Are these electric modes of transportation insured? If my wife gets hit while she is walking Old Mill area by someone on an electric bike, skateboard, a one wheel scooter, are they insured to cover my wife if she gets injured? Better be. You think.

Or a person on an electric bike causes an accident while in traffic. Are they insured? If they are under age and driving one?

I want to see them with insurance coverage. On sidewalks or streets in Bend.

Should they have permits?

These are vehicles. Are they not? I had an electric skateboard whip by me and my dog pretty fast suddenly at a park by the new high school.

Scared the allergies out of me.

P.S. I sure like seeing the yellow flashers at crosswalks.

An editor tells me this newspaper will have a new owner in the near future.

Central Oregon has almost 250,000 residents. And social media platforms have sorted these residents into different and discrete interest groups. Ask anyone, and she’ll report in shopping she’ll see more strangers than acquaintances.

If Central Oregon’s cities are to be vibrant communities with shared roads, schools, and law enforcement resources their citizens need a community newspaper.

A professionally reported and written community newspaper is the essential and shared communications vehicle for these cities. Since 1903, The Bulletin has been that vehicle.

EO Media Group owns The Bulletin. It owes it to Central Oregonians to find a buyer who is committed to continue a professional newspaper. Otherwise, we will live in a “community information desert.”

Such deserts in America are already drying up the wellsprings of a democracy.

Watching what is happening with planning, traffic and parking throughout Bend is alarming to me and many of the friends with whom I speak. The issue has been raised again with the recent Bulletin article about the proposed Greenwood Avenue use changes.

Bend growth is expected to increase by 50% during the next two decades or so. If the Jackstraw project is what our city’s density is projected to look like, shouldn’t traffic flow and parking be a primary focus of the City Council and our planning department? Congestion on Arizona, Colorado, Bond and other streets where business are located will become untenable. Similarly, reducing Greenwood to one lane per direction, albeit wider, will add congestion, make drivers more impatient and diminish safety. This does not even take into consideration access for emergency vehicles or disaster evacuations.

Businesses downtown and in the Box Factory area are begging for more parking. Cascade Theatrical Company and Tower Theatre goers can’t find parking for dinner and theater because of time limits and lack of spaces. Shoppers are driving in circles looking for open spaces. Frustrated shoppers will flee downtown and Box Factory areas, negatively impacting local businesses.

Please, city council, improve traffic flow, add more car parking and work on improving the lot of our local businesses. Yes, continue to work to improve bike safety but keep in mind that the vast majority of Bend’s population use bikes for recreation, not for commuting. People use cars. Cars are here to stay and as the population grows, there will be more and more of them.

Editor’s Note

Do you have a point you’d like to make or an issue you feel strongly about? Submit a letter to the editor.