Key Routes: Enhancing Safe and Low-Stress Travel for All

A key route is a term from the Bend Transportation System Plan. It means the route is designed to be “low stress” for people walking and biking. These routes provide safe and appealing connections to schools, parks, and other places, and for traveling across the city. Examples include off-street multi-use paths, bike lanes that are buffered, separated, raised, or painted, and wider sidewalks. Here are some example projects below:

Building out key routes will take several years. To encourage more walking and biking sooner, City staff are working on a project to install more signs, striping, and wayfinding.

The City of Bend is working with the Oregon Department of Transportation, Bend Park & Recreation District, and Deschutes County to develop a coordinated wayfinding plan. This plan includes installing signs, striping, and making minor improvements to connect our existing neighborhood greenways, trails, shared-use paths, and enhanced crossings.

These initial routes aim to be comfortable for most people, including older children, but in some places, it may be less comfortable until the full key routes system is complete. Some key routes are not yet funded, and some portions may be completed by private development projects and therefore will have various completion timelines.

Below are some related terms and definitions primarily taken from our Complete Streets Manual.

Bicycle Low-Stress Network

A system of bicycle routes identified on the adopted Transportation System Plan (Figure 5-1). These routes must be built or reconstructed to provide a Level of Traffic Stress 1 or 2 (see definition below). This includes the route and the crossing of main and secondary streets.

Level of Traffic Stress

A rating for the level of comfort a facility provides for people biking or walking. It ranges from Level of Traffic Stress 1 (low stress) to Level of Traffic Stress 4 (high stress).

Stress refers to the perceived comfort of people biking. The level of traffic stress is based on factors including the speed of traffic on a road, (slower cars increase comfort for people riding bikes) and the rider’s distance from the traffic (the further the distance between bikes and cars, the more comfortable the bicyclists are).

Neighborhood Greenway

A specific type of low-stress bicycle facility that is a shared lane on a local street with signs and pavement markings. It may have additional traffic calming to encourage slower speeds. If the street lacks sidewalks on one or both sides, the shared lane may also serve as a pedestrian facility.

Shared-Use Path

A shared-use path provides a travel area separate from motorized traffic for bicyclists, pedestrians, skaters, wheelchair users, joggers, and other users. Shared-use paths can provide a low-stress experience for a variety of users using the network for transportation or recreation. A shared-use path can be part of a key route.