Sharrows on Second Street a Potemkin Bike Improvement, Gap remains to Union Street Bridge

A couple days ago the City proclaimed "West Salem’s 2nd Street NW Improvements Complete Ahead of Schedule."

Sharrow on westbound Second Street (early July)

They bragged it included "bike and pedestrian street improvements" and fostered "a more pedestrian and bike-friendly environment."

There are a few sharrows. That's it.

Better than nothing? Maybe! They could be a minor incremental improvement. But more like the minimum incremental improvement rather than something more substantial.

The crucial decision over a decade ago on Second Street was to accommodate better curbside parking, and then to fit biking into the left-over space. Bike travel was always secondary. 

In addition to the City's own decision for parking, sharrows generally are falling out of favor.

• As Strong Towns HQ, "What are sharrows worth?" They say, "Let's not waste paint on harmful sharrows."
• And at People for Bikes, "We Were Wrong About Sharrows." They say, "Sharrows do, however, accomplish something pernicious which I did not anticipate. They allow officials to take credit for doing something for bicycle safety without impacting car traffic, even though that something is next to nothing. It’s just pretending...."

Sharrows here are an inferior solution, used because the City wanted to prioritize cars, not because the City was making some great bikeway. (The recent vandalism of the intersection painting on Second Street is evidence that more traffic calming is likely necessary.)

Above all, the gap from Second Street to the Union Street Bridge path remains. ODOT's involved since Wallace Road is also a highway, OR-221, and they've been very balky and difficult, unwilling to help the City. There was a temporary crossing in 2022, which was very popular, but it led to nothing. (And we are apparently not going to talk about its success ever again.)

The real problem at path terminus (early July)

Same from recent drone video (City of Salem)

Some people already dart across there. But not large numbers, as the frogger move is fraught. But there is real, latent demand.

So without that crossing, where are people going to come from while biking west on Second Street? Are they going to turn right from inbound Wallace Road rather than turning right on Edgewater? Maybe. But until they make the connection with the Union Street Bridge path, it does not seem like there is going to be a very high demand for travel on Second. Right now the new commercial development is primarily clinics.

Old growth timbers and scraped lots (City of Salem)

They're huge! But also splintered (early July)

To promote redevelopment, vacant lots on the north side of Second have been demolished and scraped. There's a pile of tremendous old growth timbers. Hopefully they'll be salvaged and reused. It didn't look like the demolition crew had taken great care in deconstruction, instead regarding them as the leftovers from less careful demolition modes.

But there's nothing there now, no destinations or trip start points.

And until the City and ODOT can figure out a direct, inline connection with the Union Street Bridge, we keep getting these Rube Goldberg arrangements from the Bridge to the icky Edgewater/Highway 22 path. 

Second Street is right there! Why don't we use it?

At the moment these sharrows are mostly for show, a Potemkin installation, and not anything very genuinely useful. As a temporizing measure and an initial phase in a larger plan, they could be reasonable, but the City has in no case employed sharrows this way, instead leaving them as a final "improvement." We're probably stuck with them.

Lots of previous notes on the Edgewater district here.