Traffic and Transportation Committee

COMMITTEE ON TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION August 15, 2017 A meeting of the Committee on Traffic and Transportation was held this date beginning at 3:02 p.m., at City Hall, First Floor Conference Room, 80 Broad Street. Notice of this meeting was sent to all local news media. PRESENT Councilmember Seekings, Chair; Councilmembers Moody, Wagner, and Wilson, and Mayor Tecklenburg Staff: Keith Benjamin, Director of Traffic and Transportation, Robert Somerville, Janie Borden, Dan Riccio, Amy Southerland, Kathryn Basha, BCDCOG, and Bethany Whitaker, Council Secretary The meeting was opened with a moment of silence provided by Chairman Seekings. APPROVAL OF MINUTES On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilmember Wilson, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the May 23, 2017 meeting. APPLICATION FOR ORIGINAL CERTIFICATE OF PUBLIC CONVENIENCE AND NECESSITY:  Bess Way Transportation, LLC (Limo) On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilmember Wilson, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the application for Original Certificate of Public Convenience. Councilmember Moody said he was curious and they had very few taxi and limo certificate of approvals, and asked if that was because of Uber and Lyft, and if they were going out of business. Mr. Somerville said that they had the local companies registered but he didn’t know if there was a downfall. Councilmember Moody said that he was curious and if they had done something that had caused a problem; they should be looking at it. Chairman Seekings said that they normally saw an uptick in applications consistent with the calendar year. REQUEST FOR TRANSPORTATION ROUTE ALTERATIONS AND CLOSURES FOR THE 2017 ECLIPSE Dan Riccio said that Monday the 21st would be the eclipse and pre-planning had been going on for several months. They were working with Emergency Management, Police, and local government officials to prepare for the situation. There would be an impact on pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and one of the things that came out of discussion was a suggestion that the slow-moving tour vehicles be asked to suspend activity for that day. They reached out to each company, carriages and tour buses, and not everybody was happy, but they understood that this was a need and said that they would comply with any request from the City. They figured that given that they would get their money back with the influx of travelers during the weekend. This would mean no carriage activity at all, no certified tour buses touring (they could decide to do something transportation wise), and they also would not issue tour permits for the big tour buses. They had to give permits for parking and transportation. That would be one less worry for the City to deal with. Chairman Seekings asked what the hours would be and Mr. Riccio said that it would be all day. Councilmember Moody said that he had talked with Mr. Riccio and he appreciated being filled in because he had some concerns and a reluctance to shut down for a full day. Mr. Riccio stated that the companies felt like it was the right thing to do. He hadn’t had any push-back. Amy Southerland said that she had spoken with everyone, and they followed up with a letter. They hadn’t had any negative responses. Mayor Tecklenburg said that they didn’t know how many people would be in the City. Every hotel had been booked all throughout the region, and regionally Charleston was almost in the center of the eclipse area. They could have an extra 100,000 people in the City. Even if it was cloudy, it would still get dark during the eclipse, and that could spook the horses. The forecast was for scattered showers in the morning, and he thought they would have a good crowd on their hands. Chairman Seekings said that he shared some of the concerns of shutting down businesses on one of the biggest tourism days they might see in a long time, but it would be a big day. He thought for special events, they should look at the code, and leave it to the Director of Traffic and Transportation and Tourism people, that if they needed to do this, to give them the discretion to do it, rather than having them go through a process and come to City Council every time. Ms. Borden said that it required the approval of Traffic and Transportation Committee. Councilmember Moody said that it was going as information only to Council. He said that they could possibly soften the blow by saying ‘for the next 30 days, they could get 5 extra hours in the evening’. Mr. Riccio had said that they already thought they would make the money up. On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Councilmember Wagner, the Committee voted unanimously to adopt the plan presented by Mr. Riccio for transportation route alterations and closures for the 2017 Eclipse. AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAPTER 29, ARTICLE V, SEC. 29-203 (9), (10), SEC. 29-206 (C), 29-208 (A), SEC. 290208 (C) AND (C) (1), SEC. 29-210 (A), AND SEC. 29-210 (B) OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF CHARLESTON PERTAINING TO HOURS OF OPERATION FOR ANIMAL-DRAWN VEHICLES, ZONES OF OPERATION FOR ANIMAL-DRAWN VEHICLES USED FOR PURPOSES OF TOURING AND THE NUMBER OF MEDALLIONS TO BE ISSUED FOR EACH ZONE AND ADOPTING A MAP FOR ZONES OF OPERATION. Mr. Riccio stated that this was the third time they had come for consideration/recommendations. This was for zones four and five, which had been specifically identified as areas to conquer, because they hadn’t been regulated. They hadn’t been able to legally stop carriages from going in those zones. They had formed a Committee with neighborhood presidents and owners in the carriage industry, and all of those people had input in the process. The Pilot Program had been approved in March for two months, and during that time they still had some issues and complaints. This Ordinance adjusted all of the boundaries for zones. This would alleviate the traffic and congestion by allowing multiple areas of ingress/egress. Zone 5 was enacted at all times, and Zone 4 was for relief on the busiest days. It would also change the time of departure from 4:15 and 5:15 to 4:30 and 5:30. It would also remove a portion that needed to be omitted, and they changed the terminology from ‘bingo machine’ to ‘medallion selection machine’. The next step was going to a full scanning system, and that would be a better term than ‘bingo machine’. Councilmember Wilson asked when people visit when they knew they were getting a different tour. Mr. Riccio said that it wasn’t a guarantee that they would get a different tour. Councilmember Wilson said that she didn’t know at what point the medallion was selected and passengers were notified. Mr. Riccio said that people just had to take the chance. Chairman Seekings said that they were outside the Pilot Program and he was concerned about Zone 4 because it had Calhoun Street and King Street. He asked where they were with carriages on those streets. Amy Southerland said that they had added a restriction on King Street between Mary and George Streets. They also moved the boundary on the east side; it was going to Concord, and now there as only one block traveled on East Bay Street from George one block south. They had eliminated some of those issues. Many of the carriages on Calhoun Street were typically there because of the road closure at Elizabeth Street. Councilmember Wilson asked if they could schedule a review after the busy season to get an update on how it was going. Mr. Riccio said that it took 3 months to figure out how they were doing. They hadn’t had complaints in the previous month and hadn’t needed to use Zone 4 in the previous three months. On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Mayor Tecklenburg, the Committee voted unanimously to approve the Ordinance to amend Chapter 29, Article V, Sec. 29-203 (9), (10), Sec. 29-206 (c), 29-208 (a), Sec. 290208 (c) and (c) (1), Sec. 29-210 (a), and Sec. 29-210 (b) of the Code of the City of Charleston pertaining to hours of operation for animal-drawn vehicles, zones of operation for animal- drawn vehicles used for purposes of touring and the number of medallions to be issued for each zone and adopting a map for zones of operation. CITYWIDE TRANSPORTATION PLAN Keith Benjamin said that he was excited to be there and there was a lot that was going on. He was encouraged by the City Wide transportation opportunity. That transition was a way from a purely visionary and planning process, and began to set a list of priorities as to how they should move around transportation, and put things in the pipeline for funding. The COG was in their five-year process long range plan to set the precedence for projects in the entire region. The idea of doing the city-wide transportation plan was to set their priorities for the City and what that looked like. First, was how they led into precedence and how they would funnel the different pieces to understand what was important for the City. Included in that was the data sets. The second part was the public engagement portion, and he had been all over the City. There were constant questions about what the City was doing for transportation. The engagement part was big, and that would include surveying and road shows. Another big part of the public engagement was creating cohesion for the City Staff and Departments. The third piece was prioritization and the hope was to come out of this plan with 13 specific projects that were outside of the long-range plan was looking at. The hope was to link those 13 specific projects with projects that would come out of the long-range plan, and they were hoping it would commence in May 2018. Councilmember Wilson thanked Mr. Benjamin and said that she had heard Folly Road once, and asked what level of attention James Island would get. There were a myriad of problems that extended beyond Folly Road. Mr. Benjamin said that they didn’t have a pre-designed list yet, and that was why engagement would be key. Councilmember Wilson said that there was whole part B to that, and that was that they were dealing with three governments on the Island, and asked how they would integrate those three governments. She asked how they would identify and if it would be a City project. Mr. Benjamin said that the long-range plan set precedence for the entire region, and they hadn’t had an opportunity to set their priorities within that. This would give them the opportunity to do that. They hadn’t gotten to set those precedence’s yet. Chairman Seekings said that one of the thoughts of the process was to involve the COG so they had a platform to operate from, as opposed to just the City doing a study. Councilmember Moody asked where the $100,000 was coming from and Mr. Benjamin said that it was a line item in the budget for studies overall. The Contract was being handled by the COG. Councilmember Moody said that there had been an article about the light-rail and Wall Street Journal had said that ‘buses were out of favor’. It seemed that this was moving fast and they needed to get in front of it. His concern was the problem of analytics. They had a large percentage of people that left West Ashley to go downtown, North Charleston, and all over. He asked how they knew what they were dealing with, and before they started planning there needed to be analytics involved. There was also an article about bike paths getting aid from benefactors, and they needed to think about that too, and think about who might help aid these things. Mr. Benjamin said that the City had full access to the analytic information. The opportunities did exist but it hadn’t been in the nature to talk to non-traditional partners to have the conversation but it was something they were looking forward to. Councilmember Moody said that some of the hospitality workers who came down here at night didn’t have transportation opportunities available by the time they would get off work, and he assumed someone was working on that because it was a huge problem. Mr. Benjamin said that 34% of the work- force fit that and their average pay was between 20 and $23,000. They wanted that to be a part of that conversation. Kathryn Basha said that one of the benefits of them tying in with the long-range plan was the travel demand model which was maintained all the time. They assessed the demands on the system. It had inputs for all of the land developments and units. The model would do forecasting and what the level of service was, as well as delays in the future. They didn’t have to pay Stantec to do that, since the COG was already doing that. The City didn’t need to follow the criteria, but they would still rank areas into designated priorities. Mayor Tecklenburg said that he wanted to thank Kathryn and the COG for the partnership because they were saving money, and it integrated the long-range needs better given the area wide focus. He also thanked Stantec for their hard work. BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE ORDINANCE- TO AMEND THE CODE OF THE CITY OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA, CHAPTER 2, SECTIONS 176, 177, 178, AND 179, TO CHANGE THE ORGANIZATION OF THE COMMITTEE, TO AMEND THE COMMITTEE’S ROLE, AND TO CHANGE THE TERMS OF MEMBERSHIP. [Amended] Mr. Benjamin said they wanted to revise because this Committee had not been in place for some time. He was concerned about how they talked about accessibility and people being safe in all forms of transportation. One of the things that would help that was through the education process, and it was important to bring individuals together to have a conversation on a regular basis. They already had that with this Committee and wanted to jump-start it. There were some small corrections: Integration of current plans, adding two councilmembers to the Committee, and adding membership from people who own businesses in the City limits and were residents. On the motion of Councilmember Moody, seconded by Mayor Tecklenburg the Committee voted unanimously to amend the Code of the City of Charleston, South Carolina, Chapter 2, Sections 176, 177, 178 and 179, to change the organization of the Committee, to amend the committee’s role, and to change the terms of membership. UPPER PENINSULA STUDY PRESENTATION Jennifer Bihl stated that this had come about from the increasing amount of urbanization and density in the Upper Peninsula, as well as the plans for the facility for the port. King Street had rails on both sides in the Upper Peninsula, and it was a two-lane facility that was very industrial. In 2016, approximately 9,000 vehicles/day were using it. Meeting Street had three crossings. They looked at connectivity, especially as it related to the new corridor for the rail. This would be an area with a lot of rail traffic blocking the existing Meeting Street. They wanted to see the impacts to King and Meeting Street, as well as a viaduct bridge. What they found was that they needed to improve the connectivity to give people a way to maneuver around the trains so they weren’t trapped. They looked at going over the rail line with a bridge. They had received information that during 2018 during peak times, they could have 2,000 feet of que of people waiting to cross the rail crossings, and it would get worse over time. The two intersections at King and Mount Pleasant Streets and Meeting and Mount Pleasant Streets were growing. There were 5 roadways that would be delayed. They were labeled 1-5 on the Map. This added connectivity to get somewhere else. Those 5 projects were $11 Million to do. The exact locations would need to be environmentally reviewed and worked out with property owners, but they were general configurations. The second component was train crossings that there were two of. They could look at a 2 or 4 lane bridge to go over the ICTF line. In the analysis they had done, it needed to be a raised and elevated facility. That would be in addition to other connections between Meeting and King Streets that would be at-grade. Right now, there was only one area to get across from King to Meeting Streets, and they would look at a couple of other connections to cross over the tracks. The bridge was a large structure and it would be the most significant at $20-40 million. They had also talked about the BRT on that, which would make it even larger. The at-grade crossings would be approximately $1 million per piece. They had also looked at improvements at King and Meeting Street at the bottom. That location was a spot that had been looked at for the BRT and a hub and it was an important location. Even minor improvements would be pretty expensive ($5-12 million). Long-term, they had looked at a viaduct bridge that would get you into the King Street corridor and King and Meeting changed what they looked like. All in all, they were looking at between $40-55 million. Councilmember Moody asked what the source of funding was. Chairman Seekings asked who was payer Ms. Bihl and she stated that she was with the City. Ms. Bihl said that they wanted to get dollar amounts associated with the projects. Councilmember Moody said he knew that a lot of this was being driven by the terminal and asked if the Ports Authority, Norfolk Southern, or Highway Department were sources. Mayor Tecklenburg stated that they originally were not planned to be part of the entry-exit strategy and that came about in 2015. Mayor Riley wrote a letter to Palmetto Rail and said that they had issues with mitigation that needed to be addressed. Throughout 2016, he had met with the railroads and Department of Commerce to try to move this forward, and the only person that claimed to have money to throw at it was Department of Commerce. They started looking at the efforts might be needed and came up with ball-park numbers. They presented it, and had an offer of $4.5 million and he didn’t accept that offer because he knew the future for BRT. That was all the Department of Commerce could offer. The Port Authority wants absolutely nothing to do with this. Councilmember Moody said he knew there was a lot of moving parts. They need rail access there and so how would Norfolk and CSX get their trains over there. Mayor Tecklenburg said that their position was that they didn’t need the ICTF, because they each had their own rail yards. Councilmember Moody said this was going to be another solution, because North Charleston wasn’t happy. He said it felt like they were shoving it over to the City. Mayor Tecklenburg said that he wanted to make sure that they were aware of the enigma they faced. Without the mitigation, the City would object to the project. Councilmember Wagner said that looking forward, on the other side (Ashley River), if that would still be looked at. Ms. Bihl said that getting King Street up to current SCDOT standards was important. Some of the things were responsibilities of the projects. King Street had increased significantly in the last year. Mr. Benjamin said that the corridor with the second transit hub was something they were looking at and whether it needed to be on the list for the transportation plan. Having no further business, the Committee of Traffic and Transportation adjourned at 4:07 p.m. Bethany Whitaker Council Secretary