Chambana Sun

City of Urbana Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Commission met Sept. 21.

Here are the minutes provided by the commission:

Members Present: Bill Brown (Chair), Annie Adams, Shannon Beranek, Kara Dudek, Cynthia Hoyle, Audrey Ishii, Susan Jones, Jeff Marino, Sarthak Prasad, Nancy Westcott

Late Arrival: Annie Adams, Sarthak Prasad

Staff Present: Carol Mitten, Chief Administrative Officer

Others Present: Chris Lehman, Charlie Smith, Katherine Trotter, Jeff Yockey

Members Absent: None

1. CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL, AND DECLARATION OF QUORUM

Bill Brown called the meeting to order at 7:07 p.m. Roll call was taken. A quorum was present.

2. ADDITIONS TO AGENDA

There were no additions to the agenda.

3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING (AUGUST)

Sarthak Prasad moved to approve the August meeting minutes as amended. Cynthia Hoyle seconded the 25 motion. A roll call vote was taken.

Brown -- Aye; Adams -- Aye; Beranek -- Aye; Dudek – Aye; Hoyle -- Aye; Ishii – Aye; Jones – Aye; Marino –- 28 Aye; Prasad -- Aye; Westcott -- Aye.

The motion carried.

4. PUBLIC INPUT

Charlie Smyth discussed the results of the combined Bike to Work and Light the Night events. He said that having both events on the same day was very successful.

Chris Lehman discussed concerns about visibility of pedestrians standing on the sidewalk at the southwest corner of the western legs of the Washington Street and Race Street intersection. He felt that the situation was unsafe since more students were walking to school.

5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS

a. Equity and Quality of Life Program - Carol Mitten

Carol Mitten continued the discussion of the Equity and Quality of Life Project from the initial presentation of the project in July. She discussed the scope of the project and asked for assistance from the BPAC Commissioners to help with developing the evaluation tools to score the submittals for funding. She provided a streamlined form that would allow citizens to propose projects specifically addressing needs in the community. She reviewed a preliminary scoring system for evaluating submissions. She agreed to attend the October meeting to continue fine tuning of the criteria and process for evaluating the submissions.

Discussion followed.

Nancy Westcott suggested possibly combining submissions to use funds more efficiently.

6. REPORTS OF CITY OFFICIALS AND STAFF AND REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

Shannon Beranek discussed the progress of the Lincoln Avenue and Springfield Avenue Resurfacing Project. She said that the bicycle lanes had been poured and all concrete work was to be completed by the end of the year.

Cynthia Hoyle reported on the People for Safe Streets, Safe Routes to School, Vision Zero and walkability checklist. She mentioned that the safety checklist provided to parents as part of the Safe Route to School day was written in English and Spanish. She said that she would share the results of the survey with Carol Mitten. She indicated that it was difficult to record near-misses, but that a WikiMap had been created that allowed respondents to indicate where near misses had occurred. She reported that Mayor Marlin was drafting a letter to send to community members asking them to join a Vision Zero Taskforce.

Audrey Ishii recommended giving the survey to Champaign County Bikes for distribution to gather more information.

Bill Brown recommended that someone other than he chair the Vision Zero Subcommittee.

Audrey Ishii suggested combining efforts with the City of Champaign since she said that the City of Champaign might have resources.

7. NEW BUSINESS

a. Pedestrian Crossings at Race Street and Washington Street – Bill Brown

Bill Brown shared a presentation about visibility and changes in the crosswalk design at Washington Street and Race Street that were made seven years ago when Race Street was reconstructed in front of the high school. He showed a video of cars using the intersection from the perspective of a pedestrian waiting to cross about where the new crosswalk begins on the west side and discussed the circumstances reported by the News Gazette surrounding a crash that killed a pedestrian in the new crosswalk in 2015. He showed an example of a triangular crosswalk referenced in training materials on the IDOT website that could be painted there to allow pedestrians to use the prior path in addition to the new path.

Discussion ensued.

Bill Brown offered to submit the idea to the Urbana Traffic Commission.

b. Additions to the Sidewalk Snow Removal District (Green Street and University Avenue) – Bill Brown

Bill Brown presented a proposal to expand the Sidewalk Snow Removal District to include Green Street from Race Street to Lincoln Avenue and University Avenue from Race Street to Wright Street. He mentioned that the two areas were sent back to Committee for further review when presented in 2019. He said he would like the Committee of the Whole to reconsider the two corridors that were removed from a previous request in 2019.

8. ANNOUNCEMENTS

a. Walk and Roll to School Day – October 6, 2021

b. Light the Night and Bike to Work Day—September 14, 2021, were considered successful events

c. Crystal Lake Park Open Road Day – October 3, 2021; Rain date: October 10, 2021

d. Group Bike Ride – October 2, 2021 at 2:00 p.m. Douglas Park to an ice cream shop, La Michoacana Express, on Cunningham Avenue

9. FUTURE TOPICS

a. Equity and Quality of Life Project

b. Bike Rack Installation

c. Three-Foot Passing Law Sign Installation

10. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting adjourned at 8:51 p.m.

http://urbanaillinois.us/sites/default/files/attachments/September%202021%20BPAC%20Regular%20Meeting%20Minutes%20-%20Approved%20Packet.pdf