[*BCM*] StreetTalk with Portland's Roger Geller...

[Erik Wile]

Wow!

That was a really exciting presentation!  Too much to summarize for
those who missed it.  But I will say it did give me a little hope.

One of the most exciting things was hearing that business owners in
Portland have actually asked the city to replace some on-street car
parking with on-street bike parking in front of their cafes!!!
Whenever one of my snooty neighbors complains about bikes parked on
the sidewalk I always enthusiastically agree and say that they should
carve out a few on street parking spaces for a bike corral.  That
shut's 'em up.  But they're actually going for it in Portland!

One thing that surprised me: Roger talked about various bike lanes and
even a left-turn bike lane that were all working well for Portland.  I
asked when they got police "buy in" to the bike revolution... assuming
that the only way that the bike lanes could work is if the police were
actively enforcing the no parking/travelling in bike lanes rule.

It turns out that they still don't really have the police on their
side.  That even recently Police have been ticketing bikes for failing
to stop at stop signs.  Just to flex their muscles.

But somehow, despite the lack of help from the authorities, it is
working there.  It just seems to be about getting a critical mass
[ahem] of influential people to actually believe that bikes are
traffic too.  All their traffic engineers, for example.

He had an interesting point about bike safety.  He said that a key
next step is getting bike behaviors that are safe [eg taking the lane]
to also be comfortable.  [getting cars to chill out if it's not safe
to pass.]  I must say that BCM helps us be more comfortable in the
streets, and safe during the ride, but then again when the ride is
over, the drivers rage remains.  How do we get cars to chill?

For solo riding I was thinking maybe an electric message board sign on
my rack for extra-narrow roads saying "toot if you really need to
pass."  Maybe that would defuse things.  Maybe a couple people will
honk and maybe I'll get to the side when I can, but eventually the car
directly behind will realize they don't _need_ to pass and act as a
moving blocker.

Hmmm, naah, everyone's late for work, or overeager to get home;
generally unhappy about where they are when they're driving in
Boston.  I'd be deafend, and I don't really want honked at all the
time.  I dunno.  Ideas?

Just tryin' to be positive,
-erik