Capital District Transportation Committee
Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force
Record of Meeting on
Attendance: Don Odell (Albany Bicycling
Coalition), Elaine Troy (NYSDOH), Jeff Gritsavage (NYSDOT), Raj Malhotra
(NYSDOT Region 1 Planning),
1.0 New Business
Bicycle
Education -- update – Work on the
campaign is moving forward. Zone 5 is the design firm working with CDTC to take
photos and develop the posters/graphics. There are 4 messages being developed.
The intent of this campaign, since it is a new activity for CDTC, is to focus
on the City of
CDTA Bicycle
Parking Program – CDTA has
set-aside Transportation Demand Management funds to provide for bike parking
(bike racks). The program is expected to roll-out in the spring of 2010. A
preferred vendor has been selected (DERO) and CDTA and CDTC have worked with
the company to select preferred bike rack designs – there will be several
choices available for those wishing to just utilize the funds, but any design
costing more than the grant can be chosen if the agency/private entity is
willing to pay the increased cost above the grant allocation. For the public
sector, racks will be fully funded up to $1000, for the private sector, it is a
50/50 match. Though there are several design options available, it is
anticipated that most public sector racks will generally be the “standard”
design. The funds cover purchase only;
installation will be the responsibility of the applicant.
Bike Map
Update- The Mohawk-Hudson
Map update process is nearly complete. The most recent work has been to find a
picture to use on the. CDTC staff ended up choosing one that has nice fall
color – Jason passed-around the picture for review by committee members – they
all ooohed and ahhhhed.
Pedestrian
Action Plan Training- FHWA
recently spoke to the MPOs and NYSDOT to host
Pedestrian Action Plan Training. A letter recently was distributed to elected
officials. The training for the Capital Region will take place on November
17&18 at the DOT Region 1 building in
Local Project
Updates
City of
The consultant team of Elan & Greenman Pedersen was
selected to undertake the study. A kickoff meeting is scheduled for November 2.
The final product will incorporate input from a large group of stakeholders.
This project is being considered “post-concept, pre-design” – essentially, the
plan is to provide detailed conceptual designs that have been reviewed for
general assurance that they can be built as shown – so there will be additional
design-type review elements that go beyond typical conceptual planning studies..
They just
don’t get it -- Nothing new was reported.
Misc. Discussion:
1)
Jason is on a board organized by NYSHEPA to discuss implementation and policies
to increase safety through transportation…yet another way for him to get out of
the office.
2)
Saratoga Springs School Issue – A committee was formed and developed a policy
for review and consideration by the school board. The board implemented their
own policy which Jason read aloud to the group. Discussion ensued regarding the
ability of the school to dictate what children could or could-not do off of
school property (i.e. ride to school) since they have essentially dictated that
it is at their discretion whether or not a student can ride to school –
depending on the school boards assessment of the safety of the child riding
particular streets.
3)
SRTS National Partnership – Justin Booth is the NYS representative to the
National SRTS Partnership. Justin distributed a memo to NY SRTS committee
members regarding an application recently released by SRTS National looking for
states interested in building statewide projects & policies. The NY Bike
Coalition was suggested as a good group to spearhead a campaign for NY.
Currently, 82% of SRTS projects are obligated in NYS.
4)
NYS Dept. of Health is holding a conference later this week regarding creating
healthy communities for all New Yorkers. Jason will be attending and will share
with the group what he learns next month – hmmm, out of the office again...the
group wondered if Jason is ever actually in the office!
5) GTSC Conference –
Jason passed-around three posters developed for Schenectady County through
funding provided by NHTSA & GTSC…reminded the group once again that he is
never in the office!
6)
Nelson sent an email to Jason highlighting portions of the proposed new Surface
Transportation Bill that should be of interest to the group. Jason distributed
copies of the email and Nelson discussed his findings. The group thought the
highlights were great and couldn’t wait to see the bill passed.
7)
TIP solicitations have been released. They are due back to CDTC on November 9.
These are for the out-years. Project justification packets are available online
at the CDTC website.
8) A special thanks to
Jim Levy for being the scribe for October’s meeting minutes. His additional whimsy added a fresh
perspective to the monthly notes. In
November, the group will vote as to whether to make Jim’s position as scribe
permanent.
2.0 Upcoming
Events
The next CDTC
Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force meeting is scheduled for