From the ODOT email:
Looking to get back on the bike and be part of the active transportation crowd? You'll save money, reduce pollution and improve your health! Here is "The Bicyclist's Survival Guide" with tips to keep you on the straight and vertical. Ride on!It's got a bit of the weathered passport and vintage travel sticker look - as well as humorous nods to the Zombie Apocalypse and other instances in the "survival guide" genre. From a graphic design and packaging standpoint it's neat.
But wait! Is vintage travel and highway department design the right look, and is "survival guide" really the right messaging? Are people really clamoring to be "part of the active transportation crowd"? There are interesting questions of implied audience and reception here. To a newbie or motorist, "survival guide" might underscore the "bicycling is dangerous and difficult" meme. To a person who regularly bikes, the guide will often read humorously and knowingly.
If they got many of the denotations and tips right, some of the connotations and implied messaging might be off-kilter. BP's comment thread and debate is interesting. Maybe this is a document that will be most useful in version 2.0.
Interrobang! West Salem NA Vote
No 3rd Bridge has details on hijinks at the West Salem Neighborhood Association meeting Monday night when a resolution in favor of the giant bridge and highway went down in defeat!
This happened despite a full court press from the City Council, including a presentation by the City Public Works Director and four City Councilors and the Mayor in attendance to support the Salem Alternative.Why is Councilor Clem voting?! He gets to cast other votes, you know?
After an 18 to 18 tie vote, City Councilors and the Mayor watched silently as Councilor Clem added his name to the list of eligible voters. At that same time a school age student was declared eligible to vote and cast the deciding vote that killed the motion.
It is fitting that the voter who decided the issue was the youngest person in the room and has the most at stake.
Steel Bridge Coffee
You might remember the note about Joseph Penner and Steel Bridge Coffee about a year and a half ago. At Salemis Chris Hagan has a longer profile of this bikey business!
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| Delivering fresh roasted coffee by bike |
1 comment:
In an SJ piece likely to hit the print edition tomorrow, ODOT Director Matt Garrett is quoted:
"[O]ur resources for addressing bridges — from structurally deficient and functionally obsolete spans to those that are vulnerable to a major earthquake — will be nowhere near what we need to maintain our bridges in their current condition,” said Matt Garrett, director of the Oregon Department of Transportation.
Well, whaddyaknow?
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