NEWS BRIEFS
6, to find alternatives for the liquid
waste contamination. Comments can be
mailed to Paula Call, U.S. DoE Richland
Operations Office, P.O. Box 550, A7-75,
Richland, WA 99352; or emailed to
PW136PP@rl.gov — Kendall Fields
ROAD WORK
SIGN LANE
Construction workers have illegally
and unnecessarily converted many of
Eugene’s bike lanes into places to put
road construction signs, endangering the
lives of cyclists forced to veer around
them into car traffic.
Last week “Road Work Ahead” signs
blocked bike lanes on both High Street
near 17th and 18th near Pearl. The signs
were placed dangerously in the bike lane
rather than on the adjacent grass strip.
On Aug. 6, cyclist and EW contributing
writer Suzi Steffen Tweeted a picture of a
large road work ahead reader board
placed in the busy 13th Avenue bike lane
near the UO. “City of #Eugene, #WTF is
this?” Steffen wrote.
The 13th Avenue sign was moved to
the grass after the Tweet was emailed to
the city’s bike coordinator, according to a
post on the EugeneGears.org blog.
Construction signs unnecessarily
placed in bike lanes isn’t a new problem.
It’s been going on for years without much
city effort to educate or fine contractors
to end the unsafe practice. City code
prohibits blocking bike lanes, but most of
the contractors blocking the bike lanes
with lazily placed signs are working for
the city.
Last year, a cyclist posted a photo of a
“Road Work Ahead” sign blocking a bike
lane on South Willamette. “Bike lane
blocked by road work sign (again),” he
wrote.
Another photo of a sign blocking the
lane at 24th and Agate last year drew a
comment from Patrick Barber. “Hey, it’s
the ‘Road Work Sign’ lane!”
Bike safety has also fallen easy victim
to building construction in Eugene. Last
year the Pearl Street bike lane suddenly
disappeared without warning signs to
make room for construction staging for
the new hotel at Fifth Street Public
Market.
Earlier this year the heavily used 13th
Avenue bike lane near the UO also
disappeared amid building construction,
forcing bikes into pedestrians and/or
head-on traffic.
The city’s draft new Pedestrian and
Bicycle plan briefly mentions improved
bike safety during construction projects,
but lacks the details and clear prohibitions
in other cities’ policies.
The city of Cambridge, Mass., for
example, has a four-page set of guidelines
for “Bicycle Accommodation During
Construction,” including temporary
“Share the Road Signs,” maintaining bike
lane space in construction areas, providing
temporary bike lanes, making metal
plates safer, sloping temporary curb lips
and the clear prohibition: “Temporary
signs shall not be placed in bicycle lanes.”
— Alan Pittman
(A version of this story fi rst appeared at EugeneCycles.com)
UO AWARD
FOR FEMINISM
WITHDRAWN
The Society for Women in
Philosophy (SWIP-UK) last week
withdrew
its
Women-Friendly
Department Recognition that had been
awarded this year to the UO’s
Department of Philosophy (see News
Briefs, 8/11).
The withdrawal comes despite an
administrative review by the UO Office
of Affirmative Action and Equal
Opportunity that allegations of sexual
harassment in the department were
unsubstantiated. “No grievance or
complaint was filed by any alleged
victim,” said Russ Tomlin in an Aug. 3
memo to faculty and students. Tomlin
is senior vice provost for academic
affairs. Tomlin said this week that
there actually was one complaint, but
it was not filed within the 365-day
time limit for action. “That’s why the
claim that there was no formal
complaint,” he said. “It was a timeliness
question.” In the end, the investigation
did not rule out that inappropriate
sexual behavior had happened, but
only ruled that it was unproven.
TAR SANDS PROTESTERS
ARRESTED IN D.C.
The tentacles of the tar sands involve not only the toxic extraction process, but the
shipping routes and proposed pipelines that affect the environment and communities they
pass through. Protests against tar sands extraction and its tentacles are heating up.
Tar sands opponents have been celebrating ExxonMobil’s change of plans to ship
“megaloads” of oil field equipment on interstate highways instead of wild and scenic
routes, but the story is far from over. More oil companies are looking to use the Columbia
and Snake rivers and the rural highway route through Idaho and Montana to transport their
massive — sometimes half-million pound — loads of equipment to Canada. Protesters are
getting arrested in front of the White House this week to challenge the climate change-
inducing tar sands oil extraction and the controversial Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline
that would extend from Canada to the Gulf Coast.
ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobile have been fighting to use routes through the
Northwest for the tar sands extracting equipment, and now Harvest Operations Corp. is
reportedly considering the same route. NASA climate scientist James Hansen has called tar
sands oil “one of the planet’s greatest threats.” The extraction process destroys Canada’s
boreal forests, leaves behind toxic mine tailings and opponents say greenhouse gas
emissions from tar sands production are rising at a rapid rate. A company called US Oil
Sands has acquired the right to exploit 24,000 acres of land in Utah for tar sands extraction.
The issue is global, says Monica Christoffels. A group of Earth First! activists from
Eugene joined other protesters in an action against the tar sands at the Montana governor’s
office (see story 7/21), and now Christoffels is among a group of Eugeneans caravanning
to DC to join the other tar sands protesters and risk arrest.
Climate change author Bill McKibben, Native American actress Tantoo Cardinal and
former dean of the Yale School of Forestry Gus Speth have already been arrested at the
White House “Tar Sands Action.” So far 162 tar sands protesters have been arrested and
at least 2,000 people have signed up for the “wave of action” that will go from Aug. 20 to
Sept. 3.
Christoffels says she is traveling using a Prius “borrowed from an 85-year-old woman
in Portland, who’s traveling by train to D.C. for the Tar Sands Action as well.” She says,
“We researched and found that carpooling is the most economic and fuel-efficient mode
of transportation.”
She says, “In all honesty, I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to get arrested until I saw that
the first wave of protesters, including environmental author/activist Bill McKibben, were
being detained from Saturday until Monday afternoon in an effort by Park Police to deter
future protesters.”
Christoffels says she urges people to “inform yourselves about the tar sands, the
Keystone XL Pipeline and urge your congresspeople — and President Obama, especially
— to oppose this pipeline proposal.”
Follow Christoffels and the Tar Sands Caravan action on notarsandscaravan.org
— Camilla Mortensen
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