Geller on the good and bad of biking in Portland
Back in 2008 Portland became the first major U.S. city to be given a "Platinum" level Bicycle Friendly Community award by the League of American Bicyclists. Now, as per League policy, the Portland Bureau of Transportation must re-apply every 2-3 years in order keep its Platinum designation. (If you're wondering, the League says the Diamond-level designation isn't available yet.)
I recently got a glimpse of the current application and two questions stood out: "What are the three primary reasons your community deserves to be designated a Bicycle Friendly Community?" and "What are the three aspects of your community most in need of improvement in order to accommodate bicyclists?"
The application was filled out by PBOT Bicycle Coordinator Roger Geller. In the interest of understanding how PBOT sees its strengths and its weaknesses, I figured it would be interesting to share Geller's answers.