City Council, May 29th - New All Roads Transportation Safety Grants

Council meets tonight, on Tuesday, because of the holiday, and a safety grant program and parking debate seem worth some comment.

Applications for All Roads Transportation Safety grants could be interesting, but there are no specific projects listed on the Council item.

As of the staff report’s writing, staff is working to complete a preliminary analysis of candidate projects that will best meet the program’s funding criteria. Prior to entering into project funding agreements with ODOT, staff will return to Council for approval to add selected projects into the Capital Improvement Plan and request budgetary approval for the required 7.78 percent local match in the appropriate fiscal year (FY 2021-2022 through FY 2023-2024). Likely sources of local match funds include Transportation System Development Charges for countermeasures that increase corridor capacity, or the City’s share of State Highway Fund revenues for other countermeasures, including those intended for pedestrian and bicycle safety. [italics added]

Previously, the ARTS program funded the forthcoming buffered bike lanes and enhanced crosswalks on middle Commercial arising from the Commercial-Vista Corridor Study, the 4/3 safety conversion on Broadway around Pine Street, and green bike lanes in the widening project on 12th Street between McGilchrist and Fairview. Data on crashes and deaths is supposed to drive the program - and it seems likely that, among other things, we will see proposals for enhanced crosswalks arising out of the "Pedestrian Safety" study and the State Street Study. Sections of the Winter-Maple Greenway near the Parkway and Cherry Avenue might be candidates also, but not probably any inner portions. The grant amounts will probably not be sufficiently large to make a dent in the funding for any over/undercrossing along Second St NW at Wallace. There's also that tension between "increase corridor capacity [for zoomy drive alone trips]" and "pedestrian and bicycle safety." So it'll be interesting to see the project list the City proposes. (See previous notes on ARTS here.)

Not Erasing the Driver, Public Bike Success - In the News

After more investigation and the results are made public, there may be more to say later about the shocking hit-and-run crash on a sidewalk in Portland near PSU.

It's certainly not "an accident." It takes too much intent and multiple decisions to drive fast and up on the sidewalk in that urban area, and then to compound things with the choice to drive off.

The rhetoric itself in the news stories, especially in the headlines, reflects this:

"Driver rams 3 women"

"Driver plows into people"

AP story on page A6 of the SJ

Congestion Task Force Has First Look at Proposed Solution Packages

The Congestion Relief Task Force met earlier this week last Friday and saw seven different bundles of different projects. The Task Force eliminated the two most expensive of the "Solution Packages" and will look at the remaining five in more depth. Still, there's too much same-old, same-old in the rehash of old and costly project ideas devoted to drive-alone trips. (Brief minutes and the slide deck for the presentation.)

Relief as Political Band-aid
Not arising from Coordinated Analysis of the Underlying Problems

Hydraulic Autoism: We treat traffic like fluid and streets like tubes
(from the presentation to the Task Force)

The biggest problem, one that is a fatal defect for the whole project, is the theory and paradigm that is the basis all the proposed solutions. Under the mid-20th century program of hydraulic autoism, we consider traffic as fluid with pressure that must be sent through pipes or tubes of fixed capacity. If you read the blog regularly, you will have seen the phrase hydraulic autoism and you might think it's an odd neologism. But look at those pipes, their sizes, and the proposed relations! We totally have a hydraulic conception of traffic. And since the traffic is conceived as drive-alone trips in cars only, and not as walking, biking, busing, or other mobility, it is also an autoist understanding. The diagrams and basis for the analysis here really is a kind of Q.E.D. for hydraulic autoism. The proof couldn't be plainer. It's a real thing!

And anyway, if we are going to look at space and volume only, there are other "capacity relationship concepts" we should also see. It's people/hour, not vehicles/hour that matter! (In the clips below from diagrams presented to the Task Force, note all the +vph and -vph.)

Vancouver, BC: Drive-alone trips are inefficient

Until we also grapple with pricing signals, with things like all of the physical space and financial subsidy we devote to support free and underpriced parking, we will continue to induce more demand for drive-alone trips, and we will wonder why there is more pressure for increased road supply.

Static on the South Salem Transit Center, Survey on New Fares - At Cherriots

Cherrots' board meets tomorrow, Thursday the 24th, and there's a few items to note in passing. (Agenda and full packet here.)

Concept for the South Salem Transit Center -
Slices a strip of parking lot from Walmart (December 2015)

At last month's meeting it became apparent that plans for the South Salem Transit Center had run into some difficulty.

Public Comment: Walmart is not a fan

So Cherriots is preparing to use Eminent Domain

Whether Cherriots will actually use Eminent Domain is not clear, but the prospect of it certainly helps with leverage during negotiations. So that's a development to keep an eye on. (Some notes from 2014 on the preferred location.)

They've also got a survey out on a proposal for a new fare scheme.

Probably the most significant is an expansion to the low-income fare and a free youth pass. (There are some other elements, too.)

You can take the survey here.

In addition to the South Salem Transit Center, as well as the big move to weekend and evening service, another large issue is upcoming changes to the way the Board is formed. With the passage of SB 1536, which "Provides that directors of certain mass transit districts be appointed by Governor instead of elected," the Board is facing its own dissolution. It did so willingly, but members are still going to be phasing themselves out.

Learn about Safe Routes to Schools this June

Oregon Safe Routes to Schools is holding their annual meeting and a training here in Salem this summer. It's a great opportunity to organize for more walking, biking, and rolling to school.

September 2013

It's all upside and opportunity here in Salem! Start a walking school bus or advocate for a new crosswalk and speed reductions!

From Oregon Safe Routes to Schools:

Join other Safe Routes to School practitioners in Salem, OR, this June 25. Learn about new funding streams, best practices, share lunch with old and new friends and take home some new tools to get the kids in your neighborhood walking and biking! Get inspired and find resources for Safe Routes to School work in Oregon.

Monday’s meeting being held at Chemeketa Center for Business and Industry, 626 High St NE, from 8:30-4:30 (lunch included) and will include orientation, networking and the ORSRTS Network Annual Meeting. There will be a session on SRTS infrastructure funding.

RSVP: Get your free ticket

Join the Oregon Safe Routes to School Network’s Annual Meeting for a day of:

• Networking with other SRTS professionals
• Orientation for people new to SRTS
• Finding out about other practitioners’ successes and lessons learned
• Getting inspired by programs that can be replicated in your community
• Learning about the Oregon SRTS Network, resources, and opportunities

Schedule:

• 8:30-9am: Registration & Coffee
• 9am-3pm: Annual Meeting
• 3pm-4:30pm: Safe Routes to School Infrastructure Program Workshop
• 4:30pm-6pm: No host happy hour at Ventis: 325 Court St NE

Please register here for the meeting and workshops! ODOT is offering trip/travel scholarships of $200 per person. Contact kim@commuteoptions.org for more information.

Then the next day

Instructor training will take place on Tuesday June 26 at ODOT, 355 Capitol Street NE. This will include instruction on bicycle and pedestrian safety skills, curriculum and other education and encouragement program opportunities.

Description: The training will cover the 6 E’s of Safe Routes to School (Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation, and Equity) with a special focus on Education and Encouragement. By the end of the Safe Routes to School training, participants will:

• Be introduced to the Safe Routes for Kids/Neighborhood Navigators Curriculum focusing on both the in-class and on-street lessons.
• Understand evaluation techniques including Parent Surveys and Teacher Tallies.
• Learn and demonstrate bicycle safety expertise, navigating safely and legally with traffic.
• Have an overview understanding of statewide Safe Routes to School in Oregon.
• Understand the function of an school or district Action Plan and begin planning for next steps within the schools.
• Understand the six E’s of Safe Routes to School (Engineering Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation, and Equity)
• Have the knowledge to successfully organize and lead Bike Trains and Walking School Buses.
• Understand the importance of relationships with local police department and outreach opportunities.
• Have considered challenges and solutions to implementing the five E’s of Safe Routes to School, with particular emphasis on Education and Encouragement activities.

ODOT is offering trip/travel scholarships of $200 per person. Contact kim@commuteoptions.org for more information. Cost is $15.00 Register here!

Goal 7 and the Greenhouse Gases: At the MPO

The Policy Committee for our local Metropolitan Planning Organization meets tomorrow, Tuesday the 22nd, and they'll be grappling in a more serious way with engaging citizen calls to write a formal goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for inclusion in our upcoming 2019 Regional Transportation System Plan.

For years SKATS has resisted any kind of accounting for greenhouse gases. But there is now an opening and a new possibility for change.

The RTSP's curent draft goal 7 and several options
for a revised goal 7 for the 2019 plan
(May 15th memo, "RTSP Goals: Discussion of Options")

Salem City Council had submitted a letter in support of adding a clause about "reducing greenhouse gases" and this is option C in the supporting memo.

Other MPOs in Albany, Corvallis, and Portland include provisions on carbon and climate disruption. Currently, Bend, Eugene, and the Rogue Valley do not. (Eugene's silence on this is surprising.) So if SKATS adopted language in a goal, we would be right in the middle: Neither an early adopter nor a total laggard. That seems like a very comfortable place to be.

West Salem Neighborhood to talk SRC and Second Street Crossing on Monday

The West Salem Neighborhood Association meets tomorrow, Monday the 21st, and they'll be talking about the SRC and about the under/overcrossing concept at Second and Wallace Road.

April 16th presentation to WSNA

At last month's meeting, they saw a long presentation on transportation and land use. It is notable because it gave visibility to the fact that the current plan on the SRC doesn't do very much to "solve" congestion. At multiple intersections it fails to meet the study's own mobility standards. If you accept the study's traffic modeling and definition of acceptable delay at intersections, the SRC is a FAIL.

It is good to see more discussion of this. $500 million (and very likely much more) is a lot to spend on a project that fails to solve congestion.