HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-10-19 PTS minutesBozeman (Area) Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee 1
Minutes of the July 10, 2019 Meeting 2
Upstairs Conference Room Alfred Stiff Office Building 3 4 Attendance: 5 6
Voting Committee Members: 7
Ralph Zimmer (Gallatin County), Chair 8 Marilee Brown (At-large-Member), Secretary 9 Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman) 10
Sherry Heis (City of Bozeman) 11
Doug Kellie (Bozeman School District) 12
Absent: 13 Tony Gaddo (At-Large Member), Vice Chair 14 Tom Foster (Gallatin County) 15
Douglas Fischer (Bozeman School District and Board of Trustees) 16
17
Official Non-Voting Committee Members: 18 Todd Swinehart (School District) 19 Absent: 20
John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department) 21
Bill Brownell (County Roads) 22
23 City Commissioners, County Commissioners, and School Board Trustees 24
Terry Cunningham (City Commissioner) 25
Douglas Fischer (School District Trustee but also Voting Member of the Committee) 26
Absent: Scott MacFarlane (County Commissioner) 27
28 Law Enforcement Liaison Officers 29
Absent: 30
(Bozeman Police Department) 31
(Sheriff’s Department) 32
33 Frequent Attendees and Guests (City, County, Bozeman School District, and Montana 34
Department of Transportation Staff): 35
Taylor Lonsdale (Bozeman City Engineer) 36
Duane Liebel (MDT Butte District Preconstruction Engineer) 37
Dani Hess (WTI) 38 Candace Mastel (BABAB) 39 40
Citizens and Other Guests: 41
Jen MacFarlane (Health Dept.) 42
Linda Semones (Bogart Park traffic calming) 43 Takami Peemoeller (Big Sky PR) 44
Katie Klietz (Big Sky PR) 45
46
Quorum: Present. 47
48
1. Call to Order and Introductions. 49
Ralph Zimmer, PTS Committee Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:02 PM. And 50
introductions of attendees were made. Ralph announced that Tom Foster has been 51 reappointed to PTS by the County Commissioners. 52 53
2. Agenda. 54
Ralph offered the opportunity to provide comments on the agenda. 55
56
3. Public Comment. 57 None 58
59
4. Minutes. 60
Minutes of the May 15, 2019 and June 12, 2019, were submitted to the Chair but have not 61 been finalized for approval. Marilee asked if everyone would prefer shorter minutes. Doug 62 stated that an abbreviated version showing the highlights would be acceptable. 63
64
5. Report on Results of Previous Actions & Consideration of Follow-Up Action. 65
66 a. Intersection of Durston and Meriwether: Ralph stated that he had been sent a July 3, 2019 67 memo by Kellen Gamaradt, Engineer, from Shawn Kohtz, detailing the Conditions, Data 68
Collection & Engineering Study, Conclusions and Recommendations. 69
70
The study took place on June 19, and found that there were 7 at peak crossings at morning 71 rush hour with 50 pedestrian crossings averaged daily. The average delay for crossing was 9 72 seconds. There were 10,340 vehicles. 4 reported accidents happened in 2018 when the 73
southern leg of the intersection was closed due to construction. The speed limit is posted at 74
30 miles-per-hour and the 85th Percentile Speed is 38 MPH on Durston. There needs to be 20 75
pedestrian crossings during peak hours for crosswalk improvements. 76 77
The tree in the sight triangle was removed to improve visibility and safety. Data shows that 78
the speed limit could actually be increased to 35mph for safety. It was suggested during 79
discussion that Durston should have some trees in the boulevard to promote lower speeds and 80
traffic calming. 81 82
b. South Church traffic calming project: 83
Dani reported that curb extensions had been installed and will be there until fall. There is a 84
feedback survey and photos are on the monkey survey sight. Door to door flyers may be used 85
to inform neighbors. 86 87
Pedestrian counts have not been made and it was suggested that counts should be done in the 88
morning during pool hours and also count the traffic coming from the parking lot. It was 89
found that the fire department needs a turn around so they were not able to alter the parking 90
lot flow. 91 92
Marilee mentioned that Sg. Travis has stated in the past that curb extensions seem to cause 93
vehicles to make wide turns into oncoming traffic. It was suggested that WTI look into 94
finding studies on the issue. 95
96 c. The Traffic calming project will take place at Lindley park this Sat. 97
98
d. Advocation for a new County Trails Plan – Ralph contacted P. Pierce to get information. 99
The 2001 plan was last to be adopted by the County Commission. The 2010 plan was not 100 adopted because of too much regulatory language and is out of date. GVLT has been in 101
personal communication with commissioners and staff to update that study. The discussions 102
are fragile and we have been asked us not to overwhelm the County with comments and 103
questions. 104
105 The Triangle plan being developed by the Policy Coordination Committee (PCC) could take 2 106
to 3 years and there will be public meetings this fall 107
GVLT has a committee of lobbyists that are working on trail issues. 108
109
Ralph would like to push things gently but push. He would like to contact County and see if 110 they would be interested in adopting the Bozeman Area TMP plan. 111
112
He told GVLT that we favored the adoption of a new trails plan and an interim adoption of the 113
2010 trails plan. They asked us to help by keeping hands off. 114
115 Candace offered to write a complementary letter from BABAB to support adoption of 116
Bozeman’s Transportation Master Plan (TMP). 117
118
Dani stated that WTI has been hearing from concerned citizens and would support a planning 119
process. 120 121
6. County Commission, City Commission, and School Board Member Reports. 122 123
Terry Cunningham, City Commissioner reported the 2020 budget was adopted on June 24th. 124
The PROST plan has been delayed for another year because funds need to be used for Bogart 125 Pavilion which collapsed. The Downtown plan was approved in concept. A contract was 126
awarded to a firm to prioritize the many ideas on that plan. 127
128
7. Reports from Law Enforcement Liaison Members. 129
None present 130 131 8. Reports from Non-Voting Official Committee Members 132 Todd Swinehart (Director of Facilities Bozeman School District) 15th is still closed down and 133
right-of –ways procured were procured for the traffic circle. 134
135 John Van Delinder 136 Lots of projects are ongoing throughout the City. 137
Cottonwood and Durston will be closed for a month with no detour except Gooch. Third and 138
Graf has not yet been sent out to bid. 139
140
9. Report from Any Representative of Montana Department of Transportation. 141 Duane Liebel gave a road report of ongoing projects. 142
The Belgrade Slope flattening project will be finished in mid-July. 143
The Valley Spur signalization project has been started. 144
145 146
10. Reports from Related Groups. 147
148
Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board is working on sending letters to the City Commission 149 asking to be more involved in prioritizing projects. 150 151
GVLT absent 152
153
Parks and Recreation – absent 154 155 Safer Bozeman – They have an opportunity to talk to Commissioner Tooley – does anyone 156
have suggestions on what to ask for. It was suggested that we should show excitement that 157
the path will soon be connecting to Griffin and to ask about the 4th leg of the Valley Center 158
Spur. 159 160 Galla10 Alliance for Pathways (GAP) – Marilee Brown reported she met with Addi Jaiden 161
and discussed TOP funding. 162
163
164 165 11. Meet and Greet City’s New Transportation Engineer (Taylor Lonsdale). 166 167
Taylor is excited to be working with the City of Bozeman. He previously a member of PTS 168
and worked at WTI promoting active transportation. 169 170 12. Presentation of Big Sky Public Relations work with MDT in the Bozeman Area. 171 Big Sky Public Relations is a private company that has been contracted by the MDT to handle 172
public involvement. They also have offices in Missoula and Kalispell. 173
They have a project coming up on the spring of 2020 which is Rouse reconstruction from Oak 174 to Main. It will include bike lanes and sidewalks. 175 A brochure with contact information was handed out. They ask that we please call them 176
instead of the MDT. 177
They are also involved with the guard rail on Highway 191 and the Belgrade Urban project 178
which is an extension on Jackrabbit to start construction in two years. 179 Their role is to tell the public what the projects are and what to expect – sometimes in 180 preplanning and sometimes in construction. This is in addition to MDT press releases. 181
They work with a big team at MDT. PR firms were mandated by the State. It was suggested 182
that individuals sign up for updates at Katie@bigskypublicrelations.com 183
184
13. Additional Business – Consider making safety-related recommendations to Congress, 185 the State legislature… 186 The Committee unanimously agreed that Ralph should lobby for the restoration of federal 187
Transportation Alternatives (TA) funding. It was suggested that we contact Senator Daines 188
and tell him we rely on it and use it. Marilee is supposed to find his contact information and 189 see if he has a staff member that handles transportation. 190 191
Terry Cunningham will check with the City Manager to see if they can help out with a letter. 192
193
Taylor mentioned that the Federal budget expires in Sept. but they may not do anything until 194 after the next election. 195
196
14. Community Transportation Safety Plan. 197
198 The Community Transportation Safety Plan was given a budget of $8,000 for the past year to 199
educate the public. Marilee has been working with the Police Department to make this 200
happen. Recently, the Department hired an advertising group to run the distracted driving 201
campaign and Marilee read the approved ad copy for the distracted driving campaign. She did 202
not have any input into the copy chosen. 203 204
15. Next Meeting. August 14, 2019. (Electronic Postscript: The August 14 meeting was 205
subsequently cancelled. The next meeting actually was September 11, 2019.) 206
207
16. Meeting Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 PM. 208 Minutes by Marilee Brown 209
Edits by Ralph Zimmer 210
211