Loading...
6/12/2023 - Meeting Minutes SALT LAKE CITY JOINT TRANSPORTATION ADVISORY BOARD &BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING Minutes of the June 12, 2023 Meeting Present from the Transportation Advisory Board were Dave Alderman, Greg Sanchez, Jim Espeland, Jon Larsen, and Suzanne Stensaas. Electronically present from the Transportation Advisory Board were Daniel Mendoza, Ellen Reddick, John Close, Justice Morath, Leo Masic, and Steve Wooldridge. Absent from the Transportation Advisory Board were Johnnae Nardone and Julie Bj ornstad. BAC Members present for this meeting were Ashley Lodmell and Matthew Morriss. BAC Members Electronically present for this meeting were Alla Chernenko, Ben Trueman, Greta Sommerfeld, Joshua Poppel, Laura Lewis, Martin Cuma, Pat Casey, Rachel Manko, and Sarah Johnson. BAC Members absent for this meeting were Max McLeod and Raymond Reynolds. Also present were Julianne Sabula, Becka Roolf, Jensen Kinsley Also electronically present were Amy Lyons, David Cox, Blair Tomten, Lauren Avery- Mead, Liz, Eric Povilus. The meeting was held electronically and was called to order at 4:35 p.m. by Greg Sanchez. Public Comment — Eric lives on Laird Avenue near Uintah Elementary and just found out over the weekend about traffic calming being proposed for 1300 South. He is speaking specifically about the eight speed bumps on 1300 South from Foothill down to Emigration Market and is voicing his concern because there has been a lack of transparency and communication with the neighborhood. A petition has been circulating and while there are well over 300 people in the neighborhood, the only outreach has been to Bonneville Elementary School. Unfortunately, there was a tragic death at that intersection which has spawned these traffic calming measures. He doesn't understand what type of emergency proposal fast tracked this that it's already gone through Engineering, it already has a budget, and the construction is going to start within a month when no one in the neighborhood was aware of it except for a select few. He's lived in the neighborhood for over 20 years and there are fundamentally very few accidents on 1300 South. There are some speeding issues but there are 4-way stops and traffic lights along the corridor. He's asking if TAB can advise the city to slow this down, get community input and get everyone on board so they are aware of what's happening. He said after input, if it ends up being speed bumps that's fine but the community needs to be involved in that decision. Eric gets fliers from District 6 and his wife works at a Page 1 of 6 TAB/BAC 06-12-2023 Minutes local elementary school and there's no mention of this in any of the material they've received. The only people who received postcards from the City are those who live on 1300 south and over 1/2 of them disagree with the traffic calming proposal. There are numerous streets that feed into 1300 South and not one of those streets was notified. SLC is proposing eight speed bumps and between Foothill and 21oo East, there are only six homes and two banks, and the street is so narrow, it's difficult for anyone to go over the speed limit. Jon said Transportation has consistently heard concerns about people coming out of Foothill at high speeds and then getting into the neighborhood streets that come off Foothill. They have also heard for years about people driving too fast on 1300 South and receive regular complaints that the traffic calming project isn't being extended further west. Eric said there is speeding on every street in this city and Jon said that is why there is a new program to slow traffic and improve safety throughout the city which had strong support from both TAB and BAC. Suzanne said if they can't do anything about this project, the City can do better with communication in the future. Jon said there are new processes to get community feedback on traffic calming or street level projects and this one,because of the high level of passion and support,was fast tracked. Eric said they fast tracked it on a group that's not even two dozen people and now there are Soo, almost 400, asking why this is happening, it seems very narrow focused. Jensen said he's there to voice the same concerns as Eric and was the one who started this petition because he realized his neighbors hadn't been informed about this project. They're not against traffic calming measures but are against their elected officials pushing them out of the decision-making process. They feel it's a disservice to the residents. There are over 300 signatures of immediate residents on the petition, it's a concern for more than just a few people voicing their opposition. He knows that Transportation probably had a lot of voices for this project,but they have an equal amount if not more against it and feel like they are not being represented. Suzanne asked what the group in opposition was looking for other than better communication. Jensen said they would have liked to have been informed about options in the first place. They were not aware that there is such a need for this type of installation on their street. It's a very permanent type of installation and as Eric mentioned, it is a collector street for four different neighborhoods so it would potentially slow down emergency response rates as well as increase fatality rates for motorcyclists and bicyclists who use the street. There's also the noise pollution aspect of it as many of them enjoy their peace and quiet in that neighborhood and to constantly hear scraping, breaking, and accelerating over those speed bumps is a concern. In addition, this has been picked for the death of Wendy, which was a tragic accident,but it was not speed related. If that were the case, why aren't these big ones being put in front of schools where they could make a difference to the children they're trying to protect. Martin said his kids go to school there, he bikes it every day, he witnessed the situation, and cars move fast, and he supports this. Jensen said they aren't against traffic calming measures, they're just against this as being their only option and being forced upon them without any notice. Martin said he wanted to give kudos to Transportation for lowering the speed limit to 2omph on 1500 East and he thinks the SLC is moving in a good direction. 70o East Shared Use Path UDOT Project Team David Cox is the project manager for the 70o East Shared Use Path which will be constructed next year. The project is currently being designed and will be a shared use path on the west side of 70o East from Liberty Park to the S-Line. This will be an Page 2 of 6 TABBAC 06-12-2023 Minutes asphalt pathway placed behind the back of the curb and no existing bike lanes will be eliminated. He shared some graphics of a preliminary design giving a general idea of what this could look like. There are a few trees that will need to be taken out, but UDOT has been talking to SLC Urban Forestry to try to minimize those impacts or replace the trees where they can. Greta asked if there was a reason it will be two ways on one side of the road and David said part of it is funding and there are also wide sections on the west side of the road that UDOT already owns. It also made sense to do it on the same side of the road as Liberty Park. Greta felt it was dangerous for cyclists to be going opposite of traffic at crossings and driveways. David said cyclists would still need to use the same amount of caution as they would on a road. Ben said he would caution putting so much responsibility on the cyclists rather than the drivers. David agreed and said they are trying to implement bulb out features where they can which will hopefully slow down drivers as they go around corners. Ben asked if the signal timing has been looked at to give cyclists a few extra seconds to cross and David said they will review that. He said they'll see if there are additional things that can be added to help raise awareness at these conflict points. Martin thanked them for thinking about 70o East and thought it would be more comfortable to take the path rather than the roadway and asked if they would consider no turn on red at 2100 South to prevent situations that Ben was just mentioning. He would also like to encourage UDOT to have pedestrian signals automatically change without having to push the button on all intersections. He asked about the timeline and David said they're about 1/2 way through their design and are hoping to get it out to bid this fall and constructed next spring. Leo suggested some signage as a tool to possibly mitigate some of these visibility issues. Suzanne questioned the bulb-outs, she said they make it almost necessary to park in the pedestrian crossing area to see if traffic is coming. Alla said this also seems like a great opportunity to talk about traffic calming or signal staggering at the intersections near Liberty Park. She asked if that was something they could take back to the team and might be as simple as giving cyclists and pedestrians a few seconds'lead to get across the road. She said those are heavily trafficked intersections, and this warrants consideration. Blair said that adding an LPI is something that's possible on all these signals and the UDOT Traffic and Safety Team could consider this. John said he's not seeing pavement markings and wondered if there is an opportunity to do some sort of high visibility pavement parking. David said the design team is looking at adding striping at cross streets. He would like to keep those white because white stands out as a crosswalk and their plan is to do that at all the cross streets and discuss if it makes sense to add striping across driveways. Martin asked if they could do raised crosswalks and David said they looked at that but there were elevation issues so most of the driveway crossings and the pathway will stay at the same elevation. Becka said this seems like a place to use green paint and Blair said that isn't appropriate because this is a shared use path, not a bikeway. Suzanne hopes they plant two trees for every one they take out so it will feel like a neighborhood and add to traffic calming. Dave said he hopes they have an aggressive outreach team and Lauren said they do have a very robust public outreach team. Scoring Criteria Used in Developing 5+5 Program Becka Roolf, SLC Transportation Transportation has a database with every project that has been proposed in the Pedestrian/Bicycle Master Plan, the Transit Master Plan, as well as staff projects, and projects proposed by the public and elected officials. They score the different projects to help them figure out which they are going to suggest for funding as well as in the Page 3 of 6 TABBAC 06-12-2023 Minutes development of their 5+5 Programs. A list of these different scoring criteria was circulated to the group prior to the meeting. This is purely an internal scoring process with different points in each of the 4 categories which are equity, sustainability, good governance, and safety. The City Council asks Transportation to bring projects for their consideration once per year. This scoring system helps Transportation be more organized and in the long run, save them time and energy. Dave said he's been involved in something similar, and this type of scoring helps keep people from bringing in biases for their own projects. Becka said this is an automated process where they basically map the project and the scoring that is mapped for the project is mapped by the computer over the weekend. Currently, 50% of the scoring is related to equity and one of the questions has for the group is what they think of that relative emphasis on equity. Is equity something that should be so strongly considered or is it something they should consider on a more balanced space along with the scores of sustainability, safety, and good governance. Dave said he thinks safety should be the number one thing on the list. Suzanne feels pedestrians and cyclists are included in the safety factor but she's very much for equity and proximity to parks, schools, and public spaces should be considered. Dave said he'd be surprised if the safety and equity didn't mirror each other. Greg thinks equity having 50% is deserved and critical but if something is very unsafe, maybe it should have a different trigger in scoring. Becka explained how equity plays out in the scoring and Justice said equity is incredibly important,but that safety should be weighted heavier, and he thinks if you look at some of these points in equity there might be some redundancies which might be a way to rebalance it a bit. Becka explained in depth the equity measures and the areas that are strongest in the scoring. She said if you look at safety, it's a different area because of the higher population and higher concentration of conflicts. She said they may need to look more at how they count the safety data that they have. People sometimes feel like things are unsafe even though there are no crashes happening. Suzanne thinks there should be an education campaign for dangerous situations. Becka said she gets concerned about the equity side of something when there's self-reporting. Suzanne said at least they'd know what type of issues are occurring and where they are happening. Jon said part of Vision Zero is to get ahead of safety and look at the risk factors and how they are addressed before tragedy happens. There was further discussion about safety and accident data. Justice brought up safety issues during special events. Becka said that's been a concern for her as special events seem to take away from walking and biking areas and seem to be set up for cars. Suzanne suggested part of the requirement could be having a flagger to help pedestrians and cyclists and to have more bike parking. Becka said they are moving toward a corridor approach with crash data which she believes is part of Vision Zero and all their crash data will be moving in that direction. She said creating new data is very time consuming and she's looking at suggestions to refocus the data they currently have. Through his work with Dark Skies Utah, Daniel received past data showing more accidents with bicycles and pedestrians at night and there seemed to be very clear results that it was due to cars and motorcycles having lights. He also related it to street light intensity because the streetlights made it more difficult to see pedestrians and cyclists because they have no inherent light. He would be happy to share more information about this at a future meeting. There was a discussion about sustainability as Becka asked what the TAB/BAC thinks about when they think about sustainability. Air quality, green space and trees were brought up. Daniel said he's an atmospheric scientist and a pulmonologist and they now have air quality sensors on buses and are Page 4 of 6 TABBAC 06-12-2023 Minutes doing systematic mapping across SLC. He said there is also a campaign being run in July where heat will be mapped and he's happy to share those results. Motion: Suzanne Stensaas motioned to adjourn the meeting; Jim Espeland seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m. Meeting Chat from Greta to everyone: 4:56 PM AGREED that 300 W bike path is s00000 scary to ride on from Roolf, Becka to everyone: 5:01 PM slowing turning traffic off 7Oo E is challenging. When turning off 7Oo E, you want to get off as quickly as possible so you don't get rear ended. from Roolf, Becka to everyone: 5:02 PM Will driveways go up to cross the path, or will the path go down and then back up at every driveway? from Roolf, Becka to everyone: 5:03 PM Martin, in the Netherlands when they have lots of driveways, they construct one way paths on each side of the street. They only do the 2-way path on one side of the street when they don't have driveways, or on a one-way street. from Patrick Casey to everyone: 5:03 PM This design is really frustrating to see again, and does not consider the fact that two way paths do not function well as an integration with traffic. I will never ride this path designed this way from Justice Morath to everyone: 5:05 PM There is also HEAVY pedestrian traffic at 1300 s and 7Oo a because of Herman franks dog park and the baseball fields there (lots of children) from Roolf, Becka.to everyone: 5:08 PM Is this replacing the existing sidewalk? from Blair Tomten -Avenue Consultants to everyone: 5:09 PM This will be replacing the sidewalk on the west side. from Justice Morath to everyone: 5:39 PM I recall taking surveys in the past that looked at percevied safety of bikeways. Could that be data that's available? from Justice Morath to everyone: 5:46 PM I also think high density events get "washed out" trying to bike past SLC Twilight right when it got out last Friday I was almost hit twice in two blocks due to the short influx of drivers from Martin Cuma to everyone: 5:51 PM Page 5 of 6 TABBAC 06-12-2023 Minutes Regarding the crash data - perhaps weighing more serious accidents more than light ones, weighing more bike/ped than cars only. Also consider the linearity of the corridor instead of the 1/4 mile radius (= if the crash is at the intersection, radius makes sense, but if not, expand the "radius" parallel to the street corridor and flatten it perpendicular to it = make an ellipse instead of a circle). from Alla Chernenko to everyone: 5:54 PM What about a mixed method approach with the current quant scoring system supplemented by a series of focus groups at different parts of the process? Those are relatively quick and inexpensive from Laura Lewis to everyone: 5:55 PM I'd be interested in seeing how many tickets are given by LE for vunderable user issues (passing with 3feet, parking in bike lane, etc) How seriously is it being taken? from Alla Chernenko to everyone: 5:58 PM I would like to see a measure that would evaluate impact on green space from Justice Morath to everyone: 5:59 PM I also support using air quality data. And we do have urban forestry data one could use. What about earthquake safety? Approved by Bicycle Advisory Committee 07-17-23. Approved by Transportation Advisory Board 08-07-23. Page 6 of 6 TAB/BAC 06-12-2023 Minutes