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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBicycle Advisory Committee - Minutes - 10/11/2010 1 FINAL MEETING MINUTES of the BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE October 11, 2010 6:00 PM Community Room 215 N. Mason Fort Collins, CO 80521 FOR REFERENCE: Chair: Rick Price 970-310-5238 Vice Chair: Cathy Mathis 970-217-9480 Staff Liaison: Kathleen Bracke 970-224-6140 Staff Support: Dave “DK” Kemp 970-416-2411 BOARD/CITY ORGANIZATION MEMBERS PRESENT UniverCity Connections: Rick Reider Economic Advisory Commission: Rick Price Colorado State University: David Hansen Parks and Recreation Board: Dawn Theis Air Quality Board: Greg McMaster Natural Resources Advisory Board: Clint Skutchan Bike Fort Collins: Jeff Morrell Poudre School District: John Holcombe AT LARGE MEMBERS PRESENT At Large: Dan Gould At Large: Cathy Mathis ABSENT At Large: Kim Sharpe Fort Collins Bicycle Co-Op: Doug Cutter Downtown Development Authority: Kathy Cardona Land Conservation & Steward Board: Paul Mills Senior Advisory Board: Gale Criswell Transportation Board: Vacant OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE Citizen: Thomas Edwards Citizen: David Boerner City of Fort Collins: Matte Wempe, Transportation Planner Gail Neben, Transportation Planning Administrative Assistant Joe Olson, Traffic Engineer 2 Call to order Meeting called to order at 6:07 PM. Agenda review: Chair Rick Price reviewed the agenda. Rick made a few changes in the order of agenda items and postponed two items to future meeting (Idaho Stop Law & Bike Map Update). Public Comments: None. Approval of minutes: Motion to approve by David Hansen, Kathy seconded. Minutes approved unanimously. Action items: Possible Change of meeting time – Rick Price There are a few dates when the Transportation Board meets the same week as BAC. I have been informed that minutes are archival only, so if you want to communicate something please write a memo. Rick will follow up with a query via e-mail on the possible meeting date change. No decision made. Plan Fort Collins/TMP Update – Kathleen Bracke Just a reminder of the public events October 12 and 4 at the Harmony Library and Northside Aztlan Center and a flier was distributed. Online and e-news letters are continuing. This presentation is to get input, so questions are welcome throughout the presentation. How many of you are familiar with Plan Fort Collins and the City Master Plan? (All raised their hands). The plans are being done side-by-side making sure we do all of the planning integrated and cross connected. We organized Plan Fort Collins with the Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO) strategy. I am sharing the process and where we are in the process currently. We are working on the strategies and priorities section now. We will be moving forward and the goal is to have the process completed by of the end of February or early March, 2011 to take to City Council. We are about two-thirds of the way through. The new ideas are focusing on activity centers and corridors with increased focus for infill and redevelopment in the center of Fort Collins. We are looking at new ideas for the vehicle and transportation systems. The biggest change is that we are using the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach. This approach is helping us look at things differently. Funding for travel and maintenance is an important key issue. What is the different about the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) affect and the different ways we look at areas within the Transportation Master Plan? We have examples of how looking through the TBL prospective would affect the Master Street Plan and Capital 3 Improvement Plan. The change is in evaluating and prioritizing the projects. There is a systematic process to evaluation them. (Criteria were outlined in the presentation.) Tiers one and two were presented in the traditional approach and compared to the new criteria for the TBL approach. The new list of criteria could change the priorities. Discussion: Price: The email for the meeting tonight included materials on this topic. Skutchan: These criteria are high level. Are there more detailed criteria for BAC? Bracke: The first step is to identify the criteria. We are looking for ideas now. We showed the list to the Transportation Board and a new suggestion of active living projects was brought forward as an example. We are asking ‘What criteria have we missed?” Price: There are some questions that are more specific in the email. (Read the email.) Skutchan: I did not receive that. Bracke: An example of the current Master Street Plan classifications. Looking at making decisions on the classifications for the Master Street Plan. Lincoln between Jefferson and Lemay has been discussed. Lincoln is planned to become a 4-lane arterial based on traffic projections and land use plans. The feedback from businesses and residents was to consider a new classification of a 2-lane arterial instead. We are considering this suggestion. The traditional analysis says it is on the edge of being either 2 or 4 lane. Looking at the TBL approach it is looking like the 2-lane may be better in terms of cost and environment but more analysis is needed to identify trade-offs. Mathis: Do the projections take into account the Link-N-Greens project? Bracke: Yes local and regional travel models take future development into consideration. It is very important that Link-N-Greens be able to access Lemay as well as Lincoln to distribute trips. In a green field environment we might not have the same considerations as Lincoln which is infill area. Price: We have sent two memos forward about this plan and one made a reference to bikes. (Read the question). There is no mention of the bicycles in the Transportation Master Plan. On July 13 we responded to an inquiry with ideas, May 10 we adopted a document on bike boulevards. So I am worried that if we send to a memo it is not getting to Joe Frank and others. An example is talking about reshaping streets. Bracke: This is good feedback. When we talk about streets we mean bike lanes and the complete streets concept. It is meant to be multi-modal. The needs of bikes are a very important part of our transportation plans. We have provided the BAC memos to the staff members, Transportation Board, and City Council. 4 Price: What can we do to get the lexicon of enhanced bike plans into the literature? Bracke: We can be more explicit about bikes as well. One idea is to integrate new types of bike facilities in an update to Larimer County Urban Area Street Standards, which will begin in 2011. Are you supportive of reshaping streets? If we are getting support, it will show up as a statement in the Master Plan. We need to know of people are comfortable. McMaster: About Lincoln, the TBL seems to bring in additional criteria I am happy to see. So I would like to see the paradigm about multi-modal. We are in a jam to build and maintain it. We have to consider that all streets should be downsized and make it truly far more multi-modal to move others to use bikes. We need to make good transit stops. Putting in 4-lanes moves us in the paradigm we don’t want. Price: The July 13 memo says we are 100% behind it. (Read the memo). Bracke: We currently have four Enhanced Travel Corridors (ETC) listed: Mason/South College/Mid-town, Harmony, Timberline, and Mountain Vista/North College corridor. It is a vertical rectangle shown on the Structure Plan. The public outreach for TMP generated some suggestions come forward to run by the Bicycle Advisory Committee and the Transportation board. For example, should we extend the Harmony corridor so that the western terminus is Front Range Community College? Ideas for a midpoint east/west corridor such as Prospect between I-25 and CSU as well as between CSU and Overland to connect with CSU’s Foothills Campus and Hughes stadium. What are your thoughts about these new ideas? Reider: Is that taking into consideration the future plans on CSU campus? Bracke: yes, we are working together with CSU. Reider: What would happen if we extend Harmony? That is all built out permanently. What would I notice as a change? Bracke: The definition is open. The Mason Corridor is more spelled out. Harmony will likely be an express bus service. It could be in the outer lanes and possibly mixed traffic on peak hours. Reider: Would the same be true with no taking of land in condemnations? Bracke: The City does not want to widen Harmony any more than it already it so it doesn’t seem likely that there would be any right-of-way impacts. Reider: Would that change the left hand turn lanes? Bracke: It is too early to determine that. High frequency traffic is very important. What can be done to accommodate it? 5 McMaster: What is the reasoning for Prospect Road if the north/south route is most of the traffic? There needs to be more in the high traffic areas in addition to Prospect. Reider: One of the questions in the email concerns me. The question wants a bullet item that focuses on the mobility of autos even if it is rhetorical. Bracke: This was a suggestion from the public. The Transportation Board was not interested in this. I am trying to get only feedback. Gould: For the enhanced travel corridor, the high frequency transit is the guiding principal. West Elizabeth is a great one to consider. There is not good justification for east Prospect to I-25. Skutchan: We have to ask the question that it does not look reasonable and the constraints are huge. We would gum up the road without reasonable reasons for it. Can you coordinate Drake to be a more efficient corridor? If we say we won’t enhance autos to enhance others it is not multi-modal. Bracke: We are trying to link corridors locally and regionally. Mathis: On the Prospect portion, if you leave it as an ETC, do we have the ability to research it more, and if it is off will we research at all? What is the benefit for having it on the list? Bracke: The idea is to establish it as a future ETC. If it is on the list, it does call out the need for more analysis and planning over time. Morrell: It seems Mulberry is not on the list and it is an extremely broad focus. It could be beneficial to bicyclists. Reider: If the Mulberry and College intersection was changed, we would have to wipe out most of the land uses. The Harmony intersection is huge. If it means we create massive intersections, and putting money into the Mason Corridor, it makes me wonder where our priorities are. I would hate to see Mulberry and College look like Harmony at College. I hope that is being thought about. Bracke: You are right, we need to consider what the appropriate level of service should be in different concepts. What are the right types of improvements needed? How does it best serve the areas and all modes of travel including pedestrians, bicycles, transit, and cars. Price: We need to close due to time. Bracke: Previously we brainstormed a list of funding concepts that people have suggested for transportation. A new concept has come forward which is the concept of a 6 transportation utility which we will be referencing in the TMP and Plan Fort Collins as a potential idea for further research. As part of the 2011-12 budget, there is an offer to explore this concept. We will bring the draft plans to BAC in November or December. 2011-12 Budget Review by BAC – Kathleen Bracke Chair Price introduced the budget item and included comments regarding the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Call for Projects, specifically regarding potential applications for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) funding. Bracke: It is the CMAQ funding that is of relative interest of BAC? It is one source of funding available through the North Front Range Metropolitan Organization (NFRMPO). The intent is for projects that address air quality improvements. The NFRMPO has a call for projects and they are soliciting other funding sources as well. Transportation Enhancement is geared toward bicycles. Surface Transportation metropolitan funding can be used for a wide variety of transportation projects. We are in the process of creating a list of projects and the list is still in draft form. Discussion: Price: Fort Collins bike programs and the bike library are funded with CMAQ. Bracke: There is one four-year call. Price: The call went out in late September and it is due in October. The question is whether the time for input is now, or only after the proposals are submitted when it is too late? Bracke: The only information submitted has been abstracts. They require the call to be submitted early as a prescreening step. We have not missed any deadlines. Price: Can we have a copy of the abstracts? Bracke: It is not possible to share the project list with the BAC yet since they are still work in-progress and going through internal review but we will provide you with this information as soon as we can. It would be helpful to receive your ideas for the projects. Please let us know. There is a lot of competition. Receiving CMAQ in the past is not a guarantee we will receive it again. We want to do well in the regional competition. Price: We will get the abstracts submitted Oct. 6? Bracke: Yes Price: Four years ago Bike Fort Collins submitted two ideas. 1) The bike coordinator should be outsourced. (not accepted); 2) A bike share program was submitted and we drew up a plan for the Bike Library. Our ideas could be very important to share because the proposal is under development now. Is this our only opportunity for input? 7 Bracke: There is a deadline in November for a draft and December for a revised version. We can provide you with copies of the draft applications in November. Hansen: CSU applied for a central bike addition. You have to be able to quantify how it impacts air quality based on use by a large number of people. Our suggestion has to impact a large number of people. Reider: It is unfortunate. Could we get a lead to get ideas? There is a possibility to submit the ideas in time to make an impact. Idea: The safety education plan will have no funding so we will have to find it. It could be a part of the CMAQ. We could get vehicle counts of people dropping off students K-8 grades in order to visibly reduced traffic at schools. (Speaker?): This would be a CMAQ issue, to focus on educational outreach to schools, teachers and families. Skutchan: There is a school of choice issue. Skutchan: It is outside of the group’s focus to restructure due to schools closing. Bracke: I can take your ideas back and add it to the list for this process and there may be other future funding sources to use for bikes. Gould: Is it conceivable that it is justifiable? Price: Any ideas of when to submit ideas? Bracke: Please send any ideas to me this week so I can forward the ideas to the appropriate people. Price: Citizens might have some good ideas. Skutchan: The only caveat is that ideas are great, but I would lean on staff to present ideas and develop proposals based on previous experience. Discussion/Informational Items LaPorte Avenue Road Diet – Joe Olson, Matte Wempe We are here to talk about a proposed road diet on LaPorte from Wood to Howes streets. Changing the street from the current four lane striping to two travel lanes with bikelanes and on-street parking is an example of a road diet. Funding for this project is from the Traffic Operations’ traffic mitigation program. Traffic data was analyzed for neighborhood collector and arterial streets and we ranked the streets throughout the city based on the criteria such as traffic speed, volume, etc.. LaPorte came out on top of the list. It is an arterial, so we ruled out traffic calming devices like speed bumps. We are considering one through lane on each direction, which calms traffic with no passing. This 8 is better for motorists with no left turns from a through lane. We tend to see accidents reduced with this type of road diet. It gives space to put in bike lanes, which is a goal of the bike plan. We are currently doing a public outreach process. We have done a public survey with neighborhoods, online and emails, and we have had about 50 responses so far. 86% of the responses said they are in favor of the proposed road diet. We will be doing some follow up evaluations. We received positive feedback, and we are looking at other improvements with ways to encourage bicycling. It is a bike route designation now, not bike lanes so this project would be an improvement for cyclists. We collected volume and speed data on all three streets. Basically we are painting the street differently, so it will be easy to change back if it is diverting traffic to other streets. Discussion: Price: Is this for local trips or through trips? Are they using LaPorte to go a great distance? If we did striping, will it have area transition zones? Wempe: It functions as an arterial street east and west. It is one of the most used bicycle routes through this area and we want to preserve that. It is a mixture now, but it has the arterial street function. The Bike Plan speaks specifically to that. LaPorte changes to 2- lane street and catches the bike lane between Howes and Mason. The intersection of Wood and LaPorte is a challenge for pedestrians and bicyclists. Reider: Do you have plans for proposed for bike lanes? Wempe: Yes there will be 6-foot bike lanes. The center turn lane will function as a turn lane for both directions. Skutchan: I am not a fan of Laurel where we have to move around cars. Will this be another situation like Laurel? Skutchan: It is a bike route now, right? Is LaPorte intended to be different? Wempe: LaPorte will be different from Laurel street bikelane striping, it will not have the lane changes at the intersections like Laurel. Skutchan: If we filter folks in a situation, they might be riding into a situation that is not comfortable. Would this confuse folks into riding on Mountain? Is there a way to note the concern? Could we use signs to warn people of the change? Bracke: Bike maps could be updated to reflect the changes in bike lanes and where the bike route continues from there. Skutchan: The grants are nice but this starts to equate a systemic change. I am concerned about the guidance has not been provided by the community and we might have gotten ahead of the process. Is it in the City Plan? 9 Bracke: This will be a live case study for the policy concepts in the City Plan and the Transportation Master Plan. The idea of reshaping streets came up in March. It is different to talk about it in words. We can now look at this project idea holistically and examine how we go through the analysis, outreach, decision making, evaluation and communication process. The idea is an example of a re-shaped street and how it performs over time. It can be changed if it does not do what we planned. It is a good example whether it works or not. Skutchan: I am concerned we are seeing staff-related changes that are not in the Plan. Olson: It is not a reshaping of the street. It is a traffic mitigation project. We would do it whether the Master Plan includes it or not. We are trying to address a specific issue. Serving as a case study is a side benefit. We have been charged by City Council to do traffic mitigation. It is a separate issue. Skutchan: I think the Master Plan is important. Price: This does not downgrade the classification of the arterial. It is not a policy decision. Did you rank all the streets? Olson: We ranked all of the collector streets for the city. In the process we got more streets in the data base. Price: Can you share the list with us? Bracke: Please share your next steps with the BAC. Wempe: We are going to the Transportation Board and we are getting input from BAC. Then we will provide an update for the decision. Morrell: Is it appropriate to do a memo of support? Olson: It would be welcome. Price: Is there anything that is likely to hold it up? So there will be no memo but we give it our blessing. Olson: The goal is to do it this year. We will need nice weather and do a block at a time. Bicycle Safety & Education Plan – Matt Wempe Brief update: I would like to remind you that we will have the plan finished by the end of this year and brought forward to Boards and City Council in early 2011. We have been getting good input. The first phase of external and internal outreach will go into November. Next we are working on drafting the plan. An existing-conditions report was helpful and incorporated input from the public. We looked at the bike programs that the 10 community already has and at tying the programs together back into the bike plan. We are considering possible additional engineering/facilities that may be needed and including Joe’s great bike accident report. We are analyzing the recommendations we have received from the community and focusing on the on-going evaluation techniques. We are on schedule to complete the program by the end of 2010. Mathis: Will this go to City Council in January and will it go to the Transportation Board first? Wempe: Yes, it will go to the BAC, Transportation Board and other boards and commissions, and then to the City Council. Hansen: DK is doing work at CSU. Can we present to the campus? Wempe: Yes. Price: Is there a timeline for us to give valuable comments? Can we see this in November? Wempe: We can bring it to BAC in December. There is a project update memo to City Council that we can share with the BAC this month. Bracke: We are planning to give the updates to the BAC, Transportation Board and City Council beginning in December through early 2011. There are not many openings on the City Council agendas, so there will be written updates this month, and we will follow up with additional communications as we move through the plan process. Price: Is the normal process to go to the BAC first? Can we take a look at the outline? Bracke: The plan outline will be included with the update memo. We have the memo drafted and it is going through the internal approval process. Nothing is going to council that won’t come here first. This step is a written update only. The department drafts a memo and it goes to the appropriate parties. They might make revisions. Then the memo goes to the boards and City Council. It is a quality control process. Skutchan: Are we getting it to read before the December meeting? Bracke: Yes Price: This is just a status report on the project. Will it be a long document? Wempe: It will be action oriented and therefore it should be a short document. The memo will be done soon. Price: Could we take a look as soon as it is available? 11 Bracke: When it is ready, it will be distributed. We don’t have to wait for the next meeting. 2011-12 Budget Update – Kathleen Kathleen: The City’s budget is structured under categories as part of the Budgeting for Outcomes process. The FC Bikes offer for 2011-12 program and staffing funding is under Transportation for approximately $39,000 per year. In 2011, this funding provides the local match for the federal CMAQ funds to support the Bicycle Coordinator position and the FC Bikes program activities. In 2012, there are not any confirmed CMAQ funds, so the $39,000 would pay for a ½ time Bicycle Coordinator and limited program expenses if no other grant funding is secured. Staff is continuing to seek grant funding for this program for 2012 and beyond. The proposed offer (unfunded) for the Bicycle Pedestrian Education Plan Implementation is in the Safe Community section. This offer is for $50,000 per year to implement the recommendations that will be coming forward from the Bicycle Safety Education Plan. Price: Did you (the members) look at the budget? (Read the budget items). Price: I went through DK’s memo and looked at some of the materials. Portland outsourced much of the Bike Coordinator projects. Might we be more efficient to focus on capacity building? Let Bike Fort Collins take over a number of projects and the city funnel some money to them. Should we focus on educational efforts and shifting priorities with lasting staying power? Now is the time to start talking about it. Bracke: If you are interested in other budget questions, please email me and I am happy to answer them. The other change related to BAC areas of interest is that we are losing two positions in 2011 and 2012. The Administrative Assistant position and one Transportation Planner. This will impact and priorities in terms of our workload and we will need to look at managing things differently in the future due to the reduced staffing levels. Price: Could this change after November 2? Molly North could take notes as an idea. Bracke: We will be working on the staffing plans. All boards and commissions can submit comments that are due to the City on October 15. The BAC could submit a letter of comments to the Transportation Board. Price: We should at least say to council please rethink funding the Bike Education Plan for 2011-12. Gould: I motion that the Chair draft a letter urging council to fund the FC Bikes safety and education as it is in the budget as an unfunded item. McMaster seconded. Price: If the November Ballot Sales Tax passes on November 2, there will be adequate funds to fund things like the Bike Education Plan. 12 McMaster: There will be a flood of projects come forward. Skutchan: Please explain the process. Where would the money come from? Bracke: The current recommended budget is based on no additional funding. If it passes, there would be an additional review at the unfunded projects. The ballot has specific uses for the funds. It would have to be out of the funds applicable to the program. Skutchan: This would become another budgeting process? Bracke: Yes. Gould: My motion was intended to be independent of the funding situation now. We would emphasize that is a big priority. Price: I will word the motion and send it out. Vote taken on the Motion as stated. One opposed, all others approve the motion. Motion passed. Idaho Stop Law – Kathleen Bracke Postponed due to time. Bike Map Update – Kathleen Bracke Postponed due to time. Staff Report: Bracke: The boards and commissions have been asked to do their 2011 work plans. I have copies of the current BAC work plan here for the BAC members. The BAC is asked to complete a 2011 BAC Work Plan to be included in the Transportation Board’s Work Plan. Please be thinking about the topics for next month’s meeting. Price: Please add anything that is missing and forward it to me. I will draft the work plan for the next meeting. Bracke: Bill Jenkins has resigned from the Transportation Board. The board will give us an update of who is designated the new BAC representative. Price: You will give us a deadline for CMAQ input? Bracke: I would be glad to do that. We will give an update on the CMAQ in November. Board Member Reports/Comments: None 13 New Business/Future Agenda Items: None Other Business: McMaster: What is the final status on the bike map? Bracke: DK has been incorporating suggestions. The coordination needs more time to incorporate those suggestions. McMaster: There is no reason why we could not have overlays to the map. Another concern is using a system like Boston with color codes. The map can lead people to bike lanes. The map could be improved in terms of information. Price: DK shared the back side and the small inset of the dismount zones. He has some rules of the road and I gave some input. It may be going to print soon. Adjourn: Meeting adjourned at 8:12 PM. Respectfully submitted, ____________________________ Rick Price Bicycle Advisory Committee Vice-Chair