Latest News

Sunday Streets Wraps Up for the Year

Fall is here and we wrapped Summer up with the final Sunday Streets event of the year with 2,500 participants attending the free, four hour event spanning from McCornack Elementary School to the new EmX corridor off West 11^th. The Churchill event filled the three activity centers, including Acorn Park, with free activities for neighbors including the National Academy of Artistic Gymnastics’ Play Circuit, yoga, long boarding, electric bicycles, amazing musical acts and more. 

If you participated in the event we'd love to get your feedback via our online survey!

Eugene Sunday Streets is in its 8^th year offering open streets events in the City of Eugene, and it has expanded over the past 3 years by incorporating Party in the Parks into its summer outreach.

This year Sunday Streets reached 13,600 community members between the Downtown and the Churchill event. In addition, there were 7 Party in the Park events that reached 2,629 participants for a total reach of 16,229 community members between the two programs.

Party in the Park events began as a collaboration between City of Eugene Transportation, Cultural Services and Parks and Open Space, and now includes multiple city departments offering up to 17 booths at each event including free bike helmets, face painting, ice cream, bike tune-ups, Virtual Reality, 3D printing, and bike registration.

For more information on these programs and to get involved in next summer’s events contact Shane MacRhodes:  SMacRhodes@eugene-or.gov or 541-682-5094

Amazon Active Transportation Corridor Construction Begins

Beginning in October, the City of Eugene will construct a series of walking and biking projects along East Amazon Drive and Hilyard Street in south Eugene.

You can see a full project description and map on the project website. Here are the details of projects that will be constructed this year:

• Construction of a two-way protected bike lane on the west side of East Amazon Drive from Dillard Road to Hilyard Street as part of the “Ridgeline to River Corridor” that will connect the Ridgeline trail system to the Ruth Bascom Riverfront Path system. Building the protected bikeway entails removing parking from E. Amazon Drive.
• Construction of a bicycle signal to help bike riders get to and from the southeast to northwest corner of Hilyard and E. Amazon Dr./33rd Ave.
• Extend a buffered bike lane on W. Amazon from Fox Hollow to Snell. 
• Extension of the Amazon Path on the west side of Hilyard Street from 34th Alley south to 36th Place.

New West Eugene Path Nears Completion

The Jessen Shared Use Path is a new 1.5 mile long concrete path in northwest Eugene. Work on the path began in April and is expected to be open to the public near the end of September. Once completed, the path facility will serve the 222-acre Golden Gardens Park and natural area located north of Jessen Drive between Ohio Street and the Beltline shared use path. The alignment follows existing desire lines identified by worn dirt paths where park users have been walking or riding without a formalized path for years. The path will connect to several local streets along the way and include an improved pedestrian crossing at Terry Street. 

Pedestrian-scale lighting will illuminate the path for all users. Shields will minimize skyward illumination and direct the light away from sensitive natural areas and adjacent homes. Bicycle parking, wayfinding signs, and a permanent pedestrian-bicyclist counter will also be added as part of this project. The new Jessen Path will add to west Eugene’s regional path network which already includes the Beltline, Roosevelt, Highway 99, and Fern Ridge paths. 

This $2.1 million project is funded as part of the Statewide Transportation Improvement Program, administered through ODOT and the City of Eugene. For more information call Project Manager Katie Marwitz at 541-501-0380. 

City of Eugene Part of Street Design Pilot

City of Eugene staff are working with Remix, a platform used to develop transit plans (including Lane Transit District), to pilot a new transportation planning tool. The platform allows users to develop street design scenarios, share them, and edit them in real time. Data layers, like crash locations and traffic volumes, can be uploaded to the platform to allow users to inform their designs and then share them with other agencies or the community. 

The advantage for Remix Streets users is that they can draw up entire transportation networks quickly, see how they interact with one another, and determine how individual projects fit into a larger context. Reed Dunbar, Associate Transportation Planner, hopes that staff can use the platform to develop several design scenarios during project scoping that can be shared, edited, and evaluated so that the best design components from multiple scenarios can be incorporated into each project. The City of Eugene is one of six municipalities piloting the platform.

High Street Protected Bike Lane 

In June, there was an open house to see exhibits and discuss design options for continuing the "Ridgeline to River Bikeway" through downtown.  The bikeway includes both on-street and off-street bicycling facilities that people riding bikes can use to travel from the Ridgeline Trail in South Eugene to the Riverbank Path along the Willamette River.  The meeting focused on the north segment of the bikeway from 19^th Avenue to 4^th Avenue on High Street.  Early planning calls for a two-way protected bike lane on the west side of High Street to replicate the comfort and social aspects of riding on a shared use path.

If you would still like to provide comments on the High Street Protected Bike Lane you can take the online survey here Opens a New Window. .  There will be another open house in late Summer to present initial design ideas to the community.

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South Willamette Street Improvement Plan

On February 26th, City staff informed the Eugene City Council that the bike lanes and a three-lane street will be made permanent with a pavement preservation project in 2019. Lean more here.