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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Transportation Advisory Committee - 04/29/2013 Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Monday, April 29, 2013 I. Call Meeting to Order - Mr. Edd Price, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of March 25, 2013 were approved with one correction to item III. 1. Ms. Cudd mentioned she did not discuss this item at the last meeting but had emailed the information to Maggie to be placed on the agenda. III. Presentations and Discussions - a. Introduction of Mr. Bill Green, Assistant Director of Engineering Services Department - Temporarily Overseeing Traffic Engineering: Mr. Price welcomed and introduced Mr. Bill Green and mentioned he was the chairperson of this committee when he joined the TAC. Mr. Green said he served in this committee for about ten years and eight of those years he served as the chairperson. He informed the members Mr. Cardenas had moved on to be the Director of Public Works and Utilities for the City of Kingsville and he will be missed. Mr. Bites, Director of Engineering Services, asked him to serve in interim capacity until a new Traffic Engineer is hired. His principal assignment is the Assistant Director of Engineering Services; therefore, he is assisting the staff with various traffic related issues that come before the public. He said traffic has a very public field and an investment in our community; we have a very energetic and interesting community. Mr. Green requested their forbearance as he gets up to speed on some of the issues but also welcomes the opportunities to look into concerns that need to be addressed. b. Monthly Traffic Fatality Reports: Item tabled until next meeting. c. Top 20 Traffic Accident Locations for the Month: Item tabled until next meeting. d. Police Department Traffic Enforcement Complaints: Item tabled until next meeting. e. Monthly Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Report: Ms. Arnold reported that at the last meeting she discussed the bicycle ride. It was scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 27 but due to several conflicts in scheduling, they have rescheduled the ride to take place on Saturday, May 4. Ms. Arnold encouraged the committee members to join the bicycle ride. It is being coordinated by the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee. It is an effort for a bicycling experience on city streets to be provided to folks within the City, TxDOT, etc., that whatever they are doing with planning, construction, maintenance or design in some sort of fashion affects bicycle and pedestrian activity on city streets. Bicycles and helmets are being provided to persons that would like to participate but do not have them. There will be three rides, each ride is about a mile in length with a shuttle van that is being narrated on what folks just experienced or what they are about to experience. Starts and ends at TAMU-CC campus and it begins at 9:00 a.m. Mr. Green informed the committee there was a healthy discussion on the 2012 Bond Projects and what they are doing with bicycle treatment. He Page 1 of 5 mentioned it is interesting that we have the Corpus Christi MPO, which has a bicycle traffic plan, and then we have the Corpus Christi Urban Transportation Plan with a bicycle overlay. Mr. Green stated when you read the bond language it addresses the provision or consideration for bicycle traffic in accordance with the Corpus Christi Urban Transportation Plan. The efforts of both the City's Planning Department and the Corpus Christi MPO are a Corpus Christi Mobility Plan that is in development. He has committed to the subcommittee that he will bring draft versions of the Engineering Letter Reports for their input and comments. Similar information will be provided to the TAC committee when the information is ready. f. Discussion and Recommendation for Council Consideration on "Speed Zone" on McArdle Rd. between Rodd Field Rd. and Ennis Joslin Rd.: Mr. Green mentioned earlier in his introductory remarks he embraced the committee's support of forbearance in his handling of the issues and understandings. He will be pleading this case right now because in the packet are photos of church zones on three different locations, Greenwood Rd., Weber Rd. and Saratoga Blvd. The question that he understands is there is a section of McArdle Rd. that covers between Rodd Field Rd. and Ennis Joslin Rd. He believes there is a church in this area and the committee asked what has been done in the past. Mr. Price stated that Mr. Cardenas had brought this up about considering putting in a church zone in this area because of a death in this location. He was gathering information and studies to propose to the committee and see if we would recommend it to City Council. Ms. Cudd mentioned she thought he was going to show pictures of this area. Mr. Green said there might have been a misunderstanding communicated to staff in terms of what the committee needed to see and he has a better understanding now. He said church signs are advisory in nature and we would have an advisory speed limit but it is not an enforceable prescriptive speed limit. This would require an ordinance, which has been the City's policy. We will look at this section of McArdle Rd. and get some photos with a strip map. Mr. Price mentioned he was not necessarily recommending starting at Rodd Field Rd. and going all the way to Ennis Joslin Rd. but in this section of roadway towards the Ennis Joslin Rd. end. Mr. Green commented fieldwork needs to be conducted and putting together supporting exhibits as well. He would try to bring the information next month. Mr. Weckenmann mentioned probably the key item for investigation are the pedestrian accidents in this area. Mr. Green stated if we are going to do something to enhance the safety of our community, we need to look at what that enhancement should be. There might be some requirements that should be brought to this committee for consideration and input. Ms. Cudd mentioned someone in the committee had brought up the fact that there is going to be some construction on that part of McArdle Rd. between Rodd Field Rd. and Ennis Joslin Rd. She mentioned this person was wondering if it was still needed once there are adequate roads and sidewalks. Ms. Cudd commented the main problem is that there are no sidewalks in this area of McArdle Rd. The young woman was walking along the road when she was killed, she was coming from an apartment complex going towards the church. Mr. Green stated this is an extension of the Bond 2012 and he would be providing the proposed schematic for the road treatment at the next meeting. g. Discussion and Recommendation for Council Consideration on Converting 3rd St. from Del Mar Blvd. to Ayers St. to a Two-Way Street: Mr. Green said the question presented to the committee is whether or not we should move forward to Page 2 of 5 the City Council with a recommendation on converting the direction of traffic from one direction to two-way traffic. This is from the limits of the south right-of-way of Ayers St. to the north right-of-way of Del Mar Blvd. He directed the committee's attention to the section in the attached exhibit. The proposed restriping and traffic direction designation would be two 11' travel lanes north and south with 7' parking lane on the west right-of-way of the road between those limits. He would like to bring back an exhibit showing the proposed ordinance as well as a poll from the neighborhood residents to make sure they have an understanding. The agenda should have been a discussion for future City Council consideration on the conversion rather than discussion and recommendation. He stated staff is not ready to ask for the committee's recommendation at this time because we still have some work to do. Mr. Price mentioned while he is looking into this to conduct research on why it was converted to a one-way originally. He thought at one time it was a two-way and it was converted to a one-way. Mr. Green said he would look into the history of alignment and the direction of travel. h. Status on Staples St. Construction Project: Mr. Green reported the attached are construction drawings that show the limits of Staples St. and the striping treatments that are under way. It is a bit busy to understand but they are picking up and putting in a bike lane 4' wide on southbound Staples St. They are trying to narrow the lanes to 11' with a continuous bike lane along the east and west frontage from Williams Dr. that will go eventually all the way to Saratoga Blvd. Recently, they were putting in the revised striping and pulling traffic control back from the Williams Dr. intersection up to the Holly Rd. intersection. He anticipates within the next couple of weeks they will again continue the striping and pull it back to the north right-of-way of Wooldridge Rd. There are wide sidewalks on each side of the road. The bike lane would be marked with a solid line except where there are driveways, share use with RTA and share use with the right turning movements at the arterial intersections. It is being done to promote our connectivity within our city. The northbound and southbound travel lanes are being made narrower so motorists will not drive as fast and the center left turn lane will be left wide enough for continuous left turns. There are several driveways and commercial properties along the frontage of Staples St. where motorists can make turns. People need to be aware of sharing the road with others and signs will be installed. This is a change when it was presented to the committee back when the plan was being put together. He believes a close review of the minutes would suggest that a wider sidewalk was going to be put in. They felt by putting this in it will allowed for the use of the public right-of-way for serious cyclists and it allowed us to narrow the lanes so that we can in fact control traffic behavior. This is somewhat of an ambitious plan; I would submit that other metropolitan areas do this to promote bicycle mobility. Ms. Cudd asked if safe passing ordinance signs would be installed along this area. Mr. Green responded some type of signage will be installed. In addition, thermo plastic seal would be installed to indicate the bike lanes. He believes this area could be a candidate for the new safe passing signs because everyone needs to conduct themselves in a responsible manner. Page 3 of 5 i. Discussion on Lane Designation Signs on Frontage Roads at TxDOT Intersections: Mr. Green mentioned his understanding of this matter is that there are some missing signs on TxDOT right-of-way. This information was directed to the attention of Mr. Martin Horst who is the area engineer for the Corpus Christi District. They have an indefinite delivery and quantity contractor where they will be replacing the signage. Mr. Green read an email from TxDOT and stated the brackets they were using were not considered adequate so they will be making these replacements. He would like to come back to the committee with an update as to where and when these corrections are being made so we will have more information. j. Update on Road Markings on Chaparral St. @ IH-37: Mr. Green said to look at the attached exhibit where you see the curved broken line area. There are two left turn lanes and you needed some lane behavior modification in terms of where you need to stay so you are not bumping into each other. Therefore, this exhibit is being proposed to help channel the traffic through this turning movement. He spoke with the project manager before the meeting and said if the committee considers this approach adequate to meet the intent of the question brought to us, he will issue a delivery order and it will get this done. Mr. Price stated he hoped Mr. Jacobi had been at this meeting because he brought up this concern. Mr. Price said in the far right turning lane when motorists would turn they would come over into the other turning lane, if they were out in front of the other motorist. This was an issue with Mr. Jacobi; therefore, the right turn lane would turn into the left turn lane. He was questioning how it could be prevented in some way, especially when they started turning and realized when they got up to Water St. they were forced to turn right. Mr. Green said the north side of the right-of-way needs to be two through lanes with a right turn through on the outside lane moving north. He said this is north of the IH37 right-of-way but he understands the southbound traffic turning left has a tendency to turn into the left turn lane rather than going past the solid yellow line. There is a need to look at some type of traffic treatment. He will visit this intersection and see what the turning movements are and what the best practices would be to encourage safe turning movements. Revisit with a more mature exhibit that helps with the safe turning movements at all of these corners. Once there is a plan, it will be brought back with the committee's approval and then take it to the next step. Mr. Green mentioned the accident history in this area needs to be compiled to understand where the accident conflicts occur. k. Discussion on No Cell Phone Use While Driving: Mr. Green commented this is a situation where technology has outpaced our behavior. He has made it a practice while driving to wait until he can park to use his cell phone and his cell phone is on vibrate all the time. One of the components of this committee is public safety and public outreach. It is not to say that if the committee forms some type of opinion on which they think is responsible community behavior that does not impede us from taking some form of an action that helps educate and inform our public. Item tabled until next meeting. I. Discussion of Appointments to Bicycle ft Pedestrian Sub-committee - RTA and Running/Pedestrian: Ms. Arnold commented the members of the Bicycle and Page 4 of 5 Pedestrian Subcommittee are appointed by this committee. The TAC receives nominations and appoints individuals to serve on the subcommittee. Currently, we do not have representation from the RTA or the running/pedestrian community. We did have representation by the RTA with Ms. Linda Falwell Stover but she has since retired. She spoke with Mr. Weckenmann before the meeting started and asked if his agency or CEO could designate or offer a name for this group to consider. Ms. Arnold said she is not sure how this committee would go about looking for nominees for these two positions. Mr. Green mentioned there are different groups of running associations such as the Road Runners. He suggested talking with Fleet Feet, the shoe store, they help sponsor some of the local race events and perhaps obtaining a name or two of some community advocates that might be interested in serving in this capacity. Ms. Arnold asked if the TAC would be okay with her reaching out to some of these resources and encouraging them to submit their names to serve in the subcommittee. The committee agreed with Ms. Arnold and thought it would be a good idea. IV. Identify items to be placed on a future agenda • Whataburger Way Update • Discussion on Laredo @ SH286 Striping and Signage • CC Mobility Plan Update V. Public Comment - None VI. Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 3:24 p.m. Page 5 of 5