Concept drawing of the bike path

[Author - Greg Griggs]

The dream of a Sonic bike Lane with grooves (shown left), was slated to take pedestrians and bikers accross the Willamette river.

The lines are grooves of the path would play a melody when rolled over.  It would work like a musical box of sorts.  Below is a picture of a proposed musical “Score” the bike wheels would play as they zoomed over designated “Sonic Zones”.

Unfortunately, Mary Priester, Terimet’s public art manager, said that “unresolved technical issues and potential safety risks” were factors in the decission.  But also, it’s the cost.  The sonic bike path would have doubled as public art on the $1.5 billion Max line going from Portland out to Milwaukee.  As a rule, the agency requires 1.5% of it’s projects’ civil engineering budgets to go toward art installations.  Here is Mary’s letter to the advisory committee:

October 6, 2011

Dear Bicycle Advisory Committee:

I am sorry to inform you that the PMLR Art Advisory Committee voted at their last meeting not to procede with the Sonic Bike Path. They made their decision based primarily on recently received estimates for the project, which totaled over $200,000. The cost for the fabrication and installation of the mock-up alone came in at $30,000.

This project was originally conceived as an infrastructure project and was not included as a line item in the art budget. The committee was legitimately intrigued, but once presented with the budget reality, did not consider it a priority for their limited funds. Unresolved technical issues and potential safety risks were additional factors in the committee’s decision not to proceed with the proposal.

Staff and committee appreciated the opportunity to present the Sonic Bike Path to the BAC and were gratified by your support. If you have any questions regarding the decision, I would be happy to answer them by attending a meeting or answering emails.

With regards,

Mary Priester

TriMet Public Art Manager

Bike Path

The link below will take you to a video news article on the subject, explaining more about how it was going to work.  ”Slow down, you move too fast”  by Simon and Garfunkel was even slated to usher bikers back into the regular flow of traffic at the end.  But alas, some dreams don’t come true; even in Portland.  Take a look at the video on this subject by clicking the link below.

Sonic bike lane to make pedaling groovy | kgw.com Portland.

So I’m riding home on the #12 today and it’s the usual collection of chatty people and I’m mindlessly conversation surfing when the guy across the aisle leans over and says, “There is idolatry in Sherwood.”

“Really,” I say, intrigued in spite of myself, “Why do you think so?”

“A Dollar Tree,” he says, “There’s a Dollar Tree in Sherwood.”

Greg and I laugh at the fact we live in a place called the “Tigard Triangle”.  He came over this morning to help me plant lettuce in the garden and mentioned how fortunate it was we didn’t live in Bermuda!  ”From now on,” he said, “I’m going to blame all my lost socks on the “Triangle”.

Well I’m happy to announce, one thing that won’t be lost in the triangle is the expansion of public transportation.  Two nights ago, we attended the first public meeting about the Barbur Blvd high density transit plan held at the Tigard library, Wednesday, September 28, 2011. We learned the train will eventually come right down Barbur Blvd and Hwy 99 and as anyone who is a regular rider on the #12 can attest – it can’t come soon enough.

Not only will the train free up the traffic mess on Barbur Blvd, it will allow more residents to use their bikes in conjunction with the established public transportation system.  As it  stands now, bike riders find they often can’t board because the bike rack is full.  I’ve even seen a driver allow a rider to bring their bike on the bus because the front rack was full and then have to turn down another bike rider for lack of space.

I was quite impressed with the way the whole meeting was set up.  The Tigard, Portland and Metro staff developed an information model that was broken up into geographic area stations that were not just complete with maps and graphs, but with a person who could answer our questions.

Note to lofty bureaucrats everywhere:  This is a big improvement over the traditional passive approach of having officials speak to large groups of seated people, many of whom have questions specific to their situation. This interactive model allowed people to go directly to the part of the project concerning them and begin to understand how they were going to be directly impacted.

As for us, a guy named Ron was standing by the Tigard Triangle information booth, so we made a beeline for him.

Strange lines -1

We explained that we’d noticed painted lines on the highway, fences being erected and large machinery piling up on the side of the road and we were anxious to know what it all meant.

Strange signs -1

On the road or on the grass, these are signs that something is afoot.Ron, (even his email has only his first name) representing the city of Tigard, helped us understand that, prior to bringing the light rail in, ODOT will be redesigning some of the freeway entrances and off ramps.  (Once again, a welcome and needed change.)  He offered to help us get connected with ODOT to find out more about what this means for us specifically.

He went on to say that besides improving the capacity of the transit for the area, much of the project focuses on aesthetics.  Let’s face it.  Much of Barbur is ugly.  Much of it a prime example of the unplanned, unbridled growth associated with the rise of cars as the dominate means of travel.  The new project in our neighborhood aims to bring in sidewalks, street trees, places for people to gather as well as cultural and civic centers.

On September 17, 2011, a Saturday morning with a light rain falling, I set out with my friend Greg to visit Forest Grove for our first Publicly Transported Adventure.  The rain was as unseasonable as it was unfortunate because we were going to the 14th annual Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival.  We weren’t sure how the Forest Grovians would cope.

I won’t kid you.  It was a long trip.  Three buses and 138 minutes later we arrived.  But we were engaged in conversation and new sights and, since we’d already decided to spend the day doing this, the time it took to get there really didn’t bother us.

                  Lovely Forest Grove Home

When we got off the bus and began to walk through the neighborhoods, the first thing we noticed was how quiet it was compared to our little corner of Portland.  If there wasn’t a car in the vicinity, the silence was astonishing.  The yards were large and filled with late season vegetables and flowers.

The festival in the downtown area, itself was well attended.  Lots and lots of Forest Grovians were huddled close to the sidewalk under tarps and umbrellas applying chalk to their personal visions with a commitment that made us glad we made the trip.

While the art was being developed we wandered over to the campus of Pacific University (founded in 1849) and from there set out to find the only premier sake factory in the United States.

Since we were on foot we hoped that it wasn’t far.  I had a rudimentary map that I picked up free at the festival and discovered that the streets were laid out alphabetically and we walked from 22nd and Ash to 820 Elm Street to find the Sake One Factory.  If you are looking for it, be sure to have the address handy.  The only sign announcing the company’s presence is inside the grounds itself.

Single sign outside of factory

The factory has a tasting room and we went in there first.  We ordered the Sake Shock “tasting flight” (as it’s called).  It included 5 different sake samples and the tiniest collection of nibbles I have ever encountered.  If I had expected a small lunch (and I was), I would be disappointed – but the sake was good and the room slowly filled up with people waiting for the next factory tour and I could feel the level of excitement around em rising and that buoyed me up – so much so I sprang for an unexpectedly expensive bottle of the stuff to take home as a souvenir.

Inside the tasting room

Our guide was a charming and knowledgeable woman who had guided us through the tasting, stepped to the door and we all shuffled off to the large building behind the offices.

Fermenting Sake

We walked around vats bubbling with live sake yeasts and milled rice and heard the story of the Japanese family behind the enterprise and visited the many stations involved in the process.

We enjoyed it thoroughly and walked back still hungry but pleased.

Back at the festival , the artists now in their 3rd or 4th hour of production, were still going strong.  The atmosphere seemed to have a gentle satisfaction of having defied the elements and created a picture book of public art in the sidewalk squares – however fleeting.

After walking much more than either of us anticipated, Greg and I ducked into Grendel’s (2004 Main St., 503-357-7095) for a wonderful lunch.  Greg had one of the pasties varieties that are among this tiny British themed restaurant’s specialties and I had an enormous cobb salad.  We were both very happy and I had enough to take home for another meal.  Grendel’s is also very reasonably priced.

We went home after that, tired but satisfied with our first adventure.  After we boarded the #57 to the Hillsboro transit center, we opted to take the light rail into Portland and the #12 back down Barbur Blvd to home.  It took about as long but the Max offers more room for passengers to spread out.  I’d note though that both the bus and the train were well used in both directions on every leg of our trip.

There was so much more we could have chosen to do in Forest Grove and so we’ve agreed we need to return.  When we come out next, some of the many things we’ll look into doing include renting bikes (Olson’s Bicycles, 1904 Elm, 503-359-4010), taking in a lecture or tour the art gallery at pacific University (222.pacificu.edu) or taking in the self-guided historic homes tour (http://www.forestgrove-or.gov/) and visiting one of the many interesting restaurants in this wonderfully quaint place.

(You can see all the photos by clicking on the associated gallery)