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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Bicycle & Pedestrian Committee - 12/11/2019 Bike & Pedestrian Committee Meeting Minutes Wednesday, December 11, 2019 @ 5:30 p.m. South Burlington City Hall, Green Mountain Room 575 Dorset Street 1. Welcome and directions on emergency evacuation procedures (5:30 p.m.) a. Attendees: Ashley, Shawn, Cathy, Nic, Bill, Dana, Bob, Donna, Havaleh b. Public: Michael Kutin, Carmine Sargent, Rick Hubbard, Steve Marriott, Loretta Marriott. 2. Changes or additions to the agenda (5:35 p.m.) a. No changes 3. Major - White Street Bike Lane Presentation - Nic (5:40 p.m. - 15min) a. Objective: Present the proposal to the Committee and Public i. Nic leads presentation 1. Public forum is not the only way we are collecting feedback: survey, flyers, facebook, email, etc. 4. Major - Input from the public on White Street Bike Lane Proposal (5:55 p.m. - 30min) a. Objective: Gather public input for inclusion in the formal proposal to the City Council i. Tim Barrett - “Don’t have to move yellow lines, only white lines?” 1. Nic - correct. May need to overtime, but not for this. Have Justin review. ii. Tim - “No parking on South side?” 1. Nic - correct. iii. Tim - “Do we need more ‘No Parking’ signs? 1. Nic - Airport parkway was just restripped and no additional signs were ordered. iv. Tim - “If someone does park on north side now, does someone have to cross yellow line to pass parked car?” 1. Nic - yes v. Tim - “Doesn’t appear to be much parking activity on street currently” vi. Loretta - sent email to committee in support of bike lanes. Has lived in neighborhood for 40 years, never sees car parked there. Owns an electric bike. 1. “Supports bike lanes. She rides bike on White Street a lot - to shop, chat with NATA, yard sales, exercise.” - Read her email. vii. Steve Marriott - works at UVM. Bikes to work in nicer weather. “Riding on a street with lines is easier and feels safer. Seems like a cheap solution.” viii. Carmine Sargent - was on airport planning committee. “My concern is not to let improve lighting go by. It’s a difficult street to walk on, and that there is only a sidewalk on one side. Not good crosswalk markings. Impressed someone is carrying through with these requests from the committee.” ix. Michael Kutin - 40 year resident of White street. “Who established priorities for improvements - Planning committee with CCPC. 1. “Have they done any traffic studies on what bike traffic there is now on White Street? Should that be done first before spending money? Also do a study of peak vehicle hour times. Would help for vision of future use. Verify we are solving a problem with data” a. Nic asked “how many people have you seen parking on White Street?” i. Michael “Closer to Patchen Road, sees parking on a regular basis. Have to cross over yellow line to pass.” “Quite often car parks on suburban square versus white street” 2. Carmine - what happens if people bike on sidewalk? a. Bob - no ordinance for it i. Carmine “ Believes lanes would increase biking” x. Carmine - “How wide will the bike lanes be?” 1. Nic - 5’, standard 2. Shawn - 5’ seems like a lot, it doesn’t feel like much when avoiding storm drains and 40mph traffic. xi. Michael - “What about delivery vehicles? USP, FEDEX, postal? They run out and affect lanes all the time.” 1. Nic - May not affect their habits already. xii. Michael - “make sure to accommodate needs of white street residence.” xiii. Bob - “When passing out flyers, speaking to residents, most said they don’t see any car parking, except further down near Patchen. People tend to park on side streets.” 1. Michael - “Removing parking will Impact side street neighbors and their streets”. xiv. Loretta - “How many flyers did we pass out?” 1. Nic - around 100. Also gave some to Chamberlin School. xv. Rick Hubbert - “it’s pretty clear, present configuration, if you are a bicyclist, you are riding with traffic, no separation. Studies show this slows down traffic, upsets drivers. When you put separate bike lanes, traffic speeds up, traffic flows more smoothly and safer, less car weaving. If we can find a way to safely separate the bikers from the traffic, will minimize accidents. Also supported moving in this direction. SB is 2-3x bigger than Shelburne neighbors, but they are beating us in safety.” xvi. Tim - “Proposed changes are pretty benign compared to other changes in Burlington. Thinks this is pretty easy thing to do and inexpensive. How much would signs cost and put in?” xvii. Rick - “Biked around Europe and other areas, experienced. If you build it, they will come. I won’t bike in traffic, too dangerous. Will have bikers who won’t bike in circumstances now that will bike when infrastructure is created. Still too many chunks of areas that don’t have bike lanes.” xviii. Michael - “Not against biking, just has to be thought out and the implications.” 1. Nic - “were surveys and data collected to create recommendations?” a. Carmine “Initial report was the result of surveys done at Chamberlin School and community discussions. All was from community input.” xix. Shawn - will inform when we talk to city council, public is encouraged to join then. xx. Carmine - “When will they complete airport parkway all the way to Lime Kiln?” 1. Bob - done this year, unfortunately painted at 3’ bike lane width. a. Nic - plan to be fixed in spring and add sidewalk in plans. 5. Comments from the public not related to the agenda (6:25 p.m.) a. None. 6. Consideration of minutes from the previous meetings (6:30 p.m) a. October, 2019 Draft Minutes i. Kathy moved to accept minutes, Nic second. 1. Bob send revisions 12/10. a. Shawn motioned to accept amended minutes based on Bob’s comments. Bob second. b. November, 2019 Draft Minutes i. Nic moves to accept and move. Cathy seconds. 1. No changes request. 2. All in favor, no oppose. 7. Updates from the City - Ashley (6:40 p.m. - 10min) a. Close to getting contract for Underwood parcel. i. Nic - Do we need public meetings? 1. Ashley - don’t need it but not a bad idea. Can do at SBBPC meeting. Can be a combination of several committees to present to public. 2. Nic - would like to be involved in pump track part. He is on BBPC and they are working on one. 8. Major - Formalization of the Committee’s role in the City’s bike/ped scoping process - Shawn/Ashley (6:50 p.m. - 20 min) a. Objective: Communicate a summary of the 12/2/19 meeting with Paul Connor b. Objective: Committee input in advance of a formal review & recommendations c. Objective: Define the Committee primary and backup representatives i. Ashley - Amanda asked status of scoping projects. They don’t know when they are done. Paul suggests how to formalize process, to know scoping phase is done and move to next phase. SBBPC could be a lead for review and approval for process. ii. Bob - “can you go through flow chart?” 1. Ashley - nothing to do with CIP. 2. Bring in members of committees where appropriate. 3. Hoping communication will be better between staff and committee members. 4. After several scoping reviews, go to committee for support, to present to city council. a. Looking for formal presentation that isn’t just from the staff and includes community feedback. iii. Bob - “should we have public forum? Before going to city council?” 1. Ashley/Shawn - depends on project. 2. Ashley “Older it gets, the more you want to get public engaged and feedback.” iv. Shawn - “Public input already going on, but official process and documentation needed.” v. Ashley - “It’s up to committee when to get public input on projects.” 1. Nic - “Can we have Paul provide ‘pitch’ with public input? Then we can both hear at the same time and SBBPC can make a decision at that time.” vi. Donna - “Still scoping studies, not at city council yet.” 1. Ashley - Still an opportunity for public to comment. vii. Ashley “when it is presented to SBBPC, best time to get public input.” viii. Shawn - “Fits exactly what SBBPC desires to formalize roll in planning process and key stake holders for recommendations to city. Fits with where we want to go with the committee. Need to refine and align goals. Will also have opportunity to participate in what project priority.” 1. Ashley - This is still a draft that can/expected to be tweaked. Would like to try out for final approval of outstanding projects. 2. Shawn - “anyone have concerns on direction?” - no issues. ix. Nic - Should be on website when projects were reviewed and approved. Would like to see review “did we get it right?”. After scoping study, review what we can do to do it quicker? Clearer outline after it has been approved. “Rev two of process plan.” 1. Ashley - does relate to CIP, after approved. 2. Shawn - would like to see whole process and steps of a project. What are all the connecting dots? a. Ashley - priority of committee highly affects flow and next phases. b. Bob - “is there a process to review if city resources are full, can we outsource this?” i. Ashley - not sure. x. Shawn - “Amanda has been serving in this role, Bob was/is backup. Happy to continue as primary. On board with summary.” 1. Would like it that when meetings are setup, both primary and backup are both attending. 2. Dana motion to assign Amanda as primary and Bob as backup. Cathy second. All in favor. 9. Updates: Ongoing Committee Work (7:10 p.m. - 30min) a. General updates from committee members (~3-5min per person) i. Havaleh - nothing to report ii. Donna - met with Susie Merrick, works for SB school district - health and wellness officer. Talked about making connections with the schools, had suggestions: meet with PTO, but only works at elementary level ( 3 PTO’s in SB). Wasn’t sure how to address high schools. Pointed out that if we want to do anything with schools, need to apply and have background check. Donna will take names of who wants this. 1. Havaleh - signed up to be slow riders lead. City can do quick background checks. 2. What are requirements for background check? Need to fill out a form. 3. Shawn - does it expire? Donna - one time thing. 4. PTO - Need to figure out what we would be presenting. a. Nic - talk with localmotion, get their input. Would like to “Bike month” (May) - “Bike to School Day.” b. Need strategy. 5. For high school - give and take. Can suggest ideas, but also get their ideas as well. 6. Nic - SB does not have any bike plans for schools. 7. Shawn - if our long term goal is to expand biking, will see more benefit at high school/ college level. People who are about to start driving. 8. Donna - walking more common at elementary level. 9. Havaleh - focus less on health/fitness, more on climate change. Look for groups that do climate change to work with. a. Shawn - speak with energy committee. Maybe they take lead if climate change is best path forward. Havaleh - Will be longer term projects. 10. Donna - by spring time, have programs identified. iii. Bob - No updates iv. Dana - no updates v. Bill - no updates vi. Nic 1. Bicycle friendly community - application a. Application deadline is in February, not April. b. Wants to get together with city. c. Donna - do you have a proposal when meetings will be? Suggested Dorothy Puma (?) to be involved. i. Nic - wants to get with city staff first, maybe one meeting in January. 1. Ashley - “anything I should share with then? Helpful to give them list of things you think you have and what you need.” vii. Cathy - Looked up signs on internet for bath path for cross walks. 1. Ashley - will send VTRANS info. “Share the road” pamphlets. 2. Donna - is this part of safety or way-find? Noticed new signs on hiking trails. People get on trails and can’t figure out where to go or where they are, or how far to something. a. Cathy - Shelburne Farms has great direction signs and location. i. Nic - can we have this discussion on Parks & Rec department? Ashley - They are more focused on parks, not paths. 1. Ashley - Best path forward is to create map and recommendations for city. 2. Nic - add to January agenda a. One for path signage b. One for way-finding viii. Shawn - January agenda 1. Ashley will be away, Shawn will send out reminders for meeting. Request for agenda items will come out before the holidays, most likely the Monday before Christmas (23rd). 2. Bob - do we move back meeting a week due to holidays? a. Ashley - will be staffing NRC on 15th. “We have plenty of stuff to talk about for a meeting on the 8th” i. Shawn - use as a time for all committees to meeting and discuss. 3. SBBPC social gatherings. a. Create new poll for after the New Year. i. Bill to create new poll. 10. Confirmation: Next meeting Wednesday, January 8, 2020 @ 5:30pm 11. Adjourn (by 8:00 p.m.) a. Adjourn at 7:15pm.