Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMain Street Minutes_04-20-21_Final1 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Meeting Meeting Minutes April 20, 2020 – 3:00 to 4:30 pm Via Zoom Virtual Meeting Attendance Staff/Consultant: City - Molly Markarian (Project Manager), Emma Newman, Loralyn Spiro, Brian Barnett, Michael Liebler, Dawn Williams ODOT – Bill Johnston (Project Manager) LTD – Tom Schwetz, Jeramy Card, Tiffany Edwards, Bret Smith Consultants – John Bosket (DKS Associates, Project Manager), , Allison Brown (JLA Public Involvement) Governance Team: Mayor Sean VanGordon (City of Springfield), Frannie Brindle (ODOT Area Manager), Steven Yett (LTD Board), Michelle Weber (LTD Board), Niel Laudati (City of Springfield Assistant City Manager) CALL TO ORDER. Meeting was called to order at 3:00 p.m. Welcome/Introductions Introductions were made. Meeting Minutes Allison Brown asked if anyone had any feedback and/or changes for the meeting minutes from the last time they met in July 2019 before it becomes official. Mayor VanGordon stated that he had no basis to judge whether it is accurate or not. Allison stated that if they find anything later, they can reach out to Molly Markarian. Presentation Allison Brown turned it over to Molly Markarian. 2 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes Molly started with the purpose statement to remind everyone why they are all here. “The purpose of the Main Street Safety Project is to select infrastructure solutions that will make Main Street safer for people walking, biking, driving and taking transit.” Over the past two plus years, the project team has been refining recommended solutions based on community input, technical analysis, and City Council feedback. At this stage in the planning phase the project team is seeking feedback on draft recommendations to inform preparation of a draft facility plan that will guide future design and construction of safety improvements on the corridor. She went on to explain that the next step in the process later this summer is to draft a facility plan. The feedback they receive from the Governance Team and the City Council will inform drafting of the facility plan. The facility plan pulls together analysis, outreach, and design concepts developed during the planning phase, is an expression of the community’s values, becomes a design framework for the project, results in a Transportation System Plan amendment, and leads to design and construction. Molly shared a slide titled “Project Context” to remind the team of the feedback that they received early on from the community on community values. That input informed the goals and objectives, the evaluation criteria, and their analysis of safety solutions. She also noted that the feedback that they received on the draft toolbox and recommendations is tracking with the input that they received on community values, goals and objectives, and the evaluation criteria. Molly went on to say that the project is recommending changes to Main Street to help improve safety and address the specific types of crashes that occur. There is a high percentage of rear-end and turning movement crashes on the corridor, which is common on urban streets with a high number of driveways and intersections, but 80% is particularly high. The data shows that the primary causes of crashes on Main Street are failure to yield right-of-way and following too closely. Some have asked if there are specific areas on the corridor that see more crashes than others. Molly shared a map showing that crashes occur throughout Main street and thus why they need a corridor-wide solution. They have heard from business and property owners, the City Council, and the broader community that they need to address safety on Main Street while balancing safety elements with impacts to businesses. Their recommendation is a ‘toolbox’ of safety infrastructure elements that include roundabouts, raised medians, sidewalks, and bike lanes. Design and construction will occur in phases over the next 5-20 years as funding becomes available. There are short-term and long-term recommendations, an example of how they have responded to the community’s desire for gradual implementation of changes to Main Street. In the short-term, they recommend keeping the cross section much like it is today to allow for medians to be put in quickly. Raised medians would have the biggest impact on safety while having less interruption to travel. In the long-term, they recommend improving the safety and comfort for people walking and biking. Most of the corridor would have buffered bike lanes and slightly wider medians, resulting in an additional 4 feet of width on each side of the street. For approximately 4 blocks from just west of 54th to just east of Bob Straub Parkway, where there is larger existing right-of-way and fewer driveway conflicts, they recommend a cycle track next to the sidewalk. Molly presented a slide titled “Street Cross Sections” and explained that she didn’t expect anyone to read all of the text but she wanted to give them a sense of how they are tailoring the base cross-section modifications for each segment of Main Street. This is not a one-size-fits-all recommendation. Both 3 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes long-term cross sections would increase the overall footprint of Main Street to improve the bike facility but include flexibility for modifications specific to each segment along the corridor that could narrow the overall footprint in physically constrained sections of Main Street. These necessary modifications to the recommended cross sections will be determined during future design phases. Molly explained that another tool in the toolbox is raised medians, or islands within the center turn lane, because they can do the most to reduce conflicts and move turns to safer locations. They can also make pedestrian crossings safer. Most of Main Street would get raised medians but they would adjust their locations so people can make some left turns and U-turns. They would also phase their implementation to areas with the greatest safety problem and available funding. The toolbox includes flexibility through guiding principles to help meet safety needs while balancing the impact to adjacent businesses and properties. Twelve guiding principles reflect the input they received to date to help future design teams determine the appropriate location for breaks in the median, and they include considerations such as keeping openings at all major intersections, allowing left turns and U-turns at minor streets where possible, limiting the amount of extra time it takes to access property on Main Street to 30-60 seconds on average, allowing left-turn access to major traffic generators, and allowing emergency vehicle access. Raised medians have the greatest potential for reducing crashes on Main Street. Use of raised medians, when combined with roundabouts, would reduce crashes by nearly half and limit out-of-direction travel for business access to about 30 seconds, on average. Community members said this would be an acceptable trade off when they conducted outreach. Molly shared that the last major component of the toolbox relates to intersection control. Roundabouts are recommended as the long-term solution for Main Street. Roundabouts would be added in phases, and the design team will assess engineering tradeoffs and designs specific to each intersection during the design phase. Molly explained that this winter they sought feedback on the draft solution toolbox and recommendations from the Strategic Advisory Committee, a range of focus and civic groups, and the broader community. They also invited adjacent business and property owners to Local Access Forums to: hear the latest project updates; get their feedback on the range of recommended safety tools; and discuss property access concerns and how the City and ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) will work with affected business and property owners throughout the design process. The project team heard varied opinions and preferences from different stakeholder interests on the toolbox and recommendations, but there were some common themes. On Project and Process they heard many anecdotes from community members regarding their experiences on Main Street, from being crash victims themselves to their observations of the safety problems on Main Street. Overall, people are excited to see this problem being addressed and thankful for the opportunities to be kept informed and provide feedback on the recommendations. They have heard some frustration with the speed of the project and their outreach approach. They have also heard positive feedback on the toolbox and recommendations. They have definitely heard concerns from many business and property owners on the corridor about property access and site usage impacts, but often after explaining the toolbox concepts, flexibility, phasing, and ongoing opportunities to be engaged through design and 4 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes construction their concerns are somewhat mitigated. While they have largely heard that roundabouts are a good way to improve safety, some have shared observations of people not safely navigating roundabouts on foot or by car elsewhere in Springfield, acknowledging that it takes time for the public to learn to safely navigate roundabouts. They heard that pairing roundabouts with medians is critical, and medians may require driving farther but are worth it to improve safety and save lives. Some remain concerned with out-of-direction travel and freight delivery with medians. Other themes they hear repeatedly that are not directly related to the focus of this project: observations of the correct use of the new pedestrian crossings; a desire to increase traffic enforcement for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians; a desire to decrease the posted speed limit; and a need for improved lighting. In summary, the community has reiterated that there really is a serious safety problem on the corridor. It is their duty to tackle the problem, their approach is sensible and responsible, and they do listen and care and will adjust during the design phase. As noted in Attachment 1 in the packet, there is a long history of planning projects on Main Street, and there are many business and property owners who engaged early on in this project that have not tracked the evolution of Main Street planning decisions since then. Through their outreach they have heard some rumors they are working to dispel while sharing their current recommendations. Molly ran through how they are trying to explain what this project is not. It is not a Lane Transit District (LTD) project. ODOT and the City of Springfield are leading the project. They are coordinating with the Main/McVay Transit Study to plan for transit elements, and LTD is an interested party that is providing input in order to continue providing transit service along Main Street now and in the future. It is not EmX. The Main/McVay Transit Study had considered EmX, which could have included dedicated bus-only lanes on Main Street. However, the Main Street Governance Team formally removed EmX from consideration in July 2019. Enhanced Corridor Transit will integrate into the facility plan. Under the Enhanced Corridor mode, buses would primarily run in mixed traffic, but upgrades could be made at bus stops to provide a more welcoming and safer environment for people on foot and on bike. Street improvements could be made to provide safer and more efficient movement by all modes, including more reliable and consistent bus service. The Main Street Safety Project would not prevent all left turns. Main Street would have raised medians, but not continuously throughout the corridor. Some intersections would have left turns and U-turn pockets, and other intersections would have roundabouts that would allow for all turning movements. Raised medians would have mountable curbs allowing emergency vehicles to drive over them when needed, and there would be no medians directly in front of a fire station. It would not need extensive new right-of-way. In the short-term they would focus construction primarily in the existing curb-to-curb width. The proposed future street design would need four more feet on each side for most of Main Street. The toolbox includes cross-section variations to account for location-specific constraints and property impacts. Narrowing the street in physically constrained locations will happen during the design phase. 5 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes It is not one-size-fits-all. During the most recent round of community engagement, community members confirmed they liked the proposed solution toolbox and range of recommended safety tools as it provides flexibility to implement infrastructure that accommodates different segments on the corridor instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. It would not be built all at once. Design and construction would occur in phases over the next 5-20 years as funding becomes available. Phases would be prioritized based on the projects Goals and Objectives, including addressing the highest safety needs first. Phasing enables people to see and experience results in early phases, and it allows community members to adjust to new street design gradually. Molly noted that staff shared the discussion questions that were in Attachment 2 of their packet with the Springfield Planning Commission a couple of weeks ago and sought their feedback. As with all groups they have sought feedback from, they heard varied opinions from Commissioners, but a common theme among the Planning Commissioners was that phasing is critical. It allows travelers and those nervous about change to become accustomed to change gradually. It provides flexibility to account for changes in traffic patterns over time, enables people to see results in the short-term, and it also helps facilitate sourcing of funds. Allison Brown asked if as they digest that information if they had questions or comments. Mayor VanGordon asked if they were going to go through the input that the Planning Commission was provided. Molly Markarian stated that she could delve into their feedback more deeply, but the highlights she just shared were their core feedback. Mayor VanGordon stated that he did not have any questions and he was ready to discuss it if the LTD folks had their questions answered. Allison Brown confirmed that what Molly was looking for was feedback and direction from this group. Molly confirmed and added specifically the seven discussion questions that were in the packet. Frannie Brindle stated that the raised medians and roundabouts would need to work in concert as far as they heard back from the community. That really those two tools in the toolbox needed to work well together. There would also be openings at major intersections to facilitate a U-turn for out-of-direction- travel and one of the goals would be less than 30 seconds out of direction travel to a business that would have access cut off adjacent to their property. She added it was said that all of this can be accomplished within the existing curb-to-curb. It seemed to her that a roundabout would take more real estate than that. Molly Markarian stated that when they say within the existing curb-to-curb they are referring to just the raised medians. The roundabouts paired with the raised medians there would be different property impacts at major intersections but at design they would be looking at how to minimize that. 6 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes Frannie Brindle asked if it would be possible to do some of the design elements in an early phase that would accommodate the median in certain locations so they could get the benefit of the median right away and still not have too much impact on the businesses. Brian Barnett clarified that the out-of-direction travel time is about 30 seconds, on average, with the toolbox as they have identified it. Roundabouts and medians work very well together because roundabouts provide that U-turn opportunity for all sizes of vehicles. Between roundabouts, with a median there would be other opportunities for smaller vehicles to make U-turns and left turns. They work together in different ways, and they certainly have the goal of maybe the first project being two roundabouts with medians in between so that both directions of travel have that roundabout as the way to navigate that segment of the corridor efficiently. He also pointed out that for the signal option that also would have a right-of-way impact because it would be necessary to get the U-turns for the trucks and necessary to get the additional lanes to get the capacity equivalence that you also get out of a roundabout. Because as we know, a roundabout is a very efficient intersection form as well as being a very safe intersection form. Mayor VanGordon stated that he thought one of the big things before them and the Council is the project is so big and the road is so long it is easy to get lost in the details as they go through it all. Molly does a really good job of sectioning the conversation with the presentation and emphasizing the importance of phasing matters a lot. When he has heard the Council talk before, he has heard them talk about a road not as straight as it used to be and a desire to go in different widths, and he felt that was represented in the draft recommendations. He stated that when he has talked to people one of the things he hears on the business side is a feeling that we are going from a conceptual phase into a design phase, and if they were all not here tomorrow one of the maps crosses out half the buildings on the south side of the street is just a concept. He felt being able to emphasize the things they did at the end of the presentation and take it property by property in the design phase is the most critical thing they can do. He added that he had a clarifying question. He stated that he was not sure from these recommendations of a facility plan whether it is tied into any LTD enhancements. He knows that it is a plan, it’s sort of all the Main-McVay work they did, is this consistent with it? If they have all the money for Phase One would they be doing all the enhancements for the bus at the same time? Emma Newman responded that she is the co-lead for the Main-McVay Transit Study, and it has been coordinated with the Main Street Safety Project in preparation of this facility plan. To prepare for drafting the facility plan later this summer, both City of Springfield and LTD staff have been meeting to develop draft transit design guiding principles, so there is actually going to be a section in the facility plan that speaks to the integration of that. The transit section will include a little bit of the history of the Main-McVay Transit Study, what the Enhanced Corridor consists of, and then provide some guiding principles for transit, similar to what they saw with the median framework. Mayor VanGordon stated that his big concern is they have so many moving parts it is going to be critical that we don’t have Frannie put something in and that we come around and let LTD tear it out again. There are skeptics to this project out there, so we have to get the phasing right. So, they don’t have “we just built that, now we’re tearing it out again”. 7 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes Tom Schwetz agreed that was an important concern. He added that he would say in the context of what they are looking at in terms of Enhanced Corridor they have to consider what kind of improvements they would need in the context of medians being in place and roundabouts being built at intersections. At this time there may be some things that are more associated with where they want to locate their stops than any kind of exclusive right-of-way, particularly given all of the discussions they have had about the issues of expanding the right-of-way. They have gone through that process and have looked at the Safety Project putting down a layer of improvements, so he doesn’t know if they have a lot of infrastructure type of things that they would need to continue their transit service. He is most concerned about where they would locate the stops in order to navigate safely through the roundabouts, but they are looking at those things with the City staff. Mayor VanGordon stated that is not really a concern about LTD but more of a concern about having a lot of players in the right-of-way and making sure that they all get synchronized so that it goes as smoothly as possible. Frannie Brindle stated that she was curious about the cycle track. This is the first time that she has heard this, and it’s an intriguing idea. She understands that it would be potentially between Bob Straub Parkway and 54th which makes sense because they have that destination strip mall with lots of shops in that area. She believes that would get them close to Willamalane, is that the idea and if so what side of the road are they talking about? Molly Markarian referred to John Boskett. John Boskett responded that the cross-section that they are proposing shows the cycle track on both sides of the highway, and he believes that it is roughly between 54th and 58th. The reason that they limit it to that section is because the right-of-way actually widens out in that area and while it is a bigger footprint it has less right-of-way impact because they just have more right-of-way to use. Also, there are fewer driveways in that area. Earlier in the project they looked at applying the cross-section more broadly as one of the alternatives, but one of the big issues is there are just so many driveways crossing Main Street, and it wouldn’t be very functional, but in this area there looks like there is some promise to make it a higher quality facility. Frannie Brindle asked if the pedestrian facilities will be somewhat separated from the cycle facility. John Boskett stated that behind the landscape strip is about a 13-foot width, 7 feet for the bike facility and then a 6-foot sidewalk. Frannie Brindle stated that they would have to figure out how the transit would interact with that. Mayor VanGordon stated that one of the things they talked about in the presentation is how the recommendations would have an impact on critical injuries. Do these treatments impact the moderate injuries? He added that they are trying to get rid of accidents and injuries, but they are also trying to avoid the kind of near misses, should they assume that this same treatment covers the scope of bad interactions? 8 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes Brian Barnett responded yes, they certainly can. The crash reduction factors are for all crashes, but the types of crashes that get solved by roundabouts are the high energy and high impact kinds of crashes, and of course higher energy is more likely to result in higher injury. The left turning and rear-end types of collisions that are not necessarily intersection related but could be driveway related, those are the types of crashes that would be mitigated. The numeric values that our consultants have used are for all crash types, but they can be sure that roundabouts, because of the nature of crashes that typically occur at intersections, those are mitigated so it’s more likely to be a good result for fatalities and serious injuries. Mayor VanGordon asked if they were planning on doing additional outreach. He knows they are prepping the documents over the summer and Council will see it in the fall, but are they planning on doing additional outreach explaining the project as time goes on, is this going to stay in the community conversation? Molly Markarian stated that they are going to Council in a few weeks and then they are working on the facility plan this summer, but what will continue through the rest of the planning phase, all the way through adoption hearings, will be continued community engagement, continued e-updates. She added that she believed that they have another round of focus groups and civic groups at the adoption phase. They will probably be doing another mailer at the time of adoption. Then when it moves into design, once funding is secured for the first phase, there will be some additional outreach at that time as well. Michael Liebler stated that he wanted to add that the original emphasis on this project was driven by the ARTS award and part of that funding is a benefit to cost ratio, and severity of accidents is incorporated into the cost associated with that funding source. In addressing certain accidents, if it is a fatal it is going to cost a lot more, so the benefit cost ratio is also better. So, there is some severity analysis inside some of the funding sources. Allison Brown clarified that ARTS stands for All Roads Transportation Safety and is a grant funding program. She went on to say that they do have the discussion questions that were in the packet and she thought for the purpose of today it would be useful, they may have touched on some of them but the top question is whether the toolbox of recommendations meets your expectations and the direction the Governance Team has given the project team. She asked if anyone had any reactions to that question. This is helpful for the lead up of going to Council. Mayor VanGordon stated that he felt it included enough tools. His initial reaction is really sort of driving the question of, coming at it from both sides, it’s the right tools and the right approach but also kind of emphasizing that flexibility, and what he thinks what the Council and the community will want to know that we are trying to balance this whole thing. Getting that story on how they are dealing with the right- of-way and how they are dealing with flexibility. This isn’t continuous medians all the way down and people will never be able to make a left-hand turn and get some of the nuance in there. He thinks Molly got some of that into the presentation conversation as it went along, but he felt that it is the place where he is listening for it because that is where it makes it real from just conceptual to this could be driveway by driveway to get this done. 9 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes Allison Brown stated that it sounds like the toolbox itself he is ok with, it’s more the messaging and clear communication regarding the flexibility and phase ability of the toolbox and the implications of phased implemented for the community and businesses is what’s really key for him. Mayor VanGordon nodded in agreement. Steven Yett stated that he echoes what he just heard, that is he feels the toolbox is fine, the framing and the optics as it gets conveyed to the general public is really important. It is a fact that the funds to do everything are simply not available, and so he felt that it would be helpful both for acceptance by the general public, and particularly the number of business people that have reached out to him with concerns, if it is portrayed as what it really is going to be and that is an incremental approach. They are going to try a roundabout here when the money is available. They will try a raised median for this x- number of blocks and not present it as, “this is the full plan, and this is what it’s going to be.” The former will allow people, as someone rightly said a bit ago, to ease into it, adapt to it, and realize a roundabout is not the end of the world. A raised median in front of their business is not going to put them out of business. He felt that they need to be careful, and LTD is certainly a very junior partner in all of this, but he felt if he was the Council, the City and ODOT, he would phase it in and make it very clear that this is an evolution and not a revolution in how Main Street is going to work. Frannie Brindle stated that she appreciated the toolbox approach and she really appreciated what was just said about it not being a revolution, it is going to be an evolution. For one thing, funding doesn’t come in one big pile of money, and her experience is that it will come in dribs and drabs as they can get it, $50 million is a lot of money these days. It is more likely that they will see $5-$10, $10-$15 million, so having a toolbox is the right approach. All of the things that are in the toolbox are things that are going to be effective in making the corridor appear to be narrower even though it is still going to be within curb-to-curb. They are going to have things within the corridor, roundabouts that will slow the traffic down, and that’s what they want. They will have a median that will give the driver the appearance of a closed-in environment that they would slow down for. They can put signage up all day long with speed limits, but people are coming off 126 at Bob Straub, coming into town and it’s wide open and people will go fast. So, when they start using the tools and installing the medians, the roundabouts that draw the eye in, people will naturally slow down. She also felt that it will be really good for the business community because the drivers will be less nervous, they will take their time and be able to see the store fronts and be able to get to their destination even if it does mean a U-turn or around a roundabout to get to the other side, the whole environment will be more of a Main Street and less of a highway. She added that she feels it is the right approach, and she thinks they could do it so that it matches the funding as it becomes available. It also would be nice if they could match the funding with the right tools and actually see results that will reduce the crashes, reduce the pedestrian (vulnerable user) impacts by having lighting and places for people to cross safely and more of that slower environment for everything. Her goal is to implement short-term improvements sooner rather than later, and this gives us an opportunity to do that and see results. They have been talking about safety for a long time, and they really do want to see those crashes go down and a more multi-modal environment. 10 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes Allison Brown asked for any other thoughts, explaining they did not need to be deep thoughts. For the team it is really helpful to know that it seems ok or that they have a few reservations that they need to think about a little more. Any feedback is helpful in order to know the direction forward and gauge the work ahead. Generally, she felt she heard that message about messaging itself. That the toolbox generally seems ok, but messaging is going to be really critical, especially around phasing. Even though the plan itself is comprehensive and looks at the entire corridor and has a suite of tools, that how they are implemented and the phasing of that will also be critical to message to the community and to address some of the concerns that some have. She asked if they were generally in agreement with that. The group confirmed by nodding their heads in agreement. Allison Brown stated that she was looking at the list of questions and was curious if they had any feelings about the individual elements. They have talked about the plan as a whole, and a few of them have noted that some of the elements may cause more anxiety especially with certain sectors in the community. She asked if they have any thoughts on the specific elements or any additional thoughts on phasing. She thought Frannie gave some great direction on phasing. The last piece is on outreach and the Mayor touched on this, but if they have thoughts on additional outreach that should be pursued or would be worthwhile at this juncture of the project or groups they think the team should pay special attention to or ensuring they are reached out to. These are other pieces of feedback that would be very helpful. Mayor VanGordon stated that individual elements are not a concern for him, he felt that the story that they want to tell is that in the middle part of Springfield, they call it mid-Springfield, it is sort of car centric, it’s like a highway. When they think about elements and outreach, when he talks to businesses out there, they always tell the story that they have never had anyone ride up on a bike and use their business, so why do we need a bike lane. Well, no one is ever going to ride up on a bike then. We get stuck in that cycle of how to build a transportation system. If anything, from a communication perspective, reminding people that this is a little bit of ‘if they build it, they will come.’ If there are easier ways to walk and move on Main Street, then they will see more foot traffic or potentially bikes out there. One thing he would recommend is to encourage any time that they can, talk to the neighborhoods and businesses. All the work and planning they have done on Main Street has been exhausting to people, some people have been through three phases of this, just remind them in simple clarity that they have to keep going forward here. There are a couple places where podcasts are picking up in town and that might be good place to look out and not get the usual suspects of the realtors and chambers and the people they know how to touch. He can send the information if people are interested. Steven Yett stated that he felt that advice was spot on but would add a slight wrinkle to it. Some of the business owners have reached out to him, and he asked them if they have reached out and he gets this dumb look back and a no, and he gives them a dumb look and he tells them if they don’t speak up then people at the City and ODOT or anywhere are not mind readers. As frustrating as it is, and the point that this is exhausting is a point well taken. But he thinks it is necessary, and during this time of COVID it should be a very thoughtful and methodical phone call to every business along Main Street so it is 11 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes carefully logged that they were spoken to or they were called at least twice and solicited for their input then it takes a lot of the energy out of their argument if they choose to object later that they don’t like what is happening. Then it is like “well we actually spoke to you on June 3rd and you spoke to Molly”, or “we had a phone call to you on this date and that date with no return phone call,” it kind of shuts down that whole discussion. So, he would just challenge everyone, since this is such an important outreach and such an important evolution of Main Street, that they start at one end and work all the way down. He added that he thought Tom’s comment earlier was spot on, LTD could easily adapt to whatever they are properly appraised of in time. They don’t want to be ripping up anything ODOT and the City does, that wouldn’t be necessary when given sufficient lead time. Frannie Brindle stated that some of the stakeholders that may have already been contacted but should be considered are delivery drivers who are delivering goods and services in the corridor. She knows Franz bakery, probably Pepsi, those kinds of truck and delivery drivers would be good people to get outreach from. Allison Brown asked Molly, Michael, and Brian if there were other questions that they would like to ask the folks in the room, or that in addition to what they have heard it is really critical to move this work forward and to prepare for Council and also just putting the plan together and the work that will come this summer. Molly Markarian stated that this may be more as they prepare for City Council, but she asked if there were any special considerations on how to recommend phasing implementation. They stated that they would phase based on the goals and objectives which is a fairly objective metric and funding availability, but is there something the decision makers want them to take into consideration when they are preparing the draft facility plan and outlining potential phasing. Michael Liebler stated that he had a separate comment. He thanked Steven for his suggestion and in line with that he was thinking a lot about access management and really getting the property owners engaged in a higher level when it comes to the safety things and seeing the advantages of being part of the process. They can’t legally compel cross access easements between properties in a lot of situations, so getting them to engage with the project and getting them to realize the potential and benefits to them for engaging with them helps make the corridor better not just for the property owner but also for safety. He added he appreciated Steven’s comment, as a property and business owner trying to foster that relationship. As he has put in pedestrian crossings on Main Street it is very much getting all the people together and getting them working together, even between certain properties where he can’t compel certain actions, that sometimes makes the difference. Brian Barnett stated that Michael was absolutely right earlier when he responded to the idea of cost benefit and the All Roads Transportation Safety Program. Because ARTS is probably their most likely source of funds for these types of projects, the things that Frannie talked about in terms of $5 million, $10 million project sizes is very realistic. So because it is a benefit-cost ratio type of program they are always going to be looking for and competing with other entities for their projects, and other projects within their own city, so they are always going to be focusing on the most severe crash locations 12 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes because that’s where they will receive the highest numeric benefit and then the costs are pretty much x- dollars per foot to build a median and x-dollars per square foot to build a roundabout. That doesn’t really vary on where they are on the corridor very much. His belief around phasing is that it’s going to be driven principally by the ARTS program and if that is not something that the Governance Team is supportive of then they really need to hear that because they really have to start a new strategy on funding if that is case. But that is how he anticipates it rolling out unless there is a concerted effort to do something different. Mayor VanGordon stated that his thought on phasing is if there is not an engineering reason to do it a certain way, he doesn’t build roads for a living, but if they talked to him about the first phase he thinks they have to choose something that includes the Safeway intersection. It is going to make sense to the community. That still basically exists in a food desert, and there is a lot of movement so they are able to say that is where they are going to start would probably help. Brian Barnett responded by asking for clarification that he was referring to the 54th intersection. Mayor VanGordon stated that he did believe that was 54th. Brian Barnett stated that there is a project underway with ODOT right now to do the signal modification at that intersection, so they have had communication with Council about that project in recent months and also a couple of years ago when that issue was in the forefront. They will continue to pursue that project, but by doing that project they may diminish their ability to score well at that location in a future ARTS program, and that’s what they hope. They want to solve the problem and if it solves the problem then hooray. If it doesn’t, then that’s a different funding application for a different day. If he recalls correctly, and the technical experts from DKS can correct him if he is misstating this, but the most probable location for a first ARTS project, based on crash information, is 32nd to 42nd. That would be the segment that is about ten blocks long and is going to receive the most benefit from that level of investment. Mayor VanGordon stated then that is where they start. They must have it make sense to people. Frannie Brindle stated that the other thing that is going to make sense and maybe it is the same segment, but thinking about the origin/destination of trips - where our neighborhoods are and where are the people wanting to get a quick trip across the road to get to a convenience store or groceries or school. She thinks about that all the time, where are people trying to get to and where they live. So, if there are a lot of apartment complexes on one side of the street and services on the other side of the street, that makes a lot of sense to potentially do medians. She also wanted to mention that this whole idea of a community approach, there is a neighborhood that has a big long fence along the neighborhood itself (the area near Bob Straub), people can’t really get out of that area unless they go all the way to the intersection at 54th or to Bob Straub to get across the street or to school. There is not another way. So, when the Mayor said to go into the neighborhoods would be important, outreach to talk to the people who live near Main Street to find out how they get around and where are they cutting through properties to get to a school. Where are they running across a ramp that’s unsafe to get to school. Really get an idea from the community itself how they are having to dodge traffic and using that 13 |Main Street Safety Project Governance Team Minutes anecdotal information when going to the business community and telling them this is how they are trying to accommodate the most vulnerable users in the community. Have that real human conversation. Allison Brown asked Molly if the comments helped clarify her original question on phasing. Molly Markarian confirmed they did. Allison Brown stated that she felt that the group was in a place where they have said what they need to say and responded how they need to respond. She added that she was seeing head nodding in agreement with that and asked if there was anything else anyone wanted to add especially as it relates to phasing per Molly’s request of this group or anything else they looked at today with the toolbox recommendations. Frannie Brindle added that equity is becoming much more of a topic, buzz word, much more than a buzz word. This whole idea of providing access to folks so that they can have the ability to do what they need to do in their lives. She felt that they could also look at this corridor as a real opportunity to do that and really take that equity approach. They have some very low-income housing along this corridor, and there could be an opportunity to really think about that whole community aspect and how to get people access to transit and for bike and ped. She is just imagining that some people can’t afford a car or may not want to purchase one and would rather use that money for their kid to go to school or something like that. That might be another thing to add to the discussion of criteria for phasing because everybody deserves to have a safe way to get to work and school. Allison Brown stated since there were no other comments that she would move to close this meeting a little early. They are a smaller group, and they have been concise and efficient with their time. To close, this group will be coming back together in late fall. Council is coming up, and this will be presented to Council, and a lot of work will be happening over the summer and then the project will come back to them in late fall to review the draft Main Street Facility Plan. She stated that if they had anything else to add, Molly is the best person to reach out to if there is a question that occurs to you later or a comment, that you want to make sure the team notes. Meeting adjourned.