KGW News will air a spot on being prepared in Portland for a disaster. The angle of this newscast will be the involvement of cargo bikes in this preparation.

At this moment, the air time has yet to be decided; however, it will be soon, and given the recovery from Sandy along the east coast, it will be both timely and telling.

Bikes are integral to civic recovery.

You can carry a great deal of useful items on a cargo bike/trailer. Ethan Jewett staged my Bullitt (seen below) to be a communications center with generator. Much of the gear used in a response is boxed, shaped, and sized perfectly for a cargo bike/trailer, an fortuitous result of the gear being designed for carrying by one person. With a cargo bike/trailer, a series of these “boxes” can be carried at once. Hook a trailer up to a cargo bike and you have a highly capable carrying system for disaster response.

This is one example of what people in Portland are doing to improve our city’s preparedness. These people, organizations, and collective interactions make me smile. As a city, we have a great deal of preparing to do, but we are getting closer. You can get involved.

Portland Bereau of Emergency Management (PBEM) has a Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET) program to help promote its mantra of Readiness. Response. Recovery. Check out NET and consider joining; it is a way that YOU can contribute to our city’s success after a disaster. The NET program skills are easily within the capacity of any person. The NET program is built on training neighbors, like you and me. You do not need previous experience. There is a sense of security that comes from the confidence that NET will provide.

More photos from this photo shoot.