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08/02/2021 - Minutes SALT LAKE CITY TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD Minutes of the August 2, 2021 Meeting Electronically present from the Transportation Advisory Board were Benjamin LaRiviere, Courtney Reeser, Daniel Mendoza, Dave Alderman, David Parrott, Ellen Reddick, Jenn Diederich, Jim Espeland, Jon Larsen, Marjorie Rasmussen, Myron Willson, Paul Schulte, and Reid Ewing. Members absent from the Transportation Advisory Board were Greg Sanchez, Kerry Doane, and Suzanne Stensaas. Also present were Amy Lyons, Dave Iltis, Russell Weeks, Joseph Taylor, Becka Roolf, Taylor Anderson and Ginger Cannon. The meeting was held electronically and was called to order at 4:o2p.m. by Courtney Reeser. Welcome and Introduction of Guests — Courtney read the anchor statement and welcomed everyone. Public Comment— Dave Iltis said he's commenting again on ioo South and SLC is continuing to move forward with an unsafe half-finished design which will have some accommodations for pedestrians; however, they are leaving in place ii- and 13-foot travel lanes. They are doing nothing to make streets safer for cyclists which is a complete violation of the Complete Streets ordinance. They are scheduling a post-hoc meeting later this month or early September to justify why they are breaking the ordinance. There is room for safety lanes on ioo South, a shared parking/bike lane, and narrower bike lanes if they included the two-foot gutter in their calculations and SLC Transportation is refusing to do anything on this. Striping ii- and 13-foot lanes makes little sense on this roadway since it is a residential street from 90o East to University Street and is almost entirely filled with housing and apartments. If they painted all lanes at io feet, it would provide a de-facto shared biking and park lane. They are not reducing the speed limit and keeping it at 3o mph, the current speeds are 38-39, and are not removing any parking which is not highly used. The traffic volumes are 13k per day which justify a road diet but that isn't being considered. There are options to make it safer for cyclists, but the plans are going to make it worse for cyclists than they are now which is not an acceptable way to go about doing things. They are adding a median and bulb outs will be installed. Bulb outs aren't necessarily bad but the way that they are configuring the lanes makes no sense. He has asked TAB to address this, and it is not on the agenda and he questions about why they aren't looking into this. Courtney said this is an item on the agenda for September. Reid said he heard Dave's concerns and passed them onto Jon who provided an explanation. Reid feels that explanation does warrant a discussion and he believes that io-foot lanes are perfectly acceptable on a residential street where you're trying to reduce the speed of traffic. He said the U of U is being funded by UDOT to look at the possibility of narrowing state highway lanes from their current 12-14 feet and they will be testing, the safety of this as well. Page 1 of 5 TAB 08-02-2021 Minutes Motion: Dave Alderman moved to approve the minutes of the June 7, 2021 meeting. Reid Ewing seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously except for Myron Willson who abstained due to not attending the June meeting. Report Out TAB Members David Parrott said the BAC did not meet last month because so many members were out of town. He said there are a lot of new members coming in so they should be back to having lively discussions soon. Dave A. said he's hearing the same complaints about speeding and traffic calming and what can be done. He said the Capitol Hill CIP project did get some favorable responses from City Council which will hopefully translate into funding. Ben had a question about infrastructure and areas that don't have good bike racks. Jon said there is a small pot of funding that is used to install bike racks, most often by request. They are installed in batches because it is considerably cheaper. If anyone would like to request a bike rack, that request can be sent to bikeracks@slcgov.com. Paul said there was a substantial flood at East High School last night for the second time in five years. His frustration is that when the water comes down 800 South and meets the water coming down i3oo East, it takes a direct 45 degree turn at the intersection and goes right into their gym. They incurred over $i million in damage when this happened five years ago and when he reached out to the City then, he received no response. As far as he's concerned, it's a direct result of the engineering at this intersection and it should be changed immediately. Jon said he would connect with Paul outside of the meeting and they should go through Public Utilities to address the storm water issue. Courtney said she's had a few people reach out to her about the different projects going on in District 1 and there is a meeting set up next week to talk about those projects. She said there was a lot of frustration with parking during the rodeo at the fairgrounds, including vehicles blocking the fire station driveway. Someone contacted her about an accident at moo North and Redwood Road and said the traffic lights at that intersection aren't necessarily clear for what the traffic use is. Marge said she is aware of the fatality accident Courtney is referring to and they are going to be looking at that intersection. She is happy to reach out directly to anyone concerned about that area. Courtney said there was another accident at goo West North Temple where someone ran a red light and crashed into a family. There is construction in the area and she's not sure if that contributed to the accident. She is glad that Officer Diederich is here for the speeding discussion later in the meeting and would like to get people to make a conscious effort to slow down. Marge said she's been working closely with Kyle Cook on the 600 North interchange where they will be putting bike lanes in from 300 West, going over the structure to the west side. They have received a lot of good comments and feedback that will be incorporated into that project which will be a big benefit to cyclists. She said they have also had some flooding issues up Guardsman Pass, I-8o, and other areas where they are cleaning up debris. Jim said there is still a big speeding problem in his area, especially on the residential streets. He also hasn't seen any evidence of Google Fiber repairing the streets in District 2. Courtney will reach out to Scott Weiler in Engineering and let him know. CIP Project Prioritization Becka Roolf, SLC Transportation Transportation has been working on developing their list of potential CIP applications as well as other outside funding sources such as WFRC grants. These applications will Page 2 of 5 TAB 08-02-2021 Minutes be for projects constructed in 2023 and later. Becka shared the draft FY23 CIP list and Transportation staff has been working on the prioritization process. Some of these projects have been initiated by the community and some are for projects under construction right now that might need additional funding to fully integrate complete streets. Becka explained that the scoring tiers of the draft list include equity, sustainability, good governance, and safety. Board members asked about specific projects such as the 9-Line Trail completion and Traffic Calming on South Temple as well as citywide. Becka said the final draft should be completed by the end of August and she would love to hear additional feedback from TAB. Reid and Courtney would like a presentation on the scoring system, a comprehensive look at what goes into how a project gets presented, and conceptual design at a future meeting. Speed Limit Discussion TAB Members Courtney said that over the last several years, there have been many different programs and community efforts citywide to get people to slow down including the Sweet Streets 20 is Plenty and the Slow Down 600 North Campaigns. She said they need to figure out a comprehensive way to make a consistent impact on speeding throughout the City. Right now, Sweet Streets is pushing for all residential streets to be reduced from 25mph to 2omph which she feels is a universally equitable thing to do so traffic isn't pushed from one street to another. Reid said it's one thing to do traffic calming which forces people to slow down by virtue of deflection or narrowing on streets. He said it is another to just adopt a citywide standard of 2omph when existing traffic is going much faster. He has advocated for 2omph roads but worries a little bit about adopting a posted speed that is below what engineers would advocate on a given street. He does agree there would be some reduction in speed by lowering the speed limit but thinks there will still be speeding on streets that are basically designed for higher speeds. Myron sent an article from Portland which said speeders did drop a little with lower speed limits and he thinks it would be beneficial. A uniform speed might get into people's minds that across the city, this is what we expect on all our residential streets. He also feels this would provide Transportation, City Council, and others a kind of ammunition for when they are designing streets, that there is an expectation they will be designed for 2omph. He understands this is something that might take decades to achieve but to a pedestrian hit by a car, there is a lower chance of death the slower a vehicle is going, and he thinks these are three strong reasons for doing a 2omph speed limit. Ellen would like someone to define the difference between arterial and neighborhood streets. She feels there is some confusion and that there are some arterials that are meant to carry traffic. She would also like to have driver responsibility and talk about the driver being responsible and distracted driving and another issue is who is hit by what type of vehicle. If you are in a large vehicle,you will destroy whatever you hit. She said there is a whole dynamic there and when they talk about reducing speed, a lot of people rely on enforcement and it doesn't work because there isn't enough manpower and it's also a poor use of police officers. Ellen said someone needs to go to the legislature and get some laws like distracted driving and get their interest in supporting, not killing pedestrians on the street. Courtney agreed with Ellen and said that when the Typologies is adopted, it will help impact the streets that need to be targeted and define which streets are considered residential and arterials. She said the speed was reduced to 2omph on 3Oo South with parking put in the middle of the road and she doesn't see that it's a detriment to the area. Ellen asked if it calmed the traffic down. Courtney said she's not sure if it has but she thinks it has reduced the people that Page 3 of 5 TAB 08-02-2021 Minutes are traveling on it and Ellen asked if they are choosing other streets. Dave A. said he thinks the reconstruction, the engineering part of it would contribute more than just reducing the speed limit. Reid said Courtney just made his point that 300 South was changed geometrically in addition to having the speed limit lowered. He thinks the conversation needs to be somehow integrated with the Traffic Calming initiative or the Livable Streets initiative because he has no problem with designing a street for 2omph speeds and then posting 2omph speed limits. He's advocated for 2omph speed limits, but he does think there is sort of a counter argument that needs to be considered and the best way to consider it is in connection with the design of the street. Courtney mentioned the Pace Car Program that used to exist within the city and some problems that occurred with it. She said engineering is a huge part of road design and what the neighborhoods are, as well as getting from point A to point B in a convenient matter. Dave A. said he thinks it is not just changing the speed limit but changing the entire system. The data from Portland showed there was a change,but their education effort was also massive. Courtney mentioned signs in Evanston,Wyoming that tell you as you enter town that all residential streets are 2omph. Jon presented the idea of building on the education idea with the kickoff of Livable Streets. TAB could ask that all local streets are 2omph and then back it up with a program to physically change the streets. It's a potential path forward and may be something that TAB could consider and send a letter to the Mayor and City Council. Courtney thinks that is a great idea. Reid said they are talking about physical changes in the roadway. If the road is designed for 35 or Oomph, people are going to tend to go that speed and enforcement is great if there was a huge number of PD that didn't have other things to do but traffic calming 24 hours per day. Courtney will prepare a letter and will present it at the next TAB meeting about what TAB would like to have with Livable Streets and present that to the Mayor and the City Council. Jenn thanked the Board for being so understanding in the face of their officer shortage. Russell let the Board know that what they are asking for would likely need to go to a public hearing. Courtney will work with Jon on the next steps, and they will move forward from there. She believes the first step is waiting for Typologies to be adopted. Myron said that at Sweet Streets, they understand this takes engineering and that it is long term, that it is about design and traffic calming and they understand that speed limits do matter and matter for people who really do speed and when you reduce speed limits it seems to make a difference. He didn't hear anyone talk about whether consistency across all neighborhoods was important. He said someone asked a good question about whether those 2omph streets are indeed different than the ones that are posted 25 or 3o so he thinks that would be a good question. He thinks it's important that we move ahead, and he does like Jon's idea to make it a part of a broader effort. Transportation Master Plan Update Joe Taylor, SLC Transportation Joe said the City kicked off the update to the 1996 Transportation Master Plan (TMP) and he gave a brief background and recap of that plan. It is a community driven, policy focused plan that starts with people, not their vehicles and is not a projects list. The Steering Committee includes multiple City Departments/Divisions as well as WFRC, UTA, and UDOT and the consultant for this plan is Nelson Nygaard with the local engagement team being Avenue Consultants. There will be a paid Community Advisory Committee (CAC) for which 94 applications were received representing a huge amount of demographic, geographic and ability diversity. The CAC will shape all future public engagement for the project and connect the City to networks they might otherwise miss. The Steering Committee is going through those applications now and will hopefully Page 4 of 5 TAB 08-02-2021 Minutes choose those members soon. Joe showed the different policy areas of the TMP with special attention being paid to East West connections. He went over the timeline with the hope of the plan being adopted towards the end of 2022. He said the Steering Committee values any input TAB has and they can send it to connectslc@slcgov.com. Courtney said she would love to have the CAC chair come to TAB meetings. TAB WebEx Meeting Chat from Lyons,Amy to everyone: 4:15 PM Bikeracks@slcgov.com from Myron to everyone: 4:56 PM which category has embedded aspect of construction? from Becka Roolf I she, hers to everyone: 4:59 PM Myron, I apologize,but I'm not sure if I understand your question. from Myron to everyone: 5:oi PM "local construction impacts" does not appear on the spreadsheet, and I can't remember where you had it included from Becka Roolf I she, hers to everyone: 5:02 PM Construction impacts are not included as a scoring metric. from Myron to everyone: 5:02 PM then why did you bring it up as an impact? from Becka Roolf I she, hers to everyone: 5:04 PM I may have misspoken -in that our scoring is designed to include metrics of the outcomes of the final project design,but not the impact of the couple months of construction itself. from Becka Roolf I she, hers to everyone: 5:12 PM The speed limit is a maximum, not a minimum. How has it become a minimum? from WR3144 to everyone: 5:17 PM An ordinance of that size and scope probably would require a public hearing. So, there would be a briefing at a work session, a public hearing, and later a formal consideration of the ordinance. That's after the Administration vets it. from Myron to everyone: 5:23 PM I thought the city traffic engineer could set maximum safe speed limits. from Jon Larsen to everyone: 5:26 PM Myron, that's true on a street-by-street basis, but a decision to change the speed limit City-wide would best be handled through an ordinance,which requires Council action. Motion: Myron Willson motioned to adjourn the meeting; Ellen Reddick seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 5:33 p.m. and the next meeting of the Board was scheduled for September 13, 2021 due to the Labor Day holiday. TAB approved minutes o9-13-21 Page 5 of 5 TAB 08-02-2021 Minutes