BEND, OR -- Bend City Councilors have approved a $122,000 contract to start on a bicycle “wayfinding” project. Mayor Melanie Kebler tells KBND News, "It’s signage around town to make sure people know where all of our infrastructure is - our paths, our separated paths and bike lanes - to get around town."

The goal is to reduce interactions between cars and bikes. "Really, it’s to make sure that if someone does want to get around by bike that they know where those good paths are," Kebler says, "And, even our staff person Brad, from our mobility department, was talking about [how] he likes to ride his bike to work; and even he didn’t know about something like the Larkspur Trail or the Canal Trail and where it connected. So the idea is to have some signs that will direct people, so that we’re not keeping secrets of some of the best routes to get around town."

Kebler says the idea has proven effective in other cities, where signs direct non-motorized vehicles and pedestrians to the safest and most popular travel areas.

The contract approved this week is for design, including signs and pavement marking, and to establish the first north-south and east-west routes. Kebler says, "We’re going to start with a couple of key routes that we’re going to firm up at a later meeting, exactly where these first few signs are going to go. But before we do that, we have to decide what are the signs going to look like and how are they going to inform people how to get around?" She adds, "We want to, as much as possible, direct people to the lowest stress paths and part of our network that we’re trying to build out with our key routes for bikes and peds, so they’re having less interactions with cars and feel more safe."