Headlines Erase Subject in Attack by Car

Yesterday a man in Charlottesville, Virginia drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one. The driver was later arrested and charged with "one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit and run with injury."

How it appeared in the Statesman, via USA Today

Most of the headlines, both locally and nationally, treated the car gramatically as the actor, the responsible agent and grammatical subject, in a probable crime.

City Council, August 14th - Commercial-Vista Plan

Council meets on Monday, and it's likely that the biggest matter will not be on the agenda - what to do about the do-over on the SRC required by the recent LUBA decision.

There are several other transportation matters of interest on the agenda.

Council will formally consider the Commercial-Vista Corridor Plan and whether to

accept the recommendations contained in the Commercial-Vista Corridor Plan project report and direct staff to seek funding to implement the recommendations and to incorporate the recommendations into the Salem Transportation System Plan at the next amendment opportunity.

Buffered bike lanes and enhanced crosswalks at Waldo Ave

Some of the project has been funded already, including:

• Buffered bike lanes on Commercial Street SE from Oxford Street SE to Winding Way SE;
• Pedestrian crossing islands on Commercial Street SE near Waldo Avenue SE and Triangle Drive SE; and
• Bike signal on Commercial Street SE at the intersection with Liberty Road S, including adding protected left-turn phase from northbound Commercial Street SE to westbound Alice Street S.

This general approach is something we could consider extending farther south to the area on Commercial where a driver struck and killed Shatamera Pruden as she attempted to cross Commercial Street, where it is posted for 40mph, and 85th percentile speeds and design speed mean traffic routinely approaches full highway speed.

LUBA Tepidly Remands SRC Decision back to City

By now you will have already heard that LUBA remanded the Salem River Crossing UGB expansion back to City Council.

The decision, however, is not a strong one, and it is interesting to see the autoist bias expressed in affirming procedural and technical details.

If the "spirit" of the law is to reduce drive-alone trips, LUBA makes no attempt to evaluate by the intent or spirit of the law, and instead finds that any fig leaf for compliance will do in order to protect autoist interests.

The matter that has seemed most interesting here is the question, "what does it mean to 'implement' something?"

LUBA finds that the need to implement things other than highway expansion first "is not as absolute as petitioners argue." They also find that as long as the benchmarks or standards are vague enough, there is nothing to challenge.

On "implement" and Policy 1G

On benchmarks

As a consequence, our advocacy task is to beef up our standards and benchmarks. For example, our milquetoast adopted standard is bike lane coverage on 70% of designated streets by 2030. Apparently a more solid appeal procedure would have pointed to a specific failure to meet this or other adopted standards.

New Eugene Footbridges Will Connect Paths and Bus Rapid Transit

New footbridge across Amazon Creek at Buck Street
(Yeah, that's a paceline in the background on the Fern Ridge path)

With the Minto Bridge in the news this past week, it seemed like a good time to consider a somewhat similar bridge project in Eugene.

It was the top ranked bike/ped project:
Eugene's bridges connect streets and bike paths to transit

You may remember a few years back that Eugene and the Lane Transit District had put together a ConnectOregon application for lottery funding on three footbridges across Amazon Creek to connect neighborhoods, commercial areas, and the Fern Ridge path system to the westside expansion of EMX, Eugene's Bus Rapid Transit system, which opens September 17th.

The bridge project hit some kind of magic multi-modal trifecta, scored very highly, and secured funding easily.

Two of the three bridges are now complete, and this summer construction is proceeding on the third and final bridge.

SJ History Piece features Transportation Walking Tour

Though it'll appear in print on Sunday, last night online the paper posted a walking tour of some old Salem transportation sites circa 1917. (Map here.)

A favorite among the images was this stables business where the Liberty Parkade is today.

Club Stables at site of Liberty Parkade,
looking east along Ferry
(Willamette Heritage Center Collections, X2012.016.0872)

In the Library's collection, there's a somewhat later image of the same building. Its business model had transitioned from horses to cars.

Club Stables as Service Station circa 1930,
looking north along Liberty
Salem Library Historic Photos

And the site today is still dedicated to car storage.

There might be more to say after Sunday. The constraints of a newspaper column mean that there's lots that had to be left out. Nothing on bicycling, bike dealers, and their related buildings for example! The Vick Bros garage is still around as a few other early garages. Anyway, more in an update later perhaps. (Here are posts tagged "Wheeling: Old-time Biking," including notes on Harry Scott, Watt Shipp, Paul Hauser, Otto J. Wilson, Arthur Moore, Ben Taylor, and Myra Albert Wiggins.)

Update, Tuesday

Here it is...

New Funding may Boost Safe Routes Planning: At the MPO

The Technical Advisory Committee for SKATS, our local Metropolitan Planning Organization, meets next week, and they'll be talking about Safe Routes to Schools.

The Legislature just funded Safe Routes with $10 million annually. That's statewide, though, and competition for funding will be very competitive. It will be interesting to see how far it actually goes. While the Street Trust and others have been quick to trumpet the feat and funding level, as a practical matter I think it is going to be disappointing when we see how thinly it ends up being spread statewide. Still, that funding level is effectively a huge jump from nothing - that's an "infinite" increase!

Locally, you may remember that Hallman Elementary has struggled with a Safe Routes program, and that the whole Bike and Walk Salem project was supposed to generate a city-wide Safe Routes plan. Here and there, there have been little spurts of Safe Routes planning and even programming, but nothing like a sustained and coordinated effort.

At the SKATS meeting there's no specific action on the agenda, but it's very nice to see "the discussion of how to prepare and coordinate to apply for these funds."

Maybe we are at an inflection point and this will change.

Even if we aren't successful in securing funding from this particular source, the planning for it will yield actionable plans that can be funded by other means. This should take Safe Routes planning here locally to another level.

Sizzling Temps Move Minto Bridge Dedication; Open Streets Needs Volunteers

Though it's hot now, remember the rain and gloom:
About 4pm, December 19th, 2015

It's hard to believe the two-year construction project on the Minto Bridge is finally coming to an end.

Sun, glorious sun: Last night just before sunset

Because it's gonna be hotter than Hades for the formal opening ceremonies Wednesday the 2nd, the City's wisely decided to move things to earlier in the morning:

Due to the Extreme Heat Advisory August 2, the celebration has been moved to 9 a.m....

The Wed, Aug. 2 celebration begins with a community parade that starts in Wallace Marine Park​ at 9 a.m. The parade route crosses the Union Street Railroad Bridge and continues through Riverfront Park. The parade will be led by the Willamette Humane Society Rescue Dog contest winner and include a bagpiper, honor guard, government and community leaders, and community groups. The community parade will end at the Riverfront Park​ Amphitheater.​

At 9:30 a.m., a formal dedication ceremony in Riverfront Park Amphitheater will feature presentations by Mayor Chuck Bennett, Senator Peter Courtney, and Friends of Two Bridges. A ribbon cutting at the Bridge will follow to complete the ceremony.

The First Wednesday event has been canceled​ due to the weather.

Open Streets Salem

Map and schedule via Facebook

Earlier in July, Open Streets Salem posted the route and preliminary schedule for Sunday Streets v2.0. This time on a Saturday, and renamed Open Streets Salem, it features the proposed Winter-Maple bikeway, runs through the Grant and Highland neighborhoods - where people actually live! - and is anchored strongly by hubs at the Saturday Market, Broadway Commons, and two schools, Grant and Highland.

In every way this is an improvement on the the emptiness and low-energy of the Capitol Mall area in the prior versions of Sunday Streets!