Springfield Plan Has Miles of Protected Bikeways

Springfield may have leaped ahead of Eugene as far as progressive bike planning for its downtown.

Eugene's much ignored, vague downtown plan provides little for bikes, but a proposed new plan for Springfield's downtown includes a host of cutting edge protected bikeways—the gold standard of bike transportation.

From Springfield's PowerPoint presentation on its proposed plan, here's a picture of what a protected bikeway might look like:

The idea is to have a network of such protected bikeways (in blue below) leading to downtown:

Here's a more detailed map with the protected bikeways in red:

The proposal also includes what appears to be a new bike bridge linking Island Park and Glenwood:

The plan includes 9,125 linear feet of "protected pedestrian/bikeway." The plan calls for "increased emphasis on the design of streets to serve pedestrians and bicycles."

When will all this actually get built, if ever? Timing and funding appear fuzzy. A project timeline goes out seven years but doesn't mention the bike projects. One of the first projects would be a redeveloped, two-way main street, but it doesn't appear to include cyclists:

Springfield hired the award winning Portland design firm of Crandall Arambula to create the proposed downtown plan.

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