HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-08-18 PTS MinutesBozeman (Area) Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee 1
Minutes of the August 8, 2018 Meeting 2
Upstairs Conference Room Alfred Stiff Office Building 3 4 Attendance: 5 6
Voting Committee Members: 7
Ralph Zimmer (Gallatin County), Chair 8 Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman), Vice Chair 9 Dillon Fatouros (Bozeman School District) 10
Marilee Brown (At-large-Member) 11
Tony Gaddo (At-Large Member) 12
Absent: vacancy (Bozeman School District) & Mandee Arnold (City of Bozeman), Secretary, 13 Tom Foster (Gallatin County) 14 15
Official Non-Voting Committee Members: 16
John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department) 17
Absent: Bill Brownell, Road & Bridge Supervisor (County) & Todd Swinehart (School District) 18 19 City Commissioners, County Commissioners, and School Board Members 20
Terry Cunningham (City Commissioner) 21
Absent: (County Commissioner), (Bozeman School District Trustee), 22
23 Law Enforcement Liaison Officers 24
Sheriff Brian Gootkin (Sheriff Department) 25
Absent: (Bozeman Police Department) 26
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Frequent Attendees and Guests (City, County, Bozeman School District, and Montana 28 Department of Transportation Staff): 29 Duane Liebel (MDT) 30
Kelly Pohl (Headwaters Economics) 31
Levi Ewan (Gallatin County Road and Bridge Department) 32
33 Citizens and Other Guests: 34
Linda Semones Lars Hoff 35
36
37 Quorum: Present. 38 39
1. Call to Order and Introductions. 40 Ralph Zimmer, PTS Committee Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:00 PM and 41
introductions of attendees were made. 42
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2. Agenda. 44 Ralph offered the opportunity to provide comments on the agenda. None were made. 45
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3. Public Comment. 47
Two residents (Linda Semones and Lars Hoff) from Church Street across from Bogert Park 48 shared their concerns about speeding traffic. They would like to see changes to speed limit 49
signage and maybe add 4-way stops. They are concerned about safety for residents and park 50
users. They have reported the issue multiple times to the City and have been told police need 51
to increase enforcement, but they don’t have time. The City doesn’t want stop signs or speed 52 bumps. The residents would like to see solar flashing lights on speed signs. Ralph noted that 53
under state law, it is technically not legal for Bozeman to post the speed limit as low as 15 54
mph. 55
We could put this on an agenda for a future meeting, probably next month. Marilee will be 56
meeting with Chief Crawford in the next couple days and will ask about putting the radar 57 speed trailer in that area. Existing speed limit signs are not very visible and they think it 58
warrants a permanent radar driver feedback sign. John said they’ve seen speeds go up after 59
installation of those. In this area, they also can’t use radar signs because of the tree canopy, so 60
they would have to run power. 61
62 4. Minutes. Minutes of the June 13, 2017 meeting were distributed for review. They were not 63
distributed prior to the meeting, so Ralph offered the option to wait and vote next month. The 64
committee was ready to vote. A motion to approve was made by Marilee, second by Tony, 65
motion was unanimously approved. 66
67 The July committee meeting had been cancelle. 68
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5. Report on Results of Previous Actions & Consideration of Follow-Up Action. 70
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At the June meeting, this group asked some questions of Duane Liebel, MDT Butte District 72 Preconstruction Engineer, and he brought answers back today. “Slow down move over” signs 73
are a reminder, not regulatory. There are currently signs placed on I-90 just as you leave town 74
in either direction. County requested additional signs so they would be seen by others within 75
the Bozeman area because that’s where emergency services said they need them. MDT tries 76
to limit the number of signs and keep them as far from the roadway as possible. Duane is not 77 aware if MDT has responded to the County’s request for those signs. Duane stated that it 78
costs about $15,000 to build and install each such sign and local government might have to 79
pay those costs. 80
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Ralph had previously requested information on how much MDT recently paid BNSF/MRL for 82 permanent easements along the frontage road as a part of the Belgrade slope flattening project. 83
Duane was not able to get the information because it isn’t public information, but he provided 84
Ralph with instructions for how to make a records request. 85
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Duane stated there are locations where the path won’t fit within the easement that MDT 87 acquired. MDT acquired all the way to the railroad right-of-way line on the north side. They 88
will eventually need that much for the entire length. If we wanted to put a path along there, 89
we would have to talk to both the railroad (BNSF and MRL) and MDT. 90
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Valley Center Spur Crossing. MDT’s project will install conduit and pull boxes for future 92 pedestrian signals. Developers of the adjacent properties or the future pathway will have to 93
put them in when they go through systems impact review in the future. Ralph and Marilee 94
encouraged MDT to find to a safe way for people to cross along Valley Center Spur. 95
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6. Belgrade to Bozeman Frontage Road Separated Shared Use Path – Economic Study 97 98
Headwaters Economics was commissioned by the Galla10 Alliance for Pathways (GAP) to 99
perform a study of the economic effects of building the proposed Belgrade to Bozeman 100
separated shared-use path along the frontage road. Kelly Pohl and an associate did the actual 101 work and Kelly summarized their findings to the committee. 102
103
She provided an overview of the assumptions, methodology and findings. They used a 7% 104
discount rate and numbers from Belgrade instead of Bozeman (both are conservative). 105
Results showed a $23 million benefit and 2:1 benefit to cost ratio. There were 8 crashes 106 involving bikes and pedestrians over the study period, so the safety benefit is a considerable 107
portion of the total. They also looked at health benefits and economic benefits, including 108
property value increase of 5 to 10% and increased business. There is also an airport benefit 109
for both passengers and employees and reduced emissions by increased bicycle mode share. 110
Quality of life benefits show trails are highly valued by residents and this trail would connect 111 to the entire Main Street to the Mountains trail system. They also noted that all of our 112
community planning documents call out this path as a priority for the community. Kelly feels 113
the estimated benefit is conservative, but still twice the cost. Kelly distributed a one-page 114
summary of the findings to the group. 115
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7. Belgrade to Bozeman Frontage Road Separated Shared Use Path – BUILD Planning 117 Grant Application 118 119
Ralph profusely thanked Marilee, Danielle, and Kelly for their work on the application for a 120
planning grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s BUILD program. Marilee 121 provided an overview of the application and the timeline/effort that was undertaken to 122
complete it. Felt it was important to do it now because we are rural and there isn’t a required 123
match for the grant funding. All of the agencies jumped on board to help support the 124
application. They are anticipating less funding available for BUILD grants in the future. The 125
intent of the plan is to determine where we need private easements and addressing MDT 126 concerns. Even if we don’t get the grant, we’ve won because of the collaboration that has 127
taken place. 128
129
This plan would be multi-modal including Streamline to provide inexpensive access to 130
transportation for all users. The airport doesn’t expect Streamline access to airport within 10 131 years because it will be a difficult planning effort. Terry Cunningham asked where the 132
funding for construction will come from in the future and Marilee noted that it will be a part 133
of the planning process. Kelly noted that BUILD also provides grants for construction and 134
Danielle noted that MDT’s Transportation Alternatives (TA) grant program funds could be an 135
option too, but we need to figure out the right-of-way first. Others will be covered in the plan, 136 as will right-of-way and maintenance. 137
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Ralph noted that there will be TA training sessions coming up soon in different cities and they 139
will have GoToMeeting access available at each one. 140
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8. County Commission, City Commission, and School Board Member Reports. 142 Commissioner Terry Cunningham reported that budget funding was allocated toward the 143
Community Transportation Safety plan implementation. The Commission will be hearing 144
from the school district soon about the stadium project with the proposed roundabout at 15th 145
and Beall. That hearing will be happening soon as an opportunity to get input from the public 146
and Commissioners will weigh in, but Commission does not get to vote. Will also be hearing 147
about the Graf and S 3rd intersection alternatives at an upcoming meeting. 148
149
9. Liaison Officer Reports. 150 Sheriff Gootkin was in attendance. He didn’t have anything specific to report, but offered to 151
help address any concerns we may have. Marilee noted that she would reach out regarding 152
the Community Transportation Safety plan. Ralph offered our condolences for Sheriff Officer 153
Jim Anderson and his family. 154 155 10. Reports from Non-Voting Official Committee Members. 156 Levi Ewan (County Road and Bridge Department) reported that the County is in the process 157
of re-writing their transportation standards. Currently they are just within their subdivision 158
standards, but they need a standalone document. They are reviewing what other communities 159 are doing and want to be consistent with what the Planning Coordinating Committee is doing. 160 They are currently in draft form and will be released soon for input from the 161
engineering/development community and committees like ours, pending input from the 162
County attorney. 163
164 John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department) reported that construction is still 165 underway. He said the segment of Baxter from 19th to Davis will have a preconstruction 166
meeting next week. They will be discussing when to start and how much can be done before 167
winter shutdown. Paving projects are already booked up through October. Milling and 168
overlay on 19th from Main to 11th and Babcock from Pizza Hut to Meagher. South Tracy will 169 be completed before winter, at least the segment in front of the school will be completed 170 before school starts. The City got some funding for path maintenance through TA that will be 171
completed next year. Pop-up traffic calming will be in Valley Unit subdivision on August 172
26th between Meagher and Cascade. They did one on Tamarack last summer. 173
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11. Public Transit Funding Request to Gallatin County 175 176
David Kack was not able to join us today because he is out of the country. Danielle provided 177
an overview of David’s talking points about the need for the funding and ridership statistics. 178
Ralph asked if we would like to write a letter of support for the funding request. Marilee 179 made the motion, second by Tony. Tony noted it’s a great service and doesn’t see any reason 180
why we wouldn’t support it. Terry and Danielle agreed. Motion passed unanimously. 181
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12. Community Transportation Safety Plan 183
184 Marilee reported that they were hoping to have a booth at Catapalooza, but not sure if they’re 185
signed up. She’s hoping to have information on distracted driving and working with Bozeman 186
Police Chief Steve Crawford to pull some information together. She is also working with new 187
Communications Coordinator at the City to make sure the information will be released with 188
the City’s branding. She’s working to determine who she should work with at the School 189 District. BABAB has not had a lot of time to help with this, which is problematic because we 190
don’t have official representation from the bicycling community. She’s gotten input from 191
Taylor Lonsdale and several others, but they are struggling to find their best path forward. 192
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Marilee could contact Michelle Wheat (MDT bike coordinator) to get more information. 194 Ralph noted that the DOJ and OPI are other state agencies that have input on driver education. 195
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12. Additional Business. None. 197
198 13. Next Meeting. September 12th at Noon. 199
200 14. Meeting Adjournment 201
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203 Minutes by Danielle Scharf 204
Initial edits by Ralph Zimmer 205