Community Highlights

Bend is designated as a Silver-level community due to its excellent planning policies and engineering guidelines that demonstrate a commitment to creating and supporting a well-connected pedestrian network. Highlights of Bend’s application include:

• The city’s development code includes pedestrian friendly short block length standards and connectivity standards for new development.
• Bend has over 25 miles of trails, most notably the Deschutes River Trail System, which connects some of the city’s most popular parks and entertainment districts. The city has another 50 miles of trails in its current planning documents and these projects will likely be supported by a recent $29 million bond measure for the parks and trails system.
• Bend uses a variety of parking management strategies to ensure a more attractive walking environment, including maximum parking standards, landscape buffers, shared parking, and in some areas, locational requirements that parking to be behind the building so building stays in close proximity to the sidewalk.
• Bend has done a great job including pedestrian facilities on the city’s many bridges!
• Crosswalks are included in the city’s pavement marking inventory and are on a 3-4 year maintenance cycle. To warn drivers about crossing pedestrians, Bend uses Rectangular Rapid Flash Beacons (RRFB) on multi-lane streets.