Our MPO Meets Tuesday: Greenhouse Gas Modeling not Popular

On Tuesday the 26th, the Policy Committee for our area Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Salem-Keizer Area Transportation Study, meets at noon.  On the agenda are two items of interest:

• A report on scenario planning for greenhouse gas emissions
• Prioritizing Federal Surface Transportation Program (STP-U) funds and Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP-U) funds for the 2015-2020 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

October CAN-DO minutes:
"The McMahan block redevelopment will be announced soon."
Hopefully soon this gravel lot will have people and a building!

Drink Local: American Beverages for an American Holiday!

It's hard to say whether this weather will hold up for the weekend, but if it does, consider our great Wine Country Thanksgiving.

Most wineries are open and there's no better way to visit than by bike! - And few better ways to work off those calories.

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, Honeywood and Willamette Valley Vineyards are probably the closest to downtown Salem.

(Most of the wineries do have a tasting fee, but often refund it with a wine purchase.)

Death on OR-22 Ramp near Edgewater Shows Problem with Marine Drive and Park

Wednesday night a person driving a car struck two people on foot and killed one in a crash near Capital Manor on the Highway 22 ramp westbound onto Edgewater.

Highway 22 and the ramp system are real barriers
and there is no place to cross safely

Asking "why were they crossing the road here?" may not be very helpful, as the primary destination across the highway are homeless camps, and it doesn't seem likely they were in a marked or unmarked crosswalk. But they might also have had a car breakdown or something. We don't know the answer, and there may not be a socially sanctioned "good" answer to the question. The question shouldn't distract us from the awful fact that a person died and another was gravely hurt.

the online news piece

So we should instead ask about the structure and design of the road - how is this structure similar to other structures or contemplated structures in Salem? If there were a sanctioned development across the highway, how would a person from the Manor or nearby neighborhood reach it?

Sidewalks Then and Now: Historic Landmarks Commission talks New Standards

Thursday night the 21st, the Historic Landmarks Commission will hear about new street standards proposed by the City.

The Steam Laundry on Liberty, just south of State Street.
Note First Methodist Steeple in back, bike parking in front;
the backside of Guardian building is on the left.
The boardwalk sits above the slope and depression on the alley.
Salem Library Historic Photos

Staff say the presentation will include a discussion of "Sidewalk width & scoring patterns; Pedestrian bulb outs at corners; Tree wells & grates; and lighting both pedestrian level and street level." Another set of details will be discussed in one or more subsequent presentations.

In the context of the HLC, modern standards must stress compatibility rather than authenticity in historic districts, so it's of limited usefulness to see "what used to be" as if that might guide us on appropriate development and standards.  The move from mud to pavement, and from boardwalk to concrete sidewalk, is progress obviously, and we'd almost never want historical accuracy on these.

In fact, "mud" was often code for a rank slurry of poop and sticky rain-moistened dirt!  When the State Highway Commission's motto was "Get Oregon out of the Mud," read accordingly - and savor the progress.  (I think we have too much pavement, of course, but I do not mind at all that modern pavement is a standard road surface!)

In other areas things are less clear. Preservationists go to great lengths to check the scourge of vinyl and aluminum windows, and yet have much less to say about car traffic and parking management.  For both 19th century and even streetcar-era development, cars are the intrusion and disruption!  Go figure.

Same location today!  It's built up a little for parking,
but the alley still dips into a bowl - and see the steeple in back.
I'm glad for concrete and asphalt over mud and boards,
but this is still pretty drab.

Anyway, here's a couple of sidewalk scenes, then and now.

In the first pair, most things have changed and the only thing really visible in both pictures is the steeple.  I love that there was covered bike parking, however.

Diverging Diamond Rejected for I-5 and Kuebler, Minto Bridge Waits at Transportation Commission

The Oregon Transportation Commission meets Wednesday the 20th at ODOT-HQ.

Gail Achterman OTC Room

Earlier in the year, it looked like "Enhance it" funds for the Minto Bridge might have been approved at this meeting, but that item doesn't appear to be on the agenda. There is an informational report on the agenda instead, and it looks like final approval will come at the January 2014 meeting.

But one item that is on the agenda is that crazy diverging diamond proposed for I-5 at Keubler.

Diverging Diamond

A developer had proposed the diverging diamond through an alternative submission process, and it looks like ODOT's not biting, preferring instead a partial cloverleaf design.

City Shops Proposed TSP Amendments at Neighborhood Associations

As a housekeeping matter Public Works is shopping a list of proposed amendments to the Transportation System Plan.

Bikes can offer mobility after disaster
Typhoon Haiyan - via the Oregonian
(AP/Aaron Favila)

The process envisions going to the Planning Commission with a Public Hearing sometime this winter and then for Council to adopt them.

Not all of the proposals have enough specificity for informed comment here, but some of them have already been seen before.  In the letter to neighborhood associations, city staff note that "these amendments have been pending for some time or have arisen from recently completed studies."

Proposed TSP Amendments
From an Oct 8th letter to Neighborhood Associations
(click to enlarge)

The Kroc Center pathway has already been discussed here several times, as have the recommendations in the Downtown Mobility Study.

The 22nd street project was briefly mentioned for the bond surplus long-list.

Others are new here:

• The Trade/Front street ROW on the west side looks like it is for the Boise Redevelopment.
• The Strong Road and Hilfiker look like housekeeping matters in Morningside.
• A new local street between 25th and Airport Way, south of Shelton Ditch and north of Mission - apparently right by the post office site.  (This could be related to redevelopment of the old Capitol Auto Group lots.)

And two policy matters:

• Adjusting the policy on vacating right-of-way
• And maybe the most interesting - adopting new policies on "Transportation System Critical Routes," specially focused on natural hazards.  This will bear watching because as we have seen elsewhere, sometimes freight interests or those who forget that bikes are especially useful after a disaster want to use "critical" needs to push road designs inimical to non-auto users.  "Critical routes" too often become urban highways. (Or, you know:  Third Bridge.  The flip side here is an opportunity to stress seismic retrofit of our existing bridges, including one that is structurally deficient.)

From the SJ last summer

The process and hearings in general, and the critical routes in particular, could offer another opportunity to tell the City: More bike lanes, please!

City Council, November 18th - Trumping Data by Personal Anecdote

"Don't be mislead by statistics," says the Mayor!

Income by Census Block:
Salem River Crossing
Draft Environmental Impact Statement
Chapter 3.4, Environmental Justice

From today's Paper:

The Post ranked every zip code in America based on median income and education level, measured by what percentage of adults have college degrees. West Salem falls in the 73rd percentile nationally, which means it is wealthier and better educated than 72 out of 100 zip codes in the country.

Meanwhile, downtown and North Salem are in the 17th percentile, and northeast Salem falls in the 19th percentile. They are in the bottom one-fifth of all American neighborhoods.

Salem Mayor Anna Peterson was skeptical that Salem exhibits such stark income inequality.

“(West Salem) is a microcosm of this entire community. Don’t be misled by statistics,” she said. “There are millionaires that are downtown.”

SJ graphic on income by zip code

Council meets on Monday, and there's little of interest for transportation.  So, bullets again - and a  history pendent:

• Kroc Center Path and ConnectOregonV. Fussing over the irony in funding a Salvation Army project with gambling proceeds isn't likely to do much: The project has already been identified as a priority and if this particular funding source was rejected, another one could be found, and maybe that would bump a different project off a different funding list.
• Courthouse Square and Transit Mall adjustments. The Courthouse Square rehab requires fiddling with the transit mall, so there's some shifting and adjustments going on in the public right-of-way.
• New CATC appointments. At least one bikey member has moved out of town and needed to be replaced. But if you look at the agendas for the Citizens Advisory Traffic Commission, you'd see the committee meets infrequently, doesn't actually doesn't do a great deal, and the City doesn't utilize it as much as it might.  So the composition of the committee may not matter all that much.