Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting

APPROVED October 17, 2017 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) Meeting Minutes Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2017 Time: 7:00 p.m. Place: Council Chambers, City of Urbana, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, IL Members Present: Bill Brown (Chair), Annie Adams, Leonardo Covis, Kara Dudek, Cynthia Hoyle, Audrey Ishii, Susan Jones, Jeff Marino, Brad Bennett proxy for Craig Shonkwiler and Lily Wilcock. Staff Present: Kevin Garcia Members Absent: Nancy Westcott Others Present: None 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Roll call was taken. It was noted that a quorum of members was present. 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Audrey Ishii motioned to add two items to the agenda regarding an update of the BPAC Survey and an update regarding University Avenue to the Unfinished Business section. Susan Jones moved to approve the meeting agenda as amended. Lily Wilcock seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously by a voice vote. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING Cynthia Hoyle moved to approve the meeting minutes. Jeff Marino seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously by a voice vote. 4. PUBLIC INPUT There was no public input. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS ADDITIONAL NON-AGENDA ITEMS Brad Bennett updated the Commission on the Bradley Avenue Bicycle Lanes that had been installed. He stated that there are a few items that would still need to be completed such as installation of no parking signs and installation of the right lane merge sign. A ribbon cutting ceremony would be held at a later date and would be hosted by the City’s Community Development Department.  APPROVED October 17, 2017 Brad Bennett gave an update on the 2017 Pavement Marking Project and stated that most of the striping had been installed. He informed the Commission that there are still some puppy tracks (crosswalks), bike sharrows and symbols that had not been completed and installed. Brad Bennett informed the Commission that the first steering committee meeting for the Bicycle Wayfinding Plan would be held on August 23, 2017 with representatives from the City, BPAC, the University of Illinois, Urbana Park District, Champaign Urbana Mass Transit District, Champaign County Bikes, Urbana Business Association and Urbana School District. Brad Bennett stated that the brick sidewalk and concrete sidewalk repair projects are completed. He also stated that streetscape sidewalk repairs are planned to be done around the courthouse. He added that all the summer/fall sidewalk projects would be wrapping up soon for the calendar year. a) Pedestrian Master Plan Update – Brad Bennett Brad Bennett updated the Commission on the Pedestrian Master Plan and stated that they have completed the Preplanning Phase and nearing the end of the Existing Conditions Phase with the Plans and Policies Review to follow. He also stated that they would be overlapping with the start of the Future Plans Phase which includes the Goals, Objectives and Performances Phase. In addition, Brad Bennett discussed another public engagement meetings once those Goals, Objectives and Performances had been established. Brad Bennett stated that he would coordinate a meeting with the Commission and Champaign County Regional Plan Commission (CCRPC) sometime in October to gather those goals and objectives. Next, Brad Bennett presented a summary of the Spring 2017 Public Input Report with 115 participants and process which included the following sections: 1. Walking Preferences Survey Summary (115 participants); 2. Comment Cards Summary (90 comments); 3. Walking Preferences Survey Tables; 4. Comment Card Tables; and 5. Trip Activity Comment Tables Brad Bennett outlined the timeline leading to the report and stated that in the spring of 2017, staff from the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) and the City of Urbana hosted ten public events to solicit public input on walking in Urbana to develop the Urbana Pedestrian Master Plan (UPMP). The summary outlined the ten meetings that were conducted based on location. It was noted that comments were also received via the CCRPC website, by email and by trip activity maps. In all, there were 115 participants with 113 of those completing the Walking Preference Surveys and 90 completing a comment card. As a result, a list of the survey’s key findings were based on frequently listed destinations (i.e. Crystal Lake Park, Downtown Urbana, Meadowbrook Park, University of Illinois, and Urbana Free Library), streets (i.e. Lincoln Avenue, University Avenue, and Vine Street) and subjects (i.e. crossings, maintenance, major streets, neighborhoods, no sidewalks, parks, safety, sidewalks, and streets).  APPROVED October 17, 2017 Brad Bennett reviewed the Area Comment Locations and showed a map where it reflected negative, neutral and positive comments to show a general overview. In contrast, he then showed a Linear Comment Locations and Point Comment Locations maps with the same segment sections showing negative, neutral and positive. Brad Bennett addressed a question on whether he was surprised by the results. He stated that he had no expectations, but was surprised that the newer subdivisions did not have more positive comments. He was also surprised that there were not more negative comments in Southeast Urbana due to the age and gaps of the sidewalks for that area. The final map showed the preferred walking routes/trips revealing a preference of travel to the parks, which may lead to a priority of improving access to those locations. Brad Bennett next reviewed the results of the responses to the sixteen (16) Walking Preferences Survey Summary questions and the key findings for each. (Please refer to pages 6-34 of the Spring 2017 Public Input Report). Lily Wilcock asked whether the questions further broke down i.e. speed and lighting responses per street and felt that the data presented was not clear. Further, Ms. Wilcock was concerned that the specific issues per street were not being represented and wondered how to resolve those issues. Brad Bennett stated that within this report specific issues per street were not identified and that he would check with the CCRPC regarding that information and how it could be incorporated into the report. Lily Wilcock voiced her concern about Question 10 and how the data collected about Lincoln Avenue had been presented in the Public Input Report. Ms. Wilcock added that she believed the raw data had been collected, but had not be presented clearly. She used the example that could she could not determine how people felt about the traffic on Lincoln Avenue and whether they felt it was light, average or heavy. Ms. Wilcock further explained that she felt that so many responses listed Lincoln Avenue, that it warranted more specific information and response. Bill Brown agreed that she had a valid concern and that BPAC wanted more details included in the report. Cynthia Hoyle pointed out that that it was interesting that streets that the City did road diets on are listed i.e. Philo Avenue, Main Street and Lincoln Avenue. Brad Bennett reviewed the responses to the six Comment Card Responses. (Please see Section 3: Comment Cards Summary pages 35-47 of the Spring 2017 Public Input Report). Lily Wilcock pointed out the interest of the responders would be to go to Crystal Lake Park as much as they were going to Meadowbrook Park. Annie Adams agreed with the responders about the difficulty reaching Crystal Lake Park and that there were no good safe paths to get to Crystal Lake Park. b) BPAC Survey Update Audrey Ishii updated the Commission that the BPAC Survey had been extended through the end of August and handouts would be posted at various locations throughout the City for those who do not have access to the online survey. c) University Avenue Update Audrey Ishii requested an update from letters sent by Cynthia Hoyle and Annie Adams to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). They stated that they both had not received any response. Ms. Ishii also made the  APPROVED October 17, 2017 Commission aware of her research regarding the 2010 Corridor Study done by the CCRPC, which in her opinion had some interesting concepts such as crash data. Ms. Ishii pointed out that there had been no deaths from 10 years prior to the study in 2010, but there have been deaths since on University Avenue and wondered what had changed since then. The Commission offered some reasons such as more traffic from business developments, expansion of Carle Hospital and a stronger residential presence. NEW BUSINESS a) Bicycle Riding on Central Business District Sidewalks Brad Bennett discussed the City Ordinance Sec. 23-144 which had been adopted in 1997 regarding no bicycle riding within the Central Business District. Brad Bennett defined the Central Business District as bounded to the north by Water Street, to the south by Illinois Street, the west boundary by Cedar Street and the east boundary by Urbana Avenue. Brad Bennett noted that it was interesting to see that this boundary encompasses an area with high pedestrian traffic and quite a few bike facilities. He also made the Commission aware that the only area displaying signage for no bicycle riding on sidewalks was found on Main Street from Broadway Avenue to where Main Street and Springfield Avenue split. Cynthia Hoyle raised the question on whether there had been crashes between pedestrians and bicyclists riding on the sidewalk. Brad Bennett responded that he would gather that data. Bill Brown suggested using gentler signage to welcome bicycles on the sidewalk by using “walk bike on sidewalk” signage. Lily Wilcock suggested that children under 12 bike riders be exempted from the restriction to improve their safety and continue to attract bicyclists to the downtown area rather than pushing them away. Annie Adams requested information regarding the cost to the City when a bicycle/pedestrian was injured. b) Bicycle Infrastructure in Germany and Amsterdam – Cynthia Hoyle Cynthia Hoyle presented on the bicycle infrastructure in Amsterdam and Germany. Ms. Hoyle stated that in Amsterdam with a population of 835,000 people, 36% of their trips are made on bicycles and a high portion of 50% of the population were riding bicycles in city’s center. Ms. Hoyle stated the main reason was due to the population density and traffic congestion, where the transit system was unable to accommodate the growing population. Therefore bicycle riding had become the primary mode of transportation. Ms. Hoyle stated that there were three objectives in Netherland’s infrastructure plan which included smooth cycling, easy parking and better biking. Ms. Hoyle noted that their plan would be to give bicycles priority over vehicles by having roadways dedicated to bicyclists. She also stated that the primary reason Amsterdam was implementing the plan was due to health benefits, cleaner air quality, economic growth and that cyclists take up less space than automobiles and transit. 6. ANNOUNCEMENTS  August 17 – Preliminary KRT Bicycle Ride  August 25 - Kickapoo Rail Trail Grand Opening 5:30 p.m. in St. Joseph  August 26 – C/U Prairie Cycle Club  August 27- Quad Day at the University of Illinois  APPROVED October 17, 2017  September 7 - Weaver Park and East Urbana Kickapoo Rail Trail Connectivity Study Public Workshop 4:30 – 6:30 p.m.  September 26 – 4 – 7 p.m. Bike the Night 7. FUTURE TOPICS  Pedestrian Bicycle Buttons/Crossing  Traffic Commission and BPAC coordination  Review of past survey’s (2003-2006) 8. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m. *** Respectfully submitted, Leslie Cross Recording Secretary