NEWS
• The Eugene Parks and Open Space Division is proposing
park rule changes that it says “are aimed at increasing
enjoyment of the parks and clarifying park use requirements.”
Proposed changes include making all Eugene parks alcohol
free “unless a special event permit is given for weddings,
family reunions and other community activities” or unless
allowed by the facility supervisor or the person in charge of
parks and recreation facilities at 20 locations in Eugene such
as the Amazon and Washington Park Community Centers.
Expanding commercial photography opportunities to now
include the popular Hendricks Park and Owen Rose Garden is
on the docket, along with prohibiting the dismantling and
distribution of bicycles or bicycle parts in parks without city
permission (you can still make repairs such as fixing flat
tires). They would require vehicles to park within the parking
lines and only occupy one parking space, unless written
permission is obtained from the city and cite unauthorized
vehicles in parks after closure. Finally, the proposed changes
would prohibit dogs weighing over 25 pounds from being in
the “small dog” off-leash dog parks. Parks is seeking feedback
from the public by Friday, May 19 via email at POS@ci.eugene.
or.us or sent by snail mail to City of Eugene Public Works
Department, Administration Division, 101 East Broadway,
Suite 400, Eugene, Oregon 97401.
• There will be a Divest Eugene Rally, 6:30pm, Monday,
May 22 at Wayne Morse Free Speech Plaza, 799 Oak Street.
Join 350 Eugene in calling on the Eugene City Council to enact
an ordinance for the city of Eugene to divest from US Bank
because of its ties to oil pipelines.
• At 7:30 pm, May 23 the University of Oregon LGBTQA3
(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer Alliance) brings Miss
Major, a Black transgender elder and activist who has been
fighting for the rights of trans women of color for over 50 years,
to speak in the EMU Ballroom. Tickets are free for UO students
and $8 for everyone else, and organizers say that there are a
few free tickets available for queer and trans people of color
outside the UO community. To reserve those, contact events.
qa.uo@gmail.com. LGBTQA3 says that Miss Major is a veteran
of the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion and recently served as the
executive director of the San Francisco-based Transgender
Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project (TGIJP), a grassroots
organization advocating for trans women of color in and
outside of prison that is also led by trans women of color.
• “The Space Between Us: Immigrants, Refugees and
Oregon,” a talk by Manuel Padilla, is 5:30 pm Wednesday, May
24 at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, 1430 Johnson
Lane. Padilla will ask “participants to consider questions of
uprootedness, hospitality, identity, perception, and integration
and how we might build more informed, responsive, resilient,
and vibrant communities.”
• At 4 pm, Thursday, May 24, Rich Bartlett and Nati
Lombardo from the Loomio team in New Zealand offer a
workshop entitled “Tools and Culture for Participatory
Organizing.” Loomio is an app for online decision-making built
by a worker co-op. The workshop is at RAIN, 942 Olive Street.
Organizers invite you to stay and bring a dish with its
ingredients labeled for a potluck dinner to follow. Cost is $20 -
$50. Go to goo.gl/oXUxKxc for event info.
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY SCHEDULE
Peter Kingzett, 541-686-4917, plans to spray 36.0 acres
near Territorial and Hamm roads with Element 4 and MSO
Concentrate as part of Oak restoration project. A waiver of the
normal 15-day waiting period was requested and partially
granted. See ODF notification 2017-781-05763, call Brian
Peterson at 541-935-2283 with questions.
Roseburg Resources, 541- 679-3311, plans to spray its
roadsides near Vaughn Road and throughout Lane County
with 2,4-D with amine, 2,4-D with ester, aminopyralid,
glyphosate, imazapyr, triclopyr with ester, triclopyr with amine,
Conquer, Crop Oil Concentrate, Forest Crop Oil and/or MSO
Concentrate. See ODF notifications 2017-781-05651 and
2017-781-05652, call Dan Menk at 541-935-2283 with
questions.
Compiled by Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332, forestlanddwellers.
org
10
May 18, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
B Y K E L LY K E N O Y E R
BIKETOWN, USA
Protected bikeways and a bikeshare
program are in the works
I
f Eugene’s City Council passes the new transpor-
tation system plan (TSP), newer, safer bike paths
could be built across the city. To add to Eugene’s
bike-ability, plans are already in motion to install a
bike-share program in Eugene.
Some advocates, though, are concerned the TSP does
not call for enough funding for the dedicated bikeways.
The TSP includes plans for protected bikeways that
will make biking safer and more accessible for more
people. These bike paths would add a physical barrier
between bicyclists and vehicular traffic, increasing safe-
ty and creating a sense of comfort.
The TSP currently dedicates only 18 percent of its
budget to bike and pedestrian projects, despite the stat-
ed goal of tripling trips by bike, foot and public transit
by 2035. In the 20-year planning period, 9.85 miles of
protected bike lanes are planned, though non-protected
bike lanes are also in the plan.
Sheila Lyons, pedestrian and bicycle program man-
ager at the Oregon Department of Transportation, says
the small percentage of funds may be misleading. “It is
much cheaper to provide for bicycle and pedestrian traf-
fic than road traffic,” she says, adding that a little money
seems to go a long way with these projects.
Lyons points to studies showing that only a small
percentage of the population feels comfortable using
bike lanes that share the road with vehicles. With pro-
tected bikeways, she says, “you would tap into that 60
percent who would use bikes if they had protection.”
The current plan would add a protected bike lane to
High Street, connecting Amazon Park’s paths to the riv-
er bike path. Another protected bikeway, scheduled for
construction in 2019, would connect the University of
Oregon campus to downtown via 13th. River Road may
also see a significant protected bikeway project.
Sarah Mazze is the Safe Routes to School program
manager in Eugene. “The beauty of protected bikeways
is that you can suddenly open up bikes as a method of
transportation to the huge portion of the population
that’s interested but concerned about traffic,” she says.
Mazze says she expects that the planned protected bike-
ways may make bicycling a more accessible mode of
transportation for schoolchildren, who don’t know the
rules of the road well enough to safely use unprotected
bike lanes.
Mazze says she hopes the planned projects will in-
crease bike usage in Eugene. “There are great facilities
planned, and I think there needs to be a dedication of
funding to implement these plans, and more,” she adds.
“It’s a matter of priorities. If it’s truly a priority for
the city to increase the percentage of walking and bik-
ing trips, then they’ll need to put their money where
their mouth is and improve facilities for those users,”
she says.
One planned improvement is the bike share pro-
gram, according to Reed Dunbar, Eugene’s associate
transportation manager. He says the tech-savvy bike-
share program, scheduled to launch Sept. 25, will boast
300 bicycles and be accessible through smartphones.
“We’re crowdsourcing locations now for investigation,”
Dunbar says.
Citizens can offer opinions on possible bike hub
locations at eugenebikeshare.com during the month of
May.
Lyons says, “Bike share programs across the U.S.
have all been different, some have been wildly success-
ful and some haven’t been used much at all.” A likely
indicator for success, she adds, is a large urban popula-
tion.
The bike share program in hilly Seattle was recently
cancelled, and Portland’s program was vandalized, de-
spite boasting a success of 160,000 trips in half a year.
But Eugene may fare better with its influx of visitors
for game days and other events, Lyon says. Cities like
New York and Chicago have had significant success
with their bike share programs.
Dunbar says he expects that many users of the bike
share will be workers who commute by car to down-
town but will use the bikes to go to lunch in the White-
aker or to take a lunchtime bike ride in the park.
“What a lot of cities have found is that when they
start a bike share program it reinvigorates interest in
biking for people who haven’t biked in a while,” Dun-
bar says.