Talks on Sweden and Commercial Vista Corridor Refinement Plan Show Contrast

Two transportation presentations on Thursday the 23rd will show a great contrast between innovation and catch-up.

Daniel Firth talk on Thursday morning
(Look at that protected bike lane!)

In the morning, Daniel Frith with talk about Swedish innovations.

Join Daniel Firth and Paul Casey for a presentation and professional exchange with Oregon planners on transportation innovations in Sweden and Oregon.

Topics:
• Congestion pricing
• Parking management
• Stockholm Urban Mobility Plan
• Mileage fees

Daniel Firth is Chief Strategy Officer at the City of Stockholm Department of Transportation. He is responsible for the development and implementation of the Stockholm Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, including implementation of a new Bus Rapid Transit network, major expansion of the metro and light rail networks, measures for walking, and a USD200 million investment in the cycle network. Daniel is also project manager for the implementation of new congestion pricing and parking measures.

$200 million for bicycling!!!! Stockholm's a good bit larger than Salem, of course, but even proportionately that would be $34 million in Salem, or fully one-third of our $100 million 2008 Keep Salem Moving road bond. Projects like the super-sized urban highway interchange at Wallace and Glen Creek would look very different.

Would you send your child to the park on this by bike?
Note two people on bike in the crosswalk!
(Looking down Glen Creek towards Wallace Park)

The talk is Thursday April 23, 2015 10:00 am - 11:30 am in the ODOT T-Building, 355 Capitol Street NE, Room 340.

(Please RSVP by email to Laura Buhl)

Commercial Vista Corridor Study

By comparison here we are still playing catch-up, and the Commercial-Vista Corridor Refinement Plan will have an Open House later in the day.

Minto Master Plan Meeting Tonight

The last meeting on the Minto Brown Island Master Plan project is tonight, and they'll be looking at three distinct concept plans for the park.

One focuses on access (detail below), another on floodplain restoration, and a third on agriculture.

Minto proposal - Alternate 1 "Enhanced Access"

Even the one on "access" didn't seem to have that much on circulation. It adds a few new elevated boardwalks across swampy and low areas, some new trails, and a bridge - but mostly small changes concerning access to park features - boardwalks and boat launches and stuff like that - but not really on travel and circulation.

From the standpoint of "how do you get there?" and "how do you move around once you're there?" at least from here, none of the alternatives were clearly better than the others.

Instead, the alternatives seemed oriented around the question of, "once you're here, what do you want to see and do?"

And to that question you might have clear preferences over, for example, more natural conditions or more agricultural cultivation.

The meeting is today, Tuesday the 21st, at 7pm in Pringle Community Hall, 606 Church Street SE.

There is also a survey, which requires viewing the concept maps for the three alternatives first.

The prospect of investment at Minto contrasts with the state of investment in a lot of our other parks.

I enjoyed the sunny afternoon by walking and discovering some parks on the other side of town. Have you visited a new park lately?
— Diana Dickey (@DianaDickey88) April 20, 2015

While out on an urban ramble over the weekend, we found a new park.  Maybe you know all about it, but I suspect it's essentially neighborhood secret lore. The City has very little published on it, and the even the new Parks Master Plan doesn't say much.

Council Meets Monday to Set Goals - Tell them to Fix it First!

On Monday Council assembles in a work session to discuss "Council Goals," the high level policy document that will guide staff and Council action for the next year or two.

The Final Fantasy: Funding Strategy for a Third Bridge

Councilor Andersen has made no secret of his intent to try to redirect Council towards a goal to "fix it first," of fixing our existing bridges and investing in a seismic retrofit adequate to the expected Cascadian Subduction Zone megaquake for which we are due.

Even the Road Builders Lobby says:
The Marion Street Bridge should be fixed first!

No Third Bridge expects to have a large audience out in silent support for the motion.

Given Councilor Lewis' interest in Marine Drive, it seems likely that he and his allies will try for an opposite gesture.

Five votes for "fix it first" will not be easy to get.

Our Troubles with Speed

Radar installation on Rural St, near South High

You probably saw the front page story today about Senator Prozanski's bill to increase the speed limit on the interstate.

Maybe we're not dumb?

From the piece:

At a Senate Committee on Business and Transportation public hearing Wednesday, the committee first heard supporting testimony for SB-459, which would raise the speed limit to help Oregonians who travel Interstate 5 stay consistent with speed laws on I-5 in Washington and California....

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, told the committee that it didn't seem prudent to keep Oregon's speed limit at 65 mph when the "states to the north and south of us have speeds in excess of that limit." Some segments of the interstates in Idaho allow speeds of up to 80 mph.

Without going to far into this, a couple of things are interesting. As committed to hydraulic autoism as are ODOT folks, even ODOT says, "speed kills," saying "that states that have increased speed limits have typically experienced a 3 percent increase in fatalities."

Here we are dealing with a crude calculus of death: In death rates, what is an acceptable cost to using the road? And even though ODOT is saying we should want to lessen the rate, we are still plainly saying that there is an acceptable death rate. (Bear in mind we're also undertaking a large effort to install cable barriers on the interstate - why would we do this and increase the speed limit at the same time, eh?)

Legislative Update, Week 10.5 - First Winnowing

The deadline for bills to have a work session was last week, and so we have our first round of bills that "died in committee." None of them seem critical, and some of them represent topics covered by other bills that remain alive or bills that seem likely to be subject to gutting and stuffing.

Undated early view of 1876 Oregon Capitol
(before Portico addition of 1888)
via State Capitol 75th Anniversary site

But first, just having gone through an orderly transition at our State Capitol, it seems like we should join everybody else in observing today what was surely the Country's most disorderly and tragic transition 150 years ago.

Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville, April 22nd, 1865

Jacksonville Mourning

There aren't many local papers digitized from this period, so Jacksonville is the closest we can come, I think. The Oregon Sentinel started out with southern sympathies, but early in the war it was sold and became a Republican paper fully in support of the Union.

Locally in Jacksonville,

business houses were closed and the doors draped in mourning irrespective of party. All countenances appeared sad, dejected and mournful, except a few secession traitors. One drunken secessionist gave vent to the feelings of a wicked and depraved heart by expressing joy at our great national calamity. A good Union man who heard him knocked him off the sidewalk.

The Bills

The Chaff - Bills that died in committee, which we will no longer follow here:

• SB 177 Bike licensing and repeal of Bike Bill
• SB 551 Bike licensing and repeal of Bike Bill
• SB 861 making it possible to use a bike beacon, like an RFID tag, as probable cause for a search warrant in recovering stolen bikes
• HB 2256 Cleans up language about PIP in auto insurance (still not sure if it's a policy change or just housekeeping on language)
• HB 2553 Creates task force on expanding WES (commuter rail) to Salem 
• HB 3153 Prohibits State from funding municipal sidewalks 
• HB 3302 on seismic retrofits for bridges  
• SB 511 creates a study on DUI and recidivism (many DUI cases are repeat offenders)
• HB 3176: Imposes fee on fossil fuel or fossil fuel-generated electricity to be paid by vendors (three carbon pricing bills remain active)
• HB 2159: Imposes tax on each fuel supplier and utility based on amount of carbon in carbon-based fuel that is sold by fuel supplier to consumers in state or that is used to produce carbon-generated electricity supplied by utility to consumers in state.​
• HB 2086: Imposes fee on fossil fuel or fossil fuel-generated electricity to be paid by vendors. 
• HB 2082: Imposes tax on each fuel supplier and utility based on amount of carbon in carbon-based fuel that is sold by fuel supplier to consumers in state or that is used to produce carbon-generated electricity supplied by utility to consumers in state.​
• HJR 10: Imposes taxes on carbon emissions for purpose of funding reductions in carbon emissions and carbon fuel use.
• HB 2740 on ConnectOregon (two other bills remain active)

Other bills appear to remain alive.

New milestones and movements are highlighted in green. (As usual, see more relevant bills or movement? Drop a note in the comments.)

At the Library: Circulation Problems

This weekend you might have seen the new gateway at the staircase for the Children's section of the Library.

Children's Gateway - Kristin Kuhns concept drawing
via On the Way

It is interesting that the effort and thought given to this internal gateway and connection vastly exceeds that given to the external gateway and connection. (If only we treated our sidewalks and pathways so lovingly!)

As the need for a seismic reinforcement at the Library may be starting to get lost in the talk about the need for a new Police Station, we should be talking more about the Library. In fact, it seems like we are missing a big opportunity to talk about the Library as a foundational civic institution.

No driver observes unmarked crosswalks here, even with signs.
Even with improved connections to the sidewalks,
access across busy roads is difficult

If you're not in a car, external circulation and connections are lousy. There's no marked crosswalk in line with any of the Library's entrances, or even at Oak or Leslie. Marked crosswalks are a block or more away, at Mission and Bellevue. Since the Library is located on the center median of a busy six-lane urban highway, too often a person wanting to cross has to play Frogger and scamper. It is not friendly at all for local children to walk to. Bike access is also difficult. Bike lanes are on the right side of the road, and with the one-way grid, a left hand turn across three lanes of car traffic is always required to access the library.

How about a sidewalk so you don't have to push a stroller
through the driveway?  The lot design forgot people on foot.

At the sidewalk, there is only a place for cars. Families with young children have to walk in the driveway.

We multiply physical barriers to the Library.

Plainly, it was assumed that people would be driving to the Library. Can and should we assume this any more?

City Council, April 13th - Goodwill and Marine Drive

Council meets on Monday, and I'm not sure there's anything super important on the agenda. Mostly it's things it seems worthwhile just to "register" and to see if they fall into larger patterns later.

Approximate location of Marine Drive in Red
SKATS RTSP Map

Way down at the bottom of the agenda, the two "Councilor's Items" are most relevant here:

Councilor Lewis is impatient for progress on Marine Drive and moves

that City Council direct staff to bring back information related to the funding available for the design, right-of-way acquisition, and construction of Marine Drive NW....

I believe that it is important for the City Council to understand when the funds allocated [in the 2008 road bond] for Marine Drive NW will be expended and for what purpose.

Passenger Rail service is at risk

Councilor Andersen also asks for a formal City position for the Legislature supporting Amtrak Cascades service (remember, our MPO lined up voted against this in a split vote!).

Proposed Goodwill with First Street alignment in red
First Street there would be vacated

The other matter of real interest is the return of the Goodwill project. After initially denying it on March 9th, on the 23rd Council voted to reconsider and bring it back. Presumably they'll now set a date for a public hearing. The opposition to this is a little mysterious, though it may be helpful to read Council's action on this in tandem with Councilor Lewis' initiative on Marine Drive. Pro-Bridge forces don't want Good Will of any kind to interfere with a Third Bridge! (See here for more on the Goodwill project.)

Summary of Current Status
(proposed demolitions and park area added)

A report on the possibility of purchasing the northwest corner of the North Campus of the State Hospital for use as a park is both strongly positive and curiously non-committal:

Acquisition of a park parcel on the North Campus property would be contingent upon the scale and uses proposed for the site's redevelopment, and the ultimate need for a park on the parcel. Assuming a need is identified, two options for park development are possible on the property: a neighborhood park or a small community park. Both options would be eligible for Park System Development Charge·funding for acquisition, planning, and development....

If the property were to be developed with residential units, a neighborhood park would be needed. Acreage requirements for the park would be determined based on the residential density developed. If the property were to be developed into any use other than residential, the proposed property could serve the existing need for a community park, and would likely be developed as sports fields .[italics added]

I understood the request from Council as tentatively assuming a need has already been identified and as asking for confirmation and then further thoughts on how can we accomplish it. This report calls for more process and doesn't give an answer!