Attendees of the Bend 2030 Transportation Forum want more and safer bike routes, a more complete sidewalk grid, plus a more robust transit system—and they’re willing to pay for it. These and other details of the input provided by more than 175 people who attended the forum were released this week by Bend 2030 in its Transportation Forum Report.
Bend 2030 will now test the ideas shared at the forum with the broader community through a statistically valid survey, as well as an online community survey.
Both the information gleaned from the forum, which was held on April 11 and the surveys, which will be conducted in early summer, will be used to create community-supported recommendations to our significant transportation issues. Bend 2030 will then advocate for those solutions with decision-makers.
This initiative comes at a critical time for our city. By 2030, Bend’s population is expected to grow by 40 percent, or 35,000 people. This growth poises many challenges, but one of the greatest is providing a transportation system capable of accommodating our community’s needs.
Congestion is already an issue on many roadways in the city, and few new roads are planned for the future. This situation is exacerbated by a two-pronged funding challenge: 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.
Participants at the forum, which is an initiative of the Bend 2030 Livability Series, learned about our community’s long-term Vision for our transportation system, including that we should develop an interconnected system of highways, highways, roads, bikeways, and trails with a strong transit system and a wide variety of multi-modal transportation options. Participants then learned about the challenges to accomplishing this Vision. They then provided their own ideas for achieving it through a dozen different interactive projects, the results of which are described in the report released today.
Over 30 ideas for funding the development of our transportation system are shared in the report released today, but the most commonly suggested funding solutions were a gas tax, a tourism-related tax such as on food and beverage, and a studded tire fee, the report shows.
Those funding solutions and other transportation ideas will soon be tested through a statistically valid survey, which was developed in cooperation with statistician Matt Johnson of OSU-Cascades, as well as an online community survey available to everyone.
The Bend 2030 Transportation Forum report can be found online at Bend2030.org or via the Bend 2030 Facebook page at Facebook.com/Bend2030.
Funding for the Bend 2030 Livability Series is provided by the generous support of the Leadership Alliance of Bend 2030, including BendBroadband, Bend Park and Recreation District, Brooks Resources, Central Oregon Community College, the City of Bend, Deschutes Brewery, OSU-Cascades, St. Charles Health System, U.S. Forest Service, and Harcourt The Garner Group/Sunwest Builders/NorthWest Crossing. Funding for the Transportation Forum was also provided by Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council.
Erin Foote Marlowe
Bend 2030 Interim Executive Director
541-420-8603
erinfootemarlowe@gmail.com
