What the public thinks of Franklin Boulevard today

Speeding is the biggest issue. Making if more friendly for walking, biking, etc for students would be beneficial . Maybe more sky crossings for pedestrians… wider bike lanes. I think the bus lane is good.

Too many people walking or biking crossing the street wherever they want to. The EMX makes things worse

Not nearly enough lighting making walking, biking, or any other use of the sidewalk feel very unsafe. Barely enough light to drive safely.

Lowering the speed limit will only make matters worse. We will cause a lot of traffic congestion, increasing the chance of collisions. A good way to help pedestrian safety would be a bridge walkway over the street. Also, it would be nice to enforce traffic rules on bicycles. Too many bikes ignore stop signs and red lights, and many weave into traffic lanes with zero regard to cars.

It is a main road for cars. Other modes of transportation use it as well. But if you pretend that it won’t be a major road like it is now, all you will do is cause traffic. Balance with other modes is key but let’s not pretend that it doesn’t rain most of the year and people drive when it is raining. Summer is when most people bike places. Don’t change the roads away from car use for bike use part of the year.

Improvements needed for people walking or riding bikes. Rules needed for electric bikes and other motorized vehicles such as skateboards.

Folks living in the street near Hirons Market of Choice made walking or biking in that area very dangerous plus lots of garbage. Cars drive very fast

I think it can be more accommodating to bikes but driving into work seems fine.

With more students living north of Franklin today than there was 20 years ago, and with the Matthew Knight Arena drawing more visitors, I feel like a footbridge over Franklin Blvd would come in handy. When I walk on the sidewalk in front of Market of Choice the speeding cars are just inches away. One distracted driver hopping the curb there could be fatal to walkers. We do need a safer pedestrian corridor on Franklin. Also needed is a safer way to gain access to the river bike trail that leads to the Knickerbocker Bridge. Crossing with a bike at Villard or Orchard St is unnerving, especially with smaller kids who also like to bike. Cars start speeding up to highway speeds at about Franklin and Orchard.

Its not a pleasant walk/bike. There is no shade or shielding from the heavy traffic which includes EMX busses

Would love to see more trees along the corridor, dedicated bike lanes, and over or underpass crossings for pedestrians,. Roundabouts need to be designed so vehicles and pedestrians/cyclist do not interact with each other

Franklin Boulevard is acceptable if one is traveling via EMX and just okay by car, but is a nightmare for any other means. Traffic speeds are not enforced and it is not uncommon that I am passed by cars going 45-50 in the posted 35mph zones. The sidewalks are far too close to the streets with no buffer, forcing bicycles to ride on the sidewalk with pedestrians. In addition, there are apparently no regulations governing the “ride share” scooters that can currently be found dumped all over town; even though they have the potential to go much faster than a bicycle, the undergrads who use them frequently ride on sidewalks as well, adding to the congestion. Franklin could use a reduction in the number of car lanes; a dedicated two-way bike/scooter lane, better sidewalks, roundabouts to mitigate the flow of traffic, and pedestrian overpasses so that crossing the boulevard doesn’t feel like one is taking their life into their own hands. Events at the Matthew Knight Arena are an additional nightmare, thanks to the UO’s getting by without having to provide parking for events and offloading the burden of parking and traffic management to the surrounding neighborhoods (where I lived until May of this year). The Franklin/Villard intersection is a nightmare on event days, between the traffic and tour buses/touring semi trucks/etc. impeding traffic; I have many times been stuck behind a row of Uber/Lyft vehicles that have decided to simply pull over in the right turn lane on Franklin (approaching Villard from the west) to drop off passengers for especially large events.

Traffic, speed, lack of crosswalks, disregard for pedestrian bike safety, difficulty in crossing traffic/turning when driving

work on Franklin Blvd. I have seen vehicles doing 70 – 80mph down it but in my 9 months of working, not once have I seen any police pulling folks over. I have seen folks on e-scooters on Franklin Blvd. I have seen folks on e-scooters and e-bikes on the sidewalks at speeds that endanger pedestrians and no police. Eugene needs to get some dedicated traffic police who just write tickets. Now about the roundabout’s idea, I am not for them. With all the daily commuter traffic, there is a lot of semi trucks and heavy trucks along with all the construction work going on there are those trucks too. Some semi trucks struggle to get around a roundabout. A logging truck flipped over In Glenwood because of trying to navigate the roundabout there. If a semi flipped on Franklin it would create a Huge traffic mess. My suggestion … Get some police out there and if they need a good suggestion for a speed tap location I have one. Thank you Be safe Chris

Since they built Matthew knight arena, it seems too congested; difficult to get into P, C MARKET Of Choice , or Hirons; dangerous for pedestrians or bicyclists. Maybe we need more walkways overhead or underground methods of travel for bicyclists, pedestrians, people on skateboards, people on assistive devices The speed limit needs to be slower!!

Walking safety and biking can definitely improve because of heavy car traffic. Protected bike lanes

I live in the Laurel Hill Valley, and to ride bikes with my kids out of the valley along Franklin. It’s very sketchy.

The lanes are narrow. More crosswalks and lights would be needed to make it safer for pedestrians and bikes

Franklin Blvd is a major travel corridor for Matt Knight, UO Campus, from I-5 etc. The current set up handles heavy traffic well and provides wide sidewalks for pedestrians/cyclists. Reducing traffic flow and overall speed to mainly favor pedestrians would be a major issue for this community. Eugene has a vision zero plan but there are other ways to achieve this like making a bike/pedestrian corridor a 1-2 blocks in from Franklin on 15th Ave for example and linking the bike/peds to existing bike paths through campus and like Alder etc. Your vision of everyone walking or riding is not compatible with Eugene weather or the demographics of an aging population with health issues that preclude them from walking or cycling. Idling cars, lost time and loss of use of high traffic corridors in favor of cutting through to quiet neighborhood side street sthat are less hassle fro drivers ie WAZE and other work arounds when traffic is made unbearable buy poor city planning. A dream is only as good as it’s dreamer. I would hope the BEST would be smart and not saddle Eugene with one more difficult and sometimes impassable corridor like Willamette near 29th or on Roosevelt on 24th Ave between Hilyard and Amazon Pkwy.

So help me if ANY more traffic circles are put up ANYWHERE I will no longer go to that part of town for ANY REASON…. I would not patronize any business, I would change doctors offices, I would stop supporting Fire & Police services in those areas…. THANK GOD I do not live in Eugene… but due to many of the street changes ( EMX, changes to traffic flow, etc.) I am doing MUCH more of my personal needs services (Physicians, Grocery shopping, Health care, goods & services, etc) in Junction city, Veneta, and Springfield, because getting areound Eugene in ANY form (Walking, biking, scooter, motorcyle, or car) is just too much of a pain in the butt to deal with anymore…. OH by the way, I’m 61 years old and have watched Eugene descend into a disaster for travel… and for all that is holy…. QUIT screwing around with LTD… it has been a disaster since the “Eugene City Bus” system was ended, and has only gotten worse since then….

I think that roundabouts in high traffic areas that include buses, pedestrians, bike riders, scooters, skateboards, etc. would be incredibly hazardous. I like the idea of slower speeds for autos is a great idea.

I do anything to avoid this roadway, but I live in Fairmount so I have to interact with it. It’s not well planned – just cobbled together with lots of lane changes required for drivers, dysfunctional intersections, too many lanes of traffic, traffic is too fast. I like to walk or bike from Fairmount neighborhood to the river and just despise the Franklin crossings as a pedestrian or biker. Even with the stop lights, I’m very wary because there are generally over six lanes of traffic traveling very fast and you only need one of those lanes to have an inattentive driver. There are a couple places closer to town with two roads coming together in a Y shape that are obvious retrofits and dangerous. It’s also ugly and uninviting. No wonder so many restaurants on Franklin fail. It’s just the worst road in Eugene and realistically needs a complete overhaul.

There’s no bike lanes! Moving from one side of the road to the other is scary and unsafe! The sidewalks are too narrow to safely have a cyclist pass a walker! The cars parked on the side of the road block the view of cars driving of pedestrians! The parked cars block the view of pedestrians and cyclists who will want to cross crosswalks! The businesses along the road are difficult and unenjoyable to access! There’s a sign outside the 959 thats pointed at the sidewalk and says something to the effect of ‘Pedestrians – watch for cars exiting the parking lot’. Which is BullShit. I have a right to be on that damn sidewalk. It’s the CARS that need to watch for ME. Franklin is a road made by carbrains, for carbrains. In the year of our lord 2023, surely the city of Eugene, acclaimed as a bike and pedestrian accessible city, can do better. As far as on engagement, I’m not entirely sure how? Where is this being discussed?

Market of Choice and Hirons worry about cars. But if people can drive easily they can drive to competitors. If walking and biking are better, and driving less convenient, we will shop MORE local and not drive to Costco as often or at all.

I would never walk or bike on Franklin- dangerous and unpleasant. I avoid it for driving (even though we live right off it) as the traffic and signalization make it a pain.