Salem Breakfast on Bikes

Hopewell Road Shows Apperson Crash Markings

2012-02-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

Oregon Bicycle Racing Association Executive Director Kenji Sugahara today visited the Hopewell Road site where on Friday David Apperson was killed and took some pictures. You can see the complete set here.

The markings appear to establish that the road, and Apperson, was just about to veer left and head east-bound. The Sheriff's press release and the rewrites in the Oregonian and Statesman, saying that he was west-bound, were almost certainly in error.

The road cut also casts doubt on the claim the driver was looking into the sun. If the cut and Apperson was in the shade, as several accounts have suggested, the sun would have been on the right, obscured by the cut's walls. If the sun was overhead and in a driver's eyes, Apperson also would have been in the sun. It is difficult to maintain at the same time that Apperson was in shade and that the driver was looking into the sun.

However, there is still much uncertainty, unfortunately. There's a lot of speculation out there. But the images do suggest, as many advocates and people who ride have feared, that the crash investigation may have have shown a bias in favor of the truck-driver, who may have been distracted or driving in a less-than-safe manner after all. At the very least it makes you wonder about observing the basic rule.

As I get meaningful updates on the crash I will continue to post them.

(Image: Kenji Sugahara.)

Advocates go DEFCON 2 over Proposed Federal Transportation Reauthorization

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

The League of American Bicyclists as well as the Portland Bicycle Transportation Alliance has gone all hands on deck over the new proposed transportation bill.

The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act would axe a bunch of dedicated pots of money for walking and biking.

As you can see from the cover, it's all about cars and oil.

But that's the problem with it - that it's about cars and oil, not that it cuts already paltry amounts for walking and biking.

The current system isn't working. Transportation Enhancements are nice and all, but the fact is the TE mentality layers "extras" over a transportation system structured around "sort and separate," evaluated by Levels of Service for drive-alone trips, and meant primarily for Carburbian Autoists. In this system, facilities for people who walk and bike are frills.

That system is broken.

So arguing over teensy allocations for walking and biking doesn't really change anything. Contrary to the LAB's assertion, retaining the current system isn't a program for the 21st century. Retaining the current system is a program from the 70s and 80s.*

That's last century. It's all fiddling while Rome burns.

I would like to see dedicated pots eliminated and a block grant go to the State, and for advocates to accelerate the development of "least cost planning" here in Oregon, under which programs for walking and biking would be competitive indeed. I would also like to see a revised mobility standard that accounts for moving people rather than service for drive-alone trips.

That's transportation reform to get excited about. Arguing about nits on the edges? Mobilizing desperately for crumbs? Not so much.

What do you think?

* As I understand it the TE program started with ISTEA, the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act. That's "ice tea" like "NesTea." QED.

Kidical Mass Salem 2.0 to Kick-off and Ride Again

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here's some great news! Kidical Mass is starting up again in Salem. The project has been on hiatus since Kat Franken wrapped things up in the fall of 2010 after a terrific first run.

One of the parents, Curt Fisher, has started a new blog and is organizing new rides.

Add this to your blog feed and get ready for some spring and summer riding fun!

Legislative Update - Week 1

2012-01-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Golly, the golden bike dude bowling trophy seems like an unwarranted triumph this week.

Nevertheless, the Legislature starts up this week on a brand new adventure - sessions in the even numbered years.

As for pre-session filings, or other new bills, there are only two that even have the word "bicycle" in them, and these are but incidental references, not relevant to active transportation interests.

Scaring up other relevant bills will be hit-and-miss for the moment, and I'll piggyback on other coverage by legislative specialists.

Still, a few odds and ends have turned up.

House Bill 4148 would impose a fee on studded tires.

House Bill 4043 would permit the "Department of Transportation to reinstate person’s suspended driving privileges or right to apply for privileges, or any identification card or right to apply for card, under certain circumstances." There's got to be a story here, but I don't know what problem this is trying to solve.

The session will be short and the main thing will be looking at the budget. So stay tuned, I think is the answer.

Run for City Council - Two, Maybe Three Openings

2012-01-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

With the news yesterday the Bob Cannon will likely resign from City Council, there are two confirmed openings and the possibility of a third. If you live in one of these districts, consider running! Salem needs transportation-minded Councilors to help steer the City, a big and unwieldy ship, from Eisenhower-era 1950s America into the 21st Century!

South Salem

Cannon's ward is in South Salem.

Salem City Councilor Bob Cannon said he probably will resign before his term ends at the end of the year.

Cannon has represented Ward 7 in South Salem since appointed by the council in 2008.

Since November, however, Cannon has spent much of his time out of town in order to look after investments in Southern California and has attended council meetings via telephone.

"I will not be seeking reelection," Cannon said in a phone interview Thursday. "In all likelihood I will resign at or before the primary."....

Warren Bednarz and Even D. White each have filed paperwork to run for Cannon's seat in the May 15 primary election.

Candidates have until March 6 to register for candidacy in nonpartisan or major party office with the Oregon Secretary of State.

North Salem

Yesterday it came out that Diana Dickey would not be running again.

Dickey, who has represented Ward 5 in North Salem since elected in 2008, said serving on council has been a rewarding experience, but she would like to spend more time with her family.

“If I had the time I would continue to do it,” she said.

Dickey is a health educator with the Marion County Health Department and works as a substitute teacher with the Salem-Keizer School District....

No one has filed to run for the position.

West Salem

The situation in West Salem is less clear. In December Dan Clem filed to seek a position on the Polk County Commission. But he probably won't resign from Council unless he's elected to the Commission. So there is not, strictly speaking, an opening yet. Unlike Dickey and Cannon, whose terms end in December 2012, Clem's term doesn't end until December 2014.

In the announcement, Clem highlighted transportation:

Clem said transportation issues are front and center to him, especially regarding the Salem River Crossing.

“I think that Polk County has been well run in the past: I think it’s priorities on public safety and transportation and education are there,” Clem said. “But I’m sensing that those priorities have changed and I kind of want to restore those priorities or play a role in it.”

Clem elaborated by citing Salem River Crossing, a joint ODOT and City of Salem project that seeks solutions for current and potential Willamette River crossing issues.

“I think there will need to be a high level of coordination and cooperation from all parts of PC cities and ODOT, and I’ve spent 9 years doing that,” he said.

Is transportation the single most defining issue in West Salem? Sometimes I think it is. West Salem's own commercial district is thin, residential development has grown sprawly, and you have no choice on where to cross the river. Transportation constrains a lot.

New faces on City Council offer great opportunities for folks interested in rational mobility choice! Is this the right moment for a $500M project like this?

Or do we, facing increasing pollution and greenhouse gases, facing increasing obesity and diabetes, and facing declining budget opportunities, look to new mobility choices that cost a whole lot less and at the same time better serve the community?

Former Chair of OTC Gail Achterman has Died

2012-01-28T20:30:00.000-08:00

Former Salemite and advocate for non-motorized transportation Gail Achterman died today.

From the Oregonian:

Gail Achterman, a Portland lawyer and lifelong Oregonian whose record of public service spanned nearly 40 years in natural resources, environmental law and transportation policy, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer at age 62....

She had recently retired as director of the Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University and as chair of the Oregon Transportation Commission, having served for 10 years on the commission....

Achterman was born in Portland Aug. 1, 1949, grew up in Salem and attended Stanford University, where she received a degree in economics and was a three-sport athlete in basketball, track and swimming. She went on to obtain her law degree and master's in natural resource policy and management from the University of Michigan.

This is a real loss for all of Oregon and a sad weekend for the Oregon Department of Transportation and fans of non-motorized transportation. Heartfelt condolences to friends and family.

Achterman is not the only person with close ties to ODOT to pass away this weekend. David Apperson also worked for ODOT, and participated in the Bike Commute Challenge, ~~but I have not been able to confirm this~~.

Sunday Morning updated. Revised Oregoninian obituary here. Achterman graduated from South Salem High School. Rembrance also at Bikeportland.

Image from BikePortland's note about her resignation from the OTC. Mia Birk left, Achterman on the right.

On his Recumbent David Apperson Killed in Crash with Pickup

2012-01-27T18:00:00.000-08:00

Apparently riding his bike on the way to his daughter's wedding, ODOT employee David Apperson was struck on Hopewell Road by a person driving a pickup and died.

The SJ and Oregonian are both reporting a fatal crash this morning involving a person on bike. From the Statesman:

A Salem man died today from injuries he sustained after his bike was hit by a pickup.

Polk County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Garton said the incident occurred about 10:50 a.m. on Hopewell Road near Spring Valley Lane, about 10 miles northwest of Salem.

A Dodge Ram pickup was west on Hopewell Road when it hit the bike from behind. The impact threw David Apperson, 57, of Salem from his bike, Garton said.

Apperson was killed, Garton said. The driver of the pickup, John Taylor, 26, of Salem, cooperated with the investigation, Garton said.

Hopewell Road was closed for about four hours in the investigation. No criminal charges have been filed, Garton said.

Here's a map of the area:

View Larger Map

Heartfelt condolences to family and friends.

Look for more over the weekend as additional information comes out.

Updated Sunday morning.

Bike-Partisan Thinking on City Budgets, Land Use, and Transportation

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

With the City's budget meetings and conversations starting next week, here's some interesting reading for Salem citizens and staff.

But first a reminder!

The City is holding meetings to talk about the budget:

To insure financial stability during the five-year forecast period, the City of Salem will need to reduce $10.5 million over the next three budget years, including $1 million from the current budget. Attendees will receive a presentation on the forecast and have the opportunity to provide input regarding budget priorities.
Times and places of the meetings are as follows:
Monday, January 30, 6-8 p.m., West Salem Roth’s
Thursday, February 2, 6-8 p.m., South Salem High School library
Monday, February 6, 6-8 p.m., Salem Coalition for Equality, 3850 Portland Road NE (Spanish speaking event)
Wednesday, February 8, 6-8 p.m., Center 50+, 2615 Portland Road NE

In reading and rereading Jane Jacob's Death and Life of Great American Cities, I am repeatedly struck by a strand of deep, considered, and rather complicated conservatism in her writing. It is fertile and provocative, quite the opposite of the sound-bite excesses on both the Left and the Right.

Curt pointed out this group of conservative Midwestern fans of small towns who started a non-profit substantially rooted in, as I see it, a reading of Jacobs that draws on this conservative strand in her thought. Extending a refusal of the over-simple, their analysis also evades easy cliches from the Left and Right: The Strong Towns material is thoughtful and fascinating stuff!

In the logo and image you can see some nostalgia for main street Americana here, but the mission is a hard accounting of budgets and spending:

Our expectation of plenty, and our expectation to pay only a portion of the full cost of growth, has led to a scarcity of resources. Our approach to land use now constrains us, growing our financial commitments at an alarming rate. It threatens real American prosperity with long-term economic stagnation and decline.

We can do better.

Announcing Strong Towns, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on the root of these systemic problems: our land use patterns—the way we have designed our towns and neighborhoods.

They've put out a report called Curbside Chat: A Candid Talk about the future of America's Cities, Towns and neighborhoods. Introducing the report they say,

We often forget that the post-World War II American pattern of development is an experiment. We assume it is the natural order because it is what we see all around us, but our own history—let alone a tour of other parts of the world—tells a different story.

While the United States has sustained economic prosperity for two generations, today the economy is stalled....It is time to ask whether this experiment is really working.

What we have found is that the underlying financing mechanisms of the “suburban era”—our post-World War II pattern of development—operate like a classic Ponzi scheme, with ever-increasing rates of growth required to sustain long-term liabilities. Cities and towns benefit from a growing tax base associated with new growth, however they also typically assume the long-term liability for maintaining new infrastructure.

Here are bike-partisan thoughts about walking and biking:

An essential part of making traditional neighborhoods (the places where we have the greatest public investment in infrastructure) more attractive to private sector investment is to physically reconnect them to destinations like businesses, parks, gathering spots and other neighborhoods. All cities need to perform a walkability study to determine areas of low and high connectivity and where they can get the highest rate of return (induce the most value and private-sector investment) by improving nonmotorized connectivity.

As an example of the return in value, consider a family that wanted to relocate to a traditional neighborhood and, due to great walkability, could get by with only one car. That family would save an estimated $7,500 per year on transportation costs. If instead of spending that money on transportation, they could invest it in their home, they would have (at 6% over 30 years) an additional $103,000 of purchasing power. That is tangible value that can be captured in our development pattern.

We almost always use the ease of automobile travel as the top design criteria for the public realm. To improve the overall financial productivity of these neighborhoods, we need to accommodate the automobile, but walkability needs to be the primary design criteria.

I had not thought to compound the savings from ditching a second car: Ditch a car, gain $100K over the life of a mortgage! That's a non-trivial message. At the same time, while they critique a "ponzi scheme," they are not also "no growth" or "steady-state" thinkers. It's a provocative blend of ideas, aiming at a kind of truly sustainable growth.

If Salemites are not comfortable modeling themselves after larger and more urban environments like Portland, New York, or Amsterdam, or even university towns like Corvallis, Eugene, Davis, and Boulder, maybe in the midwestern Americana of the Strong Towns analysis there are resources and models? (And it's not like these urban centers and university towns aren't also facing their own budget crises.) Take a look and see what you think!

Second Annual Walk and Bike to School Retreat set for Bend

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Second Annual Walk+Bike to School Retreat is set. Whether you're a parent, an educator, or advocate, if you're interested in building out Safe Routes to School programming for your child, your school, or your neighborhood school, here's a terrific resource. From the Portland BTA blog:

Come join us for the Second Annual Oregon Walk+Bike to School Retreat in Bend, Oregon June 21-23 as Oregonians interested in Walk + Bike to School and Safe Routes issues come together for an event that will give you an opportunity to access training*, learn best practices, network with others working on these issues, and work with us to create a strong state network.

Please register by March 30th for the low price of $10/day (plus a $2 processing fee). Registration is limited to 100 participants due to space, so please register early to ensure your participation. Click HERE to register.

For complete information, see the BTA blog.

Car Driving in Decline among Young People in Marion County

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

While the Great Recession is almost certainly part of the causal mix, it's likely too that we are seeing a significant shift in cultural attitudes as the number of young people having drivers licenses is on the decline.

Interestingly, it's the 25-34 year old cohort that shows a decline coincident with the Recession. Younger cohorts show declines starting well before the crash of 2008. (Part of this, also, may be a demographic bump peaking in '99 among 14-17, and that group aging with bumps in 2001 for the 18-21 group, in 2003 for 22-24, and so on - but the overall decline is clear.)

The population does not show equivalent declines, so these data also represent a decline in rate of licenses, not merely a decline in absolute numbers.

No wonder the car companies are moving to market aggressively to young people! Driving is the perhaps the new Smoking.

In any case, this is yet another reason why the City should assertively move to adopt and then implement the Bike and Walk Salem update to the Transportation System Plan. If Salem wants to be a competitive in attracting and retaining young adults in the work force, it would do well to heed this trend and offer a robust suite of mobility choices.

Update, February 2 - here's a chart using the same data, but sorted into two buckets. It really shows the shift.

Data from DMV Driver Statistics and this graph of County level data.

Thanks to Jeff for finding this!

Police Cite Driver for Passing Stopped Vehicle

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

This doesn't qualify as good news, per se - and with the flooding I'm hungry for some good news! - but it's worth highlighting. We talk about what amounts sometimes to a prevailing presumption of innocence for autoists when there is crash that involves a car operator and a person on foot or on bike. It's like it takes a higher standard of evidence and fault to cite a car driver than the more vulnerable person on foot or on bike, who "shouldn't" be on the road.

So it was good to read about an instance where a car driver was cited for failing to yield to and then hitting a person on bike in a crosswalk. The officer issuing the citation would have determined also that the person on bike was operating properly in the crosswalk, something we cannot take for granted.

From the SJ last week:

A Salem woman on a bicycle suffered minor injuries Friday when she was struck by a car in a downtown crosswalk.

Salem Police said Troyce Fortune, 22, of Salem, was hit by a car driven by Tanner Million, 20, also of Salem. The crash occurred on Court Street NE.

Other vehicles stopped as Fortune entered the crosswalk, police said. Million's car did not stop, hitting Fortune.

Million was issued a citation for passing a stopped vehicle at a crosswalk, police said.

If you're interested in the issues around passing, Doug's got a good discussion.

City Council, January 23rd - the CIP

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

While Chickens will probably get the headlines, tonight City Council also takes the first look at the draft Capital Improvement Plan for fiscal years 2012-13 to 2016-17. Chicks are way cuter than CIPs, it's true, but the CIP is $142M of stuff.

As you can see from map from last year's CIP (a bit of a frankenmap, stitched together from a couple of different views and resolutions of the original version online), the City develops all kinds of capital investment projects - from sewer lines to roads to parks.

A capital improvement plan (CIP) is a five-year plan for financing major public assets based on City-adopted master plans, goals and policies. The purpose of a CIP is to match scarce financial resources with the capital needs of a growing community and to preserve or enhance existing capital assets to provide efficient city services....

The City Council’s role in the CIP begins each year with receiving the Preliminary CIP and setting a public hearing. In preparation for the public hearing, staff provides notice to the community in general and also communicates specifically with all neighborhood associations. At the public hearing, staff provides a presentation designed to educate both the City Council and the public about capital planning in general and the planned projects in particular. At the conclusion of the public hearing, the City Council votes to adopt the CIP either as presented or with whatever changes it deems appropriate. Whatever version of the CIP is adopted becomes the Adopted CIP. Staff completes the annual cycle by publishing the Adopted CIP.

The overall plan budgets about $142M spread over multiple categories.If you include the airport and parking structures, transportation accounts for about $80M of this! The bond measure is a big part of that, of course, supplying most of the $33M and $22M in the first two years of the cycle.

Here's the breakdown on the funding sources just for transportation (not including parking structures and the airport). This is the funding reality that makes it unlikely to see new projects for biking and walking added to the existing CIP - meaning we'll have to wait potentially for fiscal year 2017-18 for meaningful projects!

The 1% for bike/ped allocation is always surprising. Consider that a pedestrian median in a crosswalk costs about $40K - the 1% then will fund two of them a year! That's the scale for that funding source.

A couple projects stood out to me (most everything is stuff already talked about):

Right of way purchases for a bridge.

And a curious slush fund! I suppose these are probably matching funds from Urban Renewal Areas.

If not, perhaps there are some additional grant opportunities for walking and biking facilities buried in here.

The CIP is not inherently very exciting reading, but it is interesting - for all the groovy words like "sustainability" and "biking and walking" we might use, the money doesn't always get put where the mouth is. It's where we see the actual priorities made real.

Legislative Priorities

The draft Legislative Policy Direction for the 2012 session seeks to avoid "unrealistic" greenhouse gas reduction efforts and pointedly avoids mentioning support for biking and walking in transportation funding.

Green House Gas Reductions. Oppose greenhouse gas reduction legislation that contains unfunded and/or unrealistic planning requirements that burden local governments or Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs).

Public Transportation. Support legislation that provides funding and support for a wide range of transportation modes, including transit, intercity rail, air travel, and other related businesses.

Waste to Generate Methane and Electricity

A pilot study rising out of the Sustainable Cities Initiative to explore using waste from SeQuential Biofuels to generate methane and power at the Willow Lake Sewage Treatment Plant:

One of the pilot studies currently anticipated will consist of directly injecting the residual from the production of biodiesel into the digestion process. A local company that currently transports its residual to Portland is interested in participating in the pilot study. If the pilot study is successful, the treatment of the residual would generate additional methane gas that would supplement methane currently produced and would be used for power and heat generation. This concept was identified during the Sustainable Cities Initiative as a part of the Industrial By-Products Component. The results of the pilot study will be used to evaluate the potential costs and benefits of using the available excess treatment capacity at Willow Lake to treat directly injected residual by-product.

And finally, in an information report, Council will see the Planning Commission's approval for the Boise/Pringle Square project.

As I understand it, the Commission made no substantive changes to the staff recommendation, so that project will move forward.

A High Wheel at Mission Mill Show on Women's History

2012-01-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

It was great to see an old bike on the front of the "Arts and Life" section of the paper today!

In a note about the new exhibit at Mission Mill*, "Willamette Women: Our History is our Strength," Barbara Curtin quotes Director Peter Booth about the bike:

The Willamette Heritage Center chose to exhibit a bicycle whose front wheel rises more than 4 feet high.

"Bicycles were a very liberating thing for women in the late 1800s," Booth said. "They were a form of transportation that women used as a form of empowerment." Among the innovations that followed: bloomer dresses so women could ride modestly and safely.

Here's Ben Taylor, the owner of Salem's first high wheel. He got it in 1880 when he was 18 and in 1887 started working for the Post Office (this image is variously dated 1880 and 1888, and the later date is more likely).

Focusing on the high wheel, or penny farthing, is exciting, because it is obviously old and different. History!

But perhaps to nitpick a detail, it's not the best representation of women on bikes.

It was the mid-1880s introduction of the safety bicycle, the diamond frame geometry with equal sized wheels that we know today, that really made bicycling possible for women. Sure there were a few lady riders of the penny farthing, but riding that was more like an "extreme sport" than a potentially liberating form of transportation. Riding the high wheel was too much trouble to catch on very widely.

For both men and women, the diamond frame was much more practical, and this practicality made the bicycling craze of the 1890s possible and turned the bike from a stunt bike of endurance and tricks to an important form of transportation.

And we see this in the images of suffrage activists and other women on bike: Most often they rode the safety bicycle, with two equal sized wheels, and not the high wheel.

Note the women on bike in this detail from an image of a marching band on State street in the very early 1900s.

So I want to suggest that, unless this particular high wheel can be tied personally to a particular woman in the Willamette Valley and her bicycling activities, using a high wheel to talk about women's suffrage and emancipation is somewhat misleading and not the best way to talk about actual bicycling and women's history near Salem.

(There's my nitpick!)

More entertainingly, here's a short clip of a drill team in 1899!

Image from "Bicycling for Women" in Cosmo, 1896! See also Francis Elizabeth Willard's 1895 book, A Wheel within a Wheel: How I learned to Ride the Bicycle.

* Or the "Willamette Heritage Center at the Mill," if you insist.

The Proposed Minto Bridge in Floodtime

2012-01-21T12:01:00.000-08:00

So far the City's discussion of the proposed Minto Bridge and high water has been pretty academic. Oh, sure, there are winter high water flows, but what about a real flood? Well, we've got a flood.

(click to enlarge)

Here's a pretty close composite of a summer view with the proposed bridge and a winter view of the flood. The matchlines are very close (check out the faint outline of the crane at the Meridian, which you can see complete below) - call it 95%, maybe even a little better? I didn't quite get enough on the left side, so I overlapped the summer image. In the lower-light gloom, I also had to take the photo with the camera on the railing rather than above it, so the near-side vegetation is a little off - but it's the same set of brambles! It's close enough to give you the idea.

And the idea is, there's no island! The berm on which the bridge and path would land is just barely visible, and I suspect it's only the top of the brambly vegetation that is visible. I bet the land itself on the top of the berm is under water. Certainly the land on each side of the berm is underwater.

Minto Park proper is also underwater.

So unlike the Union Street Railroad Bridge path system, which is still quite a bit above the floodwaters, and appears to have been high enough to stay above both the 1996 and 1964 floods (but not the 1890 and 1861 flood levels in the pre-dam era), the Minto bridge won't connect to land in any meaningful way during floods. And maybe even during regular "high water" it won't be usable.

These are not arguments not to build the bridge. No one says, "look, the soccer and softball fields are underwater! The fields are useless; what a waste of money!" No one says this, or if they do, they are laughed away. It's not a serious argument.

Mostly I still think the similarity shows we are better off thinking of the Minto Bridge as more a recreation facility than a "transportation corridor."

Still, this part of the argument is not as clear as I have supposed. The bridge on State Street where it crosses Mill Creek, between 21st and 19th Streets, flooded; the bridge from River Road to Independence is often closed for high water in the bottom land. So periodic closure for high water does not by itself disqualify something as a "transportation" facility.

But the flood is a reminder that the Minto bridge and path doesn't make connections on any side of the key triangle of homes, jobs, and business. It's a park-to-park connection. It's a recreation facility.

And the crowds on the Union St. Railroad Bridge, most of whom had driven cars to Riverfront Park, just made me wish the City would focus on improving connections to the Bridge across especially Wallace Road and Commercial, and give more thought to connections across Edgewater and Liberty. People should feel free to walk and bike to the bridge, not just drive and park.

Crowds on the Union St. Railroad Bridge Watch the Flood

2012-01-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

Auspiciously, the clouds offered a rainbreak just as the floodwaters on the Willamette were cresting.

I wasn't the only person with the idea to come down to the river. The Union Street Railroad Bridge was full of people! And the way it gave citizens and visitors a connection to the river, even when in flood, was special.

The view straight down offered terrific scenes of the roiling, turbid waters. It was a little terrifying, actually. The water was so dirty and swift and powerful. The power was awesome - and maybe a little sublime.

The cinderblock bathrooms on the south side were surrounded by water and the soccer fields to the north were covered.

Water was almost all the way up the berm.

With all the conversation about the proposed Minto Bridge, here's the view across the slough, very near its likely alignment. The grass is the very top edge of the riverbank, immediately adjacent to the concrete walkway. Just a foot or two more, and Riverfront park would start to flood.

It's hard to parse out the engineer's drawings. They say the approved design is for a 100-year event with the elevation of 143.7 feet, and a deck elevation of 144.9 feet.

Unfortunately there are two measuring systems, and I could not find an easy conversion. I think 100-year event is roughly equal to the '96 flood at 35 feet, or maybe the '64 flood of 37 feet. The water level at the time of the photo was about 29 feet (not a 100 year event!). So lets say our current flood is 136 feet in elevation (144 feet - [37 feet - 29 feet]). Even floodwaters of 136 feet, 9 feet below the deck of the bridge (with inadequate clearance for boat navigation), will still render the island completely covered. There will be no path on the other side. In the distance you can just see the very top of the berm on top of which the bridge will land and which the path will follow.

Flooding is no reason not to build the path and bridge. Indeed, Union St. Railroad bridge is a huge asset here during this flood, offering safe views of the amazing water. Having another bridge will offer yet more connections for birding, recreation, and experiencing the grandeur, beauty, and terrifying power of the river.

But the flood also shows in important ways that the bridge and path will have a significant seasonality, unusable for stretches during the winter and rains. When fans of the bridge make claims about its patterns of use, it is important to be realistic about them.

City's Network of Stream Monitoring Stations Shows Water Levels

2012-01-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

Though it doesn't help necessarily with plugged storm grates and micro-conditions, the City's network of monitoring stations can provide some useful data on stream levels, especially as it impacts your commute and non-neighborhood conditions farther from home.

The Statesman is reporting several road closures and the City Manager's call that it's now a "40 Year" event.

The graph above shows the water level on Mill Creek very near North High. It's over the high water mark and some State offices are evacuating underground parking structures today.

Here's a map of the stations and click here to generate the most current graphs and reports.

More Budget Cuts on the Way, but Bikes can be the Thrifty Choice

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

Late yesterday the City announced more cuts. The human cost of layoffs is demoralizing and sad. Maybe there are labor inefficiencies to be found. But I bet not. Cuts are to the bone and affect real service levels.

On Tuesday, Salem City Manager Linda Norris announced mid-year cuts in departments funded through the City’s General Fund. Salem is targeting spending reductions of at least $4 million to begin in the current fiscal year. Revenues for the current year are expected to be $1.1 million below budgeted levels and revenue projections for the next five years have been scaled back due to the prolonged economic slowdown.

Preliminary estimates for mid-year adjustments include eliminating between 22 to 28 positions over the next five months. About half of the positions are currently filled, but others have been held vacant in anticipation of possible staffing reductions....

Planned reductions include police non-sworn staffing levels; parks maintenance; aquatics; planning services and projects; code enforcement; urban development program support; central services; staff training and overtime; and purchases of supplies and services.

But you know, there is actually one area where we all can do more with less: Even AAA says having an extra car is expensive!

Bike transport just makes sense. It's a great choice for people who want to be thrifty.

And for the City, just as for a household, supporting drive-alone car trips is a revenue leak - much more than an order of magnitude more costly than supporting bike trips! The cost of a 30 year wham-pow! wish-list of improvements for people on foot and on bike is about the same as the pared-down four year bond for roads!

The subsidy in roadway infrastructure and maintenance and in city planning for drive-alone car transport is a significant part of the problem.

Supporting lower cost transport should be part of the solution - part of the solution for the City, and part of solution for people who want to make thrifty choices. As a side benefit, with fewer drive-alone car trips, existing roadways will have less congestion for essential freight movement. Not to mention reduced health care costs and greenhouse gases.

If the City truly is a Sustainable City, why aren't we focused on thrifty and sustainable transportation?

Let Citycouncil@cityofsalem.net know you'd like to see thrift and efficiency in transportation! Go by bike!

On New Development and the Bank, Downtown Partnership Focuses on Foot Traffic

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Thursday night the Historic Landmarks Commission will deliberate and make a final decision on the question of the bank drive-through for the proposed Columbia Bank on the empty lot at State and Commercial.

There's somegood news: transportation is top of mind! While it's a little disappointing that the drive-through and auto-centrism hasn't got more attention, it's great to see the interest in walking.

And in a stance that is difficult to imagine Go Downtown Salem taking, the new Downtown Economic Improvement District adminstrators, the Salem Downtown Partnership, are leading that interest in walking!

Last month's hearing elicited quite a bit of new testimony, and while the drive-through has received some attention, the bulk of the comment seems to be concerned with the disposition of the parking lot and the way it will break up the storefront and sidewalk streetscape.

When you look across the street to the north side of State Street, there's an unbroken line of mostly two story brick storefronts.

The current plan uses only half of the lot, and proposes a parking lot on the west half and facing State Street. The Salem Downtown Partnership has argued that the bank building should be sited in such a way that the south side of State Street as well as around the corner on Commercial will present a new unbroken line of storefronts.

Salem's downtown, especially its Historic District, relies upon proper site plans to ensure storefronts are not set back from the sidewalk, and are continuous, from building to building. Continuous storefronts along the sidewalk enhance the flow of pedestrians along the sidewalk. Open space between storefronts acts as a barrier to pedestrian flow, and damages the viability of neighboring retail storefronts.

Columbia Bank's siting of its parking lot acts as a barrier to pedestrian flow on State Street, and creates a dead zone on Commercial Street....

We encourage Columbia Bank to rethink its site plan so infill may occur continuously along both Commercial and State Streets.

It's good to see the awareness of dead zones! You can see the retail "hole" formed by the parking lot on the left here:

Writing separately from the Partnership, affiliated private downtown residents and business owners have suggested that the bank might be able to acquire the other vacant lot, and remove the parking lot behind additional storefronts.

There are lots of moving parts in the comment and opposition, but there seems to be a consensus that the surface parking lot should not abut the sidewalk. Fewer seem concerned with the drive-through, interestingly, though some have suggested it is not necessary, as many downtown banks are closing theirs.

34 downtown business people have signed a petition opposing the current plan, including most of the principals in the cluster of merchants on State Street: Margaret Furlong, Normandy Guitars, and Cascade Baking. Reed Opera House and the Livesley Tower owner Roger Yost also signed. There's a broad range of concerned citizens.

The owners of the narrow lot between Scott's and the Bank site have also filed a lengthy set of objections, but I'm not sure I really understand them. Their difficulties look less like a principled stand on a walkable downtown and appropriate development styles than an ad hoc attempt to get the bank to buy their property, since they were originally not able to come to terms on a price. And some of the objections are simply procedural. Still, they articulate some of the same concerns about sidewalk storefronts and walkable development.

The developer will likely file their rebuttal today, and the Historic Landmarks Commission will deliberate Thursday night at 5:30pm. The Hearings Officer will separately decide on the Conditional Use permit and let the City know by mail. (The confusing nature of the separate Conditional Use and Landmarks Commission hearings is one of the procedural issues, by the way.)

Hopefully the formal decisions and other negotiations can lead not to killing the project but to a project that is both bigger with more sidewalk storefronts and more walkable. That would be a solid step in the right direction.

From the YMCA to the State Health Plan: Signs Point to Bikes

2012-01-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

Whether it's seat width on a bus, health care costs for workers, YMCA and County initiatives, it doesn't take a soothsayer or sheep guts to discern the wisdom of active transportation. Let's not wait!

In a recent story about big bottoms, transit designers and purchasing agents grappled with seat width in subways, trains, planes, and buses:

The problem of American waists that are too big for seats meant to accommodate them is certainly not new. Today, everything from love seats to toilet seats can be built bigger to accommodate wider profiles, and the seats offered on public transportation are no different....

“It’s clear that the U.S. population is getting heavier,” said Martin Schroeder, chief engineer for the American Public Transport Association and the committee’s chairman. “We are trying to get our hands on that and figure out what is the best average weight to use.”

Bigger and fewer seats makes transportation of all kinds more expensive.

But the costs don't stop there.

In a strongly worded close to a piece rehearsing the history of the Health Engagement Model for State workers, Dennis Thompson writes:

State workers should realize that, because of premium share, they now have a personal stake in the health of their fellow employees.

If the rates of chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease continue to rise, then health care premiums will continue to rise. And that 5 percent health premium share will eat deeper and deeper into paychecks.

Any wellness plan that effectively promotes healthy living is a good thing for state workers' pocketbooks.

And inaction ultimately will cost everyone, healthy and sick alike.

The Salem YMCA recently announced a community health project.

From the Statesman:

The Family YMCA of Marion & Polk Counties is now part of a national initiative that has helped local leaders make their communities healthier through long-term policy and environmental changes.

YMCAs nationwide have brought together community leaders to launch various projects as part of Pioneering Healthier Communities.

Those efforts include creating safer streets for pedestrians and cyclists to providing more fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches.

The YMCA of the USA recently selected the Salem nonprofit as one of 10 communities to join the initiative. The local YMCA was also awarded a $64,000 grant mainly to provide leadership training....

After the group implements a particular project around the second year, it will then focus on making sure their long-term goal is sustainable.

More than 100 communities have participated in the Pioneering Healthier Communities initiative since it was launched in 2004.

Each community identifies its own goals depending on the area's health needs.

Meanwhile, Bike and Walk Salem is stuck as various interest groups try to pare it down. The County and its "I Love Me" campaign haven't yet embraced active transportation, strangely enough.

But there's a huge opportunity here!

A community united around making biking and walking the preferred mode of transportation for short trips of three miles or less would:

Reduce automobile road congestion
Reduce pollution and carbon emissions
Reduce healthcare costs
Reduce household expenses
Reduce capital infrastructure costs
Create the most sustainable transportation system
Improve mental and physical health

What's not to like? Why are we waiting?

A Green Tea Alliance: Populists Left and Right Unite to Question MegaProjects

2012-01-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

In a fascinating thickening of the psychic aether, simultaneously in Salem and in Portland, groups thought to be antithetical have temporarily united and announced coalitions to question large, speculative infrastructure projects.

Salem Weekly writes about expansion at the airport:

In an unusual alliance, a Marion County “Tea Party” group and progressive activists have both questioned a proposed $11 million expansion of Salem’s Municipal Airport. They’ve combined forces to write a letter to the Salem City Council asking questions about the project and requesting a reply.

Their letter leads with the indisputable fact of a consistent pattern of failure:

With three failed airline ventures, what has recently changed that would justify the City of Salem’s plans to use FAA funds and Connect Oregon II Lottery funds for runway expansion and other upgrades to the airport. Please provide a market analysis and documentation, grant applications, and supporting documents justifying your claims for your proposed expansion. Also please provide supporting data, letters of intent from specific air freight companies who are actively considering coming to the Salem Airport.

That's a project measured in the low 10s of Millions of dollars.

In Portland, folks are facing a project measured in low Billions.

From the Portland Mercury yesterday:

Influential individuals across the political spectrum met this morning on the sunny, frigid banks of the Columbia near the Vancouver base of the hulking I-5 bridge to discuss the one thing they can all agree on: The Columbia River Crossing (CRC) plan to replace the bridge is flawed and should not be funded.

The Oregon legislature's oversight committee begins meeting next week and people ranging from Metro Councilor Carl Hosticka to State Representative Lew Frederick to free-market think tank Cascade Policy Institute's John Charles all say the committee should not authorize spending more money on the bridge plan until more alternatives are examined and a solid funding plan is secured.

"Please stop the bleeding," said Councilor Hosticka. "At a time when the state highway department is laying people off, it's a bad idea to keep spending over a million dollars a month on a project that may never get built. After six years of trying, there is not yet any assured funding from any source."

"The current finance plan is a disaster waiting to happen for the taxpayers of Oregon," said Plaid Pantry President Chris Girard.

This is a fascinating development, and may have implications, too, for Salem's own $500 Million project.

Stay tuned! Things are getting interesting.

Salem Area Places Two Projects for $3M in "Flex Funds" on Final List

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the Oregon Department of Transportation announced Marion County's Brown Road project for bike lanes and sidewalks and Cherriots' bus stop improvements look to advance for final approval from the Oregon Transportation Commission in March.

City of Salem projects in Wallace and Minto Parks, did not make it to the second round, and Cherriots' Courthouse Square project is on the alternates list.

(Look for project details later this winter or early in the spring.)

The City's Budget and Transportation: Thrift and Making Do with Less

2012-01-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

In the Statesman was a piece about the most recent projected $10.5M shortfall in the Salem budget and community meetings to brainstorm and prioritize corresponding reductions to follow.

According to the City:

To insure financial stability during the five-year forecast period, the City of Salem will need to reduce $10.5 million over the next three budget years, including $1 million from the current budget. Attendees will receive a presentation on the forecast and have the opportunity to provide input regarding budget priorities.
Times and places of the meetings are as follows:
Monday, January 30, 6-8 p.m., West Salem Roth’s
Thursday, February 2, 6-8 p.m., South Salem High School library
Monday, February 6, 6-8 p.m., Salem Coalition for Equality, 3850 Portland Road NE (Spanish speaking event)
Wednesday, February 8, 6-8 p.m., Center 50+, 2615 Portland Road NE

Instead of wild road expansion - which will make it more difficult to get to Roths, by the way! - the City ought to promote thrift, thrift in households and thrift in capital budgets.

(Click to enlarge)

An easy way to whack almost $12,000 from household yearly budget is to ditch the second car!

A corresponding capital investment by the City in active transportation would be equally thrifty. Call it ROI, or bang-for-your-buck, bikes offer a huge return.

25,000 e-Bikes = $433 Million in Savings

Here's another way to think about it.

A few months ago, maybe you saw the GM advertisement that implicitly calls college students who bike "losers" and suggests they upgrade to a fancy new car.

Giant took up the gauntlet and released this satire - which actually also plays straight!

This bike from Giant is about $2,250.

If you added a $500 allowance for rain gear, and purchased a $2,750 eBike commute package for 24,239 people, that would cost less than $67,000,000.

Here's a $500 million project.

According to the City Council ward reapportionment project, there were 24,239 people living in West Salem in 2010.

A bike, with a battery for the hills, and a outerwear package for every resident: That's $433 million in savings!

So sure, that's an reductio ad absurdam argument, but it shows how we argue on the details and miss big picture things that would really help us thrive in the changes to come.

As always, your local bike shop can help!

Bike Peddler
Santiam Bicycle
Scott's Cycle
South Salem Cycleworks

Active Transportation Summit Dates Announced with Call for Presentations

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

This year the former Bike Summit, now known as the Active Transportation Summit, comes to Salem again. Organized by Portlanders, it usually has a distinctly Portland focus and flavor, and Salemites have understandably been lukewarm about it.

But there's some good news!

Organizers have opened a call for presentations. It's possible that people who don't live in Portland can carve out a set of talks that will make it more relevant to Salemites and others.

The Active Transportation Summit will take place on April 16th and 17th at the Conference Center.

If you have an idea for a talk or presentation you'd like to see, fill out the submission form!

Maybe there will be interest in making it an OREGON summit, not just a PORTLAND summit!

Boise and the Grid: The Island of Pringle Square and Connection to Downtown

2012-01-08T11:15:00.000-08:00

The biggest challenge of the Boise development may not have anything to do with the site itself. It may, actually, have everything to do with the roads just outside it.

Site Issues and Connectivity

In a nutshell, if the Boise Project is supposed to be part of increasing density downtown, part of making a more vibrant downtown, the Boise Project's natural connections may not have anything to do with downtown. Without truly multi-modal improvements to connectivity with downtown, it may be easier for residents and employees to drive elsewhere than to walk downtown to shop and dine.

The one-way grid, the highways, parkways and by-pass, the major arterials, and the railroad all conspire to isolate the Boise parcel behind a formidable transportation moat. In important ways it's really an island.

With the liquor store and the Conference Center as the first major "destinations" along Commercial Street to the north, the straight-most shot to downtown isn't exactly full of walking attractors.

Even by car, it will be isolated. The plans call for measures to discourage using the Civic Center drive-way as a cut-through. Consequently, access to downtown will require a detour of several blocks as well as a left-hand merge across several lanes of busy traffic.

Folks wanting to reach it from the south may just give up, and continue north.

The plan's path system along Pringle Creek will be lovely, but this system goes east-west and connects to other pieces of the park system, not to business and commercial areas. The paths are also not well suited for bike transportation.

Even with the most sylish of design and a restaurant and fancy grocery store and offices - even with the best case situation, you still have to ask: How do you get people to and from the site easily?

The Actual Plans: Context and Faint Praise

Staff concurs that the design complements surrounding development in the area such as Civic Center, Salem Conference Center, Phoenix Grand Hotel, and The Meridian.

Oh boy. If ever there was a situation that called for a design in contrast to the surrounding development, surely this is it! These are not buildings from which you want to take style cues.

Comments on the Statesman's article have highlighted general dissatisfaction with the design and hopes that the City might get a more stylish building.

Over at HinesSight, Brian uses stronger language, saying it is "ugly, unwanted, uninteresting."

Oh, man... just what I didn't need so early in the new year -- another reason to be depressed about the prospects of Salem, Oregon being able to ditch it's well-deserved nickname, So-Lame....

Now, no talk of condos, restaurant, or hotel. The "mixed use" side of Pringle Square reportedly is to be such wildly unexciting businesses as insurance and medical offices. This isn't what people in Salem envisioned when the city worked out a deal with the developers back in 2007....

What a waste of prime riverfront property. Nobody is going to want to visit Pringle Square to peer through the window of an insurance office, dreaming of how cool it would be to walk in and talk about a multi-car premium discount.

CB|Two can certainly do a more interesting design, so it is probable the client is driving the design in a more institutional and generic direction.

The fact that offices, which will likely close at 5pm, just like the Civic Center, are envisioned as the main piece in addition to residences, means there will be no commercial destination open in the evening and on weekends. The lure of multiple uses and several distinct pulses of people throughout the day will remain incomplete and unfulfilled.

But a significant part of the problem is caused by the need for parking. On the Commercial side, people on the sidewalk will face the ground level parking garage; on the creek side, people will face the basement level parking garage. (The Civic Center and its pond on the north side show the same difficulty with concrete walls and a parking garage.) In neither case will there be an attractive system of retail storefronts to encourage strolling and a more permeable edge condition. (Is flood control part of this?) Instead there will be hard borders.

At walking-level, the proposed building is a little too bunker-like.

Fortunately one of the conditions proposed by staff addresses the blank wall on the creek side and requests "a pedestrian access." But still - how attractive is the blank wall, even if you can walk by it? And, again, the commercial space is envisioned as offices rather than retail or restaurant.

Together, the ensemble is on the dull and lifeless side.

The Railroad

There's also the nagging question about the disposition of the railroad crossing on State Street at the entry to the Carousel.

The current site plan appears to skirt the issue artfully. Phase One includes a stub connection to Phase Two that passes underneath the trestle.

What I think is the existing driveway and crossing is shown on the concept drawing of Phase Two and Phase Three. Given the Railroad's unwillingness to entertain new crossings, hopefully the design can eliminate the need for one and retain the Carousel's main entry and direct link to the Minto Bridge.

For comparison, here's the old site plan and proposed traffic circulation plan. It really would have insisted on disconnection to the downtown center.

One Big Challenge

Even without the Great Recession the Boise project would be a challenging one. The street grid conspires to make connectivity difficult, and the proposal is too much driven by cars and their needs. So much of the development is shaped by transportation.

I don't know that there's an easy way around this, but I hope that the project can be refined and improved. There needs to be a bigger focus on connecting to downtown and making it easy for people to walk and bike the few blocks naturally, without undue effort. It would also be nice to have a richer set of retail and restaurants, with some real destination business to create a wider pattern of people using the area.

At the same time, it's also true that perhaps we pile too many expectations onto a single project - by itself this will be a well-designed project or not, but by itself it will not determine the course of downtown.

Still, this should be a showcase development, and right now it's too pedestrian - in all the wrong ways.

City Council, January 9th - Words and Rhetoric

2012-01-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

There are lots of interesting items related to transportation on Council's agenda this week. Many of them offer meanings that are not clear, though - they sound good, but what difference will they actually make? (How you read them may depend on whether your interpretive charity is feeling "half-full" or "half-empty.")

Central Salem Mobility Study

The City appears to be ready to go out with an RFP and select a consultant for the Central Salem Mobility Study. The proposal is loaded with things good for people who walk and bike! At the same time, some of the things to be studied are things we've talked about a lot, and the recommendation for further study is something of a punt. The upside is more talk gets more people comfortable and on board; the downside is we talk something to death and waste a study on blah-blah-blah.

Still, going from one-way to two-way streets would be huge, doing more for mobility and downtown vitality than perhaps any other single move.

The core of the study will be these three scenarios:

Two-way Street Conversions - High Street NE/SE, Church Street NE/SE, Cottage Street NE, Court Street NE, and State Street: Analyze the impacts of converting existing one-way streets to two-way for High Street NE/SE, Church Street NE/SE, Cottage Street NE, Court Street NE, and State Street. Some of the key issues to be addressed include vehicle delay, traffic volumes (in primary and secondary study area), impacts to on-street parking supply, impacts to transit operations (current and future), impacts to pedestrian circulation, bicycle facility improvements, turning movement restrictions, and cost to implement. In order to make the most efficient use of limited resources, an initial high-level review will be conducted to determine which street segments are the most viable candidates for conversion to two-way operation. The most viable street segments will then be given a higher priority for further analysis.
North Salem Big Blocks: Develop possible street configurations to support redevelopment of the north downtown area between Commercial Street NE, High Street NE, Division Street NE, and Market Street NE. At least one configuration will include extending Liberty Street NE to connect from Division Street NE to Belmont Street NE.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Access - Union Street Railroad Bridge: Evaluate possible options for creating a more direct and safe pedestrian and bicycle connection between downtown and the Union Street Railroad Bridge, and Riverfront Park.

If budget permits, additional scenarios in order of preference will also be analyzed:

1. Bicycle Circulation - Family Friendly Bikeways: Develop and evaluate projects to support the designation of Union Street NE and Chemeketa Street NE as Family Friendly Bikeways.
2. Pedestrian Access and Safety - Crosswalks and Tum Lanes: Review intersections with closed crosswalks or double turn lanes to identify the feasibility of opening crosswalks or eliminating double turn lanes.
3. Pedestrian Access and Safety - Median Islands: Identify locations for median islands to support pedestrian circulation and safety.
4. Bicycle Circulation - Bike Lanes and Sharrows: Determine locations and implementation options for using bicycle lanes and sharrows (shared lane markings) that will build on draft recommendations from the Bike and Walk Salem Plan.
5. Transit Circulation: The Transit District indicated that the current one-way system limits its ability to effectively circulate through the central Salem area because buses must approach the transit center from one of two directions. Creating more two-way streets in central Salem would support future planning for a downtown circulator. Details of how to route and fund a downtown circulator would be a separate planning effort that could build on the outcomes of the Mobility Study. Such an effort could build on past experiments by Transit and downtown businesses to operate a shuttle or trolley and the Central Salem Streetcar Feasibility Study (2005).

Minto Bridge and Path Master Plan

There is also a new Master Plan for the Minto Path and Bridge.

Its sudden appearance is quite curious, especially as there were no stakeholder committees or other public process behind it.

In fact, it appears to be a direct result of the "Flex Fund" fiasco.

Interestingly, rather than engaging the arguments against the Flex Fund application, it attempts by fiat to make the counterclaim - and with cynical circularity to be able to cite the Master Plan in future grant applications. If you can't prove something, just say it louder!

Here's a picture (not from the plan):

Here's the relevant portion of the text of the Master Plan:

Transportation Connectivity

The Bridge and adjoining trail will improve Salem's existing transit, bicycle, and pedestrian network for all residents by expanding access to transportation networks to and from downtown. By connecting major employment centers, schools, parks, commercial districts, and residential neighborhoods via a new off-street trail network, adjacent to public transit, this project contributes to the development of a seamless multimodal transportation system.

The Bridge and resulting connections provide for multimodal transportation options by “funneling” users into downtown's core within close proximity to local, regional, and national transportation modes, including Amtrak train, Greyhound bus, and Cherriots local and regional bus service, and east–west and north-south bike routes. Connection to key transportation routes is available at the southern and western terminus of the trail system, including the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway and West Salem transit center with local and regional routes (McMinnville and Newberg) and the Monmouth Bikeway.

The Bridge and resulting connections represent Salem's first off-street commuter route, connecting residences with major employment. Daily travel between South Salem, downtown, and West Salem represents a significant number of short (less than 5 miles) vehicle trips. In 2005, 33,336 employees resided within ½ mile of downtown and 125,000 vehicles per day traveled through downtown on the Marion and Center Street bridges (2005, COG). By providing a welcoming, accessible, scenic bicycle/ pedestrian connection, it is expected a variety of users will access all, or a portion, of the network for their commute....

The Bridge and Trail are expected to contribute to reductions in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and overall Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by providing a safe and enjoyable alternative to automobile travel between South Salem, downtown, and West Salem. In 2007, Salem‟s bicycle commute mode split was 1.4 percent, an increase from 2000 (American Community Survey, 2005-2007). Data from the 2011 bicycle counts and Statewide Bike Commute Challenge illustrate that bike commuting is growing. Based on data from a 2008 survey, it is expected up to 14 percent of residents will use the route for commuting, representing up to 21,700 non-automobile commuters. Significant gains in ridership are expected given the length of the planned Trail network (more than 20 miles), the dense population residing with access to the Trail, and the enhanced user comfort and safety, in comparison to existing routes.

This is just rhetoric, plainly unmoored from reality. The path and bridge do not connect "major employment centers, schools, parks, commercial districts, and residential neighborhoods."

Anyway, this is only a part of the proposed Master Plan, and it has other things to say that are quite laudable. The main problem is that the City has a consistent pattern of rebranding recreation projects as transportation ones. The City clearly intends to fund the bridge and path with "transportation" dollars, dollars that could more usefully be employed in projects that better fit the spirit and intent of multi-modal transportation grant sources.

Rose Gardens Mixed Use Zoning Change - Prelude to a Big Box?

Back in October, Councilor Dickey proposed to relax some of the zoning at the former Rose Gardens redevelopment site. The matter's been drafted as a City ordinance and will go before Council.

With zoning seeing the forest instead of the trees is always tricky for me; the minutiae are distracting. But the sense of it seems to be changing the set-back allowance to allow a parking lot in front of a development instead of the more walkable footprint of a building flush with the sidewalk with parking in back; and to permit a much larger building.

Basically, it looks like it would permit a generic big box store instead of something like Broadway Commons or a mixed-use development that included housing.

It's hard to see Portland Road there being all that attractive to a sexy mixed-use development, so maybe this makes sense, alas.

Airport Control Towers Funding

The Federal government is recommending the subsidy for the airport control tower should end, and the City wishes to lobby for its retention:

The American Association of Airport Executives has notified Salem that the Office of Management and Budget is recommending that the FAA eliminate funding to all FAA contract towers served exclusively by general aviation.

If the funding for this federal program is eliminated at any level (partial cut or entirely cut from the federal budget), the budgetary impact to Salem's Airport would be significant and it is likely that Council would have to determine whether to fill the funding gap, of as little as $100,000 or as much as $500,000, to reduce tower operation hours, or possibly cease operating the air traffic control tower at Salem Municipal Airport.

Vision 2020 and City Center

Finally, Council will entertain a resolution to adopt "the principles of Vision 2020 to help guide the City's continued planning for and future development of the City Center." Here are the five themes - what's not to like?

1. Provide places for people to live and gather.
2. Create a vibrant and active retail and dining destination.
3. Enhance the City Center image and identity.
4. Encourage opportunities for public art and artists.
5. Improve bicycle and pedestrian connectivity.

This is lovely and all, but it's not clear what difference this will make in actual fact. Still, it's nice to see some momentum continuing.

Help Keep Church Street for Walking and Biking on Wednesday the 11th

2012-01-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

Do you live in the SCAN neighborhood? Wednesday, the 11th, at 6:30pm in the South Salem High School library, the South Central Association of Neighbors will discuss both the Bike Plan Update as well as the Hospital's plan for the Blind School.

Both have important implications for north-south connectivity, especially to and through downtown!

Hospital Parking Lot and Church Street

You may remember the discussion of the Blind School parcel (here and here) and the Hospital's plans to put in a parking lot. The demolition is now complete, and Howard Hall's been retained, but there are still plans for a parking lot, and it's not yet final where the lot will empty and how the expected auto traffic will impact Church and Winter Streets.

Bike and Walk Salem identifies an urgent need for Church Street to handle more bicycling and walking traffic as a tier 1 project (in red) - not a need for it to handle more car traffic. The Bush Park - Gaiety Hill Historic District has also identified Church Street as having an important historic character, not consistent with high traffic volumes.

Willamette and Winter Street

But one reason the Hospital could be looking to Church Street (lower left on map, with Blind School parcel in green) is that Willamette's longer-term plans call for closing Winter Street to car traffic between State and Bellvue. That could be terrific.

But that could also impact the Hospital: With a Winter Street closed to cars north of Bellvue, access to State Street east-bound from the Hospital could be an issue. (Though Bellvue offers a light and a left hand turn lane at 12th, with connections to State Street.)

Because Willamette and the Hospital are aggregating smaller blocks into superblocks, movement may be bottlenecked and funneled, and through-mobility for all modes increasingly problematic. There's a complex relationship between institutional needs and community needs, and hopefully we can all find a good balance.

It will be important to see how the Hospital plans on using the Blind School property and what are their plans for the parking lot. Hopefully they will also see the importance of active transportation in light of increasingly urgent public health problems, like obesity and diabetes rates, and will recognize the importance of Church Street for north-south connectivity.

But as we all wait to see the plans, and as we press for action on Bike and Walk Salem, Church Street needs fans right now. Doug has argued improvements to Church Street should be one of the three highest priorities for the City, and a big parking lot would hinder that. So if you live in the neighborhood, consider attending the meeting.

Boise Project Heats Up; Design Review on Tuesday the 10th

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000-08:00

CB|Two and Pringle Square South LLC will in a Type II Site Plan Review bring the latest plans for the Boise Project at Trade and Commercial across from the Civic Center. This will be for

107 Residential units
19,200 square feet of commercial space
450 parking spaces in the existing structure
35 parking spaces on a surface lot
and zoned for South Waterfront Mixed Use

The hearing will be at 5:30pm in the Council Chambers at the Civic Center on Tuesday, January 10th.

This is an important development for downtown! (And hopefully the site plan will clarify the RR crossing on State Street at the Carousel.)

Stay tuned.

(Here's some history and old renderings.)

Take Morningside Neighborhood Survey for Priorities on Parks, Walking, and Biking

2012-01-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

The Morningside neighborhood is updating the neighborhood plan.

As part of the Morningside 360 project, you may have completed a survey about values and goals.

Now there's a new one about priorities for parks, walking, and biking. Be sure to take it!

There are meetings tonight and Thursday the 19th at Pringle Creek Community, Painter's Hall at 7pm. See the neighborhood association website for more info.

Bike Plan Back to Staff, Planning Commission Continues Hearing to March 6

2012-01-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night the Planning Commission sent the Bike Plan back to staff with some direction on priorities, funding, outside consultation, and language, and asked to see a revision on March 6th.

The upside is there's time to educate and develop public support. The downside is delay brings out the foes and wears down proponents.

Most of the public comment this time was in opposition to the Plan or parts of the Plan.

The proposed cemetery path remained a lighting rod, and several folks came out to oppose it specifically. It continued to receive a disproportionate amount of the public comment.

System Development Charges were another issue. The best description I could find (2008 TSDC Update) suggests bike lanes are funded by Transportation System Development Charges:

all additional right-of-way costs are TSDC eligible, as well as all additional pavement, bridge and culvert expansions, installation of needed storm drainage systems (curb, gutter, catch basin to pipe systems or open ditch/swale systems), required water quality systems, and the cost of replacing existing pavement, curb, gutter, drainage, sidewalk, bicycle lanes, landscaping and street lighting needed to be moved or reconstructed due to having to expand the roadway section, or it beign [sic] damaged by constructing the improvement. [italics added]

But the representative from the Home Builders Association sought assurances from the City that SDC fees wouldn't fund bike infrastructure. I don't understand this completely, but it bears watching. (If you know the issues, please chime in!)

Commissioner Levin summed up an important part of the sentiment when he said that he wanted to see more "protection of private property rights." Representatives from the Home Builders Association, Americans for Prosperity, Willamette University, the Chamber of Commerce, and some individuals asked several times for "mandatory" or "mandating" language to be replaced by advisory, recommending, or encouraging language. In short, the focus for many seemed to be a hope for assurances that the plan remain aspirational and optional - not something that the City actually intends to do!

A bicyclist himself, Commissioner Fox asked about Policy 3.1 and the focus on ticketing people on bikes. He suggested that people on bike shouldn't be singled out, since the vehicular code applies to them basically the same as to people in cars. He also pointed out that the components of the bike chapter should be handled in the same way as the components in the street chapter and auto-focused portions: If the street project list is expansive and over-ambitious, why should the bike project list be any different?

All in all, it's hard to know what to say. We aren't at the point where we are asking, "is this a good transportation plan?" Instead, the battle is whether biking and walking even count as transportation: For several of the Commissioners they are lifestyle perks that shouldn't be paid for in the same way we pay for roads and other transportation facilities. Though the total quantity of public comments still on balance favors biking and the plan, several Commissioners appear more sympathetic to the opponents. In this regard biking looks to remain second-class. The City seems content to follow rather than lead, and the path here at this moment doesn't appear to be taking us very far. (This also shows a problem with treating each mode independently rather than looking at a multi-modal complete streets philosophy.)

Commissioner Gallagher had the most searching questions and he appears to be key as the swing vote and an honest broker. On the one hand, I have a great deal of sympathy with his desire for a more sharply articulated list of priorities. I would also like to see more focus. And I appreciate his willingness to say that some community transportation needs may trump individual private property rights. On the other hand, I worry that the biking and walking chapters are being held to different standards than the street and auto-focused chapters. In general, facilities for biking and walking should not be more optional than facilities for cars, but we seem to be going towards this asymmetry.

In any case City staff will draft an outline of what they understand the direction from the Commission to be, and then once the outline and direction is agreed upon, the plan revision and consultation with additional interested parties will commence.

Look for more to come.

And if you haven't commented, please do so! It's ever more important to demonstrate broad public support!

Comment on the Bike Plan before 5pm or Attend the Planning Commission!

2012-01-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight the Bike Plan goes for a final time before the Planning Commission. At the first session there were lots of people. At the second session there weren't very many. If you can make it, consider coming to show your support. The online comment tool is still taking comment, and the record will be kept open at least until 5pm.

Here's the staff report with the latest edits and well as the revision reformatted to conform to the existing TSP style sheet.

Some additional changes have been made to routes, and it's not clear how concerned to be. One the one hand, some of the changes represent accommodations to property owners who have complained about the possibility of eminent domain. On the other hand, in many cases they are tier 2 or 3 projects, rather far off, and not important at the present. So taken individually, they are not really worth getting too worked up over. But hopefully they do not also represent a wholesale retreat in the face of individual opponents.

Here's an excerpt of a letter from a resident of west Salem with a proposed change to a route. The writer is someone who thinks that a good bike route includes a dismount and enforced walking, and that "there is no...truly safe way off the West Salem hills using a bicycle." It's hard to see such a writer as a credible source for an amended route. Does this person even ride a bike? Nevertheless, the Staff Report of November 1st recommended adopting the proposed change and it is included this way in the current plan (and January 3rd Staff report) before the Planning Commission.

Another area of retreat is on the enforcement policy, Policy 3.1:

The City shall encourage schools, safety organizations, and law enforcement agencies to provide information and instruction on bicycle safety issues that focus on the most important accident problems. Law enforcement agencies should use warnings and citations as a tool to enforce safe operation by bicyclists. [italics added]

As Doug pointed out, the enforcement policy should be mode-neutral and accurately assess risk: Unsafe motorist behavior kills a lot more people than unsafe bicyclist behavior and is involved in most serious crashes.

There are a few other instances of language being weakened in response to plan opponents.

Fortunately, one of the key issues regarding property acquisition seemed to find a satisfactory conclusion:

Additional key issues raised at the Planning Commission Work Session included proposed methods for acquiring property for bicycle and pedestrian proejcts and how people were notified of the proposed TSP amendments. As noted, project implementations, including property acquisition, will be consistent with the provisions of the Salem Revised Code.

Unless there's a rotten "easter egg" hidden in the SRC, this means that property acquisition for bike/ped projects will proceed by the same processes and be evaluated by the same standards as property acquisition for auto-oriented road expansion.

So, you know, compromise on the edges and keep the key center intact. Still, I worry that the City may be too ready to compromise or even bail out at the slightest opposition. Death by 1000 cuts and all. There's just not enough of a sustaining vision here.

The solution to this is popular support! If you haven't commented, please do so! If you facebook and haven't posted about it, hit the facebook. If you blog or tweet or tumblr or whatever social media you use - let your friends, colleagues, and peers know it's important to show support for improving biking and walking in Salem!

2011 in Review: One Step Forward, but Two Steps Back

2011-12-31T12:01:00.000-08:00

It sure feels like we lost ground this year. Nothing seemed to catch fire, and everybody seemed tired. For every project that seemed like a win, there were several blanks, duds, and outright losses. Within a year of sharrows going down on Chemeketa, for example, the downtown sewer project took several out.

In a nutshell, that's 2011 for me.

Mostly, it seemed like it was a discouraging year for people who bike. I feel like a real negative Nellie saying this, but it seemed to take too much of a Pollyanna-ish stretch to suggest it was a good year.

So, was it encouraging for you, did you think the City took two steps forward instead? I would especially love to hear about that! What else was important?

Bike and Walk Salem

The lead item, and a piece of good news is the completion of the draft Bike Plan. At the same time there may be a lack of enthusiasm behind it. Whether it was the Stakeholder Advisory Committee, City staff, advocates, or regular folks who walk and bike, passion seemed to smolder and gutter more than flame. It's difficult just now to see this making a very meaningful difference. It's not too late, and 2012 could bring about renewed enthusiasm. But at least in 2011, Bike and Walk Salem offered something too passive for active transportation.

Other Planning Efforts

The project that generated the most excitement was surely the Sustainable Cities Initiative residency. It wrapped up over the summer with the final reports. The year-long residency will take time to assess and sift for its enduring contributions and project progress. One project, on the South of Mission neighborhood, will continue and use the SCI work as an important starting point. A couple of other projects with no immediate transportation component will also continue. Other ideas will likely percolate and resurface down the road.

ODOT's Active Transportation Section will be interesting to watch. Internally folks have good things to say about it, and hopefully we'll start seeing more externally too!

The North Broadway Parking Study is starting and offers 2012 a real opportunity for progress - but the participants must seize it.

Public Works Slow-Down in Pro-Bike Projects

Altogether more characteristic, though, are the regular business decisions of the City. As Public Works and other staff encounter decision points where they can make pro-bike or anti-bike choices, make choices for walkable neighborhoods or car-throughput, most of the plans represent autoism and business as usual. The rhetoric and thought behind Bike and Walk Salem is not working very strongly in areas outside the orbits of its immediate boosters, and even among the boosters things seemed timid.

The City almost always chose to make things more difficult for people on bike:

The City has not yet formally unwound the decision to close State Street at the Carousel.
When the City looked at Second Street NW, they decided against the suggestion in the River Crossing Alt Modes Study, and decided to make Second Street into a parking lot instead of a family friendly bikeway.
When the City had an opportunity to delay a decision on vacating a parcel at the Cemetery, they chose to move forward with the vacation.
When the City designed the neighborhood cut-throughs to Kuebler, they made them too narrow for people on bike.
When the City was paving Kuebler, they made all the crossings longer for people on foot and on bike, including the school connection at Kuebler and Lone Oak.
When the City planned Wallace @ Glen Creek, they totally degraded the crossing for people on foot and on bike.
When the City considered the downtown historic district and bank drive-throughs, it focused on making downtown more car-friendly and less walkable.

The Minto-Riverfront bridge and path are proceeding, but together this represents a parks and recreation project, and not something that will significantly impact Salem's transportation system.

Moreover, twice now, the City has decided not to pursue transportation projects funded by rounds of $21M "flex funds." A year ago they simply sat out the first round. This year they chose to apply with two parks projects that at best sat awkwardly with the project criteria. Neither made it into the second round of evaluation.

It's true that the City has the Bike and Walk Salem project to update the TSP, but the fact of the matter is, where the City has discretion to make pro-bike and pro-walk decisions, staff and electeds do not. Individually, some projects might inhabit a grey middle, it's true, but others are more black-and-white. Overall there's a distinct pattern here, and it was a disappointing one.

Stalled Projects and Volunteer Loss

Volunteer and DIY projects faltered, went on hiatus, or had to scale back. For whatever combination of reasons, and surely the Great Recession is in the mix, people felt they didn't have the time or energy to devote to volunteering for bikes.

If in 2012 you want a project, there are tons of opportunities!

Kidical Mass
Saturday Market Bike Valet
Bike Trains
Bike Safety Ed (which also lost a staff person)
Bike Drill Team
Cranksgiving

Kidical Mass looks like it's poised for a resurgence in 2012, happily. And there are strong rumors about a KMUZ "Bike Show" on the radio. But there's still lots of other projects and opportunity.

In Racing and Recreation

In recreational biking, one move really got the attention of this non-racer! Retooling the Fairview circuit races and shifting them from Fairview Industrial Park to Pringle Creek Community was brilliant.

Now it has the potential to grow into a real family-friendly spectator event that can appeal broadly to non-participants. It was beautiful there, the farm food truck was great, the cafe was open - what's not to like!

Looking to 2012

Of course getting the Bike Plan adopted is important. But even more important is getting a commitment to fund projects that are in the plan. At one of the hearings City staff said that at present there was no intent to insert new projects into the City's Capital Improvement Plan. Since it's a five year document, and currently goes through fiscal year 2015-16, that means nothing new before 2017!

Building more vocal community support for walking and biking will be important for 2012 in order for more than the minimum to happen!

After several rounds of delay (this time for consideration of potential historic homes and properties), the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Salem Rivercrossing is due in April. If Courthouse Square is a $50M problem, this would be a $500M problem - an order of magnitude larger! Advocates from multiple quarters will need to give careful scrutiny and publicity to the project.

In Memoriam

And finally we tip our caps to Jim Henry one more time, who crashed on a ride and sustained mortal injuries.

West Salem's Bone Property and Colorado Drive Extension at Planning Commission

2011-12-29T16:00:00.000-08:00

At the Planning Commission next Tuesday, in addition to the Bike Plan, there will be a hearing on what is, I think, the first application of the Neighborhood Center Mixed Use Zoning. A street will need to be reclassified to accept a busier level of traffic, and some neighbors are not happy.

Chapman Corners, the Straub Property and Condemnation for Schools

The corner of Doaks Ferry and Orchard Heights is pretty old and old-timers will remember it still as Chapman Corners - a name remembered in Chapman Elementary School.

It's on the edge of development in West Salem, and there has been lots of conversation around how best to build here.

One of the parcels holds an historic home, whose core building precedes statehood, that is still held in the family of former Governor Bob Straub.

The school district wanted the land for schools, but in part because of the Great Recession and housing bubble, the property's value declined and the family and district were unable to find an agreeable price. The district subsequently initiated condemnation around the house (the house remains) and built two schools.

School siting can be complicated, but already the decision for suburban land on the edges of development is making it more likely parents will drive their kids to school and deprive them of the benefits of active transportation - walking, biking, skateboarding, and the like.

The West Salem Plan

Concurrently, the West Salem Neighborhood Plan calls for additional density and commercial center development along Orchard Heights (yellow and purple on map), and appropriate development here might yield the kinds of walkable neighborhoods West Salem essentially lacks.

The map is somewhat out of date. Already with the schools and other development, the exact parcels marked here won't be developed precisely as the map suggests - but the larger concept is clear: More density at Chapman Corners.

The Bone Property

Not actually in purple, but one of the first parcels to be in play, is the Bone property.

The Bone estate is on the northwest corner, and it will go before the Planning Commission on Tuesday. The Commission will look at two questions: Should the City rezone the property for higher density? And should the City build a new collector street to serve the property?

NCMU Zone

The zoning question appears to have community support. The City has enacted a new zoning designation, the Neighborhood Center Mixed-Use (NCMU) Zone, which it hopes to apply to this parcel.

The key values the code seeks to instantiate are:

Sense of place
Pedestrian orientation
Compact urban form
Neighborhood vitality
Innovative design
Transit accessibility
Connectivity with surrounding neighborhoods
Accommodation of the automobile

Disagreement on a New Collector Street

But not everything is copacetic.

Part of the project involves a new collector street. Colorado Drive would be extended through the property as a higher-traffic collector street and Landaggard would remain as a quieter local street, with connections to Colorado.

According to a recent piece in the Statesman, the neighborhood association opposes the plan:

West Salem Neighborhood Association co-chairman Don Homuth said the association does not favor the change.

"The WSNA will vigorously oppose running the collector street through the newly-passed NCMU development to be considered for the northwest corner of Doaks Ferry and Orchard Heights, a.k.a. the Bone Property," Homuth said in an email. "We worked very long and hard on the NCMU designation, and throughout the discussion, it was always intended to place a particular emphasis on pedestrian friendly, with cars being allowed into it for parking or convenience, but never — not even tangentially — did we envision that someone would suggest running a 'collector street' through it."

It's hard to know how to analyze this. One the one hand, Chapman Corners is still on the edge of a low-density and hilly development. Even in ideal circumstances, with a higher density development, it is not clear how actually walkable in practice it will be. Sometimes this looks like a planning exercise better on paper than in reality, and it may not be the best place in Salem to pilot the NCMU zone.

On the other hand, when we visit the early 20th century streetcar commercial districts in Portland, like those on Mississippi, Alberta, Hawthorne, Belmont, Division, 28th, and so on, which in important ways at least partially model important aspects of the neighborhood centers, it seems pretty clear they are all served by collector streets. This shouldn't surprise us: The reason they are commercially viable is because they serve multiple uses and are busy across multiple hours. People are constantly going in and out of the core commercial areas.

According to the current drafts of SRC 532.005 and 532.010, NCMU zone is

A district...located within one-eighth of a mile of a major intersection, as measured from the center of the intersection to the point in the district that is nearest to the intersection....Major intersection means the intersection of two streets, one of which is designated in the Salem Area Transportation System Plan as a major arterial or minor arterial, and the other designated as a major arterial, minor arterial, or collector.

I believe a "major intersection" has always been part of the zoning, and it unclear where the communication breakdown occurred with the neighborhood association.

It is likely that a higher density commercial center at this location in West Salem will perish without provision for significant volumes of auto traffic and the people they bring. There simply will not be enough close-in neighbors walking and biking to support business. Presumably, if the district were already walkable, more schoolkids would be walking and biking to the new schools. With time, as a center prospers, more people may walk and bike, but at first, the district will remain auto-dependent, and long-term success requires acknowledging this in the nearer-term.

What to do here is not necessarily clear. The City and community generally has an great interest in making development under the NCMU zone a success. Perhaps West Salem residents with a better understanding of the zoning and history, or others who have followed the NCMU zoning more closely, can comment and clarify. It's likely there are other factors not included in the SJ piece. Much depends on an actual site plan: Maybe the intersection of Doaks Ferry and Orchard Heights is enough, and Colorado would be a superfluous addition - though it's hard to see Doaks Ferry and Orchard Heights with parking here.

In any event, this is a new direction in Salem planning, and it deserves substantive conversation and debate with a view towards making a pilot project a success.

Holiday Travel Offers Reminder of 12th and Mill's Difficulty

2011-12-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Holiday trips to the train station and bike rides past Mission Mill for the holiday lights have reminded me how lousy is the crossing at 12th and Mill.

You might remember the City's plan for the crossing.

It's complicated, of course, by the train tracks. On 12th, the right-of-way width also makes a median more convenient on the south side of the intersection. But most crossing takes place on the north side.

Plans to finish the 12th Street Promenade and add a pedestrian median to 12th are dormant at the moment. The City has tried to fund it, but it never seems to come together. Grantors, for example, haven't found the plan competitive, and the City has declined to fund it straight-up, preferring to build out auto capacity.

But crossing 12th street here is very difficult, and Willamette University and Tokyo International University of America together funded and built a private footbridge across 12th street. Initially the bridge was open, but vandalism and theft led the universities to close the bridge to the public. Crime diminished by 90%. It's hard to argue with that!

Nonetheless, the crossing remains difficult for the public, and the bridge is not very bike friendly.

In fact, in a 2002 Strategic Master Plan, Willamette identified it as a key east-west corridor:

Many pedestrians still find it necessary to cross Twelfth Street at grade to reach the eastward continuation of Mill Street, across the rail tracks, and into the neighborhood beyond. With plans for a tennis center west of 14th Street on Mill, more pedestrians will want to cross Twelfth Street...Safe and convenient access across Twelfth Street at Mill will help to reconnect what is now a rather isolated area around TIUA.

Interestingly, in the current 2008 Master Plan, connectivity at this intersection is not as urgently discussed. If nothing else, Bush School was built rather than the tennis center, and this might be seen to diminish the walking demand. Maybe there's more to learn about this, but for the moment it's interesting to see the crossing called out in the 2002 master plan.

And there's still a need for it.

The crossing is difficult for lots of people, not just Willamette staff and students, and it's not surprising the City's proposed Bike Plan identifies the intersection as an important "tier 1" intersection improvement.

(Both the 2008 and 2002 plans are interesting, and there might be more to say on them.)

Girdling Downtown: Institutional Growth and the Etiolaton of Business

2011-12-26T12:01:00.000-08:00

Walking around over the holiday, and talking with folks, it was clear that something we just don't talk about enough when we talk about making downtown more lively and healthy is the extent to which the harm is self-inflicted.

For we've girdled downtown.

Downtown used to be a residential neighborhood itself, and connected to close-in residential neighborhoods. The people who lived nearby were customers for business.

No more! As institutions - important Salem institutions - have expanded, they have removed homes and replaced them with larger buildings and superblocks. Since there are fewer nearby customers, businesses must chase after driving customers who live much farther away.

The bark that would nourish the trunk and core is gone, cut away.

In nearly every direction, downtown is separated from residential districts by many barriers. With the growth on the west side and the difficulties crossing Wallace, Edgewater, the river, Front, Liberty, Commercial, west Salem is psychically far from downtown. The Mission cluster-frack, Pringle Parkway, Pringle Creek Urban Renewal Area, Bush Park, Salem Hospital, and Willamette University form barriers on the south side. The Capitol Mall, 12th Street, and the railroad form barriers on the east side.

The barriers aren't always stops. In fact, in many instances the barriers are constituted by single-use buildings. Pringle Creek Urban Renewal zone has SAIF and the City of Salem; the Capitol Mall has State government. Both areas empty at 5pm and on weekends. At 7pm or on Saturday, there's nothing to lure you to the districts, and there are no residents in them. So it's not surprising people don't walk or bike to them or through them to downtown. The superblocks even make driving less attractive.

If you want to know why there aren't enough people in downtown....maybe planners and politicians should give more though to the barriers we ourselves have created.

There are plenty of other issues, of course. The problems don't reduce to a single master narrative of one variable.

But land-use and zoning are implicated in the problems downtown faces, and it's hard to say that conversations around downtown vitality give enough attention to this part of the problem.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-23T14:00:00.000-08:00

Policy and planning are important, but, you know, the nuances of a Transportation Improvement Program aren't always the most exciting.

Here something completely different. Two great emotional appeals for biking. Not great because of what they say, but because of how they say it: They express moods, one wintry, one summery. Both have stuck with me: Both say something ineffable, maybe something you can't say in words.

Who cares it's a beer ad! It captures cheer and a little chill - just like a real holiday jumble.

And! "That's the way, Patriot. Let the OPECs keep their gasoline. We'll just tap into a far more efficient energy source. Manpower." It's amazing a national account went with this, however briefly.

This next one's almost ecstatic - it's a gloriously lyrical take on biking and its pleasures.

Have fun, be safe, enjoy the knowledge the days are getting longer.

West Salem Wayfinding Says Where but not How

2011-12-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

Signs matching the downtown wayfinding went up recently in west Salem. While they are great for telling you where, they aren't very much help with how.

The Map Doesn't Give Direction

If the maps work for people with some knowledge of the area, a reliance on implied knowledge means the maps likely fail for people unfamiliar with the area - their target audience! Because the maps are dominated by auto-centric busy roads, and essentially ignore the logic of walking, their mode-blind presentation misses details key for people on foot or on bike.

Suppose you are from out of town and attending an event at the Conference Center. You are out for a walk and you encounter the map on the far end, the west end, of the Union Street Railroad Bridge. The map marks three destinations outside of the park:

West Salem Shopping
Westgate Shopping
Edgewater District

Your location - and the map's - is marked by the red arrow.

There are no straight connections to any of these from the map's location. The best alternative routes are indirect - but they are left to the viewer's imagination. The maps fail to show you how to go there.*

If for example you continue on the logical path in green, you hit the deadend, clearly marked on the map.

Crucially, none of the crossings on Wallace are marked. Consistent with the downtown grid, and the maps already located there which you would have earlier seen on your walk, you might suppose that you could cross Wallace at any corner. But of course this is not the case! There are only three places to cross. And if you don't know the area, you'll likely guess wrong - since there are no indicated routes.

Downtown Maps May not Need to Give Direction

It's worth stopping a moment to consider the grid.

The downtown historic, streetcar grid has short, square blocks, and by taxicab geometry there are many different ways to get somewhere. Each way is a different combination of zigs and zags, but in the end the path segments sum to the same distance, the same two legs of a right-angled triangle. The important thing is that there are few wrong turns.

So a downtown map doesn't need to show the best routes.

A Person needs Direction to Cross Wallace

By contrast, this part of west Salem offers many wrong ways, and in almost every case only one right way. The routes are also highly constrained and always indirect. Fences, property lines, and busy roads all constitute real barriers. A good map will need to show the best routes.

But this west Salem map treats all features and routes equally, and the democracy misses the fact that places good for cars aren't good for people on foot or on bike.

In this map the foregrounded road system is distinctly oriented for cars. Wallace has the same line width as Musgrave or Glen Creek inside the park. Instead, the roadways should retreat into a background layer over which a bike and ped layer is foregrounded. As it is here, in both its priority of car routes and the lack of editorial guidance for the best walking routes, the map does not use good information design.

The map's prospects are also ironic, given the intended development of Marine Drive, the widening of Wallace (of course Wallace & Glen Creek is already funded), and the third bridge. The proposed alignment shown here would have significant impacts on the Union St. Railroad Bridge and Wallace Park, rendering the wayfinding map totally obsolete.

Hopefully the map will continue to underscore the need to develop better crossings on Wallace.

Until then, given the awful walking situation across and near Wallace, this wayfinding map does a stylish job with where, but doesn't help so much with how.

* A rejoinder will probably be that there's a separate system of directional signing on the bridge. I contend that the map requires the use of this signage, but would be more useful if it functioned independent of that signage - if you could at a glance grok the right way to go.

Open House and Comment on Regional List of Transportation Projects

2011-12-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month our Metropolitan Planning Organization announced the public comment period for the SKATS Draft FY 12-FY 17 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and Air Quality Conformity Determination (AQCD).

The six-year TIP (2012- 2017) lists projects which will be funded in the near term with a combination of federal, state, and local funds.

Why care about this wonky topic? Getting projects onto the list is an essential procedural step in getting transportation projects built when they rely on more than just local funding (the bond projects, for example, aren't on the list unless they have a federal or state component). Basically, if a project is not on the list, it doesn't get funded. Projects from the new Bike Plan, then, will in many cases need to get on this list. The list also shows how we prioritize travel modes.

Open House
Date: Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Time: 7:30-10:00 a.m., 4:00-7:00 p.m.
Where: MWVCOG Conference Room 109 High St. SE Salem, OR 97301

Public Hearing
Date: Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Where: Chemeketa Center for Business and Industry, Room 102 626 High Street NE Salem, OR 97301
Time: Noon

You can also send comments via email to Mike Jaffe, MPO Program Manager at the Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments/Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study.

Look for a more detailed analysis in January!

The List Sorted by Dollar Amount
Project numbers are keyed to the map. Projects in italics are clearly good for people on bike. Some projects may add bike lanes and sidewalks, but because they are fundamentally car-centric road widening and capacity increases, with incidental bike lanes and sidewalks, they may not be all that friendly for people on foot and on bike. Transit projects are good too, but that's not our focus here.

If you know more about a particular project, and are able to offer detailed criticism and analysis, please don't hesitate to comment!

Tens of Millions
4 I-5 @ Kuebler Blvd. Interchange. $18,625,000
2 OR22: Overcrossings and Overlay pavement. $17,590,000
5 Hwy. 150 (OR 221) Wallace Rd. @ Glen Creek Rd. $10,375,000

Millions
39 SKATS MPO Support. $4,796,000
3 Mill Creek Corporate Center-Aumsville Hwy Widening. $4,000,000
19 Keizer Transit Center. $3,500,000
10 Chemawa Rd. (River Rd. to Keizer Rapids Park). $2,500,000
9 12th St. (McGilchrist St. to Fairview Ave.) Widening. $2,497,000
7 Commercial St. @ Kuebler Blvd. $2,437,000
14 Ward Dr. Widening with turn lane, bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks. $2,174,000
15 Auburn Rd. Add bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks. $2,115,000
11 Verda Ln. @ Chemawa Rd. roundabout $2,032,000
30 Regional Traffic Signal Control Center Operation. $1,814,000
34 Bus Replacement Purchases (2016). $1,790,000
37 Transit Preventative Maintenance & Mobility Management (2012). $1,216,000
32 Regional Rideshare Program $1,198,000
13 (Turner) Delaney Rd. bike lanes and sidewalks $1,092,000.00

Less than a Million
17 Cordon Rd. left-turn pockets. $871,000
20 Enhanced Bus Shelters. $775,000
40 Minto Brown Bike/Pedestrian Bridge Design-only funds. $749,000
8 Salem River-crossing Project. $558,000
36 Jobs Access Reverse Commute (JARC) Formula Program. $493,000
16 Marion County signal interconnects on Silverton Rd. and on Lancaster Dr. $329,000
33 Regional Transportation Demand Management Program. $326,000
12 Wheatland Rd. bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks. Design-only funds. $317,000
18 Brown Rd. bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks. Design-only funds. $317,000
1 OR 22 Greenwood Rd. - Doaks Ferry Rd. land acquisition. $300,000
6 Bike/Pedestrian Path: Multi-use path within Wallace Marine Park to connect Glen Creek Rd. to the Union St. Railroad path and bridge. $247,000
31 Regional Traffic Count/Congestion Management System Program (2012-2013). Traffic operation and traffic count cameras. $112,000

Less than 100 Thousand
35 New Freedom Formula Program (2011 carryover). Transportation services for person with disabilities. $74,000
38 OHAS: surveillance equipment (2012). $64,000

(Not sure what's up with the surveillance equipment...curiously, it's omitted from the TIP project summary list.)

The List by Jurisdiction

Oregon Department of Transportation Projects
1 OR 22 Greenwood Rd. - Doaks Ferry Rd. Development: land acquisition. $300,000
2 OR22: Increase the vertical clearance for the Lancaster Dr., Cordon Rd., Albus Rd., 72nd Ave. overcrossings. Overlay pavement from I-5 to Joseph St. $17,590,000
3 Mill Creek Corporate Center-Aumsville Hwy. Widen to 3-lane section with sidewalks and bike lanes. Modify intersection at Kuebler Blvd. $4,000,000
4 I-5 @ Kuebler Blvd. Interchange. Modify southbound ramps, adding a westbound to southbound loop on-ramp. $18,625,000

City of Salem Projects
5 Hwy. 150 (OR 221) Wallace Rd. @ Glen Creek Rd. Provide dual left-turn lanes and extra right-turn only lane on northbound Wallace Rd.; provide dual right-turn lanes for Glen Creek Rd. eastbound. Upgrade signal. $10,375,000.
6 Bike/Pedestrian Path: Multi-use path within Wallace Marine Park to connect Glen Creek Rd. to the Union St. Railroad path and bridge. $247,000
7 Commercial St. @ Kuebler Blvd. Widen Commercial St. approaches (from approximately Boone Rd. to Barnes Rd). to provide dual left-turn lanes. Total cost: $2,437,000
8 Salem River-crossing Project. Funds for completing Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), financial planning, or first phase of project development. $558,000.
9 12th St. (McGilchrist St. to Fairview Ave.) Additional southbound travel lane, becoming a right-turn only at Fairview Ave. $2,497,000
40 Minto Brown Bike/Pedestrian Bridge. Design of a bike/pedestrian bridge between Riverfront Park and Minto Brown Island in Salem. Design-only funds. $749,000 (local funds only).

City of Keizer Projects
10 Chemawa Rd. (River Rd. to Keizer Rapids Park) Add bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks, signal at McNary High School entrance. Includes rain gardens. $2,500,000
11 Verda Ln. @ Chemawa Rd. Replace the existing four-way stop with a modern roundabout. $2,032,000
12 Wheatland Rd.: River Rd. to north city limit. Add bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks. Design-only funds. $317,000

City of Turner Projects
13 Delaney Rd. (3rd St. - 7th St.) Upgrade 1000 feet of existing roadway by adding sidewalks and bike lanes. $1,092,000.

Marion County Projects
14 Ward Dr.: Ward Ct. to Lancaster Dr. Add bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks. Add signal at Ward Dr. @ Fisher Rd. Add right-turn lane at Lancaster Dr. $2,174,000
15 Auburn Rd: Lancaster Dr. to Baldwin Ave. Add bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks. Provides safe route to Auburn elementary school. $2,115,000
16 Marion County signal interconnects. Connect signals on Silverton Rd. (Brown Rd. to Cordon Rd., Lancaster Dr. to 45th Ave.), and on Lancaster Dr. (Silverton Rd. to Portland Rd.) $329,000
17 Cordon Rd. left-turn pockets. Add northbound left-turn lane on Cordon Rd. at Carolina Ave. and Cordon Rd. at Indiana Ave. to improve safety at these locations. $871,000
18 Brown Rd. (Arizona Ave. to San Francisco Ave): Add bike lanes, curbs, sidewalks. Design-only funds. $317,000

Salem-Keizer Transit Projects
19 Keizer Transit Center. Construction of the new transit center off of Chemawa Rd./Keizer Station Blvd. $3,500,000
20 Enhanced Bus Shelters. Improve ADA accessibility to bus stops along River Rd., Broadway St., Center St., and Market St. Replace shelters, improve signage. Total of $775,000 which includes pre-2012 funding.

Other Funded Projects and Programs
30 Regional Traffic Signal Control Center Operation (2012-2017). Operated by the city of Salem. $1,814,000
31 Regional Traffic Count/Congestion Management System Program (2012-2013). Traffic operation and traffic count cameras. $112,000
32 Regional Rideshare Program (2012-2017). Operated by the Salem Area Mass Transit District. $1,198,000
33 Regional Transportation Demand Management Program (2012-2017). Operated by the Salem Area Mass Transit District. $326,000
34 Bus Replacement Purchases (2016). $1,790,000
35 New Freedom Formula Program (2011 carryover). Transportation services for person with disabilities. $74,000
36 Jobs Access Reverse Commute (JARC) Formula Program (2011 carryover). $493,000
37 Preventative Maintenance & Mobility Management (2012). $1,216,000
38 OHAS: surveillance equipment (2012). $64,000
39 SKATS MPO Support: data collection, planning, travel forecasting (2012-2017). $4,796,000

Minto Path Misses Cut for Flex Funds; Brown Road and Cherriots Advance

2011-12-16T13:00:00.000-08:00

Today the Department of Transportation released the list of "Flexible Funds" projects advancing to the next round of evaluation, and the Minto Path application failed to move on.

You'll recall the vigorous debate over applying for "flex fund" dollars to finance the Minto trail.

City staff haven't got feedback from ODOT yet, but it seems likely that since the project didn't complete the triangle linking homes and jobs and retail, it was clear to others also that this was a recreation project rather than a transportation project, and not a good fit with the program criteria.

Last week Council authorized a back-up, the City applying for a Federal Highway Administration Transportation Community and System Preservation Program grant.

Other area projects that did make the cut for round 2 are a County one for Brown Road and two from Cherriots, one for Courthouse Square, the other for bus stops.

One of the problems with the Minto Path project was advocates learned about it too late to be able to offer meaningful comment and criticism that might have yielded a useful course-correction. It is unfortunate that the City of Salem for two rounds now will have no projects funded by the Flex Fund program ($42M total so far).

The Vision 2020 Bike/Ped Workgroup will be discussing grant funding, project selection, and lead-times the first week of January. Hopefully the City will see the advantage to longer lead-times and more conversation and debate with a view towards advancing visionary and transformative transportation projects.

Think Holiday Treats - Thanks to Cascade Baking, LifeSource, and the Gov Cup

2011-12-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

Without the support from our sponsors who care about sustainable transportation, each month's Breakfast on Bikes wouldn't be possible.

This month Cascade Baking Company leads the way with holiday breads!

Cascade Baking Company is providing 6 different Holiday Breads. German Christmas Stollen, Welsh Bara Brith, European Nut Loaf, Danish Julekage, Apricot Delight, and Italian Panettone.

The Stollen is very traditional and includes candied fruits & raisins and fresh ground nutmeg. Stollen sells for $12.00. Welsh Bara Brith is based on a traditional Welsh Christmas bread. Ours has whole grain wheat combined with cherries and hazelnuts. The bread is coated in honey just after bake and is a wonderful alternative Christmas bread. Welsh Bara Brith sells for $12.00. The European Nut Loaf is similar to a Polish Christmas bread and has ground walnut combined with Northwest honey, currants, and cinnamon that is rolled up in a sweet pastry dough. European Nut loaf sells for $15.00 per loaf.

Danish Julekage is done in a traditional manner and is braided in a 3-braid or wreath shape. Cardamon is the predominate spice in this Christmas bread and sells for $12.00 a loaf. Italian Panettone is the lightest of Christmas breads with a taste of fruit and fresh vanilla. We use cranberries, golden raisins, and lemon and orange candied peel. Panettone sells for $14.00. Finally, our Apricot Delight is a wonderful pastry that rolls up dried Apricot, Cream Cheese, and local made Apricot preserves. Apricot Delight sells for $11.50.

And remember the Governor's Cup Coffee Roasters. They just added a liquor license, too, so don't forget the music and libations.

LifeSource Natural Foods will have olive oil and balsamic vinegar sampling today and they've boosted their beer selection. And they've got lots of other things from staples to fancy treats for your holiday table.

Dogbane and the Pineconian Order: More Art at the Speed of Bike

2011-12-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday at the State Library's lunch hour lecture series, two very bikey ODOT employees talked about their work. And though the subjects of their talk were highway projects, the work and its ends didn't unfold at the speed of car.

You might have seen ODOT Archeologist Kurt Roedel around town. Riding a single speed Schwinn Varsity with narrow, messenger-style handlebars, he's got a distinctive profile!

Kurt talked about a project to relocate about 150 dogbane plants from the side of a highway to a nature preserve.

Dogbane has very long fibers and it turns out is great for baskets and weaving.

“People purposely try to eradicate dogbane,” said Robert Kentta, cultural resource director of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. “They see it as a weed. Some people also think it’s toxic for livestock.”

To the Tribes, dogbane is a key component in their way of life. The plant’s reddish-brown fibers are gently stripped from twigs and twisted into a strong string that can be used in everything from creating fishing nets to weaving intricate baskets.

In 2007, Kentta contacted ODOT archaeologists Kurt Roedel and Mary Turner to inform them that the important plant was growing in a narrow strip of right of way along Oregon 99W north of Corvallis...

Roedel and Turner worked with District 4 crews to preclude spraying for one year to allow the dogbane to grow large enough for transplant to a safe location.

Until he "retired" from competition last summer, you might remember Chris Bell as the perennial winner of the "Brian Reynolds Distance Award" for highest mileage during the Bike Commute Challenge. Especially during the summer, Chris regularly commutes by bike from Portland to Salem!

When he's not biking he's an ODOT historian.

Chris talked about a restoration project on one of Conde McCullough's early designs. It was revised significantly by the Feds before being built and presented several uncertainties. Located on an old historic highway to Crater Lake, the Mill Creek Bridge had been neglected, the concrete was deteriorating, and pieces of it were missing.

During research for the restoration, early drawings turned up showing a column detail, light post, and lamp for a set of missing light fixtures.

Chris was able to match the drawing to an existing column on the Historic Columbia River Highway. The Stark Street Viaduct had been built a few years earlier, but it also used the same columns.

Chris calls the pattern "the Pineconian Order." The scroll is vaguely Ionic, but the pine cones make it distinctly Oregonian! The restoration team was able to make a cast and reproduce the columns for less money than off-the-shelf comparable pieces would have cost. That's pretty cool. (Column detail Michael Goff.)

Bikes weren't a formal part of the lectures, of course, but while driving you can't weave a basket or admire a pine cone on a column. It's not surprising that these two custodians of art and history, while even working for the highway department and on highway projects, might also find beauty at the speed of bike.

Annual Keizer Christmas Lights Ride Tonight

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Salem Bicycle Club's holding the annual Keizer Christmas ride tonight!

(Photo: Commute by Bike)

The relaxed ride leaves at 6:30pm:

Meet in the Keizer Bi-Mart parking lot east of the store near the intersection of Cherry Ave and Sam Orcutt Way. Decorated bikes are encouraged, but not required. Bring a can of food or other donation for the Marion-Polk Food Bank. Legal head lights and tail lights are required.

Hot chocolate and coffee afterwards!

If you're curious about club riding, this is a great ride for an introduction.

Bank and Drive-Through by Scott's at Hearings

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

Last Spring there was debate (see here and here) about allowing drive-throughs in the Downtown Historic District, and this fall Council approved the ordinance.

These were changes permitted in general, and therefore ostensibly theoretical, though everyone knew a single project was driving the change.

Now that project is here, and there are two hearings on it in particular.

On Wednesday the Hearings Officer will undertake a Conditional Use review (agenda here, staff report here).

Thursday night the Historic Landmarks Commission will hold its design review. The staff report is here.

The building is on the corner of State and Commercial, and you will recognize Pioneer Trust Bank as the tall building. On the surface the new structure will have a modern, neo-historical two-story brick-ish facade (can't tell if it actually will use brick facings), even broke up with cornice and window detailing into smaller units, that mostly looks like it fits into the neighborhood. It's smooth jazz here.

Here is the first plan, a slightly earlier iteration, superimposed on the gravel lots just north of Scott's Cycle.

And here is the most recent plan, revised in part after CAN-DO's comments regarding too much auto traffic exiting onto Commercial street with limited sightlines along the sidewalk. In this version, only cars with people banking at the drive-through will be permitted to exit onto Commercial, and cars exiting the parking lot will have to use the alley. State street here seems a little bucolic, and it's sad it can't proceed in a more walkable rather than drivable direction.

You'll notice the long strip between Scott's and the Bank. This is a separate lot, and its owners oppose the Bank as proposed. Their objections have not been entered into the record, and according to their attorney will be presented at the hearings.

As far as transportation goes, the moment for opposing the drive-through itself has pretty much passed. And with the rise of mobile banking, it seems unlikely that drive-through transactions will do anything other than decline with time. So it doesn't seem worthwhile to fuss too much.

It will be interesting to learn more about the objections raised by the owners of the strip lot to remain empty. Still, regardless of the way we argue on the details, surely we can agree the corner should be developed, though I suspect this particular building as proposed will not last the century that its companions on each corner have lasted.

Instead, I wonder if what I want to call "spandrels," the on-street areas too small for a car spot created by the bulb-out and the drive-way exit, would permit sufficient space for an on-street bike corral. I'm not sure this would be a huge high-demand area for bike parking, but at the same time if the space would otherwise be wasted, why not use it? Something to consider. (Corral Photo: Greg Raisman)

Also, many banks do not permit people on bike to use drive-throughs. Maybe this is an opportunity to insist that people on bike can use them?

Infographics can Condense Stories

2011-12-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here's excerpts from some punchy graphics that perhaps could be adapted as we talk about and promote the new bike plan (click on any to enlarge). They don't necessarily tell a new story, but maybe they condense, simplify, and make easier to convey some core ideas:

The inverse correlation here between mode split and obesity is pretty neat.

These three from ~~Healthcare Management Degree~~ - which turns out to be linkbait! Well, the graphic's good even though it was apparently part of an SEO scam. The next one is legit.

This one might not play as well in Salem, but it's still pretty good.

From: European Cyclists Federation

If you know of other compelling infographics, drop a link in the comments!

(h/t BikePortland)

City Council, December 12th - More on Minto, Council Goals

2011-12-10T12:01:00.000-08:00

Lots of transportation and transpo-relevant stuff on Council agenda for Monday!

Minto Path

You'll recall the vigorous debate over applying for "flex fund" dollars to finance the Minto trail.

The City has identified a new grant source for the trail project, the Federal Highway Administration Transportation Community and System Preservation Program (TSCP). According to the selection criteria, "priority will be given to requests that address livability, especially from a highway perspective." Since this a recreation play rather than a highway alternative or enhancement, I'm not sure how strong the proposal meets this set of criteria, either. Still, since the dollar amounts are the same, City staff also say,

FHWA grant awards will likely be announced in April2012. If the Agency is notified in March that the requested amount of ODOT Flexible Funding will be awarded for the Minto Trail staff will withdraw the FHWA application.

So this is pretty clearly a back-up funding plan.

"Takings" and Right of Way Acquisition

A couple of meetings ago Council discussed condemnation at Lancaster and Market. Monday Council will declare

the public need and the City of Salem's intent to negotiate the acquisition of right-of-way and easements for construction of the Eola Drive NW Corridor Improvements, from Kingwood Drive NW to Gehlar Road NW....[here's a google view]

[Staff further observe] two of the needed acquisitions will impact entire properties in such a way as to require acquisition of the entire parcels...

It seems clear - but to many it may not be - that facilities for walking and biking should proceed in the same manner as facilities for car driving. The City should not have a double standard here. At the same time, perhaps we should consider how we can meet transportation needs by solutions that take up less space - like bikes!

Also, not on Council agenda, but worth mentioning here, there are meetings for the Eola Ridge Park Master Plan. The next one will be Tuesday, January 10, 2011, 6 p.m. at the West Salem Roths. The park potentially connects Burley Hill Drive and Eola Drive. It may be that some of the problems created by the omission of bike lanes on Burley Hill can be mitigated. If you live near there - get involved!

Updates and Check-ins

There's an update on the Stimulus Funding (ARRA) projects. The City got "awards totaling over $13.5 million" and it's interesting to see them all. The most notable for B on B, of course, is phase 2 of the Union Street Railroad Bridge, consisting of $3.5M:

The project has resulted in the encapsulation of lead-based paint, painting, bridge repairs, and installation of security cameras.

On summer days, not just hundreds, but more than a thousand people use the bridge! This will go down as a very good investment, and once connections across Commercial and Wallace are knit, even more will be able to use it.

And there's an update on the Council goals. Some of them are relevant to the bike plan update.

The Downtown Mobility Study is key:

4. Create a bike/pedestrian avenue downtown (possibly High, Church, Chemeketa Streets)
Status: Pending
The draft Bike and Walk Salem Plan proposes Church Street NE/SE, Union Street NE, and Chemeketa Street NE as bicycle corridors through downtown. City Council and Planning Commission held a joint work session on this planning process on October 24, 2011. The Planning Commission opened a public hearing on the proposed amendments to the Salem Transportation System Plan on November 1, 2011, and continued the public hearing to January 3, 2012. Following Planning Commission recommendation, a public hearing will be scheduled before City Council. Implementing bicycle corridors on Church Street NE/SE and Union Street NE will require a traffic engineering analysis to address both the direction of travel and intersection safety. This analysis will be part of the proposed scope of work for the Central Salem Mobility Study.

5. Improve bike/pedestrian connections to the Union Street Railroad Bridge
Status: In Process
Studying how to improve bicycle and pedestrian connections to and from the Union Street Railroad Bridge will be an area of focus undertaken through the upcoming Central Salem Mobility Study. City Council held a work session on November 7, 2011, to better define the components of the study. As a result of this work session, staff is preparing information on potential scope elements to share with City Council. It is anticipated that a Request for Proposal will be issued within the next two months. Following consultant selection in the 3rd quarter of FY 2011-12, staff will bring a report to the Council to refine the scope of services before entering into a contract. The study will take approximately 12 to 18 months to complete.

(I'm surprised to see the study so far out; I had thought that it was already in motion. Informal conversations, however, have suggested that the scope of data gathering and complexity of modeling have introduced difficulty and delay. I hope to learn more about this.)

Other matters

In passing, the intergovernmental agreement between ODOT and the City for enlarging the intersection of Wallace @ Glen Creek should be noted.

I haven't followed Mill Creek Industrial Park very closely, but it is interesting to see a proposal to push the Project Completion Date from December 31, 2011 to December 31, 2014. Probably a consequence of the crappy economy, but you have to wonder also about the future of suburban office/industry parks on a city's periphery.

There was an interesting piece in the New York Times about this. Writing from her new book, Pastoral Capitalism: A History of Suburban Corporate Landscapes, Louise A. Mozingo notes that

suburban offices are even more unsustainably designed than residential suburbs. Sidewalks extend only between office buildings and parking lots, expanses of open space remain private and the spreading of offices over large zones precludes effective mass transit.

Finally, the mixed-use redevelopment project for the Marion Parkade is stalled and City staff recommend that its deadlines NOT be extended. (Here's an update from a year ago.) The City here is pretty clearly signalling dissatisfaction with the development team.

This is on Union, between, Liberty and High, and there's lots of potential for a bike-friendly development, and it will be interesting to see how it goes, though it will almost certainly go slowly now.

North Downtown Parking Study Commences

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

Do you look to the future or look to what is already accomplished?

An email went out this week with notice that the North Broadway / High Street Parking Management Study has a project website and is about to gear up.

Do you see a fresh sheet of paper, a clean slate?

Because the area is not as highly developed as downtown proper, I have argued that the chance to create complete streets, to adjust the streets for true mobility choice, may be greater here than in downtown proper. Gary Obery has also argued for North Broadway/High Street as a focus area.

As you can see from the map, the orange and yellow are all projects labeled tier 2 and 3. We didn't carry the argument. We were looking too much to the future.

The immediate development along High/Broadway doesn't have the retail and commercial density, doesn't have the concentration of destinations. The new townhouses nearby haven't sold and filled in. Most would conclude that the district is more promising than happening.

Doug's proposal, which has attracted more support, centers on Union, Chemeketa, and Church streets. He's looking to what is already there.

The magic of downtown is in fact what's there: The old streetcar grid and the old commercial storefronts. This historic grid is the most walkable part of Salem.

Salem's downtown has short, square blocks, perfect for walking. This detail is from a 1917 USGS quad. In the horse-and-buggy era, as well as the streetcar era, people used to walk a lot. Even after a century, the street grid and older building stock are still made for walking, still embody the logic of walking. And with restaurants, offices, boutiques, and other business, downtown is full of places you might want to go.

With the right improvements in downtown, there are a lot of short trips currently made by car that could be shifted to walking or biking trips. Think of the Fairmount, Bush, Englewood, Parish/North, and Grant neighborhoods. Folks who live there should visit downtown often and feel they can walk or bike.

Out in neighborhoods from mid-century and later it's not as easy. Land use is critical. Even with good infrastructure for walking and biking, the destinations are spread out, zoned along and confined to wide arterials like Lancaster and Commercial, and in many ways still auto-dependent. The disposition and distribution of businesses and amenities will need to change in tandem with reconfigured street engineering.

This is why it makes sense to focus on downtown, even if there are important ways that the benefits may not be distributed equally.

Even so, the Parking Plan represents an opportunity. Things in the Grant neighborhood haven't been messed up with very many one-way streets, and the residential neighborhoods breathe in more flexible rhythms, not confined to the nine-to-five of an office park, like the Capitol Mall with State offices to the southeast. The future is bright.

In fact, the neighborhood is optimized for walking and biking!

Near Broadway and High streets are lots of homes, in yellow/brown/orange on the zoning map. Many of them are historic, and Virginia Green has captioned several of them.

Many of them don't have attached garages or even a front driveway. Instead they have a generous front porch and a detached garage in back, off of an alleyway.

Interestingly, the newest commercial building, Broadway Commons, has exactly the same structure! It is really a walkable development - but at the same time it accommodates car trips from out of the immediate neighborhood. It serves both near and far - at least in theory.

It's pretty clear, though, that there's not yet a balance for the the businesses there. For Broadway Commons, it has seemed that waves associated with the Church and its worship services have provided much of the traffic. Businesses across the street like Salem Cinema, are also dependent on car trips.

But if the neighbors can find ways to walk and bike to the district! And if the area attracts some other businesses, like a mid-sized grocery store or something!

Hopefully the parking plan won't conclude that large bunkers for free parking are necessary, and it can work reduce the size of surface lots.

It will be interesting to watch the project. The page is blank at the moment, full of opportunity.

Bike Plan a Damp Squib at the Planning Commission

2011-12-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Planning Commission met Tuesday night for a work session on the Biking and Walking Plans.

The meeting was more than a little anti-climactic. In truth, not a great deal of work was accomplished, and nobody's heart really seemed to be into the matter.

The session was, probably, just a dud. It fizzed softly and expired quietly.

Turkey left-overs and tryptophan? Holiday shopping fatigue? Who knows.

There may not be a point to trying to say more.

Towards the end of the meeting, Commissioner Gallagher said that as it stood, he was a "no" vote on it. Commissioners Fry, Levin, and Lewis had also expressed reservations. It seemed that a tepid vote to proceed would be the absolute best outcome in January if nothing changes.

And maybe if Gallagher is firm in his "no," others will fall in and the Planning Commission would not recommend adoption to City Council.

Almost certainly the best thing to do with a squib (or a turkey) is to take the mulligan.

The next meeting will be on January 3rd at 5:30pm. Please come to it and show your support!

If you haven't commented, here's the online comment form. A surge of commenting, publicity, and advocacy will help ensure the next round is not also a dud.

The Cemetery

An extended footnote: It's crazy how much of the conversation around the plan was framed around takings and property rights rather than framed as looking to the future and working towards a wonderful new transportation system for Salem. Folks are zeroing in on a few trees and have lost a sense for the forest.

The cemetery and the matter of vacating the right-of-way north of it loomed over the meeting. A representative from the developer was there, and Commissioner Levin mentioned it. It is still contentious.

So contentious that an appeal had been filed with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

But it's not difficult to understand the appeal, as the City's 180-degree reversal was not well founded. Here's the original staff recommendation:

That would have made all kinds of good sense.

Instead, the City moved forward with the vacation and stretched reason to do so. Political expedience rather than the formal vacation criteria seemed to rule the Council decision, and it will be interesting to see if the LUBA ruling confirms this reading of the City's approach.

Airport Open House and Draft Plans Likely Overestimate Air Demand

2011-12-06T15:00:00.000-08:00

Now that the Delta-Seaport fiasco is hopefully out of the City's system, the latest wish is for runway expansion to serve commercial flights.

This City is hosting an open house tomorrow:

Wednesday, December 7, 2011
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Airport Terminal Building
2990 25th Street SE, Salem Oregon

It will have information on:

Master Plan Status
Environmental Process Overview
Project Justification
Runway Alternatives Considered
and Next Steps

Here's the preferred expansion alignment:

It's difficult not to be cynical about the "need" for this. This is a multi-million dollar project and the money could much more usefully be spent on something sustainable.

To get a sense for some of the "optimistic" thinking behind it, take a gander at these excerpts.

The forecasts assume a compound growth rate based on past history. But with increasing petroleum costs both from peak oil scarcity and from a likely carbon tax, past growth is not likely to be duplicated.

And indeed in comparing projections from 1997, even the study's authors find that the past is not a good guide!

But nevertheless, here's a table of just insane exponential growth that's actually included in the study! They say outright that it is not the preferred growth model, but if it is so clearly unmoored from plausible reality, why include it?

This is a bike blog and it's just not possible to read all the airport stuff closely. Hopefully someone who is on the committee or works in an airport-related industry can comment and clarify.

(I scanned and cherry-picked the most egregious examples of craziness; they may not be representative. Still, I think they are adequate to show that the projections are at the very least on the high, high, upper-end of the most "optimistic" confidence bar. It seems impossible that this represents a sober analysis for a future with diminished expectations.)

The study documents can be found here. The Statesman piece, which omits any cost estimates, is here.

Bike Plan at Planning Commission Work Session Tomorrow

2011-12-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow night the Planning Commission will hold a worksession on Bike and Walk Salem.

The meeting will be at 5:30 in Council Chambers. At the meeting, City staff and advocates do not expect the Planning Commission to take public testimony. This is a question-and-answer session with a view towards crafting a plan subset that has realistic prospects for funding and construction in the next few years - and then a priority list for something like a decade and the next bond measure.

If you'd like to support bikes, please do come to the meeting - just be aware that there won't be an opportunity to address the commission. But a good crowd in the audience always helps! Plus, they're still taking written comment. If you haven't used the comment form, don't forget to let the City know biking is important to you!

Doug Parrow has led much of the thinking and analysis of the plan, and he's drafted a proposal on a stripped-down core for immediate action:

The most concentrated bicycle traffic in Salem is found adjacent to the downtown area. Yet many riders are intimidated on the downtown streets and banned from riding on the sidewalks. Family friendly bikeways on which motorists and bicyclists could comfortably share the road would provide facilities that cyclists of all capabilities could use. A network of family friend streets downtown would set the city on a path to meeting one of the most requested needs--a system of connected facilities accessible to all cyclists....

The city should focus its initial efforts at implementation of the bike/ped plan downtown by using current design standards to make the following streets family friendly bikeways:
Church St from Mission St to Union St - this street is designated in the draft plan as a Tier 1 project for installation of bike lanes. Traffic volumes on Church St are low and it could be developed as a family friendly bikeway without materially affecting motor vehicle traffic. Church St would provide a critical north-south connection between Bush Park and Union St
Union St from Front St to Summer St - this street is so designated in the draft plan
Chemeketa St from Front St to 12th St - this street is identified in the draft plan as an existing bike facility, but additional improvements are needed to make it family friendly. This is the only one of these three projects not currently on the Tier 1 project list.

Doug compares Salem to Fargo, North Dakota:

Painting sharrows on Chemeketa St represented a modest step forward in providing for safe use of downtown streets by bicyclists, the city can and needs to do more. We need not look to Portland for examples of projects that improve the walkability and bikeability of our streets. With relatively minor measures, Fargo, North Dakota dramatically improved Broadway in its downtown area to make it safer, more attractive place for people. If Fargo can do it, Salem can do it.

Here's part of a brochure from Fargo, and sponsored in part by the downtown merchant association, that talks about biking downtown:

Pretty neat!

Look for more after the meeting.

Prospects for Bike Lanes on Brown Road to Improve

2011-12-05T12:01:00.000-08:00

In Sunday's paper, reporter Chris Hagan and assistant traffic engineer for the City Tony Martin talked about what all is involved in building sidewalks. One of the examples Martin talks about is Brown Road.

It so happens that Brown Road is a project slated for design funding at some point in the next few years.

SKATS and the TIP

You may recall from mid-November the flashing beacon on Silverton Road and the question about how it might relate to neighborhood north-south mobility.

The Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study Policy Commitee met just before Thanksgiving last week.

At the meeting they included a basket for design funding in the new 2012-17 Transportation Improvement Program.

I say "basket" because as I understand it, including it in the Program list doesn't mean it's necessarily funded. It just means that it's officially on the docket to be available for Federal funding and is a project "for which funding is reasonably anticipated." If projects aren't on the list, they can't get funded.

The SKATS Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) authorizes the allocation of federal, state, and matching local funds for transportation activities and improvements within the SKATS area boundary...The TIP represents the formal programming mechanism by which funds are committed to specific transportation projects by the affected jurisdictions in the SKATS MPO area.

In the basket the committee put three projects:

Brown Road sidewalks and bike lanes, Wheatland Road sidewalks and bike lanes, and the Minto path between the Riverfront-Minto bridge and Minto Park.

Legacy Projects

The projects were assembled from the Transportation Enhancement list from a year or more ago. You can see the evolution of the list here, here, and here.

Two of the three projects are remediation: The addition of basic sidewalks and bike lanes to mid-century roads built in what was unincorporated county land (and subject to fewer development standards). They may not conform to the Bike Plan priorities, either.

Brown Road is a tier 2 project, Wheatland Road is outside the bike plan's project boundaries, and the Minto path is a tier 1 project.

In fact, as part of the committee's deliberations (and of the technical committee that feeds recommendations to the policy committee), there doesn't appear to have been discussion of the Bike Plan. It is not yet a datapoint for discussion. (Minto was already a priority for Salem City Council, apart from the Bike Plan.) Hopefully after the plan's adoption it will have an immediate and more powerful effect on project planning and selection.

Public support will also encourage electeds and planners to plan and construct a larger proportion of projects for people who walk and bike.

City Council, December 5th - Sidewalks and the Prospect of a new Police Station

2011-12-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

On Monday City Council will discuss sidewalks in the road bond, but in many ways the most interesting part is the report on prospects for a new Police Station.

Missing Sidewalks and Bike Lanes

Back in October the City baked the list of projects for "missing sidewalks and bike lanes" part of the road bond.

For people who bike, chief on the list was the blind corner and narrow clearances of the cut-through from Miller St S to River Rd S.

As part of the $100M Keep Salem Moving road bond, the city is allocating $15,000 for repairs.

The matter will come before City Council for a Public Hearing on Monday night.

The rest of the $1.2M allocated for sidewalks and bike lanes will go to sidewalk repair and construction:

Baxter Road SE @ Reed Lane SE (northwest corner of intersection)
Boone Road SE (Chan Street to Liberty Road)
Ellis Avenue NE (Reedy Drive to Savage Road)
Felina Avenue NE West of Hawthorne (north side)
Gerth Avenue NW and 9th Street NW (west side between 8th Street and 9th Street, and east side between 8th Street and Walker Middle School Driveway)
Hayesville Dr NE (north side of street, east of 12th Street)
Marshall Drive SE (north side or street east of 12th Street)
Onyx Street NW @ Chapman Hill Drive NW (along both frontages of north east corner vacant lot)
Pringle Road SE (Georgia Avenue to Morningside Court)
Simpson Street SE @ 25th Street SE (east Minor and west side of 25th Street across old Arterial railroad property)
Tanoak Avenue SE (across from Ginwood Local Court)
Weathers Street NE (south side, west of Weathers Park)

Strictly speaking, it doesn't appear there will be any new bike lanes constructed.

As a sort of footnote, there is an interesting report on sidewalk construction, requested by the Morningside Neighborhood Association.

Also on the bond measure, there is a proposal to exempt from public bid process the contracts on the rail line for the "quiet zone" and crossing improvements. The proposal looks somewhat absurd on the surface: As apparently the projects are all in the railroad's right-of-way, the railroad is the only entity that can do construction work. So if folks insist on a public bid process, it's far from clear how that would work. This looks like a mere formality. Another footnote.

New Police Station

Maybe the most interesting item - at least the one with the biggest budgetary impact - is a status update on the site evaluation for a new Police Station. Cost estimates range from $53M to $60M for a retrofit to a new facility. As with so many things, parking is a differentiator:

The primary difference between the Civic Center site and the alternative sites is the underground parking included in the Civic Center concept, which costs about $9 million more than the at-grade parking made possible by more abundant land area at the alternative sites.

Here's the concept plan for the current preferred Civic Center site option, in a rendering by collaboration between CB|Two and ZGF architects.

The new building, identified by A2, would sit across from the Boise project. Here's a corresponding aerial view (awkwardly snipped and rotated from the google):

The Civic Center is currently a dead zone outside of business hours, a mono-use office park that empties out at 5pm and on weekends. It would be neat to have some ground floor retail or restaurant, something unrelated to police and other City or emergency services, that would relate to the Boise project (also currently being designed by CB|Two) and create a richer zone of activity here. It's also an opportunity for a lovely building as opposed to the brutalist fortress now there.

When the earthquake hits, City Hall will be toast, so it's not like this is a frill. This is an essential infrastructure project, and hopefully the City will do it well and do it right.

Other Matters

In appointments, Council will confirm Councilor Bennett's appointment to the Citizen Advisory Committee for the North Broadway/High Street Parking Management Plan, and a new citizen appointment to Downtown Advisory Board.

They'll also possibly approve more money for the downtown Economic Improvement District, administered by the Salem Downtown Partnership.

In an information report, the name change for a segment of Salem Industrial Way to Auto Group Avenue appears to have been approved without asking for any concessions.

Light up your Bike for the Holidays

2011-12-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately the Holiday Lights parade won't be in Salem this year, and unconfirmed rumblings have suggested the Keizer version might not be as easy to work with for a bike float. And anyway, the bike drill team's on hiatus.

But you can still decorate your bike! Make your own nightly parade!

(Photo: Commute by Bike)

LED lights powered by 2 AA batteries offer a cheap way to decorate your bike for the holidays - and improve your visibility in the dark of winter!

They make 'em in stars, snowflakes, icicles, and "regular" holiday lights. The strands have a 3 position switch - off, on, and blinky.

$4 each at the big chain stores. Maybe the small stores, too. (If you find locally owned stores with them, please drop a comment.)

Secure the battery packs and the strands with black electricians tape or the ever-handy duct tape.

Or make a tree or stand to strap on to your handlebars or pannier rack.

There are also other lighting systems like hokey spokes and FlexPro, some of them much higher quality.

If you have other ideas or sources drop them in the comments!

(mostly a repost from last year)

Grant, Morningside Neighborhood News

2011-12-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you live in the Grant or Morningside neighborhoods, check in on what the neighborhood associations are doing, and plug into neighborhood advocacy!

Tonight at 6:15pm in the library at Grant School (725 Market Street NE), the Grant Neighborhood Association meets. On the agenda for 7:15pm Julie Warncke will be giving an update on the Bike Plan and on the Rivercrossing.

The Morningside neighborhood is updating the neighborhood plan.

As part of the Morningside 360 project, they're circulating a survey about values and goals. If you live or work in the neighborhood, be sure to take the survey and let them know how important mobility choice and robust bike facilities are! Parts of the neighborhood that are not close to Commercial are pretty car-dependent, with low walkability scores. And it's not like Commercial is pleasant for walking or biking! Make sure the City knows what you value.

The Morningside Neighborhood Association meets Wednesday, December 9, 2011 at 6:30pm, in Painters Hall at Pringle Creek Community.

Donate Bikes for Young Adults Transitioning out of Foster Care

2011-11-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

Help make Christmas a little bit better for young adults by donating a bike. The Bike Peddler is accepting donations on Saturday, December 3, from 11:00 to 1:00pm. In addition to bikes, locks, accessories, and money can also be donated.

The bike program is sponsored by the Assistance League of Salem, Auxiliary. The bikes are distributed to young adults who are transitioning out of foster care or young adults on the road to independence.

(And check out the whimsical tree garlanded with reflectors and a chainring topper!)

Statesman Looks at $2M+ Subsidy for Free Parking

2011-11-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

The discussion about who bears the cost of downtown's "free" parking in yesterday's paper was great to see. Somebody pays, and the general lack of transparency is not fair to the businesses who are taxed, or to the downtown visitors who enjoy the "free" parking. Because the costs are hidden and externalized, people are not able to make appropriate decisions about time and money and the allocation of increasingly scarce resources.

Writing in Sunday's Statesman Journal, Timm Collins offers a summary of its history and present state:

About 35 years ago, business leaders got together with the city of Salem to remove the majority of metered parking downtown.

Retailers feared a new mall on Lancaster Drive with its multitude of free parking spaces would bring downtown shopping to a grinding halt.

Voters formed Salem's Downtown Parking District which this year will spend more than $2 million on maintenance, promotion, security and management of more than 3,600 city-owned parking spaces.

"Free" parking, it turns out, causes lots of problems! The free parking on Lancaster properties created a cascading effect that harmed downtown and locked it into a dysfunctional relationship with its own free parking, where it is now deemed essential to downtown vitality.

Donald Shoup has written The High Cost of Free Parking and many essays. About curb parking he writes in the NY Times,

a surprising amount of traffic isn’t caused by people who are on their way somewhere. Rather, it is caused by those who have already arrived. Streets are clogged, in part, by drivers searching for a place to park.

Several studies have found that cruising for curb parking generates about 30 percent of the traffic in central business districts.

And writing about Shoup, Tom Vanderbilt says in Slate,

minimum parking requirements warp markets and create a de facto subsidy in favor of driving. Donald Shoup, a professor of planning and author of The High Cost of Free Parking, is withering in his critique of parking minimums: "They distort transportation choices toward cars, and thus increase traffic congestion, air pollution, and energy consumption. They reduce land values and tax revenues. They damage the economy and degrade the environment. They debase architecture and urban design. They burden enterprise and prevent the reuse of older buildings. And they increase the prices for everything except parking.

Because there are alternatives to shopping downtown, alternatives that have large parking lots with free parking, downtown merchants fear eliminating free parking.

At the same time, the market failures caused by free parking exacerbate all the problems Shoup lists in the Vanderbilt piece.

In fact, we have a system premised on what is really an amazing set of subsidies and consequent market failures centered on cars. Look at again our gasoline pricing:

Free parking is a giant sugar-bomb soda: Tasty for lots of people, but not at all good for us. And like soda, while it may not have immediate effects, the cumulative effects of a generation-long habit are bad, bad, bad.

(Gasoline pricing chart from Taking the Wheel, Achieving a Competitive Transportation Sector through Mobility Choice, p.11 [24pp pdf])

Vancouver WA Suggests Salem Should Explore a TMA for Downtown

2011-11-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Although it was during the OSU-UO football game, and I expected downtown to be a little quieter, I was still surprised with just how sleepy it seemed mid-afternoon yesterday on "Small Business Saturday."

In the Friday paper there was also a note about the trees, wreaths, and other decorations the Salem Downtown Sponsorship and the City are putting up.

What is the Question?

The lack of people and the decorations suggested that maybe Salem is asking the wrong question. The administrators of the downtown Economic Improvement District, first Go Downtown Salem and now the Salem Downtown Partnership, have asked "What do you find downtown?" - that is, what do people find once they get downtown? Do they find clean and attractive sidewalks? Do they find parking? Do they find businesses, amenities, and events they desire?

But maybe the question should be, "How do you go downtown?" with a focus on making it easier for people to come downtown. Maybe the focus on "parking" is something of a red herring, since after all that's the end-state for a car trip downtown.

Vancouver Tackles How

This appears to be the approach The City of Vancouver (Washington) is taking.

The Downtown Vancouver Growth and Transportation Efficiency Center Plan offers a

vision for downtown Vancouver...where people from all walks of life come to gather, live, work, shop and enjoy. The City hopes to maintain Vancouver’s small-town feel while continuing development by adding future employment and housing. This GTEC will assist the city by removing cars from downtown streets, clearing unnecessary parking, and providing pedestrian, bicycle and transit friendly links to major destinations. It will help provide additional transportation capacity without the need to build more on-street parking and/or parking infrastructure.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?!

As a central part of the Plan, Vancouver will

develop a Transportation Management Association (TMA) in the downtown. TMA’s are non-profit, member-controlled organizations that help to manage transportation services in a particular area like the downtown and are generally public-private partnerships, consisting primarily of area businesses with local government support. City of Vancouver is in process of hiring a consultant to help with development of this process, and the City is working in partnership with the Vancouver Downtown Association with this effort as well.

Bikeportland just shared the news that the contract for the consultant had been finalized. Vancouver will form a Business Improvement District that sounds a lot like Salem's Economic Improvement District to fund the TMA on a pilot basis.

A TMA for Salem has been Recommended Already

A couple of years ago, as part of managing the difficulty with crossing the Willamette here in Salem, the Rivercrossing Alternate Modes Study recommended forming a TMA for Salem's downtown:

The Salem Transportation Management Association would be a new organization created to work with the major employers in downtown to implement the recommended TDM [transportation demand management] strategies. Representatives from the City of Salem, downtown business associations, and each of the major downtown employers (the State of Oregon, Willamette University, Salem Hospital, the City of Salem, etc) would likely sit on the board of directors....

The purpose of a TMA is to have a single organizational body dedicated to tackling difficult transportation problems, such as congestion and commuting by single occupancy vehicle. It can help agencies meet goals and enact plans related to multimodal transportation, and can maximize the resources of individual businesses. For example, a business with limited parking capacity for employees and customers can reduce SOV commute trips by employees and free up parking capacity for business patrons. A local TMA can facilitate the implementation of effective transportation programs and services and provide a forum for businesses, neighborhood associations, and local agencies to work together to address transportation issues. A TMA can also advocate for the interests of local businesses and employees at the local, regional, and state level.

Without knowing more, the comparison here may not be exact, still it is interesting that the Vancouver "go downtown" website has a clear focus on transportation rather than on promoting individual businesses and events like First Wednesday.

Currently, we are focused on car parking because people don't feel they have a choice: Our bus system is weak, most people think biking downtown is a deathwish, and so it's no wonder they have a monomodal fixation on the car trip and finding a car parking spot. By creating a robust menu of choices, we will be better able to allocate existing resources and not have to build new expensive infrastructure.

As the Salem Downtown Partnership gets its sea-legs and starts building out its programming, maybe it should give more attention to the way people go downtown and not merely what they find once they get downtown.

Black Friday and the Myth of Motorist Innocence

2011-11-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

Cherry-picking anecdotal "data" isn't really all that useful. Chronically we overestimate in-group virtue and underestimate out-group virtue. Whether a person walks, bikes, or drives a car, jerks are jerks.

But the next time I run into the old "motorists are law abiding, but people on bikes are lawless," cliche, I'll trot out this handy datapoint: Last Thursday and very early Friday, State Police issued 82 citations to people in cars near the Woodburn Outlet stores.

From the Oregonian:

Offenses included one arrest for drunken driving, three citations for reckless endangerment [of another person], three citations for driving with a suspended license, one citation for driving without a license, and one citation for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

The Statesman added that

58 citations [were] for "Illegal Stopping or Standing" on Interstate 5.

You may also recall 51 citations and one arrest from a crosswalk enforcement action last summer.

That's a whole lotta "exceptions"!

(Photo from the SJ)

Black Friday? Make it a Bikey Friday! Thanks to Salem's Bike Shops!

2011-11-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

This weekend there's lots of "buy local" and "small business" sentiment.

There's no better time to support your local bicycle shop! Here are a few of the principals outside their shops.

Larry Lewis of Scott's.

No matter who is your favorite shop, it's an excellent time to shop for something new. Many of the shops have holiday and winter promotions.

Joe Dobson of Bike Peddler.

The owners and other principals ride with you, work support on rides, volunteer on planning committees, and help make Salem a bronze bicycle friendly community.

Troy Munsell of Santiam.

They donate to causes and help in ways both public and anonymous.

Michael Wolfe of South Salem Cycleworks.

So if you're thinking about a new bike, need some part, or want to schedule an off-season tune-up, now's the time!

And take a moment to say "thank you!"

Work off your Turkey Day Coma!

2011-11-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Though the vineyards won't have any grapes left, and you may not see any blue sky, visiting wineries and vineyards by bike might be the best way to work off any Thanksgiving-induced lethargy.

Fortunately, it's wine country Thanksgiving, and most everybody will be open for tasting Friday through Sunday!

Club Rides

Saturday and Sunday the Salem Bicycle Club offers rides, a 40-mile ride on Saturday at 10am and an easy 22-mile ride on Sunday at 1:30pm. Both rides leave from the red lot just north of McDonald's and west of Safeway (bounded by Center, 12th, Marion, and Capitol).

If you know of other rides, drop a comment!

Holiday B on B Schedule; other Newsbits

2011-11-22T07:00:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder: No B on B in November or December! The last Fridays fall inconveniently with the holidays.

(We may also take off January and February. You may recall the on-and-off again weather during the winter last year that made scheduling especially difficult! The cold and inclement weather, we've observed, also makes people less inclined to stop for coffee; we all just want to get to our destinations!)

Please enjoy the time with Friends and Family. And as you do your holiday shopping and feasting, please remember our sponsors, who care about sustainable transportation.

Remember the Governor's Cup Coffee Roasters

And Cascade Baking Company

And LifeSource Natural Foods.

Replacing Sharrows on Chemeketa

Over the summer you may have noticed the sewer work downtown. One of the casualties of the trenching and repaving was the network of sharrow markings.

With the crappy weather comes a shift in the ways public works crews are assigned. They turn to signing and striping.

Hopefully the sharrows can get replaced soon! When the sharrows are frequent, I notice car drivers are more patient about sharing; but when they are few, I have noticed less patience.

CATC Openings

The Citizens Advisory Traffic Commission has three openings. If you would like to get involved in advocacy, here's an opportunity!

It's also an opportunity for a more activist commission. You can see the list of agendas and meetings here, and it lists only two meetings in 2011, two in 2010, one in 2009, and so on. I believe this count understates the actual frequency of meeting, but the pattern seems clear: It doesn't meet very often.

The group meets "as needed" but given the mono-modality of thinking about traffic in Salem, there's a tremendous opportunity for someone who wants to expand the oversight of the commission. Notably, they have not been involved much in the Bike and Walk Salem project. On the bond projects they haven't exercised much oversight, either. So it's not hard to conclude the commission is an underused resource! So get after it!

Application and other info here.

Court and State Street Rebuild 2012

Speaking of the bond measure, the Northeast Neighbors neighborhood association has posted a map with the curb extensions and ramps scheduled for the summer of 2012 on Court and State Streets.

Especially welcome will be opening the east-side crosswalk on State and Winter. Hopefully the striping plan will work to obviate the risk of right-hooks here.

Wandering Aengus Offers 10% Discount for Biking

This is great! I don't know if they're the first to do it, but they're the first I've seen. Wandering Aengus recently moved from the Eola Hills to the Fairview Industrial Park. And they offer a discount for using sustainable transportation!

From the website, the tasting room is open:

Thursdays and Fridays 3pm to 8pm
Saturdays and Sundays 12pm to 8pm
$5 tasting fee

Second and Third Thursday night of the Month, Guest Winery, Brewery or Cidery Night.
10% off tasting and purchases for biking, walking, skating, running or busing in.

Closed Thanksgiving Day
Closed Christmas Eve through January 8

NEW LOCATION
4070 Fairview Industrial Rd SE
Salem, OR 97302
503-361-2400
info@wanderingaengus.com

James participated in several Kidical Mass rides and bikes regularly. So when you visit, say "thanks!"

Start a Bike Train to Kalapuya Elementary School!

2011-11-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Monday night Assistant Traffic Engineer Tony Martin will join the West Salem Neighborhood Association to discuss "traffic issues at Kalapuya Elementary School."

Well no wonder they have traffic issues! The parking lot design and main entry invites them! (Here's a map.)

Fortunately there's a compelling and low-cost solution: Bike and Walking Trains.

If you live in West Salem, there's a need - and an opportunity!

The meeting is Monday, November 21, 2011, at 7:00 p.m. in Roth's West, Mezzanine, 1130 Wallace Road NW.

Rail: Canyons and the Costs of Sort and Separate

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

Veterans Day recalled to mind a summer evening earlier this year. I was downtown going to the grocery store and a train carrying 50 or more Stryker armored vehicles passed by. It was really impressive to see car after car of armored might, and it was more than a little intimidating, actually, an unexpected reminder of war.

In his Memoirs, writing about the Civil War, General Sherman said,

The value of railways is also fully recognized in war quite as much as, if not more so than, in peace. The Atlanta campaign would simply have been impossible without the use of the railroads...

Here, most of us probably don't think anymore about the importance of rail for military logistics.

But it was also a reminder that a transportation system that used rails for longer-haul passenger and freight cargo also can separate people in ways from trivial to profound.

Bike and Walk Salem and the Railways

In advance of the November 1st Planning Commission Hearing, the draft plan elicited a boilerplate missive from the Senior Attorney in Omaha for the Union Pacific Railroad:

Any development near operating right of way can negatively impact freight rail service and create unintended consequences that are in neither the railroad's nor the public's best interests, including land use conflicts due to the nature of rail operations that may cause mechanical odor, noise, and vibration. New development will attract more cars and pedestrians to the areas around UP lines, and people may trespass onto the railroad right of way as well.

In addition to the other safety concerns of which UP remains vigilantly aware, these factors also have the result that trains may be forced to proceed more slowly, and/or to make more frequent emergency stops, which makes rail service less effective and efficient. In the event of train slow-downs or stoppages, train cars may be forced to block at-grade roadway intersections, causing traffic disruptions. In addition because of vehicular and pedestrian traffic issues, UP believes that no new at-grade crossings should be allowed.

UP requests that the City analyze and seek to mitigate the impacts the Project will have on the UP lines and rail service by requiring appropriate mitigation measures. Mitigation measures that should be included in the Project, for example, are sound walls, setbacks, fences and other barriers, public education and disclosure.

As the letter clearly shows, our approaches to railroad safety, as our approach to automobile safety, is to sort and separate: Keep different kinds of road users away from each other. At-grade crossings permit too much mixture and the chance of fatal crash and delay. Unfortunately, the legacy of 19the century law - much like waterway law, the Minto bridge, and the Willamette Queen - combined with auto and highway subsidies permit the railways to shift the burden and costs for safe crossing to the City.* UP's not gonna build us pedestrian overpasses in order to speed their trains.

We need Trains to Carry People and Freight

Coincidentally, train advocates have been in the news lately.

Yesterday Walker observed over at LoveSalem,

We need to forget the high-speed rail fantasy, which is nothing more than a slight variation of the highway boondoggle ... a transit system designed in utter disregard of our economic and environmental limits. What Salem needs more than anything else in 2012 is a rail system as good as we had in 1912. We'd think we died and went to heaven if we could have that.

And a couple of weeks ago the Statesman ran an editorial about improving rail service.

State workers, Willamette University employees and other commuters have established robust carpools. However, the congestion on Portland-area freeways continues to worsen, creating bottlenecks for shippers and commuters alike. Improved, trustworthy, affordable rail service — enabling riders to do work while commuting — could make trains more attractive.

And there was a more recent opinion piece. We desperately need better rail service. There should be no ambiguity or uncertainty about this.

But as we think about rail as important transportation corridors, we should also remember the way they divide, and have become canyons that separate as much as corridors that facilitate.

Trains are long, heavy, and powerful. Stopping distance is measured in parts of one or more miles, not in feet. Safety and transportation planning must account for this.

Trains and Safety

Because of stopping distance and the near certainty of fatality, safety talk tends towards the absolute. Here's discussion in the news a month or so ago.

"We consistently operate safety trains in various areas where we know we need to enhance awareness of dangers of railroad property," Hunt said. "People need to be aware that railroad property is never safe."

Local measures, such as the barrier and promenade along 12th Street in Salem have prevented train-related fatalities, said Bob Melbo, state rail planner with the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The weekend's fatal incidents must remind residents of the dangers on railroads, officials said.

"If you're going to cross a railroad track, do it at a legal crossing and remember to be alert around railroad tracks," Howells said.

Consequently, rail corridors have become long canyons, making cross-traffic of any kind difficult and sometimes impossible.

The debate around closing the entry to the Carousel at State street showed this all too well.

And here's an example of a fenced canyon. It's between two schools and is a clear instance of a place where we don't want kids errantly crossing the tracks and putting themselves in danger. But if you want to cross the tracks, the distance between legal crossings is half a mile. There's an underpass, but it is narrow and on a deadend street, and it has to be locked after hours. That can result in a lot of out-of-direction travel in order to cross the tracks "legally."

A century ago, we had a lot more mixing. Here's a still from the 1906 film of Market Street in San Francisco. The rail here is cable car, proceeding much more slowly and less powerfully than a freight train. To be clear, this is not an apples-to-apples comparison, not even close. But it's still a multi-modal vision that ought to guide us more than the canyons of sort-and-separate.

We should be thinking of ways to make rail less of a desolate canyon that cuts up neighborhoods and cities. Connections across rail lines are vital, and, as with the promenade between Mill and Marion streets, connections along rail are also very useful.

Rail is going to be more and more important again, and along side places where sort and separate is indisputably necessary, we need also to develop strategies of coexistence and funding mechanisms that fairly distribute the burden.

City Still Taking Comment on Bike Plan

So take this opportunity, if you haven't already, to let the City know that facilities for people who bike are important! The comment form will be up through January 3rd - but it will be helpful to demonstrate lots of support before the Planning Commission worksession the first week of December!

* This is much too complicated to discuss on a bike blog. But if car-driving and gas were no longer subsidized to the extent that they are, surely it would be easier for the railways and local governments to cooperate on more equitable ways to fund above- and below-grade crossings. Maybe rail fans can chime in with more sophisticated commentary?

The Bar at the Gov Cup to Open Friday

2011-11-17T18:00:00.000-08:00

Inaugurate the full bar at the Governor's Cup on Friday night! Support a B on B sponsor and celebrate a bikey business with a bikey band.

(h/t eatsalem who got there first!)

Eat at Wild Pear? Think of City Treasurer and Bike Dealer Paul Hauser

2011-11-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

How often do you look down at your feet when you enter a downtown business or restaurant?

Probably not very often. But if you don't, you'll miss this tiled entry and other fascinating details of Salem!

You may remember Arthur Moore, City Councilor, developer, and bike dealer. He's not the only civic leader who was also into bikes. The outline of Paul Hauser's story is more than a little similar: From 1934 to 1954 Paul H. Hauser was city treasurer, but before that he was a bike racer and bike dealer.

He died in 1964:

Ex-Treasurer Dies in Salem

SALEM (Special) - Paul H. Hauser, 85, city treasurer of Salem for 20 years until his retirement in 1954, died in a nursing home here late Sunday.

A resident of Salem since his sixth year, Mr. Hauser was born in Fond du Lac, Wisc., May 12, 1879. After graduation from the old East Salem school, Mr. Hauser worked at the machinist trade and then entered the bicycle business. For many years, until the late 1920s he was associated with his brother Lloyd Hauser, in the sporting goods business, operating stores in Salem, Eugene, Albany and Corvallis in one of the first retail operations of the chain type.

Mr. Hauser served as deputy collector for the Internal Revenue Service in the Salem district for several years. In 1934 he was elected city treasurer and held the post until his retirement in 1954...

His first business venture was in partnership with Watt Shipp. Here's an ad from 1901.

By 1905 he was in business with his brother.

Here he is in 1954 at his retirement, accepting a gift of luggage from Mayor Al Loucks, whose name is commemorated on the Library's auditorium.

So look down, look up, look all around! It's life at the speed of bike!

Obituary from the Oregonian.

Oregonian: Deck Stacked for People in Cars

2011-11-16T12:01:00.000-08:00

On the front page of the Oregonian today is a piece about the ways Oregon law offers weak protections to people on foot (and similarly on bike):

Sober drivers are rarely criminally prosecuted in fatal pedestrian crashes because under Oregon law striking a pedestrian is almost always just a traffic violation. Families of the dead may get little or nothing in civil court because the law also says that the pedestrian has a responsibility to cross safely...Prosecutors say that to find a driver guilty of a crime they must prove the driver was drunk or otherwise taking a big risk – talking on a cellphone, eating or driving while sleepy.

The article continues to observe that even being in a crosswalk isn't always protection for a person on foot.

Essentially, the law is set up to accept as an unavoidable cost a certain number of fatalities from using cars. But many of these crashes are not truly accidents and as such are preventable.

Beacon and Median to go in on Silverton Road

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

Crossing Silverton Road will get easier near Joshua Avenue. Marion County is constructing a pedestrian median and beacon to make it easier for folks going to and from the Valley Medical College.

According to Julie Uravich, an engineer with the County,

It consists of post-mounted yellow flashing beacons located on either side of Silverton Road NE and in the new center island. Push buttons mounted on each pole will activate the beacons for a set length of time. The finished product will be nearly identical to the crosswalks on Lancaster Drive NE [pictured]. There will not be any red light indications that you would see with a HAWK installation.

Here's the map from the draft bike plan with the priority projects in red. The intersection, one block away from 48th in orange, is marked by the picture of the yellow diamond sign and median.

This part of town is getting some attention. At the Salem Keizer Area Transportation Study Policy Committee meeting next week, a project to design bike lanes and sidewalks on Brown Road will be discussed. 4 other projects may also be discussed. (Look for a post on this next week.)

It will be interesting to see how these fit into a larger vision of mobility, or whether they are envisioned as essentially one-off projects. The crossing at 48th, one block east and also in orange, is not being modified at present.

Free Webinar on Biking in Low-Income Communities

2011-11-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you're involved in Bike Education, Safe Routes to School, or are interested in expanding the reach of your advocacy, on Wednesday, November 30th is a free webinar you might find interesting.

Strategies for Increasing Bicycling in Low-Income Communities

Wednesday, November 30th, 1-2PM ET (so that's 10am our time)

Bicycling is a key strategy for Safe Routes to School programs looking to encourage students to travel short and long distances. However, the lack of bicycles in low-income neighborhoods is a major obstacle to even the most persistent Safe Routes to School program. Low-income communities face many issues that act as barriers to long term participation in bicycling. Ironically, low-income neighborhoods have the most to gain from engaging in bicycling for recreation and transportation.

During this webinar we will be joined by several presenters with a wealth of expertise working in low-income communities. These experts have blazed their own trail while finding new and innovative ways to engage low-income communities in bicycling while implementing a sustainable, successful model that increases bicycling low-income neighborhoods.

Presenters
Robert Ping, state network director, Safe Routes to School National Partnership
Ed Ewing, Major Taylor director, Cascade Bicycling Club Education Foundation
Keith Holt, director, Milwaukee Bicycle Works

Here is the complete webinar information and links to registration.

Previous webinars are archived, and have been on bike trains and bike parking as well as three other topics.

Bikes at War: Juno Beach and Homelessness

2011-11-14T13:01:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year I came across this image of bikes on D-Day. Veteran's Day is also Remembrance Day in Canada. Here are Canadian soldiers unloading bikes at Juno Beach on D-Day.

Here's the full image from The Atlantic. Click to enlarge.

The bikes weren't actually effective, and may have contributed to greater casualties. They ditched them pretty quickly.

The image came to mind again when I was downtown and saw the bikes locked up at the Union Gospel Mission.

Data from a 1999 report, and duplicated in data from 2005, suggested that a quarter of all homeless people are Veterans.

For many of these people - and they are usually men, as you would expect - a bike, and perhaps also a trailer, is essential mobility. And even if they don't bike, they likely walk. And if they don't walk, they may be disabled.

No matter what problems with addiction, mental illness, or PTSD they might have, it would be a cruel argument to say they don't deserve access to a transportation system that offers robust alternatives to driving a car.

One of the scoring criteria in the plan accounts for environmental justice:

Does the project benefit minority and/or lower-income residents (many of whom tend to bike, walk, and use transit more than the broader community)?

At the Planning Commission hearing Jen talked about social justice.

An easily and safely walkable and bikeable city for those who, after doing what most of us will not do and indeed cannot really imagine, should be a small thing we do willingly.

For more on Juno beach see here and here. This chat thread has more images of the bikes on ship and being unloaded at the beach.

For a more particularly American take on bikes and the military, see also the 25th Infantry Regiment Bicycle Corps.

City Council, November 14th - Eminent Domain

2011-11-11T12:01:00.000-08:00

On transportation issues, leading City Council on Monday are

resolutions authorizing eminent domain proceedings to acquire right-of-way and easements from three properties located near the intersection of Market Street NE and Lancaster Drive NE.

While there is no certainty that the finality of eminent domain will be necessary,

In order to maintain the project construction schedule, it is now necessary to initiate legal proceedings in Marion County Circuit Court to determine just compensation and to provide the City with immediate possession, which will allow preliminary construction activities to commence.

As objections arise to "takings" for facilities for people who walk and bike, it is important to remember that the City will use eminent domain as necessary for transportation facilities. A process will arrive at "just compensation," so it's not simply taking. At the same time because transportation projects serve many people - they connect many places through a single place - it may not be fair for one property owner to put the kibosh on a project.*

The City will discuss matching funds and its contribution for the Glen Creek path as are required under the Flex Funds application.

The City proposes to shift some funds to add 10 streetlights along Edgewater NW between Patterson and Kingwood on the north side of the street (away from the highway and river), specifically to illuminate the sidewalks. Each light will apparently cost $13,500.

Finally, the City will determine whether to continue with the Downtown Economic Improvement District.

* Of course there are situations where because of historical, archaeological, environmental, or other significance (and these are community rather than individual values), a single place may hold up a project. Moreover, obviously there are times when community values should not trump individual values. So there are no hard-n-fast rules. The important thing is that eminent domain be retained as an option: planning for facilities for people who walk and bike should not be treated differently from planning for facilities for people who drive.

In any event, this project, actually, may not be a good poster child for bike advocates as eminent domain, since it is a project so auto-centric, and does not serve a multi-modal system and community as well as it might.

U of Toronto Economists: Road-Building Fails to Reduce Congestion

2011-11-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

Writing in the October American Economic Review, two University of Toronto economists find evidence for induced demand (an effect that has sometimes seemed more anecdotal than statistically verified).

From "The Fundamental Law of Road Congestion: Evidence from US Cities" by Gilles Duranton and Matthew A. Turner:

We find that vkt [vehicle kilometers traveled] increases proportionately to highways and identify three important sources for this extra vkt: an increase in driving by current residents; an increase in transportation intensive production activity; and an inflow of new residents....We also estimate the aggregate city level demand for vkt and find it to be very elastic. We conclude that an increased provision of roads or public transit is unlikely to relieve congestion and that the current provision of roads exceeds the optimum given the absence of congestion pricing. [italics added]

Here's the last publicly available draft of their study, from 2009. I'm working on getting the published version.

Federal Transportation Bill - Map-21

The Federal Transportation Bill is moving and advocacy groups are responding:

The Portland area Bicycle Transportation Alliance response.
The Seattle area Cascade Bicycle Club response.
The League of American Bicyclists response.
Streetsblog DC has a summary, with a cameo from our own Senator Merkley.

Cascade's response was the most succinct:

What does MAP-21 do? Three zingers. The draft Senate bill:
Offers far less money for biking (and walking)
Adds a pile of new categories eligible for this smaller pot of funding
Allows an opt out option that many states will likely take

Personally, I wish we were less dependent on dedicated pots of money to fund "enhancements." This reinforces the notion that bike transportation is an extra, a frill. Are things really so dismal that we have to defend a status quo that isn't working very well?

If you follow the national politics, please comment!

Lost Keys

Finally, I'm late getting to this, but a bike-friend found a set of keys:

I found a set of keys on Friday 10/28, in the northbound bike lane area of the intersection at 12th and Fairview in SE Salem. There are multiple keys on a plain key ring. They have been run over and the ring is smashed, but the keys look pretty good (1 is bent). If the keys are yours, contact me with the number of keys, plus any other distinguishing features, and I'll return them to you.

Click through the link for the craigslist note, and you can email the finder if the keys are yours!

More Art at the Speed of Bike

2011-11-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

In the Sunday New York Times, architecture critic Michael Kimmelman writes about going for a bike ride with Janette Sadik-Khan, transportation commissioner for New York City.

It’s too bad that so many New Yorkers still complain about the bike lanes’ contribution to the inconvenience of urban driving instead of promoting them for their obvious role in helping solve the city’s transportation miseries, and for their aesthetic possibilities. I don’t mean they’re great to look at. I mean that for users they offer a different way of taking in the city, its streets and architecture, the fine-grained fabric of its neighborhoods. Decades ago the architects Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown wrote about how we see cities differently at different speeds. Las Vegas was their example, and they wrote about driving versus walking (skipping over the bicycle). But the point stands. On a bike time bends. Space expands and contracts.

Here in Salem policy and planning talk is a little wearisome just now. So with the short days and dark, it seemed nice to turn to something light. I wonder how biking changes the texture of your experience. It certainly changes mine.

Without B on B, I'm not sure I'd ever have a reason to visit the North Mall Office Building. Its foyer offers two of my favorite pieces of public art in Salem, and I'm happy for the discovery (and the tipster who made sure I turned the corner to see the painting).

Both pieces make me think of time and the ways that biking and walking make my experience of time richer rather than poorer. I cannot get there as quickly, but I experience much, much more.

Friends who know more about art say James Lavadour might be the best painter in Oregon right now. I believe them. I love the way he moves paint, sometimes with a squeegee, sometimes dripping, sometimes doing other misty and layering things I don't understand. The paintings are neither fully abstract nor fully landscape: They inhabit a shimmering middle ground that is both. They are colorful, and offer simple straight-up pleasure that demands no interpretive heavy lifting. But of course the forms are allusive, too, suggesting landforms and geology built up and eroded over thousands and millions of years. They are glacial and tectonic. Sometimes things like human structures appear. You can spend quite a while layering on an interpretation, if you like.

I love that the paintings are mounted on bare concrete rather than the plastered white of a gallery. They are mounted on stone, slower and more permanent than sheetrock.

There's another set of Lavadours, a 3x3 grid of smaller panels, over at the State Capital, but it's on that sheetrock, and ends up for me being more decorative, window dressing for a gallery - the House or Senate I can't remember. Here the panels are an exposed vein of precious metal, a brilliant gash in the grey.

It also helps that the foyer goes up a couple of stories and the panels can rise and be a little monumental. They're grand.

On the north side of the foyer is a glazed wall out to a courtyard. The mullions also form a grid.

And in the courtyard is another monumental piece, this one of wood. It looks like the wreck of one of Captain Cook's ships, exposed after a dig. Or maybe a giant sun dial or astrolabe, built by pioneers before Oregon was a state. It's definitely got a vintage nautical thing going. (The artist says something about the Kalevala and a mill, but if it's a waterwheel, it's not in the water!)

Of course the metal work is modern, and it is obviously of no such antiquity. But it is big and the near-wheel inside it makes you sure it will rotate. Again, it's not what it seems like it should be: It doesn't actually move, but nevertheless it says "slow" rather than "still." It plays a game of contrast with the fixity of the grid. And if the paintings point to the land, the sculpture points to the forest and our use of it.

In a way that may be accidental, I find the two pieces a deeply satisfying ensemble, playing off of each other and off the building, sensitive to site. They would make much less sense to me apart, or in another place.

And both make me think of bike time. That time is slower, but richer, than car time. Kimmelman again on his ride:

New York unspooled as a series of surprises. Great cities offer up as one of their distinguishing virtues this combination of serendipity and complexity.

Nothing in Salem makes me think of that more than discovering Broadway Commons and the coffeeshop on bike.

There are other unspooling surprises nearby. By car, you'd also never see the Phillips House, a Greek Revival house from 1853, one of the earliest homes around still in its original location. It's tucked in a bend, back from the road, and you have to be slow to see it.

At Champoeg, the northern end of the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway, there is no better way to learn Oregon history than by bike. The 1861 flood wiped out the town, but the old street grid is still marked by posts, too delicate and too far from the road to notice by car.

Maybe not every day, but certainly every week, I see something new. What are your favorite sights and places and coincidences of serendipity and complexity when you ride in Salem?

Comment on Draft Bike Maps

2011-11-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Help edit the next version of the Salem-Keizer bike map!

The drafts the Vision 2020 group saw last week are now posted to the MWVCOG/SKATS site.

Here's a better clip of the one that focuses on comfort and suitability. Ray says:

PDFs of the draft Salem-Keizer and Three County bike maps that were presented and discussed at the Vision 2020 Bicycle/Pedestrian meeting on November 2nd are now available at the MWVCoG’s website.

These three maps are in this folder:

1) SKATS Bike Map : Salem-Keizer area map with shoulder and traffic volume information

2) Tri-county Should Bike Map : Marion, Polk and Yamhill County map with shoulder and traffic volume information

3) SKATS Area Suitable Locations/Routes : Salem-Keizer area map with the bike routes depicted as “most suitable”, “moderately suitable” and “less suitable”

These maps do not reflect any of the suggested changes from the meeting on Wednesday. The suggested changes include revising the colors, creating a “not recommended” label for a subset of routes, and zooming in (on the Salem-Keizer area map).

Please send and corrections to me (rjackson [at] mwvcog [dot] org) by November 30th, including whether you have a preference for either the “suitable” or “full information” map style, or if you have routes that should be included in the “not recommended” category.

City Council, November 7th

2011-11-07T12:01:00.000-08:00

Salem City Council meets tonight and there's no matters of significance for biking or transportation.

In passing, since two speakers were concerned at the planning commission about "takings" for bike lanes or multi-use paths, here's a map of a 5-foot strip dedicated for public right-of-way on the corner of Edgewater and Patterson NW.

The City regularly dedicates strips for public right-of-way in this way.

SEDCOR Endorses Transportation Choice; Other Newsbits

2011-11-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

While the focus was on the Federal Transportation Bill, and especially rail and the need to improve our rail service up and down the valley, both for freight and for passengers, Ray Burstedt's opinion piece and its stress on transportation opions is great to see:

In this fiscally constrained era, will we be able to build a successful multimodal transportation system, maintaining what we've got and completing networks for new options like passenger rail, transit, biking and walking? Or will we be constrained by a 1950s-era thinking that prioritizes highways at the expense of all other transportation options?

This is exactly right!

Auto Group Proposes Street Renaming

A blurb in the paper also pointed out that on Wednesday there will be a public hearing on the Capital Auto Group's proposal to rename a segment of Salem Industrial Drive to Auto Group Avenue.

This segment of Salem Industrial is a connection to the Kroc Center, and should be improved for family-friendly walking and biking to the Kroc. It is currently identified as a Tier One project in the bike plan. Perhaps Capital Auto would assist in that matter as a trade-off for the name change?

Traffic Safety Committee to Discuss Mobility Standards

From the press release:

SALEM—The Oregon Transportation Safety Committee will hold its monthly meeting from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at the Transportation Safety Division, 235 Union St. NE in Salem. The public is invited to attend.

The agenda includes a discussion on changes to the Oregon Highway Plan Mobility Standards as well as a review of potential legislation for 2013. Agency liaisons will give reports and the committee will hear a presentation on managing priorities for the Transportation Safety Action Plan.

The current mobility standards are what gives us the fact that a single-occupant vehicle counts the same as a bus with 25 people when calculating road capacity: Our mobility standards have abstracted humans out of the equation and count only engines. People on foot or on bike or passengers in a carpool are invisible to the analysis. The atomic unit is the car, not the person.

Changing this is one of the most important things to accomplish in a 21st century transportation system, as then all kinds of technical paradigms that govern the actualities of our roadways will follow.

Maybe readers from ODOT can chime in with more detail? (Comment anonymously from home, if you need to!)