IN REPLY TO “MORE THAN A MINIMUM DEBATE NEEDED” (3/4)
You say “there are also studies that indicate that higher minimum wages actually reduce job opportunities for working class men and women, as fewer employees are hired and sometimes the raises result in reduced hours.” Please cite the source of these studies. Could they possibly be funded by the restaurant owners and grocery lobbies, the Chamber of Commerce, the Farm Bureau, and other groups who traditionally oppose paying higher wages to their employees? My independent research over the years since Oregon raised its [minimum wage] and tied it to [cost of living] indicates that jobs in low wage industries (even fast food) have increased (the recent Great Recession being an exception on many levels). Those who propose a higher MW actually cite sources for their arguments. The Source should tell us who funds the studies you cite in your editorial. The low-wage workers who serve us our meals and lattes, work in retail in downtown Bend and at the Old Mill and beyond, all deserve a raise.
—Michael Funke via bendsource.com
Editor’s note: For the record, our editorial neither supported nor opposed an increase in the minimum wage. Rather, it encourages a debate that moves beyond rhetoric and relies upon facts. We don’t have the answers to the minimum wage question, but we welcome the conversation.
IN REPLY TO “BIKE TOWN USA” (3/4)
My family and I moved to Bend in July of 2014. Part of our decision was the improved bike infrastructure compared with Charleston, SC, the town we moved from. We live on the west side and, when the weather is amenable, I ride my young daughters to school in the Old Mill area on my cargo bike. I find the cycling lanes to meet the barest level of safety for that ride, but the fact is I am hyper vigilant when I ride on the streets. I have to bear in mind at all times while riding that the smallest mistake by a person driving a car could be fatal to me and my girls. The fact is, to feel safe, the cycling lanes need to be physically separated from the roads.
The stroke of genius would be for those who lay out bike lanes to abandon the concept of cars and bikes traveling the same lines of travel. Bike “lanes,” and for that matter pedestrian pathways, should follow lines of travel that your average 12-year-old on a bike would find—cut-throughs, shortcuts, and pathways that have nothing to do with roads. Eagle, Colorado, recently created “singletrack sidewalks” that are the perfect example of what we need—meandering trails that carry runners and bikes completely separate from roads. Bend is geographically compact enough that, with the right trails, a cycling or running commuter can get where they want to go without feeling at risk.
—Charlie Thiel via bendsource.com
The east-west corridor disconnect across Bend has been troublesome for decades, and it is NOT enjoyable to ride from someplace like downtown to, say, the hospital for a number of reasons besides the discontinuity of bike lanes. You also have to contend with: 1) badly chip-sealed/patched roads; 2) debris and rocks from winter sanding in the bike lanes that only gets swept once or maybe twice, seasonally; 3) storm drains/manhole covers that are at much lower elevations from the layers of asphalt overlays and, lastly 4) striped lanes that are not even a basic three feet wide (such as along Penn/Neff Road up and over the north flank of Pilot Butte).
So, it’s not always the best consistency in Bend, but it’s better than some other U.S. towns, I guess.
—Rachel Stemach via bendsource.com
The missing piece is the drivers, and the combination of drivers that don’t know how to drive around cyclists, combined with the poor infrastructure that places cyclists closer to cars. I ride nearly every day, unless there’s ice, for over four years in Bend. Prior to that I commuted a total of 14 years in Eugene, Corvallis, and Portland. Too many drivers in Bend are ignorant of the laws and drive inattentively and a few outright aggressively. Of course the vast majority are very respectful, but for a novice commuter, it really only takes one or two negative interactions with a driver for them to throw in the towel. The first and easiest thing that would help cycling in Bend would be actual enforcement of the laws with drivers.
—wheelie via bendsource.com
Thanks to the Source for your March 5 cover article encouraging more bike commuting in Bend. Commute Options is very interested in this perspective. Better bike commuting takes a balance of Engineering, Education, Enforcement and Encouragement. Bike commuting benefits our parking and roadway system and encourages a healthy lifestyle.
Commute Options is working with the City of Bend, the Downtown Bend Business Association, Parks and Recreation District, Bend Bikes, Bicycle Resource of Bend, the Deschutes County Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Bend La Pine Schools, OSU-Cascades and others who are very supportive of improving our bicycle infrastructure. We also work in many areas beyond bike lanes that would make Bend more bike friendly, like:
• Bike parking
• Bike share
• Safe Routes to School commuteoptions.org/program/safe-routes-to-school
• School siting
• Bicycle Diversion classes for adults
• DMV and other driver awareness
• Incentives for bike commuting http://www.drivelessconnect.com
• Active Transportation awareness campaigns and videos
• Bikes on buses
• Limited and expensive (car) parking—to encourage more commuting options
We also represent Central Oregon on the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Often times the experience is better than the expectation. So give bike commuting a try. More people riding = more funding for infrastructure and safety.
Thanks, The Commute Options Team.
—Jeff Monson, Kim Curley, Brian Potwin
I was intrigued by The Source Weekly‘s article, Bike Town USA. Does Bend deserve the accolades? As an avid recreational bicyclist, and as a resident living in close proximity to Riverside Boulevard, my answer is no.
I was offended when a bike lane was “installed” on Riverside Boulevard last year. We are being held hostage by a tiny group of grunting bicyclists who have decided we can’t decide for ourselves how we choose our transportation. Riverside was designed for cars, not bikes. This travel way now requires drivers to negotiate sharp curves, with less room, in order to accommodate three bicycle commuters for two months out of the year. The bike lane has decreased car safety and has done nothing to improve the functional activity of bicycle transportation.
All bicycle lane markings two blocks west of Bond, on Franklin, should be removed. The city has created a severe risk to car drivers who exit their vehicles when they must park away from the curb next to the old Post Office. A right turn lane should be available for those who turn on to Wall Street, off Franklin, in this same area. The statistical number of bike commuters is zero. Neither dogs nor bicyclists belong in the downtown area.
We would be much better served if our limited resources were earmarked to improve recreational biking opportunities. Thank you, but I don’t need anyone’s advice on how often I ride my bike or how I commute to work.
—Charles Thomas
This article appears in Mar 11-18, 2015.
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You say…”For the record, our editorial neither supported nor opposed an increase in the minimum wage. Rather, it encourages a debate that moves beyond rhetoric and relies upon facts.” Fine. What I am asking for is the source of the studies you cite which claim that a higher minimum wage reduces job opportunities. If we are to rely on facts we need to know the source materials for folks who say they are reciting facts. So, again I ask, what studies are you referring to? You imply that you have read them, so please cite them by name.
I totally agree with Mr. Thomas!
If any state or federal money was used to create the so-called bike lanes, this city would be in serious trouble for violating the dimensions for approved bike lanes!
Boooooo to the inanity of the job security that commute options is striving for at the risk of cyclist safety and WASTE of tax payer money!
@ Chuck Thomas: You are held hostage by a bike lane? Really? You can’t leave your home if a bike lane exists? How is someone so inept allowed behind the wheel? If a bike lane is such a danger, in what cocoon of protective kitten flatulence are you taking part in all of your “avid recreational” cycling?
But wait! Bike lanes are a conspiracy! Yeah, the local government is trying to make you ride bikes. You solved the puzzle. Now that the truth is out, old man Withers is on the wire to every news organization in the civilized world. Our right to drive is safe for another day. Thank you.
-Or-
The street that passes by your home (like the sidewalk) is not “yours”. Anybody who needs to use a public street is allowed do so in a civilized society. Nowhere is it written that large, expensive (dangerous) machinery has to be purchased in order to travel on public roads, nor should it be.
This may surprise you, Chuck, but lots of people simply cannot drive – the very elderly, anyone on a limited income (Poor people in Bend?! Yes, they’re around), kids under 16, anyone with a DUI problem. Many others who DO drive should not – anyone with a smart phone addiction, people who have killed with their car in the past, the very elderly, kids over 16, and so on. If only there were ways for the inconveniently car-free to go from one place to another without having to rely on uncle Chuck and his “car held hostage” to cart them around . . .
Was Riverside safer for anybody when there was no bike lane? (I’m psychic enough to know that Chucky just said “yes”.) Safer for who? I grew up here and I’ve been riding (and driving) all over Bend AND on Riverside Drive for over 20 years, and I’m not alone – there were very few days that bikes could not be found riding past Drake Park, trying to split the difference with passing drivers. Now, I have a lane that tells me where I can ride my bike and drivers are able to pass me easily. And when I DRIVE THE CAR THAT I OWN, I’m able to pass bikers at will thanks to this bike lane that is “holding you hostage”. If only it were so easy to pass on all public roads.
If having to be around bikes and the people who ride them are really a problem for you, there are places where “those bikers” are very rare. Maybe you mistook Bend for that kind of place when you moved here. If that’s the case, you were very much mistaken. Events like the Pole Pedal Paddle and the Cascade Cycling Classic have gone on in Bend for nearly 40 years now – That’s not a coincidence.
Bike lanes aren’t new here. There will be more. Bicycles aren’t going away any more than cars are.
Get over it or get out.
Seriously Charles Thomas? How are you being held hostage by protected bike lanes on Riverside? Yes, it was designed for cars, and now it’s designed for drivers and cyclists. The “sharp curves”, which aren’t really sharp, but are the same curves that were there before, are now safer because with more narrow lanes and more visual confusion, people drive slower, and the rumble strips help keep people our of the bike lane. Also, there is no risk for drivers getting out of their cars on Franklin if they check their mirror first. I understand change is difficult for some, though, but you still have all the options on your bike route that you had before.
@Lahaina–since people driving cars on public roadways are heavily subsidized by the way we fund our transport system some might suggest that that is WASTE of taxpayer money. But really, what specifically did the city do here that seems to warrant your claim of serious trouble. What laws and regulations were broken? What are the dimensions of an approved bike lane? And since federal and state funding mandates using some funds for improving roads to include all users of the roadway how is this a problem?
I’d simply like the lights to turn green for me when I’m stopped at a light riding home after work at night. They currently don’t because they are all linked to sensors embedded in the road that don’t detect the amount of metal in a bike.
I’d like the city crews to actually plow the snow out of the bike lane instead of into it, and do the same with street debris.
I’d like all the pedestrian crossings to automatically display the walk sign each light cycle rather than requiring a pedestrian to push the button. People in cars don’t have to push a button to get a green light, why do people on foot or people on a bike have to?
These changes would cost the city virtually nothing, would not inconvenience people in cars, and would go a long way toward making Bend far more friendly toward people on bikes and people on foot.