Portland's 2030 Bike Plan With Activist Catie Gould

In this episode we take stock of the Portland Bike Plan for 2030. Haven't heard of it? Well, that's not your fault. While it took a huge multi-year effort from hundreds of advocates, dozens of city staff, and several key elected officials to create it and get it adopted at City Council back in 2010, it hasn't lived up to its promise. 

Instead of making Portland a  quote, "Healthy Community with vibrant neighborhoods and bicycles everywhere!" as proclaimed across the cover of the plan, it has been all but forgotten by city staff. And in at least one recent example, completely forgotten. Meanwhile, Portland's bike usage rates have remained relatively stagnant as the number of people driving cars has gone way up.

To add salt to the wounds of bike advocates, in the past year or so, the plan has been snubbed several times. First, a  presentation of a 10-year Bike Plan update at City Council was cancelled at the last minute in September of 2020, then never rescheduled. Then a newly appointed Transportation Commissioner told the city's bike advisory committee earlier this summer that she'd never heard of the plan. And then back in July, the Director of PBOT offered an anemic response when a member of the committee tried to pin him down on a commitment to dust off the  plan.

That committee member was Catie Gould. Catie was co-chair of nonprofit bike advocacy group Bike Loud PDX when the group tried to resurrect the bike plan in early 2020 — right before Covid changed everything and stopped their momentum.  As made clear in her exchange with the PBOT Director (which you'll hear later in this episode), Catie hasn't forgotten about the plan.

I caught up with Catie a few days ago to find out if she thinks Portland's once-vaunted Bike Plan is worth saving.

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