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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Transportation Advisory Committee - 08/26/2013 Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Monday, August 26, 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 July 22, 2013 were approved. III. Presentations and Discussions - a. Introduction of Newly Appointed TAC Members, Mr. Tommy E. Watson, Jr. and Mr. Henry Palacios, III: Mr. Dan Bites introduced Mr. Tommy Watson and Mr. Henry Palacios to the committee. Mr. Watson and Mr. Palacios introduced themselves to the group. b. Presentation and Discussion Regarding a Distracted Driving Ordinance which will be Proposed for Adoption by City Council that would Restrict Certain Uses of Wireless Communications while Driving: Police Chief Floyd Simpson presented the proposed Distracted Driving Ordinance to the committee. He said the Police Department has been working on the ordinance in conjunction with the Engineering Department and Legal Department. He stated what they are trying to do is make our community safer. Next, Chief Simpson gave a synopsis of the proposed ordinance. He mentioned they are having issues concerning injury related accidents, fatal accidents, driving while intoxicated and in general people are not driving friendly on our roadways. Many people distracted byway of talking on the cell phone, texting or doing other things within their vehicles. Therefore, he and Mr. Bites worked together on a proposed ordinance for the committee's consideration and for the City Council consideration. This ordinance is not a total ban; it allows you to use hands free. Chief Simpson commented they are ready to move forward with this committee's support. Mr. Jacobi mentioned to Chief Simpson that he had made his day! Ever since, he has been in this committee he has had the desire to have some type of restriction on the use of electronic communication devices. Mr. Jacobi stated this ordinance does a great job. Mr. Jacobi asked if this would be a primary offense. Chief Simpson responded yes. Mr. Jacobi asked if this is a moving violation; therefore, it goes against the insurance record. Chief Simpson said this is going to be a city ordinance so in this regard it is not a violation of the State Transportation Code. Mr. Watson inquired if this ordinance is approved by City Council and becomes a city ordinance, would this be a Municipal Court or County Court affair. Chief Simpson said this would be Municipal Court affair. c. Presentation of Mobility CC - An Update to the Urban Transportation Plan: Mr. Andrew Dimas with the Planning Department presented the Mobility CC to the committee members. He stated this has been an 18-month endeavor on how to improve how we plan transportation in the city. More importantly, it has been Page 1 of 5 revolutionizing how we view transportation and how we have to take it to the planning at the human scale. d. Monthly Traffic Fatality Reports: Capt. Gutierrez reported there is one fatality accident in the packet. Unfortunately, there have been two additional fatality accidents within the past few days, which brings the total to seventeen (17) fatalities for year 2013. He said fatality fifteen (15) occurred on July 27 at approximately 2:22 a.m. This accident happened at the 4000 block of SPID-WB Access Road. It was a single vehicle accident and it is believed that alcohol was a factor. Fatality sixteen (16) occurred at the 3300 block of Agnes St. and Osage St. on August 22 at about 1:14 p.m. They think there was some medical episode that caused the individual to speed up and drive into the center turn lane. In addition, fatality seventeen (17) happened on August 24 at around 2:30 a.m. at Ocean Dr. and Morgan Ave. A motorcyclist was traveling at a high rate of speed on the curve and he failed to negotiate the turn. He came up over the curve, lost control of the motorcycle, and struck a palm tree in the front yard of a residence. It has not been determined if this accident was alcohol related. e. Top 20 Traffic Accident Locations for the Month: Capt. Gutierrez reported US- 181 is back at the top again with four accidents. This has been one of the locations targeted very heavily in the last few weeks since they started their aggressive driving campaign. They have continued to address the issue of US-181 with vigorous traffic enforcement. He commented for some reason people do not slowdown in this area. Additionally, they have been conducting traffic enforcement operations along SPID. He mentioned the top two locations for the month had four accidents. f. CCPD DWI 2013 Statistics: Capt. Gutierrez reported as of August 20 there have been 742 DWI's for the year; it is up 15 percent from last year. Last year was a record year with 1,036 DWI's and we are on course to break those numbers. Capt. Gutierrez said to look at the statistics for 2013 and in most of those cases; they are getting some type of evidence like breath or blood. There have been 156 suspects that consented to give a sample of their breath and 304 of their blood. He said 232 suspects refused to give a sample of their breath or blood and they had to do a blood warrant. Every time they have a refusal, they do a blood warrant. They are running a little over 99 percent on gathering evidence on DWI's by means of breath or blood. Mr. Jacobi mentioned maybe the numbers of DWI's and DUI's are up because of the more aggressive approach of enforcement. Capt. Gutierrez responded yes because there has been more emphasis on DWI's and they have State grants that allow officers to work exclusively looking for DWI's. g. Operation SAD, "Stop Aggressive Driving": Capt. Gutierrez stated Chief Simpson wanted to start something with the aggressive drivers in our city. They started this campaign on August 1 and the officers have been emphasizing their patrols looking for aggressive drivers. As of August 22, there have been 1,760 citations written. He said one of the things they have focused on is people driving 20 mph over the speed limit or 10 mph in a school zone. This is being classified as an aggressive driver. As of last week, they have given 280 citations for speeding 20 mph over the limit. The highest speed was 108 mph in a 65 mph zone and 102 mph in a 60 mph zone both on SPID. These are the type of drivers they need to get off Page 2 of 5 the roadway. He mentioned that anybody receiving a citation and it is believed to be aggressive driving; Municipal Court would not lower the fine at all and ensuring they go to some type of aggressive driving class. As of last Thursday, they have given 1,594 speeding citations. Capt. Gutierrez noted much of their efforts have been on the freeways. Ms. Cudd asked what other aggressive citations the officers have given. Capt. Gutierrez said there have been others like someone weaving in and out of traffic, not signaling, passing on the shoulder and following too closely. These violations are not something they just made up this is a national standard. h. Monthly Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Report: Ms. Brigida Gonzalez, vice-chairperson for the subcommittee gave the report in the absence of Ms. Gretchen Arnold. Ms. Arnold has been out of town on business. Ms. Gonzalez noted it is important to highlight that one of their achievements in the last few months has been an opportunity to serve in the capacity the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee was designed. This is to give city staff feedback and input on facilities, our streets out there and how we accommodate or do not accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians. It could be very tedious and time-consuming at times and it takes some expertise and information in order to be able to read the schematics by Engineering Services. The City has been very patient with us and we have been able to do this over a series of months. We have really enjoyed being engaged in being part of that solution. It has been a wonderful opportunity and Mr. Dan Bites and his team needs to be applauded by the subcommittee because we have been able to put some of the feedback and input into their process. Another thing they want to highlight as well is they received a presentation from Police Chief Simpson on the proposed Distracted Driving Ordinance. It is wonderful to hear that this committee supports this ordinance. We believe support of this ordinance will have a positive impact on being able to stop some of the incidences that we have through bicycles and pedestrians. In addition, we also received a presentation from Mr. Andrew Dimas on the Mobility Plan. This has been something they have been working on for several months. It is a very collaborative effort and it brings several departments together. She also reported they received an update on the postings for the "Safe Passing" ordinance signs that requires drivers to either move over to the next lane or give the bicyclist three feet. Ms. Gonzalez mentioned one of the things they would like to see is additional signage funds. So far, they have been able to secure 15 signs around the city. They are trying to see if funds are made available through another source or an outside agency that they might be able to assist the city with additional sign placements. In addition, the Corpus Christi Police Department has the safe passing ordinance sign on some of their vehicles. The RTA who is a partner on the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee has also committed to place some of these announcements on their buses. i. Update on Striping Plan for Robert Dr. and All-way Stop Signs at Robert Dr./Gaines St. and Robert Dr. and Junior Terrace: Mr. St. Jacques mentioned at the last meeting they presented some solutions that would help to solve a challenge they have going through an s-curve on Robert Dr. This was through a set of stop signs at two locations. He stated they went back to the drawing board to see what else could be done realistically to begin to try to control some of the speeds through the s-curve. They came up with a solution to stripe and edge line through the s-curve and try to strongly channelize motorists through the area. Mr. Page 3 of 5 St. Jacques mentioned they striped 10' wide lanes through the s-curve. They want to constrain motorists and make them feel that they need to slowdown through the curve. In May, they had measured the speeds through the s-curve and the average speed was about 30-32 mph through certain parts of the s-curve. After the lane was striped, they went out and measured the speeds and the speeds went down to 28-29 mph. He stated they have made an impact and are getting closer. This area would be monitored for the next month or so. They will be talking to the residents afterward and see how they feel about the safety of the vehicles driving through the s-curve and see if they have done the job with the striping of the edge line. The set of stop signs they had planned to install would be put on hold for now. Right now, they are going to monitor the situation. j. Santa Fe St. and Del Mar Blvd. Warrant Studies - the studies were conducted but it did not warrant: Mr. St. Jacques mentioned there have been some discussions briefly about how the stop signs were installed at this intersection and it did not seem to have been warranted. They went back to the files, indeed a study had been done, and the traffic four-way stop was not warranted. There are often other reasons to install a traffic control device. Stop signs have been a particular item of concern over the years, people have been throwing stop signs all over the place trying to control speed. In collaboration with the Planning Department, they have identified Santa Fe St. for road diet potentials. Therefore, they are looking at the treatment of Del Mar Blvd. intersection. Santa Fe St. would go from a four-lane section down to a one-lane section in each direction with a center turn-lane with bike lanes on the outside and parking where it needs to be. We will provide this to the committee very soon, somewhat a concept of restriping Santa Fe St. and some other streets. This is like a calming influence on the street but having the street behave more like its surroundings. Santa Fe St. carries about 10,000 vehicles a day so that could be handled very well in a three-lane street section. Mr. Price discussed the background on the stop signs at this intersection. Ms. Cudd mentioned the problem was that the people were not stopping at Del Mar Blvd. Mr. St. Jacques commented with a three-lane configuration it might be a little easier to stop. IV. Staff Recommendations Requiring Committee Review for Recommendations/Actions: a. Motion Recommending City Council Adopt a Distracted Driving Ordinance, as presented, which would amend the Code of Ordinances to restrict certain uses of Wireless Communications while driving: Ms. Cudd motioned to approve the committee's recommendation to send the ordinance to City Council for adoption. Mr. Watson seconded. Motion passed. V. Identify items to be placed on a future agenda • Discussion for Future Council Consideration on Converting 3rd St. from Del Mar Blvd. to Ayers St. to a Two-Way Street • IH 37 C Water Street Striping Modification for Right-Turn Lane Issues • Update on IH-37 C Chaparral St. Striping Issues • Update on Distracted Driving Ordinance Page 4 of 5 • Status of Lane Designation Signs on Frontage Roads at TxDOT Intersections VI. Public Comment - None VII. Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 4:20 p.m. Page 5 of 5