Sep 17, 2020 Traffic Safety Commission on 2020-09-17 11:00 AM

September 17, 2020 Traffic Safety Commission 75854

Meeting Details
Meeting Date: September 17, 2020
Board: Traffic Safety Commission
Video ID: 75854
Has Transcript: Yes
Has Agenda: Yes
AI Summary by Dentron 3000

Meeting Summary: Traffic Safety Commission Date: September 17, 2020 Format: Virtual/Teleconference

Key Topics and Discussions - Approval of the July 20, 2020 meeting minutes. - Development of a municipal ordinance to regulate golf cart operation on city streets. Staff presented current Texas Transportation Code provisions, operational advantages, safety limitations, and potential regulatory requirements (e.g., speed limits, licensing, insurance, safety equipment). Commission members discussed geographic restrictions, emphasizing university campus streets and lower-speed corridors. - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Transition Plan update. Staff reported on a late-2019 consultant study identifying non-compliant sidewalks, curb ramps, and traffic signals. Estimated unfunded compliance costs total approximately $34 million. Discussion covered prioritization criteria (proximity to schools, high-traffic areas, street characteristics) and the feasibility of automatic pedestrian detection signals. - Staff updates on three initiatives: - Safe Routes to School: Two active sidewalk projects (Pecan Wilson/Pecan Creek and Jennings/Alexander) are in the design phase, with construction projected for 2021–2023. The city did not receive funding in the latest grant cycle. - Bike/Scooter Share: Veo withdrew from the Denton market due to program structure changes. The city will seek a new vendor and reevaluate program parameters. - Mobility Plan: Virtual community input meetings are ongoing. A final draft is expected in November 2020, with City Council adoption anticipated in early 2021.

Motions, Votes, and Outcomes - Motion to approve the July 20, 2020 minutes was made by Vice Chair Melissa Carr and seconded by Member Clay Thurmond. The motion passed via roll call vote.

Decisions Made - The Commission reached consensus to direct staff to proceed with drafting a golf cart ordinance, incorporating safety, licensing, insurance, and speed/geographic restrictions. - The ADA Transition Plan report and staff updates were received for informational purposes; no formal action or vote was taken on these items.

Action Items or Next Steps - Staff to draft proposed golf cart ordinance language and restrictions for future Commission review prior to submission to City Council. - Staff to develop a 5–10 year prioritization and implementation schedule for ADA compliance improvements, cross-reference with the Capital Improvement Program to avoid duplicate funding, and identify potential funding sources (bonds, TxDOT, NCTCOG). - Staff to coordinate with universities and stakeholders to solicit proposals for a new bike-share vendor, targeting program launch in early 2021. - Staff to continue virtual community meetings for the Mobility Plan, finalize the draft in November 2020, and prepare for City Council adoption in early 2021. - Meeting adjourned following completion of the agenda.

Agenda Chapters
1. A. Consider the approval of the minutes of July 20, 2020.
0:29 - 2:01
2. B. Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the development of an ordinance allowing golf carts to travel on City streets.
2:01 - 17:32
3. C. Receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the City of Denton’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Transition Plan.
17:32 - 37:51
4. D. Staff Update regarding the Safe Routes to School, Bike/Scooter Share Programs and Community Input on Mobility Plan
37:51 - 50:22
Transcript
7305 words
you sorry your video froze on my end I apologize okay well welcome to our September 17th 2020 meeting appreciate those who are here it looks like we do have a quorum now and we'll try to do this meeting officially today so with our first item for consideration is item a TSC oh well do we need to first approve the meat the meeting minutes yeah so item TSC 20 - 0 1 6 is to prove the minutes from July 20 2020 and so I just need a motion to approve those minutes I motion to approve the moments the minutes all all in seconds we have a motion from Melissa and a second from Clay all in favor hi actually sorry I've got a I've got to stop you there because we're we're doing it like this you've got to do it you've got to go down the roll of those who are here okay okay so I can get Melissa yes I just need to say my name is that what's happening I'm Melissa car here no no it just he's got it he's got to take the vote that way it's not like a yeah so your present absent thing it's just a as we're doing the votes he's got to call you out one at a time and you can say aye or yes sir or in favor of yes yeah so yeah yeah your name yes or no okay just go around so Melissa yeah Clay yeah Connie okay and I think that's all of our council members we have in attendance correct I'm not I want to make sure I'm not missing anyone well plus yourself and plus myself I vote yay thank you I'm here also so okay so the minutes approve so we'll move on to the TSC 20 - zero one seven receive report and hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the development of an ordinance allowing golf carts to travel on city streets thank you mr. chairman Brian yawn city traffic engineer can you see the screen yes awesome so we're here today to talk about golf carts and their place on city streets we've had a number of requests over the past six actually started before Corona so probably close to a year now requesting the city adopt an ordinance allowing the use of golf carts on city streets primarily coming from the universities both universities like to use the golf carts to maneuver around campus and most of the streets through their campuses or city streets so it's generating the need so can a golf cart use a city street yes the transportation code does allow limited use of golf carts on city streets a golf cart and I can read this but basically if you're in a master plan community on a golf course or on a public or private beach that's one time you can use a golf cart on the street if you're honest if you're if you're driving from your residence to a golf course that is less than two miles from where your house or where the golf cart is normally placed and the roadway is 35 miles an hour less you can by right use a golf cart on a and then the third in which is kind of why we're here today is City Council made by ordinance authorized golf cart use on city streets with some limitations and we can talk about the limitations as you have that you know basically it has to be a 35 mile an hour slower street so one of the stipulations is you have to have a valid driver's license and liability insurance you have to add some safety equipment that may or may not come as standard equipment on all golf carts but there are stipulations that allow the golf cart to function more as a vehicle than a golf cart because typically on a golf course you don't need headlights and breaking lights and mirrors and so and then this is what we're hearing again today well take it back this is a can we can we prohibit golf carts so that's the complete hundred and eighty of what we're here today for is can we by ordinance prohibit golf carts and the answer is yes same same statutes that are listed in the transportation code so what would be the advantages or disadvantages of allowing golf carts or using golf carts on city streets versus a vehicle so one of the arguments from the golf cart user is they're relatively inexpensive to own and operate so I'd rather than have it by a vehicle if I wanted or something else if I wanted to drive say around campus I'm UNT or MTW I can buy a fleet vehicle like a pickup or a sedan and I can drive that up and down this you know the short trips that typically they make or I can have a fleet of very small very efficient electric golf carts and they have the range and the ability to do what I need to do with a lot less of a footprint so golf carts do well for short trips much much better than a vehicle easier to park environmentally friendly quiet if we're talking electric more maneuverable typically than a normal vehicle and again the take up less room in parking and again electric charging for a standard outlet the disadvantages is the disadvantages are fairly limited travel speed so typically an electric golf cart might top out around 25 miles an hour and again that restricts the type of roads that we really want to put them on we don't want them golf cart on University it just would not be appropriate they've got a limited range for the charge versus a normal vehicle with a full tank of gas even on a full charge they're gonna go 40 miles or less which means you have to charge them more frequently again the low speeds have little the lower speed vehicles have lower safety standards and passenger cars and this is what I was talking about earlier most golf carts don't come with a lot of safety features because they're not intended to be driven on a city street or operated as a private vehicle on a roadway and then again they just lack general accepted safety rating system so there's no crash tests they don't they don't have the dummies and the crash test course established for golf carts or low speed vehicle that's the other acronym that we'll use so why we're here today with these things in mind and we can have a much more robust discussion when I'm done but we want to determine if the city of Denton desires a golf cart ordinance do we want to allow by right golf carts to use city streets with the restrictions that we will place on using you know once we craft an ordinance we can place whatever restrictions we want 35 mile an hour less to have to have a driver's license I have to have liability insurance the carts themselves have to have enhanced safety features seat belts we can craft whatever stipulations we want there are plenty of places that have done this so we have a lot of go-bys so that's the first question is do we want to pursue golf carts on city streets if the answer is yes we will proceed with the ordinance development in fact I've already in doing some of the research I've already started kind of putting together the elements that I think would be appropriate we will bring those back to you in a future Commission meeting and then once that is adopted or approved by this group we'll take that to council for consideration as well so with that I'll open the floor I'll stop sharing my screen and we can talk about golf carts and city streets it looks like most people are muted so if you yeah if anyone has if anyone has a question they may other counselors may go ahead are they are we looking at just around the universities we can craft in our ordinance which streets would allow them by right or we can craft which streets by characteristics so we it's really up to us the two universities are the the the primary requesters of this so we don't have a lot of private citizens that want to ride their their golf carts or they've not requested that from us we primarily get the request from the universities it's a lot easier for them to maneuver around campus in a golf cart than it is in a standard vehicle or pickup so again which the streets that we want them on would be up to the up to the council and again we can limit it by name or by classification or both right I see them around TW quite a bit accessing up Bell and I'm okay with that since it's 20 miles an hour so I would say if we do this around the universities and the characteristics should be named streets and speed limits like to add something to that I may so I I'm an agreement I mean I like the idea that there's a restricted streets they they can't go on streets that are more than 35 miles an hour and that to me would simply be to protect them in case somebody got a golf cart that I work at Texas Women's University sometimes students are use the golf carts I mean if you got a student in a cart that didn't generally the TWA students are pretty good but these ordinance would help keep them safe also I would think and I would like to add that as somebody who rides a bicycle I mean I'm allowed to use all the streets regardless of the speed on the street and you know I only need a headlight and a tail light and I have brakes but I I don't have to have a driver's license so to me I mean these are the you're actually asking a little more I mean I I can't I can't always go over 25 miles an hour on my bike so I think all these things are reasonable so I have to say so I would add that you brought up a point that TWA does use the golf carts and one advantage of allowing them on city streets right now they use the sidewalks which which to me is more of a potential conflict with pedestrians than it is with other or as much as it is with other vehicles I mean if you're if you're talking about low speed facilities and and the golf carts can basically keep up with background traffic that's that's less of a conflict than somebody who's walking at three to five miles an hour and a golf cart that's moving at 20 miles an hour on the same pathway I yeah I would agree yeah I mean I've actually you know use the golf cart occasionally on campus and it is troublesome to ride behind people who are walking I don't I don't want to run them over but at the same time you're trying to get somewhere quickly that's why you have the golf cart so I think being able to use the golf cart isn't it is nice one piece of safety equipment that I would suggest is that reflective orange triangle to be put on the back of them like you often see on tractors and in Amish country on the back of buggies right okay are there any other comments and if not do you so the agenda recommends that we give staff direction is that does that mean we need a vote on this one or is that just our verbal recommendations that we've art there it's not a vote it's just do we have a consensus for the staff have a consensus of the board to move forward on advancing the item I think right now I mean to certainly have expressed support a consensus would be for so if you and mr. Baker would chime in as well also I did get a message from Sarah Fulwood that for the online commenting that there were no online comments before the meeting and no callers just for the for the record thank you yes I also support I support this measure so I think it's a good move Connie do you have a comment of support or or not you're muted Connie lower lower left hand there you go I did do oh okay well on the on the golf carts I agree around the campuses but not on city streets like you know there there a lot of traffic people of speeds and stuff like yet I'd be more you know around the campuses not on city streets not because they move too slow and like say it'd be a hazard to the vehicle so but around campuses I think you would work great is this and in some of the cases campus right correct me if I'm wrong but campus includes city streets right so this like for example at TWU or UNT if we don't include city streets some city streets in this then that would preclude the golf carts from from moving in pretty slow moving streets along the campus is that is that correct yes sir about both universities have a number of public city streets right so so would you still be opposed to that Connie can you hear me now okay well yeah the city there is city streets that run through the campuses but most of those streets are 20 mile an hour not 30 most of them are all 20 it goes through the campuses most of them most of them are 30 but they're on their outer edge so like I say that's that's the safety reason with the vehicles is what I was talking about they don't move fast enough and traffic so but like say most of them are 20 mile an hour in in the in the schools so you're in favor of 20 miles per hour less is that your yes I would around the campuses like say it'd be fine but like say 20 mile an hour is what speed is around most both the universities okay so I'll just I'll stay for the record I mean I trust if we move forward with this for the commission identifies safe streets where this would be appropriate so I'm a little I'm personally a little weary of putting too many limits on it because they may find a street where it's 25 that's appropriate at near campus or in an appropriate spot so I'm supportive of the measure in general so and we can put for the record Connie has some reservations about speed limits in certain city streets where would be a lot of does that do those comments allow us to yes okay all right thank you everyone for the comments and I think those will be really helpful so with that we can move on to item CTSC 20 - 0 1 8 receive a report for the discussion regarding the city of Denton's Americans with disabilities 88 transition plan okay somehow I've frozen my screen I got absolutely nothing okay I cannot minimize I can't see hold on you guys you cannot see my screen correct nope I've lost my toolbar I don't know how I did this but and my nothing works up here is does anyone else have a dude could somebody else I could download the presentation do somebody else want you want to pull up the presentation and then they can screw through and Brian I'm downloading it I can you call it up making I got but I can't see it I got you Brian okay I can do it all right technical difficulties there it is just tell me when you want to go on this line and I'll make it up no that works we have tech services in the room to try to help okay thank you think I'm in sharing screen on our own somebody's share okay Daniel if you can stop sharing your screen Brian has the presentation all right well now I know what now I don't let me go back to here no no we have to wait for Daniel to pop back in as well okay there is yeah sorry I just connectivity issues my video off shortly while I'm not talking all right let's try this again can you see it yes awesome all right so this item is just an update of the ADA transition plan that the city conducted several months ago completed several months ago prior to Mark's departure I don't know that we have presented any of this information to you so I wanted to bring it back just to show you where some of the results of the study and our next steps moving forward so we completed this plan late in 2019 basically what we what we accomplished is through the use of a consultant is the identification of existing sidewalks ramps crosswalks and traffic signals that are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and we also got a we've got a list of those that fall short and a cost estimate to bring them into compliance so I'm just going to go through a couple of examples this is curb ramps at traffic signals you can look at the numbers that you evaluated they so the curb ramps lands in crosswalk which is a problem 684 were evaluated seven six hundred and seventy eight are compliant pretty good compliance but when you get down to the flare cross slope which is cross slope is always one of our biggest considerations and concerns with with sidewalks and ramps we're only at fifty five fifty six percent compliance so we've got some work to do at traffic signals relative to grants a lot of these are older they predate the 88 act but the requirements are that at some point we need to bring them into compliance another one it signals the push button height and location again we on some of the elements we're in really good compliance the orientation is parallel to crossing ninety nine point one percent but when you get again to the clear space and some of the requirements you may or may not be familiar with but the push button needs to be in a particular location relative to the curb ramp and the landing so some of these elements were you know basically seventy one percent where we've got a seat so we've got some work to do with push buttons as well they also looked at 740 miles of sidewalk corridor and just really this is a fantastic asset management tool we now know the condition and and some of the compliance elements of most of the existing sidewalks in town so this table that you can't read which was your we're not intended to necessarily but for every sidewalk segment every corridor they prepared this analysis sheet they looked at different possible problems the joints you know the surface the tripping hazards and they developed a cost estimate for repairing those each of those items so as a summary we've got set traffic signals again it's a number of different elements could be curb ramps could be push buttons could be the pedestrian heads but we've got several of them that are in great need like 31 are high priority out of our hundred and twenty three total so and we've added signals since then but most of the signals that we're constructing now are in full compliance as they're constructed so we're we're meeting the the standards in the ADA with all new construction so most of what we're seeing here that's not compliant is old construction and some of it is very old construction some of the signals we have in town are 30 34 years old so they certainly are not in compliance with the act itself and then this is the sidewalk corridors look at as a as far as a priority of repair or non-compliance 370 miles are in need of some kind of adjustment and and with varying costs associated but so here's a here's a summary of the compliance costs signalized intersections and if we just look at let's just look at the total because even a low priority at some point we're gonna have to address those but we've got four million almost five million dollars in signal needs the sidewalks that are just in a corridor so it's not necessarily associated with a signalized intersection just in between blocks we've got 11 million dollars of need and then the curb ramps is probably the biggest element that where we're non-compliant and again that's primarily because a lot of them were put in quite some time ago and as we as we reconstruct streets we we fix them but basically the consultant identified over 18 million dollars of curb ramp needs for just to come into compliance so a total of 34 million and these are all unfunded improvements right now so our next steps are to develop a detailed project prioritization so we've got the high medium low priority we need to identify projects and put them into funding years basically put together a program for compliance maybe looking five to ten years out and identifying those funding needs and then we can once we know what we need the next five years in the next ten years then we can start looking for those funding opportunities whether being through bond elections or partnering with a an external agency like tech stop or the North Central Texas Council of Governments so where that's where we are we know what we've we know what we have or actually what we don't have we know how much it's going to cost to fix it and our next steps and this was not part of the scope of the contract with consultant is to put together an implementation plan so that's right now staff is is working on identifying the elements of our CIP that might satisfy some of these needs so we can pull that out of the 34 million we don't want to double fund it and we don't want to do it twice so as capital improvement projects are identified and funded and go to construction if they include sidewalks or the ramps or the signal rebuild we can take that out of this bigger list and what's left is what we have to program over the next five ten fifteen years so with that that's the end of my presentation I'll stop sharing and I will tell it we'll have a discussion if you have questions I'll try and answer thank you Brian I have two one question and one comment the question is will prioritization also focus on higher you know higher use areas for example I think you all know I've asked about a specific curb right here right by the square that prevents people wheelchairs from accessing the square if they're coming on Hickory from the Carol side and so I it would seem to me that that that's a high walking you know high walking and wheelchair use area and so are we prioritizing based on maybe density closeness to the core access to services like DCTA so I'm curious about the what about the our prioritizing and my second comment is just one that I brought up before I'm I would prefer instead of push buttons we just have automatic walk signals everywhere and so I don't know if that's something that can be considered but I think you know pedestrian shouldn't have to ask permission to cross the street just like cars don't have to you know push a button to get a green light so I think that that would be a better policy and make her more walkable didn't everywhere that's safer for produce okay so the first the first question is how are we going to prioritize and we have a couple of options there is a prioritization system that was established with the mobility plan update where we look at proximity to schools large generators specific land use types that tend to generate pedestrian traffic that certainly is one option we also have on our on our website we have a more detailed prioritization methodology where we we actually go out and collect data because another issue with specifically pedestrian traffic and this is something that I've experienced in other cities is if you've got a goat trail or cow path or whatever you want to call it and and you can say you've got two and one is next to University Boulevard and one is next to a residential collector then that high-speed high-volume roadway introduces some risk factors that might not necessarily be grabbed by a prioritization that looks at how many pedestrians are there and what's the proximity to the different kind of land uses so we may want to fold in some additional data take our mobility plan prioritization and fold in some some adjacent street characteristic data and make a prioritization via that method so we have some established pathways forward so we'll and we can we'll we can talk about this in future meetings on how we want to know what are the right criteria what the ranking if you want to use a point system so that if you're next to a school if you're within a quarter mile of the school you get X points if you're next to a large generator like heavy commercial a lot of commercial a lot of retail or a park then you get X number of points and then at the end of the day you add up all the points and that's a rank so then you can that's one way relative to your your comment about the pedestrian detection we are acquiring some hardware right now we're gonna put it on the on the square not sure if you're aware but the council did decide to leave the the all-way crossing in place it was previously no formerly known as all walk crosswalk so in an effort to test some hardware we're gonna install one intersection with the the passive detection and so we're gonna test it it adds some cost to the installation but moving towards that not having to push a button approach so there's two ways we can not push a button we can we can run the the pedestrian concurrent with the signal so that when the signal comes green the parallel pedestrian gets to walk the problem with that is most of our signals are on there they're on a they're basically run free in the evenings and off-peaks and so unless there's a vehicle to call up that associated vehicular movement the pedestrian won't have the opportunity to get the call I mean the walk signal unless they push a button so what we're trying to do is as do like you said exactly the same way that a vehicle requests service it just shows up and we have a camera or other device that detects its presence and we're gonna try and do that same passive detection with pedestrians thank you I appreciate that and to be clear my comment wasn't necessarily even I appreciate I mean I think that's a compromise I would I would be in favor of just automatic you know lights and we don't even need detection on any of these but but I understand that we've already discussed this a lot so I just I just wanted to kind of share that but yeah I would just to your your first comment about prioritization I hope that the core would be prioritized right again it's the most walkable area and it and although I've course like schools are great addition to prioritization but when I say the core I generally mean UNT TW DCTA and that kind of area that's the most the most walkable so I hope that receives some because one broken sidewalk can you know we've already got pretty decent sidewalks there but one broken one makes it inaccessible to someone with a stroll wheelchair in particular but can make it more difficult for strollers and things like that and so you know Hickory is about to get redone a lot and hopefully the sidewalks and we'll get curb cuts and spots where there's not there but anyway that's just that's just my comment that's all I've got okay thank you any other comments from councilmember hey with that one any oh yes I have one question on the funding if any of the recent bonds funds would be applied to this particularly sidewalks yes I think the the intent for the 2019 bond was to do gap infill and so you and I might defer to Trey or maybe this is a discussion for another day for hitting the fine points but a lot of times those capital dollars are not necessarily allowed to be used on what we considered maintenance so replacing or fixing a broken sidewalk a trip hazard probably would not be considered eligible for bond funding those are typically capital dollars but when you but if you do an entire replacement program then I think we open up that eligibility a little bit so the answer is yes and no not on small stuff but if we did an entire programmatic we're gonna replace the you know two miles of sidewalk along X and Y streets and I think we have the opportunity to use the bond funding and I'll defer to Trey if he's got any further dad I do not okay so it just as in a closing it it really depends on how we use them some I think we can make them eligible but we have to be careful on making sure it's a capital project not a maintenance project hey is there is there any other comments I'm sorry one other thing I just thought of briefly I'll just I'll bring up is that we've recently installed a new you know sidewalk and railing that's right next to barley and board on the street and I will say I was a little disappointed to look at the way that we're still getting I think a variety of intersections of seeing where we instead of just having a flat area or having access in all directions we have these like big concrete blocks we still are not thinking about access across in that case there's no that was designed with no crosswalk across the street which I think is increasing to the more highway people on the square of cars and so I just hope that as we're adding new stuff we're thinking about the most accessible means and not putting these weird large concrete blocks unnecessary like I guess there's just a gear people directions but if we just have those flat intersections those seem to be a lot safer and then if we have had crosswalks I mean I think the intention where there was was to deter people from crossing the street even though there's a cross street right there behind Marley and board and direct them somewhere else which is just not walkable it's not a way to design an urban area but so I hope we can look at that because I still see like new stuff being designed not using walkability in the core and so I just hope that that we can make the the more walkable it is the more okay if there's not any further comments are there any further comments we are not making any recommendations on this I read I don't think we need to even necessarily give the staff directions so we can go and move on to our next item our next item is item D TSC 20 - 019 staff update regarding the safe routes to school bike scooter share programs and community input on mobility plan okay sharing my screen okay can you see that okay so two items on our staff report the first is safe route to school we have two active safe route to school projects both are significantly funded through our partner groups of tex dot and the cog the first is pecan Wilson and pecan Creek and Wilson elementaries we've got about almost three-quarters of a mile a bit more of sidewalk post and looking for we're moving into the design now hopefully a complete design by March and then move into construction in 2021 and and with that amount of construction probably six to eight months and possibly more it really depends on what we find in the design phase but we're estimating that will be done sometime in 2022 and again a total cost our total funding right now is about five hundred and fifty thousand dollars the second project is Jennings and Alexander formerly known as Lee Elementary significantly longer stretches a sidewalk this is the the Stewart Road sidewalk both sides from Sun Valley to Windsor that's been a request for a long time now again a little bit very close to the same timeline on that finishing up the design in July it's a little bit more to design so it's probably going to take a little bit longer and then move into construction and then again you're talking about a mile and a half plus on can just sidewalk construction that's going to take some time and so we're estimating end of end of 22 beginning of 23 for completion and about nine hundred thousand nine sixty nine seventy thousand for total dollar cost there but you can see that both of these between the just these two projects we're leveraging 1.2 million dollars with our three hundred thousand dollar match so we're doing a four to one and some of this money has been sitting idle for a while and we're very anxious to get it under construction so we don't lose it if if we wait long enough the cod will say well you didn't really need that money we're going to give it to somebody who's ready to move so those are our two active projects will be keep will be bringing you updates as we get into design and construction for both of these safe route to school project we did not receive any funding for this latest call the city of Dallas was awarded all of the safe route to school money understand they have a great need but we were a little bit disappointed we thought we had some good candidates and we scored fairly well but not well enough to get money and the other one I want to talk about is the bike scooter share program I don't know if you've noticed but bail has left the building they have withdrawn from the Denton market because of the inability to include a scooter element in their program they no longer do bike only if they don't have a combined bike scooter program they don't participate so they have left the the city and we were originally they originally told us they would stay until the end of the year but they have pulled out early and so we will be working with UNT and TWU and any other partner to identify opportunities for our new vendor and the stipulations and the conditions of that contract so stay tuned that will be coming back to you soon and hopefully we'll have a new bike vendor early in 2021 and then the last item is the community this is a virtual community meetings on the mobility plan this is the last round of public input we are on meeting for tonight we've had three we did the downtown the northern and the western sections tonight is the eastern section and next week is the southern section so basically these are virtual zoom webinar type meetings where we present the the the plan as it sits sits now the draft plan and we're receiving feedback from the community and folding that into the final plan which will be done probably sometime in November and expectation is to move forward with adoption at the earliest late this year but more likely in early 2021 just because we've got an election in November and and I think the the sentiment is that we would rather push that a couple months and give the new council opportunity to get comfortable before we dump something as large and as important as the mobility plan update on them so we're looking for again the final report from our consultant probably in November and moving forward to council adoption probably early 2021 any questions I'll stop sharing it's been bright one one question what is the city's official position on scooters for some reason I had thought that we had not actually adopted importance on that what is the position I don't know that the city has stated one I could be wrong but I know that UNT is opposed to allowing scooters on campus so obviously that's a large share of the market from veos or any any ride share providers standpoint if we can't capture the the college market then we're missing part of our market totally but the other reason I think that they're leaving is that they no longer do bike only so we we need to find a vendor who does a bike only like be bike or or some other vendor and this gives us the opportunity to look at the program and reevaluate do we want to do doctor dockless do we want to do electric assist there it it may turn out to be a benefit for us just because we get to reevaluate what we want in a program and if and and it gives us the opportunity to discuss do we want have the sentiments changed and do we want to allow scooters I don't think we're there right now and in fact a lot of cities are pulling the scooters off the streets and off the off the sidewalks just due to some safety concerns those safety issues continue to exist and so they've got some seated scooters they've got stand on scooters but the issue is do they belong on a sidewalk this goes back to the very similar to the golf cart discussion is does a scooter that can move at 10 to 15 miles an hour belong on a sidewalk with three to five mile an hour pedestrians and do they belong on a 30 mile an hour or 35 mile an hour city street it's just they're somewhere in between and it's it's a difficult decision okay I have a question if you're done with that okay I wasn't sure your screens a little slow so I was trying to catch up so I do have a question about the sidewalks that you're gonna put in over by the getting school is that on both sides of Stewart yes only on one side both sides Wow so you're gonna take are you gonna I'm curious because on one side because I I traveled that street one side there's houses that back up with backyards do you is that I guess part of that still city where the fences and I think you're speaking of the west side yes yes so the fences and this is we will identify or we will confirm that those fences that identify the backyard limitations that they are in fact on the right away line even with that easement in place or that Parkway distance available there's a lot of trees and a lot of utility poles so the west side is going to be a challenge but we think that we've walked it twice with the consultant and they think they can they can weave a sidewalk either between the trees or we may have to move some utility poles but they think they can get a sidewalk on the west side as well okay I was curious because yeah because we sometimes all all right we'll ride that and and there is a bike bike lanes on Stewart and I often see people walking in the bike lane so it's definitely something that's needed this all right thank you I have one more question if I can't since nobody's speaking so when you I wasn't able to access one of the mobility mobility I can't talk they know the North mobility plan are you do you go over everything because if I want to join tonight does it's just on it's just the east side today right you'll or do you kind of go over everything we we really focus on the geographic area but we we structured these so that if if somebody could not attend the meeting session that they were really interested in we can go back and answer questions relative to that I will say that the and I think we're current the the presentations are on the website and the question and answer also on the website so you can see you can see the questions that were answered and the responses that were given and you may want to do that it may answer you they make somebody may have asked a question that you're gonna ask or you can show up to any of the meetings and ask a specific question about another part of town I think trade I believe we tried to craft the the captions so that it was a focus on but not limited to a specific geographic area we don't we don't and we talk about the general planning steps that were taken but we don't look at the entire plan at any one of these meetings that would it would just be yeah crazy yeah I mean I did look at the North part of the 10 when I realized I couldn't get in like it was very last minute on my end so I understand what somebody wasn't able to let me in in time but and I did look at like all the comments not all of them there's a lot of comments but I looked at several comments of specific spaces that I and it seemed like a lot of people have contributed to you know to those maps we've had good turnout very good that's the Western was probably the lightest but it's also probably the less the least amount of changes happening over there okay alright thank you that's all yeah did we lose our I think we did no I'm here sorry just connection problems I'm just yeah meeting the video is there any other comment okay without any other comments that is our last item and so this I think we can go ahead and adjourn this meeting thank you very much thank you for your time thank you all
Agenda
3 pages
City of Denton City Hall 215 E. McKinney St. Denton, Texas 76201 www.cityofdenton.com Meeting Agenda Traffic Safety Commission Thursday, September 17, 2020 11:00 AM Council Work Session Room After determining that a quorum is present, the Traffic Safety Commission of the City of Denton, Texas will convene in a Regular Meeting on Thursday, September 17, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. in the Council Work Session Room at City Hall, 215 E. McKinney Street, Denton, Texas at which the following items will be considered: Note: Chair Daniel Krutka, Vice Chair Melissa Carr, and Members Connie Baker, Jeff King, Clay Thurmond, and Kevin Sample will be participating in the meeting via video/teleconference. REGISTRATION GUIDELINES FOR ADDRESSING THE TRAFFIC SAFETY COMMISSION Due to COVID-19 precautions, members of the public will not be able to attend the September 17, 2020, Traffic Safety Commission meeting in-person. To accommodate and receive input on agenda items, citizens will be able to participate in one of the following ways (NOTE: Other than public hearings, citizens are only able to comment one time per agenda item; citizens cannot use both methods to comment on a single agenda item. Public comments are not held for work session reports.): • Virtual White Card – On September 10, 2020, the agenda was posted online at www.cityofdenton.com/publicmeetings. Once the agenda is posted, a link to the Virtual White Card, an online form, will be made available under the main heading on the webpage. Within this form, citizens may indicate support or opposition and submit a brief comment about a specific agenda item. Comments may be submitted up until the start of the meeting, at which time, the Virtual White Card form will be closed. Similar to when a citizen submits a white card to indicate their position on the item, these comment forms will be sent directly to members of the Traffic Safety Commission and recorded by the Secretary. Members review comments received in advance of the meetin…

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