Athens in Motion Commission

Athens in Motion Commission Tuesday, September 22, 2020 – 4:00-6:00 pm Online via ACC WebEx https://youtu.be/fCpENj26XU8 PRESENT Carol Myers Aaron Redman Mark Ebell Teresa Friedlander Jake Maas Craig Topple Lauren Blais James Barlament Roswell Lawrence GUESTS Hillary Essig (TPW, Bike and Pedestrian Coordinator) Stephen Bailey (TPW) Todd Miller (LS) Rani Katreeb (TPW) 1. Call to Order a. Carol called the meeting to order at 4:02. 2. Agenda Additions and Approval a. No additions to agenda. 3. Public Comment a. No public comments. 4. Approval of Minutes a. Carol has followed up with Ashley @ Bulldawg Bikes about data security concerns. b. Hillary will send her PPT to add as an appendix. c. Teresa moved to approve; Lauren seconded. Minutes approved. 5. Todd Miller, Leisure Services Update a. Todd will get Derek’s presentation to Jake for the Minutes. b. Firefly Phase III additions will be voted on by M&C in October. The potential alternates behind Oakmont subdivisions that need further study on potential alternates will not be in the section of trail that they are voting on. Those will be brought back to the M&C on a future date.  c. Firefly Phase II construction has started! (Behind Racetrak.) d. Winterville Firefly trail is super close – contractor is installing the blinky-flashies now for a pedestrian crossing point and fixing some cracks in the concrete. Should be done in a couple of weeks. e. Bids for the bridge over Trail Creek (Murmur Trestle) are due Sept. 27th, so that will be moving forward soon. f. Carol: Firefly Trail in Winterville is already busy. 6. Bike/Pedestrian Coordinator Report (Hillary) a. M&C has approved their commission-defined option. b. Jefferson River Road work session went well—very positive. c. Outreach for JRR will start in two weeks. d. Riverbend Parkway will be coming to us in October for preferred option for M&C. e. Barber St. will be coming to us in January. 7. Report from America Walks webinar on pedestrian safety crisis (Aaron) a. Angie Schmitt, author of Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America. b. A social and racial justice issue. There has been a 50% increase in deaths; this has been ignored because the people most likely to be killed are marginalized (minorities and the elderly). c. Detroit and Cleveland, e.g.: much higher rate of pedestrian deaths in lower income areas: more pedestrians, more bus riders, lack of infrastructure. d. Native Americans are 5x more likely to be killed than white Americans in rural areas. Goat paths crossing high speed interstates and highways. e. City centers and suburbs are not designed for walking; most dangerous states are in sun belt areas, where more older Americans are moving, especially to car-centric suburbs. f. SUV sales increasing; much higher front ends of SUVs mean that you are 2-3 times more likely to die if you are hit by one; even higher rate for children. Large trucks in cities have major visibility issues. g. Solutions: Complicated and expensive to make engineering changes to streets. Temporary changes like bollards, temporary barriers to test out ped/bike feasibility are possible. More lighting. Pedestrian islands for busier highways. h. Carol has a copy of the book which she is happy to share. Lauren also ordered a copy. 8. TADs a. One of the reasons the M&C voted for a commissioner-defined option on Cherokee Rd was that the TAD money would be used to build sidewalks and other ped/bike facilities along Lexington Rd. b. They could enable a lot to be built in the Bike/Ped Master Plan. The TADs will be in six different geographical areas – anything over the current year property taxes will go into the TAD fund for that TAD area. Lexington Rd was extended west toward downtown, and Cherokee Rd was extended to include the area of our bike/ped project. c. There is both general money and also funds for project-specific TADs. There will not be bonds for this – we can only spend the money when it comes in. It will go into a bucket like SPLOST, but for the TAD. d. There has to be a redevelopment plan for each TAD, which will include estimates of how much money will be raised. We have no idea how much this will be for a given TAD at this point. e. Commissioners Herod, Davenport, Parker felt there would be money for multi-use paths in the TADs.  f. According to Mayor Girtz there will be a lot of development in these areas in the coming years (which is why they were chosen). We need to keep an eye on these developments and on the redevelopment plans. g. We may want to put together a list of tier 1 projects in these TADs. Hillary is already working with Planning on this [but this thread will need to be picked up when Hillary leaves]. 9. AiMC Commission Update -- Chair’s Report a. How can the Commission Raise Money? i. Jake: ORGC can raise money, but people are not willing to donate to a governmental org, which is why we made the Friends of the Greenway. For grants, ORGC has partnered with ALT and the city as fiscal agents. Bike Athens might be able to fill this role for AiMC. Per Theresa, Scott Long is very positive about working with the AiMC. Theresa thinks it could be mutually beneficial to do more stuff with them. ii. Is AiMC able to sell anything or solicit any funds? Hillary will check with the clerk’s office. But AiMC doesn’t have a treasurer role, so they may not be able solicit funds. Carol will look into this. b. Discussion on Sidewalk Gaps i. The remaining gap projects have been rolled into AiM, and evaluated with AiM methodology. But some Commissioners talk about it as if it still exists. Carol wanted to make sure that everyone knows that. c. Bike Summit i. “Identifying and addressing barriers to physical activity in the black community” and “Arrested mobility” 1. This workshop was made available through the GA Bike Summit, and some of us attended. Carol recommends listening to it. The first is a presentation from Charles Brown, a leader in bike/ped equity issues. “Arrested Mobility” is fairly short. All people of color involved in these issues. All of the topics are related to the work that we have done. 2. Craig pointed out how it connected to “Out of the mouths of babes”, a project targeting minority youth and children and encouraging them to walk and bike. Experiences of children may shift as they become adults; this may connect with some of Bike Athens’ community projects. Craig recommends watching it. d. Open Streets i. Carol followed up with Kent Kilpatrick in LS. Seems even more relevant now during COVID. The one in Macon was an interesting model. e. “Storytelling for agility and resilience” i. Relates to education and encouragement of people from minority and low- income communities to ride bikes and get moving. f. New sign on College Station/Barnett Shoals that clarifies who the warning is for – now it is directed at drivers instead of cyclists. If we see something like this that doesn’t make sense, it’s worth sharing with TPW. g. Carol fell into a hole on the Firefly Trail. Then she worked with the city to get it filled (it was a utility hole that they forgot to fill in – it took 15 gallons of dirt to fill it). h. Trees  i. Carol is in communication with someone on the Tree Council who is interested in approaching the concept of a tree bank amendment to the Tree Ordinance, and might be something that would help AiM. i. Carol is working on an annual report and budget request and wants to get it done before she rolls off to be a Commissioner. j. Carol applied to be a Smart Growth Champion as an elected official. She will update us at the next meeting. 10. Project Revision Process a. Teresa presented the draft document, attached as Appendix A [version is from 10/26]. b. Discussion i. Lauren: would we use the prioritization score that currently exists in AiM? Or would we calculate a new score? Teresa: for existing projects, use existing scores. Mark: what if the conditions have changed for those projects? Carol: then we would re-score. ii. Hillary: we need to review and update the whole AiM Plan every 5 years with the bike/ped coordinator and Tool Design. To reflect any changes in the community. iii. Craig: we don’t ask much of new developments in terms of supporting bike and ped use. We should ask more, but this will require involvement of M&C. iv. Per Hillary, this does not need to be added as an addendum to the AiM Plan; this is really an internal process for us. Carol: how can this be made public-facing so that people can find out how to do this? Hillary: we can work with PIO to add this to the AiMC webpage. v. The group worked on various other minor revisions to the process. 11. Grants and Data Committee Update a. Met last week and identified a couple of projects: a wayfinding project that would direct people to the Greenway/Firefly, and a project to add bikes and promotion of active transportation in school newsletters in ACC. b. Also a project to collaborate with Ike Choi at UGA for a VR ped safety program for kids, further down the line. 12. Policy Committee Update a. Working on update to the Complete Streets Policy with more specific language. 13. Education Committee Update a. Teresa enjoyed the GA Bike Summit. b. The people who we most need to reach are the people who will be hardest to reach – underserved populations with less access to technology/internet. Also have to find a way to reach drivers. c. They are coming up with a work plan. d. Need to do more with Bike Athens. e. Craig: consider running groups like Athens RoadRunners and Couch to 5k. 14. Meeting Adjourned at 5:38 pm. Appendix A: Project Revision Process Proposed Process for Revisions to the Athens in Motion Bike & Sidewalk Network The Athens in Motion Plan, as adopted by the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission in 2018, may require revision periodically. The following process explains how the plan may be changed to reflect evolving alternative transportation needs in the community. Revisions to the plan include: • New projects • Changes to existing projects • Re-prioritization of existing projects • Deletion of existing projects The first step is a formal request to the Athens in Motion Commission through the TPW Bike/Ped Coordinator. She will share the revision requests throughout the year with the Athens in Motion Commission at regularly scheduled monthly meetings as part of her status report. 1. Entities who may request AiM Plan revisions based on triggering events: • Mayor & District Commissioners • ACC/TPW Staff • Citizens • AiM Commissioner 2. Triggering events that may create the need for plan revisions: • New school or park • New housing or business development • Network connectivity/safety problems • New infrastructure such as greenways, bus stops, sidewalks, etc. • Missing connectivity link with AiM network • Other 3. For each proposed AiM Plan revision, the Bike/Ped Coordinator and TPW staff prepare a high-level analysis for the AiMC annual project plan review (step 4): • How does the proposed revision affect connectivity? • What is the impact on the AiM Plan? • What is the potential budget range? • Does the TWP staff recommend further review of the project? 4. Annually (end of calendar year), the Athens in Motion Commission reviews the list of proposed revisions to the AiM Plan, vote to review each project in more detail, and add proposed projects or changes to future AiMC meeting agendas. 5. For the annual AiM Plan review, TPW and the Bike/Ped Coordinator performs a more detailed analysis for each proposed project or Plan modification: • Athens in Motion criteria scoring (see AiM Plan pages 53-55, tables 4-1, 4-2, 4-3: Bicycle and Pedestrian Prioritization Criteria)*** • Scope and project boundaries • Impact on existing AiM Projects • Linear/square foot cost estimate of the proposed revision • Benefit of the proposed revision to the AiM Plan to the surrounding area and the entire active transportation network. • Recommended placement on AiM tiered project list 6. Athens in Motion Commission votes to recommend advancing, rejecting, changing, or requesting additional information about proposed revisions. 7. The Bike/Ped Coordinator and TPW report AiMC’s recommendation to the ACC Mayor and Commission. 8. ACC Mayor and Commission vote on proposed AiM Plan revisions • APPROVED revisions are added to the Athens in Motion Plan • REJECTED revisions: no change to Athens in Motion Plan • UNRESOLVED requested AiM Plan revisions will be sent back to the AiM Commission for further review and analysis. *** The Athens in Motion Commission needs access to the original project scoring work performed by Toole Design so that our revision process will be transparent, consistent with the original methodology, and rational. (Hillary has this!) Before submitting a request for sidewalks or bike infrastructure, please read the Athens in Motion plan: https://www.accgov.com/7604/Athens-In-Motion-Bicycle-Pedestrian-Mast. Please note that in general, the ACC United Government does not build sidewalks and bike facilities within subdivisions unless they provide necessary connections to AiM infrastructure. Visit ACC Transportation and Public Works https://www.accgov.com/2734/Traffic-Engineering- Division for more information.