Thursday, January 15, 2009

City Council to Vote on Signs for Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway

On February 2nd, City Council will decide whether to approve the request to install signage for the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway.

Alex Phillips, Bicycle Recreation Coordinator for Oregon Parks & Recreation, notes that "The Willamette Valley Bikeway has been in existence since about 2005, but not all intersections were marked and the website was out of date." One of her chief projects is to update the bikeway and better publicize it. The signage is part of this project.

About the bikeway she adds
The bikeway highlights Salem's historic and cultural resources from the viewpoint of a bicyclist
The bikeway showcases the state capitol
The bikeway shows that Salem is a bike friendly town
The bikeway brings economic development and activity to the core of downtown

The Bikeway northern terminus is at Champoeg State Park, with its southern terminus at Armitage County Park, north of Eugene. The route passes through downtown Salem. The scenery along the way includes the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge, the Willamette River, Oregon's world famous hops farms and vineyards.

A new brochure, web page and map of the route will be published by State Parks and Recreation this spring.

The cities of Keizer and Albany have already installed the signs. Lane, Marion and Linn County are in the process of installing them.

The council session offers another opportunity for bicyclists to let the city know how important bicycling is to us! All members of council can be reached at Citycouncil@cityofsalem.net.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am a resident of Salem, and all for this. It's sound, has long term benefits, green and offers benefits to all.

Walker said...

Is there a map of the bikeway that shows the elevation change profile along the route?

Salem Breakfast on Bikes said...

I checked with Alex, and she says that there isn't at present. The route is pretty flat through French Prairie and there's one hill just south of Brownsville. If enough bicyclists would find it useful, she could see about adding one, but since it was so flat, she didn't see a strong need for a separate graphic.

Thanks for asking!

Alex said...

Walker: After getting your question if the bikeway will have an elevation profile I decided to add one. It will show on the new maps which will be posted to www.stateparks.org in about a month.
Alex