Crossing projects to offset 45mph posted speeds? |
Based on grant award criteria provided by Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), City staff have identified three projects that should be competitive in the next round of screening by ODOT.On the location map, shown above, the City helpfully shows the posted speeds.
- Liberty Road S: Install a pedestrian median island on Liberty Road S at Liberty Elementary School. Estimated project cost is $175,000.
- Macleay Road SE: Install missing sidewalk on the west side of Macleay Road SE, serving Miller Elementary School and Houck Middle School. Estimated project cost is $430,000.
- Kuebler Boulevard S and Skyline Road S: Install pedestrian median islands on Kuebler Boulevard S at Croisan Scenic Way S, and Skyline Road S at Croisan Scenic Way S, serving Schirle Elementary School, Sprague High School, and Crossler Middle School. Estimated project cost is $445,000.
So yeah, getting across a lot of these streets is difficult.
But maybe we need think about speed reductions also? Even with a median, death is almost certain at 45mph. Sure there are temporary school zone speed reductions, but the roads are fundamentally designed for zoomy capacity, and medians may not by themselves constitute enough traffic calming and induce meaningful numbers of new walking and biking trips.
Streets like these are still zoomy - via Twitter |
For Salem to win 1 of the 3 would be a good result. 2 of 3 would be amazing, and 3 of 3 highly unlikely.
Bike and Walk Salem had a full Safe Routes Analysis |
- Englewood
- Hoover
- Washington
- Faye Wright
- Walker
The City should also publish a more detailed analysis of the other six projects that were evaluated and not chosen as well as a more detailed discussion of why the three clusters were identified as most competitive. The selection process is a little opaque and does not show how the applications and need relate to previous rounds of analysis.
Equity is also supposed to be a criteria, formally captured by "Title 1" status, but does the Sprague area really meet the spirit of that requirement? The Macleay area project seems much more likely to.
All in all the Staff Report is very thin.
725 High Street: To be a short-term rental, back in July |
There's also an information item on the approval for the clinic at 245 Patterson in West Salem. (See previous note here.)
* Update: This is actually a different project, now that I look at it more closely. The two previous ones were on Connecticut Ave and were County projects. This one is on Macleay itself and is a City project. So all three may be new.
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(Edit: Revised the bit on the Macleay project, which I misremembered.)
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