Review: The OMSI eBike Charging Station

View of OMSI from the new charging station.

As first reported over at BikePortland.org, OMSI, in cooperation with PGE, Sanyo, and InSpec Design, has installed an electric vehicle charging station, partially powered by solar power collected on-site. This is in addition to an existing 2-spot electric vehicle charging station immediately north of the Museum.

Weather-resistant outlet mounted to bike rack.

Located in the parking directly east of OMSI, the kiosk is easy to find.  There are 2 choices to lock and charge your ebike: there are covered (but not enclosed) standard bike racks, with weather-resistant 110v AC outlets located with 8-12 inches of the lock ring.  If you've brought your charger with you, it's a straightforward process to plug-in and recharge.

Secure off-bike charging.

The other alternative is a fully enclosed locker.  These closely resemble the lockers at airports or bus stations, but for one addition - 2 110v AC outlets inside the locker. These lockers are rented for 50 cents; when I inquired, OMSI indicated they hadn't established a time limit yet. There are 6 lockers - the top lockers in each group is signed as including a Sanyo charger, but currently they only have outlets.  Including the charger is an interesting idea - it's obviously a sales point for Sanyo, as if you've purchased one of their bikes you won't need to carry your charger with you.  The ticket sellers just inside the museum are happy to make change.  The lockers are approximately 12 inches square, so if you have a particularly large or oddly shaped battery, you may want to verify it will fit before committing yourself to using them.

Another potential ebike charging station.

An interesting opportunity exists in the parking lot directly north of the museum, at the previously installed LEV charging station. As the picture shows, there is a bike rack near these outlets, but trailing wires across a busy sidewalk isn't really viable. The addition of 2 staples in closer proximity to the outlets would help maximize the use of these outlets as well.

Upon hearing about the station, I was curious as to how well it would work in practice. Shortly thereafter, I found myself needing to make several stops downtown, and knew that the full round-trip distance was at the limit of my battery range. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be at a single stop long enough to significantly recharge.  So I opted to ride in on battery power, drop the charger and battery in a locker, and continue my errands - under solely my own power, and a little over 10 pounds lighter. Business concluded, I returned to the kiosk to a full charge, and an easy ride home. I will admit, though, I was initially disappointed at having to pay for parking (isn't that one of the advantages of a bike?), but the added security of the locker, I found, was well worth it.

So barring errands, what are some other usage models?  In addition to my above trip, I could easily see this kiosk displacing driving downtown to see a show, for example, and a boon for waterfront festival-goers. Sure, you'd still have to walk or pedal a bit, but it will be lots easier than driving and parking.  In fact, I've used it twice this week already, but in that time I haven't seen anyone else using it.

Touring Portland with the Authors of "Carjacked" - on eBikes

I was lucky enough to get some time with Catherine Lutz and Anne Lutz Fernandez to ride around Portland recently.  The sisters are in town to promote their book "Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and its Effect on Our Lives", and wanted to see some of the sights, as well as try out some ebikes. I was happy to join them.

We met at Pedal Bike Tours and rented a mix of ebikes. After a quick orientation to the ebike's operation and riding in Portland traffic, we were off.  An easy warm-up through downtown led us over the Hawthorne Bridge to OMSI, to check out the new ebike charging station.  By this point, Anne was already sold on the ebike as an effective (and fun) transportation alternative. Dan Woodard of Woodard Cycles, local builder of custom ebikes, joined us, and we headed back into downtown, and checked out Kalkhoff USA.

Catherine and Anne dealt with bridge lifts, the Broadway Bridge closure, and the constantly shifting construction for the Streetcar extension like pros. We headed into NE Portland, fortuitously happening upon a Sprockettes show. Catherine, the consummate anthropologist, was fascinated. Eventually, we prised her away from what may be her newest research topic, and continued to The eBike Store. A short visit here, and we returned downtown.

I was surprised to discover that we'd been gone almost 4 hours. We covered about 12 miles, and returned the ebikes with plenty of charge remaining in the batteries.

Catherine and Anne are presenting tonight, August 5, at Powell's on Hawthorne, at 7:30. Several ebike riders are planning to meet at the pub in the Baghdad Theater at 6, prior to their presentation.

Those Funny Gutters: eBike Ramps that Work

I was recently walking around PSU campus, and came across a set of stairs with little "gutters" along the side. I was perplexed - it didn't look like any runoff would selectively divert itself into these gutters.

Turns out, they're called bike stairways, and designed to make it easier to wheel your bike up or down the stairs. These particular stairs are in an area to small for a ramp, so this is the alternative. I tried them out, they work pretty well; given that ebikes tend to be heavier than their non-assisted counterparts, I'd say they're especially beneficial for people on ebikes. The metal surface can be slick, even when dry, so be careful when it's a bit wet. They also require leaning your ebike to clear the handrail, but there was no sidewall scrubbing, even with fairly wide cruiser tires.

Obviously, this would work better for an ebike with a throttle, not just just a solely pedal or torque based application. The Kalkhoff Pro Connect Sport I recently tested had a separate throttle specifically for this purpose.

eBike Friendly Infrastructure: The Mississippi Hill

Usually, ebikes can integrate well into most existing bicycle infrastructure; there are exceptions (like hanging bike racks). However, there is some bike infrastructure to which ebikes adapt particularly well - in this irregular and occasional series of posts, I'll share my thoughts on some of them.

The Mississippi Hill is an alternative for the North Portland-bound ebiker to the Interstate and Williams bike lane. There is no bike lane striped on the southbound (downhill) lane, because bikes coasting downhill can keep up with traffic fairly well. The northbound, or uphill lane, was striped with a bike lane recently, and I frequently find myself using it. Even with the lane, perhaps due to the steepness of the hill, I don't often see other riders here. With the combined muscle and motor output, its a straightforward climb on an ebike. If I do pass another person on a bike climbing the hill, I try to be particularly careful about passing them in the main traffic lane - I know how much work they're doing, and I like to stay out of their way.

I've been riding the Mississippi Hill more frequently since Williams is being resurfaced. Apparently, Mississippi was on the same list of streets to be resurfaced - while riding home last night, I discovered it has been ground down in preparation for repaving. A short time with a rough ride is worth it for a newly surfaced bike lane here.

I frequently see a person on a gas-powered bike riding up this hill as well. He usually passes me.

Update, 6/23/2010:
The repaving is done, new signage in place, just waiting for the official striping. It's a nice, smooth ride.

One Less Car, Too!

Here's what I think about "Real Bikes Don't Use Motors. Duh."

My First Look at the New "Corporal" Sharrows

Last week I was pleasantly surprised to see new sharrows being put down by PBOT on Williams, north of Killingsworth. Later, I also surprised to hear there were new sharrows installed on Holman as well. I was expecting the new sharrows on Holman as part of its designation as a new bike boulevard, I just wasn't expecting them so soon.

"Sharrow" is a contraction of shared lane and arrow. They help people on bicycle identify bike routes and safe lane placement, and make other road users aware that people on bikes are more likely to be present

The new sharrows are much larger than the old bike route signage, as seen below, and use bars similar to a corporal's rank insignia to indicate direction of traffic. They're much more visible to cars as well.

Below are some pictures of the new 'corporal' sharrows. Much like a geologist's rock hammer, the Samba is included for scale. It's a size 9.

1) The old bike route designation.


2) A detail of the new corporal sharrow; I'd need longer legs to get the whole thing in a single shot.


3) A direct size comparison.


4) Sharrows are regularly and frequently placed along the street.

How Do eBikes Fit Into Transpo Mix? PSU's On It

Geoff Rose, the Director of the Institute of Transport Studies and Transport Theme Leader in the Monash Sustainability Institute at Portland State University is presenting a seminar on the electric bike as a part of the transportation mix. The seminar is Friday, May 21, from Noon to 1pm, in Room 204 of the Distance Learning Center Wing of the Urban Center on the Portland State University campus

Here's the abstract of his presentation:

A variety of types of electric bicycles are now available to consumers in America and around the world. While there has been strong uptake of these vehicles in China, there remains uncertainty in other markets about their ultimate potential as a transportation mode. The technology is evolving in ways that are likely to better meet traveller's needs and the growth of this mode presents both opportunities and challenges. Since they have implications for transportation policy, planning and operations it is appropriate for the transportation profession to consider these vehicles carefully. This seminar will review developments and emerging issues with this form of transportation technology.

Bike Route Planning: NE Holman

I briefly hung up the PDXebiker cap today and attended my first local bike planning input meeting, presented by PBOT. They're making some changes to NE Holman to create a "neighborhood greenway"; since we live nearby, I was attending as a neighbor, as well an interested ebiker.

I'll post links to their website after they upload details, but I was impressed with the quality and depth of analysis that obviously went into the plan. I was also surprised to see a strong turnout and enthusiasm and a high degree of engagement from the audience. I even saw some familiar ebikers!

One of the more exciting parts of the upcoming plan is expanding a small pocket park across NE Holman. It will retain bicycle and pedestrian paths, but increase the size of the park significantly; there was strong vocal support for this part of the plan from the audience.

In short, its good to know that this kind of work is going into building out our bicycle infrastructure. As ebikers, it's important that we lend our voices in support of this as well. I'm going to try and make a point of attending more of these sessions in the future.

eBikes on a Train

I recently took the Cascade Starlight train to Seattle, WA. I wasn't sure that I'd be able to take the ebike on the train, so I opted to use my folding bike instead. However, when I asked at the luggage desk whether ebikes were considered bikes, or were separately banned, they responded that as long as the bike fits on their rack and weighs less than 50lbs (with the battery removed, I assume), its fine for the train.

Unrelated to ebikes, the train was a great way to travel. Much better scenery than in a car, and no need to worry about the perennial I-5 traffic. Its an additional $5 to take the bike on the train, but in my mind, money well spent. There are a limited number of spaces that don't require some degree of disassembly, so I'd say its definitely worth planning ahead.

Ebikes in the bike corrals

On Sept 2 of last year, KATU did a news story about the new (at the time) bike corral in front of Widmer, under the title "Bike corrals bring more customers, carless options."  And I happened to be in some of the footage, albeit very briefly.  I think its a great demonstration that ebikes can coexist with un-epowered bicycles, and use the same infrastructure very effectively.  At -1:18 and -:53, at this link:
http://www.katu.com/news/56827477.html?video=YHI&t=a

If you hadn't known there was an ebike there, would you have recognized it as one?