This cartoon is by me and Becky Hawkins.
Becky writes:
This comic was inspired by current events. Some background: 82nd Ave is a 4-lane road that cuts through East Portland. It’s flanked on both sides by shopping centers and grocery stores, car dealerships and auto repairs. It services the busiest bus line in Oregon, which is often delayed by traffic. It’s also one of the most dangerous streets in the city for drivers, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The city is thinking about turning the outer lanes of 82nd into bus lanes that double as right turn lanes for accessing the businesses. This has several perks, in my opinion. If you want to hear me testify about it, you can watch the public meeting on YouTube. (The link goes right to my 2-minute talk. I value your time as well as your money.)
Some business owners on 82nd are up in arms, threatening to sue, convinced that bus lanes will drive their customers away and destroy their businesses. I’d be more sympathetic, but we just went through this about a mile away. In 2019, SE Foster Rd was transformed from a 4-lane street into a 2-lane street with bike lanes. Local business leaders made their objections known.
I hope I did it justice in the comic.
Barry and I saw this store regularly. It was quite the neighborhood fixture. After the bike lanes went in, the posters slowly came down. Here’s a more recent photo of the store, apparently thriving:
You’ll notice I drew a lot more people on the sidewalk in panel 4, as well as bicyclists in the bike lane. Study after study shows that bike lanes and walkable streets are good for businesses. When there’s a buffer between the sidewalk and the cars and trucks zooming by, sidewalks feel safer and more pleasant to walk on. Anyone can get hit by a car, but old people, young people, and disabled people are especially vulnerable to traffic violence. I made sure to include them on the sidewalk. Similarly, the bike lane will attract those “lycra guys” that people love to hate, but it will also allow a safety-conscious woman to do her grocery shopping by bike.
Barry’s stage directions for panel 4 were “Same dude and same store, obviously. Maybe the season has changed, though?” I went back and forth on what kind of weather to draw in panel 4. Will critics claim that bike lanes are only for summertime, or that Becky the cartoonist thinks bike lanes magically make the weather nicer? Maybe. In the end, I wanted panel 4 to look much more vibrant than panels 1-3, so I went with it.
I decided to draw the bike lane supporter walking into the store, having biked there. Readers needed to recognize them from panels 1-3, despite being fairly small and facing away from the reader. That’s why I gave them red hair. I also decided they needed a really bold design on the back of their jacket. This is what inspired the general look of the jacket. I loved those lapels. The jacket seemed like something you’d find in a thrift store, so I thought about what organization the jacket might have come from. A bowling team! I’m so happy with the result.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels, all showing the sidewalk and part of the street in front of a store called “The Furniture KING.”
PANEL 1
A guy in a green jacket is taking a bag out the back of his hatchback. In the background, The Furniture King’s huge display windows are completely covered with signs such as “Call You Mayor We Need All 4 Lanes” and “How Will YOU Get Home?” There’s a tree with pretty autumn leaves.
GREEN JACKET: I can’t wait for the new bike lanes.
STORE OWNER: Noooo!
PANEL 2
The store owner has grabbed the Green Jacket’s shirt and is yelling at him.
STORE OWNER: The new bike lane is supposed to pass right in front of my store! How are my customers supposed to get in? How?
PANEL 3
Green Jacket tries to reassure the store owner, who has fallen to his knees and is weeping.
GREEN JACKET: Er, I don’t think it’ll be-
STORE OWNER: Six months from now my poor store will be out of business! BANKRUPT!
PANEL 4
The same scene, but now the tree leaves are green, and a green bike lane has been installed in front of the store. There are pedestrians and bikers. Store Owner stands on the sidewalk, talking into a bullhorn and shaking a fist in the air.
CAPTION: Two Years Later
STORE OWNER: If they build that new bus lane, it will definitely destroy my store!
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken Fat” is old fashioned cartoonist parlance for what we now call “Easter Eggs.”
PANEL 1 – The back of the man’s jacket shows a bowling ball lovingly hugging a bowling pin. The rear view mirror of a car is completely filled with a green monster eye, a reference to the famous “Objects In Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear” Far Side cartoon.
PANEL 4 – The customer walking into the store in the background, is Green Jacket guy from the first three panels.
From the title, I was expecting a comic about how bankruptcy laws favor the rich, getting them into a special metaphorical “lane” to clear their debts.
I really like this comic, and I appreciate seeing the real photos that inspired it.
There is nothing new under the sun. From Charles Dickens’s Hard Times, 1854:
Also unrelated to the point of the comic, I keep thinking the “we deliver” character is Jughead Jones.
How much snow does Portland get?
When the streets are plowed, would not the snow be plowed into the bike lanes? And would the plows not sometimes take out the reflective posts?
I’m not anti-bike by any means. In my younger days I biked all over the Boston area. But not during the winter ….
@RonF: I live in a city where it snows a lot, and people cycle. I don’t know how it is achieved technically, but we don’t have this issue of the bike lanes being full of snow.
It rarely snows in Portland. When it does, the city shuts down. Even if it’s only 2″ worth. Most of the time, the snow melts away within a day or 2. Sometimes, however, Portland will get 3′ of snow at once. In that case, nothing is plowed until after the snow stops and the city shuts down for 3 to 7 days. In either case, the bike lane isn’t going to be used.
If you don’t mind saying, Watcher, what city is that?
I live in Canada and the bike paths are open year round here. The bike sharing system operates year round as well. It snows quite a bit, but the city can clear roads, bike paths, and sidewalks. There is a priority system for snow clearing, but people can (and do) use the bike paths in winter.
Out in the Chicago area we can count on snowstorms with > 2 – 4″ of snow or more at least 2x a winter, often more. People expect to drive on the streets the next day as if things were normal. So the plow and salt trucks are out in force, being prepositioned even before the snow starts falling. We’re starting to use beet juice put down before the snow falls instead of plain old rock salt, which seems to work well. But you don’t see bikes out in it. And the streets get real interesting if you get a snow fall when the temps hover +/- 2 deg. F around freezing and then, after the snow melts a bit, drops to about 18 deg. F. and the slush freezes.
@RonF: Yep, same here. Snow clearance starts at 1AM for the next day.
@RonF: Here too. We get a lot more snow than Chicago. We also get real hard freezes after slushy snow sometimes (colder than 18 F for sure). Snow tires are mandatory in winter. People also expect to drive as normal, especially during working hours. The city plows the main roads while snowfall is in progress, and gets to side streets later. We still have bike paths that are in use year round. It all depends on what people prioritize as important services for the city to provide. Cyclists and pedestrians are taxpayers too! Chicago has plenty of households without cars. Not all transportation funds need to be allocated to cars and their infrastructure.