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 _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
