Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting

APPROVED 1 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) 2 Meeting Minutes 3 4 Date: Tuesday, November 19, 2019 5 Time: 7:00 p.m. 6 Place: City Council Chambers, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, IL 7 Members Present: Bill Brown (Chair), Annie Adams, Kara Dudek, Cynthia Hoyle, Audrey Ishii, 8 Jeff Marino, Shannon Beranek, Nancy Westcott, Morgan White 9 10 Late Arrival: 11 12 Staff Present: Lily Wilcock, Charlie Smyth 13 14 Members Absent: Susan Jones, Leonardo Covis 15 16 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM 17 Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Roll call was taken. A quorum of members was 18 present. 19 20 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 21 Cynthia Hoyle moved to approve the agenda. 22 23 Morgan White seconded the motion. 24 25 The motion carried. 26 27 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING 28 The minutes from the October 15, 2019 meeting were presented. 29 30 Nancy Westcott moved to approve the minutes. 31 32 Morgan White seconded the motion. 33 34 The Commission approved the minutes from the October meeting. 35 36 4. PUBLIC INPUT 37 Audrey Ishii gave a history of University Avenue to preface the presentation on IDOT’s plan that will be 38 given by Shannon Beranek later in the evening. 39 40 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 41 a. Update on Bikeshare Program – Ben Thomas 42 Ben Thomas with VeoRide gave an update on the bikeshare program. He reviewed the history of the 43 program and gave current statistics. Mr. Thomas shared future goals and how the company plans to move 44 forward in this market. 45 46 Bill Brown asked how the prices compare between the scooters and the bikes. Mr. Thomas explained that 47 the prices depend on what City or market they are in. Page 1  APPROVED 1 2 Nancy Westcott and Mr. Thomas to describe the scooters. Ben shared a picture of a scooter and gave some 3 insight on how they operate. 4 5 Annie Adams asked why the scooters are making more money and what safety aspects are in place with 6 them. She also asked if the small cars are included in future plans. Mr. Thomas said that the scooters 7 provide a more recreational experience. They are also more efficient and easier to maintain. He said the 8 small cars may be something they look at in the future. 9 10 Cynthia Hoyle expressed her frustration with the fact that they didn’t approve VeoRides to raise the 11 number of bikes in the fleet. She also shared concerns with the restrictions that have been opposed on 12 VeoRides and said she hopes these issues can be resolved in the future. 13 14 Jeff Marino asked why the number of rides went down. Mr. Thomas said the number of peddle bikes as 15 opposed to ebikes might be affecting the numbers along with a change in prices. He still thinks the program 16 is successful despite the drop in numbers. Bill Brown asked if the increased numbers last year might have 17 been due to it being a new program. Mr. Thomas said yes. He said the more recent numbers are still great 18 numbers. 19 20 Annie Adams asked if there has been any discussion about students getting to ride for free. Mr. Thomas 21 said membership options that would allow for that is definitely something they are interested in 22 implementing. 23 24 Debra, a student at the University of Illinois, asked if the heat map data is available to anyone. Mr. Thomas 25 said yes, the City will have access to it. 26 27 a. BPAC Webpage Content – Subcommittee 28 Annie Adams, Nancy Westcott and Susan Jones are on the subcommittee. Annie provided an update on 29 their efforts to improve the BPAC section of the website. Commission members discussed changes and 30 made suggestions. The subcommittee will take the feedback and come back to the next meeting with 31 another update. A copy of the presentation is attached to these minutes. 32 33 6. NEW BUSINESS 34 a. IDOT University Avenue Plan – Shannon Beranek 35 Shannon Beranek reviewed IDOT’s Plans to update University Avenue. This project has been sent out to 36 bid and was awarded to Champaign Asphalt Company. Work is expected to begin this spring. 37 38 7. ANNOUNCEMENTS 39  Bill Brown said that BPAC’s snow removal suggestions went to city council. Some of them 40 were approved and some of them were not. Discussion will continue at future meetings. 41  Bill Brown reminded everyone that tomorrow is the last day to submit comments on the Long 42 Range Transportation Plan. 43 44 8. FUTURE TOPICS 45 a. Vision Zero – Subcommittee 46 b. Bicycle Wayfinding Plan – Regional Planning Commission 47 c. Pedestrian Master Plan – Regional Planning Commission Page 2  APPROVED 1 d. Bicycle Friendly Community Report Card – Shannon Beranek 2 e. Urbana Bike Racks – Annie Adams 3 f. Website Content - Subcommittee 4 g. Enforcement – Bill Brown/Urbana Police Department 5 6 9. ADJOURNMENT 7 The meeting adjourned at 9:02 p.m. 8 9 *** 10 Respectfully submitted, 11 Tamra Jane Corbin 12 Recording Secretary 13 Page 3