Non-Agenda Item - Transportation - Action Minutes - 10/28/2002
CITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS MEETING SUMMARY FORM
NAME OF BOARD/COMMISSION: Transportation Advisory Board
DATE OF MEETING: October 28, 2002
NAME/TELEPHONE OF PERSON PREPARING SUMMARY: Robin Madel, 303-441-4073
NAMES OF MEMBERS, COUNCIL, STAFF AND INVITED GUESTS PRESENT:
BOARD MEMBERS -TAB: Jim Renew (Vice Chair), Brant Liebmann, Jerry Wyss, Krista Holland; John
Tayer was absent
STAFF - Tracy Winfree, Mike Sweeney, Bill Cowern, Teresa Spears, Doug Parker, Joe de Raismes, Kate
Patterson, Mami Ratzel and Robin Madel, secretary
WHAT TYPE OF MEETING [REGULAR]
Regional Partner Outreach Dinner: with Heather Balser from the city of Louisville
Agenda Item 1- Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 6:01 .m.
Agenda Item 2 - Approval of Minutes
The minutes from Sept. 9, 2002 were approved as amended.
Jerry Wyss 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.
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 the main issue is that medians are not designed to
stand on and there is concern for public safety. The ordinance proposes to prohibit standing on medians less than
30 fr. 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. 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. Doug
Parker, from the Audit and Evaluation division, described the process the staff went through to evaluate the
voting response. 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.
Citizen Participation
Charlie Mareolf, 2140 9a 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 emergency service to the other 99.9% of the population. The NTMP
regulations require a petition signed b 50% of the residents and he said that hadn't been done in either Whittier
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or Balsam/Edgewood. He also said that the 85 percentile speed exceedance didn't exist in all areas. He said that
there were too many problems with the voting for it to he 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 that
they will enhance their property values at the city's expense and he urged the TAB to vote no to the staff
recommendations.
Jonathan Hondo r£, 2720 4b St., Boulder, 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 23 d 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, 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 16" 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 23rd 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 Coloene, 243123`' St., Boulder, lives at 200 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.
Mim Dixon, 1618 Spruce 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 raised crossings
were demonstration only and would be taken out.
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 23 d 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 cars
driving through traffic circles that didn't yield and didn't get pulled over by police that were parked near the
circles. She also said that the circles violate the Clean Air Act because accelerating and braking increases air
emissions.
Elizabeth Hondo rf, 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 et nothing. She said that the number of injury accidents has been reduced. She asked the TAB to
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consider, with regards to the person that walked around and talked to people, that the TAB doesn't know what
was said to people.
John Spitzer, 2323 20'" 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 increased time for 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 some tenants
got ballots. She said she knows of at least 6 tenants that live near the 16'" and Spruce intersection that didn't get
ballots.
Tanya Smile v,1627 Spruce St., Boulder, said she is concerned about doing nothing at 16t° and Spruce. She said
she would like to have some consideration to have something there.
Citizen Participation was closed.
TAB Questions
The TAB and staff discussed the issues and questions that were raised during public comment.
TAB Discussion
Trarv Winfr ee pointed out that the recommendation is on the CEAP 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. Jerry Wyss asked to include in the CEAP details about what
changes would be made to existing devices.
Jerry Wyss 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.
TAB questions covered the use of photo radar devices and the low numbers of ballots returned.
Citizen Participation
Charlie Mareolf, 2140 9" 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 Hondo rf, 2720 4'h 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 4" St., Boulder, said there is confusion about the definition of traffic circle. She said
not everyone's been to Europe to understand but she also 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 t0%
would be experienced. He said that the city council, TAB and staff can't be trusted. He said the staff changed the
rules. The landscaping that was promised didn't happen and he said that the speed data was not reported as the
staff said it would be. 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, 243123`d St., Boulder, said that the 99" 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
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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 the 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.
Crustal Grav,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 and stop signs increase
pollution.
Citizen Participation was closed.
TAB Questions
Questions covered spending money to remove speed humps that were not approved, the overwhelming number of
speed displays that are proposed and whether or not the TAB should change the recommendations of the staff.
Jim Rettew motioned to recommend the CEAP minus speed displays at the location east of 17a'
and Balsam and the location south of 15`" and Alpine).
There was no second.
Jerry Wyss motioned to recommend the staff proposal for the CEAP for the BalsanvEdgewood
neighborhood.
Brant Liebman 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 making a choice.
The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion.
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. She said the residents like the NPP
program and want it to stay. She said most residents 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.
TAB Questions
Questions covered how the commuter permit program compares to the surface parking lot program and the white
space study that was done.
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 Liebman seconded the motion.
The vote was 4.0 in favor of the motion.
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 Mareolf, 2140 9 ° 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
The discussion included the frequency of white space studies, budgets and resource allocations, and night time
enforcement. The also discussed the benefit of sunsettin the program in another five ears, increasing the
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residential fee to cover increased enforcement, adding an evaluation of the terminology to the TAB to-do list, and
whether or not to have a sunset period or make the ordinance permanent.
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.
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 parldng permit fee
both in a fixed amount and in an annual increase.
Brant Liebroann seconded the motion.
The vote was 4-0 in favor of the motion.
Agenda Item 8 -
Matters From Staff:
• Maim 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 were to get 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
Renew 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.
Agenda Item 9 - Discussion of Future Meeting Agenda
The November meeting agenda will include an evaluation of the NTMP program and process.
Agenda Item 10 - Adjournment
Jerry Wvss motioned to adjourn the meeting.
Brant Liebman seconded.
The vote was 4.0 in favor of the motion.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:20 p.m.
Date, Time, and Location of Next Meeting:
• Nov. 25, 2002, 6:00 .m., Transportation Advisor Board regular meeting, Grace Lutheran Church.
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