Safety for All of Us
The recent death of the young person riding an e-bike is a terrible tragedy. The loss of a child weighs heavily on his parents and on his family and friends. The driver in the crash also suffers from the results of that crash. Additionally, the community has been brought face to face with this loss of life. It would be easy to call for an immediate enforcement of current rules and a crackdown on kids riding on sidewalks. While enforcement is one tool in increasing safety, we also need to ask why you see adults, as well as kids, riding bikes on sidewalks all over Bend. This issue can be addressed by looking at the design of our streets which prioritizes speed and the convenience of drivers over the safety of all of us.
At Bend Bikes, we recognize the need to address this recent tragedy but we also urge the community to come together to talk about how to make Bend a safer place for all of us, no matter how we choose to move around the city. The opportunity for independent travel for school, for work, and for fun should be available for all of us, not only those who operate automobiles.
City Happenings
Think Bike Workshop by Dutch Cycling Embassy
The City of Bend will be hosting a ThinkBike workshop on July 31 and August 1 of this year! The ThinkBike workshop will bring local and Dutch mobility experts together for a series of workshops and study tours in Bend. Over the course of the two days, we will generate ideas for better integration of bicycles in urban transportation systems. A public presentation will be held on August 1 to discuss the ideas generated at this workshop. Stay tuned for more details!
Take Action on Portland Ave!
An in person open house was held on June 27 to showcase the latest designs on the Portland Ave project. The designs show a slight widening of the street in some areas to allow for the continuous use of painted buffered bike lanes along the length of the street. In our opinion, this approach will cause vehicles to drive faster on a street where speeds are already well over the posted speed limit. The main component and outcome of this project needs to be the reduction of vehicle traffic speeds. This can be accomplished by adding protection in the buffers of the bike lanes, thus visually narrowing the street and adding traffic calming measures like raised crossings at the intersections. We encourage you to add these recommendations to the call for comments on the now available online open house.
Portland Avenue online Open House and survey available until July 11th
Butler Market Update
The Butler Market Road Key Route Project is moving into the detailed planning phase after an open house in May brought in over 400 comments from the public. The overwhelming preference was for raised bike lanes and wide sidewalks on both sides of the street. The planners are moving forward with detailed plans for the street using that concept. Another open house will be held this fall when the plans are far enough along for additional public comment. We haven’t seen any plans for the intersection at Butler Market Road and Boyd Acres Road yet. Making this intersection safe will be critical for the success of both key routes that will eventually connect at this intersection.
This project has been scaled down from the plans we saw at the May open house. The Boyd Acres Road portion of the project has been dropped for now because of the complexity of building a key route past the businesses on Boyd Acres Road and the need to focus on completing the city’s first North-South and East-West Key Routes of which the Butler Market Key Route is a major part.
Bend Bikeways Project
The city council has approved a bikeways project which will create two safe routes for people who bike, walk, and roll in Bend. There will be one North-South Route and one East-West route. Infrastructure improvements are planned in the next two years to make these designated routes safe for users of all ages and abilities. We are excited to see the project moving forward!
Upcoming Events
Bend Bikes at the 9th St. Village Makers Market
Sunday, July 9th from 12-3pm, SE 9th St. behind Bevel Brewing
We are excited to join the 9th Street Village Maker’s Market again in July! We’ll be offering free chain cleanings to anyone who rides their bike and are looking forward to chatting with our 9th Street Village neighbors!
Bikey Book Club
Next Meeting: July 24, 6:30pm
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck was the focus of our discussion in June. We talked about parking, one-way streets, the design of the downtown streets, and other topics. This book is a great introduction to many of the topics influencing how people choose whether to drive, walk, or bike.
We’ll meet July 24th at 6:30 pm in the Meyer Room, upstairs in the Bend Downtown Library, to watch a video interview with author Janette Sadik-Khan. She was the Transportation Commissioner for New York City during the Bloomberg administration and began New York City’s process of building bike lanes and converting public spaces, such as Times Square, to places people can walk and meet without the stress of cars. She is currently the chairperson for the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), a coalition of the transportation departments of 40 large cities nationwide. We will be reading her book, Street Fight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution, during July and August and will discuss it at our August meeting.
Please join us–there is no need to pre-register. You can contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more information.
Upcoming schedule: Downtown Bend Library, Meyers Room
July 24, 6:30-7:45