Trailing Oregon

If you build it, they will come: this is the lesson.

If you build it, and it is a network of 12 million miles of paved roads – enough roads to circle the planet 500 times – the cars will come. They've come into our cities, our homes, our way of life. Meanwhile, though bikes on this planet outnumber cars, the bike lanes we've built amount to only one fifth of one percent of the roads. What gives? How can we build a more bike-friendly environment, a more bike-friendly city?

Unfortunately, any attempt to build San Francisco’s bicycle network has only been met with legal action brought by a certain Rob Anderson. The former District 5 candidate for Supervisor will assure you that the issue is "procedural," but you'll know a bike-hater when you see one. Even if your bike plan is passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors, signed by the Mayor, and touted by bicycling-advocacy groups (as San Francisco's plan was) – no matter. A judge will grant Anderson an injunction, and your bicycle network to-be will get hung up in courts and legal battles for at least three years, maybe more. Yet, still: the bicyclists will come, in ever greater numbers, and they will wait.

In the interim, the bicyclists will turn to Portland, Oregon – the only American city that earned a platinum rating from The League of American Bicyclists – where such a cycling dream already exists. Portland is home to the country's greatest collection of practical bicyclists (there are now more bike commuters in Oregon than farmers), a hearty, happy bunch of such critical mass that they no longer have any need for Critical Mass. Portland is home to a bike temple, the editor of one esteemed bike journal, and more cargo bikes, fendered bikes, and panniered bikes than I've ever seen before.

Riding around Portland – up Ankeny, down Harrison – a San Franciscan bicyclist can relax, revel, and soak up the urban bike glory. He can also learn a lot. Here is what I recently discovered on the Willamette: Portland is turning to Copenhagen (where 36% of residents commute by bike and only 27% commute by car), and the concern isn't merely bike-friendliness, but a "cyclocentric approach to urban design." I liked the sound of that.

These, then, are the lessons from up the coast and across an ocean, so that someday, hopefully soon, San Francisco can build it, and become the best bicycling city in America.

Avoid the red-tape. If you build it, be sure to secure local or state funding – anything besides federal funding – because federal transportation funding stipulates compliance with clunky American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) standards. In Portland, all the planning rage is with international practices; planners there seem overjoyed to let other cities wallow in the bureaucratic swamps of yesteryear.

Bikes need to park, too. Install bike parking everywhere – even (or especially) in places typically allocated to cars. In the last year, engineers in Portland have converted a few dozen car-parking spaces to bike parking spaces. I asked Mayor Adams if this conversion was especially challenging. He smiled. "Would you believe we have a backlog? What is it, a hundred something businesses want racks in front of their stores. Think of it this way: two parking spaces used to serve one or two customers. With the bike racks, that's 10 or 20 customers – AND you can see the storefront." More good news: SF's bike plan will add thousands of bike racks – on sidewalks and streets.

Drop the ‘tude. In Copenhagen, riding a bike is neither ultra-hip nor ultra-lame; it's about as normal and practical as using a vacuum cleaner. In all of America besides Portland, riding a bike is still a cultural statement. As such, all sorts of biking sub-cultures have emerged, and it's tempting to feel like you've gotta be part of one to be get on a bike in public. Identifying with others who ride fixies, or wear lycra, or like to sniff bike seats, or whatever, is great, but let's all get over our soft squishy egos a bit and welcome newbies to the best way of exploring the city.

Keep in mind your target demographic. About this subject, I chatted with Todd Borkowitz, a planner at Portland's Bureau of Transportation. Over coffee, he opened up Portland's new 2030 bike plan, and pointed to a diagram. It divided Portlanders into four groups: 1) strong and fearless, 2) enthused and confident, 3) interested but concerned, and 4) uninterested/unable to bike. Todd rested his finger on the "interested but concerned" group, which made up 60% of the total. Portland's bike plan targets those people, he said. That's what makes it an "equitable network." San Francisco's bike plan is similar, but worded differently: it's meant to create an environment suitable for any biker from age 8 to 80.

Make it pretty and show it off. Most of your bike network won't be glamorous, but hopefully a few key projects will be eye-catching. The Sunday Streets events, on the Embarcadero, come to mind, as do car-free days in Golden Gate Park. So does an idea to make Market Street more bike friendly – a project Mayor Newsom has already signed on to. Even Portland's mayor thinks it's a good idea. "Gavin's gonna kill me for this," he told me, "but I get the sense that bike lanes on Market street would slow down traffic, and make some, uh, challenging retail locations more attractive." We're titillated.

Plan creatively. Use some imagination. Imagine what it's like to ride a bike next to high-speed traffic, and imagine what it's like to drive next to slow, swerving bikes. Do everything you can to avoid putting bikers and drivers in tough situations. It may demand separated bike lanes, or bike boxes at traffic lights, or special traffic signals that give bikers a head start (the same way pedestrians get a head start at crosswalks.) As Mayor Adams told me, by removing perceived conflicts between bikers and cars you'll remove a lot of real conflicts, too. Also, incorporate the green wave. Timing the traffic lights so that it's possible to ride for blocks at a time makes everybody – bikes AND cars – happier. Example A: Valencia Street.

Legalize biking. Enforce the laws and regulations that govern all forms of transportation. Don't let cars or trucks or cabs park in bike lanes, and don't let bikers run stop signs or red lights. Nobody wins if bikers get hurt, or ignored, or special treatment.