City of Bend holding Bend Bikeway Project open house to review possible designs, posts online info and survey

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The city of Bend is inviting community members to an open house from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, at Bend Municipal Court, 555 NE 15th Street, to learn about the Bend Bikeway Project, review potential design configurations and provide input.

The same open house information and survey is available online at bendoregon.gov/bendbikeway. The community can share concerns about existing safety matters on the bikeway routes and give feedback about preliminary design concepts by completing the online survey by Mar. 6, 2024.

Improving the transportation system by focusing on safety is a City Council goal. Creating safer connections between neighborhoods, places of work, schools, parks and businesses, for people who ride bikes, walk or roll, is a City priority.

The city said it is designing a variety of safer and more accessible bike and pedestrian routes throughout the community, including the Bend Bikeway Project that will make the most of the existing system to build one connected and protected North-South and one East-West key route.

“Community members have said they want safer ways to travel across town on bike or on foot, and that’s what this Bikeways project will provide,” said Mayor Melanie Kebler.

“Key Route” is a term from the Bend Transportation System Plan that means the route is designed to be “low stress” for pedestrians and bicyclists, to provide safe and appealing connections to schools, parks, and other destinations, as well as for cross-City travel. Examples include off street multi-use paths, buffered, separated, raised and/or painted bike lanes and widened sidewalks.

“Low stress” refers to the perceived comfort of people biking. The level of traffic stress is based on factors including the speed of traffic on a road, (slower cars increase comfort for people riding bikes) and the rider’s distance from the traffic (the further the distance between bikes and cars, the more comfortable the bicyclists are).

This project is partially funded by the voter-approved 2020 Transportation GO Bond.