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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/20/2023 - Meeting Minutes SALT LAKE CITY BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE Minutes of the November 20, 2023 Meeting BAC Members Present for this meeting were Martin Cuma and Sarah Johnson. BAC Members Electronically Present for this meeting were Alla Chernenko,Ashley Lodmell, Ben Trueman, Greta Sommerfeld, Joshua Poppel, Laura Lewis, Matthew Morriss, Pat Casey, Rachel Manko, and Raymond Reynolds. BAC Member Absent for this meeting was Max McLeod. Present in person was Jon Larsen. Also present electronically were Amy Lyons, Dave Iltis, Lt.Wooldridge, and DeDe Murray. The meeting was held both electronically via WebEx and in person and was called to order at 5:02 p.m.by Martin Cuma. Martin welcomed everyone. Approval of Minutes Motion: Martin Cuma moved to approve the minutes of the October 16, 2023 meeting. Matthew Morriss seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Committee Process and Input Martin said it was time for BAC to go over the code of conduct at meetings and the process of how the meetings are run. They will be reviewing the Public Welcome and Code of Conduct document as well as the Bob's Rules document. Martin explained what the documents were and that they were written when meetings were in person. Sarah reviewed these documents and one concern she has is how the Committee has functioned in the past is that there have been several occasions when a member of the public is given so much speaking time, members have not had the space to comment. It's important for her that they are conveying a tone of partnership and other people are wanting to come and present at this meeting. Martin said he will be more proactive in limiting public speaking outside of public comment. There was some discussion about the challenges of commenting when attending online and some document changes that can be made to better reflect the rule of engagement with a hybrid meeting. If someone has something they would like to say or ask, they should raise their hand and whoever runs the meeting is going to take the right moment to ask them to say what they want to say. Then it will be asked if anyone else has any other questions or comments on the topic,which would be the opportunity to speak for those who cannot raise their hands. Someone from Transportation will also be watching and alert the Chair if they miss a raised hand or comment. He said members can raise their hands or give a thumbs up for voting. Martin will edit these documents and the BAC will review them again at the next meeting. Page 1 of 6 BAC 11-20-2023 Minutes Public Comment — In light of a recent staff assault, Jon wanted to remind the Committee that we do have security in the building, and we can and will ask people to leave if necessary. It's important to him that everyone feels safe participating in these meetings and their job, and he takes it very seriously. Dave apologized for the last meeting, he was heated about the City Creek issue and didn't act very well. As far as decorum and participation by the public, since he's one of the few that attends regularly, it's important for him or anyone else to voice concerns after the Committee members have spoken. The Committee is a conduit between the public and the administration people bring stuff to them on occasion when the Committee isn't going to have the opportunity to find out for themselves. If they confine it to just a couple of minutes for public comment,the information doesn't get conveyed. The public can't vote on things and the members can, so he hopes they can endeavor to keep the Committee somewhat open. He said end Avenue and 40o East had some problems with re-striping that has uncovered coordination problems between Transportation, Streets, and Engineering. Bicyclists missed out on 1/2 a block of bike lane connecting State Street to end Avenue because of poor coordination. 40o East between 500 South and 400 South was a missed opportunity and got striped with no bike lane, again because of poor coordination. Gladiola is in process, and it's not finished, there's some new bike lanes in one stretch and there's also a problem with streets and he's hoping BAC can invite Streets in to talk about it. There are several streets like 3rd Avenue, Indiana Street, and several more where they resurfaced the road, repainted the car lanes, and never finished the bike lanes. On lath Avenue, it's been over a year now and it's not fair for cyclists to not have their bike lanes painted with the same priority as car lanes. Martin said as for the restriping, the bike lanes are striped but not where the cars were parked when they did the striping. He thinks they either need to vacate the street or tow the cars when the striping is being done. It just depends on how restrictive the city wants to be. Orphan Assets and Maintenance/Operation Needs — Initial Discussion Jon explained the challenges with"orphan assets"which is that it's easier to get money for capital projects than it is for maintenance. There are some encouraging conversations happening between SLC departments and figuring out how to make it better and bake it into the planning process. There's a new Capital Asset Planning Committee (CAP)which he thinks provides a forum for a io-year outlook on projects and to be able to do better planning. A lot of the stuff that has been built over the last 10-15 years has not had a good maintenance plan associated with it. They are called orphan assets because they are assets that aren't being taken care of and a lot of these haven't made it into the asset management program. Transportation is working to get existing assets into Cartegraph, including things like green stripes,bike boxes, and delineators. A few years ago,they started asking for money through the CIP process for maintenance and this year the Streets Division is taking that on which is an encouraging collaboration. A lot is happening and there's a lot of work still to do. Martin said the City must have some kind of process for street maintenance. He said Engineering is doing a street evaluation, and asked if something similar can be done for these assets. Jon said it could be another specialty team that does the stuff that the striping machine doesn't do. He said if that's something that this Committee supports, it might not be a bad idea to express support for maintaining infrastructure that's in place for the upcoming budget cycle. Sometimes to take care of the stuff that already exists,you need to cut back on the new stuff. Martin asked if they should just make a motion that's in the minutes or if they should write a support letter. Lt.Wooldridge said it would be good to add as part of that letter that a specialized team can produce consistency throughout the city making it easier for everyone. Alla would be apprehensive to focus on standardization as technology constantly evolves. Dave asked why these are orphan assets and how do you Page 2 of 6 BAC 11-20-2023 Minutes assign the responsibility of who pays for and maintains these,how do you coordinate between Streets and Transportation and get this built into the budget every year. It's a structural problem within SLC that leads to this. After additional Committee discussion on orphan asset details and maintenance schedules, it was decided that they would write a letter in support of additional resources for specialized multi-modal assets which they will discuss at their next meeting. City Creek Canyon — Committee Action Martin said they weren't very happy about Public Utilities presenting the City Creek closure to TAB and BAC at the last minute. They did decide to open some hiking trails after the last BAC meeting which Martin is happy about but feels like this should have been discussed with them in the planning stage two years earlier. BAC would like to bring this up to the City leadership and make Public Utilities or any other city department more aware of potential impacts their projects can have on constituents. They are a public entity and need to bring other stakeholders in when doing a project like this. Martin's original idea was to draft a letter and send it to the Mayor, City Council, and Public Utilities letting them know they weren't happy about how it was done and encourage them to do it differently next time. After speaking with Becka, it was suggested that what might be more effective is a meeting with the Mayor in the presence of the Public Utilities Director to have a discussion to find out if there is something that can be done. He was thinking that as Chair, he can attend this meeting and recommends including the TAB Chair or representative. Sarah's request was that they approach this meeting from a place of curiosity to find out what happened and not go in as an adversary. Let them know that BAC is here and can be approached as a resource. Lt.Wooldridge explained how when opening public lands that are undergoing maintenance and reconstruction,there is a safety concern to make sure everyone is out when the construction is going on and could possibly delay the construction. There was further discussion about safety and the partitioning on Bonneville Blvd. Dave said the deeper issue is when there are city projects that affect bicycling,how does the Committee become involved in that. What is their role and TAB's role within the City so it's a given that they're involved in these things so that it's a given that they're consulted in the future. Dave said they should look at how they can work with the City so cyclists can ride to the top of the canyon on weekends and holidays. Motion: Martin motioned that he was delegated to have a meeting with the Mayor,the TAB Chair, and the Public Utilities Director to discuss this specifically. Matthew seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Committee Announcements &Updates Due to time constraints, this agenda item will be moved to the next meeting. Vision Zero Task Force Update&Input on Critical Corridors Jon Larsen, SLC Transportation Jon said this year, the Mayor declared SLC's intention to become a Vision Zero city with the goal of having zero serious injuries or fatalities on their roads. That means a safe systems approach with a focus on acknowledging that humans make mistakes. This means slowing the traffic and doing things like a roundabout,where you don't hit at a go-degree angle,you're going the same direction causing less injury. To become a Vision Zero city,you need a few things, one was a proclamation from the Mayor which has been done, and the other is to integrate a safety action plan. They were trying to figure out how to do that and it turns out the brand new federal Safe Streets for All Program has a safety action plan that happens to exactly mirror the Vision Zero safety Page 3 of 6 BAC 11-20-2023 Minutes action plan. Speaking with Robin Hutcheson, she recommended working with their regional partners to create a regionwide plan that cities could adopt. Working with WFRC, they were able to apply for and get a grant, they've been working on this plan, and they have sub plans for different areas. The consultant Kimley Horn has been doing a lot of the work and has done data collection and analysis looking at the high injury network, and other emphasis areas relates to crashes. The top five for SLC are crashes at intersections, roadway departure crashes, impaired driving, distracted driving, and pedestrian related serious injury and fatal crashes. Ben asked if they looked at how the existing configuration of the road contributes to crashes and Jon said they are looking at that next. Laura asked if there was a way to incorporate the safety plan to hold the drivers that can do more damage more accountable, such as drivers of big trucks. Jon said he would look into that. Lt. Wooldridge said SLCPD does analyze crashes and if they can determine criminal charges are warranted, they will file them. Jon went over some specific data from Kimley Horn's analysis and some plans for Livable Streets changes on the more dangerous streets. Dave suggested they lower the speed limit on every arterial and collector road and suggested a BAC and TAB Member be part of the Vision Zero Committee. Jon said there was a BAC and TAB member on the Vision Zero Committee and if anyone is interested in attending, let him know. Motion: Martin Cuma motioned to adjourn the meeting; Sarah seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 6:31 p.m. Meeting Chat from Lyons,Amy to everyone: 5:10 PM I will also pay closer attention to raised hands. from Lyons, Amy to everyone: 5:12 PM We can do that as well. from Laura Lewis to everyone: 5:12 PM I agree as well from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 5:14 PM Ben from district 2 from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:34 PM One bit of good news on this is that the 600 E bike lane was finally repainted after 2+ years of neglect. from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 5:38 PM Yes in the letter focusing on standardization across bike lane markings across the city from Ray Reynolds to everyone: 5:38 PM Totally agree from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 5:38 PM will make repainting easier too from Ray Reynolds to everyone: 5:39 PM Page 4 of 6 BAC 11-20-2023 Minutes Is there a standardization? from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:53 PM Note that Dan Bergenthal of SLC Transportation was the person who brought green lanes to the US. from Wooldridge, Steve to everyone: 5:53 PM Typically other than 300 S the street sweepers appear to clean the bike lanes with the rest of the traffic lanes. from Ray Reynolds to everyone: 5:54 PM I can help with the letter too if needed! from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 5:54 PM Same here, happy to help from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:56 PM Background: hitps://www.cyclingutah.com/advocagy/salt-lake-ci , s-city- creek-canyon-to-partially-close-to-cyclists-and-walkers-for-�-_years-on-nov- 1-202 from Dave Iltis to everyone: 5:58 PM The need is still to open the road to the top on weekends and holidays. There really isn't a clear reason that this has to be closed completely for 3 years. Maybe for a few months here and there, but not 3 years. from Ray Reynolds to everyone: 6:0o PM Totally agree w/ regards to the curiosity comment. from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 6:0o PM Yeah from Dave Iltis to everyone: 6:07 PM The barriers are not on the yellow line, they encroach onto the bike lane. from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 6:08 PM yeah those jersey barriers really cut into the space on Bonneville and change the experience of a cyclist, runner, walker in that area from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 6:14 PM It has felt at times that we are the last point of contact after decisions have been made, so hopefully we can be consulted with earlier in planning processes. from Dave Iltis to everyone: 6:14 PM Background for SLC's Vision Zero commitment: https://www.cyclingLitah.com/columns/editorials/editorial-salt-lake-city- needs-to-adopt-vision-zero-for-no-more-traffic-deaths-and-injuries/ from Dede Murray UTA to everyone: 6:i8 PM Page 5 of 6 BAC 11-20-2023 Minutes is that in order? from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 6:20 PM or taller vehicles in general from Dave Iltis to everyone: 6:21 PM Momentum tickets. Momentum = mass x velocity... from Alla Chernenko to everyone: 6:24 PM There was a bill proposed in CO back in September that would scale the vehicle registration fee with the weight of the vehicle: https://www.cpr.org/2023/oA/2C)/colorado-pedestrian-safety-suv-truck- owners from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 6:25 PM #stroads from Dave Iltis to everyone: 6:26 PM 400 S: https:,//www.gyclinggtah.com/columns/editorials/editorial-salt- lake-city-needs-a-better-and-bikeable-400-south/ from Patrick Casey to everyone: 6:27 PM 1700 S 40o E is a great candidate for this too from Dave Iltis to everyone: 6:28 PM State Street from Laura Lewis to everyone: 6:28 PM Slow the traffic before Hawthorn from Matthew Morriss to everyone: 6:29 PM "20 is plenty!" Approved by the Bicycle Advisory Committee 12-18-23. Page 6 of 6 BAC 11-20-2023 Minutes