Meeting
MinutesWashtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition
117 North Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan
734/487-9058
www.wbwc.org
Washtenaw Bicycling and Walking Coalition Meeting Agenda - August 8, 2004 Attending: Kris Talley, Bruce Fields, Tim Athan, Erika Briggs, Brenda Bentley-Goenka, Carey Goenka, Ana Iacob, Rita Mitchell, Ed Steinman, John Hritz, Frank Schwende, Rich Voorman, Robert Klingler 1. Approval of previous meeting minutes We have no previous meeting minutes to review; Ken? 2. Treasurer's report Account is at $541.16 as of 4pm today (probably reflects bills for the new banners). 3. New member/attendee intros and interests Two new members had migrated from AABTS looking for an organization with a more explicit focus on politics and advocacy. Another member expressed an interest in pedestrian issues (walkable cities) in particular. 4. Actions A. WBWC 2004 bicycling/walking projects Elections 2004--sending letters to candidates Frank and Brenda are interested. See website for last year's. Try to make it shorter this year, as that may increase the response rate. Kris will send Frank and Brenda more materials from last year. Non-Motorized Projects - University of Michigan (Talley) Proposing another meeting in September. Sue Gott sent update; stuff they've been working on: new sidewalk on Hubbard. rasied crosswalk on Murfin. reducing posted speeds on N. Campus Preparing to repaint N. Campus crosswalks. Exploring new bike parking in a few locations. Bikeway on Palmer Field. (Awaiting details on what that is.) Erika also met with Sue Gott and David Miller (Parking & Transportation interim director) Huron River Drive (Nieters) No discussion. Sidewalk Inventory (Krzewinski) No discussion. Walking School Bus 2004 school year (Hritz, Bentley-Goenka) Brenda met with Tawny at the Ecology Center. The event is in October, so we need to plan now. Work is underway--talk to John or Brenda. Walk to school week is a week, we're only focusing on walk to school day (the wednesday), and only on certain elementary schools, for now. Non-motorized Transportation Northeast and South planning meetings Last meeting had a big turnout. Also for *county* plan see link on our website. Comments would be valuable (possibly even though it's past the comment deadline); the phone number is 734-222-6808 New projects -- New high school at North Maple: Will this force people to bus/drive who could previously walk? Brenda would like to work with the school board/city about location of new high school and district lines with respect to walking distances. She will work on this and let us know what she finds out. John will bring this up at next nonmotorized meeting. Erika suggests quantifying the loss to walkers before talking to school board. Erika will talk to Brandt Coultas about this and get back to Brenda. Parking lot -> Park or Parking Structure conversion "picnic in the park" was held at the current surface lot at First and William to question the need for a new parking structure there. DDA wants a structure there as a replacement for the old structure across from Kiwanis. Walking along railroads: kid was ticketed for walking along rail in a place that's a convenient cut-through and that appears (from wear patterns) to be a common pedestrian route. Brenda will research the legal issue and respond; if she wants wbwc's name on it, she can send it to the email list for comments. Stone School parking lot: Much opposition was expressed at meeting to new lot right behind Stone School. Frank and Brenda will continue to follow up. B. Bike to Work Week 2005 2004 was organized by an outside group, without out quite as much advanced planning as might have been ideal. Kris is proposing a September meeting; she'll send out a message including wbwc, Niele & co., etc. C. Upcoming Events None to report. 5. WBWC General Business A. Membership report/outreach Survey in AABTS newsletter (Talley) Nothing to report? Renew current bike shops and get new ones (Athan, Moore) No progress to report. Tim's still working on it. Please ask your local bike/running/outdoor shop to join the WBWC. New bike owner packet w/ AABTS for bike shops to distribute (Talley/Clark) Nothing to report Redesigned membership brochure with new rates, new logo? Kris is working on it; nothing to report. Bob Klingler is registered his approval of the color yellow. Business cards to hand out at meetings and to bikers/walkers passing by WBWC business cards with website address, etc., for easy distribution to whoever's interested. Info table improvements We have banners we can use at the table. people on Thunderhead Alliance list had good suggestions for swag to buy or use as membership premiums, etc. Erika volunteered to work on this. Kris will send suggestions to the wbwc list. B. Newsletter/blog (Goodsell/Krzewinski) No report. C. Reports from other groups AA Bicycle Coordinating Committee (Clark) No report. League of Michigan Bicyclists (Clark) No report. AABTS Safety Committee (Talley) No report. Not meeting over the summer, will get started in fall. Non-Motorized Transportation Planning Committee (Hritz) It's happening, please attend. See the Greenways collaborative site for more information. AA Environmental Commission Transportation Committee (Clark) No report. Washtenaw in Motion (Bentley-Goenka) Conan Smith, running (unopposed) for County Commissioner, Terri Blackmore (WATS), Brenda, Bob K., one other citizen, showed up at the meeting. Brenda suggests pushing for a pedestrian bridge over 23 behind Arborland. Contact the mayor to express approval. Other meetings have had even worse attendance, so perhaps more people need to show up. Thunderhead Alliance (Talley) We recently joined the Thunderhead Alliance, a nationwide group of advocacy groups. They look like a useful resource. Get Downtown: Erika's putting out a newsletter, including a "commuter of the month" feature. 6. New Business: None. 7. Adjournmed at 8:50pm - Next meeting: Thursday, September 2, 2004