What the public thinks of Franklin Boulevard today
BEST asked: How safe, practical, and attractive is Franklin Boulevard adjacent to the University of Oregon for everyone today?
Here is what they wrote. The comments have been categorized by some topics that were frequently raised.
It’s mostly unattractive and a little bit complex to navigate
I have noticed via walking, driving, and bus that there are many potholes along Franklin Boulevard that make it unsafe for drivers and pedestrians due to uneven pavement.
Franklin is wayyyyy to high capacity for a city like Eugene. As someone who comes from the Bay Area, Eugene NEVER has traffic problems. The main issue I have with driving in Eugene is the one ways and complicated road systems make it super comfusing to get around in. Going downtown from campus requires some very weird lane changes and the gps apps don’t seem to understand how it works. Going down Franklin east of campus runs you into a weird double round about that is very confusing and it shows because people keep stopping and it’s kind of terrifying to merge into the second one unless there is zero traffic there. Biking Franklin feels like a non option unless you go to the beautiful river trail or walk along the mill race which still requires some scary Franklin-ing. Walking Franklin is best avoided, I mostly stay on the inside of campus, but would love to have more of an excuse to walk along the tree canopied millrace path… unfortunately it’s usually not worth the discomfort associated with getting to that path. Crossing franklin sucks period. If you want to makes Franklin work, crossing franklin needs to be addressed. The one flashing red light for the cross walk to the 7/11 is an accident waiting to happen. I’ve had to break hard more than once because no one can see if the walker is done crossing or if they should stop yielding. Just make it a firm red light when people are crossing. The EmX system is probably the best part of Franklin. I wish it was easier to cross to that middle platform because it sucks to miss a bus because the walk sign hadn’t gone on yet.
Pavement quality leading into Eugene from Glenwood is often poor. Not having an option to turn left on some streets when coming from Glenwood are difficult (ex. Walnut and Agate) and often lead visitors to missing turns for UO, leading to more traffic and increased u-turns.
Not really the pavement could be better but there are rarely crashes or accidents on franklin i drive through there to get to uo almost every day
Potholes are terrible