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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-13-18 PTS MinutesBozeman (Area) Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee 1 Minutes of the June 13, 2017 Meeting 2 Upstairs Conference Room Alfred Stiff Office Building 3 4 Attendance: 5 6 Voting Committee Members: 7 Ralph Zimmer (Gallatin County), Chair 8 Mandee Arnold (City of Bozeman), Secretary 9 Marilee Brown (At-large Member) 10 Tony Gaddo (At-large Member) 11 Tom Foster (Gallatin County) 12 Absent: Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman), Vice Chair; 13 Absent: Dillon Fatouros (Bozeman School District) 14 Absent: open board seat from Bozeman School District 15 16 Official Non-Voting Committee Members: 17 John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department), Todd Swinehart (School District) 18 Absent: Bill Brownell, Road & Bridge Supervisor (County) 19 20 City Commissioners, County Commissioners, and School Board Members 21 Terry Cunningham (City Commissioner) 22 Absent: County Commissioner) and School District Trustees 23 24 Law Enforcement Liaison Officers 25 Chief Steve Crawford (Bozeman Police Department.) 26 Captain Mark Wilfore (Montana Highway Patrol) 27 Deputy Chief Mike Lataverne (Bozeman Fire Department) 28 Hayley Tuggle (MSU Emergency Management Coordinator) 29 Chief EJ Clark (Belgrade Police) 30 Absent: Sheriff Gootkin 31 32 Regular Attendees and Guests (City, County, Bozeman School District, and Montana Department 33 of Transportation Staff): 34 Duane Liebel (MDT Butte District) 35 Linda DuPriest (Transportation Demand Management consultant to City of Bozeman) 36 Matt Marcinek (Gallatin Valley Land Trust) 37 Levi Ewan (County) 38 39 Citizens and Other Guests: 40 Sam Miller (Bozeman Health) 41 42 Quorum: Present. 43 44 1. Call to Order & Introductions. 45 Ralph Zimmer, PTS Committee Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:00 PM and 46 introductions of attendees were made. 47 48 2. Agenda. 49 Ralph offered the opportunity to provide comments on the agenda. None were made. 50 51 3. Public Comment. 52 None was given. 53 54 4. Minutes. 55 The minutes of April 11, 2018 were approved unanimously (motion by Marilee Brown and 56 Tom Foster). 57 The minutes of May 9, 2018 were approved unanimously (motion by Tony Gaddo and 58 Marilee Brown). 59 60 5. Implementation of Bozeman Community Transportation Safety Plan. 61 62 Ralph reported that Chief Steve Crawford is willing to help push this item forward with the 63 city. He asked Marilee to lead us through the discussion while all our law enforcement 64 guests are here and afterward PTS will then decide how to appoint the role to lead us forward. 65 66 Marilee explained that this was a plan that was originally funded by the MDT and designed 67 for the greater Bozeman area including Belgrade. For the last two years, Danielle Scharf has 68 been working with other safety advocates to get this plan implemented. It was originally 69 approved by the City in 2015 and then failed to move forward even with her expert 70 stewardship due to lack of funding and input from the State, and many of the advocates have 71 also had to drop out due to lack of funding. We are now trying to move this plan back into 72 action with a safety campaign focusing on distracted driving, bike/vehicle rules of the road, 73 and seatbelts, to be implemented in late August just in time for students to return to school. 74 Marilee asked each of our guests in turn what they are currently doing to educate citizens and 75 promote safety. 76 77 a. Bozeman Chief Crawford explained that there is a Selective Traffic Enforcement Program 78 (STEP) that combines intensive enforcement of specific traffic laws with extensive 79 communication, education and outreach. In conjunction, the SETT program (Safety 80 Enforcement Traffic Team) also allows for extra officers on the streets in higher crash 81 corridors (such as 19th) to deal with impaired driving and lack of seatbelt use. Seatbelt 82 enforcement is difficult since state law prohibits pulling someone over for just that, unless 83 there is violation of some other law. The police department periodically put campaigns on 84 social media, which include distracted driving along with hands free driving (no hand held 85 devices allowed in Bozeman). They also put extra patrols within the city along with a radar 86 trailer to slow people down, and teach safety in the driver safety education courses. 87 88 b. Captain Wilfore of the Montana Highway Patrol reported that they implement a 89 mobilization plan at the beginning of the year using funds STEP from MDT, which has seen a 90 reduction in funding. They use a traveling team for seatbelt and DUI enforcement. They will 91 be back in July to do it again. They hope to bring them back several times a year but need 92 places for officers to stay. Coordination takes place border to border all in one day. They 93 also ticket during Cat/Griz games within the city limits. 94 95 c. Chief EJ Clark of Belgrade reported that they do child seat inspections. They also 96 coordinate with other law enforcement departments including Madison County with a targeted 97 effort to ticket people floating the Madison river with DUI enforcement when traveling to 98 different river points in their vehicles. They work with all departments several times a year. 99 The STEP program also has a media company that puts out press releases and radio spots. 100 They use this program two or three times a year to target DUI’s and also seatbelts. There is 101 no Belgrade city ordinance for hands-free devices. It would be easier if there were a state 102 law. 103 104 d. Deputy Chief Mike Lataverne of the Bozeman Fire Department stated that they have a 105 social media presence and also regularly attend community events such as fire in the park and 106 cover many topics. They also run the car seat program and install 300 car seats annually – 107 typically one a day. 108 109 e. Sam Miller of Bozeman Health stated that he supports all of these items. He currently has 110 an announcement on KGLT for distracted driving. And every time someone comes into the 111 emergency room because of distracted driving they have a unique intervention session. 112 113 f. General discussion: It would also be easier if the state of Montana had a primary seatbelt 114 law so that officers could pull over someone that they see not wearing a seatbelt. Since there 115 are different rules in different Cities, it would be great to have the League of Cities and Towns 116 and the Montana Association of Counties sponsor State legislation that made it easier for 117 people to know the laws and enforcement to act by having consistency. 118 119 There is an Alive at 25-mandated program for convicted drivers. The general public is 120 allowed to attend. Also there is the Local task force education which talks at drivers 121 education 122 123 Maybe it would be helpful to implement safety education more in the school system – start 124 younger. There is no clear understanding of what training for biking and walking the kids 125 have. 126 127 John Van Delinder reported that downtown business has a banner for distracted hands free 128 driving. 129 130 There is a billboard on Jackrabbit – “watch for motorcycles”. Marilee would like to see 131 something similar for pedestrians along with bikes elsewhere in the County. We also need to 132 start working with school parent teacher associations and other committees to get to kids 133 early. 134 135 Duane Liebel of the MDT stated that their funding has been cut significantly. For instance – 136 funds to the Whitehall/Butte project were deferred, bike paths have suffered and 25% of 137 sanding funds have been cut. 138 139 Steve suggests we form a small group to help coordinate these efforts and is interested in a 140 small focused campaign. 141 142 Marilee stated that the Western Transportation Institute at MSU also wants to be involved but 143 could not attend today’s meeting. 144 145 Terry Cunningham stated that the City might have matching resources. 146 147 Hayley Tuggle (MSU Emergency Management Coordinator) stated that MSU has a public 148 service marketing firm that can air and produce content. 149 150 Duane stated that the MDT also has safety information to share for highway traffic safety 151 from the Department of Transportation. 152 153 Sam suggested that we should have information available to the public to show fatal/ critical 154 injury accidents within the city of Bozeman. 155 156 g. At this point in the meeting, law enforcement left and PTS continued in order to decide 157 how they should proceed with the safety plan. 158 Ralph stated that the extensive plan has been shelved for over two years, the MDT originally 159 said they would help out regarding funds- however limited funds are available for such efforts 160 and we have not received any replies to requests for assistance. What does PTS wish to do? 161 Marilee’s preference is that PTS would have a strong presence rather than her trying to handle 162 things through Safer Bozeman. 163 Ralph with consultation with Danielle sent a letter to City commission for $7,500 to fund 164 activities to implement the safety plan. Steve Crawford offered to be the overseer of the 165 money. 166 Motion made by Tom Foster, asking Marilee to facilitate and help coordinate the safety plan 167 through PTS. The motion was seconded and passed unanimously. 168 169 Tom Foster then moved that Marilee be authorized to approach the city on behalf of PTS to ask 170 for funding to implement the first Safety Campaign. Marilee seconded the motion and it passed 171 unanimously. 172 173 6. Reports on results from previous actions. 174 175 Ralph gave a follow-up on safety issues on Sourdough Road and specifically at 1815 176 Sourdough Road. Levi reported Gallatin County and the city are coordinating a driveway 177 realignment and site work has begun. John reported Andy Kern in the City Engineer’s Office 178 did submit to the state a request for safety funds for installing a guardrail and has not heard 179 back from the State. Ralph reported that Leslie Jackson, the woman who came to the PTS 180 meeting expressing these safety concerns, has twice written him expressing great gratitude for 181 the committee’s involvement. Three governmental bodies are involved: county, city, and 182 MDT. 183 184 Ralph reported MDT’s Valley Center Spur project has a final plan-in-hand review coming up 185 shortly. Observations show the frontage road and the Valley Cinter Spur are presently being 186 used by both pedestrians and bicyclists even though there is no safe place for them. It was 187 stated those existing individuals need to be accommodated over the entire length of the project 188 when it is initially built. However, while MDT’s current plans make provision for future 189 installation of pedestrian buttons at the signalized intersections, those features will not be 190 installed initially. 191 192 Duane stated that MDT is opposed to actually installing those pedestrian features until safe 193 paths actually reach the intersections. Duane was asked if MDT was setting aside the money 194 needed for the future installation of those pedestrian buttons and related ped/bike 195 accommodations so that those upgrades could quickly be made with minimal paperwork. 196 Duane said he would get back to the committee on that topic. 197 198 The City recently annexed the land north of the frontage road all the way from Nelson Road to 199 the Spur. The development of that annexed land is tentatively called Park Place. Plans for 200 that development are already in process and presently include a separated shared-use path 201 along the frontage road. Those plans were the subject of a review earlier in the day by the 202 City’s Design Review Committee. Duane attended that meeting representing MDT. 203 204 7. County Commission, City Commission, and School Board Reports. 205 None were given. 206 207 8. Liaison Officer Reports. 208 None were given. 209 210 9. Reports from Non-Voting Official Committee Members. 211 None were given. 212 213 10. Reports from Related Groups. 214 Matt Marcinek from GVLT reported that the voters passed the countywide Open Space levy. 215 216 11. Update on Ped/Bike and Related Concerns in Bozeman. 217 Linda DuPriest reported that the proposed frontage road path was discussed at the DRC 218 meeting earlier in the day. 219 220 12. Consider Making Budget Recommendations to City Commission. 221 It was decided that we should ask the City for a minimum of $7500 for implementation of the 222 Bozeman Safety Plan. At this time we cannot make a request for more time to be allocated to 223 the Bike/Ped Coordinator position since it is not in the three-year plan. Perhaps we can make 224 the request in 2022. 225 226 13. Consider Commenting on MDT State Bike/Ped Plan 227 There is no current deadline for submitting comments. Comments are wide open and can be 228 made. Since there is currently no plan we will defer this to a future meeting. 229 230 14. Additional Business (Time Permitting) 231 Referring to the County’s formal request to MDT to install on I-90 in the Bozeman/Belgrade 232 area slow down and move over signs (when emergency vehicles are present), Ralph asked 233 Duane Liebel what MDT’s response is and who at MDT will make that decision. Duane said 234 he would check and respond later to those questions. 235 236 Duane stated any I-90 speed studies conducted in the near future between Belgrade and 237 Bozeman will have to be paid for by the City. 238 239 15. The next meeting will be held on July 11, 2018. (electronic postscript: The July 11 meeting 240 subsequently was cancelled and the next meeting was August 8.) 241 242 16. Adjournment 243 The meeting was adjourned at 2:00 PM. 244 245 Minutes by Marilee Brown, Mandee Arnold, and Ralph Zimmer 246