City of Lawrence

Lawrence – Douglas County Bicycle Advisory Committee

June 18, 2013 Minutes

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

Chris Burger, Chad Foster, Lisa Hallberg, David Hamby, Rhonda Houser, Justin Eddings, Jay Bialek, Chris Rogge

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Josh Ediger, Chris Burger

STAFF PRESENT:

Jessica Mortinger, Todd Girdler, Nick Voss

PUBLIC PRESENT:

Erin Paden, David LaRoche

1.   Call Meeting to Order and Assurance of Quorum: The meeting was called to order at 5:03 p.m. A quorum was present and introductions were made.

 

2.   Approval of the March 19, 2013 Meeting Minutes and April 16, 2013 Meeting Notes

A motion to approve the notes and minutes from the meetings was moved by Mr. Hamby seconded by Ms. Hallberg and passed unanimously.

 

3.   Discussion: Multimodal Studies/Bike Plan

Ms. Hallberg and Ms. Mortinger shared the updated project status and the online interactive mapping tool. The first open house was held on Wednesday, June 5th and was well attended by the bicycle community, overall there were 46 participants. The second steering committee meeting was scheduled the following day. While in town, the Toole Design consultants had the opportunity to ride most of the county. Ms. Hallberg had the opportunity to ride with them and look at some solutions to the areas of focus. The online mapping has been active for approximately one month and will continue until July 17th. The bicycle plan portion of the online mapping tool has the largest amount of input of the three studies. This is the opportunity to provide input, the next part of the study will be asking for people to respond to draft plans. During the next month the project team will be reaching out to  agencies/stakeholders. A second open house will be held at the end of September or early October. A draft report will be available in October with a final report due by the end of the year. The materials from the open house, the steering committee meetings and links to the interactive maps can be found online at lawrenceks.org/mpo/study.

Ms. Paden asked how latent demand was being included in the study process. Ms. Hallberg shared the heat map that had been created as part of the study to prioritize areas based on potential demand for facilities; however this is only one tool used to build and prioritize improvements in a network. Ms. Mortinger encouraged BAC members to get online and take a look at the materials being generated, review the comments collected on the maps so far, and add their feedback.

 

4.   Discussion: KDOT TE Announcement

Ms. Mortinger indicated that the BAC had written two letters of support for bicycle TE applications in Douglas County.  Mr. Voss shared the recent KDOT announcement that the City of Lawrence was awarded $175,000 in federal funds to pave the Burroughs Creek Trail extension from 23rd to 29th Street. The project will be completed by fall of 2014 and will coordinate construction with the SLT. Ms. Mortinger indicated that the other application supported by the BAC from Eudora for a Bicycle & Pedestrian Bridge over K-10 was not funded during this round of applications.

 

 

5.   Discussion/Action Item: TIGER Letter of Support

Ms. Hallberg referred BAC members to the University of Kansas TIGER support letter included in the packet. Ms. Hallberg wrote this letter on behalf of her position as Chair of the BAC.  The proposed project will reconstruct portions of several primarily two-lane streets and associated intersections, totaling about 1.2 miles including: Jayhawk Boulevard/Oread Avenue, Crescent Road, Naismith Drive, and 15th Street. The reconstruction of the transit-critical areas in Lawrence, Kansas is crucial for the long-term economic growth of the area. Along with the improvement of the streets and intersections themselves, this project will increase transportation choices and access to transportation services for the citizens of Lawrence and Douglas County. The improved roads and bus stops will also create safer conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists as well as citizens with ADA requirements. The letter’s short deadline for the TIGER grant didn’t allow enough time to provide the BAC a draft before sending. MPO staff asked BAC members if they would like to retrospectively support Ms. Hallberg’s support letter.  A motion was made by Ms. Houser to support the TIGER letter; the motion was seconded by Mr. Foster and passed unanimously.

 

6.   Discussion Item: Bicycle & Pedestrian Documentation Project

Ms. Mortinger informed the BAC that she was working on setting up the 2013 count times and trainings in Lawrence, Eudora and Baldwin City. Ms. Mortinger shared the previous year’s count locations with the BAC; she asked if any members had suggestions about additional locations or changes in locations. Mr. Foster asked if we could count on a rural section. Ms. Mortinger indicated that this would be ideal, but based on safety concerns it hasn’t been done yet. The MPO is looking into investing in automated bicycle & pedestrian counters to be able to do rural locations and validate other manual counts. Automatic counters would be ideal for rural areas. Mr. Hamby asked if the location on Trail Road could be east of Kasold if that location is counted again. Mr. Rogge asked if there was a way to count Lawrence/Princeton before the bike lanes are painted. Ms. Mortinger said she would coordinate with BAC members who volunteered to count in these areas to see if we can get a count done there soon. Ms. Mortinger asked BAC members to sign up to count and encouraged them to share the flyer with friends who might also be interested in counting, once the dates/times were set. Ms. Mortinger indicated that like every year, the number of locations would be chosen based on the number of volunteers.

 

7.   Other Business/Updates

Ms. Hallberg informed the BAC that members had set up a table at the Earth Day Fair on April 20th. Members handed out Bike Rideability Maps and signed up people to receive emails about the Multimodal Studies.

 

Mr. Girdler informed the BAC that T2040 was approved and staff was working on the technical changes required to incorporate T2040 into Horizon 2020.  Mr. LaRoche confirmed that his comments on the draft T2040 plan were received by MPO staff and incorporated into the final document. He also indicated that he is trained to provide trainings on the Access Board’s new guidelines for the public rights of way (PROWAC). He indicated that the Bicycle & Pedestrian Chapter of T2040 could be improved in its language for pedestrian planning and that the PROWAC information could help do that.

8.   Public Comments: There was no public comment.

 

9.   Adjournment of Meeting: The meeting ended at 6:05 PM.  The next meeting is scheduled for July 16, 2013 or another date set by the BAC. The July meeting is planned to be held in Baldwin City.