WBWC Working Session
Ecology Center Conference Room
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 7pm
Board Members in Attendance: Pete Hines (Chair), Karen Moorhead (Treasurer), Tim Athan (Secretary), Larry Deck, and Erica Briggs
Before the meeting Karen provided the treasurer’s report: The current balance is $2.128.20.
1. Introductions
Emma Wendt just arrived from San Francisco. She is interested in bicycling, and was a member of the San Francisco bike coalition.
Chris Brunn just arrived from Chicago, for public policy grad school. Chris is interested in bicycling, walking and transit, and was a board member of the Chicago Active Transportation Alliance.
Grace Pang works in writing and marketing, and has been involved with non-profits since the late 90s. Grace is interested in bike commuting, mountain biking and walking.
Matt Grocoff was active in passing the new pedestrian ordinance. He wants all human beings who are traveling to all have equal rights. He has the first net zero energy house in Michigan.
2. Organizational Development
a. Strategic Plan Update
We began working on this strategic plan in May. We want to have a draft by the October meeting.
b. Board Elections and Recruitment
Erica wondered when we should bring people onto the board. Perhaps we can bring people on before the annual meeting. We have to check our bylaws about the rules for appointments.
3. Upcoming Events
a. Moving Planet: September 24th event with Ecology Center & Transition Ann
Arbor
There is discussion of a mass bike ride, but the plans aren’t coming together very well. It is organized by 350.org. Joel Batterman is leading our participation. Transition Ann Arbor works to develop local support systems, transitioning back to a local economy. It is a global movement.
4. Non-motorized Projects
a. Crash data analysis: Update on this project
Chris, an Econ Ph.D. student from Germany, is looking at crash data from SEMCOG. Erica would like to see this merged with data the city has, to determine what types of crashes are occurring here. This information could direct advocacy efforts.
Chris is focusing upon Ann Arbor. Erica will invite Chris to speak to us in September. Perhaps we can help determine what questions will be answered.
b. Review of City of Ann Arbor’s Non motorized Transportation Plan: Identify role for WBWC in this process.
We are about five years into this five year plan. Erica said there hasn’t been a review of how well it has been followed. Eli Cooper thinks that the Planning Commission is to do that. Erica thinks that a few of us should look at it, to hold the city accountable to what they committed to. She thinks that lots of the easy stuff in the plan has been done. Chris expressed interest in this effort.
c. Fuller Station: PAC resolution and WBWC involvement
This is a proposed multi-modal station near the Med Center on Fuller. The initial phase is a large parking structure. The WBWC is working to get bike path plans incorporated. It has been a controversial project. The project has a lot of momentum, Larry noted. The next meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. August 16 at City Hall.
Chris noted that Amtrak is planning to provide roll-on bicycle accommodations in the near future. Matt said that there are plans for the company BCycle to provide rental bicycles at the structure.
We discussed a Clean Energy Coalition (CEC) Bikes Belong grant for $5 -10,000. (More than 50% must come in from another source if it is a $5,000 grant). A grant could be used to develop plans for bicycling trails for this project.
Larry said that if we could identify an idea for transit center bike facilities it could be a good idea at this time, and we might be able to put together a proposal even without this grant. Matt noted that the CEC could be a partner in this.
Chris asked about Complete Streets and its influence upon the Fuller Road project. Complete Streets is a state ordinance. Erica said that it isn’t very strict. She believes that Ann Arbor should have a more strict local Complete Street ordinance.
As for the Fuller Road project, Erica noted that they have separated the road work from this project; they recognize there will have to be changes in the roadway. Chris said that perhaps we could then observe whether they follow Complete Streets in the roadway work they do. Larry said he thought it would be interesting to bring that up.
Emma asked about environmental concerns. Matt noted that the Sierra Club had tried that approach to stop the downtown parking structure but ended up dropping it.
Erica asked Larry if he is interested in taking the lead with the CEC. Larry said he would be willing to spend some time on it. CEC has paid staff, which would help make a project go. The grant requires a mix of corporate money and public money, and we have only a couple of weeks to arrange it.
Chris asked about media attention for what we do. Matt said that we should make a point of getting pictures and videos of our work, for the media has been receptive to using them.
There was discussion about having videos put together by students.
5. Fall Pedestrian Focus
a. A2 Walks Campaign: Update and Next Steps
Erica recalled that we got the pedestrian ordinance changed, and we received a grant to focus upon education about it.
Erica has been passing out flyers. Driver’s Ed classes have been very receptive, and might be willing to partner in educational efforts.
Chris suggested that perhaps a question could be put on the driver’s Ed examination. Karen reported that parents attend the driver’s ed graduation ceremony, so that could be another chance for outreach.
Erica proposed getting information, such as in bumper stickers, to local vehicle fleets.
Erica noted that in Boulder there have been problems with pedestrians crossing streets with multiple lanes and getting hit.
Erica noted that Larry has pulled together draft design guidelines for crosswalk engineering. The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) has guidelines, Chris reported.
Erica says that every time there is road work there is a public process and she thinks the resulting design becomes more neighborhood based. She thinks there should be a general public process for adopting rules for all road work, so they don’t have to have a public process for each project.
There will be targeted enforcement of the pedestrian ordinance in the month of September. At the end of the month we will conduct counts of cars stopping for pedestrians.
b. November Sidewalk Millage: Identify our role in supporting this millage
We’ll discuss this at the September meeting. The street millage covers repair of streets, and the city is trying to enlarge this to include sidewalks. They are meeting with some resistance in this. Erica thinks that there will be public meetings to gauge public support.
Emma asked about separated bike paths in the road; Erica reported that such ideas are not in the current non-motorized plan. Emma says that San Francisco has begun using an approach with white plastic markers to separate bicyclists from high speed car travel.
Chris reported that Chicago started putting in such lanes.
Pete asked the mayor if the mileage might include snow removal for all sidewalks. The mayor felt that it was too expensive. We discussed snow removal.
6. Fall Bicycling Focus
a. What is our top priority? Identify a process for selecting where we to devote our attention and resources.
Erica says that we are lacking a bicycling focus right now. Chris thinks that the commuter rail service should have roll-on bike service. Erica asked if he would be willing to look at that, and he said he would.
Erica believes we need to get some data, similar to how we approach the pedestrian ordinance: Getting out around town, talking to cyclists, and looking at crash data. She thinks we should focus upon the University of Michigan, the largest employer in town. We should push the university to become bike friendly. Joel had suggested a community bike count. Karen thought it would be good to do a bike lane audit, with evaluations of which are safer than others. Erica said that the city does this, but only from “windshield surveys” (i.e. without getting out of a car); perhaps we could follow up. We can get copies of the city’s report.
Emma reported that in San Francisco there are volunteer rides and the city has a texting option to inform the city of potholes. The text goes to a location database. Erica asked Emma to follow-up on how this is done. Pete thought that there could probably be a way for people to twitter pothole locations and then have all the twitters aggregated.
Erica noted that Pete conducts rides around town. We consider taking rides into different wards. Emma suggested we could mark potholes with spray paint. Pete said we could use chalk. Erica said there is spray chalk.
Larry noted that along with these details, we should refresh our list of large priority projects.
Emma asked if downtown employees get free transit passes. Erica said yes. Emma asked if bicyclists or pedestrians get anything comparable. Erica said no. Emma said that an incentive of just $20/month can be helpful.
Erica said that an important thing for us is communication. She says that she is not good at it, and so she would welcome assistance. Grace said that she would be interested.
Grace also noted that the strategic plan is essential to an organization, and it can provide a foundation for the communications strategy. Emma said that she could be involved in this.
Erica asked for feedback about this evening’s working session (which she led). Grace said it seemed long. Larry suggested focusing upon one or two things. Larry thinks that a meeting should be at least an hour and a half long.
Grace asked about the purpose of the RAT. The response was camaraderie, and a chance to witness the local bicycling experience. It was suggested that w should make the ride different each time, and stay away from Friday rush hour.
Emma suggested that themes for costumes could be a good idea.
There was discussion of a garden ride next week.
Larry told us about the Huron River celebration on Aug 16, “River Up”, organized by the Huron River Watershed Council. He said the event materials talk about a water trail and canoe portages, which are important, but there isn’t much about the whole land trail and greenway concept. He thinks we should try to ensure that those things are on the agenda of the effort, and this celebration may be an opportunity to do that. Karen said that this project does include trails.
Larry noted that he received notice from the County Road Commission about so-called fog seal maintenance of several local roads: Dixboro, Scio Church, Pleasant Lake and Carpenter. It costs a bit more than chip seal, but is used because it is believed to provide smoother pavement. The Commission would welcome feedback about these projects: townsendr@wcroads.
---- The meeting wrapped up at this point; we didn’t make it through the remainder of the agenda ------------------------------------
b. University of Michigan
i. Developing our relationship with UM
ii. Integrating/Complementing the work of UM Bike Coalition
b. Data Collection
i. First Annual Community Bike Count: http://bikepeddocumentation.org/
7. Coalition Building
a. Events/Community Member Engagment:
1. RAT Rides
2. Working Sessions/Community Meetings
3. Bicycle Ambassadors
8. Communication!
a. Website
b. Newsletter!
c. Facebook
