ZenLinux Blog

Today I rode in the Worst Day of the Year bike ride, which supports the Portland Community Cycling Center. The ride is held every year in the middle of winter and typically involves adverse weather. Fortunately today the rain ended just before the ride started, and the sun even came out by the end of it.

Worst Day of the Year Ride - Waterfront

The ride is a great example of Portland’s quirkiness. Costumes are highly encouraged, and the ride has a fun and family-friendly atmosphere. There were lots of whoops and cheers among the 3,000 riders who participated in this year’s event.

Worst Day of the Year Ride - Bee Costumes

The ride ended with some excellent spinach lentil soup and bread from Laughing Planet. I didn’t ride with a costume this time, but I’m thinking it would be worthwhile for me to piece something together to keep handy.

My elation over living in Portland – literally a bicycling paradise in the United States – hasn’t subsided yet. As I ride through the city I can’t wipe the smile off my face from seeing all the other people out on bikes, and learning how progressive the transportation infrastructure is. For the benefit of my friends back East, here are a few videos I found on YouTube that describe what we have out here.

Of course Portland has bike lanes – over 100 miles of them – but you might be surprised to find that streets with bike lanes aren’t necessarily the safest way to get around by bike in the city. One of the most intriguing strategies the city has come up with is optimizing certain side roads as bicycle boulevards; streets where traffic flow is optimized for bicycles and pedestrians.

One of the coolest things about bike boulevards is how they’re such a win-win situation for the communities where they’re placed. Homeowners love having their street designated as a bike boulevard, as it makes the street safer and more family-friendly, and helps to raise home values.

When cycling around NH, I generally avoided routes with traffic lights on them whenever possible because of the difficulty or outright impossibility of tripping the traffic sensors to change the light. These kinds of intersections are also where plenty of crashes with cars can occur when a bike or car wants to turn. Portland actually has traffic sensors at many lights specifically designed to be triggered by bicycles, and in some cases, even dedicated lights for bicycle traffic:

…and to make tricky intersections safer for everyone, bike boxes (my apologies for the corny nature of this video):

All of this infrastructure costs very little as a percentage of the overall transportation budget in Portland, and the return on investment is huge. It reduces auto congestion and pollution, and helps Portland solidify its reputation as a sustainable and environmentally progressive city.

I’ll be continually smiling on my bike for some time, I’m sure. 🙂