I've been meaning to do this... and I know this isn't gonna be a terribly
popular request / announcement... but since it came up here ...
At some point along the way here, it would be way cool if someone, or a
group of people, cycling club, etc... would be willing to tackle the chip
seal issue.... in each county. Each county in Oregon and Washington needs
representation and challenge from their local cycling community. The
ultimate goal of which, would be to try and persaude your County
Commissioners and Public Works departments to back down on their chip seal
policies. A first step, would be to find out your counties chip seal plan
(find out if they plan on chipping all their roads eventually, and, find out
what rock size they'r going to use), and to get a 2000 schedule, and a 2001
schedule.
I know it seems like a gnarley task, but.... we're getting info here in Lane
County, that all other counties are going to do the same thing Lane County
is; Chip seal every single county road (not just the "remote" ones that
used to get chipped once in a while), and, switch from small chip to 3/8" or
in some cases, even 1/2". In essence, they're going from gravel... to
rocks. Why? Ask yourself... when is the last time you saw a logging truck
on a ride?? Remember years ago, how it used to be a popular topic of
conversation on a road ride.... "damn log trucks...". Well, now that
Oregonians and Washintonians as a whole, succeeded in reducing the logging
industry, it's the cycling community that's going to take it on the chin.
Soon there will be no more money coming in from logging. In Lane County,
we'll be de-coupling from the logging revenue system completely in 2002. It
isn't just roads. Everything county supported will suffer. There's a huge
storm coming, but the public doesn't know about yet, because no politician
wants to be the one to announce it... and then say they're going to have to
raise taxes to offset it. (My own personal - side soap box comment, is that
they're doing the public a huge dis-service by not coming out and dealing
with this now. They knew about it years ago). It will likely take years
for the full damage to hit, and then years longer to dig out of it.
Even if very little headway can be made due to the shortage of logging
dollars, at the very least, we want our elected officials and Public Works
departments, in all counties of our states, to know that making these policy
changes is not "ok", and that it's effecting a large group of roadway users
quite adversely. Think of it this way... We're some of the first ones to
know about this, and have a rare opportunity to make a play now. In a
couple of years, can you imagine the survival / throat cutting / titanic
life raft situation that's going to happen?
A mini-update from Lane County; GEARS, the largest cycling club in LC, and
who had already "joined the fight" earlier this year, has agreed to take the
leadership role in working with the county to try and reverse their chip
policies. Most recently, we met with the Lane County Roads Advisory
Committee (RAC) to present our case. The RAC is a 9 member committee,
consisting of local citizens mostly (some engineers), Public works
officials, and one LC Commissioner. Their job is to make recommendations to
the LC board on how to best spend the road budget. They are also charged
with taking public comment. Our presentation went well, but it is clear
that there is isn't much support, at this point, from the RAC. They did,
however, authorize a Bicycle sub-committee to give us a way to have more in
depth meetings, and some real one on one dialog with them and Public Works.
Currently, we're in a holding pattern, while we develop a list of most
commonly used cycling roads, and, the RAC sub comm will be doing an on site
road tour next week, both of last year's botched roads, and this year's
newly chipped roads. We're all due to meet in October. If we can make any
headway, this time frame would allow Public Works enough time to make
adjustments to next year's schedule. We are asking for a reduction in rock
size from 3/8", down to 1/4", and we are asking for them to "preserve" 150
miles of roadway from ever being chip sealed (keep it paved).
So... here's my pitch; If any person, or group of people, is interested in
persuing this issue in their own county, I can forward you all the
information that we've learned thus far. I'm araid I'm pretty much maxed
out for effort, in trying to fight the Lane County battle, so, I wouldn't be
able to give you much time to fight other county battles. I do have
information, and I would be happy to give advice. Any headway, that any
group can make in their county, will go a long way to help the statewide
cycling community, and promote cycling in general.
Go cycling!
- Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Barila, Phil [mailto:phil.b-@intel.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2000 10:19 AM
To: 'OBRA'
Subject: [OBRA Chat] FW: Iowa Hill Rd- road work under way.
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Bummer.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2000 10:09 AM
Subject: Iowa Hill Rd- road work under way.
FYI.
To my disappointment Sunday I discovered Washington county is applying
chip-seal (a type of gravel and tar overlay) to Iowa Hill road. We
approached the climb up the west side route (Forest Hill golf course and
Unger Rd? ) but found chip seal just before we hit the crest. We met a rider
making his way up the east side who confirmed the road work began at River
Rd.
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