There’s a big open house for PBOT’s St. Johns Truck Strategy project tomorrow (12/12). I have not followed this one closely, but I have heard enough to know that it will be important for people that live nearby N Columbia/N Fessenden area to show up and make their voices heard. The goal is to figure out how best to ferry large trucks through a residential neighborhood. A lot of walking and biking safety issues have been discussed as part of this project.
Here’s some background from PBOT:
The purpose of this project is to improve the safety and livability of N Fessenden St and N St Louis Ave consistent with the St Johns Truck Strategy. The two primary focus areas of the project is to identify street improvements at the intersection of N Portland Rd and Columbia Blvd and along N Fessenden/St Louis Ave between Columbia Way and N Lombard St that discourage non-local truck trips and improve overall safety and livability along the N Fessenden/St Louis Ave corridor. The project will also be looking at additional pedestrian crossing safety improvements on N Lombard west of St Louis Ave.
Map of project area…
And the “issues to address” according to PBOT:
- N St Louis/Fessenden corridor: truck volumes, traffic calming, pedestrian/bicycle safety, and access to transit service
- N Lombard, west of St Louis Ave: freight mobility, pedestrian/ bicycle safety, traffic safety at N St John St
You can get some good background on the issues around this project from Rebecca Koffman in The Oregonian.
I work here in St John’s and let me tell you, there is no good reason (other than saving time) for trucks to use Fessenden/St Louis. There are three schools along here and it is all residential. The truck traffic is killing the livability of this neighborhood.