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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/10/2025 - Meeting Minutes SALT LAKE CITY BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE Minutes of the February 10, 2025 Meeting BAC Member Present for this meeting was Sarah Johnson. BAC Members Electronically Present for this meeting were Ashley Lodmell, Ben Trueman, Greta Sommerfeld, and Laura Lewis. BAC Members Absent for this meeting were Alla Chernenko, Martin Cuma, and Matthew Morriss Also Present were Zachary Anderson, Lt. Steve Wooldridge, and Jon Larsen. Also Electronically Present were Becka Roolf and Amy Lyons. The meeting was held both electronically via WebEx and in person and was called to order at 5:o8 p.m. by Sarah Johnson. Sarah welcomed everyone and everyone introduced themselves. Approval of Minutes Motion: Laura Lewis motioned to approve the minutes of the December 16, 2024 BAC meeting and the January 13, 2025 Joint TAB-BAC Meeting. Ashley Lodmell seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Member Report Out Ashley doesn't know when the Kensington crosswalk across Foothill was put in,but the wait was really quick with a nice bike crosswalk across Foothill. Laura reported some badly deteriorated train tracks on the app around 1700 South and they were working on repaving them which was nice. Greta recently found out about the Hive Pass for SLC residents. It's for unlimited UTA transportation so she takes the Front Runner to work and then it includes a Green Bike membership. So for $42 per month you get unlimited transit rides and a Green Bike membership. She just started in February and it's been awesome so she thought she'd share that resource. Ashley used it last year and it was super useful. Greta said even just for the GreenBike Membership, she feels like it's great. Ben said he's changing jobs next week so he's expecting to be able to be in person again for BAC meetings starting next month. He also said the Hive Pass is amazing once they added unlimited Front Runner. Sarah said she wanted to respond to Dave's comment about the minutes not being approved at the joint meeting. She just wanted to say on the record that it is intentional. Draft minutes are available to the public upon request, but they don't use their limited time jointly to approve them. She had a couple of biking comments as well, one being about winter safety on the 9-Line. She knows that there are limited resources and prioritization that goes with cleaning the bike lanes during the winter. She's had a couple of experiences on the 9-Line where it has been icy in some parts and especially considering her hip replacement last year, she's apprehensive with winter biking. She wants to urge the City if there's a prioritization, Page 1 of 4 BAC 02-10-2025 Minutes like the 9-Line and 300 West, to get the ice cleared from those paths. She also had a connectivity request. On Main Street she was biking from the S-Line to 1700 South going north. North of 1700 South on Main street, there's a great bike lane but from the S-Line to 1700 South, there is no bike lane. Becka said there is a bike lane from 2100 South to 1700 South. Sarah realized she meant from the S-Line to 2100 South. Becka said that section is South Salt Lake and SLC has encouraged them in the past to add bike lanes to that segment but it hasn't happened so far. Public Comment—Zach Anderson introduced himself as a former member of the BAC. He wanted to start by saying thank you all for serving on this Committee. He thinks it's a wonderful thing that it exists and he just commends their service so keep it up. He also wanted to talk about a potential connectivity issue. There is a single block of North Temple and a lack of bike lanes on it currently. This is the block between West Temple and Main Street where the temple is. The temple has been under construction for four years or so, and the eastbound travel lane, the right most lane, southern most lane, has been largely on and off blocked by construction. He's not there to talk about the construction. He wants to put on their radar to try to work with the City so when they stop construction and have to repaint those lanes, to have them put in a bike lane on that single block. Currently, if you're on a bike and traveling east, uphill into the Avenues on North Temple,you lose the bike lane at 200 West and you have to merge into traffic. For one single block through North Temple, this is prior to construction, that was the situation. The bike lane wasn't there for eleven parking spots on the south side of North Temple. He would encourage the Committee to encourage the City that when construction's done and they have to repaint the roadway, to get rid of eleven parking spots so that people can safely move up North Temple on a bike. When you're going uphill,you're slow, and so merging with traffic is always a scary proposition. Merging with traffic with parked cars on your right is always a scary proposition. He used to live in the Avenues and work on the west side and that's how he would get home. Now he lives on the west side, he bikes in the Avenues, it's a bike route into the foothills for mountain biking, City Creek is a bike destination and that's the main way that anybody downtown or on the west side is going to get into these zones. That's a single block that he thinks has been dangerous for a long time. Becka asked Zach if there is a bike lane between Main Street and State Street now, she hasn't been there for a while. Zach said it's a shared lane, but it's super wide so it feels a lot more comfortable and there's no parking and a bike lane there would be great. He thinks a full connected bike lane from 200 West through to State Street would be ideal,but that block is less of an issue because the street is so wide there. Becka said that makes sense. He said it makes sense since they'll be repainting anyway and there is a big new parking garage so they could remove those ii spots and put in a bike lanes. Sarah asked if that could be added to the connectivity map. Becka said they can add it to that map and put it on the list of things to consider. That section of North Temple is also being considered for the Green Loop so depending on what design comes to fruition, this maybe be a good interim suggestion. Lt. Wooldridge said for special events, that section is closed a few days per year. Something to think about when having an expected bike lane. Zach said having it all but a few days per year is better than not ever having it. BAC Vacancies Becka had previously sent a questionnaire to the Committee to determine if the BAC represents the bicycling community well within SLC and where there might be gaps. The Committee discussed where they would like to see additional diversity after Page 2 of 4 BAC 02-10-2025 Minutes reviewing the questionnaire results. The result of this discussion was that the Committee said they need better representation in the following areas: Parents with kids, Seniors, Racers, Disability/Adaptive Cycling, Better representation of population (non-white/men), Districts 1,3,6/East of 13oo East, Bike shop owners/staff, and e-bike riders. Ben also thought they should figure out how to better publicize this group. Sarah asked if there was a formal process laid out for the Committee to review the applications that have been received. Becka explained that staff can now go through the applications with an eye to what the Committee wants to have added. Then staff,with BAC participation if desired,will do a brief interview with the potential candidates after which recommendations are given to the Mayor's office. Laura agreed to help go through the applications and interviews. Capital Improvement Program — Rankings and Action The Committee discussed the Streets Division roadway painting and decided Sarah will send a support e-mail to the Mayor, City Council, Public Services, and the Streets Division. They went over the rankings of the SLC CIP applications. After some discussion, they decided to write a letter of support for their top five rankings. Motion: Ben motioned to write a letter supporting the TAB rankings on the SLC CIP applications with the exception of wanting Livable Streets prioritized higher, Greta seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The Committee went over the Constituent CIP application rankings by both TAB and BAC. After discussion, they decided to write a letter of support for their top five rankings from both lists. Motion: Laura motioned to use the same approach on the Constituent CIP letter of support which is to support the TAB rankings while also point out where the BAC rankings differ. Greta seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Discussion of Recent Transportation Project Designs (continued) Becka said one of the discussions that BAC has been having includes the question of why in SLC are they not doing more similar designs to some of the European designs for bikeways. Along with many of their colleagues across the country, SLC staff seek to adapt established international designs to US laws and context. There are two recent manuals that have just come out, one is put out by NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) and the other is put out by AASHTO (American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials). In the past, the NACTO guide has been very cutting edge and adapting the experimentation of many city transportation officials, while the AASHTO guide has typically been a little bit more conservative. As new manuals are published, Transportation wants look at those,look at what they've been producing, get the Committee's input, and see if they can come to agreement on what will work for SLC moving forward. She included a link on the agenda for them to go through the evolution of US trip design, specifically for bicycle facilities. Jon said they're always trying to keep up on the latest manuals and bicycle facility design. The City is working on developing some standards and this is where he thinks the BAC can be really helpful as far as giving the City feedback on design, right now is a pivotal time for reflecting, refining and standardizing. Sarah said they had a meeting where they all shared pictures of what they have experienced in the street and that is not going away, they will be incorporating it into future agendas. She would also like to reference these Page 3 of 4 BAC 02-10-2025 Minutes design guides in this process and give the City feedback. She said to keep taking pictures an submitting them to Becka and they will be at a future meeting. BAC Impact Assessment: BAC Input's Effect on Final Design for 21oo South A year or so ago, they had a discussion about 2100 South, the Committee gave feedback and Sarah is curious about what it's going to look like when it's done. Jon said there are 3 distinct sections. The eastern section is pretty close to done, it's open for all sort of traffic and spans from 110o East to 130o East. It has a multi-use path on the south side which was nice when he recently rode it. The design for the multi-use path is that it will go all the way to 70o East. Jon said the way that 2100 South is designed, traffic will be going slower and he went on to give more information about the auto lanes, multi-use path, and additional landscaping. Sarah asked how people get to that from the west. Jon said the project ends at boo East,but there may be a future project to extend that. He said UDOT did just build a path on the west side of boo East so bicyclists can connect from that pathway which goes from the S-Line to Liberty Park. He went over some additional bike lanes nearby to get from one side to the other and said there is a plan to get all the way to the Avenues on iioo East. Sarah said she went from the S-Line north on Main Street and Jon said there will be bike lanes in that SSL portion by the end of the summer. Motion: Laura Lewis motioned to adjourn the meeting; Greta Sommerfeld seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 6:29 P.M. Meeting Chat Roolf, Becka 2/10/2025 5:11 PM • For the future-you can do the two sets of minutes together in one motion. Roolf, Becka 2/10/2025 5:24 PM •Add to connectivity map - Main St. from S Line to 2100 S (this is in SSL); North Temple from West Temple to Main St. especially uphill (eastbound) Greta Sommerfeld 2/10/2025 6:15 PM • protected bike lanes through the center of the road would solve the driveway issue Roolf, Becka 2/10/2025 6:18 PM • The first protected bike lanes went into New York in C. 2007, I believe it was. Laura"LongLiveLaura" Lewis 2/10/2025 6:20 PM • Then Toronto is trying to take them out Approved by the Bicycle Advisory Committee 04-21-25. Page 4 of 4 BAC 02-10-2025 Minutes