Bike Willamette Campaign
Friday, February 24th, 6:00 – 8:00 pm, Agate Alley Laboratory Restaurant banquet room, 2645 Willamette Street

After three steering group meetings (join these meetings if you want to!) we have settled on six areas that merit our most immediate attention:
- Identifying and collecting contact information for supporters of the campaign
- Identifying and collecting contact information for business and property owners along south Willamette St.
- Identifying and collecting contact information for the existing organizations which will support our goal
- Developing our key messages for letting people know what we are about and gaining their support
- Establishing our resource library of information, documents, published articles that relate to this project
- Planning some fun events for our group and for Willamette Street

We will spend significant time in small groups working on the above tasks.
There will be a sign-up sheet for speaking to city council at one of 8 city council meeting in the next few months. We’ll re-cap a couple of meetings with Eugene Planning staff that occurred this week.
News: Both the Amazon and the Friendly Area Neighborhood Association Boards have sent letter to the city staff supporting the inclusion of bike lanes on any new design for Willamette St.
Join the Bike Willamette Campaign Google Groups email list for inter-group communications. Head to this web address and join the Bike Willamette Google Group – you’ll be able to send email to and receive email from the whole group. <http://groups.google.com/group/bikewillamette>

Paul Moore for Bike Willamette Campaign: 541-954-3843
P.S. We’re still meeting at 9:05 am on Saturdays in front of Arriving By Bike to cruise on Willamette St. and then converse over a hot drink or food along Willamette.

Bike Industry Job Fair hosted by Collins Cycle Shop
Sunday, February 26th, 12-5pm.

Collins Cycle Shop will host a job fair for those interested in a career in the ever growing cycling industry. Employment opportunities include working in a bicycle shop, manufacturing, shipping and receiving, warehousing, mechanic school, independent sales representative, fabrication, design and more.

The purpose of this event is to create a network for those interested in working in the cycling industry. Although there may not be immediate openings available, we will share resumes with employers seeking qualified help. The following employers have expressed interested in attending this event: Specialized Bicycles, Morgan Hill CA, Giant Bicycles, Newbury Park CA, Cyclone Bicycle Supply, Portland OR, Seattle Bicycle Supply, Seattle, WA, City of Eugene, Bicycle Transportation Program, Castelli Cycling Clothing, Portland, OR and Garmin, Olathe, Kansas. Those interested in job opportunities are encouraged to submit their resume to onsite HR staff.
Music provided, courtesy of Skip Jones.
Bicycles and other merchandise will be relocated temporarily in order to accommodate space for this event at Collins Cycle Shop, 60 E. 11th Avenue, Eugene. Sales will resume on February 27.

Bicycle Appreciation Day (BAD)

Now would be a great time to write a letter to City Staff & Elected Officials to support their proposed design for 24th Ave. (Friendly to Chambers) which will include consolidating parking to one side of the street, removing the small bulb outs, adding bike lanes, removing the painted center line (for greater traffic calming), and adding a marked crosswalk and school zone near ATA/Family School.

There have been two community meetings where city staff collected input and gave information to over 30 people at each meeting. No opposition was voiced at the meeting that the city showed their recommended design, however a letter from the Friendly Area Neighbors Executive Board (most of whom were at both meetings) has been written to the City opposing the design and asking the city to keep parking and the bulb outs and instead of installing bike lanes to add sharrows and signs to the street. Those measures will do nothing to make the street comfortable for anyone but the most confident and secure cyclists. Both TransPlan and the PedBike Master Plan call for bike lanes on the street for a reason! Write city staff and the City Council now and encourage them to move ahead with their recommended changes.

Here is a great letter from GEARs Advocacy Committee Chair, Sue Wolling, that should give you some ideas for your own letter (to mayorandcc@ci.eugene.or.us):

There will be a presentation and discussion on design alternatives for this street.  Alternatives discussed will include removing on-street parking on one side of the street, installing bicycle facilities, and changing the nature of existing traffic calming devices.

The Ped/Bike Master Plan calls for bike lanes on this section of 24th and it is the best East-West corridor for cyclists in the area. Come give your input on the importance of completing our active transportation network with safe and comfortable facilities for cyclists.

Agenda:

• Presentation of alternative street configurations
• Questions and answers
• Discuss project timeline

Location:      Adams Elementary School (Cafeteria/Multipurpose Room), 950 West 22^nd Avenue, Eugene, OR 97405

Date:                 Thursday, January 5^th

Time:                7:00 to 8:30 pm

Questions? Please contact Reed Dunbar at reed.c.dunbar@ci.eugene.or.us or (541) 682-5727

The plan will show improvements that will help pedestrians and bicyclists travel safely and efficiently through the city. It will include shared-use paths to standard bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, bicycle boulevards, and tunnels and overpasses that will help getpedestrians and cyclists safely across busy streets. As quoted in theRegister Guard, Rob mentions “We’re looking to hear from people: Did we choose the right projects? Are we looking at the right kind offacilities?  What do people think about the policies we arerecommending?”

Join us for this very informative meeting. Tuesday, October 25, 6pm-8pm, Countryside Pizza, 645 River Road

There are few meetings happening this week that will inform and influence our transportation system in the coming years and your input is needed.

On Thursday (Oct. 13th) from 11:30-1:30 the Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) is meeting at the Eugene Public Library (100 West 10th Avenue) and will be discussing the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). It’s a good time to let the Commission know that active transportation options are important and that we need more facilities that allow more people feel comfortable walking and biking throughout our community. Public comments (limited to 3 minutes) are at the beginning of the meeting

This would also be a good time to indicate support for some of the projects called out for funding in the next round of Flexible Funding from ODOT. Those projects include the following (more information on each in these letters of support):

• Blair/Van Buren Active Transportation Corridor
• West Bank Bike Path completion
• Regional Bicycle Wayfinding/Signage/Shared Lane Markings
• Bob Straub Parkway/Mt. Vernon Road Pedestrian Improvements
• A Bikeshare Feasibility Study
• A Regional SmartTrips Program
• Middle Fork Path Phase 2b
• Highway 99/Roosevelt Pedestrian Improvements
• Main Street Safety Improvements

Also on Thursday there is an Open House from 4:30 to 6:30 PM, at the Library to discuss the Regional Transportation Plan. The MPC will adopt the RTP in November and we need to make sure that facilities that make walking and biking just as easy (if not easier) than driving are a center piece of that plan. Go to the open house and give feedback on the importance of a great active transportation system. Connect the paths with a system more people will feel comfortable using (families, kids, and those currently not walking or riding as much as they want because they are not comfortable doing so).

Basic info on the RTP: The MPC adopts an updated RTP every 3-4 years. The Metropolitan Policy Committee is comprised of public officials from Springfield, Eugene, Lane County, Coburg, Lane Transit District, and the Oregon Department of Transportation.  The RTP enables our community to receive federal money for transportation and provides a framework for selecting which projects to build with federal money.  There is a draft RTP now available for public review (also at the Eugene and Springfield Public Libraries).

If you can’t make the meetings comments may be sent to mpo@lcog.org (email) or Lane Council of Governments, 859 Willamette, Suite 500, Eugene, OR 97401-2910.  Questions on the RTP may be directed to Paul Thompson (pthompson@lcog.org), Senior Planner, (541) 682-4405.  Submit comments by November 7, 2011 for consideration as part of the adoption process.

Finally, the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee will be meeting this Thursday as well (5:30-7:30, Sloat Conference Room, Atrium Building, 99 W. 10th) and will be discussing these and other issues including:

• Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan Update (20 min)
• Pavement Preservation Projects-2012 (25 min)
• Grant Applications (10min)
• Regional Transportation Plan (30 min)
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Counts (20 min)

Finally, to help inspire you, here is a letter from Sue Wolling, the GEARs Advocacy Committee Chair.  She makes some great points about the need to build an active transportation system for everyone, especially that untapped market of ‘potential bicyclists’. Get inspired and get writing.

Please contact Transportation Planning Manager Rob Inerfeld at 541-682-5343 or rob.inerfeld@ci.eugene.or.us with any questions.

posted by Anya Dobrowolski, Advocacy Committee Chair

Riding the success of our spring advocacy efforts, the GEARs Advocacy Committee (AC) will be meeting in June to discuss to start putting together a local advocacy strategy.  The June meeting will cover two important actions that will help us move forward to make bicycling in our community even better than it already is:

1) Create a draft mission statement for the AC that we can share with the people and groups that we will be engaging with;

2) State developing an outreach strategy to educate local politicians and community leaders about the important role that active transportation plays in the community.

GEARs Advocacy Committee Meeting
Tuesday, June 14th, 6PM
University of Oregon, Hendricks Hall, Room 100 (across University St. from the EMU; find a UO campus map here: http://map.uoregon.edu/)

The meeting is open to all GEARs members.  If you’d like to get more frequent updates on the AC’s work and join in on the discussion, you can join our Google group by going to http://groups.google.com/group/gears-advocacy-committee?lnk=srg&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8 and clicking on the “join group” button on the right side of your screen.

Monday, February 21
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Coquille Room, Erb Memorial Union, University of Oregon (near the food court)

The meeting will focus on two items in particular:

1. Developing recommendations for priority bicycling projects for the Eugene and Springfield TSPs.
2. Developing recommendations for potential state legislation dealing with bicycling.

Other groups have already done a lot of analysis and commenting on the above items, and so our deliberations won’t be starting from scratch.  Once we have developed some recommendations, they will be taken to the GEARs Board in March so that they can be formally adopted, and then submitted to the cities/legislature. We can also use these as firm footing when we go to Salem for the Active Transportation Summit in March!

As always, let me know if you have any questions by emailing pricearmstrong@gmail.com.

GEARs will be hosting a group ride to the open house.  Meet at Arriving by Bike @ 2705 Willamette St. at 4:00 p.m. Richard Hughes will lead this 5.5 mile (11 roundtrip) ride.

For more information about the Eugene Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan, click here.