What Adaptive Biketown Means To Me

Posted on July 27, 2022August 5, 2022 by Henry Latourette Miller

Adaptive BIKETOWN is a great start for making cycling more accessible to disabled people – Cassie Wilson, Community Engagement Assistant at The Street Trust.

As a disabled person, I’d never gotten to ride a bike as an adult until I found one that works for me at Adaptive BIKETOWN.

During the 2022 Oregon Active Transportation Summit I connected with Roshin Kurian from the Portland Bureau of Transportation, who manages Adaptive BIKETOWN, BIKETOWN for All, and the Transportation Wallet. Roshin encouraged me to check out Adaptive BIKETOWN and see if one of the bikes they have would meet my needs.

Shop manager Kristin Miller helped me try out several different adaptive cycles. I have a form of dwarfism which resulted in mobility related disabilities. Despite not being able to walk long distances, my legs work fine, so I hoped to find a foot-powered trike of some kind that could work for me. Unfortunately none of the current adaptive foot-powered cycles available were a match for my short and disproportionate skeleton. Instead, I found a small adaptive handcycle and took it for a spin!

Adaptive BIKETOWN is located just to the west of OMSI’s north parking lot along the Eastbank Esplanade. It’s a great location for anyone trying out cycling for the first time since you don’t have to ride alongside car traffic. That being said, I did get to ride on the road in a bike lane very briefly between the Eastbank Esplanade and the Springwater Trail, which was a new and exciting experience!

Overall, the handcycle worked great for me. Going up inclines proved difficult as the handcycle required me to use muscles that don’t get worked much, but I was lucky to have a friend (because riding bikes with friends is fun!) who could push me up tough inclines.

I ended up riding about 5 miles, which was the farthest I’ve ever manually moved my body in my whole life(!) and I had a blast doing it. I’m excited that I now have way to ride bikes with my friends, and look forward to enjoying it even more when it’s a bit cooler outside.

Adaptive BIKETOWN is a great start for making cycling more accessible to disabled people. I hope to see their fleet expand to include more variation in electric assist adaptive cycles (to make hills less daunting). I also hope to see more bikes tailored for specific types of disabilities such as those recently released by UK bike company Islabikes for people with disproportionate dwarfism.

Adaptive BIKETOWN is a great way to try out a bunch of different adaptive cycles in one place to find one that works for you before going out and buying your own.

Learn more about Adaptive BIKETOWN on their website or join us Saturday, August 13, 2022 at 10am for our Harry Styles themed adaptive bike ride! RSVP to the event or sign up to volunteer.

TST + BIKETOWN Announce Partnership

Posted on July 22, 2022August 5, 2022 by Henry Latourette Miller

The Street Trust and BIKETOWN have just announced a creative partnership to bring BIKETOWN for All to BIPOC and underserved communities across the City of Portland. The program will include community education, group rides led by compensated ride ambassadors, and engaging partners across the city.

The Street Trust has worked with BIKETOWN for years to encourage Portlanders to embrace this healthy, low-carbon and fun mode of transportation. But this Summer we are taking our partnership with with Lyft and BIKETOWN to the next level to advance transportation justice.

BIKETOWN offers reliable, affordable, car-free mobility for Portland residents with lower incomes through its BIKETOWN For All program. Bike sharing supports cleaner air in frontline communities by reducing the number of cars on the road. To further advance the bike sharing’s positive impact on our priority communities,

Partnerships power our advocacy efforts at The Street Trust. We work with everyone to achieve our vision and together we are dedicated to winning safe, clean, accessible transportation of the future.

Thank you to Taylor Griggs of BikePortland for this great coverage of our launch party and happy 6th Birthday BIKETOWN!

Want to to be considered for one of this year’s BIKETOWN Community Ambassadors? Please complete this brief intake form and someone from our team will follow-up with you.

Think a strategic partnership between your company and The Street Trust could further our shared goals for better transportation? Schedule a conversation with Strategic Partnerships Manager Anouksha Gardner .

Sunday Parkways are Back! A Ride Around NE Cully

Posted on July 6, 2022July 8, 2022 by Madi Carlson

Two people pedal an adaptive quadricycle past The Street Trust's booth

We at The Street Trust love activating public spaces, like we did for last year’s Alice Awards. While there are a lot of parks and squares in Portland, the city’s largest public space is its streets, and there’s no more rewarding way to experience them than through Sunday Parkways.

After a two-year hiatus, Sunday Parkways returned with a splash on June 26th for Northeast Cully Sunday Parkways. The Street Trust staffed an intersection along the course to cheer on walkers and rollers, distribute snacks, bike lights, and temporary tattoos- all while preventing unnecessary car traffic in the event.

We stationed ourselves near our friends at Adaptive Biketown and Biketown, so we could easily send people down the block for test rides. (Side note: we’re hosting a Harry Styles themed Pedalpalooza bike ride with Adaptive Biketown on July 28th–RSVP here!)

With temperatures in the 90’s we weren’t sure what to expect, but our region’s love for open street events was reflected by the tons of people who came out. Everyone stayed hydrated thanks to water refill stations along the entire course (some volunteers even carried water dispensers on bike trailers!). Our booth canopy provided ample shade that walkers and rollers could use to rest from the heat for a spell, while joining us for snacks and refreshments too.

Being part of an open streets event is tremendously fun. We engaged with hundreds of event participants thanks to the help of our wonderful volunteers, and our staff members on duty engaged residents who needed help safely driving around the event. These events give us a glimpse of what a car free city could feel like, but more importantly, they show us that people enjoy walking and rolling around town.

We’d love to have you join us for an upcoming open streets event, Carefree Sunday in Milwaukie on Sunday, August 7th. Sign up to volunteer with us at Carefree Sunday, or if that date doesn’t work for you and you’re not yet on our volunteer mailing list, add your name now.

Volunteer at Carefree Sunday!

RSVP To TST’s Harry Styles Adaptive Biketown Ride!

Continue reading “Sunday Parkways are Back! A Ride Around NE Cully” →

Clinics Support Inclusive Bikeshare

Posted on May 24, 2022May 25, 2022 by Madi Carlson

The Street Trust has developed robust e-bike and e-scooter training program in partnership with Forth Mobility with funding from Metro . Together we run workshops to put the training in action with Community Cycling Center and ABC or “Andando en Bicicletas y Caminando” (Riding your Bike and Walking Around). ABC is a group of community organizers who host bike rides, advocate for safe routes to school, and provide basic bicycle maintenance and training to friends and neighbors.

Recently, a group of ABC members with BIKETOWN for All memberships have been joining The Street Trust for e-bike and e-scooter clinics. Last weekend’s workshop was an e-bike clinic that went beyond the typical safety skills and group ride to include troubleshooting and problem-solving elements of Biketown that would allow participants to assist others interested in trying out Portland’s bike-share.

We did a lot of locking and unlocking Biketown bikes, located a lone bike to practice a mid-ride bike swap, flagged a bike as damaged, and identified the East Portland Super Hub Zone. We also intentionally experienced the power drop upon entering a slow zone in Kʰunamokwst Park (the best part was hearing the laughter when we left the park as the bike motors boosted back to full speed!)

ABC has a busy summer planned with the aim of getting more of their community onto bikes, and The Street Trust urges its followers to consider supporting them and attending the following events:

ABC will host several rides with BIKETOWN this summer- including at both Sunday Parkways– to get people signed up for BIKETOWN for All and guide them through the experience.
ABC will also host a Bike Fair at Rigler School on Sunday, June 12th, where they’ll teach community members how to ride, get them signed up for BIKETOWN for All, and take them on trial rides with BIKETOWN staff.
ABC will participate in three additional workshops with The Street Trust, Forth, Community Cycling Center, and BIKETOWN to build their knowledge of the system.

Beyond just learning to ride and use the BIKETOWN app, ABC’s collaboration with BIKETOWN addresses the very real issue of secure bike parking. PBOT installed bike lockers at Hacienda CDC, which the community appreciates and uses, but as more and more community members gain confidence on bikes, even more parking is needed. It’s a good problem to have, and using BIKETOWN solves the dilemma.

BIKETOWN for All provides Portland-area residents 16 and older living on low incomes with a reduced-cost BIKETOWN membership. Learn more here.

Love this? Volunteer with our clinics.