I shot some video with my helmet camera riding North Bound on South Willamette, between 24th and 29th. The city is working on plans for South Willamette that are hopefully going to include good facilities for bicycles, pedestrians, and motor vehicles. To read more about the city’s plans, here is more information.
Video was taken going North Bound on the roadway on January 11, 2012 around 3:40pm.
You can see/hear how bad the roads are right now, and that there is no place for cyclists to safely ride. I live right off of this street and find this road very uninviting in its current conditions to both pedestrians and cyclists. When walking on the sidewalks, there are frequent driveways going out into the street, and if you (or a driver) aren’t paying attention you could easily be hit by someone pulling in, or exiting any of these driveways. Angel and I feel like we are cut off behind this road with no side streets that can truly get us anywhere necessary. The road is too narrow to allow for 4 full lanes of cars and bicy
clists to ride safely alongside. You can see in the video 2 cars squeeze by me, the second aggressively honking, then squeezing between me and another car quickly only to stop a couple of yards ahead at an intersection. I am an experienced cyclist, and used to conditions like this, but would not recommend for other cyclists to ride on this street in this condition. I myself don’t enjoy riding on this street and avoid it whenever possible. Hopefully the new plans will address some of these problems, making it safer for all to use.
Bread Bike 