120th Street and West Maple Expansion

13 Jun

The City of Omaha held a public meeting presenting the current plan for improving 120th St from Stonegate, south of W Maple, to Roanoke, almost to Fort St. Besides providing four through lanes on 120th north of West Maple, additional right of way will be purchased to provide double left turn lanes onto West Maple. Crosswalks will also be extended across West Maple on both sides of 120th.

In addition, the Big Papio Trail will run parallel to 120th on the east side from north of Old Maple to the Big Papillion Creek where it will go under the bridge and into Tranquility Park. See figure 4A and following starting on page 23 in the 120th Draft Environmental Assessment pdf at https://sites.google.com/a/cityofomaha.org/opw-50949—120th-street-stonegate-to-fort/draft-environmental-assessment-dea

I raised the question, “Where is the plan to connect the trail from 120th and W Maple to the end of the trail in Hefflinger Park?” I was directed to Dennis Bryers in Omaha Parks. I emailed Dennis about the connection plan and he wrote the following:

Thanks for the e-mail.  We are planning to extend the Big Papio Trail north from Hefflinger Park sometime between Public Work’s two projects on N. 120th Street and West Maple Road.  Project will consist of rebuilding the section of the trail in Hefflinger Park, construction/installation of a new pedestrian bridge across the side creek and extending the trail to connect to the section that Public Works is building as part of the N. 120th & West Maple Road work.

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Five Questions for . . . Daniel Lawse

12 Jun

As Verdis’ Group’s Chief Century Thinker (CCT), “Daniel brings a passion to cultivate adaptive and resilient solutions for communities and organizations to thrive now and for generations to come.” Daniel is one of the organizers of the the Midtown on the Move initiative and he will be our guest at the upcoming monthly Coffee Chat, June 16th.

He serves on the Board of Directors for the Metro Transit Authority, the Advisory Board for the University of Nebraska’s Center for Urban Sustainability, and Creighton University’s Energy Technology Program Board. He is part of Omaha by Design Environmental Element Implementation Team. In 2012, Daniel was recognized with MAPA‘s Regional Citizenship Award and is one of the Omaha Jaycees’ 2010 Ten Outstanding Young Omahans. He was recently recognized nationally as an Aspen Environment Forum Scholar.

We asked him five questions:

What is your preferred mode of transportation?

  1. Multi-modal. I primarily walk and bus. If I have time, walking is my favorite because I get to interact with the place I am in. Take in the architecture, notice the natural spaces and urban wildlife, and greet other people.

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Mode Shift Year in Review 2016-2017

21 May

Omaha Gives! is happening this Wednesday, May 24, 2017. We are very grateful for your support and hope you will continue to include Mode Shift in your Omaha Gives giving this year. Please schedule or make a gift here.

We’ve done quite a lot this past year to advocate for safer and more efficient transportation options for everyone in the Omaha area. Here are some highlights in our three areas of focus:

Monitoring

Created by: Chris Behr

As part of our Transparency Project, Mode Shift studied the City of Omaha’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for over a year. The report of our findings are included in a series of blog posts. We found that:

  • The CIP data are incomplete, the content is out of date, and the totals don’t add up;
  • Master plans are ignored and the project ranking process specified in the City Charter is not followed; and
  • There is little to no opportunity for citizens to provide input on the process.

We’ve also filed a Freedom of Information request to obtain data missing from the CIP. We’ll use this information to work toward getting the City to create a transparent, understandable, and accurate CIP.

Photo credit: Cindy Tefft

We also initiated our Safe Crossings Project this past year. Volunteers tested a data collection tool last spring (see the results here), spent the winter refining it, and hope to collect data again this summer or fall. Thanks to work by one of our members, Cindy Tefft, and others, some improvements to the 72 & Dodge intersection were made—but issues at this intersection and others still continue and we’ll be working to get them addressed.

Influencing

Over the winter, we created a program to bring attention to the need for better snow removal from sidewalks, including creating snow removal cards and information sheets you can print and share with neighbors and businesses. Continue reading →

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