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Portland Bridge Clusterf@#k

Well, we started off with good intentions. We rode down to the Bridge Pedal this morning, and it looked more like the Bridge March.

The line of people walking their bikes extended all the way over the Ross Island bridge and back through the industrial area all the way to OMSI. Packed in, curb to curb.

We turned around and went home. No way I was going to fight that all day.

It is time for the BTA to limit entrants to the Bridge Pedal to 10,000, and possibly break it up into two weekends. One weekend for the 8 and 10 bridge rides, and one weekend for the 6 bridge ride. Each weekend limited to 10,000 riders.

As it currently is, there is just no way that I am going to do this again. And we have ridden in the bridge pedal every year since 2001. But the last 3 years it has been seriously mismanaged and poorly planned.

Anyway, we put our bikes on the bike rack of our Jeep, and went and rode around the Columbia River in Vancouver. No risk of running into too many bicycles in Vancouver. (I am only half joking).

I guess having more than 20,000 bicycle riders trying to participate in an event where we shut down the freeways to cars, and open them to bikes is a good problem to have. Lets just see if we can make it flow a little more smoothly.

Next year, I think our family will volunteer instead of ride in the ride itself. I think some of the people standing on the corners were moving faster than the crowd at points.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Critical Ass?

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