HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-14-11 Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee Minutes I Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee
2 Minutes of the December 14, 2011 Meeting
3 Upstairs Conference Room at Alfred Stiff Office Building
4
5
6 Those Present:
7
8 Voting Committee Members:
9 Ralph Zimmer (Gallatin County)
10 Gary Vodehnal (City of Bozeman)
11 Danielle Scharf(City of Bozeman)
12 Frank Manseau (Gallatin County)
13 Sue Brown(Member At-Large)
14 Sam Miller (Member At-Large)
15 Vance Ruff(Bozeman School District)
16
17 Non-Voting Committee Members:
18 John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman— Street Superintendent)
19
20 Liaison Officers:
21 (none)
22
23 Guests:
24 Bill Bartlett (Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board)
25 Brian Krueger (City of Bozeman Planning)
26 Cordell Pool (Stahly Engineering)
27
28 Quorum: present
29
30 NEW BUSINESS:
31
32 Ralph called the meeting to order at 12:05 PM.
33
34 1. Public Comment. Representatives of the South University District project were in
35 attendance to provide an overview of the project. Ralph will add this item to the agenda for
36 discussion. Bill also has a Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board (BABAB) report, but will
37 have to leave early. No other public comment.
38
39 2. Consideration of Meeting Agenda. Ralph offered the opportunity to provide additional
40 input on the agenda and noted that he will take liberties in order to accommodate our special
41 guests (BABAB and discussion on the South University District project). Then we'll get
42 back to the regular agenda.
43
44 3. Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board (BABAB) Report on Distracted Driving. Bill
45 thanked the committee for our help with the Distracted Driving ordinance recently adopted
46 by the City and said that now we need to take a role in the education component for which
47 the City has budgeted up to $10,000.
48
49 Bill commented that one Federal Government agency is now urging all States adopt laws
50 prohibiting cell-phone usage by drivers. It is even recommending prohibition of hands-free
51 devices. Danielle amplified on Bill's comment and reported that the National Transportation
52 Safety Board (NTSB) announced on December 13 that they unanimously voted for a
53 nationwide ban on the non-emergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those
54 designed to support the driving task) for all drivers.
55
56 Ralph noted that the education component will be discussed later in the agenda and at future
57 planning meetings.
58
59 4. South University District Project. Brian Krueger and Cordell Pool provided a brief
60 overview of this proposed development project located south of Kagy Boulevard and east of
61 S 19th Avenue. It's a 127-acre mixed-use development. They would like to make us aware
62 of the project now, but will bring a more formal proposal back to our committee for
63 comments in January. They provided copies of the master plan for review. The first phase
64 will be an 11-acre student housing complex near the intersection of Kagy and l lth and will
65 include a future connection to Stucky on the south. They will extend 11th and a portion of
66 Stucky as collector streets, including a proposed roundabout on Stucky. It will be zoned
67 residential mixed use and will consist primarily of residential units with some commercial
68 areas along 1 lth
69
70 They are developing future design guidelines to accommodate pedestrians within the
71 development. The Galligator Trail is within the vicinity of this project,just to the east. The
72 proposed 14th and 17th rights-of-way are shown as 70 feet wide to provide bike lanes and
73 boulevard sidewalks, which is 10 feet wider than the typical 60-foot right-of-way. Parallel
74 on-street parking would be provided on all streets. They plan to create a hierarchy of
75 pedestrian facilities, including sidewalks along roadways, connections to parkland, and trails.
76 It would consist of 6-foot sidewalks on all roadways and 10-foot connections to trails.
77
78 Ralph expressed concern about snow removal/maintenance responsibilities. Cordell
79 explained that Phase 1 will be student housing with management staff on-site that will
80 provide maintenance services (snow removal, garbage pickup, etc.).
81
82 The student apartments will be leased by room, rather than entire unit. They're grouped in
83 two to four bedroom units with shared spaces and the bed/bath suites can be locked
84 independently from the rest of the apartment. Many will also be furnished to avoid damage
85 associated with students moving furniture in and out.
86
87 They recently submitted an informal application to the City to introduce the project and
88 request initial feedback. The formal application will be made in January. Ralph stated that
89 this committee would like to have the opportunity to review the more formal application.
90 Brian asked if it would be ok to provide us with pdf s of the review materials, as they only
91 receive a limited number of hard copies. John offered to print copies for the committee.
92 Brian stated that they could also request an abbreviated version of application materials for
93 committee review. Ralph said we have typically been provided with one hard copy, but extra
94 electronic copies would also be helpful.
95
96 5. Minutes. Minutes of the November 9, 2011 meeting were reviewed and unanimously
97 approved with the minor edits made by Ralph Zimmer prior to distribution.
98
99 6. Membership. Ralph was very pleased to announce that the City received an application for
100 this committee from Vance Ruff, School District Transportation Director. Vance
101 subsequently reported the School District had appointed him to one of its two voting
102 positions on the committee. The City, County and School District are each authorized to
103 appoint 3 members to this committee (two voting members traditionally not employed by
104 that governmental entity and one non-voting member traditionally employed by the
105 governmental entity and serving as an official "link" between the entity and the committee).
106 Vance has been the District's Transportation Director for the past 4 years and has extensive
107 experience working on school busing for the District, and with a private busing company
108 before joining the District.
109
110 The City has two voting members on staggered two-year terms. Danielle's term will expire
111 at the end of the month and she has submitted an application for reappointment. The City
112 Commission will make a decision at their December 19th meeting at noon. There will be no
113 changes to County representation at this time.
114
115 We also elect zero, one or two at-large voting members. We currently have two (Sam Miller
116 and Sue Brown), whose terms will expire at the first meeting in 2012. Ralph suggested that
117 both consider reappointment. Sam and Sue both expressed interest in reappointment for
118 2012. Final decisions will be made at our January meeting.
119
120 7. Liaison Officer Reports. Sgt. Jim Anderson was not able to attend as the Sheriff s Office is
121 shorthanded today. Ralph simply did not remember if he heard from Tommie.
122
123 8. Street Department Report/Safe Routes to School Report. John recently attended a
124 meeting with Taylor Lonsdale and the local Safe Routes to School (SRTS) committee to
125 discuss how the schools will spend the $1000 dollars in SRTS funds that they each received
126 from last year's grant application. The principal at Longfellow is interested in mounting a
127 radar sign in front of their school. The meeting included representatives from the Police
128 Department, Marilyn King from the School District and at least one representative from each
129 school. Danielle also attended the same meeting as an official representative of the PTS
130 Committee. Danielle noted that they also reviewed the non-infrastructure portion of the draft
131 SRTS application, which is due December 31st. Danielle and John did not see the draft
132 application for infrastructure projects yet, but Taylor said he will email the draft applications.
133
134 Frank talked with representatives from Longfellow Elementary again and was invited to a
135 meeting tomorrow afternoon with Katie Webster to discuss the improvements they would
136 like (speed tables on Tracy, etc.). Frank also mentioned again that another Longfellow
137 employee had expressed interest in serving on this committee. Frank also thought maybe
138 Katie would be interested. Ralph said we need to pursue other members through the School
139 District in the future and now have a good avenue to do that with Vance on the committee.
140
141 Vance explained that he has had several meetings recently with Taylor and others to discuss
142 the walking school bus programs and how his department may be able to support their efforts
143 with busing information.
144
145
146
147 9. Recognition of John Van Delinder. Ralph recently received an email from Taylor saying
148 that, on behalf of the SRTS program, he intends to commend John Van Delinder at the
149 February 6th City Commission meeting. He invited BABAB and PTS to join in that
150 recognition effort because of the involvement and dedication we have also received from
151 John. The Commission meeting will be after our 2012 officer elections, but Ralph is hoping
152 that at least one officer of this committee will be able to attend the meeting. After
153 temporarily relinquishing the gavel to Vice Chair Gary Vodehnal, Ralph made a motion that
154 the PTS committee highly commends John Van Delinder for his ongoing and dedicated
155 commitment to pedestrian safety and traffic safety in the Bozeman area. The motion passed
156 unanimously.
157
158 10. Community Transportation Enhancement Program (CTEP) Report. Gary, Danielle and
159 John all also serve on the CTEP committee. John recently heard Ron Dingman and Dustin
160 Johnson talking about putting together a CTEP application for the current list of priority
161 projects. Dustin told Danielle awhile back that he was planning to keep the same format for
162 the CTEP committee after Ron retires.
163
164 11. College and 23rd Intersection Improvements. As noted at our last meeting, this project
165 was discussed at the October 26 Transportation Coordinating Committee (TCC) meeting.
166 Ralph abstained from voting at that meeting, but provided a copy of the minutes for
167 discussion. Because we're running low on time, Ralph will email the minutes to our
168 committee and we'll discuss it more at our next meeting, if necessary.
169
170 12. Distracted Driving Education Program. Sam noted that there will be a meeting on this
171 topic tomorrow according to Lt. Mark Johnson. Sam will be attending tomorrow as a
172 representative of the hospital. The meeting will be at 4:00 pm at the police station on Rouse
173 (next to Fire Station 1). They will be brainstorming ideas for the education program. There
174 will be a 30-day warning period before the Police Department begins to issue tickets, but
175 education will be ongoing.
176
177 Gary, Ralph and Danielle will be unable to attend the meeting. Sam said he could at that
178 meeting represent our committee in addition to the hospital. Ralph asked Sam to tell them
179 that our other members are already committed to other things at that time tomorrow, but we
180 are interested in having broader representation in the future. Sam will also invite Bill Bartlett
181 to attend on behalf of the Bozeman Area Bicycle Advisory Board (BABAB). He also
182 expects that there will be representatives from MSU, the School District, the insurance
183 industry and the cell phone industry.
184
185 Danielle noted the education materials available on www.distraction.gov. John reported
186 signs approved by MDT notifying drivers as they enter town will be installed at City
187 entrances.
188
189 13. Planning for the Coming Year. We need to begin brainstorming ideas on topics we should
190 focus on for the coming year. We will definitely be working with the City on the education
191 component of the distracted driving ordinance. Ralph would also like to go through the list
192 we've been carrying at the end of our minutes. Everyone should think about our goals and
193 objectives for the next meeting. It will make sense to discuss them in greater detail at our
194 first meeting of next year, the January 11th meeting.
195
196 14. Next Meeting. Our next regular meeting will be January 11th. We will consider electing At-
197 Large members for 2012, elect our 2012 officers, and discuss our goals and discuss our
198 objectives for the coming year.
199
200 15. Future Agenda Items. The following items have been carried over from previous meeting
201 minutes as potential future agenda items.
202
203 • Missing sidewalk sections and accessible curb ramps along Main Street
204 • Sidewalk/trail along Oak from 7th to Rouse
205 • Longfellow Crossings
206 • Path along Bridger Canyon Road
207 • Galligator Trail crossing at South Willson & Lincoln — review # of crossings along
208 Willson from Kagy to Garfield and consider a recommendation to install another at
209 Mason
210 • South Willson & College intersection improvements
211 • Citizen proposal to install flashers on South Willson at Dickerson
212 • Continue discussion on Complete Streets Policy
213 • Continue discussion on Sidewalk Encroachment Policy
214 • Continue discussion on Distracted Driving Issues
215 • South 19th Avenue turn lanes
216
217 The meeting was adjourned at 1:35 PM.
218
219 Next Meeting: January 11, 2012 with the agenda noted above.
220
221
222 Minutes by Danielle Scharf
223 Minor edits by Ralph Zimmer