City of Bend hosting online open house to view final design for Bend Bikeway Project routes

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Bend residents are invited invited to an informational, online open house at bendoregon.gov/bendbikeway  through Jan. 2, 2025 to view the final design for the Bend Bikeway Project.

This online open house provides the last public review before the city’s project team finalizes the designs and initiates construction next year.

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 says 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.