| FINAL Rt 9 Survey |

This final survey will provide the Route 9 Active Transportation Corridor planning team vital input regarding your thoughts and opinions about design features considered at specific locations.

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The Jogging Jeweler #40

| Irvington's Old Croton Aqueduct Entrance Upgrade |

Earlier this summer Irvington began work on Main Street through an upgrade of the the Old Croton Aqueduct as it passes through town and past a monument located in front of Main Street School. The OCA once ended at the end of the school's tree-lined parking lot forcing pedestrians and cyclists the pass through the parking lot crossing Main St to continue on their OCA journey. 

 

It looks nice...

• Parking lot is more orderly and bright.
• The sidewalk is nicely paved with bricks.
• Two crosswalks crossing the school's entrance and exit driveways have been repaved with a faux brick patterned as well as repainted.
• A crosswalk from a newly planted grassy path, that one assumes is the new entrance to the OCA was also added.

So what?

•  Paint - The crosswalk crossing Main Street that pedestrians, school children, and cyclist should be using has yet to receive the same beautification. 
• Signage - The OCA does not yet have signs or posts, like those found on Mercy's campus, directing users the appropriate direction. It also seems they have yet to install the yellow diamonds alerting drivers along Main Street of frequent use of the crosswalk in front of this newly re-furbished area. 
• Blind spot - The Main St crosswalk, when used from the retail side of the street, has a massive blind spot caused by parking at the crosswalk's edge. Had a vehicle been parked in the handicap spot, marked by the blue lines on the road, a pedestrian is forced to step off the curb and into oncoming traffic to see. That first parking spot needs to back up and let the crosswalk and its pedestrians breath and be seen. 

The Jogging Jeweler certainly hopes the work for this area is not yet complete and they are awaiting the arrival of paint and signs for pedestrians and the OCA. 

UPDATED - 9/25/17

Did some research. According to the Main Street Streetscape plan (found here - see page 47 specifically) which is dated 9/12/2014 it does appear:

1. a second Main Street crosswalk was (is?) planned on.
2. The existing Main Street crosswalk, as well as this 2nd crosswalk are to match the brick patterned ones in the school's parking lot. 
3. A painted pathway through the South parking lot to mark the OCA's continued path.
4. In the text on page 47 it is recommeneded that signage pointing out pedestrian and cyclist usage as well as linkage to other villages via the OCA would better serve this community gathering space.

The search for a more recent plans as well as contacting local officials are my next steps. 

What can you do?

Do you live in Irvington? Want to help?

• Write an email to the BOT. 
• Talk to your Village Admin. 
• Reach out to the committee in charge of this project. 
• Reach out to your local Safe Routes program leaders. 

Remember when using a crosswalk as a pedestrian or driver - #STOPLOOKWAVE

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The Jogging Jeweler

|Rivertowns Enterprise Article|

Two weeks ago The Jogging Jeweler graced the pages of the local Rivertowns paper - The Rivertowns Enterprise. 

This article discussed one of the latest initiatives from the Dobbs Ferry Chamber of Commerce, a non-for-profit organization that began in August of 2015 and has grown intoa group of nearly 80 members. Becoming the President in May of 2016, I began with addressing the echoing issues from our members - parking, traffic, & safety. 

What is The Fast Five?

The Fast Five are five items of low hanging fruit that the Chamber narrowed down in various meetings with members and other local community groups. Our overall goal was to pick items that were easy for the Village to target in terms of budget, time, and visibility (meaning residents and visitors alike would see the improvements.)

Feedback on Fast 5

Overall the feedback has remained positive on the Fast Five. There have been 3-4 complaints regarding the test period for extending the meters - that is, complaints without sound reasoning as to why it is not a good idea. The test period is suggested for 6-8 months in the hopes that we can at least capture two different seasons. This test period does not have to be 7 days/week, it could just be Thurs, Fri, & Sat. It's an effort towards making the parking we have more efficient. Maybe it'll improve parking for local businesses - maybe it won't, but if we don't start trying there will be no data regarding the efficiency of our parking spaces. 

What Happens Next?

The Chamber is currently waiting to hear back from the BOT. The BOT has asked the traffic commission to review our list of suggestions. Hopefully, a presentation from the Chamber regarding the Fast Five will be on an upcoming agenda. 

THANK YOUs

A HUGE hug of appreciation for all those that participated in making this effort come to fruition. It took months, endless meetings, lots of editing, and ultimately led me to start this blog. Even if 3 of 5 are addressed it is a win and progress!

#stoplookwave & #route9

Look for these hashtags used in social media posts. Feel free to use #route9  on posts, pictures, or comments about Route 9. And steal #stoplookwave for posts, pictures, or comments that will help raise the awareness of sharing responsibility as pedestrians and as drivers at our crosswalks. We all need to STOP, LOOK, & WAVE before crossing, it will provide acknowledgement of being seen and show gratitude. 

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The Jogging Jeweler

| Rt 9 Public Meeting Details |

Sidenote: HAPPY GLOBAL RUNNING DAY! :-)

I'll be out this afternoon celebrating Running Day.

PS - I love the honks, waves, and cheers, it makes pushing my faithful sidekick (who weighs 45lbs these days) much easier! Just stay safe!!

The more important news...

Nelson Nygaard, transportation engineers, will attend the Route 9 meetings on June 15th & 17th. They will present a brief introduction to the project and then provide an open and informal setting for the sharing of ideas. They plan to staff four stations for attendees to provide input, ideas, comments, and suggestions. There will also be choices that people can make to articulate their preferences. These stations will have an illustration board to post notes and stickers. 

What can we do?

• Come prepared - Bring notes on problems & solutions.
• Participate - This is your opportunity to provide input on a state road! Carpe diem!
• Be Open - Expect different experiences, perspectives, and knowledge - there could be many solutions or combinations that solve a problem.
• Ask Questions - Bring your thinking caps, engage with people from other villages, and ask them questions. 

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Frequent Comments to The Jogging Jeweler

• Did you hear another pedestrian got hit?
• I made comments to the village about Broadway but the replied it's a state road.
• OMG - Broadway is AWFUL!
• I don't let my kids walk around Dobbs, unless they can get there on the OCA. 

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The Jogging Jeweler has complied a list (by village/town) for residents to consider in their own research, problem solving, and to raise awareness among more members of our community. Within each list I will provide the blog numbers that photographic or video footage can be found demonstrating the problems.

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Save the Date:

   Thursday, June 15
   7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
   Hastings Community Center
   44 Main Street, Hastings on Hudson, NY 10706

   Saturday, June 17
   1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
   Warner Library
   121 North Broadway, Tarrytown, NY 10591

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The Jogging Jeweler

|The Old Croton Aqueduct Usage - Part 3.2 |

Welcome back for the second part of analyzing the results from the OCA Survey. The remaining two questions to be reviewed are...

How far do you travel on the OCA?

Takeaways...

• 2-3 miles - 80 votes
• 3 - 5 miles - 72 Votes
• 1 mile - 51 Votes
• 5 - 7 miles - 33 Votes 
• Adding up the higher mileage groups (2-7 miles) we have 185 users or 82.5% of users on the OCA for at least a one mile stretch - meaning a majority of users are traveling at least one direction for a mile and turning around.

What answers outside of those provide on the survey does this give us about the OCA?

• Using Dobbs Ferry, a central location for the Rivertowns, one mile on the OCA heading North gets you through Mercy College campus and just over the Irvington border. One mile South on the OCA from Dobbs Ferry, gets you into Hastings.
• Most likely users are on the OCA in more than one village - crossing multiple streets without crosswalks. 

 

Why do you use the Old Croton Aqueduct?

Takeaways....

This question "broke" about half through the survey, and had to be reset. Whomp! Whomp! The answers to this question are based off of 104 users. Do not despair, we have the recent tally to compare to the survey results. 

• In this question users were allowed to select multiple answers as the OCA provides many different types of users - we had 104 users, and 191 answers. 
• Walkers - 76 Answers
• Running - 46 Answers
• Dog Walking - 27 Answers
• Bicycling - 25 Answers
• School - 12 Answers
• Work - 5 Answers

Tally Vs. Survey

• Walkers dominate both the tally and survey. 
• The survey results skewed lower for students as they most likely are not on the Facebook groups this survey was posted in - limiting their ability to provide answers. 
• Dog Walkers in both the Survey and Tally, are similar, 12% and 14%, respectively.
• The Work group in the tally does not show as based on visuals it is difficult to know if someone is walking to and/or from work, unless they were to be specifically asked like in the survey. 
• Runners & Bicycles both nearly doubled in the survey versus the tally. 

What does this tell us? And how do we improve the OCA for any and all groups?

 

1. Walking users are the OCA largest subset - Perhaps installing OCA entrance signs throughout the villages and/or village guides to indicate locations of attractions & needs.
2. Dog walkers - Wonder if they are the subset that pushes higher on the frequency of use? Maybe adding trash cans so avoid dropped bags of pooh.
3. Athletes - Runners/Bicycles - This tally likely changes with the weather - snow, ice, rain and mud likely create fair weather users in these subsets. Leveling out entrances where terrain meets road so there is no broken pavement or curbs to push bicycles and strollers over.
4. Students - Based on the tally results, students are nearly 1/3 of all users - most likely during the school year and at times directly before/after school. Can we get some crosswalks for these kids?

Last time I checked - when you love something, you treat it nicely. Perhaps its time we ask that the OCA is shown some proper love?

 

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