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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Transportation Advisory Commission - 09/27/2010 RECEIVED Transportation Advisory Committee NOV 0 8 2010 Meeting Minutes Monday, September 27, 2010 CITY SECRETARY'S OFFICE Call Meeting to Order - Curtis A. Rock, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 2:33 p.m. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of August 23, 2010 were approved. III. Presentations and Discussions - a. Monthly Traffic Fatality Report: Capt. Vesely reported fifteen (15) fatalities to date for the year 2010. b. Monthly Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Report: Ms. Beard reported the subcommittee did not meet last month because there wasn't a quorum and because when the subcommittee was formed, the TAC bylaws were followed on the appointment of the subcommittee and its members and the approval of its members go through the TAC. Ms. Beard stated this is in the TAC bylaws; however, the city has their book of rules we all followed from our appointment and in that book it says, "The subcommittee members also have to go through City Council for approval". She continued to say the City Charter contradicts our approval by the City Council bylaws. Ms. Beard commented the TAC bylaws were approved after the City Charter and Mr. Cardenas mentioned the TAC bylaws are the ones that stand because they were approved after the City Charter. Mr. Cardenas said he is waiting from the Legal Dept. to make sure the subcommittee hasn't violated anything. Mr. Cardenas proceeded to say the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee (BPS) is a subcommittee of the Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) and no official council action is taken on this subcommittee. He noted no action of that subcommittee is enacted until it comes in to this committee. Ms. Beard said she didn't feel it was proper to have the meeting last month since it was questionable on a quorum anyway, until everything gets ironed out if the members are legally in this subcommittee. c. Traffic Signal at Nile and Ennis Joslin facing Hans Suter Park: Mr. Cardenas said this signal currently does meet warrants. He stated this is a three-legged signal because no one uses Suter Park; however, the signalization at Suter Park is needed. Mr. Cardenas stated if and when someone goes to the park and does understand during the evening hours it's in need for the signalized section in that leg, but that phase is the same phase that comes out of Nile Rd. Mr. Cardenas noted we go through the minimum thresholds, as far as signal time is concerned. He said, for example, if no one is coming out of Nile Dr., the signal itself has to go into its own threshold; although, no one is at Nile Dr., it will give the green light at Nile Dr. It has to by default and the controller has to do that kind of operation. Mr. Rock mentioned the issue there is a need for the signalization but the problem is that the signalization is not timed properly for the people leaving the park. Ms. Cudd commented about leaving the park and having to wait too long. Mr. Cardenas said sometimes it could be the lens being dirty and specially if it's near SCANNED Page 1 of 6 ti the water and in this case is the bay. Mr. Cardenas said he certainly would look into this next month. Mr. Carrizales inquired if anyone has ever taken a look at placing a signal light at Ennis Joslin Rd. and McArdle Rd. Mr. Cardenas said that a warrant study has been done at this intersection but cannot give a definite answer until he examines the report. d. Airline Rd. Realignment at Rodd Field Rd.: Mr. Carl Crull with HDR Engineering gave a presentation regarding this project. Mr. Crull said Airline Rd. is a major north and south arterial street that connects the southside area to Ocean Drive, SPID, Holly Rd., Saratoga Blvd. and other arterials in the east, west grid. The existing improvements north of Saratoga Blvd. are a five lane facility, two travel lanes in each direction and a center left turn lane. Airline Rd. is designated as A-1 arterial in the Urban Transportation Plan, with the five lane configuration. The southern terminus of Airline Rd. is the Lipes Blvd., Slough Rd. area, as shown in the Urban Transportation Plan. This project was approved by the voters in the November 2008 election, with the passage of proposition 1. The scope of the project will upgrade the existing two lane roadway to a five lane urban roadway with curb and gutter, ada compliance, sidewalks, ramps, realignment of the southern terminus. The significant amount of utility upgrades associated with the project will be drainage improvements; as well as, traffic signals installed at the Rodd Field Rd. intersection. This is an excerpt out of the Urban Transportation Plan and it was re-adopted in April of 2010 and said he highlighted the area of the project limits and the configuration at the southern terminus, Slough Rd. and Lipes Blvd. as shown on previous Urban Transportation Plans, dating back to 1979 ??? The project limits from Saratoga Blvd. to Rodd Field Rd., which includes the dashed section; however, to stay in conformance with the Urban Transportation Plan, they've done some realignment at the Lipes Blvd., Slough Rd. intersection. Airline Rd. will be curved into Rodd Field Rd. and Slough Rd. and then Lipes Blvd. will be curved into Airline Rd. The designed speed on Airline is 35 mph and the designed speed on Lipes Blvd. is 30 mph. The existing pavement in that area will be removed. The remainder of the pavement between Lipes Blvd. and Rodd Field Rd. will remain in place for the present time until such time and some agreement can be reached with abutting property owners to close this section. Rodd Field Rd. and Yorktown Blvd. intersection, both of these roadways are designated on the Urban Transportation Plan as three arterials with six lanes with medians relays in each direction. Recently, the City Council authorized the design of the Yorktown Blvd. from Cimarron Blvd. to Rodd Field Rd. and that design will reflect what is currently planned for the Yorktown Blvd. segment between Staples St. and Cimarron Blvd. He said that is a four lane, two lanes in each direction with medians. Mr. Crull continued to say there would be provisions to add two lanes in the future as traffic warrants. At this point in time for future projections, the traffic does not appear to be that heavy in that area. The intersections improvements are needed for safety traffic control issues. This project was not in Bond 2008 Program; however, most of the projects that the city's bid recently have come in significantly under what was budgeted for the Bond 2008 Program. The project scope for this intersection will be to improve turning movements. There will be exclusive turns at each approach, all way stop sign at the intersection and minimal amount of drainage improvements. These will be interim type of improvements until the full improvements are necessary. Portions of Page 2 of 6 Airline Rd. pavement that exist from Rodd Field Rd. to Yorktown Blvd. Mr. Crull said a different consultant is designing the section of Yorktown Blvd. from Cimarron Blvd. to Rodd Field Rd. and HDR will coordinate their design with them and will also coordinate with the developers regarding the extension of Rodd Field Rd., south of Yorktown Blvd. The Airline Project in Bond Program 2008; which was estimated in April of 2008 was $8,500,000 in construction. The recent estimate shows it based on current bid prices to be $7.4 million. Their preliminary estimates for Rodd Field Rd. and Yorktown Blvd. intersection is $950,000. Mr. Crull stated what is being asked today is concurrence with the Airline Rd. realignment at the Slough Rd./Lipes Blvd. intersection and concurrence with the staff recommendations to proceed with the design of the Rodd Field Rd./Yorktown Blvd. intersection improvements. e. Brooke Rd. a Rodd Field Rd. Intersection: Mr. Cardenas said this intersection was looked at and will be scheduling a formal signal warrant analysis and a multi- stop warrant analysis. Mr. Cardenas commented volume counts will be conducted and once these numbers are obtained we should know whether it warrants a multi- stop or signal. The future plan of Brooke Rd. keeps it as a C-1 collector, which is a very small roadway. Brooke Rd. turns into a county road but eventually Brooke Rd. will stop at the new proposed Oso Pkwy. years from now. Brooke Rd. also doesn't make it all the way to Cimarron Blvd., it T-s in with another residential street back in that area. The volume of traffic that's projected coming out of Brooke Rd. is not that bad. Some improvements were done with the drainage and we can see where there is high speed coming out of Rodd Field Rd. and there is a need to improve safety. Mr. Cardenas said a formal traffic study will be conducted but thinks that is not going to warrant it because the traffic is not there and is not projected to be there. Again, there is a need to improve safety out there so some of those are safety needs which can talked about next month. There will be additional lighting and maybe some kind of advance intersection ahead type of flasher. Ms. Cudd asked if there have been traffic accidents at this location and Mr. Cardenas said as part of the study we look at the accident history within a twelve-month period. f. Police Department Traffic Enforcement Complaints: Lt. Sherman with the Traffic Section of the Police Dept. discussed the traffic enforcement complaints that were started over a year ago. He said basically the complaints are coming from various citizens into both the traffic office and the uniform executive officer and some of them actually come from other people within the department that know problems. He said they started compiling a spreadsheet which could be send out to the zones so all the officers are aware of the complaints, not just the traffic section. However, the traffic officers are assigned these complaints to address them specifically and they usually follow-up fora week or two to start with, then turn in the statistics back to us. He continued to say that sometimes there are no results. Sometimes there is a perceived complaint that is not there but we keep this list so the officer can periodically go back and revisit complaints from the past. Mr. Price said he would like to add a complaint to their list. He said motorists run the stop sign at the 4900 block of Lavaca Dr. and Mt. Vernon Dr. between McArdle Rd. and SPID all the time. Capt. Vesely said; although, speeding is a big thing, a great number of complaints are school zone related, which of course a high priority is placed on the school zones complaints. Nothing against Page 3 of 6 people running stop signs but of course the children at school zones are a little more vulnerable so that's why extra emphasis is placed on those. He said sometimes the same complaints are seen, that's different sources saying we have a problem. Capt. Vesely said they work very closely with Traffic Engineering as far as the engineering aspect in case there is a traffic flow problem. Capt. Vesely stated that Lt. Sherman and Lt. Trevino deal with it from the enforcement issue and he works with Traffic Engineering if it turns out to be a design or flow issue. Mr. Jacobi stated this is a very interesting report and since it is in a spreadsheet he asked if it can be sorted by beat and show a map of those beats. He wondered if this would show a trend where the particular problems are. Capt. Vesely responded he could certainly look at it that way and bring it to the committee next month. Mr. Price commented that he was very excited to see this type of report is available and is glad to know the Police Department is looking at the complaints. Mr. Rock commented to keep this item on the agenda on a permanent basis. g. Fire and Police Traffic Discussions: Mr. Cardenas said this item is same item discussed in item f. Mr. Price said a resident asked him to bring up the subject of Everhart Rd. between Staples St. and SPID. He said the resident stated they have a difficult time knowing which lane they are in, especially at night. Mr. Price commented he drove out there and on the right hand two lanes there is no center line and when is dark someone may wander over into another lane. Mr. Price asked if there is a schedule for restriping that section. Mr. Cardenas said yes there is and there is also a schedule of maintenance. Mr. Cardenas mentioned the city has a striping contract and is not the city forces that will do it. Mr. Cardenas said he will check into this and will bring updated list for the striping for next month. h. Everhart Rd. Stop Signs by Aberdeen Dr.: Mr. Cardenas distributed a handout from the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) which explained how a stop sign is placed and justified. Mr. Cardenas said the handout answers the question on why and where the stop signs were placed. He stated this was before he came in as the city's Traffic Engineer. He said he has to examine the formal report that was done in the past. Mr. Cardenas said he will conduct another volume count and stated speed is not looked at when a traffic signal or multi-way stop is conducted. He continued to say that pedestrian and bicycle volumes are taken into consideration as well. He said all this is noted in the handout. Mr. Cardenas said on the first page of the handout it says "stop signs should not be used for speed control" and mentioned many people want to use a stop sign to slow down motorists. He said it should not be used for that and Aberdeen Ave. and Everhart Rd. has that appearance. Mr. Cardenas said he will look at the study in the report and maybe look at the impact of removing the stop signs and putting up a yield sign. Mr. Cardenas said he didn't understand why there are both speed humps and stops signs at this location. Mr. Cardenas said he sees the need for the speed humps. Mr. Cardenas stated this is a traffic issue that needs to be looked at to decide whether the stop signs should be taken down or whether some other improvements are needed. He said we need to take a look at it, as it is a traffic issue because of the amount of volume wanting to use this as a cut through to get to Ocean Dr. Mr. Cardenas said he will conduct a formal study at this location. i. Cedar Pass Speed Hump Ahead Sign: Mr. Cardenas stated he does agree there is a need for a sign at this location and a work order has been placed for two (2) Page 4 of 6 speed hump ahead signs, one in each direction. The sign is right there at the speed hump, that's fine because that is a requirement if the speed hump is not painted. If the paint is not put on the speed hump, then the sign is needed. Mr. Cardenas said the speed hump come right at you out of nowhere. Mr. Rock asked if the speed hump was properly constructed and said the concern was the fact that the hump is a little higher than normal. Ms. Cudd stated that Mr. Cardenas had mentioned the approach needed to be fixed and said she hasn't noticed any difference. Mr. Cardenas said that the speed hump was measured and it did meet the height requirements. j. Red Light Camera Update Discussion: Mr. Cardenas said this item was presented to the City Council back in May of this year and the TAC had requested an update. This report shows types of accidents at these intersections. He said to look at the trend and you can see it went up the first year when the Red Light Program was started in 2007. The number of accidents increased because there were more rear end collisions. However, now we are starting to see the trend come back down which is telling us a lot of the motorists are being aware of these red light cameras around town. Motorists are being more cautious, as they approach any intersections not just these. The next page shows the type of accidents. For our discussion here and at City Council, we wanted to show the rear end, sideswipe, and t-bone types of accidents. Mr. Cardenas said the t-bone accidents have been almost instantly reduced by half on the most severe deadly type of accidents since 2006-2007. He continued to say the overall minor accidents such as side swipes went up a little bit but they are starting to go down now. The rear end and other types of accidents are also starting to stabilize and come back down. Next, Mr. Cardenas discussed the associated cost of the red light cameras. He said there is a formula that is used by the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), which should not be used for budgeting purposes. This is just used for monetary value on accidents and severity of accidents. Mr. Cardenas said the data we used showed that a t-bone type of accident is a lot more severe and has more cost to it because loss of life has more cost than an injury. A severed arm has more cost to it than a broken arm. These are the type of factors that are being used and we collect looking at accidents reports and getting a cost associated with the program. Mr. Cardenas said that's all this represents and of course you will see the cost is going down, almost the same thing like the accident rates. Mr. Rock inquired if this is like medical costs. Mr. Cardenas responded that this is like hospital medical cost and property damage cost. So there is property damage and bodily injury as well. Mr. Cardenas talked about each intersection, which is important to know because Capt. Vesely stated they are inquiring with the Redflex about increasing the number of cameras and the increasing the length of the contract. Capt. Vesely said that currently there are 13 cameras. Three or four of them are in ground loop where they have updated from the video loop, which is the camera up above to the actual loop in the ground. They have upgraded three or four so they can show the performance difference on those compared to the video loops and there is a significant difference. Capt. Vesely said at one of the intersections as much as fifty percent more red light violations were recorded. It also allows multiples, such as two cars running the light then you get two violations, as opposed to the way it is now with the video being so slowed, which gets the first one, but the later one gets by Page 5 of 6 without ever having to worry about it. The package deal that they're offering is that they will increase the number of cameras from thirteen to fifteen and of course we will select the other two intersections if we want to put them up. They will do all the ground loops, which cost $8,800 per intersection, and they will do all the cameras and the ground loops for a total price to the city of extending the current contract for five more years. Of course, if the state legislature nixes the red light cameras then the contract will terminate. k. Staples and Saratoga Median Construction Project: Mr. Cardenas said this project has already started but the milling hasn't started yet due to rain delays. Mr. Cardenas said he would keep this item on the agenda for next month so he can provide a better schematic drawing. Mr. Cardenas said once this project gets started everyone will be affected. He said Saratoga Blvd. will be started first before Staples St. and it will be from Staples St. to Rodd Field Rd. The whole lane will be milled out and there will be a rough ride for about six (6) months. IV. Staff Recommendations requiring Committee Review for Recommendations/ Actions - a. Appointments to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Sub-committee: None V. Identify items to be placed on a future agenda - VI. Public Comment - No public comment. VII. Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 3:51 p.m. Page 6 of 6