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QuickTake:
If approved, the Eugene ordinance would fine drivers up to $50 for passing money or other items to pedestrians along a road or at an intersection. Supporters cite traffic safety; opponents call it a misplaced response to homelessness.
The Eugene mayor broke a split council vote on Monday to send a proposed ban on people in vehicles passing items to pedestrians to a public hearing.
The draft ordinance would make it illegal for passengers and drivers on public streets from passing things to pedestrians, unless the vehicle is legally parked, punishable with a fine of up to $50.
The public will be able to comment on the proposal at a future hearing, after which the council will decide whether to add the law to city code. Public hearings are held at 5:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every month; the next is scheduled for Nov. 17.
People selling goods or asking for money near busy intersections in Eugene is not uncommon. City councilors voted against an identical proposal in 2019, which mirrored a Springfield law.
Councilors Randy Groves, Mike Clark, Greg Evans and Matt Keating voted to move the proposal forward. They pointed to the traffic safety issues posed by pedestrians standing in the road, while voicing support for encouraging residents to donate money to local shelters and other services, instead of potentially endangering pedestrians with donations.
The opposing camp — councilors Eliza Kashinsky, Jennifer Yeh, Lyndsie Leech and Alan Zelenka — said there was little data supporting the link between pedestrians asking for money and traffic fatalities. Moving forward on consideration of a ban would unnecessarily penalize the homeless and prioritize the issue above others of more importance, they argued.
“We’re not making a decision on this particular issue tonight,” Evans said. “What we are doing is saying, ‘Let’s put this before the public for a public hearing to hear from input from our residents about this particular practice.’”
After discussion, Mayor Kaarin Knudson cast the tiebreaking vote. She didn’t immediately return a request for comment on the decision.
Councilors previously discussed the proposed ban in September but tabled a vote on a future public hearing because not all councilors were present. The council in 2019 voted 6-2 to scrap the idea after holding a public hearing.
Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner was also present during the Monday conversation. In response to a question from Groves about data supporting the ban, he said the data is “probably there,” but embedded in the crash reports along with other contributing factors.
“That would take a hand search of all of those traffic crashes to better understand what was happening or what the predicate event was right before the collision,” he said.
The councilors in opposition to the public hearing argued that the proposed ban was driven by discomfort caused by unhoused people asking for money on the road. They instead supported future broad discussions about improving traffic safety.
“Putting it out of our sight is not the solution,” Yeh said. “It’s not the right solution anyway. If that’s what we want to do, is talk about street safety and transportation system safety, then I think we should do that.”
Though councilors largely discussed the merits and drawbacks of the ban itself, the conversation also touched on the value of public hearings.
Given that the proposal has failed a vote before and there isn’t yet substantive data on the subject, Kashinsky argued it wasn’t worth using limited time and staff resources to elevate this topic above other priorities.
Groves countered that public hearings are usually brief and sparsely attended, meaning councilors should be able to commit to discussing the issue, which could be added to the agenda for an existing hearing.
“How many nights do we come here for public hearings, and we’re here for maybe six to 10 minutes, and then we leave because nobody really showed up to testify?” he said.
