-by Al Olson
More than half a century ago, a Republican state legislator from Jacksonville, Oregon, named Don Stathos, was run off the road while riding a tandem bicycle to Medford with his daughter. Gravel flew. Cars swept past. He and his kids had to swerve to survive a routine ride.
Out of that frustrating, dangerous moment emerged one of the most forward-thinking pieces of transportation legislation in American history.
On June 11, 1971, Governor Tom McCall — never one to miss a theatrical moment — climbed the steps of the Oregon State Capitol and seated on a ten-speed bicycle, signed House Bill 1700 into law. The Oregon Bicycle Bill was born. It was the first law of its kind in the United States, and its core principle was both simple and radical: roads are for everyone.
Here in Bend, that principle matters as much now as it did then.
What the Law Actually Says
The Bike Bill — codified as ORS 366.514 — has three main requirements that apply to the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) and to cities and counties:
- Bicycle and pedestrian facilities must be included whenever a road, street, or highway is constructed or reconstructed.
- A minimum of 1% of the State Highway Fund must be spent on footpaths and bicycle trails each fiscal year.
- The Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee was established to award grants for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects.
This isn’t a suggestion. It isn’t a goal or an aspiration. It is the law. It was the law in 1971, upheld by the Oregon Court of Appeals in 1995, and remains the law today.
A Law With Teeth — But Only When We Use Them
For its first two decades, governments treated the Bike Bill as optional — and acted accordingly. Cities and counties received state highway funds and built roads without bike or pedestrian infrastructure, often without consequence. The law remained largely unenforced.
That changed in 1995, when the Bicycle Transportation Alliance sued the City of Portland for failing to include bike lanes in the Rose Quarter road construction project. The lawsuit succeeded. The Oregon Court of Appeals affirmed the law’s intent, holding that the requirement applied to all road projects, not just some. After that ruling, Portland’s bikeway miles nearly quadrupled, and cycling rates climbed significantly in the years that followed.
The lesson is clear: the Bike Bill works when advocates hold governments accountable. It stalls when they don’t.
This is precisely why organizations like Bend Bikes exist.
The Gap Between the Law and Reality
Here in Central Oregon, and across the state, the Bike Bill’s promise remains only partially fulfilled. Consider:
ODOT has repeatedly failed to meet its own legal spending floor. According to research from Portland State University, ODOT did not meet the required 1% spending threshold in at least eight years between 1985 and 2016. More troublingly, the 1% minimum has effectively functioned as a ceiling — the maximum that gets spent — rather than a floor. That’s not compliance with the law. That’s the minimum possible compliance, and often not even that.
Implementation is inconsistent. What qualifies as a “road improvement project” under the law remains open to interpretation, and transportation agencies have sometimes exploited that ambiguity to avoid building the infrastructure the law requires. For example, sharrows painted on a road surface are not the same as protected bike lanes — and research suggests they may do little to improve safety.
Statewide cycling rates have stagnated. The current bicycle commuting rate in Oregon is about 2.3% and has not increased meaningfully in years. In Bend, where our geography, climate, and culture make cycling genuinely viable for a large share of residents, we have every reason to demand better.
What We Can Do: Holding Our Decision Makers Accountable
Passing a good law is step one. Enforcing it is everything else. Collectively, we can push state and city governments to honor both the letter and the spirit of ORS 366.514. Join the Bend Bikes Squeaky Wheel Club to help us with the following:
Show up at public meetings. Every road project in Bend that involves construction, reconstruction, or significant repaving triggers the Bike Bill’s requirements. When the City of Bend or ODOT holds public input sessions on road projects, advocates need to be in the room, asking specifically whether bike and pedestrian facilities have been included, and demanding written answers if they haven’t.
Ask for the data. Oregon cities and counties are required to demonstrate compliance with the 1% spending requirement. Request that data from the City of Bend and Deschutes County. Follow the money. If the spending floor isn’t being met, that’s a legal issue, not just a policy preference.
Document what’s missing. When a road in Bend is rebuilt or widened, document and photograph it. Ask yourself, “is the safety of people on bikes and on foot prioritized in this project?”, “what could be improved to make it easier and safer to bike and walk on this newly built street?” Educate yourself on the current street standards and connect with Bend Bikes to help us advocate for standards that will improve safety for all people for decades to come.
Build relationships with local elected officials. Bend City Councilors and Deschutes County Commissioners make budget and planning decisions that directly affect whether the Bike Bill is implemented here. They need to hear — regularly, respectfully, and persistently — that cycling infrastructure is not a luxury add-on. It is a legal requirement and a community priority.
Support statewide advocacy. The Bike Bill’s fate is decided in Salem as much as in Bend. Oregon’s legislature has periodically attempted to weaken or eliminate the law. Staying connected to statewide advocacy organizations ensures Central Oregon’s voice is heard when those battles arise.
Why Repealing the Bike Bill Would Be a Civic Disaster
Let’s be direct: There are legislators in Salem who want to eliminate the Bike Bill entirely. As recently as 2025, legislation was introduced to repeal ORS 366.514 and redirect those funds entirely to the State Highway Fund. Their framing — “cutting non-essential programs” and “rebuilding trust in ODOT” — sounds reasonable until you look at what would be cut.
Repealing the Bike Bill would mean:
Children would be less safe getting to school. In 1969, nearly half of school-age children walked or biked to school. By 2009, that number had fallen to 13%. Safe infrastructure — sidewalks, protected bike lanes, neighborhood greenways — is what makes active transportation to school possible. Without a legal mandate to include it in road projects, it will increasingly be omitted.
Oregon’s economic investment in cycling infrastructure would be abandoned. Decades of building cycling networks in Portland, Eugene, Corvallis — and yes, Bend — would be stranded. The recreational cycling economy in Central Oregon is substantial. Bend’s reputation as a bike-friendly destination draws visitors, residents, and businesses. That reputation rests on infrastructure. Infrastructure rests on the law.
The precedent would reverberate nationwide. Oregon’s Bike Bill was the first of its kind in the United States and directly inspired the national Complete Streets movement. Repealing it would send a signal far beyond our borders that the principle of designing roads for all users is optional, reversible, and politically expendable. That would be a gift to every highway-only advocate in every state legislature across the country.
Vulnerable road users would bear the cost. It is not affluent cyclists with cars as backup options who suffer most when bike infrastructure disappears. It is lower-income residents who rely on bikes for daily transportation, children traveling independently, older adults seeking safe routes for mobility, and people for whom a dangerous road is simply an impassable one. Repealing the Bike Bill is, among other things, an equity issue.
The bill has survived every repeal attempt because its underlying principle is sound. Roads built with public funds should serve the public — all of it. That isn’t a radical idea. It’s common sense, backed by law.
The Bend Opportunity
Bend is growing quickly. Major road projects are underway or planned across the city. Each of those projects is an opportunity — legally mandated, not optional — to build a more connected, safer, and more bikeable city.
Don Stathos was run off the road. He turned that experience into a law that changed how Oregon builds its transportation network. The question for us, 55 years later, is whether we will hold our own governments to the standard he set.
Bend Bikes believes the answer is yes. Join us.