City Staff Enjoy Alice Awards

(Photo: Jonathan Maus/Bikeportland.)
How inspiring is it to look out over a ballroom filled with 750 people who care passionately about bicycling?

Saturday night Mayor Janet Taylor and the City of Salem won an Alice for the Union Street Railroad Bridge project and the City's other great bicycling progress. It was great to see Mayor Taylor at the podium talking about bicycling in Salem. I think the enthusiasm and numbers inspired everyone.

(from left) Union St. RR Bridge Project Manager Todd Klocke, Director of Urban Development Rick Scott, City Manager Linda Norris, Mayor Janet Taylor, and BTA Board Member Doug Parrow show off the Alice B. Toeclips award.


A Statesman article on Sunday noted:

Despite the awards, Taylor said she recognizes the need to make Salem safer for bikes. Two bicyclists were recently struck by cars in Salem. One bicyclist died.

"We're not perfect," she said, "but we are working very hard to get to a place where you can have some really safe experiences riding your bike."

The Mayor and the City of Salem joined four other winners. Portland Police Officer Robert Pickett, Eugene Safe Routes to School Coordinator Shane Rhodes, The Rose Quarter Transit Center (Trimet) Bike Lane Team, and Bycycle.org site developer Wyatt Baldwin.

The BTA has a wrap here. And Bikeportland has a wrap here. Jonathan also posted a full suite of photos here. You can read the BTA profile of Mayor Taylor here.

City Council Moves Forward on TGM Grants; Shows Special Interest in Safe Routes

A City Council this evening Council voted to move forward with the Oregon Transportation and Growth Management grant applications!

The three are: A downtown circulation plan,
an update of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Elements of the Transportation System Plan,
and development of a district-wide Safe Routes to Schools plan.

The items were on the consent calendar, but Councilor Clem pulled the Safe Routes proposal so that Julie Yip, the ODOT program manager, could speak to the Safe Routes program generally. Councilors seemed eager and the Mayor later remarked on the program with enthusiasm.

Not surprisingly, of the three grants, the opportunity to help kids was the most attractive!

Mayor Taylor and the City win an Alice!

Last night at the BTA Alice Awards, Mayor Taylor and the City of Salem won for the Union Street Railroad Bridge and all the other great bicycling progress going on here! Later today or Monday we'll have more on the award, maybe some photos, bikeportland's article, and other award winners. It was a great night and the winners were all just amazing.

City Council to vote on TGM Grant Applications

The deadline for Oregon Transportation and Growth Management grant applications is coming up on March 13th!

The City has plans to apply for three! One is a downtown circulation plan, a second is to update the Bicycle and Pedestrian Elements of the Transportation System Plan, and a third is to develop a Safe Routes to Schools plan. All are good, but especially good are the second two, the updated Bicycle and Pedestrian parts of the TSP and the Safe Routes plan.

On Monday, City Council will advise Public Works whether to move forward on the final submissions. Since this is grant money to fund what otherwise at present is not funded, opposition is not expected. Still, it's always good to let your councilor know you value bicycling! Find your councilor here and let him or her know you care!

Also it's rumored that CITY (Chickens in the Yard) will be on council agenda again. Even if you have no interest in chickens, you should be following this because what's good for chickens is good for bicyclists - and visa versa. Many of the same values drive both causes. Raising chickens or riding a bike is the same kind of crazy urban nonconformism of which we need more!

Legislative Update - Week 8

Lots of bike news in the Legislature this week!

In New Business, Representatives ESQUIVEL, KRIEGER, GARRARD, and SCHAUFLER introduced House Bill 3008, a "bicycle registration and licensing system" with an initial fee of $54. See Oregonian bicyclist and lead political columnist, Jeff Mapes, thoughts here. Jonathan Maus at Bikeportland interviews Rep. Krieger here and his initial coverage here.

Also, in a move that duplicates Senate Bill 292, the BTA introduced House Bill 2971, which increases funding for the Bicycle and Pedestrian projects from 1% to 2% of the State Highway Fund.

House Bill 2902 parallels Senate Bill 635 in establishing a "nonmotorized vehicle transportation fund."

Old Business:
Senate Bill 267 - no change
Senate Bill 276 - no change
Senate Bill 291 - no change
Senate Bill 292 - no change
Senate Bill 635 - no change
House Bill 2106 - Now in the Senate Finance and Revenue committee.
House Bill 2120 - Held hearings this past week; more to come. This is a big and important bill, and it will get lots of attention. Both the OLCV and 1000 Friends have sent out requests for letters in support of the green pieces, including bicycle infrastructure. In the next few days we'll hope to have information on the hearings already completed.
House Bill 2681 - no change
House Bill 2690 - Though it's not on the official calendar, bikeportland reports that a hearing is scheduled for March 18.

Bicyclist Perishes

Cars hit two bicyclists this week, and one of the bicyclists has died.

On Tuesday the Statesman had an update on the bicyclists involved in crashes on Monday.

One of the men critically injured in bicycle and car crashes reported at the same time Monday has died, hospital officials said Tuesday.

Anthony Manning, 44, was critically injured when he was struck by a Kia van headed west on State Street near the Interstate 5 overpass at about 1 p.m., Salem police spokesman Lt. Dave Okada said.

He died Tuesday at Salem Hospital, said Julie Howard, spokeswoman for the hospital.

Also injured in a separate crash on Front Street NE was Ivan Koba, 74, who was struck by a Jeep SUV while trying to cross the street, Okada said.

Koba was flown by helicopter to Oregon Health and Science University where he remained in critical condition Tuesday, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Here's the link to Tuesday's article reporting the crashes.

According to a separate article, "Neither of the drivers or passengers involved in the crashes were injured or cited, Okada said."

It is rarely possible to draw accurate inferences from news articles, as there is almost always a presumption of "automotive competence" - the idea that drivers are nearly always acting reasonably and bicyclists actually really don't belong on the road.

But no matter who is at fault, bicycles and pedestrians are always far more vulnerable users of the roadways than are drivers and passengers who enjoy airbags and steel. We are always at a disadvantage. Moreover, we live in a society that accepts between 40,000 and 50,000 automobile crash-related deaths a year as the ostensibly reasonable cost of using the roads.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family of Mr. Anthony Manning.

Legislative Update - Week 7

In New Business, Senators MONROE, ATKINSON, BURDICK, MORSE, PROZANSKI, and TELFER, introduced the a bill to establish the "Nonmotorized Vehicle Transportation Fund," Senate Bill 635, which would fund bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and work towards making nonmotorized transportation a first-class citizen like motorized transportation.
Old Business:
Senate Bill 267 - no change
Senate Bill 276 - no change
Senate Bill 291 - no change
Senate Bill 292 - no change
House Bill 2106 - Now in the Senate Finance and Revenue committee
House Bill 2120 - Hearings scheduled for the 2nd and 4th of March
House Bill 2681 - no change
House Bill 2690 - no change

Details on Hearings for HB 2120, Governor Kulongoski's "Jobs and Transportation Act":
Date: Monday-March 2 and Wednesday-March 4
Time: 1:00 P.M., both days
Room: HR D, both days

The committee will hear from invited speakers only.

On Monday the speakers will be:
Matthew Garrett - Director, Oregon Department of Transportation
Chris Warner, Hans Bernard - Governor's Office

On Wednesday, the speakers will be representatives from "stakeholder groups," whom I believe include the BTA.