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Thank you to all our guest speakers: Bend Bikes, Commute Options, and the City of Bend's Key Routes and Neighborhood Greenways/Neighborhood Street Safety Program! We learned a lot of good information regarding bicycle improvements and street safety in our area.
Bend Bikes:
- Bend Bikes has been instrumental in advocating to the City to make improvements in conjunction with the Purcell Extension Project for the section of Purcell between NE Courtney Drive and Butler Market. Now, the MVNA Purcell group, along with Bend Bikes and the City, is exploring tactical urbanism methods to try traffic calming measures and bring them to reality. Also, because of the advocacy of Bend Bikes, our neighborhood Purcell group, and the MVNA, the City's TBOC has created a Purcell working group to explore the feasibility of adding safety measures for this section of Purcell. Thank you, Bend Bikes and all our neighbors working on this effort!
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Check out Bend Bikes' map of vetted biking routes throughout Bend to find low stress routes.
- Join their mailing list to learn about group rides to boost your commuter confidence, advocacy efforts, and more!
Commute Options:
- Sign up to lead a Walking School Bus for either Ensworth or Ponderosa Elementary students! This paid position is for an adult comfortable walking a designated route to the elementary school, meeting kids along the way and chaperoning them as they walk to school. Here is the Ensworth Route in English and in Spanish and the application. You can learn more general info about the program here: English or Spanish or by visiting the website for Commute Options.
City of Bend Key Routes and Greenways:
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Ryan Oster presented the City of Bend's Transportation Plan work on the 12 designated key routes for bicycle commuting around Bend, with the end goal of a connected low stress network of routes. The GO Bond has provided additional funding for these key routes: Route 1 for north-south travel and Routes 2, 10, and 12 for east-west travel. Of interest to our NA is Route 8 which utilizes Purcell. An interactive map showing these 12 key routes will be published by the City soon.
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Oster also provided feedback for improving conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists on Purcell in the near future, as our Purcell Action Committee hopes to see improvements made between NE Courtney Drive and Butler Market in conjunction with the Purcell Extension.
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Greenways are in their final phase, with the fourth phase to be completed. Going forward, funding for the Greenways program is not set, so the City hopes to create a reliable funding source for the Bicycle Program which is named as a part of the City of Bend Transportation Plan. However, until there is funding, future Greenways are not planned.
Bend Neighborhood Street Safety Program:
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Christian Williams, with the City Engineering department, updated the next steps for the Neighborhood Street Safety Program. The GO Bond did provide additional funds for future NSSP projects. Within the year, the City should be finishing the final projects from previous years' proposals and soliciting new project ideas from Bend's neighborhoods. MVNA will keep you up-to-date on NSSP developments!
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