Vision Zero, Crosswalks, Bikeways - Brief Notes on the Neighborhood Associations this Week

In the neighborhood associations this week the proposed code amendments for trees are on several of the agenda, so if you are interested in trees be sure to check that out. Here are some other brief notes.

Northeast Neighbors, Tuesday

NEN meets tonight, Tuesday the 12th, and a neighbor, who recently advocated for climate and revised parking at Geer Park, will talk about Vision Zero.

Vision Zero at NEN on the 12th

Morningside, Wednesday

Morningside meets on Wednesday the 13th, and though there is nothing of particular note on the current agenda, last month they looked at a request for a crosswalk through an autoist perspective and were inclined to dismiss it.

Nearly a half mile between signals

Nearly a half mile between signals

The distance between signalized crosswalks at Madrona and Browning is nearly a half mile, and demands a good bit of out of direction travel to cross from, say Dutch Bros. to the credit union or to Northern Lights for a movie, or from the the Fay Wright neighborhood to the Post Office. Only a person who was driving or looking at a map, and did not walk Commercial Street, would conclude "there are crossings nearby" and a new crosswalk was "unnecessary."

(Some Fay Wright notes on their perspective in support of a crossing here.)

SCAN, Wednesday

Also on Wednesday the 13th, the current agenda at SCAN also has nothing of particular interest, but earlier in the summer the transportation subcommittee continued to look at High Street, and is considering a formal request to the City to reclassify High Street as a local street, which would make it easier to install traffic calming and to make it a preferred lower-traffic bikeway, especially since a bikeway alignment along Church Street through Bush Park is increasingly less likely as a result of the new management plan just adopted (some notes on the Bush Park plan here and here.)

The subcommittee offers a proposed motion and analysis in draft form:

Proposed Motion:

SCAN requests the City of Salem consider changing the designation of High Street S, designating High Street S as a local street, and to consider designation of a bikeway on High Street S from Trade St. to McGilchrist St. SE.

High Street S functions as a local street, not as a collector street. High Street S is signed for local traffic at its intersection with Mission Street. The purpose of a collector street is to distribute neighborhood traffic from local streets to arterial streets. High Street S. parallels the arterial streets of Liberty S and Commercial S. Through the distance from Trade to McGilchrist, High Street S is only one or two blocks away from these arterials. Further, High Street S is cut off from distributing traffic originating to the east by geography, parks (Pringle Park / Bush’s Pasture Park) and large development blocks (Salem Health). High Street does not meet City standards for a collector street along most of the distance from Leslie St. to McGilchrist. The narrowest collector (Class C Collector) has an improved street surface of 34 feet; High Street appears to be 30 feet wide through most of this distance.

Designation of High Street as a local street may allow use of speed humps, sharrows, painted crosswalks and other measures to better control traffic speed and improved safety for pedestrian and bicyclists.

The Salem Transportation Plan envisions a family friendly bikeway through Bush’s Pasture Park. Bike lanes are painted on Liberty St. S and Commercial St. S (south of Oxford). The painted bike lanes provide for the “strong and fearless” bicycle rider. High Street S, even with its current designation as a collector street, should be considered for designation as a bikeway.

Designation of a bikeway on High Street S beginning at Trade Street continues the existing route marked on High Street. It would connect to the Pringle Creek Linear Park at the bridge over Pringle Creek. The Pringle Creek Linear Park would serve to connect the bikeway to the bikeway designated on Winter Street and to the Winter-Maple Neighborhood Greenway at Willson Park. A bikeway on High Street S would also connect to another Tier 1 Bikeway proposed for Church Street via Leslie Street.

Previously on High Street:

• On "The old High Street Bypass" (2014)
• On "High Street Traffic Calming" (2018)
• "SCAN Floats Advisory Bike Lanes for High Street" (2020)