r/Eugene • u/AnotherQueer • Feb 28 '24
It's kinda impressive how many projects the city is doing this year jiggly
https://www.eugene-or.gov/2558/Current-Projects
I know we like to complain on reddit about how slow cities move, but it is pretty cool to see how much is getting worked on this year. It's about as much as Portland is working on and they are almost 4x our size.
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Feb 28 '24
[deleted]
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u/Houseofducks224 Feb 28 '24
I strongly disagree. I've witnessed someone getting hit in the whiteaker, maybe 2014 or 15. I believe that crossings need to make noise and the train needs to whistle.
The worker who drives the train should blow the whistle as much as they want. It's about preventing deaths. (And also not accidentally killing someone) that's probably the worst thing you can have happen while working.
-someone who lives 2 blocks from the tracks.
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Feb 28 '24
I don't really understand how someone would accidently get hit by a moving train. All the crossings have gates that come down, the trains are plenty loud without horns, and they don't go very fast through downtown, right?
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u/Houseofducks224 Feb 28 '24
Yet people still die, and lots of them all over the country.
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Feb 28 '24
How many are suicide vs accidental? And of the accidents, how many are in low speed zones like in downtown Eugene?
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u/Houseofducks224 Feb 29 '24
Non suicide train accidents via tresspassing in 2022? Nearly 2 every day, 651 in total. If you add suicide, it goes up.
It's a bigger issue than you might realize.
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Feb 29 '24
Well, the question is whether any of those are comparable to the situation in downtown Eugene. I.e. were they unaware of an oncoming train and would a horn blast have saved them? In my experience, a moving train is already very loud. How many of those were people hopping trains, which my understanding is very dangerous.
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u/AnotherQueer Feb 28 '24
Hopefully with the new fences and gates they are building there will be less tresspassers. And trains can still use their horns in quiet zones! They just don’t don’t have to at every intersection if not needed.
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u/Houseofducks224 Feb 28 '24
I like the safety improvements but I'm very pro whistle.
I do feel like this was driven by an anti whistle crowd.
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u/pirawalla22 Feb 28 '24
Can you blame the anti whistle crowd for being an anti whistle crowd? It's practically impossible for most people to understand how a whistle is going to be the thing that prevents someone from being hit by a train.
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u/Houseofducks224 Feb 28 '24
Consider it from the driver's (workers) perspective. What tools do they have to try and prevent accidents or suicides? They have a whistle, a big ass light, and brakes. The last thing they want is an accident. They should feel empowered to use all of their tools.
Killing someone accidentally is traumatizing. If i was driving and had an accident, id keep that whistle blowing, and go extra slow, college hill residents be damned. (BTW, I hold deep respect and admiration for Larry, the lawyer guy who did a bunch of the leg work on the quiet zones.)
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u/pirawalla22 Feb 28 '24
The quiet zone doesn't mean operators are forbidden from using a whistle. If they see or suspect an obstacle they can still blow/honk/press it. They will just no longer be legally obligated to blow it for a certain amount of time every time they get to a crossing. The quiet zone won't eliminate the noise, it will just cut it down by a huge margin.
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u/SeattleCovfefe Feb 28 '24
I'm sure the driver will still whistle if they see something on the tracks that appears it could be a person or animal. They just won't have to whistle preemptively at every crossing once the work is done.
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u/Flybot76 Feb 28 '24
Yeah and I'm seeing your comments are derived from your personal traumatic experience that you apparently never dealt with, and instead you're inventing conspiracy theories about "an anti whistle crowd" as though it's some arbitrary group who just randomly hates whistles but that is obviously not the case, so let's not get too silly and simplistic about the subject. One death in ten years is not a compelling statistic that counters the necessity of sleep for the thousands of people who live near the tracks.
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u/Houseofducks224 Feb 28 '24
I mean according to this website: https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/railroad-deaths-and-injuries/
There were 651 train accident deaths in 2022 related to tresspassing. That's just under two every day. That number does not include suicides.
So sure, minimize the issue to one death in 10 years. I hope you sleep good.
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Feb 28 '24
[deleted]
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u/Houseofducks224 Feb 29 '24
There is a lot of real-estate in downtown between the crossings that is well traveled by tresspassers. Its well within whistle range of a crossing.
Those accidents wouldn't be "at a crossing."
Can you clarify your position?
Right now it appears to me to be, "whistle bad, deaths irrelevant." Which feels cold to me. Could you help me understand?
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u/EUGsk8rBoi42p Feb 28 '24
Train horns are romantic! https://www.youtube.com/live/xfM70Y7Tbvs?si=K5hVY4xj_fajODPA
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u/StuckInAWelll Mar 02 '24
Train horns at crossings are a safety thing. If you dont like hearing you ahouldnt have chosen to live that close to the tracks.
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u/Peter_Panarchy Mar 01 '24
They're building a bunch of expensive ass apartments on the riverfront right next to the railroad and suddenly they're moving to eliminate train horns.
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u/SeaAbbreviations2706 Mar 01 '24
It’s not sudden, they’ve been working on it for ten years. And yes, the developers building those apartments knew the city was working on this.
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u/hugglenuts Feb 28 '24
Would love to see some emphasis placed on parking and expansion of the gates at the airport. The city has outgrown it currently.
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u/WALLOFKRON Feb 28 '24 edited Feb 29 '24
What about some type of dedicated airport public transportation to and from the airport
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u/Ipfreely541 Feb 29 '24
Great timing with LTD banning luggage. Not that they even serve the one airport we have.
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u/xihua222 Feb 28 '24
I’ve never seen that gate on the first floor of the airport be used. Has anyone?
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u/Marlopupperfield Feb 28 '24
Funny, that’s the one I fly from a majority of the time. Usually early morning Alaska flights.
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u/hugglenuts Mar 11 '24
They used to use it a ton when they had those Alaska turbo props running back and forth from Portland and Seattle.
It's been a couple years since they had those but I think all the Alaska flights are still out of there.
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u/EUGsk8rBoi42p Feb 28 '24
There was a lot of testimony on the franklin project, it was really good to hear the speakers. Everyone should listen to these. Public speaking starts about 22:00 https://www.youtube.com/live/xfM70Y7Tbvs?si=K5hVY4xj_fajODPA
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u/AnotherQueer Feb 28 '24
I’m confused why they are talking about franklin at yesterday’s meeting. The time for public comment is over, 95% of the responses were positive about the changes, so the city went ahead. https://www.eugene-or.gov/DocumentCenter/View/70890/2023-Franklin-Blvd-Engagement-Summary I really hope the city council just smiles and nods at this attempt to go over the heads of the democratic process.
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u/EUGsk8rBoi42p Feb 28 '24
Maybe listen to what the people say, this *IS* the Democratic process, inthe Athenian sense.
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u/AnotherQueer Feb 29 '24
A few old wealthy landowners who have the free time to to show up to a unrelated city council meeting having authority over the 95% of people surveyed who already approved of the project? That does sound like athenian democracy.
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u/EUGsk8rBoi42p Feb 29 '24
Everyone who spoke seemed to have a coordinated concern, that speaks volumes. The "surveys" are slanted and designed to lean towards a predetermined goal, inherently they exist to steamroll over public concerns. This just seems like an elaborate ploy to corner Market of Choice and Hirxons into a forced land sale to benefit corporate luxury student housing developers, all while abusing the City planning process and eminent domain.
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u/AnotherQueer Feb 29 '24
So the primary issue is having to turn left onto Villard instead of Orchard to enter the Market of Choice parking lot? How does that one block change destroy the entire business of Market of Choice and require them to sell to corporate luxury student housing developers? The parking lot can still be accessed, people will just have to drive one more block and turn at the roundabout instead (which will likely be faster then the current long left turn times).
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u/RightingTheShip Feb 29 '24
The only thing I want is a third lane on the Beltline from Santa Clara to Delta.
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u/DudeLoveBaby Feb 29 '24
Just one more lane bro please bro one more lane'll fix it I promise
I think it's the dementedly short distance between exits that really blows everything up there.
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u/maplesaptap Mar 03 '24
Does anyone know when the dog park in Washington Jefferson park will be open?
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u/AffectionateBag245 Feb 28 '24
Maybe they should be doing less all at once so that they can finish. Getting around EUG is a bear right now, and has been for quite a while.
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u/Free_Opposite_4472 Feb 28 '24
People always complain when things happen slowly, it will be good to see if the city can handle this
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u/Alkioth Feb 28 '24
I’ve lived several other places and Eugene is super easy to get around, even with the construction. Is it mildly inconvenient? Yes.
Will I-35 ever be finished? No.
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u/IPAtoday Feb 28 '24
Disagree entirely. Multiple projects eff every thing up and they take forever. Designate the highest priority and throw everything at it. Then the job gets done likkety-split and you move to the next highest on the list. Do that all the way down the line and things get done quickly with minimal disruption.
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u/duck7001 Feb 28 '24
That would be vastly more expensive due to overtime costs.
Also, after each step of construction, there are inspections and surveying done, which would mean crews are sitting on their hands while those are completed. Why wait when could have moved on to getting things done on other projects?
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u/A4ron541 Feb 28 '24
Spoken like a true keyboard speculator. Definitely never worked a day in construction
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u/Biggus-Duckus Feb 28 '24
That would be expensive as hell. Commodities usually increases in price and that sort of thinking would lead to runaway spending. I've been building in this town for decades and believe me when I tell you that throwing bodies at a job doesn't mean it is going to get done faster and certainly not more efficiently or mistake free. Also projects work in phases with multiple crews of different trades involved when their time comes. Finish carpenters, drywallers, roofers, etc... need to be scheduled when appropriate, not trying to help the concrete crew set up the foundation.
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Feb 29 '24
[deleted]
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u/IPAtoday Feb 29 '24
Too much of a hippy dippy Hooray for Everything crowd in Eugene. No wonder the city is circling the drain.
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u/EUGsk8rBoi42p Feb 28 '24
For sure. This city loves wasteful graft and inefficiency.
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u/AnotherQueer Feb 28 '24
Which of the projects mentioned is wasteful grift? Is it the railroad quite zone that will help build residential around downtown? Or repaving the pothole-ridden 8th street?
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u/EUGsk8rBoi42p Feb 28 '24
It's the inefficiency of using the same crews for different jobs simultaneously which creates waste. As above poster stated.
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u/hoffsta Feb 28 '24
Counterpoint: it’s not always feasible for projects of this size to just “bang it out” all in one quick go. There are often schedules with various contractors, suppliers, and inspectors that necessitate spreading things out. Sometimes it is way more efficient to have the employees working on multiple projects at once. Since we don’t know these details it’s a little premature to declare the method “wasteful.”
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u/PNWthrowaway1592 Feb 28 '24
What's your experience with public works construction?
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u/etherbunnies The mum of /r/eugene...also a dude. Feb 28 '24
I design infrastructure materials. Very few things are done the way they're done without logic and reason behind them. Stupid, outdated reasons occasionally, but nowhere near as much as that guy's fantasies.
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u/SuperFamousComedian Feb 28 '24
Agree entirely! I love change, and seeing money spent on updating public spaces is so effing cool.