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10/4/2021 - Meeting Minutes SALT LAKE CITY TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD Minutes of the October 4, 2021 Meeting Electronically present from the Transportation Advisory Board were Benjamin LaRiviere, Courtney Reeser, Daniel Mendoza, Dave Alderman, Ellen Reddick, Greg Sanchez, Jim Espeland, Jon Larsen, Kerry Doane, Marjorie Rasmussen, Myron Willson, Paul Schulte, Reid Ewing, and Suzanne Stensaas. Members absent from the Transportation Advisory Board were David Parrott, and Jenn Diederich. Also present were Amy Lyons, Tom Millar, Becka Roolf, Dave Iltis, Taylor Anderson, and Russell Weeks. 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. Motion: Ellen Reddick moved to approve the minutes of the September 13, 2021 meeting. Suzanne Stensaas seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Report Out TAB Members Ben noticed there have been a lot of cars parking in bike lanes throughout the city especially when there are unprotected bike lanes. He would like to see if the City can make some efforts to enforce or hopefully make some design changes, so it is impossible in the future. Jon put in the chat that they can call Compliance at 801-535-6628 to report people parked in the bike lanes. Suzanne was driving on I-15 and saw a limerick on a sign board that said, "Train your brain to see the train." She felt it was distracting, has nothing to do with the freeway and expects to see information about accidents or other related information. Marge said these are little safety quips to try and get people's attention. Paul said with all due respect, he thinks they are kind of cute and not really a distraction. Kerry said she's for all safety messages anywhere they can be given. Marge said she will share TAB Members thoughts to the UDOT group that works on these ideas and said a lot of people like them. Suzanne is concerned but doesn't object to the great attention and money that is being spent on 60o North, but again, she feels that UDOT has the plans and could redesign Foothill first. Foothill has a lot more traffic and a lot more problems. She's not wanting money to not go to 600 North,but Foothill has been a burdensome problem for a long time and she's glad the City is working with UDOT on it. Marge said she is excited for the kickoff of that project and while meetings haven't been set up yet, it's moving along. There is funding and once a project manager is assigned, it will really get going. Suzanne said UDOT needs to coordinate with UTA, and the City and Ellen seconded that. Reid asked if Foothill was a city road, or a state road and Suzanne said it is a state road. Ellen said she supports Suzanne and Marge Page 1 of 6 TAB 10-04-2021 Minutes very much and what's going on and it gives her hope that they may accomplish something on Foothill. Jim thinks it's good to have a human element in the freeway signs and if there was a critical issue, it would be put up before the limericks. He also called SLCPD Motors about speeding on his street and while he doesn't think they sent officers out, they did put up a speed board. It was placed opposite of a permanent sign and originally it flashed the speed no matter how fast you went. This resulted in younger people seeing how high they could get the sign to go so it was changed to only go up to 28mph. Jim said there is a problem at 900 West and 1700 South regarding a truck wash and trucks often end up blocking the roadway. Marge said they could look at the coordination of the signals and see if UDOT can change the timing a bit. Jim said the trucks are blocking in front of the light not at the intersection and Courtney said it has a lot to do with the queues for the truck wash. Dave Alderman said the Capitol Hills Community Council put in a constituent CIP request to initiate a project for traffic calming. The City Council approved it for $500k. He said it will be interesting to see that happen in a year or so and to see how it gets accepted by the neighbors and the legislators who drive in the area. He said it was a success for the neighborhood and includes plans for speed tables, narrowing roads, and other items. Reid said the U of U has been funded to do a study of the indirect effects of transit on greenhouse gas emissions. He said if you put in light rail like the ones at the University, it attracts some auto users so that is a direct effect. He said there is an indirect effect as well which is that if you put in transit,you get more transit-oriented development, denser development and stations which means people walk and bike more and use autos for shorter trips. Reid said the question is about what the multiplier is and whether it's a direct or indirect effect. Transit doesn't get credit for the multiplier; people focus on ridership so we're doing this project for the World Resources Institute to measure the indirect effect on transit. He has seen articles about the mode share of transit in this region which isn't very high but that's only part of the effect and he'd love to see that message coming out of UTA. He also got an email from the SL Tribune asking about gentrification and apparently the City has funded a study of gentrification. He's not part of it but it's an issue that's related to transportation and they have done some research on it. He explained gentrification in relation to transit and said it is something the Committee is going to want to keep their eye on because of the effect it has on transportation outcomes. Marge said on the 900 South project, they are changing out the signs on that exit to say West Temple instead of 900 South. They want to try to get people to use West Temple instead of 900 South because there is so much change, they don't want people to use it as a thoroughfare. She also met with Brian Hutcheson regarding the Capitol Hills Community Council CIP project and will be working closely with them on their ideas. There is an environmental document for the interchange there and they are looking at how trucks are routed. She has asked to be invited to those meetings to stay updated. Paul said the SLC School District is in the process of adopting a Sustainability Action Plan which took 25 people a year to produce. He would also like to point out that the Board's report out should be moved to the end of the agenda. Many of the items that are reported have been heard continually and the report out often causes them to get behind on the agenda. Courtney said there are a lot of Di projects going on that are intersecting with D2. There have been 2 accidents with school kids in their area. One was on Poplar Grove Ave and Goshen and one was by Our Lady of Guadalupe. She feels this goes back to the speed limit discussion and there are things that need to be done now. Page 2 of 6 TAB 10-04-2021 Minutes Public Comment— Dave Iltis spoke with Transportation about 10o South and they are willing to do io-foot lanes with an outside stripe. While this is a nice development, he wants to remind Transportation and the Committee that Transportation is not following the Complete Streets Ordinance. He said per Reid Ewing's comment at the last meeting, he looked up the FHWA recommendations and they do recommend road diets for emergency routes. This is the supposed reason that Transportation couldn't do a road diet on 10o South, because it's an emergency route but that is contrary to the FHWA. The design on 10o South is not keeping in the spirit of the Complete Streets Ordinance. It says bike and pedestrian ways are good for each other and road diets are good for emergency vehicles. It is a horrible design and sets a bad precedence for down the road. Dave said the Board is discussing 20 is Plenty later in the meeting but he would like to push that to say 15 is Keen. London is now going to a 15mph speed limit so 20 is Plenty is probably too high, and they should probably look at 15 is Keen. He said he is currently in Berkeley and they do amazing things with traffic calming and barriers like bike boulevards where SLC is incredibly timid with their neighborhood byways and have no traffic diverters anywhere. As a result, there is high speed traffic in neighborhoods, especially off 2100 South. There are certain people in Transportation who have ridden all over the country and it would be helpful if other members of staff would do the same to see what other cities are doing with bike infrastructure. Berkeley and New York have amazing parking protected bike lanes which is what we should have on 200 South. SLC has just a couple protected bike lanes and the Transportation planning is moving forward but needs to do great things and really step up where we are currently and again, 15 is Keen. Typologies Design Guide Update and Finalization Tom Millar, SLC Transportation The Typologies project will be done by the end of 2021. This project is continuing to shape up to be a watershed project for the City in that there will be new designs for all different kinds of streets throughout the city depending on land use and transportation design. The designs have been refined many times based on about 5,00o individual responses over two rounds of public engagement and they will be doing a third and final round with a quick public glance at all the materials put together in one design guide document. This project also fits nicely in the Transportation Master Plan update which will focus more on policies and should help clear the way to updating some of the policies that will help them implement the typology designs. Right now, there are some policy and legal hurdles that sometimes prevent them from doing what they know is best practice design. Tom shared a graphic summary report that will be online in a few weeks. He went over the demographics of the survey and the zip codes where they will reach out again to make sure people in those areas see the materials and provide comments before it is finalized. There was a map of how satisfied different zip codes were with the materials that were presented and based on that, some alterations were made that did not holistically change the design or goals of any of the typologies. There will be four different parts coming out in a few weeks that he would like to have the Board's feedback on including two new sections on intersection guidance and implementation guidance. Ellen said Tom and his team have done a phenomenal job and she's never seen such an in-depth study, in-depth reports, graphics, information, community gatherings and outreach. Tom said all the materials including the map, survey, and entire design guide as well as the designs are in English and Spanish. Reid asked to what extent traffic calming factored into the typologies. Tom said the intent is that the street design without any vertical traffic calming is inherently traffic calming. Page 3 of 6 TAB 10-04-2021 Minutes That the design speed and the target speed on the street itself with trees,buildings, pavement types, parking, bike lanes, crosswalks, etc. all contribute to the lower maximum speed than they have identified for each street Typology. Reid said the Board is fully invested in traffic calming and that personally, he's not convinced that you can achieve a 25mph design speed without traffic calming measures and they don't have to be vertical. You can use horizontal measures or better still,you can combine the two measures. Kerry asked if the next round would have some indication of what has changed from previous versions and Tom said the maps will show it. Tom will come back to the Board in November and thinks it would be good to revisit the letter TAB wrote the City Council and Mayor in support of this to see if they want to consider any changes considering the final product Transportation is putting in front of the public now. 20 MPH Speed Limit Letter Discussion TAB Members Courtney said the original letter she wrote regarding the 2omph speed limit was a base for them to begin a discussion. She said the 20 is Plenty campaign is something that can be implemented now. She does not necessarily agree that it should be on every street but once the Typologies is finalized, the Board can look at certain aspects of each layer. Myron said he appreciates the letter Courtney wrote to kick off this discussion. Research shows that when you mix autos and people, anything above 2omph is exponentially more deadly and critical injuries occur at a much higher rate. That alone should tell them that they ought to be designing their streets where pedestrians mix with autos, at 2omph or if the street can't be 20, they must provide separated facilities for bikes and peds. The design of the street is 20 or they are separated, and that's kind of the policy standpoint we feel would be important to set for the city. Setting it as a policy matters and Tom,just a minute ago, said that often there are policies keeping them from designing the roads that they want. If we as an advisory board, create and recommend and the city adopts this kind of overall policy, that helps inform the new TMP, that helps inform the typologies, it really sets up conditions to move forward. We can disagree about how quickly we get there; I agree that designing the street and making physical changes is the most impactful way, but it will take us 40 or 5o years to change every street in this city. We already have a bunch of streets that have a speed limit way under the design speed and those streets haven't met the design criteria yet so there should be conditions where we can try to say this is what we should have in our neighborhood, this policy gives us the ability to do that. It sets the standards and expectations for moving forward. Myron thinks that they should create a letter that says they believe that 2omph is the speed when peds and bikes and cars are mixed and discuss changing speed limit signs incrementally over time later. He said this is an important policy discussion. Reid thinks this is a classic area where TAB should be involved and said he thinks to set a 2omph speed limit is a regulation, not a physical change in the road and if you regulate for things that are not reasonable, people are going to generally ignore those things. He's not against posting 2omph speed limits on some streets that have schools but doing it across the board seems like it damages their credibility and the credibility of regulation generally. Courtney understands what Reid is saying and agrees that not necessarily every street need to be 2omph. Putting the streets into context is part of the issue they are running into as far as what the streets are designed for, the speed and what is in the best interest of public safety. Reid would love to see TAB take what he would consider a responsible, technical evidence-based position that when we traffic calm streets, lower speed limits are fine. Ellen said another thing that hasn't been taken Page 4 of 6 TAB 10-04-2021 Minutes into consideration is the type of vehicle people are driving. She thinks a lot of research needs to be done on this to understand what's happening as the larger the vehicle, the worse the ped injury. She said if they are going to change this, they must change more than just the speed limit. Dave A said he's a skeptic that just changing the speed limit signs will change people behavior or that would already be working. Myron said right now there is a Transportation Master Plan in progress, Typologies in progress, the Livable Streets Program, and the Complete Streets Program. Maybe there is something we can do to at least acknowledge that the physics say we want to go slow but not be so prescriptive to say we want to change it all. Kerry asked if there was an interim solution where we determine whichever of the typologies should be 2omph and maybe those get signed once the Typologies Guide is approved. Courtney said they will work on this letter again next month and can talk about it along with the updated Typologies Guide. CIP Project List for Upcoming Year Jon Larsen&Becka Roolf, SLC Transportation Becka had previously presented a preliminary CIP list to the Committee. This time she prepared a Menti-Meter pole to see where the Committee might recommend these projects be prioritized. There are more items on the list than Transportation will be able to successfully get funding for and perhaps more items than they should realistically apply for. Jon said he's excited that this is becoming an annual thing they do with TAB because it is important and as a Board, their job is to provide policy direction related to transportation. The decision is ultimately the City Council's, but recommendations are made to them and the Mayor. Becka posted the Menti-Meter link which showed seven projects currently suggested as part of a Complete Street reconstruction. Becka showed the results of the survey which she said are very close to her own prioritization of those projects. Myron asked which projects potentially have the biggest impact for reducing or improving mobility and traffic impacts throughout the city from Transportation's perspective. Jon went over the list and shared which seemed to have the most impact in his mind. Becka adjusted the Menti-Meter pole so the Board members can do the survey on their own time at their own pace, and they will have another discussion about it at the next TAB meeting. Annual Elections TAB Members This was postponed until the November meeting due to time constraints. TAB WebEx Meeting Chat from Dave Iltis to everyone: 4:39 PM One of the issues with public input for transportation projects is that there's no central place or email list to follow everything. The city no longer uses the list serve that used to contain that. There's no website that keeps a calendar of the public comment opportunities for transportation or other departments. If you miss a facebook post or tweet,you might miss the opportunity to fill out a survey. This is a tech issue that is above Transportation and should be solved by SLC at a higher level. from Millar, Tom to everyone: 4:53 PM I may encourage the TAB to see the Typologies Design Guide's map typology assignments and the "Max Target Speed" in each typology. This is the max drivable speed baked into each design. I think it does a good job of identifying the hierarchy (which streets are "fast", medium, slow, and real slow. Page 5 of 6 TAB 10-04-2021 Minutes from Dave Alderman to everyone: 4:56 PM Tom -where can we find the latest version of the Typologies Guide? from Millar, Tom to everyone: 4:56 PM Dave, it will be live/online in a few weeks. from Taylor Anderson to everyone: 5:08 PM Signed on two minutes late so missed public comment,but would have made sure that the board got my email with this peer reviewed study that found the effectiveness of 20 mph default speeds —which was paired with street design changes. This is in addition to non-peer reviewed studies: https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/injuryprev/26/1/85.full.pdf Motion: Jim Espeland motioned to adjourn the meeting; Ellen Reddick seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 5:29 p.m. and the next meeting of the Board was scheduled for November 1, 2021. Approved by Transportation Advisory Board 11-01-21. Page 6 of 6 TAB 10-04-2021 Minutes