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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRTBC 10.10.17MINUTES PRELIMINARY MPO REGIONAL TRAILS AND BICYCLING COMMITTEE TUESDAY, MARCH 14, 2017 CITY HALL, IOWA CITY MEMBERS PRESENT: Louise From, Becky Soglin, Juli Seydell Johnson, Alex Buhmeyer (Coralville), Bob Oppliger (Think Bicycles), Michelle Ribble MEMBERS ABSENT: Brian Loring, Shelly Simpson, Terry Dahms OTHERS PRESENT: Brock Grenis, Del Holland STAFF PRESENT: Sarah Walz, Emily Bothell 1. CALL TO ORDER; RECOGNIZE ALTERNATES; CONSIDER APPROVAL OF MINUTES Walz called the meeting to order at 1:03 PM. Oppliger made a motion to approve the October 11, 2016 minutes; Seyell-Johnson seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. 2. Public Discussion None. 3. REVIEW TRAIL COUNTS FOR 2016 AND TRAIL COUNT PLAN FOR 2017 Walz noted late revisions to the Trail Count memo. She explained that it is difficult to know what effects counts year over year. Weather, obviously can have an effect. As more connections to trails are made that will bring more users, however users may be entering and exiting the trail at different points. Likewise, construction on adjacent roadways and road closures can impact trail use, such as along North Dubuque Street (during the Gateway Project). A trail count being up or down during a given year may not be predictive of a long-term trend. There was some discussion that the count data is hard to use because there is so much variability year over year. There was some discussion of changes to the trail system along the Riverfront Crossings Park and where future measurements should be done—along the river vs. along the creek as the trail splits in this location. 4. REVIEW PRELIMINARY STRAVA DATA Emily Bothell explained the source of Strava data, which is an application used by bicyclists to track routes, mileage, and performance. The Johnson County Trails Foundation provided funding to pay for data. Bothell explained that the data can help us see where popular bicycling routes exist, level of service, and the time of day that people are using the route. Bothell showed two maps to illustrate how the data can be used. The first was total weekday trips in the metro and the second showed weekend trips. Bothell noted that the scales of the original maps in the packet were not the same, and that there are far more trips during the weekday than on the weekend. However, cyclists are using many of the same routes whether for commuting or for recreation. Bothell cautioned that Strava is a subset of all users and is not a random sample. It would tend to be for more serious bicyclists rather than the average weekday commuter or occasional bicyclist. She said that while there are many limitations to the data, it is the only data of its kind currently available and is useful as one more piece of information to give us a sense of routes people are using to travel across the metro. This data can help with planning for future infrastructure improvements or routes. Bothell noted that there is data for each direction on a roadway as well as intersection data. Additional demographic information on riders is also captured. Bothell showed the heat map of the metro with total commute trips during one month (May). She noted she was surprised by the number of bike trips north of the metro and out in the county. She noted that at the end of summer she would receive second year data so that we can make comparisons. If communities are interested in a particular route or trail section or intersection or want access to the data they should contact her. 5. DISCUSS TRAIL MAPS FOR 2017 Walz reminded the committee that the map format changed in 2016 to a smaller size and that some of the information previously contained on the map was dropped, in part to simplify the amount of information that staff had to manage and update. On the 2017 maps the location of schools would be added back in along with the location of fix-it stations that can be easily accessed by the public. Walz asked for any other requested changes to trails. She had received some comments that the countywide side of the map may not be that useful and that it may make more sense to provide insets on one wide of the map for riders who are commuting through downtown Iowa City or through the university campus. The county side may be useful for people planning routes on gravel vs. hard surface roads; whether it offers some advantage over the County’s road map, she was not sure. 6. DISCUSS OPPORTUNITY TO EXPAND BIKE EDUCATION FOR SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN. Walz noted that as part of the Iowa City Bicycle Master Plan a vision had been articulated that all school age children have the opportunity to learn to bike in physical education classes. The resource that is lacking is a supply of bicycles to supplement these kinds of programs. Walz noted that the cost for a trailer and bikes is relatively inexpensive—it could likely be done for well under $20k. In response to a question she noted that if communities were interested in supporting the program with some level of funding, a match grant could be considered. Walz asked for some input from the MPO whether their community would like to move forward with some support for pursuing funding. 7. SOLICIT ITEMS FOR TRANSPORTATION PLANNING WORK PROGRAM FOR FY2018 Walz noted that there had been a request for an update to the Bicycle Master Plan in FY2018. She invited communities to let them know of other projects to be added to the work plan. 8. UPDATES ON LOCAL TRAIL/BIKE/PEDESTRIAN PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES FROM MPO ENTITIES Walz noted that the Iowa City Bicycle Master Plan was well underway and that the work done for that could provide some basic groundwork for updating the Metro Area Bicycle Plan. From described the complete streets plan for Melrose Avenue drawn from a Vision Iowa Plan. This would fix the geometry of the roadway, provide sidewalks on both sides of the road, extends the bike lanes through University Heights, and provides lighting and crosswalks. University Heights would be seeking approximately $900k funding to complete the project. Oppliger noted that he also was working with Tony Branch on getting schools to offer bike education. He also noted that a number of bike rodeos would be taking place starting in April and running through Bike Month in May. He noted that Think Bicycles was super sizing Bike to Work Week to the entire month and that grants were available to organizations and businesses who host events. Ribble noted that the University was installing 8 bike repair stations on campus. She stated that the university was interested in finding ways to measure how much use the stations get. The University is also doing an in-house bicycle master plan. Ribble indicated that the Strava data might be useful for helping them establish bikeways, which is the first step in their planning. They would then move on to bike parking, policies and programs, and finally bike education. She noted the University had never done a full bicycle master plan before. Soglin noted that the County was applying for a Bike Friendly Business application. She said the County would be hosting some events for Bike Month, including a demonstration on how to use the bus bike racks. Seydell-Johnson said that in addition to the Iowa City Parks Department was finalizing it Parks Master Plan which would overlap with the goals of Bicycle Master Plan in some areas. For example, she noted that their plan would likely contain a statement that all children have the opportunity to learn to ride a bike. Buhmeyer said the City of Coralville was working on a Bicycle Trails Plan. The engineering phase for the Clear Creek trail segment between Coralville and Tiffin was under way—he thought it would be completed in 2018. They are also prioritizing their natural surface trails, including the single track trail near the Clear Creek (Harkin) trailhead. 9. Meeting Adjourned 1:55 PM