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.