Tonight: The Irony Sitting Right on the Agenda

Tonight, Wednesday April 15th, the Medford City Council meets at 6:00 PM at Medford City Hall, 411 West 8th Street, Room 300. Please show up. If you can be there by 5:45, even better.

If you can't make it in person, email the council before noon today at PublicComments@cityofmedford.org. Comments received by noon on the day of the meeting get entered into the official record.

Read the agenda

Item 80.1 on tonight's agenda is Council Bill 2026-26: A resolution approving and adopting the 2026 City of Medford Transportation Safety Action Plan (TSAP). This is the plan the city has spent the last two years building with Kittelson & Associates, the Active Transportation Advisory Committee, the Transportation Commission, and the Planning Commission. It supports Medford's adopted Vision Zero goal of zero roadway fatalities or serious injuries by 2035.

Every one of those bodies has recommended approval.

Now read what the TSAP actually says about Main Street. The High Injury Network, the 29 miles of roadway where roughly three-quarters of Medford's fatal and serious-injury crashes happen, calls out Main Street by name:

"The HIN shows the predominance of crash history on arterials near the center of town, such as Riverside Avenue, Central Avenue, and Main Street..."

It also mentions the city's need for buffered bike lanes.

"Bicycle Facilities: Install buffered bike lanes and conflict striping."

The TSAP the council is being asked to adopt tonight, the one every advisory body has endorsed, explicitly recommends buffered, conflict-striped bike lanes on Main Street. That is the same segment of Main Street where the council is also, separately, considering tearing out the existing protected bike lane in favor of Option 2A.

That is the irony sitting on tonight's agenda. The council cannot adopt a Transportation Safety Action Plan that recommends buffered bike lanes on Main Street and then, weeks later, vote to remove the bike lanes on Main Street. Both of those things cannot be true at the same time.

What to say tonight

If you go, you don't need a speech. Two minutes is plenty. Something like:

"I'm asking the council to adopt the TSAP tonight, and to take seriously what it says. The plan identifies Main Street as part of the High Injury Network. The plan recommends buffered bike lanes and conflict striping on Main Street. Please be consistent with the plan you are about to pass when the Main Street vote comes up."

Or say it in your own words. Talk about your commute, your kid's walk to school, or a friend who won't ride downtown without a protected lane. Any of it lands.

Why tonight matters

Every meeting where the bike lane comes up and the room is empty, the council hears silence and calls it consensus. The council only counts the people who actually show up or write in.

So come to City Hall at 6 PM, or send the email before noon so it makes the record. The TSAP vote is tonight. The Option 2A vote is coming. They are the same fight.

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