UPDATE: The event starts at 7, not at 7:30 as we and other sites had reported.
Do you have Portland bike envy? (if you don’t, watch this)
Well, Tuesday is your chance to hear Mia Birk, who led much of Portland’s bike infrastructure investments, speak in Seattle. She is promoting her new book “Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet” at 7:30 7 at the flagship REI. Birk is now at the head of Alta Planning + Design, the firm working on the Beacon Hill neighborhood bike plan and working to design the completion of the Burke-Gilman missing link.
What we’ve accomplished in Portland has not been easy. It’s not easy in the dozens of other communities in which we are working, either. Nor will it be for Seattle.
Seattle – like most other American cities – has been largely planned and designed around personal automobile travel; true reform requires overhauling everything from land-use practices to traffic and parking management space, building design, policies, models, and training. And although Seattle has some of the highest walk and bike rates in the nation, many Seattleites drive for most of their trips and are loath to change their ingrained habits. Yet, change is coming, whether they like it or not, and they see it every day with the new sharrows and bike boxes loudly proclaiming bicyclists’ presence.
Comments
2 responses to “Tuesday: Portland bike planner Mia Birk to talk at REI – UPDATED”
Is this at 7 or 7:30? REI’s site has different intel. I suppose if we get there early we can all just stock up on hand warmers and wool undies.
Thanks for the catch! Different sites have it at each time. I checked, and it starts at 7, not 7:30. I’ll make the change and try to spread the word.