Celebrating Muscle Cars, we Miss a Chance to think more Deeply about Safety

Yesterday's front page celebration of muscle cars might have been an opportunity to think more about intersections with toxic masculinity, roadway safety, and all our autoism.

Alas, they remained disconnected.

Earlier this week the US Department of Transportation announced a new National Roadway Safety Strategy, and just as a loose framework, it could give us a better way to talk not just about new regulation and funding, but also to understand our autoism and to interpret and analyze crashes locally. It could be productive across several kinds of conversation.

US DOT, via Twitter

"to talk about safety" - via Twitter

From the Department of Transportation:

The National Roadway Safety Strategy will advance safety and save lives through the Safe System approach which includes:

• Safer People
• Safer Roads
• Safer Vehicles
• Safer Speeds
• Post-Crash Care

As we saw just a few days ago, a lot of our reporting focuses just on the first element, on bad actors and their bad choices.

Column on Emancipation Celebrations Turns up Lost History and New Names

In a fascinating history column today, the Mill turns up tantalizing fragments of a counter-narrative to the Black Exclusion Laws in early Salem and Oregon history.

Today's history column

They found "documentation for celebrations of five Emancipation Jubilees held January 1st in Salem between 1868 and 1879." These are reports in white media, and don't much give voice to Black organizers and participants. There are interesting tensions between Salem papers and the Albany States Rights Democrat, which was a pro-South paper. There are probably also interesting tensions among the Salem papers themselves. It's all so fragmentary and partial.

Nevertheless, this is a great start to retrieving a part of history we have lost.

There are so many starting points!

One of them is a new name, the Bayless family.

The 1872 celebration was held at the Reed Opera House and the 1879 event at the Bayless family home in Piety Hill on the corner of Marion and Winter streets.

That house site is maybe not at the center of Piety Hill, but that's also not shoved off to the side, and suggests some real prosperity and status. The Bayless family appears to trace out a real arc in fortune, however.

June 28th, 1871

September 9th, 1892

May 3rd, 1898

November 13th, 1900

April 19th, 1907

Albert and Mary Ann died within days of each other in 1907.

There is so much more to discover and say.

The column does not yet appear to be online, and alone might be a reason to get a paper edition today.

City Still Slow-Walking Climate Plan

Earlier this week our 350.org chapter sent out a press release with alarm that the City is making the absolute smallest increment of action and effectively burying the Climate Action Plan:

350 Salem OR has learned that instead of allowing the City Council to approve or reject the draft Salem Climate Action Plan, the Mayor has directed the City Manager to recommend non-objectionable strategies from the plan to the Council for consideration in February....

350 Salem believes that the holdup is due to objections from Northwest Natural against elements of the plan that would reduce or eliminate the use of natural gas (fossil methane) in new developments. Houses built now will stand for 100 years and lock in decades of methane and carbon dioxide pollution. The greenhouse gas inventory completed in 2019 as part of the Climate Action Plan process showed that “stationary emissions,” (mostly from natural gas) comprised 16% of total emissions in Salem.

New research - via Twitter

350 Salem says:

Send an urgent message to City Councilors at citycouncil@cityofsalem.net and express your concerns about the Mayor’s attempt to deep-six the Salem Climate Action Plan.

But we should also remember that from the very first memos and the City Manager's selection of a consultant - Council did not make that decision, only inherited it - the desired outcome has been a weak plan.* The problem here is not some new thing, some last minute swerve, but was broadly speaking the goal all along. 

The City was just not that into it.

Remember the soothing, bucolic framing?
No crisis here!
September 2020, via FB

With the City Manager's departure, it should be possible to hire a new City Manager who demonstrates a more substantial and sincere interest in Climate Action.

So while you're at it, consider asking Council to make a real interest in Climate part of the hiring process and criteria for a new City Manager. While Council sets the high level policy, the City Manager handles the details, and they will have discretion to retard or advance any Climate Policy Council sets.

Cherriots Share the Road Video too Anodyne to be very Helpful

Cherriots just published a "share the road" video and mostly it's not very objectionable. But too anodyne and too committed to false equivalence between walking, biking, and driving, it could be so much better.

Biking in the door zone on the margin
of a quiet street with a dead-end

The first impression was dislocation. The streets looked all wrong for starters, too quiet and with unfamiliar houses, and I wondered if it was even in Salem or Keizer. That one of the leads is a City Councilor in Monmouth suggested it might not be. A Monmouth business was more evidence that it was not filmed in the primary territory for Cherriots and local service. That's a little weird, isn't it? Even though they run regional routes, it's still the Salem Area Mass Transit District.

This is a Monmouth business - via Twitter

For a video that ought to be relevant in Salem and Keizer, the street scenes were not an accurate reflection of actual road traffic a person in Salem or Keizer is likely to encounter. (It looked a little like Edwards Addition in Monmouth, but I couldn't tell for sure.)

They also discussed sharrows. This seemed at first like it might be positive.

"keep an eye out for sharrows"

But they never showed a person biking with them!

Person Drives off Road into Home, Kills Residents; Paper signals New Approach

A few days ago in Keizer a jaydriver crashed into a house and killed two persons. The reporting on the story in the paper reflects a change in policy that may need adjustment.

Lockhaven with a big, sweeping curve at Trail Ave.
It has a posted speed limit of 35mph,
but the road invites faster speed

From Keizer Police:

On January 22, 2022 at approximately 7:40 a.m., the Keizer Police Department responded to a vehicle crash in the 5600 block of Trail Ave NE. Officers arrived and conducted an investigation which led to the arrest of 41 year-old, Andrew Modine of Keizer.

It was determined that Mr. Modine was traveling east on Lockhaven Dr NE before his vehicle left the roadway and drove up onto a landscaped area in the 700 block. The vehicle re-entered Lockhaven and veered onto Trail Ave NE where it once again left the roadway and struck a power pole before careening into the home located at 5695 Trail Ave NE. Two individuals were located in the home; 63 year-old George Heitz and 67 year-old Moira Hughes. Mr. Heitz was transported to the Salem Hospital Emergency Department with serious injuries but is in stable condition. Ms. Hughes was pronounced deceased on scene. [Heitz died a few days later.]

Mr. Modine is currently lodged at the Marion County Correctional Facility on the following charges:

• Manslaughter I
• Assault II
• Reckless Endangering
• Reckless Driving
• Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants
• Driving While Criminally Suspended
• Criminal Mischief II
• Probation Violation

This case has been sent to the Marion County District Attorney’s Office. Future inquiries should be directed to their office.

Left unexamined is how Lockhaven might be designed in ways that permit very high speed. How did the driver get up to speed before he off-roaded and slammed into the house? The house on Trail Avenue is a few lots north of Lockhaven, and to cover that distance means speed. With broad, sweeping curves engineered to forgive minor errors by drivers, the design leads to catastrophe with major error like high speed or impairment.

The New Mugshot Policy

The reporting on the crash likely needs adjustment.

As part of the paper's new mugshot and crime policy, in the initial story they wrote, "A woman was killed in her Keizer home Saturday morning after a driver struck a power pole and rammed into her residence....It is the Statesman Journal's policy to withhold a suspect's name until they have been arraigned in court.." 

In print on Monday

For lesser offenses, small crimes, lesser than killing a person, withholding names and not publishing mugshots is reasonable. We do not want to print every speeding ticket like they did a century ago.

Developing a Scoring Rubric for the 2024-2029 Project Applications: At the MPO

The Policy Committee for our Metropolitan Planning Organization meets on Tuesday the 25th, and they have a lot of housekeeping kinds of things. So just a few notes in passing.

On detail that is interesting is the debate on weighing factors for evaluating the applications for funding in the 2024-29 cycle:

In October 2021, staff presented information to the Policy Committee about how to link the selection of projects for the TIP to the transportation goals and objectives in the Regional Transportation System Plan (RTSP). The PC directed staff to work with the Technical Advisory Committee to develop criteria that was similar to what was used for the last update to the RTSP. See the attached memorandum that describes developing a technical score (based on criteria associated with the RTSP’s goals and objectives) and a separate score based on non-quantifiable factors. The two scores would help develop an initial ranking of projects; but the ranking would be reviewed by the TAC and public to consider other factors, with the final decision by the Policy Committee.

For the technical scoring, a decision by the Policy Committee about weighing factor is needed. (See attached memorandum for discussion of options.) This is needed to help project applicants decide which project(s) to submit as full applications for funding in the SKATS FY 2024-2029 TIP. These full applications are due to SKATS by February 25, 2022.

Staff presented three packages of weighing factors and scored three projects against them:

Comparison of weighing factors

They write,

Under the no-weighting scenario, the McGilchrist @ 22nd Street project was ranked number one, and the pedestrian crossing project was third. Using the RTSP weighting factors, McGilchrist came in third and the pedestrian crossing project tied with transit vehicle replacements for first. The Federal Priority weighting factors resulting in the same ranking as the no-weighting scenario.

Increasing or decreasing greenhouse gas emissions is still not a criterion.

From here congestion relief as "bottleneck" is still overweighted and safety and the environment not weighted enough.

More quickly on other matters....A couple of projects are being adjusted.

Losing our Way on Climate: Casino and Kuebler Village Move Forward

Two big projects immediately adjacent to I-5, one at Portland Road, the other at Kuebler Boulevard, really show how we have lost our way on climate and land use.

Current concept for new casino on Portland Road

The proposal for a new casino on a parcel between I-5 and Portland Road is insulated some from criticism as a Tribal project. Legally they enjoy sovereignty and are insulated from local government planning requirements, and ethically they deserve to obtain justice and money for the dispossession, disease, and discrimination during settler colonialism and the subsequent establishment of the State of Oregon.

City Manager Update, May 2021

The Bureau of Indian Affairs published an Environmental Assessment and invite public comment. The document is over 2000 pages, however! And they have not published a separate, shorter Executive Summary. (At the point I am not going to read it, and given the way it has buried a little rather than publicized and the awkwardness of a 2000+ page document, it's not clear they are actually very interested in comment.)

More here:

• On the Tribe's own site, "Siletz Casino Project One Step Closer to Federal Approval."
  
• And a slightly longer article at what looks like trade publication, Casino Life, "Siletz Casino Project Salem, Oregon One Step Closer to Federal Approval."
• See also the previous note here from 2017 when the project was first announced.
  

The Tribe also proposes to complete or make a "fair share contribution" to these traffic mitigation measures:

• Chemawa Road NE/I-5 Southbound Ramps: Implement the existing striped second eastbound right-turn lane and construct a second on-ramp receiving lane.
• Chemawa Road NE/I-5 Northbound Ramps: Construct a westbound right-turn lane with 150 feet of storage.
• OR-99E/Chemawa Road NE-Hazelgreen Road NE: Extend the existing eastbound right-turn lane to provide 300 feet of storage.
• OR-99E/Kale Street NE: Construct a northbound right-turn lane with 150 feet of storage.
• OR-99E/Lancaster Drive NE: Install a traffic signal.
• OR-99E/Astoria Street NE-Ward Drive NE: Construct a southbound right-turn lane with 150 feet of storage and extend the existing northbound left-turn lane to provide 575 feet of storage.

If we want to reduce driving and emissions, this is not a move in the right direction.

Alas, there may not be anything to do about it.