Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting

1 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) 2 Meeting Minutes 3 Date: Thursday, January 28, 2020 4 Time: 7:00 p.m. 5 Place: City Council Chambers, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, IL 61801 held virtually via Zoom 6 Members Present: Bill Brown* (Chair), Annie Adams, Shannon Beranek, Kara Dudek, Cynthia 7 Hoyle, Audrey Ishii, Susan Jones, Jeff Marino, Sarthak Prasad, Nancy Westcott 8 9 Late Arrival: None 10 11 Staff Present: Lily Wilcock 12 13 Others Present: Deborah Liu 14 15 Members Absent: None 16 17 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM 18 Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:14 p.m. Roll call was taken. A quorum was present. 19 *Chair Bill Brown was physically present at the meeting location, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, Illinois 61801. 20 21 22 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 23 Chair Brown requested to omit the annual report draft segment from the agenda. 24 Susan Jones moved to approve the agenda as amended. 25 Audrey Ishii seconded the motion. 26 Roll was taken on the motion to approve the agenda with the omission the annual report draft segment. The 27 motion was approved. 28 29 Brown-Aye Adams-Aye Beranek-Aye Dudek-Aye Hoyle-Aye 30 Jones-Aye Marino-Aye Ishii-Aye Westcott-Aye Prasad- Aye 31 32 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING 33 Audrey Ishii moved to approve the minutes. 34 Cynthia Hoyle seconded the motion. 35 Roll was taken on the motion to approve the minutes from the November 17, 2020 meeting. The motion was 36 approved. 37 38 Brown-Aye Adams-Aye Beranek-Aye Dudek-Aye Hoyle-Aye 39 Jones-Aye Marino-Aye Ishii-Aye Westcott-Aye Prasad- Aye 40 41 4. PUBLIC INPUT 42 Deborah Liu read aloud a statement regarding the pedestrian fatality that recently occurred in East Urbana. 43 Vice-Chair, Cynthia Hoyle, directed the question to Bill Brown on how might the commission work discussion 44 around this fatality into the evening’s agenda. 45 Brown responded by stating the agenda item of revisiting the 2018 KRT Connectivity Study would leave room 46 for related discussion. 47 48 49 5. NEW BUSINESS 50 None Page 1  1 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 2 a. Revisiting 2018 KRT Connectivity Study 3 Bill Brown shared a visual of the 2018 Kickapoo Rail Trail connectivity study with the commission. This Study 4 showed the various route options for extending the KRT terminus near the Urbana Walmart to Weaver Park. 5 The three most desired options for connection were to create a side path along Main Street, continue the trail 6 and heading south down Smith Road, or create a crossing along Baker’s lane. Pros and Cons to each of these 7 alternatives were analyzed in this study. 8 Brown shared where the recent pedestrian fatality occurred at the intersection of Main and Dewey Street and 9 shared a visual of that location. Discussion followed. 10 Chair Brown proposed making recommendations in the short-term that would impact the further study of 11 connecting the KRT and also increase the overall safety of this area. 12 Audrey Ishii shared the statistical relationship between speed limits and likeliness of survival in the event of a 13 crash at said limits. 14 Cynthia Hoyle suggested making recommendations relative to this study both in the long-term and the short- 15 term. One item in particular for the short-term would be speed limit reductions which could also be passed 16 along to the city’s Traffic Commission for further input. Discussion followed. 17 Chair Brown inquired about making a motion for these recommendations. 18 Brown continued covering the KRT alternatives and shared that right-of-way purchases would need to be made 19 for each route. Discussion followed. 20 Cynthia Hoyle moved to recommend short and long-term solutions for the East Main Street Corridor including 21 speed limit reduction, additional signage, street lighting, and recommending alternative 2 for the KRT 22 connectivity with the addition of a sidewalk on the north-side of Main Street and safe crossing for bus stops. 23 Annie Adams seconded the motion. 24 Jeff Marino asked if the study of this area was shown in the bike master plan and if any recommendations were 25 made for improvement. Discussion followed. 26 Roll was taken on the motion to present these recommended solutions to City Council and the Traffic 27 Commission. The Motion was approved. 28 29 Brown-Aye Adams-Aye Beranek-Nay Dudek-Aye Hoyle-Aye 30 Jones-Aye Marino-Aye Ishii-Aye Westcott-Aye Prasad- Aye 31 32 Deborah Liu, member of the public, shared her frustration with the current road infrastructure within the city. 33 Liu stated that lowering the speed limit and increasing signage still would not make the roads safe enough to 34 avoid pedestrian fatalities. Discussion followed. 35 36 b. Update on Vision Zero 37 Audrey Ishii shared a visual of the draft call for Vision Zero task force members. Ishii mentioned the next steps 38 in the Vision Zero timeline were to create a communication strategy by February 2021, have the 39 communication strategy operational by April 2021, and have a draft action plan started by June 2021. Ishii 40 stated that at minimum the proposed task force should include members of Publix Works, Police, and Public 41 Health. 42 Cynthia Hoyle shared a list of organizations within the city and possible contacts that would be good 43 candidates to join the Vision Zero task force. Discussion followed. 44 Hoyle shared a sample from the City of Charlotte showing their Vision Zero focus areas. It was suggested that 45 the Urbana Vision Zero task force could make the same approach with the action plan and outreach. “We want 46 to create safe streets for everybody and have a culture of safety based on data,” Hoyle stated. Page 2  1 Hoyle presented a document with the commission containing information on a safe systems approach to 2 preventing traffic deaths within the community. This approach focused on system failure rather than individual 3 actions and reducing impact when collisions do occur. Discussion followed. 4 Audrey Ishii asked the commission if there should be a target date established for a follow up meeting with the 5 Vision Zero committee and if a press release should be sent out. Discussion followed. 6 c. Update On Pedestrian Streets 7 Annie Adams shared a PowerPoint presentations of “Urbana Slow Streets.” This presentation displayed examples of how 8 Urbana and other neighboring communities have been utilizing city streets for extending outdoor dining etc. over the last 9 year. The process of how slow streets were selected and implemented in other areas was explained in the presentation as 10 well. Discussion followed. 11 Cynthia Hoyle recommended to Annie Adams that the pedestrian street committee make an application to the 12 Community Learning Lab to get student volunteer assistance with future outreach. Discussion followed. 13 Jeff Marino moved to have Annie Adams continue with the timeline as identified in the presentation. 14 Sarthak Prasad seconded the motion. 15 Roll was taken on the motion to continue with the slow street timeline. The motion was approved. 16 17 Brown-Aye Adams-Aye Beranek-Aye Dudek-Aye Hoyle-Aye 18 Jones-Aye Marino-Aye Ishii-Aye Westcott-Aye Prasad- Aye 19 20 7. ANNOUNCEMENTS 21  Nationally, the official Bike to Work Day will not happen this year in the manner at which it has 22 previously 23  It is being considered for Bike to Work Day to run in conjunction with Light the Night in 24 September of 2021 25 8. FUTURE TOPICS 26 a. Vision Zero task force update 27 b. Pedestrian Street Committee update 28 c. BPAC advising on CIP expenditure 29 30 9. ADJOURNMENT 31 The meeting adjourned at 9:07 p.m. 32 ***Respectfully submitted, 33 Shelby Mammano, Recording Secretary Page 3