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Minutes Transportation 04/08/2002 . TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD FINAL MINUTES APRIL 8, 2002 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT John Tayer, Brant Liebmann, Jerry Wyss, Jim Rettew and Krista Holland STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT Tracy Winfree, Mike Gardner-Sweeney, Molly Winter, Dave Bradford, Andrea Robbins, David Ungemah (Urban Trans Consultants), Bill Cowern, Marni Ratzel, Noreen Walsh and Robin Madel, secretary AGENDA ITEM 1 Call to Order John Tayer, chair, called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. • AGENDA ITEM 2 Election of Officers The board welcomed its newest member, Krista Holland, and held nominations for board members for 2002. Jerry Wyss nominated John Tayer as the TAB chair. Brant Liebmann seconded the nomination. Jim Rettew motioned to close the nominations. Krista Holland seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the nomination. Brant Liebmann nominated Jim Rettew as the TAB vice-chair. Jerry Wyss seconded the nomination. Jerry Wyss motioned to close the nominations. Krista Holland seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the nomination. • Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 1 • AGENDA ITEM 3 Approval of Minutes Minutes from the March 11, 2002 meeting were approved as amended. Brant Liebmann asked to have the minutes regarding the North 28t ST. CEAP reflect that the designs presented in the CEAP are conceptual and not final. Jim Rettew motioned to approve the minutes as amended. Jerry Wyss seconded. The vote was 4-0, in favor of the motion. Krista Holland abstained because she was not present at that meeting. AGENDA ITEM 4 General Citizen Participation Premena, P.O. Box 1038, Boulder, 80306, asked to have approval of the minutes retracted so that the outstanding projects that Alison Richards discussed at the last meeting could be detailed in the notes. He thanked the staff for installing a sign at a specific location. Finally he asked the staff to identify hazards on bike paths, such as oncoming construction areas. • Ken Wilson, 970 11th St., Boulder, 80302, spoke about crosswalks in areas where the neighborhoods want increased safety. He said he has had some productive meetings with the staff and has realized that the pedestrian crossing treatment warrants don't take all situations into account. He suggested that the warrant chart include a process for a neighborhood association to vote to have a crosswalk installed. Jan Clason, 3305 Eastman Ave., Boulder, is a member of the Martin Acres steering committee and asked to have signs and mirrors installed along Bear Canyon Creek near the school and at Moorhead Ave. She said there is heavy use and she has seen and has almost been involved in collisions between bikes and pedestrians. TAB Comments Brant Liebmann asked whether the condition for the number of pedestrians or the amount of traffic were not met under the pedestrian crossing treatment warrants that Ken Wilson referred to. Wilson said that there are not enough pedestrians with the existing traffic flow. But he said that safe crossing for kids is a big concern. Jerry Wyss asked if there is a county hotline to report out of compliance construction sites and he urged Premena to report the site. i Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 2 With reference to Ken Wilson's idea about cross walks, Wyss recommended adding installation of a crosswalk to the Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program. Wyss asked about installation of mirrors at the blind spots mentioned by Jan Clason. Tracy Winfree said that she would have the staff look at both locations. Jim Rettew motioned to amend the minutes to include the projects that Alison Richards described in the minutes. Brant Liebmann seconded the motion. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. Krista Holland recommended that construction project managers from the city could monitor and remind contractors to keep signage in compliance with their contracts. General Citizen Participation was closed. AGENDA ITEM 5 Public hearing and consideration of a recommendation to City Council regarding options for the 72-Hour Parking Prohibition, BRC 7-6-20. Molly Winter and Dave Bradford discussed the 72-hour parking restriction ordinance and • how it impacts the ability of people that use alternative transportation methods. The concern of the staff is that the ordinance will discourage people from leaving their cars in place and will encourage people to drive. They discussed the process for enforcement of the ordinance. The City Council wants to evaluate the ordinance to allow people to leave their cars parked in front of their houses, but the parking officer does not have immediate access to owner information about vehicles. TAB Questions Jerry Wyss asked about the procedure for cars violating the 72-hour rule versus cars that are out of compliance with their registration. Bradford said that there are different procedures for each violation. Bradford said that when a car is found in violation of the 72-hour rule, the owner is given seven days to either correct the problem or remove the vehicle. Wyss also asked if the rule is enforced on a complaint basis. Bradford said that it is but if a parking enforcement officer sees a car that has been parked for more than 72 hours they can start the violation process. John Tayer asked how big of a problem this issue is. Molly Winter said that the city has gotten few calls about it Jerry Wyss asked how the process is started. Bradford said that once a call is made about a specific vehicle, a ticket is issued after a 72 hour period of non-movement. The owner . has seven days to move their vehicle or to call the city to contest the ticket. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 3 • Brant Liebmann asked how many enforcement officers the city has. Bradford said that there are 12 officers. Citizen Participation Premena, P.O. Box 1038, Boulder, 80306, said he knows people that received parking tickets for unmoved vehicles when they chose to use alternative transportation. He said he thinks the requirement to use a car regularly is not okay and people don't need to be harassed for not driving. Steven Walsh, 915 15th St. Boulder, 80302, encouraged maintenance of the 72 hour limit and said that a big problem for people that live on the hill is student vehicle storage at off-campus sites. He said that his neighborhood is under the Neighborhood Parking Permit (NPP) program. He also said that he commutes by bus to work and he has never received a ticket for leaving his car. He said that if the city does change the ordinance, he recommended making the ordinance proactive instead of complaint based, which it is now. Terry Rogers, 1060 Lincoln, Boulder, 80302, said he thinks that storage of vehicles is a real problem on the hill. He said that the NPP program covers less than half of the hill area. He said that the 72-hour program helps keep the streets clean and safe. • Ken Wilson, 97011th St., Boulder, 80302, echoed the comments of Steven Walsh and Terry Rogers. He said he is concerned that the neighborhoods will become parking lots. He said that since the parking officers cannot receive immediate information about car owners, the issue will become an investigative one. He also said that the proposed changes to the ordinance do not address higher density housing. TAB Comments Jerry Wyss asked Steve Walsh if he realizes that if the program were to become proactive, that Walsh would be asking to get a ticket. Walsh said that the 72-hour rule provides incentive to plan out his travel. Jim Rettew said that both sides of the issue are valid and he sympathizes with both sides. Rettew asked why the issue was brought to the TAB. He said that the rule seems to be working for the most part and there could be unintended consequences if it is changed. Jerry Wyss pointed out that the issue is how the ordinance interacts with use of alternative transportation modes. Wyss asked how big of an issue the ordinance really is and said that without strong evidence to the contrary his recommendation is to do nothing. He said that the TAB could have a discussion on the merits of the 72-hour ordinance at another meeting. . Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 4 Krista Holland said that she believes it is a complicated issue and suggested that perhaps increasing the 72 hours to seven days might help with encouraging alternative transportation use. John Tayer said he thinks there would be repercussions from changes. He said that the TAB might hear from some people that they are upset about not changing the ordinance but he said he believes that it is not good to make policies around the needs of a few people. Jim Rettew asked how the issue came to the TAB. Molly Winter said that the City Council members asked the staff to evaluate the issue with respect to alternative transportation use. The issue will be brought to a City Council study session on April 30a' and the staff wanted to receive TAB input before then. Dave Bradford said that the city has received complaints from all around the city but primarily from the downtown and hill areas. Jerry Wyss motioned to recommend to City Council Option 6 ("Leave the ordinance and its enforcement the way it is.") due to a lack of evidence that there is a problem with alternative mode use. Brant Liebmann seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the motion. • AGENDA ITEM 6 Public hearing and consideration of a recommendation on the Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Public Process and Implementation. Andrea Robbins gave a brief presentation about the public process that the city would follow to educate the public about TDM. She introduced David Ungemah, a consultant with Urban Trans Consultants that is helping the city prepare the TDM toolkits. Robbins said that in implementing TDM, the city will need to have a more inclusive public process to achieve a common understanding of what TDM is. Robbins provided the TAB with a handout describing the outreach efforts that have been completed. Jim Rettew asked whether the main audience for the TDM toolkit is the general public or the business community. Robbins said that a lot of the process would focus on businesses because there is not a lot of common understanding within the community. But the outreach is open to the whole community. Rettew asked if the outreach effort extends beyond the city of Boulder. Robbins said that it reaches out through the employee transportation network. Jim Rettew asked about the timing of the process and how the Planning Board will meet TDM needs in reviewing development applications. Robbins said that the planning staff would address the issue with the Planning Board. • Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 5 • Citizen Participation and TAB Comment Premena, P.O. Box 1038, Boulder, 80306, said that he would like to see the city do more in the way of incentives which are less controversial than disincentives. Premena suggested that the downsides to disincentives are higher fees, tickets and angry people. He suggested getting businessmen involved and giving out prizes for compliance. Citizen Participation was closed TAB Discussion The discussion focussed on the nature and purpose of the public process and who the intended audience is. Jerry Wyss said that he thinks the issue is too important to rush through and he thinks it is a good idea to take the time to educate the public about what TDM is. John Tayer recommended concentrating on getting stories printed in the newspaper as a way to explain the issue in a thoughtful way. Jim Rettew offered to help with the overall outreach and communications efforts based on his experience running political campaigns. Rettew recommended to the staff to identify the opposition early in the process and invite them into the process. Jera Wyss motioned to approve the staff recommendation for a specific timeline • and public process. Krista Holland seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the motion. AGENDA ITEM 7 Matters From Staff. • Marni Ratzel and Bill Cowern gave a status on the bikeways signage program. They discussed the existing and new systems and presented suggested designs for the signs that will go on primary and secondary corridors. Ratzel said that the staff has a goal of creating a signing system that is functional and professional. "Boulder Bikeways" and the bike symbol will be standard components of all signs. The signs will conform to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) Standards. They discussed off-system bike routes, trail-blazing signs and "You Are Here" maps and the conventions used to name the bikeways. They discussed the corridor implementation program and how the staff will go about installing the signs and how the signs will be integrated into the Greenways system. The board stressed the need for maintenance of the sign system. • Noreen Walsh discussed the upcoming Yarmouth Ave. Community Environmental Assessment Process to upgrade Yarmouth Avenue from Broadway to U.S. 36. She • Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 6 . presented some details of the planned improvements and how the improvements are based on the North Boulder Sub-community Plan. The plan will be presented to the TAB in a public hearing in May 2002. • Bill Cowern discussed the data gathered so far regarding the pedestrian crossing demonstration devices. He discussed the specific devices, the criteria for their installation, the compliance rates since the devices were installed, delays to vehicles at specific devices and the accident rates associated with the devices. Cowern said that all the devices show a substantial increase in compliance but there have also been increases in accidents in some cases. Cowern said that the devices do not change any of the rules around pedestrian crossings but they do highlight what those rules are, but there is a delay to motor vehicles. They discussed standardization of treatments that follow the MUTCD guidelines. Based on those guidelines, Cowern said that installing a pedestrian crossing based on the vote of a neighborhood group would be too arbitrary but the staff does evaluate specific locations on a case-by-case basis. Cowern said that the city would collect more data points for evaluation before finalizing the existing demonstration devices. Mike Gardner-Sweenev discussed the Year 2003-2008 Transportation Capital Improvement Program budget. He intended for the discussion to be preliminary and said he would be back in May 2002 with a more detailed discussion and again in June 2002 for a TAB recommendation to the City Council. He briefly discussed the impact of the proposed budget shortfall on transportation programs. He also offered to discuss the budget in a one-on-one meeting with the TAB members. Robin Madel discussed the TAB Rules of Procedure and the rules associated with • board member correspondence. Madel discussed the rules for sending group a-mails that may violate the ordinance around public meetings and board member contact. Matters From the Board: ■ The board discussed the agenda for the retreat, which is scheduled for April 22, 2002. They decided to use the agenda from last years' retreat and add sections covering the TAB relationship with the City Council and other boards and a discussion of last years' goals. ■ The board discussed TAB member appointments to committees and task forces. The appointments will stay the same except that Krista Holland will take Alison Richards' place on the Greenways Advisory Committee. They also decided that they do not want official TAB representation in the Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program. Jim Rettew motioned to approve the new committee appointments. Jerry Wyss seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the motion. • Jerry Wyss asked to have two items added to the future agenda: bikes on sidewalks and evaluating holding a joint meeting with the other boards that have representation on the Greenways Advisory Committee. Tracy Winfree said that Annie Noble and Mami Ratzel are assembling a Greenways staff working group to work on • Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 7 overlapping controversial issues, such as electric-assist bikes on bike paths and improving courtesy. Winfree recommended that the staff work group have a chance to develop a list of mutual areas of work before TAB considers meeting with other boards. The Board concurred. • Jerry Wyss asked to have an update on the maintenance of Greenways trails, which is a budget issue. • Jerry Wyss asked the staff to evaluate whether the sidewalks and pedestrian crossing treatments are compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. This will be added to the TAB To Do list. • Brant Liebmann requested adding a discussion on the pros and cons of funding RTD bus systems to the TAB schedule. • Brant Liebmann requested a discussion on providing subsidies for bus passes to lower income passengers. Brant Liebmann motioned to suspend the rules and allow the meeting to continue beyond 10 p.m. Jerry Wyss seconded the motion. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the motion. AGENDA ITEM 8 • Discussion of Future Meeting Agenda • The Yarmouth Avenue CEAP • The Neighborhood Parking Permit program on Longwood Avenue • The transportation CIP • An update about the Transportation Master Plan AGENDA ITEM 9 Adjournment Brant Liebmann motioned to adjourn the meeting. Jim Rettew seconded. The vote was 5-0 in favor of the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 10:09 p.m. • Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 8 • Next Meeting May 13, 2002, 6:00 p.m., Transportation Advisory Board regular meeting, at the City Council Chambers. April 22, 2002, 6:00 p.m., TAB Retreat, The Cork Restaurant. 5 3( ~a Minutes approved on r 5f By • Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes April 8, 2002 Page 9