I read "record amount of
careless households" and had to find out more...
Portland is increasingly moving towards a bicycle culture, and I believe it is primarily due to economics. As the show Portlandia says, Portland is the place young people go to retire. Many people in their 20s and 30s have low paying, part-time jobs, rent a house with many others, and can only afford a bicycle.
If I lived in Portland, I would still own all of my vehicles, but I would drive them much less. It's fun to bike from place to place, and you really can't drive faster than a bicycles pace in Portland anyhow. Parking is impossible, and traffic is nearly always stop and go.
As an added benefit, you are much less likely to be hassled for having a few beers and jumping onto a bicycle. It's still illegal to ride while intoxicated, but at least you can't do 90MPH and blow a corner.
As to $31,000 average price, that doesn't surprise me. That likely includes all of the luxury and exotic cars out there; the BMWs and Ferraris. Someone paid $31,000 for my TSX (Euro Accord), but it wasn't me
