Far too many of our friends and neighbors have been hit or endangered by cars while walking or biking in Corvallis.
We must work to make our streets safer for all by prioritizing accessible walking, rolling, and public transportation in all our decisions.
Adopt evidence-based street and intersection designs that prioritize safety.
Busy roads divide communities and make people afraid to walk. Massive expanses of blacktop aren’t just expensive to maintain—they also heat up our city, make the landscape less pleasant, and carry an extremely high environmental cost. Pavement takes up a huge amount of space, with some cities dedicating up to 40% of their area to it. Imagine how different Corvallis would look if we used that space more wisely.
Prioritize active and public transportation in all infrastructure decisions. We must actually implement the City’s Transportation Systems Plan – and build the neighborhood bikeways now, not ten years from now! Utilize the solutions proposed in the Active Transportation Toolkit to build a safer, more bike and pedestrian friendly community.
The yearly budget to maintain roads – which primarily serve cars and parking – is over 20 million dollars, which is about 8% of the city’s budget and nearly twice as much as the entire parks and recreation department budget. The city estimates that to meet all road maintenance needs, we’d need to increase the street budget by over 13%. Transitioning to active transportation will reduce wear and tear on our roads and reduce maintenance costs.