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Public Works Maintenance Division City of Eugene 1820 Roosevelt Blvd. MEMORANDUM Eugene, Oregon 97402 (541) 682-4800 (541) 682-4882 FAX www. ci.eugene.or, us Date: February 22, 2005 To: Mayor Piercy and City Council From: Thomas C. Larsen, 682-4959 City Traffic Engineer Subject: Possible Exemptions for Motorized Transportation Devices Questions were raised at the February 14, 2005 public hearing on Motor-Assisted Scooters regarding a possible exemption for scooters or motorized transportation devices so that they can cross the river to access other streets or trails. In Eugene, crossing the river to use paths and trails is very limited by geography. Use of sidewalks by scooters is already prohibited by State law. The south end of the Ferry Street Bridge is close to streets legally usable by scooters. The sidewalks on the bridge are narrow and in addition to their use by scooters being prohibited by state statute, ! think it unsafe to allow scooter operation on the bridge. Continuing north from Ferry Street Bridge requires additional travel on city sidewalks. The closest on-street bike lane north of the north end of the Ferry Street Bridge, starts north of the Oakway/Coburg intersection. All of the pedestrian facilities in the Coburg Road right-of-way, are by EC Chapter 6 definition sidewalks, not paths. There are no off-street paths to exempt. There is an indirect southbound route from Oakway/Coburg, using the bike lane on Southwood Lane, for the most part a westbound one-way street, to Country Club Road, then taking the sidewalk under 1-105 and using the Club Road bike lane to arrive under the Ferry Street Bridge. Eastbound, however, there is no bike lane on Southwood. If our intention is to promote Motorized Transportation Device use, we could sign this alternate route. Signing would be awkward because we should identify which ultimate direction of travel the alternate route was intended for (northbound scooters are forced to start out on a westerly detour and return to the north) and sign all the start and stop points for dismounting and walking Motorized Transportation Devices on the sections of sidewalk on the route. From the north end of Ferry Street Bridge traveling east on Martin Luther King Boulevard, the first opportunity to get off the sidewalk and ride a scooter legally is the bike lane on Leo Harris Drive. All the pedestrian facilities along Martin Luther King Boulevard are sidewalks, not off- street paths. On the east end of Leo Harris Drive the Motorized Transportation Device operator is once again faced with a higher speed road or the sidewalk, both prohibited facilities to scooters. To facilitate some eastbound travel the best exemption might be to designate a Motorized Transportation Device route across the DeFazio Bridge and through Alton Baker Park to Leo Harris Drive, avoiding the Martin Luther King Boulevard sidewalks. This exemption would