Council Votes 6-2 to Reconsider Main Street, Adopts Option 2A

At its Wednesday April 15th meeting, the Medford City Council voted 6-2 to reconsider its January decision on Main Street and directed staff to move forward with Option 2A, the two-lane design with angled parking on one side. This option eliminates the current two-way protected bike lane, since parking will be on the left, and creates a non-protected painted bike lane on the right. The motion was brought by Councilor Nick Card at the end of the meeting, during council business. It is also worth noting this was not listed on the published agenda.

Voting yes: Card, Stine, Smith, West, Ayers, Kerlinger. Voting no: Quinn, Keating.

The motion replaces the Option 1 direction from January, which would have restriped Main Street to three vehicle lanes. Option 2A keeps Main Street at two lanes, adds roughly 40 parking spaces, and removes the existing protected bike lane. City staff have also said Option 2A does not meet the buffering requirements of the ODOT Safer Routes to School grant, which would need to be paid back.

City Attorney Eric Mitten told the council a ratifying resolution will come back to them at the second council meeting in May.

Procedure was the main point of contention

Both no votes were cast on procedural grounds, not on the design itself.

Councilor John Quinn voted no because the reconsideration was added at the end of the meeting with no agenda notice:

"The takeaway should be I want you to be heard, and that's not what's happening today by doing it at the 11th hour at the end of a meeting without an agenda."

Councilor Kevin Keating made the same point and added that the majority was overriding both public comment and staff's own recommended option:

"We are not taking the people's word for it, we're not taking our own staff's word for the particular version that they thought was the best, and we're picking something out of thin air."

Keating also pushed back on Councilor Kevin Stine's argument that coverage in the Rogue Valley Times that morning had given the public notice:

Other notable quotes from the yes side

Councilor Garrett West spoke at length about supporting safe, protected bike facilities in Medford, then voted to remove the one Medford has:

"I want protected bike lanes wherever we can reasonably have them in the city of Medford."

On angled parking, West told the council he had used it in Bend, Salem, Portland, and Depoe Bay and felt comfortable:

"I didn't even realize this was a different kind of parking arrangement because it's not a different kind of parking arrangement."

The TSAP vote, earlier in the same meeting

Earlier in the evening, the council unanimously adopted Council Bill 2026-26, the 2026 Transportation Safety Action Plan (TSAP). The plan identifies Main Street as part of Medford's High Injury Network and recommends buffered bike lanes and conflict striping on Main Street. The council adopted the TSAP and then, later the same night, voted 6-2 to remove the protected bike lane on Main Street.

What happens next

The ratifying resolution on Option 2A is scheduled to come back to the council at the second meeting in May. That means there are at least 2 more meetings to keep informing the council they are making a mistake. So if you haven't yet, please e-mail the city!

The full Panopto recording of the April 15 meeting is here. The Option 2A debate begins at roughly 1:40.

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