Most late-type stars in the solar neighborhood have velocities similar to t
he local standard of rest (LSR), but there is a clearly separated secondary
component corresponding to a slower rotation and a mean outward motion. De
tailed simulations of the response of a stellar disk to a central bar show
that such a bimodality is expected from outer Lindblad resonant scattering.
When constraining the run of the rotation curve by the proper motion of Sa
gittarius A* and the terminal gas velocities, the value observed for the ro
tation velocity separating the two components results in a value of 53 +/-
3 km s(-1) kpc(-1) for the pattern speed of the bar, only weakly dependent
on the precise values for R-0 and bar angle phi.