HomeMy WebLinkAboutBicycle Advisory Committee - Minutes - 07/13/2009
MEETING MINUTES of the
BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
July 13, 2009
6:00p.m.
Guaranty Bank
2900 S. College
Fort Collins, CO 80521
FOR REFERENCE:
Chair: Dan Gould 970-482-1074
Vice Chair: Chris Gaughan 970-223-1146
Staff Liaison: Dave “DK” Kemp 970-416-2411
Administrative Support: Emily Francis
BOARD/CITY ORGANIZATION MEMBERS PRESENT
Downtown Development Authority: Kathy Cardona
Fort Collins Bicycle Co-Op: Doug Cutter
Transportation Board: Bill Jenkins
Air Quality Board: Greg McMaster
Bike Fort Collins: Jeff Morrell
Senior Advisory Board: Marcia Richards
Natural Resources Advisory Board - Clint Skutchan
University Connections: Rick Reider
Economic Advisory Committee: Rick Price
Land Conservation and Stewardship Board: Chris Gaughan
Parks and Recreation Board: Michael Chalona
AT LARGE MEMBERS PRESENT
Dan Gould Kim Sharpe Cathy Mathis
ABSENT
Poudre School District: John Holcomb
Colorado State University: David Hansen
OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE
Dave “DK” Kemp
1. CALL TO ORDER
Chair Gould called meeting to order at 6:03 p.m.
2. AGENDA REVIEW
Agenda was approved as presented.
3. PUBLIC COMMENT
Two members of the public were present but had no comments. Two email messages
received via bac@fcgov.com are appended. Protocol for responding to these messages was
discussed and is described below.
4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
June 8, 2009 minutes approved
5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT
None
6. ACTION ITEMS
a) Identify committee member to serve as meeting recorder - Rick Price volunteered to
be the recorder of minutes. There were no other volunteers, so Price was selected. Chairman
Gould asked that notes of the meetings be forwarded to the Chair for final preparation within
24 hours when possible.
b) North College Improvements - Jennifer Petrik explained the issue of the shortage of
funds on the project which extends from Vine Drive to the Hickory/Conifer intersection on
North College. Transportation Planners are preparing for a Council work session July 28th by
finalizing alternatives and seeking input from a number of boards and commissions.
Due to the shortage of funding to complete the entire project Petrik ask for the BAC opinion
on two options:
1) Complete the project with full improvements and landscaping from Vine Drive north as far
as the money lasts; or
2) Complete the project with improvements with minimal landscaping from Vine Drive north.
Option 1 is favored by some North College landowners and businesses because of the
“Gateway” effect, while Option 2 is favored by many as it optimizes installation of bike/ped
facilities immediately farther north.
BAC discussion focused on the safety issues for bicycles and visibility issues with trees as
landscaping.
A consensus was reached to recommend Option 2, optimizing infrastructure with less
landscaping as far north as possible utilizing native seed and using few trees for better
visibility and lower cost.
A motion for the BAC to recommend the preferred alternative design (on street bike lanes
and detached mixed-use sidewalk) as passed unanimously. Chairman Gould will write a
recommendation to Council summarizing the opinion of the BAC for distribution to Jennifer
Petrik and Gary Thomas, chair of the Transportation Board.
7. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS
a) City Responses to Public Comment E-mails Received by the BAC – Chairman Gould
introduced the subject: the Public is invited to attend BAC meetings for public comment or
to submit e-mails via the BAC web site if the cannot attend a meeting:
(http://www.fcgov.com/cityclerk/transportation-bac.php If you are unable to make
it to one of our meetings held during the day, please feel free to send us your
comments to bac@fcgov.com. Thank you.)
Gould had asked Dave “DK” Kemp to summarize the nature of these e-mails and to propose
a protocol for responding to them. Kemp explained that he receives lots of messages directed
to his office but that there were two e-mail messages addressed to the BAC about:
1) Cyclists not respecting or following vehicular rules of the road; and
2) Cyclists not being courteous while expecting motor vehicles to share the road with them.
Kemp read potential responses to these e-mails that described the educational outreach
initiatives his office is undertaking to address these issues.
After considerable discussion the BAC agreed to table discussion for now and asked Kemp to
send out an automatic response acknowledging the message, thanking the sender of the
message and noting that it would be forwarded to the BAC for consideration at their next
meeting. It was also suggested that the web site make it clear that any messages submitted
will become a matter of public record via the BAC minutes.
b) Bike Month Review and CMAQ funding update – Dave Kemp presented a brief report
on a successful bike month including Fossil Creek Park Bike Fest, Bike Polo, good press
coverage, and Bike to Work numbers. 35,000 miles were logged by 17,000 cyclists in ’09
versus 31,750 miles by 13,240 cyclists in 2008. The 110 businesses in ’08 increased to 150
businesses in ’09. FCBikes collaborated with the City’s Climate Wise program in 2009.
CDOT has asked for more and better data to demonstrate the effectiveness of programs such
as these.
CMAQ Funding – Both of FC Bikes funding proposals for 2010-2011 have been funded:
FC Bikes at $370K
FCBike Library at $200K
Kemp is working with CDOT on finalizing the portion of the proposal about regional
cooperation (CDOT questions whether or not other entities will “come to the table”). He is
also in discussions with CDOT to “flesh out the details.”
BAC members asked DK for copies of his Budgeting for Outcomes Proposal (BFO) and
copies of the final CMAQ proposals for the two projects. Kemp agreed to provide these and
noted that the request to the City for its matching portion of the FCBikes CMAQ proposal
was reduced from $75K to $40K due to budget constraints within the City.
c) Development of a BAC work plan – Chairman Gould introduced the topic and suggested
there be two outcomes from this discussion: 1) Develop a mission statement for the BAC
based on the mission statement and the nine bulleted points from our City Council mandate;
2) Develop the BAC Work Plan derived from the recommendations of the 2008 Bike Plan.
We should develop a process to help the BAC have an impact on implementing of the bike
plan. Chairman Gould distributed a spreadsheet list of the 31 bike plan recommendations
developed by BAC member, Rick Price as a possible tool for analyzing the plan and our
involvement in helping to implement these recommendations.
Discussion focused on:
a) Metrics and the importance of measuring numbers of cyclists; metrics for economic
development; metrics for continued funding of FC Moves and the community mobility index
which is a contender in the BRO funding process.
b) The current status of the 31 Bike Plan recommendations;
c) The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) Bicycle Friendly Communities Program and
how it factors into our priorities and what have other communities done in this respect?
d) Creating a sub-group or working group of the BAC to help move this analysis along;
e) The questionable value of a work plan and the variety of work plans developed by other
boards and commissions;
f) Prioritizing our focus and identifying a few items that we’d like to be proactive about
rather than reactive;
g) Increasing numbers of cyclists in the community by creating a safer bicycling
environment, by encouraging businesses that encourage bicycling, etc.
h) Working with Traffic Operations to separate traffic counts to distinguish bicycles from
motor vehicles to develop a better set of metrics.
i) The BFO process and the role of the public and boards or commissions in that process;
After considerable discussion it was agreed that Kim Sharpe would head a work group
composed of Clint Skutchan and Rick Price, with assistance from Dave Kemp and the
transportation planning staff to:
1) identify the current status of the 31 recommendations (Dave Kemp and Transportation
Planning Staff);
2) identify how the 31 recommendations fit the parameters of the League of American
Bicyclists (LAB) Bicycle Friendly Communities Program (Rick Price);
3) identify how recommendation #25 (LAB Platinum status) might be an umbrella goal to
encompass several others for the BAC.
4) the intersection between and among the recommendations in the Bike Plan, the status of
those recommendations, Platinum level status with LAB, and feedback from the LAB on our
last application.
The goal will be for this group to develop a recommendation on direction and development of
a “three-bullet” work plan for the BAC.
DK will be out until July 30th but Kim, Rick and Clint will brainstorm on developing a status
list that DK might be able to respond to upon his return.
8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS
None
9. STAFF REPORTS
None
10. OTHER BUSINESS – Agenda Items for August 10
a) Work Plan Work Group will submit a report on their recommendations;
b) FC Moves report on the BFO proposal for a community mobility index;
c) Doug Cutter requested that the BAC review the BFO from the Bike Co-op and that DK
present the FC Bikes BFO offer so that BAC can be aware of proposed direction of efforts.
DK agreed to submit the FCBikes offer if his supervisors consider it appropriate.
ADJOURN
Meeting adjourned at 8:15pm
Respectfully submitted,
____________________________
Dan Gould
Bicycle Advisory Committee Chair