Comments on: PDOT Bicycle Brown Bag, Feb 21

By: When the Suffrage Truck Replaced the Bike: Changing Views, 1895 – 1912 « Fortunaerota

Thu, 30 Dec 2010 20:47:48 +0000

[...] we have seen, by mid-decade, bicycle numbers were growing, with dramatic year-over-year increases. It appears that Lovejoy joined in and had got a [...]

By: Jon Wood

Jon Wood — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:07:54 +0000

Thank you, Great article!

I obtained a copy of a or the Portland 1896 Bike Map some years ago. I think it had been published in the 70s or early 80s, but I got it free as a remainder. My memory was that it was published in small booklet form, or perhaps I’m just remembering it folded. I hoped to visit some obscure destination places noted then. On St. Helen’s Road there was something called O’Neil’s Ranch, or something like that, that appeared to be a resort, camping site or restaurant. There were few streets or topographic features near the ranch, so I tried to locate it by computing the mileage from some stating point in Downtown Portland. My theory at the time was that this place might have been where present day NW Saltzman intersects w/ St. Helen’s Road. Did you happen to notice this site? If so, how is the property used today. And, do you know anything about the site? Every thing around Salzman is industrial today. Again, I could be wrong about the name, but I think it was an Irish name beginning w/ O’.

Thank you,

jon wood

jonxwood@earthlink.net

By: Gary Randall

Gary Randall — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 18:55:43 +0000

I’m not a bicyclist, but am interested in the subject in relation to transportation to and from Mount Hood along the old Barlow Road.

I have a document that might interest you in the form of a “Official Programme” for a “Bicycle Meet” from July 2, 1898 to benefit the “Mount Hood Bicycle Path”.

Many Portland notables including Henry Pittock and B. S. Pague were a part, and are included in the list of supporters as judges for the event.

By: fortunaerota

fortunaerota — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:43:33 +0000

In my PSU talk I wrote:

Not two years after Governor Geer signed the bill, the Oregon Supreme Court invalidated the bicycle tax in 1901. The Bicycle Tax Collector, JW Johnson had seized JA Ellis’ bicycle for non-payment, and Ellis sued the Sheriff, William Frazier & Multnomah County. The Court’s main objection was that bicycles were taxed on a flat fee, and the Oregon Constitution requires that property be taxed proportionally. This would have required that each bicycle be assessed individually. Instead, the Legislature quickly enacted a second law that used the language of licensing rather than taxation in order to satisfy the court’s requirements.

Investment in the bicycle paths did tail off in the early 1900s, and I’m still following that part of the story. Increased streetcar service played a significant role in reducing the demand, as did the newly fashionable auto, towards which the “early adopters” of new technology moved.

Eric

By: Sam Butler

Sam Butler — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 16:18:00 +0000

Thank you for putting something like this together and letting people know about the extensive bike path movement at this point in history. I’ve been noting these articles, and all of the subsequent letters to the editor, and reports of ‘scorchers’ and their arrests.

What do you know of the Oregon Supreme Court case that declared that the bicycle tax was unconstitutional, and thus subsequently the funding the bicycle paths declined? That is something that I find fascinating, to think that at this period of time there were people who didn’t want to pay for the funding of roads for their means of transportation.

Thanks again.

Sam Butler