Bend City Council approves Greenwood Ave. safety redesign, street parking removal after hearing citizen concerns
(Update: Adding city news release, Mayor Kebler email response)
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Bend City Council approved Wednesday night the Midtown Multimodal Connections & Streetscaping Progressive Design build contract with K&E Excavating, which includes improvements to Greenwood Avenue - adding bike lanes, eliminating parking on the north side of Greenwood, and eliminating traffic lanes, which all falls under what the city is calling a “quick build.”
City Director of Engineering Ryan Oster explained the reasons and plans:
“If you look at the existing conditions on Greenwood, there's some portions of the sidewalk that are only about four feet wide and there's no bike lanes at all. What we're proposing to do is a dramatic improvement over what is there today. With that comes a little compromise.
"In order to build all of these improvements, we are going to be eliminating the parking on the north side of Greenwood in front of some of those businesses. We will be eliminating one lane of traffic in each direction. We're basically going from a four lane section two or three lane section.”
Community members as well as business owners came out to express their grievances, specifically, unprotected bike lanes and removing parking.
Bend resident James Teeter said, "My issue is putting the bike lane directly on the side of the drive aisle and not just even with the buffers making the drive, it’ll feel that much wider for drivers. That to me is just too wide, and it doesn't achieve the safety goals that for the safety, the goals that we know are possible.”
Other citizens had concerns over removing parking in front of the Cascades Theatrical Company and other local businesses.
The city says their goal for improvements on Greenwood Avenue is to access lower costs, as well as fewer permanent treatments, to provide safer bicycle and pedestrian access, to meet all project goals and stakeholder needs.
Despite some pushback from the community, city councilors approved the Quick Build design, with construction beginning soon, and will take about a month to complete.
Mayor Melanie Kebler said she heard, along with the parking issue, "a lot of concerns about safety on the road," especially drivers going too fast.
"For me, the No. 1 thing here is safety," she said. "This achieves better safety on that corridor," with a dedicated left-turn lane, rather than a four-lane road with no center lane, where left turns from both inside lanes have led to crashes.
The cost of the Greenwood Avenue project is estimated at about $800,0000, one piece of the $4.5 million spent so far for the Midtown Crossings project.
The city council says they will continue to receive community concerns, suggestions and comments on this project moving forward.
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The city issued a news release Thursday morning on the project:
City of Bend to Improve Safety on Greenwood Avenue
At its Wednesday, July 17 meeting, the Bend City Council unanimously approved the contract to begin the Midtown Crossings Greenwood Avenue pilot project and Second Street waterline project.
The project will make important improvements on Greenwood Avenue, creating safer travel for pedestrians, bicyclists and cars. The project will also include the replacement of an aging waterline on Second Street, a much-needed infrastructure upgrade.
Multiple design options were considered, and multiple stakeholder perspectives such as pedestrians, bicyclists, drivers, ADA accessibility and emergency services helped develop the final quick-build design. The Greenwood Avenue “quick-build” between Wall Street and Second Street is a low-cost and low-risk implementation method that will include:
- Painted curb extensions and new safer protected crosswalks with a median island. (Reduces crashes with pedestrians by 31%.)
- Buffered bike lane. (Reduces crashes with bikes by 47%.)
- Reduction of travel lanes for cars to one in each direction with a dedicated left turn lane. (Reduces crashes by 29%.)
- Accessible ADA parking spaces.
- Safer, wider, buffered parking on the south side of Greenwood Avenue.
- New crosswalks to access parking on side streets.
Construction on Greenwood is scheduled to begin on July 29 and continue through Aug. 14. Expect day work with lane closures, flaggers and traffic delays up to 15 minutes throughout the duration of the project. In addition, Greenwood will be closed to all vehicles for 48 hours in early August and night closures will take place periodically throughout construction. For up-to-date project information and daily traffic closure updates visit bendoregon.gov/midtowncrossings.
Following the installation of this project, there will be up to a year-long evaluation period, with traffic studies conducted and public feedback solicited. Results from the evaluation will be vetted internally and with City Council. A recommendation regarding potentially making the quick-build permanent will result from that evaluation and report.
The Franklin Avenue undercrossing and the Hawthorne Avenue Pedestrian and Bicycle Overcrossing are also projects that fall under the Midtown Crossings Project. Franklin Avenue work will likely be completed in 2026 and the Hawthorne Pedestrian and Bicycle Overcrossing will be completed in 2027 at the earliest. The Greenwood Avenue improvements will provide necessary safe pedestrian and bicycle access prior to the completion of both Franklin and Hawthorne.
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 and roll is a City priority. The City is designing a variety of safer and more accessible bike and pedestrian routes throughout the community, including the Midtown Multimodal Connections and Streetscaping Project that will improve east-west travel between downtown and the Central District for all users.
For more information on the project, visit bendoregon.gov/midtowncrossings.
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Mayor Kebler also shared with NewsChannel 21 the response she is emailing to those sharing their concerns and comments with her and the city:
Thank you for writing to Council about the Greenwood quickbuild safety project.
Tonight, the Council voted to move forward with the changes on Greenwood, to be evaluated with data and feedback gathered after one year. I wanted to write to let you know some of the reasons why I support making these safety changes on Greenwood and provide some additional information regarding the project.
First, I want to say that one of the driving factors for the whole midtown crossings project, which encompasses improvements at Franklin, Greenwood, 2nd Street, and the Hawthorne Overcrossing, is to improve safety on these corridors, especially for people who walk, bike, roll, and take transit. I know that many of you who wrote in also value safety of all of our road users. I also strongly believe in supporting our small businesses, and making sure people feel that they have safe and direct routes to get across town to access those businesses, no matter which mode of transportation they choose.
I want to be clear that a critical reason I voted for these changes is that Greenwood is not currently safe enough for anyone using the corridor. There are too many traffic incidents, it’s too hard to cross, there’s no bike lanes so cyclists often ride on the narrow sidewalk, and people are driving too fast. The status quo is not acceptable on this corridor anymore, and the design of the road is a large part of why drivers drive too fast and it feels unsafe to cross or ride a bike.
Also, with future closures and improvements happening on Franklin, 2nd, and at Hawthorne, it’s imperative that we have a safe alternative way for people to get downtown. By putting in these pilot project temporary changes, we are providing that option while we work to make more permanent improvements in the area.
The final design of the improvements was based on many factors, including public input through open houses and direct contact with businesses, as well as input from our emergency services department. I want to emphasize again that this is a pilot project, with almost exclusively temporary changes to the road, which means that after one year of evaluation the Council can direct staff to make changes as needed. I believe this design, while certainly not perfect, is a good starting place and I look forward to the future conversation that will evaluate how it is working for all road users and nearby businesses.
I want to be clear about a couple of things, since there has been a lot of information shared online about this project:
· ADA spaces: no ADA spaces are being removed due to this project, as none exist curbside on Greenwood currently. I certainly would not want my mobility-limited relatives to park on the curb and open their door into two lanes of fast traffic, which is the situation right now. Staff are working to place two new ADA spaces on adjacent streets.
· Emergency services input: Emergency services gave us input that was incorporated into the design to ensure they can safely navigate the corridor and drivers have space to pull over when needed.
· Traffic flow and safety: the changes will remove one lane of travel, but provide a turning lane for left turners, which allows drivers making that turn to get out of the way of drivers behind them, who can continue forward. This improves safety by lessening the chance of rear-end crashes and “Go around” incidents. Removing a travel lane also makes this street much, much safer for people to cross, and the City will be installing a permanent safe crossing at Harriman to also enhance crossing safety.
· Transit stops: no bus stops will be removed, and the four existing bus stops will be improved. Per CET: “our bus drivers have been excited for this change citing the frequent unsafe lane changes and maneuvers executed by drivers on this stretch of road that will be prevented under the new plan.”
· Effects on businesses: businesses have been able to give input into this project as we moved through our engagement process, not just through open houses but one on one contacts with our staff. We have received individual input supporting and opposing, as well as from groups, like the Bend Central District Business Association, who are in support of the changes. Parking on the south side of the street has been preserved in part because of business input. Additionally, I have spent time looking at studies from across the country on bike lanes and nearby businesses. Every study I could find concluded that bike lanes, even those that remove parking, either have a neutral or positive effect on the nearby business corridor. We will stay in touch with our local businesses throughout the year of the pilot project to gather additional feedback about the changes.
Thank you again for taking the time to write in about this project. Even if you do not agree with the outcome of Council's decision tonight, I hope that this information helps you understand why I voted in favor of going ahead with the project.
Melanie
Melanie Kebler
Mayor of Bend
Pronouns: she/hers Why Pronouns?
971-266-0923
