Highway Trust Fund On Track To Run Dry In 2+ Years

Well this isn't the news I was hoping to hear; the money that the federal government uses to pay its share of transportation projects will run out in little more than two years, congressional forecasters say.
In a report to U.S. House members, the Congressional Budget Office said, “The current trajectory of the Highway Trust Fund is unsustainable.” So how to keep the Highway Trust Fund in the black? The report included a couple options, but none are very likely to happen.

Here are the details, from Stateline.

WSDOT Work For Next Week

US 2/395-Division Street-Browne Street & Ruby Street/I-90 to Euclid- Depending on weather, beginning on Sunday, May 5, from about 6:30 p.m. to as late as 6:00 a.m., drivers should be alert for lane restrictions in this corridor near the grinding and paving operations, with possible slow traffic and congestion. Crews will be doing pavement repair and crack-sealing at multiple locations.
I-90/Latah Creek to Havana-Illumination Maintenance- On Sunday, April 28, from about 4 a.m. to as late as 8 a.m., be alert for eastbound and/or westbound intermittent lane restrictions on Interstate 90. Crews will be doing maintenance on light poles.
SR 291/Lowell Rd. to Nine Mile- On Monday, April 28, from about 9 a.m. to as late as 3 p.m., expect single lane, alternating traffic directed by flaggers with some delays for survey work.

White Van Measuring Spokane Valley Road Conditions

If you live in Spokane Valley, you may have noticed a white van with the letters "IMS" travelling slowly through your neighborhood. Well, it's not the ice cream man and it's not a washed up motivational speaker looking for a place to park his van down by the river.

IMS a company working under contract with the City of Spokane Valley to assess the condition of the city's roadways.


The vehicle, which is equipped with cameras and lasers (lasers! cool!), is collecting data from about 167 miles of the city's 438 miles of roadways, looking for signs of deterioration and distress in the road surface to help analyze and rate the condition of the roads.

The data collected becomes part of the City's Pavement Management Program. Updated biannually, the PMP serves as a planning tool to determine which roadways are in need of attention, what types of maintenance are required to help prolong the life of the road surface, and maximize the community's investment in its roadways.

Road Closed For Toads

I'm not sure how I missed this gem last week but apparently I did.

About this time every year outside of Philadelphia, hundreds of toads migrate across a road to reach a pond. That road is pretty busy though, so a group of toad activists has worked with the city to get the road closed every day during times of "toadlet migration hours" which is apparently between 7-9 p.m. for some reason.

Some of the toads are even getting a ride across the street in buckets. Here's the story from Transportation Issues Daily.

There's Good News and There's Bad News About Countdown Signals

Spokane only started installing them a few years ago, and now a new study from the University of Toronto says pedestrian countdown timers might increase crashes!

The study showed that at at various intersections throughout Toronto over a four-year period, countdown signals resulted in a five-percent increase in crashes versus intersections without the special signals.

There is some good news though; the crashes were between cars, not cars and pedestrians for the most part, and at the most dangerous intersections the signals actually reduced crashes.

Here's more from Where the Sidewalk Starts.

Editorial Calls Proposed Fee Too Permissive

An editorial in the Spokesman-Review yesterday calls for stiffer fees for using snow tires than the proposed $15 fee included in the Senate transportation budget passed last Friday.


45% of the money raised from that fee would go toward maintenance and repair of state roads. But the article says that's not enough. The City of Spokane alone estimats its annual stud-related repair costs are almost $5 million, which would come nowhere close to being covered by a $15 fee.
So what does the Editorial Board propose? Find out here.

City Council Passes Resolution To Keep Air Traffic Control At Felts Field

Spokane City Council member Amber Waldref last night sponsored a resolution in favor of keeping the Felts Field air traffic control tower operations going, despite impending Federal sequestration cuts that would shut it down. The Council approved the resolution 6-0 as there is agreement that air traffic control at Felts is critical for safe operations, for defense and life safety, and other flight activities vital to our regional economy.

 

Today, Councilmembers will take the resolution to Washington, DC to speak to legislators there about it. This will happen as part of the annual delegation organized by Greater Spokane, Inc. that travels to D.C. to visit with federal legislators to advocate on behalf of Spokane issues.

New Study Says Text To Voice NOT Safer Than Typing Texts While Driving

Think you're being safe because you're using the voice-to-text option on your phone when behind the wheel? Guess what- new stats say dictating your texts is no safer than typing them out while driving.
A new study conducted by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute is based on the performance of 43 research participants driving an actual vehicle on a closed course. Drivers first navigated the course without any use of cell phones. Each driver then traveled the course three more times performing a series of texting exercises – once using each of two voice-to-text applications and once texting manually. Researchers measured the time it took each driver to complete the tasks and how long it took for the drivers to respond to a light which came on at random intervals during the exercises.
Here are the results, from the Texas A&M website.

Seasonal Weight Restrictions Lifted On County Roads

Spokane County’s Engineering and Roads Department announced has lifted seasonal weight restrictions on county roads, effective immediately. During the annual cycle of freezing overnight temperatures, followed by warmer days and precipitation, roadway surfaces and the structures beneath the surface become weakened. As a result, roads are vulnerable to damage and weight restrictions reduces the need for increased road maintenance and auto repairs later.


Seasonal road restrictions usually go into effect in late February and last approximately six weeks, depending on weather.

Roadside Cleanup Yields Dozens Of CDs

Each year I take part in a cleanup day for my community where we divide up the area roads and head out with garbage bags and gloves to clean them up. I've been doing this for about 13 years now.

In that time, I've found that the types of trash I pick up from the roadside seems to go in trends. One year I found dozens of baggies of smoked cigarette butts. Another year there were empty whipped cream cans (the kind that projectile sprays out of the can) everywhere. One time I picked up probably a hundred of the little airline bottles of alcohol. All empty of course. And someone had an affinity for Red Dog beer one year in the early 2000s.

This year I found CDs. What, CDs? Yep, and I'm not sure why but I picked up dozens of them. Most of them like the one in the picture, recordable, not store bought. Who's "Her Majesty" anyway? I wanted to listen to it to find out but somehow misplaced the disc before I got back to my car to try it. And why was it on the roadside, along with a lot of others? Are CDs so outdated now that people just dispose of them by winging them out the window? Who knows but there were too many spread along about a two mile stretch, on both sides of the road, to be just one person's collection.

So, have you found anything good lately alongside the road?

Bike/Pedestrian Funding In Proposed Transportation Funding Package Increases

A proposed state transportation revenue package was proposed early this year that was divisive on several fronts. Some people felt it didn't go far enough to to meet the needs of kids walking to school, seniors trying to maintain their transportation independence, and bicycle users. A bike tax was also included in the package, which angered many bicyclists, who say they already pay taxes that help with road maintenance and construction, as most own vehicles in addition to bikes. 

A few months later and a new proposal is now on the table, which includes $100 million for Complete Streets grants, $15 million for trail projects, and it no longer includes the additional fee on the sale of new bikes. Also, a proposed amendment would provide an additional $250 million for bike/walk projects: an immediate $100 million for projects around the state, another $100 million over the life of the proposal for additional projects as they’re identified, and $50 million for Safe Routes to School.

While the Bicycle Alliance of Washington says this isn't a dream package by any stretch of the imagination, they acknowledge it is a move in the right direction and the group supports the package. If you agree and support this proposal, the Alliance is asking you to take a small action. Here's what they would like you to do.

I90 To Close At Snoqualmie Pass Four Nights This Week

More rock blasting is planned next week on Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass, which will close the pass for an hour, so consider this if making plans to head to the west side of the state.
The Washington State Department of Transportation and crews plan to close I-90 both directions from 7 to 8 p.m., tonight through Thursday, April 25, from Gold Creek to the Price Creek Sno-Park. This work is weather dependent and subject to change.

Spokane Bike Swap Even Bigger & Better This Year!

Just got some early numbers from last weekend's second annual Spokane Bike Swap and it looks like they had a great turnout!

• Over 2,000 people attended
• Sold over 450 bikes in the bike corral. Bike corral sales were up over 250% from last year. Last year, the bike corral broke even and this year made $6,700!
•  A multitude of bikes were donated and portions of proceeds from customers bike sales donated for a total of $2,258!

Organizers are expecting to write a check to the Friends of the Centennial Trail for around $20,000, which is doubled from last year!

Transportation Technical Committee Meeting Next Wednesday

Next Wednesday is the monthly meeting of the Transportation Technical Committee. And this will be a barn burner because yours truly has two items on the agenda; Draft Public Involvement Policy and TIP Self Certification Form. It's going to be a real party so feel free to attend. I'd ask you bring your big foam finger to applaud my presentation if you come though, my evaluation is coming up and I need a little leverage with the boss.

There are a couple other items on the agenda too I guess you might want to know about. Here's the packet if you want to check it out, although I think we all know what the real main attraction will be. So be there if you can.

Don't Wait In Line At the DMV, Reserve Your Space In line- Online!

Sign me up for this one! Have I ever mentioned just HOW bad my drivers license photo is? (You're supposed to say, "How bad is it?" here). It's really bad. Because I had my 'angry face' on when the picture was taken. Why? Because I'd just waited THREE HOURS to renew my license. The wait was excessively long due to there only being two people working that day and other customers with some extremely complicated questions or situations.

To avoid these kinds of waits, New York's Department of Motor Vehicles is rolling out a new customer service initiative that will let you reserve a place in line- from home! And it does a bunch of other stuff too but I haven't gotten past that part yet, so here's where you can see what other services the new kinder, gentler NY DMV will offer.

Two Centennial Trail Projects Need Your Input

The group Friends of the Centennial Trail is asking for your input on two projects for the trail:

Spokane Public Facilities District Community Day

Thursday, April 18, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Spokane Convention Center, 2nd floor.

Drop in and view the 3 finalists design plans for the Convention Center expansion project. Let us know which project you feel best preserves and enhances our Centennial Trail with your email to friends@spokanecentennialtrail.org by Noon, Friday, 4/19.

Mission Gap Second Public Meeting
Wednesday, April 24, 6:30 to 8 p.m., Northeast Community Center Assembly Room, 4001 N. Cook St.

View the updated design concepts, based on feedback from the first public meeting held in January, and ask questions of the stakeholders involved.

State Senate Passes Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill At Last Minute

The Washington State Senate passed the Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill (HB 1045) 45-2, just in the nick of time last night! Spokane's Sen. Andy Billig (D-3) led the effort for a special order of business to bring the bill to the floor for a vote.

It will save cities and towns money and cut red tape when they choose to set speed limits at 20 miles an hour on residential and business non-arterial streets; an estimated savings of $1,000-$5,000 for each traffic study requirement eliminated.

And it increases government efficiency. Here's how, from the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.

New "Bicycle Friendly" Universities Announced

When I was on the Gonzaga University campus not too long ago, I noticed there were a lot more students riding bikes, and a lot more bikes in the bike racks outside classrooms, than when I went to college many years ago.

Well, apparently that's a trend. Many colleges are making their campuses more bike friendly and starting bicycling programs to accomodate college students who either can't afford cars, or just don't want or need them for college life. Plus they're encouraging people to ride to class to save on the need for parking facilities and expenses.
In fact, the League of American Bicyclists recently announced the designation of 14 new "Bicycle Friendly Universities," expanding the program to 58 colleges in 30 states across America. Harvard is one of the new "inductees," as is the University of California, Berkley and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The rest can be found here.

Can I Try? Please?

I have no words to describe this so I'm just going to go directly to the video. Enjoy.

KHQ Right Now - News and Weather for Spokane and North Idaho

House Transportation Budget Has $ For Spokane, But Not Everyone Happy With It

House Democrats yesterday passed a two-year, $8.4 billion transportation spending plan for the state, described by Transportation Committee Chairwoman Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island) as "not having a lot of frills."


The bill contains $79 million for projects in Spokane County, about $68 million of which will go toward the North Spokane Corridor, nearly $4 million for the State Route 290/Trent Avenue Bridge over the Spokane River and $1.3 million for the U.S. 195/Cheney-Spokane Road intersection.

While some feel it is a decent bill for Western Washington, there is a lot of indecision over it in general.
The Spokesman-Review tells us what issues are being debated.