Fixitman

Wipe out!

$##^%$& Trolly tracks!

Decided a couple weeks ago I would start riding the bike in to work on Saturdays. Last week went well. This week ... Not so much.

The city in its infinite wisdom put the bike route and the trolly route on the same street. The problem is the way the morons set it up you have to at some point cross the tracks while riding parallel to them. Well it was wet this morning and down I went. I will be investigating alternate ways to get to the bridge I need to cross as I will not be taking a chance on wiping out on those tracks again.

Smacked my right knee on the pavement. It as well as my right hip are sore. No damage to the bike, but it shredded one of my Gore shoe covers. So there goes 70.00 .. arrggg.

So I am Hobbling around work wondering if I am going to be able to ride the 20 miles back home at the end of the day. I don't mind a little pain I just don't want to make anything worse than it already is.

I am not sure who was dumber. The City for putting the bike route there, or me for actually following their route knowing how risky RR tracks can be.

bdcheung

I'd say it was mutual "stupidity" for lack of a better word.

ElJamoquio

My guess is the person who put them there hasn't ridden a bike since they were 13. Perhaps you should bring it to their attention.

krusty

Streetcars and trolleys when not run on a dedicated right-of-way are the single biggest impediment to traffic flow, and the single greatest contributor to road repair costs. Time to run the damn things off a one way track into the lake, full of any morons on city council who consider them a sacred cow.

Dynamic

don't you dare ride on it. your body may not be feeling the full extent of it and riding on it has a high chance of making it severely worse.

Fixitman

prendrefeu

Most importantly, you need to report it to the city ASAP. Even if you did not have any large physical or property damage, it is important that you establish a precedence of this issue.

Why?

If in the future, any one DOES get seriously injured (or has serious property damage) due to the problem, they only way they will have any substantial legal standing is if the issue is an outstanding one that the City has been made aware of in prior instances. In that case, the problem would fall under something akin to "willful neglect" on the part of the City. The City will then be open to being sued and, unfortunately, that has been the only way larger bureaucracies actually pay attention to these issues.

So, again - file a complaint/incidence report with the City ASAP. Even if it doesn't do anything for you now, it will do something for everyone in the future.

If you want to make changes in the institutions that exist, you need to play their game. Play it well, know the rules of the game, and you can have your way.

rousseau

Streetcars are wonderful, and are great in Toronto and in Europe. Sounds like the sacred cow for you is "traffic flow."

"Traffic flow" in American cities is wonderful, you can zoom right through the cities out to your favourite suburbs on the expressways or on the highways that slice through the inner cities where nary a pedestrian is ever seen. Who cares about quality of life in the inner city when 250-pound soccer moms need to whiz from one suburb to another in their SUVs?

Of course I'm being facetious. The "single biggest impediment to traffic flow" is not streetcars at all, not even close. Rather, it is double-car owning suburban living where every trip is in a car and the expressways cannot be built fast enough. If a substantial part of the population lived in higher densities and took substantially fewer trips by car then your almighty and sacred "traffic flow" wouldn't be much of a problem.

Especially if the flow involved fewer motors.

Fixitman

AEO

^
I would try the Portland Transportation dept. The least they would do is direct you to the proper dept.

single biggest impediment to traffic flow are parked and stopped(as in pick up and drop off) cars.
Cars wouldn't get stuck behind the streetcars if there were no parked cars blocking the other lane


As for wet street tracks... man those things suck.

prendrefeu

Yes, start off with the Portland Transportation Dept. Make sure the complaint is actually *filed* (get a report number, just for reference). If you do get a report number, and the problem is not addressed, you can easily just post up something about it with the reference number online... saying something like "brought up this concern, filed with #..., problem not addressed after (x) months" etc:. You've just made the issue more public, which:

1. May already prompt the city into doing something (good!)
2. Will help other people find the report if they also have problems (which goes back to having "precedence")

It's a little leg work, sorry - but you're in a great position and window of time to take some small actions now that will help dramatically at some point in the future, guaranteed.

Cheers and good luck!

Erik B

Bureau of Transportation System Management
1120 SW Fifth
Room 800
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503-823-5185
FAX: 503-823-7609

Bureau of Engineering and Development
1120 SW Fifth
Room 800
Portland, OR 97204
Phone: 503-823-5185
FAX: 503-823-7609

I'd personally start with System Management, they don't have quite the same structure as our DOT(we have a Traffic and Safety section) but either of those seem like a good start and should be able to point you in the correct direction.

donnamb 

Start here. At the bottom right of the page is a heading called "Bike Comments/Question". Your issues goes directly to the Bicycle Coordinator's office. Part of the purpose of having a Bicycle Coordinator is to have a liaison with the myriad of offices within PDOT whose policies could affect cyclists. They also are our go-between with the County (bridges) and ODOT (roads and highways that the State operates), as well as Metro and Tri-Met (regional transportation planning). I'd also consider contacting the Bicycle Advisory Committee Chair Mark Ginsberg with your concerns. They develop great interest in issues they hear lots of complaints about. It would also be smart to contact the BTA. I would start with Emily Gardner, who is their Policy Advocate.

Here's a recent article that may be of interest to you. Good luck.

slimvela

not to mention the fact he is workin on a Saturday...jeesh

prendrefeu

donnamb is wonderful. That is all.

ken cummings

Yup, I've been active in groups working with city, county, and state engineers in two parts of California and none of them said anything about riding bikes themselves. I even offered to go over a proposed bike route with an Orange County engineer. His supervisor immediately said, "We are not interested, We know all the rules and standards for bike route designs." I replied, "Perhaps so, but do any of you actively ride bikes? Let alone are currently commuting by bike through that area like I am?" No answer.

Fixitman

Thanks all for the links.
I will be contacting the city, and while I fully expect they will not pay it I will likley send them a bill for my new shoe covers.

This morning I could barely straighten my right leg out. At one point I was wondering if I was going to be able to straighten it at all. Walking the dog was a treat as we live on a floating home and there is an equivalent of a two block walk just to get the dog to where he can do his thing. The wife is still pissed at me for wiping out in the first place. So I did not even want to ask her to walk him.

So here I sit with an ice pack under my knee warmer. My insurance sucks so bad that I am avoiding the doctor thing as I will end up paying pretty much the whole bill. I am quite sure there are no chipped bones or anything like that. So likelihood is they would just give me some pain meds and tell me to do what I am already doing. The drugs right now don't sound like such a bad thing, but I am not going to shell out several hundred dollars just to get pain meds. The thing that really bugs me is that it will be at least a week before I can get out there and ride.

This whole thing has made me rethink wether it is even worth it to commute the one day a week. On the one hand I would really like to do my part to save fuel. As well it would have been good to get the extra training miles in. On the other hand it is not worth major injury and the possibility of not being able to ride at all, or of course my life.

Even if I re route my trip in there are a lot of other hazards commuting though the city. A lot of those hazards have to do with the city's poor planning. I think until we have a better system here I will just ride out here well away from the city. My commuting by bike days short as they were I think are now over. I will however give the city a report on this incident to hopefully help to get their thinking moving in the right direction.

Fixitman

not to mention the fact he is workin on a Saturday...jeesh

Yes, but while you are working on Monday I am out riding on basicly deserted roads

halfspeed

Would you like "high density" living with a bunch of Americans? Right, I didn't think so. Neither would we.

donnamb 

Thread bump! Portland roadies, here's your chance to tell the BTA how you feel about MAX & streetcar tracks. Check out this survey.

Fixitman

Well you can bet I put my two cents worth in. I still can't ride due to my messed up knee from falling on the flippen tracks .. and it's pissing me off
Probably going to need another week or so of healing. I tried some light riding the other and it made it worse

Please fill out the survey people to maybe help keep others from being injured or worse.