How to fix the Bend Parkway? Survey seeks your views

The Bend Parkway is maxed out on space. It’s over-capacity. That might not surprise many daily drivers.

As Central Oregon continues to grow, that problem will only get worse. Transportation officials don’t want that to happen, so they’re taking action now.

The Oregon Department of Transportation and the Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization are collecting data to figure out the best plan moving forward. Part of that data collection includes a public survey where anyone can voice their concerns.

The survey asks questions about problems people may have noticed all along the highway, from Tumalo Road down to Baker Road. It asks questions like, “What are your concerns about the Northern section of the US 97 Parkway?” and “Do you think traffic signals, unsafe speeds, or merging traffic are always a problem?”

Peter Murphy, Region 4 spokesman for ODOT, said Tuesday the agency wants to hear from everybody, so officials can create a system that benefits the entire community.

“Transportation involves people who are disabled, it involves people on bicycles, pedestrians, motor vehicles.” Murphy said. “It takes all of that into account, and we’ll come up with a solution that works for the most people possible.”

Downtown Bend business owners have been especially vocal about the potential changes to the parkway because three exits from the southbound parkway lead into downtown, and they could be taken away. Those exits are at Hawthorne, Lafayette and Truman avenues.

Tom Beans, owner of Dudley’s Bookstore Cafe, is one of the people who does not want that to happen. He said he understands that as Central Oregon continues to grow, changes to our infrastructure need to happen, but he hopes they won’t come at the cost of local businesses.

“We’re hugely dependent on tourism and the tourist business here, downtown. So anything that makes it harder for people to come down here is a bad idea,” Beans said.

The executive director of the Downtown Bend Business Association, Mindy Aisling, said she believes there needs to be some sort of middle ground.

“We need to rethink safety and accessibility and one can’t come at the cost of the other,” Aisling said.

She added that taking away those exits would hurt the thousands of people who work, visit and live downtown.

“We’re the civic hub,” Aisling said. “You have the courthouse down here, you have City Hall down here. We’re also the hub for events and culture in downtown Bend. So all those things put together make downtown Bend a really important place to be able to access easily for our residents and our visitors.”

ODOT officials said it’ll be a while before any change happens, simply because there are no firm solutions yet.

Murphy said they’re in no hurry, and that’s a good thing. It gives the department time to mull over all the public input, offer a solution, then get more input to create an efficient and safe transportation system. He said their job is to take their time finding the best answer.

“We’ll get all this information, and we’ll have all those special interests come in. We’ll talk with them, they’ll talk with us. And sometime down the road, we’ll be able to better decide what this next step will be,” Murphy said.

Find and take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CJQ6YKW