Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee

Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) Thursday, July 18, 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 Elizabeth McMahon X Edward Joseph Ridge X Joseph Tannir X Staff: Rakhmel Rafi, Grants Coordinator X Carlos Nunes, Code Enforcement X Officer 1. Call to Order Mr. Shroder called the meeting to order at 7:11 pm 2. Approval of Agenda No quorum – agenda cannot be approved. 3. Approval of Minutes from June 20, 2024, Meeting No quorum – approval of meeting minutes cannot be approved. 4. New Member Introductions Mrs. Elizabeth McMahan introduced herself. 5. General Updates and Announcements The Wichita Street sidewalk project, part of the Capital Improvement Plan, should be completed by next week. 6. Revisiting Discussion on Map(s) of City Alleys and their Potential Use as Bike/Walkways, if any can be found - Mark Shroder How feasible is it to make improvements to alleys that go all the way to the Trolley Trail? The alley going from the northwest section of Rhode Island Avenue may be a good connector. That section is currently unpaved but walkable and may be part of someone’s backyard. Can this area be improved? Would paving be an improvement? There are other easements that could potentially be walking paths or trails. The unfinished Erie Street area has the potential to become a trail. Riverdale Park is considering making natural trails in specific sections with a focus on keeping designated areas less developed, with less pavement. They are applying for some grants to make this happen. South of Campus Drive, 48th avenue, and Linden place are areas that can be safe corridors for bikers and pedestrians. Guilford Road to the Catholic Church property may also be a nice connector. There are multiple government agencies involved in these decisions. Is this something University Park would like to work with College Park on? Does anyone have contacts with University Park who are most affected by potential improvements? Is there good access to College Park Metro Station by bicycle? Going through the campus to get to the Metro Station is not amenable to some who work there so this may be a potential project without a related constituency. Adelphi, University Park, Hyattsville are the constituents affected by and border the areas in question. A clearer picture of connectors should emerge after Mr. Behrend, Mr. Tannir, and Ms. McMahon complete the walk through the pathways with the District 1 Councilmember. 7. Safety Improvement Plan/Bike Infrastructure Plan– Rocky Rafi The Committee is working proactively, anticipating requests for input from the City Council for future developers’ proposals. What the Committee elects to work on in the next year should potentially result in position statements to the City Council that may hold developers accountable for bike and pedestrian safety during their planning phases. No progress on the BPAC Annual Safety Improvement Plan Outline has been made since the last meeting. What must be included in the Safety Improvement/Infrastructure Plan include: - Connectivity issues: Currently, there is no way to get from the Ikea development to anywhere else in the City except by Route 1 because the beltway cuts off the connection. With enough money, something could be put under the Beltway to facilitate the connection. To the west of route 1 and Home Depot, the road comes to the Paint Branch Trail, then comes to a halt with a gazebo. There is also a small trail along Paint Branch that comes to a sudden halt. These two places are possible connections and should be included in the Plan. You can walk or bike to the College Park Metro Tunnel. There is a clear path, then nothing until Route 410.  Work along North Campus Drive leaves a sidewalk insufficient for pedestrian safety. There should be a connection between the Trolley Trail and the College Park Metro. This suggestion should be included in the Plan. Connectivity along Metzerott Road between Adelphi to Paint Branch would improve safety. People are always waiting to cross with their bikes and often ride the wrong way in that area because there is no room on the other side. College Park Woods is now connected to the Paint Branch Trail, but not very direct for those living in Crystal Springs. It would also be positive to have a bridge over Route 193, but this may be prohibitively expensive. - Educating the public on how to ride bicycles parallel to tracks should be included in the Plan. There may be more crashes when people are not familiar with this terrain. Make the sidewalk an alternative if possible. - Communicating the Plan’s ideals using visual aids like a GIS map showing what is planned and what exists to give people an idea of the areas in question, in terms of safety. Overlaying specific maps to show the easiest ways to connect East- West and North-South paths should also be included in the Plan. Make sure to show what parts of the current infrastructure are functional and what sections need improvement. Highlight a safe intersection as a standard to measure the safety of other intersections, by comparison. How much can be expected in terms of funding safety measures? The funding formula is thirty-five cents per commercial square foot per development unit. Putting in park benches, painting sharrows on Hardwicke Road, separating bike lanes, and raising intersections are some examples of safety improvements. The Committee does not yet know how much money is on the table, but it is most likely more than $60K. There is no action item for proposing safety measures right now but put the item on the agenda for the next Committee meeting. This is in line with anticipating what the City Council may need in the future as far as input from the Committee when development proposals arise. Mr. Rafi sent the University Bikeways Plan to the Committee and is applying for a grant to finish the unfinished portions of the project. The Committee thanks Mr. Tannir for his work in these areas. 8. Subcommittees Check-In: a. BPIS Subcommittee : Joe Tannir, Parisi Fida – No report b. School Safety Subcommittee: Donald Hays, Brendan Wray There are three elementary schools in College Park. The school district did a transportation audit measuring the distance children walk to attend the schools. The standard is that elementary school children can walk within one mile of their homes, and 1.5 miles for middle and high school students. Studies have shown the scope of the cost of busing students inside the one mile boundary because there is no safe way to cross Route 1. In some locations, children waiting for thirty minutes for a bus could have walked to school in fifteen  minutes if the roads were safer. There have been road improvements, but not necessarily with children in mind. In Montgomery County, there is a policy based on how far children can actually walk to school based on their age range. A one mile map is the kind of perimeter that the BPAC Subcommittee can research in an effort to improve pedestrian safety for children. Another problem for children walking to school are the sidewalks. Some of the sidewalks in College Park are too narrow, often obstructed by utility poles in the middle of the sidewalks, causing children to walk in the street to go around the utility poles. 9. QR Code & Sticker Distribution Plan – Rocky Rafi The design for the Near Miss Map is still under development and only applies to bikes, not pedestrians. The next step is to expand the tool or work on a separate tool for Pedestrian Near Misses. AARP is working on collecting data on pedestrian anxiety at dangerous intersections. The stickers themselves should be 4”x 4” to fit on water bottles and anywhere else people can see them. The design needs to be such that the scaling does not blur the pixels of the QR code nor obstruct the scanning capability. When someone has a near miss, the idea is to be able to open up the Near Miss app to record the incident. A draft of the sticker design will be ready for the next meeting. Once the design has been finalized, the plan is to distribute them at events at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market. 10. Hollywood Market Mr. Shroder and Ms. McMahon will set up a BPAC Table at the Hollywood Market to survey community members about near misses on Saturday, August 17th from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Mr. Rafi and Mr. Nunes can provide the flyers with the QR code to develop a better picture of near misses. 11. New Business/General Discussion/Future Agenda Topic The University of Maryland will be working on the two bridges across from the main gate. The alternate route will take you to the other bridge that is not closed. The tunnel will be closed for construction and may have an impact specifically on bicyclists and pedestrians who live in and around District 2. 12. Adjourn – next meeting is August 15, 2024 Mr. Shroder adjourned the meeting at 8:36 p.m.