Wake

I don't know the details, but UPS is hiring bike delivery people in Portland OR. Here's a graphic.

ups_ad_bikeportland.jpg

JoebikerLa

Another reason I wish I lived in Portland.

Jaron

you don't want to live here.

also, they either filled it already, or that ad is full of ****. the only redeeming thing about the possibility of being a bike messenger for ups would be the fact you get insurance.

JoebikerLa

why don't I want to live there?

Jaron

it sucks. trust me.

StephenH

I'd be curious what they even do with bicycles. Most of their stuff is fairly large bicycles. I guess you could send two or three cyclists around with each truck and run 'em up and down the cross streets or something.

My son works part-time at the sorting facility here in the Dallas area. It's okay, and he's not planning to quit anytime, but it's no picnic, either. And doesn't seem to be the kind of job he'd want to do the rest of his life, either.

Edit: Found this article and this other one- on the second one, click on the "picture" tab if it's not showing:
https://bikeportland.org/2008/11/14/u...bike-delivery/
https://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms...8-35/story.csp

tsl

What has me scratching my head is, how are they going to leave a bike double-parked with the four-ways on? It just seems a bike isn't well suited for that.

Elkhound

https://clevercycles.com/
https://www.oregonlive.com/iloveportland/
https://carfreeportland.org/
https://shifttobikes.org/
https://www.bta4bikes.org/
https://urbanmamas.typepad.com/urbanm...-the-site.html

These sites seem to paint a very different picture of life in Portland. Are they all liars and you the only one who tells the truth?

Elkhound

To get back to the original question, a lot of what UPS delivers, particularly to businesses, is small packages and document mailers. A bike, especially with a trailer, or something like this would be good for that. And not block traffic the way the vans do.

unkchunk

I think it's just *****'s way of trying to say that they already have enough Californians in Portland already.

tim24k

What you don't like The People's Republic of Portland?

losingsight

the bike scene in portland is lame but you don't really get a feel for that unless you've lived there and interacted with most of the people out there. that said, it's not something you can get a feel for by reading about it on the internet or visiting and riding your bike around for 3 days.

Elkhound

As my debate coach said, "Define your terms."

What is this 'lame'?

I will agree that one can't get a real feel for a place via the web, that some aspects must be felt in the flesh, but what do you mean by 'lame'? That word can mean so many different things to so many different people that it is practically an unword.

losingsight

as in, portland is not the cycling mecca it claims to be. the only exception being that it is easy to get around by bicycle. it's my opinion that all other aspects of the cycling community/scene are ****ty and not worth partaking in.

barturtle

I'm guessing by this you are saying that that "bicycle as transportation" aspect has taken over from the "bicycle as a statement". So the bicyclists are no longer needed to constantly spend every waking moment trying to figure out how to make their city one that can be made into a bicycle-able city. It already is such a city.

Hell I'd give up a whole bunch of "feel-good, brotherhood of cyclists" nonsense in exchange for a city I can actually ride in and has some facilities for cyclists in place.

lbear

Have YOU ever lived any place else? I have lived here 15 years its heaven for bicycling compared to most cities. Try to get some where in LA traffic first. It sound like your problem is with "interacting with people". Thats not a bicycling issue.

I did meet one of the UPS cyclists about a week go. She was hauling about 200lb of packages. Riding on an old Huffy through a flat suburb. She said they work in teams. She and a guy in a truck split up the neighborhood. It was her first week and she had not ridden in 20 years. She was pooped. But I thought it looked like fun. But it was a beautiful day. Not 28 and snowing like today.

Elkhound

If she's not already in good shape, she will be. And perhaps she can use some of that overtime to buy herself a good bike.

Elkhound

How so?

lbear

I pointed out how much weight I have lost cycling, how great she will feel, and how healthy she will get. But she just was not feeling it. I think she would have rather been in a office. Its to bad UPS did not hire cyclists to cycle.

Elkhound

Well, they can only hire those who apply. She may get to 'feeling it' after she's done it a while.

losingsight

i have spent weeks riding around in LA. traffic was nothing .i i have toured throughout europe and been in enough cities to tell whether if it was bike friendly, or not. besides, you're disregarding the first thing i said. i already said, it is easy to get around here. thats not my issue. my issue is a city that purports itself to be a bike mecca, the the idiots on the internet that believe it.

here are just a few examples. the bike shops, suck. not a helpful knowledgeable one in the bunch.
the fact that Oregon is one of only four states without a vehicular homicide law. for the time that i have lived here there have been 10 or so cyclist deaths, many where the driver was at fault and admitted as such, and NOT ONE driver has ever been cited or ticketed. the city government likes the pr of being a biking city, but when it comes down to it, it's all talk.
currently the bta is proposing a law to tax bicyclists on every new bike purchased to support funding blah blah blah. as if that were the best way to fund something that the city doesn't even care about.
and a lot of it is the culture. people here are mostly *********. now, thats pretty subjective, so you should just take my word for it.



*that is supposed to read: ********

Elkhound

I have found CleverCycles very knowledgeable and helpful. Of course, Todd's cycling philosophy may be different from yours.

losingsight

i haven't been to clever cycles yet. is that the shop on 21st and hawthorne with all the scooters and ****?
granted, i haven't been to every shop in portland. i think i have been to most of the popular ones, and have had some sort of problem at all of them.

mackerel

I find the thought of getting paid to wear a brown jumpsuit and riding a brown bike quite intriguing.
The fact the brown bike will be loaded down with cargo and it will most likely be raining every day makes the thought all the more exciting.
And the added bonus is that this will take place in Oregon.
Wow!

Elkhound

This is their website: https://clevercycles.com/.

First you make a sweeping generalization about the bike shops in Portland--that there isn't a decent one in the bunch--and then you admit that you aren't familiar with all of them.

I think I know how much credence I should pay to any of your future spewings.

And I'd like to ask what you have done about the situation. Are you a member of any advocacy groups? Have you written to the mayor or your alderman? Do you write letters to the editor of the paper? Have you, perhaps, run for alderman on a pro-bike platform? What have you done about the situation? Or do you just sit around and fume and complain about what "they" are doing? I have news for you; we live in a democracy--"they" are "us"; if you don't like the situation, get together with some like-minded people, get of your collective butts, and do something about it.