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News article from The (Portland) Oregonian - August 14, 2007

Officially, it's called the Providence Bridge Pedal. But the annual bike
ride over Portland's bridges earned a new name Sunday -- Providence
Bridge Ped-debacle.

Bottlenecks not only forced cyclists to walk their bikes along parts of
the course, but also meant as many as 1,500 of the estimated record
19,000 cyclists in the event were unable to complete the ride.
Organizers barred them from crossing the Fremont Bridge and other spans
as authorities sought to reopen them to vehicle traffic. Other cyclists,
frustrated, left the course on their own.

While event officials said they will consider capping the number of
cyclists in future years, some riders said they won't be back.

"I don't think anyone in my group will ever do it again," said Terri
Taylor, who biked the Bridge Pedal, of which The Oregonian is a sponsor,
for the first time with four friends. "It really was not fun."

Cyclists were queued up, waiting and walking their bikes to cross the
Ross Island Bridge and other spans. "There was an overall level of
annoyance. It just turned into a bad vibe," she said.

In its 12th year, the Bridge Pedal has had overcrowding problems in the
past, said Rick Bauman, the event director. But organizers had never
pulled 1,000 to 1,500 riders off the course. Event sponsors aren't
planning to refund the $25 preregistration fees to those who were not
allowed to complete the ride, he said.

Proceeds from the fees go to expenses -- including $2,300 to Portland to
help defray its estimated $25,000 in police overtime costs; and $26,000
to cover the Oregon Department of Transportation's overtime costs -- and
then to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance and Providence Heart and
Vascular Institute. Bauman didn't have an estimate Monday on total
proceeds from the event.

One of the biggest glitches resulted from restricting cyclists to one
lane on the Ross Island Bridge. Although the ride usually reserves only
one of the four lanes, Bauman said, in past years cyclists have dodged
the traffic cones and commandeered the second lane. To satisfy safety
concerns of TriMet, ODOT and police, race organizers this year put up
yellow tape along the lane, restricting cyclists to a single lane, he
said.

One lane wasn't enough, Bauman conceded, which organizers hadn't
considered.

"I just didn't see that coming," he said.
Worse, it appeared that riders from all three routes -- the 10-bridge,
eight-bridge and six-bridge options -- converged at the bridge around
the same time, said Karla Keller, a maintenance manager for ODOT.

Riders noted that the tape tore off in parts, fluttering into the lane
and narrowing access even more.

The result? Waits that some riders said lasted as long as an hour to
move just several blocks.

"It was kind of like being in rush hour traffic," said Jennifer Jones,
who considered the congestion at this year's Bridge Pedal the worst of
the 10 times she has participated. "That's why you ride a bike -- to
avoid it."

The long delay meant that Michael Comfort of Dundee, who was riding the
route for the fourth time, and his 14-year-old and 20-year-old could not
reach the highlight of their ride -- the Fremont Bridge -- before the
11:30 a.m. cutoff. Even at other bridges, "by the time we went through
everyone was pretty much closing up, nothing was going on up there," he
said. "It was just disappointing."

Police opened a second lane on the Ross Island Bridge around 10:15 a.m.,
said Bauman, but it was too late for hundreds of riders to finish the
course.

"Was it unfortunate? Yes. But it's like a traffic jam on a freeway,"
Bauman said. "Once it starts, it's very hard to fix it."

Police wanted a hard deadline to reopen bridge traffic, Bauman said,
another reason organizers had to clear the course.

Riders also reported a lack of portable toilets in convenient locations
and long lines. Bauman said he heard no complaints and that the ride had
the same number of toilets as always.

He added that there were three accidents that he knew of, and that the
event was a safety success.

It drew more than 20,000 participants, including about 1,000 people who
walked a two-bridge course, up from 18,000 last year. Bauman said
organizers and state and local authorities will meet to discuss ways to
improve the event, and may consider a cap on participants.

Bauman is personally against the idea, saying that he thinks it would
create an "exclusiveness" that he doesn't like. And Jones, despite her
annoyance that she was unable to complete the 10-bridge ride she signed
up for, agreed that the ride should not be limited -- just better
organized.

"I was frustrated as anybody, but I think that there's ways to just make
that better," she said. "Portland's such a bike-friendly city, I would
hate to see that happen."

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