ODOT has announced more than $8 million in projects to improve safety on the Albany-Corvallis Highway, mostly on the Corvallis end. But the hazards at the junction of Highway 20 with Independence Highway remain unaddressed and unresolved.
“We ought to do something about Highway 20.” I’ve heard words to that effect for more than 30 years. But nothing significant has been done.
“Sharrow” sets the spellchecker abuzz because it’s not in most dictionaries. It’s a contraction that describes a pavement marking, kind of an “arrow” or chevron, that calls on motorists to “share” the road with bicyclists. Today’s question is whether sharrows should be painted on Albany’s Ellsworth and Lyon streets and on the Ellsworth Street bridge.
The latest from the local transportation beat, where I seem to be stuck lately: North Albany drivers like the dual left-turn lanes from Spring Hill Drive on to Highway 20, but ODOT does not, and so the lanes will probably have to go. That’s the gist of a memo that has gone to the Albany City Council ahead […]
Please check the update concerning the south bypass and Highway 34 at the bottom of this story. Things have been heating up on the traffic beat. On Monday and Tuesday motorists got stuck in, and complained about, heavy congestion between Corvallis and Albany, apparently brought on by construction work on the south bypass of Highway 34. And […]
When it meets in Ontario later this month, the Oregon Transportation Commission is set to allocate $2 million toward the construction of a bike trail between Corvallis and Albany. Two crashes elsewhere in Oregon, one of which killed a cyclist, illustrate why this is a sound idea.
Hwy. 20: Your chance to speak up
Roughly 10,000 drivers a day drive Highway 20 between Albany and Corvallis and back again, and most of them could recite all its hazards. But the state is sponsoring a safety study anyway. The question is whether anything will be done when this study is complete.
Tags: DKS Associates, Highway 20, ODOT safety study