Some of my ideas on bicycling in general and in specific for the
   Eugene area.  Rick Bronson 5/19/98


1.0  Bicycling safety in bike lanes.  This is about the city of
Eugene's preoccupation with bike lanes and why I oppose them.

  Recently, while on a trip, I read a newspaper article about the
"mismatch" between regular cars and Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV's) and
large pickups.  The article explored the death rate in the respective
vehicles when accidents occur between regular cars and their bigger
brothers.  Apparently you can be 20 times more likely to get killed
when in a regular car and are broad-sided by a SUV or large pickup.
The article said there may be an investigation into the issue by the
government.

  This reminded me of how safety conscience we have become.
People are buying vehicles with air bags because seat belts just
aren't safe enough by themselves.  Now folks are buying larger
vehicles because they fear the "mismatch" will get them.

  As a bicyclist, I too worry about the "mismatch", but in my case I'm
probably closer to 1,000,000 times more likely to get killed when in a
collision with even a regular car!   The only major development in bicycle
safety since bicycles were invented over a hundred years ago has come
from helmets.  I do use streets to get around on a bicycle and will
probably continue to do so but I also recognize that with this
increase sensitivity in safety, most people wouldn't risk their lives
(or their children's) by placing themselves within 3 feet of 2000 pound
vehicles totally unprotected.  Most people don't think of a helmet
protecting them that much when in a collision with a vehicle.

  So how does this all relate to the Eugene's Bicycle Master Plan?  Most
of items in the Bicycle Master Plan  have to do with street related
items (bike lanes).  So I have to ask the question; Are the
recommendations to help those people who already feel comfortable
riding in traffic or are they trying to increase the percentage of
trips made by bicycles?   If it's the former then it should work just
fine, if it's the latter then it won't work at all.  If the city was
to put bike lane strips down EVERY street in Eugene, I doubt that it
will raise the percentage of trips by even 1%.

  Even the recommendations themselves give a pretty pessimistic
picture of increasing the bicycling rate: "Despite this increase in
bikeway miles, the percentage of trips made by bicycles in
Eugene-Springfield is projected to DECREASE from 3.6 percent at
present to 3.2 percent in 2015." 

  So why is so much attention given to bike lanes?  Bike lanes
are easy, they only involve paint and relinquished parking (that's
the hard part if there is one).  The great part is that they're mostly
payed for by gas tax dollars, this makes them easy to budget.
Unfortunately, they don't offer any hope of increasing the percentage
of trips made by bicycles.  Worse than that, they detract time and
energy on the cities part to promote the only hope for increasing the
percentage of trips made by bicycles, off-road bike paths.

  We already have a network of bike paths but they don't reach enough
of the population and they need to be connected into one system.  If
theses two things are done only then will we see an increase in
percentage of trips made by bicycles.

2.0  Thoughts on the bike paths in Eugene and some ideas for improving
them. 

My goals are to provide an infrastructure that lends itself to more
alternative (non car) commuting.  My intended goal is not to provide
recreational bicycling but if implemented this would be an incidental
goal.

2.1.    Ways to Improve the Eugene Bike Path System

  Bike paths are like freeways in that they provide a limited access
means of bike transport from point A to B.  What's wrong with biking
on streets?  There are two issues, safety and convenience.  It's
safer to bike on path's (when they don't cross streets) and it's very
inconvenient to stop all of the time on streets for stop lights, stop
signs, etc.  It takes a lot of energy to stop and start on a bike,
this makes people reluctant to use their bikes for around town transport.
Unfortunately in Eugene the bike paths they are just pieces of
"freeway" connected by streets.  The two big missing pieces are 1)
from the North terminus of the Amazon Path to the East terminus of the
Fern Ridge Path and 2) from the North terminus of the Amazon Path to
the Willamette River Path.  Not having the Amazon Path connect with
Fern Ridge is a BIG whole in the current infrastructure. Number 1
above is only 3/4 of a mile but if built would have to underpass or
overpass at least 8 streets.  Diane Bishop, Sue Wolling, Jeff Lankston
and walked this section recently and I came to the conclusion that the
only way to do this section is as an elevated bikeway.   The second is
a mile long and would almost have to go through the U of O.  I
consider these two segments the most important goals for the bike path
system.  Extending the Fern Ridge path out West only addresses the
recreational aspect of bicycling.  

  To me all other recommendations in the Bicycle Master Plan pale in
comparison to these.  These are both big projects but we need to tell
the city about these in order to increase bike commuting.  I firmly
believe that the majority of people won't entertain bike commuting if
they have to contend with even a moderate amount of auto traffic.  The
solution to this is to have a alternative transport infrastructure in
place.


3.  Now for my ideas on my side of town:

3.1  Here is my "expensive" option:

  This option is what's really needed and would lend itself to opening
up the Amazon path as a very convenient means of commuting into town.

  What's really needed on the South end of Eugene is to continue the
Amazon path from where Hilyard intersects East Amazon Drive all the way down
to Martin Street.  It could run in between Amazon Creek and East Amazon
Drive, I'd pick the East side of the creek because it has more room
for a path.  The avid joggers and walkers of the path that runs either
side of the Amazon would need to be a part of any decision on this.

3.2  Alder Street.

  At this point more people probably use the Alder bike route than the
Amazon path because of where the North terminus Amazon ends
(nowhere!).  Unfortunately Alder has seen an increase in vehicle
traffic from people trying to avoid Hilyard.  The vehicle barriers on
Alder actually work pretty well on keeping commute traffic down to a
minimum but one or two more are needed.  This option will cost next to
nothing but will do a lot to make the bike trip into town more safe
and pleasurable from the South East area of Eugene.  I would put one
at the North entrance to Alder at 30th and one just South of either
15th or 16th Streets.

3.2.1. Switch the stop signs at 28nd and Alder and 32nd and Alder (they
presently require traffic on Alder to stop).  This will help by
cutting down the number of stops a bike needs to make and make it
safer for bike travel. A less desirable option would be to make them 4
way stops. If the sign is switched at 28th and Alder then you will
need to do step 2 below since switching the sign will encourage more
vehicle traffic. 

3.2.2. Put a barrier (bikes only) either to block North bound traffic at
30th and Alder or at 24th and Alder to block South bound traffic.
Doing both would even be better.  This takes car pressure off of this
segment of Alder.

3.2.3. Make a path from the corner of 39th place and Kincaid to Potter
that goes thru Parker Elementary School. This has the effect of
extending the "Alder bike route" South to the intersection of Amazon
and Fox Hollow.  Vehicle traffic South of this point on West Amazon is
very light.

3.2.4. You may want to think about doing something at the intersections of
36 & Kincaid and 35 & Kincaid/Alder.  There is a jog at each of these
with no stop or yield signs at all.

3.2.5  Put a bike path down one side of the Amazon Creek from Hilyard
to Martin.

4.  Other misc. ideas

4.1  Since building bike paths is temporarily out let's "borrow" a
city street and turn it into a bike path.  There are so many streets
in Eugene to borrow from it's not funny, streets that hardly any cars
travel down.  We take this street and virtually close it to vehicle
traffic except for 1-2 blocks segments so that people can at least get
to their driveways.  Then remove all stop signs and force cross
traffic to stop.  The best thing about this whole thing is that it is
not funded by general funds and it removes stop signs, just like a
freeway.

4.2 I saw a thing that they have in Portland where every year the city
awards business that have the highest percentage of bike commuters.
They have three categories, small, medium, and large businesses.  This
is a great way to promote bike commuting.