 2008 at 6:02 am
bike racks at the airport? that’s totally ridiculous.
somebody should be arrested.
in my town. for not providing the same.
i actually asked that on the local austin bike email list – can i ride to the airport? the answer was, ‘you can try’. basically, it seemed near impossible. i wonder how difficult it is to get to the portland airport.
project?
on Sep 19th, 2008 at 6:35 am
A reader just told me fixies are in trouble in Portland bc ‘having no brakes is illegal‘. Your (or anyone else’s) thoughts?
on Sep 19th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
neat to read someone else’s opinion of Portland’s bike culture.
as for the airport bike parking… what you saw isn’t even the main bike parking area.
Check out a story I did a few years back about their other bike parking area. It was initially for employees only but after I posted about it they split it 50/50 and gave half to the public!
http://bikeportland.org/2006/02/09/airport-adds-public-bike-parking/
on Sep 19th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Peter (#2) – It’s *very* easy to get to the Portland airport in general, and by bike. it’s connected via a service drive directly to one of the main freeways in the city. One of the light rail lines (MAX – Metropolitan Area eXpress) runs directly to the south end of the terminal, and connects people directly to downtown Portland (and MAX can take bikes), and there are at least 3 bike routes leading to the airport entrance. One allows access from the scenic bike path along the Columbia River (Marine Drive), a new improvement that shaves about 2-3 miles off the biking distance when coming from Marine Drive.
The hardest thing about getting to the Portland airport (if you don’t take MAX) is the distance, but even that is manageable – it’s about 8 miles to get there from downtown Portland, with a 200′ tall ridge between you and the airport. The grade is really gentle in most spots, but if you’re used to flat rides, it can be a little strenuous the first time.
amsterdamize (#3) – There’s an ongoing battle in Oregon over the definition of “brake” – bicycles are indeed required to have a working brake, and that definition has been used to ticket fixed-gear riders who ride without an additional wheel brake. The problem seems to lie with the interpretation of certain officers of the Portland Police Bureau and certain Multnomah County Traffic Court judges, and the issue is ongoing. The Oregon legislature tried to remedy the situation by rewriting the statute, but the fixie-specific language was stripped before the bill was passed, removing most of the benefit of the change.
Jonathan Maus wrote extensively about it in bikeportland.org, but I don’t have time at the moement to delve through his archives to find it.
This is a great blog, BTW – it’s so nice to see what other cities are doing, we all learn from each other. (I found this site from a referral by someone else in Portland’s bike community)
on Sep 19th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Elliot;
I hope you’re in town for awhile. There is so much to see, that it’s overwhelming. In addition to bike parking, airport routes, and green boxes, we have bike-specific signals, a floating bike path, and many other great street improvements.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60961560@N00/sets/72157594213499623/
Do get in touch with Jonathan or any of us in the bike community if you’re still in town. I’m sure we could get you a grand tour of all that makes Portland great.
on Sep 19th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Let me tell you, there is absolutely no comparison between Portland and Austin when it comes to cycling. Mostly, the bike culture here exists despite city policy and actions (and our surplus of road raging “bubbas”) and not because of it.
Bicycles are definitely in the “toy/sporting good” category here, and not considered a legitimate form of transportation.
Really appreciate your comments, Jonathan and Matt!
on Sep 20th, 2008 at 7:09 am
Thanks, Matt, sounds terribly complicated and blurry indeed. I’ll look it up further in the archives.
Cheers, Marc
on Sep 21st, 2008 at 12:19 pm
When I see the bike rack at the airport I feel like I have finally arrived home and I know my bicycle awaits me. I appreciate living in the Portland area.
on Sep 23rd, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Thanks for all the great comments. Aaron, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to connect with you while I was there. My race and the shortness of the trip prevented me from getting to do as much as I wanted. I’ll let you guys know the next time I come up as I’d love to get a tour from those who bike Portland everyday.
on Sep 23rd, 2008 at 4:00 pm
For another point of view:
http://www.labreform.org/
“Recent actions of the League’s Bicycle Friendly Communities program are an attack on core principles of the League and on the rights and welfare of cyclists. BFC has given its highest award to Portland, OR despite (or perhaps because of) its reckless program installing bike lanes in dangerous places. What makes it worse is that Oregon laws require cyclists to use these hazardous facilities.”
I’ve never been to Portland myself, so I can’t say who is right. Only that there seems to be a difference of opinion on the matter.
on Sep 23rd, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Hmmm. . . I found it very easy to ride around Portland by bike. I did not find the bike lanes to be hazardous. They made a lot of sense and helped the bike be recognized on the road another vehicle. Of course, I ride in traffic in a city with little bike infrastructure so these facilities are a huge step forward for me.
The site you referenced appears to be someone who is bitter the organization they were a part of has gone a different direction. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but this person’s statements do not help his or her case. I would not base an opinion of Portland’s bikability based on someone who obviously has another agenda.
on Sep 24th, 2008 at 5:18 am
Yes, there’s a tiny minority of Serious Bikers who resent bike lanes or think them dangerous. They prefer to ride in the middle of a car lane to assert our equal right to the road with cars. Nice idealism, but appropriate only for the 1% or so of fearless riders. If you want to actually get lots of regular people riding, as many European cities have discovered, you need bike-only lanes. It’d be great if they could be physically separated, as in Holland and Denmark and other countries, which consequently get 30-40% or more of the population riding, because they feel safe enough to do so. But it’s expensive, and Portland’s non-separated bikeways have already encouraged far more riders than any other American city per capita.
Anyway, that’s a topic for another thread. Re: Austin and Portland, I lived in the former for 15 years (and biked around on a visit in June) before moving to Portland. Austin could really learn a lot from Portland, particularly in making bicycling part of regular people’s lives, not just recreational (racing, mountain biking etc) specialists. I noticed a recent video about Austin’s bike culture had a city official talking about racing and long distance riding groups, but nothing at all about just using your bike to ride to work or school or on errands.
Austin’s hike and bike network is nice for exercise and getting to a few great places, but Portland’s bike planners have figured out where people need to go and provided extensive bikeways and information to make it possible to get there on a bike. As a result, we have thousands of bike commuters and thousands of Portlanders living car-free and thousands more who drive infrequently at most, preferring to rely on bikes or our light rail, streetcar and bus systems. Many, many magazine and newspaper stories have been written about Portland’s bike-friendliness in the past few years.
I was encouraged to see Mellow Johnny’s starting to emphasize biking for the rest of us when I was in Austin. But you’re right about Portland’s Clever Cycles, which is my fave bike shop (I have a Dutch bike) — its whole reason for being is providing bikes and accessories for regular people who bike primarily for transportation, not just the Lycra crowd who do it mostly for recreation. I drove every day in Austin; I might drive once a week, at most, in Portland.
You Austinites should check bikeportland.org frequently for ideas, like the bike corrals recently discussed, and maybe hire some of Portland’s bike planners (public and private) to consult with the city about massively improving the bike infrastructure. But bikability has to go beyond just spending tax money on bike infrastructure and planning. You also need compact growth laws and investment in public transportation to make the city truly hospitable to a bike centric lifestyle. The airport Max is a perfect example — I can get to the airport in half an hour or by walking a few blocks, paying $1.75, and riding the Max right to the terminal. No taxi fare, no parking fee.
None of this happened by accident. If you want to have an environmentally sustainable and bike friendly culture like Portland’s, you need to do some political organizing to make it happen. Get political candidates to commit to funding bike infrastructure. Portland is by no means perfect, despite all its awards as America’s best bike city. (You could learn even more from Copenhagen or Amsterdam.) But it really is becoming a bike nirvana, and I’d love to see the same thing happen to Austin, a city I still cherish. Hope you enjoy your Portland visit!
on Sep 24th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Brett,
Thanks for your comments. I totally agree that we are woefully behind as a city in building bike infrastructure. Our bike plan (like our city master plan) is over 20 years old and does little to address biking as transportation. I agree we need more bike paths that actually go places. We are actually going to be getting some paths with our new commuter rail system.
As I mentioned in the article I posted today, providing infrastructure for bikes is dirt cheap compared to cars and transit. With an iota of planning, we can have great facilities with just a little extra cost.