Our Metropolitan Planning Organization's Policy Committee meets on Tuesday the 24th, and they continue to look at the candidate project applications for funding in the 2021-2026 cycle.
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| Right-sized to three lanes |
And there's some good news. One of the projects looks like it has been right-sized from five down to three auto lanes. The State Street project appears to have been adjusted in response to questions from staff and the Technical Advisory Committee.
Despite questions also on the Center Street project, it does not seem to have been adjusted.
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| But this one's still showing the super-size section with five lanes |
But overall I'm not sure there's much new to say. (See previous notes
here and
here.)
There's also another round of busted budgets and project overruns.
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| More cost overruns |
We should probably regard this as the norm right now. No project estimate should be taken at face value.
The MPO continues to ignore greenhouse gases and climate. At some point this will have to break and be understood as wholly untenable.
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| Final pie chart from Our Salem: All about cars |
The TIP map is still up, and it is a little curious that it was never revised to exclude already funded projects. So the MPO is collecting comment on projects to which it has already committed (in blue).
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| You can still comment (applications in yellow, older ones in blue) |
In the minutes from last meeting, there's also a note about lawless jaydriving on Highway 22 in West Salem.
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| Lawless jaydriving on Highway 22 in West Salem |
But this does not ever seem to cause people to question tropes about lawless cyclists or the opposite assumption that drivers are always lawful (notwithstanding the huge body of evidence about jaydriving contained in the engineering dogma of the 85th percentile speed).
Jaydriving remains a much greater problem, a profoundly more lethal problem, than jaywalking or jaybiking.
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Look for the historic sign
next to the entry |
The
agenda and meeting packet can be downloaded here.
SKATS Policy Committee Committee meets Tuesday the 24th, at noon. SKATS is at
100 High St. SE, Suite 200, above Table Five 08 and Epilogue Kitchen.
2 comments:
ELNA just learned a little bit about the proposed widening of Center Street from Lancaster to 45th. We did not have a chance to discuss it fully or take a position. But our initial reaction was that we did not want such an widening. The street is not overloaded now. The only bottleneck is that the turn lane at 45th is too short. With a middle turn lane added through the area, we would be just fine. This was done on Sunnyview many years ago. It went from 4 lanes to 3 lanes and now carries twice as many cars smoothly.
If they go to 5 lanes also many properties would be very negatively impacted, putting their yards at risk. The area is almost fully built out up to 45th with only one lot yet to be filled. Beyond that to Cordon only a few sections are yet to be filled with development. Two lots are actually owned by churches who do not seem to have plans to move anytime soon.
Yet on State Street there is going to be a huge 680 unit PUD with some apartments built in the next 5-10 years. That street needs more capacity, not Center.
Question: What can be done now? ELNA meets on Oct 3 and I want to get the board to take a position and to send a letter to the MPO.
In response to Susann K.'s post. I would recommend that you send the ELNA response to the COG (c/o Karen Odenthal) as soon as it is ready. On October 8th the SKATS Technical Advisory Committee will meet to develop an initial recommendation of projects and funding levels; that recommendation will be mailed in the agenda packet on October 15th for the Policy Committee meeting on October 22nd for discussion and further action. All meetings are open to the public including public comments.
Mike Jaffe
MWVCOG Transportation Planning Director
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