Burlington Walk-Bike Council

AGENDA - Burlington Walk / Bike Council March 1, 2023, Wednesday 5:30 – 7:00 pm NOTE TIME CHANGE MEETING OPTIONS: 1. In-person - DPW conference room at 645 Pine Street, Burlington 2. Virtually - using Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88225473951?pwd=YzFFQ1Q3Y3J4bzcwR2VNYWRFWnht UT09 Passcode: 091788 (See other remote access options below) AGENDA: 1. Introductions, Announcements, Updates and Public Comments (10 min) 2. Follow-up on Possible Updates to City Ordinances Affecting Walking and Biking (10 min) The ad hoc ordinance committee members will update participants on what we have learned on the City Walk/Bike ordinances following-up on the February 1, 2023 BWBC meeting. The plan is to have a more in-depth follow-up discussion at the April meeting. 3. Priorities for Implementing the Plan BTV Walk Bike (65 min) Dayton Crites, Burlington’s new Senior Transportation Planner at the Department of Public Works will present the department’s research and “first blush” ideas for walk/bike priorities going forward, and especially how the bond funds approved last year will be spent. 4. Next Steps (5 min) Please join us at 7:05 for an informal gathering after the meeting at Zero Gravity! Previous Meeting – At the February 1, 2023 meeting participants discussed a list of possible city-wide ordinance and policy changes, and decided BWBC should begin meetings at 5:30 pm rather than 6:00. Next Month: BWBC Meets Wednesday, April 5, 2023, 5:30 – 7:00 pm The BWBC is an all-volunteer advisory council to the City of Burlington. We work closely with and advise the Department of Public Works and the Department of Parks, Recreation, & Waterfront on infrastructure improvements and policy changes for walking and bicycling. The council also leads advocacy efforts and organizes events and activities that promote and celebrate walking and biking in Burlington and beyond. See www.burlingtonwalkbike.org (under construction) and BWBC Minutes and Agendas . BWBC Community Liaisons Erik Brown Brotz*, Ward 5, erik@burlingtontelecom.net, Chair Greg Hostetler, Ward 2 Faith Ingulsrud*, Ward 6 Peter Keating, Ward 6 Karen Sentoff, Ward 4 Jason Stuffle*, Ward 1 Kerry Swift, Ward 4 Allegra Williams, Ward 3 * = BWBC Coordinating Committee Remote access options for non-ZOOM participation: Phone one-tap : US: +13017158592,,88225473951#,,,,,,0#,,091788# or 13126266799,,88225473951#,,,,,,0#,,091788#. Or Telephone: Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location): US: +1 301 715 8592 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 929 205 6099 or +1 253 215 8782 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 6833 Webinar ID: 882 2547 3951 Passcode: 091788. International numbers available: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdoOfuotqF  Burlington Walk Bike Council (BWBC) March 1, 2023 Meeting Notes The monthly meeting took place 5:30- 7:00 pm via Zoom and at the DPW Office. In-Person Attendees: Erik Brotz - Chair (Ward 5), Faith Ingulsrud (Ward 6), Jak Tiano, Bob Leidy, Ali Hamedani, Ravi Venkataraman and Dayton Crites from DPW. Online Attendees: Karen Sentoff (Ward 4), Ryan Thornton, Dan Castrigano, Mary Manghis, Gordon Dragoon, Serrill Flash, Jason Segelman, A recording of the meeting is available here. 1. Introductions, Announcements and Public Comments Erik Brotz opened the meeting. Participants made the following announcements and comments: ● The bike/ped bridge over I-89 in South Burlington is now funded and will be built in the next few years. We need connections for people to get between its end point in the Staples parking lot and Burlington. Should work with South Burlington. ● Question: I’ve seen car-protected bike lanes in other places - would that work on North Ave. or other places? Dayton: it can work, but there’s a learning curve for both cyclists and for passengers when opening doors; need to make sure there's enough room for doors to open without hitting cyclists. Erik: also need to make sure there’s visibility at crossings. ● Faith: informal gathering after the meeting tonight at Zero Gravity ● Go Bike Montreal Festival May 28 to June 4 - we could go and aim to learn from Montreal’s great biking culture. 2. Follow-up on Possible Updates to City Ordinances Affecting Walking and Biking Erik: At the February meeting we discussed several potential policy changes. A working group has been looking at next steps in the process. We’ve identified a number of questions we want to discuss with DPW and with other city officials to gather more information about current policy, DPW perspectives, and how changes would get made. Erik and Jonathon from Local Motion will discuss some of these with DPW when we meet March 15. For the “quick fix” changes for bike/ped ordinances, we are still determining what we want to propose. One idea is to repeal both sections entirely because they largely overlap with state law. We hope to bring a proposal to the April meeting if it’s ready. Faith: talked with a former City Attorney about the idea of repealing those sections and he agreed that it doesn’t make sense to have redundant language at the state and municipal levels, and where Burlington had nothing specific to add to the requirements of state statute it would be better to just reference the state statute in the city ordinance. The big question we’d want to think about is whether and how Burlington would enforce the pedestrian and bicycle ordinances if we have them at all. Others brought up examples on getting the DA involved to address inappropriate police enforcement, the value of simpying the code and getting rid of anti-jaywalking provisions, and eliminating any fines that can lead to inequities. Dayton: for the proposed ordinance changes, it would be helpful to have them in tabular format, so for each one we could identify priority, potential political challenge, benefit, etc. 3. Priorities for Implementing the Plan BTV Walk Bike Dayton Crites presented data and ideas (presentation will be posted with the meeting notes) on where to focus the city sustainable transportation bond fund to further implement PlanBTV Walk Bike. He emphasized that these are preliminary ideas as he and Ravi are coming up to speed. PlanBTV Walk Bike is the foundation, but they are also looking at other city plans. The Plan includes a long list of goals and projects, but does not identify what to do first. Dayton delved into data of Burlington’s progress since 2017 and added to what was presented in the BWBC/Local Motion 2022 Progress Report. They were able to find crash data, which shows a dramatic reduction from 2017 to 2022 in total crashes in Burlington, as well as in crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists, but an increase in (the small number of) serious or fatal crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists. Asked about the data from the intervening years, which would provide more of an indication of trend and variability, he said he had not looked at those yet but could. Mode share data from the federal ACS - based on travel to work - shows a very high walk share of about 20% - ninth highest of US cities - and a bike share of about 5%. They would like to get better data, based on functional counts, to get a better sense of all trips not just travel to work. He presented a potential timeline of projects for 2023-25 related to the bond funding. It does not include all planned projects with other funding. In several cases, they are considering slowing full installation to allow for the possibility of getting additional grant funding - examples: phase 2 of ONE Greenway permanent installation and N/. Champlain Protected bike lanes delayed until 2024. This would allow us to stretch the bond funding further. For the larger projects identified for 2024-25 (including further work on Main St., Pearl St., Battery St, others identified in the presentation), bond funding can probably only pay for one or maybe two, so need to identify priorities. Participants discussed the data presented and responded to Dayton’s question about where to focus the limited funding available for continued improvements to the walking and biking infrastructure. Participants made a number of comments: ● Focus on corridors that provide regional connectivity fixing the especially dangerous segments like the Winooski Bridge, Main Street from UVM through to South Burlington, and Shelburne Street, where walking and biking is especially hazardous. ● A number of people emphasized the value of improving the entire length of Main Street, especially since the downtown Great Streets improvements are already in the works, so it makes sense to invest in making the whole corridor work better. ● How do we get speeds down to 25 mph from higher-speed roads coming into town?  ● Look at using arterial parking and shuttles to reduce the number of cars coming into Burlington. ● As part of improving Main Street, ensure that South Burlington’s pedestrian bridge over I-89 is coordinated with walk bike improvements on the Burlington side. ● Planned improvements for bike lanes on North Champlain street looks like less of a priority than streets in the core of the city (like Union St.) and the regional connectors. ● Plattsburg Ave going out of town is awkward for bicyclists and overbuilt even for cars. Dayton: section from North Ave to Sunset Dr will get bike lanes this year. From Sunset Dr through the intersection with 127 and the bridge requires working with VTrans and will take longer to plan and implement. ● Existing network isn’t there yet - serves people who already bike but not good for most users. Get the backbone of a good network of protected bike lanes done and that will create the demand for more. Dayton asked the group if anyone knew of any places that provided good examples of interstate interchanges with a high volume of traffic transitioning down to narrower streets with low speeds. One example offered was the East Allen Street interchange in Winooski. Jak commented that the mode shift isn’t likely to change much until there is a much better network of protected bike lanes. That stimulated discussion about incremental improvements and the relative value of painted bike lanes vs. no bike lanes. Dayton noted that installation of protected infrastructure often runs into challenges related to the heavy political lift of removing parking and/or the financial lift of moving curbs. Dayton finished his presentation by pointing out that the walk bike plan recommends action in the Beyond Infrastructure category that would be great for BWBC to focus on like engaging people, working with other organizations to launch events, campaigns etc. He and Ravi indicated they would be happy to help. He also acknowledged the work BWBC is doing to update the city ordinances. Dan noted that Vermonters for People Oriented Places (VPOP) is organizing a World Car Free Day event this year in September that will involve closing a portion of College Street. Asked about plans related to pedestrian infrastructure, Dayton indicated that any streets that are being rebuilt are designed for pedestrians (e.g., Great Streets on St. Paul, and coming on Main St.). These are expensive projects, though. Their main focus is on intersection improvements and looking at corridors. DPW recently completed a sidewalk study to inform maintenance priorities, but the planning team has not seen it yet. The team was encouraged to become more involved in the sidewalk work. Ravi noted that he is coordinating with the city planning office to update regulations for new development to ensure that new development has a form that supports sustainable transportation. Erik closed the meeting shortly after 7:00 PM.