Thread by @mmwpro63

THREAD
Fresno's next (Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting) BPAC is tonight at 5:30 pm. Here's a quick rundown of the agenda before the meeting begins.

You can participate in the meeting here: fresnogov2.webex.com/fresnogov2/j.p…

Read the full Agenda here: fresno.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&…

Alternatively, you can watch the meeting on @CMACTV afterward.

The meeting is starting, but we do not have a quorum yet. 😬

@PhilArballo2020 is absent since we are full-on into election season.

Susan Smith's audio is now working, she mentions that she recently attended Oakland's BPAC meeting. They have had 14 applications for 3 open positions. A lot of bike commuters are applying to help assist in rehabbing old infrastructure.

Susan Smith (District ) is doing roll call,

Absent:

Gene Richards (District 3)
@PhilArballo2020 Chair
Joe Martinez (District 1)

@Maxwell4Fresno District 4 is vacant

Agenda Approval:

Motion: Susan Smith

Tony Molina: 2nd

Agenda Approved

Minutes Approval:

Tony Molina: No guest attendees were recorded from the previous meeting. You can check the chat window to see who is attending the meeting.

Melanie Ruvalcaba: People should type their names into the chat to sign-in.

Melanie Ruvalcaba: For future meetings, if you are a guest you should put your name in the chat and type in your affiliation similar to how we had it before COVID.

Motion to Approve minutes by Steven Bradley (D7)

2nd: Tony Molina (D2)

Melanie Ruvalcaba: Any unscheduled Communications?

Melanie: I'm surprised there aren't any.

We are currently waiting on Joe Martinez (District 1) to receive his meeting invite. 😬

For now, we are moving on to the update on the TCC funded Bike Safe Fresno Program, presented by USGBC's Laura Gromis

Laura Gromis: The program has been readjusted from several in-person events to this website that is the base for our personal website.

Go to usgbccc.org/bikesafefresno to access it.

A survey is included asking what keeps people from biking in Fresno. It will be marketed from email outreach and TCC. We kept it brief.

Videos are included on the webpage by the @BikeLeague to answer people's questions about biking. including one video produced locally...

for the green apple video contest. View it here:

Information is also included on the same webpage about the local bike infrastructure, including directing people to use Fresgo to address any immediate issues residents may need help with.

A 2nd survey is included for people to provide their thoughts:

For online lessons, they are partnering with the Fresno County Bicycle Coalition for two lessons in October:

Helmets and lights are being provided to attendees using BPAC funding. If BPAC has any issues with that use of funding they can talk to Laura about it.

Resources are included for kids of different ages...

...along with a pledge for kids to take since they cannot currently attend in-person classes. They will pledge to walk or bike to school for one or more days. Once they do it once, they are more likely to do it again.

In terms of walking to school, she is working with the Fresno Institute with working on biking to school in South West Fresno. Conversations are happening with other schools in SW Fresno to get kids to work on the question of how can we get more kids walking/biking to school.

Still Laura Gromis: We have a lot of work ahead of us. We hope that the information we collect on the website will be useful and we want to continue working with BPAC on increasing the amount of people walking and biking in the city of Fresno.

Tony Molin D2: Thank you Laura...

...I just wanted to announce that I will be working with Joe Martinez on some lessons this Monday.

I was wondering if we had a BPAC logo to use, since this will be a TCC project and BPAC will be providing the helmets, but we have a city of Fresno logo to use for now.

We still need our own logo.

Melanie (Acting Chair): I know we talked about our own logo, but I think we were still waiting to hear about whether we needed to hear from the city about whether we can have our own logo.

Jill Gormely (Public Works): I can check on that.

Steven Bradley: My wife has a logo she wants to show at some point.

Next item: Robert Garcia is currently absent for the Parks Department OTS & ATP Safety Grants .

Joe Martinez (D1) is here now, so BPAC has a quorum to approve minutes and agenda items. 😯

Approved: Agenda and Minutes

Member Reports since Robert Garcia is not here.

D2: Tony Molina: Since it is my last meeting this week as BPAC rep, I want there to be some communication about items I have requested that weren't able to make it onto the agenda tonight.

Motion: Items that are not able to be included on a meeting's agenda must be forwarded to the next meeting's agenda. An email must be sent to people if their item cannot get onto the next meeting's agenda.

2nd: Joe Martinez

Tony: I also want to add that it should be made...

...on the webpage as well that people will be emailed which day their item can be heard if it cannot be heard on the day originally requested.

Passed with no opposition and language modified.

Joe Martinez: Sounds like Ryan will not be joining us for his presentation per his...

...text to me

Moving on: Fresno Slow Streets update.

Tony Molina: Jill Gormley's Tray Memo has been received by the city hall. Any word on whether we will hear back from the council on whether they will hear it during a future council meeting. A meeting has been secured with...

...the Huntington Neighborhood about a slow street there.

Jill Gormely: I don't know, this program still doesn't have funding secured, so you will have to talk with your councilmembers about what this program will look like. This program has been set up to get the....

neighborhoods to ask for these(slow streets).

Jill (continued): I currently sit on a racial and social justice committee. On of the participants lives along a slow street and she hates it. We hear so much that people want to have these in their neighborhood and it's...

interesting to hear different opinions about whether this should be in people's neighborhoods. I want the neighborhoods who want slow streets to ask for them.

Tony Molina: Is there a way to get a map of local streets that are eligible?

Jill Gormley: I wanted to get a website...

...set up so that we can have people who are interested to apply. We also have a map that has collectors and more listed.

Me: I just lost my internet briefly so I missed part of the discussion.

They are now discussing whether Huntington Boulevard is eligible to be a slow street because it is a boulevard, not a local street. 🤦

Same with Audubon drive in North Fresno.

Jill Gormley: We originally made it local streets to keep the program simple, Audubon is going to be a completely different ball game.

Tony Molina: I'm more worried about Huntington than Audubon. We can discuss with @LuisCha70215912 about this more.

Next Item: Report on Producer's Dairy H Street Closure
@kieltls
Andrew Benelli: Producer's Dairy plans on purchasing the old grain feed plant and closing H-street. An EIR has been prepared and the comment period has closed.

The EIR covers everything, not just the street closure, the grain feed towers are older than 50+ years old. The council will have to amend the general plan in order to modify H-street from a collector and then approve it twice.

Producer's is anxious to get this in front of...

council.

Tony Molina: This is Joe's district and I wonder if has any further questions.

Joe Martinez D1: I know that the residents have issues with H-street being closed for parking purposes and the demolition of the grain feed since it's a historical building, but I don't....

...know what is being done about people's concerns currently.

Tony Molina: When would the demolition occur and when would the Palm Cycle track be implemented, since it is "quick-build."

Scott Sehm Public Works: If we can accelerate it, we will, March '21 CTC hearing for Construction funding then bidding in July, Award in late Aug

Tony: What will be the bid for the HSR work on Belmont underpass?

Andrew Benelli: It's hard to tell because they are 2 years...

...behind, but Belmont is their top priority right now. They are doing utility work right now.

Tony: Will there be bike lanes on the corridor in the interim?

Andrew Benelli: Give me a few minutes to bring up diagrams for the Belmont project.

Here's the diagram:

H street would go under Belmont, but Producer's would own the property under the road and the city would vacate. However, this diagram doesn't show that.

A tortilla company owns some of the land on the west side of the

Laura Gromis: What precedent is there that a company could ask to purchase the road?

Andrew Benelli: You could ask the city to sell you the road in front of the house and you could make. City staff would recommend against it, but you could make the request...

...we get them in county islands sometimes.

Laura: What about with Collector streets. A general plan amendment would be made for this to happen. Stafford originally went through, but it no longer does. Lots of roads have been vacated already.

Tony: How would Producer's get to the Freeway.

Andrew Benelli: The ramps on Belmont will be closed eventually because the traffic tends to pile up. The city is working on approving a future truck route for this. 🧐

(A brief mention was made about an interchange, I recommend watching this on CMAC afterward)

Nick Paladino: Will there be bike lanes on the Belmont bridge?

Andrew Benelli: It is hard to see on the diagram, but there will be bike lanes on the bridge up to the zoo.

Next Item: Fresno COG Report of the Shaw/Blackstone Activity Center

Tony: the @FresnoCOG report makes recommendations for pedestrian improvements, but none for bikes. Any word on next steps for this study?

fresno.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&…

Jill Gormley: COG is very interested in more traffic signals, but we will need to look more into feasibility for those, but this study is more of a first step to improving this area. Typically developers have made the incremental improvements according to the current-gen plan.

Tony Molina: I recommend everyone read the report for themselves if they can.

Tony Molina: Did anyone take the cycling savy program that I recommended last week?

Susan Smith: I took it and think that the survey could be put on the city of Fresno website.

Susan Smith: I've been to Woodward Park lately and it is like a zoo out there.

Melanie: You want us to add it to the website as a resource?

Tony Molina: Davis spent about $1700 to make the survey accessible to its residents. I thought it was something that had good info.

Since we don't have a plan on how to use our funding, we could decide to use it on this for our own residents as a resource.

Tony Molina: I would like to make a motion to use this program

Melanie: I don't disagree, but I think it should be one of several options for project...

...ideas we could spend funding for. The deadline is the next meeting. Could we modify the motion to include it on the list? I don't want to make a promise we spend the money on this unless something happens.

Tony: It's not a relevant amount of money compared to the rest of...

...our funding. It's $17.50 per pass, we could buy 100.

Jill Gormley: We need to go to staff first before we try to do anything. We need to justify why we want to spend the money on it. They are getting nervous and we need to justify expenses.

Tony Molina: I can submit a brief explanation on how Davis currently uses the program, would that work.

Jill Gormley: That's good, but you need to explain how the info will be deciminated. If I want to bike in the city of Fresno, how does this fit?

Melanie: Does the group feel comfortable with a vote?

Susan Smith: I took the test and thought it was very useful, you could notify people via fresgo.

Tony Molina: Motion made to use part of the bicycle safety funding for this.

2nd: Susan Smith

No one opposed

Melanie: Just be sure to get us some more details on this and we're good.

PD Advisory: Beyond the last meeting, we had a September 5th, motor vehicle vs bicycle, Fresno and E street collision, under investigation, possibly shared fault.

12th September, Motor Vehicle Vs Pedestrian Shared fault Ped, car, subject pushing stroller was hit, not stroller

14th September, Motor Vehicle Vs Pedestrian shared fault.

(I couldn't get everything down, be sure to check the CMAC meeting for full details)

Next Item: BPAC Work Plan

Nick Paladino: I noticed a new one. Sierra Avenue Road Diet, Palm to Maroa

Melanie: The board of supervisor in the area was in support of extending the project and so it was extended to Palm.

Nick Paladino: Is that Supervisor Brandau?

Melanie: Yes it is.

Nick Paladino: So now Brandau is no longer an automatic no!!! He will work with us on extending the palm bike path.

Jill Gormley: Yes it is.

Nick Paladino: So now Brandau is no longer an automatic no!!! He will work with us on extending the palm bike path.

(Apologies, the last few comments by Melanie on this item were by Jill, not Melanie).

Jill Gormley:(on palm ave) The county didn't want to participate initially back when the project needed to be submitted back in July. We've had a meeting recently with Brandau who wanted to have a class II rather than IV, but he is waiting to hear what the community thinks...

Community meetings are scheduled with the neighborhood, stay tuned to hear more.

John Shelton (River Conservancy): This bike path will reach the river eventually, will help with support on this project

Tony Molina: I will be working with Fig Garden Homeowners association...

... and I pitched it would be a good perk for them. They are looking forward to hearing more.

Jill Gormley: I think Steve Brandau was going to be leading the public engagement on this with councilmember Karbassi and more possibly assisting.

Tony Molina: Thank you!

Jill Gormley: We are working with the county on the road diet on Maple, work should start on this Monday

First Avenue will have some bike lanes soon, we have been rushing to get them diagrams in time so they can stripe.

Jill Gormley: I am still working on the presentation of the Complete street, I found out the October Council meeting was canceled, so it's been pushed back. There will be a presentation on Speed Limit reductions, we have done 26 of those recently.

A few terms are expiring soon, be sure to reapply if you wish to continue as BPAC members.

Tony Molina: I have asked Matthew Woodward to be my replacement! :)

Tony: He has made great contributions to the slow streets program and I hope @kmkarbassi considers him even though he is on a county island. In the meantime, I hope to be spending more time in Monterrey.

Joe Martinez: What happened to Vision Zero Task Force as part of our important work into 2021? I did not see it on the agenda?

Tony Molina: We planned on including that in our annual report.

Melanie: I included it on the agenda, but we didn't have any time for it.

On the staff report.

Jill Gormley: We meet on the 28th, the staff report needs to be in on October 29th for the December Council Meeting. I can include the annual report next meeting so we can actually vote on it.

Melanie: Susan if you need to make any more revisions, be sure to do that before next meeting.

Susan Smith: I'll send it to everyone tomorrow.

Melanie: Do we have any final comments?

Jill Gormley: Do we have a listing of where we are storing helmets?

Tony Molina: The county bicycle coalition is storing them.

Melanie: In the meantime, @FresnoCOG is doing a regional transportation plan, we are hiring consultants for that. I can share more information with you on outreach for that when we have a consultant.

Tony Molina: Motion to adjourn.

Steven Bradley: Thank you for your service, Tony!

@threadreaderapp unroll