You might recall back in 2019 the debate over the Wren Heights subdivision on the north side of Salem Heights Avenue.
Salem Heights lacks sidewalks and bike lanes, but nonetheless is designated a "collector" street. It is not built to current standards. There is also a problem on it with speeding. A citizen commented that a City study from August 2018 found "average" speeds between 32 and 35mph in a 25mph zone. (Whether this is actually a 50th percentile speed is not clear; even if it's an 85th percentile speed, there's a documented problem.)
Now the City has a formal project for an urban upgrade. They are running a survey on three design options.
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| Option 1, with multiuse path |
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| Option 2, with sidewalks and uphill bike lane |
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| Option 3, one sidewalk only, and uphill bike lane |
The framing on the options focuses on accommodation for walking and biking, but sets that against tree loss.
Every effort is going to be made to preserve existing trees regardless of which alternative is eventually chosen. The street and bike/pedestrian facilities can be made to meander within the right-of-way to preserve trees. These are high-level concepts and not engineering designs.
Not discussed in the framing is the problem of speeding. 12 foot travel lanes here are too wide, and there is no reason on a residential street for anything wider than a 10 foot travel lane. The designs with wider travel lanes will continue to induce speeding. Downhill sharrows on a street with a documented speeding problem also do not meet any family friendly standard.
We need to think more about bringing design speed into alignment with intended, posted speed.
Plus, going from 12 to 10 foot lanes means an additional four feet for trees. That could make a real difference.
Apart from the problem of speed, it will be interesting to see what people, especially those who live on or near Salem Heights, prefer for the sidewalk and bike lane. The demand is meaningful, but not high, and I am not sure any one design is objectively superior to the others. A multiuse path does not seem to offer prospects for much conflict between those on foot and on bike, and the separation it offers might be best. At the same time, perhaps neighbors will want a sidewalk on both sides of the street, though there are real disadvantages to sharrows in this kind of situation.
More to come!
Previously in 2019:
2 comments:
As somebody that's lived off Salem Heights for 5+ years, _anything_ like any sort of sidewalk would be such an amazing improvement that I don't have a strong feeling between any of the three proposals -- my whole reaction is just YES PLEASE.
As far as average speeds on the road, the only thing I see making any sort of substantial difference is speed bumps. Folks *fly* up the first hill off Liberty. Based on the barking dogs, most of the traffic is using this road as a cut through from the south and east side of town over to Minto...
I agree with your overall points. My feedback to the City is to limit lane width two 10.5' lanes and buffer the bike line by switching the planting strip and the bike lane in Option C.
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