HALIFAX - Roger Geller, the City Bicycle Coordinator of Portland, Oregon paid a visit to Halifax on the weekend of October 24th. Portland has long been revered for its well above-average bicycle ridership  (eight times more than Halifax). It’s a city where cyclists are more than just tolerated, but encouraged to be a dominant presence within the city’s traffic. Restaurants and businesses beg the city to remove their store-front parking, and replace it with massive bike corrals for the leagues of cyclists who arrive to buy coffee, pet supplies, or iPods. It’s a city that has increased its number of dedicated cyclists by exposing the inherent joy of a community where cycling is not only important, but also necessary. Mr. Geller comes from a city that Halifax could be. The question is: how did Portland get to be the way it is? According to Geller, it comes down to one simple statement he stands firmly behind: “Build it and they will come.” Previous to 1995, Portland looked like an average North American city — lots of suburbs, bike-unfriendly bridges, steep hills in the city centre, and not a whole lot of cyclists. Sound familiar? Within 15 years, the citizens of Portland made it the city it is today. How? They set up a city which cyclists could enjoy. The first step was to enact a policy declaring Portland a city where people would choose to bike rather than drive.