Bend Is Moving Forward. Medford Is Moving Back.
While Medford's city council votes to spend $1 million tearing out a bike lane that was working, other Oregon cities are going in the opposite direction. Take a look at what Bend is doing.
That's Bend deploying small street sweepers, sometimes called "hogs", specifically to keep their bike lanes clean and usable year-round. Think about what that represents: Bend isn't just building bike lanes, they're actively maintaining them. They're investing in the operations side because they see the infrastructure as worth protecting. Medford on the other hand is removing infrastructure and not thinking forward.
What Bend Is Actually Building
The Bend Bikeway Project is an effort to create continuous routes of bike lanes. These aren't painted stripes on a busy road. These are separated, multi-modal routes funded by a voter-approved transportation bond.
And once they're built, Bend is cleaning them.
What Medford Is Doing
Medford wants to remove lanes and hamper economic development within its city core.