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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Transportation Advisory Commission - 11/23/2009 RE� FEB 2clig Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes !Ci!SECR`T,AIT"s 09 ICg Monday, November 23, 2009 Call Meeting to Order - Glenn Jones, Vice Chair, called the meeting to order at 2:30 p.m. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of October 26, 2009 were approved, with a change to Item I from Chairperson to Vice Chairperson. III. Presentations and Discussions - a. Monthly Traffic Fatality Report: Sgt. Pena discusses the first fatal accident occurring on October 28, 2009 near the 12500 block of the IH 37 access road. As the driver of unit one was driving opposing traffic on IH 37, unit one hit unit two. The police department is waiting on alcohol and blood test on Steven Pena. Sgt. Pena states that the second fatal accident occurred on November 7, 2009 at about 11:01 pm at the intersection of Northwest Boulevard and East River View. Driver of unit one was driving the vehicle of the passenger in unit one. The driver of unit one failed to yield the rightof way at a stop sign and was stuck by unit two. Unit two had a hook on the front of the truck, which penetrated the car and extracted the driver of unit one from the vehicle. He then addresses fatal accident number three which occurred November 8, 2009 at about 12:38 am. Unit one was fleeing from officers and lost control of the motorcycle, ejecting both himself and passenger. Closest the police unit got to the motorcycle was about 400 yards. The officer was not right behind unit one, but the driver of unit one was adamant about getting away, causing him to lose control. Captain Mike McKinney states that P.D. only has 24 fatalities on file for the year and city has 26. City needs to look into correcting that number. Capt. McKinney informs the TAC that in regards to speed enforcement, the traffic safety section is changing the focus of what officers are doing. In the past traffic officers were tasked with anything traffic related, such as stalled or abandoned vehicles, school crossing guard fill in, etc. With the cooperation of other captains in the uniform division, patrol is picking up these things. The traffic division is now focused on accident investigation as their first priority and speed enforcement/traffic enforcement as their second priority. Motorcycle officers' first priority is speed and traffic enforcement and accident investigation is their second priority. Numbers • for traffic tickets have decreased dramatically. Capt. McKinney states that Page 1 of 4 SCANNED these changes just went into effect around the beginning of the 09-10 school year. Mr. Glenn Jones questions Capt. McKinney on whether a presence at the city's top ten intersections would make an impact. McKinney answers that the police department is seeing some changes to the top ten intersections. Staples and Everhart has in the past had the highest accident intersections. Now FM 624 is at the top at the list. He also mentions that yes the police department is having a little effect by showing presence, but not as much an impact they would like to see. b. Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Report: Mr. Cardenas would request this item to be tabled since Karen Beard, Chair for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee, is not present. Curtis Rock motions to table this item. Edd Price seconds. Motion is tabled until next meeting. c. Corpus Christi Beach Walk: Carrie Robertson presents the Corpus Christi, Beach Walk for Joanne Gilbertson. Ms. Robertson states that City Council recently renamed the sidewalk along the Corpus Christi Beach to Corpus Christi Beach Walk. It is only a naming of the sidewalk, however, what they envision is naming Museum District and Corpus Christi Beach as the Corpus Christi Beach walk with the Harbor Ferry connecting the two. Joanne Gilbertson and Carrie Robertson are encouraging the RTA to move to a year round Harbor Ferry to create this year round Corpus Christi Beach Walk. d. Red light camera updates Et statistics: Mr. Cardenas refers to the report from CCPD which show the red light camera violations to date. There are three new red-light cameras, which are Baldwin and Greenwood, Ocean and Airline and Staples and Kostoryz. These cameras did not exist in 2008. Currently there is construction on Greenwood and the red-light camera is off-line. Ocean and Doddridge were also off-line while construction was underway. If you look closely at the numbers, violations have gone down when you look at it month by month. Mr. Cardenas sees a downward trend with fewer violations. He believes part of that is that motorists are getting used to the red-light cameras. Mr. Cardenas expresses to the TAC that the goal in using these red-light cameras is to make the roadway safer. The downfall of these cameras is that the city is not seeing the revenues that the red light cameras were supposed to produce. Red light camera revenues are used to pay salaries of the people that work the program as well as anything traffic safety related, such as the school zone flashers that were paid for by the red-light camera revenues. This year the revenue is paying for the cell phone ban signage in school zones. Mr. Jones questions if the city has looked into increasing the yellow light timing. Mr. Cardenas states that the yellow times are set by the Institute of Traffic Engineers and the city is at the minimum yellow. However, to increase it, city has to look at the accident history. If the rear end collisions are abundant, then the city Page 2 of 4 may extend the timing on the yellow. Mr. Price expresses that he thinks that rear end collisions is the price to pay for saving a life that one may lose in a side collision. Mr. Cardenas agrees with him and stresses that there has not been a fatality at the intersections with the red-light cameras. e. City wide striping: Mr. Cardenas informs the TAC of the city wide striping the city does every quarter through a striping contract. City still has close to 100,000 dollars left to stripe and the city still has two groups to stripe. City is hoping to do some more striping in the upcoming spring and summer. Most recently in group number two, they have striped Strasbourg with a dashed line to signify the center line. City still needs to identify the shoulder to accomplish the traffic calming needed on Strasbourg. Ms. Cudd informs Mr. Cardenas that Lipes Boulevard coming from Staples to Cedar Pass has striping that is not consistent and needs attention as well. f. SPID speed signs on access roads: Mr. Cardenas informs the TAC that this item is a TxDOT issue and not a city issue. However, Mr. Cardenas did request that TxDOT take a look at the advisory speed signs coming off the ramps on SPID to the frontage road. Mr. Jones informs Mr. Cardenas that the SPID east bound off ramp to Airline is missing the speed sign. g. Yorktown Blvd Et Weber Road configuration: Mr. Cardenas informs the committee that the city and state are working together to make this intersection signalized. Planning is at 90 percent and should let out somewhere in the spring of 2010. This will relieve some traffic on Yorktown and Sun Valley. He also informs the committee that Aaron and Weber will be signalized in the near future as well. h. Secondary information a updates: None. IV. Staff Recommendations requiring Committee Review for Recommendations/Actions - a. Recommendation for City Council adoption, an ordinance abandoning and vacating a 82,830-square foot portion of Resaca Street and Sam Rankin Street public right-of-way, between the N. Tancahua Street and Sam Rankin Street public right-of-way: Edd Price motions to table this item. Sheila Cudd seconds. Item tabled. b. Amendment to the composition of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Sub- committee: Ms. Cudd motions to table this item. Mr. Price seconds. Item tabled. c. Appointments to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Sub-committee: Edd Price motions to table this item. Sheila Cudd seconds. Item tabled. Page 3 of 4 d. Motion to direct staff to draft an ordinance to modify the term requirements of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Sub-committee Bylaws: Edd Price motions to table this item. Sheila Cudd seconds. Item tabled. e. Motion to propose for city council adoption, an ordinance to prohibit parking at all times on Ocean Drive, east side, from Atlantic Street to Ennis Joslin Road, and on Ocean Drive, west side, from Louisiana Avenue to Ennis Joslin: Veronica Ocanas, with legal, explains that this ordinance would amend a current ordinance to add the section of Ocean Drive above. Ms. Ocanas explains that it is Mr. Cardenas' recommendation to prohibit parking for safety reasons on the sections of Ocean Drive above. Daniel Carrizales motions to table this item. Curtis Rock seconds. Item is tabled. V. Identify items to be placed on a future agenda - • Burnie Circle and Everhart Road intersection traffic light • Ranger Avenue and Saratoga Boulevard traffic signal configuration • MMA update • Accident history at Weber Road and Yorktown Boulevard VI. Public Comment - • Alfredo Ramirez comments on the bicycle facility and requests the support from the Transportation Advisory Committee on the no parking along Ocean Drive. • Dorian Ramirez shares her support for the proposed parking ban on Ocean Drive. She informs the committee of the extensive areas of no parking that already exists on Ocean Drive. Mrs. Ramirez wants the TAC to keep this in mind when considering the proposed ordinance. • Gretchen Arnold comments that the Bicycle and Pedestrian Sub- committee supports the parking ban on Ocean Drive because of safety reasons for bicyclists. She also explains that the Bay Trail, already advertised by the City of Corpus Christi, states that this is a safe bicycle route, when in fact it isn't under the current parking conditions on Ocean Drive. VII. Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 4:17 p.m. Page 4 of 4