HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-09-14 Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee MinutesBozeman (Area) Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee
Minutes of the April 9, 2014 Meeting
Upstairs Conference Room Alfred Stiff Office Building
Those Present:
Voting Committee Members:
Ralph
Zimmer (Gallatin County)
Gary Vodehnal (City of Bozeman)
Danielle Scharf (City of Bozeman)
Frank Manseau (Gallatin County)
Sue Brown (At-large Member)
Vance Ruff (Bozeman School District
7)
Official Non-Voting Committee Members:
John Van Delinder (City of Bozeman Streets Department)
Dave Fowler (County Road and Bridge Department)
City Commissioners, County Commissioners,
and School Board Members (Non-Voting on PTS):
Cyndy Andrus (City Commissioner)
Liaison Law Enforcement Officers (Non-Voting on PTS):
(None in attendance)
Guests:
Angie Zanin (MDT
Bike & Pedestrian Coordinator)
Tony Becken-Gaddo (DOWL HKM)
Todd Swinehart (Bozeman School District 7)
Sam Miller (Bozeman Deaconess Hospital)
Daniel R. Peterson (Guest)
Quorum: Present.
NEW
BUSINESS:
Ralph called the meeting to order at 12:00 PM.
Public Comment. Daniel Peterson expressed his frustration walking around town in the snow and mentioned the “Do Your Duty”
door knob tags. He asked if a similar tag had been used for knapweed. John said that is handled by the Engineering Department, and Gary also asked to be notified of problem areas,
particularly along trails.
Consideration of Meeting Agenda. Ralph offered the opportunity to provide input on the meeting agenda and noted that he will take some liberties as we have
many items to discuss. No comments were made.
Minutes. Vance made a motion to approve the minutes of the March 12, 2014 meeting, second by Frank. A typo was noted on line 39. Motioned
passed.
Update on Previous Actions. Ralph provided an update on the previous discussion we’ve had related to the City’s Transportation Alternatives proposals. Three proposals were submitted
by the City, two were submitted by the School District, and MDT received a total of 72 proposals state-wide. Ralph provided a handout of all project proposals and those that were selected.
One of the City projects was selected and one of the School District projects was selected. We were told previously that the School District project was likely for a sidewalk along
College. School District representatives in attendance today were not able to confirm if that was indeed the project awarded.
Ralph reported that Kesleigh Walin did submit the application
for funding the sidewalk study that we have discussed previously. We submitted a letter of support for her application. Rebecca Gleason will be her faculty advisor, but we have not
yet heard whether the application was approved for funding.
At the end of the last meeting, Ralph noted that he had recently learned about an awards program related to good work in
the bike and pedestrian arena. We decided at that meeting that we would like to nominate Taylor Lonsdale, but Ralph was unable to get it in by the short deadline. Perhaps we could
nominate him next year instead.
City Commission Report. Cyndy reported on the Commission’s recent decision to create an SID for Story Street improvements, which will include sidewalk
replacement in several areas. Ralph said he remembered a previous discussion where Craig Woolard stated that there may be certain locations where sidewalks with tree root damage may
be repaired by the City. John explained this further by noting that the City has evaluated particular areas, has hired a contractor to repair them, and the Street Department is paying
for the work.
Cyndy reported that the Commission also approved the soccer complex funded by the Parks and Trails Bond, which will also include some trails and adjacent street improvements
(sidewalks, bike lanes, etc.). We will discuss the soccer complex in greater detail later in the agenda, and also at a future meeting.
Liaison Officer Reports. Liaison officers were
not in attendance today.
City Street Department Report. John reported that the Main Street mill and overlay project will begin in June. Knife River was awarded the contract. Millings
will be reused on L Street and they will give the remainder to the County. They will maintain one lane of traffic in each direction on Main Street throughout the project. Mendenhall
will also be under construction from Wallace to 7th. There was not enough room for a bike lane on this project, but they will be using sharrows. Gary asked if millings can be used
on South Black and John stated that it will require more extensive work.
County Road Department Report. Dave Fowler stated that the County will help the City with the use of millings
on L Street and would be happy to take the leftover millings. Dave explained that they do a lot of prep work before the placement of millings to help with drainage and then chip seal
after. The County is currently working on a lot of pothole repairs and gravel road maintenance. They are also repairing some gravel roads that were washed out in recent flood events.
Danielle thanked Dave for his efforts in getting street signs replaced in Hyalite Heights Subdivision.
MDT Bike and Pedestrian Coordinator. Angie Zanin was in attendance at our meeting today. She works for MDT in Helena and serves as the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) coordinator in addition
to her duties as Bike/Ped Coordinator. She has been working with MDT engineers on the rumble strip policy and has also been working with maintenance chiefs regarding special events
with bikes on road signage, and is developing guidelines for event coordinators. She has also been working on website updates. She is working on spreading awareness about the statewide
transportation plan, TranPlan21 and provided a handout today with the Policy Goals and Actions from that plan. She is also updating the statewide bicycle route map and has been in contact
with the Department of Commerce about bicycle tourism in the state.
She serves on the review committee for the Recreational Trails Program (RTP), for which she is currently reviewing
applications and has provided input on various projects across the state. She is working to finish the current SRTS grant allocations that are out there. She does not anticipate another
round of funding because of challenges with getting them to finish up their projects. They have been providing bicycle trailers to various school districts, but would prefer to find
a way for a single trailer to be used by many different school districts.
Angie just recently moved from Pennsylvania to Montana and has a degree in regional planning and work experience
with the Army Corps of Engineers. She enjoys working with kids and has a passion for smart growth and related initiatives.
Gary submitted an RTP application that included a variety
of items, including coordination with the City, and a new one-mile loop trail in the Snowfill Recreation area, and may have also included a restroom at Snowfill. Angie noted that there
were 95 applications statewide. Angie also provided a brief overview of feedback on the TA application review process.
John noted that he often gets calls asking why roadway shoulders
aren’t swept for bikes, and they are often on MDT routes. Angie said she gets that question a lot too. It will help to have the bike routes mapped because they can make them a priority
for wider shoulders and more regular sweeping.
Gary asked Angie about the rumble strip policy and expressed his concern with bicycles riding in the travel lane to go around rumble strips.
Angie explained that the number one fatal accident type in Montana is run-off-the-road accidents. MDT’s current draft rumble strip policy says they will not be installed on 1 foot
shoulders, and on shoulders of 4 feet or less they will only be installed where absolutely needed by crash history. It’s difficult for her to justify to Engineering which highways are
being used by bicycles because they don’t do statewide bicycle counts. Dave noted that many on the maintenance side also don’t like rumble strips for various reasons.
Ralph provided
Angie with an overview of the makeup our committee and asked Angie how our relationship could work going forward. Angie stated that she can’t go into communities without being invited
and asked for her input. She also noted that in some other states, groups like ours have developed an advocacy network across the state. She can’t do that for us, but she encouraged
us to do something along those lines and she would be happy to coordinate with us.
Gary asked her about missing sidewalks on the east end of Main Street from Highland to Griffin. She suggested that we should show up during the public input period for a project or
write letters in advance of a project to notify MDT of the need for sidewalks in this or other locations.
Ralph asked how she fits into the organizational structure of MDT. Angie
explained that the Bike/Ped Coordinator used to fall under the multi-modal bureau, then it moved to grants, then transit. All are located under Planning, which is directed by Lynn Zanto.
She doesn’t do a lot of work with transit, but there is quite a bit of flexibility in her position that allows her to work with all divisions. She sees committees like ours as her
connection to the Bozeman community and others across the state.
Highland Boulevard Extension North of Main Street. Ralph put this item on the agenda thinking Mike Delaney may be able
to attend our meeting again, but he was not able to. Ralph said he has not yet written the letter we discussed at our last meeting, but he still intends to do so.
Community Transportation
Safety Plan. Ralph asked Danielle for an update on the plan implementation. She has not heard anything more from Rick, but will check in with him before our next meeting.
ITE Meeting
Overview. Ralph asked Danielle to provide an overview of anything interesting from the recent ITE meeting in Miami. She said the most interesting was the session she attended on the
Google automated vehicle. They have logged over 500,000 test miles on public roadways and expect the automated vehicle to be available commercially within the next five years.
Soccer
Complex. John provided an overview of planned pedestrian connections associated with the plans for the new soccer complex. He noted the connection for the proposed future high school
site. Ralph asked if there are enough issues that we should continue to discuss this item. John said Jeff Graff is the manager of the Trails and Open Space Bond, and we could invite
him to a future meeting. John thought we should push to have Cottonwood constructed with this project, because they are not currently planning to do so. He thinks it’s important to
have access on all four sides for such a large park. All the traffic will go down Flanders Mill to access it. This would be a good topic to include on a future agenda and perhaps we
could provide input during the master plan process.
Next Meeting. Our next meeting will be scheduled for May 14th at 12:00 pm. No conflicts for those in attendance.
The meeting was
adjourned at 1:30 PM.
Next Meeting: May 14, 2014 at noon as noted above.
Minutes by Danielle Scharf
Edits by Ralph Zimmer