BEST supports improving biking on East 24th Avenue

By Rob Zako

February 19, 2025

BEST supports the City of Eugene making improvements for people who bicycle east and west along East 24^th Avenue—and also north and south across the street.

UPDATED 3/5/25: Added more external links and further reading.

BEST supports everyone having safe, practical, and comfortable ways to go, whether walking, rolling, riding the bus, or driving.

In particular, BEST supports the City of Eugene making improvements on East 24^th Avenue for people who bicycle east and west along the street.

BEST further urges the City of Eugene to make improvements for people who bicycle north and south across East 24^th Avenue, or turn left on to the street, especially on these routes:

Amazon Path — crossing is less safe after being redesigned
Alder Street — crossing is the ”weak link“ along this completed Neighborhood Greenway
University Street
Emerald Street

BEST’s Cycle of Change Biking group recently shared the following comments with City of Eugene staff:

2025-02-25-CoC-Biking-East-24th-Avenue Download

City of Eugene policies

Happily, the City of Eugene substantially agrees.

Their 2035 Transportation System Plan includes these Bicycle Policies:

Create conditions that make bicycling more attractive than driving for most trips of two miles or less.

Develop a well-connected and comfortable bikeway network. Ensure that there are safe, comfortable, and direct bikeway connections between residential areas, major destinations, and transit stops and provide secure bicycle parking facilities at these destinations.

Continually improve the comfort and safety of bicycling through design, operations, retrofits, and maintenance. Identify and develop “low stress” bikeways to attract new cyclists.

Their Street Typology Map identifies Alder Street, University Street, and Emerald Streets as Neighborhood Greenways:

Neighborhood Greenways perform the same functions as Neighborhood Residential Streets, but are also designed to provide a prioritized route for people biking. Neighborhood Greenways have design elements that encourage low traffic volumes and speeds. Bike and pedestrian crossings are improved at collector and arterial streets to provide for safe and comfortable crossings.

Neighborhood Greenway. *Source: City of Eugene*

City of Eugene efforts

Source: East 24^th Avenue project

The City of Eugene is exploring the feasibility of adding protected bike lanes to East 24^th Avenue from Amazon Path to Agate Street (area outlined in orange on the map above). East 24^th Avenue between Amazon Path and Agate Street currently has a mix of substandard, door-zone bike lanes, and buffered bike lanes.

Protected bike lanes add more space and physical protection between people biking and people driving as compared to standard bike lanes and buffered bike lanes. See examples of bicycle infrastructure below. Adding protected bike lanes to East 24^th Avenue would require removing on-street parking between Hilyard Street and Agate Street (approximately 73 spaces). Parking counts show that side streets have enough available space to accommodate on-street parking demand from East 24^th Avenue. Please review the parking report for in-depth information about the parking counts.

The City will repave East 24^th Avenue from Harris Street to Agate Street in spring/summer 2025. The repaving, in combination with a potential Oregon Department of Transportation grant, means the City may have the opportunity to change the current layout of East 24^th Avenue between Amazon Path and Agate Street. Current and proposed layouts are shown below.

The City is also exploring alternatives to bollards for adding protection to the bike lanes, like Zicla Zebras or a similar curb-like element. Additionally, the City is considering removing on-street parking and buffering the bike lanes, but not adding protection. Lastly, the City could decide to restripe the street as is, maintaining on-street parking and the substandard, door-zone bike lanes.

Reasons for the proposed change

East 24^th Avenue is a primary biking route for three schools: Edison Elementary, Roosevelt Middle, and South Eugene High. It is also near the University of Oregon, the YMCA, and connects to the Amazon Path. The number and type of destinations along the street, speed and volume of vehicles that use East 24^th Avenue, and history of bike crashes along East 24^th Avenue make the street an important candidate for protected bike lanes. The 2023 death of a University of Oregon student walking on East 24^th Avenue after being hit by a driver further underscores the safety challenges along the street.

In an effort to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, the City wants to align the upcoming paving project with the future vision for East 24^th Avenue. The City also applied for a grant from the Oregon Department of Transportation to add bollard protected bike lanes to 24th Avenue between Amazon Path and Agate Street. The grant has not yet been awarded. The combination of the repaving project and pending grant creates a unique opportunity to improve safety and comfort on East 24^th Avenue.

Community engagement

Final decisions about East 24^th Avenue have not yet been made. Staff are actively engaging residents, businesses owners, and the broader community about the project. A survey ran for about two months and closed on December 20^th with 1,030 responses. Staff also hosted a Community Meeting where 70 community members were able to discuss the project. Many questions were raised during the Community Meeting, so staff have put together a frequently asked questions document responding to those asked during the meeting. Please take the time to review the document. If you have additional questions or comments, please reach out to Catherine Rohan, Transportation Planner, at crohan@eugene-or.gov.

The decision to add protected bike lanes and remove parking on East 24^th Avenue will be made based on community input, available data, and alignment with City standards and goals.

Timeline

Fall 2024 – Project Kick-off
October-December 2024 – Community engagement and internal staff discussion to determine striping plan for East 24^th Avenue during the repaving project.
January 2025 – Staff review community engagement results, including feedback from LTD, waste haulers, City of Eugene maintenance teams, Fire and Emergency Services, businesses, residents, property owners and more.
February 2025 – City staff publish the community engagement report and City leadership make a decision about the project.
March 2025 – Community meeting to share final plans.
Spring/Summer 2025 – East 24^th Avenue between Harris and Agate gets repaved.
Future, TBD – Installation of protected bike lanes. Dependent on final design decisions.

External links

East 24^th Avenue project (City of Eugene)
- Engage Eugene
- Project Update (March 2025)
- Project Update (January 2025)
- Community Engagement Report (March 2025)
- Frequently Asked Questions (January 2025)
- On-Street Parking Report (December 2024)
Amazon Park Renovation projects (City of Eugene)
Alder Street Neighborhood Greenway (City of Eugene)
Complete Street Design Standards (City of Eugene)
Bike (City of Eugene)
- Eugene Bike Map & Resource Guide (2023)
Where Can I Experience a 20-Minute Neighborhood? (City of Eugene)
Vision Zero (City of Eugene)
Move EUG: Active Transportation Strategy (City of Eugene)
Transportation System Plan (City of Eugene)
Bicycle Friendly Community Report Card (League of American Bicyclists, Fall 2019)
Zebra Family (Zicla)