Loading...
Minutes - Transportation - 2/11/2002 TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD FINAL MINUTES FEBRUARY 11, 2002 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT John Tayer, chair, Brant Liebmann, Jerry Wyss, Alison Richards; Jim Rettew was absent STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT Tracy Winfree, Phil Greenwald and Nick Wolfrum (city of Longmont), Mike Gardner- Sweeney, Randall Rutsch, Bob Whitson, Stephany Westhusin, Bill Cowern, Micki Kaplan, Nataly Handlos, and Robin Madel, secretary PRE-MEETING DINNER WITH THE CITY OF LONGMONT The TAB, staff and dinner guests discussed the Greenways/trail system in Longmont. The trail system is growing and the city is looking at ways to allow residents to use the trails for commuting. The group discussed the changes that are being made to the major roadways throughout Longmont and how light rail and improved bus service would impact commutes to and from Denver. AGENDA ITEM 1 Call to Order John Tayer, chair, called the meeting to order at 6:03 p.m. AGENDA ITEM 2 Approval of Minutes Minutes from January 14, 2002 were approved as written. Jerry Wyss motioned to approve the minutes as written. Alison Richards seconded. The vote was 4-0, in favor of the motion. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes February 11, 2002 Page 1 AGENDA ITEM 3 General Citizen Participation Premena, P.O. Box 1038, Boulder, 80306, spoke about signage on bike paths. He said that we don't need more focus groups. We need someone to go out and hang signs and there are some that could be done fairly easily. He also spoke about the BBC resolution requesting automatic on-street, bike lane maintenance. There are certain locations that always get icy. Premena said he would like to sec the city establish a policy of automatically cleaning those areas of ice and snow. TAB Comments Jerry Wyss asked Premena to send a list to Marm Ratzel of where he thinks signs should go. Premena said he has already done that. Tracy Winfree said that the staff would not be assembling more focus groups but they are looking at some early action signs that would be installed ahead of naming and signing all of the biking corridors. Winfree said the timing on that has not been set yet. Mike Sweeney said that the staff is setting up a system for bike signage for public requests. Tracy Winfree said she has spoken with Stephanie Grainger and Felix Gallo about the bike lane maintenance and they are working on strategies to keep the lanes clear. General Citizen Participation was closed. AGENDA ITEM 4 Staff briefing and TAB input on the North 28th Street Community Environmental Assessment Process (LEAP). Bob Whitson gave a brief history of the project. Approximately three to four years of planning have gone into the creation of this CEAP. The CEAP is designed to work closely with the Transportation Network Plan (TNP) for 28th St., which was developed ahead of the CEAP. One of the action items in the TNP is to implement the improvements called out for 28th St. The CEAP is conceptual and is approximately four years away from construction. The CEAP covers the area from just south of Pearl St. to Iris Ave. The staff worked closely with the property owners along the corridor to achieve a consensus on the recommendations outlined in the CEAP. Whitson reviewed the staff recommendations which include providing continuous improvements along 28th Street from Pearl to Iris, completing some major and minor roadway improvements, providing new regional and local transit services and facilities Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes February 11, 2002 Page 2 and making aesthetic improvements. The Estimated Project Cost Total is $12,024,150. The issue will be presented in March 2002 for TAB recommendation. TAB Questions There were questions about specific design details such as how the pedestrian crossings will be arranged. The CEAP is conceptual and there are no firm design details yet. John Tayer asked if the budget for landscaping included money for installing public art. Whitson said that that part of the budget was not called out specifically but was incorporated within the other budget elements. John Tayer asked if the city would be seeking federal funding to pay for part of the construction. Stephany Westhusin described the federal funding that the city hopes to obtain. Citizen Participation and TAB Comment There was none. Citizen Participation was closed TAB Discussion John Tayer praised the staff for the public process that the staff has developed. AGENDA ITEM 5 Staff briefing and TAB input on the Transportation Master Plan - Phase 1; Plan Assessment and Policy Focus Direction. Randall Rutsch and Tracy Winfree gave a PowerPoint presentation on the TMP update that covered the following topics: the schedule and timeline, assessment and achievements, integration with both the jobs-to-population project and the travel demand management (TDM) project, challenges, conclusions, and four areas of policy focus (regional travel, funding, travel demand management and multi-modal corridors). Phase I of the update includes a public forum on February 25, 2002 and presentation to the TAB on March 11, 2002 for recommendation to the City Council. Phase I of the update will be taken to the City Council on March 19, 2002. Phase II of the update includes a policy refinement period and a return to the TAB is scheduled tentatively on June 24, 2002 for recommendation to the City Council. The update will be taken to the City Council on July 2, 2002. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes February 11, 2002 Page 3 Winfree said that the update is on schedule to meet these deadlines and she discussed the fine-tuning made to the original timeline that was presented to the TAB. The update will cover the integration with the Jobs-to-Population project and the Travel Demand Management (TDM) project. Rutsch provided an assessment of the TMP progress based on the original goals and objectives of the TMP. The assessment included an overview of pedestrian, bicycle, transit and roadway improvements designated by the TMP. The assessment noted that while much progress has been made on the supply of travel choices, there has not been as much progress on the programs that encourage a balanced use of modes. The assessment also included the tracking of measurable goals and objectives such as vehicle miles of travel (VMT), congestion levels, and other measures. The assessment also identified measures that indicate changes that had not been projected. For example, employment has increased faster than originally projected and, as a result, regional travel has increased at a greater rate than local travel. Also, regional commuters into Boulder make different mode choices than local commuters. The work with the TMP study committee and the data and observations have helped develop a focus for policy refinement. Based on information collected to date, the policy refinement phase of the TMP Update would focus on: Regional Travel, Funding, Multi- modal Corridors and Travel Demand Management. There is also strong recognition that the update needs to coordinate closely with the Jobs-to-Population study and develop an enhanced understanding of how demographic changes will affect the transportation system we provide. TAB Questions John Tayer asked who created the assessment and how it was performed. Rutsch said that the staff created the assessment and the study committee helped shape it and significantly improve it. Tracy Winfree discussed the TDM project. Winfree said that this portion of the TMP would be accelerated and she discussed staff strategies for accomplishing that task. Winfree also discussed the four policy focus areas of the TMP: regional travel, funding, TDM and multi-modal corridors. John Tayer stated that the presentation was very good and requested that the slide show be included in the packet for the next meeting and asked for an example of those policies that were rejected. Tracy Winfree asked the TAB if the presentation was inclusive enough and appropriate for the City Council. The TAB agreed that the presentation is thorough and very helpful. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes February 11, 2002 Page 4 Winfree said that the TDM task force would be comprised of representatives from the Jobs-to-Population project and the TMP update committee. Tayer asked if business was represented well enough. After running through the list of TDM Task Force members Tayer realized that business is well represented. Jerry Wyss suggested including in the presentation what the city has done in the past and what it plans to do in the future. He suggested discussing the activities that have been performed to build up the infrastructure. He also suggested discussing integration of land use with transportation issues. Citizen Participation and TAB Comment There was none. Citizen Participation was closed AGENDA ITEM 6 Matters From Staff: • Tracy Winfree made a request to the TAB to assign a TAB liaison to the NTMP meetings. The reason is because the policies and process are new and they are going through their first cycle with neighborhoods. The member would go to public meetings and would track the project. They discussed the pros and cons of having a TAB member fill that role. Teresa Spears requested having a TAB liaison at the meetings. John Tayer was concerned that the TAB member would pull attention away from the process. The NTMP public process has already started. The next meeting will be at the end of 2002. Alison Richards agreed to be the temporary liaison. In her opinion, she said she sees the liaison as an observer. If the TAB has a presence then the neighbors might feel that the TAB is engaged in the process. When the new board member (and all other TAB members) are present, an official liaison will be chosen. • Bill Cowern discussed the speed limit on U.S. 36 from Baseline to Table Mesa. CDOT changed the speed limit from 55 mph to 65 mph based on speeds observed from a speed study. One method of determining the speed limit is to determine the 85th percentile of speeds observed in the study. The city has been trying to get the speed limit put back to 55 mph but the state has refused the city's requests. Cowern said that there are geometric issues in that stretch of highway that don't meet state standards for a speed limit of 55 mph. The city and the state have conflicting data that show that speed limits have increased above 65 mph by as much as 10 mph. The conflict in the studies may be due to different methods of data analysis. The city's next strategic step is to work with CDOT on reconciling the data for decision-making purposes. • Micki Kaplan discussed the U.S. 36 Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS will begin this summer and will take 18-24 months to complete. The mayors of cities Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes February 11, 2002 Page 5 along the corridor have all expressed strong interest in being involved with the EIS and there will be opportunities for the public to participate in the EIS process. The EIS will need to include a funding plan to go beyond the "Draft" EIS stage. The RTD board has set aside $7.5M for the EIS. CDOT is planning to contribute the other $7.5M to get to the Draft EIS stage. • Nataly Handlos discussed the new DASH and STAMPEDE bus service. The STAMPEDE will serve the CU campus and the DASH will follow the existing 227 route to Louisville and Lafayette. Handlos discussed specifics of each route in terms of timing and number and size of buses. Handlos also discussed the status of and problems with the SKIP. RTD had hired ATC to run the SKIP service but they stopped when ATC was not able to run the service without significant problems. Handlos discussed several changes that RTD will make to the service. Staff has been working with RTD to assure that RTD's changes do not violate the "guiding principles" of the Community Transit Network. Also, RTD is planning on returning SKIP operations to the driver union by May 2002. John Tayer requested having a comprehensive review of the community transit network at the end of the year, after the DASH and STAMPEDE have started. Handlos said that the roundtable groups would reconvene in February 2003 to evaluate the services. Brant Liebmann said that he has a problem with bus service names that don't indicate where the bus is going. Handlos said that the staff is working to improve the way service names are associated with the corridors being served. Matters from the Board ■ Alison Richards discussed an article that she read in the New York Times about a Nokia executive in Finland that was ticketed for speeding. He paid a very large fine because their fine system is based on a percentage of gross annual salary. Richards asked how the fine system is determined here. Tracy Winfree said that fines are set by the state and there is no flexibility for "home rule" cities to set fines. ■ Alison Richards asked about the impending Goose Creek CEAP project tour. The TAB members agreed to e-mail their available times to the secretary. ■ Alison Richards asked about the status of Pearl Parkway off-street path alignment. Tracy Winfrec said that the Planning Department is leading a process to finalize an off-street path alignment with Transportation, Open Space and Parks and Recreation departments as well as with Boulder County. Alison Richards pointed out that the multi-use path at Valmont and 55th now connects to 57th, which is a nice connection. ■ Jerry Wyss said that he had noticed that RTD had put up barriers at the Park and Ride stop that he had previously complained about being unsafe. Wyss said that he had been briefed on why completion of the construction had been delayed. ■ Jerry Wyss asked about the status of the e-bikes ordinance. Tracy Winfree said that the PRAB had rejected the staff recommendation to allow e-bikes on all bike paths. Also, the OSMP staff has issues with the recommendation. The Deputy City Manager decided to table the recommendation to work on and better understand the issues that have been raised. For example, the staff will start a campaign to improve courtesy on the multi-use paths, especially along the Boulder Creek path. Jerry Wyss asked Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes February 11, 2002 Page 6 whether it would have mattered if the language of the ordinance had been written. Winfree said that the main concerns are based on the current courtesy problems along the Boulder Creek path as well as uncertainty about the developing technology of electric-assist bicycles. AGENDA ITEM 7 Discussion of Future Meeting Agenda ■ Christine Anderson will join the TAB for dinner so there will not be a regional partner meeting. ■ Public hearing and recommendation on the TMP Update, Phase I. ■ Public hearing and recommendation on the North 28th St. CEAP. ■ Public hearing and recommendation on the Goose Creek/Foothills underpass CEAP. Next Meeting March 11, 2002, 6:00 p.m., Transportation Advisory Board regular meeting, at the City Council Chambers. AGENDA ITEM 8 Adjournment Brant Liebmann motioned to adjourn the meeting. Alison Richards seconded. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 9:23 p.m. Minutes approved on By Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes February 11, 2002 Page 7