Public Talks

Rebecca Houghtaling (OSU Senior Planner) and Bob Richardson (OSU Land Use Manager) share why sustainable transportation is important to Oregon State University and explain how they will achieve their goals and overcome challenges. Their talk includes information on recent and upcoming local projects. Then Jenna Berman (ODOT Active Transportation Liaison) provides an update on the Oregon Department of Transportation’s active transportation goals, funding, and local projects. Audience questions followed their presentations.

ODOT Project Manager Jim Doll kindly accepted an invitation to a TAT monthly meeting to describe the active transportation improvements planned for Harrison Boulevard and Tyler Avenue near downtown Corvallis. In this presentation, Jim gives an overview of the changes coming to these streets and intersections and then answers questions from TAT members. The project is expected to be implemented in 2025.

This special program, which was held at OSU’s Learning Innovation Center, featured transportation professionals from Corvallis and around the state and addressed how to create a just, safe, healthy, and accessible community with limited dollars. Organized by the Mid-Valley Bicycle Club, co-sponsored by the TAT and SAFE Corvallis, the program featured Rory Rowan (City of Corvallis Transportation Division Manager), Lynn Peterson (Metro Council President and author of Roadways for People: Rethinking Transportation Planning and Engineering), and Brian Ray, PE, Manager of Sunrise Transportation Strategies LLC. 

The virtual conversation “Great Corvallis Streets” with Dan Burden focused on innovative street design concepts, as well as ideas for making specific Corvallis streets safer for everyone. The event was co-sponsored by the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition Transportation Action Team, Mid-Valley Bicycle Club, and Corvallis SAFE (Streets Are For Everyone). Dan Burden is well known in the field of Active Transportation for his pioneering work helping people, organizations, and governments transform their communities into places for people first – all while still accommodating the automobile. During the past 45 years, he has helped more than 3,000 communities re-invent their streets, neighborhoods, and towns with solutions that focus on walkability, bikeability, and greater safety for all road users.

The 2021 Street Talk event, “Intersections for People: Design, Implementation, and Community Benefits”, featured Nick Falbo, Senior Transportation Planner for the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Watch his presentation (and the Q&A) to find out how we can make intersections safer for pedestrians, bicyclists – and drivers.

At the monthly meeting, the TAT hosted the amazing Oregon State University team leading the SW Washington Way Improvement Project: Rebecca Houghtaling, Aaron Amoth, and Erin Martin. Among other modern multi-modal design elements, this project will bring the first separated two-way cycle track to Corvallis, Oregon.

Watch this virtual presentation featuring Dr. Marc Schlossberg, University of Oregon Professor of City and Regional Planning in the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management, speaking about the redesign of streets to make them safer for everyone and, at the same time, improve community livability.

On July 11, 2023, the Transportation Action Team hosted the second in a series of public forums in collaboration with the City of Corvallis Public Works Department about upcoming street projects in Corvallis. Public Works staff opened the program with a brief overview of what a neighborhood bikeway is, followed by a description of what is planned for the southern sections of the 11th Street Neighborhood Bikeway Project. Attendees posed many questions.

On March 14, 2023, the Transportation Action Team hosted the first in a series of public forums about upcoming pavement rehabilitation projects in Corvallis. Corvallis Public Works staff opened the program with a brief overview of the scope, budget, and design of the NE Circle Boulevard project. Attendees provided feedback and posed many questions, some of which City staff responded to during the program. Questions staff did not have time to answer during the forum and public comments submitted after the forum are addressed in this response by Public Works staff.