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 January 08, 2020 Traffic Commission Minutes Voting Members Present: William Blosser, Chip Wamsley, Matt Cross, Frances Brownfield, Sam Zizzi, Erica Bowe, Martin Dombrowski Non-Voting Members Present: J. Andrew Gatlin, Sgt. Bill Runyan Members Absent: Dave Harshbarger MATTER OF BUSINESS: Chairman Matt Cross called the meeting to order at 6:30p.m. and held roll call. PUBLIC COMMENTS: John Sefranko – 445 Linden Street - First thing I want to do is thank the MPD for not parking in the no parking zone that is not designated no parking zone. You notice in that area in front of the Justice Center, that there's stripes on the ground but there's nowhere where it says no parking I think it's left that you should understand that it is no parking. So, I listened to what you were talking about just before and so I've made several comments. The first one is don't make any of those streets one way. I live in South Park, when I'm coming from the south, if I'm turning into South Park I can either go down Greenbag Road or out Dorsey, which I can't do because I can’t turn right off of Dorsey at Don Knott's. Prairie Street down at the bottom is terrible, the grading is bad, there are holes and, and then right after the grading it goes up so if you aren't in an SUV you are probably going to hit bottom or come close to it anyway. I always bypass Prairie and go down to Foundry, and I turn up Foundry and I'm turning right. Second observation, you can see through the bridge. If you're experienced with it, you can look through the railing and you can actually see all the cars coming down, but not enough people realize that or understand it and they always inch up. My solution is just to dedicate some parking spots. I thought we could just do the first two or three spots closest to that no parking zone, dedicated for police and emergency vehicles only, and they'd have access straight to the front of the building or the first three spaces on Foundry. And then they just have a short walk up the hill from there. It's just right around the corner from where they’re now parking their cars in the no parking zone. Discussion ensued. MEETING MINUTES None approved. COMMITTEE REPORTS: Bicycle Board - Chip Wamsley We're going to try to get some meetings together to start working on looking at re upping our bicycle friendly status and also People With Bikes has another type of bicycle friendly status that we're going to kind of compare the two see what kind of benefits, we're going to get out of them. It will probably be a little bit easier this time since all the Alta stuff that we've gotten are the Alta stuff and Stantec studies. We have a lot of information that will be easy to take a lot of data from that where we had to generate a lot of things on our last report. Also, it's interesting because it shows some of the things that we have done that we didn't have done when we applied the last time for status so should be a little bit easier, go of it this time. Discussion ensued Pedestrian Board – Matt Cross We're just waiting for the Alta recommendations to come through and see what the priorities are, what the paperwork can do to get out the education, the specific areas that we want to move on first put out the whole plan let people get a look at it and hopefully they'll be satisfied with the results of the public input meetings, see their particular concerns were addressed and do what we can to just try to keep people aware both drivers and walkers on how to be safe out there and cooperate with each other. DISCUSSION ITEMS 1. Yield Sign Request: Oakview/Poplar Woods Drive a. Process review of similar traffic control device requests i. Administrative review vs commission/council review Drew Gatlin reviewed traffic control installation procedures for the City of Morgantown, stating that any traffic control devices, such as signs and signals, have to be passed by City Council through an ordinance. Discussion ensued. Drew Gatlin reviewed traffic law as it pertains to T intersections and who yields the Right-of-Way. “At an uncontrolled T intersection, the driver on the street which ends must yield the right-of-way to vehicles and pedestrians on the cross street.” Discussion ensued. There was more discussion of the procedures and the “bureaucratic nightmare” of having to have things approved by Morgantown City Council. Discussion ensued about City Departments and who looks at what requests. More discussion of “T Intersections” and the Traffic Laws pertaining to them. Drivers Education was discussed. A mapping system was discussed, showing what locations have what problems. Drew Gatlin stated that he is going to move forward with creating an internal review board, consisting of representatives of several City Departments. Discussion ensued and suggestions were made. No motions made. 2. Paving 2020 Drew Gatlin reviewed the Paving List for 2020. He detailed out some of the problems being faced with certain roadways, deeper problems than just a resurfacing. Discussion ensued. Drew further explained the decision-making process involved in deciding what streets are chosen to be paved every year. The City recently conducted a street study that evaluated all of the City Maintained roadways and prioritized them based on usage and condition. The City is working on getting all of those on the prioritized list completed. Discussion ensued. Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure improvements were discussed. No motions were made. Adjournment: Motion to adjourn was cut off.