Tag: streets

More Parking “Fun” at UND

If you want to see some of the suggestions by staff about parking on campus, look no further! Head to the Staff Senate suggestion box and click “By Topic,” “Facilities,” and then “Parking & Transportation.”

Screenshot of a web page showing where you should click.

I’d like to suggest some more about promoting walking, cycling, and transit, but I doubt these ideas will be taken seriously unless I show up to the next open forum.

Edited to add an email with more information about the upcoming parking process:

Open forums will be held March 25 and April 15 to seek input from students, faculty and staff regarding UND Parking and Transportation planning and possible changes. All are welcome.

  • Monday, March 25, 9:30-10:30 a.m., Memorial Union Lecture Bowl
  • Monday, April 15, 3-4 p.m., Memorial Union Lecture Bowl

Following is some background information about the proposed changes. Please note that final decisions on parking and transportation have not yet been made. More information will be provided when it is available.

Why are parking and transportation changes being considered?

UND Parking must become self-supporting within the next five years, and will no longer receive state funds beginning in 2024. All costs and expenses related to parking must be covered through permit sales and parking fees.

Currently, parking is partially subsidized from other sources, and that support will no longer be available. Parking permits and fees must provide enough revenue to operate, maintain, and develop parking lots and spaces. One goal of the new model is dedicate funds for parking lot maintenance and construction.

How is the parking policy being developed?

Members of the Parking Committee have been meeting regularly to develop a new plan for parking. The forums will gather input from students, faculty and staff. Parking recommendations will be finalized in May and sent to Vice President for Finance & Operations Jed Shivers for review. After review, the new parking structure will begin operating Aug. 1.

What changes are being considered?

One of the unique challenges faced by Parking Services is that nearly everyone uses parking. And as much as we would like to, not everyone can park at the front door.

Parking revolves around three factors: cost, convenience and supply. Everyone would like parking to be convenient, inexpensive and sufficient, but that’s not possible. If parking is inexpensive and convenient, it will not be sufficient. If there is sufficient and inexpensive parking, it will not be convenient. And if there is sufficient and convenient parking, it will be expensive.

Parking fees will likely be raised to cover parking costs. Instead of zones, parking may be “tiered,” or have different costs according to location. And parking spaces may be shared. For example, 100 people can generally share 60 to 80 spaces, since not everyone is on campus at the same time. Parking fees may differ by location and use.

Shuttle bus services may offer additional routes to transport people from more distant lots. Those lots will have lower parking rates. Shuttle bus services may also be adjusted.

When will the changes take place?

No final decision has been made. If the recommendations are approved, they will go into effect on Aug. 1.

Hack Grand Forks – 311

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and finally took a few evenings to do it. I built a Mastodon bot that toots each Grand Forks 311 request: https://botsin.space/@hackgfk_311. It also crossposts at https://twitter.com/hackgfk_311.

The code can be found at https://github.com/mattbk/hack-grand-forks. Yes, I built it in R.

Mastodon toots from @hackgfk_311@botsin.space.

Why “hack”? In the sense that this is information that should be more available to people, and I’m making it more available without going to a separate location. Perhaps something good can come of it.

Counterpoint API (quick notes)

Looks like first you would grab the counterpoint ID from here: https://counterpointapp.herokuapp.com/api/v1/counterpoints
EERC is counterpoint_id 606. Could select by bounding box (lat/long) too. This includes a list of counts (just labeled “id”) but no actual counts, so you could do time/date collection stat comparisons from there as well.
Then you can pull up actual counts from https://counterpointapp.herokuapp.com/api/v1/counterpoints/606 where the counterpoint_id is named at the end. This gives you a list of counts, including data.
It looks like minutes start/end on the second that the count was started, so aggregation by minute (not second) should be used.
It looks like minutes without data are excluded, e.g. no 12:51:52 minute is included here (EERC 606):
{"id":281510,"count_session_id":18223,"timestamp":"2016-06-21T12:51:56.000Z","bike_generic":0,"bike_adult":0,"bike_child":0,"bike_baby":0,"bike_cargo":0,"bike_child_trailer":0,"walk_generic":0,"walk_adult":0,"walk_child":0,"walk_stroller":0,"walk_disability":0,"walk_skateboard":0,"walk_visually_impaired":0,"walk_physically_impaired":0,"vehicle_personal":2,"vehicle_car":0,"vehicle_semi":0,"vehicle_moto":0,"vehicle_transit":0,"vehicle_oversized":0,"objectId":null,"gender_m":0,"gender_f":0,"gender_o":0,"onePerson":0,"twoPerson":0,"threePerson":0,"fourPlusPerson":0},{"id":281511,"count_session_id":18223,"timestamp":"2016-06-21T12:53:56.000Z","bike_generic":0,"bike_adult":0,"bike_child":0,"bike_baby":0,"bike_cargo":0,"bike_child_trailer":0,"walk_generic":0,"walk_adult":0,"walk_child":0,"walk_stroller":0,"walk_disability":0,"walk_skateboard":0,"walk_visually_impaired":0,"walk_physically_impaired":0,"vehicle_personal":5,"vehicle_car":0,"vehicle_semi":0,"vehicle_moto":0,"vehicle_transit":0,"vehicle_oversized":0,"objectId":null,"gender_m":0,"gender_f":0,"gender_o":0,"onePerson":0,"twoPerson":0,"threePerson":0,"fourPlusPerson":0}

Imported Posts

I have just imported my posts from the Grand Forks Streets blog to this one.  They have not been cleaned up, but the content is here and I will be shutting down the Blogspot version.  I no longer have time to devote to a specific streets-relaetd blog, but I plan to open a Twitter account to curate this type of content for the Grand Forks, ND area.

Imported posts are labeled as “Anonymous” but I will be changing that over time.  I wrote them all unless otherwise indicated in the post itself.

Quick Thoughts

  1. The intersection of the north-end bike path (north of Gateway) with 1) North Washington Street and 2) Mill Road are especially bad.
  2. There is no official way to cross the English Coulee on the north side of Gateway, but there is a desire line, which can even be seen in the satellite photo.
  3. Crossing 42nd Street is hard, too.
  4. It would be sweet if there were a pedestrian connection across 42nd St from 11th Ave S to the Alerus Center.

Columbia Road to be Widened

According to the Grand Forks Herald, Columbia Road will be widened to six lanes after a vote last week by the city council.

In another Herald article, we’ve heard city council member Tyrone Grandstrand suggest a six-lane option is overkill based on traffic patterns from the last ten years:

‘Grandstrand said the city should pursue projects that support mixed business and residential development and planning that supports public transportation rather than expect traffic levels to keep going up on business corridors.
“We’re going to have less traffic on Columbia and everywhere else,” he said.’

[Added 2012-04-09]
Grandstrand posted details of the traffic study in the Herald comments section:

I voted against 6 lanes but along with everyone else in Grand Forks I believe Columbia needed fixing a long time ago.  Columbia road traffic decreased by over 20% from 2000 to 2010. Along with traffic generally in Grand Forks, so people didn’t just pick a different road to drive on.  4 lanes, with intersection upgrades and some use of technology would have been just as effective and 1.1 million dollars cheaper. 

[end add]

The proposal presented to the city council can be found here (.pptx) and describes two phases of widening to occur: the first from DeMers Avenue to 11th Avenue South in 2013, the second from 11th Avenue South to 14th Avenue South in 2014.  The presentation contains a brief description of the current non-motorized facilities along this stretch of Columbia Road, which include a sidewalk to the east and a wider shared-use path to the west.

No official discussion has been heard yet of on-street bicycle lanes as part of this project.  There are four shared-use/driveway/street intersections between the Columbia Road/DeMers Avenue overpass and 14th street south, a distance of about half a mile.

 

First Post [GFK Streets]

Hello World! More updates to come.

Please post a comment if you are interested in contributing.  For the record, I’m hoping this can be a space for all stakeholders in safe, efficient streets in Grand Forks, so as long as you live here and have a thoughtful opinion, it doesn’t matter whether you identify as a pedestrian, cyclist, driver, something else, or any combination thereof.

If you are looking for a copy of any of the articles referenced, you can drop a comment with your email address and we can get that to you as well.  Some of the local media drops behind a paywall rather quickly.