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Sheila Lyons knows a thing or two about looking at the world from the seat of a bicycle. When she first came to Oregon from Arizona she pedaled here.
To make streets nice for pedestrians and bikers, Lyons said you've got to get out from behind the windshield and see how things look through the eyes of a pedestrian or bicyclist.
"To ride a bike is a minority experience. A lot of people just don't get it," Lyons said. "Motorists don't get it."
Lyons, a bicycle and pedestrian specialist with the Oregon Department of Transportation in Corvallis, came to Roseburg Monday night to give some ideas of how to make the city more appealing for those moving by foot or pedal.
She was invited after the city discovered a lot of interest in bicycle and pedestrian travel as the final draft of the transportation system plan came in.
"We know that bicycling and walking are cheap, low-impact methods of transportation," she said.
She said at one time communities designed streets with an eye toward people moving about without a car, but after World War II, city planners made towns more automobile-oriented, and then auto-dependent, with even schools on the edges of town.
"Most kids now get driven to school," she said.
A large, receptive audience of residents listened attentively as she spoke, sometimes questioning how to get her ideas put into the city's proposed transportation system plan.
"The transportation plan, probably, invariably, it has an auto-oriented focus," she said to some chagrin. "Roseburg is not unique, it is not alone in that."
Lyons said livable communities start with a good, connected road network with a grid pattern. Walking distances are shorter in a grid system, and commuters have more options, reducing the need for wide, imposing arterials that no one wants to walk down.
A good sidewalk corridor, she said, consists of a curb, a "furniture space" or parking strip of grass, a 6-foot sidewalk, and the frontage of a property.
City Manager Eric Swanson spoke up more than once to address improvements Roseburg is making with the pedestrian in mind, such as with the Douglas Avenue streetscape in front of the Douglas County Courthouse.
As far as bicycles, Lyons asked for shared-use on residential streets, and a bike lane on larger streets.
"Bike boulevards" is an idea popular in places like Portland, where secondary through-streets have had four-way stops removed and roundabouts put in place that help calm car traffic and ease bike traffic.
"A good roadway design accommodates bicyclists as well as pedestrians and as well as motor vehicles," she said.
Lyons did promote some low-cost ideas, such as simple restriping, either widening the outside lane on a four-lane street so cars can share the road with bicycles, or narrowing both lanes to allow for a bike lane on the shoulder.
Charles Lamb, advocate for the Mill-Pine District, suggested another low-cost solution: making the drainage grates run perpendicular to bicycle traffic.
"The grates, if they're placed in the same direction as the bike lane, it becomes a land mine," Lamb said.
* You can reach reporter Chris Gray at 957-4218 or by e-mail at cgray@newsreview.info.
To make streets nice for pedestrians and bikers, Lyons said you've got to get out from behind the windshield and see how things look through the eyes of a pedestrian or bicyclist.
"To ride a bike is a minority experience. A lot of people just don't get it," Lyons said. "Motorists don't get it."
Lyons, a bicycle and pedestrian specialist with the Oregon Department of Transportation in Corvallis, came to Roseburg Monday night to give some ideas of how to make the city more appealing for those moving by foot or pedal.
She was invited after the city discovered a lot of interest in bicycle and pedestrian travel as the final draft of the transportation system plan came in.
"We know that bicycling and walking are cheap, low-impact methods of transportation," she said.
She said at one time communities designed streets with an eye toward people moving about without a car, but after World War II, city planners made towns more automobile-oriented, and then auto-dependent, with even schools on the edges of town.
"Most kids now get driven to school," she said.
A large, receptive audience of residents listened attentively as she spoke, sometimes questioning how to get her ideas put into the city's proposed transportation system plan.
"The transportation plan, probably, invariably, it has an auto-oriented focus," she said to some chagrin. "Roseburg is not unique, it is not alone in that."
Lyons said livable communities start with a good, connected road network with a grid pattern. Walking distances are shorter in a grid system, and commuters have more options, reducing the need for wide, imposing arterials that no one wants to walk down.
A good sidewalk corridor, she said, consists of a curb, a "furniture space" or parking strip of grass, a 6-foot sidewalk, and the frontage of a property.
City Manager Eric Swanson spoke up more than once to address improvements Roseburg is making with the pedestrian in mind, such as with the Douglas Avenue streetscape in front of the Douglas County Courthouse.
As far as bicycles, Lyons asked for shared-use on residential streets, and a bike lane on larger streets.
"Bike boulevards" is an idea popular in places like Portland, where secondary through-streets have had four-way stops removed and roundabouts put in place that help calm car traffic and ease bike traffic.
"A good roadway design accommodates bicyclists as well as pedestrians and as well as motor vehicles," she said.
Lyons did promote some low-cost ideas, such as simple restriping, either widening the outside lane on a four-lane street so cars can share the road with bicycles, or narrowing both lanes to allow for a bike lane on the shoulder.
Charles Lamb, advocate for the Mill-Pine District, suggested another low-cost solution: making the drainage grates run perpendicular to bicycle traffic.
"The grates, if they're placed in the same direction as the bike lane, it becomes a land mine," Lamb said.
* You can reach reporter Chris Gray at 957-4218 or by e-mail at cgray@newsreview.info.
