Marion County Updates Transportation System Plan

Did you know Marion County was updating their Transportation System Plan? Me neither.

But since the TSP concerns principally rural roads and not those inside of cities, it hasn't been on the Breakfast Blog radar. The TSP was last amended it turns out in 2005.

For people who bike, mostly it seems to be about paved shoulders and their width:

Due to the rural nature of most of the County, the majority of facilities outside the urban areas do not have bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Commuting along the rural County roadway system by bicycle is fairly rare due to large distances between population and employment centers.

However, Marion County has strived over the last several years to add paved shoulders to many of the County arterials to fill a combined role providing for safety shoulders along with creating areas for bicycle and pedestrian use. In order to extend the number of roadway miles that we place paved shoulder on, due to our limited funds, the County sometimes constructs three- or four-foot paved shoulders rather than the five- foot shoulders that are desirable for bicyclists. This approach has been very popular with cyclists and motorists alike because it is a good compromise between design ideals and cost of construction that maximizes the usefulness of our rural roads. Often, a three-foot shoulder can be relatively easily constructed while construction of a five- or six-foot shoulder would require extensive construction work to move utilities and roadside ditches.

Folks with an interest in the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway, paving quality and paving schedules on rural roads, and other elements of recreational bicycling on country roads should consider getting involved and submitting comment!

The 2012 update site is here. The website seems to be lagging behind, to the best thing seems to be to get on the mailing list. A couple draft chapters are beginning to circulate.