Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting

1 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) 2 Meeting Minutes 3 Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 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), Shannon Beranek, Kara Dudek, Cynthia Hoyle, Audrey 7 Ishii, and Susan Jones 8 9 Late Arrival: Annie Adams, Nancy Westcott 10 11 Staff Present: none 12 13 Others Present: Member of the Public and additional audience member 14 15 Members Absent: Jeff Marino and Sarthak Prasad 16 17 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM 18 Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:01 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 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA 22 An update to “Slow Streets” was added to the agenda under unfinished business item number 2. 23 Susan Jones moved to approve the agenda as amended. 24 Kara Dudek seconded the motion. 25 Roll was taken on the motion to approve the agenda with the omission the annual report draft segment. The 26 motion was approved. 27 Annie Adams joined the meeting after the role was taken. 28 29 Brown-Aye Beranek-Aye Dudek-Aye Hoyle-Aye 30 Jones-Aye Ishii-Aye 31 32 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING 33 A grammatical error was noted and requested to be changed in the first sentence under Bike Month/ Bike to 34 School Day. 35 Susan Jones moved to approve the minutes as amended. 36 Audrey Ishii seconded the motion. 37 Roll was taken on the motion to approve the minutes from the January 28, 2021 meeting. The motion was 38 approved. 39 40 Brown-Aye Adams-Aye Beranek-Aye Dudek-Aye Hoyle-Aye 41 Jones-Aye Ishii-Aye 42 43 4. PUBLIC INPUT 44 None 45 46 5. NEW BUSINESS 47 a. Speed Limit Changes 48 Bill Brown shared with the commission a presentation on what methods are often used to change speed limits in a 49 specific area. Urbana City Code refers to two different schedules for streets where limits are raised and lowered. Page 1  1 Information on methods of setting speed limits was provided by the National Highway Safety Administration. The 2 following four approaches were shared: engineering approach, expert system approach, optimization, and the safe 3 system approach. 4 Commission Member commented, “The main issue with the system that we use for city speed limits is using the 85 th 5 percentile speed. This is because the speed at which people go is based on the design speed of the roadway. Some of the 6 roads were designed with a very high design speed, like Windsor road for example. So, if you post a lower speed limit 7 sign, the chances of people actually lowering their speed are very unlikely” 8 Nancy Westcott joined the meeting. 9 Discussion followed. 10 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 11 a. Vision Zero Update 12 Cynthia Hoyle shared a slideshow that presented the next steps for the Vision Zero effort. Also included in the 13 presentation were current statistics of individuals who are most at risk of being struck by a vehicle in the roadway. 14 15 The strategies shared for moving forward with Vision Zero included the following: building and sustaining leadership, 16 collaboration, collecting data, prioritizing equity and community engagement, managing speed to safe levels, and setting a 17 timeline to achieve zero traffic deaths and serious injuries. 18 19 Hoyle shared a list of essential members that would be encouraged to join the Vision Zero steering committee and 20 included the following: Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission, City of Urbana, public health, MTD, Urbana 21 School District, and University of Illinois representatives. 22 23 The proposed action plan schedule was included in the presentation and shared a general timeline of when the Vision 24 Zero taskforce anticipated moving through each phase of this action plan. This timeline started in April 2021 with 25 forming the task force through the anticipated action plan council approval in May 2022. 26 27 Audrey Ishii shared additional slides for the presentation that covered the communication goal and campaign for 28 educating the community on what the Vision Zero effort is and why it is needed. This included a press kit which is 29 planned to be rolled out in conjunction with a Mayoral proclamation event and Vision Zero task force announcement 30 31 Discussion followed. 32 b. Slow Streets Update 33 Annie Adams shared that the survey that has been released to the community through various channels has received very 34 positive feedback thus far. 35 Suggestions were made for additional platforms, such as Nextdoor and neighborhood association social media groups, 36 where the slow street survey information could be shared. 37 38 Annie Adams shared a photo of how Downtown Champaign is utilizing segments of roadway for outdoor 39 dining. Discussion Followed. 40 41 Adams shared a photo of Fish Alley in Urbana and expressed interest in making this a shared space for outdoor 42 dining. Discussion Followed. 43 44 45 46 7. ANNOUNCEMENTS Page 2  1 a. Bike to School day on MAY 5TH 2 b. The Bicycling 123 class will be offered on May 8th 3 c. Mother’s Day bike ride scheduled for May 9th 4 d. Ride of Silence scheduled for May 19th 5 e. Southern Route bike ride scheduled for May 22nd 6 7 8. FUTURE TOPICS 8 a. Bicycle Friendly Community Report Card 9 b. Slow Street Survey Results 10 c. Orchard Downs Traffic Garden 11 d. Baker’s Lane Path update 12 e. Speed Limit Changes continued 13 14 15 9. ADJOURNMENT 16 The meeting adjourned at 8:48 p.m. 17 ***Respectfully submitted, 18 Shelby Mammano, Recording Secretary Page 3