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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDraft Minutes - Bicycle & Pedestrian Committee - 10/09/2024 1 South Burlington Bike & Pedestrian Committee DRAFT Regular Meeting Minutes Wednesday October 9, 2024 @ 5:30 p.m. Room 301, City Hall AND Virtual Committee Attendees: Havaleh Gagne (Chair), Doug Goodman, Nic Anderson (Clerk), Ken Burkman, Timur Tsutsuk, Josh Minot, Dana Farr Committee Attendees – Remote: Bob Britt (Vice Chair), Mark Pasanen, Committee Absent: Donna Leban Other Attendees: Erica Quallen (City Staff), Mike Scalan (City Council Liason) Public: Ryan Doyle 1. Welcome, Emergency Exit and Virtual Meeting Instructions, Gratitude a. Havaleh thanked for all our work overhearing two middles school kids saying “we could just bike to school”. Kudos to all the work we do to make it possible. b. Nic gratitude for Local Motion staff AND for Jill and Brad who managed mid road sign 2. Additions, deletions, or changes to the agenda 3. Comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda a. Ryan noted school speed zone flashing lights people are still driving through there over 35MPH. Still too much aggressive driving on Dorset St. Frustrated that it doesn’t feel like Vermont. Very auto- centric and suburban still. RMCS Walk to School Day was awesome last week. Need additional support for speed enforcement. Asked if Dorset St timing has been done. Erica noted training in two weeks with software company. Once data is collected and understand traffic patterns they will be able to start adjusting. Cameras are working. After a couple of months they will adjust and then should be full adaptive in 6 months or so. Can test things like dual ped phases at Dorset and Kennedy. Detection is already getting better. Traffic is getting much smoother. Nic asked if we could request SBPD to spend some time out front of the high school in the school zone. Erica noted officer Schwartz would be the person. Dana asked if going south bound the sign shows you are exceeding the speed limit? Erica noted it does change colors but 25 is the current threshold but have asked manufacturer if there could be two limits depending on when the lights are flashing. Could just have the radar be on the timing of the lights. Ken asked about speed cameras with automatic ticketing. Doug noted it has not gone anywhere in the State legislature. Ken thinks we have reached critical mass on safety concerns. Heard a lot at Chamberlin school tabling about speed. 4. Consideration of minutes from September 11, 2024 a. Motion by Bob to approve b. Seconded by Doug c. Vote: All in favor d. Nic asked if the Zoom AI Assistant can do the minutes now instead of him. e. Erica noted it has not come up yet for other committees f. Erica noted committee is advisory and so does not need to record meetings 5. City Updates – Erica Quallen a. Read updated from packet b. Nic asked about gaps in ATP maps and if there is still chance to update c. Erica extended invite before ATP Meeting they are planning a mobility tour to inspect a half mile loop to get a sense of the challenges folks in mobility devices face. d. Continued reading updates e. Mike Scanlan asked when we would get the StreetScan report back. Erica – About a month. Early to mid November. f. Nic asked about curb cuts that are missing and if multiple passes are needed for wide locations. 2 g. Bob asked for a Penny for Paths update on Hubbard and Dorset. h. Nic asked about Garden St East plans. Erica noted they are in design. Will separate from Garden St proper and Williston Rd and intersection as two separate constructions due to complexity. i. Bob asked if Hubbard and Spear would be done in 2025 j. Erica said Hubbard yes, Spear may be into 2026 due to culvert and underpass. Other 2025 projects include at Queen City Park and Redrocks. k. Nic asked about Williston Rd bike lanes through Kennedy. Would like to see them brought back up. Maybe at a paving time for just restriping. Erica noted signal upgrade on traffic CIP for 28-31 for all signals on Williston from Dorset to Kennedy. Placeholder mainly. 6. FY25 Work Plan Development (6:15 PM) a. Mike Scanlan – Going to be a tough year. Need to tackle revenue generating models. Budgeting challenges. Asked City to come back with three scenarios for rate increases. Listening session was not well attended. Budget survey on City website now. Encouraged to go on that and do survey. City Center is going to be important for the future. There is a group C3 which looked at other examples. Three important things: dining, green space and easy access without cars. Finishing City Center and connecting it is the primary objective. b. Erica detailed spreadsheet in the packet. Pulled out these that related to bike ped c. Bob noted that at the item for Penny for Paths was not included even though it was voted 5-0. Erica will follow up with Jesse. d. Doug noted biking to and from the airport should be encouraged more. Got email from BTV about “Fly Local”. Erica met with folks and sounds like they want to get going on the path discussion. Will come in front of DRB in the winter. e. Nic wants more meaningful bike connections to White St, Williston Rd and adding bike lanes on Airport Drive, not just recreation paths through parkland. Crossings etc important f. Doug noted that it being a regional hub, should connect it to the new bridge. Nic agrees and could make map to show connections already and new Garden St etc. g. Mark noted there are a lot of plans from the September 17ish DRB h. Round robin discussion while Erica added details on the sheet i. Erica noted there is an I89 Connections Study – On CCRPC Website j. Havaleh reminded about Bicycle Friendly Community application needed for re-up and should go for silver k. Timur asked about an event for when the Hubbard path is completed. Erica – Could connect with Rec and Parks to include in next years event plan. l. Erica suggested making sure we continue to focus on policy/procedure, more over events etc. m. Chair plus 1 would attend City Council meeting for workplan. Erica recommending 18th so committee can have one more meeting before to review plan. 7. Bike/Ped Committee Website Discussion (7:15 PM) a. Email request from Ryan (attached as appendix to these minutes below). b. Havaleh read the suggestions c. Nic suggests we have South Burlington only resources and link out to other resoirces that already exist. d. Mark suggested having projects that were easy to find (like bridge plans) e. Timur thinks that a map showing all the projects instead of lists f. Havaleh suggested removing jargon and calling GIS things like Interactive Map. Need to show how to get from here to there. g. Havaleh thinks a calendar would be great. Nic suggested using the City Calendar if it can be sorted by key word. h. Nic asked if there was a goal for pages. Would like to see a public facing promo page that is very PR and then the wonky details with the committee and projects. i. https://www.localmotion.org/resources 3 8. VTrans Transportation Alternatives Program Grant Ideas (7:30 PM) a. Erica had a few grant ideas: Dorset and Songbird Crosswalk, Pheasant Crosswalk, Williston Road sidewalk gaps. b. Havaleh asked about Queen City Park Road. c. Doug noted scoping at Home, Farrell and Shelburne. There were a few smaller things on that list. Erica noted would be piloting curb radius in Spring because Farrell is on paving list. d. Havaleh asked about Kimball e. Nic supports the Williston Rd sidewalks. Erica noted that we would need to match and this was not 9. Sub-Group Updates (7:40 p.m.) a. Doug doing research on regulating ebikes. State will allow them to be regulated on paths. Have state definition of pedestrian. Read definition of pedestrian and vulnerable users. b. Ken – Safe Routes to School – Supported Chamberlin tabling. Impressed by number of people walking and biking. Heard danger of crossing Williston Road. Distance from home to school is a factor. c. Nic updated on Neighborhood to Schools Route. Decomissioned (per the plan). Asked for members to complete the survey 10. Confirm November 13, 2024 meeting (7:55 PM) 11. Adjourn by 8:00 p.m. From: Ryan <likes.to.hike711@gmail.com> To: Erica Quallen <equallen@southburlingtonvt.gov> Cc: Bob Britt <brittvtbiz@msn.com>, taralovers@netzero.net Subject: Bike/Ped Followup Date: Thu, 5 Sep 2024 11:30:07 -0400 … 1. I would like you all to consider putting the Website on the agenda for next month if there is room for it. It sounds like the new website will be up in January and I think there is a lot that this group can do to educate the public and use their committee page as a one-stop-shop for info, or at least a jumping off point. Here are some thing that I think would be good to have included/linked with the committee page. - Grocery hand trucks/carts - Cargo bike info, other bike type info on how to choose, etc. - How to... Pedestrian, Cycle, use Transit, safely/with style, etc type of pages. - Helmet fitting guidelines - Recommended light standards for biking at night - Other recomended safety gear for biking and running at dusk/night. - Casual/daily bike storage/holding recommendations. - Bike/Ped specific calendar embedded (your meetings and other bike/ped/transit related meetings or events happening in town or of regional importance. - links to surveys or comment periods for the legislture regarding transportation issues. - links to Local Motion, VPOP, and other partners/related topics. - Laws and updates to laws (like the new 4ft clearance rule) Related, RMCS is looking to partner with some local businesses regarding safe driving messaging and bike safety supplies/gear. I would love to see this group move in a similar direction. For example, I often find cheap bike lights available at places like Target. I presume them to be mostly insufficient for safety. I would love to 4 see this committee publish some recommended standards (lumens, display angle, etc.) and then partner with local businesses to ensure they provide lights/gear to meet those standards. That way we can drive traffic to local businesses, they can make purchases of quality goods with better economies of scale, and we can support safety and education at the same time. Just food for thought. I think it would be great to have the committee discuss other things they'd like to see on or linked to the committee's webpage so that come January, there's a concrete plan for how the webmaster can make improvements and what exactly needs to be added.