Feb 26, 2025 Mobility Committee on 2025-02-26 10:00 AM
February 26, 2025 Mobility Committee
Full Transcript
26th mobility committee meeting let the record show that I as vice-chair am
running the meeting chair a bird is unavailable today with that I see that
there is a quorum present so we'll go ahead and convene the meeting starting
at 1002 with that we will start off with this item number one citizens comments
on agenda items and we do have one comment from miss Lauren Penn so if you
could come to the podium give your name and then would love to hear your
comments going to lower this just a little bit here okay my name is Lauren
Penn I live on Georgetown Drive here in Denton I've lived in Denton for about 20
years I've lived on Georgetown Drive for 11 and thank you so much for having
this meeting today I I just wanted to say a couple things as a resident and as
someone who is really passionate about safety for our residents and especially
for our most vulnerable residents which would be people like my kids I have
three daughters who are aged 11 9 and one and a half and they frequently ride
bikes around the neighborhood they walk to the park we also try to walk and bike
to school and over the past few years I've noticed that that has just become
a little bit more stressful and more dangerous to do so I recently was made
aware of a really bad car accident that happened at the intersection of
University Drive and Malone which is where my children crossed 380 to go to
school this car actually overturned this was a couple days before Christmas it
landed directly in the crosswalk where children walk to go to school and my
heart just broke when I saw that because I thought God forbid that happened on a
school morning when kids are trying to get to school we have in the past have
had crossing guards there we have not seen crossing guards there this year we
have children as young as five walking to school from my neighborhood over to
Newton razor elementary we have children as young as ten walking to and from
Calhoun Middle School which is now over in that direction my daughter Ivy has
actually walked home by herself and by 345 there's there's no one there to usher
kids across the highway so that was a that was definitely a wake-up call for
me among other things but one of the things I as I've started diving into
this and become really aware and really passionate about mobility about safe
streets is when I've discovered the mobility plan that that our city has I
was so encouraged I was so touched to know that our city is is working towards
creating a really safe and I believe equitable way for our residents to get
around I think about the many neighbors that I have that walk to work that don't
have cars right now our neighborhood has no sidewalks we have one sidewalk along
Malone that that just ends we have streets that are graded in such a way
that it's difficult to walk on them and everyone is forced to walk on the
street I have a lot of elderly neighbors who try to get out and exercise they
have walkers they have canes many of them are essentially trapped in their
homes because how uneven the streets are we have residents that have had to dodge
vehicles flying over 30 miles an hour down my street and miss pin wrap up your
that's your time but so wrap up your final comment sure so I would like the
mobility committee to continue your work and essentially I would ask that you
would prioritize the parts of our town that don't have sidewalks because as of
now this is not only a safety issue it's for our children for our elderly it's
also a health issue because people can't get out and exercise and walk safely and
we we simply just ask that you would continue to have if there is any way to
know a timeline so that our neighbors will know at what point can we expect a
means to get safely around our neighborhood I appreciate you miss pin
staff real quick regarding her parents on the agenda are we allowed to direct
questions at her or not
at that time if it's something that's not on the agenda today you can ask for
it to be brought back on the matrix then then what I do that I know we're safe in
is I will ask staff to get with you staff has a number of resources that
they can convey about timelines safe routes the school and some other issues
these are these are statements of fact and so what why not is if you can stay
after the meeting or I'll have staff get a hold of you and get feedback to you
yes and I just want to I also want to say I have had a meeting with dr. Butt
and with Chandra and and that was incredibly encouraging they they took the
time of when I raised some of these issues they took the time to meet with
me for several hours and and listened and had a lot of great feedback and so I
just really appreciate your efforts to to listen and to to connect with with me
and my neighborhood so can we get an update I know we have a sidewalk work
plan that we've used to prioritize where sidewalks go in next can we get an
update sort of on and I know that that was like I think a five-year work plan
so if we can get an update on kind of where we are on the sidewalk work plan
and if we have future years planned out yet I think that would be helpful for you as
well yeah anything else from other board members no all right thank you miss pen
thank you very much all right and so with that we will move on to item 2 to a
MC 2 5 0 0 6 consider approval of the minutes from January 29th the the vice
chair will take a motion I so move first from counselor Holland second from from
commissioner all in favor say aye all opposed the chairs and I so that
passes what four of us for zero all right with that we will move on to item B MC 2
5 0 0 7 receive report hold discussion regarding speed management and traffic
calming how it works the evidence of its effectiveness and advantages over
conventional street design with that I will pass it over to staff thank you good
morning Greg Scott city of Denton transportation services division bike
ped and ADA coordinator and I'm coming to you today also as a certified and and
seasoned roadway safety professional in fact my certificate number 79 and there's
now thousands of people with that certification and and that's relevant to
our conversation today because there's three messages that roadway safety
professionals bring okay first is that everything we do in and around our
roadways communicate to drivers and all users the appropriate behavior for good
or for bad actually the or behavior not just appropriate behavior but it also
communicates inappropriate behavior at times the speed and comfort which we've
been striving for for over a century are inherently dangerous for humans that
calming is the and we've spent our time the conventional approach has been to
continue to press that speed and comfort button and our safety approach has been
to yell get out of the way to other users calming as I'm going to use it
here which is inclusive of traffic calming speed management the type of
traffic calming that you may think of as treatments to repair a road that is too
long or too wide or communicates the wrong messages but and also calming
includes original designs that engage the driver lower speeds and such so I'm
just going to call all that calming so calming is the opposite of the
conventional approach which makes it difficult because there's so much
momentum behind the conventional approach and we can't sleep our way sleep
walk our way through this we have to be it requires changes to policy procedures
and organizational change which is always difficult and if we are going to
embrace this we'll have to be leaders as a city as transportation for America
says you can't prioritize both speed and safety and that is very true so as said
here traffic calming I'm not going to be reading a lot from the slides so I'll
ask you to take a look at them traffic calming uses design to communicate
proper behavior we've taken a first step as a City Council as a city to say our
highest priority is human life over all road decisions and that we're going to
use physical road features to improve safety and this last strategy you'll see
how this plays into what you'll be seeing in the future is these projects
that we're planning to design low-stress bike-ped facilities so if you take a
look at this see how it makes you feel on one side you have the conventional
approach there although probably not intentional at the time there were some
intentionality to it something that feels more like traffic calming and
you'll note that they're not one-off projects this isn't like throwing a
speed hump out there and say we got this right it is a feel it works best as a
package it's multiple things it starts in the planning process so comparing
trap calming to the conventional approach again is calming puts actually
things in the right-of-way it puts it what it puts low consequent risk in the
right-of-way to reflect the inherent risks that actually are there and have
always been there that we've tried to get rid of over time but we cannot it's
just impossible to get rid of those risks okay so it puts risk in some risk
you might you know you might bump your tire on the curb but that's better than
hitting a child okay so and in that way engages the driver and so if you look
first on this left side is it right yeah left side but these are fairly minor
things there's just it's still a package but they're minor you may recall when we
talked about speed pillows the speed pillows though the rise I told you about
a implementation of speed pillows in Portland where and a speed pillow maybe
rises four inches over seven feet to go up and then has a plateau about three
feet and then four inches down and then besides that it has grooves channels for
a fire department to go to go through so they don't have to go up and over and
you would think how does that change okay but what it does is it lowers the
top speeds so all the speeds if you look at it on the graph like that it
compresses by moving the the the higher speeds in that makes sense so I'm gonna
shift gears for this next side which is that it's so beneficial to have to lower
that speed just a little bit to compress that range of speeds because there's an
exponential correlation between a lot of the risk we experience as as community
as road users and the severity as well so if you think about this is one
example you have thinking time you have stopping time this one's a little
obvious that the curve by increasing your speed by just over two times you're
increasing your stopping distance by you know four and a half times right so it's
it's pretty exponential here's another example so they've put computers that on
glasses to watch drivers eye movement and such and what they're seeing is that
as you increase your speed this is for everybody no matter who we are because
we're humans as we increase our speed our focus lengthens and our vision
narrows so what you get is kind of a blindness to the side when I worked in
Orlando we would measure before or after treatments for mid-block road crossings
and we were just not seeing them going down a high rate of people on these are
major streets high rate of people just blow by when there's a pedestrian there
we tried enforcement we put more signs the signs did help a little bit depending
on where they were not so much on the side as you can imagine more in the
center and you know the range of thought was you know this is kind of a cultural
thing right we're we're in Orlando we're in the south people don't care that much
or maybe there's a bunch of New Yorkers down here maybe they're just rude and
they don't care or maybe all these people from all over the world you know
they're not used to this right so that was kind of the thought but you know
coming being a Portlander everybody in Portland it's almost to a fault stops
okay but and I couldn't do it either and it was really due to this because if you
unless you intentionally look or whatever you'll blow I would blow by
people waiting to cross because the speeds were so high that that you just
couldn't see him right even though technically you could you thought you
could but you can't and then it's about severity I mean we all know that if
you've been bowling if you bowl real fast you see you know the impact of
kinetic energy on things we are things and it's exponential if you hit the pins
and sometimes so I'm not gonna dwell on that you've all seen this so what makes
traffic calming hard also is the trust that it takes because it is not how we
normally do things we're adding some risk minor risk to the roadway people
can be upset about that so you have to trust that it works and how we know is
we have studies are showing how changes to our roadway environment affect
positively or negatively quite different types of crashes and sometimes they're
very specific findings and sometimes they're broader and bless you you know
in like October I handed this out this is a list of what's called crash
modification factors that that shows how the connections between specific
trauma traffic calming and and different types of crashes these are all injury
crashes in this case so that's available to you also the federal government has a
plethora of guidance on this they really encourage it they you can go very deep
and see where to do it what to what where you need to take some care but
it's very encouraging what they have okay these are things that we can trust
these are things that help us if we feel that we might be legally exposed right
because these are guidance from the feds so what would be the alternative I guess
more education enforcement those are pretty expensive those are pretty
fleeting vehicle safety has been really helpful to us for people that are in the
car not so much people outside the car as I think you you've seen in one of the
one of the memos that you have show some graphs regarding that you've got
pedestrian fatalities going way up and there's a K shaped as they call it
right pedestrian fatalities going up well in in vehicle you know they're
going down because at least as a proportion because because we've done a
pretty good job of creating little cocoons for ourselves so again
conventional tries to eliminate risks sanitize the road we've got warrants for
crossings warrants for this and warrants for that right trying to prioritize that
speed okay but it sends a message that there's not risks out here we don't see
many risks right it was when we do see the risk they're really random the speed
is safe peds are pedestrians are confined to crossings we're calming
communicates that risk by adding some really relatively minor risk without
concept not with minor consequences in order to communicate that and so in the
next I'm going to move on so in the next month we're going to talk about
implementable recommendations and what we can do about it kind of an action
plan that's what it what it comes down to but in the end it just requires
attention and distrust and leadership that's that's it sure mr. chair all
right questions for mr. Scott good thank you for this presentation Greg I'm
really excited to see that we're looking at the the more meaningful long-term
types of approaches for slowing speeds because I know people get frustrated
they complain about speeding in their neighborhood we you know can address it
for a little bit but then as soon as the humans enforcing it are gone then it
kind of returns after a while so I'm really glad to see that we're looking at
options that are more meaningful and long-lasting one question I have is as
we're looking at corridors to calm we are also building new roads that are
wide and inviting speeding so I'm specifically thinking of I think it's
Highland Park Road there's a new segment of it down in Dina and also the new
segment of parvin I think those are both collectors and there's not really any
reason to park along those and they're about a four-lane wide road I think the
thought is that people could park on it but it's kind of not in an area that
people are going to park so I'm kind of curious if and you don't have to answer
this now but as part of this if we at some point might also look at our
transportation criteria manual to see if at least we can look at the context of
let's say a collector to see do we need it to be this wide or are we just
inviting speeding I think Hercules up in the North Lakes area there's a new
segment same problem it's about four lanes wide effectively nobody's parked
on it so people are just flying right so as we're fixing things we're sort of
creating new problems so I would like to see us maybe at some point in the future
kind of look at not creating new problems right yeah starts with planning
right exactly and I know that's going to be a long ways away before before we can
get to that and then the other question I had is I am curious if either in the
next presentation or maybe a future one if we could almost combine sort of maybe
economic development to sort of look at the question of how does traffic speed
or traffic safety how did different types of roadways impact basically the
success of a business because if you think about downtown Fry Street if I go
to another community and I and I'm in the cool area of town that was there's a
lot of people walking around there's a theme where typically the traffic is a
little slower and it's friendlier for pedestrians I'd be interested to kind of
hear the economic side of safe streets right specifically from the economic
development business friendly kind of region so I guess that those are two
requests I have a question I guess to start off with did I lived over on
Cordell previously so near the new Newton razor near Avenue Foreman set the
right middle school Calhoun thank you over over by the new Calhoun and so as
those schools were going in y'all dropped four-way stops in quite a few
new areas there was the new like very short bike lane on Cordell slash Crescent
approaching the school and as far as I'm aware those were just kind of dropped I
was on mobility committee at the time and I did not hear about those in
advance I lived in the neighborhood and I didn't get any like information so
have people complained about those has there been any negative response to
those at all
Chandra transportation services no complaints we got so far it's all been
positive okay all right great so I guess my comment would be that we have a bike
ped plan right now right in the mobility plan I'm looking at a map of all of
these places that we've identified as good corridors for placing bike
infrastructure which I think is traffic calming to a large extent right you're
narrowing the lanes you're adding complexity you're doing all of these
these traffic calming things and you know I've lived in a neighborhood where
there was just some traffic safety traffic calming stuff implemented
suddenly it doesn't sound like there were any complaints I trust you guys I
trust your expertise I trust you your ability to work together as a team like
I don't I guess as a mobility committee member I don't want to be sitting here
and going okay well here's my thoughts on what you guys should do here's like
this project that I want to discuss on this committee I'd rather you just put
put stuff in like so like go you know get out there start doing stuff because
it seems like we have the ability to do identify projects that need done do them
and there's you know no negative community response positive community
response obviously some projects will be larger and I think need that level of
involvement but I trust you guys to go out there and just start doing small
stuff you know and I would like it if that that could happen I don't I don't
need input I guess is what I'm saying you know well from a just a broader
city's perspective some of those projects do require funding as you know
so I know Brian's laughing at me because it's always gonna come back to the
budget but but when I mean and I will speak for I mean we have three projects
in the queue right now where they're they're implementing some recommendations
based on some traffic studies that they did so they are doing that I think our
staff are doing that some of the larger projects that require more funding
that's when it's gonna come to you it's gonna go through the budget process go
through the CIP planning process to make sure that we have the adequate funding
to implement the recommendations yeah if just start throwing paint down on the
road that's my suggestion I don't know that I can comment okay okay well then
I'll jump in with some of my my questions and comments the one of the
thing it kind of falls on from some of the other comments that you've heard I
think there there is a lack of awareness that I think we can solve and I I don't
know how much effort we will take but I think I think we could solve it in terms
of education outreach and training it's a common mantra of mine that that you
know when people are aware of the benefits they they tend to be accepting of
you know change versus change sprung on them it's kind of the flip of what she
was saying you know there's there's been no real issues on for the the
recommendations that that y'all just did so I support that just go out there and
be proactive to the extent that the budget will allow or that we can
pre-program the budget to allow for that flexibility where I was going is I was
going to also encourage that education outreach and training component to get
over this idea that oh well that when I have a dense street in terms of
interactions that that's on purpose you're planning them on purpose and it
takes me to Commissioner rumors question about do we need to revise our standards
for planning for existing roads that's gonna be challenging we're gonna have to
paint those or put bump outs or some other physical infrastructure piece to
create that congestion on purpose concept some of that can be painting but
I it makes me question as we roll out for the development if we don't need to
revise our standards for arterials and and other collectors and whatnot to get
this effect and I was wondering if you could comment on that briefly sure good
morning for Han but deputy director transportation services division I I
asked requested Greg to for me to comment on this because you know we have
already drafted the process for this and for the standards update for first round
we are making some significant updates which were critical and but there are
not many which will be presented probably in next one or two months for
the transportation criteria manual but the in-depth review for the standard
updates would be following and then we will start the process in that we'll
have to include other departments for instance fire and police department to
get their considerations as well and we we are on it but you know if if you ask
for the timeline I think we can circle back on that and can provide more
information and as part of that that sounds great I'm really interested in you
know not not necessarily pushing but just encouraging the but as part of that
I'd love to see it's either as part of this this future presentation or as part
of that presentation you're just mentioning solutions that we envision to
what miss Penn and Commissioner rumor brought forward which is some of these
strode's that we have in town you know they're a known issue because their
strode's so how how do we adjust that to and you know I know that's gonna be part
of vision zero gonna be part of planning gonna be part of mobility so I know it's
a it's a combined thing but I'd be interested in having multiple committees
touch that to make sure that every or is rowing in the same direction sure we
will do that and as part of your recommendation we will we will include
economic development as a factor in prioritization of those projects that
address the question now I really appreciate you addressing your comments
because I was gonna bring up economic development as well that that we I don't
think we can do these in in a vacuum sure so other other questions from the
board all right well with that we will move on to item to see MC 25 0 0 8 the
staff memorandum and I will note and I appreciate staff helping me out I had
issues with both the online and the the I legislate getting the memorandum so
appreciate them getting those documents I hope has everybody else had a chance
to review those good excellent good morning Trevor crane director of capital
projects so we did provide some answers to your questions and our staff memo
which is up on the screen and was provided to y'all if you have any further
questions we have staff here that can give you any further information that's
necessary questions for staff go ahead comment on the my question from last
time 56% reduction in absolute crashes I think that's incredible that shows how
important protected bike lanes are because you know more people use
protected bike lanes so you're getting I don't know maybe a doubling or a
tripling depending on where the infrastructure is how high in demand it
is and then you're still seeing a reduction in the total number of
crashes which is just incredible so love that thank you for sharing that
information other other comments or concerns go ahead on the mobility plan
amendment it's I see that the first input meeting and I guess for anybody
that watches is after the fact there's possible changes on safety and
classification of Eagle Drive between North Texas Boulevard and South Carol and
Welch Street so basically some streets around UNT so I see that the first
meeting is on the UNT campus March 25th at 2 30 p.m. so I'm assuming that that
sort of targeting the UNT community specifically at that 230 meeting is what
I'm understanding sure hold on one second yeah that's right we have three
neighborhood meetings one is in person and two are virtual oh I see two up
there so you said there's more than two yeah I think one yeah though one listed
that 230 is the in person and the other two are which will there is another one
I can find the date out sure yeah if we can get those additional dates I'd
appreciate it anything okay I will I will say I really appreciate the I've
got really great feedback from this the community on the information that y'all
provided last time and now formally this time on pedestrian call buttons that
that seemed to bring a lot of peace of mind from the community they appreciate
that then I think well and and and I will I will say I appreciate us bringing
forward the the Austin Street stuff considering that the timelines it sort
of you know that that ship had sailed so but I still appreciate stuff digging
into that and to and moving forward so any other questions or concerns on the
memorandum no all right so moving on to any of the you're gonna do the
construction report or whatever you can do that one sure sure so we provide
the construction report here in a staff memo we can go through it if you'd like
but if you have any further questions I think that's probably easier if you have
any questions about any of the construction projects we provide updates
on I've got Seth Garcia my deputy director he didn't go through any of
those at a neighborhood meeting last night everybody was interested about the
Hickory Creek project and that and that's almost a no no there is simply no
news is that is that correct well there is some news so Hickory Creek phase 3 we
were waiting on the UPR agreement which was finally agreed to with the railroad
and it went to council in January I believe December or January we are
working with the contractor now to get them back to work I anticipate having
them back to work in next month so the goal is to have them mobilized and
starting to work again once we get them back to work I believe we're looking at
a 16 to 18 month timeline to get that project to completion okay thank you yes
sir so the I will I will bring up as no you're good so 16 to 18 months after
March when would Ryan Road begin so we would start construction so we're
currently working on Ryan Road right now to bring it up to a hundred percent
design working through the ultimate right-of-way acquisitions so the goal
would be as soon as Hickory Creek 3 is substantially complete so
substantially complete means we can start putting traffic on it we would
start construction of Ryan Road so you're probably if let's assume we're
we're looking at 18 months substantial completion for Hickory Creek we would
start that bidding process probably 16 months from now so that we're ready to
start construction on Ryan Road as soon as Hickory Creek opens up I can't do the
math so probably q4 2026 yeah well no I would probably say q3 of 2026 okay now
you're making me do math yeah yeah and I'm sorry because it's not even tens so
and I beg your pardon thank you mr. no one told me there'd be math involved
commissioner what is six times nine so kind of building off the Ryan Road so we
don't have all the right-of-way yet no we're right well we're so we have the
right-of-way to build the cross-section we're looking at now we want to go ahead
and acquire the ultimate right-of-way for the section that shows on the
mobility plan you know lands not gonna get any cheaper so we want to go ahead
and acquire that now we'll build a a smaller cross-section than what shows on
the mobility plan but we'll have all the right-of-way acquired so in the future
when the traffic warrants it we'll be able to just come back and build the
additional sections do we foresee any challenge because I know one of the
biggest delays of a road expansion project is right-of-way acquisition does
it look like everything is going well with that or do we anticipate any delays
or well so the good thing is we're requiring that now and we don't think
we're gonna be able to or we don't want to start that construction for another
16 18 months that gives us a pretty big window to start working through that
right-of-way acquisition process if we have to go to eminent domain on some of
those some of those parcels it gives us some time to do that so as of right now
no I don't see anything but I don't want I'm not gonna promise thank you all
right so the couple of questions I had that they're not really in these bunny
braids but they're part of the bunny brain and it's probably more appropriate
for the matrix so I'll just touch it in here and bring it back up the matrix
time and that is something that I brought up in council is making clear the
mobility changes due to South Bonnie Bray as related to the UPR our agreement
and and the routings that we're gonna take through and I can't think of the
name of the neighborhood that's west of the the new one that's coming in down
there anyway that neighborhood and then as well as you know some further ones
all down to the south so I'll bring that up again just as a reminder later in the
appropriate item and then it might be similar but maybe some projections on
the the Windsor changes it do they relate to the West Gate changes they
occurring at the same time or that that's further down the realignments of
Windsor all the way over by 35 so in reference to mobility mobility plan
chains I think the only thing that would happen out there is we would propose
changing the name of West Gate Bronco Way well not West Gate yeah West Gate and
Ronnie Road to make it Bronco Way the entire way that'll be something we work
on during a construction process but those projects so Bonnie Bray phase six
is the Ronnie Road portion right in front of the elementary school that's
under construction now they started mobilizing this month West Gate we
split that into two separate projects so originally West Gate was the east west
section and the north southwest section we split that into two projects we're
still acquiring right away on the north south section east west is ready to go
so we want to start that construction on that one to try to give us that east
west corridor as quickly as possible so that'll be going out to bid within the
next couple months and then the Ronnie Road east project is also going to start
probably q3 of this year and that'll give us that full east west mobility
through that section okay all right well and yeah so that sounds good for now and
I'll look for those at the updated matrix other other questions on these
items all right so then we're on to what's the next one the anything for the
trip reporting any comments or concerns no all right yes ma'am
thank you all for including this and giving regular updates on the trip
projects absolutely all right with that we will move on to item D MC 25009
receiver porthole discussion and give to staff direction about future meeting
topics the matrix sure so I don't I'm not gonna read through all this stuff we
have a lot on here that we still owe you updates on and on future meetings I
would ask at this point if there's anything that we want to add to the to
the matrix for us to prepare for future meetings hopefully this one's not
horribly hard but can we get a more detailed view of how the existing 10
foot side path so there's the 288 380 connector textile project and there's
that ramp that's gonna come off of 380 and connect to loop 288 right now on the
north side of 380 there's a 10 foot side path that connects May Hill to the green
belt and I'm I've tried to poke at it and I'm still not clear on how that will
be impacted all I know is yes there will be a facility but I'm kind of looking at
will that will it create a detour or additional travel distance and if so how
much for the folks using the side path so if we can get and it doesn't have to
be super detailed just a line or or you can describe how much additional
distance we're looking at if somebody's going from May Hill to the green belt
let's say sure so I think we can work with text on as they kind of develop
those plans to make sure we're providing what that connects that
connectivity is gonna look like for our pedestrian facilities and then I have
one other I think I tried to ask for this last time so around town I'm kind
of noticing sidewalks that are blocked for construction right and you know
that's torn up like we need to put something under the sidewalk but in some
cases I'm not seeing either a suggested detour or a provision provided for
pedestrian or bicycle traffic to get around the construction zone and I think
there's standards for that and so I'm still trying to understand you know what
are the requirements for if there's an existing sidewalk or an existing bike
lane what are the standards for either work you know working that traffic around
the zone or creating a detour or communicating that kind of thing because
you know like on locust right now kind of close to Oakland Street or close to
the Denton ISD building will say you know both sidewalks are blocked and I
haven't yet seen like a detour suggestion or any provision for somebody
to work around that so an able-bodied person might walk in the street
somebody in a wheelchair with mobility challenges they may just get trapped and
not know how to proceed so these are the kind of issues that I'm trying to
understand like is there is there a systemic thing that we need to be
looking at so that we're not just reporting these one-off kind of things
all the time does that make sense do you need any clarity on what I'm asking
Cassie or no I think I understand so you're you're wanting to know what the
requirements are for when sidewalks are closed especially for detour routes
specifically for you know people with mobility challenges and you gave the
specific example of Oakland Street since both sidewalks on both sides of
the streets are blocked perfect yeah and also if there's a continuous bike lane
so an example there is Hickory Street at Welch so Welch is under construction and
some of that construction is you know in into the bike lane and interrupting it
and it's just sort of bike lane ends but it doesn't tell the bike traffic what to
do and so with like a novice user or like biker which is largely what we have
over there yeah right so it's just sort of an unexpected thing and then you have
unexpected merging between bike traffic and car traffic which isn't great
especially when you have a more inexperienced rider and so you know what
what kinds of accommodations do the standards say if there's an existing you
know bike lane or sidewalk so both is what I'm looking at okay thanks
mr. Bray a couple things I'll touch on when we have the March meeting on
traffic calming I'm really interested in so this is more part of that item maybe
than a separate item you know letting us know you know innovative and but
fiscally responsible cheap uses of painting striping and lane dividers I
know that just back channel communication we've had a lot of
conversation about various technologies for lane dividers and how what the city
anticipates which ones they're using and which ones are best practice that sort
of thing Commissioner Rumer and I were at a bike convention not too long ago
where you know there was there's a number of options conveyed and we were
it was interesting again I'll touch since this is the appropriate item I'd love to
have make sure that we have just a clear forward-thinking plan about what we're
doing when we shut down Bonnie Bray for the you know give two to get one
transition down there in South Bonnie Bray in terms of how we're routing and
what the the anticipated changes the mobility plan particularly to that one
house and and I think it's a junkyard or something down there what how are they
gonna get there because they're gonna get landlocked and I think we just it
reminds me of the situation out East where where the the bypass was gonna come
through and potentially landlock a business right where they wanted to
divert the bridge so I just want to make sure that we're gonna land lock
something we do it intentionally and and know how we're gonna respond to that I
assume we will then again this this is probably in one of those other items and
I touched on it earlier you know how are we managing strode's because we we've
had a bunch of accidents along University it's one of our our common
accident strode producing roads and so what our standards there I don't know I
know that staff has has come up with a report on k-wood at Greenwood about that
old circle that's no longer circle and what their intents are to do with it I'm
happy to talk with staff after the fact I'm not sure that may that may be a
mobility item because we have other I think we have other locations in town
that would benefit from that discussion of when when how we treat old circles
and when we put in new circles so I may have to get back with staff on whether
I'm I think I'll hold off on asking for an action item for now but I anticipate
asking for a matrix item which is why I'm bringing it up here and and a
perfect example of this is as the apartment complex at mingo and Old North
south of University Old North goes like a hundred yards before it hits mingo
that intersection that's just a curve as the apartment complex has come in as
other traffic has come in we've seen more and more and more traffic not know what
to do there they don't know whether to go down fish fish trap mingo they don't
know whether to go up Old North they don't know what to do there because it
it's confusing so I want to put that on staffs radar that that location is a is
a prime location for future eyeballs to look at that because clearly the the
people that live there and the new folks don't know how to treat that anymore
there's just a lot of confusion I've seen anecdotally popping up and I
literally drive that every time y'all make me come down here to city hall so
so that that I'm again I'm not sure if that's a matrix item or not I'll leave
that up to staff whether they want to address that offline or as a matrix item
I'm comfortable either way for those and I know we're not having discussion on
matrix items we're just saying matrix items so any anything else in the matrix
okay so with that we will move on we did that we did D we'll move on to any
concluding items item 3 any concluding items oh oh do we want it yes I'm sorry
we'll go back to item 2d I'll reopen that item and we'll have a vote on
removal any problems with the ones that staff indicated they wanted to remove
so it'll be item 3 which is the collision collision reduction statistics
item 4 which is the concerns for bicyclists that pedestrian safety on
Austin item 10 which is the maintenance frequency of PCBs and item 17 dispenser
road behind Walmart right turn yes ma'am I'll move to recommend removal of the
recommended items is this a voter direction it's a vote okay I move I so
move okay we have first from Commissioner rumors second from
Commissioner Bray all in favor commission the chairs and I so that's
4-0 to remove those items thank you thank you Cassie for reminding us to do
that now we will move on to item 3 any concluding items any comments anything we
need to bring to staffs attention outside the matrix yes ma'am it's a good
week to bike today or this this week is excellent for biking very warm if you're
somebody who bikes occasionally and it stopped for the winter it's a good time
to get back into it I could use some vitamin D when are we back in March
March 26 there we go the I will remind staff that and I don't it's probably not
relevant for the Mobility Committee but the majority of council like the vast
majority of council is in National League of Cities the night through the
13th so don't don't ask council for any decisions in that week because we're not
here so and I don't know if any of the commissioners are doing anything so just
just be it I think that's spring break for you and T as well so just just be
aware that that's a potentially awkward week for any decisions from this body
or from council all right with that anything else before I close out the
meeting no all right so at 1057 we will close the meeting you know