Bicycle guru shares passion in new book

By DEBORAH MOON

article created on: 2010-08-01T00:00:00

Portland bicycle transportation guru Mia Birk has fused her passion, her career and tikkun olam in her life and in her soon-to-be-released book, “Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet.”

“My whole career has been dedicated to tikkun olam, of giving back to create a better world,” said Birk, who was Portland’s bicycle program manager from 1993-99 during the city’s rise to become the nation’s top cycling city. “I have been very blessed that my whole career has been about creating a healthier, safer world for us and our grandkids.”

After helping lead Portland’s bicycle revolution, Birk became a principal at Alta Planning and Design where she has spent the past 10 years expanding the Portland model and helping communities across America develop bicycle and pedestrian planning projects. She also cofounded the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation at Portland State University, where she teaches a class “Bike and Pedestrian Issues in Urban Planning.”

Portland was No. 1 on Bicycling magazine’s bi-annual list of “America’s Top 50 Bike-Friendly Cities” from 1994 to 2010, until being surpassed Minneapolis a couple months ago. Birk has visited Minneapolis several times the past couple of years to train staff, consultants and advocates on various bikeway techniques. One of her colleagues from Alta was involved in designing one of the premier trails in Minneapolis.

On Aug. 15, Birk will host a book launch party for “Joyride” during the Portland’s Sunday Parkways Southeast, a day when the city closes 6 miles of streets to automobile traffic and invites the community to cycle, walk or run and enjoy traffic-free streets filled with performers, physical activities and food. The book launch party will be on Lincoln near the Hawthorne Street Fair and will feature a band and free hot dogs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“Look for bands and banners,” said Birk. “This is our gift to the city.”

Birk wasn’t born with a passion for cycling. Raised in the auto-centric culture of suburban Dallas, Birk said she was used to driving everywhere. She was also overweight and the gyms and diets she tried did little to change that.

Then when she moved to Washington, D.C., to earn a graduate degree in environmental issues, she learned there was no parking near campus and the house she rented was far from the bus lines. So her brother persuaded her to take his 10-speed bike for commuting.

“I was out of shape and hadn’t biked other than as a kid,” she said. “It was 2 miles to campus with one hill and I couldn’t bike up that hill. I stuck with it and in a couple weeks I could go up the hill and I had lost a few pounds.”

Soon Birk was riding her bicycle everywhere and her car sat so long, she got parking tickets.

She said she realized she had found a natural way to control her weight and stay healthy—a vision she now regularly shares with everyone she talks to.

Professionally, she was also discovering the benefits of cycling. In her international environmental studies, she looked at transportation and “how where we live affects how we get around.”

Birk was still in Washington in 1991 when the federal transportation bill first included funding for trails, bike lanes and sidewalks. Working with a coalition that promoted that change, Birk said she was very aware that jobs would soon be available in that field.

In 1993 she applied for and got the job as bicycle coordinator for the city of Portland. She said she thought Portland would be a great place to work on bicycle transportation because “Portland was already pretty enlightened.” In fact the city had created the bicycle coordinator position in 1973 during the country’s first oil crisis. And Oregon had passed legislation in 1971 setting aside 1 percent of its transportation fund for bicycling and walking.

“I came to Portland at the moment they wanted energy around that movement,” she said.

During her tenure with the city, Trimet added bike racks to the city’s buses, and the city invested in creating bike lanes on roads, bike paths such as Springcreek Corridor and bike boulevards—neighborhood streets where “traffic is calmed to create family-friendly bike experiences.”

On Lincoln, where Birk lives and will host the book launch party, the former collector street went from 5,000 cars a day down to 2,000 per day. But now about 4,000 bicycles a day travel the street revamped as a bike boulevard.

“These bike boulevards increase real estate values and they are fantastic for families and health and kids,” said Birk.

Additionally, Birk said, the city has put in a lot of bike parking and schedules many events designed to “help people incorporate bicycling into their lives.” For instance, this year the city scheduled a Sunday Parkway once a month from May through October. And the annual Bridge Pedal Aug. 7 allows cyclists to ride across the Willamette River bridges, including the top deck of the Markam and Freemont, without competing with cars.

In 2009, the League of American Bicyclists named Portland the country’s only Platinum level bicycle friendly community. Birk served as a member of Portland’s “Go Platinum” Bicycle Master plan Steering Committee.

“More than half the people in Portland own a bike,” said Birk. “We’ve built 300 miles of bikeways for the cost of one mile of urban freeway. That results in improved health, environment, livability and safety. People who bike regularly feel less stressed.”

The reduction in stress and sense of well being is one thing Birk says she experiences with every ride, but especially when she rides her bike to Shabbat services at Congregation Shir Tikvah every week.

“I feel already in a spiritual state when I arrive,” said Birk, noting it only takes her 20 minutes to ride her bike and the commute by car takes 15 minutes. “For me, biking to synagogue is part of my spiritual practice of connecting to God and our faith.”

Birk said many people have told her how surprised they are by how quickly they can ride to their destination. While working for the city of Portland she said she convinced one co-worker to try riding his bike. He allowed 45 minutes and was amazed to arrive in just 20 minutes.

“Because we are so used to car travel, we have a distorted sense of time and distance,” she said.

To help counter those perceptions, the city has posted distances and time estimates to various destinations along many bikeways. The time estimates are based on pedaling at 10 mph, a speed which even casual cyclists frequently exceed so they arrive faster than the posted time, she said.

“That helps break down mental barriers,” she said.

As bicycle friendly as Portland is, Birk said, “We have a lot of work to do to create more safe routes and a lot of work to get people to feel comfortable riding on streets.”

“Joyride,” a 278-page softcover book, is available for pre-order from Cadence Press, 2820 N Willamette Blvd., Portland, OR 97217 for $20 or $12 for 10 copies or more. Birk said the book should be available on Amazon.com soon.