What the public thinks of Franklin Boulevard today

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.

In its current form, Franklin Boulevard is fundamentally not conducive to being a safe, truly multimodal street. It’s too wide, cars drive too fast, with pedestrian unfriendly sidewalks. Getting from point A to point B along Franklin presumes you are driving.

I’m supportive of the changes proposed for Franklin. I live 4 blocks from Franklin and there is incessant traffic noise. It’s a ‘track meet’ when I’m not driving on it, and it’s ‘too annoying with all the lights’ when I am driving on it. Classic George Carlin bit, but true for me. I think the changes will slow down speeds, yet maintain steady throughput. I want all of our city streets to be narrow and treed. Frankly, I want all cars to go away as soon as possible.

So much opportunity for safety and access improvements, which would make the road more enjoyable for all users, including cars and busses. In the current configuration, Franklin is loud, fast, and unpleasant for those not in a car. When I drive it, it’s unpleasant because I worry that I can’t see pedestrians or cyclists. I would prefer if the driving surface were fewer lanes, there was dedicated infrastructure for peds and cyclists, and clearly marked crosswalks with responsive lights.

I believe the planned changes are a financial waste of money and a monumental disaster. Reducing the travel lanes make no sense whatsoever unless your agenda is to make it difficult for drivers in effort to get them out of their cars, which will not work. I have been personally driving this route since 1967 and know it as well as anyone and what I see is a series of things designed to slow traffic. The idea or reversing one of the west bound lanes from I-5 will result in head-on collisions unless a guard rail is installed to separate the lanes and the lane is totally unwarranted especially given the plan for the round about at Orchard. Contrary to stated plans, this is not a neighborhood and never will be. Outside of I-105, Franklin Blvd is the primary route of travel between Eugene and Springfield and is a State highway and all of your wishing will not change that. Eugene sadly has a long history of making grossly bad decisions in traffic flow, i.e. the downtown mall, 18th and Willamette, Crest Drive, E. 19th with the bump-outs, E 13th, etc. A suggestion of the strongest kind, before you solidify any plans that involve changing roadways in any manner, including speed bumps, talk with and listen to emergency services personnel including police, fire and ambulance to find out how your plans will effect their ability to serve the public. We have many streets that need repair and the money being planned for something that is not needed once again shows the City’s propensity to put preference of agenda over what is best for the public.

It is very wide and difficult to cross on foot currently

I know you are trying to make safe but it is still a major road through town and traffic is already crazy especially when students back or sporting events. Cutting down on car lanes seems like it will make traffic worse.

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.

This is a major artery between eugene and Springfield. Please don’t make it impossible for cars to use. This city is eliminating lanes and making driving more cumbersome, but as noted above, this city is not designed to be car-free. When I lived in Chicago, I used public transportation almost exclusively. This just isn’t that sort of city.

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

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.

Traffic volume/congestion during event days is a big deal. Throngs of people crossing to and from parking is unsafe due to not obeying the pedestrian signals and 6+ lanes. It is unclear how are these issues going to be addressed by the mission statement.

I feel Franklin Blvd functions perfectly fine. There are multiple lanes which keeps congestion down. Plenty of pedestrian paths and safe crossing locations. Bus island for those who commute by bus to safely and efficiently travel. My engagement with planned changes for Franklin has been that I attended a city event where I learned about the proposed design changes that are coming. I must say, whoever designed this doesn’t spend much time in the area. The amount of round-a-bouts is asinine. The round-a-bout that is furthest east is completely unnecessary. I believe this design is only going to create a less safe, more congested Franklin Blvd.. ESPECIALLY during events at Matt Knight Arena. I genuinely believe the City needs to revisit the design of Franklin because what is proposed is bad for the area and is going to be loathed by residents of the city.

The pavement on the East end of Franklin Blv. has very uneven surfaces. The crossing distance is *very* long making it hard to cross the street in a timely and safe manner. There are currently few trees on the East end of the street making it very hot to walk alongside the street. Due to the width of the street many people speed while driving.

This is the first impression that the UO and the city gives to anyone first coming into town and it is not a good one. In fact, it is very unattractive. The lack of trees, the overly wide roads with multiple lanes of traffic encourages fast driving…the city can do better. I worry about students the safety of students who have to cross this street regularly.

The UO campus and downtown Eugene are pedestrian friendly, human-scaled environments. Franklin should emulate this. Less traffic lanes, protected bike lanes, more trees.

Needs less car lanes

I think that they need to make an area for cyclist, people on scooters, and people crossing the street. Maybe even take a lane away. two lanes i think would be good enough. also take traffic lights out and put in roundabouts to make it better for cars

I would love to see Franklin completely removed from a car-centric style. It would be best-suited as a rapid transit hub with EmX and LTD lines being the most prominent and most important, then tree-lined bikeways being the most important individual transpotation, and then protected, shady walking areas. Cars should have 1 lane in each direction and be the least-prioritized, or, ideally, completely non-existent in exchange for faster, safer methods like EmX or possibly a future eTram line.

Prioritize Bikes and Pedestrians; this section doesn’t really help folks get anywhere fast in cars (there are better approaches to the University and to i5); road diet needed – reduce lanes of traffic; create separated bike ways; tunnels for crossing of bikes/peds; connect exisitng bike infrastructure and enhance on Franklin (bike lane on w 11th/alder; shared path near Walnut);