HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-14-18 PTS Minutes1 Bozeman (Area) Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee
2 Minutes of the February 14th, 2018 Meeting
3 Upstairs Conference Room Alfred Stiff Office Building
4
5 Attendance:
6
7 Voting Committee Members:
8 Ralph Zimmer (Gallatin County), Chair
9 Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman), Vice Chair
10 Mandee Arnold (City of Bozeman), Secretary
11 Dillon Fatouros (Bozeman School District)
12 Tom Foster (Gallatin County)
13 Marilee Brown (At-large-Member)
14 Absent: Vance Ruff (Bozeman School District), Tony Gaddo (At-large Member)
15
16 Official Non-Voting Committee Members:
17 John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department)
18 Absent: Bill Brownell, Road & Bridge Supervisor (County), Todd Swinehart (School District)
19
20 City Commissioners, County Commissioners, and School Board Members
21 Terry Cunningham (City Commissioner
22 Absent: (County Commissioner), (School District Trustees),
23
24 Law Enforcement Liaison Officers
25 Travis Munter (Bozeman Police Department)
26 Absent: (Sheriff Department)
27
28 Frequent Attendees and Guests (City, County, Bozeman School District, and Montana
29 Department of Transportation Staff):
30 Dan Center (Gallatin Valley Land Trust)
31 Linda DuPriest (bike/ped consultant for Bozeman Department of Public Works)
32 Carolyn Poissant (Bozeman Department of Public Works)
33
34 Citizens and Other Guests:
35 Marty Matson (Bozeman Community Development Director)
36 Eric Szemes
37
38
39 Quorum: Present.
40
41 1. Call to Order, Introductions and New Business.
42 Ralph Zimmer, PTS Committee Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:00 PM and
43 introductions of attendees were made.
44
45 2. Agenda.
46 Ralph offered the opportunity to provide comments on the agenda. None were made.
47
48 3. Public Comment.
49 Eric Szemes 622 North Grand Ave, is concerned about the streets not getting the plowing
50 attention that is needed. Mr. Szemes commented the handicap access on the streets have been
51 getting blocked with snow- Mr. Szemes has been asking the city to clear the corners. The
52 amount of snow piled up along the streets have blocked access for the public especially
53 handicap access. Eric hopes this committee can speak to the budget committee.
54
55 4. Minutes.
56
December 13th
57 minutes. Marilee moved approval and Tom Foster seconded. Line 30
58 correction: Linda DuPriest (Public Works Contractor). Minutes approved with correction.
59
Minutes of January 10th:
60 Marilee moved approval and Tom Foster second. Minutes approved.
61
62 5. Report on Results of Previous Actions & Consideration of Follow-Up Action.
63
64 a. The City Commission has made progress on perfecting the City’s proposed
65 Strategic Plan. Commissioner Terry Cunningham made a motion at the Commission
66 meeting in an effort to insert wording recommended by our committee. His motion failed
67 but other changes mitigated the failure of that motion Ralph expressed appreciation to
68 Terry for his efforts.
69
70 When the Commission resumes work on the Strategic Plan it will finalize Vision
71 Statement 7. After that, the revised draft document will be posted and the public will have
72 about 30 days to review it after which the Commission will make any final revisions and
73 then adopt it. Terry will send an email to clarify-
74
75 b I90 speed limit in the Belgrade/Bozeman area. This group recommended to the
76 Montana Department of Transportation that the speed limit should be lowered to 65 MPH
77 in the Belgrade/Bozeman area. Ralph talked verbally with MDT District Administrator
78 Jeff Ebert and he asked the committee’s letter to MDT be sent to him directly. Ebert
79 replied in mid January..
80
81 Because of an engineering and traffic study in September of 2016- MDT recommended
82 the 75 MPH speed limit be retained (rather than going up to 80 MPH as authorized by the
83 2015 State Legislature). MDT solicited comments from Bozeman, Belgrade, and county.
84 Only the County responded and they concurred with MDT’s recommendation that the 75
85 MPH speed limit be retained. Therefore the 75 MPH speed limit was retained. MDT says
86 it will not reconsider the speed limit for at least two years unless circumstances change.
87
88 Marilee has done extensive research regarding the I-90 speed limit. Both crashes and
89 volumes have gone up significantly. Marilee discovered that the State Transportation
90 Commission has the option of establishing a “termporary reduced speed limit” and that
91 appears to be the quickest and easiest way of getting the speed limit reduced. Marilee has
92 written a report summarizing relevant data and the option of a temporary reduced speed
93 limit. She would be happy to send a copy of the report if desired. The State
Transportation Commission will be meeting February 15th
94 in Helena and that is a great
95 opportunity to show up at open comments and speak briefly regarding the reduced speed
96 limit
97
98 Marilee moved the chairperson aggressively advocate for this group regarding reducing
99 the I-90 speed limit. Mandee Arnold seconded the motion. It passed unanimously.
100
101 The September 22, 2016 MDT engineering and traffic study used 2014 traffic volumes.
102 MDT’s own traffic volume data shows those numbers went up by almost 50 percent by
103 2016 and obviously have gone up even more since then.
104
105
c. Tom Foster referred to our January 10th
106 discussion about the stadium plans at the
107 current high school and the pick up drop off plans to the high school campus. He
expressed some concerns about Beal and 15th being o
108 n an aggressive timeline. Time is of the
109 essence. At Monday’s commission meeting there were some outstanding issues. This
110 committee still has concerns regarding the plan. Linda commented we could email our
111 questions to Shawn with public works. Terry commented the school district submits their
112 plans. Most comments were related to public safety- informal site plan review. Tom
113 Foster asked where the public finds the documents/plans. Terry is going to find out what
114 the next step is.. Dillon plans to connect with Todd regarding safety issues regarding Beal
and 15th
115 .
116
117 6. City Commission, County Commission, and School Board Member Reports
118 None
119
120 7. Liaison Officer Reports.
121 Travis mentioned weekly police update- incorporating an education piece as a way to engage
122 the community. Look on the Facebook page for weekly police update along with the social
123 media.
124
125 They continue to respond to crashes with many crashes this year-
126
127 8. Reports from Non-Voting Official Committee Members.
128 John from the City is getting ready for another storm.. It is a record winter. The public can
129 let them know if the snow has blocked a pedestrian access to the sidewalks.
130
131 9. Reports from Related Groups (BABAB, TCC, GVLT, Citizens for Safer Bozeman)
132
133 a. Linda DuPriest is working with BABAB on bicycle route project- integrating with
134 all of the City’s Capital Improvement Program (CIP) projects.
135
136 b. Carolyn Poissant with City’s Parks Department planned on developing a proposal
137 with missing links and will be putting it together.
138
139 c. SAFER BOZEMAN AND GALLATIN COUNTY. Marilee reported they are
140 working on I-90 speed limit education
141
142 d. GVLT. Dan reported currently GVLT is looking ahead for spring and summer,
143 maintaining trails for bike and ped, gaps in the trail system and ways to fill them
144 in. It is continuing to look at east west connections.
145
146 e. It GAP (Galla10 Alliance for Pathways). Marilee reported they are currently in a
147 holding pattern. They have retained Headwaters Economics to do a study
148 regarding the shared us path and they are waiting on that study.
149
150 f. TCC (Transportation Coordinating Committee). Met at the end of January-
151 discussed the I90 speed limit
152
153
154 10. History and Mission of PTS-
155 Our mission includes all transportation modes. Each of our three sponsoring groups (City,
156 County, and School District) appoint three people to this committee. Two have voting rights
157 and one does not have voting rights.. In addition, there are two voting At-Large-members.
158 The agreement says it shall be two At-Large-members. At-Large members are elected by this
159 committee-
160
Vance Ruff, one of the School Board’s voting members, is going to resign March 5th. Please
161
162 submit names to Ralph to be passed on to the school district.
163
164 We are an official advisory body to the City, County, and School Board.
165
166 11. Additional Business- None at this time
167
168 12. Future meeting
169 Our next meeting supposedly would be March 14 but a poll of the members showed that
170 because of Spring Break we would not have a quorum if we met on that date. A
171 consensus was reached to meet on March 7 rather than March 14.
172 13. Adjournment
173
174
175 Minutes by Mandee Arnold
176 Initial Edits by Ralph Zimmer