It gets kind of scary at times.

Bump outs maybe?

I got a response back from the City, and this from local resident, Scott, who is working on this issue...

Monday, Nov. 23, 2009 12:09pm email from Scott Rider to George Ivan Smith

Note: Scott was going to present this at the ANA meeting Monday night but wisely stayed home with a cold, and sent this for me to share.
If you have thoughts about traffic in the neighborhood, please share them with me. I’m planning an article in the next newsletter. Thanks.
George
Scott Rider:
My philosophy is that the ANA should support initiatives like traffic calming provided it is in the budget. I am interested in finding other members of our community who will help brainstorm further on the idea for a more complete and formal proposal at the next meeting.

I gave a report to the group in October on traffic calming in Alameda. The City of Portland has an official traffic slowing program that is divided into two sub-groups. The first is funded privately by neighbors like you and I who want to effect change on their specific street, and the second is similar, but is funded by the City. The privately funded program is "on hold" indefinitely due to budget cutbacks. While it seems ironic (or it did to me) that homeowners like myself, who are perfectly willing to finance a project are unable to, in large part due to the fact that there isn't any staff employed at the city any longer who coordinate this.

The City funded program goes through several steps. First is to request a study of each particular street or segment of street of concern. The city would then install monitoring devices for 2-3 days that count the volume and speed of traffic. The scheduling for these studies is about a month out, and is subject to any studies of the similar area that have been done recently. A month or so after the traffic study is completed, you can request to receive the resulting data. The City reviews this data and prioritizes (or discards) the request for traffic calming based on severity/need, funding, and other undisclosed factors. Without giving a specific number for the City's budget for the program, it was implied that they are somewhat limited and it is a competitive process to get lights/signs/bumps/rounders installed.

I have gone through all of the above over the last 2 months and have yet to receive the data from my study and have no perspective on whether or not we'll get a traffic calming device installed.

I am in the process of drafting a proposal for submission to the ANA for a neighborhood wide traffic calming initiative that is much broader in scope, using print media, tv, signs, etc. The general concept is that if you and I are concerned about speeds in our neighborhood, so are many others and we need to slow cars down on ALL streets (not just mine) and can do that by raising the awareness of the issue through multiple media....

Here's an rough outline or sketch of the idea:
• Create a competition for local high schools/universities to design a traffic calming slogan for Alameda $1500 purse something along the lines of "20mph in my 'hood" or similar
• Use competition idea to create yard (temporary "election year type) signs - several different designs/colors - one for every yard in Alameda
• Press release to local media outlet to leverage traffic calming slogan competition and signage for exposureTV coverage on sign installation day
• Front page article in January Alameda newspaper, website, Facebook article

Obviously this lacks a lot of detail and probably needs more 'fleshing out", not to mention how it will be financed. My wife and I are considering challenging the ANA to a matching program, where we'll match every dollar that the ANA pledges to this project up to $2500. This would go towards funding the competition and purchase of the signs. If we ran the campaign for a month in Jan/Feb, we could then pull the signs and store them for another campaign in later spring.

I welcome your participation and comments/improvements on the idea outlined above. Additionally, if you know anyone else in our neighborhood who might offer valuable assistance (owner of sign company, tv reporter, etc) feel free to forward this email or refer me.

Scott A Rider

recent accident along this stretch.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/portland_man_arraigned_on_mans.html

Portland man arraigned on manslaughter, drunk driving charges
By Aimee Green, The Oregonian
December 28, 2009, 11:44AM
View full sizeMultnomah County SheriffDumasA Northeast Portland man was arraigned this morning on accusations that he was driving drunk when he struck another driver, who died several weeks later.

Quandrell Jaray Dumas, 23, was charged with first-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, hit-and-run driving and driving under the influence of intoxicants, among other charges, stemming from the Oct. 18 crash. Jared E. Sletager, 29, of Seattle, was critically injured. He died less than a month later.

Portland police said Sletager was driving a Volkswagen Vanagon south on Northeast 33rd Avenue near Shaver Street around 1:20 a.m. when the Lincoln Continental Dumas was driving ran a stop sign. Dumas' car crashed into Sletager's van, then hit the porch of a nearby home. Police said Dumas ran, leaving his car behind.

Dumas has a rocky driving history. He has been cited more than half a dozen times for driving without a license, without insurance or while suspended in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

-- Aimee Green

Speeding is a huge problem on 33rd and it is horrible on Shaver as well. I live on 36th and Shaver and just today a car in rush hour traffic saw me crossing the street to my house (a block away from a stop sign) and sped up just to scare me. There are many toddlers living on this street and I seen commuters fly through here at 35 mph even with a speed display board right in front of them. There are so many bikes and pedestrians trying to get to the park and sometimes cars won't even stop for the daycare kids trying to cross the street. I have put up a 'drive slowly' sign but it hasn't helped. I have looked into assistance and there is no money/help in the traffic calming program. What is there to do?

I think getting the BWNA and Alameda N'hood Councils involved would help. bwna.org and Alameda is also easy to get in touch with.

Trying to interest the City in adopting this system.

speed bumps seem like they would be super helpful. they're on all similar strees such as 20th, 15th, etc.

Speed humps or a lessened speed limit are still needed along this stretch of the road.

Traffic flow through there is far too high for them to even consider speed bumps. Do you have any idea how much that would slow traffic on such a busy street? A road that goes all the way from Columbia to Sandy before it changes course is not going to have a speed bump in sight. People would be up in arms over that one. I know plenty of people are already getting ready to contest the God-awful humps they just put in on Alameda and that has 1/10th the traffic of 33rd, if that.

fdsa

issue reopened

This stretch of road just keeps getting faster and faster, traffic-wise. I'd recommend speed bumps as they exist in other similar parts of the city.

Yeah, Speed bumps still needed, please.