uh.... do we need more bike racks?

In case you've been super busy lately with all-consuming tasks like emptying a storage unit or something, and haven't noticed what is happening in Portland these days, here's an example. See? The city is so bursting with cyclists that we have to resort to extreme measures. The bike parking availability isn't keeping up with the demand. Even so, for most purposes biking is still way more convenient than driving. When you're driving and you can't find a parking spot, you can't do this with your car. How did they do this, anyway? See detail below. I hope they're a single party of three. And if not, I hope party #3 comes out before party #1 or 2. Otherwise numbers 1 and 2 are not going to be in a party mood.

Scooters moving into our territory

Uh, excuse me, but is this allowed?

I'm all for scooters as an alternative to the car. HOWEVER: do they really need to take up room on the sidewalk as well as use up one of our scarce bike racks? Are thieves picking up scooters and carrying them off? Is that really a problem? Raise your hand if you have personally seen a team of gorillas back a truck up to a scooter in a well-trafficked area, lift it into the truck, and drive off.

Since a scooter, unlike a bicycle, has the right to occupy the parking spot of a car, can't they be satisfied with that?

If there's something here that I'm not getting, I'd appreciate educational comments. And I adore scooters, I really do. I'd own one myself if not for the fact that my excercise wouldn't happen.

And by the way, thanks everybody for your concern about Spiderhead and my hidey-hole. Now I can get back to the business at hand, which is what I need the hidey-hole for in the first place.

Like a moth to the flame, they come to Portland

I arrived at my hideout this morning to find an unfamiliar bike locked to my rack. My first reaction was to ask myself. “Grrrr. Who the hell’s in my parking spot?”

To which my Self answered, Oh stop. Number one, there’s room for two bikes on those racks; and number two, you’re supposed to be happy when you see that more people are riding their bikes.

“Oh yeah,” I remembered. “Bikes good, cars bad.”

To me it seemed the kind of bike that was someone’s best friend, perfected over time with features acquired gradually and thoughtfully. The tubing bore a funny name I’d never heard, and the bike was a kloodged together mix of distinctive parts, including high handlebars on an already tall frame.

I saw a guy emerge from the side of the building and weighed a series of clues. 1, he was tall; 2, he wore a bike helmet; and 3, he was walking toward the bike.

“This your bike?” I asked him.
“Well, not really. I’ve rented it from City Bikes while I visit Portland.”

Is the world changing, or what? Usually the first thing people do is rent a car. This guy doesn’t even know his way around yet and he rents a bike. Not only that, it’s a really rainy day.

His name is Chris and he’s moving to Portland. He comes from what I think might be the only city in Texas that could produce this kind of person, namely Austin. (Am I being unbearably prejudiced? What would Molly Ivins say?)

Get this: One of the main reasons he’s moving here is so he can ride his bike around. He says that in Austin you get too sweaty. He’s visiting Portland in our worst weather to get the most realistic experience of it. Smart man. How many dodo-birds visit us in our spectacular summers and impulsively decide to move here only to slit their wrists by late February?

Word about Portland’s pedestrian-scale living is obviously getting around, and I’d be interested to know how. Maybe Chris can tell us. Are we totally famous for being a great biking city, or is this only going on at the word-of-mouth level among cyclists?