City Council, July 22nd - Safe Routes to School Better Crosswalks Grant Application

One of the items on Monday's Council agenda is an application for grant funding on two sets of crosswalk improvements near middle schools.

• Market Street NE at 15th Street NE: Install Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFB) on east leg of Market Street NE at 15th Street NE intersection, restripe existing crosswalk, install ADA ramps, additional lighting, and signage. Estimated project cost is $610,000. Serves Parrish Middle School and North Salem High School. This project ranked 15 out of 89 statewide based on [an earlier] review. 
• Pringle Road SE School Zone Improvements: Install pedestrian median island on south leg of intersection with Tiburon Court SE and Leslie Middle School driveway, construct ADA ramps, install additional overhead school zone beacon, install two variable speed zone signs. Estimated project cost is $690,000. Serves Leslie Middle School. This project ranked 37 out of 89 statewide based on [an earlier] review.

The funding would come from the $26.25 million allocation in the 2025-2026 round of the State's Safe Routes to School Infrastructure Program.

Existing crosswalk at 15th and Market, looking west

Between Barrick Field and the schools

Market Street and Pringle Road are both zoomy and have problems with speeding drivers, so the upgrades to the crosswalks will be real incremental improvements. (Market Street, of course, also needs a 4/3 safety conversation with a median island at that crosswalk.)

Tiburon and Pringle, looking south and downhill
school on left, park on right

Tiburon and Pringle location

A few years ago Salem installed an enhanced crosswalk with refuge median at Copper Glen, and clearly more calming is necessary.

It's time to be more flexible on design speed

You might recall discussion from the Meyer Farm debate about speeds on Battle Creek/Pringle Road. The design speed is way too high for this stroad immedately adjacent to a middle school. We still treat this as if it were running through a rural part of town, and it is not that any more.

The fact that better crosswalks at both Copper Glen and at Tiburon are necessary are further indications that the whole road needs a redesign. That is a ways off, so these lesser measures are usefully temporizing, but are not whole system solutions.

Salem has a good record with successful Safe Routes grant applications, and hopefully this set of two will continue that record.

Other items on Council agenda will be in a second post in the next day or two. See previous notes on Safe Routes projects here.