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Home My WebLink About07-14-10 Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee Minutes Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee Minutes of the July 14, 2010 Meeting Upstairs Conference Room Alfred Stiff Office Bldg. Those Present: Voting Committee Members: Ralph Zimmer (Gallatin County) Frank Manseau (Gallatin County) Gary Vodehnal (City of Bozeman) Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman) Sue Brown (At-large Voting Member) Non – Voting Committee Members: John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman - Streets) Non-Voting Liaison Officers: Tommie Franscioni (Bozeman PD) Guests: Sean Becker (City Commission) Sam Miller (Guest) Quorum: present NEW BUSINESS: Ralph called the meeting to order at 12:00 PM. Minutes. 1.Minutes from the May 19, 2010 meeting were approved with minor edits made by Ralph Zimmer prior to distribution. Consideration of Agenda. 2.Frank requested that we add an agenda item for this meeting or a th future meeting to discuss the need for turn lanes on South 19 Avenue south of Goldenstein. There has been a fatal accident in the area and there is a conflict with turning traffic and high-speed through traffic. Election of At-large Members. 3.Under the inter-local agreement between the City, County and School District and our by-laws, we have the option of voting in zero, one or two official at-large committee members. Sue Brown was recently elected as an at-large voting member and we have room for one more. Ralph recently asked Taylor Lonsdale and he said he’d be willing as long as the committee understood that he wouldn’t be able to make it to many of the meetings. Ralph also asked Elizabeth Bird if she’d be interested, but had not heard back prior to this meeting. Ralph noted that she had not yet been given adequate opportunity to respond. Sam Miller is also another potential at-large member. He was in attendance at this meeting and said that he would be able to attend the majority of our meetings through the end of the year. Frank suggested that we go ahead and appoint Sam. Gary was in favor of appointing a second At-Large voting member, but wasn’t sure if we should do it today. Half agreed we should wait to receive a response from Elizabeth, while the other half thought we should go ahead and appoint Sam. Frank argued that we need a more well-rounded perspective – we already have the bicycle perspective represented, which would be the case with Elizabeth and Taylor. Ralph broke the tie and determined that we will wait until the next meeting to appoint a new voting member. Ralph agreed that we should give Elizabeth an opportunity to respond out of fairness. Ralph invited Sam to come back again to the next meeting. Public Comment. 4.No public comment. CTEP Projects. 5.A list of potential CTEP projects has been developed by the CTEP Committee, an ad-hoc committee made up of City representatives and volunteers led by Ron Dingman. Ron and Andy Kerr were both invited to this meeting, but couldn’t make it. John and Gary are both members of the CTEP Committee as well. Work is currently underway on the CTEP path along College out to Huffine/Ferguson. Conversations with the CTEP Committee indicate that accessible curb ramps should be a high priority this year. Andy Kerr developed the list of ramps that should be improved, grouped within a similar area so they can get better contractor prices. John noted that the list of intersections should not include striped crosswalks, just accessibility ramps. Gary feels that we should focus these ramp improvements around schools and parks. Gary lives near Irving School, South Side Park and Cooper Park. He feels that this area gets a lot more foot traffic than the intersections on Andy’s list. John noted that intersections that Gary suggested have the old 90 degree curbs and to install ramps now will result in water ponding right at the ramp. John is concerned that this will creating a liability issue for the City. The areas on the original list should be much easier to just install ramps because they already have newer curb. Gary would also like to see Centennial Park added to the list near the Senior Center. Sean Becker agreed and noted that City Code requires that sidewalk be provided around all sides of a park and that seniors are often seen walking on the street during the lunch hour. Gary said that by July 1, 2011 the City should have almost $500,000 in CTEP funds for future projects, assuming annual funding levels stay the same. This is in addition to the funds being used for the path along College. The pedestrian crosswalk on Tracy near the south side of Longfellow Elementary School was discussed in great detail. Ralph shared an email from a concerned parent that lives in the area. The crossing is not ADA compliant and the large tree on the east side of the crossing blocks the visibility of children that are waiting to cross. There is a crossing guard in this location and the school would like to see this crossing location maintained. There is another crossing to the north, but it’s unlikely that people will go that far out of their way to cross. Danielle noted that the Safe Routes to School plan for Longfellow recommends a raised crosswalk and ramps. Danielle suggested that we try to coordinate Safe Routes funding with CTEP funding. Frank suggested that we add the Longfellow crossing to the CTEP list. Ron Dingman requested that he be informed of the outcome of our discussions today. Gary noted that this list could be approved by the Commission, but we could still add to the list or shift priorities. It was suggested that we invite Taylor or someone else from the Safe Routes committee to attend our meeting and give us a status report on upcoming projects/funding applications. Ralph will contact Ron Dingman and state that we would recommend collaboration with Safe Routes to School and our committee prior to presentation to the City Commission. The Longfellow crossing should be added to the CTEP list, but it should be coordinated with plans for Safe Routes to School improvements. Update on Distracted Driver Issues. 6.Sam noted that he thinks it’s really important that we adopt a distracted driver policy and he would like a letter of support from this committee when it goes to the Commission. The policy is currently being drafted by the legal department. Since it’s not currently on the 6 week agenda schedule for the City Commission, we will definitely have another meeting to discuss the topic further before it goes to the Commission. This topic will stay on the agenda as a future discussion item. Sam will make an effort to make sure all the letters are combined into a single packet to be submitted to the Commission. Liaison Officer Reports. 7. Tommie Franscioni, the liaison officer from the Bozeman Police Department, was in attendance but didn’t have anything specific to report at this time. However, he volunteered to review the pedestrian crash data at the intersections on the CTEP list. He will review the data and bring a report back at our next meeting. Street Department Report. 8. John said a paving project is currently underway at the High School, which will include new curb ramps. Various chip sealing projects are also underway. Budgets will be discussed on July 26, including putting 2% of annual funds away th for curb and ramp improvements. The estimated cost of the reconstruction of South 8 Avenue is $5.3 million. The water main will be installed next summer, but the remainder of the project won’t happen for awhile. Frank asked when they’ll have the reflectors, etc. th installed on South 19 Ave. John said the project is still being completed by the State, but once the City takes over, they will provide additional delineators to bring the project up to the City’s standard. Future Agenda Items. 9. The following items will be considered as future agenda items.  Path along Bridger Canyon Road  Galligator Trail crossing at South Willson & Lincoln – review # of crossings along Willson from Kagy to Garfield and consider a recommendation to install another at Mason?  South Willson & College intersection improvements  Citizen proposal to install flashers on South Willson at Dickerson  Continue discussion on Complete Streets Policy  Continue discussion on Sidewalk Encroachment Policy  Continue discussion on the operation of Main Street pedestrian signals  Continue discussion on Distracted Driver Issues th  South 19 Avenue turn lanes The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 PM. Next Meeting: August 11, 2010 Minutes by Danielle Scharf minor edits by Ralph Zimmer