Legislative Update - Week 16 - Fallout from a Narrow Session

With another deadline passing we've got a pretty good sense for what might pass in this session. There aren't very many, and they're all pretty narrow.

Bills Specifically about Bicycling

Senate Bill 130 for bicycle traffic lights. Still waiting the Governor's signature.

Market Bike Valet on Hiatus in 2011

Shoot, here's disappointing news.

You will recall that the last two years after Memorial Day, the Bike Valet at the Market started up. Friends of Salem Saturday Market offered secure, monitored bike parking so you could enjoy the outdoors and didn't need to drive.

They served over 500 people on bike trips over the two years. It was a great service.

It was also volunteer-intensive, and this year because of staffing issues, the Friends aren't able to offer it again. (The Friends may be able to restore some or all of it with more volunteers. If you are interested, let them know!)

Hopefully the Market and Friends can find a sustainable solution. Since they use the State lot and there are other players involved, it may not be simple or direct. It's not, for example, directly possible to install a bunch of bike racks.

If you have ideas on scalable, repeatable, and less volunteer-intensive solutions, also let 'em know!

The Market's a gem, and it should be a gateway for people who would like to be less auto-dependent!

(Poster: The Victory Garden of Tomorrow)

Visit Wine Country by Bike this Weekend

This weekend is the 21st annual Memorial Weekend in the Wine Country.

Most wineries are open and there's no better way to visit than by bike! (Most of the wineries do have a tasting fee, but often refund it with a wine purchase.)

The south end of the Eola Hills are picturesque and offer a good number of wineries.

There's also a bunch of wineries in the Waldo Hills and out south towards Ankeny. For a short-hop, Willamette Valley Vineyards is probably the closest to downtown Salem.

Breakfast on Bikes This Friday

It's almost the last Friday, and that means Breakfast on Bikes!

Friday, May 27th, we'll be on the Union Street Railroad Bridge from 7am to 9am with free coffee, pastries, and fruit for you.

Please support our generous sponsors!
Cascade Baking Company
Governor's Cup Coffee Roasters
LifeSource Natural Foods
Salem Bicycle Club
Willamette University.

Mechanics from Santiam Bicycle will also be available for quick check derailleur adjustment, lube, and tire inflation!

We'll also have information on the second Introduction to Smart Cycling Clinic of the season and Bike Safety Education Community Rides.


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City Council, May 23rd - Where to put New Housing?

Between 2012 and 2032, the population inside the Salem-Keizer urban growth boundary is supposed to grow by 28%, from 239,760 to 307,543.

So where will they live? And how close will they be to jobs and groceries? Will the new neighborhoods be walkable or auto-dependent?

Almost buried as a 5:30pm work session before the May 9th Council meeting was a presentation on the Salem-Keizer Housing Needs Analysis (187pp, 4mb here).

This Monday the City wishes to decide how to go out to the public for further comment and advice on next steps.

The Needs Analysis claims that Salem has a large surplus of land for new single-family homes, but a significant deficit of land zoned for multi-family housing. Keizer, it claims, has a deficit in every category.

The method, though, driven informally by convention and formally by the Comprehensive Plan, still focuses on building "out" on vacant land rather than building "up" on redeveloped land. That is, it has a suburban focus. Transportation costs in distance, time, and fuel are not a large factor in analysis.*

So perhaps it is not surprising that the preferred option for outreach on the Needs Analysis also doesn't appear to factor transportation as a significant input in housing decisions.

The Staff has identified potential stakeholders who could be included in the review committee:
a. Marion and Polk Counties Homebuilders Association
b. Salem Association of Realtors
c. A neighborhood association chair or land use chair
d. Salem-Keizer Community Development Corporation
e. Social Services Agencies involved with community housing needs

There is evidence that the costs of transportation may be increasingly important. A Coldwell Banker survey of agents recently concluded

The high cost of gasoline is not just emptying wallets; it is also impacting where consumers choose to buy a home. According to a new Coldwell Banker survey among its network of real estate professionals, 75 percent said that the recent spike in gas prices has influenced their clients’ decisions on where to live, and 93 percent said if gas prices continue to rise, more home buyers will choose to live somewhere that allows for a closer commute to their work.

Suburban areas without nearby employment centers are increasingly at a disadvantage because of increasing transportation costs. Equally, inner city areas that have retained employment centers and walkable neighborhoods with clusters of essential commerce are increasingly attractive.

Coincidentally, also at Council there is an informational report on a new development on the very southern edge of the city and urban growth boundary.

The development would be south of Davis between Liberty and Skyline. The locator map here (not part of the Council report) is based on the draft bicycle plan for south Salem. The permit calls for a road built to current standards to align with Mildred - a three lane collector with bike lanes and sidewalks. It also calls for linking streets, hopefully to avoid the disconnected loop-and-lollipop streets characteristic of the development immediately to the north of Davis. North-south movement through this part of town appears to be problematic by design. This makes the proposed bikeway at Red Leaf even more important.

As fuel and carbon become increasingly costly, residential development on the periphery may no longer be preferred, however. Instead of centrifugal development it seems likely we will see a return to centripetal patterns.

The housing analysis should also take this into account.

Other matters

Also on the docket is an update on the Central Salem Mobility Study and a first reading for a proposed ban on smoking in parks.

* There is a discussion of 2008 census data and the relationship of jobs to homes. The data is a little coarse, using the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is the whole of Marion and Polk counties. City-level would be more useful here. The amount of out-of-region movement is large. About 1/3 of those who live in Marion and Polk counties work outside the counties; equally, about 1/3 of those who work in Marion or Polk county live outside of either county. This may merit another discussion.

Sustainable Cities Celebration full of Possibility

At Friday's Sustainable Cities End of Year Celebration, the parlor-game of choice was to guess which projects would get done. After the deserved celebration and huzzahs, what would be the next steps?

Some projects were clearly more conceptual, visionary, or far-out than others. Other projects seemed they might directly inform actual policy-making and decisions.

In several cases, the connections were obvious, and with yesterday' piece by Beth Casper in the SJ was the schedule of City Council work sessions to discuss the projects. Two projects are on Monday's City Council agenda, in fact.

At the celebration penultimate drafts of several final reports were out on a table, available for browsing. Once the reports go through final review, they will be published and available for closer reading.

The Downtown Salem Circulation Study will be of particular interest once it's released! Even on the cover you can see a bike focus - wouldn't that be great to keep? But it might not be surprising to see in the final version a different set of images. Regardless of the cover, several of its component analyses inside are reappearing in the Central Salem Mobility Study. (More here.)

Another study that has clear and direct links is the street light project.

One group of students identified the different needs and lighting zones for people on foot, on bike, and in car.

This design for a proposed light fixture looks like a bike helmet! But it's called the Viper.

As part of the study, the City is looking to identify a different revenue stream for street lights.

Streetlighting is paid 100% with gas tax funds. The City’s electric bill for street lights is currently covered by $1.2M of gas tax revenues. Public Works wants to move this funding off of gas tax to another revenue stream. If the source of funding was different, gas tax revenues could be freed up for other projects and less General Fund money would be needed to support street maintenance.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to spend more on maintaining existing capacity and using it more wisely - wouldn't that be more sustainable! - than expanding capacity?

There were also plenty of other posters to look at around the room. This one represented a GIS project to map Salem's bikeway system for different skill and interest levels. The three snapshots showed clearly the ways the existing system, constructed mainly out of bike lanes on busy roads, had limited appeal.

In June and July, at Council work sessions the City will discuss the projects:

• June 13: Redevelopment opportunities
• June 27: Parks and transportation projects
• July 11: Economic Development and Civic Engagement projects
• July 25: Transportation Projects/Stormwater

The spring term bike class will also present on June 10th.

How far the City actually goes to implement any of the recommendations is another question, and current policies do not always make it easy to see the line from talk to walk.

But in important ways the past doesn't matter. Council will implement as much of the recommendations and projects as they think they public wants. So if you want things done sustainably, let 'em know!

Legislative Update - Week 15 - Committee Action

Lots of committee activity coming up, with several work sessions next week. Full committee schedules are here.

Bills Specifically about Bicycling

Senate Bill 130 for bicycle traffic lights. The Senate concurred with the House amendments, so it's formally on to the Governor for signing.