A summer commute in Portland (Pics)
 

Thought I'd post some pictures from my ride in to my summer job. It's 14.5 miles one way and in addition to having some scenic bits, lets me see a pretty good cross-section of the city.

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Cool ride, I have never seen that many commuters....

I hate you.

Seriously.

That is too cool.

It's not raining in those photo's.

I call shenanigans.

^X2

Very cool, nice ninja bike!

We get about 3 months without rain, though it's been unusually cool lately. Note the cloud cover. Good riding weather though.

I was just yankin your chain. Mostly I am just jealous. My commute isn't very scenic, nor bike friendly.

Does anybody ever go up to the front of the line? Sitting at the back of a line of traffic is dangerous.

The Hawthorne bridge, where all the bike commuters are, is basically cycle-commute central in a city known for cycle-commuting. Not only that, but it's about 8:30 am during the summer, so you have a high volume of fair weather commuters.

I grew up in Portland, so it takes me being somewhere else for a while to appreciate what a great place this city is to ride in.

As for the Ninja bike, it has...problems. The chainring is ramped and pinned so I get chain dop off road (going to bolt the front derailleur back on until I get a bash guard and chainwatcher). Also the chainring bolts keep coming loose :eek: so I've been riding my new mountain bike for the whole commute, complete with knobbies. Not the most efficient setup.

Cool, a K2. I thought I was the only person who'd ever bought one of those.

So, is all of Portland like that, with the nice bike lanes everywhere? That looks like it would be a glorious place to ride. Portions of San Diego seemed to be like that when I visited, but it wasn't really much better than here in Austin.

How so? There's a right turn lane to the right of the bike lane, so no danger of being right-hooked. Considering the huge volume of bike and care traffic that goes through there every day, I've never seen any sort of incident in all the time I've ridden there.

Some other Portland intersections I can't say the same for.

No, there's plenty of dangerous places to ride. The last 4 miles of my commute, for example.

That said, for all the infrastructure I think the best thing about Portland as a cycling city is that there are so many cyclists. That means drivers are used to watching out for them (us).

I'm pretty sure that was sarcasm. ;)

o snap. I lose. :(

EDIT: Line of traffic...of BIKE TRAFFIC. I get it. Carry on.

nice!!! I thought it was funny that that last bit, through the woods w/o a real bike lane? That is par for my commute. just a couple areas with wider lanes, but for the most part it is just like that.

jealousy is an ugly thing.

I used to deliver blood in Portland when I lived in SE WA state. Cool city.

It is on my short list of cities to move to if I ever feel the need to leave Denver.
Nice pics!

How is being last in the line of traffic dangerous?

Ask yourself a question: Who is the first person to get rear ended?

As far as being right hooked, I still don't know how this can ever happen? A car should never be beside you through an intersection, behind or in front, not beside. Works for me.

It's not unusual to see 15-20 bikes waiting at a light during commute time. Nice thing about Portland is that the east side is a nice grid with a lot of quiet through streets. It's easy to find ways through the city without riding busy streets. The city has designated certain streets as bike boulevards, where they've taken measures to discourage cars from using them as thoroughfares. Bike routes also have pavement markings and directional signs.

Wow, that's some cool pics and a neat commute. I can't believe there's a line of cyclists waiting for a light. For me seeing another commuter is a rare even worthy of mention in the "how was your commute" thread.

Oh yeah, here's my houston commute:

http://www.freefoto.com/images/2032/...torway_web.jpg

:) ok, its not that bad here if u can find a quiet route. still, its no portland thats for sure.

Nice, thanks for sharing.
OT but I'm looking at the pic of the sign with distances, is 9.6 mph a universal average for city riding? I had never seen that before.

Nice pictures. I live a good 20 miles from the city and even I have bike lanes.

Here's a picture of part of my commute. Mt. Hood is in the background.

http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/ga.../4-commute.JPG

I've been commuting for about two years now, and I haven't seen half as many commuters the entire time, let alone in one day. :lol:

Life is Not Fair. Very Nice Post and Pics.
Thanks

Consider yourself in the Avante Garde. In Portland, I'm just a follower.

Nice pics!