The public hearing on the Olympia Engineering Standards went very well.  Thanks to Jody, Blaine, and Jerry Parker (a former Club officer from 1993) for showing up and giving the process some legitimacy.

This was a long haul for me.  Four years ago, when I was Government Affairs Officer, we asked the City to update it's street design standards.   Our goals were improved bicycle and pedestrian safety.   The specific elements we sought were:

1)  Narrower car lanes, so people drive slower.  The 10' lanes on Eastside, Puget, Division, and part of Henderson south of North Street are examples.

2)  No curb-gutter section next to bike lanes, so that the seam where the asphalt meets the concrete does not deteriorate over time.

3)  A standard marking for the bicycle "hot spot" on the traffic signal loops (there is ONE of these on Legion at Plum, eastbound). 

4)  Improved pedestrian crossing elements:  tighter curb radius, better curb ramp design, mandatory bulbouts on downtown streets where there is on-street parking.

I'm pleased to report that we got all of it in the amendments.  The City Council skipped a step on Tuesday and approved the first reading of the ordinance to adopt the standards.  Normally they wait at least a week after the public hearing, but there were no proposed amendments, so they went ahead and accelerated it.  That means that the new standards will apply sooner.  

Sometimes this stuff takes forever.   Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.  Or something like that.  

The slides from my 3-minute presentation are below.