Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission Meeting

1 Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (BPAC) 2 Meeting Minutes via Zoom 3 Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2021 4 Time: 7:00 p.m. 5 Place: City Council Chambers, 400 South Vine Street, Urbana, IL 61801 6 Members Present: Bill Brown (Chair), Annie Adams, Shannon Beranek, Cynthia Hoyle, Audrey 7 Ishii, Susan Jones, Sarthak Prasad, Nancy Westcott 8 9 Late Arrival: None 10 11 Staff Present: None 12 13 Others Present: Charlie Smyth 14 15 Members Absent: Kara Dudek, Jeff Marino 16 17 1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM 18 Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Roll call was taken. A quorum was present. 19 20 2. ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 21 There were no additions to the agenda. 22 23 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING (AUGUST) 24 Bill Brown recommended changes to the minutes regarding the discussion of the intersection at Race Street 25 and Washington Street and to the description of the suggested addition to the downtown sidewalk snow 26 removal location. Susan Jones moved to approve the September meeting minutes as amended. Audrey Ishii 27 seconded the motion. A roll call vote was taken. 28 29 Brown -- Aye; Adams -- Aye; Beranek -- Aye; Hoyle -- Aye; Ishii – Aye; Jones – Aye; Prasad -- Aye; 30 Westcott -- Aye. 31 32 The motion carried. 33 34 4. PUBLIC INPUT 35 There was no public input provided. 36 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 37 a. Vision Zero Activities and Next Steps – Cynthia Hoyle and Audrey Ishii 38 Cynthia Hoyle reported 1) the Mayor had sent a draft letter to encourage volunteers for the Vision Zero Task 39 Force to Cynthia Hoyle to which Cynthia offered suggestions and 2) in addition to providing a place on the 40 Vision Zero website for pinpointing conflicts among pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorists; visitors to the website 41 could take a short survey. 42 Bill Brown stated that the Mayor would like to see participation among high school and college students on the 43 task force. 44 Audrey Ishii discussed Vision Zero strategies. She indicated that she would like to encourage City Council to 45 accept Vision Zero as one of its Council Goals. She would like to present the inclusion of Vision Zero before 46 the task force was formed. She presented ten years’ worth of crash data for the City of Urbana and extrapolated 47 fatality rates to reflect the data as if the City of Urbana had a population of 100,000. She acknowledged that 48 Urbana’s population was near 40,000, but used the per 100,000 numbers to compare the City of Urbana’s ten- Page 1  1 year averages with fatality rates for larger communities in 2017. She stated that the vast majority of crashes went 2 unreported by the media and that because of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) laws, 3 it was difficult to follow up on the extent of injuries resulting from crashes. She also expressed a concern about 4 the lack of citations and opined about what she believed were causes of some recent crashes. In addition, 5 Audrey Ishii expressed concern about the News-Gazette failing to report many of the crashes as noted by the 6 reporting of only 3 out of 12 incidents. 7 Cynthia Hoyle said that in most cases, pedestrian and bicyclists involved in crashes were without fault. 8 Discussion followed regarding ways to encourage Council Members to include Vision Zero as one of their 9 Council Goals and ways to distribute information about crashes to the public. 10 11 b. Review of the Bicycle Master Plan 2016 (Appendix 14) – Cynthia Hoyle 12 Cynthia Hoyle said that the Bicycle Master Plan needed to be reviewed every five years. She recommended that 13 the City ask an intern to identify and look at the accomplishments and what needed to be done based on the 14 recommendations of the 2016 plan. She noted that the City was short staffed, but added that the City recently 15 hired a City Engineer so the City should be able to hire an intern. She added that based upon her projections of 16 what the City budget would do in the future, the City should be able to hire an intern to do this project. She 17 suggested that the intern be a planning student. 18 Bill Brown said that the intern should be willing to work with Public Works since they would be familiar with 19 the projects accomplished in the Bicycle Master Plan. 20 Cynthia Hoyle stated that other departments might be involved and businesses. 21 Nancy Westcott suggested that the Pedestrian Master Plan be included in that review. 22 Cynthia Hoyle said that the focus should be on the Bicycle Master Plan because it was older and that the 23 Pedestrian Master Plan could be looked at later. She recommended working with the Regional and Urban 24 Planning Program to secure the services of an unpaid intern and that the position should be offered to planning 25 students first. 26 Bill Brown asked if the City had any discretionary income that could be used to pay for an intern. 27 Cynthia Hoyle said that an intern had been hired in Engineering to look at storm grates that needed repair. 28 Shannon Beranek pointed out that the Engineering intern was paid and that looking at storm grates was one of 29 many projects that intern was hired to do to assist the Engineering Division. 30 Bill Brown suggested asking the Mayor if there was any available funding. He commented that it would be nice 31 to pay an intern. 32 Cynthia Hoyle discussed how the Champaign Urbana Mass Transit District used unpaid interns. 33 34 Cynthia Hoyle moved to secure the assistance of an intern to review the status of the Bicycle Master Plan and 35 report to the Commission. 36 37 Susan Jones seconded the motion. 38 39 A roll call vote was conducted. 40 41 Brown -- Aye; Adams -- Aye; Beranek -- Abstain; Hoyle -- Aye; Ishii – Aye; Jones – Aye; 42 Prasad -- Aye; Westcott -- Aye. 43 44 The motion was approved 7 ayes; 1 abstention. Page 2  1 2 a. Vision Zero Activities and Next Steps – Cynthia Hoyle and Audrey Ishii (Continued) 3 The Commission resume discussion of the Vision Zero topic. 4 5 Cynthia Hoyle suggested that aa a next step a motion for Vision Zero be made to include a pledge and survey 6 to the website. 7 Audrey Ishii would like to make Vision Zero one of the Council priorities. 8 Cynthia Hoyle felt that a motion from BPAC would be good. 9 Shannon Beranek suggested waiting until the Vision Zero Task Force was established. 10 Audrey Ishii said that she would prefer to work individually to promote Vision Zero among the Council 11 members and that she had an arsenal to use to present Vision Zero to the members individually. She added 12 that there were many other issues that Council members were contemplating, such as gun violence. She felt it 13 would be more effective to approach Council members individually to discuss Vision Zero. 14 Cynthia Hoyle asked Audrey Ishii to prepare wording for a motion to go to Council for next month’s meeting. 15 Audrey Ishii stated that she wanted to present the program to the Council members individually. 16 Bill Brown said that the motion should not include any dollar amount tied to it. 17 Annie Adams said that the issue of gun violence did not have to be separated from the discussion of Vision 18 Zero. She added that the use of public spaces was tied to gun violence. 19 Audrey Ishii was worried about a resolution going to Council from the group as opposed to the use of 20 individual discussions with Council members. She felt that if Council approved Vision Zero as a goal that the 21 Council would fund it. She expressed regret that the original Vision Zero resolution did not list any funding 22 resources and stated that the lack of funds was problematic. 23 Cynthia Hoyle said that the lack of funding was the reason that the City of Urbana was not listed as a Vision 24 Zero community and that the City would not be listed until it was willing to commit resources to an action 25 plan. 26 27 Cynthia Hoyle moved to send a recommendation to City Council that Vision Zero and the work of the 28 upcoming task force be a goal of the City Council. 29 30 Nancy Westcott seconded the motion. 31 32 Shannon Beranek stated that the motion needed more clarity in direction perhaps in the form of a draft letter 33 that would discuss the goal. She also recommended continuing this discussion next month when the City 34 Administrator, Carol Mitten was in attendance. Shannon Beranek said that perhaps Carol Mitten could provide 35 directions on what the motion should contain. 36 Nancy Westcott asked when the Mayor would send out the letter about the Task Force. 37 Cynthia Hoyle felt that the Task Force needed time to become organized so she felt that the motion should go 38 out before the Task Force was seated. She said that the Task Force would only meet twice a year along with 39 BPAC to give input and review the work done by BPAC. She said that a student intern could be used to help 40 with the work. 41 Audrey Ishii said that preparing the meeting would require a bit of time. She suggested using the wording on 42 her slide presentation. She mentioned that the current City Council had not heard BPAC’s Vision Zero Page 3  1 presentation. 2 Annie Adams said that transportation equity was an important concept to consider. She mentioned that the 3 City’s street were designed for people would could afford to own a vehicle, park a vehicle, and drive a vehicle. 4 She said that the City was putting millions and millions of dollars into the streets and that many people did not 5 understand that the City was doing this. She was very concerned that people could walk, bike, and transit safely 6 in Urbana. 7 Bill Brown would have liked the motion better if the motion was to allow BPAC to present Vision Zero to the 8 City Council and to ask City Council to include Vision Zero as a goal at that time. He suggested using 9 information in Audrey Ishii’s presentation and some information that he had presented previously. 10 Cynthia Hoyle said that when BPAC had sent a resolution before, a presentation was included. 11 Susan Jones said that the information was data, only it was more threatening because the data was accusing the 12 City of being a car culture. 13 Cynthia Hoyle said that the resolution would make Vision Zero one of their Council Goals. 14 Audrey Ishii asked to move to make a presentation to Council and make the request that Vision Zero be part 15 of the Council’s Goals. 16 Cynthia Hoyle said that they already had a motion to take a resolution to City Council to make Vision Zero one 17 of their Council Goals and to provide a presentation to support the resolution. 18 Bill Brown said that it was acceptable that the resolution go to Council with an explanation of what Vision 19 Zero was. He felt that there were many items that would need to be explained. 20 Annie Adams pointed out that, not only did owning a vehicle require resources, one was required to be 16 years 21 of age and obtain a license. She argued that the transportation system was designed for those with resources 22 who were over the age of 16 years. 23 Audrey Ishii said that the percentage of licensed drivers compared to the rest of the population was very low. 24 Cynthia Hoyle said that the number of licensed drivers was relatively high. 25 26 Brown -- Aye; Adams -- Aye; Beranek -- Aye; Hoyle -- Aye; Ishii – Aye; Jones – Aye; 27 Prasad -- Aye; Westcott -- Aye. 28 29 The motion carried. 30 6. REPORTS OF CITY OFFICIALS AND STAFF AND REPORTS OF COMMITTEES 31 Shannon Beranek announced that the City Engineer, John Zeman, would start on Monday, October 25, 2021. 32 33 Bill Brown reported that he submitted a Traffic Issues/Concerns Request form to the Engineering Division 34 regarding the crosswalk on Race Street at Washington Street. He said that he listened to the October Traffic 35 Commission meeting, but the item was not discussed at the meeting. 36 37 Bill Brown asked Sarthak Prasad to follow up with University staff to see if accommodations were being made 38 for users of the gravel path near Orchard Downs during the construction of the new ACES building. 39 Sarthak Prasad said that he would ask about the plans. 40 7. NEW BUSINESS 41 a. Three-Foot Passing Law Sign Installation – Bill Brown Page 4  1 Bill Brown mentioned that signage promoting Illinois law requiring motorists to maintain three feet distance 2 from bicyclists was not approved when the Bicycle Master Plan was approved in 2016, but now that the 3 signage was approved, Champaign County Bikes was promoting the installation of the signage at various 4 locations. He added the Share the Road signage was not easily understood by the travelling public. Bill 5 Brown reviewed the locations recommended for sign installation. 6 Race Street near Mumford Drive for southbound traffic 7 Race Street near southern City limits for northbound traffic 8 Philo Road near southern City limits for northbound traffic 9 Philo Road near Boulder Drive for southbound traffic 10 Philo Road near Harding Drive for southbound traffic 11 Washington Street at Pfeffer Drive for westbound traffic 12 Washington Street near Dodson Drive for eastbound traffic 13 Main Street spur between the Kickapoo Rail Trail and the bike lane for westbound traffic 14 Main Street near eastern City limits for eastbound traffic 15 McCullough Street and Coler Avenue area 16 Fairview Avenue near King School 17 Goodwin Avenue near Bradley Avenue 18 Susan Jones said that riding was difficult on Main Street from downtown to Lincoln Avenue. 19 Audrey Ishii said that Fairview Avenue was difficult. 20 Charlie Smyth said that all locations were under the caveat of engineering judgment. He said that the Illinois 21 Department of Transportation (IDOT) warned that too many signs would cause motorists to ignore the 22 signage. 23 Shannon Beranek stated that the request for the signage in Urbana was under review. She mentioned that 24 there were concerns that the City had to review such as sign clutter, the lack of a clear message, and the 25 opinion of IDOT, Illinois State Police, Government Accounting Office and the Manual on Uniform Traffic 26 Control Devices that education of the public was a better method than the use of signage. 27 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS 28 a. October 22--Bicycling for Adults 1, 2, and 3 29 b. October 30--Witches Ride @ Riggs 30 c. November 21--World Remembrance Day 31 32 9. FUTURE TOPICS 33 a. Sidewalk and Bicycle Lane Awareness for Visually Impaired Page 5 1 b. Residential Speed Limit 2 c. Bicycle Racks 3 4 10. ADJOURNMENT 5 The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m. 6 *** 7 8 Respectfully submitted, 9 Barbara Stiehl, Recording Secretary Page 6