Sustainable Cities Student Presentations Start in Late November

The University of Oregon Sustainable Cities Initiative has sent students around the city, documenting and analyzing existing conditions. The first round of student presentations - and first fruits of the program - can be seen later this month. Four classes will be making presentations:

(1) Portland State University Urban Transportation Systems Class:
Monday November 29 and Wednesday December 1, 8AM to 9:50 AM at PSU Civil Engineering Building. The class has divided into groups to analyze various scenarios, including

(a) Crossing of Commercial St. @ Union;
(b) Crossing of Wallace Road @ end of Union Street path;
(c) Possible Relocation of Edgewater Pathway;
(d) Potential to 2-way Church and High Streets through downtown;
(e) Potential to add bike lanes on Church and High Streets through downtown (retaining one-way);
(f) Potential to reduce lanes on Commercial Street between Mission and Owens;
(g) Feasibility of modifying intersection of Commercial/Liberty/Alice/Fairview.

(2) North Downtown (Planning, Public Policy and Management): December 1, 9AM to 3PM (Broadway Commons, Salem)

(3) North Downtown (Architecture): December 3, 2-6 PM (Eugene)

(4) Local Review Opportunity on Downtown Parks Connectivity – the University of Oregon Intermediate GIS course will present their final projects on Thursday, December 2, 9 to 11 AM at Pringle Hall. Following is a list of the projects that individual students are working on:

(a) Recreational Routes: Urban Running Trail Systems
(b) Modeling Salem’s Bike Network in GIS (3 students – they are creating an entirely new GIS layer based on bicycle travel, including side of street travel, modeling turns, and ratings of quality
(c) Creating Strategic Links for a Salem Marathon
(d) Connectivity to Schools and parks: A case for Safe Routes to School
(e) Opening Willamette University to the City of Salem (2 students – thinking of Willamette as an urban park / destination for community at large)
(f) Defining and Creating Access: An Intersection Analysis of Park Connections in Downtown Salem (An ADA-based analysis of the final link to access parks)
(g) Connecting Salem Parks: Prioritizing Bike and Pedestrian Routes
(h) Mapping the Pedestrian Environment in Downtown Salem: An Analysis of the walkable network (2 students)
(i) Transit Access to Parks in Salem
(j) Mapping the Connectivity of Cultural Sites and Parks

The presentations will range from visionary to pragmatic. Some will be more useful or relevant than others. All of them look interesting!

Hopefully there will be a yield of some 10% or 20% that will be immediately useful and should be incorporated into current planning and funding cycles.

It appears that most (or perhaps all) of last year's reports from the residency in Gresham are archived here at the UO library. Presumably they will do the same thing this academic year for Salem. Here's the UO library page for Salem and the SCI page for Salem.