Is there any place in Portland drivers won’t go? Seems like every week there’s another example of a person taking their car in a place cars aren’t allowed. Parks, paths, peoples’ living rooms — and now the Tilikum Crossing. We spent $130 million to make this one of the coolest carfree bridges in the country, and it’s been a big success for bus and rail ridership, in addition to being a lifeline for bicycling and walking. So when I heard about this incident of a man speeding across it, I was shocked; but unfortunately, not surprised.
It happened around 8:40 am on Friday, August 29th. The first reports I received were from people participating in Breakfast on the Bridges, a monthly event where folks hand out free coffee and donuts on downtown bridges to anyone who rolls by. My friend Shawne Martinez (who you can see biking with his young daughter as the driver flies past in the video below) was first to post about it on the Bike Loud Slack channel. “Did anyone catch that car driver going 80 mph over the Tilikum Crossing at Breakfast on the Bridges this morning?” he wrote. “My daughter and I had just crossed the carfree street at the light seconds before.”
Sometimes drivers get confused and make mistakes. That happens. This doesn’t look like that type of situation. It’s very obvious that cars aren’t allowed on this bridge, and judging by the way he was driving, it looks like he did this on purpose…