just revisit the fury and ire over restriping South Willamette
Street. With the pilot project in full swing, South Willamette
currently has two lanes of traffic, one southbound and one
northbound, with a center turn lane and bicycle lanes.
Previously, it had two lanes of traffic going each way, but
options were limited for bike travel. People on bikes could
either ride on the sidewalk, ride on the road with traffic or
take side streets to get from downtown to south Eugene.
Before the restriping, business owners along the
corridor worried that the reduction in car lanes and slowing
of traffic would discourage people from visiting South
Willamette entirely; some threatened to move their business
elsewhere. In a compromise, the city agreed to test the
configuration for a year, study the restriping and make a
decision based on the data it collects.
Hughes and Hecker of GEARs say the restriping seems
to be going well and allows better access for cyclists to
shop and travel. It’s unclear if the new striping slows
traffic, but Hughes says he’s observed an overall increase
in the feeling of safety.
As the city plans to install more bike-friendly infrastructure
in the future, it’s likely to face more opposition.
“We have all these goals that most people are on board
with, but when it comes down to an actual project in an actual
place, it’s a different story,” says Bob Passaro, a member of
the Active Transportation Committee, which advises Eugene’s
Transportation Planning staff on biking and walking.
Last summer, he says, businesses complained about
removal of parking and thwarted the city’s plans to install
a bike lane on Lincoln Street between 11th and 13th
avenues. (Full disclosure: EW’s office resides on this
street, and the paper was in favor of adding a bike lane.)
“It wasn’t a really high priority for the city, so they
didn’t want to spend political capital on it,” Pasarro
explains. “I think for larger projects, they’ll be willing to
fight harder for them.”
After all, the city didn’t back down on South Willamette,
Passaro points out. When the time comes to redesign 13th
Avenue, the city may have to make a similar stand, as the
plan calls for a reduction in off-street parking.
“Hopefully [South Willamette] will be an experience
we can point to and say, ‘Look, everyone predicted the end
of the world, and it didn’t happen,’” Passaro says.
University student who wasn’t allowed to bring his bike
into his dorm, so he implemented an elaborate security
system that cost $200 and required a unique wrench for
each part of the bike. “Not everyone can do that,” Hecker
acknowledges.
He’s heard from GEARs members with experience in
other cities where citizens worked together with police to
conduct a series of stings and stakeouts.
“I tell people not to leave their good bike anywhere, for
any time, locked or unlocked,” Hecker says. “I hate to have
to say this, but until a large enough group of citizens are
willing to spend the time it takes to have a concerted effort,
and until the police make it a big priority, I don’t know
how it’s going to change.”
TRAFFIC GAFFES
Bike theft is a problem, but so is behavior. Scads of
resources exist to educate cyclists in Eugene, but spend
five minutes on a busy street corner watching bike traffic
and it’s easy to see those resources either aren’t being used
or they’re being willfully ignored.
Rampant bad bike behavior gives cyclists a poor
reputation and fuels the fire of animosity between people
who drive and people who bike. It’s more than just rolling
through a stop sign — people riding bikes in Eugene whiz
through red lights, ride the wrong way on sidewalks, blow
To actually increase
the number of people
who ride bikes, we’re
going to have to
move beyond
bike lanes.’
LOCK IT UP
This wouldn’t be a story about biking in Eugene
without going down the rabbit hole of bike theft. According
to the Eugene Police Department (EPD), thieves snatched
more than 1,000 bicycles in 2015, amounting to hundreds
of thousands of dollars lost.
“I’ve had two bikes stolen,” shares Kevin Gilbride,
president of LiveMove, a UO student group that promotes
active transportation.
While theft hasn’t stopped him from biking in Eugene,
he acknowledges that for some people it’s a significant
barrier. “You’ve seen the carcasses around Eugene,” he
laughs, referring to the mangled bike fragments left behind
after a thief snags all the pieces that pop off easily.
Local bike advocates don’t have any easy answers to
bike theft, and many of them say they’ve had their bikes or
parts of their bikes stolen at some point. Portland has a
Bike Theft Task Force, and Farthing of Eugene Sunday
Streets says EPD Officer Jeff Blonde has spent the past
year looking at how to better prevent thefts.
Over and over again, bike experts extol the value of
investing in a U-lock instead of using a cheap cable.
“We don’t want to victim blame and say you shouldn’t
have used a cable,” Dunbar explains, “but part of our role
is to educate and say how easy it is to defeat a cable.”
Even with a solid metal U-lock, thieves can steal tires
or accessories like lights and panniers. Dunbar recommends
taking removable parts off the bike when it’s left outside
and using a cable lock to secure wheels to the frame of the
bike. It’s not foolproof, but it decreases the odds of theft.
Bike-friendly policies at workplaces and schools can
help — it’s nice having the option to bring a bike inside,
where it’s secure. Biking advocates recommend registering
bikes through the UO or the city of Eugene, since
registered bikes stand a greater chance of being recovered
in the event of a theft.
Hecker with GEARs tells the story of an Oregon State
— Reed Dunbar,
BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN PLANNER
FOR THE CITY OF EUGENE
past pedestrians on the bike path without warning and
weave through traffic.
“Thank God motorists don’t behave like bicyclists,”
Hecker laughs. “I’ve said that to people and they get so
upset with me, but it’s true.”
That’s not to say drivers are paragons of traffic safety
— read the “Letters to the Editor” section of any local
newspaper and find tales of texting motorists, flippant
pedestrians and asshole cyclists. Everyone sucks.
For cyclists and pedestrians, though, law-breaking bears a
higher risk. Dunbar says that people riding bicycles the wrong
way down the street are 70 percent more likely to get hit.
Speed also plays a role in risk: According to data from the
U.S. Department of Transportation, 5 percent of pedestrians
die when hit by vehicles traveling at 20 mph, but the death
rate shoots up to 80 percent with vehicles going 40 mph.
No wonder bicycling seems scary.
GEARs participates in a diversion program that offers
cycling classes to bicyclists who get ticketed. Instead of
paying a fine, wayward bikers can choose to take the class
and, at the very least, become aware of the rules of the road.
But not many bicyclists get ticketed by EPD, Hughes
says, leading to low turnout in the diversion classes.
EW requested that EPD provide the number of cyclists
ticketed yearly in Eugene, but the department was unable
to fulfill the request due to changes in the way “traffic
violations related to cyclists” are issued and catalogued.
“Whatever the priorities of the EPD, traffic does not
seem to be one of them,” Hughes says. “They’re not
writing tickets to cyclists, so there went our program.”
GEARs continues to offer confident cycling courses for
interested parties, but bike advocates say mandatory bike
classes don’t work. Sometimes the only option involves
modeling good behavior.
“I’ll talk to other cyclists who I see are about to run a
red light or dart through traffic and say, ‘This is really bad
for all of us when you do this,’” Hecker explains. “It’s hard
to do that. But we’re constantly in the situation of figuring
out how to follow the rules and trying to get others to
follow them.”
CULTURE CHANGE
That’s why Shane MacRhodes’ Safe Routes to Schools
program thrums with hope for the future. Sixth graders
learn bicycling and traffic skills before they learn how to
drive, setting them up for a lifetime of bicycle savviness.
The bicycle revolution will inevitably dawn, local bike
advocates say, as it moves achingly slow but steadily in the
direction of progress.
MacRhodes envisions a Eugene where bikes entwine
intimately with peoples’ lives, from birth to adulthood,
parenthood to old age.
“When I started this work 20 years ago, I saw a culture
change that was needed,” MacRhodes says. “At the time, I
thought it was the infrastructure piece and how we change
our cities. But now I realize it’s also letting children
reclaim their childhood and building skills in them that will
help them and you.”
Maybe that looks like parents biking their kids around
in trailers, forgoing the manic minivan stereotype that
dominates parenting culture. Or kids biking and walking
themselves to school, as they once did years ago before
“stranger danger” took hold.
It takes communities that embrace the changing face of
transportation needs instead of fighting tooth and nail for
every lost parking spot.
And as Eugene adds each new piece of the infrastructure
puzzle to its framework of bike paths, it inches ever closer
to reaching that bicycle utopia.
“The systems in Denmark and the Netherlands are 40 to
45 years in the making,” Schlossberg explains. “It’s important
to understand that this is not an overnight shift, but over time,
as we gradually chip away at shifting infrastructure and
shifting attitudes along the way, I think Eugene could easily
be one of the top biking cities in the country.”
Eugene overflows with bike resources. A few gems: For bike classes and
group rides, contact GEARs at eugenegears.org. For workshops and bike-
related activities, go to the Center for Appropriate Transport, 455 W. 1st
Avenue or catoregon.org. For commuter bike gear, check out Arriving by
Bike, 2705 Willamette Street or arrivingbybike.com.
Disclosure: The writer served as a judge for Eugene’s Beautiful Bikes
Pageant.
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
eugeneweekly.com • November 10, 2016
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