Charlottesville Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Thursday, February 1st, 2018 NDS Conference Room, 2nd Floor City Hall MEMBERS PRESENT: Frank Deviney Carl A. Schwarz Niko Test Sarah Littlefield Lena Seville Dave Stackhouse Kyle Rodland 1. Welcome and Introductions The meeting was called to order promptly at 5:00pm. 2. Overview from Safe Routes to School Representative Kyle Rodland, the Safe Routes to School representative, was present at the meeting to share the mission and methods of the program. Kyle began by passing out an information sheet and some pages from a grant agreement. The SRTS program is in its second year and the committee is made up of Kyle, Amanda, and P.E, teachers in the city. Kyle described that program, explaining that: the program is state run, currently in eight schools (all schools besides HS currently have SRTS implementation) and funded by VDOT. The program supports anything that makes walking and biking safer. There are stationary trailers with bikes at schools. K-8th grade has opportunity to learn how to ride a bike, the program supports bike and walk groups (walking bus/train), as well as any school that has biking or walking efforts, examples of efforts such as walk day- dropping kids off 1/4 mile before school to walk to school. The presentation was informational and prompted many questions from attendees: Q. Lena: “What is the reason of the program?” A. Kyle: “To promote biking and walking transportation, safety, education, outreach, and access to infrastructure.” Kyle described that the program also helps to build community relationships and development. Certain programs such as: helmet giveaways administered by local fire and police departments and partnerships with CAMBC aid in creating community relationships. Kyle also described new and positive implementations of behavioral management within schools where students now have the option to bike or walk as a means to cool off instead of detention. Q. Carl: “Do bikes stay at the schools?” A. Kyle: “Yes, bikes do not go home with students.” Q. Carl: “Why is High School not included?” A. Kyle: “Because it is currently not funded by the program.” However, Kyle also described that he has just come back from SRTS training and that he hopes to move involvement from 8-10 schools with the help of infrastructure grants. Q. Frank: “Is the question and/or complaint that my kid cannot walk to x because of x?” A. Kyle: Yes, you have to think like a child in reference to safe access for walking. What might seem maneuverable by an adult may be very difficult for a child. Q. Lena: “How can we help you? Because walkers only cover a section of the city and are blind to what else is going on, it is important to work together.” A. Kyle: It would be very helpful to have BPAC help with fielding complaints and funneling them in the right direction. It would also be helpful to have transparency with complaints and suggestions and to compile Q & A’s to forward to BPAC. The need for a map of ‘hot spots’ was expressed to distinguish current pathways of travel. Q. Frank: “Who is collecting pedestrian numbers?” A. Kyle: “We (SRTS) does official tallies of numbers.” Kyle described that when there is more people, it is better for the safety and for demand and feedback. Q. Frank: “How many teachers bike to school?” A. Kyle: “At least one in every school.” 3. Budget Discussion Carl led the discussion with regard to the CIP budget and questions arose about whether BPAC should reach out to council to ask that funding be secured for CIP and also inquiries into how the CIP budget works and how it is distributed. How much funding was recommended for BPAC? Is there a rollover budget? No answers were provided and Dave Stackhouse volunteered to draft a letter of CIP request and outreach to give to city council. 4. Charter Changes A movement to vote on charter changes at next months (February’s) meeting was passed. 5. 5th Street Multi- Modal Corridor Study Frank provided an overview of the 5th St. Multi-Modal Corridor Study. He explained that the city is in stage one of this project planning which aims to gather input and general information from the public. Around 60+ people attended. The project is designed to function as sections in the works, but overall congruent. The project will provide short term, medium term, and long term priorities. The timeline for this project is two years and a consultant claims that funding is already there. It was expressed that a safe pedestrian crossing is needed at Fifth St. crossing and that a goal should be to connect Moore’s Creek crossing to Biscuit Run Trail. Dave described that the current crossing at Moore’s Creek is an old pipe and that in order to connect the trail, one would need to build a proper crossing. It was also highlighted that there are associated yet separate Trail Hub meetings occurring in the city to support a project to happen beyond Harris. The study has many stakeholders providing input: City Parks and Recreation, Kathy Galvin, TJPDC, PEC, Economic Development Group, UVA, JABA, PVCC, Monticello Trails, Rivanna Trails, Ali Hill, and Charlottesville and Albemarle Urban Core. The overall product of this study as well as the Greenways project is to develop a plan, obtain more funding and definition, and to gain traction and break ground. It is all about connectivity and currently about making sure that we are gathering all the pieces of the puzzle. Lena shared that at the PLACE meeting last month they discussed Preston Avenue and how that style of street uses a lot of space but maybe not in the best way. She explained that shorter width roadways create more of a relaxed environment for people biking and walking. This led to a discussion about general traffic flow in the study area and how the traffic flow here leads often to bottlenecking. 6. Three Notched Trail Support The Three Notched Trail is currently in phase one. The goal is to extend the trail out to the surrounding areas of Charlottesville. Peter (in absentia) inquired about obtaining BPAC support for the mission of Three Notched Trail; he requested that BPAC draft a letter to send in as support. BPAC attendees and members agreed to give Peter the go ahead to reach out to the project to show support. 7. Announcements Greenways Project and Safe Routes to School Bike Repair Event- Feb. 17 at Three Notched Brewery. March 7th Boards and Commissions Comprehensive Plan Workshop. 8. Updates Rapid Flashing Beacons that are in the ground will not be replaced. The BAR is working on what is the best crosswalk beacons/lights implementation for the four crosswalks in the Downtown area. The concern is that Rapid Flashing Beacons equate to more signage. Carl described that currently the RRFB are coupled in packages and there is a discussion occurring about if Charlottesville should create their own enhanced crossing standards for certain areas of town. The BAR requested that there needs to be better lighting at the parking garage crosswalk. Lena expressed that we should design our own standards which reflect smaller scale, more pedestrian friendly signage over large and industrialized sized signage. Carl believes that partnering with PLACE on this issue would be helpful. Meeting Adjourned The meeting was adjourned at 7:00pm. Meeting Minutes Written and Submitted By: Niko Test, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Intern The Next BPAC Meeting is Scheduled For: Thursday, March 1st, 2018 at 5:00pm in the NDS conference room on the Second Floor of City Hall.