This article is the third in a series profiling the varied and amazing nominees for the 2009 Alice B. Toeclips Awards, which will be presented to five winners at the Alice Awards & Auction on March 7th. You can also read the list of nominees online. This profile was written by BTA correspondent John McLaren.
With its seven miles of lightly traveled roads, River View Cemetery is a safe and attractive alternative for bicyclists headed from the Sellwood Bridge to destinations like Lewis & Clark College.
Cemetery staff and directors have earned plaudits from bicyclists for their willingness to keep the privately-owned cemetery roads open to the public. Without the access to the cemetery, bicyclists coming off the Sellwood Bridge would have to take a roundabout route – including a long stretch of Taylor’s Ferry Road – to get to Lewis & Clark College, Oregon Health & Science University or other SW Portland destinations. Taylors Ferry can be terrifying for bicycling. With high speed car traffic, no bike lanes or sidewalks, and few shoulders to allow bicyclists to get off the roadway, it’s a route only the hardiest bicyclists are willing to use for daily travel.
Because of its contribution of this great private road to the city’s bike network, River View Cemetery has been nominated for an Alice B. Toeclips Award. But due to bad behavior on the part of some cyclists who pass through the Cemetery, there is no assurance that cemetery roads will remain open to the public in the future.
David Noble, the cemetery’s executive director, estimates about 100 cyclists a day travel through the cemetery. Trouble is, he says, some of them don’t seem to realize they are “guests” of the cemetery. He has been getting a growing number of complaints from maintenance workers and cemetery visitors about cyclists speeding through the property and otherwise engaging in reckless behavior. Noble hears of “incidents” involving cyclists “almost daily,” he says.
As a result, there’s no guarantee that the city will enjoy this private bike route forever. As an initial measure, Noble is considering limiting cyclists to a 1.5 mile route through the cemetery, and making side roads off limits. It would be the most direct way to get from the bridge to Palatine Hill Road, the approach to Lewis & Clark College. And it would take cyclists away from the cemetery office, where cyclist-caused incidents are most likely to happen.
Bicyclists have been traveling through the cemetery for a long time and Noble would like to see them continue. But he is also mindful of the needs of his “clients,” mourners, many of them elderly, who have come to bury their dead. Because they’re off the public roads and often are looking for a grave, they drive slowly and perhaps erratically, Noble says, and some cyclists are rude to them.
Many cyclists apparently don’t realize it’s private property, Noble says. He followed one cyclist who cut in front of him in order to speak to her. When he remonstrated, she flipped him off. But she became contrite when he explained he could have her arrested for trespassing on private property.
In a bizarre incident last year, a cyclist lost control of her bike, went off the road, and fell down a hill. She was stranded where she landed for about two hours, but fortunately was not injured. She was lucky. Noble doesn’t want to see any cyclists or cemetery visitors get hurt, but because of the steep hills and sharp turns he fears it.
The cemetery was established by a dozen of Portland’s founding fathers in 1882 and has been operating ever since as a nondenominational burial site. Monuments on the park-like grounds honor familiar names from the past: Corbett, Ladd, Failing, Benson, Terwilliger, Pittock, among others.
A non-profit endowment fund with a present balance of several million dollars assures that River View will continue to offer endowment care, ongoing service, maintenance and expansion for the foreseeable future.
If Portland-area cyclists also want River View Cemetery to continue offering a nice, quiet bike route, we might consider what we can offer in return.
RE: “making side roads off limits”
Here’s an idea to keep cyclists off of “side roads”: can the cemetery install wayfinding signage? Personally speaking, when I haven’t been through the cemetery for a while, it takes me at least a few trips to remember which turn is which again.
The last time I was up there, I ended up by the cemetery office a couple of times because I got lost not once, but twice! (How embarrassing!)
Since most of the cyclists are students or staff at L&C College ( I speak as one of them) why not open a dialogue with the student body through the student government, Dean’s office, or even the bicycle club and let them know of these concerns. I am sure if the College reiterated that it is private property and to be respectful, the students would concur and change their behavior. No one wants to loose this peaceful route to campus.
I use this route everyday. Is there anything we can do to show our appreciation? It’s an essential route for so many of us. Perhaps the owners have a favorite charity that we could donate to out of appreciation?