Ray Atkinson started this blog in 2014 when he moved from his childhood home in Kannapolis, North Carolina, USA (Walk Score of 0) to get his Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Portland State University (Walk Score of 100). He has a sustainable transportation lifestyle in Key West, Florida, USA. His email is gismap1@gmail.com. The postings on this site are of my own and don't reflect or represent the opinions of the City of Key West, for which I work. https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayplans
I usually publish a new year’s post around New Year’s Day. I am late posting my new year’s post because I wanted to spend time with my family in the Carolinas. While my family could not stay up to celebrate the new year at midnight because we had to wake up early for my flight, which ended up getting canceled, we ended up getting to celebrate the new year together for five extra days when my flights got canceled. Since my family did not have time off during the first week of January and the Carolinas do not have frequent and reliable transit services, which would have allowed me to travel alone, I decided to work remotely last Tuesday-Thursday (Monday was my day off for New Year’s Day and I normally have Friday off) from my childhood home in Kannapolis, NC after both of my New Year’s Day flights got canceled. I am writing this post during a layover in Las Vegas on Friday, January 6. I will return to Petaluma, CA tonight.
Please do not replace in-person meetings with Zoom meetings in the new normal
In case you recognize the title of this post, it looks familiar because I copied almost the entire title from this 2022 post. I just changed the year to 2023. Since California Governor Newsom announced that California’s COVID-19 State of Emergency will end on February 28, 2023, I believe the new normal for California (other states are already in the new normal) will actually start in 2023. While I cannot share internal discussions through my blog about how the end of this state of emergency will impact meetings in Petaluma, I am hopeful that the City of Petaluma will have more in-person meetings in 2023. As the below 2020 tweet from Portland State University’s Dr. Zapata shows, in-person meetings are critical for engaging communities of color.
I am disheartened by this thread. Five student teams pushed forward on capstone plans this quarter. They had to push all engagement online. They lost almost all communities of colors. It sounds more like ppl aren’t empowered to manage public mtgs. https://t.co/QWj1vS1wz1
— Some Woke PSU Professor (@DrMarisaZapata1) June 11, 2020
Opportunity to encourage healthy travel behavior in the new normal
Since I do not expect much to change in California after the state of emergency ends beyond how meetings are organized, especially because many employees have already started their post-COVID work commute, I think California does not have much opportunity left to encourage healthy travel behavior in the new normal.
I think my future housing decisions will be discussed in several future posts because I am planning to move to a new home ASAP and purchase my first home by the end of 2023 or early 2024. The main reason why I am stressed about these housing searches is that I am trying to improve my work-life balance. I feel living too close to work will make me like I am still at work. This is how I felt when I lived across the highway from my last job in Oregon. I have to balance this with living too far from work because I do not own a car and do not plan to purchase a car. I plan to keep commuting to work by biking or riding the bus. Wherever I end up renting, I hope this home will be the last time that I rent a home because I have enough savings to purchase a home. Yes, I am privileged to be able to afford to purchase an expensive California home. How far do you think I need to live from work to feel like I am no longer at work?
The surprise I have been patiently waiting to publicly share is that I accepted a new job as the Senior Transit Planner at the City of Petaluma, CA. The below map shows where Petaluma is located in California. Yes, I had to research where Petaluma is located when I applied for the job. I had never even visited Petaluma before applying for the job. Coincidentally, my Portland friend, Linn Davis, is working on this project in Petaluma for Healthy Democracy. He got me excited about accepting the job and moving to Petaluma.
My last day working at Clackamas Community College (CCC) was July 18. Even though I struggled with being asked to represent CCC and Clackamas County on regional transportation committees because I have never owned a car (most students and residents own a car), I frequently advocated for these regional committees to add more voices from Clackamas County. I enjoyed working with many on- and off-campus partners during my four years at CCC. I actually worked more time in the COVID restrictions than before these restrictions. These restrictions drastically changed my work environment and likely permanently changed the future of CCC’s transportation services. I hope CCC finds someone who enjoys working in this new work environment.
While getting COVID during my move to Petaluma forced me to work from home with my new roommate for over a week, I started working for the City of Petaluma on July 25. I plan to share more about my new job and Petaluma after I share my other surprise.
Remembering Grandma Atkinson
I actually have two surprises. Unfortunately, the second surprise is not exciting. While I knew my paternal 96-year-old Grandma Atkinson was at the age to die soon, I am still struggling with her July 16 death in a Concord, NC hospital. Thankfully, I was able to be with her during the last week of her life. My twin sister and I visited her daily in the hospital or assisted-living facility during my North Carolina vacation. Our dad frequently joined us for the daily visit. My mom and brother also visited. These visits helped me feel more at peace when my grandma died. Despite my minimal cooking skills, I want to preserve the time with my grandma by making zucchini bread, which she frequently made.
Visiting Grandma Atkinson in Concord, NC hospital with my dad and twin sister
More pleasant memory in Erie, PA
Due to how much pain my grandma felt in the hospital and my desire to focus on how active and connected she was in Erie, I wanted to share a more pleasant memory from this 2017 post. I cannot believe this post was published over five years ago! My grandma knew everyone by name at her Erie retirement complex. I have difficulty remembering new names, so I wish that I had her skill to remember names. She was excited to introduce me to everyone during chair yoga. She would stop to talk with everyone in the hallways. While I am trying to focus on positive thoughts, the COVID restrictions negatively impacted her ability to socialize with everyone in her retirement complex. Even though she did not have COVID, the restrictions forced her to be isolated in her room, which made her very lonely. I was very concerned that she would die during this isolation, so I called her more frequently to give her someone to talk to.
Since my grandma died two days before I flew to Oakland, I am still amazed that I was able to focus enough to finish moving to Petaluma. I have been debating about what to share first about my new job and Petaluma. As a planner who enjoys reading history, I think sharing Petaluma’s planning history is a good starting point. I took a similar approach when I started blogging about Kannapolis in 2014. I can cover other topics about Petaluma in future posts.
Construction Industry Association of Sonoma County v. City of Petaluma
While I did not know where Petaluma is located when I studied the 1976 US Supreme Court case Construction Industry Association of Sonoma County v. City of Petaluma for the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) exam, I believe this case is the most important case to impact Petaluma’s planning history. As this post from Petaluma historian John Patrick Sheehy shows, I can thank former Petaluma mayor Helen Putnam for taking the case all the way to the US Supreme Court in order to limit Petaluma’s sprawl in the 1970s. In addition to preventing sprawl in Petaluma, the court’s decision helped cities across the country prevent sprawl. Surprisingly, former Mayor Putnam did not envision herself as a torchbearer of the urban slow-growth movement (aka smart growth).
Another important piece in Petaluma’s planning history occurred when the city council approved the Environmental Design Plan in 1972. This plan limited new development to 500 units per year for the next five years; 250 on the east side and 250 on the west side. It also included an urban growth boundary around the city. Yes, Petaluma created an urban growth boundary before Portland created its boundary in 1979. The below map shows Petaluma’s current urban growth boundary. Since I thought this boundary would not expire, I was surprised to learn Petaluma’s urban growth boundary will expire in 2025, unless extended by the voters. I believe urban growth boundaries in Oregon do not expire.
The reason why I am focused on how former Mayor Putnam limited Petaluma’s sprawl in the 1970s is because my new job involves doing transit planning for Petaluma. Sprawling land uses are not conducive to providing good transit service. Petalumans would likely drive more than they currently do if Petaluma had not limited its growth in the 70s. While the below 2016 map does not show the current transit system, the current transit map does not have a basemap to provide context for the transit routes. As you can see from the changes that were made to the transit system, planners are still struggling to provide good transit service in Petaluma even with the urban growth boundary.
I could write more but this post is getting long. I am debating what to write about next. I could write about my new commute in Petaluma and how it could impact my goal to settle down. Since I am new to Petaluma and the Bay Area, I could write about my car-free trips in Petaluma and the Bay Area. I am open to suggestions. What do you want to read?
I finally decided how I plan to celebrate passing the AICP exam! While I wanted to take a vacation in January or February, I decided to postpone visiting Tucson until March 26-April 3 because I want to participate in Cyclovia Tucson. Cyclovia Tucson is an open streets event, which creates a safe and fun place for people of all ages and abilities to enjoy the streets without being concerned about automobiles dominating the streets.
Yes, I am frustrated by how automobiles usually dominate most US streets. While I do not want to embarrass the Living Streets Alliance, especially when I am volunteering to help them organize Cyclovia Tucson, I wish US non-profit organizations and cities would think beyond organizing a temporary open streets event. It feels weird to be celebrating ten years of temporary open streets events when the streets are still dominated by automobiles when the event ends. People deserve to be able to use their local streets safely and for fun all of the time!
I want to encourage US non-profit organizations and cities to think about creating permanent change in automobile-dominated streets. I am not referring to constructing protected bike lanes and intersections, which are great for roads with higher speed limits and traffic volumes. I am referring to creating woonerfs, which were developed by the Dutch in the 1960s. My 2017 post about oasis greenways includes an even more radical approach to creating permanent change in automobile-dominated streets. I realize woonerfs or oasis greenways need very low speed limits and traffic volumes. Due to this, I am not suggesting that Tucson create a woonerf or oasis greenway on every street.
I am still excited about my vacation. I am not going to let my frustration regarding the lack of permanent changes prevent me from enjoying Cyclovia Tucson. I may even learn about some permanent street changes while I am exploring Tucson that occurred as a result of a previous Cyclovia Tucson. Since I have participated in open streets events in other cities like Portland and Milwaukie (yes, Oregon has a city that is spelled almost identical to the Wisconsin city), I am curious to see what unique activities the Living Streets Alliance has planned for 2022 Cyclovia Tucson. The below photo shows people during the 2018 Cyclovia Tucson zip lining in the middle of South Church Avenue!
Even before I learned about Cyclovia Tucson, I originally chose to visit Tucson because I want to explore 131-mile The Loop. Yes, 131 miles! I may not bike the entire distance during my first trip to Tucson. Due to how long The Loop is and my desire to explore Tucson beyond the tourist traps, I have actually been struggling to decide where to stay in Tucson. Do you think I should sleep in one place the whole time or move to different places throughout Tucson every few nights? If you think it is feasible to move to different places throughout Tucson every few nights, how would you approach transporting luggage during the day without using a car?
As I wrote these questions, I realized that I need to consider the feasibility of transporting my luggage between places. I have used Radical Storage (formerly Bagbnb) to store my luggage during the day before I could check in to an Airbnb. Unfortunately, Radical Storage has no locations available in Tucson. Since I do not plan to pack everything in panniers and will not have my bike in Tucson, I likely need to sleep in one place the whole time. I mention my bike because it has a rack to carry panniers. Tugo Bike Share, which is Tucson’s bikeshare system, does not have a rack capable of carrying panniers. I could research whether a Tucson bike shop has a rental bike with a rack capable of carrying panniers. Assuming I need to stay in one place the whole time, where do you think I should stay in Tucson?
The final thing that I am currently focused on doing in Tucson is attending the Tucson Folk Festival before flying back to Portland on April 3. I actually would not have been in Tucson for this festival if I proceeded with purchasing flights during Clackamas Community College’s spring break, which is March 21-25. I was trying to schedule my vacation during spring break to reduce the impact of my vacation on my coworkers. Since I am the only staff person who manages certain student transportation benefits, I am planning to train some of my coworkers on how to enroll students in these benefits during my vacation. While I may need to stop being frugal, the cheapest flight from Tucson to Portland after Cyclovia Tucson on March 27 was almost $1,000 one way!
My Tucson vacation is about two months away, so I may blog about something else before my vacation. Either way, I plan to blog more about my Tucson vacation at some point. Since I spend too much time looking at screens during the COVID restrictions, I may actually not publish daily posts about Tucson until after my vacation is over. I am concerned about writing posts when I want to be experiencing Tucson. Yes, this feels weird to write because I enjoy blogging. I want to make sure I return to work refreshed after my vacation. Reducing screen time is very important for me to return to work refreshed. In case you were hoping to see daily posts during my vacation, I hope you will understand my need to prioritize my health over blogging.
Today is the last day of 2021. I am trying to be hopeful about what will happen in 2022. I never thought I would experience what happened in March 2020. While some of the COVID restrictions have been lifted, I cannot believe we are still living through COVID restrictions almost two years later. Due to how political the issue of keeping or lifting the COVID restrictions has been, I need to be clear that I am focusing this post on how these restrictions are impacting my life and work. I am not advocating for the restrictions to be lifted. Yes, I would love for the restrictions to be lifted but I recognize that the pandemic is not over. I have close friends who have tested positive for COVID and they are currently fighting for their lives. I am thankful that I have not caught COVID. Hopefully, the vaccine and booster shots will prevent me from dying if I test positive someday.
Please do not replace in-person meetings with Zoom meetings in the new normal
I am disheartened by this thread. Five student teams pushed forward on capstone plans this quarter. They had to push all engagement online. They lost almost all communities of colors. It sounds more like ppl aren’t empowered to manage public mtgs. https://t.co/QWj1vS1wz1
— Some Woke PSU Professor (@DrMarisaZapata1) June 11, 2020
I wrote two blog posts (this 2020 post and this 2021 post) regarding how I am concerned about how many planning processes during COVID have depended solely on Zoom meetings to conduct public engagement. Before I share my thoughts about discussions during meetings, I want to be clear that the meetings were open to the public so I am not sharing information from sensitive internal discussions. I have been involved with many new normal planning meetings over the past several months. Despite the organizations (purposefully not naming the organizations) having an adopted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan, they have not changed their plans when I urge them to consider the harmful impact of depending solely on Zoom meetings to conduct public engagement. They keep saying that Zoom meetings will allow more people to participate, especially because people will not need to travel a far distance to participate in an in-person meeting. What about the people who do not have a reliable computer or internet access?
As an extrovert and someone who feels dehumanized by Zoom meetings and events, I miss spending time with friends and coworkers during in-person meetings and events. I also miss walking and biking to and during meetings and events. This has hurt my mental and physical health. Since I am usually in shape from walking and biking, it feels weird to create a new year’s resolution to get back in shape. The easiest way for me to achieve this is by walking and biking to and during in-person meetings and events. Will in-person meetings and events restart again in 2022?
Opportunity to encourage healthy travel behavior in the new normal
I am also thinking about big-picture changes in the new normal. I have found it fascinating how people are stumped when I ask them what they think the new normal means. The basic answer has been a hybrid work future where they can continue working from home and only commute to their office when they need to do in-person work. I have been trying to encourage people to think about big-picture changes. Pandemic-induced travel behavior may only happen one time in our lifetime. I see this as an opportunity to encourage healthy travel behavior before many in-person workers, who are currently still working from home, return to driving alone to work. What do people really mean when they get excited about the new normal?
I may have finally decided how to celebrate passing the AICP exam! I learned about Tucson’s 131-mile The Loop when researching the longest urban trails in the US. I still have to decide when, how long to visit, and where to stay in Tucson. Since I have never been to Arizona before besides having a layover in Phoenix, which does not count as visiting Arizona, I have been asking friends for help with planning my vacation. While I am still nervous about whether I will enjoy biking in Tucson more than doing an international vacation, my friends are excited to help me plan my Tucson vacation. I have been texting with a University of Arizona MD-PhD student, who I met when we were both students and bike advocates at Portland State University. I have also been texting with a University of Arizona MPH alum and Tucson high school graduate, who I met when we were both students at UNC Charlotte.
I have results to share after completing the outreach that I showed in this previous post. I worked with a graphic designer at Clackamas Community College (CCC) to design the below sidewalk decal, which had an embedded SMS survey. I used grant funding to pay for ten decals and the SMS survey. SimpleTexting was used to manage the SMS survey.
While I was disappointed to only have 17 people participate in my SMS survey, I gathered helpful insights into which proposed shuttle routes and stops would work best for people who live and travel through Milwaukie. I may try to do a similar survey in Oregon City and the Clackamas Industrial Area. Clackamas County will be starting free shuttle services in these areas in July. Sidewalk decals with an embedded SMS survey may help understand whether the currently planned routes and stops are working well for people.
Source: Ray Atkinson
I used CCC’s Interim Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Framework and the below section of the BlackSpace Manifesto to guide my shuttle outreach process. One element of the framework and BlackSpace Manifesto that I have been struggling with is to focus on quality of engagement over quantity. I received more quantity of feedback through an online survey than the SMS survey. However, I received better quality of engagement through the SMS survey than the online survey. I also engaged better with people most impacted by the proposed shuttle service through the SMS survey than the online survey. How much quality engagement is needed in order to feel comfortable with the quantity of engagement?
I will be doing a car-free vacation in the Columbia River Gorge during the last week of June and early July. While I have planned my vacation to be as close to transit stops and bike infrastructure, I am already nervous about the challenges of trying to do a car-free vacation in an area that does not have frequent transit service and fully connected bike infrastructure. As this video shows, Friends of the Columbia Gorge has an exciting Gorge Towns to Trails vision for how to make car-free vacationing easier in the Columbia River Gorge. I plan to share in a future post how this vision is already coming together in some parts of the Columbia River Gorge.
“Cabo San Lucas at Eye Level” is a reference to “The City at Eye Level”. While this book is still helpful, I wanted to share the below video from Create Streets that provides a concise perceptive on the same topic. I am focusing the following post on two approaches I took to walk between my hotel and downtown. Yes, most tourists at my hotel paid for transportation to downtown. I paid for roundtrip transportation between my hotel and downtown once because the Arch and Lovers Beach water taxi provided through a company at my hotel included a nearly 50% discount on a massage at my hotel’s spa. Even though my massage therapist did not speak much English, I still enjoyed the massage. I knew enough Spanish to say thank you, give feedback on how the massage felt, and provide a tip.
Transportation between my hotel and downtown was cheap, so I was not trying to avoid paying for transportation by walking. As a transportation planner, I wanted to experience whether it is feasible to walk from my hotel to downtown. I also wanted to slow down time to take photos and stay in one place to watch people interact with the infrastructure. Being driven was too fast to take photos and observe people on the highway!
While I knew walking along and across highways would be risky, I was surprised by how much more dangerous walking was in Cabo San Lucas and other parts of Los Cabos than anywhere I have walked in the US. As I will show later, I should clarify that walking was much safer in the downtown tourist area. It is unfortunate that the locals have to suffer from dangerous infrastructure while the tourists get the safer infrastructure. The locals have to suffer from the dangerous infrastructure every day while the tourists likely only spend a few hours walking downtown. In case you are curious how I know the elderly person shown in the below photo is a hotel worker, I saw a hotel logo on their shirt and they were walking from the direction of many hotels. I did not speak Spanish well enough to ask whether they work at the hotel shown on their shirt.
Elderly hotel worker walking on highway towards downtown with no sidewalk. Photo: Ray Atkinson
The below intersection was a few feet away from the above photo where the sidewalk ends. Due to the walk signals not working and the lack of beg buttons, I ended up having to jaywalk across this busy intersection. I watched the locals jaywalk to figure out when to safely jaywalk. Even though I hate beg buttons, I would rather have a beg button than try to jaywalk.
Walk signals did not work and there were no beg buttons! Photo: Ray Atkinson
As I mentioned earlier, the walking infrastructure got safer in the downtown tourist area, which was not far from the above dangerous intersection. The below video shows a running signal (the person in the signal runs instead of walks) in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. I did not even have to push a beg button to activate the running signal. The signal automatically started. I barely crossed the highway before the runner stopped running, so I doubt the signal is timed for elderly people and people in a wheelchair. While I am not sure whether Mexico has something similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the ramp on the side I was standing on likely was too steep and narrow to be ADA compliant. Why is the signal only limited to the Hard Rock Cafe?
Beach Route
Due to how dangerous the highway route felt when walking, I avoided the highway route for my next walking trip to downtown. Even after I tried to force Google Maps to provide a beach route to downtown, Google Maps kept forcing me to use roads. Since there were no cars on the beach, I felt safer walking along the beach than on a highway with missing sections of sidewalk and walk signals. Thankfully, I wanted to walk all the way to downtown because there was no public beach access until downtown. I kept looking for public beach access as I walked past continuous walls of private hotels. The hotels had “private property” signs everywhere. Even though I wanted to take a short cut to access a road between the hotels, I could not find any public access so I kept walking until I reach the marina in downtown. I was getting nervous about whether there would be public access from the beach to the marina. This is the only public access to the beach that I saw between my hotel and the marina. The very limited public access to the beach surprised me because I have been getting used to Oregon’s laws that require public access to the beach.
Why does Google Maps not show a walking route along the beach?
In addition to having difficulty finding public access from the beach to the road, I was constantly approached by Mexican vendors on the beach trying to sell cigars, weed, coke (cocaine not the drink), hats, jewelry, activities, etc. The below photo shows one of the worse locations because vendors approaches me from the hotel side and the water taxi side. The water taxi vendor wanted to take me to the Arch and Lovers Beach. Thankfully, the vendors let me through after I replied no, shook my head, or ignored them.
Is the beach a transportation walking route? Photo: Ray Atkinson
Even though no one was using these stairs, which face the marina near the public beach access, the hotel blocked the public from sitting on the stairs. I found it difficult to just find a public place to sit after walking along the beach. While I understand hotel management likely does not want people who are not staying at the hotel to be on their property, the stairs face a public walkway. I believe people need public places to sit when the walkway is public.
Private stairs facing public walkway near public beach access. Photo: Ray Atkinson
Fun Vacation Despite Walking Challenges
I added this section because I do not want readers to think I had a horrible vacation. I realize after reading what I wrote in this section that it appears I tried to show that I had a fun vacation. I definitely enjoyed escaping western Oregon’s rainy and cold winter to a place in Mexico that is consistently sunny and warm during the winter. I was able to go swimming outside and wear sun glasses every day! While the weather was great, I plan to learn from the bad aspects of staying at an all-inclusive hotel for my next vacation. I feel context is important in the bad aspects because I would rather have been in Mexico than doing a staycation like many of my Oregon friends.
Due to the threat of COVID-19, I decided to stay in one all-inclusive hotel the whole time instead of traveling to several cities. While I ate and drank plenty during my first time staying at an all-inclusive hotel, which felt like a cruise ship on land, I quickly got cabin fever or stir crazy because I had a constant urge to leave the hotel to explore Mexico. I am not sure what personalities the people who relaxed by the pools all day have but I got stir crazy after only an hour of laying in or by the pools!
Even though my dad felt it was unsafe to leave the hotel and urged me to stay in my hotel the entire time, I needed to leave daily to maintain my sanity. I got tired of the tourist restaurants in my hotel. I would have preferred experiencing and financially supporting authentic local restaurants instead of the tourist restaurants in the hotel. While I would need to speak Spanish better, I also would have preferred talking more with the locals instead of other tourists. I did not come to Mexico to hear American tourists bash COVID-19 restrictions in their home city and state! Many American tourists booed the hotel staff at midnight on New Year’s Eve when they kept announcing that everyone had to wear a mask and do physical distancing when celebrating the new year. As the below photos from my trips outside the hotel show, I consistently wore a mask and did physical distancing.
While I plan to write a follow-up post after I use on-the-ground engagement for Clackamas County shuttle planning, I am not sure how many more posts I will have time to write until after passing the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Certification Exam. Due to the first round of COVID-19 restrictions, my exam was canceled in May 2020. The second round of COVID-19 restrictions canceled my November 2020 exam. Since the vaccine is being distributed, I am hopeful that my May 2021 exam will happen. Even though I am still struggling to choose the best correct answer, especially when I must think from the perspective of the exam writers and nationally (Oregon has special planning), I have been studying for the exam with few breaks since summer 2019. I am excited to blog more consistently after passing the exam!
I did a bike tour yesterday to support struggling businesses in Downtown Oregon City on Small Business Saturday. While I knew about Oregon’s two-week statewide freeze, which ends this Wednesday (extreme risk restrictions start in my county when freeze restrictions end), it was still tough to experience the restrictions that limit restaurants to delivery and take-out only. I would not have been too concerned if the restrictions were during the summer, which is the dry season. Since the wet season has started and it is also cold outside, it is challenging to not be able to stay in the restaurant to eat. I want to continue bike touring and supporting local restaurants. Do you have any suggestions for how to support struggling small restaurants while bike touring during COVID-19 restrictions?
The below images show the existing and future COVID-19 restrictions in Oregon. Since the Portland region keeps having record-breaking COVID-19 cases and deaths, I doubt the restrictions will end anytime soon. While western Oregon’s wet season is usually tough for me, this wet season could be the toughest yet because of how the restrictions are impacting my ability to relax at small restaurants while bike touring. Comedy helps me get through tough situations, so I wanted to share this video, which is also shown below.
I am back in Oregon City, which is a suburb south of Portland, Oregon. While I plan to write a post about what Oregon City and other suburban cities like Tigard (Oregon) and Bellevue (Washington) are and are not doing to provide pedestrians and cyclists with enough space for physical distancing, I want to write one more post about what I experienced during my 24-day workation. As a refresher, this post shows the walking and biking issues that currently prevent people from being able to do physical distancing.
Minneapolis’ Stay Healthy Streets Initiative
One of the reasons I visited Minneapolis is because I wanted to evaluate how Minneapolis planners approached their Stay Healthy Streets Initiative. Since humans make mistakes and no one could have predicted that a Stay Healthy Streets Initiative was needed in 2020, I valued learning from mistakes made in Minneapolis because this allows me to improve how I do my work. While it is difficult to see the below map (WordPress requires me to pay to install a plugin that would allow me to embed the PDF), my evaluation of the Stay Healthy Streets Initiative is focused on West River Parkway, which Stephan and I biked from Minnehaha Regional Park to Downtown Minneapolis.
Source: City of Minneapolis, MN
Confusing Public Info Signs
The below public information signs were both on West River Parkway. Since we wanted to bike on a parkway, the right sign states “Pedestrians Only” on parkways and the left sign states “Cyclists Single-File on Right” on parkways, I was confused about whether Stephan and I could bike on the parkway. We ended up seeing many people biking on West River Parkway, so we decided to bike on the parkway. I need to ask Minneapolis planners why the parkway uses are shown differently on signs along the same parkway.
Photos by Ray Atkinson
Construction Zone Has No Bike Ramp
Stephan and I encountered a construction zone on West River Parkway, which has a trail along the parkway. According to the left public information sign, Minneapolis planners knew that cyclists would be using the parkway because the trail is not wide enough to provide space for physical distancing. Due to this, I thought Minneapolis planners would have required the construction contractor to install a temporary bike ramp between the parkway and trail. While this temporary bike ramp may seem minor, it shows that planners are thinking about how cyclists will travel through a construction zone. I saw temporary bike ramps when I studied abroad in Denmark and the Netherlands.
Photo by Ray Atkinson
Dock Blocked In Minneapolis
Stephan quickly learned what happens when bikeshare users are dock blocked. While the below photo is a bad example, imagine all of the docks being full so no more bikes can be docked. This is called being dock blocked. Since Stephan and I were dock blocked several times, which resulted in us having to pay extra because we didn’t return our bike within 30 minutes, I doubt Stephan is going to use Nike Ride Minnesota (bikeshare) again anytime soon.
Photo of Nice Ride Minnesota by Ray Atkinson
Portland’s Hybrid Bikeshare Approach
While I have not used Portland Biketown (bikeshare) much because I live and work in Oregon City, I doubt it is possible to get dock blocked because Portland Biketown uses a hybrid approach. Since Stephan and I likely would use the pay-as-you-go plan when Stephan visits Portland (I invited him to visit) and this plan has an extra fee for parking at a public bike rack instead of a station, it is important to note that only the annual membership has no extra fee for parking at a public bike rack.
Source: Portland Biketown
Future Blog Post
As you may remember, I need to study for the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) Certification Exam. While the coronavirus could postpone my exam again, I am scheduled to take it for my second time on November 21. Lindze and Allison, who both live in North Carolina, are also taking the exam in November. Even though we are three hours apart, our first virtual study session is this Sunday. My Portland area study group has not started meeting yet, so I am thankful to have study partners in North Carolina.
Unfortunately, I will have to reduce blogging while I am studying for the exam. While I already have thoughts about how I want to evaluate Oregon City, Tigard, and Bellevue’s approaches to providing or not providing pedestrians and cyclists with enough space for physical distancing, I am not sure when I will have time to publish the post. In case you are wondering why I am focusing on suburban cities in my next post on physical distancing, I am concerned about how much focus many planners have had on large cities and how few suburban cities are providing pedestrians and cyclists with extra space for physical distancing.
I am also excited to partner with Stephan to write blog posts about the perception of a minority group like American active transportation users (the focus on “American” is important because active transportation users are not a minority in every country) not receiving similar attention as minority racial groups during diversity, equity, and inclusion discussions. I should clarify that I support the attention that racism is receiving. The US has many diversity, equity, and inclusion discussions that need to be discussed.
Stephan and I also discussed partnering on a post about the difference between a crash and accident. The reason why this post is important is because many people believe car crashes are accidents. We will explain why this distinction is important. It appears there are plenty of posts to write later this year and in 2021 when I am done with the AICP Certification Exam in November.
I did not expect to write this post when 2020 started. This shows how quickly the coronavirus has impacted our lives. I wish I knew when the new normal would start so I could create some consistency in my life. While I am not sure how many months physical distancing will last, it appears that physical distancing will shape the new normal. Since I have struggled to maintain at least six feet from other people when walking and biking, how can tactical urbanism be used to quickly and cheaply create spaces that allow people to maintain at least six feet from other people when walking and biking?
What is the issue?
Before share how my question could be answered, I want to make sure you understand the issue that I have been experiencing. Spencer Boomhower at Toole Design Group created this video that shows the issue.
Source: Spencer Boomhower at Toole Design Group
While I do not live in Portland, I have experienced similar physical distancing issues when I visit Portland. Portland’s Safe Streets Report shows some of the major challenges that the Safe Streets Initiative is trying to resolve. The below four issues match four numbers on the below photo.
a need for additional space for walking
a need for wider sidewalks
transit stops without space to safely wait for the next bus
a need to reinforce physical distancing guidance to support local businesses
Source: Portland Safe Streets Report
I believe maps are also a great way to show the issue. I found sidewalk width maps for New York City and Washington, DC. I used to live in the DC region, so I am more familiar with the DC map. As the below map shows, many sidewalks in one of the most walkable cities in the US are too narrow for physical distancing.
While I thought about using Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) maps to show whether bike lanes and trails are also too narrow for physical distancing, LTS analysis is not limited to bike lane and trail width so the LTS maps would not have been accurate for showing whether more space is needed for physical distancing. Due to this, I decided to show the below graphic from this International Transport Forum COVID-19 Transport Brief. The red lane on the left shows the pre-coronavirus existing bike lane. The red lane on the right shows how much space is needed to provide people with enough space for physical distancing.
How can tactical urbanism be used to resolve the issue?
While a long-term solution could be widening sidewalks, the coronavirus is killing people today due to the lack of space to physically distance from other people. I believe quick, inexpensive tactical urbanism projects are needed to resolve this emergency issue. As the below graphic shows, Portland’s Safe Streets Initiative shows how tactical urbanism projects can be used to resolve the emergency issue. Hopefully, some of these short-term projects are converted to permanent projects.
Since I have not seen a Safe Streets Initiative in any Oregon suburbs, I hope Portland’s initiative will encourage other cities throughout the Portland region to create safe spaces for people to do physical distancing. I have been advocating for Oregon City, which is where I live and work, to create a Safe Streets Initiative so I can safely do physical distancing when I am walking, biking, and waiting for the bus. I have learned through my advocacy work that people in suburban cities frequently say “we are not Portland” or “we do not want to become Portland”. Due to this, do you know of any suburban cities that have implemented a Safe Streets Initiative?
Future Blog Post
The coronavirus is also impacting my vacation plans. I was hoping to visit South America for the first time on this two-week Colombia trip. Since the coronavirus forced Colombia to lockdown, I have not scheduled my Colombia vacation yet. Due to being furloughed every Friday until the end of July (extended to Labor Day if the laws get extended) because of the economic crisis created by the coronavirus, I actually have no summer vacation planned because I would be ineligible to receive unemployment benefits from the CARES Act and Oregon Work Share if I took a vacation. While I am nervous about doing my first workation, I plan to continue working remotely as I visit family and friends in Colorado, North Carolina, and Minnesota from after work on July 9-August 2. What would you like to see me write about during my workation?
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