December 21, 2007

Project monitoring

One of the things that struck me at the High Point Connector ribbon cutting ceremony was how little visibility the project had. I only knew about it from a chance conversation with David Kappler a number of years ago when he mentioned finding a route for the trail. The next hint I had that something was going on was when the construction started on the easternmost portion of the trail where it comes into the ELST. I never heard about any design reviews or other public involvement.

So one of the ongoing projects I envision for GAIT is to highlight any projects that will impact active transportation from their inception through design to implementation.

Being a computer geek, my fantasy was that this would just involve visiting the city web site once in a while to see if there are any updates. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be that easy. For example, here’s a page about the proposed I-90 undercrossing by the post office. It suggests that construction would happen in 2007. Since they haven’t done any work at all yet I suspect the page is at least a couple years out of date.

Looks like I need to pay a visit to city hall.

December 11, 2007

Trash containment

One of the things that can strike you as you start moving around our town under your own power is how much trash ends up on the ground around here. And once you start noticing the trash you then see that one of the reasons it’s so prevalent is that there aren’t a whole lot of trash cans around.

Bus stops are an especially obvious place where trash collects. There’s a stop on 220th Ave SE near the court house where someone put up a sign saying “no littering”, but since there’s nowhere to put your drink cup or food wrapper, it hasn’t made any difference.

At the 554 stop by the library parking garage on Sunset Way, though, someone concerned with the trash took a different approach to the problem:

Trash bags tied to the parking garage

The bags are always full and there’s hardly anything on the ground. Amazing what happens when you just give people an alternative.

Metro actually has a program that allows people to adopt a bus stop. Metro will install a trash can and provide the adopter with liners so that they can empty it periodically. I’m going to adopt that courthouse stop in the name of GAIT.

Pics from the connector opening

Here’s Councilman David Kappler who found the route:

David Kappler

The city staff who did a lot of the work:

Issaquah city staff

Some of the first walkers and cyclists preparing to cross Front Street:

Walkers on High Point connector

Not shown are representatives from the many and varied organizations who supported the trail.