Walk-Bike Council of Addison County

The October meeting of the Walk Bike Council of Addison County was held on October 30th, 2019 at the Middlebury Police station.

Agenda:

• Middlebury Downtown Master Plan listening session (Jen Murray, Middlebury's Director of Planning & Zoning)
  Planapalooza is happening November 7 - 11th.
  
  • What are priority areas for improved safety?
  • What routes do people frequently travel in Downtown, and what are the missing linkages (x to x) ?
  • What ideas do people have for improving connectivity?
    
    
• Bike Parking Location and Type Policy (Laura)
  
  
• Advisory Shoulders & Shoulder Striping updates (Doug)
  
  
• Triangle Loop status update
  
  
• Walk/Bike Summit & Motherload movie (Mike, Tim, others)
  
  
• Accountability of drivers who hit cyclists (Tim)
  A big topic....  ...I wonder if we could be doing more to advise our state representatives about this. Wondering how others feel about this issue.

(Notes from the: August meeting, June meeting, April meeting, March meeting)

Continue below for full notes.

Attendance: Adam, Michelle, Larry, Tim, Amy, Jennifer Murray, Erik, Nate, Tricia, Laura, Doug, Mary, Bethany, Mike.  Chaired by Adam. Notes by Nate.

Middlebury Downtown Master Plan (Jennifer Murray)

• Week-long Planapolooza at 51 Main - Bundle
• Focus group sessions, including Friday, Nov. 8 10:30-11:30 Multimodal transportation focus group
• Thursday 6pm opening presentation at town offices
• Monday Nov. 11 at 6pm - Town Hall Theater - closing session
• Schedule available online here & main site here
• “On the table” meetings - set up your own impromptu ones
• Asking this group for input
• What is the purpose of the master plan? — set up project list with priorities so we have opportunities after bridge project is done; including site-specific plans for Weybridge street & Bakery Lane Municipal sites
• Building a draft plan, more future input, and then eventually putting into town plan
• (This in turn will help when requesting grants that support that plan)
• Discussion of ‘downtown’ and what’s included
• Safety discussion - noting a number of problem areas and features in detail - shoulder, grates, parked cars, pedestrian crossings, lighting, details near new train station
• Traffic circles (rotary) - additional areas where they may be of use? (Value of pedestrian islands - noted challenge of crossing Route 7 where there are no islands and there may be three lanes to cross)
• Corridors - residential, school, north side of town from high school; route 7; 
• Upcoming paving project on Route 7 - input opportunity?
• ‘Walk in our shoes’ - previous demonstration of mobility challenges, and need to design for access to all
• Pedestrian areas in town
• Parking - hot topic with discussion of more handicapped parking, and parking garage in Bakery Lane area

Bike Parking (Laura)

• Rack inventory done; new racks coming - U-loop style recommendation with consistency of style and color (upon consulting with this guide)
• Locations - close to entrances, sheltered when possible (like at Porter Hospital) (Essentials of bike parking)
• Six U-loop racks as part of bridge project; Hannaford Career Center to build two ‘Quebec-loop’ racks
• Other towns may want to bring to their communities for discussion

Advisory Shoulders & Striping (Doug)

• Lincoln advisory shoulders experiment - community response? - not much reported
• Placement specific to traffic needs of a destination (library)
• Discussion of other sections of road of interest (ala Pine St. in Bristol, Lower Foote St. in Midd)
• Lincoln example if raising discussion elsewhere (Addison Independent article from Sept 12, 2019)
• Wider lane on uphill of River Road (approaching Rt. 7) - from collaborative work with New Haven during paving project
• Discussion of narrower lanes painted recently and proper measurement protocol
• Following standards of lane widths etc. is important for towns to minimize liability

Triangle Loop Status (Mike)

• Steering committee meeting this Friday (Nov. 1st) - survey results discussion
• Add webpage link to Walk-Bike for project

Walk-Bike Summit Status (May 8th) - (Mike & Bethany)

• Committee meetings
• Call for proposals - early December
  • Submit proposals - call to action
• Sponsorships soon - Adam Lougee
  • Soliciting sponsorships
• Marketing - Laura
  • Tag line for the summit (ex. ‘Health’, ‘bridging’, ‘community’)  - call to action
  • Swag thoughts  - call to action
  • Bike Parking - location (Bethany working on this with THT staff)
• Parking outside town - Bethany
• Local Motion - Allegra - bike valet parking in town
• ‘Designing for Healthy Communities’ - keynote approximate
• Dave Cohen of V-Bike would like to introduce “Motherload” movie - there was support expressed
• More planning around “Motherload” movie is in progress

Accountability for drivers (Tim)

• Tim referenced an article that he may locate later
• Reason we are here - following on numerous accidents
• Laws not adequate for cyclist rights; ask government to keep drivers accountable?
• Existing law - ‘vulnerable users’ - 4 feet and slowing
• Discussion with Local Motion
• Law enforcement representation in group might be useful
• Recent ordinance updates
• Fines card - list of fines for different infractions (ex. Distracted driving)
• Outreach - 
• Effect of how articles are written - ex. “Car hit pedestrian” (driver is not mentioned)
• Cyclist behavior - also needs to be discussed and good behavior encouraged
• Idaho stop discussion in communities

Next Meeting - Scheduling

January - Doodle poll coming

Notetaker for next meeting - Mary