RTC TrailBlog : urban pathways, oregon

Helping the Homeless with Bicycling

Stephen Miller (RTC) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:19:00 GMT

By Ruby Brunk

As our nation warms to the environmental, health, safety and economic benefits of bicycling, more and more people are choosing to hop on a bike to get where they're going. But for those who don’t have cars and struggle to afford public transportation, biking is not a choice but a necessity.

A number of organizations exist with the purpose of assisting those who need it most with this mode of transportation.

Many groups that assist the homeless refer to those who need their services as "clients." The Community Bicycle Project in Goshen, Ind., bridges the gap between volunteer and client, requiring that clients work for an hour or more in the shop to get a bicycle. Many clients end up as long-term volunteers. Good Karma Bikes in San Jose, Calif., goes a step further with their Certified Bicycle Mechanic job skills training, a program for clients-turned-volunteers. Good Karma founder Jim Gardner counts the personal empowerment he sees in his clients when they learn how to fix something as his greatest reward.

In Portland, Ore., The Community Cycling Center’s Create a Commuter program uses the help of volunteers to provide fully outfitted commuter bikes and bike safety workshops to low-income adults. Wrench Raiders, also in Portland, brings its services directly to the homeless, setting up shop under bridges, and in the downtown area.

The Community Cycling Center maintains that "bicycles are a tool for empowerment and a vehicle for change." Indeed, these organizations are doing more than just providing bikes; they’re building community and empowering the individuals they serve.

Photo: Wrench Raiders at work, courtesy BikePortland.org

Portland Cyclists Reach Out to Minority Communities

Stephen Miller (RTC) — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:34:00 GMT

Portland, Ore. - known as a bicycling Mecca but not necessarily a culturally diverse city - has been blending these two issues through the work of the Community Cycling Center's Understanding Barriers to Bicycling project. The center, founded in 1994 to provide bicycle safety and repair education, began the project in 2009. They recognized that many minority community members who would otherwise benefit from bicycling - including reduced transportation costs, health improvement and journey-time reduction - were not hopping on their bikes.

Determined to find out why, the center worked with Alta Planning + Design to complete a literature review of existing transportation research into promoting bicycling among minority communities. The center also completed a community health literature review. While no proven methods to overcome these barriers has yet been found, there has been significant research into identifying barriers among various communities, including low-income populations, women and racial minorities.

The center also conducted workshops and focus groups with various communities of color, including African American, Hispanic and African immigrant groups. The reasons for not bicycling varied between the groups, providing insight to the center on how to best tailor their programming to these various populations. In April, Alison Graves, executive director of the Community Cycling Center, presented findings of these focus groups and lessons learned from community outreach in a seminar at Portland State University. You can watch or listen to the presentation online; it's listed under "April 30."

Chain links: Back to school time

Stephen Miller (RTC) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:10:00 GMT

It's that time of year; vacation is over and the books are waiting to be cracked. The Onion's Twin Cities edition - no joke - encourages its readers to go back to school car-free and carefree along the Midtown Greenway.
Trails spur small businesses in urban areas: The Dallas Morning News reports on a new cafe slated to open next month along the Katy Trail, serving "snacks and drinks, including wine and beer. Games, such as checkers and chess, will be free to use." The business owner was enticed to set up shop after using the trail and seeing how many people on the trail could become potential customers. Friends of the Katy Trail is in full support.
The Trust for Public land has partnered with the City of New Orleans to purchase an 18-acre parcel along the Lafitte Greenway. Blogroll member Friends of Lafitte Corridor links to the Times-Picayune article and the TPL press release about the purchase.
Plans are moving forward for replacement of the Betzwood Bridge, which connected Valley Forge National Park and the Schuylkill River Trail. The bridge was closed in 1993.
Portland, Oregon's Metro regional government has submitted four major bicycle infrastructure projects for U.S. DOT stimulus funds, including a proposal to construct the Cazadero Trail between the Springwater Corridor and Mt. Hood, allowing a continuous nonmotorized route for city residents to access nearby wilderness. Support for improved trails are strong in this area; the town of Boring, which will be the connection point between the two trails, recently hosted a fundraiser for construction of a trailhead park there.

Photo: The race is on along the Katy Trail in Dallas to capitalize on the economic potential of this urban trail. Photo by snowboard9 on Flickr.

Portland region develops "The Intertwine" concept for regional parks and trails

Stephen Miller (RTC) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:56:00 GMT

Already a national leader in urban cycling, the Portland, Oregon, area is moving forward with an initiative formerly known as Connecting Green that will be renamed and launched to the public in September as The Intertwine. At its heart, The Intertwine is an effort by the Portland area's Metro regional government and its partners to both facilitate regional cooperation in the creation of a regional park and trail system, and to make this system easy-to-use for the public by providing information about and connections within the system. The partners behind The Intertwine understand that park and trail planning includes both transportation and recreation. From BikePortland, which covered The Intertwine's unveiling on June 30:

The Intertwine has five major focus areas...one of which is “Trails”. Don’t let that word fool you, this is not just about recreational, multi-use paths. Through this effort, Metro convened a Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails that ended up focusing more on trails as transportation corridors and building the case for an “integrated mobility strategy” (you can download a PDF of that here).

U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley spoke at the June 30 event. The Oregonian has also editorialized in support of The Intertwine: "It's great to have one senator intertwined," the paper wrote. "Eventually, we could use two, or four."

The Intertwine is the type of local and regional effort that complements two of RTC's national efforts: our 2010 Campaign for Active Transportation to advocate for increased walking, biking and trails funding in the next federal transportation bill; and our new Urban Pathways Initiative, which seeks to encourage active transportation and healthy recreation on multi-use pathways in urban and metropolitan areas. It should come as no surprise, then, that in its final report the Blue Ribbon Committee for Trails identified continued work with RTC as important to advocating for federal funding to implement this regional trail vision. You can download a PDF of Portland's case statement for RTC's 2010 Campaign here.