Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee

Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) Thursday, February 15th, 2024 7:00 pm Hybrid Meeting Held at College Park City Hall and Via Teleconferencing through Zoom Committee Members: In- Absent Zoom Person Mark Shroder, Chair X Dan Behrend X Kyla Erman X Parisi Fida X Meaghan Hart X Donald Hayes X Edward Joseph Ridge X Sam Slowinski X Joseph Tannir X Also attending: Erik Valentine, Staff Liaison; Steve Halpern, City Engineer; Rakhmel Rafi, Grants Coordinator; Stacey Meekins, Sam Schwartz Consultants; Brendan Wray, member of the public; Mary Anne Hawkes, Senior Advisory Committee; Bonnie McClellan, Senior Advisory Committee 1. Call to order Mr. Shroder called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 2. Approval of Agenda Ms. Hart made a motion to approve the agenda and seconded by Mr. Ridge. The motion carried 8-0-0. 3. Approval of Minutes for November, December and January Ms. Hart made a motion to post the January meeting minutes as meeting notes instead of meeting minutes and seconded by Mr. Hayes. The motion carried 8-0-0. Mr. Shroder made a motion to approve the November minutes and seconded by Ms. Hart. The motion carried 8-0-0. 4. Introduction of New and Returning Members Mr. Shroder asked members to introduce themselves and all members did. 1 5. Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Grant Discussion – Rakhmel Rafi, Grants Coordinator; Stacey Meekins, Sam Schwartz Consultants a. Safe Streets and Roads for All is a new federal funding program designed for the distribution of planning and implementation grants. Planning grants may range from $80,000 to $1.4 million dollars. b. Implementation grants must have a Safety Action Plan that is approved by a self-certification process and can range from $12.6 million to $30 million dollars. c. BPAC wants to use planning funds to conduct a community outreach campaign which is a highly regarded component of a strong grant application. The University of Maryland can be a supportive stakeholder or co-sponsor, but the City of College Park should be the primary sponsor on the application. d. BPAC agreed with the three main components to be included into the grant application as summarized by Ms. Meekins: i. Survey that identifies bike and pedestrian areas of concern ii. Demonstration Program with data collection tool as the basis for developing a Safety Action Plan iii. Accessibility Analysis to evaluate safe, low-stress ways to get to major hubs of connectivity by bicycle and on foot such as Shoppers, Mom’s, the metro, Trader Joe’s, etc. A motion was made for Ms. Meekins’ three-point summary to be the direction for this grant competition and seconded by Mr. Behrend. The motion carried 8-0-0. 6. 15 Minute City Discussion with PALS Graduate Students (UMD) – Dr. Riem El Zoghbi and Class a. Dr. El Zoghbi teaches community development to a team of fifteen young professional architects, urban planners, public health workers, etc. b. The 15 Minute City is a planning concept that attempts to facilitate amenity-rich communities where most necessities of daily life can be met within fifteen minutes of transit, walking, or biking. c. Dr. El Zoghbi’s class has been tasked with: i. Reviewing the literature published on 15 Minute Cities ii. Analyzing case studies of other cities, comparable to College Park, to glean best practices for successfully implementing 15 Minute Cities iii. Conducting a Gap Analysis of existing conditions versus ideal conditions for developing a 15 Minute City in College Park iv. Looking for potential locations best suited for developing a 15 Minute City d. Committee’s input into potential locations include: i. North to South in College Park is a good 15 Minute model, but the East and West divide is not as safe with railroad tracks blocking access. Community members perceive the East-West divide as having the most dangerous intersections which include Edgewood and Metzerott Road, Route 193 and University Boulevard, Greenbelt Road and Rhode Island Avenue. East-West divide issues could be addressed with a trolley trail 2  type of transportation to Route 1 and Adelphi Road to Baltimore Avenue for easier access. ii. The East-West divide is not addressed by the city based on the impact of MDOT. MDOT does not factor in its impact on the community. iii. Access to K-12 schools is problematic; it is not safe to walk to school and this generates more car trips. iv. Transportation is a problem if you do not live in College Park. There are no public buses on Metzerott anymore. If you do not drive, you cannot live here. v. The University of Maryland is a 15 Minute City and may be a starting point to increased awareness for students to access other areas of College Park. vi. BPAC agreed to be interviewed by Dr. El Zoghbi’s Task Force and share networking resources. 7. Discussion/Exercise on Smart Growth America’s Complete Streets policy tool a. The Evaluation Tool scores a city’s safe streets policy on a one-hundred point scale. The average score for Maryland was forty-three. Mr. Shroder reported the score was fifty-two for College Park, likely due to the lack of equity and low levels of neighborhood interest. Howard County had the highest score of one hundred. BPAC can revisit the tool again in the future. b. To address levels of neighborhood interest, the Senior Advisory Committee is willing to share its list of 3,200 names of residents sixty-two and older. 8. Update on Qualtrics Data a. Ms. Hart reported on the Incident Reporting Tool designed by the University of Maryland. b. The “Micromobility Incident Reporting Form” uses a survey platform called Qualtrics. The three steps on the form include: i. Identifying the site of the incident ii. Answering questions about the incident – close calls, cut off, conflicts between cars and bicycles, etc. iii. Answering questions about the time of incident, mode of transportation, how many parties were involved, speed, observer/participant perspective, etc. c. One limitation of the survey is that there is no geospatial data. d. Further investigation of this survey tool may be moot if and when MDOT develops a new reporting application for College Park with Andrew Bernish, GIS Analyst for MDOT. This new app will include geospatial data and include the date of the crash. e. BPAC wants to ensure that the community will use this new app, so it is important that people know about the app as being phone friendly, not just more easily seen on computers. Publicizing the new app matters. 3  i. Flyers in businesses ii. City-developed public relations video iii. Advertisements at Veo Ride parking spots iv. Bike to Work Day tables – collect incident report information with a paper version available 9. New Business/General Discussion/Future Agenda Topic a. East-West Connectivity for College Park Cyclists and Pedestrians – limited crossings available to Route 1 and to railroad at the following sites: i. Sunnyside Avenue- crosses tracks at grade ii. Lackawanna Street – tunnel under tracks, does not cross Route 1 iii. Hollywood – does not cross tracks, becomes Peru Road iv. Huron – does not reach Route 1based on neighborhood opposition v. Route 193 – bridge over tracks, sidewalk for pedestrians, not safe for bike and pedestrians, no bike lane on city side of the bridge vi. Greenbelt Road – does not cross tracks vii. Berwyn Road – does not cross Route 1, but has a light viii. Berwyn House Road – crosses Route 1, does not cross tracks ix. North Gate Tunnel – goes under Route 1 but does not cross tracks x. Campus Drive - crosses Route 1 at grade xi. Hartwick Drive – does not cross tracks, at grade crossing of Route 1 xii. Calvert – at grade crossing of CSX tracks, does not cross Route 1 xiii. Rossborough Lane – does not cross tracks at grade xiv. College Avenue – does not cross tracks xv. Knox Road – does not cross tracks xvi. Guilford – does not cross tracks xvii. Beechwood – does not cross tracks xviii. Albion – does not cross tracks b. How much does the city want places to cross the railroad tracks? If it is a matter of a new tunnel or bridge, sometimes neighbors say they do not want other people coming through their neighborhoods. These are questions that must be dealt with in the planning stages and can be included in the Safety Action Plan. c. Improving Metzerott is important and noted. Crystal Springs is another area for improvement. A new connection to the Paint Branch Trail is not part of the 15 Minute City but would be great for recreation. d. Thanks to Mr. Behrend, Mr. Hays, and Ms. Hart for participating in the Annapolis symposium this morning. 10. Adjourn – next meeting is March 21, 2024. The motion to adjourn was made by Ms. Hart and seconded by Mr. Shroder. Mr. Shroder adjourned the meeting at 9:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Georgene Osborne, Contract Secretary 4