HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-13-11 Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee Minutes.docPedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee
Minutes of the April 13, 2011 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)
Non-Voting Committee Members:
(none)
Liaison Officers:
(none)
Guests:
Bill Cochran (BABAB Chairperson)
Sam Haraldson (BABAB Member)
Taylor Lonsdale (MT Safe Routes to School Coordinator)
Quorum: present
NEW BUSINESS:
Ralph called the meeting to order at 12:08 PM.
Public Comment. No public comment.
Consideration of Meeting Agenda. Ralph offered the opportunity to provide input on the agenda. Sam requested prior to the meeting that the discussion regarding the upcoming Commission
meeting be moved up on the agenda. No other comments were made.
Minutes. Minutes of the March 2, 2011 meeting were reviewed and unanimously approved with minor edits made by Ralph Zimmer prior to distribution.
Opportunity to Elect Additional 2011 At-large Voting Member. Ralph offered the opportunity to nominate an additional at-large voting member to the committee. No nominations were made
at this time.
Liaison Officer Reports. The liaison officers to this committee were not able to be in attendance today.
Street Department Report. John was not able to attend the meeting today.
BABAB Report. Bill Cochran and Sam Haraldson were in attendance representing BABAB. Sam noted that he just recently joined BABAB and wanted to attend our meeting today because of the
relationship between our committees and to discuss our upcoming meeting with the Commission. Bill noted that BABAB was recently successful in getting the Commission to agree to install
bike lanes on Peach from 7th to Rouse. He is also interested in discussing the upcoming Commission meeting. Carson Taylor, Commission liaison to BABAB, suggested that they develop
a list of goals that BABAB would like to accomplish in the coming year. There are currently a number of policies that the City has approved (transportation plan, climate action plan,
downtown improvement plan, etc.). BABAB would like to see the Commission attempt to implement these policies from the top down. The bike lanes on Peach are an example of this, as they
are shown in the current transportation plan.
Safe Routes to School Report. Taylor stated that the letters announcing the awards for the coming year just went out. Bozeman school district received non-infrastructure funding.
A total of $690,000 will be distributed throughout the state and approximately half will go to non-infrastructure projects this year. Ralph asked about the status of the Bozeman SRTS
task force. Taylor is still planning on reinstating the task force and has been working to get school district leadership involved, which is something that has been lacking in the past.
Ralph stated that Bozeman Police Lt. Rich McLane, a former member of our committee, had suggested that the new lieutenant they were appointing would be a good candidate to head the
task force.
Ralph also noted that we would like both Gary and Danielle to serve as representatives of this committee on that task force. Taylor stated he had talked with the new lieutenant and
he is supportive of the program but he (Taylor) would prefer the task force leadership come from the school district.
Monthly Meeting regarding Bike and Pedestrian Projects. This was a suggestion from Tim McHarg (Planning Director) in lieu of hiring a bike-ped coordinator or assigning those duties
to an existing staff position. Tim said he would discuss this idea with Ron Dingman and get back to Ralph. Ralph recently followed up on this with Tim and Tim’s response was a suggestion
that the existing monthly meeting between the Parks Department and GVLT evolve to become this larger group meeting. Gary said they will be discussing this proposal more at their meeting
tomorrow. GVLT is not sure that this existing meeting would be the appropriate venue because their discussion is mainly focused on trails and doesn’t address larger scale bike-ped issues.
There is concern that these meetings may become diluted if the topics/attendees were expanded as suggested.
Gary also noted that these existing meetings will be moving to every other month, rather than every month. Ralph suggested that we advocate for an alternating schedule where one month
the discussion is focused on trails and the next month the discussion focus more on roadway-related bike-ped issues. Gary thinks holding a regular meeting is a step in the right direction,
but we should still advocate for hiring a bike-ped coordinator. Taylor thinks that GVLT and Parks should both be at these monthly meetings, but the two meetings should be independent
from one another. All were in favor of establishing a new monthly meeting separate from the meeting currently being held between the Parks Department and GVLT. Ralph would like our
committee to have an official representative attend those meetings, but does not want it to be Gary, so he’s not in the awkward position of trying to officially represent two groups
that
may not always have exactly the same agenda. The consensus was that we would like to see a separate meeting with someone other than Gary officially representing this committee.
Commission Meeting on April 18th. The agenda for the April 18th Commission meeting currently shows the discussion with PTS and BABAB after a special presentation on the warming hut
and appointments to BABAB and the Parks Advisory Board. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss topics of mutual interest with both committees. They will set up chairs at the table
for official representatives from both committees. Discussion will likely take a long hour and run from approximately 6:20 pm to 7:45 pm. They would like us to be there before the
meeting starts at 6:00 PM since we will be sitting at the table. Ralph, Frank, Gary and Danielle all said they will plan to be in attendance and sitting at the table.
Ralph would like Gary to be the primary spokesperson on behalf of our committee on the topic related to establishing a bike-ped coordinator position. Another topic of discussion will
be distracted driving. Ralph noted that Senate Bill 251 appears to be totally dead now. It would take an unusual set of circumstances for it to be revived at this point. Sam noted
that Carson suggested we discuss distracted driving during this meeting with the Commission. Bill agreed that we should go on record as supporting this initiative.
BABAB’s other priorities are making sure that the infrastructure improvements that they desire are implemented as efficiently as possible and in general closing the loop on what projects
are coming up. John Van Delinder does a good job of keeping both committees informed, but often times we don’t get the opportunity to provide input before its too late. CIP planning
should also be addressed. Taylor noted that by the time the public meetings come about, most of the decisions have already been made. Bike and pedestrian groups need to be at the table
when city priorities are being set. Danielle agreed that there should be a better process for making sure our committees are informed about upcoming projects with enough time to provide
valuable input to the commission before a decision is made.
Other topics suggested by Gary include the City’s current sidewalk policy and a strategy for installing missing sidewalk links. All agree that the City should require that sidewalks
be installed at the same time as the rest of the public infrastructure improvements. BABAB will be focused on filling in gaps related to both sidewalks and bike lanes. All agreed that
we need to have a point person speak on behalf of our committee to make sure these priority topics are addressed. We should also develop a list of priorities that we can distribute
at the meeting so it becomes part of the record with the understanding that we may not have enough time to discuss each topic in detail. That list should include the bike-ped coordinator
position, the cell phone ordinance, sidewalk policy, installing missing sidewalk gaps, sidewalk maintenance (snow/ice removal and replacing deteriorating sidewalks), and safe routes
to school improvements.
Ralph would also like to suggest that all of the City’s advisory groups to which the Commission appoints members (including our committee) be entitled to more than the standard 3-minute
public comment period at commission meetings. He would also like to mention that we have not had participation from the school district on our committee and suggest that we consider
restructuring the committee. Ralph is also considering bringing up his opinion of 15 mph speed zones, but may hold off on this for another time.
Jackrabbit Lane Improvements. Ralph referred to a memo that the County Commission recently submitted to MDT regarding the proposed Jackrabbit Lane improvements. He was disappointed
that our committee was not involved in the process and did not get an opportunity to provide input. Perhaps we should consider changing our committee name to Bozeman Area Pedestrian
and Traffic Safety Committee. As Frank noted, our current name implies that our committee serves the City only.
Future Agenda Items. The following items have been carried over from previous meeting minutes as potential future agenda items.
Missing sidewalk sections and accessible curb ramps along Main Street
Sidewalk/trail along Oak from 7th to Rouse
Longfellow Crossing
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 Distracted Driver Issues
South 19th Avenue turn lanes
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 PM.
Next Meeting: May 11, 2011
Minutes by Danielle Scharf
Edits by Ralph Zimmer