Roadways and Sidewalks Subcommittee Meeting
April 19, 2006

Members present: Rob Christense, Trevor Harris, Christi Hopper, Robert Johnson, Kristina Kaylen, Amanda Perry, John Riddick (Co-chair), Frederick Schmidt, Ian Thomas (Co-chair)

Others Present: Darwin Hindman (Mayor), Robert Ross (Communications Officer), Mitch Skov (Planning Department), Richard Stone (Public Works traffic engineer), Tim Teddy (Planning Director)

Members absent: Jack Jensen, Rachel Kaufman, Mark Stone

Opening, Introductions

Thanks and Introductions 

At the 4:05 p.m. the meeting was called to order. A quorum was present.

The committee members went around the table to introduce themselves. Each described a commute or route which affected or concerned them.

Ian Thomas circulated language from the federal law describing the NTP Program. Projects that can be funded include those to complete a comprehensive bicycling and walking network, including construction of sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails that would help people on foot and bicycle reach transit stations, businesses, schools, homes, recreation areas, and other destinations. 

Christi Hopper is District Curriculum Coordinator of Secondary Physical Education and teaches at Hickman. She said that there is no good safe route to Columbia Regional Hospital from points west of US 63.

Amanda Perry is a student at Rock Bridge High School and involved in a number of groups. She became involved in the NTP program through her EEE class, which investigated ways to improve bike/ped safety around the school. She mentioned that there is no sidewalk on Old Providence right in front of the school, making it dangerous and unpleasant to walk to school. She also mentioned the track teams have difficulty.

Kristina Kaylin is secretary oft he student government at Hickman High School. She mentioned travel up and down Garth.

Robert Ross is public communications officer for the city.

Mitch Skov is in the planning department. He walks around downtown and the university a fair amount.

Frederick Schmidt is an accountant with Perry Glover and Associates, and works across the street from Hickman High. He uses back streets (Woodlawn, Grand, and Forest) to approach his office to avoid Providence. He also mentioned that the Bicycle/Pedestrian commission has received public comments from people who would like to commute to the Lemone Industrial area but do not feel the crossing of US 63 is safe, and that a cyclist was killed there a few years back. 

Robert Johnson is in exercise psysiology at MU. He noted the difficulty of getting across the Interstate, that a large part of town is effectively cut off from the rest.

Trevor Harris is a grant writer. He said he changed jobs in order to be able to bike to work. His commute takes him through the intersection at West Blvd. and Stewart. He says this is difficult at rush hour, because there is a lot of traffic originating from the west on Rollins that cuts through to get downtown. He also noted the poor condition of sidewalks on Broadway.

Richard Stone is a traffic engineer with the city and walks a lot as part of his job, to inspect facilities.

Rob Christensen is a paving contractor and lives in the Bedford Walk area. He said he would like to see improvements that would make it easier for people to walk to Rock Bridge> He mentioned that as part of a job assignment he visited 12 parks in one day. He did this on bicycle, but was only able to reach 10 of the 12 that way. He did not feel it was safe to approach the others (Woodridge and McKee) by bike.

John Riddick said he is very interested in facilities for cyclists once they reach their destination. He described a recent visit to his accountant: when he got there, there was absolutely nowhere to put his bicycle, so he took it into the accountant's office. He was treated well (the customer is always right), but he feels this is not ideal>

Ian Thomas said he works in his home and therefore does not bike to work. He mentioned that there is not a good crossing for children of Braodway from West Blvd. to Garth> As an example he said that PedNet is running two Walking School Busses (to Grant?) that could be combined, but one is north of Broadway and one is South, and they do not have a way for the children to meet up until they get to Garth. In answer to Christi Hopper's comments, he said that there will someday be a trial along the Hominy branch under US 63 to Woodridge Park.

Meeting Times: The chairs discussed possible meeting times. It was felt that at least initially, the subcommittees would meet twice a month, on a schedule revolving around the executive committee. The times chosen are the second Monday and Last Wednesday of each month, at 4:00 p.m. Robert Ross said he will find a room.

New Business
Bike/Ped Route Surveys: Mr. Schmidt gave a brief review of the results of a survey of residents' bicycle and pedestrian commutes. He said the goal is to compile a list of routes that people are actually using, the obstacles people are encountering and how they overcome them. He presented a standard street map with respondents' routes drawn in with a Sharpie pen. There are inherent limitations with this technology, but it does illustrate several points. First, people are making long commutes as well as short ones. Second, nobody so far has reported crossing the Interstate and several cited that an the Business Loop as a barrier. Third, people ARE overcoming the Hinkson Creek barrier with its large hills and poor connection to MU and downtown. A compilation of public comments is attached as an appendix.

He said the intent of the survey was to gather public comments—that while engineers and consultants might find it helpful, there was no attempt to do anything that the professionals would do more scientifically.

Mr. Harris said it would be useful to have a map to refer to which would somehow summarize all the plans and data. He noted that the discussion so far has already referred to areas where a major change is already planned. A discussion of the various plan documents ensued. Mr. Schmidt said it would be very helpful to have a list of the exact titles of the documents, and to get copies and study them. He said that the Mayor had commented that all of them were drawn up before the NTP and therefore could be reviewed with this new development in mind. 

Mr. Schmidt made a motion that the chairs draw up a list of the documents and assign them to committee members to study. Mr. Riddick proposed an amendment, that Mr. Schmidt draw up the list himself. Mr. Ross said he would look into putting links to the documents on the NTP web page. The motion was not voted on.

Discussion returned to maps. Mr. Stone posited that what the committee is looking for is some kind of quasi-comprehensive visual aid. Mr. Hindman inquired about a GIS kind of layering of different types of information. Mr. Stone aid they had tried something like that with the PedNet plan but that it got too "busy". Referring to Ms. Kaylin's comments, he said the city's CAD technician travels down Garth and he would consult him about the maps. 

Mr. Schmidt mentioned the problem of cataloging public comments, that some kind of record should be kept so that they could be referred to and analyzed for whether they were responded to. It also occurred to him that each comment is a piece of data for the survey.

General Discussion of Possible Projects and Subcommittee Process: Mr. Christensen suggested that each member of the committee fill out the survey, and bring in a list of 10 possible problems or ideas. 

Mr. Johnson wondered whether a bike lane was a new or existing facility. The Mayor and others felt that since the street typically exists, it would probably fall into this subcommittee, but there would naturally be some give and take. Mr. Stone noted that there can be some disunity between what people want and what will actually happen. Mr. Hindman interjected that the statute specifies that the objective is mode shift and that people who will ride in traffic are already riding a bicycle. Therefore, in his opinion—and he said the committee members are welcome to disagree—bicycle lanes are more likely to get new people riding. Mr. Schmidt added that the statute covers more than bicycling but also pedestrians and people in wheelchairs, and that therefore sidewalks and pedways will have to be included. 

Mr. Harris said there will be some time and effort involved in changing the system, describing what he calls a "process shift." For example, gutters and sidewalks will need to be swept and that is a change in the way that people conduct other activities that aren't obviously directly related. Mr. Christensen followed up, saying that fixing the "process shift" frequently solves other problems. By way of example he cited Davis, Ca., which put more policemen at intersections to help bike/ped. It had the side effect of making the streets safer, and improving the public perception of safety. Mr. Hindman mentioned a city where bike lanes are swept every two weeks.

Mr. Christensen asked if the survey could be handed out by committee members. This was strongly encouraged, and Mr. Schmidt said he would email the survey to the committee. Mr. Johnson seconded this. Mr. Harris wondered if the survey could be tweaked to ask motorists why they don't walk or cycle. It was agreed that would be helpful. 

Mr. Riddick suggested the committee members do as much as they can themselves as volunteers, to reduce the burden on staff.

Presentation on Other Cities: Mr. Ross gave a PowerPoint presentation prepared by Deborah Hubsmith, originally given to representatives of the four cities receiving the NTP funds in December. This showed specific examples of facilities that could be built or improved in Columbia. Of note were the "sharks teeth" markings for crosswalks, different color asphalt to mark bike lanes, continuing bicycle lanes through intersections and across driveways rather than ending them, emphasizing the motorist's responsibility to yield where appropriate. Also noted were the tighter radii typical in European cities, which slows motor traffic speeds to aid pedestrians.

Recommendations for Full Committee Meeting (June 15): The subcommittee agreed to the suggested full committee meeting dates, and agreed that the subcommittees would prepare reports for the full committee.

Adjournment: At 8:45 p.m., the meeting adjourned. 

April 19, 2006