[vanilla_nut]

I have heard that bicycle commuting has dropped significantly in Portland since 2020. And I've experienced enough of an increase in broken glass, aggressive driving, tents, and trash in bike lanes in other US cities to be a bit worried about the current state of bicycling in Portland. But I'm also aware that reporting has significant biases, and I haven't been back to Portland since 2019 or so. What's the current situation like?

[blacksmith_tb]

Hmm, I have been commuting by bike in Portland since the late 80s. The city did achieve some good things during that time, but has lost steam more recently. The pandemic may have shifted people slightly off of public transit and onto bikes, but not as much as it moved desk jockeys like me into remote work. Still, there have been some recent new interesting bike infrastructure projects, there's a bike/ped only bridge over I-84 that opened recently, and a couple years back a new train/bus only bridge over the Willamette river opened with nice bike and ped amenities. Drivers have become a little more reckless and hostile, but I don't find broken glass / tents to be much of an issue on any of the routes I regularly ride (8mi / 13km round trip 4X per week).

[twiddling]

Less folks are working downtown, Portland has a very high CRE vacancy rate. I believe they had a net outflow of people last year ( https://www.kptv.com/2023/05/23/portland-is-one-fastest-shri... ). That coupled with the ongoing homelessness crisis, I would not be surprised that their civic budgets are strained.