Four months after University of Oregon doctoral student Erick Njue was killed biking across Patterson Street, community members are putting up signs along the road. They read, “Be patient, be safe,” “We all share the road” and “Drive with heart.”
As part of ongoing action towards fewer traffic deaths in Eugene, several advocacy groups joined forces with a goal of making the street safer.
Jacob Schmidt, a UO PhD candidate and member of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, spoke to the loss of Njue and the need for safer streets.
“Erick was a remarkable person. He was a source of light and joy in his community. We can’t afford to lose people like Erick to irresponsible driving, bad road design and the slow-grinding process of municipal decision making,” Schmidt said, choking up. “The rising number of traffic deaths needs to be taken seriously and addressed as the public health crisis that it is.”
Incoming President of the Associated Students of the UO, Quadrian Gill, said he grew up biking in Eugene.
“I've biked on Highway 99, I've biked across Eugene, I’ve biked on a lot of the shared roads that exist, and I have cars constantly beaming by me,” he said. “While the city has a reputation of being a bike-friendly city, I think there are major gaps in our network that we can all work together to fix and address.”
A proposal spearheaded by Live Move, a University of Oregon Transportation and Livability Student Group, could fill those gaps.
Dean Wysocki is a fourth-year student and member of the group who helped create a redesign for a stretch of Patterson Street.
The design would make the street one lane with designated bus and pedestrian space.
“This redesign really focuses on removing space from cars and giving space towards pedestrians and cyclists,” Wysocki said. “The goal is for cars to travel at slower speeds, and at slower speeds, those injuries and fatalities drop to much lower percentages, and hopefully reach that zero number.”
The redesign would only require affordable materials, Wysocki said. “No concrete has to be poured for this to happen. You can go out there with paint and posts on a sunny day, and make this change happen to increase the safety for all the families and kids on the street.”
Wysocki said he hoped the community would get involved with the implementation of the design if it got picked up.
"We hope the City of Eugene takes this proposal seriously,” he said.
The proposed name for the project is the Erick Njue Connector.
