[SustainableTompkins] Cyclovia and the view outside my window in Eugene, OR

[Katherine Lieberknecht]

Hi,

We moved to Eugene, OR from Ithaca 10 months ago. I still lurk on the ST 
listserv, and I've always meant to write a little bit about Eugene when 
the topic of cycling and Ithaca comes up. Living in Eugene has really 
normalized cycling-- as a method of commuting to work and to errands and 
events-- for me.

Cyclists here definitely have more company than in Ithaca. Something 
like 6 percent of people in Eugene/Springfield area bike to work 
(population around 340,000). Eugene has a network of bike/walk paths, 
but also bike lanes on many major streets. Until a few weeks ago, we 
rented a house here that happened to be on the street with a well-used 
bike lane that connects one of the major bike paths from a residential 
area to the downtown and campus areas. I felt like I lived in 
Amsterdam-- when I looked outside our window, I usually saw 15-20 bikes 
for every car. There is literally a bicycle rush hour, when it almost 
looked like a Critical Mass event, except it was just people biking home 
after work. Some mornings, when I was awake before the sun was up, in 
the darkness I would see dozens of  bicycle lights passing by my 
window-- like little fairies floating by.

One of the things I've enjoyed the most is seeing the diversity of 
bicycles used-- regular bikes, tandem bikes, bikes with cart-like 
trailers for young kids (and sometimes dogs), adult bikes with partial 
kid bikes attached like a tandem bike, James Bond-esque bikes that fold 
up into little suitcases so that you can carry them into your office or 
onto the train, recumbent bikes, etc.. Last year, when Eugene has their 
Eugene Celebration parade (similar to Ithaca Fest), the City Council 
rode through the parade in a series of bicycles made for six-- designed 
so that the seats face each other in a circle (not a realistic commuting 
option, I know, but fun to see, nonetheless).

The University of Oregon campus has thousands of bicycle parking spots 
(the ones with roofs are coveted during the rainy winter weather), and 
many of the downtown businesses have ample bicycle parking, too. Rob 
went (biked) to a concert last night, held outside at a park next to the 
river, and reported that there were more bicycles than cars in the 
parking area.

Of course, compared with Ithaca, Eugene has more housing in the flats 
(people live in the hills here, too, but there are lots of neighborhoods 
in the river valley area). The weather is milder. Traffic calming on the 
streets that have been designated major bike routes through the city 
helps; so do the bike paths, especially, I imagine, for those not 
comfortable bicycling in traffic (for instance, now that my youngest 
child is sitting up, we're ready to take our first 
everyone-in-the-family bike ride, with both kids in the bike trailer, 
but I think we'll start on the bike path).

And, of course, there is massive room for improvement. Both Rob and I 
have dealt with tailgating, cursing car drivers behind us. Even worse, 
one Saturday morning, we heard a thump and a scream-- a driver of a car 
didn't see a bicyclist and crashed into her in the intersection just 
down the street from our house. The bicyclist suffered some bruises, but 
fortunately she wasn't seriously injured. She was wearing a helmet, and 
the car driver was going pretty slowly because she had just stopped at a 
stop sign. But, a few weeks ago in Eugene, a car driver hit a cyclist 
who was turning left. The cyclist died. The cyclist wasn't wearing a 
helmet, but it sounds as if he would have suffered major, if not deadly, 
injuries, even with a helmet.

I don't know the "birth story" of how Eugene became so bike friendly 
(although I'm sure someone on this listserv might), so my point here is 
not to prescribe for Ithaca-- it's just to paint a picture of what it's 
like to live in a place where bicyclists have more of a presence than in 
Ithaca.

Happy summer,

Kat Lieberknecht