Alex and Kathy Monterrosa had never visited Eugene before last week, but the track enthusiasts from Anchorage, Alaska, are enjoying the city’s environmentally-conscious ethos.
“Oregon is much more environmentally conscious” than their home state, Kathy Monterrosa said as they arrived at the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials by way of a free shuttle.
The couple drove a 19-foot Class-B converted van from Anchorage last week – “We’re totally against the big rigs,” Kathy Monterrosa said – and are staying at an RV park nine miles outside Eugene. Each day they drive to Autzen Stadium and ride Lane Transit District’s shuttle to the Trials.
“It would have been more difficult” without the shuttle, Alex Monterrosa said, and more time-consuming and expensive. Two regular LTD routes service the area where they are staying, but at inconvenient hours.
The only downside is they have to be on the shuttle within a half hour after the last event each night in order to catch the last shuttle, “so we don’t stay for the awards ceremony,” Kathy Monterrosa said.
The free shuttles to and from Autzen Stadium and South Eugene High School are just one small part of a sweeping effort on the part of the city and Eugene 08 organizers to make the Trials sustainable.

Biodiesel is used whenever possible in vehicles on festival grounds. Hayward Field has been equipped with a state-of-the-art lighting system that organizers say is 40 percent more efficient than any other sports lighting fixtures available today. The stage in the festival area is solar powered, as is an Allan Bros. coffee tent.
All vendors were required to provide compostable utensils, and there are composting and recycling containers next to every garbage container.
Alex Monterrosa said he appreciates having a recycling container near the shuttle stops because he can drink water on the way in and recycle his bottle when he arrives. Outside beverages are not allowed inside the festival, though empty plastic bottles smaller than 1.5 liters are permitted.
Wind and solar power from Eugene Water and Electric Board’s renewable energy program power the entire festival, and some energy is produced by festival-goers on stationary bicycles at the Safeway Human Powered Energy tent.
Jeff Baker, a Eugene resident and University alumnus, took a turn on one of the 14 bikes.
“It’s kind of a cool idea,” he said. “A pretty Eugene concept, I think.”
Another concept, created in Eugene, is the bicycle valet service from the Center for Appropriate Transport. Karl Benedek, the program’s coordinator, said the city contacted him about setting up at the Trials.
Benedek said CAT previously offered valet bicycle parking at events around Eugene such as Art and the Vineyard and Eugene Celebration. He was even called upon to help arrange bicycle parking for Olympic events before.
“When the Olympics came to Atlanta, they called us and asked us how to do valet bike parking,” he said. “We just, you know, gave them our secrets.”
Those secrets included a system of clipping numbered tags to each bike and finding a secure space, in this case East 15th Avenue and Moss Street, where cyclists feel safe leaving their possessions, Benedek said.
Cyclists drop off their bikes at the front of the lot. Eugene 08 volunteers then give the cyclist a numbered ticket and park the bikes without letting anyone but a designated volunteer into the lot.
Visitors from every state have had their bikes parked, he said, and the lot was filled to its 450-bike limit twice in the first two days. Over-sized, tandem and recumbent bikes, as well as skateboards and anything that can reasonably hang from a bike are allowed in the lot.
“People came by yesterday and they dropped by their skateboards, their helmets and their diapers,” Benedek said.
The Eugene 08 Local Organizing Committee’s focus on sustainability seems to have paid off, at least for the Monterrosas. They plan to come back in 2012, and were impressed with the University’s campus.
“We might have to tell our grandkids,” Kathy Monterrosa said.
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