Last Wednesday a group of David Douglas High School students participated in a Safe Routes to School ride exploring biking in their neighborhood. The ride covered over 7 miles of streets in East Portland and was developed in partnership with the Portland Youth Planners Program. We explored walking and biking accessibility around David Douglas High School and taught map reading skills. The students were very excited to ride, for some this was their first time being on a bike since they were little children. This is one of two pilot high school projects that we're experimenting with this year.

For more information, contact Carolina at 503-823-1198 or carolina.iraheta@portlandoregon.gov.

As we noted earlier, 2012 has turned out to be a historic year for car sharing in Portland.

By the end of spring, Portland should have up to five car sharing companies operating within city boundaries:

• Getaround, a peer to peer car sharing company, launched its service in Portland this winter. 
• Car2Go, pay-by-the-minute one-way car share arm of Daimler, will begin service in Portland this spring. 
• Google-backed Relay Rides - a peer to peer car share service active in Boston area, recently announced backing from General Motors and the intent to the enter the Portland market.
• Zipcar, the most established car share company of the bunch, recently bought a stake in peer to peer car sharing company Wheelz, whose financial backers have Ford DNA. Wheelz's niche to date seems to be college campuses. Zipcar has quite a presence at PSU and other campuses, so it's unclear how this could affect Portlanders choices.
• UHaul's car share company, uhaulcarshare has three cars at the Lewis and Clark campus.

Scientists in the arctic are working on an extensive project to record nothing.  Well, not nothing exactly but the absence of human-generated noise.  Turns out, we humans are pretty noisy.

Neighborhood Greenways are quiet! Image: Peter van Agtmael/Magnum, for The New York Times

When you're in the city the general din of urban life is pervasive and inescapable.  But there are opportunities for a little more peace and quiet when you're walking or bicycling.

The Bureau of Transportation is building an inter-connected network of Neighborhood Greenways - residential streets that are improved for walking and bicycling.  We have a lot of goals for Greenways, but quietness isn't one of them.  However, every time I turn from a bike lane onto a Greenway the quiet is the first thing I notice.  It's a far cry from Alaska wild quiet, I imagine, but it's a significant difference from most of the streets in town with bike lanes.

So the next time you're looking for a little peace and quiet while riding or walking around town, opt for a Neighborhood Greenway and see if you too can hear and feel the difference.

We are getting pret-ty fancy over here at PBOT on the interwebs.  Check out our new bicycle maps webpage! Just scroll and click!