Planning Committee Work Plan – 3/29/12
March 30, 2012 by Ron
Filed under Planning, What's New, Work Plan
The Planning Committee approved an updated workplan on March 29, 2012. It will be submitted to the NWDA Board for approval at the April 16 Board meeting.
I applaud the new 2010 NWDA Transportation Committee Chair, Phil Selinger, for taking the committee in a more inclusive direction.
One problem the old transportation committee refused to address and used bylaws to put up road blocks to dealing with is drivers idling and lining up and blocking public streets.
This is from August 4, 2010 “The Oregonian” “Letters to the Editor”:
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance stands wholeheartedly behind Kevin Kasowski’s invocation to fellow cyclists to bike safely, legally and with consideration for other road and path users (“Lack of real rules invites bike mayhem,” Aug. 2). We educate thousands of adult cyclists each year on laws and safe riding practices through the Share the Road safety class and our bike commute workshops presented on-site at Metro-area businesses. We also educate thousands of youths at more than 70 Oregon schools each year through our 10-hour bike safety education program.
While bike licensing fees piloted in other communities have proved to be more expensive to administer than reasonable user fees cover, institutionalized traffic safety education is definitely the way to go. We will continue our community-based education efforts at the same time as advocating that future Oregon drivers and cyclists all have access to bike safety education in school through the broadening of K-8 Safe Routes to School efforts and high school driver-education programs.
If we are successful in introducing walking and biking as lifelong transportation options to our youth, we will save far more money in transportation system costs than any licensing fee could ever generate.
STEPHANIE NOLL
North Portland
Noll is programs manager at BTA in Portland.
AND THIS RESPONSE TO MS. NOLL:
Dear Ms. Stephanie Noll, Programs Manager, BTA, Portland,
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/saferoutes/
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TS/saferoutes.shtml#Safe_Routes_Facts
I live in the neighborhood affectionately called “The Kid Zone” because more than 100,000 children walk on its sidewalks every year to go to all the kid-friendly activities in this neighborhood … from PGE Park, to the NW Children’s Theater & School, to Downtown parades.
NW 18th is the main transportation corridor into NW Portland for motor vehicles coming from W Burnside, and PGE Park. NW 18th is the northbound part of a couplet … so tractor-trailers, motorcyclists, and drivers speed up NW 18th in a rush to make the light at NW Everett and then turn right and onto I-405.
NW 18th is also the main transportation corridor into NW Portland for pedestrians and cyclists coming from MAX, W Burnside, Downtown, PGE Park, and Goose Hollow.
And the part of NW 18th we’re talking about is fully inside a school zone.
I’ve been trying for quite some time via emails and phone calls to enlist Cathedral School, Mayor Adams who’s in charge of transportation, the neighborhood association, NWDA … and both the BTA and K-8 Safe Routes to School to help solve a problem … not an “issue” … not a “concern” … but a problem.
The problem is what I see at the end of every school day … scroll down to “Some Statistics” from this link to NHTSA: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and you’ll read that 50% of all accidents near schools are created by the parents themselves.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/pedbimot/bike/Safe-Routes-2002/forms.html
I see this problem because I live across the street from the campus of “regional magnet” Cathedral School in NW Portland. I see drivers sit in line in the middle of public streets in their black SUV’s (cliche but true) on NW Couch, NW 18th, and NW Davis.
Unbelievably these drivers own a full city block of parking right at their campus.
But rather than park and walk a few seconds to give their kids a “hug and hello” these drivers sit in their vehicles and line up.
In fact, they even get out of their SUV’s and stand in the middle of the street socializing and chatting … just to be able to pull up to the door and “load and go”.
(And on another note isn’t laziness … also called “sloth” … one of the Seven Deadly Sins? Wouldn’t this lazy “load and go” go against their own Catholic Dogma? And wouldn’t teaching your child to sit in a vehicle rather than walk be teaching your own child to be obese?)
And these drivers also force motorists to take blind turns off a busy, busy street … into equally busy oncoming traffic lanes.
So, why have I tried to engage BTA to help end this lining up?
Because these Cathedral School drivers totally block the bicycle sharrow … and they blind cyclists, other drivers, and each other … from seeing what’s happening at intersections up ahead and they force cyclists into the tractor-trailer/through-lane and they force a potential “right-hook” at NW 18th at Everett.
And these drivers block the many stroller moms in The Kid Zone from safe crossings at intersections … and the drivers block walking parents and children from seeing oncoming traffic … and block oncoming traffic from seeing the moms and kids.
Why have I contacted K-8 Safe Routes to School?
For the same reasons that I contacted BTA.
Why have I contacted Mayor Adams?
Same reason … public safety.
For more than two years all my neighbors and I have had are excuses, explanations, and bureaucratic mush … neither BTA, nor K-8 Safe Routes to School, nor the mayor’s office are stepping up and doing whatever it takes to protect pedestrians and cyclists.
Is it that much of a political hot potato that we have to wait for the first … and maybe second deaths … before this dangerous blocking and congesting on high-speed couplet public streets ends?
So, Ms. Noll, over the years as I see from my window what’s happening to cyclists, and neighborhood parents and kids who walk or cycle, I see the failure of BTA to show some courage and protect its own.
And because actions speak louder than words, due to the failure of BTA to protect its own, when BTA says that collecting bicycle registration fees are administratively prohibitive how can I believe that what BTA is saying is the truth?
What I do believe about BTA, K-8 Safe Routes to School, and Mayor Adams is that they have good teams skilled at the art of public relations and “bureau-speak”.
I have emails … lots of emails … that I’m happy to share … and years of watching the ongoing dangers around Cathedral School … to back me up.
Pete Colt