Category: Advocacy

Attend the Eugene Riverfront Celebration this Saturday!

Originally Posted on the BTA Blog (by: Susan)

The members of Connecting Eugene are putting on a party this Saturday, April 24th to celebrate the Willamette River Appreciation Day. This is a free event with activities for all ages. There will also be speakers to address the challenges and opportunities facing the Willamette River now and in the future.

Riverfront Celebration!

Saturday, April 24th, 10 am – 4 pm
South Bank Path between EWEB and Autzen Footbridge

The BTA has been keeping tabs on Connecting Eugene’s fight against the development of the Oregon Research Institute building along the Willamette River. Here’s an update on what’s happened since January.

• Connecting Eugene appealed the City’s decision to grant an extension of a Conditional Use Permit to the University of Oregon. This appeal may take several months or more to resolve. Even after this issue is resolved the University must obtain a building permit and demonstrate that the proposed development is consistent with the 1988 Master Plan.

• Members of Connecting Eugene have met with Mayor Piercy and Councilor Alan Zalenka to discuss viable alternative sites for the Oregon Research Institute Building–including a site within the Riverfront Research Park designated for office buildings.

• The faculty of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, the Graduate Teaching Fellow Federation (GTFF), and the Graduate Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Students have all passed resolutions opposing development north of the railroad tracks until a new master plan has been developed. These resolutions join many previous resolutions by UO students and faculty, and over 900 petition signers like yourselves.

• Amelie Rousseau was elected ASUO President. She strongly opposes development along the riverfront.

• EWEB (Eugene Water and Electric Board) continues to engage the public in planning the redevelopment of their site while the University of Oregon keeps the door closed to public involvement on their property just upstream from EWEB.

For more information visit the Connecting Eugene website.

Bicycling Magazine Names Eugene Number Five

I’ll write more soon but I wanted to get this news release up!

BICYCLING MAGAZINE NAMES EUGENE NO. 5 MOST BIKE-FRIENDLY CITY IN AMERICA

EUGENE, OR (April 6, 2010) – In its May issue, Bicycling magazine ranks the fifty most bike-friendly cities in America and Eugene comes in at number five. Rounding out the top five spots as overall best are Minneapolis, MN; Portland, OR; Boulder, CO; and Seattle, WA.

Ample bike parking, lit bike paths, and the Smart Ways to School program are just three of Eugene’s cycling-friendly characteristics noticed by editors at Bicycling.

This year’s list pays homage to cities that have shown real innovation, as well as local government support and a vibrant bike culture. Highlights from the new 2010 best cities for cycling are as follows:

Top 5 Best Cities:

#1 Minneapolis, Minnesota
#2 Portland, Oregon
#3 Boulder, Colorado
#4 Seattle, Washington
#5 Eugene, Oregon

Worst Cities:

Birmingham, Alabama
Jacksonville, Florida
Memphis, Tennessee

5 Rising Stars:

#8 New York City
#17 Albuquerque, New Mexico
#23 Long Beach, California
#39 Cleveland, Ohio
#44 Miami, Florida

Bicycling’s Best Cities list this year proves that great things can happen in short periods of time, even in the largest metropolitan areas,” said Loren Mooney, Editor-in-Chief of Bicycling. “New York City is literally re-engineering its streets to accommodate bikes. And watching a city like Miami pull a 180 to become bike friendly has been incredibly gratifying for us. This year’s list is evidence that a much needed, far reaching pro-bike movement is in full swing, all across the country.”

To compile the list, Bicycling editors strove for geographical diversity and considered cities with populations of 100,000 or more. They narrowed it down using factors such as cycling-friendly statistics (numbers of bike lanes and routes, bike racks, city projects completed and planned) including changes in these statistics and a city’s future plans since the last survey; and bike culture (number of bike commuters, cycling clubs, cycling events, renowned bike shops). Editors also referenced the Bicycling and Walking in the United States 2010 Benchmarking Report prepared by the Alliance for Biking and Walking, the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly America project, and interviews with national and local advocates, bike shops, and other experts.

As for the worst American cities for cycling, Bicycling pointed to Birmingham, Alabama; Jacksonville, Florida; and Memphis, Tennessee. Despite community interest in cycling, these cities have fallen victim to suburban sprawls that lack bike lanes, and slow-going planning and implementation of improvements.

For the complete top 50 list or for more on Bicycling’s Best Bike Cities, please visit www.bicycling.com or pick up the May issue of Bicycling, on newsstands April 6. For a slideshow of each of the top 50 cities, plus information on the best small and best foreign cities for biking, go to www.bicycling.com/topbikefriendlycities.

Update on STP-U Funding Issue

An interesting thing happened at Mondays City Council Work Session. Because of a policy recommendation made by the Sustainability Commission that Surface Transportation Program-Urban (STP-U) funds be used for bike/ped projects and not strictly pavement preservation as is currently mandated by council, the council members heard from the community that they would like to revisit this issue. Here is a great wrap-up of that meeting from Howie Bonnett (highlights mine):

Staff (Mark Schoening) had prepared a memo in advance listing three projects for the funds, located on Hilyard, Coburg, and Martin Luther King, which were basically pretty much automobile projects. He also had prepared a memo about how much money had been obtained from various sources for bicycle projects in Eugene in the last 5 years and, due to some big monies recently (stimulus funds for the bridge, etc.,) it averaged 2.5 million per year for bike/ped projects. That seemed to make the Councilors feel that a lot of money was being spent on bicycle/pedestrian projects.

Perhaps somewhat in response to whether the STP-U funds should be spent for alternative transportation modes, Schoening had also listed two bike/ped improvements which could be done in connection with the Martin Luther King and Coburg projects, each costing about 100,000 out of the 2.5 or so million. There followed a discussion of whether these bicycle projects should be bumped to last on the list, or whether they should be done in any case even if the projects required supplemental funds to complete (Schoening offered that gas tax money could be used to make sure the projects were completed). This irritated some councilors, who wanted it clearly stated that the bike/ped work would only be done if it was determined that there was sufficient money for the three road projects, even though Mark Schoening said there would be savings if the bike/ped work was done at the same time as the road repair. A motion to move bikes/ped projects to the bottom of the priority list was made and defeated 5-3 (Poling, Clark, and Solomon losing) and then the main motion passed unanimously which gave the staff authority to add the bike/ped work to the road work on the 3 projects, funded with STP-U funds.

So, net outcome, is that only about 5 % of so of the STP-U funds will go for bike/ped projects, as part of the Coburg and MLK projects. The policy recommendation of the Sustainability Commission was not directly discussed, even though Council has had it for over a month. It is clear that the very large unmet need to do street repair work (now up to 170 million of so), is being used as an argument to suck up all monies for the roads. As I have tried to point out, trying to meet this unmet need as it gets larger and larger, will mean that our ability to build infrastructure to promote alternative mode (active) transportation through diversion of transportation dollars which are discretionary is seriously hampered. Maybe we should have a community discussion about how much money each year it would take to catch up with our unmet road repair needs, and see if we want to undertake that, or whether we should start talking alternatives. Even the 36 million GO Bond measure is a drop in the bucket.

According to Lee Shoemaker, the Cities Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, the projects for the Coburg and MLK projects would be:

Coburg Road Corridor safety improvements for pedestrians and cyclists coordinated with pavement preservation projects that would be funded by STP-U.
And street preservation bond. Could include visual countdown signals, access management where there are willing property owners, and bicycle wayfinding Signage.

Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Corridor – enhanced pedestrian crossings at east end of corridor coordinated with pavement preservation project that would be funded by STP-U.

Having three council members who voted to move bike/ped projects to the bottom of the last priority is disheartening to say the least and to see the type of projects that should just naturally be part of any complete street talked about being taken off and then highlighted as ‘special bike/ped’ projects sort of rubs salt in the wound. These kind of improvements don’t complete an incomplete network, they simply add what should have been added already.

I also think it is very misleading to have a memorandum that shows $12.5 million in bike/ped projects over the last 5 years when $8.5 million of that was a large bridge project ($5.7 million) and several preservation projects. Take those out and you have about $4 million over 5 years for active transportation projects… $2.5 of that hasn’t been built yet. Which leaves you with $1.5 million new bike/ped infrastructure actually built. How does that compare to non-active transportation projects?

The memo and the Councils reaction to it makes it seem like the City feels it is spending enough on active transportation already. While there has been some great investments and good plans for active transportation we still have an incomplete network that families are afraid to use. We need to be putting large amounts of transportation dollars to completing that network. Bridges are flashy and preservation is essential but we need to be making an investment in the future and that is getting people out of their cars more and active in their transportation choices by having safe and comfortable infrastructure that makes that choice easy.

There are few flexible funds in transportation money. How are we going to complete a network without those funds? We’ll need a plan and we’re working on that with the Bike Master Plan process, but we’ll also need funding! Where is the plan for that funding??

Some calendar items we’ll be looking at for this issue are the MPC public hearing on March 11 and action by the Metropolitan Policy Commission on April 8. Stay tuned for more.

Fun & Important Gatherings Over the Next Two Weeks!

Winter in the Willamette Valley doesn’t mean hibernation for cyclists. Recreational rides are happening and important advocacy projects are still prevalent. There are several GEARs rides happening each week. Check out the Rides section of the site to see those or download this months ride list here.
The coming two weeks hold even more fun events for the local cycling scene.
Here’s a run down on some of them:

January 16th:

The Tweed Ride has happened a couple times in Eugene already. This winter bundle up in your finest for this dapper ride. Leave from Wandering Goat and wander around town showing off your cycle chic style.

Tweed Ride

Street Skills for Families is a bike course directed at students living in the 4J school district and is part of the Safe Routes to School program. Class attendees will not only learn about basic traffic skills but also learn how to perform a bicycle safety check, how to properly fit a helmet, how to size a bicycle for a child, and how to properly carry things on a bicycle. The class will be held at McCornack Elementary from 12-3 pm. A light lunch will be available beforehand (11:30 AM) and afterward we’ll meet up with the Kidical Mass group for Soup and a Unicycle show (see below). More information and registration at the Eugene SRTS site.
Street Skills for Families

This months Kidical Mass ride will meet at its usual spot (Monroe Park) at 3:00 p.m. and then ride West to meet up with the group from the Street Skills for Families class. Then the group will ride back to McCornack Elementary to enjoy some free hot soup and a Unicycle show from the McCornack unicycle team. See the Kidical Mass site for more information on those rides.

January 20th

The City of Eugene will be holding a hearing on the Riverfront Research Park Conditional Use Permit that has been approved but which has been appealed. Come to this hearing to give your input on the importance of this area as a vital connection for cyclists from the University area to the river path system. You can find more information at the Connecting Eugene website.

January 24th

The Fourth Annual Eugene Walking & Biking Summit!!!
Why go?! How about:
Free Off the Waffle breakfast & Full City Coffee
Free Child Care
Great speakers
Important input on Eugene’s first Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
An awesome Fashion Show
Informative and interesting booths
Raffle Prizes
…Need you more?!
Join the event on Facebook

Eugene Walking & Biking Summit
WalkBike Summit Card2

As we reach these events we’ll be doing more in-depth stories on each event and some wrap-up as well.

Eugene Climate & Energy Action Plan- Land Use and Transportation

Last night over 100 people gathered at the EWEB building to discuss Eugene’s Climate and Energy Action Plan and it’s approach to Land Use and Transportation. Attendees were given a list of of over 100 actions that will help in the goal to “reduce total, current, community-wide, fossil fuel consumption by 50% by 2030.” In small groups at our tables we discussed the actions and created a list of our “top 10” as well as turning in cards with our 5 favorites and 5 least favorites of the action items. There were a lot of actions to go through and discuss in the hour we had. From the experience at my table and in talking with other folks it was tough to get through the list let alone come up with a meaningful consensus of the of our top 10 during that time. It would have been nice to have had the list a week earlier with the idea that we would discuss our top 10 with the table or had a survey go out that narrowed these 100+ actions down to something more manageable for the event.

It was also interesting to note that many of the actions were items that the City is working on now (specifically items that are in the Ped/Bike Strategic Plan [.pdf link]) or planning work on (items in the Ped/Bike Master Plan). Most of the discussion at our table centered around the idea of “follow through with funding”. The city has some goals and ideas but when the rubber hits the road is the funding moving towards those goals or is it moving towards more ‘traditional’ spending. There are many items already in TransPlan that relate to our walking and biking infrastructure that aren’t being built because “there isn’t funding”. Making another plan without a roadmap for funding may get us to some of the same sticking points.

As the holiday season approaches we can think about this from the lens of buying gifts. Many of us have the best of intentions when we make purchases… we’re going to buy local crafts, buy from local shops, or maybe even make our gifts but for years we’ve shopped at the mall, online, or not found the time to make gifts and so for another year we fall back onto old easy habits. Change isn’t easy.

The city, state, and federal funding models for transportation need to change now to make the type of system that encourages more active transportation. We know the federal change will take a long time, the state too, so we have to push our local leaders to make our priorities change now! Instead of applying local dollars (and those applied for at the state and federal level) towards building more roads we need to complete our system of bike and pedestrian ways.

This Climate and Energy Action Plan reinforced to me how important having a strong Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan will be in this coming year. We need major community and leadership buy-in to the plan and then we need the financial support to back it up. If we create a MAJOR pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure system in Eugene we CAN have a major impact on transportations effect on the climate and our communities energy use.

For those interested in the action item that were discussed last night you can find them in this pdf. I look forward to the wrap-up and review by the Project Team and Advisors on last nights meeting and then I look forward to the “follow through with funding”.

Leaves Continue to Fall…

As many of us know from our rides around town there continues to be an issue with leaves being piled in unsafe and illegal areas, including bike lanes.  However, we knew that this wasn’t going to be problem that just went away.  The City has made a major effort over the past year to improve the leaf collection program to make it safer for cyclists.  As we continue to work with them to improve the program there are a few things you can do to help.

1- Report the problems.  The City has a phone number and a website set up to report the exact location of the problem area.  By reporting it you not only get the issue dealt with (many riders have already experienced 12-48 hour clean up times) but you also raise awareness of specific repeat offenders or trouble areas

The number is: 541-682-5383
The website is: http://www.eugene-or.gov/leaf

South of Bailey Hill & Warren
Leaves in the Bike Lane

2- Post some photos.  A new Flickr group has been set up by a GEARs member called “Eugene Bike Accessibility Issues“.  There you can post not only pictures of leaves in the bike lane but other issues such as cars parked in bike lanes, incomplete infrastructure, poor pavement, and other issues that make cycling less safe or discouraging.  There is a sister group called “Eugene Loves Bikes” where you can post the positive side of what makes Eugene a great place to ride.

3- Record the issue.  Whether it’s via the Flickr group, your own photos, cell phone camera, or simply writing it down on paper, record the issue.  As we talk to the City about broad issues, specific problems, repeat offenders and difficult areas it will be important to have documentation.  As part of GEARs and the cycling community you are our eyes and ears out there.  Record what you see and get it to us.

4-  Direct action. Some folks have had luck actually talking to the offender, whether they’ve called a business, knocked on the door of a home-owner, or approached a landscaper actually blowing the leaves at that moment.  Many people don’t know the rules and regulations, remember this is the first year that the city is actually telling people NOT to place leaves in the bike lane, it’s going to take some time to unlearn this bad behavior.  If you choose this method remember that you are an ambassador for cyclists, this is not meant to be a confrontation but an education.  If it starts to look ugly or to get heated simply step back and pedal away (and record what happened).   The hope is that we can work with the City so that they are doing the education and enforcement with these folks but until that happens and if your comfortable with it feel free to give it a try. Let us know how it goes.

(A story appeared on KVAL about this issue- see the report HERE.)