Bike-topia

Bicycling is well represented at Portland State. The PSU Bicycle Cooperative, located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Harrison Street is a good place to start when you first bike to campus. With everything from tools to fix your ride to expert advice on all things biking, the co-op is ground zero for cycling on campus.

If you’re looking for somewhere to park your bike, there are plenty of options throughout campus. With roughly a hundred new bike racks added in the last year, there is a multitude of places to lock up.

“We added 100 new bike racks last fall term and plan to add another 50–100 more this fall,” said Ian Stude, transportation options manager at Portland State.

Beware, though, of locking your bike on any rails or trees. This offense could cost you your bike lock and get your bike confiscated to the Transportation and Parking Services Information Center in Urban Plaza.

Also, look for the bike co-op to be moving to the new recreation center and for the old location to turn into a secure bike storage area soon.

“The best thing is the bike co-op will be expanding this fall inside the new rec center,” said Stude. “We will be able to provide better retail space and better selection.”

TriMet

When you’re planning your trip into downtown, you may want to use the MAX or a bus for part of your ride. All TriMet buses and MAX lines let you put your bike on racks and hooks free of charge.

Best places to bike from

NORTH PORTLAND: With every major street striped with bike lanes and three different options to cross the river—the St. Johns, Broadway and Steel bridges—NoPo is a great area to ride in from; it is a fairly easy downhill ride into Portland.

However, keep in mind that those nice downhill rides turn into heart-attack hills when heading back home. Making it a great idea to get a bicycle with a nice low gear, or use TriMet to provide some relief to your uphill climb.

SOUTHEAST: Without a doubt the premier area to use a bicycle, you can rest assured that you will be in good hands no matter where you come from in this part of town. This place possesses more bicycle boulevards than most places have bike lanes, making it one of the safest and bicycle friendly places in the nation.
With the City of Portland about to break ground on a new bridge that will cater exclusively to bicyclists and pedestrians, Southeast continues to be the biggest reason why Portland is one of the top-rated biking towns in the United States.

SOUTHWEST: Not quite as active an area for biking as North or Southeast Portland, Southwest does provide lots of options when it comes to riding your bike into downtown.
Similar to North Portland though, the ride back might prove to be difficult in the beginning with a few inevitable uphill challenges. One advantage of biking from this area is the fact that you eliminate the off chance of having to wait for any boats to pass under any bridges.

WEST: Put here for the sole reason of letting you know there are bad areas, anything past the West Hills pales in comparison to the other areas mentioned.
With a seriously underdeveloped biking infrastructure, using TriMet to get Downtown is practically a must, and will probably be much safer than trying to bike all the way in.

If you are serious about bicycling to campus at all, it will be wise to avoid this area altogether, or else you risk serious injury in this land of SUVs and soccer moms.

Safety

Bicycle safety is something that should never be forgotten, as we are constantly reminded on the news. From 1995–2006 there were an average of 175 bicycle-related crashes per year, with more than two per year resulting in fatalities.

Wearing your bike helmet is not only smart, but also necessary if you want to protect your college investment and the future it stands to offer you.

Walking

While having to walk will normally cramp your style in most environments, at PSU it will be one of the few times that you look like the smart one.

“Portland is one of the best walking and running cities in the country, especially for [one] who learns how to enjoy the rain,” as it says on www.explorepdx.com.