Eliot Neighborhood Association
Land Use Committee
Minutes for July 11th, 2016
We had a nice walking meeting and discussed the Rodney stop sign issue.
We saw 2 wrecked cars at Monroe and Rodney which have reportedly been there for over a month.
There was a discussion of how the stop signs at Monroe and Morris where they intersect Rodney could be swapped. Clint mentioned how this would make sense to reduce the number of stops for bikes on the 2 routes from 2 in the area to 1. However Allan was very concerned with this issue due to the fact that he lives on Morris street and does not want to move the location of the wrecks to his block. There was a general agreement that some other sort of diversion or speed reduction would be needed on Morris street if this were going to be done.
Allan was asking folks if they thought that the status quo was better than if we simply made the Monroe/Rodney stop sign face east & west noting that the crashes were only happening at this intersection — no one seemed to think that we should turn it. Allan mentioned that he was quite tempted to drop this issue rather than have his street face the burden of having North/South facing stop signs.
Clint & Phil mentioned how the long stretch from Ivy to Russell was much longer than from Williams to Vancouver, while Allan wouldn’t let go of the fact that there are more things to slow cars down on Rodney between the speed bumps and intersections that cause folks to slow down for potentially crossing traffic. Montse mentioned how we could propose adding a diverter at Morris/MLK and Allan mentioned that one at Morris and Rodney could also work, but it seemed like there was not a consensus of how either of those would work.
Allan mentioned about how Morris street east of Rodney is noticeably above the city’s standards for a greenway: < 1000 cars/day and <100 cars/hr at peak.
Several neighbors came by to weigh in but none had any definite answers. Folks generally mentioned that speed bumps should be closer to the intersections, where speeding is most dangerous.
Eliot Neighborhood 
I live on Monroe just a few doors down from Williams. People come flying through here as they cross Williams. The majority of them are just cutting through to MLK. Flipping the stop signs is probably a good idea. Even better would be a few speed bumps.
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After this meeting, I spent the past 2 days going back & fourth with Rich Newlands (project manager) and another PBOT employee (engineer Scott Batson).
I Move that the Eliot LUTC write a letter in support of turning the stop signs at Rodney/Morris and Rodney/Monroe in conjunction with an additional speed bump east of Rodney on Morris Street.
Here’s the details of my conversations:
Scott, the Engineer, had these notes:
a) I confirmed that the bumps on Morris from Williams to MLK were constructed to the 25-mph standard, though the stop sign at Rodney is also probably acting like a middle speed bump. I reviewed the data I have regarding NE Morris, Williams to MLK.
b) PBOT has yet to figure out the best solution for where two greenways cross.
The proposal they have is very much in line with our discussions on Monday night (Thank you Phil, Montse, and Clint for attending).
There are 2 options. The one that I like more is much more expensive and we don’t have a funding source for it, but I am listing it because I think it is worthy of mentioning. Both options would turn the stop signs @ Rodney/Morris St & Rodney/Monroe
cheap & Rich committed that he would pay for it:
A) Least cost, is to turn the stops at Morris/Rodney and Monroe/Rodney (~$600) and infill a single standard speed bump between the current two bumps ($2,000), for a total of 3 bumps, or
This new speed bump – almost exactly between the 2 on Morris street — this would put it just east of the intersection but not ‘at’ the intersection due to their desire to not put in ADA curb cuts for cost reasons.
more expensive & possibly better:
Turn the stops at Morris/Rodney & Monroe/Rodney (~$600) and construct two closely spaced raised crosswalks as depicted in the picture below (<$6,000). The caveat with this is that the intersection would need to be investigated to make sure raised crossings could be constructed easily. Rich said this was a no-go due to their policy that if they 'touch' an intersection they need to make it ADA compliant which means rebuilding all 4 corners.
I have some concerns that there might still be additional crashes at the Morris/Rodney intersection, but I think with the additional speed bump I am willing to live with this as a compromise.
I still think that the volume of traffic on Morris St is too high for a neighborhood greenway and should get attention, but that is a topic for another day when another funding source is available — I'll call it the 'neighborhood greenway defense fund'.
Thank you all for helping me see the light and compromise on this issue.
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