After months of construction, the High Street bikeway is nearing completion. The two-way protected bikeway will connect the Amazon Path to the Riverbank Path. High Street is a popular northbound route for many community members looking to access destinations from South Eugene to Downtown. 
Construction of the bike lane was initially planned to start in the winter or spring of 2023 and finish in the summer. However, delays resulting from a backorder of signal poles pushed the project back months. 
The protected bike lane will include new safety features to ensure the safety of all pedestrians. 
Senior Transportation Planner for the city of Eugene, Reed Dunbar, explained how the project aims to provide enough space for people to ride bikes socially, side by side. “We built it as a two-way protected [bike lane] so that it feels like a shared use path,” Dunbar said. “We’re trying to build a system that connects campus to Downtown and then gets [people] through Downtown, up to the riverbank path system along the Willamette.” 
UO Sophomore Kieran Dreier said that he frequently bikes around campus and the West University neighborhood. As a resident of the 515 apartment complex, Drier thinks that the bike lane will make moving from campus to downtown easier. 
“Connecting campus to downtown is a big step forward in making Eugene bikeable,” Dreier said. “It’s going to allow on-campus students to visit other parts of Eugene, since most students don’t have cars.” 
Dunbar said that “at the intersections where [drivers] are making decisions, we [the city] don’t have a signal for the bikes.” 
Without a signal for bikes, drivers using High Street will not be expecting riders moving against the flow of traffic. 
“It’s actually pretty dangerous to be using it [the High Street bike lane] right now. It is officially still closed until we have those signals done,” Dunbar said. “Folks are using [the lane], but they are doing that at their own risk.”
The project has been delayed due to a multitude of factors. The pavement and the striping of the lane were completed last fall, a few months after originally planned. Delays in getting signal poles have also slowed down the project. 
Delays in getting necessary materials for the bike line are attributed to the pandemic. Dunbar explained that they [the city] were told that manufacturers and wholesalers simply need more material. “They just don’t have the supply,” Dunbar said. 
“It used to take six to nine months to get a pole, but now it takes about twelve,” Dunbar said.
Eugene has been ranked as one of the most bike-friendly cities in America. “We’re trying to build something that is what we call all ages and abilities, so you don’t have to be a confident cyclist to ride to wherever it is that you’re going,” Dunbar said. “I’ve been told over the next couple weeks that they [the city] will be finalizing it, and [the lane] should be open in March.”

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18th and High Street bike lane advances toward completion. (Kai Kanzer/Emerald)