Athens in Motion Commission

Athens in Motion Commission Tuesday, May 26, 2020 – 4:00-6:00 pm Online via ACC WebEx PRESENT Lauren Blais Carol Myers Aaron Redman Mark Ebell Roswell Lawrence Craig Topple Jake Maas Hillary Essig (TPW) Todd Miller (LS) ABSENT Teresa Friedlander James Barlament 1. Call to Order a. Lauren called the meeting to order at 4:04 pm b. Lauren gave a shoutout to Teresa for drafting the BUILD letter. 2. Public Comment a. There were no public comments. 3. Approval of Minutes a. Carol moved to approve; Aaron seconded. Minutes were approved. 4. Upcoming Mayor & Commission Work Session a. At the upcoming M&C work session, they will be discussing the Lexington Road and Atlanta Highway corridors; it would behoove members of the AiMC to ‘attend’ if possible. Derek Doster will be presenting. Corridors are last item on the agenda, so that part of the discussion won’t begin until at least 7:00, and possibly much later. 5. Bike and Pedestrian Coordinator Report (Hillary) a. This is a light month; next month will be (checks notes) “cray-cray.”  b. M&C asked for a corridor update from SPLOST office – though projects are not yet prioritized or costed. There will be another session post-prioritization. They WILL be discussing bike/ped aspects. c. TPW submitted the North Avenue BUILD grant. We should find out if we got it in late October or early November. d. Because of COVID, the original work sessions (as detailed in the April minutes) have been pushed back. Hillary will be presenting sidewalks and multiuse concepts in June…probably. e. Street Closure pilot program – Hillary has been talking to other cities about their process for street closures to cars to allow more pedestrian and bike traffic during COVID. She notes that cities are not closing arterials and collectors…yet. They are closing (to cars) their existing bike boulevards. Since Athens doesn’t have any of those, our closest equivalent would be closing certain of our neighborhood streets to car traffic. However, as Lauren pointed out, our neighborhood streets are very low throughput as is. So it would be hard to effect street closures in Athens that would make much of a noticeable impact. 6. Todd’s Update a. Online public input for Oak/Oconee bridge went well. Almost 60 people total attended the two sessions, and Leisure Services received good positive feedback. b. Firefly Phase II will be getting started in June. This is the section that ends at Bulldog RV Park, which will then have bike/ped access to downtown. c. The Winterville section of the Firefly Trail is scheduled to be complete in July (but there might be some additional days if there is a lot of rain). d. The Firefly Bridge is currently in the pre-qualification process. 7. Next Meeting: June 23. Unknown whether it will be online or in person. Jake suggested a call-in option if it is online. Lauren agreed, and we can continue this indefinitely. 8. Meeting Adjourned at 4:26 pm.