Bicycling & Shared Path Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes Salem Bicycling Advisory Committee Wednesday, December 2, 2020 6:30 p.m. Remote Meeting Members Present: Eric Papetti (Chair), Josh Gillis, Michael Williamson, Alex Maranto, Colleen Downie, Connor Ryan, Matt Caruso, John Wathne Members Absent: Michael Jaros, Kylie Sullivan, Jayne O’Leary Also Present: Tom Devine, Senior Planner Call Meeting to Order Papetti calls the meeting to order. Devine describes the remote meeting format and procedure for providing public comment. Public Comment Papetti opens to the meeting to public comment and there are none at that time. Staff Update Devine provides the following updates to the Committee: • The City is doing a one-year sculpture garden along the new Harbor Connector Path. There will be a COVID-friendly, invitation-only ribbon cutting tomorrow (December 3). Devine is looking to see if any members of the Committee would like to attend, but none volunteer. • The City has removed the flex posts from Willson Street for the winter for plowing. • The City did not receive the MassWorks grant it sought for improvements to the Washington and Bridge Streets intersection. The City will be in a better position to apply next year after getting feedback from MassWorks and by having a developer now on board for the courthouses and City lot at the train station. • Staff are developing a strategy for plowing the bidirectional bike lane on Fort Ave. This may entail keeping the armadillo separators in place, instructing plow drivers to plow the motor vehicle lane and bike lane separately and avoid the buffer with the armadillos. To make this easier for the plows, the City could install a row of tall orange cones in the buffer to mark it visually. Caruso notes that these cones are not attached to the ground and may be moved around by the plows. The group discusses the logistics of this. 1 Discussion of Potential Bike Friendly City Designation Papetti says he wants to talk about the next steps for this. Devine reports that the Traffic & Parking Director had helped prepare a Bike Friendly City application with some volunteer support when we worked at the Town of Lexington. He has an understanding of what it takes to apply and is supportive of the Bike Committee’s effort to apply. Papetti is connecting with people in Somerville and Beverly, two communities that have obtained designations. Papetti says the first application deadline, February 10, is tight, but it may be worth starting and seeing where we are at that point. He says the City needs to create an account to see the application. They want you to have some sort of a working group to prepare the application. He suggests having a meeting with Devine, himself, and maybe another Committee member to get started. Devine was able to access the application without logging in. It is 58 pages and it is dense, requiring a lot of information. He doesn’t think there is any section a volunteer could fill out completely without needing City staff to add some of the specialized data. So he sees his role and being at the center to pull all the sections together, answer questions, and work with his colleagues to get the data. Gillis asks if the data if publicly available. Devine says some is, through MassGIS, the state’s spatial data clearinghouse. Some data may not be as readily available. None of the data is private, but some is less accessible. Ryan, Gillis, and Caruso volunteer to participate in this meeting. The group agrees to meet Thursday, February 10 at 4pm. Discussion of 2021 meeting schedule Document reviewed: Draft 2021 Bicycling Advisory Committee Meeting Schedule Devine shares his screen with the draft meeting schedule. He proposes to continue meeting at 6:30 p.m. the first Wednesday of each month with the possible exception of September. The first Wednesday of September 2021 is just before Labor Day. The group is fine with keeping the regular schedule without interruption. Meeting Minutes – 10/14/2020 Wathne motions, Caruso seconds, and all vote in favor to approve the October 14, 2020 meeting minutes. Adjourn Williamson motions, Wathne seconds, and all vote in favor to adjourn at 7:00 p.m. Approved by the Bicycling Advisory Committee on 4/7/2021. 2