The Central Oregon Series on Transportation (COST) is a seminar series intended to promote professional development and advancements in Transportation Engineering and Planning in Central Oregon.
Protected bike lanes, also known as “cycle tracks†or “separated bike lanes,†and buffered bike lanes are seeing a surge in interest around the country, including Central Oregon. These enhanced bike lanes have the capability to attract a wider range of people to bicycle than conventional on-street treatments do. Join Nick Foster and Scott Beaird as they discuss their experiences with cycle tracks and other innovative bicycle facilities around Bend. Nick will discuss their benefits, impacts, best practices, and lessons learned from his work on a recently completed national study of protected bike lanes, as well as an effort to implement protected and buffered bike lanes in downtown Boise, Idaho. Scott will discuss pedestrian and bicycle facilities that were implemented as part of the recent Riverside/Franklin project.
Following the discussion, Scott and Nick will lead an optional bike tour of facilities around Bend that will include Riverside Boulevard as well as the raised bicycle lanes along Reed Market Road. We will have a few bikes available for use on the bike tour. Please email Ashleigh at agriffin@kittelson.com if you plan to attend the bike ride and will need to borrow a bike so that we have enough bikes. Please bring your own helmet.
Sign-in & network begins at 11:45 am, and the presentation will start at noon. We will head out on the bike tour around 1 pm. Drinks and cookies will be provided. Please bring your own bag lunch. If you have any questions regarding this event, please contact Ashleigh Griffin at (541) 312-8300. We hope you can join us!
About the Speakers:
Nick Foster, AICP, is a Senior Planner at Kittelson & Associates focused on bicycle and pedestrian planning and multimodal safety analysis. His experience with bicycle facility planning and design ranges from regional and citywide plans to corridor-specific designs to research on protected bike lanes and user comfort. Nick recently returned to full-time work at Kittelson & Associates after spending time at Portland State University where he worked on the largest evaluation of protected bike lanes (a.k.a. “cycle tracksâ€) in the U.S. to-date. He has been a guest lecturer in graduate and professional development transportation courses at Portland State University on the topic of bicycle and pedestrian facility performance (i.e. level-of-service analysis) and helped develop a graduate course at PSU on bicycle and pedestrian engineering. Nick is an active member of the American Planning Association, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, and the Institute of Transportation Engineers. He is a native Oregonian and former Bend resident.
Scott Beaird, PE, is an Associate Engineer at Kittelson & Associates in the Bend, Oregon office. He specializes in multimodal traffic design, traffic operations, and corridor evaluations. His multimodal experience includes pedestrian and bicycle crossing treatments; roundabout design; and corridor safety and operations analysis. He is engaged in NCUTCD as a member of the Signals Technical Committee and the Roundabouts Task Force, which provides a current understanding of advances in the industry and changes to the MUTCD. Through NCUTCD, Scott is actively advancing innovative solutions, such as bicycle signals, roundabouts, and new pedestrian crossing treatments.