Tired of Crosswalk Violations and Crashes?

Send Council a message!

Bike and Walk Salem is for people who walk and run, too.

Even though the focus here has been on the Bike Plan part of Bike and Walk Salem, walking remains the fundamental building block of mobility. Almost all of us start and end our trips by walking - it's just the middle parts that differ.

In this regard, Bike and Walk Salem has direct benefits for everyone. (The critical ADA routes discussed in the Plan acknowledge the challenges and needs of those for whom walking is problematic or impossible.)

Email Citycouncil@cityofsalem.net and urge Council to adopt the Bike and Walk Salem Plan and to accelerate its implementation.

Here's some talking points:

• Facilities for walking and biking are cost-effective, considerably cheaper than roadway expansion for cars.
• Heathcare costs and increasing rates of diabetes and obesity call for increasing daily activity, and Cities should have an interest in encouraging walking and biking for short trips.
• Our existing transportation system limits choice and enforces dependence on car travel. Citizens of all stripes should want more freedom in transportation choice.
• People driving cars have recently struck people walking in crosswalks, and the existing system is too often neither safe nor comfortable for people on foot or on bike.

Here's the City's Bike and Walk Salem site. For three years of notes on the bike plan update, see here.

Still visible are marks from the crash investigation where John Dashney, a blind man, was struck by a person in a car on 17th Street at Chemeketa.