Thank you Citywide Transportation Advisory Committee!
After two years of work, the 21-member Citywide Transportation Advisory Committee (CTAC) recently held their final meeting. Thank you CTAC for your hard work and your commitment to creating a better future for transportation in Bend!
CTAC’s charge was to develop a new Transportation System Plan (TSP) for the City of Bend that will guide all of Bend’s transportation infrastructure, programs, and policies over the next 20 years. The draft TSP, which now has CTAC’s stamp of approval, calls for meaningful changes to Bend’s transportation system.
Rather than continue being a city reliant on expensive and dangerous infrastructure that primarily serves cars, the new TSP plans for more safe and convenient bike paths, sidewalks, transit service, and roads. It ensures no new five-lane roads will create barriers through our neighborhoods. It calls for large employers to manage the demand their employees put on our roads. Implementation of the TSP’s projects and programs should reduce the amount of driving the average Bend resident has to do on a daily basis. And it plans for right-sized investments that won’t burden taxpayers with unnecessary, expensive megaprojects.
Crucially, CTAC’s final task was to develop transportation performance targets. The targets approved by CTAC will ensure that the TSP delivers real outcomes beneficial to all of Bend’s residents, and include the following:
A new transportation equity program
Double the percentage of trips taken by walking, biking, and riding transit
Build 12 new key routes for safe walking and biking across town by 2030
A pedestrian network master plan
No increase in vehicle miles traveled per capita
No deaths and a 50% reduction in serious injuries on our roadways
A new speed monitoring program
Reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions by 29%
It takes good planning to create a city that is walkable, bikable, and vibrant. It won’t happen overnight, but if we implement the new TSP developed by CTAC, travelling around Bend will be a more safe, equitable, and convenient experience by 2040.
CTAC’s final action was to forward all chapters of the City’s new TSP to the Transportation Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is comprised of City Council plus one Bend Planning Commissioner, one Deschutes County Commissioner, and one ODOT representative. It is up to them to approve the draft TSP so it can be formally adopted.
The Steering Committee’s final meeting is June 18 from 1-4pm and will be held remotely (online). Tell the Steering Committee that you support all of CTAC’s recommendations, including the Chapter 7 performance targets, and that the Steering Committee should adopt the draft TSP as proposed.
Emails must be received by kswirsky@bendoregon.gov by 10am on Thursday, June 18.