Bike Shops and the Pandemic on the Front Page, Other Bits

It was nice to wake up to a front page with a feature on bike shops and their adaptations for distancing and health.

Today's front page
(now online)

Maybe there will be a follow-up, but an important story that's just briefly mentioned in an aside is that there was a fire next to Santiam Bicycle, and they are closed temporarily.

Santiam news

From FB:

A fire started in the adjacent building that spread into the shop. The shop sustained substantial smoke damage. We are still temporarily closed....No one was in either building at the time of the fire!...Portions of the shop will need to be demolished and rebuilt. Our current goal is to be reopened in two months.

Best to call ahead for any repair, purchase, or other appointment needs:

• Bike Peddler (503) 399-7741
• Northwest Hub (503) 584-1052
• Santiam Bicycle Temporarily closed (503) 363-6602
• Scott's Cycle (503) 363-4516 

At the MPO: SKATS

The Policy Committee for the MPO meets today by telephone, and there's nothing much to say on the agenda - nothing new, anyway.

The autoist commitment to ever higher traffic counts

In the minutes to March's meeting, there was brief nod to the Pandemic's suppression of traffic, worry that "collecting data at this time would produce unrealistic numbers."

In a separate item, there was a note about the Federal Department of Transportation and a formal "corrective action" on Congestion Management administration.

Corrective action on "alternative strategies"
and "reduction strategies"

The Pandemic, of course, is a forced laboratory for demand management and congestion relief. It is unwelcome and harmful, but while we have it, a more constructive attitude is to see if there are policies that can be adjusted and retained. There are elements in traffic counts at this time that should be regarded more positively, like the increase in telecommuting, for example.

The MPO is missing out here, and shows its bias for in favor of more driving.

A Commute Reduction Idea

via FB

On FB, there was an interesting note that 1000 Friends of Oregon is advocating for a wider adoption of the commuting program at OHSU.

That would be a great advance on the current state of employee commute and trip reduction programming. This is something to watch. And, of course, other employers, like the City of Salem for example, could model new programming after it and adopt it independently.