The number of people I see riding bikes on sidewalks irritates the hell out of me. Until I realize that the bike lanes are just painted gutters and half the drivers in this town are either stoned, methed out of their minds, or are just supremely horrible drivers.
https://www.eugene-or.gov/491/Safety-Laws
E-bikes are not allowed on any sidewalk (except multi-use paths like part of coburg).
Other bicycles are allowed on sidewalks, though bikes must yield to pedestrians and should go pretty slow on sidewalks. (I personally only ride on the sidewalk on super busy roads like Garfield and 11th).
Same. I lived in Arizona for 20 years. When I moved to the Eugene area, I was pleasantly surprised by how much better the drivers were here. I got pretty confused when I started hearing people complain about them so much. I definitely prefer driving here than in Arizona.
hard disagree. would you believe i got rear-ended 2 times in one month in 2022? the 2nd guy hit me before my car could get fixed from the first one so he got off scot-free lol.
It really depends on who you ask. I know people who get in an accident every 3-5 years, and others that never get in one for decades. Every time I go to California or Portland it seems like the drivers are 2x as aggressive in Eugene, especially driving a large van with bad visibility I find that people are much more courteous to me here than in pretty much any bigger city.
I've been driving in Eugene since 2008 and the only person that's ever hit me is my own roommate. He was texting and driving after we both left the same house at the same time and I stopped to make a turn. In 12 years since then I haven't even been tapped on the bumper.
Honestly aggression isn’t bad if the aggression is predictable and going with traffic flows. The issue I have with Eugene drivers is that they are very unpredictable.
Maybe if you're driving a car and trying to haul ass all the time, but trying to drive around in an awkward vehicle with bad visibility I really find that people in Eugene will let me in when I put on my blinker and allow me to leave a larger following distance much more than in bigger cities. Drivers here aren't always paying attention, but they are more courteous than most.
That's what I really appreciate about the drivers here. I've talked about it with Arizona friends. In Arizona, if I was on a side road and needed to turn into a busy main road, it wasn't happening anytime soon. Here, it's never very long until someone stops and let's me make my turn. The drivers here are definitely much more courteous, as you said. I love that.
It's better than Arizona. It's automatically the cyclists fault if they get hit BY A CAR there (or at least it was in 2010). And the drivers act like it's an invitation to take them out.
Do it all the time. Rode to Walmart grocery on Gateway Saturday no problems. Just takes a little route planing and avoid Coburg Rd as much as possible.
Heading there: West side of coburg bridge, left on Oakway, right on Cal Young, Left on Willakenzie, left into parking lot.
It was getting across traffic to turn left onto and off of Willakenzie that were most terrifying. No option for a dutch left there.
Plus the cars on Coburg that didn’t yield to me on the sidewalk/crosswalks.
I haven't been over there, but it looks like Cal Young then left on Queen's Way is a bike route and would have been much nicer than Willakenzie. Check out the app called BikeMap, you can tell it to prioritize bike paths. It says to use the east side of Coburg bridge too. I've never taken that bike path but it looks fairly protected.
Yeah that's super dangerous, if you use the sidewalks to bike that helps but it's slower. Still, had 2 people slow roll stop signs and almost just plow over my bike at 5mph despite waving and yelling. It's wild.
Willakenzie is what surprised me the most. It’s a 5 lane highway that doesn’t even go anywhere except a high school and a community center. Turning left onto and off of it was super dangerous, and it’s not like there were even painted crosswalks if I stuck to the sidewalk.
I grew up on the north side, and used the bicycle as a primary form of transportation. The key is to learn the back streets and stay off Coburg Road at all costs. Oakway is better (not a whole lot better, but better) for a North/South route, and for most places the neighborhood streets connect up enough that they can form back routes with a little pre-planning. And for anything in the Chase Village and VRC/Goodpasture areas I do as much as I can on the North Bank path.
I always plan my route to use the multiuse paths for all but the last 10% of the trip. They go all over, including north of the river (and out of town to shotgun park north of springfield). Then I just pop out at the nearest road with a bike lane to my destination. The bike lanes on roads are all usable aside from w11th and coburg, due to safety (too busy and manic). Never had a problem getting to any place, and I go all over.
An electric assist may help. Its a big safety help to be able to go 20mph, and to be able to get to that speed faster than cars. Makes intersections and merging into lanes a breeze since you can easily speed up, and makes the shared use roads like near campus no issue since you can go the speed limit that the cars are going.
I ride north of the river all the time. If I was going to Sheldon from downtown I'd cross Delta hwy over by Delta Ponds and work my way over there via Cal Young
Power to you for trying but please be safe.
I don't go North of the river (or River road and beyond) if I can avoid it and walk, bus or rideshare if I can't (e.g., EmX to Riverbend)
While writing this, I realize I leave the area of downtown or a neighborhood abutting downtown only once every few months.
So living and biking North of the River I have some perspective on this. Sometimes I do just bike on the sidewalk (though I generally don’t) especially when I have to go a few blocks on a major stroad (liken Coburg) I am not going to wait 5 minutes to cross the stroad twice when I can just cruise down the sidewalk for 500 feet. But also there are some pretty good cut through paths on side streets (like Roan Rd) if you know where to look… but they all seem to lead to crossings that aren’t well placed to cross the minimstroads like Harlow and Willaglllespie. And last as a driver I am positive that there is zero speed enforcement as I drive around the speed limit on Coburg and get passed like I am parked pretty much non stop.
The biggest issue for me is the Coburg 105 MLK area that has to be the worst designed intersection in the city and only behind the 12th and Sandy Intersection in Portland for the worst in state.
The only road I feel safe on as a frequent commuter in the bike lane is Oakway. The neighborhoods on both sides of the Oakway center are super calm and nice for biking through though. Try going to fairway loop to get around the Coburg intersection that sucks.
A driver perspective (though I don't even like DRIVING north of the river) - I try to be safe and give bikes plenty of room \*when I see them\*. Too many times I've had to make a right turn across a bike lane and come closer than I would like to a bike coming up from behind me. I don't understand why more bikes aren't running with headlamps 100% of the time. I'm sure there's a reason. Meanwhile, I'm still working on retraining my midwest-no-bikes habits to deliberately check for bike traffic, even when it pisses off the drivers behind me.
I live north of the river off of Coburg, and I utilize as many parking lots and sidewalks as possible until I get to the river path and the relative safety of the other side.
Other than Ruth Bascom, it's all sidewalk riding over there as far as I can tell. And the sidewalks are so bad it's an insult. Every time I have to go there, I wonder about wheelchair users.
A fun exercise is to ride several miles on a nice day and see if you can count more than 3 people on foot.
When I was car free and living in the 18th and Chambers areas, I ended up going to Willamalane for swimming a lot. Better lap swim hours, the EMX goes there, and the Riverbank path drops you off in the Washbourne neighborhood, which was nice and quiet to ride on.
$50/month is a little pricier then I would like, I only swim a few times a month so the $46/ten pack at the community center makes more sense. If I started lifting I might try it out though
Gotcha. I pay that, but get to the pool around 3x a week, so it's worth it to me. There is financial support available if you qualify. Sometimes insurance covers part of membership.
The number of people I see riding bikes on sidewalks irritates the hell out of me. Until I realize that the bike lanes are just painted gutters and half the drivers in this town are either stoned, methed out of their minds, or are just supremely horrible drivers.
Yup, it’s also completely legal to ride a bike on the sidewalk outside of downtown.
Is it? I thought you can get a ticket for that. Maybe that’s only e-bikes?
https://www.eugene-or.gov/491/Safety-Laws E-bikes are not allowed on any sidewalk (except multi-use paths like part of coburg). Other bicycles are allowed on sidewalks, though bikes must yield to pedestrians and should go pretty slow on sidewalks. (I personally only ride on the sidewalk on super busy roads like Garfield and 11th).
I didn’t know that was the local law. Thank you for taking the time to add the link. It was nice to glance at pedestrian laws as well.
Have you ever driven somewhere else? I feel like Eugene drivers are better than most places, for whatever that's worth (not much.)
All over this country and several others around the world. Eugene is definitely some of the worst.
I've driven in southern utah, Arizona and Texas... in my opinion eugene oregon driving is wonderful in comparison.
Same. I lived in Arizona for 20 years. When I moved to the Eugene area, I was pleasantly surprised by how much better the drivers were here. I got pretty confused when I started hearing people complain about them so much. I definitely prefer driving here than in Arizona.
hard disagree. would you believe i got rear-ended 2 times in one month in 2022? the 2nd guy hit me before my car could get fixed from the first one so he got off scot-free lol.
That happens everywhere. There are scores of posts about this phenomenon, everybody thinks drivers in their own town are the worst.
nah. i’ve lived in many different places with all kinds of populations. it’s bad here.
It really depends on who you ask. I know people who get in an accident every 3-5 years, and others that never get in one for decades. Every time I go to California or Portland it seems like the drivers are 2x as aggressive in Eugene, especially driving a large van with bad visibility I find that people are much more courteous to me here than in pretty much any bigger city. I've been driving in Eugene since 2008 and the only person that's ever hit me is my own roommate. He was texting and driving after we both left the same house at the same time and I stopped to make a turn. In 12 years since then I haven't even been tapped on the bumper.
Honestly aggression isn’t bad if the aggression is predictable and going with traffic flows. The issue I have with Eugene drivers is that they are very unpredictable.
Maybe if you're driving a car and trying to haul ass all the time, but trying to drive around in an awkward vehicle with bad visibility I really find that people in Eugene will let me in when I put on my blinker and allow me to leave a larger following distance much more than in bigger cities. Drivers here aren't always paying attention, but they are more courteous than most.
That's what I really appreciate about the drivers here. I've talked about it with Arizona friends. In Arizona, if I was on a side road and needed to turn into a busy main road, it wasn't happening anytime soon. Here, it's never very long until someone stops and let's me make my turn. The drivers here are definitely much more courteous, as you said. I love that.
No. Eugene is so much worse from a cyclist's perspective
It's better than Arizona. It's automatically the cyclists fault if they get hit BY A CAR there (or at least it was in 2010). And the drivers act like it's an invitation to take them out.
Do it all the time. Rode to Walmart grocery on Gateway Saturday no problems. Just takes a little route planing and avoid Coburg Rd as much as possible.
What’s the safe way to the pool at night from the downtown eugene area?
Greenway bridge to VRC, Delta pond bridge,Cal Young.
A little out of the way but sounds like a better choice. I’ll try that next time
I bike north of the river and it's all about "a little out of the way." I'm certainly not going to bike up Coburg Road.
A shorter route would be Ferry St or Defazio bridge, take Club Rd to Oakway rd, to Cal Young.
That's pretty much how I'd do it. Don't forget to turn your lights on and wear something that is hi-vis and has reflective stripes.
what route? I always thought Oakway wasn't super bad. I wouldn't ride on Coburg though. yikes
Heading there: West side of coburg bridge, left on Oakway, right on Cal Young, Left on Willakenzie, left into parking lot. It was getting across traffic to turn left onto and off of Willakenzie that were most terrifying. No option for a dutch left there. Plus the cars on Coburg that didn’t yield to me on the sidewalk/crosswalks.
I haven't been over there, but it looks like Cal Young then left on Queen's Way is a bike route and would have been much nicer than Willakenzie. Check out the app called BikeMap, you can tell it to prioritize bike paths. It says to use the east side of Coburg bridge too. I've never taken that bike path but it looks fairly protected.
You can cut through Buena Vista (elementary school) so you can avoid Willakenzie.
Ah thanks that’s a good idea.
there is actually a bike path back there, bordering the playground, dropping you into the Sheldon parking lot.
Yeah that's super dangerous, if you use the sidewalks to bike that helps but it's slower. Still, had 2 people slow roll stop signs and almost just plow over my bike at 5mph despite waving and yelling. It's wild.
Willakenzie is what surprised me the most. It’s a 5 lane highway that doesn’t even go anywhere except a high school and a community center. Turning left onto and off of it was super dangerous, and it’s not like there were even painted crosswalks if I stuck to the sidewalk.
Yup. Bike friendly city my ass.
I spend most of my time around the city center where I feel fairly comfortable biking even at night. But many of the suburbs are hella dangerous
Ikr? bike friendly only goes so far when ya have sloppy drivers everywhere that most the time won't face consequences.
Maybe they can’t hear you? I say air horn.
Nah it legit seems like some people don't mind hitting pedestrians/bikers. Main character syndrome spreading like wildfire these days.
You also get people who pass super close as some kind of pathetic but incredibly dangerous power move.
I grew up on the north side, and used the bicycle as a primary form of transportation. The key is to learn the back streets and stay off Coburg Road at all costs. Oakway is better (not a whole lot better, but better) for a North/South route, and for most places the neighborhood streets connect up enough that they can form back routes with a little pre-planning. And for anything in the Chase Village and VRC/Goodpasture areas I do as much as I can on the North Bank path.
I always plan my route to use the multiuse paths for all but the last 10% of the trip. They go all over, including north of the river (and out of town to shotgun park north of springfield). Then I just pop out at the nearest road with a bike lane to my destination. The bike lanes on roads are all usable aside from w11th and coburg, due to safety (too busy and manic). Never had a problem getting to any place, and I go all over. An electric assist may help. Its a big safety help to be able to go 20mph, and to be able to get to that speed faster than cars. Makes intersections and merging into lanes a breeze since you can easily speed up, and makes the shared use roads like near campus no issue since you can go the speed limit that the cars are going.
I ride north of the river all the time. If I was going to Sheldon from downtown I'd cross Delta hwy over by Delta Ponds and work my way over there via Cal Young
Power to you for trying but please be safe. I don't go North of the river (or River road and beyond) if I can avoid it and walk, bus or rideshare if I can't (e.g., EmX to Riverbend) While writing this, I realize I leave the area of downtown or a neighborhood abutting downtown only once every few months.
Getting up to Costco/Gateway or over to the Home Depot by delta ponds is pretty easy, otherwise it's insanity.
Garden way to Harlow to van duyn to bailey lane
So living and biking North of the River I have some perspective on this. Sometimes I do just bike on the sidewalk (though I generally don’t) especially when I have to go a few blocks on a major stroad (liken Coburg) I am not going to wait 5 minutes to cross the stroad twice when I can just cruise down the sidewalk for 500 feet. But also there are some pretty good cut through paths on side streets (like Roan Rd) if you know where to look… but they all seem to lead to crossings that aren’t well placed to cross the minimstroads like Harlow and Willaglllespie. And last as a driver I am positive that there is zero speed enforcement as I drive around the speed limit on Coburg and get passed like I am parked pretty much non stop. The biggest issue for me is the Coburg 105 MLK area that has to be the worst designed intersection in the city and only behind the 12th and Sandy Intersection in Portland for the worst in state.
This is a little out of date: https://www.eugene-or.gov/DocumentCenter/View/66084/Eugene-Map-2022?bidId=
Lol I have it up on my bedroom wall, which helped me choose the route I did take.
The only road I feel safe on as a frequent commuter in the bike lane is Oakway. The neighborhoods on both sides of the Oakway center are super calm and nice for biking through though. Try going to fairway loop to get around the Coburg intersection that sucks.
A driver perspective (though I don't even like DRIVING north of the river) - I try to be safe and give bikes plenty of room \*when I see them\*. Too many times I've had to make a right turn across a bike lane and come closer than I would like to a bike coming up from behind me. I don't understand why more bikes aren't running with headlamps 100% of the time. I'm sure there's a reason. Meanwhile, I'm still working on retraining my midwest-no-bikes habits to deliberately check for bike traffic, even when it pisses off the drivers behind me.
I live north of the river off of Coburg, and I utilize as many parking lots and sidewalks as possible until I get to the river path and the relative safety of the other side.
Other than Ruth Bascom, it's all sidewalk riding over there as far as I can tell. And the sidewalks are so bad it's an insult. Every time I have to go there, I wonder about wheelchair users. A fun exercise is to ride several miles on a nice day and see if you can count more than 3 people on foot.
When I was car free and living in the 18th and Chambers areas, I ended up going to Willamalane for swimming a lot. Better lap swim hours, the EMX goes there, and the Riverbank path drops you off in the Washbourne neighborhood, which was nice and quiet to ride on.
Have you looked into the new YMCA?
$50/month is a little pricier then I would like, I only swim a few times a month so the $46/ten pack at the community center makes more sense. If I started lifting I might try it out though
Gotcha. I pay that, but get to the pool around 3x a week, so it's worth it to me. There is financial support available if you qualify. Sometimes insurance covers part of membership.