Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coaliton Minutes

Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition
117 North Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan
734/487-9058
www.wbwc.org
1-8-04 WBWC Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order @ 7:05pm.
Attendees: Kris Talley, Bob Krewzinski, Tim Athan, Steve Moore, Bruce
Fields, John Hritz, Riin Gill, Ed Vielmetti, Krista McDermott, Ana
Iacob

The board approved the December 2003 meeting minutes.

Treasurers report: $661.16

I. General Business
 A. Membership Outreach - 
  1. Dues.  We discussed that everyone's dues are up for renewal.  Kris
suggested we contact everyone to remind them, Tim and Bruce suggested
we do that by email first.  
  2. Bob suggested that we keep 2003 memberships in the database until
March.
  3. Tim contacted Carole Hann of the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society
(AABTS), who said that putting our brochure in the AABTS newsletter may
be possible.  She will get back to us soon on this.
  4. Kris thought of the idea we put together a survey and put it in
the AABTS newsletter.  Tim suggested we send this out to bike shop
owners as well.
  5. Kris also brought up the idea of working more closely with AABTS,
including offering reduced price membership to AABTS members and other
methods to get AABTS members more involved.

 B. WBWC Evaluation
  1. WBWC vs. Ann Arbor Bicycle Coordinating Committee (BCC) vs. AABTS
Safety Committee (SC) - Kris asked where these groups overlapped and
where each group should concentrate its efforts.  Ken pointed out that
there are different geographic areas for each of these groups, since
the AABTS is bigger than the County but only covers cycling; WBWC is
just the County but covers both walking and biking; the BCC only deals
with Ann Arbor and currently only covers bicycling, but has recommended
expanding its scope to include pedestrians, all non-motorized vehicles,
and small motorized vehicles; the Ann Arbor Environmental Commission
(AAEC) transportation committee is also active in these areas, but
works primarily from the environmental perspective.  Bob pointed out
that the AABTS SC is currently working on educating cyclists.  Ken said
the BCC is currently working on potential ordinance changes, the AAEC
transportation committee is working on pedestrian recommendations.
  2. Role of non-board members - We agreed that non-board members are
welcome at the meetings.  Ed is interested in County-wide pedestrian
facilities and who is working on these issues.  Krista mentioned that
she is running some classes this weekend on the University of M campus.

 C. Delegation of Bob's Duties
  1. Newsletter - Kris suggested we might want to collaborate with the
AABTS newsletter.  Bob Goodsell had mentioned a willingness to work on
the newsletter.  Bob K. will help Bob Goodsell with this.
  2. Maintenance of library.  We have a bundle of material in the
library.  Ana Iocab offered to act as librarian to periodically go
through the material in the library and keep track of it.
  3. WBWC letters - Kris asked that other people write letters on
important topics to be approved by the board and sent out as the
organization.

 D. Tim mentioned that the Bentley Historical Library has a great
collection on early biking in the county.

II. Actions
 A. Bicycling/Walking priority projects
  1. Kris, Riin, Bruce, Krista McDermott will talk with Sue Gott about
University projects near the end of the month.  
  2. Road shoulder paving - no update
  3. Huron River Drive (Jim Nieters - Dieter Hohnke)
 B. Other
  1. Walking Group Formation (Iacob) – Ana is trying to start a group,
but she's having trouble getting people to come to meetings.
  2. Walking School Bus at Mitchell.  John met with the school
officials and they were very positive.  They seem to want to make it an
educational experience, but John is concerned that they will run out of
topics for an educational walk.  John has heard that there is a group
at Lakewood elementary but hasn't been able to find out more.  The next
meeting to get more information will be next week.
  3. WATS 2030 Long-range plan for Washtenaw County - Ken described the
draft plan, Kris noted that portions of it and links to the WATS
website are on the WBWC website.
  4. Washtenaw County Plan
  5. Federal transportation bill is being re-authorized, contact your
legislators to advocate for more and better nonmotorized funding.
  6. The AA Environmental Commission transportation committee's
pedestrian recommendations are supposed to be a primary item of
discussion at the next EC meeting, the 22nd of January.

III. 2004 Projects 
Bob will continue to work on the sidewalk inventory.
Ken signed up for talking with the Islamic Center.
Kris will write a letter about Islamic Center crossing.
Riin and Krista are working on the winter bike commuting workshop
separately from the WBWC.

Adjourned 8:57pm

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