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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Transportation Advisory Committee - 05/30/2013 Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Thursday, May 30, 2013 I. Call Meeting to Order - Mr. Edd Price, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 1:30 p.m. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of April 29, 2013 were approved. III. Presentations and Discussions - a. Monthly Traffic Fatality Reports: Capt. Gutierrez reported five (5) new fatalities, which brings the total to ten (10) fatalities for year 2013. b. Top 20 Traffic Accident Locations for the Month: Capt. Gutierrez reported a new number one location for the month of April. He said IH37-FWY NB/Violet Rd. had three accidents during the month of April and two of the accidents were due to weather. In addition, the 1037 block of IH37-FWY NB, around the Port area by the curve had three accidents as well. He noted US-181 has gone down to number seven, which historically has been at the top. This location has been one they have conducted traffic enforcement efforts. c. Police Department Traffic Enforcement Complaints: Capt. Gutierrez reported 15 complaints they responded in the month of April. The complaints were from racing, speeding to reckless drivers. Ironically, they had complaints of racing at SPID and Bear Lane; this is where the motorcycle fatality occurred. Additionally, there have been speeding complaints at the 1500 block of Melbourne Dr. They have received this concern several times and have conducted speed enforcement. The last time they conducted speed enforcement, they were there for several hours and only had four citations written. He said either the motorists have gotten the message or they are taking an alternate route. d. Update on Red Light Cameras: Capt. Gonzalez reported he only has figures through the month of March. He said that through March there have been 15,767 violations recorded. He noted the Staples St. and Williams Dr. camera has been offline for 13 months because of the construction taking place on Staples St. This camera was the highest in red light violations in the past few years. He spoke with Traffic Engineering and found out starting next week this camera would be back online again. Last month, he was contacted by Reflex and they informed him that Corpus Christi was the only city that was not doing a statewide scofflaw, which can put a hold on vehicle registrations if motorists have any outstanding violations, if they are from out of town. As of last month, they started conducting a statewide scofflaw in Nueces County. Furthermore, they have been looking at the possibility of adding more cameras with Redflex. They requested Redflex to conduct some surveys. He selected the most dangerous intersections for the last three years in the city based on accidents. They provided this information to Redflex and because of this; they came up with 14 locations that would be ideal to try to Page 1 of 5 prevent some of these accidents. He received the information from Redflex last week and they have approved some locations that they could possibly move forward. Some of these locations are along Saratoga Blvd. and SPID. He mentioned the 14 locations for the red light cameras are: Weber Rd. ft Saratoga WB, Weber Rd. ft Saratoga EB, Kostoryz Rd. ft SPID WB, Airline Rd. ft Holly Rd. NB, Airline Rd. ft Holly Rd. SB, Airline Rd. ft SPID EB, Airline Rd. ft SPID WB, Everhart Rd. ft SPID NB, Everhart ft SPID WB, Staples St. fit SPID EB, Staples St. fit SPID NB., Staples St. and SPID SB., Staples St. ft Saratoga Blvd. NB and Staples St. and Saratoga Blvd. WB. Capt. Gutierrez mentioned they are at beginning stages of this right now. He contacted TxDOT last week in reference to this and to see what they can do to move forward with it. They are looking at the possibility of adding three cameras. The Yorktown Blvd. and Cimarron Blvd. camera has very low numbers of violations so they are looking at moving this camera to another location. He added this means four additional red light cameras. e. Monthly Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Report: Ms. Arnold reported one of the items on the agenda discussed was the current TxDOT project taking place on their Spur 3. They are resurfacing this particular stretch of roadway. It has been the suggestion of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee that this project take place as close to or immediately after the spring class semester gets out and conduct the work at night. TxDOT is adhering to the project, which just kicked off and is being done at night. The TAMU-CC liaison that serves in the subcommittee said everything has been going very smoothly and has not created a problem with all the traffic Ennis Joslin Rd. sees with the university traffic flow. Ms. Arnold mentioned the Leadership Education Bike Ride for May has been rescheduled. Again, they had problems pulling people together for the ride and overcoming some conflicts. They have decided to postpone this particular event for the fall when the weather gets cool again and can give the participants more of an upfront notice on the timing and scheduling. It has been suggested to the subcommittee by a couple of City Council members, instead of doing it on a Saturday morning, perhaps having it on a weekday might be better. The subcommittee will consider this and get with them a couple of months in advance to select some days they think might be advantageous. Additionally, they are beginning to study some of the recent Proposition 1 Bond projects that were passed. These projects have just now been brought before the subcommittee. The group received the first project list last week and will be reviewing them for input and comments for next month's meeting. Traffic Engineering will be getting back with them in June on their recommended locations for the 15 signs the city will be producing and installing throughout the city's roadway system. This is to inform the driving and bicycling public of the safe passing distance ordinance. f. Discussion on "Speed Zone" on McArdle Rd. between Rodd Field Rd. and Ennis Joslin Rd.: Mr. Bites said Nile Dr. to Ennis Joslin Rd. is phase 1. It is going to go from a two-lane to 22'/24' wide road to a three-lane section, which has two travel lanes, a left turn lane, two bike lanes and a sidewalk. It is a completely different environment once this project is built than what it is out there today. The expected construction start date is around January 2014. Mr. Bites said once they are done building this project, they would make an evaluation at that time conduct an 85 percent speed study and come back with a recommendation of what the speed limit should be. Ms. Cudd mentioned Mr. Cardenas wanted to put a Page 2 of 5 church zone in this area. Several TAC members had mentioned to wait until the construction is over because they are adding sidewalks and the church zone may not be needed. Mr. Bites responded he is hesitant to do unique zones that are not school zones. If the church had a school, he would place a school zone immediately because it is a school. He said when there are other zones, the drivers get confused. There is a big hospital zone on Alameda St. that actually causes much more problems than it helps. He would be very reluctant with something like this and if it is an advisory that means nobody is going to pay attention anyway. He said the Traffic Engineering section is working on a level of service and signal warrant at McArdle Rd. and Ennis Joslin Rd. g. Update of Lane Designation Signs on Frontage Roads at TxDOT Intersections: Mr. Bites mentioned the response they received from the area engineer is that they will be working on installing the signs this summer. They will be doing some road resurfacing first and once they are done with this, the signs would be installed. h. Discussion on Full Reconstruction of Ocean Dr. from Buford St. to Louisiana Blvd.: Mr. Bites mentioned this is a Bond 2012 project; there was a list that was brought to this committee during the bond election process. He mentioned there is some failing roadway in a couple of places and a slope needs to be fixed. Some immediate fixes were done but they included this as part of the bond projects. The bond language itself reduces the lanes from six to four, put bike lanes back in, widen the sidewalks and do some slope repairs needed in this area. He said when they are done, in conjunction with the Phase 2 Bayfront from TAMU-CC all the way past the Bayfront; Ocean Dr. will now be a two-lane road in each direction and not a six-lane road for this section. Mr. Bites said when this is done in a few years the bike lane between TAMU-CC and the American Bank Center will be completed. He said there are two or three signals on this route that they need to look at and how they are going to set them. Mr. Harris inquired if there will be public meetings for this project. Mr. Bites said they have gone out and met with various property owners or groups and they have not done any public meetings. They would be having a public meeting in a couple of months. i. Bond 2012 - Street Update: Mr. Bites reported they have received most of the Engineering Letter Reports at a thirty-percent design in draft format. He said the process is they receive them then review them internally and return them to the engineer and once they are final then they put it out for public review. Most of the projects in that stage had comments made back to the engineer for final report and reviewing then we present them to the public for their comments and then hold a public meeting. There have been many discussions in the office with various engineering firms about bike lanes and pedestrian access and the number of lanes and how wide the lanes should be. Mr. Villarreal asked if the pavement life cycle would be included where there is an option of whether we are going with concrete or asphalt. Mr. Bites responded in general that they had them evaluated; both pavement materials as part of the engineering letter report and the life cycle cost analysis. The goal is to make the decision then and only design one. Ocean Dr. for instance, the recommendation was to go with asphalt because of some fill issues in that section and they did not recommend going with concrete and that is probably what they are going to use. On some other arterials the recommendations are probably going with concrete so they are making that Page 3 of 5 decision early. Therefore, they only bid one material, right now they are both very competitive. j. Discussion on Laredo @ SH286 Striping and Signage: Mr. Bites reported there has been communication with TxDOT about this concern and they are looking at the striping. He added they would let us know whether it needs to be redone. The Municipal Maintenance Agreement (MMA) between the City and TxDOT outlines who maintains what and who is responsible for what on the state and federal highways inside the city. This defines who does what maintenance. Basically, on the frontage road, if the curb line is extended across towards the freeway it is done by TxDOT and everything else outside is done by the City. k. Whataburger Way Update: Mr. Bites mentioned it is his understanding that recently the owner of Whataburger Way called and asked how they could close the road. We told them this is not a city road anymore so they could close it if they desire to do so. Mr. Price mentioned before the Wal-mart construction began Mr. Cardenas was talking about installing some delineators on Everhart Rd. This would be to keep motorists from turning onto Whataburger Way and as well to keep motorists from going from Whataburger Way and cross Everhart Rd. and going towards Staples St. Mr. Price stated this was discussed and had agreed to have the city do it and about this time all the construction started on the roadway because of Wal-mart. This item was tabled until all the construction would be finished. Mr. Price noted he does not know if this is something city staff would like to bring back and discuss or close it. It was something they talked about in this committee with Mr. Cardenas and some of the committee members at that time were pushing to make it happen. Mr. Bites suggested to see what the private property owner is going to do because if they close this road to stop these movements then there is really not anything to do on Everhart Rd. He added the delineators are very maintenance intensive and if not maintained properly they end up looking very poor. They are looking at other ways to put something in instead of the delineators that would accomplish the same function. Mr. Bites stated if there is still movement there and is conflicting with the safety of the rest of the street then we could do something there. I. Discussion on No Cell Phone Use While Driving: Mr. Jacobi reported that the State of Illinois has outlawed the use cell phones. Florida has now banned texting and Hawaii is banning distracting driving but they defined it differently. They banned text messaging and the use of hand-held cell phone use while driving. Mr. Jacobi commented that all of the cell phone companies seem to be getting on the bandwagon trying to encourage particularly teenagers to put their cell phones away while driving. He found and app that can be installed in the teenagers' phone and once the car is moving is shuts off texting capabilities. m. Discussion of Bicycle ft Pedestrian Sub-committee Vacant Positions - RTA and Runner/Pedestrian: Ms. Arnold reported the subcommittee was considering appointing Mr. Weckenmann with the RTA who serves in the TAC. She understands he has recently accepted a position in Florida. They have gone back to Mr. Scott Neeley with the RTA and asked for another suggestion to appoint an RTA representative to this subcommittee. Ms. Arnold mentioned for the Runner/Pedestrian representative they have offered an invitation to Mr. Shawn Page 4 of 5 Flanagan to serve in the subcommittee and he has accepted. Mr. Flanagan is a track coach at TAMU-CC. Ms. Arnold said Mr. Shawn Flanagan would be placed at the next TAC agenda so he could be appointed. IV. Identify items to be placed on a future agenda • Appointments to Bicycle Et Pedestrian Subcommittee with Possible Action Item • CC Mobility Plan Update • Update on Road Markings on Chaparral St. @ IH-37 • Discussion for Future Council Consideration on Converting 3rd St. from Del Mar Blvd. to Ayers St. to a Two-Way Street V. Public Comment - None VI. Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 2:27 p.m. Page 5 of 5