Transportation in Draft Morningside Plan calls for Innovation

After a quiet summer the Morningside 360 project has a flurry of updates in the document library.


Maybe most significant is a complete draft of the neighborhood plan!

Chapt 5 features multi-modal LOS!

Chapter 5 on transportation includes policy 11.5,

Work with City staff to consider transit and non-motor vehicle ‘Level of Service’ in transportation planning and street design.

This is great! Level of Service standards have been defined exclusively for motor vehicles and this means that people who walk and bike aren't defined as users of the road but rather are defined as "impedance," as unwanted things that slow down, clog, and reduce auto capacity.

In order for truly complete streets for all users to become a Salem standard, LOS standards will also need to be revised. Having a neighborhood association formally adopt a policy for it will help!

Check out the full plan. The neighborhood has a range of transportation problems and contexts. In it there's not much of a streetgrid as, except for a the oldest smidgeon along the northern part of 12th street, it was developed after the streetcar era, and most travel depends on collector and arterial streets.  Some parts of the neighborhood are even in unconnected loop-and-lollipop developments, and a good bit was also developed as unincorporated county land, and so these parts lack sidewalks.

As far as neighborhood business goes, the commercial zoning is essentially all along Commercial Street, and the neighborhood also doesn't want business or commercial encroachment into residential districts.  In order, therefore, for Commercial to become really walkable, a lot of change will have to happen.

And there's other stuff too, of course.

The Morningside Neighborhood Association meets Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. inside the Pringle Creek Community Painters Hall, 3911 Village Center Drive SE.