[Drifter]

Bikes are allowed on sidewalks in Portland except for the downtown core (SW Jefferson Street, Front Avenue, NW Hoyt Street and 13th Avenue). If it is like California, I imagine bike thefts are a big problem so you'd want a cheap beater with bolt-on seat post (not quick release) and a decent lock running through the frame and both wheels. And if its like here, be prepared to get the stink eye in most grocery stores when you walk in with a backpack.


In the US, there's a motor vehicle fatality an average of once every ~67 million miles driven. Bike miles aren't tracked as accurately, but 1250 people died in 2020 in an estimated 2.3 billion rides. If the average ride was 5 miles long, that would be a death every ~9 million miles. So riding a bike is at least 7 times as deadly as driving a car.

It is probably even more deadly since there are more passengers in cars than bikes and many of the vehicle fatalities were pedestrians, cyclists, and unbelted passengers...