This article is part of our AustinBikeBlog becomes PortlandBikeBlog series I’m writing on my recent trip to Portland and my exposure to its bike culture.

Well, now that I’m back in Austin and have had a decent night’s sleep, I thought I’d follow up to my article last week about bike culture in Portland with some additional thoughts and observations.

The Good

Bike parking at Powell's Bookstore. Titles about the rack include "Curious George rides a bike" and "It's not about the bike"

Biking aside, Portland, especially the downtown area is an immensely livable city. With dozens of stores within walking distance, extensive biking route networks, regular light rail and street car service, and ubiquitous carshare locations, there is really no reason to own a car in Portland. The fact that you can live easily in an American city without the money pit we call car ownership is very appealing.

From a cycling perspective, Portland really is your oyster. The bike lanes and bike boxes, on street and covered bike parking, and space on transit for bikes all create a welcoming environment for cyclists. This includes well marked bike lanes even in suburban areas. You are no longer second class citizens or crazy enviros like you are in many other cities. You are just part of the scene.

Mother and child enjoying a Bakfiet

And quite a scene there is. With great bike shops like Clever Cycles, art bikes at nearly every corner, and ciclovias becoming a regular event, bike culture is infused in the city. Case in point, my hotel had bike valet service and my valet made notice of a loose headset on one of our bikes. Where else does a hotel door hop also wrench on the side?

Once out and about on my bike, I felt more comfortable in my interactions with cars than in Texas. This may be more a Pacific Northwest thing than anything else as I’ve experience similar deference to pedestrians and cyclists in Seattle as well.

Water Fountain Fork art bike

The thing that struck me about all of this is how simple it is to make accommodations for cyclists. Bike lanes can be put in whenever a road gets repainted and bike paths and locking racks are very lost cost ammentities to provide. Contrast this to the cost and disruption of expanding roads or putting in light rail, and it seems like a no brainer to make these things happen. Other cities should learn, build it and they will come.

The Bad

Parking reserved for charging electric cars

I honestly don’t really have anything bad to say about the bike segment of Portland, but there we some other aspects of the city that I didn’t get.

On the transportation side, it seems like a disproportionate amount of resources are being spent on the immediate downtown area to the exclusion of other urban neighborhoods. While the street car and light rail ran frequently and predictably, the bus system seemed to suffer from the same problems of infrequent, irregular service that I experience in Austin. Many of the lines servicing non-rail serviced areas had 20-30 minute waits between buses. At the same time, there is a new street car line being laid just blocks from the current line. It seems like it would be better to expand rail service to non-served neighborhoods rather than laying more track in an area already served by a street car line and all three light rail lines.

I found the atmosphere toward the homeless odd as well. There were a lot of homeless people on the street likely due to a more liberal atmosphere. At the same time, every single place we went had signs saying “No Bathrooms” or “Bathrooms for customers only.” The worst was a Church of Christ that had a sign saying people not having business with the church would be prosecuted for trespassing. That is not how I read the teachings of Jesus Christ! It seems like there is a problem with homelessness not being addressed, and these hostile signs were a bit jarring to me.

Covered bike parking

Finally, while I enjoyed my time in Portland and enjoyed seeing the innovative ways they tackle urban living, the city did not capture my heart the way San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, or London did the first time I visited them. This is probably just a personal thing, but there was not a strong personality for the city that came across to me. It could be the lack of strong ethnic flares or the general politeness of the people. I had a similar reaction to Seattle, but that city has since grown on me so I’m sure Portland would as well. I would also say this is the reaction of a tourist, not a reflection on what it would be like to live there.

The Ugly

Bike sculpture made of discarded kids bikes

Unfortunately for all it’s new urban planning, Portland suffers from some of the same soulless, ugly suburban spawl on its periphery as any other U.S. city. While heading to my race, we stopped and drove through areas that could have been a Dallas or Houston suburban with only the cool weather to tell us otherwise. With growth projected at 1 million more residents in the next 20 years (coincidentally, the same number as projected for Austin), Portland will have to continue to deal with the threat of more sprawl.

In the end, the ugliest thing about Portland ended up being my finishing time at the National Age Group Triathlon where despite a personal record on my run splits, I finished second to last in my Age Group. Blah!

I thoroughly enjoyed Portland and look forward to visiting again hopefully with more time to see more of the city and visit with leaders in the cycling community. If you want to see what is possible for bike infrastructure or urban living, make sure you make your way to this City of Roses.