Capital
District Transportation Committee
Bicycle
and Pedestrian Task Force
Record of
Meeting on
Attendance: Stephen Feeney (Schenectady
County Planning), Kevin McLaughlin (HRV Greenway) Don Odell (Albany County
EDC&P) Henrietta O'Grady (Saratoga County Heritage Trails Committee), Bob
Ostiguy (Mohawk-Hudson Cycling Club), Don Robertson (NYSDOT - Region 1), Bert
Schou (CDTA), Elaine Troy (NYSDOH - Healthy Heart), Ivan Vamos, (New York
Bicycling Coalition), Katherine Forster (CDTC)
Regrets: Paul Russell
1.0 AGENDA AND MEETING NOTES REVIEW
There
were no changes to the January Task Force meeting notes.
2.0 UPDATE ON ACTION ITEMS
(October 26, 1999) P. Russell will bring a map re: proposed Bike Path from Schuyler Flats to the next meeting. (See Item 3.1)
(December 17, 1999) Contact various municipalities and organizations and gather all the
trails and routes to be mapped. (See Item 4.2)
(January 13, 2000) A sub-committee meeting was scheduled to discuss which bus routes
should be a top priority for this program (See Item 3.2)
(January 13, 2000) CDTC staff is to provide the current MUTCD Chapter 9 to the Task Force. The MUTCD Chapter 9 was provided to the Task
Force at the February meeting along with an email describing the National Committee
on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (NCUTCD) that also reviewed the proposed
changes to Chapter 9. Their suggested
changes can be viewed at http://members.aol.com/rcmoeur/part9.html.
(January 13, 2000) The Albany County Bicycle Collision Data will be provided to NYBC to
use in their safety program. CDTC
staff sent the information to Paul Winkeller.
(January 13, 2000) In regards to the Livingston Avenue Bridge, CDTC staff is to provide
the City of Albany's correspondence to the Task Force along with the addresses
for the New York state senators.
Staff sent out the City of Albany's correspondence with the January
notes. The addresses were provided at
the meeting.
Further
discussion on the Livingston Avenue
Bridge ensued. It was suggested that
NYSDOT should be asked to formally support the pedestrian component to the
Livingston Avenue Bridge. Ivan Vamos,
representing NYBC, will pursue this by speaking to Ted Thompson and he will see
if the pedestrian component can be added to the contract, if the contract is
not already formalized.
3.0 PROJECTS/PROGRAMS AND OTHER UPDATES
3.1 Schuyler Flats Bike Trail: Deferred until the March
meeting.
3.2
Bikes on Buses: The subcommittee meeting was held and seven
people attended. The Central Avenue
route is seen as a priority by the subcommittee. Other routes that were prioritized were
routes that served the various universities, the Mohawk-Hudson Bike-Hike Trail
and the Troy-Schenectady route and the Albany-Troy route. Bert Schou supplied the Task Force with a
picture of what the bike racks would look like and a bus route list that gave
the number of buses on each route. He
requested that the members of the Task Force submit their preferred routes to
him in the next week. He would amalgamate
the lists into one master list that would represent the Task Force's
recommendation.
3.3 CDTC Linkages Program: CDTC received various
applications from the Capital District for this program. The proposed projects involve truck access,
studies on parking, planning and commercial development potential,
transportation issues including bicycle and pedestrian access and other
issues. CDTC will be funding the twelve
projects on the list that was handed out at the Task Force meeting (some of the
projects had to be scaled down so that all could be funded). The Planning Committee approved this list at
the Feb. 2, 2000 meeting. The Bicycle
and Pedestrian Task Force will be involved in the two projects that focus on
bicycle and pedestrian concerns: The Urban Bike Path Design Guidelines and The
City of Schenectady Bike Path Master Plan.
4.0 ONGOING TASKS
4.2
Regional Bike
Map: Work
on gathering all the digitized data regarding bike routes, multi-use paths and
hiking trails in the Capital District has started. By using digitized data that has already been
created, CDTC will not have to create new layers from scanned or digitized
maps. CDTC staff have contacted various
people regarding digitized data for the State bike routes, the Taconic Trail,
the Long Path and various layers for state and municipal parks and historic
sites. Work is on-going.
5.1 Wolf Rd. Crosswalk Signal -
Pedestrian Attitude Survey: CDTC is interested in studying the public's opinion on the new
countdown crosswalk signal that has been installed on Wolf Road. The countdown signal shows the remaining time
to cross the intersection. It counts
down the remaining seconds so that the pedestrian who is crossing sees the time
remaining: 10, 9, 8, etc. The Task Force
thought the survey was a good idea but suggested that CDTC staff do the survey
later in the year. This would give the
pedestrians who use the crosswalk at least six months to get adjusted to the
new signal before the survey was done.
Other suggestions for specific questions were as follows:
Question
# 1. In general do you use pedestrian buttons to activate the pedestrian signal
(if it is not already activated) so that you can cross the road?
Question
# 2. Are you more likely to use the pedestrian button to activate this new type
of countdown signal?
Question
# 4. Have you ever changed your mind about crossing the street with the new
signal?
Other
questions suggested:
-
Does the new signal confuse you?
-
Which system do you prefer?
-
Would you like to see more of these signals used in the Capital District?
-
If you knew how long you had to wait for the green light, would you be more
likely to wait?
The
Task Force's suggestions were greatly appreciated. If there are any further suggestions please
contact Katherine Forster directly.
Staff will update the Task Force of the results of the survey when the
survey is done.