Update/Reminder: The general meeting of the Friendly Area Neighbors is tonight 7-9 at the Washington Park Cottage (2025 Washington). I heard from the City that they are presenting at 7:30 pm and there should be time after their presentation for questions/answers.
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):
Dear City Officials,
I strongly urge you to accept the planned improvements to 24th Avenue that would include bike lanes and a pedestrian crosswalk, removal of on-street parking and bulb-outs as necessary, and unstriped travel lanes intended to help slow traffic speeds. This design will encourage transportation choices both for the people who live in the neighborhood and those who travel through, including families attending the nearby schools and using the playing fields at Westmoreland Park.
The planned street would make it safer to walk and bicycle on 24th Avenue. This was a high priority among those who attended public meetings concerning the design of the road, and matches the City’s goals of supporting active transportation. The current street design, even if sharrows and signage were added, is adequate for confident adult cyclists, but does not provide the safe environment needed to encourage inexperienced cyclists and children to walk or bike
When we build “complete streets” that accomodate all modes of travel, compromises are necessary. In this case, staff has chosen to reduce the amount of space dedicated to automobile storage in order to provide bike lanes. Since all houses along the street have garages and driveways, and since parking remains available on one side of the street and on cross streets, giving up the underutilized parking on the south side of the street is a reasonable compromise. While adjacent homeowners might suffer some inconvenience from the loss of on-street parking, they, like others, will benefit from better opportunities for active transportation. When choices must be made, we have to favor using streets for transportation over using them to store vehicles.
I congratulate staff on moving forward with Council’s directive to provide transportation choices and promote sustainability, and urge you to accept this well-designed plan that already has considerable buy-in from the neighborhood.
Sincerely,
Sue Wolling