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NEWS BRIEFS
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541/343-6028
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Questions?
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The Eugene summit will allow attend-
ees to give input on what needs to be done
to improve pedestrian safety in Eugene.
Speakers include: Ray Thomas, a Portland
attorney specializing in bike and pedestri-
an law; Dan Barkovic, city prosecutor;
police Sgt. Derel Schulz; and Dr. Travis
Littman, Sacred Heart trauma surgeon.
Oregon and Eugene dedicate almost all
of their transportation money to increasing
vehicle speed rather than pedestrian safety.
Five years ago, the Eugene City Council
created a policy that directed a small
amount of money previously available for
pedestrian and bike safety to instead be
spent on street maintenance.
Nationally, pedestrians account for 12
percent of all traffic deaths, but states have
allocated only 1.5 percent of available
federal funds to pedestrian safety projects,
according to TforA. The Republican U.S.
House is also considering big cuts in
pedestrian and bike safety funding,
according to the national group.
The Eugene summit is sponsored by the
city’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory
Committee (BPAC) and the City of
Eugene’s Transportation Planning Team.
The city has identified 11th, 18th and
6th avenues as the streets with the most
pedestrian accidents. All are busy streets
the city designed to maximize fast car
traffic with little concern for vulnerable
road users. TforA has posted a Google
street view map of deadly locations at
http://bit.ly/keyGpj online.
The city hired seven new police officers
to patrol downtown, but so far the unit has
focused mostly on excluding the homeless
rather than on the lethal threat from
dangerous drivers.
Last year, the number of pedestrians
killed by drivers in Oregon doubled to 62.
In response, a bill clarifying when a
pedestrian in a crosswalk has the right of
way was proposed in the Legislature.
Eugene is working on a new Pedestrian
and Bicycle Master Plan that proposes
hundreds of key safety improvements. But
it remains to be seen whether the city staff
and the City Council will actually priori-
tize the money and road space needed to
promote greener, healthier active transpor-
tation and save lives. — Alan Pittman
COMMISSIONER
CENSURE?
Eugene Water and Electric Board
Commissioner Joann Ernst faces censure
from her fellow commissioners for
appearing at a recent protest at the Seneca
biomass plant. Ernst appeared at the May
5 protest to express her opinion on Seneca
Jones Timber Company’s plans to log
Trapper, an old-growth forest in the
McKenzie River watershed. That sale has
since been halted.
Other protesters were there to speak out
against Seneca’s new biomass burning
plant and its effects on the lungs of nearby
residents as well as the company’s logging
practices and issues of whether biomass
burning is a renewable resource. EWEB is
purchasing energy produced by the plant.
EWEB spokesman Joe Harwood said
that on May 17 Commissioner Rich
Cunningham “put forth a motion for an
agenda item (to be brought for board
consideration on June 7), which directed
the board president and vice president to
meet with EWEB legal counsel to prepare
a resolution of censure relating to
Commissioner Ernst’s participation in the
Seneca protests on May 5, 2011.”
Harwood said EWEB staff is neutral on
these issues: “This is a board issue and
does not involve staff.” He said the
“motion was approved by a majority vote
of the board and a resolution will be
developed for board review, consideration
and possible action.”
He added, “As of May 24, no resolution
has been developed. Because no action has
been taken, any comment by EWEB staff
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MAY 26, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
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