Nike-sponsored Biketown is Portland’s premier bike-share program. A thousand bright red-orange bikes eagerly await commuters at one hundred stations across downtown and local neighborhoods. At $2.50/ hour or $12 for a full day, these bikes are attractive and convenient options for city transportation. The program launched in July 2016 with extremely promising results. A total…
Portland is known for its strong bike culture; the state of Oregon boasts the nation’s highest percentage of cycling commuters, with nearly 8% of the population choosing the eco-friendly alternative to sitting in rush hour traffic. Each year that goes by, Portlanders see more bike-friendly improvements to city streets; yet they also see more cyclists,…
Despite well-intentioned plans to reduce the number of fatalities on Portland streets, 2016 saw an uptick in traffic fatalities compared with 2015. Although 2015 was the deadliest year to be on Oregon roads since 2008, in Portland, 2016 outpaced the preceding year with 44 traffic fatalities compared with 37 in 2015. The majority of these…
If you’re shopping around for a used car, you are probably searching for one that has a clean title. Yet if you search online your eyes may be drawn to seemingly perfect vehicles — with incredibly attractive prices and low mileage — only later to find out that their title states “Salvage.” You might get…
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming Wow! What a Ride!Hunter S. Thompson Motorcycles have been around since the second…
Some fear them, some are ready to welcome them with open arms. A question that many wonder is “When will self-driving cars hit the road?” While we are not any closer to the human-controlled flying cars imagined on The Jetsons, we are making huge leaps in automated technology. Self-driving cars are being tested on closed tracks and…
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reports this winter a higher than usual number of deer and other wildlife on or near roadways as they move further down away from heavy mountain snow and into valley areas in search of food. Animals foraging for food tend to follow the easiest path that will use…
2015 was a disturbing year for traffic casualties, with the number of traffic deaths shooting up more than they ever have in the past 50 years nationwide. Oregon got hit the hardest, seeing a brutal 27% increase in overall traffic deaths since 2014. Of all fifty states, Oregon’s was the largest percent increase, and was…
If you are an avid cyclist in Portland, you are probably aware of the many traffic laws you have to obey to get along on our congested streets. While most of the same rules apply to both cyclists and motor vehicles to keep everyone safe, cyclists are always in greater danger of getting hurt when…
Speeding is one of the leading causes of car wrecks because most drivers cannot control a vehicle that is moving at a high rate of speed. In 1974, President Richard Nixon signed the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, which included the National Maximum Speed Law (NMSL) that set the national speed limit at 55 mph. Following the enactment…