HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-11-11 Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee MinutesPedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee
Minutes of the May 11, 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:
Tommie Franscioni (Bozeman Police Department)
Guests:
Andy Kerr (City Engineering)
Sean Becker (City Commission)
Quorum: present
NEW BUSINESS:
Ralph called the meeting to order at 12:00 PM.
Public Comment. No public comment.
Consideration of Meeting Agenda. Ralph offered the opportunity to provide input on the agenda. No comments were made.
Minutes. Minutes of the April 13, 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.
South Willson & College Intersection Improvements. Sometime last year the City restricted the eastbound and westbound turning movements to right-turn only. Signage was installed and
a grace period was allowed where tickets were not issued. Tickets are now being issued for turning violations. This committee and the City Engineering Department both saw value in
collecting before and after data at this intersection. Andy Kerr has taken the lead on collecting before and after volume data and performing observations to determine compliance.
Andy provided handouts summarizing the seasonally adjusted average daily traffic (ADT) data. The data showed an increase in northbound traffic at Grand and a decrease in both northbound
and southbound volumes on South Third. Tracy volumes decreased, except for the northbound volume approaching the intersection. Andy cautioned that this is just a snapshot of data and
normal variation should be expected. Andy also provided a summary of turning movement volumes representing compliance, which showed 75% in December, 78% in January, 64% later in January,
and 72% in May. Compliance has been good during peak hours because it’s difficult to make the left turn or through movement during those times anyway. Compliance is not as good during
off-peak hours because it’s much easier to make the restricted movements.
Tommie said the Bozeman Police Department has made several stops at that intersection, including 35 stops within one two-hour period. They are still giving some warnings, but usually
issue tickets. The excuse that most drivers give them is that they didn’t see the signs. Andy is not necessarily in favor of these turns restrictions. In order for a traffic control
sign to be effective, it has to fill a need and demand respect. These signs don’t do that. Signs and markings alone do not solve the problem.
Compliance at this intersection is better than at Highland and Ellis, which was only 25% based on Andy’s counts. It’s also difficult for delivery trucks to make the northbound left-turn
and eastbound right-turn at Highland & Ellis. These types of restrictions make it too easy to disobey traffic control devices. Gary mentioned that he has recently been working with
the City to install additional pedestrian crossings at Highland & Ellis and a street light to improve visibility at night. Gary is concerned that someone focused on making a restricted
left at that intersection may not be paying attention to pedestrians. The consensus of the committee is that we have serious concerns about the turning restrictions and lack of compliance
at both intersections. All agreed that the pork chop at Highland & Ellis should be removed, so we will be communicating that to staff.
Ralph asked how additional discussions at the Commission level regarding the College & Willson improvements will be handled. Andy said it’s in limbo now until we see a significant change
in accident or compliance data. He does not anticipate that administration with initiate the discussion. Ralph’s biggest concern is the lack of compliance and feels that the issue
needs to be further discussed and addressed. All agreed that this intersection is a concern, but we will continue to monitor it and wait to make a recommendation to administration regarding
this intersection.
Andy also mentioned that he had recently received a request from an adjacent property owner for a crossing at Wallace & Fridley. He initially responded by saying they will not be able
to stripe a crosswalk at this intersection and the property owner asked him to reconsider. Andy performed some observations and found that it isn’t warranted based on pedestrian crossing
volumes, but it is a recommended walking route in the SRTS plan for Hawthorne Elementary School. MDT says a marked crossing could be considered if more than 10 kids cross during a given
time period. Andy’s observations showed an average of 1.6 crossings per hour. As an alternative to crossing at this intersection, they could walk along the east side of Wallace down
to Lamme where there is an existing crosswalk. If they were going to add another crosswalk, Davis would be the logical location because there are more crossing there. The City does
not have the resources to install crosswalks in locations where they aren’t
warranted and this crossing was not recommended in the SRTS study. The committee agreed with Andy’s assessment and his planned response back to the property owner.
Next Meeting. Our next regularly scheduled meeting would fall on June 8th, but Ralph will not be able to attend that day. We could either reschedule the meeting, have Gary run the
meeting or cancel the meeting. Frank asked if the cell phone ordinance will be on an upcoming Commission agenda. Sean said that it is not currently shown on any of the agendas for
the next three meetings. There are a lot of budget discussions going on now, so it will be difficult to address any new policies until after June 30th. Ralph will get in touch with
Sam to see if he has a preference for June 1st or June 8th. Frank, Gary and Danielle would all be available either June 1st or June 8th.
Follow-up Discussion on April 18 Commission Meeting. Gary asked where we should focus our efforts from this point forward. Ralph said he has been disappointed in how the discussions
with Planning and Engineering have gone regarding their proposal to hold monthly meetings to discuss bike and pedestrian projects, as an interim substitute to hiring an alternate modes
coordinator. Ralph thought this was Tim’s idea, but now he seems to want to back out of it. Ralph brought this up only briefly during the discussion with the Commission. Ralph may
need to have some additional discussions with the department heads to see this through.
Sean noted that they have tasked the Planning Director with removing some of the inefficiencies with the review process. Too many steps in the review process only complicate things
for the Commission and the applicant. Parks and Recreation has created a subdivision sub-committee to improve the efficiency of their review process. Perhaps this committee could participate
on a similar sub-committee. Ted from GVLT used to do something similar for trails, but Gary will be taking this over now that Ted is no longer with GVLT.
Gary explained a recent review that he performed through this process for bike and pedestrian improvements near Rose Park. Ralph expressed concern that this is something we would have
been notified about in the past and our committee was not notified about this. This is an example of the issues associated with our current level of involvement. Ralph offered to have
further discussions with Tim or invite him to another one of our meetings. All agreed that Ralph should follow up with Tim to further discuss how this committee could be better involved
in the processes to help with pedestrian and bicycle projects.
Liaison Officer Reports. Tommie was in attendance and provided a report. He noted that SB 319 passed, which is a primary law allowing law enforcement to pull a car over for children
6 and under (or 60 pounds and under) not in a seat belt or car seat. This law pertains to passenger vehicles, so buses are exempt. The effective date should be sometime in July.
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
The meeting was adjourned at 1:30 PM.
Next Meeting: June 1st, 8th or 15th, pending additional discussions noted above.
Minutes by Danielle Scharf