Transportation Safety & Advisory Commission

City Hall City of Harrisonburg 409 South Main Street Harrisonburg, VA 22801 Meeting Minutes - Final Transportation Safety & Advisory Commission Wednesday, December 8, 2021 8:30 AM Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center 1. Welcome and Introductions The meeting was attended by the Commission members Kyle Lawrence, John Scherpereel, Marian Lebherz, Chance Ebersold, Erin Yancey, and Sgt. Westfall of Harrisonburg Police Department as well as by City staff Chief Matt Tobia from Harrisonburg Fire Department, and Tom Hartman, Jakob zumFelde, Kelly Adams, and Timothy Mason from Harrisonburg Department of Public Works. 2. Consideration of changes to Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee bylaws Public Works staff reminded TSAC members that the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee is considered a subcommittee of TSAC and is advisory to staff and TSAC. The goal of the subcommittee is to enable more voices to have an impact on decision making, and it functions to reduce the burden on members by splitting the responsibility between TSAC and the Bike/Ped Subcommittee, and only requiring bimonthly meetings for both groups. Jakob zumFelde said the proposed changes to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee would expand the number of members on subcommittee with the goal of ensuring diverse points of view. The subcommittee would be able to expand to seven members. With the change, additional edits are proposed to ensure that there is consistent turnover by establishing terms that don’t end concurrently. This is intended to ensure that there won’t be a situation where a majority of members would have expiring terms in the same year. Kyle Lawrence asked whether there is any potential for the subcommittee to become a formal commission that reports to and is appointed by city council rather than TSAC. Tom Hartman responded that the reason for the subcommittee’s creation was to have a better focus on the needs of bicycle users and pedestrians within the City’s transportation plans. John Scherpereel asked if there was still a need for the subcommittee, or if it would instead be more appropriate to have TSAC and the subcommittee merge, as there may be redundancy in the topics coved anyway. Tom Hartman responded that it may be useful to look into that in the future, although if the two committees merge, it may be harder to ensure that there is advocation for Bicycle and Pedestrian specific needs and there would be a need for more frequent meetings for the members of the committee. Chance Ebersold moved to approve the proposed changes, Marian Lebherz seconded the City of Harrisonburg Page 1 Printed on 8/1/2023 Transportation Safety & Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final December 8, 2021 Commission motion, and it passed unanimously. 3. Consideration of applications to join the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee There were two applicants for the subcommittee - one returning member and one new applicant. Staff said that both were recommended for appointment by the Subcommittee. Chance Ebersold moved to appoint both applicants, Marian Lebherz seconded the motion, and the members were appointed unanimously. The Bike/Ped Subcommittee, after the appointment of the two members, will have six total members. 4. Lois Lane & Peach Grove Intersection Safety Public Works staff noted that this item is an update for a previous TSAC meeting agenda item, as HPD officers had raised a safety concern at this location. The Lois Ln & Peach Grove three-leg intersection, in its existing form, is a difficult intersection for drivers both entering and exiting Lois Lane. The existing issue is that the dedicated left turn stop bar is too far back for drivers to make a clear decision when turning left onto Peach Grove on account of the signs, shrubbery and fences adjacent to the roadway. The blocked sight-distance causes drivers to move past the stop bar to see oncoming traffic, which causes vehicles trying to turn onto Lois Ln to wait until the vehicle on Lois Ln moves to be able to make their turn. The stop bar is located at that distance to accommodate the required turn radius of vehicles onto Lois Ln from Peach Grove including buses that must make the right turn onto a 10’ lane. This causes backups and turning movement conflicts as buses are forced to stop on Peach Grove Avenue to accommodate the left turning vehicles. The City has evaluated the site and concluded that the preferred solution is to remove the dedicated left turn lane, leaving one lane for both movements. This will eliminate the sight-distance issue without compromising the needed turning radius for other cars. The decision has been made based on measured turning counts from Lois Ln, as well as the traffic volumes of Peach Grove. The data showed that most movements from Lois Ln were already left turns, so the change in lane configuration will not have a significant change to average delay experienced by those drivers. An uphill-only bike lane will be added with the remaining space. Sgt. Westfall cited City Code 10-3-115 in response to a question of whether the city could force the removal of the signs and fencing that caused the sight-distance issue. There is a discrepancy with this intersection and the official sight distance designation provided by the DCSM, so Community Development ruled that the fencing does not violate official standards. Sgt. Westfall also brought up the condition of the landscaping regarding sight-distance, which would be in violation of the City’s standard. 5. Liberty St & Acorn Dr Intersection Safety Public Works staff noted that this item is also an update for a previous TSAC meeting City of Harrisonburg Page 2 Printed on 8/1/2023 Transportation Safety & Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final December 8, 2021 Commission agenda item. The issue of site distance was again brought up regarding this intersection. A significant number of crashes have occurred at this location over past several years. The VDOT Potential for Safety Improvement (PSO), a statewide measurement tool for identifying discrepancies between total traffic volume and number of crashes, showed that this intersection was the 41st highest in our district (Staunton District). The crashes at the intersection indicate that the issue is not a time of day or visibility issue, but instead a misjudgment of the drivers’ expectation. To evaluate the intersection, counts and turning movements were taken at the intersection and showed that the volumes on Liberty St and Acorn Dr were similar. Using this information, the city staff evaluated the intersection for the conditions of a switched stop sign control direction, an all-way stop sign-controlled intersection, a roundabout, and a traffic signal. The switched stop-sign condition did offer capacity and delay improvements, however because of the geographic and geometric condition of the road, and the number of trucks that would be impacted at the stop sign, this change was not deemed to make the intersection significantly safer. In evaluating the condition for an all-way stop sign-controlled intersection, staff noted that the number of trucks at the intersection, the lack of volume during off-peak hours, and the lack of driver familiarity with all-way stops in the city negated any safety improvements that this condition would help with the intersection during the peak hour. The preferred solution for staff would be a roundabout, which due to the lack of development around the intersection would be a viable location for a new roundabout. Roundabouts are proven to reduce injury crashes and would offer improved operations compared to the two-way and all-way stop conditions. a roundabout would be a significantly more expensive, so it would be something that we look to implement long term, but with more immediate improvements considered for the interim. The intersection did not warrant a traffic signal through MUTCD guidelines and was thus disqualified from consideration. The short-term proposal by the City is to improve the signage and roadway conditions to make drivers more aware of the conditions at the intersection. These improvements include changing the existing sign at the county line from “Reduce Speed Ahead” to the updated sign standard which indicates that the speed limit will be 35 MPH, moving the stop bar ahead to offer better sight-distance, adding Intersection Ahead signs on Liberty St, and adding reflective posts and larger stop signs on the Acorn St approach. 6. Evaluation of Potential Roadway Reconfigurations The City plans to evaluate portions of Gay St and Mt Clinton Pike for possible road reconfigurations (sometimes referred to as road diets). VDOT is providing funding for the study, which is to be conducted by an outside consultant. The effort will include evaluation for crash data, traffic volumes, and impacts of potential changes. Findings will be presented to TSAC. The goal of the evaluation is to determine if the lane configuration can be changed to reduce the number of through vehicle lanes and improve safety by using that space for City of Harrisonburg Page 3 Printed on 8/1/2023 Transportation Safety & Advisory Meeting Minutes - Final December 8, 2021 Commission other lanes, such as turn lanes and bike lanes. When asked about the timeline for the study, Tom Hartman stated that the goal is for the report to be ready for the TSAC meeting scheduled for March. 7. Updates on Previous Agenda items The updates on previous agenda items were provided to TSAC prior to the meeting and there were no questions during the meeting. 8. Previous Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Agenda The previous Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee agenda was provided to TSAC prior to the meeting and there were no questions during the meeting. 9. Other Business/Announcements Adjournment City of Harrisonburg Page 4 Printed on 8/1/2023