A chip off the old fiasco

The Seattle Department of Transportation's motto (when did they get that?) is "A vibrant Seattle through transportation excellence." NO, REALLY! I'M NOT MAKING THAT UP! Stop laughing, it's mean.

The latest bit of excellence recently took place in Carkeek, Broadview and Maple Leaf: street chip sealing, scheduled for the second week of July. Chip sealing is an innocuous-sounding process for extending the life of pavement; tar is sprayed on the existing asphalt, then rock chips are layered-on. It's like Oily Roca.

I know about this because Greenwood streets underwent Chip Seal Hell 5-6 years ago, turning neighborhoods into combat zones for months. Here's how SDOT is describing the process today:

The maintenance work will involve the application of emulsified asphalt followed by rock chips on the surface of the street...
Within several days after the street is sealed, our mechanical sweepers will sweep the street to remove any excess rock.
...
DRIVE SLOWLY (no faster than 10 mph) on the new surface for several days. This will prevent loosening the aggregate in the newly resealed street.
Bicyclists and motorcyclists should use extra caution due to loose rock.
Source

OK, this is where I pull out the red card: in Greenwood we never saw any mechanical sweepers. For a couple of weeks we would occasionally see a pickup truck with guys with brooms who would sweep up some of the rock. But no one actually changed their driving habits, resulting in rock being dislodged on an ongoing basis, for about a year. Loose rock piled up, especially at intersections. We never saw the guys with brooms again.

Oh, and telling bicyclists and motorcyclists to use "caution" is a massive understatement. SDOT should really tell you "stay off the streets unless you want your tires and drive trains covered with sticky rocks" (and remember, in this part of Greenwood there are no sidewalks to ride on). And the aforementioned piles of loose rock continued to present hazards for at least two years. It was like my street was both paved and unpaved at the same time.

From their blythe description of it, it doesn't sound like SDOT learned anything from the Greenwood chip seal operation. If you live in Carkeek, Broadview or Maple Leaf, I'd like to hear from you how it's going on your streets.

Quick question for SDOT

Quick question for the Seattle Department of Transportation, as well as the Pedestrian Master Plan Advisory Committee: How do you expect to implement any plan effectively, if the City's answer to the sidewalk-repair part of the equation is You Pay For It?

Sidewalks? They're your problem
By Elizabeth Rhodes; and Diana Wurn
Seattle Times business reporter; Special to The Seattle Times

Sidewalks: Lots of people love having them. Others just wish they had them.

And most don't think about who takes care of them.

In Seattle, that will change this month when homeowners with a sidewalk damaged enough to be a tripping hazard find an informational flier attached to their door telling them it's their responsibility — not the city's — to repair it.

Depending on the severity of the problem, that could set them back thousands of dollars.

More

Imagine the uproar if the City were to suddenly announce you are responsible for repairing the street in front of your house -- the funding inequity between streets and sidewalks is clear.

Let's do it!

This guy took good notes on yesterday's Randi Rhodes Show:

Would you like to see Harriet Miers, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove being led to jail by the Capitol Hill Police and the House’s Sargeant at Arms? Would Friday be good for you?

Two Words: INHERENT CONTEMPT

Inherent Contempt is a little used, little known tool that the House or Senate can use. It requries only a majority…which we should easily have in the House. Under the inherent contempt power, the individual is brought before the House or Senate by the Sergeant-at-Arms, tried at the bar of the body, and can be IMPRISONED... More

Start dialing.

Feet v. Drivers

Today's Traffic Unsafety Award winner is the 30-something white guy in the silver Mercury SUV, who yesterday (July 11 at 4:40 pm) turned right onto Western Avenue from Madison Street and declined to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. Georgia license #G13 0794, this middle finger is for you!

". . . Client."

Hey all you Marc Maron Seditionistas: click here to listen to Iris Bahr as "Svetlana," on WNYC's Studio 360 (July 6).

Bicycle Safety

I'm always on the lookout for new safety technology for my bicycle. It's the one area where I am more likely to shell out a few extra bucks as far as cycling gadgetry goes. Shave a few ounces off with some new clipless pedal? Um, no. But $44 for a durable, bright LED road flare? Yes, please.

I read about the the new device, intended to replace polluting, chemical emergency flares, in the Seattle P-I in May. Made by the PowerFlare company, it's a hockey puck-sized thing containing an array of LEDs, encased in a rubber cage. There's a video on the Powerflare site of one of them surviving being run over by a fire truck.

So what the heck, I ordered one. It arrived a few days later, and I zip-tied it to the inside-left of my Tubus rear rack. I used it on the glum, showery afternoon last week, and it performed well. Of course, the real test will be the first evening we go back to Standard Time (aka Seattle Night Time).

What's really great is the variety of modes, here's a video of two of them:



Powerflares come in CR123 lithium and rechargeable (if you by a six pack of them) versions.

Question for the Prez

Sir:

Regarding your commutation of Scooter's sentence-- if 30 months is excessive, what would you consider not excessive?

Because, let me tell ya that zero is right out as far as I'm concerned. So how about we split the difference?

Fifteen months it is!

Sincerely,
David S. Gow, MPA

Time Out

Today I'll just pass along this photo sent by friends leading a tour in France: storks feeding their chicks in a rooftop nest in Strasbourg.

Alain Lemennicier