What the public thinks of Franklin Boulevard today

It’s a state highway, and intended to be auto-focused. Other modes of transportation can use side streets if they don’t wish to be on the highway. This is easily accomplished in the campus area, so any improvements to Franklin should be focused on easing congestion and making automobile trips safe and efficient.

Currently very difficult to navigate by bike or walking, increasingly worse over last few decades. Would love to see modifications to make it more pedestrian friendly & to slow traffic. Seems like making new pedestrian bridge connected to UO science buildings should be accessible to public use – this would be great place to start. Also safer access between campus & river bank bike paths.

Between the increase in student Population at UofO and the increased traffic along Franklin, the conditions make it unsafe for anyone but LTD to travel along Franklin. Students seldom are aware of anything but their smart phones and often cross in front of motor vehicles. LTD drivers are seldom paying attention to other vehicle traffic and make conditions worse. Disabled people, bicycles and skateboards are often at risk as well. You might try adding pedestrian overpasses at key intersections to help with pedestrian safety.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!!

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.

It does a pretty good job of isolating car traffic to/from I-5 and Springfield and Eugene attractions (downtown, the UofO). That leaves the adjacent neighborhood streets relatively free of traffic for the enjoyment of walkers, cyclists, scooters and skateboards. The new high rise buildings along Franklin seem to provide a noise buffer to surrounding areas.

Traffic is inhibited by many stop lights for individual to cross street. Overhead crossing would be nice.

Isn’t the part near the University called Broadway. I hate driving near the University and avoid it when possible. Traffic doesn’t start moving until you get past Walnut. With the riverbank path so close, I don’t see any need for bike lanes on Franklin. Most of the bike lanes in Eugene are used very little. With the area growing, we need our roads for vehicles.

This seems like a reasonable plan due to proximity to the university, but there are very few ways to travel between Eugene and Springfield. Eliminating the only one near downtown that is not the actual highway seems like a bad idea. The speed limit is only 30 near the university area anyway, so it doesn’t seem that it should need to be slowed more than that. Providing more pedestrian bridges or trails would still allow traffic to move and provide more safety.

Franklin Blvd is the really the entrance to Glenwood, so changes need to contemplate the development of that area to keep traffic moving efficiently while allowing for easy biking to Glenwood. Currently, Garden Way, 13th, 15th and North and South Bank trails provide really good bike access to everywhere you want to go on Franklin or into Glenwood/Springfield, and helps separate the traffic. Trying to combine the bike and traffic streams onto one road will just make it worse for all forms of travel, particularly if you disrupt those areas. The plan I’ve seen looks like it will create more congestion, which from experience downtown encourages bikes to weave through cars and peds, and peds to simply cross wherever they feel like it. It would be nice to have one additional crosswalk where 13th ends at Franklin (at the crossing light there).

Safer bike lanes would be wonderful. A pedestrian bridge from the UO riverfront to the main campus could benefit a lot of pedestrians.

Better to find alternative bike routes than to make Franklin bike safe.

Franklin Blvd should remain the same. There are back streets available for bikers & scooters to travel safely if they feel unsafe on Franklin Blvd. I feel very safe driving and/or walking. The City of Eugene already supports & has provided enough accommodations for LTD. The busses aren’t even filled to capacity. Market of Choice and Hiron’s are family owned by long time Eugene families. The City of Eugene needs to support these families who keep their businesses in Eugene, as well as take a good look as to why many businesses in Eugene have shut down and the City of Eugene makes it nearly impossible for new businesses to come to town. The City of Eugene couldn’t even keep the hospital in Eugene, while Chick-Fil-A or In-N -Out is building in Springfield.

Please don’t do round abouts, they are a nightmare. Sky bridges are great. Too much focus on buses!

We need more lanes for cars. The car traffic can get congested and it moves people best through automobiles. Also, it is not an area with good biking or walking proximity, so this should not be the primary priority. Thirdly, the few students who walk and bike in the area to get to school have good sidewalks and crosswalks to get there, which I have used for walking and enjoyed. Please put up signs asking pedestrians to look up from phones when walking on the sidewalks or crossing streets. All accidents I have seen there were pedestrians on phones and walking into each-other.

People just drive too darned fast. Slow down traffic! There are plenty of alternative bike routes so it is easy to avoid Franklin on bike. Roundabouts are great IF people understand how to use them. The bike situation at the roundabout in Springfield near Riverbend Hospital is pretty bad.

I’d love a bike lane/tunnel crossing Franklin going from the river to campus so you wouldn’t have to ride on Franklin itself which is very dangerous in every way for cyclists. Turn signals are short, traffic going fast, lots of it, many lights, complex bike lanes.

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);