Loading...
2 - Transportation - Draft Minutes - 10/28/2002 TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD FINAL MINUTES OCTOBER 28, 2002 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT Jim Rettew, Brant Liebmann, Jerry Wyss, Krista Holland; John Tayer was absent STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT Tracy Winfree, Mike Sweeney, Bill Cowern, Teresa Spears, Doug Parker, Kate Patterson, Marni Ratzel and Robin Madel, secretary Regional Partner Outreach Dinner: with Heather Balser from the city of Louisville AGENDA ITEM 1 Call to Order Jim Rettew, vice-chair, called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. AGENDA ITEM 2 Approval of Minutes The minutes from Sept. 9, 2002 were approved as amended. er W ss motioned to approve the Sept. 9, 2002 meeting minutes as amended. Brant Liebmann seconded the motion. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. AGENDA ITEM 3 General Citizen Participation There was none. General Citizen Participation was closed. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page I AGENDA ITEM 4 Input from TAB regarding an ordinance to restrict staying in medians longer than is necessary (Joe de Raismes). Joe de Raismes gave the background on the issue. He said that the medians have been used in the past for campaigning on Election Day and by newspaper vendors during the newspaper wars. Letting the newspaper vendors use the medians was a compromise but the Boulder Police Department didn't like it because of the safety issue. The city established rules for vendors and established a hotline for complaints. Once the newspaper wars stopped the vendors stopped selling papers. Since then the medians have been used by people to solicit money for charities and to panhandle. De Raismes said the main issue is that medians are not designed to stand on and there is concern for public safety. De Raismes said that the time has come to end standing on the medians. The ordinance proposes to prohibit standing on medians less than 30 ft. wide except to allow maintenance to be performed. The ordinance does not intend to ban soliciting money from drivers it only seeks to limit the amount of time people spend in medians. The ordinance would apply to fundraisers, political campaigners, salespeople and pandhandlers. The TAB members gave their opinions without issuing a formal recommendation. They all supported the ordinance from a safety standpoint but Krista Holland and Brant Liebmann questioned the 30-ft. size restriction. Holland said that it doesn't seem safe to have someone standing in the median but 30-ft. seems too wide of a restriction. Bill Cowern said that 30-ft. is the difference between a median and a sidewalk between two roadways and it is a standard that is in the code. Jim Rettew asked if there is any evidence of problems such as accidents. Cowern said he is not aware of any. Rettew said that prohibiting it now would prevent future problems. De Raismes said that both the Downtown Management Commission and the University Hill Action Group support the proposed ordinance change. Jerry Wyss asked to have the staff look at what other communities are doing to deal with the problem. AGENDA ITEM 5 Public hearing and consideration of a recommendation to City Council on the Whittier Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program (NTMP) process (Bill Cowern and Teresa Spears). Teresa Spears gave a brief background of the proposal and detailed the process that was followed to arrive at the proposal made by the staff. The process included public meetings and a neighborhood polling process. The polling process occurred within 400 ft. of each device. The staff waited until fall to get a more representative sample. For each Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 2 device it was a different group of people that voted. Nine hundred ballots were sent out and 401 were returned. No one voted on more than one device. Doug Parker, from the Audit and Evaluation Division, described the process the staff went through to evaluate the voting response. The ballots never went to the Transportation Department; they went right to the Audit and Evaluation Division. Out of the 401 responses, 257 were resident owners, 66 were resident tenants, 72 were non- resident owners, and 6 didn't respond to the question. Parker and Spears discussed the issues that came up and were resolved with the voting process. The issues include mailing ballots to residents on Panorama Dr. that should not have been mailed and not giving the proper amount of votes to owner occupied residences. Residents got one vote, tenants got one vote and resident owners were supposed to get two votes. Spears said that when the ballots were recounted the percentages didn't change significantly. She said she feels solid with the results. Cowern reviewed the proposals that were included in the staff recommendation. Krista Holland asked why people want the raised crossings at 160i and Spruce removed. Cowern speculated that it was because they were ugly and not maintained. Jim Rettew asked how the voting mistakes happened and why they weren't caught before the ballots were released. Spears said that she tried to be as objective as possible with the process and the distance may have contributed to the problem. Rettew said that a larger issue might be whether or not the Transportation Department should be doing public polling. Citizen Participation Charlie Margo lf 2140 9 h St., Boulder, has been involved in the NTMP process since the beginning. He said it is a monument to process. The three steps of the program are education, (traditional) enforcement and engineering. He has not seen a definition of nor results from traditional enforcement and asked the TAB to direct the staff to prepare a definition so the citizens can tell whether we actually have any. David Wagner, 5280 Holmes PI., Boulder, spoke in opposition of any obstructing devices. He said that all the streets belong to everyone including him and it is not right to pretend that people outside of the polling areas don't exist. Staff is proposing to worsen service to the other 99.9% of the population. The NTMP regulations require a petition signed by 50% of the residents and he said that hadn't been done in either Whittier or Balsam/Edgewood. He also said that the 85 h percentile speed exceedance didn't exist in all areas. He said that there were too many problems with the voting for it to be an accurate portrayal. He said the city manager is supposed to get support from 60% of the people, not just those receiving ballots. He said there was an inadequate safety analysis about the time delays in the CEAP. Finally he added that proponents of the program think Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 3 that they will enhance their property values at the city's expense and he urged the TAB to vote no to the staff recommendations. ionathan Hondo rf, 2720 4u` St., Boulder, he said there are a lot of pros and cons to the devices. We need to slow traffic but we haven't addressed all of the safety concerns with the traffic circles. He said that the circles are not built to federal, state and city code standards and police records indicate that accidents have tripled at the traffic circle with the raised planter. There has never been an educational process for how to deal with traffic circles. He said at the circles with low curbs, when there are accidents, people drive into them and receive bodily injuries. Roy Johnson, 2219 Mapleton Dr., Boulder, said he is against the process and the end result for the circle at Mapleton and 23d St. He supports a lot of the points that David Wagner made. There is a stop sign at the intersection now and cars stop. With a circle there he said they would not stop. Also, with all of the proposed devices on the other streets, there will be diversions onto his street. He did not buy a home where he did to be on a heavy-use street. Steven Wallace, 1813 Pine St., Boulder, he said he has been involved in the process for 10 years. He said Pine St. is the only CERR that is considered under the proposal and it will only receive one delay-inducing device. He said it is unfortunate that 16d' and Spruce didn't pass and that the neighborhood as a whole isn't addressed in the voting process. Rick Marshall, 2245 Mapleton Ave., Boulder, lives on the comer of 23`d and Mapleton and said it is a dangerous intersection. He hears a lot of horn blowing and he thinks it is a good idea to slow the traffic down. He said it is a safety issue and not a property values issue. He said people run the stop sign a lot and enforcement doesn't work. Judith Marshall, 2245 Mapleton Ave., Boulder, has been a resident for 16 years. She thinks people are getting a feel for the circles and believes traffic circles are a good thing. She said at busy intersections circles would keep traffic flowing and slow speeds. Kathleen Cologne, 243123 St., Boulder, lives at 20'h and Bluff at the base of an incline. She doesn't understand the rationale for traffic circles and believes they are not safe. She mentioned the two pedestrians that were hit in the crosswalk of a circle in 2000. She said they are dangerous for pedestrians and it is easy to enhance stop signs. Speed humps are designed to lower speeds below the speed limit, not to keep it at 25 mph. Mum Dixon, 1618 Iruce St., Boulder, thinks the staff did a great job and supports the plan. She lives at 16 St. where a traffic circle was opposed. She said she is concerned because the other options were not in the poll and she doesn't know what this means. She is concerned that there will be no mitigation and she was surprised because she didn't hear any opposition to this in the neighborhood meetings. She asked to have a meeting to give the neighbors a chance to address not doing anything. Bill Cowern confirmed that the mid-block crossings were demonstration only and would be taken out. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 4 Candis Burton, 2420 Panorama Ave., Boulder, lives on Panorama Dr. She said she is impacted by the project because she can't get to Panorama Dr. without driving on 231d St and emergency vehicles will go there if necessary. She said the neighbors are upset about their votes being thrown out of the process. She has been walking around the neighborhood and doing her own informal polling about the issue. She said she observed cats driving through the traffic circle that didn't yield and police that were parked near the circles did not pursue those vehicles. She also said that the circles violate the Clean Air Act because accelerating and braking increases air emissions. Elizabeth Hondorf, 2720 4u` St., Boulder, is the mother of an accident victim who was severely injured in a traffic circle that she believes was not built to code. She said she is in litigation with the city and it is looking like she will win. She said that the one-level devices cause rollovers and there is not enough room for bikers in the bike lanes. She thinks that all the traffic circles should be eliminated. Crystal Grav,1709 Spruce St., Boulder, said she has been involved in speeding issues since 1976. She said the staff did a good job of holding meetings and sending mailings. She said the tenants in the older units didn't get ballots. There was confusion in the letter about whether the speed humps would be removed. She asked to get ballots to the people that were missed and said the staff should make it clear that if the item doesn't pass then the residents get nothing. She said that the number of injury accidents has been reduced. She asked the TAB to consider that with regards to the person that walked around and talked to people, the TAB doesn't know what was said to people. John Spitzer, 2323 20'h St., Boulder, said that the circles are popular devices and the vote is 80% in favor of them. They are widely used in Europe and Australia and people should learn how to use them. With regards to the comments on diversions, he said there has been some traffic diversion but not a lot. Traffic on the side streets has hardly increased and the increase to Emergency Response vehicles is only 2-4 seconds. He said he sat at some circles and watched. He said the neighborhood should reconvene for 16`' and Spruce because it wasn't clear that the speed humps would be taken out. He said that "nothing" is not a good solution. Vicki Naber,1540 Pine St., Boulder, said she thinks this is a great program and was shocked that no tenants got ballots. She said she knows of at least 6 tenants that live near the 16'h and Spruce intersection that didn't get ballots. Tanya Smilev,1627 Spruce St., Boulder, said she is concerned about doing nothing at 16"T Spruce. She said she would like to have some consideration to have something there. Citizen Participation was closed. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 5 TAB Questions The TAB and staff discussed the issues and questions that were raised during public comment. Cowem said that he had provided statistics on photo radar enforcement for the Whittier neighborhood. He said that the neighborhood was ready to move to the next step. Cowem said that he had provided speed data in the past and Pine St. met the 85th percentile criteria. He said the other streets don't need to meet the criteria because they will get diversions from Pine St. and automatically qualify. Cowem said he wasn't sure why people said that the circles didn't meet the codes. He said that the stop signs at Mapleton and 23rd St. have poor compliance. He said they offered enhancement as an option to the residents and the residents said no. Finally, Cowers said that the staff analyzed the steep grade at 2Od' and Bluff and found that the conditions were appropriate for the city's standards. Jerry Wyss asked why the petition process was skipped. Cowem said that the staff received specific instructions from the city council to start the process where it was started. Cowem said that the rates were down and the devices had a positive traffic enforcement effect. Cowem said he had met with the Police Department and the Fire Department and had the support of both departments for the staff proposal. Cowem said that the process requires a six-month period of traditional enforcement. He said that neighborhoods that are entering in the process now would provide an opportunity to collect traditional enforcement data. The Police Department can't be required to perform a high level of enforcement in this matter but they do commit to doing as much enforcement as the resources allow. Krista Holland asked if the cost of the recommendation versus the cost of adding enforcement was analyzed. Cowem said it was analyzed at the beginning of the program and traditional enforcement costs a lot more than the devices do. Jim Rettew asked about using the same system for mailing ballots that the city uses. Spears explained why that system wouldn't be appropriate. Holland asked about the danger of the traffic circles. Cowern said that he analyzed traffic data and found the circles to be safer except for a large spike of accidents that occurred during the first year after installation of the circle at 17th and Pine St. Cowem said that the accidents that occur at the circles are less severe than those that occur at stop signs. Holland asked what the circles would look like. Spears said she is looking at the landscape guidelines that are within the budget parameters. Holland asked about an education program. Cowem said that education was done at first but the staff needs to do more. Transponation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 6 TAB Discussion Tracy Winfree pointed out that the recommendation is on the CEAP and not the NTMP process and the recommendation will be forwarded to the city council. The discussion covered concerns about reliability of the balloting and the implications of repeating the voting process. Krista Holland said there were too many problems with the voting and didn't feel she could support the staff recommendations. Spears said that because renters typically have a low voter response, it is unlikely that the missing votes would have altered the results significantly. Rettew said that going through the process again might not be a valid course of action. Jerry Wyss asked if this CEAP is a preliminary design document like other CEAPs. Cowern said that the number of devices and where they are located is set in stone. Wyss asked to include in the CEAP details about what changes would be made to existing devices. Rettew said that, in spite of the problems, the established process was followed and he supported the staff recommendations. Jerry Wvss motioned to recommend the staff proposal for the Whittier CEAP with modifications for additional details for features that are being removed. Brant Liebmann seconded. The vote was 3-1 in favor of the motion. Krista Holland voted against it. AGENDA ITEM 6 Public hearing and consideration of a recommendation to City Council on the Balsam/Edgewood Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program (NTMP) process (Bill Cowern and Teresa Spears). Bill Cowern gave a description of the proposed mitigation devices. Jerry Wyss asked if photo enforcement could be used in the Edgewood neighborhood. Cowem said that it could be but there were some issues that had to be resolved first. He also confirmed that there are no new delay inducing devices on critical Emergency Response Routes in the neighborhood. Krista Holland said that she was concerned about the low voter turnout. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 7 Citizen Participation Charlie Margolf, 2140 9'h St., Boulder, said that he doesn't consider photo radar to be traditional enforcement. He said it is hard to believe that additional funds can't be allocated to do more traditional enforcement. Using photo radar means that people get to go 10 mph over the speed limit all the time. The mitigation devices are there to get cars to slow down. He asked to have assumptions about enforcement included in the report. Jonathan Hondorf. 2720 4th St., Boulder, wanted to clarify what the problem was with the traffic circles, He said that the two-tiered circles are supposed to have a 20-ft. clearance around the circle but the two on Balsam don't meet that requirement. He said that vegetation adds to the obstructed view. He said the neighborhood is not well lit, the signs are high, the vegetation acts as deer bait and they all contribute to safety problems. He also said that the city needs an educational process for the traffic circles. Elizabeth Hondo rf, 2720 4u` St., Boulder, said there is confusion about the definition of traffic circle. She said not everyone's been to Europe to understand tern but she said that we don't use them in the "European" way. For new drivers the circles are a hazard. Fred Rubin, 1329 Cedar Ave., Boulder, said his issue is the staff contention that the circles meet the standards and codes. He said the parallel streets showed an increase of 20-30% in traffic. The staff said an increase in 10% would be experienced. He said that the city council, TAB and staff couldn't be trusted. He said the staff changed the rules. The landscaping didn't happen and he said that the speed data was not reported as the staff said it would. He said there were no notifications for the neighborhood meetings. He said the methodology is crazy. He feels that the process is not about controlling speed but about controlling people. Kathleen Cologne, 243123rd St., Boulder, said that the 99d' percentile of speeds on Balsam were only 4-5 mph over the speed limit. She said that Transportation Research Labs reversed their standing on traffic circles because of all the problems that were discussed in the meeting. She said that the CEAP is being passed with no impact analysis. She said that at least four people spoke to board about people receiving disabilities from the circles. She also said that they cause pollution. Rick Dvson, 1520 Elder, Boulder, said he thinks the staff is doing a great job. He said he has been working on this for a long time and it will change the neighborhood for the better. Crystal Gray, 1709 Spruce St., Boulder, encouraged the board to pass the Balsam CEAP. He said the voting was complete even though some of the older units were a problem. She said this is a single-family area and there are stacks of reports showing a speeding problem. The circles keep the traffic moving but stop signs increase pollution. Citizen Participation was closed. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 8 TAB Questions Brant Liebmann said that he was confused by some of the public comment because no traffic circles were proposed. Liebmann also said that he thought that one of the citizens made a good suggestion about giving a warning for the first offence of less than 10 mph over the speed limit and a ticket for the second offence. Mike Sweeney discussed the issues with photo radar enforcement. Cowern said that there is no strong evidence that speed displays slow people down. Krista Holland asked about speed statistics in the area. Cowern said that at 181h and Balsam Ave. before the traffic circles were installed the speeds averaged 38-40 mph, and now they are averaging 28 mph. Cowern said that the design criteria for traffic circles calls for a 20-ft diameter around the circle. The circles on Balsam don't have parking around them but the ones on Pine St. do so they are larger. Krista Holland voiced her concern over spending money to remove speed humps that were not approved. Jim Rettew said that he was concerned with the overwhelming number of speed displays that are proposed. Jerry Wyss said that because the devices are not delay inducing they don't need the support of the TAB. Holland said that the devices could always be moved if they are found to be redundant. Rettew said he thinks it is probably harder to move the displays once they are installed than to not install them to begin with. Jim Rettew motioned to recommend the CEAP minus speed displays at the location east of 17th and Balsam and the location south of 15th and Alpine). There was no second. Jerry Wyss motioned to recommend the staff proposal for the CEAP for the Balsam/Edgewood neighborhood. Brant Liebmann seconded the motion. Krista Holland said that she is concerned about how few votes were received. Jerry Wyss said that if people don't vote, they are still making a choice. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 9 AGENDA ITEM 7 Public hearing and consideration of a recommendation to City Council on sunsetting of the Neighborhood Permit Parking (NPP) Commuter Permits (Kate Patterson). Kate Patterson reviewed the background of the commuter permit program. The purpose of the program is to preserve the neighborhood character and allow residents to park within a reasonable distance to their homes. She said the residents like the NPP program and want it to stay and most don't know if they have commuters parking on their block or not. The staff recommendation is to continue with the current ordinance and let the commuter permit fee offset the costs of the program with an appropriate fee increase. The regulation allows for four commuter permits per block face within the NPP zone, but still maintaining 25% white space. Parking demand in the CAGID area is high and there is a wait list. In the UGID area parking services offers information about the wait list, Eco-passes and commuter permits. The staff recommendation is that commuter permits should continue with provision for 25% white space and the fee should increase appropriately. TAB Questions Brant Liebmann asked if the permit guarantees a spot. Patterson said that it doesn't. She _ also said that it is cheaper and has fewer advantages than buying a spot in the parking lots. Holland asked about the white space study that was done. Patterson said it was done several times over a single day and the amount of white space was averaged. Brant Liebmann asked about the city's intention to eliminate the commuter permit program. Patterson said that the resident's perspective was to give the city five years to find other options and resources. Citizen Participation Mim Dixon, 1618 Spruce St., Boulder, said that parking is a problem and she supports the NPP but would like to see more enforcement. She recommended putting resources where the biggest problems are. She said that the situation changes faster than the white space studies indicate. She said she would like to see the program re-authorized but would like to see resources used in the more intense areas. Jerry Wyss motioned to suspend the rules and continue the meeting beyond 10:00 P.M. Brant Liebmann seconded the motion. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 10 Crystal Gray, 1709 Spruce St., Boulder, said it was a very long process getting the NPP in place and a lot of things have changed since the white space study was done one year ago. She said enforcement has been a big disappointment and she recommended performing the white space study on a quarterly basis. She said enforcement is key. She said she would like to see the commuter permit program sunset in another five years and have the staff do another evaluation. She also said she would like to see more education about parking so people know where to park. Charlie Mar¢olf, 2140 9a' St., Boulder, said he thinks the city would like to see the whole downtown streets as managed parking lots. He said he still wants the sunset provision to encourage the city council to take steps to solve the problems with the program. Citizen Participation was closed. TAB Discussion Krista Holland asked about the frequency of white space studies. Patterson said that the studies are done based on resident complaints after the baseline study is done. Jim Rettew said that limited resources often influence public policy. He asked Patterson if there is the flexibility to do impromptu counts based on resident complaints. Liebmann asked if there are resources to cover nighttime enforcement. Jerry Wyss said that he supported the staff recommendation and was interested in adding another sunset period in five years and adding an increase in the permit price to help cover the cost of program enforcement. Wyss also asked to have the staff clarify the definition of business and residence in the ordinance. He said he didn't think that it needed to be presented at the TAB again but it needs to be fixed. Rettew said that he didn't support the sunset period because the reasons to have a commuter permit program are sound ones. Krista Holland and Brant Liebmann supported the sunset period. Jerry Wyss said he supported it and he didn't think it was too much of a burden to the staff to evaluate the program every five years. Jerry Wvss motioned to recommend the staff recommendation with the additional provision of a sunset date of December 31, 2006. Krista Holland seconded the motion. Discussion covered whether or not to change the white space methodology. The vote was 3.1 in favor of the motion. Jim Rettew voted against it. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 11 Jerry Wyss recommended that the staff correct the defects identified by the city attorney at a recent city council meeting with the NPP ordinance language. Krista Holland seconded the motion. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. Jerry Wyss motioned to recommend that the staff consider an increase in the parking permit fee both in a filed amount and in an annual increase. Brant Liebmann seconded the motion. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. AGENDA ITEM 8 Matters From Staff: • Mami Ratzel discussed the bike signage program. She said the staff identified locations where signs were installed and looked at moving the signs to intersections where bikers make decisions. She discussed the details of the signs including the wording, the symbols and the designations. Ratzel said that 40 potential locations were identified along the bike network for trailblazing signs to get people onto bike facilities. They discussed identification of street names on underpasses and Ratzel said she is working with Boulder Bike Commuters to do an inventory of the existing signs. Matters From the Board: • Brant Liebmann asked about the law that says bikers moving from the bike path to the cross walk have to go through the crosswalk at a walkers speed to get the right of way. Krista Holland said that if a biker traveling at full speed through a crosswalk gets hit, the biker would get fined. Tracy Winfree said that the issue could be reviewed by the City Attorney's Office to see what the city can do to meet or change the law. Jim Rettew asked to have the issue added to the TAB to-do list. • Krista Holland asked to have an evaluation of the safety of bikepaths along multi-use paths. • Jerry Wyss attended the Greenways Advisory Committee for Krista Holland. Wyss said that the two issues are construction of a levee that is protecting a neighborhood and CU threatening to sue the city if flood water from the levee impacts CU property. Also, the maintenance study that was done by the Greenways Program was discussed and was very effective. Wyss said that it was a great use of the transportation funding. • Jim Rettew said he went to the Railvolution Conference and he took some notes that he handed out in a memo. Rettew said he got information about assisting businesses that are impacted by construction projects such as the Broadway Reconstruction Project. Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 12 AGENDA ITEM 9 Next meeting agenda The November meeting agenda will include an evaluation of the NTMP program and process. AGENDA ITEM 10 Adjournment Jerry Wyss motioned to adjourn the meeting. Brant Liebmann seconded. The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion. The meeting was adjourned at 11:20 p.m. Next Meeting November 25, 2002, 6:00 p.m., Transportation Advisory Board regular meeting, at Grace Lutheran Church. Minutes approved on By Transportation Advisory Board Final Minutes October 28, 2002 Page 13