"really good at operating with out a plan" says one of the proponents of this cr*p.
Well, gee isn't that the new motto of the CoP?

Motorbikes, horses, bikes only if you're fast enough on it to evade gunfire and hostiles.

"really good at operating with out a plan"

Maybe "really bad at operating without a clue" might be nearer the mark.

And if the Morrison Bridge survives the big one then perhaps that new bike lane will finally get some use. One can only hope.

Will they be able to shuttle food to the shut ins off Vista?

Or will everyone be required to move to innner SE?

This is so stupid on so many levels. That idiot reporter for the Oregonian and bike blogger Joseph Rose brags about his cargo bike all the time. One article a year or so ago he bragged about buying and transporting with his cargo bike some lumber for fence he was building. He even admitted in his article that he had some balance issues. When he was called on it about the safety of this unwise endeavor in the comment section, he wrote that he didn’t have that far to go. For the bicyclist community to suggest that their cargo bikes are going to relevant in an emergency situation is like people not vaccinating their kids because of internet urban myths about untrue consequences.

Well, of COURSE cargo bikes are going to save Portland in a disaster. How else are the vegan meals for EMTs and the radical magazines for National Guard troops going to get delivered. Sheesh: without cargo bikes, the local DJs won't be able to pipe in Vampire Weekend for emergency surgeries, and when that happens, you might as well have a disaster in Tulsa.

I liked it better when the people who hope for an early apocalypse moved to remote areas and hoarded 10lb cans of TVP.

How will the Cargo Bikes manage the many ladders we will have used for spanning the many deep crevasses that will be emitting poisonous (but organic) gas?

I presume these bikes will magically turn into boats to cross the Willamette River; have some type of self-propulsion device that doesn't require a fuel source or electricity to get up and over the many hills in Portland; and also generate its own emergency supplies given that in a major earthquake it's unlikely that Portland will be sufficiently self-sufficient in order to survive a shutdown of the Columbia River shipping channel, the Portland International Airport (which will likely be submerged due to the failure of the dike protecting it), the inability to use the Union Pacific or BNSF mainlines from the east or the UP mainline from the south (just a couple years ago it was shut down for several months over a landslide east of Eugene), and most area highways due to landslides, bridge failures and other surface failures...

I have a suggestion...

If bikes are going to save the world, why doesn't the City itself demonstrate it?

Think of the possibilities:

Portland Police eliminate hundreds of gas guzzling supercharged V8 powered sedans.

Portland Fire eliminates dozens of massive, heavy fire trucks.

Portland mandates AMR to eliminate ambulances. Just tow the patient behind.

Water meter readers no longer need to drive around in Ford Focuses...they just ride their bike.

The fleet of cars at the Portland Bureau of Development can be replaced with truly sustainable transport. Wasn't that bureau renamed "Sustainability and Development"? Why do they need a bunch of cars?

PBOT's maintenance people can just tote their tools around by bike. Same with the Water Bureau. Get rid of those excavators and backhoes - dig those water lines by hand!!

And...even better, it can be a JOBS program, because it'll take 10 times more people to do these jobs! But think of the savings - no more fleet mechanics, cleaner air, no more having to buy gasoline and diesel...

I feel safer knowing the self absorbed hipsters who ride there will actually be willing to help others..

Erik - what savings? If the bicyclists become government transportation employees, police driving Mercedes may look cheap!

But it's not about the cash...it's about a better environment, even if it means paying "a little" more than that $85,000 Mercedes-Benz. (You know, because the government doesn't buy the entry-level C-class...)

If it so bad we need to turn to cargo bikes it won't matter. Even war and tsunami blasted regions didn't sink to that. So our disaster would have to be worse than that.

I write scifi as a hobby and cannot contrive a situation in which cargo bikes would save us.

If the cargo bikes could time travel and were powered by perpetual energy batteries created by alien technology they could save us.

This is so dumb. Why are we wasting our time on this insanity? It's complete silliness. The bike community tries and tries at every corner to be relevant. And we have press and the media making them feel as they are. They remind me of a small cult. And Joseph Rose is passing out the Kool-Aide

The amount of cargo and or supplies 20 hipsters could carry on a cargo bike is so minuscule, so insignificant, to supply a metro area of 2.2 million people. You can have your cargo bikes, I'll take tanks and other vehicles used by the national guard.

Bikes are inferior in most cases, yet they treat bicycles as equal and or better in all situations to cars and other means of transportation. Looking at ways bikes can haul cargo is like saying a mentally retarded person can become a doctor. Same logic.

Bicycling has peaked in this city. The wanting and able population for bicycling is already on a bike.

Daniel, it's worse than that. I've noted it here before, but it bears repeating: every time other cities get enough of a critical mass (pun intended) of bicycle cultists to where they throw tantrums if they don't get any number of concessions, they point to Portland as an example. When shysters try to sell automated bike rental kiosks that amazingly need to be paid for by the city, the hipsters cry "Well, Portland does it!"

I bicycle incessantly in the Dallas area, and I don't see the point of most of the plans for bike lanes through the city. When some beardo from Plano starts honking "Well, it works in PORTLAND! Have you ever been there?", I can yell back "YES! And it's bankrupting them!" That shuts them up for a few seconds, and then it's back to the races. They'll keep at it until they get every last concession they demand, and when they get it, they won't want it any more.

I'm reminded of The Postman.

Has anyone taken a look at bicycle magazines and bike blogs around the country?

I imagine "Portland does it!" is all over the country by now. This has to be a big industry, - how huge is the bike lobby and have they been focused primarily in Portland so they can promote the result and business in other areas?

Anyone who thinks bicycles will transport anything of any serious amount are delusional fools. If it gets so bad that we're not running cars thru wood or coal gasification, it'll be back to animal and human power using something based on the Chinese wheelbarrow designs (google it).