Bend 2030 Transportation Forum

Report

Public input on transportation solutions for Bend

Collected April 11, 2015

Bend 2030 Board of Directors and StaffAndy AndersonAnne AurandScott Aycock

Victor ChudowskyMelanie Grandjacques

Bob GomesRobin Lee Gyorgyfalvy

RJ JohnsonVic MartinezMike Riley

Liz Rink

Lawrence SchechterTed Schoenborn

Kelly SparksJeff SwansonMatt SybrantJillian Taylor

Betsy WarrinerRuth Williamson

Steven Ames, Board AdvisorErin Foote Marlowe, Interim Executive

Director

AcknowledgementsThe Bend 2030 Board of Directors wishes to thank the Transportation Forum Planning Committee, the Transportation Forum Technical Advisory Committee and all the presenters, facilitators and volunteers who made this event possible. The board is also grateful to event sponsor Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council, and to Strictly Organic and Kittelson and Associates for contributions to the event. Bend 2030 sponsored by the generous support of the Bend 2030 Leadership Alliance.

Transportation Forum Planning Committee Andy Anderson, Bend 2030 Board Member Kim Curley, Commute Options Community Outreach Director Scott Ferguson, Deschutes County Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee Member Robin Lee Gyorgyfalvy, Bend 2030 Board Member Jim Roberts, City of Bend Traffic Safety Advisory Committee Member Stephanie Serpico, Senior Project Manager at HDR Inc. Kelly Sparks, Bend 2030 Board Member Carol Somers, Member at Large Judy Watts, COIC Outreach and Engagement Administrator

Transportation Forum Technical Advisory Committee

Nick Arnis, City of Bend Growth Management Director Scott Aycock, COIC Community and Economic Development Manager Tyler Deke, Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization Chris Doty, Deschutes County Public Works Director Karon Johnson, Bend Planning Commissioner Steve Jorgensen, Bend Parks and Recreation District Planning Manager Amy Pfeiffer, Oregon Department of Transportation Planning and Environmental

Manager Peter Russell, Deschutes County Senior Planner Karen Swirsky, City of Bend Senior Planner

Transportation Forum Presenters Scott Aycock, COIC Community and Economic Development Manager Victor Chudowsky, Bend 2030 Board Member and Bend City Councilor Steve Jorgensen, Bend Parks and Recreation District Planning Manager Eric King, City of Bend City Manager Matt Kittelson, Kittelson and Associates, Inc. Robin Lewis, City of Bend Transportation Engineer Andrew Spreadborough, COIC Executive Director Karen Swirsky, City of Bend Senior Planner Judy Watts, COIC Outreach and Engagement Administrator

Bend 2030 Leadership Alliance Bend Broadband Bend Parks and Recreation District Brooks Resources Central Oregon Community College City of Bend Deschutes Brewery Northwest Crossing/Harcourts The Garner Group/Sunwest Builders Oregon State University-Cascades Campus St. Charles Health System United States Forest Service

Bend 2030 Transportation Forum Executive SummaryOn April 11, 2015 Bend 2030 held a public forum on transportation challenges and in our city. The goal of the event was to collect ideas and opinions from members of the public on solutions to these challenges. The input provided by the 175 attendees was consistently in support of a greater planning and budget-spending emphasis on creating more complete neighborhoods, building more and safer bike routes, constructing a more complete sidewalk grid, and developing a more sufficient transit system. Participants suggested the community pay for these improvements through a gas tax, a tourism-related tax such as on food and beverage, and through a studded tire fee. Bend 2030 will use the input and ideas provided at the Transportation Forum to develop a statistically valid survey in cooperation with professional statisticians, to develop a community survey available to everyone, and, later, to develop community-supported recommendations to our transportation challenges.

Background on the Bend 2030 Transportation Forum By 2030, Bend’s population is expected to grow by 40 percent, or 35,000 people, according to the Bend Metropolitan Planning Organization. This growth poises many challenges for Bend, but one of the greatest is providing a transportation system capable of accommodating our community’s needs.

Congestion is already a challenge on many roadways in the city, and few new roads are planned for the future. This situation is exacerbated by a lack of funding for the transportation system, which has led to difficulty in funding even standard maintenance of the current road system. The funding challenge is two-fold: Bend faces one of the lowest property tax rates in the state, and state and federal gas tax resources are failing to keep up with the real costs of managing and developing our transportation system.

The Bend 2030 Vision for transportation calls for an interconnected system of highways, roads, bikeways, and trails with a strong transit system and a wide variety of multi-modal transportation options. The mission of Bend 2030 is to engage and empower the community to realize this Vision. In January 2015, the group launched a transportation initiative to provide community-supported recommendations to decision-makers on how to achieve our goals for transportation.

A planning committee made of Bend 2030 board members, representatives of transportation advocacy organizations, transportation advisory boards, and staff from the local transit provider was formed to oversee this initiative. A technical advisory committee made up of city, county and regional planners guided the group in its research and planning to ensure the community was presented with a realistic view of our transportation system and funding options.

The first step in this initiative was the Bend 2030 Transportation Forum, held from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. on April 11, 2015, at Ponderosa Elementary. This forum was an idea-building exercise designed to collect public input that would assist in creating both a statistically valid survey and an online community survey available to everyone. Later, forum input will also help develop community-supported recommendations to our transportation challenges.

Over the course of the three-hour event, 175 people attended. They heard presentations from Bend 2030 board member and city councilor Victor Chudowsky on the realities of growth in our city, and from Bend City Manager Eric King on our current transportation funding situation. Participants then broke into three groups and all attended three workshops on building complete neighborhoods, creating more multi-modal transportation options in Bend and developing a vision for the future of our transit system. The workshops were presented by local experts and leaders on these topics. Then participants met in small groups to discuss funding for transportation and ideas for engaging the public in this issue. The input they offered throughout the day is captured in this report.

Workshop InputThree workshops were held at the Transportation Forum: Complete Neighborhoods, Multi-Modal City, and Transit to the Future. Participants were asked to provide input or feedback to presenters and facilitators to assist in the development of Bend 2030 recommendations.

Complete NeighborhoodsThis workshop was led by City of Bend Senior Planner Karen Swirsky and engineering firm Kittelson and Associates principal Matt Kittelson. Workshop participants heard a presentation on the effects of complete neighborhoods on the transportation system. The general effect is to require fewer car trips and to encourage multi-modal transportation. Participants then broke into small groups and designed a complete neighborhood, understanding first hand the value of planning. Participants then reported back to the group what they valued or did not value about the complete neighborhood planning process, as well as their hopes for the kind of planning we will accomplish in Bend as the city grows.

Outcomes

The following paragraph captures the input offered by the workshop participants.

Participants consistently reported that they wanted a bustling mixed-use community center in their neighborhoods offering libraries, retail, and other commercial and employment opportunities with residential areas radiating out from that central area. These centers and residential areas should be connected by good trail systems for walking and biking that are safe and separated from cars with few barriers to access. No participants said they opposed complete neighborhoods. A few participants said they were concerned about the higher density of housing and uses associated with complete neighborhoods.

Multi-Modal CityThis workshop was led by Bend Parks and Recreation District Planning Manager Steve Jorgensen and City of Bend Transportation Engineer Robin Lewis. Workshop participants first used color-coded stickers to share information about walking and biking patterns and preferences. Participants also allocated fake money to four possible uses in Bend including road maintenance, road widening, sidewalk system development and safer bike routes. Then participants heard a presentation on the realities of developing and funding an interconnected system of sidewalks, bike routes and trails in Bend.

Outcomes

Participants were asked to answer four questions about their biking and walking behaviors and preferences. The following are their top three answers to these questions.

Have any of the following circumstances prevented or limited you from walking?There are no sidewalks or missing sections of sidewalks where I travel.There are too many barriers to walking (highways, railroad crossings, busy intersections, etc).It would take too long to walk.

Have any of the following circumstances prevented or limited you from biking?I am uncomfortable sharing the road with cars and trucks that are driving fast.There are too many barriers to biking (wide intersections, highways, streams, etc.)I often have heavy or bulky items to carry.

What types of improvements would encourage you to walk more?

Better/more sidewalksIncreased traffic enforcement for safer driving and biking around pedestriansLower vehicle speeds

What improvements would encourage you to ride a bike more often?

Better/more bike lanesSeperated bike path or trail away from traffic3. Improved maintenance of roads and pathsParticipants were asked to allocate fake money to four transportation uses according to

their understanding of the best way to spend our city’s money. The following is the breakdown of the funding allocation.

How should we be spending our transportation dollars in Bend?

33%—Safer bike lanes31%—Street maintenance30%—Sidewalk improvements6%—More/wider streets

Transit to the FutureThis workshop was led by Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council Community and Economic Development Manager Scott Aycock, COIC Outreach and Engagement Administrator Judy Watts and COIC Executive Director Andrew Spreadborough. Workshop participants listened to a presentation from Aycock about the current transit system, other strong transit systems in the region and how to achieve a stronger transit system in Bend. Then participants used Post-it notes to share their personal description of good transit, they placed beans in jars to indicate who should pay for transit, and they used stickers to vote on options that would improve our transit system.

OutcomesParticipants used Post-it Notes to indicate what good transit means. These are the top three most commonly noted ideas.

Top three responses on the “Good Transit Is?” Post-It wall:

FrequentAffordableAvailable to everyone

Participants were asked to identify their top choices of options to improve the transit district and service. The bar graph below shows the level of support for different options.

Motionless transit

Sunday service

Wifi

Special event service (concerts and fests)

More frequent and extended service

Electronic fare cards

Bus Rapid Transit (Buses have own lanes)

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Transit Improvement Options

Level of Support

Participants were given two kidney beans and asked to vote on who they believed should pay for transit by dropping the beans into jars labeled Community at Large, Local Governments, Transit Riders and Private Industry. Participants could split their beans into two jars or double up with one jar. The graph below shows that forum attendees believe that the Community at Large is most responsible for paying for transit.

Private Industry

Transit Riders

Local Governments

Community at Large

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Who Should Pay For Transit

Level of Support

Group Discussions of SolutionsFunding Solutions

Participants came back to the large space in the gym and then broke into small groups led by a facilitator to discuss what funding solutions should be considered for developing our transportation system, and which options were their preference.

Outcomes

The groups came up with more than 30 funding solutions. The most popular suggestions for funding the development of our transportation system were a gas tax, a form of tourism tax, and a studded tire fee. The following bar graph shows the number of groups suggesting the options below as a solution for funding our transportation system.

Fee on big companies to fund employee passes

Weight based fees for vehicles

Sponsors adopt a sidewalk or bike lane

Vehicle registration fee

COCC/OSU-Cascades tuition covers bus pass

Parking meters downtown and on Galveston

Use Corvallis model of utility fees to fund sidewalks

Charge to use recreation on the river

State or federal funding

Local foundations, other community fundraising

Grants

Sales tax

Fee when buying a car or bike

Transportation Utility Fee

Property tax

Tourism tax, i.e. food and beverage tax

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Transportation Funding Solutions

Groups suggesting each option

Ongoing Civic EngagementStill in their small groups being led by facilitators, participants shared their ideas for involving more of the community in the discussion on improving transportation in Bend.

Outcomes

The groups came up with more than 25 ideas for engaging the public in solving our transportation challenges. The most preferred options were offering presentations to public groups, holding more community forums, and using social media to connect with the public.

Teach people to advocate

Divert Highway 20 out of town

Library comment board

Nike sponsored walk/bike event

Tie in Bend Energy Challenge

Use one neighborhood as study group

Create Milestones- report on achievments

Offer signage for bike and walking routes

Engage PTAs

Close off streets to cars for one day

Get large employers to promote transit/bike/ped

Connect with traditional media

Have marketing firm create logo branded campaign

Hold more community fourms

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16

How Should We Engage the Public?

Support for each option

Next StepsBend 2030 will use the ideas, input and opinions shared at the Transportation Forum to create a statistically valid survey and online community survey available to everyone. These surveys will be completed in early summer 2015. The outcomes of the surveys will be used to help draft Bend 2030’s recommendations on solutions to our transportation challenges. News about the surveys, recommendations and other ways to participate in Bend 2030’s transportation initiative can be found at Bend2030.org.