Back in the ’90s, before Portland had become the cycling mecca it is today, Rick Bauman had an idea.
“I had heard about a bike ride in Montreal that drew 35,000 people,” said Bauman, the event coordinator for the Providence Bridge Pedal. At the time, New York City held the only community bike ride in the U.S., the Five Borough Bike Tour.
“I was wondering what we could do to capture people’s imaginations here in Portland. That’s when I thought of a bridge ride,” said Bauman.
The idea caught on, and this year’s Bridge Pedal drew over 18,000 riders to cross the city’s bridges on a Sunday morning in August. Southwest residents had the opportunity to ride on their neighborhood bridges—the Sellwood, Ross Island, and Hawthorne bridges—as well as the Marquam, Burnside, Broadway, Fremont, and St. Johns bridges.
Participants could choose between three cycling routes of 37, 24, or 14 miles, as well as a five-mile walking route. Event organizers encouraged families to take the 14-mile route, which crosses six bridges, by allowing children under age 15 to ride for free with a parent.
Adults paid a registration fee ranging from $20-$35 depending on which route they chose. A portion of the proceeds go to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and the Providence Heart and Vascular Institute, to purchase defibrillators to put in public areas.
Around 9:00am the morning of the ride, the westbound lane of the Ross Island Bridge held a continuous stream of cyclists, some stopping to take pictures, drink water, or make adjustments to their cycles on the sidewalk. Tandem bikes, kid trailers, and even unicycles abounded, as did costumes and bike decorations in a variety of themes.
The eastbound lane of the bridge remained open to allow vehicle use, as did one lane on each of the other bridges during the event. On the upper deck of the Fremont Bridge/I-405, live music and iced coffee greeted the cyclists.
Jim Vanhorn of Southwest Portland rode with his 10-year old son, Jacob, for the first time this year. “The views are pretty spectacular,” he said of the Ross Island Bridge. “We’re looking forward to the Marquam and Fremont bridges ahead.”
Other cyclists came from further away to participate in the Bridge Pedal, which ties with Chicago for the second largest ride in the nation (and the third largest in the world). Rod Tyler drove from Seattle to ride for the first time. “The weather couldn’t have been better, and the organization was outstanding. I’ll be back again,” he promised.
When the Bridge Pedal began in the spring of 1996, cycling on the interstate was unthinkable. The federal government had prohibited pedestrian access to interstate bridges in the ’70s, and Portland’s bridges remained off-limits to walkers and cyclists long after the law had ended.
Thus the Bridge Pedal’s organizers went through a two year process of convincing the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to relent and create waivers to close the freeways.
Bauman, who is now organizing Washington, D.C.’s first bridge pedal in October, recalled the postcards and telephones they made available at the finish line so that participants could tell ODOT how much they had enjoyed the ride.
“No one ever calls unless they have a complaint. They didn’t know what to do with so many happy callers,” he said.
Luckily the strategy worked, and ODOT has signed on to do the Bridge Pedal ever since, along with the help of Multnomah County, which maintains the non-highway bridges. Providence will announce the date for the 2010 Bridge Pedal in March. For more information, visit .
www.providence.org/bridgepedal
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