Eugene weekly., November 21, 2007, Page 10, Image 10

Portland’s annual Bridge Pedal clogs streets and gives biking a huge boost
BLURRY BIKE PLAN VISION
Eugene’s bike commuting rate dropped from 8 percent in 1990 to 5.5 percent in
2007. The city now trails Davis, Calif., with a 17 percent bike commuting, Corvallis
with 7.5 percent rate and Portland, where the biking rate has almost doubled in the
last decade. The city’s TransPlan predicts bike commuting here will continue to drop
and devotes hundreds of millions of dollars to more freeways while giving only about
1 percent of funds to cycling. Bike theft and bike accidents are both increasing, and
the city has abandoned adding new bike lanes downtown.
Into this grim picture for local cycling comes a new “Pedestrian and Bicycling
Strategic Plan” from the city. The draft plan “presents a dynamic, compelling and ex-
citing vision,” the plan states about itself. But the plan does not acknowledge the de-
cline in bicycle commuting and funding in Eugene or call for reversing the trend.
Rather than calling for specifics, such as a targeted increase in the bike commut-
ing rate, increasing bike funding to 5.5 percent to match its mode share or adding a
certain number of miles of additional bike lanes or paths, the vague five-year plan fo-
cuses on education and promotion.
Top plan priorities include: creating a new advisory committee, a “share the road”
media campaign, bike boulevards where the city puts up signs on quieter streets,
safe routes to school, more bike parking, improved lighting, clearing bike paths of
leaves, efforts to “develop” more funding and applying for grants.
Unlike previous plans and city efforts, the new plan mixes bike and pedestrian
modes. The mix dilutes the focus on bicycling in previous plans and creates conflicts.
For example, the plan calls for enforcement against cyclists using sidewalks down-
town, often to avoid dangerous streets.
The plan calls for integrating the city’s bike efforts with its sustainability focus.
The city has focused on reducing power use to combat global warming, but with
most local power produced by dams, cycling may offer much bigger carbon reduc-
tions. The average local person here generates almost 10 times more global warming
per day by driving alone than by using energy in the home, based on carbon ac-
counting and local data.
The plan includes, but places its lowest priority on, organizing a signature biking
event in Eugene. Such an event was a high priority among participants at the city’s
Walking and Biking summit in Eugene last year. A Portland Bridge Pedal event pro-
motes bike culture with 17,000 people a year.
Also not included in the vague plan is Mayor Kitty Piercy’s call to increase
Eugene’s silver rating from the League of American Bicyclists to gold.
The draft “Eugene Pedestrian and Bicycle Strategic Plan” is available
at www.eugene-or.gov/walkbike and the city is taking comments at
david.f.roth@ci.eugene.or.us until Dec. 1. — Alan Pittman
TOP PLACES
TO CRASH
For a decade, the city the city has been compiling a
list of the top 10 places in the city for vehicle collisions.
Every year the list is about the same. This year the
intersection of 7th Avenue and Jefferson Street tops
the list again. Over the last 10 years, the intersection
has averaged about 30 crashes a year. Other top crash
contenders every year include: River Avenue/Silver
Lane at River Road, 7th Avenue at Washington/I-105,
and 11th Avenue at Bailey Hill Road.
10 NOVEMBER 21, 2007
news
the event will be provided by classical gui-
tarist Craig Einhorn.
The guest speaker will be Gary
Blackmer, performance auditor for the city
of Portland, talking about how independ-
ent auditors add transparency and account-
ability to local government and can poten-
tially save millions of taxpayer dollars.
Blackmer serves as an elected official an-
swerable only to the voters, but independ-
ent auditors can also be hired by city coun-
cils to examine the performance of city
government departments and provide
other services that require an
The Eugene grassroots ac-
independent evaluation.
tivist group Citizens for
Lane County government
Public Accountability
has such a position.
normally has its annual
A charter review
meeting this time of
committee in Eugene
the year, but instead,
in 2002 recommended
the group is planning
establishing an inde-
a party. Mixed in with
pendent performance
the music, food and
auditor, along with
wine, however, will be
other reforms, but the
a bit of politics.
issue has never gone to a
Next week’s event be-
vote. Recent city managers,
gins at 7 pm Thursday, Nov. 29
along with some conservative
at Tsunami Books, 2585
Gary Blackmer
councilors, have opposed the
Willamette St. Keynote
idea.
speakers will include Mayor Kitty Piercy
To get on the CPA mailing list, email
talking about downtown, the recent elec-
cpasc@lists.opn.org
tion and where we go from here. Music at
briefs
CPA THROWS
A PARTY
So if the top 10 places for crashes are so pre-
dictable, and with people’s lives at stake, why hasn’t
the city made the intersections safer?
It’s not the city’s fault; it’s drivers’ fault, according
to Eugene Public Works spokesman Eric Jones. “Public
works can’t prevent people from running red lights,
speeding, chatting on the cell phone and paying more
attention to their cup of latte than to the car ahead of
them,” Jones wrote in an email.
The city has done “close to the max” to engineer
safety at the top crash sites with traffic lights, posted
speed limits, etc. at the intersections “within the
bounds of reasonable driver behavior,” Jones said.
Rear-end collisions are the most common cause of
crashes at the intersections, according to the city. At
7th and Washington, 30 of the 46 reported crashes in
2006 were rear-end collisions. Eugene averages about
2,000 crashes a year.
“What these figures tell me is that there are serious
consequences when drivers follow too closely and
don’t pay enough attention to the road ahead of
them,” said Tom Larsen, the city’s traffic engineer.
But new to the top 10 places to crash list this year is
29th and Willamette. In recent years the city has per-
mitted multiple narrow driveways at or near the in-
creasingly busy intersection, including a corner credit
union with drive-through lanes.
—Alan Pittman