The Street Trust's 2023 New Year's Day Ride poses in front of the Welcome to Milwaukie mural by Jeremy Okai Davis featuring Ah Bing alongside Dorothy and Hurtis Hadley.

For over 50 years, Portland area residents have welcomed the new year with a bike ride. The ride serves multiple purposes: to joyfully welcome in the new year, celebrate improvements to our streets, and provide an opportunity to experience new parts of the region with friends old and new. This year, we headed to Clackamas County to explore Milwaukie’s SAFE (Safe Access For Everyone) program innovations and investments.

Outgoing Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba addresses the crowd of 80 in front of a MAX train in Milwaukie.
Outgoing Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba addresses the crowd of 80 in front of a MAX train in Milwaukie. (Photo by Julian Dunn)

One of our favorite things about riding in a group on New Year’s Day is that streets are generally quieter, allowing us to take routes that at busier times are unfriendly (or highly unpleasant) for less experienced riders. This year, that meant we could comfortably check out both completed and not-yet-implemented SAFE project streets.

Our special guest was outgoing Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba and incoming State Representative (D- HD 41), who led on many of these investments. He addressed our assembly of 80 New Year’s Day riders before venturing out with us on our five-mile, family-friendly ride.

What a great turnout we had! Our events in central Portland historically have attracted more participants than in more suburban parts of the region, so the fact that this year’s Milwaukie ride saw a larger crowd than last year’s in downtown Portland is something to celebrate! This is The Street Trust’s mission in action–centering the people, voices, and needs of communities too often left out of transportation decision-making.

The 2023 New Year’s Day Ride was a first for The Street Trust’s Education and Engagement Assistant Citlaly Ramirez-Sierra, a resident of Clackamas County, who shared, “I thoroughly enjoyed the event. It was great to see so many community members show up and ride together. Growing up in the Milwaukie area, I didn’t see many outdoor community-oriented events; it was heartwarming to see Milwaukie shine the way it did in this event.”

The Route
We got a lot of positive feedback about the route so here’s a map if you’d like to explore it on your own, with a description of what you’ll see below:

  • We began our ride at the end of the MAX Orange Line to provide easy access to those arriving multimodally and started out along the Trolley Trail, which predates SAFE and is a regional gem.
  • We left the Trolley Trail to wind our way along the Kronberg Park Multi-Use Trail (SAFE phase 2020) and traversed downtown Milwaukie on quiet streets to reach…
  • Washington Street (SAFE phase 2024) where we climbed uphill alongside what will soon be improved sidewalk and stormwater management.
  • We took advantage of the reduced holiday car traffic to utilize the traffic lights into and out of the Safeway parking lot and easily make our way to the very-recently-completed 43rd Avenue Improvements (SAFE phase 2022). In keeping our ride to a family-friendly/all-ages-and-abilities length and steepness we didn’t pedal all the way to Linwood Avenue (SAFE phase 2021), our favorite new shared pedestrian/bike path, but 43rd Avenue’s shared path is similarly spectactacular and is also the start of a safe and connected network.
  • We finished up along a portion of the future Monroe Street Greenway (SAFE phase 2022 & some segments TBD).
  • Our ride ended at the Milwaukie Station Food Cart Pod, conveniently sited next to the penultimate Orange Line MAX station for those leaving multimodally.

The route proved fun and accessible for all manner of bikes including recumbent trikes, young kids on their own bikes, families on cargo bikes, and EUCs (electric unicycles).

A collage of photos of people (and one dog) at the New Year's Day Ride

But that’s not all! We’ve noticed that as people are getting back into the habit of gathering in public, connecting as a community is what we’re most aching for. So, we book-ended the ride with hot drinks at the start, and a cookie exchange at the end. Over cookies (and other less sugary snacks) we collected “Transportation hopes and dreams for 2023” on index cards from the group, and had a random drawing for four The Street Trust knit caps.

Index cards with transportation hopes and dreams for 2023

Happy 2023 from The Street Trust! We hope you’ll walk and roll through Milwaukie this year and see us at a future event. Please sign up for our newsletter to get updates on events, info on advocacy efforts, and to learn more about the impact we’re having in our community; sign up to volunteer to help assist events like this and others, and donate to The Street Trust to support multimodal transportation options that prioritize safety, accessibility, equity, and climate justice.

 

In my thirteen years living in Oregon, the protest on Powell Blvd last week was the first I’ve ever attended. 

 

Assembling peacefully in the street demanding government accountability on traffic safety was my first exercise of my First Amendment right to assemble as a U.S. Citizen. I’m originally from Nepal and was proud to be naturalized this past year. At this protest, I witnessed firsthand the power of the community coming together to demand something like safer streets from our officials. 

 

Not only was it my first time at a protest, it was my first time being a ‘Human Bike Box,’ meaning participants stood together with our bodies in front of traffic in the intersection representing where safety infrastructure used to be. Each time the light would turn red, I’d step into traffic to form the Human Bike Box; each time, so many feelings welled up within me. I felt a sense of power, to be able to stand arm in arm with other community members, I felt a sense of strength in the statement we all were making. I felt brave and a little bit scared to be standing in front of an oncoming car, especially since I’d brought with me my mother, who is visiting the U.S. from Nepal. Most of all, I felt connected to diverse people from parts of society who use the street in different ways – people who walk, people who ride bikes, people who ride transit and people who drive. There were young people and elders, families, and people with disabilities.

 

Standing in traffic changes your perspective. Even though as Strategic Partnerships Manager for The Street Trust it’s my job to connect with a wide range of people around our mission, it was a new experience to talk with people sitting in stopped cars right in the middle of street – answering questions, sharing information, and for the majority of people, sharing sadness around Chef Pliner’s death and wanting safer intersection for everyone whether they’re walking, rolling, or motoring through it. Many people in cars wanted to know how they could help and how the demands we were making would be put into effect and when. It really put our current strategy in context, and drove home why it’s important to include people who drive cars in the movement for safer streets and a better transportation system. 

 

I live in Washington County but decided to take my mother to the protest because we wanted to gather in solidarity to honor Sarah Pliner, who was killed the previous week in the intersection where we were protesting. My mother shared with me how when they protest in Nepal, the tactics and demands differed a lot from what we were doing at our protest. But at the end of the day, the goal was the same – accountability from the government and justice for the people. 

 

Participating in the protest in the streets was an empowering, and satisfying experience for me, but it was also scary. Scary because there were motorists who didn’t like us being there in the streets. Scary big trucks passing so close to our feet while we stood on the sidelines. And scary because of the aggressive drivers intentionally racing through at high speeds and loudly revving vehicles to make some sort of misguided point. 

 

At the end of the day, the protest on Powell was amazing to see because not only did nearly 200 people come together in silence, with signs and solidarity, to convey the message that enough is enough: we demand safer streets for people now. 

 

Over the Summer, the Oregon Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes To School program unveiled the pilot of the new Jump Start Train-the-Trainer program. This program helps school districts, staff, and other safe routes advocates learn the skills to teach bicycle and pedestrian safety to students across Oregon through onsite training.

Street Trust staff lead the pedestrian safety part of this program. In August, these staff members visited Baker City along with other members of the ODOT SRTS team and worked with advocates to help them prepare for bicycle and pedestrian safety lessons this Fall. Recently, Baker County received funds from a grant to purchase a fleet of bicycles for schools to encourage safe biking practices. 

The team provided the participants lessons in bicycle and pedestrian safety, along with resources so they can easily implement the lessons in their own programming.

“The hands-on portion of the training gave a very informative example of what we will have to do”, said Jessie Wilson, SRTS Coordinator in La Grande, of her time at the training.  “I really appreciated this experience”. 

Thank you to the great team in Baker City for inviting us to do this training! We are excited to continue to bring Jump Start to more communities throughout the state.

Interested in bringing the pilot Jump Start training to your school district? Send in your interest to our form to be considered for the pilot!

 

Bring Jump Start To Your School District!

 

A teenager poses next to his bike on a bus rack

 

Combining bike and bus trips opens up a world of possibilities, making it possible to access places far away, exhaustingly hilly, and otherwise hard to reach.

This is why The Street Trust loves helping people learn and practice this important skill.

On Monday we took a group to visit the PSU Transportation Center demonstration rack. In addition to the usual discussion of rack specs, gear, and security, we took a deep dive into bike lifting–which is a great first step anyone with a bike can practice at home beforehand. There are a variety of spots to place each hand on your bike to comfortably lift it a couple feet straight off the ground and then move forward onto the rack. The weight of your bike and how that weight is distributed will influence what works best for you. You’ll probably put one hand somewhere below your saddle and one on or near your handlebars.

New to us this session was someone hefting their bike by the chainstay! (The chainstay is the short tube parallel to the ground between pedals and rear wheel.) The chainstay on the far side of the bike, no less! Grasping that and the top of the downtube (the lower main tube between handlebars and pedals) was this person’s preferred method of lifting a very light bike.

Requirements

Not every bike fits on the rack. The below requirements from TriMet are spot on, as we’ve learned from explorations in pushing the boundaries during practice sessions:

  • Wheel sizes 20-29 inches
  • Wheelbase up to 44 inches (this is the distance from the *center* of your front wheel to rear wheel, not end-to-end of your wheel edges)
  • Tires up to 2.35 inches wide
  • 55 pounds and lighter

Tutorials

There are some terrific resources you can watch before setting hand to top tube…or stem, down tube, chain stay, headset, etc…

Want to try?

The PSU Transportation Center is located at 1812 SW 6th Ave, next door to the PSU Bike Hub. The demonstration rack is indoors and masks are encouraged. Summer hours are Monday through Thursday 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and once classes begin on September 26th hours will change to Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It’s convenient to arrive by MAX: catch the green or yellow line to PSU Urban Center/SW 6th & Montgomery.

What about FX?

FX2-Division is TriMet’s new high-capacity bus service along Division Street in Southeast Portland, starting September 18th. FX bendy buses have interior floor racks and TriMet has produced a video tutorial: How to load your bike on an FX bus.

Practice with us!

We’ll visit the PSU demo rack again soon, and we’re in the process of coordinating visits to Portland’s other demo rack at Community Cycling Center. These sessions and all our other events can be found on our event calendar. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll let you know via email.

 

Sign up for email updates

A Sunday Parkways attendee on roller skates stops by The Street Trust corner

 

With August coming to a close, we say goodbye to another epic Sunday Parkways season after a fun finish with East Portland Sunday Parkways. We rocked the day away at an intersection near Gateway Discovery Park with DJ Doc Rock and, thanks to the out-and-back route, were able to interact with tons of event participants–some twice!

Our volunteers polled hundreds of walkers and rollers to find out how they arrived at the event and the results were enlightening.

Bikes for the win!

Feedback from Sunday Parkways attendees
‘What would make it easier for you to drive less?’ feedback from Sunday Parkways attendees

A solid 33% of the participants we polled arrived by bike or ebike. A small portion of these came multimodally– by combining their ride to East Portland with MAX, bus, or car- but for the most part people used a single mode of transportation.

A lot of folks drove to Sunday Parkways, but 24% of the people we polled were part of a carpool rather than driving alone.

Anecdotally, a great many of the people we spoke to lived very close to the route and walked or biked over. It’s wonderful when open streets events pull crowds from both near and far.

As The Street Trust looks to reevaluate and evolve some of our programs to adapt to a post-pandemic world, we were eager to ask everyone one question: What would make it easier for you to drive less?

More car-free streets” is always a popular answer to this question during an open streets event, as well as one of the next best things in many respondents’ opinions: “Protected bike lanes.” With ebikes gaining in popularity, it was nice to see a lot of ebike-related responses, like:

  • Ebike incentives
  • Plugins for ebikes
  • Cheaper ebikes

In transit-related answers a few we got were:

  • A third slot on bus bike racks like in Seattle and Vancouver
  • Transit to nature
  • Willamette ferry

For the first time ever we had a clear fan favorite of an answer: moving sidewalks. While this inspired a lot of people to consider more fanciful responses, the 10-year old who made the suggestion had recently visited Hong Kong’s Central–Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system and experienced a moving sidewalk firsthand.

A group of people on bikes visit TST's booth at Sunday Parkways

How do you get around? And what would make it easier and/or more likely for you to go places more often without driving? Help shape The Street Trust of the future by taking our survey!

 

Take Our Survey!

 

Group ride attendees smiling for photo on adaptive cycles and standing in background.

 

Harry Styles fans, adaptive bike riders, and Pedalpalooza regulars alike gathered on Saturday morning for The Street Trust and Adaptive BIKETOWN’s accessible group ride. It was my first time participating in and leading a group bike ride, along with Jenna Phillips (aka @jennabikes), my co-lead. 

Since getting involved in the world of transportation justice, I’ve seen my friends post every year about fun group rides, especially during Pedalpalooza. It wasn’t until I tried out an adaptive cycle at Adaptive BIKETOWN that I could see myself being able to participate in a group ride.

We set the gathering time as 10am and left the departure time up to when the group was ready. Getting fitted to an adaptive bike can take a few tries and adjustments, and it was important to us to make sure everyone’s needs were met. Some rode their own bikes, some rode traditional BIKETOWN e-bikes, one person rolled along in their electric wheelchair, and myself and a handful of others rode adaptive bikes.

To make the event as accessible as possible, the 2.5 mile route started and ended at Adaptive BIKETOWN. We rode along the Eastbank Esplanade, briefly rode in the streets that connected us over to the Springwater Trail, and rode until a grassy opening where we pulled off onto the gravel trail for a water break before connecting back onto the paved trail and heading back.

 

Along the way we listened to the tunes of Harry Styles as they played out of an impressive, portable sound system pulled via bike trailer. Some riders dressed up in Harry Styles inspired outfits or donned feather boas and heart shaped sunglasses. While rides don’t require a theme, adding one gave myself and other disabled attendees, who can’t usually participate in group rides, the full experience. 

If you’ve come across a BIKETOWN booth recently, you’ve likely seen their backdrop that says: YES, YOU ARE A BIKE PERSON. Riding together alongside other disabled people as we led the group truly allowed me to feel that sentiment for the first time. Seeing oneself represented and able to participate in the cycling community makes a world of difference in imagining how we can move through the world together.

Sign up for accessibility related news and events!

Support TST’s Work To Make Biking Inclusive!

 

 

Back in February, Willamette Week created a “25 Reasons to Love Portland” Valentine to this place we call home. Number seventeen was,“Because Portland Is Building Bridges for People, Not Cars.” In it, The Street Trust explained why we’re smitten with carfree public infrastructure investments like Flanders Crossing and the Blumenauer Bridge. They’re important from a transportation perspective for sure, creating safe, comfortable connections for people walking, rolling, and biking across parts of town that were previously noisy, stressful, and dangerous. But they’re also important for cultural and socioeconomic reasons. 

Talk is cheap (just ask Portland’s 2030 Bike Plan), but what you spend your money on speaks volumes. And taking care to leverage public projects to get three or four bangs for each buck says a lot about the quality of governance in a place. Transportation wonks might think about these investments in terms of design and timeline, but what the general public sees are the promises we’re making and whether we’re making good on them.

So what are Portland’s carfree bridges promising? 

  1. We care about people. Active transportation projects which are safe and accessible tell people we care about their happiness and safety. Exercise is good for our health and low-stress connections reduce, well, stress. Have you tried chatting car-to-car while driving down the street? Didn’t think so. But you saw plenty of chatting and laughing last week while folks strolled across the bridge. (P.S. When we provide amenities such as shade trees, water fountains, and public restrooms, it tells people we care even more.) [insert picture]
  2. We care about the planet. Yup, temperatures at the Blumenauer Bridge festivities were brutal, with many folks hunkered beside walls and under pop-up tents for refuge. Year after year, we’re breaking climate records for rainiest this or hottest that. Climate change is unrelenting. Major carfree infrastructure is a high return on investment climate solution that demonstrates we’re serious about changing the status quo with urgency. Bonus? They’re going to come in handy after a major seismic event. 
  3. We care about placemaking. Since Aristotle (and probably before) humans have debated the meaning of place. But at the core, places (as opposed to spaces) are where humans interact with and make meaning in our environment. In Portland, there’s an intentionality to our placemaking through which we collectively celebrate diversity, art, community, mobility, and so many other experiences in our ever changing world. These new bridges don’t just connect great places like Lloyd District and Central Eastside, they are beautiful and engaging places in and of themselves. 
  4. We care about prosperity. Bridges that connect places thoughtfully and prioritize people over cars are good for business and the economy. They are economic drivers with a lighter footprint on local streets. But the economic benefit goes beyond helping local businesses. They also save money on healthcare costs because of reduced air pollution and fewer automobile crashes. And bottom line: they are a lot cheaper to construct than auto-centric infrastructure.

Carfree bridges such as Flanders Crossing, Blumenauer Bridge, and even Tilikum Crossing are indeed small compared to their gargantuan and overpriced car-centric counterparts (looking at you Interstate Bridge, ahem); they set the bar high for our transportation future and make good on our promise to realize a healthier, more just, and sustainable future.


On July 31st, The Street Trust and friends from Teatro Milagro, Go Lloyd and other fans of active transportation celebrated the opening of the Earl Blumenauer Bridge with the Bowtie Congressman.

Enjoy a few photos from the historic event!

 

 

Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba visits The Street Trust booth at open streets event

 

The Street Trust loves street activation – go figure.

We can’t hide it it, we adore open streets events! City of Portland’s Sunday Parkways isn’t the only open streets extravaganza to return to the region this year: Carefree Sunday returned to Milwaukie after a three-year hiatus. 

The five-mile route for Sunday’s event featured three parks and one church. There were a lot of street activations this year, including roller skating with free skate rentals, the region’s best mobile bicycle obstacle course, and live music.

An early-morning decision to end the event early – at 1:30 p.m. instead of 4:00 p.m. – to protect people from extreme temperatures was smart, but it also sadly meant the planned food trucks and beer garden weren’t part of the event.

The event drew lots of neighbors who lived directly along and close to the route and it was nice to chat with them about their transportation choices and options. It was enlightening to compare answers to our prompt, “What would make it easier for you to drive less?” at Carefree Sunday compared with responses we got at the recent Blumenauer Bridge opening celebration in central Portland the week prior.

Universal across both events was a plea for more streets for people and carfree days. However, in Milwaukie, where our Carefree Sunday perch was along sidewalk-deficit Stanley Avenue, there was an resounding call… the people want more sidewalks!

 

Responses to What would make it easier for you to drive less?
Reponses to “What would make it easier for you to drive less?” from Carefree Sunday in Milwaukie (left) and the Blumenauer Bridge Opening Day Celebration (right).

Using a 1.6-mile section of the Springwater Corridor Trail was an ingenious way to stretch the route to five miles by utilizing a low-conflict amenity. While people walking the route and families with small kids on bikes often choose a couple parks to focus on during an open streets event, there are always folks who want to complete the circuit and this was a great loop for that.

A highlight of the day? Milwaukie Mayor (and legilsative candidate) Mark Gamba stopped by our booth to confirm that Carefree Sunday will be an annual event. We encourage you to participate next year!

And don’t forget about Sunday Parkways in East Portland on the 21st and sign up to volunteer with TST – it’s a lot of fun!)

 

Volunteer at E. Portland Sunday Parkways

 

 

Nothing Beats a Heat Island Like a Cool River Swim

This weekend, in partnership with BIKETOWN and TriMet, The Street Trust led its friends and members on a guided bike and transit ride from the Lents town center to The Big Float in Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Lents was the deadliest heat island during last summer’s heat dome disaster and the dangerous conditions persisted during this year’s record-breaking heat waveThe Street Trust understands that our climate crisis affects frontline and low-income communites disproportionately. We also know that an estimated 30% of Oregonians don’t drive. That’s why, we chose to support Lents’ residents with affordable, safe options to access the cool waters of the Willamette River without having to drive. 

While most participants rode their own bikes or used Biketown to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day, The Street Trust also distributed transit passes to anyone who didn’t feel comfortable cycling. Despite being known as a multimodal leader, many Portlanders feel uncomfortable cycling and/or accessing public transportation. Our focus on providing multiple mobility options to The Big Float is indicative of our efforts to be more inclusive while also promoting a critical mobility service. 

This multimodal event was the first of its kind for The Street Trust, and based on initial feedback we hope to continue offering transit tickets, BIKETOWN access, and mobility guides for future events.

“Heat Island to River Relief” bike ride participants met their guides at 10AM at the Lents Town Center, where the local farmer’s market takes place. Several passersby approached The Street Trust to ask us what we were up to (probably something to do the giant pile of lifejackets strapped to a bike trailer). These encounters demonstrated to us that there is interest in BIKETOWN and bike events in the Lents neighborhood, which is also home to many of our priority communities. 

OUtdoor fun - Andre in a Doughnut Float, Madi looking sleek in Black logo tee and pants

Some participants took TriMet’s #14 bus, which has frequent service and stops directly in front of Lents Town Center. The bus dropped us off only a few blocks away from the Tom McCall Waterfront Park, making the journey very convenient while also offering a refuge from the heat. Taking in that stellar view of the Willamette as the bus crossed the Hawthorne bridge was also a reminder of how lucky this city is to have such an incredible public resource… and how important it is to ensure that everyone feels like they can access it. The journey also allowed us to connect with each other and talk about the impression that folks had about Portland’s transit system. 

Overall, the Heat Island to River Relief was yet another successful community-oriented summer event from The Street Trust. Not only did it serve the important mission of reminding participants of the seriousness of the heat island effect and the different ways you can access one of the most important cooling amenities in the city; it also brought together the TST community for a little fun in the sun. And it doesn’t get any better than that. 

Thanks for being so welcoming to The Street Trust, Lents neighbors — we look forward to partnering and enjoying future events with you! Check out more pictures in BikePortland.

Want to volunteer for our next multimodal event? Sign up!

Pre-member meeting bike ride

 

Last month, The Street Trust held its June Member Meeting at BG’s Food Cartel food cart pod in Beaverton. 

The Street Trust members, board members, staff, Washington County elected officials, and Washington County community leaders came together to discuss our work and theirs, and find ways we can collaborate and support one another.

To emphasize our dedication to the entire region, The Street Trust has held our first

June Member Meetup at BG's Food Cartel

 two in-person member meetings in Milwaukie (May) and Beaverton (June). We’re actively recruiting to increase our membership in these communities, which have a big role to play in the future of our region. Through this outreach, we have found that these diverse communities also have an intense need for active transportation and transit organizing- and we are eager to support them. We’re particularly interested in organizing along corridors of concern, such as with our recent Farmington Road Study Tour.

We kicked off our June member meeting with a group bike ride that started at the Beaverton Transit Center. During this ride we experienced what Beaverton has to offer in terms of bike trails, multi-use paths, quiet greenways, bike lanes, sharrows, highway sidewalks, and highway-side railroad gravel. Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty generously shared details about the many City transportation projects and other community issues as we biked through Beaverton for a wonderfully in-depth look at the city.

We’re so grateful for everyone who could make it out! If you’re not a member yet, join us, July’s member meeting details will be announced soon–like our previous two meetings, it will be easy to access by walking, rolling, and transit. Save the date of Monday, July 18th from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Become a member!

The Street Trust June Member Meeting participants at BG Food Cartel

Metro Councilor Juan Carlos González, Julian Dunn, The Street Trust Community Engagement Manager Madi Carlson, Nic Cota, Shawne Martinez, Councilor-Elect John Dugger, Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty, State Representative Dacia Grayber, Eric Wilhelm, State Representative WLnsvey Campos, Councilor-Elect Kevin Teater, The Street Trust Board Member Dave Roth, The Street Trust Strategic Partnerships Manager Anouksha Gardner.