Bike Plan a Damp Squib at the Planning Commission

The Planning Commission met Tuesday night for a work session on the Biking and Walking Plans.

The meeting was more than a little anti-climactic. In truth, not a great deal of work was accomplished, and nobody's heart really seemed to be into the matter.

The session was, probably, just a dud. It fizzed softly and expired quietly.

Turkey left-overs and tryptophan? Holiday shopping fatigue? Who knows.

There may not be a point to trying to say more.

Towards the end of the meeting, Commissioner Gallagher said that as it stood, he was a "no" vote on it. Commissioners Fry, Levin, and Lewis had also expressed reservations. It seemed that a tepid vote to proceed would be the absolute best outcome in January if nothing changes.

And maybe if Gallagher is firm in his "no," others will fall in and the Planning Commission would not recommend adoption to City Council.

Almost certainly the best thing to do with a squib (or a turkey) is to take the mulligan.

The next meeting will be on January 3rd at 5:30pm. Please come to it and show your support!

If you haven't commented, here's the online comment form. A surge of commenting, publicity, and advocacy will help ensure the next round is not also a dud.

The Cemetery

An extended footnote: It's crazy how much of the conversation around the plan was framed around takings and property rights rather than framed as looking to the future and working towards a wonderful new transportation system for Salem. Folks are zeroing in on a few trees and have lost a sense for the forest.

The cemetery and the matter of vacating the right-of-way north of it loomed over the meeting. A representative from the developer was there, and Commissioner Levin mentioned it. It is still contentious.

So contentious that an appeal had been filed with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals.

But it's not difficult to understand the appeal, as the City's 180-degree reversal was not well founded. Here's the original staff recommendation:

That would have made all kinds of good sense.

Instead, the City moved forward with the vacation and stretched reason to do so. Political expedience rather than the formal vacation criteria seemed to rule the Council decision, and it will be interesting to see if the LUBA ruling confirms this reading of the City's approach.

Airport Open House and Draft Plans Likely Overestimate Air Demand

Now that the Delta-Seaport fiasco is hopefully out of the City's system, the latest wish is for runway expansion to serve commercial flights.

This City is hosting an open house tomorrow:

Wednesday, December 7, 2011
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Airport Terminal Building
2990 25th Street SE, Salem Oregon

It will have information on:

Master Plan Status
Environmental Process Overview
Project Justification
Runway Alternatives Considered
and Next Steps

Here's the preferred expansion alignment:

It's difficult not to be cynical about the "need" for this. This is a multi-million dollar project and the money could much more usefully be spent on something sustainable.

To get a sense for some of the "optimistic" thinking behind it, take a gander at these excerpts.

The forecasts assume a compound growth rate based on past history. But with increasing petroleum costs both from peak oil scarcity and from a likely carbon tax, past growth is not likely to be duplicated.

And indeed in comparing projections from 1997, even the study's authors find that the past is not a good guide!

But nevertheless, here's a table of just insane exponential growth that's actually included in the study! They say outright that it is not the preferred growth model, but if it is so clearly unmoored from plausible reality, why include it?

This is a bike blog and it's just not possible to read all the airport stuff closely. Hopefully someone who is on the committee or works in an airport-related industry can comment and clarify.

(I scanned and cherry-picked the most egregious examples of craziness; they may not be representative. Still, I think they are adequate to show that the projections are at the very least on the high, high, upper-end of the most "optimistic" confidence bar. It seems impossible that this represents a sober analysis for a future with diminished expectations.)

The study documents can be found here. The Statesman piece, which omits any cost estimates, is here.

Bike Plan at Planning Commission Work Session Tomorrow

Tomorrow night the Planning Commission will hold a worksession on Bike and Walk Salem.

The meeting will be at 5:30 in Council Chambers. At the meeting, City staff and advocates do not expect the Planning Commission to take public testimony. This is a question-and-answer session with a view towards crafting a plan subset that has realistic prospects for funding and construction in the next few years - and then a priority list for something like a decade and the next bond measure.

If you'd like to support bikes, please do come to the meeting - just be aware that there won't be an opportunity to address the commission. But a good crowd in the audience always helps! Plus, they're still taking written comment. If you haven't used the comment form, don't forget to let the City know biking is important to you!

Doug Parrow has led much of the thinking and analysis of the plan, and he's drafted a proposal on a stripped-down core for immediate action:

The most concentrated bicycle traffic in Salem is found adjacent to the downtown area. Yet many riders are intimidated on the downtown streets and banned from riding on the sidewalks. Family friendly bikeways on which motorists and bicyclists could comfortably share the road would provide facilities that cyclists of all capabilities could use. A network of family friend streets downtown would set the city on a path to meeting one of the most requested needs--a system of connected facilities accessible to all cyclists....

The city should focus its initial efforts at implementation of the bike/ped plan downtown by using current design standards to make the following streets family friendly bikeways:

• Church St from Mission St to Union St - this street is designated in the draft plan as a Tier 1 project for installation of bike lanes. Traffic volumes on Church St are low and it could be developed as a family friendly bikeway without materially affecting motor vehicle traffic. Church St would provide a critical north-south connection between Bush Park and Union St
• Union St from Front St to Summer St - this street is so designated in the draft plan
• Chemeketa St from Front St to 12th St - this street is identified in the draft plan as an existing bike facility, but additional improvements are needed to make it family friendly. This is the only one of these three projects not currently on the Tier 1 project list.

Doug compares Salem to Fargo, North Dakota:

Painting sharrows on Chemeketa St represented a modest step forward in providing for safe use of downtown streets by bicyclists, the city can and needs to do more. We need not look to Portland for examples of projects that improve the walkability and bikeability of our streets. With relatively minor measures, Fargo, North Dakota dramatically improved Broadway in its downtown area to make it safer, more attractive place for people. If Fargo can do it, Salem can do it.

Here's part of a brochure from Fargo, and sponsored in part by the downtown merchant association, that talks about biking downtown:

Pretty neat!

Look for more after the meeting.

Prospects for Bike Lanes on Brown Road to Improve

In Sunday's paper, reporter Chris Hagan and assistant traffic engineer for the City Tony Martin talked about what all is involved in building sidewalks. One of the examples Martin talks about is Brown Road.

It so happens that Brown Road is a project slated for design funding at some point in the next few years.

SKATS and the TIP

You may recall from mid-November the flashing beacon on Silverton Road and the question about how it might relate to neighborhood north-south mobility.

The Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study Policy Commitee met just before Thanksgiving last week.

At the meeting they included a basket for design funding in the new 2012-17 Transportation Improvement Program.

I say "basket" because as I understand it, including it in the Program list doesn't mean it's necessarily funded. It just means that it's officially on the docket to be available for Federal funding and is a project "for which funding is reasonably anticipated." If projects aren't on the list, they can't get funded.

The SKATS Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) authorizes the allocation of federal, state, and matching local funds for transportation activities and improvements within the SKATS area boundary...The TIP represents the formal programming mechanism by which funds are committed to specific transportation projects by the affected jurisdictions in the SKATS MPO area.

In the basket the committee put three projects:

Brown Road sidewalks and bike lanes, Wheatland Road sidewalks and bike lanes, and the Minto path between the Riverfront-Minto bridge and Minto Park.

Legacy Projects

The projects were assembled from the Transportation Enhancement list from a year or more ago. You can see the evolution of the list here, here, and here.

Two of the three projects are remediation: The addition of basic sidewalks and bike lanes to mid-century roads built in what was unincorporated county land (and subject to fewer development standards). They may not conform to the Bike Plan priorities, either.

Brown Road is a tier 2 project, Wheatland Road is outside the bike plan's project boundaries, and the Minto path is a tier 1 project.

In fact, as part of the committee's deliberations (and of the technical committee that feeds recommendations to the policy committee), there doesn't appear to have been discussion of the Bike Plan. It is not yet a datapoint for discussion. (Minto was already a priority for Salem City Council, apart from the Bike Plan.) Hopefully after the plan's adoption it will have an immediate and more powerful effect on project planning and selection.

Public support will also encourage electeds and planners to plan and construct a larger proportion of projects for people who walk and bike.

City Council, December 5th - Sidewalks and the Prospect of a new Police Station

On Monday City Council will discuss sidewalks in the road bond, but in many ways the most interesting part is the report on prospects for a new Police Station.

Missing Sidewalks and Bike Lanes

Back in October the City baked the list of projects for "missing sidewalks and bike lanes" part of the road bond.

For people who bike, chief on the list was the blind corner and narrow clearances of the cut-through from Miller St S to River Rd S.

As part of the $100M Keep Salem Moving road bond, the city is allocating $15,000 for repairs.

The matter will come before City Council for a Public Hearing on Monday night.

The rest of the $1.2M allocated for sidewalks and bike lanes will go to sidewalk repair and construction:

• Baxter Road SE @ Reed Lane SE (northwest corner of intersection)
• Boone Road SE (Chan Street to Liberty Road)
• Ellis Avenue NE (Reedy Drive to Savage Road)
• Felina Avenue NE West of Hawthorne (north side)
• Gerth Avenue NW and 9th Street NW (west side between 8th Street and 9th Street, and east side between 8th Street and Walker Middle School Driveway)
• Hayesville Dr NE (north side of street, east of 12th Street)
• Marshall Drive SE (north side or street east of 12th Street)
• Onyx Street NW @ Chapman Hill Drive NW (along both frontages of north east corner vacant lot)
• Pringle Road SE (Georgia Avenue to Morningside Court)
• Simpson Street SE @ 25th Street SE (east Minor and west side of 25th Street across old Arterial railroad property)
• Tanoak Avenue SE (across from Ginwood Local Court)
• Weathers Street NE (south side, west of Weathers Park)

Strictly speaking, it doesn't appear there will be any new bike lanes constructed.

As a sort of footnote, there is an interesting report on sidewalk construction, requested by the Morningside Neighborhood Association.

Also on the bond measure, there is a proposal to exempt from public bid process the contracts on the rail line for the "quiet zone" and crossing improvements. The proposal looks somewhat absurd on the surface: As apparently the projects are all in the railroad's right-of-way, the railroad is the only entity that can do construction work. So if folks insist on a public bid process, it's far from clear how that would work. This looks like a mere formality. Another footnote.

New Police Station

Maybe the most interesting item - at least the one with the biggest budgetary impact - is a status update on the site evaluation for a new Police Station. Cost estimates range from $53M to $60M for a retrofit to a new facility. As with so many things, parking is a differentiator:

The primary difference between the Civic Center site and the alternative sites is the underground parking included in the Civic Center concept, which costs about $9 million more than the at-grade parking made possible by more abundant land area at the alternative sites.

Here's the concept plan for the current preferred Civic Center site option, in a rendering by collaboration between CB|Two and ZGF architects.

The new building, identified by A2, would sit across from the Boise project. Here's a corresponding aerial view (awkwardly snipped and rotated from the google):

The Civic Center is currently a dead zone outside of business hours, a mono-use office park that empties out at 5pm and on weekends. It would be neat to have some ground floor retail or restaurant, something unrelated to police and other City or emergency services, that would relate to the Boise project (also currently being designed by CB|Two) and create a richer zone of activity here. It's also an opportunity for a lovely building as opposed to the brutalist fortress now there.

When the earthquake hits, City Hall will be toast, so it's not like this is a frill. This is an essential infrastructure project, and hopefully the City will do it well and do it right.

Other Matters

In appointments, Council will confirm Councilor Bennett's appointment to the Citizen Advisory Committee for the North Broadway/High Street Parking Management Plan, and a new citizen appointment to Downtown Advisory Board.

They'll also possibly approve more money for the downtown Economic Improvement District, administered by the Salem Downtown Partnership.

In an information report, the name change for a segment of Salem Industrial Way to Auto Group Avenue appears to have been approved without asking for any concessions.

Light up your Bike for the Holidays

Unfortunately the Holiday Lights parade won't be in Salem this year, and unconfirmed rumblings have suggested the Keizer version might not be as easy to work with for a bike float. And anyway, the bike drill team's on hiatus.

But you can still decorate your bike! Make your own nightly parade!

(Photo: Commute by Bike)

LED lights powered by 2 AA batteries offer a cheap way to decorate your bike for the holidays - and improve your visibility in the dark of winter!

They make 'em in stars, snowflakes, icicles, and "regular" holiday lights. The strands have a 3 position switch - off, on, and blinky.

$4 each at the big chain stores. Maybe the small stores, too. (If you find locally owned stores with them, please drop a comment.)

Secure the battery packs and the strands with black electricians tape or the ever-handy duct tape.

Or make a tree or stand to strap on to your handlebars or pannier rack.

There are also other lighting systems like hokey spokes and FlexPro, some of them much higher quality.

If you have other ideas or sources drop them in the comments!

(mostly a repost from last year)

Grant, Morningside Neighborhood News

If you live in the Grant or Morningside neighborhoods, check in on what the neighborhood associations are doing, and plug into neighborhood advocacy!

Tonight at 6:15pm in the library at Grant School (725 Market Street NE), the Grant Neighborhood Association meets. On the agenda for 7:15pm Julie Warncke will be giving an update on the Bike Plan and on the Rivercrossing.

The Morningside neighborhood is updating the neighborhood plan.

As part of the Morningside 360 project, they're circulating a survey about values and goals. If you live or work in the neighborhood, be sure to take the survey and let them know how important mobility choice and robust bike facilities are! Parts of the neighborhood that are not close to Commercial are pretty car-dependent, with low walkability scores. And it's not like Commercial is pleasant for walking or biking! Make sure the City knows what you value.

The Morningside Neighborhood Association meets Wednesday, December 9, 2011 at 6:30pm, in Painters Hall at Pringle Creek Community.