Bend, Oregon, USA
If you’ve lived in Bend, Oregon for any amount of time you begin to realize what a special place it is. People who call Bend home are neighborly. It is common to start a new friendship just while waiting in line somewhere. Neighbors get together to share the cost of renting an aerator for their lawns in the spring, or act as snow angels plowing, snow blowing, or shoveling together to help their neighbors. If it is not yet what you imagine it could be, this town is small enough that folks can still come together and make it better.
Trip Length Matters

While the population of Bend is just about 100,000, it has a much smaller footprint than say, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  Bend is a relatively compact 33 square miles – about 9 miles at its longest north-south limits and 7 miles at its widest east-west limits. Tuscaloosa, with the same population, sprawls over 66 square miles. For folks in Bend, this means that biking could be a great way to get around if folks were comfortable enough and the routes were well-connected enough. 25% of all trips in Bend are less than 1 mile, which would be about a 15-minute walk or a 5-minute bike ride. Another 26% of all trips in Bend are 1 to 3 miles long, or just a 5- to 15-minute bike ride. What would it take to get 51% of all trips to be made by walking and bicycling in Bend? How would that affect traffic congestion, air quality, safety, livability? How would that affect people’s health? Would we be healthier getting our 10,000 steps in everyday? Imagine if all the folks who rode in the 4th of July Freedom Ride were able to ride for their everyday transportation needs in Bend!

Bend, Oregon July 4th Freedom Ride


Robin

Robin Lewis is a transportation engineer for a medium-sized but rapidly growing city, Bend, Oregon. She has worked together with other staff to: create the City's bicycling master plan which includes a mapped network of low-stress bicycling routes; normalize the use of roundabouts over traffic signals (Bend has 43 and counting); and update the city's standards to require low-stress walking and bicycling facilities, including cross-walks.

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