Local – GEARs

Category: Local

Ride of Silence

Posted on May 6, 2015 by RideCoordinator

Wednesday, May 20

Ride of Silence, a ride to remember our community members who have lost their lives or been injured while riding their bicycles on the streets of Eugene.

Starting point: Educational Memorial Plaza on Bailey Hill Road, 300 meters South from intersection with 18 Ave. West Eugene.

Meeting time: 6:00 pm. Listen to the invited speaker and the reading of the names of members of our community who have been injured and killed on the streets while riding their bicycles.

Ride starting time: 6:30 pm. Ends at the David Minor Theater.

Approximate length of the ride: 5miles (Map of the Route)

“Alone we are but a whisper, together we will speak loudly through a silence that will resonate around the world”
Mark Hagar

Basic Confident Cycling Class

Posted on June 11, 2012 by RideCoordinator

Come join us for a FREE Confident Cycling Class!

Date: Saturday, June 16
Time: 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Location: Eugene, Cascades & Coast Adventure Center, 3312 Gateway Street (near Best Buy)

This 3-hour class guides cyclists in the laws and rules of the road as well as informs the most common crash scenarios. The course covers state laws as they pertain to bike riders, crash avoidance techniques, and includes a student manual. Adults and children above 12 years of age are perfect for this packed, 3-hour course. This curriculum is provided by the League of American Bicyclists.

IMPORTANT- To register, please contact SmartTrips Program Coordinator, Claire Otwell, at (541) 682-6213 by June 14th. Registration is required for this event.

GEARs holds Confident Cycling classes every month ranging from 3-9 hours. See the full schedule here.

National Call-in Day for Transportation Bill

Posted on May 23, 2012 by RideCoordinator

Today is the national call-in day on the transportation bill. The window is closing fast on our last real chance to impact the final bill. Whether or not the bill prioritizes repair of our roads and bridges, preserves local communities’ access to funds that can make walking and biking safer, or helps struggling transit agencies keep buses and trains rolling along OR if it focuses on building more roads for sprawl. We need your help now.

Attached is a script with the three priorities to choose from to push on in the calls.

Transportation for America also has a page where you can get more info and look up your legislator if needed (likely DeFazio, Wyden, & Merkeley if you’re on this list).

http://action.smartgrowthamerica.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=10750

Please call now. Thanks!

Rep. Peter DeFazio, Phone:(202) 225-6416

Sen. Ron Wyden, Phone:(202) 224-5244
Sen. Jeff Merkley, Phone:(202) 224-3753

Script:

Hi, my name is [NAME] and I live in [PLACE]. I’m calling to ask Representative/Senator [NAME] to support several important provisions from the Senate’s bipartisan transportation bill during conference committee. The conference committee on the transportation bill must do at least three things:

Preserve the Senate provisions that provide dedicated funding for repairing our roads and bridges — and hold states accountable for repairing them.
Protect my community’s access to funds in the Senate bill that make walking and biking safer by preserving the local grant program created by the Cardin-Cochran amendment,
And keep the flexibility for public transportation “operations” in the Senate bill that allows struggling transit agencies of all sizes to maintain service during a fiscal crisis.

Please support the provisions in the strong, bipartisan Senate transportation bill during the conference. Thank you for your time.

People on Bikes: 15th & High

Posted on April 24, 2012 by RideCoordinator

Inspired by the BikePortland.org series of “People on Bikes” I’ve been wanting to do the same kind of series here in Eugene. I’m not as good a photographer as Jonathan but I hope to catch some of the same feel of diversity that he has in his series, showing that there isn’t a “cyclist type” but a wide range of different types of folks riding bikes in our community. It’s not “them” it’s “us” even if someone doesn’t ride they might connect with someone they see (as a parent, hipster, businesswoman, student, etc.).

On my ride into work this morning I had a few spare minutes before a meeting so I stopped at the corner of 15th & High to capture some of the bike traffic going by. In these brief 10 minutes I captured about 40 cyclists, here some of them. I’ve numbered them to make commenting on specific photos easier (good idea Jonathan).

Hope you enjoyed these shots, I know I had fun taking them. I hope to hit a few other spots around town in the coming months. Have a favorite spot? Someplace with some good diversity (Bikulturalism as we like to call it)? High numbers? Good backdrop? Let me know.

Work has been completed on a $1.6 million extension of the Ruth Bascom Riverbank Path
in the River Road-Santa Clara area, and the multi-use path extension is open for public use.

Knife River Corporation, working under contract to the Eugene Public Works Department,
began work early this year to extend the path from River Avenue, under the Randy Pape’ Beltline,
along Division Avenue to Beaver Street. The primary source of funding for the project was a federal
transportation enhancement grant administered by the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The project extends the existing West Bank trail to connect the River Road and Santa Clara
neighborhoods. Previously, bicyclists and pedestrians wishing to cross the Beltline corridor had to
use River Road, a busy arterial street with five lanes of traffic moving approximately 32,000 vehicles
a day. The extended trail provides a safer option that reduces the number of vehicle conflicts with
pedestrian and bicycle movements. The project also provides a connection from Eugene’s Bascom
Riverbank Trail System to the street system north of Beltline.

The new 12-foot-wide, concrete path is about 3,200 feet long and includes pedestrian-scale
lighting, a retaining wall next to the Willamette River under Beltline, and an undercrossing at the
main truck entrance to the Delta Sand & Gravel yard on Division Avenue.

The extension to the West Bank Path segment brings the total length of the Riverbank Path
system to approximately 14.5 miles: 2.7 miles on the West Bank Path, 4 miles on the South Bank
Path, 2.8 miles on the East Bank Path, and 5 miles on the North Bank Path. The path system is
named for former Mayor Ruth Bascom, who was an avid cyclist and a strong advocate for bicycling
facilities in Eugene.

Also this summer, the segment of the South Bank Path was reconstructed from Greenway
Bridge to the RiverPlay Discovery Village Playground in Skinner Butte Park using voter-approved
bond measure funds.

As Lee Shoemaker, the cities Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator states:

“We realize it ends just short of the neighborhood to the west of Beaver Street. Lane County had a project in their capital improvement program to upgrade Beaver and Hunsaker to urban standards and add bike lanes and sidewalks. The project was removed from their CIP due to funding constraints. The project is included in the Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan.”

This is an exciting extension that when connected with a new Beaver/Hunsaker will really improve connectivity and safe/comfortable cycling in that region of town.