Eye to Eye is a new multi-city road safety campaign created to foster a culture of awareness and respect on our roadways and shared paths and to make the streets of our communities safer for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. The City of Eugene is partnering with the Greater Eugene Area Riders (GEARs), the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and other groups to launch this campaign.

Along with encouraging respect on the roadway, the Eye to Eye message will be used in conjunction with specific information to educate all road users in what they can do to be safe, including making eye contact with and communicating with other road users, looking for bicyclists and stopping for pedestrians, using lights at night, and following traffic laws.

The Eye to Eye campaign will kick off August 13 with news conferences in Eugene and Portland. Several community events are scheduled to follow, including bell and light giveaways, a family bike ride, crosswalk awareness education, a bike light parade at the Eugene Celebration, Breakfast on the Bridges, professional truck driver/cyclist awareness events and more (contact Lindsay Selser for a detailed event schedule). In October the campaign will unveil the first Eye to Eye public service announcement — a piece targeted at young drivers. The City of Eugene and partners will show the PSA in movie theaters during the holidays and continue to develop the campaign into 2009.

The Eugene-Springfield area news conference will be held Wednesday, August 13, at 10 a.m. at the intersection of 24th Avenue and the Amazon Path (just east of Amazon Parkway). Participants include Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, Springfield Mayor Sid Leiken, State Senator Floyd Prozanski, AAA, GEARs, the Jane Higdon Foundation, and Eugene’s Fire & EMS, Police and Public Works departments.

Interviews and visual opportunities will be available at the news conference. The Eye to Eye web page will be live by August 13th at SeeingEyetoEye.org. For more information, contact Transportation Planning Technician Lindsay Selser at 682-5094 or lindsay.r.selser@ci.eugene.or.us

Wrapping up from the wonderful weekend of wheeling all around the Greater Area of Eugene, from neighborhood exploration to a Century ride out and back.
We had a great kick off for the new Blackberry Jamboree with about 160 riders taking to the streets of Eugene exploring the neighborhoods. Some rode the four miles to Emerald Park and back to the EWEB Plaza like the Mayor, Kitty Piercy who caught a ride in the Pedal Junkies Pedicab. Others rode the first 10 mile loop on the North side of town and others rode the second South side loop too for the full 20 miles (23 miles really).
Besides a couple wrong turns we’ve heard great reviews and it certainly looked like folks were having a great time enjoying the ride, chowing down hot dogs and blackberry cobbler (w/Prince Puckler’s ice cream), dancing to Samba Ja, trying out the Circus arts, and being entertained by the Grey Matter Jugglers and by the premier of the Bottom Brackettes.

In the next couple weeks we’ll be busy doing a wrap up of this weekend, getting ready to release the new eye-to-eye traffic safety campaign, and working on more adult bike education classes. Stay tuned for more!

Most people who visit the Center for Appropriate Transport (CAT) are coming to use the bike shop, Eugene Bicycle Works. What many of them don’t know is that CAT also operates a number of other bike-related business projects such as Pedalers Express, Eugene Rack Works, Oregon Cycling Magazine and Human Powered Machines. These businesses and other projects of CAT will be on display at CAT’s Open House on Friday, June 13 from 3:30-6:30 PM. CAT is located at 455 W 1st Ave in Eugene.

Students from CAT’s Alternative Education program will be on hand to explain things and answer questions, and the public will be invited to walk around and see how CAT operates. This event will be a good introduction to CAT for neighbors, local business owners and their employees, City staff and anyone who wants to know more about CAT’s programs. For old friends, former students, and others it will be a chance to see how CAT has grown and changed over the years.

Refreshments will be provided and everyone is welcome to attend!
For more information contact Karl at cat@catoregon.org .