In 2013, a group of University of Oregon students who were members of the LiveMove student group finished a concept plan for 13th Avenue between the University of Oregon and downtown in Eugene, OR. This highly innovative and evidence-based plan subsequently went through a public process, was overwhelmingly approved by hundreds of attendees over several months, and adopted as a high priority by city staff. The price tag for re-designing 13th is fairly high, mostly to rehabilitate traffic signals used for automobile traffic, rather than for the implementation of the two-way, protected bikeway as proposed in the students’ design plan. Nonetheless, because of a variety of funding sources, initiated by a generous pledge by Susan and John Minor, the project has secured funding and is hoped to be built during the summer of 2018 or 2019.
The project came about as new student housing was being proposed (and now built – Capstone) that would place 1,200 UO students a mile from campus on 13th. Despite the imminent arrival of this housing, there was minimal municipal thinking about how those students would be able to travel to and from downtown and campus despite 13th being a one way street toward campus, with no clear, comfortable, direct, and safe way to travel back to the city center.
In addition, at the corner of the Capstone project, a former UO student, David Minor died on bike after being collided with by a car in 2008. In 2012, no changes were being proposed at all by city staff about this corridor, and LiveMove students decided to spend a year researching the corridor (travel patterns by car and bike, on-street parking patterns, parking availability, transit use, etc) and developing their evidence-based design scheme. The plan has subsequently become known by the community as the David Minor Bikeway.
Now, in 2019 ten years after David Minor’s death, six years after a design plan was created, and five years after the public and key committees endorsed the plan, the public still waits for this plan to be implemented after another delay. Currently the city’s plan for implementation is Spring and Summer, 2020.
Here are some links to the plan and associated resources:
- Video story about project for a class by UO Journalism student, Bailee Mulder (3/17)
- AroundTheO story on the upcoming project (2/17)
- City of Eugene Project Page
- LiveMove Concept Plan
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/schlossb/files/2016/05/LiveMove_13thAvenueConceptPlan_Small-2iku9vv.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]
- Two Way Street – Story in Register Guard
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/schlossb/files/2016/05/Two_way_story_RG120-2ghncgi.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]
- Editorial by Susan Minor in Register Guard
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/schlossb/files/2016/05/Minor_editorial120-1rlvdae.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]
- Article in Daily Emerald
[embeddoc url=”https://blogs.uoregon.edu/schlossb/files/2016/05/LiveMove_Emerald120-1ihc8lw.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”google”]