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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Transportation Advisory Committee - 01/23/2012Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Monday, January 23, 2012 I. Call Meeting to Order - Mr. Curtis A. Rock, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of December 19, 2011 were approved. III. Presentations and Discussions - a. Introduction of New TAC Member: Mr. Rock introduced Mr. Joseph Dudek to the committee. Mr. Dudek said he has been a citizen of Corpus Christi for the past 33 years. He came to South Texas after he completed his military service and has been here ever since. He is currently an aviation maintenance instructor at Del Mar College and commented his background is aviation, from manufacturing aircraft to maintaining them. Mr. Dudek commented that he is very happy to have the opportunity to serve in this committee. b. Monthly Traffic Fatality Report: Capt. Vesely reported that fatality thirty -five (35) occurred on December 27, 2011 on the 2000 block of SH358 -WB by the Greenwood Dr. Exit. Apparently, the driver was smoking when he dropped his cigarette and attempted to pick it up and he lost control of his vehicle. He drove off the road and hit one of the concrete abutments and then the vehicle rolled over about three times. He stated this was the last fatality for 2011. Capt. Vesely reported for year 2011 there were thirty -four (34) fatal accidents with thirty -five (35) fatalities. He commented compared to 2010 there were twenty (20) fatalities. He stated there were a bit more in 2011; although, it appears that the percentage of alcohol use in those fatalities is equal or down somewhat from 2010. Mr. Price asked the comparison of pedestrian related accidents in 2011 to 2010. Capt. Vesely responded there were quite a few in 2011, possibly twice as much, especially at the beginning of the year. Mr. Cardenas said to answer Mr. Price's question, there were six (6) more pedestrian related fatalities in 2011 than there were in 2010. He said 2011 has been the deadliest year, maybe in the last decade, in fatalities and mostly in pedestrian fatalities. The motorcycle related fatalities remained the same in 2011 as the previous year but went down from 2009. Capt Vesely reported the first fatality in 2012 occurred on January 1 at 2:17 a.m. on the 4600 block of Old Brownsville Rd. He said a Chevy Tahoe headed westbound on Old Brownsville Rd., when the 18- year -old male driver lost control and rolled the vehicle, ejecting and killing the passenger. The passenger killed was the 16- year -old girlfriend. He said they are still in the process of investigating this accident, including waiting for blood test results from the 18- year -old male. He said fatality number two (2) is a single vehicle accident that occurred on January 19 on the 1200 block of SH286 -NB, in the area of Morgan Ave. He said the driver was not wearing a seatbelt and he was ejected. Capt. Vesely stated the driver probably fell asleep at the wheel. c. Monthly Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Report: Ms. Beard reported the subcommittee had met this month and Mr. Jeff Pollack with HDR Engineering had given a presentation regarding the "Mobility Concept of the Sustainability Plan for Page 1 of 5 the City of Corpus Christi ". She also reported a town hall meeting concerning this matter would be held tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. at Sunrise Mall. Ms. Beard stated the "Safe Passing" ordinance would not be presented to the City Council this month as they had thought. Apparently, they had some questions for Mr. Cardenas to answer. Mr. Cardenas stated part of the process of placing something on the agenda for the briefing is a presentation. He stated there were some questions on the presentation that have to be transparent. He said it is a very quick presentation and it should take about three minutes. Ms. Beard inquired if he was finished with the presentation. Mr. Cardenas responded that he is not finished with it but he is working on it. He commented he is getting some answers and is trying to be very careful on wording the presentation properly. Ms. Beard expressed that she would like the presentation to be completed and asked what timetable he is looking at. Mr. Cardenas responded it should be completed by the next Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee meeting and he would have the dates for the briefing and readings. d. Police Department Traffic Enforcement Complaints: Lt. Sherman reported twelve new complaints and said as always, they send them out to the Traffic Section in the other districts to handle the complaints as they come in. e. Top 20 Traffic Accident Locations for the Month: Lt. Sherman reported the top three locations with four or more accidents are usually the ones they focus on. He said the top location is IH37 and Nueces Bay Blvd., which is a new one to them. It appears three of the accidents were unsafe change from a direct course and two of them were failure to control speed. He said the number two location with four accidents is the Harbor Bridge at 2501 US181 -SB. He said this location does not have the contributing factors for these accidents. Lt. Sherman said the other one with four or more is Everhart Rd. and SPID. He said and again there is failure to control speed, following too closely and failure to yield the row from a private drive. f. 1. Discussion of Proposed Northwest Area Collector with Possible Action Taken: Mr. Cardenas stated that in the packet there is a memo to the TAC through the new Director of Planning, Mr. Pete Anaya. He said there are some proposed changes or amendment to the Urban Transportation Plan. This item would be going to the City Council but it needs discussion and possible action from this committee. Mr. Cardenas introduced Mr. Bob Payne with the Planning Department. Mr. Payne said the managers have made it very clear if there is a plan, it needs to be followed. He said if they want to consider deviating from the plan it needs to go through the process of changing it. He said this plan is at the intersection of FM 1889 and FM 624 or Northwest Blvd. He said Development Services had contacted him last week and mentioned they had an inquiry about a collector's street and asked whether or not a proposed collector street could be removed from the adopted plan. He said the proposed collector street is parallel to Northwest Blvd. and located approximately 0.28 miles (1,500 feet) south of Northwest Blvd. Mr. Payne showed and explained an exhibit of the proposed plan. Mr. Price brought up several concerns about the proposed plan. Mr. Beard said there is not enough information to make a decision on this item. Mr. Cardenas stated he agrees with Ms. Beard's assessment. He said Traffic Engineering has not taken a hard look at this proposed development and amendment and needs more information and time to review it. Mr. Payne said they are not in a rush and there is no deadline. He said this property is not even zoned for commercial Page 2 of 5 development; it is zoned for private road and does not see any reason why they cannot wait. Mr. Payne said he does not see a lot more information coming forward. Ms. Beard stated he might know what is going in that property. Right now, it is zoned for one thing but that zoning could change, which it is going to change the traffic amount in that area. Ms. Beard said more information is needed. Item Tabled until next month. 2. Discussion of Aquarius Street Alignment with Possible Action Taken: Mr. Cardenas said this is a follow up from another item that was previously discussed by this committee. Mr. Cardenas said Mr. Bob Payne would discuss the proposed alignment of Aquarius St. Mr. Payne said this plan is a little behind and we need to keep our plans updated and consistent with what we are going to construct. The idea here is to go to the Planning Commission and City Council as soon as we are able. Ms. Beard asked if the funds for this are from a previous bond issue. Mr. Payne responded that he is not totally up on the funding but that is what he understands. Mr. Payne showed and explained an aerial of the proposed realignment. He said the proposed realignment will allow for circulation as intended by directing traffic from the neighborhood to Commodores Dr. and connection with Park Rd. 22. The purpose of a collector street is to direct traffic to the arterial street system with minimal disruption to areas of low density. Mr. Payne said the proposed connection will reduce increases in traffic along a portion of Commodores Dr. compared with the existing adopted alignment. The proposed alignment will allow for more direct emergency response, particularly from Fire Station 15, to neighborhoods on either side of Whitecap Blvd. The proposed alignment is consistent with the preliminary designs for the proposed Schlitterbahn Water Park /Resort Development. He said this is something that is going to happen and we are updating maintenance on one of the plans. He asked the committee to recommend approval; therefore, they can move forward with this. Mr. Payne said if the committee would like to take action on this today, please do so, if not then it can wait. g. Unified Development Code (UDC): Mr. Cardenas said this is a reoccurring item on the agenda. He said that several months ago he discussed the driveway approval policy. The way it has worked for a long time is a developer or house builder goes to Development Services to get a driveway permit approved. Therefore, if there were a dispute with the location or design, the Traffic Engineer would settle the issues. The UDC has it written where the issue will come to the Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) and will do a recommendation on that issue. He stated it was the wish of this committee to have the UDC amended. Hence, it would stay original and go back to the Traffic Engineer because the lengthy process of going through the motions of getting a driveway permit approved could take months. Mr. Cardenas said they are in the process of making that amendment and presenting it to the Planning and Zoning Commission and then to the City Council. The good thing about the UDC is that it is a living document and it is made to be amended and changed. He is also looking at the UDC where it talks about the Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) for developments. The way the UDC is written now, a developer has to do a TIA but it is so huge that not even the mall would qualify for a TIA. He said they are redefining the TIA portion of the UDC, to make it more realistic. h. Discussion of No Cell Phone Use While Driving: Mr. Cardenas said Mr. Robert Jacobi has been emailing some very interesting articles worth discussing regarding Page 3 of 5 the national level as well as what other states are doing about this problem. Mr. Jacobi said he wanted to see how other cities, states and countries were handling this situation. In other countries if you are caught using a cell phone while driving, it is an automatic two -year prison sentence. This is just using the cell phone, not texting. He stated some countries are very harsh. He said this is considered a real problem and apparently, this is being recognized as being something that needs to have some control. Mr. Jacobi said in the United States there are about 36 states that have restrictions and Texas has some but they are related only to school bus drivers and the commercial driver's license. He said his personal opinion is it should be cell phone use as well as texting but he does not know how the police would ever be able to enforce this effectively. Mr. Jacobi stated that obviously the City recognizes cell phone use while driving is a distraction and it is important because cell phone use is banned in school zones. Mr. Rock said many people rely on the GPS functions of their cell phones while driving so it is a toss -up since there are economic demands to have the phone in the vehicle but there are also the safety issues that come along with it. Ms. Beard asked Capt. Vesely and Lt. Sherman how they feel about this subject. Lt. Sherman commented he personally thinks that we definitely need to look at it. Ms. Beard said this item originally came to this committee through the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee because this was a concern they had. She said she would report to the subcommittee that this is something that we are looking at on an ongoing basis. The committee continued to discuss this item. Mr. Jacobi said he would do some research on ordinances that other communities have enacted. i. Ocean Dr. and Sinclair St.: Item tabled until next month. j. Erosion Problems along Ocean Dr.: Mr. Cardenas reported there are some erosion problems on Ocean Dr. between Cole Park and Buford St. by the Holiday Inn. He said that there is some cracking on this part of Ocean Dr. and the roadway is fairly new, it was redone about three or four years ago. It was redone with hot mix, base and overlay and now you can see the settling and cracking and one side is slumping over. Mr. Cardenas said you do not see too much of the erosion on the Bluff side, near the Holiday Inn and Cole Park but it is evident that it is there. City Engineering is working on taking some samples to see what the soil conditions are like underneath. He stated that we are in a ten -year drought and that could be the cause. This and other conditions might be the cause of these erosion problems along Ocean Dr. He said the City is working on analyzing these problems and working on getting this eradicated. For now, there have been some spot repairs in front of Elizabeth St. by the hospital. Mr. Cardenas stated he still does not have the answers as far as the Engineering solution, if they are going to pour riprap or retaining wall or what the solution is. This is a serious issue and hopes it is isolated to this section and not anywhere else throughout the city. Mr. Jacobi asked if any portion of this problem is part of the Shoreline Realignment Plan. Mr. Cardenas said no but it is a good question. He said that he would recommend the limits on this plan be adjusted. Therefore, if there is any construction and it is time to do the realignment this could be addressed. He said this is at the boundary and some of it might be affected like the Buford St. end of it. He said this is part of the realignment and this is where it starts. k. Temporary Traffic Signal on Staples St. @ Moore Plaza: Mr. Cardenas said that he hopes he had more information or good news on how to remove this traffic signal. However, the Staples St. Project is about to start from Williams Dr. to Page 4 of 5 Saratoga Blvd. He said that during this part of the construction project, this signal might not be a bad idea to have, just to control the traffic. He said this construction project might determine what happens at Moore Plaza. Mr. Cardenas said that motorists should use other exits and not use the Moore Plaza exit while the construction is taking place. He stated it is going to be impossible to get out that way. Mr. Cardenas commented that in his opinion this traffic signal should have never been installed at this location. He said but it serves a purpose because sometimes to get out of Moore Plaza that helps to make a right out. Mr. Jacobi said that people that live north of SPID like to turn left at that light when they are coming out of Moore Plaza, some of them do go over to Williams Dr. and then go down to another road. Mr. Cardenas said that the State is still going forward with the ramp reversal on SPID southbound, he said the SPID northbound has already been done. Mr. Cardenas stated that once this happens the access on SPID would be a lot easier for Moore Plaza and it should relieved the traffic flow on Staples St. and Everhart Rd. as well. I. TAC Vacant Position: Mr. Cardenas said there was a candidate selected for the vacant position but it was declined because the candidate had moved to another city. He said the City Secretary's Office is still taking applications to fill this vacant position. IV. Staff Recommendations requiring Committee Review for Recommendations / Actions - a. Appointments to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Sub - committee: None b. Request to Remove the Proposed Northwest Area Collector with Possible Action Taken: No action taken, further information needed. Item tabled until next meeting. c. Approve the Aquarius St. Alignment with Possible Action Taken: Mr. Price motioned to realign Aquarius St. according to the red line. Mr. Jacobi seconded. Motion passed. V. Identify items to be placed on a future agenda • Structure of TAC Agenda • Island Community Sidewalk Issues VI. Public Comment - None VII. Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 3:51 p.m. Page 5 of 5