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3/20/2023 - Meeting Minutes SALT LAKE CITY BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE Minutes of the March 20, 2023 Meeting BAC Members Present for this meeting was Sarah Johnson. BAC Members Electronically Present for this meeting were Ben Trueman, Greta Sommerfeld, Laura Lewis, Martin Cuma, Matthew Morriss, Pat Casey, and Raymond Reynolds. BAC Members Absent for this meeting were Ashley Lodmell, Joshua Poppel, Max McLeod, and Rachel Manko. Also present were Matt Jevtic and Jon Larsen. Also present electronically were Dave Iltis, Raphael Cordray, Clint Campbell, Ellen Reddick, Julianne Sabula,Amy Lyons, Steve Wooldridge The meeting was held both electronically via WebEx and in person and was called to order at 5:05 p.m.by Martin Cuma. Martin welcomed everyone and the members introduced themselves. Approval of Minutes Motion: Martin Cuma moved to approve the minutes of the February 13, 2023 meeting. Greta Sommerfeld seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Public Comment— Raphael spoke to BAC in January and expressed her concern about bicycle parking. She also wrote them a letter regarding bicycle parking and specifically looking at making laws that stipulate what bicycle parking is or the code making it apply to buildings that were built before 2oo8. She said it is so important and people cannot ride bikes if there is not safe parking. Personally, because of pollution, she doesn't have a car and has been a bicycle person since 2oo8. She is really interested in following up with the BAC and doing what she can to get the attention put on bicycle parking improvements in SLC and enforcement in the places where there is bicycle parking. Businesses load the areas up with flowers and firewood and bicycle parking is treated in a poor way that can be improved in this city. She said that's why she's here and is going to try and participate in these meetings to follow what's going on with that subject. Martin hasn't seen the letter, so Raphael is going to resend it for Amy to forward it onto the Committee. Martin said this is on their radar and they plan on discussing it in the future. Dave Iltis with Cycling Utah wanted to bring the Virginia Street Reconstruction project to the Committee's attention. The reconstruction will be happening from South Temple to lath Avenue in 2024 but the final design is already out and there are some nice things and some not so nice things. What's nice is that there will be an uphill bike lane going in. It has some good traffic calming measures like speed cushions, bulb-outs, additional crosswalks, and a sidewalk from end Avenue to South Temple on the west side of the street. It has some real problems for cyclists, and Page 1 of 6 BAC 03-20-2023 Minutes he's tried to bring these up with Transportation and basically got responses that they don't understand, don't care, or don't want to address the issue of speed cushions. Speed cushions have never been tried in SLC up to this point so Virginia will be an experiment for them. A speed cushion is kind of like a speed bump, but it has some gaps in it for the tires of emergency vehicles to go through. The gaps are roughly 18 inches wide and speed cushions on the face seem like a great idea to slow traffic but they're talking about putting these speed cushions downhill from lath Avenue going south. If anyone has ridden down Virginia Street, they'll know that it's very easy to get up to 35 mph without even thinking about it. The riders were going 5oish when they had the race going around the Capitol and down Virginia so it's very easy to go downhill quite fast. There's nothing out there he can see where these have been tested with cyclists going downhill at 20-25 and how it would be rolling over these at speed. They are also coupled with bulb-outs, he guesses, to protect the parking and shorten the crosswalks in a couple places. It's a nice thought to shorten the crosswalks, however the bulb-outs are going to essentially force the cyclists to ride in the travel lane. Cars have generally tailgated cyclists going down Virginia, if anyone has ridden this much, they've noticed that. This leaves a combination of speed cushions and bulb-outs. You can't ride off to the side to avoid the cars,you must ride in the travel lane which means you have to go over speed cushions and you are going to be traveling at speed and you have to thread a needle with an 18-inch gap between the speed cushions or roll over them which is untested with cyclists in Salt Lake. He's sent several e-mails to Transportation both pre- development of the final concept and post development and has essentially gotten what he feels are non-starter responses like"hey, your comment has been noted". If you feel comfortable threading the needle with an 18-inch gap between a hard edge of a speed cushion going 25-35 mph, please let him know. There's probably a spot open on a pro- team for you if you like. He's hoping this Committee will have SLC come in with the Virginia Street concept design and show examples of speed cushions and talk to the Committee about where they can see examples of speed cushions and talk about how they think this concept is going to work for cyclists traveling south on Virginia on this very steep downhill. He doesn't think it's going to be a good thing,but he does think it's great that they're doing traffic calming here. He lives two blocks from Virginia Street and sees cars traveling way too fast both uphill and down, so he thinks there's some really nice things going on with the traffic calming but does not think they've really considered cyclists in this equation. He hopes the Committee will invite the City and the engineers to explain what they're doing, how they think that this is safe for cyclists, and if they've even tried it themselves. Dave said on the bike parking issue that the prior person brought up, one of the key issues is the enforcement of the design. He's seen bike racks getting stuck too close to walls where they're unusable,which has been a problem in SLC for years. Martin thinks it would be worthwhile to schedule somebody from transportation discuss Virginia Street on a future agenda. Myron said he's personally willing to give a speed cushion a try and he imagines if it doesn't work, it would be easy to take out but that's something to find out. Pat said Dave brings up a good point as cyclists tend to go faster and if there's speed cushions, bikes might be going faster than cars and it's very unsafe with cars intermittently stopping as cyclists have a harder time stopping. Sara would like to hear where it has been tested out in similar conditions and if there are concerns or issues that have come up from that experience elsewhere. Pat thinks this is another example of an overengineered idea that is meant to create safety and underestimates the real-world application and looking at something that has been tested would be interesting. Page 2 of 6 BAC 03-20-2023 Minutes Committee Announcements &Updates — Matthew said many months ago, BAC was asked to write a letter of support for an East/West Connectivity Study grant. He believes the grant was through the Federal DOT and was awarded to SLC in the amount of$1.9 million and is hoping it turns out some interesting results. Martin said they will put it on the radar for one of the next meetings. He also gave an endorsement for the Statewide Trail Network and said he submitted a letter supporting the Transportation and Constituent CIP projects. Jon said for the Statewide Trail Network, the legislature funded $45 million in one-time funds and then $45 million in ongoing funds to build out that network. He said it's a big deal and is carved out from a funding source that traditionally has only gone towards highway expansion, it's an incremental step in the right direction. Clint said the Golden Spoke ride is happening this year and they're working on having the Governor there to explain the project funding and what that means for Utah and their travel systems. He invited anyone who would like to join them on this free ride where there will be a 75-mile start and a 25-mile start. The ride is May 13th and will start in Ogden and Provo at the Front Runner stations and end at Farmington station. Vice-Chair Election Bicycle Advisory Committee Members Motion: Martin Cuma made a motion for Pat Casey to be the new BAC Vice-Chair; Sarah Johnson seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Discussion on engagement and feedback loop with broader cycling community Jon Larsen, SLC Transportation Jon said that Transportation staff pride themselves on keeping up with national standards. They look at what other cities around the nation and even the world are doing to improve conditions for bicycling. They bike themselves and personally, he bikes to work every day, even in the rain. This gives them strong opinions on how and why things should be designed in certain ways. They also recognize that even with this incredible group of BAC members that they get feedback from monthly, there are other opportunities they could perhaps tap into from the broader bicycling community. This could provide more meaningful feedback on some of the nuanced designs while also energizing the community and finding opportunities to help grow and expand the infrastructure of cycling in SLC. One of the things that Transportation thought would be kind of cool would be to organize some bike tours and look at a combination of bike infrastructure that's already out there and then also look at some streets that are in the pipeline for the next 5-10 years out. The sooner conversation is started, the easier it is to have meaningful impact on that project, particularly if ideas come up that are expensive and require funding. It's an easy conversation to have if the project is five years out, but a hard conversation if the project is going to bid within a week. Jon wanted to open this up to BAC for conversation and see what they think about doing some community rides with an eye towards providing feedback. These rides could include the designers so it could be a dialogue on if they like the idea, are there other ideas for that level of engagement and feedback, how often they should do it, and which projects or corridors or streets they should do it on. Jon was thinking of starting with projects that were recently completed or maybe under construction and about to be completed. Martin said you can look at it from 2 directions, ist is to get feedback for future projects and 2nd to get feedback on what has worked and what hasn't. Sarah sees a lot of positive with this and a lot of potential within this Committee and the City to bring more attention Page 3 of 6 BAC 03-20-2023 Minutes and publicity to the work that is being done and provides an opportunity to make sure they are taking underrepresented communities within the city into consideration and hearing their needs. Jon went over the types of public outreach that are currently being done on projects and will continue but he would like to supplement this outreach with some community rides to talk about the design nuances and why the decisions are made and find out how people feel about them. He would like to hear as many voices and as much feedback as possible. He thinks that riding areas together would be fun, unifying, and provide great feedback. The members talked about different ideas such as bringing Open Streets back. Jon wants the group rides to help Transportation do better designs for permanent infrastructure with a bonus of helping build community. He said the Mayor wants to do Bike to Work days quarterly instead of annually. He suggested that a non-profit would be a great way to do the Open Streets again, so Transportation is using staff for permanent changes. The Committee talked about different events and ideas for having more Open Streets events. Ben asked how the City's response for community engagement should be as he felt like he did not receive an adequate answer to feedback he submitted. Jon said their response was likely due to the Transportation team being stretched for time. Sarah wanted to know if these rides would help or stretch the team even further. Jon said the ability to get with the group on site to have these targeted conversations would be more efficient and boost morale to be able to interact in person with people who are using the infrastructure and care about what we do. Matthew supports this idea of doing these rides. He works for the USGS, and they often do field reviews with colleagues and the public. Sarah said an important piece in this would be to make sure the public is aware of these rides and can participate in making them effective. She also said there's probably a piece of responsibility within the Committee because they are each connected to different communities. They talked about different advertising ideas and how to get it out into the community. Jon would like this to be a BAC initiative supported by Transportation. Martin said they could each take the projects within their areas and work with Transportation to organize some rides. He said he would like to look at the long-term projects five years ahead of the scheduled construction. Jon went over some of the past, current, and future projects the Committee could look at. BAC members spoke about the bike facilities at freeway interchanges. Jon said staff could recommend some rides, stitch together some packages of projects to look at, and the BAC members can then organize. Martin said they can work with Transportation, and everyone can publicize it within their circles and with DOT help, the individuals can organize rides. Sara asked if they could rotate ownership of rides and Martin said BAC members could take ownership of rides near their district. Sarah said she agrees that within their own districts they're familiar with and will work with Jon on these rides. Patrick currently hosts a ride during the spring and summer months when it gets warm, and everyone is welcome to come. He would be willing to change the route to coordinate with a ride in a project area. Jon will come up with a list. Martin asked for more details on Virginia Street. Jon said the City doesn't want to be in a position of encouraging or enabling cyclists to go over the speed limit, which was part of the thinking in the design. They want to reduce speed for everyone, he worries about cyclists coming down Virginia Street at 35mph. Jon has personally ridden over speed cushions and hasn't had a problem with them, and he said you can ride through the groove instead of going up and over them. With the bulb-outs, it can be a little bit of a nuisance on a bike because it pushes you out a little bit,but they had to balance that because they also want to make it safer and more comfortable for pedestrians. He said Dave's feedback was taken into consideration and a lot of his comments were incorporated into the design. Jon explained more about the speed Page 4 of 6 BAC 03-20-2023 Minutes cushions and how effective they are for a street with the type of volume like Virginia Street. Martin looked at the plan and thought the bulb-outs are reasonable as used in this design and asked about the transition between the road and the speed cushion as he can't fit in the gap with his bike trailer. Jon said it will be actual pavement and would be very similar to 15oo East. Jon thanked the Committee for volunteering their time to help make the city a better place. Martin thanked Jon as the city is better for cycling than it was 25 years ago. Motion: Martin Cuma motioned to adjourn the meeting; Pat Casey seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 6:26 p.m. Meeting Chat from Matthew morriss he/him to everyone: 5:oi PM https://www.utah.gov/pmn/sitemap/publiebody/4385.html from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:06 PM Virginia Street reconstruction: https:llvvww.slc.gov/mystreet/2023101117/virginia/ from Lyons,Amy to everyone: 5:12 PM You can send it to me at amy.lyons(&slcgov.com from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:25 PM How does one email the BAC? Is there a public email address for the BAC? from Matthew morriss he/him to everyone: 5:25 PM https://www.transportation.gov/sites/dot.gov/files/202:;- 02/RCP%2oFact%2oSheets%2o2o22.pdf from Matthew morriss he/him to everyone: 5:26 PM Critical Connections: Healing Salt Lake City's East-West Divide from Lyons,Amy to everyone: 5:27 PM @Dave - The BAC website shows both the bikeslc@slcgov.com e-mail as well as mine. E-mails can go to either. from Campbell, Clint UTA to everyone: 5:28 PM https:llmove.utah.gov/golden-spokeZ from Ben Trueman to everyone: 5:36 PM I like the idea of doing rides on recently completed projects! from Matthew morriss he/him to everyone: 5:36 PM Agree with @ben! from Ben Trueman to everyone: 5:37 PM Especially if we can have city reps there on the ride to collect feedback immediately after Page 5 of 6 BAC 03-20-2023 Minutes from Matthew morriss he/him to everyone: 5:37 PM AAA from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:38 PM Becka Roolf used to do site visits to upcoming projects for feedback. from Sabula, Julianne to everyone: 5:42 PM It is also an opportunity for committee members to volunteer to be in before and after photos to accompany before and after data. from Ray Reynolds to everyone: 5:44 PM I love that! from Matthew morriss he/him to everyone: 6:03 PM Yes! Knowing what you are planning 24, 5 years out while we're out in the field would be excellent from Laura Lewis to everyone: 6:11 PM I'm game from Matthew morriss he/him to everyone: 6:13 PM Patrick where do you advertise that? from Patrick Casey to everyone: 6:14 PM @peakstatefit on Instagram from Patrick Casey to everyone: 6:15 PM Sunday evenings at GPM - social, slow ride and ends with beer and/or tacos. from Martin Cuma to everyone: 6:22 PM https://www.slc.gov/mystreet/2023/01/i' /virginia/ Approved by the Bicycle Advisory Committee 04-17-23. Page 6 of 6 BAC 03-20-2023 Minutes