Everett Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC)

TAC MINUTES May 21, 2015 In attendance: Members Staff Guests Edward Koltonowski Ryan Sass, Public Works Shelley Weyer, NW Neighborhood Shawn Smith Tim Miller, Public Works Chris Breiland, Fehr & Peers William Weber Michael Brick, Public Works Keri Moore, Snohomish Health J.T. Dray Sabina Popa, Transit District Tim Manrow Richard Tarry, Public Works Victor Harris Niels Tygesen, Planning Jeffrey Marks, Public Works 8:12 a.m. Chair William Weber called the meeting to order.  M/S/P approving April 2015 meeting minutes. Announcements & Requests to Add Agenda Items  None. Citizen’s Comments  Shelley Weyer, NW Neighborhood Chair, talked about the uniform parking time zones for neighborhoods. Michael Brick had attended one of the neighborhood meetings back in March. Issues were focused about parking within the area surrounding the hospital and college. Shelley expressed a desire to have a uniform parking restriction throughout the zones, as currently there are three different times assigned throughout the area. It was noted the Everett Community College is helping to encourage more use of Transit. She requested that a uniform 1 hour limit time zone be considered.  Ryan mentioned he had witnessed the parking situation first-hand during a visit with WSU, hosted by EvCC. J.T. commented that he has seen a lot of U-Turns in his neighborhood while people search for parking.  Victor asked if the City had latitude to implement 45 minutes parking zones. Michael Brick stated that any time limit is available, but generally discourage limits shorter than 1 hour, as it would be difficult to enforce such short time restrictions. Engineering Report  Ryan Sass gave an update on the Broadway Bridge project, stating that it was going well. The contractor has added an additional 4 feet of pre-load. This may allow the duration of the project to be shortened, depending on weather windows, but there aren’t any guarantees. The first bridge girder panels are scheduled to be placed June 27th.  Ryan discussed the annual HMA pavement maintenance contract, stating that the City has a $4.8M budget for this work. Electrical work portion of the project is expected to be more expensive this year than in the past. Low bidder is Granite Construction.   Ryan stated that the City Council approved to move forward with LED street light conversion. The City will be converting all streets lights, saving approximately 1.6 million kilowatt hours a year. The City-owned portion of lights is about 1/3 of all lights in the City, with Snohomish County PUD owning the rest. PUD will eventually switch over their lights to LED, but it will be within their schedule, as they are covering their entire service area.  Ed Koltonowski asked about reflective paint used for striping the roads. Ryan noted where arterials are repaved frequently, methyl methacrylate (MMA) markings would not be used. MMA will be considered for roadways where the pavement life will make the application cost effective. Earlier, profiled MMA lines were used on curvilinear roads to protect bikes and was considered “experimental.” Some discussion ensued about the different types of materials used for roadway striping, such as standard glass beads versus ceramic beads. It was noted that the procedure of paving roads was planned in conjunction with other utility road work to minimize new pavement disruption.  Victor asked about the new LED lights, if they were less lumen output or provided greater illumination in comparison to the older lights. Ryan stated that the total lumen output is generally less, but luminescence on the surface is about the same.  Tim Miller reported that a scheduled presentation on flashing yellow arrows would be postponed until Fall. Police Report  None. Transit Report  Sabina Popa distributed copies of the August 2015 Service Change plan. She stated that the plan had gone out to the public. Three areas were going to be affected by these changes: 1) Holiday service; 2) Route 7 frequency increased; 3) Underutilized trip reductions.  Sabina said the outreach program, conducted between April 13th and April 30th, was met with mixed reviews. She stated that routes 4 and 5 will not be reduced in service. Comments made about Route 18 modified the proposal to retain more service. Transit will also keep holiday service for Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving. Reduced service will be given for the day after Thanksgiving (reduced to Sunday levels). Route 7 will have an increased frequency of service to every 15 minutes up to 6 P.M. On Saturday, it will be increased from every 30 minutes to every 20 minutes. Some trips on other routes have been eliminated, based on rider counts of 5 people or less for the trip. The overall service changes represent a 4% increase in service.  Sabina mentioned that the service changes will be posted on the website. The Director will be briefing City Council in June on these changes. Transit will also provide hand-outs on buses for the public.  Ed Koltonowski asked about the View Ridge loop, as there had been some controversy in years past. Some brief discussion ensued around this; however, it is no longer a current issue.  J.T. commented about the changes after the 30% cut from the recession. He said there hadn’t been any increase in fare or a desire to recover those lost trips since the recession. He was aware of less ridership, and commented this loss may be attributable to the design of some routes being too confusing for riders.  A question was raised based on last month’s minutes regarding Boeing ridership. Sabina stated that Transit is working with Community Transit and Boeing on this. The concept of a van pool was suggested, and it was remarked that van pools are currently available through  CT, and that Boeing does provide a van-pool “matching” program. It is currently unknown as to the van pool capacity or how much it is being utilized by Boeing workers. ET’s first service to Boeing is at 5:07AM. Ed suggested we request a presentation from CT or Boeing regarding CTR.  Sabina updated the committee on the ETA program. At the end of last March, there had been 5,000 calls and 2,000 texts. By March, the calls had increased to 16,700, and 6,300 texts. J.T. informed Sabina that the system still doesn’t work in all areas. Sabina said if she could get the names of the location where it is not working, she can check into it.  Victor asked about the ability to reach Transit supervisors on the weekend. Sabina said it would be best to defer those questions to George Baxter. Agenda Items: Item 1: Status Report: Transportation Element Update of the Comprehensive Plan  Ed Koltonowski stated that his company is working with Fehr & Peers on this plan, therefore he will recuse himself and not provide any comments during the TAC Transportation Element discussions and deliberations.  Chris Breiland (Fehr & Peers) conducted a presentation outlining the work currently being done in regards to the update of the transportation element in the Comprehensive Plan. He stated that the element facilitates expected growth, in cooperation with other intergovernmental agencies and how to implement the changes.  Chris explained the aim was to get a balanced multimodal network in place, which includes automobiles, truck/freight delivery vehicles, transit, pedestrians, bicyclists, appropriate for the anticipated land-use. The goal is to integrate all of these where possible, and also acknowledge that not all streets will accommodate all modes.  Currently, the collection of data is completed. Existing conditions review is also completed. Travel models are completed. Refining the capital project list is underway.  Next steps in the process include refining forecasts, finalizing policy changes, finalizing the capital project list, and preparing the final document.  His goal is to provide a draft by June 5th for staff review. Item 2: Draft 2016-2021: 6-Year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP)  Richard Tarry talked about the list of projects covering the Draft 2016-2021 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). He stated that the TIP comes out of the Transportation Element of the Comprehensive Plan, as based on the latest iteration of that document. He informed the committee that it is not a prioritized list, but rather a list of all possible projects the City is interested in doing. The list allows for flexibility in strategizing pursuing funding, as the funding criteria shifts from year-to-year. Richard highlighted several Port of Everett projects that were added to this year’s Draft TIP.  The TAC approved the Draft 2016-2021 TIP, recommending it to City Council for adoption. Meeting adjourned at 9:47 am The Next Scheduled Meeting is June 18, 2015