Tell the City to Include Better Biking in Transportation Goals

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petition signer - Bend Bikes
Give your transportation feedback to the City of Bend staffers before July 6th.

The current draft goals of the Citywide Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) will not do much to improve Bend’s bicycle infrastructure. The current draft addresses bike safety and route connectivity as separate issues, which means the result will likely be more of the same: a segment of safety here, a nice route there, but not a complete and safe route to where you want to bike.

You can change this by giving input from now until July 6th. The city is asking for input on the goals themselves as well as on problem spots using an interactive map. This input will be used to prioritize which projects get funded in a transportation bond measure we will likely see in November 2019. See our previous post on the subject for more details.

Learn more from the city’s online Transportation Open House portal at www.bendoregon.gov/tsp or give input directly at these links:

Survey

When using your own experience to shape your input on the goals and current practices, you may wish to:

Prioritize:

    • Safety
    • Connectivity
    • Funding

Ask that the goals include:

    • Increase safety and connectivity of bike routes
    • Ensure that 100% of kids have a safe bike route to their neighborhood school
    • Increase the miles of connected bike routes
    • Build bicycle facilities that are comfortable and safe for riders of all ages and abilities
    • Design roadways to eliminate fatalities and serious injury of all users
    • Bend residents should be able to easily and safely walk or bike to schools, work, home and other important destinations

Fund a system that:

    • Gives more choices to bike, walk, or take transit
    • Is safer for everyone
online interactive survey map
Here’s an example of what the interface looks like on the desktop. It’s slightly different on mobile.

Interactive Map

Where do you ride and frequently run into problems? When identifying problem spots on the interactive map, dropping more pins will have a bigger impact than commenting with lots of details. Be sure to tap on “Drop a Pin” (hidden by the menu symbol on mobile devices) and select the green pin for Bicycle System Need. Focus comments on specific areas that need better:

    • Connectivity
    • Safety
    • Important Destination

Some examples are:

    • Connectivity: crossing the parkway at Greenwood and Franklin
    • Safety: Bear Creek Rd continuous bike lane needed
    • Connectivity: Building a pedestrian and cyclist overpass over the tracks and parkway at Hawthorne
    • Safety: Revere Ave west of 3rd St
    • Safety: Protected bike lanes needed on Neff Rd
    • Safety: Protected intersection needed at Franklin and 3rd
    • Safety: Protected intersection needed at Wilson and 3rd
    • Safety: Protected intersection needed at Reed Market and 3rd
    • Safety: Protected bike lanes needed on 3rd St with bicycle signals at each intersection
    • Safety: Protected bike lanes on Wilson east of 3rd St
    • Safety: Protected bike lanes on Shevlin Park Dr.
    • Safety: Protected bike lanes on Mt. Washington Dr
    • Connectivity: Bike lane on Franklin disappears through downtown
    • Important destination: St. Charles Hospital
    • Important destination: Downtown
    • Important destination: Big Sky Park
    • Important destination: Pine Nursery Park

Remember to submit your online comments before July 6th.  Thanks for supporting active transportation to keep Bend safe and livable!

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