Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-BPAC-2012-09-04CITY OF ITHACA BICYCLE & PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Tuesday September 4, 2012 — 5:30 p.m. Second Floor Conference Room — City Hall In attendance: Members: Dave Nutter, BPAC chair - person Daniel Keough, BPAC secretary Steve Williams Jan Schwartzberg Garin Danner Matt Freedman Trevor French Kent Johnson, DPW (needed to leave at 6:53pm) Tim Logue, Transportation Engineer <member attendance times entered for voting purposes> --------------- - - - -- Public attendance: Abe Stroock Start time 5:37pm I. Introductions II. Agenda changes Daniel added Ithaca Police bicycle auction to the agenda. III. Minutes approval A. Approval of the August 7, 2012 BPAC Meeting Minutes: August 7 minutes will be voted upon at the October 2 meeting as the group did not have time to consider them prior to this meeting -- additionally there is no quorum at 5:37pm. IV. Public comment Abe spoke about the work he has been doing with Cornell, some of which is within the City limits, but all is of interest for BPAC. Abe would like to push for a master plan at CU to see what it would look like longer term, and also how it would merge with City and Town. An ad hoc committee would be better suited to focus on the larger plan. The business plan currently doesn't allow for advocating, it is just for employees. An external group is needed. Tim says Cornell has done very large plans in the last few years, Comprehensive Plan for Campus and TGIS study including bike /peds saying CU will match city /town funds for community based projects. It seems like Cornell has backed off somewhat from the previous $10M commitment. The money pledged for bridge at Pine Tree Rd may have been done differently had there been a global plan for bike /ped infrastructure. Joel Alley and Sue Powell are supportive of this idea, but it would be helpful. The Comp Plan leaves bike /ped issues rather far down the list. Once the University gets it going, a significant amount of funds can be allocated to bike /ped infrastructure improvements and decrease automobile use. Abe is working on getting this ad hoc committee started through the University Assembly. An ad hoc non - voting member could come from the City. We need people who are Cornell affiliated. BPAC needs to read through the TGIS and Comp Plan for the university, which might be a source of funding for State and Mitchell intersection. > http : / /www.masterplan.cornell.edu/ The money for Elmira Rd. is NYState money for road work through CHIPS funding which is an annual allotment. The CU person to speak to about potholes, or other dangerous bike /ped issues on campus is Robert Chiang: ncc3CcDcornell.edu 607/255 -6613. Daniel offered to find a CU student who would be willing to work on this, having someone with a student or staff affiliation is key to getting action on recommended areas. The Comprehensive Plan people were 'let go' by the City, so the Comprehensive Plan will be completed in- house. A principles document is to get adopted, then work on neighborhoods adding specifics afterwards. There is no master plan for re- paving city streets. Rt 89 that was repaved about a year ago had bike lanes added to it, adding money to the project since the shoulders had to be graded slightly differently, but the addition of the bike lanes during the project cost much less than adding on bike lanes separate from the road repaving. City website problem reporting - 5 min The city web -form is a place anyone can report pot - holes. There is discussion of how to more easily report problems. From the City homepage (http://www.ci.ithaca.ny.us via How Do I? > Report> a pothole? This form is accessible: htto: / /www.eaovlink.com /ithaca /action.aso ?actionid =10048 Though going through this drop -down menu is a place where people can report things like: pot -holes in bike lanes, tree branches blocking sidewalks, crosswalks or bike lanes that need repainting, and the request will at least get forwarded to the right department, the public, won't necessarily know, logically, that the form for pot -hole reporting is useful to report all kinds of similar issues related to DPW /Streets and Facilities. Daniel mentioned that the yearly bicycle auction, that had been run by the police department, is now offered only online, through http: / /propertyroom.com/ . Daniel and others are not aware of the amount raised annually nor where the funds go to. There was discussion, as Jan recommended, to see for the police department to use it for bicycle rodeos and registration events. Tim suggested that we ask Common Council for funding, as opposed to negotiating with Common Council to get some /all of the profits made from the (still annual ?) bicycle auction. Tim suggested that BPAC members and supporters speak up to Common Council to not ding the DPW budget. We want to encourage people to ride bicycles and we are hearing that the City doesn't have the budget to paint any bike lanes. We want to bolster back to where we were, not cut this important city function, also since such requests as re- striping bike lanes is not a lot of money. We could meet up for BPW meetings, for example. Garin suggests that there be a formal BPAC liaison to the Planning Board, so as they could sit at the Planning Board table and be included in discussion. This would of course be a non - voting position, but it could be helpful in -lieu of lacking a Planning Board liaison to BPAC. There are 3 Board of Public Works meetings, one Planning and Development Board (PB) meeting, and one Common Council meeting per month. Site plan review is an area where we could look to make suggestions to potentially modify projects. The City of Ithaca, Novarr - Mackesey, the "Collegetown Terrace" developer, and Cornell will split into thirds the E Martin Luther King Jr. St @ Mitchell St intersection re- design. Since this is a locally funded project, there is more flexibility, such as bicycle lights or bike boxes that are 'not in the manual' though have proven to be very effective. Jan mentioned that BPAC could look at doing public service announcements. Through PSAs, there are many ways to educate and get the word out about BPAC and encouraging increased ridership. One impediment for cycling is that it costs more money than walking. Perhaps we could survey the public. Tim: a survey targeted around motorists: "how do you behave around cyclists ?" Do you pass a cyclist on a city street when there are additional stop signs or signal lights coming up? Daniel mentioned a TCAT passed him on College Ave, N- bound, by a maneuver that he perceived as passing him dangerously close. He reported to be riding up College Ave where he should have been: in the right side of the lane, outside of the door -zone. Daniel safely caught up to and respectfully spoke with the driver asking him if he passed too closely. The driver asked "well did you use your mirror! ?" This situation was reported to TCAT management and Daniel was informed that all TCAT drivers will be reminded how to safely pass people on bicycles. Jan mentioned that it upsets her to see women biking not in the street - -but on the sidewalks. Is there a perception of streets being unsafe? What can be done to encourage women to bike safely, in the road? There was also discussion about how friendly bike shops are toward women. The mechanics /staff are often condescending is what is being reported by Jan. How can BPAC help to change this? Face to face requests could be helpful in speaking to the mechanics /owners as a member of BPAC. Daniel referred to an email sent to the list serve 4 days ago regarding possible survey questions: Perhaps an excerpt from a book I've been carefully reading would help -- from: On Bicycles 50 Ways the New Bike Culture Can Change Your Life. Edited by Amy Walker ©2011. (an incredible book with many different authors!) p 290: "First make a list of the obstacles and opportunities you see. What is in the way of a safe ride for you, or anyone where you live? What is your vision for a bicycle friendly neighborhood or town? ...Which of these things will make the biggest impact on bicycling and safety? Try to narrow the choices down to a winnable issue." V. Announcements VI. Reports A. Engineer The City received $4.5M for a complete Commons redesign, though it is half of what was requested. The City received a grant to rebuild Elmira Road so there will be sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides. This project will go into design this fall into the winter, an in -house project (which means greater flexibility in design). The Safe Routes to School grant was submitted to NYSDOT to review. The automobile traffic on streets of Bicycle Boulevard Plan (BBP) is a main piece of this work, along with bike rodeos at schools, education within curriculum, Bike or Walk to School days. The Ithaca Road project is winding down and final paving will be done tomorrow or Wednesday. Final painting, including the bike lane, will be done at the end of the week. Residents will lose parking, perhaps 50 automobile spaces, but many of these spaces were not occupied a significantly, since many spaces had time restraints upon parking in them, e.g. No Parking from 9am -12pm. Kent: requesting feedback for Elmira Rd -- 800 block of S Meadow, discussion of limiting access to it from Elmira Rd. Tim: Making part of Spencer Rd One -Way might help to put in sidewalks due to limited space. BBP will be brought to BPW sometime in September. There were no negative comments, and only a couple general pro- comments submitted by the public for the BBP. There were comments submitted by a few BPAC members including, but not limited to, Dave N. who made significant comments, and Daniel, as well as by community member Andrejs Ozolins. Lack of East -West routes and allowing for no traffic controls for those crossing over Green St and Seneca St (NYS Rt 79 -E & 79 -W) leaves a critical control point, users of the BB vulnerable, especially those younger riders with likely little experience, such as the 8- year -old rider commonly used in the BBP examples. There is discussion of having a left -turn bike lane at places like the soon to be redesigned Mitchell & E State /MLK St, better enabling a biker to safely turn onto Mitchell St. C. Mitchell & E State /MLK - review /resolution - 10 min D. Streets Alive! - BPAC participation? - 10 min Does BPAC want to be represented? Doing something fun with people, engaging people in conversation with a (non- scientific) survey. E. Ithaca Rd bike lane grand opening - 5 min Encouraging BPAC and others to make use of this lane ASAP, to celebrate it and to F. BPAC process, scope & organization - discussion Steve: if one of us are to go to a Planning Board meeting, it should be a BPAC position, unless it is stated that the person had an 'private citizen' concern. It is up to us to look at the PB agendas /minutes. Dave: we are not likely to get a liaison from the PB at this time. We need a BPAC person to look over PB information. Charles P. may be sending BPAC such information, though the first mailing, the PB pre - agenda is available and the agenda /minutes will be posted. These usually come out the middle of the month with the PB meeting at the end of the month, giving us s 5 -10 day window. We need to have BPAC on the first mailing list, and to have a paper copy submitted to BPAC mailbox. Engineering drawings and planning documents are things we should be paying attention to. Dave: BPAC hasn't done the review process very well. It doesn't have to be an official document, we could just come to a vote. e.g. the City purchasing a bike stencil for Sharrows. We can write policy suggests as a draft, then we can bring it to BPAC and discuss. Adjournment