HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BPAC-2006-05-11Minutes
Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Council (BPAC) Meeting
May 11, 2006, Thursday, 7pm,
3rd Floor Conference room, City Hall
Present: Kent Johnson (Chair), Nicole Tedesco, Tim Logue, Carla Shafer, Ron Chapman,
David McElrath, Nicole Tedesco Jan Zeserson
Absent: Dwight Mengel, Ken Mudge, David Kay, Michelle Berry, Yael Levitte
Guest: Francis Vanek (EcoVillage)
Minutes of April 2006 meeting approved.
Membership: One vacancy remains for Parks Commission liaison position.
Guest Report
Francis Vanek brought a sketched map of how the Waterfront Trail connects to other
unofficial trails throughout the City. We referred him to Lisa Nicholas, who is in the
process of creating a master plan of City trails. Francis has mapped a combination of
street and trail connections, something the City doesn't usually look at — for example, an
old railroad bed that runs behind the recycling center on Taber St., which provides a
straight shot from Taber to Cecil Malone Drive. Francis wants to upgrade that to a trail.
Possible?
Member Reports
(Nicole) Town of Ithaca Transportation Informational Gathering, May 18, 7:00, Town,
215 No. Tioga St.
Nicole is our bridge between BPAC and the Town Planning Department. We'll explore
how we can work together. Nicole would like us to help create a set of design guidelines,
a tool for planning boards to use for proposed development, a toolbox of considerations.
(Kent) Michelle Berry's class presented their final project to Common Council. PAC
Chair David Henderson was there, as was Kent. The work was well received by the
Council, which is committed to do some things, although it's not clear who will be in
charge, or how much energy and funds will be allocated to move their ideas forward.
Kent will follow up with Michelle Berry.
(Carla) Regarding the snow removal contact telephone #, Carla will create a poster and
deal with TCAT about reproducing it for posting inside buses.
(Kent) Update on Lower Section of Cliff St.: Nutter will continue the conversation with
Rick Ferrell and Ray Schlater, who are willing to work on this with BPAC.
Aurora St. & Court: There are no pedestrian walk - throughs at this construction site.
Kent called and talked to Eric Whitney, Ass't Superintendent of Water & Sewer, who
was willing to work on this problem. George Seeley is working at that site and is known
to be friendly to pedestrian concerns. We see this as a good, mutually beneficial,
educational opportunity.
(Ron) Report from DPW:
• Sidewalks on Rte. 13 south of old Elmira Road are under construction. The owners
have the right to do it themselves if they meet the deadline or are granted an
extension. Otherwise, the City will take charge.
• A $113,000 bid was accepted for work in Fall Creek area for curb cuts, surfacing.
(Tim) Pedestrian cones /crosswalks recommended by BPAC and others have been
requested by Tim's office and should be installed in short order.
Tim has to conduct a study to justify any new crosswalks, so those will not happen until
after this summer.
(Kent) will ask Ken Mudge if these troublesome areas are on Cornell's to -do list:
• Triangle at Stewart & Campus Roads
• Cornell Ave. at the steps
Ongoing Business
Signals: Do bikes trip the sensors at Court St., etc., across meadow St.? Bikers say no.
Let's do some testing and then consider petitioning the State to rectify this.
Hilton Hotel: Tim is our contact. Tim is in the process of making a sketch for DOT of
sidewalk solution. BPAC will approve it and sign a resolution that we support it. We
will ask DAC to do the same.
Rte 13 pedestrian crossings:
Tim has an appointment with DOT to plan crossings over Rte 13 at Dey St. and 3rd St.
BPAC Vision of Goals and Objectives — ongoing discussion:
• It was suggested that we take 30 min. a meeting to review the Planning Board
meeting agenda, to judge whether we want to take action on any items. Tim will
bring planning board materials to BPAC meetings. Timing is good as Planning Bd
meetings happen two weeks after ours. David Kay our liaison to the Planning Bd.
• It was suggested that our activities follow member interest. We cannot do everything.
We will create an agenda and count on members to step forward to track, report on,
and suggest action regarding selected issues.
• We will continue to rely on our liaisons to Planning Dept., DPW, DAC, and Common
Council,
Kent's M.A. field project in Sustainable Transportation Planing:
Project will test experimental markings on City streets with objective of assessing
whether markings make bicycle travel safer.
A dozen or so cities have tried these markings. Kent proposes to use their findings and
create experimental markings on one or more City streets (Buffalo? Cayuga ?), video -
record travelers' behavior, and interview selected travelers. Tim's office can provide
some assistance. There are some leftover funds from bike plan effort. Kent welcomes
any comments and he may recruit volunteers from BPAC and other organizations.
Meeting adjourned at 9:00
Minutes respectfully submitted by Jan