Last year I visited Portland and wrote about America’s cycling nirvana. They certainly have not let up in improving their city for those on two wheels. Here are just a few cool things being done as recently reported by BikePortland.

Bike path second layer of proposed double decker bridge

When Portlanders make room for cyclists, they aren’t kidding around. When a new proposal for a $3-4 billion bridge for I-5 was being designed, staff worked with a bike/ped committee to add a second layer to the bridge to accommodate bike and foot traffic. It is still in the planning stages, but goes to show what can be done if other forms of transportation are incorporated into project from the outside, not an afterthought like most TxDOT projects.

“I Ride . . .” Campaign

The Community Cycling Center works in the Portland community to teach biking and repair skills as well as running a neighborhood bike shop, kind of like Austin’s Yellow bike Project. Not just satisfied with doing good works in the community, the CCC created a poster campaign called “I Ride” with pictures of a diverse group of Portland cyclists and a short statement on why they ride. Here’s a sample but you can see the entire poster campaign here.

Bikes as part of the streetscape

When it was time to create streetscape features to define a major street and a community in Portland, the bicycle took center stage. The Portland Bureau of Transportation is working to remake SE Clinton Street and are considering putting bikes in the street sign design, frames as street flags and artist street painting. We’ve started to make bikes part of street art but nothing like this.

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