BikePortland Podcast

In this episode, host Jonathan Maus shares clips from a recent meeting of the Metro Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT). He highlights an exchange between county commissioners that was spurred by the "reading the of the names" - an increasingly common practice at meetings where someone reads names of people killed in traffic crashes at the outset of a meeting in order to add...

This episode is all about the headlines I'm sure all of you've seen — that the number of people riding bikes in portland has fallen sharply in recent years. It's a decline that started long before Covid, and it's something we've been stewing about around here for many years now. But now we've got hard numbers from the City of Portland, so it's time to dig in and confront this unfortunate reality....

In this episode, host Jonathan Maus will take you on a tour and ride with Tegan Valo from B-Line Urban Delivery . B-Line is a Portland company that was founded in 2008 and they have carved out a great little niche for their innovative approach to last mile freight logistics. If you're a BikePortland reader, you'll recall several stories we've written about them over the years because of this simpl...

For this episode, host Jonathan Maus rode down to City Hall and recorded an interview with Portland City Commissioner Mingus Mapps. Mapps has served as one of Portland's five council members since 2020, and was recently named the commissioner-in-charge of the transportation bureau. Mapps is a graduate of Reed College, he has a PhD in government from Cornell and is a former political science profes...

As a veteran of Metro Council (our elected regional planning authority) — including a seven-year stint as president from 2003 to 2010 — David Bragdon has been around the block when it comes to Oregon transportation politics. And for the past decade he's been executive director of TransitCenter, a nonprofit foundation that funds and conducts research and advocacy to improve public transit across th...

In this episode, host Jonathan Maus (BikePortland's publisher and editor) sat down for a chat about the Portland Bureau of Transportation with Kiel Johnson, a Portland bike advocacy veteran and current chair of the nonprofit BikeLoud PDX . PBOT is currently looking to hire a new director of the agency and Jonathan and Kiel have some thoughts about it! They share insights on the state of PBOT in ge...

When it comes to the goal of safer streets and "Vision Zero," how much of a focus should we put on individual driver behaviors and infrastructure design? The "systems versus people" debate is raging as cities and advocates grapple with record traffic fatalities. Tara Goddard, PhD, is an assistant professor at the School of Urban Planning at Texas A & M University. She earned her doctorate in u...

PBOT workers are on strike. Host Jonathan Maus visited the picket line outside PBOT's Maintenance Operations headquarters on the first day of the walkout and talked to a few workers — the same folks who sweep our bike lanes, patch the roads, replace signs, and so on. In this episode you'll hear those interviews, learn a bit about why the strike is happening, and hear what PBOT says the impacts wil...

In this episode we welcomed BikePOC PNW Co-Founder Will Cortez into the Shed. Host Jonathan Maus wanted to check in with Will about Portland's progress on welcoming more Black, Indigenous and people of color into the local cycling and transportation advocacy scene — nearly three years after the George Floyd protests. Will and Jonathan touch on a number of topics including: Will's concerns on how B...

Go deeper into the lawsuit filed Friday (11/18) by BikeLoud PDX against the City of Portland in this informative conversation between host Jonathan Maus and Oregon lawyer Scott Kocher of Forum Law Group. *** LINKS: Coverage of the lawsuit on BikePortland Official complaint filed filed in Multnomah County 11/18/22 (PDF) ODOT Bicycle & Pedestrian Bill Screening Process (PDF) ORS 366.514 (the "Bi...

Portland voted for a new form of government. It's a huge deal and bike advocates need to understand why — and more importantly — how to take advantage of it. In this episode, host Jonathan Maus talks to two people with important insights into what lies ahead: former policy advisor for City Commissioner Mingus Mapps Matt Glazewski (who was interviewed in ep. 18), and researcher/writer at Sightline...

Host Jonathan Maus attended the Powell Blvd Community Forum at Cleveland High School on October 20th. For this episode, he has pulled out several powerful remarks from attendees. It's a rare opportunity to hear advocates speak out about the tragic collision that killed Sarah Pliner on October 4th just a few hundred yards from where the Forum took place. Among the voices you'll hear from in this ep...

Host Jonathan Maus put on his headphones and took off his clothes to bring you the first-ever podcast episode recording by a naked person riding a bike. Seriously! Join him for a full episode of interviews with attendees of Portland's 18th annual World Naked Bike Ride. You'll hear from a wide variety of people — from professional nudists to people who have never shown their bare bodies in public —...

This week you'll get to know a rising star in local political and advocacy circles, Ashton Simpson. At just 34 years old Simpson is running for  Metro Council, and with no challengers for his east Portland district seat, he's now Metro Councilor-elect Ashton Simpson. Simpson will be just the 2nd Black man to ever sit on Metro Council, following in the footsteps of Ed Washington in the early 1...

This week we delve into the topic of carfree streets, plazas and great public spaces in Portland. You might have read our recent story about the big announcement Monday morning from the City of Portland that they want to double down on their outdoor dining patios, plazas and carfree public space programs .  In this episode, host Jonathan Maus shares clips from remarks made at the press confer...

It was International Women's Day when I edited this episode and what better subject to explore than the impact the e-bike revolution is having on women. In historical terms, the skyrocketing popularity of e-bikes among women feels a bit like a deja vu. At the turn of the 20th century, as the and price and safety of these magical, human-powered machines improved and the bicycling craze swept Europe...

As I edited this episode and I work on our stories I often think that bicycling doesn't really matter right now. I mean, I know that riding bikes always matters to some people in some ways... But with so many more serious things going on it can feel not just less important, but talking and creating content about bicycling can even feel insensitive given all the other more serious things going...

This week we've got another installment in our Shop Talk series and I'm excited to welcome Splendid Cycles co-owners Barb and Joel Grover. This duo has been working in the local bike scene since the 1980s and came up through the ranks as employees of Bike Gallery, which was one of the largest bicycle retail chains in the country. Joel was a product analyst and buyer for many years at Bike Gallery...

This week's guest is Bike Index co-founder Bryan Hance. Bike Index has listed over 730,000 bikes since it was founded in 2013 and has become a formidable force in the battle against bike thieves — and Hance is its heart and soul. In December 2021 Hance and the Bike Index team published a report on a  case they'd spent 10 months working on that involved 100s of bike thefts in Colorado and a Fa...

Host Jonathan Maus: Ever since I  got seriously into cycling in my freshman year of college or so, I've loved hanging out at bike shops. My friends and I were huge shop rats back in the day, and as I record more of these Shop Talk episodes, I'm realizing how much I've missed it. Getting to know and chat with people like my guest this week, Tom Martin of TomCat Bikes on SE Milwaukie and Powell...

After a short break I'm really happy to be back at the mic and cannot wait to share this interview with Oregon State Rep Khanh Pham. Rep Pham is a former community organizer who's worked with OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon and the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO). Most recently she was a founding member of the coalition that created the Portland Clean Energy Fund and she continu...

For this episode, host Jonathan Maus caught up with veteran advocate and recent Portland transplant Cathy Tuttle. Cathy has been an activist for climate change, transportation, and healthy cities for over 30 years and has long list of accomplishments and awards for her work as a community organizer, nonprofit founder ( Seattle Neighborhood Greenways ) and city staffer. In 2019 she ran for a s...

In this episode we hear from Erik Tonkin, the owner of Sellwood Cycle Repair who celebrates his 30th anniversary with the shop this year. We first wanted to have Erik on the show as part of our Shop Talk series, but then realized there was much more to talk about than just running a business. In this interview, you’ll learn how he got his start in the local bike industry, why he seriously consider...

We're just about to sign off for the week to enjoy the holiday (and my daughter turns 19 tomorrow!), but before we take a break I wanted to share the work of people and organizations who are making the season brighter for people in need. I loved talking to shop owners last month for our first Shop Talk series episode. This time I talked to two local nonprofits — Bikes for Humanity and Community Cy...

Show notes: Last week we shared an interview with Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. This week we hear from one of the candidates who wants her seat: Vadim Mozyrsky. Mozyrsky is an administrative law judge who specializes in disability law (and sees improving city policy for people with disabilities as one of his top priorities if elected). He lives in the Goose Hollow neighborhood and, w...