Our Frame on Congestion Valorizes Speed

Another problem with the congestion frame is that it tends to a binary. We valorize its opposite, free-flow and unconstrained speed.

Front page story from Monday

You might remember this from very early in the Pandemic.

March 28th, 2020 - via FB

We have now something of a real world experiment.

City Council, June 13th - Street Painting and The Woods

At Council on Monday they look to ratify the code for street painting and intersection murals on neighborhood streets. With it is also some administrative rule-making.

Not permitted?

Designs shall not contain words in any language, letters from any alphabet, numbers, universally recognized signs, symbols, emblems, or logos of any kind....Designs shall not create an [three-dimensional] illusion that may be misinterpreted as a safety hazard by a motorist or bicyclist.

Earlier this year Strong Towns had a note that referenced drivers swerving dangerously for 3-D optical illusion crosswalks. So that's a real thing apparently.

And a kind of 60% supermajority is potentially required:

The proposed street painting shall be denied if objections are received from more than 40 percent of the abutting and adjacent property lots.

Four finalists for design in Grant

It will be exciting to see the first painting, likely the one proposed for Cottage and Belmont, and tentatively scheduled for painting over the Fourth of July weekend, and then to iterate on the rules as seems useful. (Previously here and here.)

Abandoned concept for The Woods

The long rumored transfer of "The Woods" at Fairview is also on the agenda to be formalized. The parcel had been proposed for large lot development back in 2019 by Eric Olsen, but the application's language was weird. After the City approved it, a citizen appealed to LUBA, and LUBA agreed there were problems, so much so they reversed the decision rather than merely remanding it.

So now the solution seems to be donating the land to the City rather than trying to develop it or to keep it as privately owned park land. Interestingly, it is not Eric Olsen donating it, but a successor to the original Sustainable Fairview, SFA2. Maybe Eric Olsen never closed on it, or perhaps he sold it back. That's probably not an important detail, but it is interesting to note.

The transfer could impact timeline or funding for construction of the future segment of sidewalk along Battlecreek/Pringle Road, but the Staff Report identifies impact only to "a performance security," and not to construction itself.

This makes two large chunks of the former Fairview property now publicly owned as park or quasi-parkland.

Legislature in 1919, Pre-DMV Lines in 1920, Striping Crosswalks in 1921: History Bits for the New Year

Hey, there's a nice story on the front page today about the 1919 Legislature and the way they worked around, and sometimes in spite of, their own Pandemic.

Front page today

When I read though the papers two years ago on the 100th anniversary, and then again reviewed them last year once we had found ourselves in the middle of a real Pandemic, it seemed less clear that there were useful parallels or negative examples to mine from the Legislature's operations and comportment in 1919. Maybe with the session about to commence, a third reading now will turn up more interesting comparisons. 

One way I may read them differently now is that on the earlier reading, it had seemed like the main stories were the development of very early public health measures, institutionalizing public health by government action, and the superiority today of our modern medical science. Progress, we had made progress.

Now after the awful fullness of 2020, a reading of the 1918-1919 Pandemic really should attend more to conflict, to the development and limits of of state powers, to the red scare and reactionary right, to our libertarian individualism that checks collective action, and to propaganda and the dissemination of information (both sound and unsound).

I think today's article may still stress too much of a harmonizing reading of the politics and culture then and now and not give sufficient attention to the nature and locations of conflict. We may also still impose too much of a sense of having made progress and of teleology.

Maybe there will be more to say later.

Here's a piece about primitive attempts at vaccines that lacked any understanding of a virus, as well as anti-vaccine sentiment by Senator Pierce, later infamous as our KKK-adjacent Governor. They struck a note of defiance, something that certainly rhymes today.

January 14th, 1919

There was also anti-mask and anti-closure sentiment. It is easy to read that as not understanding science, but we have better science today and there is still anti-mask and anti-closure sentiment.

It was Hoover and War, not Flu, that Shaped our Thanksgiving in 1918

Today's paper has a feature about the 1918 flu and ways it shaped our celebration of Thanksgiving.

Today's paper on "Thanksgivig" in 1918

But here in Salem, the proverbial anthropologist from Mars might not have guessed we were in a pandemic. It was the recent war, and wartime economy and scarcity, popularized as "Hooverizing," that framed the coverage. From the Hoover archives on his work:

In 1917, after the United States entered the war, Hoover was named to head the U.S. Food Administration. Hoover was the right man for the job, which guided the effort to conserve resources and supplies and to feed America’s European allies. Hoover became a household name—“to Hooverize” meant to economize on food. Americans began observing “Meatless Mondays” and “Wheatless Wednesdays” and planting War Gardens. Within a year, the United States had doubled its food shipments to Europe. After the Armistice was signed in November 1918, President Wilson appointed Hoover to head the European Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. Hoover was able to channel 34 million tons of American food, clothing and supplies to war-torn Europe.

Thanksgiving ad package
November 27th, 1918

In 1918 Salem had closed down on October 12th, opened again on November 11th, and closed back down December 30th. Thanksgiving had seemed safe. With recent scarcity and rationing, and with the flu seemingly abating, it was the war that dominated.

What's Old is New: Mask Promotion in 1919

Oregonian, January 12th, 1919

City to Open Downtown Streets for Outdoor Dining

The City announced on Thursday, and many circulated the news on social media, that they would be opening streets to restaurant dining and reallocating some of our surplus street space on a temporary and pilot basis. This is very exciting news.

The City's framing is pretty good!

Of course it is terrible that we had to wait for a Pandemic to conduct the experiment. It should have been a topic for the Downtown Sidewalk/Streetscape Study. Hopefully this project is a success and it leads to greater consideration of the ways our present curb-to-curb configuration on many streets is a stagnant monoculture, sometimes even traffic sewer, and should be reconsidered.

As the news was filtered into traditional media, old biases and tropes crept in to shift the tone of coverage.

We need to work on framing - front page yesterday

We should also think more about we frame the project in the evaluation and any debate going forward. "Closing" streets sounds like a loss of space and loss of access.

But it is nothing of the kind! It is an expansion and enhancement, allowing more people and a greater range of people to enjoy public space. We should think of it as sidewalk expansion, not street closure.

The frame of "closure" perpetuates the myth that streets are for cars, and people on foot or other users are at best temporary interlopers, impedance to be managed and reduced.

"Closure" here is autoist framing and should be avoided.

Pity the Suffering Roads: Framing on Gas Tax and Driving Misses Important Points

Opposite today's large front page story and picture about people protesting police brutality, there's a story about suffering roads.

Front page today

Especially with the placement on the front page, it may be a little tone deaf.

The story focuses on more rural communities in Marion County and their dependence on gas tax money for roads.

But more than unfortunate page placement and headline word choice, the frame totally assumes that our present arrangements for driving are "normal" and something to which we should return as soon as possible. It's strangely mournful and only about loss, treating cars rather than people as the primary index and locus of loss.

In a daze about driving loss

But of course there are positive facts about the decline in driving. Just a couple weeks ago there was a story about the decline in carbon emissions.

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.

Earth Day: Working on Climate like we Prepared for Corona

I see this is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day tomorrow. I'm not feeling very good about Earth Day these days.

Electric cars were enough of a thing
to be on a stamp in 1901

The City Manager's update of April 17th has a note on our Climate Action Plan.

Really looks like we're queuing up a box-checking exercise

Rather than taking Salem's emissions and backing into reductions to meet a target, we seem to be starting with a list of seven categories for mitigation and adaptation.

Since transportation is some 53% of our emissions, a serious plan would be sure to tackle that as one of the leading matters for mitigation. Here, in the list of seven categories transportation seems very subordinate and likely to be buried in a kind of check list.

It continues to look like our Plan will be more flag-waving and virtue-signalling than substance, mostly small changes on the margins rather than the structural changes that actually scale to reduce emissions meaningfully. Electric cars are great, but we really also have to drive less often and drive fewer miles, for example. Better gadgets, composting, and upcycled cuteness alone won't do the trick. A handful of ADUs annually is not a meaningful change in city-wide land use. We aren't thinking enough about proportion, scale, and impact for each potential policy.

via Twitter

Last week The Oregonian published an opinion on the Pandemic and Climate by Barbara Dudley, "We can act in a crisis. Except when the crisis is climate change."

ODOT on Pandemic Traffic Focuses on Speed and Congestion, Omits Crash Reduction

In the paper yesterday was a blurb picked up off the wire about a recent ODOT Report on traffic and the Pandemic.

ODOT spin: "Freeways...less congested"

ODOT documentation on Pandemic Travel Patterns
April 10th, and April 17th

The report focused on speed and congestion relief - "travel speeds are [now] reliable and congestion levels low to moderate" - but did not adequately stress that the speed-up is not just from "slowing" to posted speeds, but occasionally surpasses the posted speeds in outright "speeding." It did not address a significant cost of free flow. (See "Have Coronavirus Shutdowns Prompted an Epidemic of Reckless Driving?" at Strong Towns, also.)

Salem speeding - via Twitter (comment added)

Our Salem Open House, Small Manufacturing, Cherriots Restart, ODOT Climate Office

Our Salem, the project to update the Comprehensive Plan, will hold an online Open House tomorrow.

April 6th

The pandemic's added several swerves and wrinkles, and the cancellation of in-person open houses is one of them. Thinking about manufacturing is another. The surlyurbanist is on the faculty at PSU in geography, and one topic they've harped on is manufacturing.

Surlyurbanist riffs on importance of manufacturing

One new thing here that the pandemic has highlighted and prompted reconsideration on is the role of small manufacturing and light industry in the total economic mix and for resiliency.

Autoism and the Disembodied City: Counting Cars instead of People

As some have lamented the city emptied, immobilized, and impoverished by the pandemic, they have used the lack of cars rather than the lack of people as the primary index of desertion and loss.

At the mall in Eugene - today's Register-Guard

Counting cars instead of people is a great error of our autoism. And the confusion of cars for people starkly illustrates the problem of defining downtown as a suburban-style drive-to destination.

State's Public Health PSA Campaign Shines Accidental Light on Road Safety Messaging

State of Oregon "stay home" campaign

The State rolled out a PSA campaign a couple of days ago created in partnership with venerable ad agency Weiden + Kennedy. One of the slogans is "Don't accidentally kill someone."

It is interesting, though not surprising, that they didn't ring variations on their most famous slogan, "Just Do It."

Why not "Just Stay Home"?

Well, we know why. Doubtless the corporation that benefits from "Just Do It" would not want to share any mood, any proximity to the implied economics of "Just Stay Home." In that context, "Just Stay Home" might operate as a critique of consumer capitalism. Can't be doing that!

An earlier logo

I prefer the mood of the logo with the Governor's Executive Order, the green silhouetted state with a front door closed and the lights on. That seems more patriotic somehow. It's less forceful, without the scolding, but also more encouraging. (It's almost Kinkadian, a positive variation on that nostalgic kitsch.) "Together, we can do this." It prompts pride and solidarity in a way "don't kill" does not.

I don't know. It will be interesting to see how the "don't kill" message is received and shared. Maybe its target audience requires the stronger medicine.

It is also interesting to consider why we shy away from this message in the context of road safety.

Cherriots Shutdown, Parking Garage Closures - Transportation Roundup

The news yesterday that Cherriots is temporarily shutting down really strikes at the heart of "we're all in this together." It's a prudent thing, but also a costly move.

via Twitter

Our system of compulsory autoism already distributes access disproportionately, and when transit stops working the disproportion is sharpened.

Transit and race

Even more, all of our arrangements reveal class and race and shows ways we really aren't a "classless" society.

The Pandemic's Decongestion: The Radical TDM Hammer of Stay at Home

Center Street Bridge traffic today, about 6:45am

With so many businesses and places closed down in the succession of restrictions on gathering and then the "stay home" order, and with other employees working from home as much as possible, the pandemic has resulted in a radical transportation demand management exercise.

The pandemic, the antecedent cause of this TDM hammer, is awful and nothing to celebrate. The first order consequence of an economy-wide shutdown and recession is awful also.

But while we have suppressed demand for road space, it's also a chance to think about actions, like increased telecommuting during the work-from-home phase, that can be retained to some degree.

Think about a Victory Garden this Year

If you were looking for a project that is creative and grounding and is also useful, something constructive to counter gloom and doom, it would be hard to do better than to grow some vegetables this year. (And if you already do that, it's a year to do more!)

via Twitter
See also this OPB piece

Editorial for the WWI version of a "victory garden"
January 7th, 1918

Need for Second Closure Order in 1918 Should Remind us not to Stop Distancing too Soon

You might have seen this chart circulating from a 2007 study of public health measures during the 1918 flu pandemic.

The two rises for St. Louis roughly correspond
to dates of our closure orders
"Public health interventions and epidemic intensity
during the 1918 influenza pandemic", 2007

The Smithsonian wrote about half of it in "Philadelphia Threw a WWI Parade That Gave Thousands of Onlookers the Flu." That big spike is directly related to the parade.

Though the scale for Philadelphia's peak reduces the apparent variation on the line for St. Louis, St. Louis had two smaller humps, one towards the end of October, the other in mid-December.

In mid-November, schools had opened and public gatherings were permitted again. But then the rate of new flu cases started increasing again, requiring a second round of closures.

Overestimating our Collective Virtue: Carrots Only don't Work; Sticks also Necessary

Even if you are not inclined towards any hint of Calvinism, the mass refusals this weekend to isolate and distance suggest a kind of inherent depravity in our human nature. Just WTF.

On the East Coast - AP story in SJ today

And here in Oregon - Oregonian today

I don't have anything to add now to any talk about our public health emergency, but I do think it might bear on the way we talk about greenhouse gas emissions and transportation.*

Science for the Coronavirus, but not for Climate: At the MPO

Because of the pandemic, the MPO has moved to appointment only.

While the MWVCOG offices are not closed, our public access doors will remain locked and no outside guests, members or visitors are permitted inside the COG office without a pre-arranged appointment. All visitors must comply with social distancing. Anyone who is coughing, appears to have a fever, or is having difficulty breathing will be asked to return at a later time.

We are encouraging teleconferencing tools to facilitate meetings. We are taking these steps not only to ensure the health and safety of our employees, but also to ensure that our staff can continue to provide services to our members

The meeting of the Policy Committee on Tuesday the 24th is consequently by phone, and not in person.

Why is the trend of this chart dismissed?

But if the MPO is moving decisively on account of the science and math of our pandemic, it's a reasonable question why they aren't also moving on account of the science and math of climate and greenhouse gas emissions. It is so strange to see science and prudence invoked for one and not for the other. Both of them involve modeling and future projections, but only one is deemed urgent and credible.

Generally, on emissions the tone is trying to evade as much as possible, do as little as possible, and do it as late as possible. The impacts of climate action - and not the impacts of emissions themselves - are always understood as negative and something to avoid. We won't do it until we are required to and we will do the minimum. Can you imagine this attitude for the virus?

Coronavirus Cancels the Monster Cookie; Some Shops Shifting to Appointments

With the April 26th date for the Monster Cookie within the window of the pandemic, the Salem Bicycle Club has decided to cancel the Cookie.

The Monster Cookie is canceled this year

The sudden wave of unemployment claims is staggering. Food and beverage, hospitality and tourism have all been gutted. You may have seen that Powell's closed. Retail is impacted also. It's a time to think about what stores and businesses you value especially, and to give them extra business as you are able.

A State of Oregon Economist wonders - via twitter

Bike shops have also begun to modify hours and practices, and here's a brief roundup. Things are fluid, and liable to change quickly, so best to call ahead if you need service. But of course, it's best to stay at home as much as possible. (3/23 Update - Everyone is now on or moving to appointments only with a locked front door. So call ahead.)