What’s all this about Portland?

Yes you read right, Portland, Oregon. For some reason I’ve been hearing a lot about this city lately, even from different sources. Apparently there are things going on, bicycle wise. All this Portland-talking made me curious, and after some research, I found that the city’s focus on bicycle planning is superior to most other american cities, which greatly and solely still relies on car use (…but this trend is about to change, ex. NYC).

Links on The Office of Transportations web pages, showed that Portland is one of the first North American Cities trying out aBike Sharing System (like Oslos city bikes/’bysykler’). Other mobility related aims of the city, includes blue bicycle lanes (as we see a lot of in Copenhagen) and a plan for making Portland “a world-class bicycling city” by 2030. And on top of it all they’re in this very moment holding the Transatlantic Active Transportation Workshop, where they get European experts to share their perspectives on bicycling and walking in the region of Portland. Some crucial questions might be: Why do European cities choose to invest in bicycling and walking? How do freight and active transportation work together in Amsterdam? What does it take to have 30 percent of trips made by bike?

This might look like a commercial for The City of Portland, but it’s rather a positive notification of the point that there are great things going on “over there” as well. Sustainability is on the agenda.