Loading...
6/7/2021 - Meeting Minutes SALT LAKE CITY TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD Minutes of the June 7, 2021 Meeting Electronically present from the Transportation Advisory Board were Benjamin LaRiviere, Courtney Reeser, Dave Alderman, David Parrott, Ellen Reddick, Greg Sanchez, Jenn Diederich, Jon Larsen, Kerry Doane, Marjorie Rasmussen, Paul Schulte, Reid Ewing, and Suzanne Stensaas. Members absent from the Transportation Advisory Board were Daniel Mendoza, Jim Espeland, and Myron Willson. Also present were Amy Lyons, Russell Weeks, Scott Weiler, and Lara Handwerker. The meeting was held electronically and was called to order at 4:oip.m. by Courtney Reeser. Welcome and Introduction of Guests — Courtney read the anchor statement and welcomed everyone. Public Comment—There was no public comment. Motion: Suzanne Stensaas moved to approve the minutes of the May 3, 2021 meeting as amended by Jim and Kerry. Ellen Reddick seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Report Out TAB Members Paul said today is the last day of school for the kids and they have several projects coming up. At their transportation barn, they are putting up three canopies and two of them will have solar panels. They also have four electric busses and anticipate getting more next year with a grant they have already been awarded. Ellen said they are still passionately working on improving Foothill and she thanked Jon and Lynn for their diligence and help and Suzanne for always exploring, meeting new people and finding out what is happening on the street. Suzanne said to add to what Ellen said, people involved with and concerned about Foothill had a meeting where UDOT attended and the Mayor seemed interested. Maybe there will be some coordination of working on the same projects at the same time in the future. There has been a lack of feeling that UDOT truly supports anything on Foothill and upgrading three signals there was not on anyone's list. She also biked along Foothill and the north end of the Bonneville golf course is still covered with brush. Ellen gave her the name of someone at the golf course so she's going to contact them. Suzanne is also concerned about how the i3oo East exit off I-8o used to be nicely landscaped but is now torn up with bridge construction. She said the same is happening by the Parley's Interchange and she would like to see what UDOT has planned to replant those two areas. Dave A. said there are still issues coming up with speeding and traffic calming. He saw that west Sugar House is having a traffic project and there was an opportunity for input. He's hoping to get an update later in the Page 1 of 4 TAB 06-07-2021 Minutes meeting. Capitol Hill also put in for a CIP traffic calming project. There is a survey out now for the Avenues on traffic calming that has received over 100 responses which seems to point to a lot of interest. Dave P. said BAC didn't meet last month due to lack of quorum, but he is hoping next month he can report on a new chairperson and some new Committee members. He's also been out riding his bike and there has been a lot of brush cleanup along the Jordan River Parkway. Marge received information from people on Emerson and Foothill and thinks there are some good ideas there and they will look at getting something done to make that intersection a little safer. She will also follow up with Suzanne on the I-8o and I-215 projects. UDOT finished out the 1700 South Foothill signal where they added flashing yellow arrows. The timing can be changed if anyone notices there are problems. They are updating an old signal at 2100 S Foothill as well. Ellen said the left hand turns at 1300 East and Foothill are now very challenging, the new light is causing more congestion. Marge will talk to the signal engineers and schedule a time with Ellen to meet on site. Reid said the Board should feel good about their traffic calming interest and feels they kind of initiated it. He has a couple of new projects at the U of U. One is a project that UDOT is funding to look at lane width on arterials and the effect of narrowing them on speeds, crash rates and capacity. The other project is a UTA project that will look at declines in ridership, even before Covid. A lot of transit systems have experienced this and while the declines were huge with Covid, he's studying the longer-term trend and why some systems have had it and some have not. The third thing is that they have found a consultant willing to do a travel model for the Inland Port to look at vehicle emissions and health impacts of this big new trip generator with no nearby housing. They are hoping from an epidemiologic standpoint to see what the health impacts will be, given that our air quality isn't great even without the Inland Port. Paul said that is a huge concern to the school district because of the proximity to their campuses in that area and the potential air quality component. The school district has an aggressive goal to be carbon neutral and he would be interested in any information Reid finds. Reid said the consultant estimate is higher than they expected, and they will be reaching out to organizations looking for funding. In Jim's absence, Courtney mentioned for him that he is still concerned with the Google Fiber trenches as well as speeding in District 2. Courtney said Luke Garrett from Sweet Streets came to the Rose Park Community Council meeting last month to talk about the 20 is Plenty campaign. TAB had talked about this and when the Typologies is done, they would like to work together and see what they can do to implement a slow down campaign. Rose Park has been pushing for slower speeds for a long time. She said a Slow Down 600 North campaign was done a few years ago and it helped, but there's not a lot that can happen without enforcement. She knows SLCPD traffic and motor squad are very impacted right now. Courtney said there was a Byway pop up project kick off and it was a good event. They bicycled 1300 West and talked about how people need to feel safe crossing 600 North. Will Becker talked about traffic calming and bike merging project on 1300 West for the Byway and she reminded him that one of his designs was not well received. She thinks the slowdown campaigns have been initiated by so many neighborhoods because there is a real desire that traffic slows down. Jon said Transportation is going to begin emailing project updates so TAB can talk about higher level policy discussions in their meetings. Google Fiber Update Scott Weiler, SLC Engineering Scott said there are still 39 active Google Fiber permits. This project began in 2015 but during the project, they changed from a directional bore to a shallow trenching method Page 2 of 4 TAB 06-07-2021 Minutes to set their fiber conduit. They then fill the trenches with flow fill and cover with mastic. The reason some of the trenches were delayed in being covered with mastic was due to the temperature,which must be above 40 degrees for this process. Courtney asked if there is a way to slow down permits so there aren't as many trenches at once. Scott said once they have finished with their current permits, they will be done in SLC. Courtney asked why they are taking so long, and Scott said it takes specific machinery and there were places where they weren't following the approved method so one of the contractors had to purchase additional equipment to continue working. AU their work will hopefully be done by the end of July. Suzanne asked if anyone was initiating a study to track the wear and tear on the road where they have placed mastic. Scott said there is not a study being initiated to try and document the many miles of street that has had Google Fiber placed but if anyone sees any problem or potential hazard that may be associated, they should contact him. He said this process has been challenging but for SLC to be on the cutting edge of technology and have this service provided by a company that didn't even exist prior to 2015 is an accomplishment. TAB Hybrid Meeting Discussion &Statement TAB Members The Board discussed the pros and cons of both electronic and hybrid meetings. The electronic meetings are convenient, save time, help with vehicle pollution in the city, and have shown a higher attendance rate, but it is easier for newer people to acclimate if they meet in person and get to know the other members. After additional discussion, it was decided that for now, they will continue meeting electronically. Motion: Courtney Reeser moved to continue meeting electronically due to the convenience and higher attendance level until meeting in this manner is no longer allowed. Reid Ewing seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Traffic Calming/Livable Streets Update and Discussion Jon Larsen&Lara Handwerker, SLC Transportation Jon said the city had a Traffic Calming Program in the 9o's which was disbanded in 2003. Since that time, there have only been a few traffic calming projects which were done through constituent CIP requests. City Council allotted funds a year or two ago to develop a citywide implementation plan to bring back traffic calming in some form, perhaps rebranded as a Livable Streets Program. Lara,who is the project manager of this implementation plan, said they have made progress dividing the city into various zones and are approaching it from a neighborhood to neighborhood plan rather than a street to street plan. This will help avoid the side effect of pushing traffic from one street to another and make every street more livable rather than just diverting traffic. Lara should have the final zones from the consultant tomorrow. They ended up with a little over ioo zones with around 40O miles of streets. There will hopefully be a survey up next week with specific questions such as what do the residents want to see as the outcome of the program. Would they rather have multiple smaller or temporary installations or fewer larger permanent installations. Reid said he wrote the two books on traffic calming in the US and there is a process to go through that involves the citizens in the decision of where and what to place. He expressed concern that this process wouldn't be followed. Lara said the current phase of the program is dividing up the city into zones and figuring out what metrics they want to prioritize funding. When it is time for implementation, there will be an in-depth public engagement process like what Reid mentioned. Dave A. and Russell weighed in on the discussion and Jon said Page 3 of 4 TAB 06-07-2021 Minutes this information will help Lara with how they phrase the survey. Ellen said from her experience, the constituents don't want to talk about items in the traffic calming toolbox but rather how they can change the feel of their neighborhoods. Kerry felt it would be better if the Council would set a budget first as it would be easier to figure out what options are available. She also felt it was important that the first project was successful to gain support for the program. Greg's concern was that some people would get permanent structures, and some get semi-permanent and he wants everyone to have good choices for their neighborhoods. Speed Limit Discussion TAB Members Due to time constraints, this topic is postponed until the August meeting. TAB WebEx Meeting Chat from Jon Larsen to everyone: 4:11 PM West Sugarhouse traffic calming was a constituent-led CIP project that was funded by Council last year Motion: Ellen Reddick motioned to adjourn the meeting; Kerry Doane 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 August 2, 2021. Approved by TAB o8-02-21 Page 4 of 4 TAB 06-07-2021 Minutes