Item A: South Willamette Street Improvement Plan

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I have always been of the opinion that bicycle paths should be a completely separate system within the city and not just a part of the motorized vehicle ways - so-called bicycle lanes, which are just a strip of paint in the roadway are confusing and scary and the SOLE REASON that I do not ride a bicycle for transportation. The stripe on the street that is also used by passing traffic or turning vehicles or the strip on the side that is cambered for run-off and dirt and rock accumulation is just a cheap, avoidance of creating a true bicycle transportation system. I understand that the City is planning to repave Willamette between 24th and 32nd to place a center bicycle/turn lane with no extra width for passing busses. Some urban design decisions like storm swales make sense. Some, like cul de sacs, are just stupid on so many levels. I think that no matter what you do, cars are going to pull out to pass busses and having a generous lane in each direction is the safest way to go. Of course, if I had to make a choice I would rather wait for a bus and see a center dedicated parkway with curbs and trees in it and a winding true bicycle pathway that is maybe only 3-5 feet wide - just having paint on the ground and telling people they cannot drive there is like entrapment because you know people are not going to heed that and it will just be a waste of tax money as cheap, half-way measures almost always are. Please get real and think about making separate bikeways run through the entire city, not just in parks. I live just beyond the South Hills. In the discussions I have seen in the newspaper, everyone's concerns are focused on bikes, and pedestrians and shoppers in those stores. No one seems to see this street as a thoroughfare into the South Hills. One letter writer even suggested that cars traveling through find an "alternative route." Now, you and I know, there aren't any. This is a through street. Let's just do the math. Logic tells me that fewer lanes in either direction will mean more backup, especially coming to 29th and Willamette. Have you ever been there around, say, four or five PM heading south? It's a long wait to get through that intersection now, and shoppers coming out of the Woodfield Station wait even longer. Here's my suggestion: Keep the existing lanes. Make the west sidewalk for walkers. Widen the east sidewalk--where there is some setback of light poles and street plantings--for two directions of bikers, who will be completely protected from road traffic--except when cars turn in to the shops, but that danger is there even for ordinary bike lanes. OR, put the bikes on the east side parallel street to Willamette--where Southtown Mall is--and on the parallel west side street that ends in the 29th and Willamette mall. With fewer than 100 bikers and walkers a day (LTD September 2012 count) and 16,000 cars, let's not get into social engineering--the idea that if you make it difficult enough to drive, people will abandon their cars in favor of bikes, buses and walking--which has a long track record of not working). Let's engineer it to keep the traffic rolling, and the bikers and walkers SAFE. As a south Eugene resident who drives Willamette daily to and from work, who frequents many businesses on Willamette, and someone who is also a bicyclist and pedestrian, I have strong concerns about the proposed idea of two traffic lanes with a center turn lane, and bike lanes. If you take the number of cars traveling in two lanes in either direction and put (funnel) them all into one lane, the center turn lane would be of little value since the single lane would be one long snaking train of cars, with rare opportunity to find a gap between cars to make the left turn between them. This would be a given during business hours, but probably impossible to turn left into east side businesses traveling south during pm rush hours, or west side businesses traveling north during am rush hour.I love bike lanes, but I prefer to use side streets for biking because I feel too vulnerable riding close to cars on busier streets. I also ride on sidewalks and take care to yield to pedestrians. Willamette St. in its present configuration is busy but functions as well as it could. Since it's not possible to make it wider to create space for bike lanes, and it still functions pretty smoothly we should look to the other streets in the area to create more bike paths/lanes.