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Home My WebLink AboutBicycle Advisory Committee - Minutes - 06/08/2009 MEETING MINUTES of the BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE June 8, 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 Colorado State University: David Hansen Poudre School District: John Holcomb Transportation Board: Scott Van Tatenhove, alternate for Bill Jenkins Air Quality Board: Greg McMaster Bike Fort Collins: Jeff Morrell Senior Advisory Board: Marcia Richards Senior Advisory Board: Chris Gaughan University Connections: Rick Reider AT LARGE MEMBERS PRESENT Dan Gould Kim Sharp Cathy Mathis ABSENT Economic Advisory Committee: Rick Price Land Conservation and Stewardship Board: Clint Skutchan Parks and Recreation Board: Michael Chalona and Greg Miller OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE Dave “DK” Kemp, Emily Francis, Kathleen Bracke, Julie Aselitine 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Gould called meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. 2. AGENDA REVIEW Agenda with modification was accepted. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT No members of the public were present. Two email messages received via bac@fcgov.com are appended. If members desire, email topics can become agenda items. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES May 11, 2009 minutes approved 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None 6. DISCUSSION/ ACTION ITEMS a) DDA Downtown Alleys -Anne Aspen, Craig Russell, Paul Mills. The presentation is for informational purposes. No action is required. This is a project of the Downtown Development Authority to develop and enhance connections between the University and the River District through the downtown of Fort Collins. The initial 3 alley improvement have been very successful. One of the 3, Trimble Court, reports a 60% increase in business activity due to alleyway improvement. These first 3 alleys do not allow vehicular traffic and are bicycle dismount zones. Ten additional alleys connecting the University and River District have been identified for improvement. The highest ranked alleys will be improved first and will require design development and planning until January 2010. Key aspects include the development of ”shared spaces” that function as service drives, business entrances, patios and pedestrian and bicycle facilities. They will not be dismount zones and are meant to promote bicycle mobility and provide an alternative to riding on downtown sidewalks. An important bicycle-related issue involves maintaining safe interaction between vehicles (autos and trucks), bicyclists and pedestrians. It is proposed that vehicular movement will be restricted to a one-way direction. Pedestrians and bicyclists will be allowed in either direction of travel. Board members were supportive of this plan, but raised questions about the legality and/or feasibility of the idea. Staff people would explore this further. Additional features beneficial for bicyclists will be improved lighting and reduction of rain water puddling. b) Mountain Vista- Matt Wempe described the boundaries, physical features, and various uses involved in this sub-area plan. It was emphasized that the bicycle facilities for arterial and collector streets will conform to current street design standards. A network of off-street trails is part of the Park Planning process and conforms to those design standards. The designation of Vine Drive and Timberline Rd as Enhanced Travel Corridors means that there will be separate design processes to optimize transit, pedestrian and bicycle functions as the improvements become possible. Bike-related issues raised by BAC members Excessive truck traffic on Vine Dr could have negative effects on bicyclists. Committee members urged that means of reducing truck use on Vine Dr should be explored. Design features of a Vine Dr Enhanced Travel Corridor could mitigate truck/bike hazards and intimidation. Off-street or separated bike facilities, physical barriers and/or mixed use bike/ped facilities were discussed. Off-street bike trail connections to North College Ave, Poudre River Trail, parks and schools should be optimized. Are there opportunities for arterial street underpasses that can be identified? Use of irrigation ditch right-of-way for bike trails could provide off- street routes for bike riders. There were concerns about air quality for bikers in the Mountain Vista area. Does the basin-like configuration tend to aggravate accumulation of air pollutants? There were concerns about narrowing of vehicular traffic lanes from 12’ to 11’. This could result in more motor vehicular invasion of on-street bike lanes lanes. c) North College Improvements- Jennifer Petrik described the planning area and goals. This is the north gateway to Fort Collins for visitors. It has high pedestrian and bicycle usage and a high accident rate. There are no bicycle or pedestrian facilities. The project has been accelerated to begin construction in 2011. Specific bicycle planning elements included 3 possible designs: Design 1; 8’ on-street bike lanes, colored in conflict areas, parkway, and detached 6’ sidewalk. Design 2; 8’ on-street bike lanes, parkway, and 8’ detached shared-use sidewalk. Design 3; No on-street bike lanes, but off-street bike lane and adjacent sidewalk. Committee members were negative about design 3 since it forces cyclists into vehicular lanes or the off-street bike lanes where there will be numerous, hazardous conflicts at intersections and access points. Committee members favored design 2 because in has on- street bike lanes for safe travel by experienced cyclists, but also accommodates less experienced cyclists on the shared-use sidewalk. It is likely that there will be 2-way traffic on the shared-use sidewalks and there may need to be consideration of ways to reduce conflict and promote safe crossing at intersections. The color designation of conflict areas in design 1 were viewed favorably by committee members but the narrower sidewalk discourages mixed sidewalk use. Landscaping of the parkway should be designed to provide a clear view for interactions between vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians. Low xeriscaping should be considered. Relocating the parkway plantings to the business side of the sidewalk would decrease the buffer between pedestrians and traffic and plowed snow would wind up on the sidewalk. The possibility of developing streets parallel to College Ave to facilitate access and provide alternative bike routes was raised. There were concerns about convenient and safe bike connections to the Northside Aztlan Community Center and the CSU Engine and Energy Conversion Lab. Can these be improved? A comment sheet was provided for individual member feedback. Information on the project, as well as an on-line comment sheet is available at http://www.fcgov.com/transportationplanning/ncollege.php d) June is Bike Month Update – DK distributed Ride! Guide 2009- history of bike advocacy, bike library, bike courtesy, bike events, bike projects in other cities. Breakfast stations for Bike to Work Day were increased to 10; Bike to Work Day is Green and Global. There will be 2 B.I.K.E. Camp sessions. DK asked if everyone had heard of the two way conversion on Howes and Mason. They had! 7. ACTION ITEMS Dan will draft a letter with BAC comments on the Mountain Vista Sub-area Plan. The draft will be distributed to BAC members for comments and revisions. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS None 9. STAFF REPORTS None 10. OTHER BUSINESS a). Gould -Getting minutes out in a timely manner has been a problem. He suggested that in the face of limitations of FCBikes staffing, the chair and BAC members should take a more direct role in the minutes out. He suggested that a board member serve as recorder and provide notes for editing into draft form by the chair. The draft minutes will be emailed to committee members for review. They will be approved at the next meeting and then posted on the web site. . b) Gould – Prioritizing deliberations on the BAC Workplan. We need to leave time in our agenda to develop Work Plan based on the 2008 Bicycle Plan. The final Work Plan is due November 1st. Next month’s agenda will have time for this topic. Committee members should start to review the Bike Plan to determine our priorities and think about the process to develop the Work Plan. c) VanTatenhove suggested placing the BAC mission statement on the agenda template. d) DK presented an update on the grant applications. The CMAQ grant was presented last Friday. The total budget this year available for CMAQ was $2.7M. Should hear back this week. Fort Collins was the only one with a bike-related grant. ADJOURN Meeting adjourned at 8:15pm Respectfully submitted, ____________________________ Dan Gould Bicycle Advisory Committee Chair