Bend residents awoke this morning to a surprising sight. Overnight, many of the city’s streets have been dramatically transformed. In an effort to prioritize the safety and well-being of all its citizens and preserve the livability of the city for years to come, it appears that the city’s transportation and engineering departments have joined forces with contractors, community organizations and neighborhood groups to build dozens of miles of human-centered pedestrian and bicycling facilities all across the high desert town. In place of painted bike lanes along busy collectors and arterials, brand new off-street paths, protected bike lanes and wide shared-use sidewalks buffered by plantings of native shrubs and pollinator gardens have sprung up across town overnight.
Where once busy corridors and intersections across 3rd Street, 27th Street, Highway 97 and Highway 20 endangered people outside of cars as they tried to cross town, brand new pedestrian and bicycle tunnels, bridges, and safe intersections now cross these newly traffic-calmed streets.
“This is truly a dream come true, I finally feel safe rolling across town,” expressed one Bend resident, as he stopped at a street vendor to buy a snack before continuing on toward Juniper park in his mobility device.
Additionally, downtown Bend has been designated a car-free zone with pocket parks hosting leafy trees, fountains and public art installed all along the length of Wall and Bond streets. Commercial centers around Galveston, Newport and the Bend Central District have had similar treatments with traffic-calmed “people streets” designed to attract users of all types.
Initially skeptical, business owners have begun immediately warming to the changes. “Downtown feels like more of a destination than a stop-over now,” one business owner reflected. “People really seem to be hanging around and shopping longer. I have been hearing a lot of comments on how the quiet streets are more welcoming and are putting them at ease.” Additionally, the city is reporting an influx of permit applications and plan submissions, as the changes seem to be catalyzing a flurry of investment in the Bend Central District.
Not surprisingly, as of this afternoon’s reporting, pedestrian and bicyclist counts have increased by over 600% throughout the city and even more within the more densely populated center of town. Perhaps more unexpectedly, automobile traffic has been reduced to 20% of regular volume as more people choose to walk, bike, bus and roll in favor of driving.
“This is unbelievable!” one elderly resident exclaimed. “I haven’t had such an easy time driving across town since 1978 when half of the streets were still red cinders!”
This is likely helped in no small measure by the brand new high-speed rail between Redmond and Bend as well as the vastly improved transit system that now boasts maximum wait times of 10 minutes and a completely interconnected network across Bend.
While most residents and visitors are applauding the changes, local car rental companies aren’t so sure, with one company reporting a cancellation of 90% of upcoming reservations. “With these new changes, I think a lot of visitors are realizing they can fly to Redmond, take the train into Bend and get to everything they need without a car,” said one company representative. “With the expansion of the transit to trails system and the new tramway from downtown to Mt Bachelor, they don’t even need a car to access all the natural attractions within an hour of Bend. We have decided to fully shift our fleet to focus on cycle-pubs and ebikes going forward.”
While the dramatic changes are improving life for most residents of Bend, there is one group in particular who are perhaps benefiting the most. With the brand new “School Streets are for Kids” program, all schools in the city are now surrounded by car-restricted and slow speed zones. Gone are the traffic clogged and stressful pick-up and drop-off times as children are choosing to walk, bike and scooter to school along protected paths, safe intersections and quiet streets.
Quiet, that is, except for the raucous ‘bike buses’ that were organized with the help of teachers and parents all across the city this morning. “I love being able to bike to school with my friends, it is a fun way to start the morning,” said a third grader from Juniper Elementary, “I think it’s going to be a good day!”
If you have made it this far you have most certainly realized that this part of the story is indeed fiction. April Fools!
But does it have to be? Are there real-world examples of rapidly implemented, dramatic transformations of our transportation networks and subsequently the livability of our cities? The rest of this story may sound far fetched but is in fact true.
The mid-sized city of Ghent, Belgium presents a recent example of this strategy in action. In 2017 after several years of planning and incremental improvements in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, the city implemented its circulation plan. Over the course of a single weekend in April, the city altered traffic patterns in nearly 80 streets, changed or installed over 2500 signs and restricted most motorized traffic in 14 distinct areas. This was all accomplished with the installation of simple measures such as planters, concrete blocks, bollards and benches. The total project cost only 5 million euro.
The immediate effects were dramatic. Within months of the changes, cycling increased by 60%, use of public transportation increased by 12% and accidents decreased by 35%. Prior to the changes, pass through traffic composed nearly 50% of city center traffic. This was almost completely eliminated by diverting traffic onto a surrounding ring road where traffic initially increased then fell to pre-project levels after six years.
Could we accomplish something similar in Bend? Can we fully realize a connected network of our planned key routes, bikeways, greenways and the low stress network in short order? Can we do so with low cost, quick build and tactical urbanism strategies such as planter and bollard protected bike lanes, vehicle-restricted streets and neighborhood traffic calming installations?
The potential is here. There is a tremendous amount of vision and energy in this town, let’s find innovative ways to mobilize it quickly and efficiently toward the safe and connected movement of all people across Bend.
(Note: This article’s content was written by a human without the aid of AI, however, all images were generated using AI, apologies for the misplaced mountains)