BEND, OR -- The city of Bend is moving forward on plans to lower speeds and add features to portions of two residential streets. Project Engineer Rory Rowan says designating portions of NE Sixth and NW 15th as “Neighborhood Greenways” is an effort to increase safety, "So, what neighborhood greenways help to do is they provide safer connections, they reduce cut-through traffic and speeds when designed and implemented properly, they help people to get across the busier streets in our town and they also use different elements, like pavement markings [and] signs, to kind of guide people and help them get where they’re going." Money for the project was approved in the 2017 budget, but Rowan says it's taken the last two years to design and engineer the work. 

He told Councilors at a recent City Council meeting that Phase One of the greenways program will take place in April and May, with construction of new additions to the two streets, "Things like speed humps, landscape traffic circles, some wayfinding and signage to come. These are pretty common elements of neighborhood greenways to help with getting around safely, connecting, finding out where you’re going, kind of help reduce some of that cut-through traffic and speeds that we hear about all the time." As part of the project, Councilors approved the first reading of an ordinance lowering speeds from 25 to 20 miles per hour on NE Sixth, between Butler Market and Greenwood, and NW 15th, from Simpson to Galveston. Rowan says, "One of the top concerns we hear about all the time at the city is neighborhood speeding [and] the effects on livability in neighborhoods; and that’s wide and far. It’s typically the residential streets where we’re hearing from citizens about that."
 

Click HERE to learn more about the city of Bend's neighborhood greenways program.