July brings some bittersweet changes to our board as we bid farewell to Morgan Crowell in August. Over the last 3 years, Morgan transformed our signature events like Bike the Bridges and the Holiday Lights Ride (in the before times) and helped keep us organized by overhauling our internal systems. You will get to see him around here and there as he will still be pitching in as a volunteer!
Wilson Corridor Open House
One of the most important ways our Bend Bikes community can impact the GO Bond projects is to give design feedback. The Wilson Corridor is first up and is a key route for those who bike, walk, and roll — and we would love to see more protected bike lanes and a protected intersection at 3rd Street! Join Bend Bikes board president LeeAnn O’Neill at the open house on Monday August 2nd from 4 pm – 6:30 pm at the Vince Genna Stadium Parking Lot, where you can meet the project team, view the designs, and provide feedback in person! For those who can’t make it, the virtual open house continues through August 9th at www.bendoregon.gov/wilson and you can scroll down and submit a public comment there!
Transportation Bond Oversight Committee Update
The Transportation Bond Oversight Committee (TBOC) approved by consensus the prioritization criteria for the GO bond projects. Bend Bikes appreciated the advocacy of representatives from The Environmental Center and others to ensure that projects that benefit people who walk, bike, and roll are at the top of the list! City staff and consultants also provided an overview of the GO bond projects and provided information about synergistic funding opportunities as well as their recommendations on grouping projects to be more efficient with the funding. The next step will be for City staff to apply the prioritization criteria to the GO bond projects and provide a draft to the TBOC for discussion and consideration.
The TBOC is already seeing a lot of public comment around which projects should be prioritized, from the Ashley Vance submissions on midtown crossings and advocacy around prioritizing the Hawthorne overcrossing, to comments from neighborhood associations to keep cars out of neighborhoods and to prioritize projects on the east side, to the Broadman-Mendez protected bike path proposal.
What can Bend Bikes supporters do? Submit your support of the key routes projects, midtown crossings, the Neighborhood Street Safety Program, and the projects that benefit people who walk, bike, and roll to [email protected] or provide your comment verbally at the next TBOC meeting on August 24th during one of the public comment periods (4 pm or at 5:50 pm-ish)!
For those who are curious about the status of the protected bike path proposal, City staff’s position is that the proposal is outside the scope of the Transportation System Plan (TSP) as well as the GO bond project list. Due to the overlap of the proposal with the key routes and other GO bond projects, the TBOC has created a smaller working group to work with City staff to determine how much of the proposal would fall within the TSP and the GO bond project list to allow the full TBOC to consider the possibility that it may be feasible under the current TSP, and if not, the possibility of advising City Council to amend the recently adopted TSP to include it.
Outreach Update: Neighborhood Association Outreach Has Begun!
The outreach team has some great projects brewing. We are using our connections with current Bend Neighborhood Associations to identify areas that could use better bike infrastructure and will be promoting our efforts with events at local neighborhood parks in the future.
Maps Update: We Have So Much New Data!
Our board of directors and a few dedicated volunteers spent this last month riding bikes all over the City of Bend to truth check the data and we officially have a massive amount of new data to incorporate into our beta map. Our maps superheroes, board member Eric Holscher and volunteer Rob Garrott, are now figuring out the best way to approach this task and we look forward to seeing version 2.0!
The Bend Bicycle Film Festival Is Back and Accepting Film Submissions!
Bend Bicycle Film Festival (BBFF) will be returning to the Tower Theater in Bend, Oregon September 25th, 2021! The BBFF is a celebration of all things bikes in our own background and is a fundraiser for the Bend Endurance Academy. We are excited to host a table again this year so folks can learn more about what we are up to… come by and say “hi!”
All submissions must prominently feature bicycles, bicycle culture or be directly related to cycling with a solid local connection to Central Oregon. Submissions can be anywhere from 5 seconds to 10 minutes and are due August 31st, 2021. Our friends over at Bend Electric Bikes and the cargo bike moms were crowned the champs at the last BBFF – for a little inspiration, check it out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC1HbLIRCpo
Bend Bikes Vision: 15 Minutes City
This month we are going to talk about a 15 minute city. We’ve mentioned in the last several months concepts like a low stress bike network and our vision of a complete bike network. All of this leads to our ultimate goal of a 15 minute city. What is a 15 minute city? Generally a 15 minute city can be defined as an ideal geography where most of your needs are located within a travel distance of 15 minutes.
There are two concepts to explore here just in that statement: what are “your needs?” and how are you traveling? So in the concept of a 15 minute city, “your needs” are things like your job, grocery shopping, public school, health clinic, and general shopping. And how you will be traveling generally means walking or biking. Imagine living in a neighborhood where you could get to all of your needs safely and comfortably by walking or biking within 15 minutes! All of your day to day tasks could be accomplished without the need of finding parking for your car, polluting the environment with car emissions, or being stuck in traffic.
We believe Bend can achieve this! We will be delving into this topic in more detail in the coming months with more expansion of types of travel/transportation and examples of how this is possible.