RECORD
OF MEETING
BICYCLE
AND PEDESTRIAN ISSUES TASK FORCE
DATE/TIME/PLACE:
Thursday, June 15, 1995, 5:30 - 7:00 PM, Colonie Community Center
IN ATTENDANCE:
Brad Birge (CDRPC), Emily H. Goodman (New York Bicycling Coalition), Don
Odell (Albany County Planning Department), Don Robertson (NYSDOT - Region 1),
Bert Schou (CDTA), Ivan Vamos (Hudson River Valley Greenway Communities
Council/NYBC), Steve Allocco (CDTC)
DISCUSSION SUMMARY
Note: Any handouts referenced in the record are
attached for those who did not attend the meeting.
The goal of the meeting
was to catch Task Force members up on CDTC staff technical activities and
solicit their inputs with regard to the "content, look and feel" of
the Technical Report.
Followup on
"Sidewalk Maps" Idea: At the April
meeting, discussion of the difficulty in prioritizing areas for pedestrian
treatments raised the suggestion that as one starting point, strategic
connections between existing sidewalks to each other or to more logical
termini could be identified from sidewalk maps which local public works
agencies might have on file. CDTC looked
into this idea; to date, early indications were that some the smaller cities
(e.g., Cohoes, Mechanicville) had such maps available. Exploration of this question continues; at a
minimum, the Task Force Technical Report should contain a discussion of using
this sort of inventory, whether in map or tabular form, as a guide for answering
the question of "where to begin."
(see also "Places to Start" on Page 2)
Status of "Make
Your Community..." Brochure: Between 800 and 900
copies of the map have been distributed; a second printing will likely take
place when supply dwindles to a critical level.
Field Study on
Bike/Ped Travel: It was observed that while the
"Estimates of Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel in the Capital District"
handout distributed at the April 27 meeting gives a general idea of the overall
presences of cycling and walking in the region's transportation system, it does
not provide insights on these modes of travel "on the road," at a
particular location or in a general area.
In response, it was noted that CDTC and NYSDOT are getting underway with
a study intended to address this "data gap." CDTC and NYSDOT will be collecting
information in the field on bicycle and pedestrian traffic, so as to get some
numbers on volumes on bike/ped facilities and in the general mix of traffic. In addition to eventually being able to make
comments to the effect of "five percent of rush hour travel into downtown
Albany is made by bicyclists or pedestrians," it is expected that a
"flow map" of sorts -- a map of pedestrian and bike volumes along
major facilities -- will be developed as a result of the in-field data
collection. This study will benefit from
CDTC's existing signalized intersection traffic count database, which includes
morning and afternoon peak period pedestrian flows at the 400 busiest
intersections in the Capital District.
In addition to "number" information, CDTC will be taking
pictures at a variety of locations to illustrate (1)the problems faced by cyclists and
pedestrians and (2)some examples of local
bike/pedestrian-friendly facility design.
Status of Albany Main
Line Abandonment Discussions: As has been noted
in past meetings, CP Rail recently initiated abandonment proceedings for the
"Albany Main Line," a 26-mile stretch of rail running from the Port
of Albany/Kenwood Yards to Delanson.
CDTC convened a group of potentially affected public agencies and
interested members of the public to discuss what the future use of this rail
corridor might be. The general sentiment
has been that the corridor should be preserved for transportation purposes of
some kind, but there are a variety of ideas for what those transportation
purposes would be, ranging from use as a bike/hike trail to continued railway
use to development of an automobile route.
The group continues to meet to discuss this question, along with the
other relevant issues (e.g., how to purchase the right-of-way).
In addition to
facilitating the working group meetings on this matter, CDTC staff has been
developing estimates of the cost of converting the right-of-way to a bike-hike
trail and contacting experts in the field of trail conversion (e.g., the
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy) for information on available financing tools. CDTC will continue to keep the Task Force
apprised of the progress of this work; in addition, Ivan Vamos joined the group
at its July 5 meeting's discussions to lend his expertise to the
proceedings. At that meeting, discussion
continued on the questions of (1)who was in the position to purchase the property and (2)once purchased, what its best use
would be. More exploration of the
background matters attendant to these questions is needed; the next meeting of
the working group will be held in early August.
Update on Costs of
Group B/C Cyclist Accommodations on the Priority Bicycle Network:
At the February meeting, an estimated cost of $72-79 million was presented
for upgrading the Priority Bicycle Network to "Group A"
standards. However, it was noted at the
April meeting that as the "Group A" designation probably applies to
no more than five percent of the 100 million or so people in the U.S. who own
bicycles, accommodations to this level were probably not likely to encourage
many shifts from auto travel to cycling.
To present a more
accurate picture of what level of accommodation would really be necessary to
give the average cyclist the opportunity to ride on the Network, CDTC staff
revisited the cost assessment using Group B/C standards. The resulting cost estimate is considerably
higher: on the order of about $118-129
million. CDTC staff proposed that this
not be presented as "the price tag for the Task Force's
recommendations," but rather as a comparative reference -- a table or
graphic could be included in the report comparing the dollar amounts needed to
resolve all motor vehicle congestion and bicycle travel problems, the
"maximum potential benefits" of these investments in terms of fuel
and delay savings, pollution reductions and other indices, and relative
cost-effectiveness CDTC will pull these
numbers together; the point they would ideally make is in regard to a greater
cost-effectiveness of investing in bicycle accommodation.
"Places to
Start" -- Early Implementation Locations: It has been
noted in past discussions that the Priority Network, the "Make Your
Community..." brochure and other Task Force products identify a
considerable number of steps which can be taken across the region to improve
the bicycle and pedestrian travel environments, such that "where to
begin" could be a daunting question.
As a possible means of prioritizing some areas, CDTC staff developed a
series of tables listing "early action" candidates (with problems
reported) by county, based on past CDTC outreach efforts and Task Force
discussions. This sort of information
might lend itself well to being presented on a map; as an illustration of how
this might look, a map from CDTC's Route 50 Traffic Study (entitled "1990
Deficiencies) was distributed.
A few additional
locations, or extensions of locations identified in the draft tables, were
raised in group discussions, including the following:
* Albany Shaker
Road, Colonie (discontinuous shoulders, hostile drivers)
* Everett Road
* Route 9 by Siena
College (no sidewalks)
* Sand Creek Road
near Wolf Road (sidewalks come within one block of Wolf Road, then end)
* Western Avenue
(Route 20) outside Albany (could extend defined section out to Route 146 or so)
These locations will be
added to the inventory, along with any others passed along to CDTC prior to
finalization of the report in September.
Technical Report
Content, Layout: It was noted at the April meeting that the
Task Force has considerable latitude with regard to the final content and look
of the Technical Report. Thus, the Task
Force has the opportunity to put a wide range of ideas on the table by listing
them in the Technical Report. Several
concept ideas or "areas of emphasis" were suggested in response to
this note, including the following:
* Wolf Road
area: Given the difficulty of
traveling within this corridor by bike or on foot, could a trolley or loop bus
route (with stops along Wolf Road in either direction) be considered?
* Balance
of Pedestrian and Bicycle Concerns:
Much of what the Task Force has developed in the way of specifics deals
with bicycles. However, between
"exclusively walking" and "walking to bus stops" (or to
cars), pedestrian travel is probably as much as 50 times greater a presence in
the system than bike travel (10 percent of trips versus 0.2 percent,
respectively). The report needs to
present more information and guidance on pedestrian needs, connections to
transit, travel between neighborhoods, and the like.
* Importance
of Providing a Bicycle/Pedestrian Travel Environment which is Safe and Appears
So: The perception of danger
is a significant deterrent to bicycle or pedestrian travel. Even if a road meets some guideline, whether
it is "FHWA Group B/C" or whatever other reference is used, people
will still not bike or walk on/along it if it does not seem safe. In some cases, it will require overaccommodation
to present the actuality and appearance of safety; consideration should be
given to taking such steps at the "next level," particularly in
high-demand travel corridors.
* Education: Even though it is arguably not a CDTC
function to conduct cyclist/pedestrian/driver education, the report should
remind readers of the notion of education as a step toward reducing dangerous
behavior.
* Right
Turn on Red Prohibitions: This
may be an appropriate tool for "blanket applications" in areas such
as downtowns. Right turns on red (RTORs)
often follow rolling rather than full stops; in addition, even where the full
stop is made, the driver is usually concentrating on looking to the left for a
gap in oncoming motor vehicle traffic, rather than on looking at the crosswalk
in front of or to the right of his/her vehicle, where a pedestrian or cyclist
may be. Particularly in busy areas where
oncoming motor vehicle traffic commands this sort of attention, RTOR prohibitions
would reduce potential bike/ped conflicts with cars in addition to increasing
the overall speeds of bike/walk trips.
With regard to report
layout, the idea of having the Report be a free-standing guide was repeated;
toward this end, CDTC is exploring several ways of making it as approachable
and positive (the latter in terms of conveying a "we can do
this" feeling) as possible. The
product of these explorations, a second draft document including the
"action items," is tentatively scheduled to be sent out to the Task
Force by Wednesday, August 15 at the latest, and hopefully by Friday,
August 11.
Miscellaneous Items:
Ivan reported on two items.
First, the Albany Service Corps (possibly with support from NYSDOT and
other "road owners") will be marking road shoulders along a Greenway
loop route from Albany down to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge (Route 23 between
Hudson and Catskill) and back to Albany via Bike Route 9. The plan is for the shoulder markings to be
spaced such that cyclists will be able to see the next marker along the route
from the marker they are at. Passonno
Paints will be supplying the paint needed for the markings; this public/private
partnership is a good example of the sort of leveraging of public
dollars which will become increasingly important in the "do more with
less" fiscal environment expected for the coming years.
Ivan also noted a recent
Times-Union special section on the Colonie Centennial celebration. Two elements of this celebration, a bike race
and parade on Wolf Road (at separate times, of course), could present
opportunities to highlight the potential benefits of making Wolf Road and other
major roads in the Town more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly.
ACTION ITEMS
* CDTC to
continue work on draft technical report.
Draft should be mailed out by August 15.
* Next Task
Force meeting: Wednesday, August 23,
5:30 - 7:30 PM, Colonie Community Center, 1653 Central Avenue (across from Lake
Electronics). Meeting to concentrate
on discussion of draft technical report.
TO: Members of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Issues
Task Force
Other
Interested Parties
FROM: Steve
Allocco
DATE: July
6, 1995
RE: June 15 Meeting Summary; Details on Next
Meeting
Enclosed please find a summary of the June 15
meeting. The next meeting of the Task
Force will be held on Wednesday, August 23, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM at
the Colonie Community Center, 1653 Central Avenue, Colonie (across from
Lake Electronics). At this meeting, we
will continue to discuss the draft Technical Report; a working draft of the
full report should get out to you by August 15.
In the meantime, please feel free to call, fax or write if any questions
or comments come up.
Enclosure(s, for those not in attendance 6/15)