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Initiative on roads could have wide effects A Medford official says a plan to force votes on state projects could affect signals and bike lanes The Eastside Neighborhood Association's road initiative is written in a way that invites varied interpretation, city staff said. The neighborhood association on April 12 filed an initiative that would require the city to get voter approval before participating in state road projects. The initiative could be on the November ballot. Neighbors told the Medford City Council on Thursday that the city would not have to hold an election before re-programming traffic signals on state highways. But the city's public works director disagreed. The city holds many agreements with the Oregon Department of Transportation and it's unclear which ones would require voter approval before they are changed. "It is obviously the proponents' understanding of the initiative that it won't affect many minor activities, such as signal timing, but that is not what the initiative says," said Cory Crebbin, Medford's public works director. "In one paragraph, it says the initiative would exempt the coordinating of traffic signals, but in the next paragraph, it said the initiative would apply to changes to the level of service," Crebbin said. "Those are one in the same." Neighborhood association members said the initiative won't apply to city projects such as adding a bicycle lane to a street. But city staff disagreed, citing the initiative's wording that exempts "addition of sidewalks or bicycle lanes if such addition does not change the number of automobile lanes or their width." The city always narrows travel lanes from 13 to 12 feet when putting in a bike lane, Crebbin said. "The initiative is written using technical traffic engineering terms with incomplete understanding of what those terms mean," Crebbin. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.