Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1977)
Photo by Dennis Rollin along Although the combustion engine attracts many followers, Genie Lynde, left, and Robyn Braverman are devotees of old-fashioned manual power. Heard of the Erie locks? Wait for the Eugene Canal By E G. WHITE-SWIFT Of the Emerald Don't look for an urban channel on your cable television. It is not next to Channel 9. Instead, it loops throughout the metropolitan area. Eugene has several urban water channels that some local canoeing enthusiasts consider ripe for development. If they had their way, the Amazon Slough would become a major commuter route for paddle-toting businessmen. On the clear, crisp fall days, University students would have the opportunity to rent canoes down on the Mill Race (next to Murphy's and Me tavern), and spend a lazy afternoon paddling out to Fern Ridge Reservoir to watch migrating snipes. is all of this really possible? In some cities, no. In Lane County, where Ecotopia is the password and livibility is the first word in the lexicon, canoeing as an alternative form of transportation could blossom. Urban run-off channels and irrigation canals that link parts of Eugene could be modified through a series of coffer dams, pumping stations and water diversion projects. The cost would be rather high, and it would require an enlightened civic movement to THE “ANIMALS” ARE TAKING OVER 11TH AVENUE! ... so LTD announces its Bus Detour Schedule. 11th Ave. will be closed to trucks and buses between Alder and Hilyard, due to filming of the movie, “Animal House.” Mon. - Thurs., Oct. 24 - 27. Mon. - Thurs., Oct. 31 - Nov.3. Service returns to normal on Fri., Sat. and Sun. The following routes will be affected: 10 - Hayden Bridge via U of O 20 - Thurston via U of O 5A - Vida/Blue River 5B - Vida/McKenzie Bridge 6 - Springfield/Jasper/Lowell 11 - LCC via Harris - Harlow Rd. 12 - U of O How detours will work: Detour on INBOUND portions of Routes 10, 20, 5A, 5B, and 6: Franklin, left on Patterson, right on 11th, resume regular route. No interruption of OUTBOUND service. Routes will operate as usual but will not stop on 11th between Kincaid and Alder. A temporary bus stop for U of O riders coming from Springfield will be located at Franklin and Onyx. Detour on INBOUND portion of Route 11: Hilyard, left on 11th, resume regular route. No interruption of OUTBOUND service on this route. Detour on INBOUND and OUTBOUND portion of Route 12: 13th, left on Hilyard, left on 11th, resume regular route. ® LANG TRANSTT DISTRICT FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONCERNING TEMPORARY BUS STOPS DURING THE DETOURS, CALL LTD SCHEDULE INFORMATION AT: 687-5555 implement a series of canoeways throughout Eugene. Canoeists compare the initial resistance to bikes as a tran sportation alternative when they conjure up the potential of canoes or kayaks. The Amazon Slough has a good potential for canoeway development. Amazon Slough begins somewhere in the bowels of south Eugene, winding along through Amazon Park, skirting the southern fringe of the downtown area (only several blocks from the Mill Race, at one point) before drifting lazily through west Eugene and finally emptying into Fern Ridge Reservoir. During the rainy season, the Amazon has enough water flow to allow canoeists to ply their paddles from about Amazon Park all the way to Fern Ridge. However, the water quality is not anything to savor. If Lane County’s water quality improvement program for urban run-off channels is successful over the next few years, the Amazon could become a canoeway and also Eugene's longest swimming pool. However, if canoeing as a commuter solution is ever to succeed, the water level and quality of the Amazon will have to be maintained at high levels. And therein is the hitch — where do you find the water? There are several possibilities. Water from the middle-fork of the Willamette River could be diverted by pipe and pumped up to Spencer’s Butte where gravity would take over and a constant supply of water would flush the Amazon. Or, a large number of wells could be drilled in South Eugene and used exclusively for replenishing the Amazon Canoe Expressway. Or rainwater could be trapped and stored on Spencer’s Butte for summer use in the Amazon. Another part of Eugene’s reclusive canoeing freeway system is the Q Street channel in Springfield. “Everybody and their brother ignores or forgets that part of the Q Street mill race is already suitable for canoeing,” says local storm water buff Gerritt Rosenthal. "There are existing links from it to the Alton Baker Park canoeway.” What the Q Street canal needs is a little more water over the dam. For that matter, it needs a dam somewhere upstream on the Willamette or McKenzie rivers to divert water. Again, the costs are the iargest factor in any development. Keeping all this fantasy together is the fact that no one ever believed they could build the Erie Canal, or the Panama Canal, or for that matter, the Brooklyn Bridge. Bring on the engineers and the dollars and canoeing in Eugene will never be the same. Organized hitchhiking gets thumbs-down attitude No money, no wheels and you’re stuck. The plight isn’t a stranger to many students, but some find a way out of it by thumbing. Thumbing, alias hitchhiking, is legal in Oregon so long as the hitchhiker positions himself on the road’s shoulder as far from the roadway edge as possible and faces oncoming vehicles, according to the Oregon Re/lsed Statutes. With thumbing a popular mode of commuting to and from campus among college students, the Survival Center and the urban plainlno department attempted to initiate an organized hitchhiking system called RideStop for the Eugene-Springfield area in 1973. RideStop involved 24 posted arses where hitchhikers could stand and wait for rides. The spots were similar to bus stops and were spread throughout the Eugene-Springfield area. Few hitchhikers took advantage of the system, however, and one by one, the RideStop signs disappeared so that by 1974, RideStop was only a memory. Looking back on the potentials of RideStop, former University student Francesca Moravcsik decided to analyze the failed program for her master's thesis in 1974. Moravcsik polled a few drivers and came up with some Interesting statistics on drivers’ attitudes toward hitchhikers. Of the 15 drivers she interviewed, 44 per cent told her they would pick up only those hitchhikers they knew personally; 33 per cent would pick up a hitchhiker in an emergency; 15 per cent would stop for a hitchhiker if the traffic allowed a safe stop without threat of accident, and seven per cent would give a lift if they knew the hitchhiker's destination. X-&OUNTRY SKIING RENTALS - LESSONS - CLOTHING - CITIZEN RACES ■ Equipment by ■ FISCHER • TRAK • EPOKE • KNEISSEL • ROSSIGNOL • ELITE • JARVINEN • ATOMIC • ADIDAS • TROLL • BQTTEFFIIA . mu * 1 ---- him i m | __ Terrific savings on CROSS COUNTRY SKI PACKAGES wax or no wax skis, bindings poles and boots starting at $109.95 Specialists Devoted To The Promotion 0 Development of Nordic Skiing SUGAR PINE RIDGE • Running Shots • Tonnls • Cross Country Skiing 977 i. 13th Mit to 00 Bookstore “upstairs" 345-5594
