And the city's response? Hey, we have problems like this all over town. Take a number and get in line.
Sadly, this section of east Bend does not have the wherewithal to do what is necessary: Sue the city until it fixes this deadly roadway, which has no bike lanes let alone a sidewalk. But, there is plenty of room for all that and more.
The city knows it doesn't have to do anything about Reed Market because the citizens in east Bend have no political clout and little recourse.
Yes, a bond measure was passed in May that would address the problems on Reed Market, but that work won't happen for at least three years, at the earliest. This means that more deaths are likely on this roadway.
The city engineer said that the accident that killed the teen was unusual, but hard to prevent.
He did concede that the accident was caused by traffic that backed up due to a car making a left-hand turn from Reed Market onto Pettigrew, a well-traveled road that takes drivers to Costco.
Hello, Mr. Engineer, but maybe a dedicated left-hand turn lane would've solved this problem?
But, no! This isn't possible because ... it's east Bend and who cares what those people think.
The city needs to be sued until it fixes immediately the deadly traffic problems on Reed Market.
"...the citizens in east Bend have no political clout and little recourse."
ReplyDeleteFriend of mine, H. Bruce Miller, a fellow who's been in Bend for a fair amount of time, tells me that the west side gets more attention from the city because they are more active, politically. They show up at meetings and get all squeaky-wheelie.
BTW, I'm a cyclist myself and I had an employee killed on the parkway last year when he and his daughter were crossing at the crosswalk. I've ridden the stretch of Reed Market Road where this child was just killed -- once. It's neither safe nor pleasant. Bike lanes would help. Getting storm drains out of bike lanes would help. If every man in Bend didn't drive an unnecessarily-oversized pickup truck it would reduce the white-knuckle factor a lot. It's also not encouraging to see so many people (the majority being women, based on my observations riding around town) yapping on their cell phones while driving.
ReplyDelete"the west side gets more attention from the city because they are more active, politically. They show up at meetings and get all squeaky-wheelie.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if that is true or not but Reed Market is a major artery for everyone who lives in Bend. Greenwood, Reed Market, and Revere are the major links through town. It should not be an "East Side" issue as everyone uses Reed Market at some point. It's like the parkway issue you speak of...neither east or west, just an issue in general. The city chose to ignore it and build some roundabouts instead. This is why they put out the PR piece in the Bully the other day....I travel through the crash zone daily and I see at least two accidents in a month and in the winter, it's one a week. Heck, there was a rear ender the morning the PR piece in the Bully was published. Most of of the accidents are caused by people not paying attention but the road does compound the issue. People aren't smart enough or caring enough to actually change their driving habits so we have to find a solution for Reed Market. The east side west side divide is only in one's ego. I've lived and owned on both sides of town over the last 20 years and I always had to put Bend, Oregon as part of my return address. I eventually chose way east because I was tired on living on a postage stamp and narrow congested streets. That's my personal choice but if the the death trap was on the west side, I'd be wanting it resolved just the same....