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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-11-19 PTS minutesBozeman (Area) Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee 1 Minutes of the Sept. 11, 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 Tony Gaddo (At-Large Member), Vice Chair 9 Marilee Brown (At-large-Member), Secretary 10 Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman) 11 Sherry Heis (City of Bozeman) 12 Doug Kellie (Bozeman School District) 13 Douglas Fischer (Bozeman School District and Board of Trustees) 14 Absent: 15 Tom Foster (Gallatin County) 16 17 Official Non-Voting Committee Members: 18 Todd Swinehart (School District) 19 John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department) 20 Absent: Bill Brownell (County Roads) 21 22 City Commissioners, County Commissioners, and School Board Trustees 23 Douglas Fischer (School District Trustee but also Voting Member of the Committee) 24 Absent: 25 Terry Cunningham (City Commissioner) 26 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 Transportation Engineer) 36 Duane Liebel (MDT Butte District Preconstruction Engineer) 37 Danae Giannetti (WTI) 38 Matt Marcinek (GVLT) 39 40 Citizens and Other Guests: 41 Bill Fogarty (MDT – Butte District Administrator) 42 Mitch Reister (Bozeman Public Works Director) 43 44 Quorum: Present. 45 46 1. Call to Order and Introductions. 47 Ralph Zimmer, PTS Committee Chair, called the meeting to order at 12:00 PM. And 48 introductions of attendees were made. 49 50 2. Agenda. 51 Ralph offered the opportunity to provide comments on the agenda. 52 53 3. Public Comment. 54 None 55 56 4. Minutes. 57 Minutes of the May 15, 2019 and June 12, 2019, and July 10, 2019 have not yet been 58 distributed by the Chair. They will be postponed until the next meeting. 59 60 5. Report on Results of Previous Actions & Consideration of Follow-Up Action. 61 62 a. Walk audit of West Babcock. Danae Giannetti reported that they held the walk audit. 63 There was a lot of neighborhood support for a tradeoff eliminating some street parking and, 64 next summer, putting in a cycle-track pilot trial being designed by Sanderson Stewart. The 65 traffic signals will have to be reconfigured to allow bike traffic on Babcock to go westbound. 66 That is a big bite for a pilot program and needs to be figured out. A cycle-track is a bike 67 infrastructure that allows for two-way bike traffic on one side of a road with a curb separating 68 the cycle-track from the moving vehicle lanes. 69 70 There was a request for pedestrian warning signs at 5th and 6th on Babcock but it did not meet 71 warrants for installation.. 72 73 She also has information on speed and traffic volume if anyone is interested. 74 75 b. WTI has been working with the City to develop a neighborhood tool kit on how to request 76 pop-up projects. They want to help neighbors to identify projects in a more systematic 77 approach. 78 79 c. Levi Ewen was not available to give us an update on the Draft Triangle Plan which will be 80 going to public hearings and to the three governing bodies (County, Bozeman, and Belgrade) 81 for their approvals fairly soon. 82 83 d. the draft Gallatin County Transportation Design & Construction Standards has not yet been 84 finalized nor have public meetings been scheduled. 85 86 6. County Commission, City Commission, and School Board Member Reports. 87 88 Douglas Fisher reported that the high school construction is 67% complete. The roundabout 89 on 15th will hopefully be ready for the first football game. They are discussing a new 90 elementary school and are leaning towards the Gooch Hill property. 91 92 7. Reports/Requests from Law Enforcement Liaison Officers 93 None 94 95 8. Reports from Non-Voting Official Committee Members (City, County, & Schools) 96 97 Todd stated that the 15th street roundabout is open. They have incorporated two Streamline 98 bus stops, one on Beall and the other on Mainstreet to get people to school. Oak street west of 99 the new high school has been opened. 100 He explained on the choices of which elementary school will be developed sooner. There are 101 many students that are coming in from the Four-corner area. 102 Marilee asked about crosswalks at 11th and Durston. Todd and Taylor will look into it to 103 make sure signage is there. Painting will occur and they will consider rapid flashing beacons. 104 105 John reported that streets were finishing up the summer maintenance projects. Striping has 106 not yet been done due to the MDT being busy. 107 108 International parking day is the 20th. MSU design are doing a parklet design on College. 109 110 Taylor reported that the City is working hard to keep the public informed on all the street 111 construction and a map is updated daily. 112 Cottonwood and Durston is still closed. 113 The intersection at 27th and Oak is still up and coming. 114 The intersection at Highland and Ellis will have a full signal traffic light installed soon. 115 The 15th street roundabout was constructed by the School District with impact fees. 116 117 9. Report from Any Representative of Montana Department of Transportation. 118 Duane Liebel gave a report of ongoing road projects. 119 Frontage Road Slope Flattening and Jackrabbit are done. 120 The Spur signalization project is progressing. 121 The Love Lane Huffine signal is in and the surrounding lights are too bright and bother the 122 neighbors. 123 The Love Lane Baxter roundabout is coming along. 124 125 Bill Fogarty reported that there will be a new Speed Study for Jackrabbit from 4 corners to 126 Belgrade. 127 128 10. Reports from Related Groups. 129 130 Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board – Candace reported that there are several new 131 members. They are developing a work plan for 2020 and will try to collaborate with us more 132 in the future. BABAB approved a letter of support for a TOP grant (Trails Oopen space and 133 Parks) grant for the frontage road shared use path being prepared by GAP. 134 135 The Transportation Coordinating Committee (TCC) will meet on Oct. 23 at 10:00 a.m. at the 136 City Commission room. 137 138 Matt from GVLT reported that a lot of maintenance on trails had been done this year. There 139 was over 1800 hours of working on trails where they have maintenance agreements. 140 141 There is a new director level position for trails. Matt Parsons will move from an associate 142 director position into a director to help with future projects. Penelope Pierce, Executive 143 Director, will be stepping down in the coming year. They are looking for a replacement and a 144 consultant will be helping with that process. 145 146 Path to the M is scheduled to be complete soon. A ribbon cutting will be in October. 147 148 Parks and Recreation – absent 149 150 Marilee from Safer Bozeman stated that they have put in an inquiry on the slope flattening 151 project regarding striping since it looked as though separation was not made between turning 152 right lanes and the through traffic to allow for site lines around moving objects as allowed in 153 the MDT Design Manual. Duane gave her a document that showed the full report on 154 installing right turn lanes and said MDT Director Tooley would be contacting her. 155 156 She also said that there has been a lot of public confusion on the law of for bikes and 157 pedestrians. She wants to work with PTS in future with the safety plan. 158 159 Galla10 Alliance for Pathways (GAP) – Marilee reported that they have identified an 160 important section of the path on the East end of Frontage road within City jurisdiction that 161 they will be applying for TOP funds. Once this section is complete, it will connect the Valley 162 Center Spur pathway all the way to the Main Street to the Mountains trails allowing someone 163 to bike all the way from Jackrabbit to the M. Only ½ a mile of path has to actually be built 164 since the rest has either been built by developers and the MDT or will occupy local rarely 165 used streets. 166 167 11. Meet and Greet City’s Director of Public Works 168 169 Mitch Reister is the new director of Bozeman Public Works. He comes from Cashmere 170 Washington and spoke of his varied experience. The job was attractive to him because 171 Bozeman is so similar to Cashmere. Bozeman has the best staff he has ever worked with. 172 173 12. Meet and Greet new MDT’s new Butte District Administrator 174 Bill Fogarty replaces Jeff Ebert as the Administrator of the Butte District. He came from a 175 family ranch north west of Dillon and has management expertise in construction, 176 preconstruction and maintenance. He is not a licensed professional engineer so his 177 appointment to this position speaks highly of him. 178 179 13. Consider Pedestrian/Bicycle Use of East Main & Highland Boulevard Intersection. 180 Marilee described how the multiuse bike trail on the west side of Highland comes directly 181 down to the new signal light at Main and Highland. However, there is no crosswalk. In order 182 to cross the road, one needs to cross Highland to the east to access the crosswalk on the East 183 side of Highland and there is no signage directing users of the path how to cross Main. The 184 concern is that cyclists will cross earlier at Curtis where there is no crossing and then walk on 185 the sidewalk. The other option is to cross at the RFB south of Curtis, but there is no sidewalk 186 from that point north on the east side of Highland. Ralph mentioned that that pathway was 187 resurfaced from TA program funds. 188 Taylor said that the design evolved over time and it initially was not going to be the 189 significant upgrade that it was. Concerns with signal timing was a concern on that side. 190 Pedestrian use would have to be separated and add time crossing 5 lanes. Duane stated that 191 the driveway across the way was also an issue since the crosswalk would end up in a driveway 192 approach. As new developers come, there may be RFB at Curtis but they would have to walk 193 bikes down the sidewalk. Duane will look into it. 194 195 14. Consider Safety Issues on East Garfield between South Tracy & South Black Avenues. 196 Hanna Wagner Jacoby contacted PTS regarding safety issues on East Garfield. She lives in 197 the apartment buildings, has young children and has noticed that once school is in session 198 people seem to drive very fast on that section of Garfield. Galligator trail has a mid-block 199 crossing and the signage is easy to miss. 200 201 Tony mentioned that there is lots of vegetation right up to the road. 202 GVLT did trail counts showing 991 average daily use on the trail. Delay’s at that crossing 203 were not counted. 204 John said the City previously moved parking back from the crossing for site issues. The 205 question is that if an RFB were installed there, would people actually push a button or would 206 they just go? 207 208 Parks takes care of vegetation. 209 There are no advanced warning signs. Taylor said that he will look into it. 210 211 WTI talked about people’s perception of speed at Babcock was an example of how often 212 vehicles really were not speeding. They suggest going on line and ordering a radar trailer 213 from the police. They also suggested that the neighbors contact WTI. 214 215 15. Consider Submitting Letter of Support for a TOP Application on Frontage Road Path. 216 Doug moved that such a letter be submitted. Tony was the 2nd. It passed unanimously. 217 Taylor said that he would check to see if CIP funding could also be used. 218 219 16. Additional business – none 220 221 17. Governance – none today 222 223 18. Safety Plan 224 Marilee will be talking to Taylor and Mayor Andrus to see how we might push things 225 forward. 226 227 19. Next Meeting. October 9, 2019. Douglass cannot come. 228 229 20. Meeting Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 1:37 PM. 230 231 Minutes by Marilee Brown 232 Initial edits by Ralph Zimmer 233 234