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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 07/19/2006MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD July 19, 2006 6 p.m. City of Fort Collins Municipal Building 215 N. Mason Street — Community Room FOR REFERENCE: CHAIR: Brent Thordarson 679-2165 VICE CHAIR: Gary Thomas 482-7125 STAFF LIAISON: Mark Jackson 416-2029 ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Cass 224-6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: James Clausen Don Edmondson Sara Frazier Neil Grigg Jeannette Hallock-Solomon Tim Johnson Ed Robert Gary Thomas Brent Thordarson Kevin Westhuis CITY STAFF: Don Bachman Cynthia Cass Randy Hensley Mark Jackson David Kemp ABSENT: Rick Price OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: Scott Anthony Nancy York At 5 p.m. the board met at Howes Street and Mountain Avenue to ride the trolley. 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chair Thordarson at 6:04 p.m. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 19, 2006 2. AGENDA REVIEW No changes. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT None. Page 2 of 6 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (June 2006) There was a motion and a second to approve the June 2006 meeting minutes as presented. Discussion: Robert requested that on page 6, under his comments, 6`h line of first paragraph, the word "in " transportation be changed to "and" transportation. Edmondson requested that on page 6, under his comments, the word "Harvard" be changed to "Arbor". The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 9 — 0 (Board Member Thomas was not yet present for this item.) with those corrections. 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. 6. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS a. BIKE WEEK RECAP — D. Kemp Kemp gave the board an update on each of the numerous Bike Week activities. Overall it was very successful and actually exceeded expectations. Planning for next year will begin as early as November 2006. b. BIKE SAFETY—S. Anthony Colorado State University Police Officer Scott Anthony was introduced by Grigg. Officer Anthony stopped Grigg who was participating in Bike to Work Day for the first time in years. The reasons he was stopped and the ensuing conversation prompted Grigg to invite Officer Anthony to come and speak to the board about bike safety. Anthony talked about the Bicycle Education and Enforcement Program (BEEP) on campus and ways that they promote educational materials and educate students on bike safety. He stressed that when a person is on a bike, he/she becomes a legal vehicle on the road. Therefore, if you're a vehicle on the road, you have to obey all signage. That is one of the biggest problematic areas and is an issue that we need to educate bicyclists in Fort Collins on. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 19, 2006 Page 3 of 6 As an incentive, Anthony "sells" his citations. For example, he would write a ticket for failure to obey a traffic control device, which is a $15 fine. Then he would have gotten a card out, good for a free bicycle repair, and would have would offered the person he pulled over the coupon to "lessen" the sting. He also stops people for doing things right such as stopping at a stop sign and using hand signals and gives them bike related coupons as well. Robert suggested that next month, a Fort Collins Bike Police Officer come talk to the board. Jackson will see if it can be arranged. c. NORTH FRONT RANGE MPO REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN 2035 — S. Thieman Suzette Thieman gave a presentation that covered Transportation issues, the North Front Range MPO, the 2035 Regional Transportation Plan. Specific highlights included: • Basic Metropolitan Planning Organization information such as where it is, who it is and how it works • Transportation in the U.S. today — congestion, vehicles miles traveled, etc • North Front Range growth in 2030 • Regional Travel Patterns • Commuting patterns • Funding shortfalls in 2030 • Funding Issues • Problems: Growth in people and driving, regional issue, projects are expensive and lengthy, if we do nothing the level of service will decline, funding is scarce • Why the NFR MPO is important: The regional transportation planning forum of elected officials in NFR, Understanding of State and Federal requirements, Data source for the area, technical expertise • 2035 Regional Transportation Plan includes: - Values, visions, goals and objectives - Existing system - Demographic and environmental information - Analysis of regional travel - Corridor visions and priorities - Plan that is within the expected budget - Congestion management - Implementation steps Factors considered: - Support the economic vitality - Increase accessibility, mobility, safety, and transportation security - Protect the environment - Enhance modal integration - Promote efficient system management - Preserve the existing system APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 19, 2006 Page 4 of 6 • System Testing: Top tier corridors, Testing input comes from charrette results, public involvement, TAC and TAG, and includes Travel Demand Analysis • The 2034 RTP becomes part of the State plan • The Transportation Improvement Plan implements the RTP • Timeline • Participants in the plan: NFR Planning Council, Technical Advisory Committees, Ad Hoc Committee, MPO Staff and consultants, you! • What you can do: Get the newsletter, come to the charrettes, email us, leave a phone message, share your ideas today Thieman encouraged the board to provide input and to contact her if any questions. d. TRANSPORTATION FINANCE OVERVIEW —PART 2 —R. Hensley Hensley first provided answers to the questions that came up at the last board meeting. Hensley stated that the Council will be having a Work Session soon to talk about the City's budget issues. The City Manager has asked the service areas to generate a list of potential cuts in the amount of $8M. This is more than we need to address the whole thing, particularly if Council decides to address some of these new revenue sources and the City Manager has said he expects the solution to this problem to be a combination of new revenue sources and some cuts out of that $8M list. The reason he wanted a big list was so that Council would have some things to pick and choose from. Staff is not able to share specifics yet, as that information is not yet public, but the board should be able to get on fcgov.com tomorrow and see it. Hensley listed the dates of the upcoming council dates for the board's information. e. CONSTRUCTION/CONE ZONE UPDATE — G. Diede Bachman announced that Diede was brought back on a temporary basis to work for Engineering and when Ron announced his resignation and Bachman was appointed Interim Transportation Services Director, it seemed logical to have Diede be the Interim City Engineer. Diede went over the hand-out, giving an update on each of the projects listed. 7. ACTION ITEMS None APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 5 of 6 Transportation Board July 19, 2006 8. REPORTS a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Johnson: Riverside Commercial Development. Do we have any projections for standard arterial capacity? Jackson: As development comes in, such as the Coloradoan, we try to get the reservations at minimum for the right- of-way so when you can go in and do a full section, in many instances, if it's a big enough development we can go ahead and get actual improvements to that link. Johnson: The reason I brought it up is that I had an incident where a truck went by really fast and he had an extended mirror while I was in the bicycle lane and he came all too close. Jackson: I'll ask Baker what is in the future for that. Clausen: Airport Master Plan. I noticed in the paper today that the Airport Master Plan was approved by Council. I felt a sense of pride that we helped to get that recommended for approval to Council. Hallock-Solomon: Thank You. I just wanted to say thank you again to Gary for the trolley ride. Frazier: Fort Collins #1. In the article, they did mention the bike trails. It was also mentioned that Fort Collins is a great place for retired people to live and I think that puts extra issues on transportation. Thordarson: County Roundabout. The County is considering putting in a roundabout at Taft Hill and Vine Drive. I thought that was exciting to see. Traffic Signal Timing. Shields and Harmony is much better now, thank you. California CAL Train. I had a chance to ride CAL Train from San Jose to San Francisco which was about the longest ride of my life. It stopped every 5 minutes. I learned that you need to bring something to do. On that same trip, I was driving and noticed a sharrow on one section of the street. My impression was it seemed a lot like the ones we have on Laurel. This was in west San Jose. b. STAFF REPORTS Jackson: Railroad Issues. Robert had suggested that there be a citizen or a board liaison to the railroads to help act in some capacity to improve communication. I sent that on to Gary and Mike Herzig, who is our special liaison to the railroad and he wrote back. (Mike's message was read to the board.) Bottom line is that Herzig doesn't think that adding an additional person would be beneficial at this point. Robert indicated he was satisfied with the answer. He wasn't aware there was already a liaison to the RR. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board July 19, 2006 Page 6 of 6 Response to Edmondson/Neighborhood Issue. Last month we sent Don's concerns to Eric Bracke, Traffic Engineer. (Bracke's response was read aloud to the board.) Edmondson asked that the response be emailed to him directly. Cass will do this tomorrow. CSU Transit Center. The grand opening will be August 28 at 1 p.m. Mason Trail. The grand opening will be early in September. Look for more info coming up. Contested Streets. DK came across this documentary film which is basically looking at the development of the New York/Manhattan infrastructure area and how even with the most robust transit system in the world, it's still become very auto -centric and such. It's 57 minutes long and on DVD. I was wondering if this group would be interested in screening this. If you are, perhaps we can arrange to invite the Air Quality board or some other boards if you'd like. Next Aeenda • Northwest Sub -Area Plan Update (Action) • Budget Update • Bike Plan Update • Transfort/Dial-A-Ride Issues 9. OTHER BUSINESS 10. ADJOURN Chair Thordarson adjourned the meeting at 8:44 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Cynthia Cass, Executive Admin Assistant City of Fort Collins — Transportation Services