Detour route heightens SE Bend residents’ cut-through traffic concerns

(Update: Adding video, comments from city, residents)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Some southeast Bend residents say cut-through traffic on Fifth Street has made it dangerous for those who live there, especially children. They say they want the city to add speed bumps, a stop sign, and more speed limit signs to warn drivers to slow down.

Resident Annie Carter told NewsChannel 21 Tuesday when she first moved to Bend in 2003, Fifth Street near Cleveland Avenue was a dead end. 

She said ever since the city of Bend opened it up and new housing developments were built in the neighborhood, there has been an increase in traffic flow, with some cars driving at high speeds.

“My kid used to stand outside and play basketball -- and now, that’s not really a possibility,” Carter said.

Carter said she noticed a couple weeks ago, the city put up detour signs along Wilson Avenue to Reed Market Road, adding to the increased traffic flow.

So Carter decided to set up a chair and a homemade “slow down” sign in front of her house, to warn drivers who were going above the 20 miles an hour speed limit. She said she also started counting how many cars come by each day.

“I emailed the city one day and said I was sitting there between 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., and I clocked 60 cars,” Carter said.

She said most drivers seem to want to drive down Fifth Street to avoid the traffic light at Reed Market Road and Highway 97.

“I understand the city may have wanted to open this up, to alleviate some of the backup on Reed Market,” Carter said. “But when you do that, you need to make it safe for the neighborhood.”

Bend Transportation and Mobility Director David Abbas said the city acknowledges there has been a change in traffic flow in the area, due to the housing project and the connection of Fifth Street through to Cleveland. 

He said the detour will last through the end of this week, while a safer crossing to Kiwanis Park is being built at the intersection of Centennial Street and Roosevelt Avenue as part of the Neighborhood Greenway Project.

The project includes the construction of a traffic circle at the intersection of Fifth Street and Roosevelt Avenue, which the city says should help with traffic calming in the area.

Abbas said stop signs are not a speed control device, and speed bumps are “a tool in the tool box” for the neighborhood greenways, but not for all residential streets in town.

“Once construction of the neighborhood greenways project is constructed and the detours are removed, we can monitor the new normal speeds and traffic volumes in the area, to see if there are traffic calming needs and look at options for improving safety in  the area,” Abbas said in an email.

The Bend Police Department said since January, there have been 11 traffic complaints on Fifth Street between Wilson Avenue and Reed Market Road.

Lt. Juli McConkey said one of the calls was a DUII complaint and the others involved complaints of speeding cars or requests for extra patrol in the area.

Some children who live in the neighborhood told NewsChannel 21 they are sometimes scared to cross the street, because they don't know if drivers will notice them.

Nine-year-old Nico Daross said he likes to bike down the street with his friends, but he said they have to constantly be aware of the drivers that are going past the speed limit.

“Kids are stopping and waiting for all the cars, and the cars just keep going fast, and kids keep almost getting hit,” Daross said.

His neighbor, 11-year-old Elisha Bilbrey, said he recently saw another child almost get hit by a car while crossing the street.

“Sometimes we yell at them to slow down, but they’re too fast,” Bilbrey said.

Bilbrey’s 7-year-old sister, Eden, wants to warn drivers: “I just kind of want them to slow down or stop, especially when little kids are going by.”

Carter said she wants the city to consider adding speed bumps, an additional stop sign at Fifth and Cleveland, and speed limit signs. 

Until then, she said, she and her neighbors will continue to try to make the street safer for those who live there.