Athens in Motion Commission

Minutes Athens in Motion Commission Athens-Clarke County Sept. 24, 2019, Tuesday Planning Department 120 W. Dougherty St. Athens PRESENT: Carol Myers Mark Ebell Teresa Friedlander Roswell Lawrence Jake Maas Lauren Blais James Barlament (remotely) Aaron Redman Craig Topple Hillary Essig – ACC Transportation and Public Works GUESTS: Scott Long -- Bike Athens Aaron Hall – ACC Planning (here in unofficial capacity) 1. Call to order - Carol Meeting called to order at 4:03. Introduction of UGA member, Roswell Lawrence. Roswell is Assistant VP of Finance and Administration for UGA and specializes in crisis management. 2. Approval of minutes - Carol Mark moved to accept the minutes as submitted. Lauren seconded. Passed unanimously. 3. Athens in Motion Plan overview - Carol Carol reported on a meeting with Mayor Girtz in which they discussed the AiM Commission. Kelly committed to providing printed copies of the AiM report for AiMC members. Down the line there will be a small budget for items like this. Carol presented a PowerPoint overview of the Bike Ped Master Plan (aka AiM PLAN). That PowerPoint can be made available by request. A few key points from the presentation:  The AiM Plan focused on five desiderata: o CONNECTIVITY o EQUITY o MORE USERS o EDUCATION (Carol noted that Education needs more development, as this section was not as Athens-specific as the other sections as developed by Toole Design.) o IMPLEMENTATION  Discussion of 2017 Sidewalk Gap program – per Carol, there was some concern during the AiM Plan development that sidewalk development projects went to those neighborhoods with the most vocal constituents, which is not in line with the EQUITY goals of the AiM plan. Aaron noted that industries didn’t want sidewalks, and lobbied (in many cases successfully) not to have to include them in their design plans. Multiple AiMC Commissioners noted that remediating this weakness should be a goal of the AiMC Commission.  The Citizen Advisory Committee for AiM was very responsive and cooperative.  Understanding User Types, a section of the AiM Plan, is very useful in terms of classification.  The Proposed Regional Network is hard to read -- we will need a better graphic. Sidewalks are hard to differentiate. Hillary is working on a map of Tier one projects that will differentiate between Bike, Ped, and Bike/Ped projects; she hopes to have this by next meeting. The Commission discussed how we need to be ambassadors and information enablers in terms of potential projects, serving as liaisons between ACC and the public. The equity analysis conducted by Toole as part of AiM planning found that approximately ⅓ of ACC residents are unable or unwilling to use a car, and that ¼ of households either do not own a car, or have only one car, limiting and complicating their transportation options. EQUITY CRITERIA are very important, and include: ● Sidewalk to road ratio ● Bus service area coverage ● Number of households with no vehicles ● Population community by public transport ● Percent in poverty over age 65 ● Percent in poverty under age 18 Other Criteria: Land Use, Transit, Critical Corridors, Public Input. Pedestrian-Specific Criteria included in the Plan are: Safety and Connectivity. The Commissioners discussed the need to trust our professionals, rather than having all implementation driven by politicians or public input. Ideally, communities strike a balance between public needs and input on the one hand, and professional knowledge. The details of implementation and process tend to be largely opaque to even the most well-informed members of the public. Appendix D is useful as a project “Recipe Book.” It will come into play when the Commission needs to delve into the nitty-gritty of a project. Per Hillary, so far the cost estimates presented in the AiM Plan have been very accurate; however, the sample size of implemented projects is low. The Commission discussed exactly how much funding is currently available for bike and pedestrian project implementation: ● $6,000,000 for Bicycle Improvements (general) ● $11,000,000 for Pedestrian Improvements ● Additional funds for corridor improvements (Atlanta Highway/West Broad, Prince, Lexington) The Commission discussed the importance of clarifying the differences between delineated, buffered, separated, and shared use paths. This is both important for AiM Commissioners to have down pat, and important for the M&C and public to begin to understand. It should be part of the Education mission of the Commission. Evidence of lack of understanding of the differences has been evident in public discussion of many implemented bike and ped projects. Elliott Caldwell will come to our next meeting to talk about Complete Streets. 4. Bike Pedestrian Coordinator Report - Hillary Each month Hillary will address the short-term goals and measure our progress. For this meeting, Hillary reviewed the status of the five tier 1 ped projects and five tier 1 bicycle projects. 1. West Broad Pedestrian Improvements – ACC is partnering with GDOT on signal improvement or roundabout at the Hancock/West Broad intersection. Funding is tied to improving ped connectivity on Broad, so this must be the goal of the improvements. Multiple options will be presented to public in late 2019/early 2020. 2. Bike and pedestrian counting program – the next steps are to prioritize locations and find partners. Mark suggested Health Promotion and Behavior in the UGA College of Public Health. Hillary is trying to get it up and running by September 2020. a. We had a interstitial discussion of Open Streets and what it means: People using the public space, emphasizing active transportation and movement. 3. No update on education with public schools; possibilities include Community walkshops (like workshops) and walk audits.  4. Hillary is working to begin tracking crash data -- linked to Vision Zero. Quality Assurance/Quality Control of data is underway. Existing data is not great for our purposes. 5. Wayfinding audit -- no update. High level conversations only. 6. Vision Zero action plan is in progress. Reducing traffic speeds in ACC often involves negotiating with GDOT (have to go through permitting process); lack of speed enforcement is also an issue. The Commission discussed which ACC streets/roads are GDOT roadways. a. Lauren asked if we need permission to do counts on GDOT roadways -- Hillary says probably not. 7. Road safety media campaign to create a culture of safety -- no update. Jake suggested that the Commission take advantage of the media blitz that follows crashes, noting that there were two pedestrian fatalities and one serious injury in ACC since the last AiMC meeting. 8. ACC Bike/Ped Coordinator position exists! Mission Accomplished. Lexington/Loop Interchange – construction is slated to begin by GDOT in April 2020 [Secretary’s note – this may be a later interpolation.] Jake raised the tangential issue of traffic signaling problems in Athens, noting that green arrows and pedestrian walk signals should not be happening at the same time. Hillary advised Jake to call TPW and ask for George Spearing with problems like this. Hillary and others also noted that “smart” signals don’t work for bikes. Someone [Secretary’s apologies] noted that local sidewalk funding is often requested by neighborhoods. E.g., TPW did a count on Sycamore Drive, and found that that road has a relatively high volume of pedestrian traffic -- 115 people per 24 hours. Hillary and Stephen Bailey are putting a proposal together for improved sidewalks on Sycamore Drive. 5. Public education/notification about overall AIM plan and specific projects - Carol/Hillary This topic was tabled. 6. Group brainstorming on direction of AiMC, first projects, subcommittees, etc. - Carol The Commission started from the common ground that implementation of Tier 1 project is the first priority -- we need to get funding for these. Can we look at this in a systematic way in terms of connectivity? We as a Commission are not going to spend a lot of time looking at streets in fine-grained detail. We need a strategy to build the network. Aaron pointed out that we need to be in constant communication with M&C to educate them. Be present at public input meetings. Craig raised the issue of Impact Fees -- how could we do that? It has been an uphill battle to get any kind of fees on developers. Hillary noted that in Austin you pay per square foot per unit of time. In Athens, commercial developers pay a flat fee and there is no time limit. We could come up with an ordinance based on policy. Have specific talks with Commissioners to assess support for this idea and clear hurdles. Hillary noted that how projects get done tends to be opportunistic, and the Commission needs to be nimble and engaged in order to provide advice on these projects when they arise. Someone [Secretary’s Apologies] noted that we need to be getting as much money as we can. The group agreed. Pavement management rehabilitation happens in April/May. The pavement management prioritization process will be done early next year and go to M&C. This will be an important time for this Commission, and we will help Hillary with this. COMMITTEES We talked about establishing Committees, or topic areas to focus on in small groups. We concurred that it is possible and desirable to bring in people from other organizations/institutions to help tackle these problems. [Secretary’s Note: Carol later provided the following rendering of the brainstorming the group did on large sheets of paper.] What to work on:  Development, implementation, and modification of AiM plan  Advise M&Cs  More $$$ for implementation of plan  Education Sub-Committees/Areas of work Committees Notes AiMC members Policy/M&C  Ordinances – Aaron Advisement & impact fee? Craig education  Complete Lauren Street Policy Mark [added later] (Carol invited Elliot Caldwell, Georgia Bikes, to present at Oct meeting)  Specific bike/ped projects  Repayment, stormwater  work, roadway expansion opportunities for bike/ped infrastructure $$$$ TSPLOST, SPLOST, Jake other grants Roswell [added later] Possible grant for wayfinding - need wayfinding to be consistent through community whether AAC streets, UGA, Greenway, etc. Communication Social media Teresa Tabling (work with Greenway and Bike Athens?) Press releases Internal communication Possible FB and social media Brochures Education& Open Streets James Outreach - Talking at civic, Carol BikePed Plan religious, community, and Safety etc groups Work with schools *** Note: Because we are such a small commission, we will all help each other but these are areas that the named person’s will be more responsible for directing. Can we have a Facebook page? Hillary will look into it. BikeAthens can also put messages out for us. Craig suggested, instead of having separate monthly committee meetings, breaking up the two- hour AiMC meeting into one section consisting of committee work and one section of standard Commission business, which would include committee reports. Jake opined that this was a great idea and one the Commission should consider. 7. Announcements and other comments - Commission members and public The group reviewed the By-laws and authorities of the Commission: By-Laws The AiMC shall be responsible for development, implementation, and modification of the Athens in Motion Plan for a safe and connected network of bicycle and pedestrian facilities throughout Athens-Clarke County. Such plan shall also include guidelines for the implementation of the plan. AiMC AUTHORIZED TO: 1. Advise M&C on the development, implementation, and modification of AIM plan a. Any changes to must be okayed by M&C 2. Seek federal, state, private foundation and grant funds to improve the safety and connectivity of bicyclists and pedestrians 3. Conduct educational, safety, and encouragement programs in support of active transportation. 4. Recommend to the M&C financial and/or other incentives to preserve, enhance, or further the purposes of the AiMC. Meetings/Membership/Officers etc.: 1. 9 members for 5-year terms, including one selected from the Greenway Commission and one appointed from UGA; 6 needed for a quorum. 2. Chair, vice-chair and secretary. 3. Will meet at least 6 times per year, no less than once every two months. 4. Annual meeting once a year to present an annual AiMC report. September 22, 2020 MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:53.