So once again bikeportland.org seems to be the place to go even for EUGENE bike news!  Jonathan has a post about Lee Shoemakers opposition to the “Idaho Stop Law” with a copy of the letter Lee sent to the Legislature, there are a lot of comments and some not too flattering towards Eugene, including one from “carfree in pdx” stating

Having lived in Eugene for several years, I would take anything that comes from the city of Eugene with a huge grain of salt. Typical of them is their complete lack of logic…

and

They do have good bike paths (MUPs), but the cyclability of the city is more due to its small size than because they have their planning and policies in order (they don’t); the fact that people cycle there is more in spite of city policies than because of them.

and this gem from “Coyote”:

But frankly, bicycle advocacy left Eugene with Reagan inauguration. They have been a few bicycle heroes in public life in Eugene, Ruth Bascomb and Peter DeFazio come immediately to mind, and Floyd Prozanski in a lycra sort of way, but most Eugene politicians can’t say the word bicycle without stumbling. Usually they stumble over their Prius.

Granted, I get a little huffy when Portlandites talk down about Eugene but at times I have to agree that things aren’t great right now.  Sure we have some good infrastructure, some great planning staff, and some great energy going on at GEARS (and at the University too) but we do have a long way to go and we do have a big stumbling block with not one City council member who rides a bike or any major city administrators who bike for transportation regularly, and some city staff who still struggle with the idea as bikes as a viable transportation option.    We have some major ground to make up and we need the kind of energy that got the 70’s era infrastructure built but double fold.  We need more infrastructure but we also need more education & encouragement.  Portland is where they are because they have put that investment in.

On that positive note Paul and I went out and toured the site of the new bike bridge that will start construction this summer connecting the Delta Ponds and the River path system with the Willagillespie neighborhood (and the whole North of Eugene).  Besides being a great way for that whole region of Eugene to access the river path system it provides the whole area with a great link over the Delta Highway which currently has poor access at Valley River Drive and Good Pasture Island Road- certainly not bike friendly for families and children!    I also like to think of this bridge as completing the Mall to Mall bikeway system… when this bridge is built you can bike from one big mall to another on mellow neighborhood streets and fly over the traffic on Delta Highway and I-5 on beautiful bridges.

Okay, I’m being a little silly but how about a Movie Tour?  If the movie you wanted to see isn’t playing at the Bijou you can head downtown, see what’s playing at the David Minor theatre, then down to the river path to see what is playing at VRC and if that still doesn’t have it maybe the cheap theatre at Gateway is playing something at the dollar theatre. And the whole trip can be done (mostly) on quiet streets.

Anyway, I think this bridge is going to be a great addition to the bike network system in Eugene. The bridge is getting started a year ahead of schedule thanks to the funding from the Federal stimulus package and though not a lot of bike/ped projects got funding from those federal dollars at least we got some pretty good crumbs.  I’ve posted some Flickr shots of the brief tour if your interested.

And finally on a whole other note I wanted to remind folks to keep an eye on the GEARS “Bicycling in the Greater Eugene Area” calendar for great biking events throughout the area. They are not just GEARS rides and events but great speakers, workshops, classes, and other fun centered around the wonderful bike culture we’re working to nourish in our town. Come join the ride.