Advisory Bike/Walk Taskforce

City of Norwalk Norwalk Bike/Walk Taskforce Meeting Minutes August 1, 2016, 6:00pm Health Department, 2nd Floor Library 137 East Avenue, Norwalk CT 06851 Attendees: Colin Grotheer, Nancy Rosett, Tim Callahan, Ian Ray, Kevin Kane - 6:05 start 1. Minutes approved - 6:05 2. DPW/BWTF meeting discussion a. Progress with temporary lines on Water and Beach? i. Noted the counter is down on Water but no lines yet 1. Nancy asked for counts before and after - confirmed that Bruce will do for comparison and baseline so we can gauge before and after results of counts 2. Nancy to check with Bruce week of August 2 on latest ii. Nancy to check with Bruce when Strawberry Hill will be repainted if parking "T"s will be added 3. Nancy on Norwalk Response a. Noted then discussion was centered on Public Relation needs. Colin suggested we continue to focus on closing "connectivity gaps" on key routes such as Water St. to the Calf Pasture and Calf Pasture Beach to Strawberry Hill b. Agreed we will make PR a focus for calendar 2017 as we continue to make progress on priorities 4. Bike share discussion a. Noted that developer BLT http://www.bltoffice.com/residential/ is sponsoring a South Stamford - Bike Share program https://www.instagram.com/p/BE7FOUaREMw/ b. Ian stated (and Gunnar emailed) Tom Glendenning contacted him again about a bike share exploration for Norwalk c. Agreed a bike share is beyond scope of work for 2016 and perhaps we look to mimic Fairfield/Zanes Bikes because we ought to ideally establish a connection to a Norwalk bike shop local to the core, Sono/Wall St. use area d. Ian noted an eBike shop is coming to Sono; KK found this http://www.pedegoelectricbikes.com/dealers/south-norwalk/ 5. Sharrows on 136 a. Nancy confirmed Traffic Authority will make the request to CDOT for permission to do sharrows- needs to follow process. 6. ConnDOT Meeting  a. Kevin recapped the meeting Tim, Nancy and he had with ConnDOT in Berlin - Kevin Tesdesco and Melanie Zimyeski i. Exchange of info and opened communication line but KK's takeaway is they will be a limited resource for navigating DOT related bike/ped issues but at least we have initiated contact as Kevin T is an army of 3 for the entire state on bike/ped planning within DOT b. Strava data i. Being used limited by DOT - "a tool of many in the box" ii. KK and CG to follow up w/ Strava - what is the data we want to get and crunch - what format is the data? 1. KK noted he has an additional contact at Strava who is more data- oriented and could likely provide insights; Water St. as pilot for data perhaps 2. Option is to also get a data dump from CDOT/Kevin T to see what is there; note CDOT consultant is using Strava data to supplement all other info coming from stakeholders in CT as part of bike/ped strategy plan re-do project http://ctbikepedplan.org/ 7. Citizen engagement card – CG a. Colin summarized idea to have a business-card-sized card for the BWTF to hand out when we encounter a fellow bike/ped person and alert them to our organization's efforts and direct them to a brief survey on opinions and use cases for bike/ped infrastructure b. Colin and Kevin to draft survey questions and card; KK may have graphics resource for design of card i. Consensus is complete in 30 days. approx. Sept15 or wait to Spring or when new NBWTF logo is complete 8. Intersection of Belden and Wall a. Colin recapped the redevelopment presentation/public info meeting he attended b. We reviewed maps he brought of existing and proposed plans then we began discussing and sketching ideas for recommendations c. Agreed that Colin to lead creation of document summarizing BWTF position for how we want to see bike infrastructure on West Ave and Belden such as types of connectivity, features such as curb radii, pedestrian flow; a "We support elements of the plan and improvements however we suggest A, B, C i. Plan is to circulate within BWTF for edits/input, refine, then share with Tim Sheehan @ Norwalk Redevelopment Agency and DPW ii. Noted we ought to perhaps articulate a vision for further down Wall St. but that is a tbd - focus on Belden/Wall intersection 9. Proposed Ordinance  a. Tim, Kaitlin and Nancy meeting with town attorney Aug 4; based on that would go for amendments to our draft of the ordinance thus far 10. Other a. Meeting w/Darien 1st selectman Jaymee Stephenson- talk about connection from NCC to Darien - Aug8, Tim, Nancy meeting b. Kevin initiated formal contact with People For Bikes as initial intro and identify how the BWTF can tap into them as resource. 2 key people of many: 1 working on policy and laws coming from Fed and States, 1 working on infrastructure) http://www.peopleforbikes.org/ Dorel is on the Board of PFB and they are gaining traction at a National and State level advocating for all-things- bike. PFB encouraged by the scope of what BWTF is doing - KK to provide additional info as he gets it