Stop, Drop and Roll

07 July 2008 | Alameda Community, Tranpsortation, Transportation Commission | John Knox White

So you may have noticed that SD&R has been dark for a while (or at least I hope you noticed because if you didn’t, it would scare me that you have been reading the same post day after day without noticing the repetition). The lowercase sd+r’s and I headed off for a classic American summer roadtrip, figuring, heck gas prices have finally gotten high enough to make driving 2850 miles in 8 days really worth it!

Upon returning, we were pleased to see that the city council had reversed themselves on the banning of bikes in the park (I haven’t caught up on my blog reading yet, so I have no idea what the coverage of the issue was, but it looks like Michele E. and Lauren D both had write ups about it. So other than to say “Whee, hooray” I’ll drop it for now.

Any day now, I think, the city will be releasing the EIR for the proposed Transportation Master Plan, which having personally spent hundreds of hours working on it, I’m really excited about. Driving through Northern and Southern Idaho, Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, Montana (we missed Obama in Butte by a day, dang!) and Western Wyoming, I was taken by the pedestrian improvements that were springing up all over The West.

Living in the Bay Area, it seems easy to fall into the trap of thinking we’re “progressive as hell” (which was the slogan for my college radio station as well, go figure) when it comes to everything. Berkeley has (or had) their crosswalk flags, Alameda has flashing crosswalks, bright yellow pedestrian signs are popping up everywhere, flashing speed limit signs tell you you’re going faster than you’re suppose to. And yet, the small towns of Washington State have started implementing streetscape improvements along the lines of the Park Street streetscape with new bulbouts and signage that really re-empahsize the pedestrians place in the environment. Entering towns in Idaho and Montana, drivers are reminded to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks. It was interesting to see all of this in such a broader context.

Tomorrow, the East Bay MUD board will be discussing the proposed drought water pricing plan. I’ll encourage everyone to send in their thoughts today to: EBMUD.Directors@gmail.com. This pricing proposal should be aimed at encouraging the behavior the directors are hoping to see, not penalize everyone in order to spread the pain equally.

Anyway, hope everyone had a great Fourth of July.