What the public thinks of Franklin Boulevard today

There is lots of merging between intersections when driving off the bridge onto Franklin and I have witness many close call crashes but especially road rage.

The bike lanes are inadequate and make it difficult to commute from Autzen area to campus. The crosswalk countdowns are too quick considering how wide the street is. Speed limit is relatively high for the bike and foot traffic in the area. Potholes are pretty bad.

Bike access is for the most avid/daring cyclists, but is sometimes necessary to connect travel points. It is a key gateway to river path access at Patterson, Onyx, and Walnut but you would not know it from a design/user experience. Multiple lanes encourage speeding and make driving stressful for maneuvering into lanes for upcoming turns and allowing for business access. It is terrible for pedestrians. I provided input on the “Walnut Station” intersection improvements over a decade ago and am dismayed at the delay in action. That intersection needs to prioritize peds/bikes/transit users and set the tone for drivers entering from the east that Franklin is a street for everybody and is not a freeway. The UO needs to adopt a student education program to de-California-ize their driving habits and learn to “chill out, share the road, destress, and breathe.” Happy/positive signage along Franklin to that effect would help too.

I will not bike on Franklin Boulevard and the current reroute of the bike path isn’t obvious or direct for accessing different parts of campus. It would be nice to have a separate bike lane (like there is on 13th) that connects easily to UO. It is stressful to drive on Franklin boulevard, especially at the merge coming from Springfield (by the Dutch Bros). The sidewalks are in good condition, but getting the right of way for crossing the street takes forever on foot. EmX stations could use more coverage from rain and sun.

People walking need clear priority on this street! Please slow drivers down! Mae them have to pay attention to driving! Install speed cameras; increase in-person enforcement; implement infrastructure design changes!

It’s a highway and feels like it. I’ve lived here most of my life and still find myself unsure of what lane I need to be in to get where I want to be. The intersection at Walnut is pretty bonkers, I’m wondering if anyone at the City has driven that one lately? Turning left there is an experience weird enough that I deliberately will drive blocks away to avoid it. Lately I’ve seen more traffic violations (running red lights) than before, and there doesn’t appear to be any traffic enforcement presence. I’d love to see changes to make it more walkable and bikeable.

Franklin Blvd is congested and road surface is poor, I think round about would be a good option as well as resurfacing.

It is not the students despite what the article said. Drivers (of all ages) frequently run the red lights especially at Franklin and Villiard near the arena. The intersection is poorly designed and very long. So many crashes and near misses.

Intersection Walnut/Franklin dangerous for drivers if turning left from either north or south. Safety relies on trust and eye contact between drivers. Kids crossing street at same intersection often oblivious to drivers waiting to turn.

The road needs to be re-paved. Too many potholes. I find walking on Franklin easy and safe. Driving and parking in the area is also easy. The EmX is easily accessible and frequent. I don’t believe roundabouts will help anything. They would make travel worse by changing the flow of traffic. I see students and staff commute along Franklin daily with no complaints or issues.

Too many stop lights and odd intersections. Sidewalks could be wider for pedestrians as well as more prominent pedestrian crossings. There are many “turn lanes” that seem to not be ready correctly as I have witnessed many “almost collisions” between city buses and cars, or cars and pedestrians.

Needs things to bring people there. Needs shade, slower traffic. dicey turn at Patterson and Franklin.

It seems like a lot of the cars are just trying to go through not to the college. Perhaps a lane without a lot of turn lanes/merging/lights to get from Glenwood to Downtown Eugene would help.

The EMX lanes need to be removed and relocated to the right lanes to support better movement of traffic and busses. OR install a much better people mover system like a light rail or regional train service to support the Eugene/Springfield/UO areas to remove cars and busses from the roads.

Simplifying the intersections and making them more consistent would be very helpful for pedestrians and drivers. Currently, no two intersections are the same. When walking on Franklin, I often wish there were more trees for shade too.

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

Sure, re-design for CENTER lane to get into, get out of business(es) to maneuver to lane of traffic to go the direction you wish to travel.

Too many crosswalks for student housing. No traffic or bus flow at all. Nearly impossible to turn onto campus if traveling west bound.

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.

From being a gravel road to a major thorough fare it has seen some changes over the years, none recently. Some of the pavement going east, left lane needs attention. Sharing with bikes and mopeds is probably needed. The EMX seems to be working well on Franklin. Safety is good I believe. I have not seen many cars speeding on this road, there are some, generally feel safe.

What a mess! Given how close it is to the University and the amount of student housing that is on the north side of Franklin, as well as the lack of parking at the University and the Matt Knight forcing people to park across Franklin and then play “Frogger” to walk where they are going, it is surprising there aren’t more car-on-human deaths along it. Getting across on a bike to the River Path is also challenging and dangerous. Finally, if you are driving westbound, you will be doing at least 50 mph before going onto Franklin by Walnut, and there is no engineering to change people’s mindsets to the new speed environment – so they try to go 45 or more through to Agate. It would be great if there were a separated bike lane that went at least from 11th to Augusta. It shouldn’t be like the current 13th St bikeway – it needs to actually be a useful and pleasant way for bicyclists and scooterpeople to get through this area (no stopping at every intersection!), and it needs to allow easy and safe ways to for people to get across Franklin Street so they can access either the River Path or the University.

Lane narrowing going east near orchard

Need to have a way to turn left to Market of Choice when driving west. Don’t use roundabouts. They are confusing when there is a lot of traffic.

Primary safety concern today is merging from I-5 north bound exit onto Franklin, especially if needing to get into the left turn lane.

Congested, easy to get in wrong lane. I avoid if possible.