Meeting Summary BPAC Item #2
Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee
February 2, 2016, 12 p.m.
Attendees:
Meeting Summary BPAC Item #2
Adrienne Engel, Echelon Transportation Group
Afsaneh Yavari, UC Berkeley
Bill Leddy, SABA
Brey Meyers, El Dorado County
Candace Rutt, WALKSacramento
Chris Doherty, City of West Sacramento
Christina Clem, AARP
Dan Allison, SJUSD
Dave Cassel, Kaiser Pedal Power
Dave Lyman
Denise Lewis, Dept. of General Services
Florigna Feliciano, Caltrans D3
Jane Kemp, CA Dept. of Public Health
Jeff Damon, RT
Jennifer Donofrio, City of Davis
Jerry Barton, EDCTC
Jim Antone, Yolo-Solano AQMD
Jim Brown, SABA
Jim Kirstein, Friends of Folsom Parkways
Jim Konopka, City of Folsom
JJ Hurley, SMAQMD
John Deeter, ECOS
José Luis Cáceres, SACOG
Julie Bates, AARP
Kevin Becker, City of Citrus Heights
Kirin Kumar, WALKSacramento
Leo Rubio, Bennon Engineering
Lindell Price, EDCC on Aging, Transportation Committee
Loretta Morris, City of Davis
Lynne Goldsmith, Transportation Advocates
Mark Fernandez, City of Lincoln
Matt Smetlzer, El Dorado County
Mike Dour, City of Roseville
Mike Ellison, Sacramento South Land Park Neighborhood Association
Rachel Siska, CA Conservation Corp.
Rebecca Neves, City of Placerville
Rick Angelocci, Town of Loomis
Rick Bettis, Sierra Club
Rosie Ramos, SACOG
Sparky Harris, City of Sacramento
Stanley Price, Utilitarian Cyclists
Sue Teranishi, Community Volunteer
Tara Scheiter, SACOG
Traci Canfield, RT
Victoria Cacciatore, SACOG
Victoria Custodio, CA Dept. of Public Health
Walt Seifert, Sacramento City-County Bicycle Advisory Committee
Meeting Summary BPAC Item #2
Meeting Summary BPAC Item #2
1. Introduction and Information Sharing
Candace Rutt – Introduction, new Executive Director of WALKSacramento
Mr. Seifert shared about the draft CEQA guidelines; bicycling and walking. Environmental Impact replacing with Vehicle Miles Traveled. Will be implemented sometime later this year. Mr. Seifert suggests that this committee assist in how fast they implement recommendations. SACOG will take into consideration. Send comments to Natural Resources.
Mr. Leddy shared he is a volunteer at SABA. They are working on a database on catching walking and biking information.
Victoria Custodio shared about clipboards. There will be an information sharing session at the April session.
Ms. Custodio from the Dept. of Public Health is working with Caltrans as part of the active transportation resource center – supporting safe routes to school. There is a training opportunity February 29 – webinar on ATP awardees on 1 and 2. Jane Kemp is the contact at (she can send all info. and get anyone on the list serv).
Ms. Cacciatore shared her appreciation for everyone’s patience while she was on maternity leave. Ms. Cacciatore is back on reduced schedule so please have patience with her in responding to inquiries. There is a job announcement – Yolo County is hiring for a Outreach Specialist II related to the Safe Routes to School program.
Mr. Cáceres shared he will send an email to everyone on all announcements.
Mr. Deeter Announced Earth day is April 24. There is an event at Southside Park from 11 – 4 pm and there will be booth registrations.
Mr. Antone announced that clean air funds application is available for bike ped programs and other air quality projects. They are available on the web at ysaqmd.org (under Incentive Programs).
Ms. Ramos (for Mr. Shelton) updated everyone on the Regional Bike Share Pilot. They are working with Tool Design and conducted stakeholder interviews last December and in January. SACOG will own and operate the governance system. The rollout is scheduled for Spring 2017. Any questions: Contact Rosie at or 916-340-6208.
Ms. Feliciano has proceeded Alex Fong. Ms. Feliciano shared ongoing efforts of Caltrans. The Class 4 bikeway guidance has been posted online. If you have any questions contact Mr. Kevin Herritt, or Florigna Feliciano, e-mail: and . Ms. Feliciano shared about another project that is a complete streets plan which is a consultant led project and it will be district wide. It will be identifying potential Complete Streets project, and best practices. It will develop a Complete Streets inventory and will establish partnership-based process in creating a maintenance agreement process and template. Ms. Feliciano shared about a statewide bike/ped program and will do outreach with local stakeholders. Mr. Price commented about the importance of public and disabled input on this project. Mr. Price shared that there is a lack of it in the bike/ped realm.
Mr. Antone requested if SACOG could give an update on Cycle Sac data from MIBM and how that information is being processed and used. Mr. Cáceres will bring that for a future meeting.
Mr. Harris shared he’s been working on Grid 2.0 for almost 2 yrs. Visit the website at sacgrid.com for more information. Mr. Harris shared that the purpose is to make sure the grid can handle the increase in dwelling units, right of way space for bicycling, walking and transit. They’ve received over 650 comments from public regarding road diets, transit facilities, etc. The results are on the website of this study. Mr. Harris explained that you won’t see on the website, wayfinding or alley activation results. The final report will be ready in April. Mr. Harris can come back next month with the report he’s presenting to council and a specific plan for downtown.
2. Summary of October 27, 2015 Meeting
3. Free Complete Streets Safety Assessments
Ms. Yavari from provided information on the Free Complete Streets Safety Assessments program. Funding comes from OTS, thru national highway Traffic Safety Administration. Been doing this program since 1998. The objectives are to improve safety for all modes of travel but in particular bike/ped safety. See Powerpoint for other objectives. Larger cities with populations over 25K (city wide and county wide), city within the county because you can’t do the whole county; if the rural area is less than 25K they can’t do it. Receive applications from local counties; prioritized by OTS ranking. Two traffic experts are assigned to do the study which are either retired engineers, planners or police officers. They have a large pool of part time employees from UC Berkley. They conduct interviews with local agency staff and do a field audit for one day. They observe bike/ped conditions on that day. The study is limited in budget and time. They prepare the report and suggested improvement. Enforcement element – bike/ped safety. 1 engineer 1 enforcement; bike/ped collisions, ranking – if it’s the highest ranking then they do the study. Each application is looked at separately, OTS has to approve before funding is awarded. What is included in the study? School traffic safety and SRTS, bike/ped safety (see power point); strategic requirements. What is good about the program? It’s free to local agencies. Spend a day in the field with agents, it’s very effective. The work can be used for grant applications, What is not good? Limited field observations; budget is limited, since it’s free, the cities don’t see much value in it. They are still accepting grant applications for this cycle. See website and email information on power point.
Discussion:
About how many are you able to do each year? 12 (7 accepted so far). Can transit agencies apply? Yes. What are the limitations? Will you be sending out the slides to everyone? It’s posted online and Mr. Cáceres emailed this presentation out to the Committee.
Ms. Neves responded that studies covered Bedford, the Intersection of Canal and 50, Main street and Canal; some simplifications all the way up to new intersections, relocating cross walks, intersection reconfigurations, signal timing related to crossing 50, the width of highway 50, physical improvements. The reports are kept confidential and are only shared with local agencies.
Mr. Smeltzer commented that the overall suggestions are really good, it included a lot of good examples and guidelines.
Individual sites are good. Suggestion was to use the pedestrian mid block, hybrid beacon flasking lights. Who would you recommend these assessments to? Any agencies looking to troubleshoot areas for walking and biking.
4. Free Technical Assistance for Healthy Communities and Active Design
Mr. Kirin Kumar shared one is CDC funded grant and the other is a SGC grant. Design for Active Sacramento. Implementation of health communities. Assisting WALKSacramento. Chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer are the top leading causes. Facing an obesity and diabetes epidemic. Offering technical assistance to anyone. Focused on planners, public works, building communities that encourage physical activity and green communities. Building economically viable communities. We’re looking at an aging Sacramento Region. What is Active Design? Human powered activity. Inactivity is the “new smoking”. Takes a context based approach. The active design principle isn’t to add something onto your plates, it’s to leverage information to help meet goals. They are working with developers along the Jackson corridor. Plan for health grant education modules and trainings. If you know someone interested at your local municipality please let Mr. Kumar know.
Mr. Allison shared that WALKSacramento has been a great partner.
5. Special Presentation: City of Placerville’s Upper Broadway Bike Lanes Project, Regional ATP Recipient
Ms. Neves shared about project limits such as no shoulders, strong physical constraints, utility polls, right in the middle of trail connection. There is a high bike/ped usage due to Upper Room and schools. Ms. Neves shared other project factors such as existing commercial development (curb), mass grading and large transient population. Currently in the community input process and there’s been good attendance. Formulate design alternatives. In mid 2016 will be the third meeting.
Discussion:
Peds are more of an issue than bikers - high car speeds, sharp turns, no street lights that light the corridor. Alternatives: Add curb gutter sidewalk, add Class II bike lane and sharrows on west bound of Broadway, widen lanes and add curb gutter – positive responses from public. Solutions: Reduce lane widths, ETW, 4ft bike lane. Phase 2 – add in curb gutter and bike lane. Mr. Kumar commented that he can share information from WALKSacramento audit they did last year. Bike lane is going to be in the up hill direction and sharrows are going to be in the down direction. Mr. Seifert shared that safety issues related to speed, lane widths can be less than 11 feet potentially (State is considering this), they will be putting share the road signs and way finding signs on class 3.
6. Draft Timetable for Regional ATP Funding Program Round 3 Recommendations
Ms. Cacciatore gave an update on this item. The draft application is out for review. Still taking comments on guidelines and applications. Ms. Cacciatore shared that if you found the application highly challenging to fill out, please let the California transportation staff know. Contact Lori Waters. Her contact information can be found on the website. The guidelines project applications are due June 15. Awardees will be announced October 28. Mr. Kumar share that WALKSacramento would be happy to work with local jurisdictions to provide technical assistance.
7. El Dorado Active Transportation Connections Study
Mr. Barton share that this study will help look at projects in a performance based manor to be more competitive for discretionary funding. They will develop an application to fine tune prioritization of projects for future ATP rounds so that they’ll be more competitive with urban programs within the State.
8. Cap & Trade: Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Funding Round
Ms. Cacciatore shared that 10 points for doing a cap and trade project or for doing some sort of bike/ped project. SACOG’s been offering technical assistance. Concept applications are due in March. If you need SACOG assistance please contact Greg Chew at SACOG. SACOG has met with more than 5, but less than 10 jurisdictions on this project. Workshop has over 100 people signed up, so sign up. Go to SGC website. Sign up thru SGC.
9. Vision Zero Update and Automated Speed Enforcement
Mr. Seifert shared the idea that there aught to be a goal of cities adopting Vision Zero programs. Followup work in San Francisco, they have multiple departments involved, such as, Fire, Police, etc. Automated speed enforcement - Folsom and Roseville used to have it. San Francisco is trying to get automated speed enforcement legal again. Possibility for SACOG and this committee to offer support? Reports show that automated speed enforcement is effective. Mr. Brown shared that SABA is partnering with WALKSacramento on Vision Zero within building healthy communities and it’s grassroots led. SABA’s role will be data analysis (stress levels for bicycling). Mr. Brown share that SABA has data going back to 2012. The goal is to take this out to the neighborhood and build support for a Vision Zero program. Mr. Seifert and Mr. Brown will return with a report in April.
10. A.B. 1096, Regulation of Electric Bicycles (e-bikes) in California
Mr. Cáceres shared there is an e-bike law that you can ride a moped in a class 2 bike lane. There are three types of e-bikes. Possible presentation at next meeting if enough interest. Mr. Seifert is interested. Mr. Cáceres took a poll and there is interest for a presentation at the next meeting on Class 4 bike way guidelines.
11. Other Matters
12. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 2:10 p.m.