Obama's first words to the cheering crowd:

"Bicycle lanes."

According to the Oregonian, those were the man's first words when he opened his mouth yesterday at the waterfront. I wasn't there, but judging from the pictures on Bikeportland about the event, he would've been foolish to open with anything else. The photos are definitely worth a peek. Bicycles were locked to anything that could remotely be called a railing, and from where he was standing, a lot of these railings, including the hawthorne bridge, would've been in his line of vision. Apart from the parked bikes, he'd have seen the most bike traffic ever on the surrounding streets.

We're becoming so famous! In case you hadn't heard, we've just been named #1 in the country for Best Overall bicycling city. Word is majorly getting around.

Throngs of cyclists. Throngs.

On my way home yesterday just as I reached the middle of the Broadway Bridge the gate came down. The ensuing snail paced event gave me a chance to experience the true thickness of the throngs of people who commute by bike in Portland.

The bridge was raised to accommodate one of the Navy ships arriving for the Rose Festival. They raised it while the ship was still way up under the Fremont Bridge. Police cars sat on the bridge and police boats trolled around in the water. The whole thing took a good twenty minutes, as opposed to the usual ten.

So by the time they lowered it back down, there was quite a line-up of cars, bikes, and pedestrians. Instead of following my first impulse which was to dart off and make up for lost time, it occurred to me to step aside and let the bikes flow past me to see how many there were. They just kept passing and passing and passing, as if they would never end. It looked like one of those programmed bike-a-thons, but it was only the day’s commuters. And this happened at 6:30, so this probably wasn’t even most of them. It was thrilling, really, to realize that that many people are using human powered vehicles. I think it’s incredibly exciting, and it gives me hope for the planet. Ok, for Portland. (see the stuffed monkey riding on the rear rack of the rear cyclist.)

(See all the tiny sailors standing on the ship.)
(See the cute little row of outhouses on the deck of the ship. I wonder if they got to the end of the ship construction and realized they forgot to put bathrooms in.)

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?