New Open Street Event, Tell ODOT Urban Streets are not Stroads, Minto Bridge Closure

Here's a bit of a stealth project and some very pleasant news.

via Facebook

Though the genealogy from Salem Sunday Streets to Salem Greenway and now to Open Streets Salem is a little murky, it looks like there is a new official and City-sanctioned "open streets" event scheduled for the very beginning of fall, Saturday, September 23rd.

The Highland and Grant neighborhood associations look to be leading it, so it'll almost certainly involved the proposed Winter-Maple Family-friendly Bikeway.

Check out the facebook and follow. More is sure to come! (And they'll probably be needing volunteers to help out.)

ODOT Starts Urban Design Guide

ODOT's staring an "Urban Design Guide" and they need to hear that urban streets are not high-speed highways and stroads!

Take the survey!

Project page

NACTO Urban Street Design Guide

You could also remind them that the National Association of City Transportation Officials has done a lot of the work already, and ODOT could simply adopt those guides as official "standards."

Here's the survey.

Minto Closure

via The City of Salem
(check out the scale of the tiny humans!)

You almost certainly know this already. The bridge

will temporarily close Monday through Friday beginning June 5 for two months. The Bridge will be open to the public Saturdays and Sundays. During the weekday closure, the temporary work bridge will be removed and the remaining concrete retaining walls and bridge paths will be completed....

The bridge will re-open to the public during the celebration event at 4:30 p.m. on Wed., Aug. 2 in Riverfront Park. A passport activity during Downtown Salem's First Wednesday festivities will follow the ribbon cutting. Stay tuned for more announcements about the celebration in coming weeks.

Originally a full closure had been proposed for removing the temporary work bridge, but closing it only during the work week and keeping it open on weekends elicited a strong endorsement from the paper.

Thought the bridge has averaged nearly 5,000 daily trips, these are distributed unevenly: Weekend traffic has been around 10,000 daily trips! Weekday traffic has looked to be closer to 2,500 or 3,000 daily trips.

The City recognized the strong, strong weekend demand and adjusted accordingly. Well done!

The paper also suggested that some are calling it the "PC Bridge." Really? It remains an interesting question what the citizenry will settle on: Peter Courtney Minto Island Bridge is way too long, and it seems impossible that Salemites and popular culture won't abbreviate it. In addition to "taco," "flytrap" has also made an appearance. One of these metaphors/analogies may stick!