Mike:  You're quite right.  Such bans provide absolutely no assistance to the needy.  They just push them out of public view.  I doubt there's a single person in the Eugene/Springfield area who really believes the ban is about "traffic safety."  To contend that it is, is an insult to people's intelligence. It's simply an "end run" effort to avoid the constitutional issues with banning panhandling.  

The strategy is simple:  Make being homeless and destitute in "our" city as unpleasant as possible and these folks will go somewhere else.....There, problem solved.