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Home My WebLink AboutMN-BPAC-2013-01-08CITY OF ITHACA BICYCLE & PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA Tuesday, January 8, 2013 — 5:30 p.m. In attendance: Members: Dave Nutter, BPAC chair - person Daniel Keough, BPAC secretary Jan Schwartzberg Garin Danner David McElrath Steve Williams, (5:59pm) Rob Morache, BPW Liaison <member attendance times entered for voting purposes> --------------- - - - -- Public attendance: Sean, TC3 Student. I. Introductions II. Agenda Review III. Approval of Minutes: A. December 4, 2012 Approved by all voting, David M. abstained due to not being present during the Dec 4 meeting. It was announced that members are allowed to vote to on minutes regardless of whether there were present for the meeting the minutes pertain to. IV. Public comment None V. Announcements Daniel announced that the City received $300,000 Safe Routes to School grant. Dave N performed some research and found In December ITCTC published a study of 10 years of crash data in Tompkins County: http: / /www.tompkins- co.org /itctc/ Statistics / Traffic% 20Analysis _Final_Report_12202012. pdf 96B between the City Line and IC entrance is #5 for pedestrian crash road segments, and the intersection of 96B & Coddington is #7 for pedestrian crash intersections countywide. VI. Reports A. Common Council: liaison not present. Per Daniel there was no specific discussion of bike /ped related items at the last Council meeting. There were however, some previews in the Mayor's State of the City address. B. Planning Orange Brick Garage Corp. project 130 E Clinton St. Cecil Malone Drive development. BPAC will need to look at how plans will affect bike /ped conditions. No Board action will be taken in January for this project. There were no other projects on the agenda that likely affect bike ped infrastructure. C. BPW - Rob shared a petition/letter of concern from area owners who are concerned with the bike lane and the addition of sidewalks, since the owners will be financially responsible for the sidewalks. Rob discussed the schedule of fees for property owners who fail to fix within 30d, 60d, end of the season assigned at: $50, $200, and $500. The only change of the policy has been removal of the credit for tree- damaged sidewalks, that was not listed in the City charter and has no specific funding source. Only tax - paying properties will benefit from the sidewalks being put in. Building new sidewalks will be much easier with the charter being changed, by having it state that sidewalks are funded through tax - dollars, compared to individual owner responsibility as it currently stands. There seems to be three different levels this could be requested: a $1 M tax increase to get things started and fix critical areas. $7M increase to fix more of the areas or $20M capital project to allow funds to put in new sidewalks, such as up Hector St to the City line. D. Engineer - Transportation Engineer not present VII. Discussions: A. Lanes wider going uphill than downhill to reduce bike conflicts - tabled due to absence of Andy Goodell, who is leading this resolution B. Encourage officials to regularly ride buses - Daniel Daniel created this idea as a way to show support of public transit, with wording considered to include destinational walking and biking. Daniel shared that he had heard back from Mayor Myrick and Alderperson Jeri Dotson and they thought a recommendation that elected officials was a good idea. We have learned that many of the current alderpersons do use the bus or frequently walk to various destinations in the City. Since it seems there is already good support of and use of public transit and walking from Common Council members, there may be little benefit in making such a recommendation or resolution. C. Ask that bike auction be returned to Ithaca - Daniel Past: The community benefited from access to a variety of bicycles at a yearly public auction where someone could choose from a variety of bikes and inspect them in- person, pay for them on the spot and walk away with a bicycle. Since the Ithaca Police Department, in order to utilize police staff time better for performing police business as well as clearing up the space previously allocated to storing bicycles for the yearly auction, the IPD now utilizes http: / /www.propeilyroom.com/, which charges people a minimum of $50 for shipping thereby drastically increasing the cost of these bicycles, does not allow for cash payments, does not allow for appropriate visual and physical inspection, and takes away a public good. What would be better for the community is if we could find an organization that would periodically pick up this unclaimed property after the legally- required holding time expired for the IPD, store the bikes and hold an auction or utilize the bikes in other ways, such as donating them to GIAC the Southside Community Center, or for use with the school district. RIBs would be a good organization, but currently the organization has no physical space for an office. D. Letter to governor about bike & ped funding, from NYBC Daniel read the letter to show support of utilizing transportation funds for bike /ped related projects in the City of Ithaca and throughout the state. The letter and the request to vote on and forward this letter to Governor Cuomo was initiated by Brian Kehoe of New York Bicycle Coalition. Daniel signed and forwarded a copy to Mayor Myrick to be then sent to Governor Cuomo. E. City website maintenance categories - Dave The way the City website is set does not let people know that there is even the possibility of reporting anything besides: "a pothole, a streetlight outage, a water outage or leak ". We need a better way of letting people submit more than just potholes, streetlights, and water leaks. Included below is the website maintenance - request submission to the City from Dave Nutter, dividing returns included. Please include a phone # for City Clerk's office on the website. Sometimes talking to a real person makes a big difference! On behalf of BPAC I suggest that requests for maintenance all be accessed from one area on the vvebsite, perhaps called "Please fix" so that people know what things the City is responsible for. Currently some categories, like water leaks and street lights are separate, and some seem not to be covered. The current "pothole" page gives a time frame for when that type of work gets done, which is really good to know, and all categories should include this information. Suggested new categories include: "Road Pavement" - potholes. cracks, washboard, heaves, sinks, etc. - all asphalt repair, previously just called "potholes" "Metal utility covers" - high, low, broken, loose, or missing covers for manholes, valves, drains, etc. "Road paint" - worn or missing crosswalk, bike lane, stop line, arrow, or other stripe or stencil. "Debris in road" - glass, gravel, mud, garbage, car parts, carrion, leaves, branches, etc. "Walkway" to include sidewalks, walkways not alongside roads, and bike /ped paths like the Cayuga Waterfront Trail "Railing" - loose, too low, bent, gaps too large, otherwise ineffective "Snow removal" from sidewalks, curb ramps, street corners, streets. "Overgrown trees, shrubs or weeds" to include plants extending over walkway space, over the edge of the road vvhere people walk or bike, or in front of a sign, as well as line -of -sight obstructions. This would combine "tree service" and "line of sight obstruction" G. Bicycle - friendly communities - hold until Andy G is present H. Pedestrian accommodation on 96 -B. Dave spoke of his contact with NYSDOT Joseph Flint who agrees that a safe walkway is needed on 96B, but puts it so low on the priority list as to seemingly prevent this project from ever happening. Steve stated his concern that he hasn't seen that many people walking in this area when he drives through, nor has he seen many people on bikes. Daniel pointed out that this area is used at all times of the day for pedestrians, including late -night crowds coming from the Commons. Rob suggests approaching this from a dangerous-for-motor-vehicle perspective. Crash report data issued through the Town was reported by Dave N: In December ITCTC published a study of 10 years of crash data in Tompkins County: http://www.tompkins - co.org /itctc/ Statistics / Traffic% 20Analysis _FinaI_Report_12202012.pdf 96B between the City Line and Ithaca College entrance is #5 for pedestrian crash road segments and the intersection of 96B & Coddington is #7 for pedestrian crash intersections county -wide. Though the NYSDOT standard travel lane width is 12 feet, the right north -bound lane is only nine feet wide, with the right side of that including sewer -grate type potholes. While there may be no funding or political will to put in a sidewalk on 96B currently, a good first step is to get the N -bound right lane shut down for automobile use, for which it is sub - standard and not very useful, is potentially dangerous enabling passing on the right just before a speed -limit reduction in the City to 30mph, but will enable a walkable shoulder in this area; a de -facto pedestrian walkway. Rob suggests bringing Fernando into the conversation. NYSDOT has already acknowledged 96B to be a bike /ped area with signage depicting a bicycle and a pedestrian on "Shared Road" signage. As a concerned citizen Daniel requested that NYSDOT look into NYSDOT reducing the automobile speed limit, as there is limited funding available for safe walkways at this point, and so it would be a major safety improvement to have the cars traveling at a safer speed, reducing this zone to 30mph. BPAC membership - attendance, openings, numbers Dave Steve announced his expected absence for our Feb and March meetings. VIII. Adjournment 7:30pm