Source Warmup

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New Changes Along U.S. 97

A U.S. 97 Business connector road opened on Aug. 22, offering a new route to the shopping areas along the highway on Bend's north side. The section of road directly connects 3rd Street, just north of the Empire intersection to Business 97.

U.S. 97 and U.S. 20 are primary routes that help get people through town. As Central Oregon's population has grown over the last decade, it has increased traffic congestion and reduced safety for vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists.

The North Corridor Improvements project, which will address intersections and add ramp connections and pedestrian and bicycle facilities, aims to improve travel time reliability, reduce traffic and aid with congestion.

—Jennifer Baires

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New Study Finds Rolling Stops Safe for Bicyclists

A first-of-its-kind study out of Oregon State University finds that bicyclists who treat stop signs as yield signs do not increase the danger for themselves or cars. That's good news for many in Oregon and Washington, states that have among the highest percentages of bicycle commuters in the country. So-called "rolling stops" have been allowed in both states for the past several years.

OSU College of Engineering researchers put 60 participants through "live interaction" simulations, pairing a driver and a bike rider in linked simulators and seeing how each reacted when the cyclist approached a four-way stop as a yield instead.

"The focus of previous research has been crash-data analysis and why riders are motivated to do a rolling stop even when it's illegal in their state," David Hurwitz, an engineering professor at OSU and one of the study's authors wrote in a press release. "No one has looked at how well bicycle rolling-stop laws work, or what happens when you educate people about them. Our networked simulator study design let us evaluate driver and rider behavior and their understanding of the law."

—Julianna LaFollette

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18,000

— The number of wildland firefighters working on fires throughout the country as of Aug. 26. Crews come from all over the world to help battle blazes during the fire season in the U.S. — and this one set yet more records for acres burned and other factors. From the Feature, "At Fire Basecamp."

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"I feel like, in my core, it's very important work, to work with growing really healthy, sustainably grown food for a local area. I feel like that's the answer to a lot of problems: small, localized farms throughout the country, throughout the world."

—Musician Gregory Alan Isakov, from this week's Sound story, "From Farm to Stage: A Q/A with Gregory Alan Isakov"