If you were not able to make it to the open house for the North Williams Avenue Traffic Safety Operations Project on Saturday, you are in luck.
Thanks to the wonders of technology and a project consultant (Michelle Poyourow) that isn’t afraid to use it, you can attend a virtual open house. Below are the posterboards that were displayed (in order). You can also download a PDF of the displays here (7MB).
N Williams April 16 Open House Displays
If you’d like to make formal comments using the same comment forms they had at the open house, you can download the forms here. Comments and comment forms can be sent to PBOT Project Manager Ellen Vanderslice ellen.vanderslice@portlandoregon.gov.
nice work! One thing -there is a small typo on the “Bus/Bike Conflict Stratigies” page. bottom paragraph -other difficulties.
One major problem would still exist even if we solved all of Michelle’s 4 problems. Many cyclists don’t feel safe on Williams, and the slow alternate (Rodney) requires many artery crossings.
Let’s pretend we fixed all 4…say cars had speed bumps limiting them to 15mph. Let’s say all bus conflicts were fixed, all safe crosswalks, and finally lot’s more capacity for those cyclists with lots of courage.
We are still missing many community problems: Parking for residents and businesses and the potential for those many cars ( even at 15mph ) to scare away potential bike commuters.
I’d say that most of this looks great, but I’m really not interested in new traffic lights that just make drivers edgy. And the worst section -number 5- gets the least bike friendly treatment, which makes no sense.
Thanks for posting this.
To see the detail in posters in the scroll window, hold down the “control” key on your keyboard and scroll “up” on your mouse. Or otherwise increase “font size”
Ted Buehler
Thanks, Jonathan! Uncharacteristically, I wasn’t able to make it to this, but the documents allowed me to send Ellen a really thoughtful letter about it today.
This web open house is simply just a slide show. A real web open house is “open”. The city could use open community web tools but keeps the public from interacting. I feel disrespected when I’m excluded, and the message of inclusion is spread like propaganda. I showed up to a meeting and was mostly lectured, and I was given no way to submit written feedback. Will the city compile the needs from the last Wlliams meeting? Will they allow open dialog about how to balance all needs within the budget?
Based on the Alta animation, it looks like Alta is proposing very costly bus loading stations. If the plan is too lofty, it can never become reality.
Ellen from PBOT came to the “lost black neighborhoods ” presentation April 29th. The black residents want respect and history remembered.
here is the before picture, before the freeway and stadium
http://img822.imageshack.us/i/image2615.jpg
here is the after photo
http://img98.imageshack.us/i/image2612.jpg
The broadway bridge ramps on the East side can be seen in both.