Traffic Commission

The City of Morgantown 389 Spruce Street Morgantown, West Virginia 26505 (304) 284-7412 Fax: (304) 284-7409 www.morgantownwv.gov Traffic Commission   September 4, 2019 Traffic Commission Minutes Voting Members Present: Erica Bowe, Martin Dombrowski, William Blosser, Chip Wamsley, Matt Cross, Frances Brownfield, Dave Harshbarger Non-Voting Members Present: J. Andrew Gatlin, Sgt. Bill Runyan Members Absent: MATTER OF BUSINESS: Chairman Matt Cross called the meeting to order at 6:30p.m. and held roll call. PUBLIC COMMENTS: Sam Zizzi, 447 Grand Street, spoke about the traffic issues in South Park, specifically the intersections of Simpson and Wagner, requesting stop signs and crosswalks, South High Street speeding, targeted enforcement, and speeding up and down Grand Street. Safety and visibility implementations. Jefferson Street, Buckhannon Street are problem streets as well. Frances asked about the intersection of Simpson and Wager. Mr. Zizzi stated that it is the bus stop location. Requested 4-way stop and crosswalks. Discussion ensued. MEETING MINUTES Erica Bowe moved to approve the June minutes. Chip Walmsley seconded. Motion passed unanimously. COMMITTEE REPORTS: Chip Wamsley reported on the Bicycle Board Activities. Discussion ensued. Matt Cross reported on the Pedestrian Safety Board. Discussion ensued. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS: Drew Gatlin reported on the City Engineering Departments activities, gave Paving update, updated on the traffic studies. Drew Gatlin reviewed the DOH projects. College Avenue paving and ADA Ramp repairs, Baldwin Street maintaining two-way traffic after roundabout installation, the continuing study of University Avenue Corridor, Traffic Light timing etc. Discussion ensued. Matt Cross discussed MPO projects and meetings, River Road status. Discussion ensued. UNFINISHED BUSINESS Ross/Grand Traffic Calming Study – Drew Gatlin: 50% of people at the intersection between the intersection of Gould and Sherman that's basically the very top of the hill are speeding based on our counters. So, half the people are  speeding. The average speed at which they're speeding is 28 miles. So that's not so bad. So, three miles an hour over. There's 67% of people over a two-week period that we monitor were speeding. An average speed of all drivers of about 30 miles an hour. And so significant evidence of people speeding on the other side, right or further down the hill. Mr. Zizzi alerted us, as well as many other people to issues on the lower section of Grand right the other side of the hill. I think we are considering expanding the traffic study right to include the entire corridor from Wilson to Dorsey, because they're speeding on both sides. Discussion ensued. Martin Dombrowski moved to “ADD THAT TO OUR CURRENT TRAFFIC STUDY”. Frances Brownfield seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously. Drew Gatlin reviewed the options of centerlines, edge-lines, parking lanes and crosswalks. Discussion ensued. Drew Gatlin: I mean you could say you could move that we seriously consider that and that we run it by the neighborhood and install it if need be, or something, or like if it makes sense in the next month. And then I would give us more of a direction to go with how we approach the neighborhood, you know, and more. I mean a low cost, you know, maybe very effective way to slow traffic there. But, yeah. Martin Dombrowski moved to “let’s do that”. William requested clarification on Martins motion. Drew Gatlin stated his recommendation to add travel lines, parking lanes and double yellow lines to Grand Street to the Traffic Commission again. Discussion ensued. William Blosser seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. NEW BUSINESS Formalization of traffic control device and traffic calming requests – Drew Gatlin reviewed the process, problems, and possible solutions for the Traffic Commission Request system. Discussion ensued. Drew Gatlin requested a workshop. Leading Pedestrian Intervals – Drew Gatlin brought this item before the Traffic Commission, he described what the Leading Pedestrian Interval is. Erica moved to move forward with implementing the Leading Pedestrian Intervals at the City maintained signalized intersections. Frances seconded the motion. Discussion ensued. Erica withdrew her motion. Erica moved to table discussion until next meeting. Frances seconded the motion. Discussion ensued. NO ONE VOTED COMMISSION COMMENTS Erica – Welcome Councilman, thank you for being here. Hampton Ave. used have dots indicating 2 lanes are faded that need to be replaced. Discussion ensued. Putnam Street stop sign is missing at Richwood Avenue. Discussion ensued. Martin Dombrowski - Thank you Mr. Sam Zizzi for coming in and sharing concerns with the streets. Welcome Councilman, thank you for the support. I have emailed you what we went through three years ago with Councilmen Redman regarding the structure of Traffic Commission. WVU, DOH, please send a representative to this meeting. Councilman – Thank you for welcoming me. I use Oakland Avenue twice a day coming out on the university and I think the LPI would increase traffic flow, because currently when the walk light comes on in their crust the students are crossing University, and you're coming out of Oakland from either direction trying to make a left or right. It's like ready to go and then the drivers just sit and wait until the pedestrians finish crossing. And then the green line is shortened to half or a third or fourth at the time, you have now to pull out so I think that head start on the pedestrians would help move traffic out, because that's my experience at that intersection. And I don't know if this is more of a public works, but white Avenue has been closed for quite a while because of the slip. Do you know if this public works is still supposed to fix that before winter because that's what I was told? At some point, a few months ago. Drew Gatlin: Public Works does not have the capacity to fix a slip like that, that's like there's going to be bid out. Unfortunately, it's still in the process of the, the request for qualifications is still being drafted, so that we can get somebody to design it for us. And then after that happens, then we have to bid it out, And then it has to be built so I unfortunately I would doubt that that's going to be done, unless we get an emergency order, but through city council might look into that. Discussion ensued. William Blosser: I have something this month, the intersection of Stewart Street, Falling Run Road, Hoffman Avenue and Stewartstown Road, you know that the intersection. There has been my neighborhood, a lot of discussion about heavy trucks coming through, trying to come through that, that intersection. I mean car carriers, large buses and coaches have the GPS people been using that as an entrance to Morgantown? That intersection is getting to be more and more of an aggravation as more and more people are using it. Chip Wamsley: I've heard a couple other people talk about a little bit more speeding noticed in the last few weeks and I've noticed in my travels around there's been a lot of speeding. And people, hitting, you know, easily 40 miles an hour and 25 miles are zones. I'm guessing a lot of that's probably somewhere new residents that came in with a new crop of students, so hopefully I don't know if enforcement sometimes, you know the word gets out pretty quickly if you know enforcement clamps down some of that. I sometimes travel up North Street and come across through Willowdale to go to the bank and to the Ace Hardware store, and the people coming off a Willowdale into that little thing like rally cars going over 45 mph on a Grove Street. It's like, that's kind of disconcerting when you're coming up to the intersection expecting to try to merge cautiously and you see some guy just immediately shoot off it. And now Willowdale’s a little bit wider with the, even though that's like a turn lane at the new parking garage. It's probably going to get maybe a little bit worse, that fresh pavement always helps to speed. Matt Cross: So, to wrap it up just a few things from me. Thank you again, Mr. Harshbarger for stepping up on that observation on the traffic chip. I've noticed speeding is well known internal police department does what they can with traffic enforcement, and I understand that they've got a lot of other issues as well. We keep trying to think of coming up with physical determines. I'm sorry. For people who are not obeying speed laws and what we find ourselves doing is adjusting to bad behavior and I get really annoyed with that. And I would just make an appeal to each individual driver, if you have some sense in your head, to learn the traffic laws respect the traffic laws, adjust your time properly. The second year here in town if you have one and look out for street signs as well. I think that's one of the big problems with some of these drivers is they don't look at street signs posted on the side of the road. And a lot of that comes from not paying attention, also look at the striping on the pavement. A lot of these entrances and exits have one way only particularly down to Kroger which is as you said that cut through from rally really World War we find a lot of traffic coming through their own Kroger and it's a hazard to pedestrians walking out of the grocery store with kids, particularly students in those lanes of stripe, one way only, people are just totally ignoring the traffic control. And it really dismays me. The only other things I will see is I didn't do or say is, I did see a couple issues with the young people not to say that young people are necessarily bad because years 70-year-old woman on scooter but sold the motorized skateboards. They've been around town a lot they've been riding them on public roadways and so I understand that is illegal. It's an unregistered vehicle, they can get going fast 15-20 miles per hour. So young man almost gets killed up here at the top a high street. It was dusk he was not visible; he was going through and drop it into. So, keep an eye out for those if you see any of those folks. You know the place does not recommend approaching individuals about disobey traffic laws and so forth. If you might have an opportunity to educate an individual that they're outside of the law. If you do it politely it might help to educate them if they're willing on this. The last thing I'll say is I saw a national study that crashes, red lights on the increase. tallies in Greece. I still would be a proponent for the red-light cameras, nationally, I see they've been rescinded in a lot of states although studies prove that with red light cameras there is a reduction in crashes and fatalities. Although there is an increase in rear ending but that's just not be paying attention so I would like to see the red light cameras come back on as an adjustment to enhance public safety, intersections, personally, if we can get that on the state level or not. But when it comes to state control as Martin stated question earlier how we can go about getting more input voting. You were elected officials in is you know one of the primary ways to do that that we do have an option with the citizens of this country is to vote and people that we think are going to provide initiatives for public safety at the state level. That's all I got to say so please people pay attention to what you're doing out there on a transportation system. It's not worth taking a risk, and just understand what you're doing. So, without the motion to adjourn. Adjournment: Erica moved to adjourn. Chip seconded. Motion passed; meeting adjourned at 8:49pm