Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee

Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) Meeting Minutes Thursday, May 16, 2024 7:00 P.M. 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 Hays X Jeff Lemieux X Edward Joseph Ridge X Joseph Tannir X Also attending: Erik Valentine, Staff Liaison; Brendan Wray, member of the public. 1. Call to Order Mr. Shroder called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. 2. Approval of Agenda A motion was made to approve the agenda by Mr. Ridge and seconded by Mr. Behrend. All in favor, none opposed. The motion carried 7-0-0. 3. Approval of Minutes from April 18, 2024 Meeting A motion was made to approve the minutes from April 18, 2024, by Mr. Hays, seconded by Mr. Lemieux. All in favor, none opposed. The motion carried 7-0-0. 4. Bike to Work Day Reminders & Volunteer Confirmation Mr. Valentine plans to arrive at 5:00 a.m. to set up tables for the event that starts at 6:30 a.m. Mr. Shroder will volunteer from 6:30-8:30 a.m.; Mr. Hays will be there from 6 or 6:30-8:00 a.m.; and Ms. Hart will arrive early to assist with setting up the BPAC booth. 5. Presentation of Draft Safety Improvement Plan Outline Mr. Valentine presented a draft of the Safety Improvement Plan Outline as follows: BPAC Annual Plan Draft Outline I. Introduction a. Introduction of the plan, BPAC, and other relevant bike-ped information in the City of College Park. II. Status and Challenges of Safety & Connectivity a. Will outline current levels of connectivity within College Park, and the challenges associated with directional mobility (north-south, east-west). May be informed by the PALS project by Andrew Bernish’s class. b. This section will also summarize recent actions and projects completed by the City. III. Potential Connectivity & Safety Improvements to Investigate in the Current Fiscal Year a. Will identify areas within the City that are in urgent need of attention regarding bike-ped safety and connectivity. IV. Connectivity & Safety Improvements Endorsed as the Opportunity for Funding and Community Support Arises a. This section will discuss Complete and Green Streets projects already identified in the Capital Improvements Plan (CIP). This will serve to educate residents and stakeholders of the projects planned in future Fiscal Years. i. Streets currently listed in the CIP (Year Funded) 1. Hollywood Road (FY2024) 2. 52nd Avenue (FY2024) 3. Ruatan Street (FY2025) 4. Huron Street (FY2025 & FY2026) 5. 51st Avenue (FY2025) 6. Dartmouth Avenue (FY2025) 7. 48th Place (FY2026) 8. Bowdoin Avenue (FY2027) 9. Wellesley Drive (FY2028) 10. Branchville Road (FY2028 & FY2029) b. This section will also discuss policy and code initiatives endorsed by BPAC to increase bike-ped safety within the City. V. Safety Improvements to be Performed as soon as the Opportunity Arises a. The City is applying to the Safe Streets for All (SS4A) federal grant program this fiscal year. If funded, the program will allocate money to temporary demonstration projects throughout the City designed to improve bike-ped safety. This section can serve as a place to identify where these projects should be placed. b. This section can also reiterate the locations identified in Chapter 3 as urgently in need of safety and/or connectivity improvements, designated to be remedied as soon as possible. A Conclusion section will be added to the outline. Data from accident clusters that evidence non-motorist crashes by year with level of traffic stress for bikes will be utilized from the GIS study completed by University of Maryland graduate students. Their tool allows reports of the types of crashes by date, time, and location. Mr. Valentine created an interactive flyer with a QR code to this tool for distribution at the Bike to Work Event. The Committee discussed whether the budgetary allocations for such areas as Hollywood Road, 52nd Avenue, and Ruatan were sufficient. Mr. Hays drafted a letter of support to the City Council for the 52nd Avenue Sidewalk Project regarding funding. - 52nd avenue was identified as an area of high stress with no sidewalks for pedestrians. Twenty elementary school-aged children are dropped off on the road instead of a sidewalk. There is community support for a sidewalk that includes parents of these children. - Vocal community members had concerns about sidewalk infringing on their private property, so now it is only public space that will be affected. With this adjustment, there is still opposition. A sidewalk would benefit one of the neighbors in need of a ramp, but the vocally opposed neighbors still reject the sidewalk option. - The sidewalk would be constructed from Narragansett to Huron bordering the eastern side of 52nd school board property, city property, and industrial property. The sidewalk would be entirely on the eastern side. - The complaint is that making a U-Turn easily would no longer be an option because the roadway would not be as wide. Backing out of their driveways will create problems with cars parked on both sides. Drivers would have to go one block over to get where they want to go. Some people also claim that the sidewalk would go nowhere, meaning it terminates. Others claim that the sidewalk would not look good - Kennesaw, Iroquois and Huron would have sidewalk access. - The 52nd Street Sidewalk is already in the Safe Streets Plan which the BPAC Committee supports. The best strategy might be to contact Council Member Jacob Hernandez to ask if he supports the 52nd Street Sidewalk. Based on his level of support, the letter of support may or may not be necessary. - The letter of support includes reasonable justifications such as being a critical piece of the city’s Complete and Green Streets Implementation Plan, addressing resident concerns to ensure that the new sidewalk will only use public land and leave plenty of room for parking and emergency service, and improving safety and accessibility for people with disabilities, making public spaces more  inclusive. Adding more specificity on street names and re-stating the issue and benefits might be useful. A motion was made by Mr. Behrend to send the letter of support from the Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee for the 52nd Street Sidewalk and to allow Mr. Shroder to make a statement to that effect at Tuesday’s Council meeting, seconded by Mr. Lemieux. All in favor, none opposed. The motion carried 7-0-0. Once the Committee approves the Safety Improvement Plan Outline, the Plan will be taken to the Council for transparency of planning and intention. The BPAC community engagement point of contact with stakeholders in the University of Maryland campus administration is Ms. Hart. Suggested edits to the Outline include: - Need a place to put constructive community engagement – develop a feedback loop to get to the heart of community concerns that the committee cannot know without valid input. - Add a section about data that has been reviewed and suggestions for projects that are not in the CIP but need to be investigated based on the data. - Change the term from community support to community engagement. - Include endorsements for constructive changes that benefit the well-being of the community. The River Walk is something BPAC can endorse. River Road has a grant that includes bike lanes. - The Bike Pedestrian Improvement Study (BPIS) might fit under section III or IV referencing work done by developers and signed off by the county. - Add a section that lists the top five or ten committee recommendations A motion was made by Mr. Hays to approve the draft of the Safety Improvement Plan Outline, seconded by Mr. Ridge. All in favor, none opposed. The motion carried 7-0-0. 6. Discussion of Individual Research Findings - The research-based draft of the Parking Guide will be ready by the next meeting. - Targets for the bicycle feasibility study will be funded. - High stress areas in Paint Branch will now include more lanes. - The Rhode Island Project will be presented on Tuesday at the City Council meeting. Both the study and the survey results will be circulated in the Agenda Packet that goes out on Friday, May 17th and can also be found online. - Making Knox Road between Baltimore and Yale more pedestrian-friendly has not been funded. Downtown businesses do not like the idea. - Safe Streets 4 All application has been turned in.  7. New Business/General Discussion/Future Agenda Topic - Committee members Parisi and Kyla have missed three meetings in a row. Mr. Valentine will reach out to them. - Under consideration: (a) add medians on Baltimore Avenue as part of the construction project; (b) do a walk through on Route 1 medians to see what is actually being installed; (c) set up a meeting and invite the committee to check to see if there are avenues to protect Route 1 bike lanes so that advocacy can be done as needed. - Quick Curve is a commercial product which is a safety feature that seems not to trigger opposition and was approved for the Greenbelt East Trail without objection for its vertical features. - Mr. Valentine has the discretion to determine future agenda topics on the state of construction on Route 1 and will update the committee. 8. Adjourn – next meeting is June 20, 2024 A motion was made by Mr. Hayes to adjourn, seconded by Mr. Behrend. All in favor, none opposed. The motion carried 7-0-0. Mr. Shroder adjourned the meeting at 8:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Ms. Georgene Osborne, Contract Secretary