Chambana Sun

City of Urbana Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee met January 17.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

1. Call To Order, Roll Call, And Declaration Of Quorum

Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Roll call was taken. A quorum of members was present.

2. Approval Of Agenda

Audrey Ishii moved to approve the agenda; Susan Jones seconded the motion. The motion was unanimously approved.

3. Approval Of Mintues From Previous Meeting

The minutes from the October 17, 2017 and December 19, 2017 meetings were presented for approval. Susan Jones moved to approve the minutes; Craig Shonkwiler seconded the motion; and the motion was unanimously approved.

4. Public Input

There was no public input.

5. Unfinished Business

a. 2017 BPAC Annual Report

Bill Brown stated that Audrey Ishii, Susan Jones and Annie Adams had prepared the 2016 Annual Report. He asked if they could send him the notes from that report. He said that he would prepare a draft.

Members discussed the best method for compiling the report. Susan Jones suggested breaking the assignment of the report into quarters and asking volunteers working on each quarters.

Audrey Ishii reviewed the topics listed in last year’s report. She said the report was organized by topics and submitted to the City Council as a PowerPoint presentation.

Craig Shonkwiler asked the recording secretary to send the language from the BPAC bylaws regarding the content of the annual report as a guide for what to include in the document. He mentioned that last year members volunteered to develop the draft report.

Susan Jones recalled that volunteers reviewed the minutes from all of the meetings in 2016 and compiled information for the report.

Annie Adams explained that she prepared a PowerPoint presentation based upon the information contained within the annual report.

Bill Brown suggested using the presentation as a template and assigning members to work on the quarters.

Audrey Ishii asked that the preparation of the annual report be placed on the agenda for next month. She mentioned that the Commission rarely made and voted on motions so stating in the report that BPAC approved a decision was difficult to validate. She suggested that the Commission make an effort to make motions when approving concepts at its meetings.

Bill Brown recommended that the members who discussed topics could provide summaries of their presentations for the report. He asked members to recommend actions when topics were discussed so the actions would be part of the recorded minutes.

Jeff Marino suggested that the report include topics and issues discussed be presented to the Urbana City Council in March, April or May.

Mr. Brown thought that the report could be completed in time to present it before the City Council in April.

Susan Jones said that it would be nice to present the report to the Council prior to Bike Month in May. On a separate note, Ms. Jones mentioned that BPAC probably should have voted at last month’s meeting on a response to submit to the City Council regarding bicycles on sidewalks in downtown Urbana.

b. Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs) – Craig Shonkwiler

Craig Shonkwiler provided a status update on the installation of RRFBs as an enhancement to warn motorists of pedestrians crossing the street. He mentioned that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approved the experimental installation of RRFBs on Windsor Road at Vine Street and on Springfield Avenue in front of Grainger Library in Urbana. Mr. Shonkwiler reported that the FHWA recently issued a statement indicating that the use of RRFBs was suspended. He explained that the FHWA stated that RRFBs already installed could be used for the duration of their operation, but that when the RRFBs were no longer functioning, they could not be replaced with RRFBs. He added that RRFBs could not be installed as part of any new improvement or construction projects. Mr. Shonkwiler mentioned there were other enhancements that could be used: overhead crossing signs, in pavement lighting, HAWK signals, pedestrian warning beacons, curb extensions, bump-outs or pedestrian tables. He said there were copyright issues with the RRFBs and the FHWA did not recommend the use of copyrighted equipment. He was hopeful that the issue would be resolved as the RRFBs have been effective warning devices.

Annie Adams stated that the RRFBs provided a warning to motorists as they approached stopped cars ahead.

Jeff Marino said that the RRFBs provided more awareness of pedestrians and bicyclists at night when individuals might be dressed in dark clothing and hard to see.

Audrey Ishii asked if the in-pavement lighting was expensive.

Mr. Shonkwiler stated the feature was expensive and not effective. He said that there were other options available besides the RRFBs and in-pavement lighting.

Jeff Marino asked if there were guidelines to determine when enhancements should be used.

Craig Shonkwiler said that the City of Urbana used guidelines created by the City of Boulder, Colorado, which the Champaign-Urbana Urbanized Area Transportation Study (CUUATS) adopted and added to their website. Using these guidelines, staff would determine the number and characteristics of users and decide the type of enhancements that would be effective. Mr. Shonkwiler stated that City staff used the Boulder guidelines for the past year and a half. He recommended leaving the option of the RRFBs in the document because it was an effective enhancement. He stated that the FHWA did not allow patented devices, but the issue might be resolved. Since the FHWA gave the City of Urbana permission to use the RRFBs on an experimental basis before the copyright issue arose, the devices may remain until the end of their useful lives. Legal review might make the device allowable in the future. He said that staff was looking at the use of the pedestrian warning signs with LEDs around the border of the sign.

Audrey Ishii asked if pedestrians had to activate the current RRFBs.

Mr. Shonkwiler stated that the RRFBs had to be activated by the pedestrian to begin flashing.

Jeff Marino moved to continue to follow CUUATS’ policy on pedestrian crosswalks and look for alternatives to RRFBs when possible.

Susan Jones seconded the motion.

Craig Shonkwiler abstained from voting.

The Commission approved by voice vote.

c. 2016 Urbana Bicycle Master Plan Goals and High Priority Infrastructure Status Update – Craig Shonkwiler

Craig Shonkwiler reviewed the City’s progress towards meeting the six goals and objectives by 2021 as outlined in the 2016 Bicycle Master Plan.

Goal 1: Provide a bicycle network that is safe and attractive for all users.

Mr. Shonkwiler stated that staff was working on the bicycle signs and markings for all new bicycle facilities. He said that currently they were performing an inventory to calculate the signs and markings added to recently completed projects. He said that sharrows, lane markings and signage were added as part of the Bradley Avenue project and the MCORE Phase I project on Green Street. He said that sharrows were painted on Race Street from Pennsylvania Avenue to Michigan Avenue. Regarding bicycle crashes, fatalities and injuries, he said that the Champaign Urbana Urbanized Area Transportation Study (CUUATS) would be releasing its annual Selective Crash Identified Location (SCIL) Report in early 2018. He stated that information regarding the number of traffic incidents would be available after the study was reviewed and used to determine progress toward the objectives. Mr. Shonkwiler informed the Commission about plans for the installation of thermal imaging detection systems at the intersections of Goodwin Avenue and Green Street and Lincoln Avenue and Green Street in 2018 that would be able to detect bicyclists by using heat-sensing technology at those locations. Mr. Shonkwiler pointed out that heat-sensing signals were installed at Windsor Road and Race Street, Windsor Road and Philo Road, and Philo Road and Florida Avenue. He said that University Avenue would have bicycle-sensing detection systems once improvements were completed. He added that the detection systems have worked very well for bicyclists. Engineering staff would be conducting an audit of all drainage grates soon to determine if there were any defective grates needing to be replaced. Mr. Shonkwiler stated that he was unaware of any defective grates, but the inventory would make certain that there were none or that those in disrepair would be scheduled for replacement.

Goal 2: Create and maintain a bicycle network that is continuous, connected, and easily accessible for all users, and includes on-road and off-road facilities.

Craig Shonkwiler discussed short-term projects (Washington Street from Pfeffer Road to High Cross Road Bike Lanes, Bradley Avenue Bike Lanes, MCORE Phase 1, Park Street Sidepath ITEP grant (Carle Campus to Five Points) and Broadway Avenue Sidepath ITEP grant projects, which would be completed within the 2017 and 2018 construction season. He said that the totals for miles completed still needed to be calculated. He stated that the upcoming and current projects would connect bicycle facilities to activity centers in Urbana. He noted that the Park Street project would connect the Carle Campus with Five Points and close the gaps toward establishing the Green Loop, which will ultimately provide a connection between the Urbana parks. Access to activity centers would be partially met with the completion of the City’s portion of the Cunningham Avenue Sidepath, providing access to Northgate Plaza (Cunningham Avenue and Perkins Road); the Kickapoo Rail Trail (KRT), providing connection to Wal-Mart and Aldi; and upon completion of the Illinois Department of Transportation’s portion of the Cunningham Avenue Sidepath providing access to Farm and Fleet. Three new bicycle connections to surrounding areas completed were the Bradley Avenue Bike Lanes (Champaign), KRT (St. Joseph), MCORE Phase 1 (University of Illinois). He added that upcoming projects scheduled were Lincoln Avenue and Main Street (University of Illinois) and a study of Lincoln Avenue and Iowa Street (University of Illinois). At present, there were no numbers available to determine bike mode share. The Regional Planning Commission will complete a study in 2019 that would determine if there has been an increase in ridership.

Goal 3: Provide supporting facilities to make bicycle transportation more convenient.

Mr. Shonkwiler stated that Planning Division of the Community Development Department would take the lead on this goal and focus on bicycle parking facilities. He said an update would be provided once information had been collected.

Goal 4: Educate residents about active modes of transportation and bicycle facilities.

Mr. Shonkwiler deferred to the Planning Division staff to present actions taken to promote bicycle education. As for providing opportunities to educate the public about new bicycle facilities and treatments, he felt staff should seek additional options to inform the public. He said that BPAC was one venue for informing the public, but he felt other methods could be found. He said that Public Works provided at least one opportunity for public comment for each project, such as the Bradley Avenue Bike Lanes and the upcoming Lincoln Avenue and Main Street improvements. He added that attendance was sometimes slim, but the City still provided the opportunity for public interaction.

Goad 5: Provide equal access of bicycle facilities and information to all residents.

Audrey Ishii suggested using other events to educate the public about modes of transportation within the community. She mentioned the celebration in Douglass Park in Champaign as an opportunity to inform the public about transportation options within Urbana.

Annie Adams suggested working with the Urbana Park District to present information about projects. She said that Bike Month was a good time to discuss projects.

Craig Shonkwiler stated that the time between accepting a contractor for a project and the start of the project could limit the ability to use other scheduled events to discuss projects. Delays in starting projects could halt the projects since timing was critical in construction season. He said that BPAC was a good venue for providing information about upcoming projects. He mentioned that when the City had larger projects, there were usually many public meetings to inform the public about the scope.

Annie Adams said that there would probably be higher attendance if the meetings were not held in a government building since people were reluctant to go to public buildings.

Audrey Ishii said that something should be done to make City Hall more welcoming.

Annie Adams suggested having public meetings in conjunction with First Fridays.

Audrey Ishii suggested using other modes of communications, such as notices in the newspaper, to let citizens know about meetings.

Craig Shonkwiler stated that he would be discussing the distribution of educational information to the public with the Planning Division of Community Development.

Goal 6: Secure funding and implement bicycle improvements.

Craig Shonkwiler mentioned that the City worked with the Urbana Park District when they applied for and received the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program (ITEP) grant for a bicycle facility on the south side of Crystal Lake Park. He said that the City did not apply for an ITEP grant after researching the costs for a path on the south side of Florida Avenue between Lincoln Avenue and Race Street. He explained that additional costs were discovered for the replacement of traffic signals at Florida Avenue and Orchard Street and required intersection upgrades at Race Street and Orchard Street. He stated that improvements for Florida Avenue between Lincoln Avenue and Race Street had been included in the Capital Improvement Plan for the future, but he stated that the City did not have the 20% matching funds required if a grant were to be awarded for construction in the next construction season. Annually, Mr. Shonkwiler explained that the City budgets $40,000 to $50,000 for bicycle infrastructure. He said that two-thirds of the funds were used to maintain striping of current facilities and some of the funds were used to support the upcoming Signage and Wayfinding Project. To bring more awareness about projects, Mr. Shonkwiler suggested submitting a list of current and upcoming projects to the City Council and BPAC and sending press releases to inform them about those projects. For all new projects that occur where bicycle infrastructure was indicated in the bicycle plan, those plans were included as part of the projects. He mentioned upcoming work on Lincoln Avenue and Main Street would include bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. He noted that the 2016 Bicycle Master Plan provided guidance for staff when planning projects. Regarding the funding of one full-time regional bicycle planner, staff would be reviewing the work assignments to determine the current time spent on bicycling planning, design and engineering issues. Staff would also calculate the bikeway/trail mileage to determine how close they were to implementing at least 10% of the bike mileage recommended in the 2016 Bicycle Master Plan by 2021. He added the Regional Planning Commission would help with those calculations.

Bill Brown asked if it was worthwhile for the City of Urbana to apply for ITEP grants every year.

Craig Shonkwiler said the grants would require Phase I and Phase II studies, which could be costly. He added that communities within the region try to spread the requests throughout the area so they were not competing for the same dollars. He said that the City of Urbana originally wanted to promote the Florida Avenue Sidepath, but there were additional costs to Florida Avenue once the cost estimates were determined. In addition, there was a proposal from the Village of Savoy for work on First Street selected for this year. He mentioned that the Florida Avenue project was listed in the Capital Improvement Plan so the project would be completed at a later date

Bill Brown asked about the possibility of constructing a bike path to connect Riggs Brewery to US Route 150.

Craig Shonkwiler said that a Phase I study had already been completed but the construction of the bike path would be contingent upon development due to some drainage costs associated with the construction of the bike path. He stated that the next projects would probably be to connect the KRT to Weaver Park and the Florida Avenue Sidepath.

High Priority Projects

As of January 1, Craig Shonkwiler reported that the City was doing well with the implementation of high priority projects (Bradley Avenue Bike Lanes, Cunningham Avenue Sidepath, Washington Avenue Bike Lanes, the KRT connection to Weaver Park, and the KRT Installation and Trail Alignment from High Cross Road to Hartle Street Study). He said that he would provide a more in-depth report on bicycle signage in the near future. With the completion of the Broadway Avenue Sidepath in 2015, the recent completion of the Cunningham Avenue Sidepath from Perkins Road to south of Interstate 74, and the upcoming Park Street Sidepath from the Carle Campus (which would include a portion of Broadway Avenue from Park Street to Stebbins Drive) to Five Points; bike access in north Urbana had been expanded. Mr. Shonkwiler stated that once the Signage and Wayfinding Project was completed it would help identify these improvements around Crystal Lake Park and promote the Green Loop Plan. He mentioned that construction of the Cunningham Avenue Bikepath from south of Interstate 74 to Napleton Way was to begin in 2018. City staff also continued to close gaps in the bicycle network by adding sharrows to Race Street between Michigan Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue and on Washington Avenue between Vine Street and Walnut Street. Another project scheduled for construction in 2018 was the extension of Main Street infrastructure to the crossing at Lincoln Avenue. A recent study found that during a twelve-hour period, approximately 350 pedestrians and bicyclists crossed Lincoln Avenue at Main Street daily at a ratio of two pedestrians to one bicyclist. He added that vehicular traffic on Lincoln Avenue was approximately 15,000 per day. Mr. Shonkwiler explained that most of the current transportation funding was dedicated to the MCORE project, which should be completed by 2020. He informed the Commission that once the MCORE project was completed, intermodal infrastructure would be completed on Green Street from Wright Street to Race Street.

Bill Brown wondered if developers could be asked to dedicate land for pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure in return for requests for variances, etc.

Kevin Garcia said that the City could not require the installation of pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure, but they could ask.

Craig Shonkwiler stated that the master plan helps with the planning of new developments. He explained that without the master plan it would not be as easy to ask for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

Annie Adams stated that the master plan represented community consensus and helped with prioritizing projects.

Audrey Ishii explained that some of the goals should be BPAC’s responsibility to implement, not City staff’s responsibility. She was particularly interested in equity and education. She asked to include the topic on the agenda to discuss what actions BPAC could take. She mentioned the Commission could undertake some tasks, such as distribution of bicycle literature and development of a build-a-bike program.

Annie Adams mentioned that most resources are devoted to motorists. She felt that a full-time planner should be devoted to pedestrian and bicycle transit instead of dividing the job among five staff members.

Susan Jones suggested that a job audit might show that workloads would be more efficiently accomplished if handled by one person instead of five or six people.

Audrey Ishii asked how CUAATS staff was funded. She wondered if a full-time bicycle coordinator position could be funded from contributions from agencies within the region.

Craig Shonkwiler stated that each member agency gave money to the RPC and RPC received some federal funding.

Jeff Marino suggested adding the development of a committee to create the annual report for the February meeting.

6. New Business

a. Interpreting Census Date for Measuring Bicycling Trends in Urbana – Bill Brown

Bill Brown discussed information that was available from the U.S. Census. He mentioned that the census was conducted every ten years and that the next census would offer additional options for electronic responses. He reported that every year a scientific sample of U.S. residents was selected to participate in the American Communities Survey (ACS). Mr. Brown mentioned that there were specific factors measured each year. Through smart sampling, he suggested that valuable information was gathered to indicate trends. He said that this information could be obtained by searching in different areas: state, county, place (city or town), tracts, block groups and blocks. He stated that within Champaign County there were over 2,000 blocks, 154 block groups, 45 tracts and 29 zip codes. He stressed that the margin of error was an important consideration when looking at data.

Craig Shonkwiler asked if there was pressure to adjust boundaries based upon changes in population growth.

Bill Brown said that the ACS tried to use the same areas when comparing with some small adjustments made after each census. He said that some questions might be impacted by the time of year that the questions were being asked. As an example, he said that asking if someone rode his or her bike to work within the last week would be answered differently in January than in June. He reviewed American Fact Finder to show what data was available from ACS. He explained that data could be converted to maps or graphs.

Kevin Garcia said there was an add-on that could bring ACS information into GIS for mapping purposes.

Annie Adams stated that the number of bicyclists commuting to work would not reflect children or those over 60 since they would not be biking to work.

Craig Shonkwiler asked if there were tutorials for navigating in the ACS database.

Bill Brown said that he did not believe there were tutorials, but he thought it was easy to navigate with the use of help guides within the site.

Audrey Ishii asked if bicycle mode share could be obtained from this site.

Craig Shonkwiler stated that the Regional Planning Commission was gathering bicycle mode share for the City of Urbana.

Annie Adams stated that every time a vehicle was added to the street, buses had to slow down. She did not want more vehicular traffic on streets because the increase in traffic caused the buses to slow down and schedules would be less reliable.

b. Vice Chair Nomination/Appointment

Jeff Marino moved to nominate Cynthia Hoyle as Vice Chair for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission.

Annie Adams seconded the motion.

The motion was unanimously approved by voice vote.

Jeff Marino asked if the bylaws were reviewed recently.

Craig Shonkwiler said that the bylaws were recently created and could be reviewed if changes were necessary.

7. Announcements

• Bike Summit (March 5-7, 2018 in Washington, D.C. – Cynthia Hoyle, Bill Brown Audrey Ishii and Charlie Smyth will attend)

8. Future Topics

• Form committee to write Annual Report (February—Bill Brown)

• Effects of shutting down Main Street for First Fridays (March—Annie Adams and Imbibe Urbana)

• Regional Planning Commission Updates (February)

• Pedestrian crossings in downtown Urbana (Annie Adams)

• Methods for increasing attendance and public input at BPAC meetings (Audrey Ishii)

• Lincoln Avenue and Springfield Avenue and Lincoln Avenue and Main Street (February—Craig Shonkwiler)

9. Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

https://www.urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/January%202018%20BPAC%20Regular%20Meeting%20Minutes%20-%20Approved.pdf