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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 08/16/1995Draft minutes to be approved by the Transportation Board at their September 20, 1995 meeting. TRANSPORTATION BOARD MEETING MINUTES AUGUST 16,1995 I0111t1:7 a 01 D1;1 Biccola Chair -- Colin Gerety 546-0460 Vice Chair -- Paul Valentine 493-0100 Council Liaison -- Will Smith 223-0425 Staff Liaison -- Tom Frazier 224-6052 Secretary -- Cindy Scott 224-6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: SE P 151995 Mark Egeland, Colin Gerety, Dolores Highfield, Donn Hopkins, Elizabeth Hudetz, Ray Moe, Paul Perlmutter, & Paul Valentine. BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Sara Frazier STAFF/COUNCIL/GUESTS: Tom Frazier, Ron Phillips, & Cindy Scott - STAFF. A.J. Bittman & Les Salberg - DIAL-A- RIDE/COMSIS CORP. AGENDA: Call to Order Approval of Minutes A. PUBLIC COMMENT B. ACTION ITEMS 1. Letters by Chair Gerety C. DISCUSSION ITEMS 1. Budget Process Update 2. Transportation Demand Management Update 3. Transit Development Plan Update 4. Master Transportation Plan Update 5. Board Member Reports 6. Staff Reports 7. Summary/Next Agenda 8. Other Business Chair Gerety called the meeting to order at 5:53 p.m. There was a motion, a second and a unanimous vote to approve the July 19,1995 Transportation Board meeting minutes as presented A. PUBLIC COMMENT A.J. Bittman introduced himself and stated that he works for Comsis Corporation and manages the Dial -A -Ride central dispatch office. Les Salberg distributed a folder of information. Mr. Bittman stated that his purpose is to meet everyone and share how Dial -A - Ride is going and then make himself available for questions or issues. The folder contains an overview of recent program improvements as well as some customer service proposals that have been developed recently. He then asked if there were any questions or comments. Tom Frazier added that in addition to the comment cards that are given out to the customers, there was a formal survey done with the Commission on Disability on the Dial -A -Ride Program on Monday. When the results are known, Dave Smith will be presenting them. Mr. Frazier offered to include the meeting minutes and the results of that survey in the Transportation Board's agenda packets for next month. Valentine commented that Shamrock Taxi seems to have the majority of complaints and asked of there is any special reason for that. Bittman replied that Shamrock will have more complaints because they have 62% of the service, ridership wise. He added that Shamrock has been undergoing some "growing pains" lately with driver turn over which has caused some complaints about being late in the month of July. City staff is aware and is on top of this issue with Shamrock. Hudetz asked for clarification on what Comsis is exactly. Bittman explained that the company determines who will get the customer - Care -A -Van or Shamrock based on the information that the patron gives. Frazier said that the current system is not the best and that in coordination with Comsis and with Michelle Johnson who was the former Transportation Director for the City of Cheyenne these issues are being addressed. After the first of the year, there will probably be another request for proposals for paratransit services. B.1. LETTERS BY CHAIR GERETY Valentine stated that if the Board is going to point out a problem to City Council, then it ought to also point out some solutions and recommendations. He noted that since the last meeting, Governor Romer is now talking about using mining money to use for transportation. He stated that he agrees with Chair Gerety, if we can find a way to make the trucks, cars and commercial buses pay for a larger percent of some of the services that they use, it would be most helpful. The utility fee is one idea and raising the gas tax is another, but no one of these things is going to solve the problem for the State or the City or the County. 2 Hudetz thinks that meters are a good idea and suggested increasing the cost of license plates or do a combination of many things. Perlmutter suggested a separate meeting to discuss ideas. Gerety said that his intent was to frame the question philosophically so that people would discuss it and not just look at sales tax as an easy way out. Phillips stated that the addition of a sentence that says, "Transportation Staff has a task team working on a long range financial plan for transportation right now," or something similar to let Council know that staff is doing the research and will bring it to the Board for discussion and modification over the next few months. Somewhere in the letter, it could say, "we are addressing this along with staff in the long range financial plan which we plan to bring to Council within the next few months." It might also mention that we're looking at the Transportation Utility Fee (TUF). We're not saying this philosophically and leaving you with a problem, we are addressing the issues now and will bring information back to the Council with recommendations and suggestions. He suggested that staff continue with the research that they will share with the Board, and the Board in turn could peruse the information and decide from there what they want to forward to the Council in the form of recommendations. He further added that there is nothing wrong with sending the letter now as long as we add to it that there is work being accomplished and the Board will be bringing back recommendations. Gerety said that he will take the original letter and add a paragraph at the end that says staff is working on these issues and the Board encourage staff and Council to be creative. Chair Gerety read the letter aloud. Upon completion, the Board discussed the wording of the letter and in conclusion, decided that Gerety would add a sentence that says, "if we are to subsidize a mode of transportation, let's make sure it's one we want to encourage." Phillips stated that from now on, when he says "streets", he is talking about the transportation corridor within the public rights of way. Staff has identified all the definitions in the City Code of "street", of which there are about six or seven different ones. Staff is going to try to get approved, through the City Attorney's office, and present to Council a definition of "street" that is all encompassing for all modes of transportation and change all the definitions to be consistent throughout the Code. There was a motion to approve the letter with the addition of the sentence in the second paragraph, "if we are to subsidize a mode of transportation, let's make sure it's one we want to encourage" and in the final paragraph a sentence that states, "we understand staff is working on these budget issues and urge the Council to keep these issues in mind as they consider transportation funding. " There was a second and the motion carried by a unanimous vote. 3 C.1. BUDGET PROCESS UPDATE Phillips said that Governor Romer's announcement today about his proposal to use $100 million a year in general fund reserve was quite a surprise. Romer has been working closely with a group called Coalition for Mobility and Air Quality (CMAQ) which is a private group that has been meeting for over a year to talk about what should be put on the ballot in 1996 for transportation funding. They were getting very close to making a recommendation on what that should be. Then out of the blue, Romer comes up with this proposal and it makes no sense. How is anybody going to vote to raise taxes or fees for transportation in the state if the general fund has this money that they are just going to throw at it? Egeland noted that the timing is interesting. Phillips stated that a couple months ago, staff presented to the Board what the transportation service area was requesting in new additional money for 1996. There was a list that had the priorities, about 17 items, and last month staff brought what was actually going to be included in the manager's recommended budget to the Council and what was not. The Board had asked for more detail on each department in the service area, so the information was included in the packet. He stated that he would like to turn the floor over to questions rather than reiterate what the packet information already says. There were a few general questions regarding where/why certain things were located in the information which Phillips clarified for the Board. Phillip said that if it is permissible, next time staff will bring a brief explanation of how everything is fitting together. He has some visuals that may be very helpful in understanding the budget picture. C.2. TRANSPORTATION DEMAND MANAGEMENT UPDATE Bracke stated that on the whole, we're behind schedule. There are two reports that should be complete soon and that Task 2 is 90% complete. The Origin & Destination Study/travel diary information has been coded, but results are not complete yet. The Employee Transportation Coordinator (ETC) network has begun to get off the ground. The business roundtable discussions did not work, so the TDM group decided to do a flagship program - Larimer County will be the first to try this out on. They will be a model for others to see how the program works and willing businesses in Greeley and Loveland are currently being sought. Bracke announced that since he has taken the position of the City's Traffic Engineer, he is making a transition away from the TDM. Taking over the leadership role will be Kathleen Reavis, one of the department's new Transportation Planners. Chair Gerety asked for copies of the reports when they are done. C.3. TRANSIT DEVELOPMENT PLAN UPDATE Transit Advisory Board - Frazier said that City Council didn't like the idea of a Transit Board, they thought issues should be taken through this board. He asked how this board would like to deal with transit issues and which issues in particular would the board like to deal with? Preferred Service Plan - Frazier stated that the Council did approve of the preferred service plan. They thought it worked fine, but they did have other pieces they talked about as far as developing partnerships and felt that regional service needs to be looked and partnerships built with the other government agencies. Paratransit - Council suggested taking a look to see if paratransit can be more effective, more productive. They did support all those concepts with the caveat that staff does not have a blank check, so don't plan on implementing all these things. They would like to have another study session prior to the approval of the final plan to look at the finances. This will happen later in the fall. The next step for the TDP process is to do some public meetings in neighborhoods and different groups that have an interest (September/October). These meetings will be more detailed, such as route configurations, frequency, type of service and what times. He stated that he will bring the public comments along with the proposed financial plan for not only funding the preferred service, but also funding the financially constrained TDP. There was a positive discussion about the joint effort between Transfort and Poudre R-1 for transporting the new Fort Collins High School students before and after school. CA. MASTER TRANSPORTATION PLAN (MTP) UPDATE Phillips stated that he will give a brief update and that he hopes to have Jim Charlier at the next meeting to go into some depth on the scope of work. They hope that the next board meeting will be a kick-off for the MTP and plan to use the Transportation Board as the primary citizen advisory group for the MTP. Staff is simultaneously working on a request for proposals (RFP) for the Pedestrian and Parking Plans. Frazier stated that we are currently working with CSU on the Parking Plan. The group hopes to have a citywide parking policy plan and then have specific areas of concern with the downtown area first, then CSU second. Eventually, there will be planning done for other areas of the city as well, but these are the two most critical areas. This will be as much of a parking demand management plan, rather than saying, "here is the projected need and we need to provide this many parking spaces." That is not the goal. There is a lot going on. In the MTP, some of the key points of the scope of work are coming out of the Congestion Management Plan recommendations. There will be determinations of level of service for alternate modes of transportation, specifically pedestrians and bicycles. Staff is also planning on addressing the update of the Master Street Plan (MSP). There will be more sensitivity in the Master Street Plan part of the MTP. The MTP takes in the Fort Collins Bikeway, Pedestrian, Parking, Congestion Management, and the Master Street Plans. In the past, the MSP was not sensitive to natural areas and those sort of things. There will be more sensitivity in the future. Street standards will be looked at as well. There need to be certain consistent standards. Staff will get into more detail with the board on this in September. In the meantime, it is going very well. Staff is working on extending Charlier's contract into 1996 so that this can be complete by mid -year. Frazier added that regarding the Pedestrian Plan, staff is putting together a scope of work and will focus on instead of doing a physical plan, instead of including inventories and capital improvement projects, staff will use that information that Engineering has already collected. This plan will focus on the guidelines and recommendations, philosophies as to standards and putting things together and will give direction to not only things that are happening in the downtown, but around the university and working with developers so that there will be more of a standards and guidance document. Right now, staff is just in the process of putting the scope of work together and hopes to have that out in late September. Valentine inquired how roller bladers are going to be addressed. Hopkins stated that at CSU, they are considered a vehicle and must obey the same signage/rules for bicycles. Egeland asked about the status of the Bike Plan. Frazier responded that Kathleen Reavis is now heading this project and that she has been working on the public process and getting notifications out to all the committee members. If possible, she will attend the next meeting to meet the board members. The Board asked that staff continue to keep them informed. C.5. BOARD REPORTS Egeland commented that there is an electronic bulletin board where he works and there has been a big discussion about photo radar which branched off into other transportation issues. He said that there are a number of people in town who are frustrated with the way things are 3 such as the poorly timed traffic lights, etc. When he sees something that is wrong he will pipe in and set things straight. He is aware of a growing frustration out there with transportation and also frustration on his part in that there are many programs in place and education as far as alternative modes, but it seems that there is a lot of people who are not being reached. The next few years ought to be real exciting. Hudetz said that at the last meeting the Board talked about video cameras on buses. She heard about an interesting concept that is done in China -- karioke. The driver is in charge of the music and the passengers pass around the microphone. It is very positive and may replace the need for real cameras on buses. Hopkins shared that he saw a review of the university's new master plan. It is still preliminary, but looks at a major pedestrian core area and vehicle activity around the perimeter. This is moving ahead. A lot of the work of that plan was coordinated with Eric Bracke to see what the different impacts would be and they will try to do some modeling that Bracke suggested. His cooperation was very much appreciated. He also mentioned that they have tried to move some of the high turnover parking lots to the outside of campus to get it out of the congested core right now. The parking director is working on "cheap seats", parking which will be a reduced rate for a longer term. Hopkins said that there will be a Ram's Express bus system for the CSU football games. They will rent five buses from Transfort to shuttle people from campus to the games in order to reduce vehicle traffic. Gerety said that he and Hudetz attended a City Plan meeting. They participated in a visual preference survey and he encouraged everyone to do likewise, because the end result is that they will have a collection of pictures that reflect what people want to be around. Valentine asked about the bike racks on buses project. Phillips said that it is still in process - federal funds. Valentine also commented that he heard parking would be eliminated on east Stuart for bike lanes. Phillips responded that this has been done. C.6. STAFF REPORTS Frazier said that Transportation Planning is in the process of filling vacancies: Eric Bracke - now Traffic Engineer Kathleen Reavis was TDM Coordinator, now Transportation Planner II; handling Safe Routes to School program, Bikeway program, & neighborhood safety program. Laura Varden was planner with Adams County, is now Transportation Planner II; handling development review, parking program, the Master Street Plan, & roadway projects. Transfort Manager Hope to fill by October Transportation Planner (MPO) Is advertised right now and hope to interview after Labor Day. TDM Coordinator - Was Kathleen Reavis, need to fill her position, hopefully in October. Tari Vondrasek Interim Bicycle Education Coordinator Frazier stated that the Downtown Safety Committee is working with the different merchants in the area to deal with all the wheeled issues. They are discussing what the policies, regulations and guidelines should be. Staff hopes that there will be some recommendations within the next three to four months from the group. Courthouse -expansion - This grew into a Civic Center development plan and looks at developing not only county/city facilities, but looks at storm drainage, parkways, transportation, and parking. It will be an example of how an activity center can be programmed and planned. It should be an example of what the recommendations that come out of the City Plan will be. Frazier asked if there is any interest in serving on the advisory committee for that. They will meet once every three weeks. Egeland and Valentine indicated interest. The meetings will start in September. Phillips stated that the Council approved expansion of the Transportation Board by two members and at their last meeting, they appointed Alan Beatty and Timothy Johnson. They will join the board at the September meeting. Phillips reported that the county has received a grant to put bike lanes along County Road 17 (extension of Shields Street) to Loveland. They are doing the street part, putting on eight foot gravel shoulders. This grant will pave and stripe those shoulders for bike lanes. They were counting on the open space initiative to pass last November for the $50,000 match so they are asking Loveland and Fort Collins to share that match three ways. Fort Collins' share would be $16,700. The money has been found -- Parks and Recreation is providing half and Transportation Services is providing half. It's hard to say when it will be done. It is a two mile stretch and Phillips said he will find out exactly where the two mile stretch is. C.7. SUMMARY/NEXT AGENDA - Master Transportation Plan Update- Jim Charlier - Final report on US 287/SH 14 - Election of new officers (if it is time, Cindy will check due date) - Board Plan (if it is time, Cindy will check on due date) C.8 OTHER BUSINESS The Board enthusiastically wished Cindy a happy birthday. There being no other business, the meeting adjourned at 8:05 p.m. &i? Cindy L. cott, Secretary Pi