Shelter Dog Story Shows Power of Cargo Bikes

Nice to see the Capital Auto Group's sponsorship of a story about "two-wheeled road trip" with a Yuba Mundo rather than with a Chevy!

Maybe the best part? "Cargo bike" has entered the language and culture far enough that it didn't require additional explanation in the story:

Where’s Bixby?

She doesn’t blend in riding on the back of an orange cargo bike, so she was easy to spot Thursday in downtown Salem.

It was just a matter-of-fact detail. That's nice too.

Yuba Mundo

from Momentum Magazine

Bixby and Mike were in Portland a little over a week ago, and you can read more about the bike angle at BikePortland. They're headed to Eugene next, it seems.

Altogether they're carrying around 280 pounds of bike + cargo. That's a lot! And all with human power.

Police ask for Help to Find a Downtown Hit and Run; Separately, Cherriots offers Cake

A couple of additional bits...

Hopefully you've already seen this elsewhere, but if not: A driver hit a person on bike on the afternoon of November 4th and did not stay at the scene to render aid. Police are today asking for help.

Video capture of possible hit-and-run

From the Salem Police release:

The Salem Police Department is asking for assistance from the public in locating a vehicle and identifying a driver that was possibly involved in or witnessed a hit and run injury accident on the afternoon of November 4 near downtown Salem.

33-year old Salem resident David Diedrich reported that at approximately 4:15 pm he was riding his bicycle westbound on the south sidewalk of Court St NE and just beginning to cross Church St NE when he was struck by a vehicle that was traveling northbound on Church St. When David was struck by the vehicle, both he and his bicycle were thrown up on the hood of the vehicle, then they both fell back to the ground. The involved vehicle did not stop and turned west onto Court St and was last seen turning southbound onto Commercial St. The victim sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Salem Police Officers were able to obtain a surveillance photo of a vehicle that was possibly either involved in the incident or may have witnessed it. That vehicle is described as a red mid 1990s vintage vehicle similar to a Honda Accord or Civic with a black colored right front quarter panel and possibly deep tinted rear passenger and rear windows. The vehicle may have damage to the hood as well. The surveillance photo of that vehicle is attached to this release.

Salem Police Officers are asking anyone with information about the incident and/or the involved vehicle to contact the Salem Police non-emergency number at 503-588-6123.

Cremains Memorial called "Elegant Masterpiece" by Seattle AIA Jurors; MWACT, Minto - Bits

The Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects announced that Lead Pencil Studio won the highest award, an Award of Honor, for the Cremains Memorial at the Oregon State Hospital.

From the entry package via Lead Pencil

One interesting bit that had been a mystery was the reason a Kohler Company been involved and cited in the credits plaque. (Were there artisanal faucets somewhere?)

Turns out it's a different Kohler and a substantial part of the project:

On learning that the least expensive on-line urn was $100+ and with a multiplier of 3,500, the $400,000 additional budget proved impossible. In response we applied for a residency at the Kohler Company (WI) and worked 3 months last fall in the factory making 3,500 porcelain urns with donated materials.

The architects also note that "31 urns have been claimed since the memorial opened in July."

Prospects for State Transportation Bill in 2015 Increase with Election

League of Oregon Cities on Transportation
November 2014 Newsletter

Majorities in the State House and Senate got a tiny bit bigger in the 2014 election and that means prospects grew for a meaningful transportation package at the 2015 Legislative Session.

(It is interesting that Oregon bucked some national trends on this - but you will have your own preferred sources for commentary on the national elections and any partisan significance! In any case, our local candidate who called bike lanes "fringe things" was defeated.)

Here it's enough just to register that the party pushing the giant Columbia River Crossing is also the party likely to give us a modest increase in the gas tax. (Nothing is simple here: There are costs and there are benefits - lots of grey middle zone.)

More generally, reliable funding will be a key part of a State transportation bill, whose path will be smoothed by party alignment between House, Senate, and Governor.

And with luck, the needs of city streets rather than expansion for highways, as well as preservation and maintenance, will lead.

Library Talks feature Bikes as Thrifty Solution

As we've seen and heard about with the audiences for recent talks by Jeffrey Tumlin, Gil Penalosa, and James Sallis, advocates are doing pretty well reaching the choir, but there's great difficulty yet reaching and persuading those not already converted to the virtues of urbanism, public health, and the role of walking and biking in the mix. Mostly we're all just talking to ourselves and with a few like-minded friends. It's a different version of the echo-chamber.

So the Library's got a series of talks that comes to bicycling from a different angle: How to save money.

Maybe this will be a way to reach a different set of folks and to enlarge some of the conversation about bicycling and transportation!

Presentations on Fairview and Boise this Week

This week brings two presentations on local development and design: One is part of a Public Hearing at the Planning Commission on the Fairview Addition West by Eric Olsen; and the other, at the Grant Neighborhood Association and much less formal, is on the Boise redevelopment.

Fairview Addition West promises to look a lot like this
Edwards Addition, Monmouth
Eric Olsen Development

I thought there might be more to say on the Fairview project, but the Staff Report recommends approval with conditions on details only, and aside from a couple of local concerns by an immediately adjoining neighbor about drainage and trees, neither the neighborhood association nor the adjoining developers have identified any substantive concerns about the project as a whole.

The only item that jumped out at all to me - and I will be interested to learn if other apparently insignificant details are instead highly significant - in the Staff Report is the desire for Strong Road to be 24 feet instead of 22 feet.

City wants to amend plan from 22 feet to 24 feet wide

There really is no need for 12 foot travel lanes here.  They could be 10 foot travel lanes, even. (This long piece in The Atlantic by Jeff Speck, "Why 12 foot traffic lanes are disastrous" sums the case.) Combined with an adjacent 10-foot multi-use path, the wider section on Strong Road will tend to make it zoomy rather than calm.

Earthquake, not Congestion, is our Bridge Problem; Council Work Session Monday

Monday night the 3rd at 5:30pm in Council Chambers, Salem City Council meets for a work session on the Third Bridge.

This is what our "preparedness" looks like

We're nowhere close to being ready in any real way

As N3B points out, despite Salem's role as the capital city, and despite the very large numbers of State employees who live in West Salem and who rely on the bridges for connectivity to critical State offices, ODOT doesn't see the Marion and Center Street bridges as at all critical.

In only the most hypothetical of ways, they are being considered for a seismic retrofit in 30 or 40 years.