Tall Bikes and Other Scenes around Town

Maybe you saw something on STOOPIDTALL, a bike of epic proportions in LA.  Images and talk of it have been zooming 'round the internets.  It's scary tall.

Tall bikes of course have been around for a while, but up until now, it hasn't been clear there were any in Salem.

But Salem does have at least one tall bike, it turns out!

Tall Bike at Wulapalooza 2013

Students at Willamette University's spring festival Wulapalooza said they'd rescued it at their house from a pile of stuff left 3 or 4 renters back.

Anyone know more about it or about a tall bike subculture here?

Elsewhere around town...

At Gilmore Field near South High, someone decided the bike signs needed distances in kilometers.

Metric system added

Out on South Commercial at the charlie foxtrot where South Commercial has Y-intersections with Sunnyview Sunnyside and the 12th Street cut-off, there's a wheelchair ramp to nowhere and a temporary "sidewalk closed ahead:  cross here" sign.  Construction for the Natural Grocers store (the former Mazzi's and Mongolian Bar-B-Q site) has closed the crosswalk at the existing light - but this is no alternative.  Whisky Tango Foxtrot!

Pedestrian No-man's Land

At the State Hospital, the enlarged port looks like it has been cut in the wall of the 1896 outbuilding, and perhaps the Cremains Memorial will open this summer. After all the controversy and debate, it will be interesting to see how it works as a contemplative and memorial space, as well as whether too much of the old building has been altered or lost. Happily, the building's been cleaned up and painted, and no longer looks dilapidated.  (The designers, Lead Pencil Studio, have also been involved in a public art installation in Portland, a ghost building suggesting the old warehouses in an area gentrifying with the street car.)

Progress at OSH on Cremains Memorial

And from the Active Transportation Summit earlier in the week, Portland Traffic Engineer Peter Koonce tweeted a picture of Portland Bike Coordinator Roger Geller addressing class during the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design training.

@raylahood 50 professionals talking bike safety through better facilities in Oregon at #oats13 @nacto4cities twitter.com/pkoonce/status…
— Peter Koonce (@pkoonce) April 25, 2013

Several City of Salem staff attended, and Associate Transportation Planner Judith Jonduff said by email:

The NACTO Training was excellent! Other City Staff attending the NACTO Training included Jim Bonnet the City Engineer and Ralph Lambert, Senior Project Manager. Lot's of new and innovative treatments are included in the NACTO Design Guidelines for bicycle facilities. The training also provided some real world examples of where and how (and of course why) these new designs were developed and how they are operating. Good information! The folks at Portland DOT have really taken a leadership role in the development of these new designs to make walking and biking safer. Julie [Warncke, Transportation Planning Manager] and Tony Martin [Assistant City Traffic Engineer] were also present for part of the training.

NACTO was formed in part to advance urban transportation planning and innovation beyond the confines of the industry standards (for our purposes read "minimums") articulated by AASHTO.  It will be great to see the City include more of these treatments as they design new facilities as well as rebuild or resurface old roads.