Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting

APPROVED May 19, 2020 1 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) 2 Meeting Minutes 3 4 Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 5 Time: 7:00 p.m. 6 Place: City Council Chambers, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, IL 61801 held virtually via Zoom 7 Members Present: Bill Brown (Chair), Annie Adams, Shannon Beranek, Leonardo Covis, Kara 8 Dudek, Cynthia Hoyle, Audrey Ishii, Susan Jones, Jeff Marino, Sarthak Prasad, 9 Nancy Westcott 10 11 Late Arrival: None 12 13 Staff Present: None 14 15 Others Present: Ashlee McLaughlin, Stacy De Lorenzo 16 17 Members Absent: None 18 19 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM 20 Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Roll call was taken. All members were present. 21 22 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 23 Cynthia Hoyle moved to approve the agenda. 24 Susan Jones seconded the motion. 25 The motion to approve the agenda carried. 26 27 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING 28 The minutes from the March 10, 2020 meeting were presented. 29 30 Sarthak Prasad recommended including that the survey was sent by Dr. Benekohal to all faculty and staff, 3,000 31 graduate students, 7,000 undergraduate students, and members of the community. Bill Brown requested that 32 the minutes reflect that over 20,000 people were sent the survey. 33 (Page 2, under Vision Zero, in the March 2020 meeting minutes) 34 35 Jeff Marino moved to approve the minutes as amended. 36 Annie Adams seconded the motion. 37 The Commission approved the minutes from the March 2020 meeting. 38 39 4. PUBLIC INPUT 40 There was no public input. 41 42 5. NEW BUSINESS 43 44 a. Bicycle Wayfinding Plan – Gabe Lewis, Regional Planning Commission 45 Gabe Lewis reviewed the draft of the Bicycle Wayfinding Plan, including the process used to determine the 46 corridors, the reasons for the wayfinding plan, and the types of wayfinding signs to be used. He mentioned 47 that the plan came from recommendations outlined in the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan. He added that the 48 purpose of the plan was to encourage ridership and provide connections to routes within the City. He noted Page 1  APPROVED May 19, 2020 1 that there was some signage already installed to connect the school routes within Urbana. He explained that 2 the routes were divided into primary, secondary and tertiary routes (regional level, community level and 3 neighborhood level). He discussed the public input opportunities that were used to gather information from 4 all areas of the community. He noted that the naming convention for the corridors was based upon the 5 roadway that was part of the route. He said that the plan discussed specific considerations about the 6 placement of the signs based upon the location of the routes. He said that the total number of signs needed 7 for implementation was over 1,000. He said that the installation could be done based on priorities. He 8 mentioned that the cost for the signage could come from different funding programs. 9 10 Audrey Ishii questioned the prioritization of the Kickapoo Rail Trail (KRT) as a Category 3. Gabe Lewis said 11 that the Champaign County Forest Preserve had jurisdiction over most the existing KRT. He explained that 12 as new facilities came online, the signage should be installed at that time. Mr. Lewis said that stores and 13 restaurants would not be listed, but areas, such as downtown Urbana, would be listed as destinations. Cynthia 14 Hoyle asked if agency signs would be paid for by each agency. She asked if those agencies offered to pay for 15 the signs, could those signs would be installed first. Gabe Lewis said that it would be best to take advantage 16 of funding sources. He said that those agencies’ signs would have to conform to the sign specifications 17 detailed in the Bicycle Wayfinding Plan. Ms. Hoyle asked if pavement markings would be included to guide 18 bicyclists along the routes. She noticed that marking were not part of this plan. Mr. Lewis recommended 19 installing as much signage as possible. Ms. Hoyle asked about the money set aside in the Capital 20 Improvement Plan (CIP) for the signage. Shannon Beranek said that the CIP was under development at the 21 time so the amount allocated for the Bicycle Wayfinding Plan was not known. Ms. Hoyle asked if the signage 22 project might qualify for capital projects funding. 23 24 Annie Adams asked how much the signage would costs. Shannon Beranek said that the cost would be 25 approximately $500,000. Ms. Adams suggested that funds could be raised to fund the entire project. Ms. 26 Beranek mentioned that it would be better to install the signage in phases to spread out the cost over a ten- 27 year period instead of finding the funding to replace all of the signs every ten years. 28 29 Bill Brown asked how often the signs would need to be replaced. Ms. Beranek said signs should be replaced 30 every ten years so that was the reason for staggering the replacement to avoid a large cost every ten years. He 31 asked what the next step would be. Mr. Lewis said that the plan would go to City Council when it was ready. 32 He asked for comments within the next couple of weeks. Ms. Beranek said that no costs would be included in 33 the plan. 34 35 Jeff Marino moved to allow three weeks for comments on the plan to go to the Regional Planning 36 Commission and that the final draft come back to BPAC in June. 37 38 Ms. Beranek stated that the comments would be taken under advisement. 39 40 Kara Dudek thanked Mr. Lewis for providing a tangible approach to implement the plan. 41 42 Annie Adams seconded the motion. 43 44 The motion was approved. 45 46 b. Pedestrian Master Plan – Gabe Lewis, Regional Planning Commission 47 Gabe Lewis reviewed the Pedestrian Master Plan. He noted that plan was developed using the results of a 48 sidewalk survey, the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan, public input and review. He explained that the sidewalk 49 survey indicated areas where sidewalks were missing or in disrepair. He said that various existing factors were Page 2  APPROVED May 19, 2020 1 used to evaluate needs of different geographic areas, population density, and community groups. Mr. Lewis 2 described the activities that were employed at public input events to gather information to develop 3 recommendations. Mr. Lewis suggested revising the City Code to allow the City to replace some of the existing 4 brick sidewalks with concrete without having to seek permission from the adjacent residents. He also 5 mentioned recommendations to form an intergovernmental bicycle team and a pedestrian advocacy group. 6 7 Sarthak Prasad mentioned that he would be meeting with a biotech firm that produces bricks that are 8 sustainable. 9 10 Bill Brown asked if the reason for changing the brick sidewalk ordinance was suggested to address a specific 11 area. Gabe Lewis said the current ordinance presented challenges for staff when considering a plan to change 12 sidewalks from brick to concrete. Cynthia Hoyle expressed concern about sidewalk gaps on routes to schools 13 and parks. Audrey Ishii said that the Pedestrian Master Plan did not include the safety plan. Mr. Lewis 14 mentioned that the Pedestrian Master Plan draft was completed before the safety plan. Ms. Ishii suggested 15 asking businesses to donate to sidewalk projects. Bill Brown said that high school students were left out of the 16 public input activities. Mr. Lewis said that there were many comments about Washington Street and Vine 17 Street during the public input sessions. 18 19 Jeff Marino complimented the work. Bill Brown asked what action should be taken. 20 21 Jeff Marino moved to have final tweaks be sent to Mr. Lewis within the next two weeks and then sent out to 22 the BPAC commissioners. Cynthia Hoyle seconded the motion. 23 24 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 25 No Unfinished Business 26 27 7. ANNOUNCEMENTS 28  The application for the Community Research Partner Program grant had been submitted. 29  Most Bicycle Month activities had been cancelled as a result of the novel coronavirus. 30  May 1—Bike to Work Day--CANCELLED 31  May 6—Bike to School Day--CANCELLED 32  May 16—Bike Rodeo—Champaign Regional Safety Events--CANCELLED 33  May 20—Ride of Silence—more information would be forthcoming 34  April 22—Earth Day, celebrate by walking outside and tagging your location—enjoy the earth 35  April 24—Arbor Day 36  Bicycle Registration Program is close to being finalized. Positive response received about $10 37 fee. 38  U of I has installed bike counters near the Illini Union and Everitt Lab 39 40 8. FUTURE TOPICS 41 a. Vision Zero – Subcommittee 42 b. Bicycle Wayfinding Plan 43 c. Pedestrian Master Plan 44 d. Pandemic Impact 45 e. Bicycle Friendly Community Report Card – Shannon Beranek 46 f. Urbana Bike Racks – Annie Adams 47 g. Truck Parking on Street 48 h. Regional Bicycle Registration and Fees Page 3  APPROVED May 19, 2020 1 2 9. ADJOURNMENT 3 The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m. 4 5 *** 6 Respectfully submitted, 7 Barbara Stiehl 8 Recording Secretary Page 4