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Home My WebLink AboutMN-BPAC-2013-03-05CITY OF ITHACA BICYCLE & PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA Tuesday March 5, 2013 — 5:30 p.m. Second Floor Conference Room — City Hall >Official minutes< Start time: 5:35pm In attendance: Voting Members: Dave Nutter, BPAC chair - person Daniel Keough, BPAC secretary Garin Danner (5:39pm arrival) Jan Schwartzberg <member attendance times entered for voting purposes> Expected absence: Steve Williams Kent Johnson, Junior Transportation Engineer Rob Morache, BPW Liaison ---------------- - - - - -- Public attendance: none I. Introductions: n/a II. Agenda Review III. Minutes approval January and February minutes were approved unanimously, with one clarification needed on Feb minutes regarding a Collegetown parking study reported by David West. IV. Public comment n/a V. Announcements: Daniel Keough commented about his involvement with the transit- oriented Collegetown Crossing project that has been in front of the Planning Board and the Board of Zoning Appeals seeking a variance request to avoid building unnecessary parking spaces. Daniel stated that he has been a volunteer for the project and has not been paid, nor are there any sort of plans for him to be paid, for his work on this project. There was a parking survey performed by Randall -West, which was hired by the Collegetown Crossing prospective developer, which reviewed parking use and availability for apartments buildings in Collegetown. Daniel stated that he was part of a few people hired by Randall - West for this task of surveying the residents in Collegetown performing surveying work in May of 2012. Dave N has researched crash data and received crash reports from ITCTC, making this data accessible to BPAC for the last eleven years available: 2000 through 2010. Discussion of crosswalks and which intersections have the highest historic crash data and have not yet been approved. These four tables are now available at http://bikeithaca.org/bpac/. Andy Goodell has mapped these at http: / /goo.gl /maps/W5TOX The top intersections for crashes: Pedestrian crash intersections: Bicycle crash intersections: Green & the Commons - 14 State & Stewart - 7 College & Dryden - 8 State & Elston - 6 Meadow & Malone - 7 Fulton & Seneca - 4 Eddy & Dryden - 6 Meadow & Seneca - 4 Meadow & Buffalo - 6 Green & Plain - 3 Seneca & Cayuga - 5 State & Albany - 3 Court & Albany - 3 Hector & Floral - 3 State & Meadow - 3 Meadow & Buffalo - 3 Pedestrian crash segments: Bicycle crash segments: East Ave between Campus & University - 3 Tower Rd between Central & Ithaca Town Line University Ave between West Ave & (all within City) - 3 Stewart Ave - 2 Dave N, Daniel, Jan, and Garin agreed we will each review a few of these intersections and make suggestions as to what improvements can be made. VI. Reports: A. Common Council, no liaison present: Changing sidewalk financing will eventually be CC's responsibility but is not currently on their agenda. It is unclear who is /will be on the mayor's task force to make recommendations, nor whether it includes CC members. Council understands this is a major issue, and property owners, such as those on Old Elmira Rd are responsible for 100% of the cost of installing /repairing sidewalk adjacent to their property, but there is not yet a proposed solution to this problem. The Floral Avenue multi -use trail appropriation was on the CC agenda for 6 March. The City will appropriate $130,000 for work on this trail. B. Planning Board, no liaison present. 4 packet items included: 1) 130 East Clinton St steep hillside behind City Court & IPD. Assuming the sidewalk will be built on the north side of Prospect by the end of current construction, there were no obvious issues. 2) 527 West State St.(but impact on 600 block of West Green) Cornell Laundry loading dock. Will hedge block exiting drivers' view of sidewalk? 3) Harold Square south side of Commons - presumably no additional shading of Commons if the tower is beyond view. (Bike parking ?) 4) 308 Elmira Road - Maguire Fiat (former Greentree Nursery). Assume sidewalk is okay and remains along Elmira Rd. C. Board of Public Works, liaison not present: BPW unanimously approved DPW using Alternative 3 (loading zone along street). E. Engineers, not present. Kent sent Nutter & Keough NYSDOT's draft revised sharrow protocol, which Nutter will share (now here: http: //bikeithaca.orgibpac/ ). Of note is the diagram depicting door zone alongside on- street parking the new bike -in -lane sign assembly, which replaces the ambiguous shared road signs, as depicted below: New bicycle signage is expected to be accepted from NYSDOT: IN LANE The simple bicycle image and simple language "In Lane" is better than the "Share the Road" signage that has been in use, removing the ambiguity with that phrase. BPAC voted and unanimously passed a recommendation to the City DPW to place such new NYSDOT approved Bike In Lane sign at all City entrances. Where Can Cyclists Safely Operate? Door Zone: ' "' Fixed hazard region including the 3 width of a car door + shy margin Left Edge Shy Zane: Fixed zone to the right of the travel lane or center line stripe i Effective Lane: y 80" Wide Fixed lane width. bet. ;ween the SUV, Van door zone and left edge shy zone or Truck with 40" Close Pass Zone: ire door Dynamic hazard zone typicality 4' arked 14 to the right side of a moving motor om curb vehicle_ shown in translucent red f Lane Control: - - - Cyclist driving near the effective lane center to avoid the door zone and close passing zone- sharraw and aike Lune Best Practices far Srreets with Parallel Parking -Dan Gutierrez & Brian DeSousa VII. Discussions / Actions: A. Old Elmira Rd Complete Street Project: We made notes on a drawing of Alternative 3 provided by the City engineers. There are concerns with on- street parking, bus stop, and loading zones so that there is a clearly labeled bike lane with a separate area marked, such as using diagonal hash marks, as shown in the picture below, so as to discourage cyclists from riding in a dangerous "door zone" area where there is a high risk of injury from motor vehicle doors opening, but also allowing for more predictable cyclist behavior, i.e. drastically decreases conditions where a cyclist would need to swerve out of the bike lane to avoid dangerous car door swinging open. The dashed bike lanes are requested as approaching intersection at Plain St and with a merge arrow and a Bike -In -Lane sign approaching each end of the bike lane. We request the loading zone is made 10 feet wide. and a stripe between bike lane and loading zone is added to allow space for the cyclist to avoid being in the "door zone" of the large commercial vehicles. The suggested location of a mid -block crosswalk is at the southwest end and possibly the northeast end of loading zone. A mid -block crosswalk to sidewalk with curb ramp is needed. There should be space to separate sidewalk from curb in loading zone for snow storage area, else the snow will likely be plowed onto the sidewalk. To avoid heaving of an asphalt bus stop, a concrete pad for the bus stop is requested. >>Concrete waiting area and loading area for pedestrians on either side of sidewalk at bus stop Pictures show a hashed lane buffer zone between parked cars and the bicycle lane compared to a bicycle lane squeezed immediately next to parked cars which would promote crashes of cyclists riding into motor vehicle doors and crashes due to a swerve to avoid a door - -such as being hit by a moving motor vehicle. A crosswalk will be included. Suggested crosswalk for one at least, is behind the bus stop in the 3B zone, which also has, as the plans show currently, a tree lawn that extends farther out and so would reduce the distance. We discussed the new update from Kent that shared with us in that the City's current striping equipment can be reprogramed to paint dashed lines, as well as the City purchasing new striping equipment with the Safe Routes to School Grant. B. BPAC unanimously recommended that bike lanes be dashed before intersections and before ends without specifying the distance. Kent recently wrote that the City's large striping machine can be programmed to do dashes. The City's smaller striping machine, which is used for crosswalks and stop bars, cannot be programmed for dashes. As part of the Old Elmira Road project (not the Safe Routes to School project) a new small striping machine will be bought which can do dashes and bike symbols, and other small items, but might be too wiggly for long stripes because it is controlled by a person walking behind. C. Bike lanes & bus stops. BPAC is awaiting a reply from TCAT about the width needed. D. TCAT folding bike policy. TCAT said folding bikes inside a cover were same as other luggage, and that folding bikes not in a cover or case and which don't have dangerous protruding parts are same as strollers and personal shopping carts. Any of the above are allowed if they can be kept out of aisles. Drivers must determine whether aisle clearance is being maintained (or is possible on an already crowded bus, presumably). Non - folding bikes, even with a wheel removed, are not allowed on buses. BPAC decided not to take action because the TCAT policy seemed clear enough. E. North Cayuga Street bike lane community painting project during Streets Alive! closed to motor vehicle traffic on 5 May. BPAC decided to support painting this lane from York St over the bridge heading North approaching Boynton, though an end point would be settled upon prior to starting this project. The bike lane has been approved and is scheduled to be painted in 2015. Having this painted, such as during the Streets Alive! event would allow for two additional years of use, ahead of the currently set schedule. Painting the "Sharrows" on Cayuga St is also discussed, perhaps covering the quick -dry paint with cardboard as to avoid having pedestrians walk on them during the event. The first steps are getting engineers' view of this 2 year speed -up and method. They would need to mark where to paint. DPW would need to supply paint. BPW support may be needed. Streets Alive! Ithaca group's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/gropps/303127836450460/?fref=ts Streets Alive! FB Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/629087563772139/?fref=ts F. Parking benefit districts. This was included in resolution about ending minimum parking requirements. We did not discuss it at this meeting. Adjouniment: 7:39pm