City of Lawrence
Lawrence – Douglas County Bicycle Advisory Committee
April 15, 2014 Minutes
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MEMBERS PRESENT:
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Lisa Hallberg, Erin Paden, Bill Anderson, David Hamby, Chad Foster, Jacki Becker, Dan Ashley |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
Justin Eddings, Chris Rogge |
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STAFF PRESENT: |
Todd Girdler, Jessica Mortinger |
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PUBLIC PRESENT: |
Charlie Bryan, Chris Tilden |
2. Approval of the March 11 & March 18, 2014 Meeting Minutes
3. Discussion/Action Item: Bicycle/Pedestrian Advocacy Groups meetings and updates
Ms. Mortinger asked BAC members who had attended meetings to provide an update. Ms. Paden shared that she had attended the Traffic Safety Commission at their April meeting. The groups seemed receptive to discussing future coordination. Mr. Girdler informed Mr. Woosely who staffs the TSC that the BAC would provide a formal letter to discuss coordination at a future meeting. BAC members agreed after future discussion that the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board and Sustainability Advisory Board should also be on the list of coordinating groups. A motion was made to direct staff to draft a letter to these groups by Ms. Hallberg, seconded by Mr. Hamby and passed unanimously. Ms. Mortinger reminded BAC members that the Lawrence Pedestrian Coalition members and the LiveWell Lawrence Healthy Built Environment Work Group both asked if the BAC would be willing to discuss the possibility of revised BAC bylaws for a joint bicycle/pedestrian committee. Ms. Mortinger asked the BAC members to clarify the intent of their coordination efforts and provide additional details of how they would like Ms. Mortinger and Mr. Bryan to work together to host a coordinated discussion. Members agreed that the communication would be an important low hanging fruit where each group could share their work plan and find issues where there could be a common unified voice for active transportation. Members discussed what their role is in regard to advisory status with the Lawrence City Commission and their concern that items aren’t coming to the BAC for their recommendations in a timely fashion, often at the last minute, after all the planning work has been done or not at all. This feeds into what some members feel like is a lack of relevance. Mr. Girdler reminded members that other groups got behind a single project and created political and community support by attending commission meetings and those of other groups, such as neighborhood groups. Members expressed their concern over the lack of priority list of improvements from the BAC and asked staff to add this to next month’s agenda. Each member should bring a list of their top 5 improvements so the group can prioritize. Members discussed the options for coordinating at different levels and agreed that education and communication would be fundamental to being timely and help maintain a more unified voice for bicycle & pedestrian issues. Mr. Bryan mentioned to the BAC that the members of the LiveWell Healthy Built Environment Work Group are carrying out the community’s health plan when they set their agenda. Ms. Mortinger mentioned that both T2040 and the new Countywide Bikeway System Plan have a plethora of actions in all the 5 E’s (Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation) that are part of the community’s vision.
4. Discussion Item: LPD Accident Report Presentation
In response to the BAC Safety Concerns letter sent in the fall of 2013, the MPO staff facilitated a meeting of public safety officials. As a result, there wasn’t much support to commit additional time to do additional safety analysis without additional funding for the activity. At that time, Mr. Ashley committed to presenting to the BAC an overview of KDOT Motor Vehicle Accident Form 850A. (The presentation pdf can be found at lawrenceks.org/assets/mpo/bac/2014/accidentreportpresentation.pdf).
The State accident report form is completed for motor vehicle crashes as a civil liability issue. The presentation covered how bicycle crashes are reported on accident reports and how they may be documented in other ways. We learned that there is no coding for bicyclists on the KDOT Accident Form 850A and that all bicyclists are coded as pedestrians (equestrians are coded as pedestrians too). Traffic law depicts bicyclists as vehicles and bicyclists and pedestrians have vastly different operating characteristics. This way of coding bicycle crashes seemed odd to BAC members. The group had a discussion about this and realized that unless the crash involves a car or truck and a serious injury or fatality that a bicycle crash may not be documented on an accident report. This creates an underreporting of bike crashes and treats them quite differently than car crashes. Mr. Ashley also shared the local Lawrence ordinance that requires any bicyclist injury accident or bicycle related accident with over $50 damage to be reported to the Lawrence Police Department.
17-701 DUTY TO REPORT BICYCLE ACCIDENTS.
It shall be the duty of every person riding a bicycle to make a report to the Police Department when such bicycle is involved in any accident resulting in injuries to any person or damage to any property in excess of the sum of $50 and to make such report within twenty-four (24) hours after such accident. (Ord. 5172, 17-701)
However, after some discussion BAC members realized that the ordinance doesn’t have a standard for how that type of accident is reported and documented. According to Mr. Ashley, some officers take the verbal report and thank the caller; others at their discretion file an information report and information reports are unable to be easily queried for bicycle related information. BAC members also noted that most bicyclists, like themselves aren’t aware of this City ordinance and the inability to query them is also an underreporting of bicycle crashes. BAC members thanked Mr. Ashley for his presentation and indicated that more needs to be done to collect crash data that truly reflects what is occurring in our community. BAC members also indicated that there is a perceived bias against bicyclists in all crashes and this perception doesn’t help encourage bicyclists. Members also discussed other issues that lead to crash factors such as sidewalk closings and reroutes for bicyclists and pedestrians and issues like weather and maintenance. Members agreed that community input about safety and the perception of safety would be fundamental to a safety analysis particularly one where education and enforcement would be primary recommendations, along with improving the reporting standards.
5. Discussion Item: Bike Month and BAC Hosted Ride
Ms. Mortinger shared with BAC members copies of last year’s proclamations, letter to downtown and major employers, and bike month poster while asking members to attend to represent the BAC at the commissions when they were going to be scheduled. Ms. Mortinger also reminded BAC members that they wanted to schedule a ride with Lawrence City Commissioners and asked for some members to lead the coordination of that ride. Mr. Anderson, Ms. Hallberg and Ms. Becker said they would coordinate the event and route.
6. Other Business/ Updates
Bicycle Rideability Map- Ms. Mortinger asked members to provide comments back to her on the final draft Rideability map layer.
Traffic Skills 101 www.bikeed.org – Ms. Mortinger informed the BAC that in an attempt to meet the requirements to get someone certified with the League of American Bicyclists as a League Certified Instructor that some members had taken the first two steps by taking the online biked.org course and then worked with the Topeka Community Cycle Project and League Instructor Alan Apel in Topeka to complete the on the road portion of Traffic Skills 101.
SRTS Application- Ms. Mortinger shared with the BAC that the Health Department, USD 497, MPO and City of Lawrence were coordinating on an application for Safe Routes To School planning in the City of Lawrence.
Earth Day –Table in South Park is this Saturday. Members signed up for times at the table.
7. Public Comments
There were none.
8. Adjournment of Meeting and Announcement of Next Meeting
The meeting ended at 7:00 p.m. The Next Meeting is scheduled for May 20, 2014 at 5PM.