News » Media Coverage

Media Coverage

BEST and our partners periodically publish views in or are covered by the local media.

  • Transportation package must be built on a foundation of safety (Sarah Iannarone, Rob Zako & Steph Noll, Oregonian, 4/23/25)
    Legislators’ draft plan for funding transportation improvements asks Oregonians to pay more, but fails to tell them what they will actually get in return. … This is a once-in-a-decade opportunity to get it right. Oregonians demand safety and will support a package with real investment, real accountability for the dollars spent, and real results measured in lives saved.
  • 10 years since tragic deaths of 3 children crossing Springfield’s Main Street (KLCC, 2/20/25)
    Saturday marks 10 years since a woman and her three children were hit by a pickup while crossing Main Street at 54th in Springfield. The children were killed and their mother was critically injured. … In the decade since, some upgrades have been made to the intersection where the triple-fatality occurred. But those upgrades may not be enough to prevent a future tragedy, says Rob Zako, executive director of BEST.
  • One Bike at a Time (Eugene Weekly, 4/4/24)
    How e-bikes have changed and are changing the landscape of transportation in Eugene. … Asked about the rise in the popularity of e-bikes, Rob Zako, executive director of BEST, says that he has anecdotally seen a rise of e-bikes since the pandemic. “If there are fewer cars on the road than people to drive, you have less congestion. So car drivers should probably want people to be riding bikes more so that the roads aren’t so crowded,” Zako says. 
  • Eugene Hops on the e-Train (Eugene Weekly, 3/28/24) — April Fools’ Day
    A revolutionary revision to the city’s transportation plan will put us on the map, officials say. … “We’ve had too many conflicts between up-to-date e-bikes and old-fashioned analog bicycles,” says the city’s newly appointed transportation czar e-Rob Zako. “Those outdated bicycles are already clogging the way for more-efficient e-bikes and their drivers, which, unlike bicycles, are all-electric.”
  • Springfield celebrates local transit (Chronicle, 3/21/24)
    The first bus line in the world was started by Blaise Pascal on March 18, 1662, according to Rob Zako, executive director of BEST. Thus, it’s only fitting for Transit Employee Appreciation Day to fall on March 18, 2024. Local leaders gathered at Springfield Station this past Monday morning to praise Lane Transit District employees and share personal stories as to how public transportation, and LTD in particular, have touched them.
  • Nearly 200 orgs nationwide tell lawmakers they want ‘communities over highways’ (BikePortland, 2/6/24)
    A fledgling nonprofit with an outlandish name that launched in Portland six years ago, now sees itself alongside 17 other organizations statewide who have come to the same conclusion: “Highway expansions are pulling our country into an environmental, budgetary, and public health crisis and it’s time to end this destructive, unsustainable practice and set a responsible course toward a cleaner and more equitable future.”
  • Give Guide: If in doubt, help others out (Eugene Weekly, 12/21/23)
    “I have admired BEST’s efforts to share information about city and regional plans that affect everyone’s transportation needs in the community. It’s clear BEST seeks all possible information and then interprets and publishes their findings with highlights and careful opinions. We need their voice, along with everyone’s individual contribution.” — Steve Bade
  • Community members talk safety, future of Springfield’s Main Street (KEZI, 10/5/23)
    One group is looking for feedback from the community on the current state of Main Street in Springfield. Representatives from BEST spoke to the Springfield City Club on October 5 about their efforts to get community input on local transportation projects. “What BEST does is maybe, 20 percent of it is sort of planning, design, engineering, technical stuff — 80 percent of it is soft stuff about how we work together,” said Rob Zako, president of BEST.
  • Better Streets for People and Businesses (Springfield City Club, 10/5/23)
    Only twenty percent of the effort to solve transportation challenges lies in technical issues, according to Rob Zako, Executive Director of BEST, a small local non-profit advocate for transportation improvements. Eighty percent of the challenge is getting people to overcome their fear of change and come together on what solutions might be. Mr. Zako told the City Club, on October 5, that BEST is trying to support improving transportation issues in the area by reversing the traditional approach.
  • City’s new multi-modal vision for Franklin Boulevard examined on walking tour (KEZI, 8/4/23)
    A walking tour along a couple blocks of Franklin Boulevard on Friday morning focused on the City of Eugene’s new vision for the road. Led by a group known as BEST, the walk gave citizens an opportunity to make their voices heard on what the city has planned for Franklin Boulevard. The City of Eugene is planning on changing the roadway from an automobile-focused state highway to a multi-modal urban street that is safe for people walking, biking, riding the bus, and driving.
  • Advocates gather at Lloyd Center for Oregon Active Transportation Summit (BikePortland, 4/24/23)
    Rob Zako and Claire Roth, both from southern Willamette Valley transportation advocacy BEST, said they see the Summit as an opportunity to cultivate relationships with people from across the state so they can work together to influence transportation legislation in the future.
  • Leaders seek transportation solutions in Lane (Chronicle, 4/20/23) — Missing Content
    Last week, local policy leaders participated in a roundtable discussion about the future of transportation — its growth points, community engagement benchmarks, and climate impact. The event was hosted by BEST and AARP Oregon at the University of Oregon Ford Alumni Center, alongside community transportation partners like Lane County, Eugene-Springfield Safe Routes to School, Cascadia Mobility / PeaceHealth Rides, Oregon Department of Transportation, Lane Council of Governments, and LiveMove.
  • SLANT: Check out the Future of Transportation (Eugene Weekly, 4/6/23)
    A roundtable on how to respond to transportation challenges and opportunities, with retired Rep. Peter DeFazio; Jameson T. Auten, CEO and general manager of Lane Transit District; and Lynn Peterson council president for Portland Metro.
  • Student Spotlight: Matt McCreary (National Institute for Transportation and Communities, 2/6/23)
    Matt McCreary is a planning, public policy and management student at the University of Oregon. He is also a transportation safety planning intern for BEST, working on a project to make Main Street in Springfield, Oregon safer for all people and modes of transportation.
  • Jameson Auten welcomed as Lane Transit District’s next leader (Whole Community News, 11/17/22)
    “And we thank Rob Zako of BEST sitting in the audience. Rob’s an advocate. He will give you a dose of reality and that’s what we need. We need a dose of reality to make sure that we’re serving the communities the right way.”
  • What a Eugene City Council recall says about hopes for transportation reform in Oregon (Taylor Griggs, BikePortland, 10/13/22)
    Members of BEST, a local transportation advocacy non-profit (Eugene’s version of The Street Trust), say they aren’t entirely sold on EmX as the best treatment for River Road. But something has to be done to make the street safer for people walking, biking and taking transit, and the MovingAhead plan has presented solutions they’re on board with. 
  • Oregon Has a Chance to Sharply Cut Urban Parking Mandates (Sightline Institute, 5/16/22)
    A group of 35 nonprofits from around Oregon, convened by Sightline, have co-signed a letter in support of the parking proposals. Supporters include affordable housing providers such as REACH Community Development and Bienestar; environmentalist and environmental justice groups like Verde, OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, the Sierra Club’s Oregon chapter, and Portland Audubon; tenant advocates like the Springfield Eugene Tenant Association and Portland: Neighbors Welcome; business advocates like Beaverton Downtown Association and Business for a Better Portland; transportation reformers like Oregon Walks, Bend Bikes, and BEST; and anti-sprawl groups like 1000 Friends of Oregon and Central Oregon Landwatch.
  • Eugene, Lane Transit District plans seek improved public transportation, streets (Alexis Biddle & Brittany Quick-Warner, Register-Guard, 3/2/22)
    Everyone needs safe and convenient ways to get where they are going. The city of Eugene has adopted plans — Envision Eugene, its Transportation System Plan and its Vision Zero Action Plan — that call for more investment along six key corridors, for fewer vehicle trips and for safe travel for all. … We and many others in the community believe such targeted investments, with federal support, are the smart way to benefit everyone getting where they need to go, safely and to invest in the long-term health of our local economy.
  • Pressure builds on Oregon leaders to step up climate change fight (BikePortland, 7/15/21)
    In an unprecedented display of unified and pointed concern about Oregon Department of Transportation’s priorities, 33 transportation, environmental and social justice organizations led by Oregon Environmental Council (and including The Street Trust, Community Cycling Center, Safe Routes Partnership, BEST, Business for a Better Portland, Sierra Club, Coalition of Communities of Color and many others) signed and sent a letter to the Oregon Transportation Commission imploring them to act with more urgency.
  • INVEST Act reimagines transportation for today and tomorrow (Kitty Piercy & Rob Zako, Register-Guard, 7/13/21)
    The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed the $715-billion, five-year INVEST in America Act. We urge the Senate to immediately take up this surface transportation reauthorization and water infrastructure bill, introduced by our own Rep. Peter DeFazio.
  • For Earth Day, public transit means climate equity (Joshua Skov, Register-Guard, 4/20/21)
    Yet at the local level, action on climate change doesn’t have to be about fear and politics. We have climate action opportunities here, in the Eugene-Springfield area, that also support economic efficiency and social equity. Transit is at the top of that list.
  • SLANT: March 17 BEST Awards (Eugene Weekly, 3/12/20)
    BEST announced it will present Center for Appropriate Transport founder Jan VanderTuin with the Ruth Bascom Lifetime Achievement Award.
  • CAP and Transit Tomorrow hit turbulence (Terry Parker, Register-Guard, 12/20/19)
    Transit Tomorrow could help get vehicles off the road to alleviate congestion and lower emissions by offering more frequent and cost-effective transit services.
  • Thinking Outside the City Limits (Tiffany Edwards, Open for Business, 9/24/19)
    This past July, I had the privilege of joining a group of University of Oregon students, their professors and other local professionals on a study-abroad summer course to study the sustainable transportation infrastructure in Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands.
  • Let accessory dwelling units thrive in Eugene (Seth Sadofsky & Eliza Kashinsky, Register-Guard, 5/18/19)
    On May 20, the City will be holding a public hearing on revisions to the zoning code that would take a first step to making accessory dwelling units easier to build by removing the owner occupancy requirement. However, this tentative first step doesn’t go nearly far enough. Eugene should take this opportunity to ensure that our zoning code encourages and supports this needed housing type, as opposed to preventing it.
  • Need a New Year’s Eve Ride Home? (Eugene Weekly, 12/27/18)
    According to a press release from the Technology Association of Oregon, BEST, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and Eugene Parking, “Over the last four years on record, Lane County has suffered more traffic deaths than any other Oregon county. The 180 deaths in Lane County are higher than even Multnomah County, which has more than twice the total population.”
  • Now’s the time to chart transportation’s future (Pat Hocken & Mike Eyster, Register-Guard, 7/8/18)
    This year, our community has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape our public transit system. The Lane Transit District is embarking on Transit Tomorrow, a comprehensive look at the community’s transportation needs and how transit can better help people get where they are going when they need to be there. BEST urges all citizens to actively participate in this process.
  • Improving road safety requires multi-pronged approach (Jennifer Yeh, Register-Guard, 1/11/2018)
    Public safety is local governments most important responsibility. Recently, crash and injury data have shown Eugene has some important changes to make if we are going to reach our Vision Zero goal of no deaths or life-changing injuries on our transportation system by 2035.
  • Approve the Street Repair Bond Measure (Emily Semple & Joshua Skov, Eugene Weekly, 10/26/17)
    We urge Eugene voters to get out and vote for Measure 20-275 on the Nov. 7 ballot. This street repair bond measure is about more than just potholes. Yes, the money will allow us to responsibly maintain our local streets. But it also provides increased funding for bicycle and pedestrian improvements, puts us in a position to take real action on climate change and pushes for safer streets for all users.
  • Eugene bond for road repairs is money well spent (Brittany Quick-Warner & Shane MacRhodes, Register-Guard, 10/24/17)
    For all of these reasons, we are strong supporters of Measure 20-275 and urge you to join us in voting yes. Yes for safer routes to school for our kids, yes for smoother transit of goods to market and yes for more transportation options for all of our community.
  • City should embrace ‘missing middle’ homes (Seth Sadofsky & Sue Wolling, Register-Guard, 7/16/17) — Archived
    Eugene needs to act now. The City Council must direct staff to immediately assess what changes are needed to our zoning code to allow for more missing middle housing in Eugene.
  • City transportation plan could be a good start (Bob Passaro, Register-Guard, 6/26/17)
    Eugene’s new Transportation System Plan has been in development for literally years. Assuming the City Council adopts it, I hope councilors see it not as the end, but as a beginning — the beginning of a sustained effort to lead and to fund a better, safer, healthier, more sustainable transportation system.
  • Fight the housing crisis, fill the missing middle (Kaarin Knudson & Joshua Skov, Eugene Weekly, 4/27/17)
    Make no mistake: Eugene still needs single-family housing, market-rate apartments, mixed-use projects, and larger affordable housing projects — missing middle housing is not a silver bullet. But it can help provide some of the quality, variety, affordability, and accessibility our community has long lacked.
  • Lane Transit District discusses changes to west Eugene routes (KVAL, 3/16/17)
    “We’re really excited that people can get from the River Road, Bethel/Danebo areas to West Eugene and back without having to go all the way to downtown Eugene,” said Rob Zako from BEST. “Allowing people to take the shortest routes to where they want to go is what we all want to do.”
  • Fixing the transportation plan: Eugene’s fossil fuel reduction targets can’t be met without making significant changes (Matt McRae, Register-Guard, 3/5/17)
    The City Council passed ambitious fossil fuel and greenhouse gas targets because it understands climate change and resource depletion are serious threats to Oregonians, and that cities are a vital part of the solution. It is our city government, after all, that designs, plans, builds and maintains our local transportation system — and that system exerts an immense influence on our daily travel decisions by determining which types of travel will be most convenient, safe and affordable. Ultimately it is up to us to let our local elected officials know that we support these ambitious goals and that we, too, can imagine a fossil fuel-free future.
  • Don’t let fears thwart land use planning vision (Sue Wolling & Rick Duncan, Register-Guard, 5/29/16)
    We need to listen to the real anxieties of those who might be personally affected by change and find ways to address those concerns. But we must not let fear of what could or might happen, and distrust of the motives of those we haven’t even met, sentence us to the greater problems we’ll inevitably face if we do nothing. Let’s come together as the Eugene we want to be.
  • Let’s slam the brakes on rising traffic fatalities (Marina Hajek & Steve Moe, Register-Guard, 4/20/16)
    We all share responsibility for safety: roadway users, public educators, law enforcement officers, legislators, planners, engineers, and emergency responders. Cities are adjusting traffic signals, lowering speed limits and adding speed cameras. Police and sheriffs are increasing patrols and enforcement in high-crash areas. Engineers are analyzing crash scenes (just like after a plane crash), looking to understand where the system failed and how to make it better. Vision Zero was developed in Sweden in the 1990s. Today, Sweden’s road fatality rate is just one-tenth that in the U.S. and falling, even as driving is rising. Meanwhile, Oregon road fatalities so far this year are up 7 percent. We must work together to make our streets safer for everyone!
  • Community must create livable neighborhoods (Eliza Kashinsky, Seth Sadofsky & Jennifer Smith, Register-Guard, 3/23/16)
    We can come together, as a community, to build upon the work that has been done in the Envision Eugene and South Willamette processes, to determine how we are going to meet the challenges of the future in a way that increases livability, sustainability and equality.
  • I Dream of the City (Joshua Skov, Eugene Weekly, 12/24/15)
    I dream of zero. Specifically, Vision Zero — the international movement to redesign streets and change habits to make sure zero people die on our roads, bike paths, and sidewalks.
  • River Road needs change in ‘design speed’ (Marc Schlossberg, Register-Guard, 8/9/15)
    Making our streets safe and comfortable shouldn’t be a special event, held twice a year. It should be our norm. It’s not about shutting down streets to cars, but opening more of our streets for more uses. It’s about measuring success not simply by how fast we can drive a car from one end to another, but by how well a street serves the full range of transportation and livability needs of a neighborhood.
  • Design streets that are safer for pedestrians (Bob Passaro, Register-Guard, 4/12/15)
    Yes, we need safety awareness campaigns. And yes, we need laws that hold people accountable if they kill or injure people while driving a car. But if we really want to reduce traffic fatalities, we need transportation officials and elected leaders to rethink the priorities of our transportation system. Otherwise we continue to write off the lives of 50 or more Oregonians every year as just a cost of doing business.
  • Transit plans better when we make them together (Gerry Gaydos, Terry Beyer, Susan Ban & Rob Zako, Register-Guard, 6/10/14)
    Transit, like all modes of transportation, isn’t an end in itself but a means to an end — literally a way to get from here to there. Let’s begin anew talking about where we want to go as a community. Then, perhaps, figuring out how to best get there will be easier.
  • Bike share program would make sense for Lane Transit District (Don Kahle, Register-Guard, 6/7/13)
    A bike share program is coming to Eugene. More precisely, it’s coming to the University of Oregon this summer. But with a little tweaking, the program can begin to meet the next step in our region’s overall transportation needs.
  • Councilors must sift through EmX rhetoric (Mia Nelson, Register-Guard, 9/16/12)
    The council should focus on the future, protect the interests of the larger community and pursue this west Eugene EmX opportunity to keep this community moving forward in the decades ahead.
  • EmX helps meet Eugene’s growth well into the future (Larry Reed, Register-Guard, 4/29/12) — Archived
    Sometime later this year the Eugene City Council will be asked to reaffirm its previous vote approving the extension of Lane Transit District’s EmX bus rapid transit system to west Eugene. Before taking this vote the council needs to understand the broader policy context and the impact this vote will have on the future of Eugene.
  • Like bike-path vision of ’70s, bus plan a model for nation (Joshua Skov & Gerry Gaydos, Register-Guard, 8/1/10) — Archived
    Aforward-looking community examines and takes advantage of ideas and opportunities that create connections, sustain our quality of life, and enhance the things we all value. Our community has been well known for our forward thinking, as evidenced by such infrastructure as our now famous bike trail system. Once again we are taking the lead, with Lane Transit District being at the forefront of the nation’s transit systems in developing an appropriately scaled and efficient bus rapid transit system.

Last updated 4/26/25.