WEBVTT 00:00:02.082 --> 00:00:10.529 - I'm calling to order this meeting of the Bloomington Transportation Commission planning session. Can 00:00:10.529 --> 00:00:19.060 - we start with the roll call? Connell? Here. Flaherty? Here. Binder? Here. Davis? Here. And Stossberg? 00:00:19.060 --> 00:00:27.006 - Here. Great. Next is approval of the minutes. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? Sorry. 00:00:29.986 --> 00:00:37.753 - What was that? There's no meeting minutes for the planning session. All right, great. All right, moving 00:00:37.753 --> 00:00:45.521 - on to the next item on the agenda, which is the main item, a presentation for the Rogers Madison Kinzer 00:00:45.521 --> 00:00:53.736 - Corridor. Yeah, I will give a quick update and throw it to Drew Parker from Tool Design for the presentation. 00:00:53.736 --> 00:00:56.126 - Since we last met, there's been 00:00:56.546 --> 00:01:03.034 - a number of activities that we've been doing, primarily centered around community engagement. Drew will 00:01:03.034 --> 00:01:09.273 - go into more details about what we've been doing, but essentially we have been talking to different 00:01:09.273 --> 00:01:15.511 - stakeholders in the community, businesses, property owners, members of the public, street users, to 00:01:15.511 --> 00:01:21.750 - talk about what's going on in the corridor. How do you use it? How would you like to use it? What's 00:01:21.750 --> 00:01:26.366 - going right? What's going wrong? And how street or infrastructure changes 00:01:26.850 --> 00:01:33.342 - in this corridor study could help their experience along the street. From there, that engagement has 00:01:33.342 --> 00:01:40.027 - informed initial design sketches and concepts that you all will see will have an opportunity to review, 00:01:40.027 --> 00:01:46.455 - talk about, discuss, ask questions, and that will then steer the next month or two of this study in 00:01:46.455 --> 00:01:52.948 - terms of starting to hone in on specific designs that we would like to move forward with to possibly 00:01:52.948 --> 00:01:55.326 - include in the final corridor study. 00:01:56.354 --> 00:02:04.878 - With that, I will throw it over to Drew to say some more. Thanks, Hank. I'll share my screen here. OK, 00:02:04.878 --> 00:02:13.318 - can you all see the PowerPoint slides? Yes. Yes. OK, thanks for confirming. Appreciate it. Thanks for 00:02:13.318 --> 00:02:22.173 - having me, everybody. My name is Drew Parker. I'm a senior planner with Tools Design. And I'm a consultant 00:02:22.173 --> 00:02:25.566 - project manager for this corridor study. 00:02:26.466 --> 00:02:32.799 - So excited to be here for our third of four Transformation Commission meetings. Like Hank said, I'll 00:02:32.799 --> 00:02:39.257 - give a recap of some of the engagement that we did in March. And then I'll talk a little bit about the 00:02:39.257 --> 00:02:45.652 - design objectives, which we covered in the last Transformation Commission meeting. And then I'll also 00:02:45.652 --> 00:02:52.173 - go into some of those design concepts, those sketches that Hank was talking about. Without further ado, 00:02:52.173 --> 00:02:55.998 - let's jump right in. This is a reminder on project overview. 00:02:56.578 --> 00:03:03.110 - This is our third or fourth Transmission Commission meetings. We started this project back in October, 00:03:03.110 --> 00:03:09.452 - and we expect to be done kind of late summer, probably in the August time frame, I would think. And 00:03:09.452 --> 00:03:16.110 - like Hank said, a big part of our engagement and intensive work all happened during workshop week, which 00:03:16.110 --> 00:03:22.516 - was March 23rd to 27th. So we've kind of been organizing all the material since then, picking up the 00:03:22.516 --> 00:03:24.862 - pieces, collating all of that public 00:03:24.962 --> 00:03:31.820 - engagement, comment, and feedback that we've gotten and turned that into some recommendations for initial 00:03:31.820 --> 00:03:38.420 - ideas for concepts. So let's go through a recap of that engagement in March. During workshop week, we 00:03:38.420 --> 00:03:44.955 - had a lot of different opportunities for members of the public to come out and talk to us. So we had 00:03:44.955 --> 00:03:52.072 - an open house in the evening at Switchyard Park on March 25, and then we had various pop-up events throughout 00:03:52.072 --> 00:03:54.142 - the week that were just kind of 00:03:54.306 --> 00:03:59.953 - like popping up along the beeline trail, places along Roger Street, along the corridor, just talking 00:03:59.953 --> 00:04:05.545 - to people as they walk by, engage them in a quick one-minute activity. So you can see an example of 00:04:05.545 --> 00:04:11.360 - that. On the right side of the slide here, we had a really simple question about what are the top three 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:17.007 - things that make it difficult to walk, bike, or drive on Roger Street. And so then if people want to 00:04:17.007 --> 00:04:22.878 - sit around, they could engage us further, but it was really just a way to get quick feedback from folks. 00:04:23.874 --> 00:04:30.672 - There was also an online survey hosted on the city's website concurrently with this in-person engagement. 00:04:30.672 --> 00:04:37.086 - So we got a lot of feedback from that as well. From the pop-ups, we got four to 20 participants per 00:04:37.086 --> 00:04:43.627 - location, on average 15 people per pop-up during the week. And the top things that we heard is people 00:04:43.627 --> 00:04:50.041 - had concerns about unsafe intersections and crossings, walking and biking too close to traffic, and 00:04:50.041 --> 00:04:52.478 - then speeding and aggressive driving. 00:04:53.506 --> 00:05:00.071 - And this is pretty consistent with what we heard during other activities throughout workshop week and 00:05:00.071 --> 00:05:06.571 - in the survey. Really people were talking about how it's hard to cross the street and how it doesn't 00:05:06.571 --> 00:05:13.072 - feel very comfortable to walk or bike on Roger Street. So there's just another set of photos showing 00:05:13.072 --> 00:05:19.637 - you what that activity looked like and all the different places that we, we set this pop-up up around 00:05:19.637 --> 00:05:21.310 - town during the week. So, 00:05:21.666 --> 00:05:28.876 - During that same time frame, we also had the online survey. We got 106 respondents to the online survey 00:05:28.876 --> 00:05:36.155 - with a 73% completion rate and 57 map-based comments that people dropped in and said, this is my concern 00:05:36.155 --> 00:05:43.156 - specifically at this intersection or mid-block location. From the survey results, 74% of folks lived 00:05:43.156 --> 00:05:50.089 - along or near the corridor, 59% regularly visit destinations along the corridor, and 23% work along 00:05:50.089 --> 00:05:51.614 - or near the corridor. 00:05:53.154 --> 00:05:59.725 - And the vast majority of people travel on Roger Street daily. That's the second question I was asking 00:05:59.725 --> 00:06:06.297 - about. So these are people that know the corridor really well. We also asked, what modes of travel do 00:06:06.297 --> 00:06:13.254 - you use on Roger Street? And people were allowed to select multiple choices. So the top choice was driving, 00:06:13.254 --> 00:06:20.083 - 95% of people drive along Roger Street, followed by walking or rolling at 67%, and then biking, speeding, 00:06:20.083 --> 00:06:21.694 - or skateboarding at 53%. 00:06:22.274 --> 00:06:28.928 - And then it kind of goes down from there. We also asked what modes of travel would you prefer to use 00:06:28.928 --> 00:06:35.583 - on the corridor if you want to use a different mode. So 22% said, I prefer my typical travel method. 00:06:35.583 --> 00:06:42.172 - How I travel on Rogers is fine by me. But the next option up was 16% of people said that they would 00:06:42.172 --> 00:06:48.958 - like to bike, ride a scooter, or skateboard on Rogers Street. And then we also asked people what makes 00:06:48.958 --> 00:06:51.198 - it difficult to use the corridor. 00:06:51.426 --> 00:06:56.979 - I've highlighted the top five answers here, which kind of is starting to build this theme of what we've 00:06:56.979 --> 00:07:02.691 - been hearing from the public. So poor driver behavior, speeding, people have concerns about people driving 00:07:02.691 --> 00:07:08.564 - too quickly on the corridor, unsafe intersections or crossing. So same thing we asked the pop-ups, difficulty 00:07:08.564 --> 00:07:14.170 - crossing the street. It's uncomfortable to walk or bike on the street. And there's a lack of bike lanes, 00:07:14.170 --> 00:07:17.854 - paths or trails along the street. So people are really feeling like, 00:07:18.818 --> 00:07:24.550 - The speeds are too high. It doesn't feel comfortable to walk there. And it's hard to cross the street. 00:07:24.550 --> 00:07:30.337 - Kind of the main things we kept hearing. We also asked people, do you feel safe and comfortable driving 00:07:30.337 --> 00:07:35.902 - on this corridor? Or do you feel safe and comfortable biking on this corridor? And we basically got 00:07:35.902 --> 00:07:41.578 - the exact opposite results. So people feel somewhat or very safe driving on the corridor. You can see 00:07:41.578 --> 00:07:47.254 - the vast majority of people in green there felt safe driving. But the vast majority of people that do 00:07:47.254 --> 00:07:48.478 - bike don't feel safe. 00:07:48.898 --> 00:07:55.186 - They feel very unsafe or somewhat unsafe biking along on the corridor, and very few people feel safe 00:07:55.186 --> 00:08:01.911 - and comfortable biking along the corridor. Which makes sense, there's not really great bicycling facilities 00:08:01.911 --> 00:08:08.137 - along the corridor. So we also asked when you're driving along this corridor, what's most important 00:08:08.137 --> 00:08:14.550 - to your comfort and safety? And the top results were people like smooth pavement, they like separation 00:08:14.550 --> 00:08:18.846 - between cars and people, so having separate space for people driving 00:08:19.010 --> 00:08:24.891 - biking and walking. People also said they wanted to reduce vehicle speeds or traffic calming, but that 00:08:24.891 --> 00:08:30.887 - would make them feel more comfortable driving, and then having sight lines free of obstruction. So those 00:08:30.887 --> 00:08:36.996 - are the top four things people said about driving. We also asked that same question about walking, biking, 00:08:36.996 --> 00:08:42.706 - or waiting for transit. And people said the top things that are most important to them are having a 00:08:42.706 --> 00:08:47.902 - buffer from traffic, so separation between either the bike lane or the sidewalk from cars. 00:08:48.578 --> 00:08:56.070 - having marked pedestrian crossings, some more places to cross, separated walking and biking paths, having 00:08:56.070 --> 00:09:03.279 - more street trees and shade and lighting at night. So it's really, a lot of what we heard was we want 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:10.560 - to reduce speeds, we want to have a more comfortable pedestrian environment and more opportunities and 00:09:10.560 --> 00:09:16.638 - places where we can cross the street safely. We also asked in the online survey about 00:09:17.346 --> 00:09:24.847 - specific locations. So we got 106 comments with different locations. And then for the in-person engagement, 00:09:24.847 --> 00:09:31.862 - we also allowed people to play sticky notes or pints on the map to tell us about specific locations. 00:09:31.862 --> 00:09:38.877 - So in both cases, the top intersection that was mentioned was the bypass. And most of those comments 00:09:38.877 --> 00:09:45.406 - brought people feeling unsafe crossing at the bypass, just in general, speeds being too high. 00:09:46.050 --> 00:09:52.033 - And then we kind of got slightly different results for the online survey and in-person engagement. But 00:09:52.033 --> 00:09:57.842 - we also heard about the Madison Street Bridge being uncomfortable to cross, walking and biking. The 00:09:57.842 --> 00:10:03.883 - B-line crossing, people had a lot of thoughts about how that could be improved. West 6th Street, people 00:10:03.883 --> 00:10:09.924 - wanted to see some improvements in that crossing. And then for the in-person engagement, we heard about 00:10:09.924 --> 00:10:15.326 - Gorley Pike, Howe Street, and Allen Street. Those were like the next three after the bypass. 00:10:16.226 --> 00:10:23.045 - So these were, yeah, we definitely heard about all those intersections throughout the week. And I think 00:10:23.045 --> 00:10:30.060 - we also heard from city staff about some of the issues they already knew about and some of these locations 00:10:30.060 --> 00:10:36.683 - as well. So each of those comments, we added themes to them, tagged them for what people were asking 00:10:36.683 --> 00:10:43.305 - about and saying. And the top two themes were pedestrian concerns, so missing, narrow, uncomfortable 00:10:43.305 --> 00:10:45.534 - sidewalks, and crossing concerns. 00:10:45.890 --> 00:10:52.347 - missing or uncomfortable existing pedestrian crossings. And those really made up the bulk of the comments, 00:10:52.347 --> 00:10:58.382 - but there were still plenty of comments on other topics going down from there. But I think overall, 00:10:58.382 --> 00:11:04.416 - just to summarize, what we heard from people is that the street works pretty well if you're driving 00:11:04.416 --> 00:11:10.873 - today, but it doesn't work particularly well if you're walking. And there's a lot of room for improvement, 00:11:10.873 --> 00:11:14.494 - both just to make the sidewalk environment more comfortable 00:11:14.722 --> 00:11:21.420 - And also just add more crossings so it feels safer to cross the street. So that's the high-level overview 00:11:21.420 --> 00:11:27.865 - of what we've been hearing from people about the corridor. I will briefly touch on design objectives. 00:11:27.865 --> 00:11:34.058 - I know we talked about this last time as well. But if you want to talk about this in more detail, 00:11:34.058 --> 00:11:40.503 - we can. But then I'll move to the third section, which will be showing you some of the initial design 00:11:40.503 --> 00:11:42.462 - concepts that we came up with. 00:11:43.810 --> 00:11:49.513 - So just as a reminder, we have eight different design objectives. There's four on this slide and four 00:11:49.513 --> 00:11:55.273 - on the next slide. And these are, starting with the first one, we want to reflect community values and 00:11:55.273 --> 00:12:00.864 - corridor identity in our design. We want to advance safety through proven street design. So we know 00:12:00.864 --> 00:12:06.568 - it's the safety first project. So that's really the guiding light is improving safety outcomes on the 00:12:06.568 --> 00:12:12.159 - street. We also want to create a context sensitive street that calms traffic. So understanding what 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:13.054 - the surrounding 00:12:13.442 --> 00:12:21.015 - land uses, neighborhood contacts, and making sure we're supporting those adjacent land uses. We want 00:12:21.015 --> 00:12:28.663 - to build a continuous multimodal corridor for all users, so not just for people driving, but also for 00:12:28.663 --> 00:12:36.537 - people walking, biking. We want to ensure universal accessibility and comfort along the corridor, making 00:12:36.537 --> 00:12:42.910 - sure that designs exceed, meter exceed, ADA PROAC standards. We also want to support 00:12:43.298 --> 00:12:49.061 - redevelopment and local economic vitality. So we know that there are some larger redevelopment sites 00:12:49.061 --> 00:12:54.824 - that are along the corridor, and we just want to ensure that our design takes those into account and 00:12:54.824 --> 00:13:00.701 - also supports existing local economic vitality along the corridor. And then we also want to strengthen 00:13:00.701 --> 00:13:06.464 - connections to key destinations in the city-wide network. So we want the street not to be a barrier, 00:13:06.464 --> 00:13:10.686 - but to feel more like it's part of the network, no matter how you travel. 00:13:11.426 --> 00:13:18.467 - And then the last design objective is to support safe routes to school. There's a number of schools 00:13:18.467 --> 00:13:25.578 - that are close to the corridor and at least one school that's right on the corridor. So we know that 00:13:25.578 --> 00:13:32.900 - our design has to support safe walking and biking to school for students. So those are our eight design 00:13:32.900 --> 00:13:40.222 - objectives. Last time we met, we asked you to weigh these design objectives. And the top two objectives 00:13:40.610 --> 00:13:46.921 - that you told us were advancing safety through proven street design and supporting safe process schools, 00:13:46.921 --> 00:13:53.293 - really focusing on that safety aspect of the project. And then that was followed by building a continuous 00:13:53.293 --> 00:13:59.423 - multi-molded corridor for all users. And I think that really aligns well with what we've been hearing 00:13:59.423 --> 00:14:05.494 - from the public as well. They feel like speeds are too fast on this street in certain locations, and 00:14:05.494 --> 00:14:09.822 - they want it to work better for everybody, not just for people driving. 00:14:14.018 --> 00:14:21.834 - So I'll move to our design concepts overview. So while we're in town for workshop week, we spent a couple 00:14:21.834 --> 00:14:29.577 - of days drawing up different sketches and concepts, both cross-sections and intersection design drawings 00:14:29.577 --> 00:14:37.541 - to reimagine what the corridor could look like. And we did this in tandem with city staff kind of iterating 00:14:37.541 --> 00:14:42.334 - as we went along. And this was just to generate initial concepts 00:14:42.978 --> 00:14:50.285 - our initial recommendations on how we could make improvements to the street. So there's really five 00:14:50.285 --> 00:14:58.031 - key things about the concept design here, five key elements. The first being we want to narrow the street 00:14:58.031 --> 00:15:05.411 - to a two-lane street wherever possible, where you don't need left turn lanes or medians to allow for 00:15:05.411 --> 00:15:10.526 - more space to have wider sidewalks with a larger buffer from traffic. 00:15:11.234 --> 00:15:16.670 - So that kind of covers the first two points. So there's some places where you need left-turn lanes, 00:15:16.670 --> 00:15:22.214 - and there's some places where it's nice to have mediums, especially if you want to have pedestrian or 00:15:22.214 --> 00:15:27.704 - bicyclist crossings there. But otherwise, it's nice to have a narrower street because you can add in 00:15:27.704 --> 00:15:33.139 - a tree plot between the sidewalk and the street and really create a nicer sidewalk environment than 00:15:33.139 --> 00:15:39.390 - exists today. There are a lot of places today where the sidewalk is narrow or right up against the street or both. 00:15:39.714 --> 00:15:46.556 - and it's pretty uncomfortable to walk in those positions, especially when you have a large truck coming 00:15:46.556 --> 00:15:53.134 - down the street at 40 miles an hour inches away from you. So that covers the first two elements. We 00:15:53.134 --> 00:15:59.713 - also think it's important to add a shared use path on the east side of the street from the existing 00:15:59.713 --> 00:16:06.291 - B line crossing north to the bypass. South of the B line crossing, the B line creates a pretty nice 00:16:06.291 --> 00:16:09.054 - parallel alternative route for bicycling. 00:16:09.410 --> 00:16:15.335 - But north of there, there isn't a bicycle facility because the trail doesn't continue. We observed a 00:16:15.335 --> 00:16:21.494 - lot of people biking on the corridor on Rogers. Madison Kinzer, as it changed his name, is moving north, 00:16:21.494 --> 00:16:27.477 - north of the beeline crossing. And it's not a particularly pleasant place to bike, and the speeds are 00:16:27.477 --> 00:16:33.343 - higher on that section of the street. So we think it's important to have a shared use path there to 00:16:33.343 --> 00:16:38.270 - have a separate space for people to bike, so they don't have to bike in the street. 00:16:40.162 --> 00:16:47.474 - And then the last two elements here are more about intersections. So where feasible, we think it's important 00:16:47.474 --> 00:16:54.249 - to add roundabouts to slow speeds and just have better intersection operations. And then also adding 00:16:54.249 --> 00:17:01.025 - median refuge islands at key pedestrian place with crossings. So together, that kind of makes up the 00:17:01.025 --> 00:17:08.069 - five key concept elements. And this is just another cross section that we drew up, typical cross section 00:17:08.069 --> 00:17:10.014 - that shows how that two lane 00:17:10.274 --> 00:17:17.211 - street could widen to a three-lane street where we want to have pedestrian, median, or out-of-reach 00:17:17.211 --> 00:17:23.802 - islands to cross the street. The same could also be done where we want to have left-term lanes 00:17:23.802 --> 00:17:30.739 - and intersections. So that's the high-level concepts. We have a lot of different drawings. I'm just 00:17:30.739 --> 00:17:37.815 - going to show you some key drawings at specific locations. This is a really large corridor with a lot 00:17:37.815 --> 00:17:39.966 - of intersections, so we didn't 00:17:40.354 --> 00:17:46.796 - draw up sketches for every single intersection, and we don't plan to. But we will recommend intersection 00:17:46.796 --> 00:17:52.993 - typologies for each intersection, where it makes sense to have some sort of change. And so we really 00:17:52.993 --> 00:17:59.435 - think there's three main typologies that we would apply. The first being a roundabout, if it's feasible, 00:17:59.435 --> 00:18:05.632 - if there's enough space. The second being reducing the size of a signalized intersection, so if it's 00:18:05.632 --> 00:18:08.638 - possible to remove dedicated turn lanes and just 00:18:08.898 --> 00:18:15.364 - make the intersection more compact, that'll shorten pedestrian crossings and helps everyone get through 00:18:15.364 --> 00:18:21.954 - the intersection more smoothly. And then, enhance pedestrian places, crossings where there's not a signal 00:18:21.954 --> 00:18:28.296 - or a roundabout. This really applies to greenway crossings or places where there's a clear pedestrian 00:18:28.296 --> 00:18:34.762 - crossing demand, especially because people told us there's not enough pedestrian crossings today. We're 00:18:34.762 --> 00:18:38.430 - looking to identify where do we need additional crossings. 00:18:38.530 --> 00:18:45.317 - So we have some pretty good information, some good data, and also good feedback from the public on where 00:18:45.317 --> 00:18:52.104 - those new crossings could be. So with that in mind, I'll go through some of the intersections that we've 00:18:52.104 --> 00:18:58.697 - sketched up here, moving from north to south. So these aren't any order of priority. It's just moving 00:18:58.697 --> 00:19:04.062 - from north to south. The first one that we drew up is a roundabout at Gorley Pike. 00:19:04.738 --> 00:19:11.591 - And this is what's known as a compact roundabout. So it's a single lane roundabout. And the intersection 00:19:11.591 --> 00:19:18.379 - circle is mountable for very large semi-trucks to turn across that circle. So people in passenger cars, 00:19:18.379 --> 00:19:24.906 - even the fire trucks, school bus, medium-sized trucks, they still all go around the circle like you 00:19:24.906 --> 00:19:31.432 - would a normal single lane roundabout. But because it's a really tight intersection, we have to use 00:19:31.432 --> 00:19:32.542 - a smaller circle 00:19:32.898 --> 00:19:39.586 - for the roundabout, which means it needs to be mountable whenever a large semi truck comes through there. 00:19:39.586 --> 00:19:46.210 - So some of the benefits of this are speed reduction, close to the bypass. There's an existing pedestrian 00:19:46.210 --> 00:19:52.835 - crossing here. A lot of what we heard though is that people don't yield to pedestrians in this crosswalk 00:19:52.835 --> 00:19:59.396 - because they're either rushing to get to the bypass or coming off the bypass, going quite fast and they 00:19:59.396 --> 00:20:02.046 - just don't yield or stop for pedestrians. 00:20:02.306 --> 00:20:09.735 - crossing here. So having a compact roundabout means everybody has to slow down to traverse the roundabout. 00:20:09.735 --> 00:20:16.747 - They have to slow down to, generally speaking, 15 miles an hour to go through the roundabout instead 00:20:16.747 --> 00:20:23.967 - of whatever. They are going 40, 45 miles an hour today past that pedestrian crossing. So we really like 00:20:23.967 --> 00:20:30.910 - this concept. We don't know that it will fit in that many other places. This is actually one of the 00:20:31.458 --> 00:20:38.767 - minor intersections that has a little bit more space than right away to fit a compact roundabout. But 00:20:38.767 --> 00:20:46.076 - this was just one idea to get started, kind of creating a gateway as you come in and out of town from 00:20:46.076 --> 00:20:53.672 - the north. The second intersection we sketch up concepts for is at 14th and 15th Street. So in the city's 00:20:53.672 --> 00:21:00.766 - transportation plan, this is a planned greenway. So we would expect more people walking and biking 00:21:01.090 --> 00:21:08.797 - to cross at this area. The concept that we've come up with is adding a new pedestrian bicycle crossing 00:21:08.797 --> 00:21:16.354 - at 15th Street and then having a shared use path on the east side of the street. You can kind of see 00:21:16.354 --> 00:21:23.986 - that like in tan, khaki color here. And then folks would continue onto 14th Street over here. So this 00:21:23.986 --> 00:21:29.598 - is often called a offset intersection crossing. We've also added a raised, 00:21:29.826 --> 00:21:36.524 - crosswalk at 15th Street for the pedestrian crossing to, again, have another traffic calming feature 00:21:36.524 --> 00:21:43.222 - and increase the likelihood that someone would stop or yield to a pedestrian crossing there. It also 00:21:43.222 --> 00:21:50.385 - just helps with, you know, having pulses of traffic calming as you move throughout the corridor, especially 00:21:50.385 --> 00:21:57.017 - because there's no signal or stop between 11th and 17th in a stretch. So, and there's no crossings. 00:21:57.017 --> 00:21:58.078 - This adds a new 00:21:58.978 --> 00:22:06.439 - pedestrian and bicyclist crossing opportunity here at 15. The next intersection we discussed the concept 00:22:06.439 --> 00:22:13.900 - for is 6th Street. And this is very similar to the existing crossing that's at Allen Street on the south 00:22:13.900 --> 00:22:21.077 - end of the corridor where there's a greenway crossing. So the idea here is that you could still keep 00:22:21.077 --> 00:22:28.894 - a three-lane cross section with a median refuge island with bicycle cut-throughs and pedestrian cut-throughs. 00:22:29.570 --> 00:22:36.034 - And the idea being that it makes that crossing as a pedestrian by supposed to feel a lot safer, you 00:22:36.034 --> 00:22:42.626 - can do it in two stages. And it also would help with traffic calming. One of the things we heard from 00:22:42.626 --> 00:22:49.090 - a couple of people is that in this stretch, southbound traffic on Roger Street, because the lane is 00:22:49.090 --> 00:22:55.683 - so wide, sometimes it gets used as two lanes. So people will be backed up in one lane and people kind 00:22:55.683 --> 00:22:58.462 - of fly by in the other lane and it creates 00:22:58.978 --> 00:23:07.750 - dangerous situation for pedestrian crossings in this location. The next area we sketched up is the really 00:23:07.750 --> 00:23:16.439 - like third to Kirkwood stretch. And our initial concept idea for this is to have a brick curbless street 00:23:16.439 --> 00:23:24.797 - in this area. So it'd be a much higher level of urban design type treatment in this section. And our 00:23:24.797 --> 00:23:28.190 - thinking for that is that this is really 00:23:28.514 --> 00:23:37.893 - a parallel section to downtown. It feels the most downtown of any of the stretches of Roger Street. 00:23:37.893 --> 00:23:47.741 - And so really upgrading that section and making it have a much more downtown feel by creating a curbless 00:23:47.741 --> 00:23:57.214 - street environment could really support that downtown feel and potential redevelopment in that area. 00:23:57.410 --> 00:24:03.636 - brick in this area and have it be curbless, it does a couple of different things. The brick helps with 00:24:03.636 --> 00:24:09.801 - some of the natural traffic calming. People tend to slow down when they're on brick streets. It makes 00:24:09.801 --> 00:24:15.845 - it feel just like a higher aesthetic design, like it's more of a downtown space. And then having it 00:24:15.845 --> 00:24:21.950 - be curbless also helps with flexibility of the street and accessibility. If you wanted to close down 00:24:21.950 --> 00:24:26.846 - a section of it, like for a street festival, for instance, then there's no curb. 00:24:27.042 --> 00:24:33.877 - in that area, so it can be used as more of like a street plaza for those types of events. So it helps 00:24:33.877 --> 00:24:40.846 - with that flexibility. And then from an accessibility perspective, if somebody has mobility challenges, 00:24:40.846 --> 00:24:47.681 - if the whole street is curbless, for one, all of the parking spaces become accessible because there's 00:24:47.681 --> 00:24:54.650 - no curb. So people can get in and out with wheelchairs to any of those parking spaces. And also, again, 00:24:54.650 --> 00:24:55.454 - if it were, 00:24:55.746 --> 00:25:02.120 - you know, closed down for a street festival. Then you don't have to go to curb ramps at a corner. If 00:25:02.120 --> 00:25:08.684 - you're in a wheelchair mobility device, the whole street becomes accessible because it's flush. So this 00:25:08.684 --> 00:25:15.185 - is one area that I think we looked at with like a higher, there could be like a higher level of design 00:25:15.185 --> 00:25:21.874 - treatment. We haven't figured out all the details of that, but we just really thought of all the sections 00:25:21.874 --> 00:25:25.598 - of the corridor, this one felt like most downtown section. 00:25:26.498 --> 00:25:34.851 - could potentially have this kind of higher treatment in this section. As part of the projects, we're 00:25:34.851 --> 00:25:43.121 - also looking at this portion of Third Street from Rogers to College. And looking at initial traffic 00:25:43.121 --> 00:25:51.474 - volume and operational analysis, the street has excess capacity. Right now, being a four-lane street 00:25:51.474 --> 00:25:55.774 - in this section, the traffic volumes are quite low. 00:25:56.322 --> 00:26:04.288 - and could easily be serviced by a two-lane street with a left turn lane at Riders. So we started drawing 00:26:04.288 --> 00:26:12.178 - up different concepts for this section, but the main concept is to repurpose the outside lanes on Third 00:26:12.178 --> 00:26:19.917 - Street in this section to either widen the sidewalks, potentially add a bicycle facility, potentially 00:26:19.917 --> 00:26:23.710 - add landscaping space and tree lawn in that area. 00:26:24.546 --> 00:26:29.992 - which could help with a lot of different things. It could help make the intersections smaller, 00:26:29.992 --> 00:26:35.954 - more compact, and shorten those pedestrian crossings, calm traffic in that area, slow it down, but also 00:26:35.954 --> 00:26:41.916 - just create a better walking environment. It's a pretty unpleasant walking environment along 3rd Street 00:26:41.916 --> 00:26:47.877 - in this section right now because the sidewalk is right up against the outside lane of traffic and it's 00:26:47.877 --> 00:26:53.438 - very narrow. So we're still thinking about different concepts for this one, but kind of the base 00:26:53.698 --> 00:27:00.878 - level concept is to repurpose those outside lanes to make the pedestrian environment better. And then 00:27:00.878 --> 00:27:08.128 - the last concept that we sketched up is a single-lane roundabout at Patterson. Patterson is one of the 00:27:08.128 --> 00:27:15.237 - intersections that has the most space of any of the intersections along the corridor. It has quite a 00:27:15.237 --> 00:27:22.910 - bit of right of way. And so a single-lane roundabout could be a great solution here for both traffic calming 00:27:23.138 --> 00:27:30.280 - and traffic operations. So we know, I think in this section, speeds again increase a little bit as you're 00:27:30.280 --> 00:27:37.085 - leaving that more downtown area. I think one of the kind of the 85th percentile speed is 38 miles an 00:27:37.085 --> 00:27:43.823 - hour down in this section. So speeds start to get a little bit higher. The speed limit is 30. So we 00:27:43.823 --> 00:27:50.898 - really want people to be going 30 or even lower than that speed for it to be a more pleasant environment 00:27:50.898 --> 00:27:51.774 - for walking. 00:27:52.482 --> 00:27:59.036 - And so our initial concept idea is a single-lane roundabout here to slow down vehicles passing through 00:27:59.036 --> 00:28:05.590 - this area, facilitate those better pedestrian crossings. It shortens all the pedestrian crossings, but 00:28:05.590 --> 00:28:11.954 - it makes all the pedestrian crossings two-stage. So you only ever have to cross one lane of traffic 00:28:11.954 --> 00:28:18.508 - because you have those median islands and all the approaches. So that just makes those crossings a lot 00:28:18.508 --> 00:28:20.926 - more comfortable than having to cross 00:28:21.602 --> 00:28:28.627 - three or four lanes of traffic like you do today, which is a much longer crossing. So we need to look 00:28:28.627 --> 00:28:35.513 - into it in a little more detail. There likely aren't other locations that a traditional single-lane 00:28:35.513 --> 00:28:42.538 - roundabout like this will fit in any of the intersections along the corridor, but this one seems like 00:28:42.538 --> 00:28:49.425 - a good candidate that could potentially be a single-lane roundabout. So all those concepts are just 00:28:49.425 --> 00:28:51.422 - to kind of show you a flavor 00:28:51.618 --> 00:28:58.615 - ideas that we came up with, kind of where our thinking is headed. The idea is that they're intended 00:28:58.615 --> 00:29:05.892 - to be both examples of how that intersection could be reconfigured, but also an example of the typology 00:29:05.892 --> 00:29:12.890 - that we would apply to other places where we're not doing an intersection design, but someone could 00:29:12.890 --> 00:29:17.438 - think about that in the future as a future phase of the project. 00:29:21.410 --> 00:29:27.859 - So I'm happy to go back to any slides anywhere in this presentation, but I'll just really quickly go 00:29:27.859 --> 00:29:34.435 - over next steps, then we can jump into discussion. So for us, for the next two, three months, our next 00:29:34.435 --> 00:29:41.012 - steps as a team is to finalize concept design, put together a final report, and then really finish the 00:29:41.012 --> 00:29:47.780 - study sometime in August. So like Hank said, I think we're looking for feedback on this design direction. 00:29:47.780 --> 00:29:50.334 - If we're headed in the right direction, 00:29:51.362 --> 00:29:59.756 - specific intersections that you think are important for the team to look at, and also just initial reactions 00:29:59.756 --> 00:30:07.612 - to these designs. Does that cover it, Hank? Yeah, you got it. So I'm happy to jump back to any of the 00:30:07.612 --> 00:30:15.698 - design slides for discussion. Thank you for that presentation. At this time, we will move it to comments 00:30:15.698 --> 00:30:19.934 - from commissioners' feedback on this design direction. 00:30:20.770 --> 00:30:28.307 - So I have a question on 7th Street. What's the lane width there when it was redesigned? 10 feet wide. 00:30:28.307 --> 00:30:35.696 - Okay. So this would be a one foot wider, the 11 foot? Yeah. That was one of the learning lessons of 00:30:35.696 --> 00:30:43.232 - that project is that for transit vehicles on transit routes, for them to fit side by side, 11 feet is 00:30:43.232 --> 00:30:47.518 - the minimum. And that's still tight, but it's manageable. 00:30:49.250 --> 00:30:56.672 - And the new street behind the Blooming Foods? Do you know if that's 10 feet? The new street behind the 00:30:56.672 --> 00:31:04.023 - Blooming Foods. Blooming Foods East has a narrow street. I'm actually not aware of the lane widths on 00:31:04.023 --> 00:31:11.445 - that street, I'm sorry. That's fine. It seemed less than 11. Yeah? Yeah. I will check on that for you. 00:31:11.445 --> 00:31:12.382 - That's fine. 00:31:15.234 --> 00:31:22.267 - Yeah, some questions as well high-level process standpoint as far as next steps. So this gets studies 00:31:22.267 --> 00:31:29.368 - finalized by August What are the final steps both for this body and for the city as a whole? Like yeah 00:31:29.368 --> 00:31:36.332 - to wrap up the process. So this will eventually go through a formal Transportation Commission review 00:31:36.332 --> 00:31:37.918 - and potential approval 00:31:39.490 --> 00:31:45.975 - Long-term, and so this study will incorporate the long-term vision of what we would like this quarter 00:31:45.975 --> 00:31:52.461 - to look like in the next 10 to 15 years or so. It will also incorporate short-term improvements based 00:31:52.461 --> 00:31:59.010 - on that vision that we could accomplish within the next one to three years. In terms of next steps and 00:31:59.010 --> 00:32:05.368 - broader city goals related to the transportation plan, city staff is currently going through a more 00:32:05.368 --> 00:32:09.310 - comprehensive review and revision of the transportation plan. 00:32:09.442 --> 00:32:15.074 - And we understand that what comes out of this study in the long-term vision may and probably won't align 00:32:15.074 --> 00:32:20.491 - directly with what is in the current transportation plan. That will be a part of that revision. That 00:32:20.491 --> 00:32:25.962 - will go through the necessary processes to have the transportation plan be revised to fit this study. 00:32:25.962 --> 00:32:31.379 - Okay. Thank you. And so as far as like adoption, so to speak, that's with transportation commission, 00:32:31.379 --> 00:32:35.134 - staff. Will this get presented to the city council at any fashion or? 00:32:36.290 --> 00:32:43.142 - Within the scope of the comprehensive transportation plan review, this would be included. In terms of 00:32:43.142 --> 00:32:50.061 - a separate presentation, we weren't planning on that. That's totally fine. I just check in. I had some 00:32:50.061 --> 00:32:56.308 - other questions, but I'll wait until others. I just have one. Thank you very much, Drew, for 00:32:56.308 --> 00:33:03.496 - your presentation and your work on this project so far. I would be interested in hearing any consideration 00:33:03.496 --> 00:33:05.310 - or thoughts you have about 00:33:05.474 --> 00:33:13.633 - the second street and Rogers intersection for, I guess, a couple of reasons. One, it wasn't mentioned 00:33:13.633 --> 00:33:21.712 - as kind of one of the case studies here or examples. But in spite of the fact that that intersection 00:33:21.712 --> 00:33:30.031 - probably doesn't experience a whole lot of pedestrian traffic currently, as hopefully we all know, it's 00:33:30.031 --> 00:33:35.390 - going to be proximate to the Hopewell neighborhood. And so I would 00:33:35.522 --> 00:33:44.711 - I expect that in the future that intersection is going to become a lot more busy with foot traffic and 00:33:44.711 --> 00:33:54.168 - others. Obviously I'm aware too of there's kind of related city projects like Second Street and so forth. 00:33:54.168 --> 00:34:01.662 - But I was just kind of wondering if there were any conclusions that the consultants 00:34:01.986 --> 00:34:07.702 - developed about that particular intersection in light of the fact that There's also related projects 00:34:07.702 --> 00:34:13.474 - and then and then hope well being developed Drew would you like to take this one or do you want me to 00:34:13.474 --> 00:34:19.303 - take it first? I take crack at any good. All right, you know, it sounds good add to it so I think when 00:34:19.303 --> 00:34:25.075 - we were there during workshop week our direction from city staff was that they already have a project 00:34:25.075 --> 00:34:29.150 - going on that intersection and there's a I believe already a design and 00:34:29.698 --> 00:34:35.145 - potentially like there's another consultant working on the science of that intersection. So it wasn't 00:34:35.145 --> 00:34:40.539 - one that we looked at in detail. We did, you know, walk through the intersection, look at it, but we 00:34:40.539 --> 00:34:46.307 - didn't drop any concepts. But yeah, I don't know. Hank, do you want to say more about that? That's honestly 00:34:46.307 --> 00:34:51.648 - pretty much it because the Second Street project is in progress. It's been a project that's been on 00:34:51.648 --> 00:34:57.095 - the radar for years now and it's set to be constructed within the next few weeks or months this year. 00:34:57.095 --> 00:34:58.430 - This study is looking at 00:34:58.594 --> 00:35:06.623 - you know, 10 years into the future here. Quite honestly, the city most likely won't prioritize another 00:35:06.623 --> 00:35:14.496 - full re full intersection rebuild within that time frame since it's getting rebuilt this year. Okay. 00:35:14.496 --> 00:35:22.603 - I have a question about funding. Are we this process to build the design the ideal street and have that 00:35:22.603 --> 00:35:27.358 - on the shelf and when funding comes along, we build it? Yes. 00:35:27.714 --> 00:35:34.850 - Yes. Okay. Um, we, again, we understand that there are funding constraints all over the place right 00:35:34.850 --> 00:35:42.129 - now. So that's why one of the main focuses of the study is not to just look at the, look at the dream 00:35:42.129 --> 00:35:49.408 - street we could build. It's to also focus on the short-term improvements that we can do, even if it's 00:35:49.408 --> 00:35:54.974 - not in concrete. We have last year rewarded about $1.8 million from USDOT for 00:35:55.138 --> 00:36:02.138 - planning and demonstration projects around the city. A lot of that can go towards a project like this, 00:36:02.138 --> 00:36:09.614 - but in terms of quick build and temporary material, not necessarily curb line concrete changes. Additionally, 00:36:09.614 --> 00:36:16.614 - we are looking for other funding opportunities as well. Just last month, the city applied for the 2026 00:36:16.614 --> 00:36:23.614 - Safe Streets for All implementation grant and asked for about $12 million towards a project like this, 00:36:23.938 --> 00:36:30.739 - to incorporate street scape changes. So we understand that we will not be able to fund this project 00:36:30.739 --> 00:36:37.676 - all at once. We are looking for funding. And if we don't have it, then there are short-term iterative 00:36:37.676 --> 00:36:44.477 - steps that we can take to improve it. Thank you. Mr. Flaherty? Yeah. So the scope of the study goes 00:36:44.477 --> 00:36:51.414 - from basically the bypass to country club. Yeah. I'm curious, maybe two questions there. One is just, 00:36:51.414 --> 00:36:53.726 - is the bypass intersection itself 00:36:54.114 --> 00:36:59.090 - Included or no, because it's state DOT owned and operated, at least one component of it. And then the 00:36:59.090 --> 00:37:04.115 - second part was just everything south of Paterson, all of it in a country club, which was a pretty big 00:37:04.115 --> 00:37:08.896 - stretch. We didn't talk about it all in the recommendations. Obviously, it'll be included in the, 00:37:08.896 --> 00:37:13.775 - you know, what comes next. But just if there's anything of note in that stretch that you all wanted 00:37:13.775 --> 00:37:18.751 - to share. Sure. I'll start with the bypass. That is obviously a hotspot that we all know about it. We 00:37:18.751 --> 00:37:22.654 - hear it from stakeholders. We hear it from you all. We hear it from the public. 00:37:22.786 --> 00:37:30.839 - One of the strolls that we took the public on actually went up to the bypass, more so just to show what 00:37:30.839 --> 00:37:39.279 - the current situation is. We know it's not great, but as you said, this is an in-dot controlled intersection 00:37:39.279 --> 00:37:47.720 - and the city is limited in what we can do. Honestly, with this particular project, that was a key discussion 00:37:47.720 --> 00:37:50.430 - point of how much time do we spend 00:37:50.722 --> 00:37:56.659 - designing the city's preferred intersection when we know that we're at the mercy of NDOT in terms of 00:37:56.659 --> 00:38:02.184 - what actually happens. And so that's why we didn't talk about it much tonight. We're focusing 00:38:02.184 --> 00:38:08.297 - on intersections that we as a city can control and we can improve. That said, I have been in talks with 00:38:08.297 --> 00:38:14.411 - NDOT about what's happening in the near and long-term future of that intersection because I hear things 00:38:14.411 --> 00:38:18.878 - from the public, they need to hear those same things. And so they are aware 00:38:19.042 --> 00:38:25.700 - That intersection was actually identified as, I'm going to get the terminology messed up, but as one 00:38:25.700 --> 00:38:32.293 - of the higher risk intersections around the state. And so they are taking an extra look at it later 00:38:32.293 --> 00:38:38.886 - this year to do their own study of sorts on it to figure out what they would like to see long term. 00:38:38.886 --> 00:38:45.610 - I don't know exactly what that entails, but I'm hopeful that with collaboration between NDOT planning 00:38:45.610 --> 00:38:47.390 - and engineering staff that 00:38:47.650 --> 00:38:53.650 - we can communicate to them what we're hearing and what we as a city would prefer to have in there. Great. 00:38:53.650 --> 00:38:59.594 - That might also be a place where even just mayoral or council engagement with like the governor's office 00:38:59.594 --> 00:39:05.254 - or others that could be helpful. Maybe like, hey, like this is a, you know, need some support here. 00:39:05.254 --> 00:39:11.198 - Yeah. Okay. In terms of your other question about other sites along the corridor that we didn't discuss, 00:39:11.362 --> 00:39:17.578 - Was there anything in particular you wanted me to touch on? No, just if there was anything of note, 00:39:17.578 --> 00:39:23.919 - yeah. Since it was a big swap that we didn't really talk about. We also, and again, the sketches that 00:39:23.919 --> 00:39:30.197 - Drew showed were just examples of what we could do at potential locations. We either have or plan on 00:39:30.197 --> 00:39:36.724 - designing in more detail the Country Club and Rogers intersection, the Rockport and Rogers intersection. 00:39:36.724 --> 00:39:39.646 - Those are the two main ones on the south side. 00:39:39.778 --> 00:39:47.346 - but also looking at the intersections of Graham and Ralston and Duncan and Cherokee and Chambers. Those 00:39:47.346 --> 00:39:54.695 - are all uncontrolled intersections that either have a direct or indirect connection to the B line, a 00:39:54.695 --> 00:40:02.554 - connection to Switchyard Park. And so there are, right now the Switchyard Park entrance is getting revamped 00:40:02.554 --> 00:40:09.758 - and improved for pedestrian crossings, but there are areas along that stretch of the corridor that 00:40:10.498 --> 00:40:17.812 - you don't have a legal crosswalk within a lot of feet from where you want to go, let's improve that. 00:40:17.812 --> 00:40:25.127 - Because we know that folks in the Broadview neighborhood want to get around. They want to get to the 00:40:25.127 --> 00:40:31.862 - B line. That's a key feature for them. Let's help them get there more easily. OK. Thank you. 00:40:31.862 --> 00:40:40.190 - Other commissioner comments? Oh, yeah. Please go ahead. I had a question about the proposed brick curbless section 00:40:40.802 --> 00:40:51.372 - between fourth and fifth. And as a wheelchair user, I am all for a curbless street. Also as a wheelchair 00:40:51.372 --> 00:41:01.539 - user, I encounter brick, a lot of brick sidewalks that just don't hold up. Do brick streets fare any 00:41:01.539 --> 00:41:05.566 - better? I mean, really old ones do, but 00:41:07.842 --> 00:41:13.817 - You know what I mean? Like Drew, you may know better than I do. Yeah. There's some of the tools I'm, 00:41:13.817 --> 00:41:19.852 - who has a lot more experience with brick than I do. So I don't know as much about it, but he has told 00:41:19.852 --> 00:41:25.945 - me a lot of it has to do with like subgrade and how they're built and the pattern of the brick laying. 00:41:25.945 --> 00:41:31.802 - And so some of the ones that you see that are older were built at a time when that was done right, 00:41:31.802 --> 00:41:36.062 - I guess. And yeah, some examples are, don't have as good of a subgrade. 00:41:36.482 --> 00:41:42.997 - or yeah, the pattern is not the right pattern for how vehicles track and move across them, and then 00:41:42.997 --> 00:41:49.968 - it knocks out bricks, and then that starts a chain reaction. But to your point, I think what's not obvious 00:41:49.968 --> 00:41:56.548 - in this drawing is that the sidewalks here are shown in concrete because we understand that brick is 00:41:56.548 --> 00:42:03.193 - not a good sidewalk surface, so it's more for the roadway bed. But I think what I'll also say is that 00:42:03.193 --> 00:42:05.278 - this is more of just an example 00:42:06.114 --> 00:42:12.152 - having a different design aesthetic treatment. So it doesn't necessarily have to be brick. 00:42:12.152 --> 00:42:18.787 - Brick is nice, but it could be some other type of material, or I guess potentially a different type 00:42:18.787 --> 00:42:25.554 - of paver. It also doesn't have to be brick. It was more just to illustrate this is that more downtown 00:42:25.554 --> 00:42:32.322 - environment, so something different. So people realize the space is different, and it's downtown, not 00:42:32.322 --> 00:42:35.838 - like a through street. Yeah, and I really appreciate 00:42:36.258 --> 00:42:44.311 - thinking about something like this, especially in light of our conversation that we're going to have 00:42:44.311 --> 00:42:52.603 - next about Kirkwood, and what would make a portion of a street really ideal for closing off for events. 00:42:52.603 --> 00:43:00.576 - And brick is nice, but curbless is even nicer. So thanks for adding that. Thanks for that question. 00:43:00.576 --> 00:43:05.918 - I think I just had one more question, which is about Country Club. 00:43:06.306 --> 00:43:14.326 - Since that's at the border of the city limits, how much, I guess, control does the city have of that 00:43:14.326 --> 00:43:22.425 - intersection versus the county? Would that involve a partnership with the county to, like, let's say, 00:43:22.425 --> 00:43:30.762 - for example, let's say there was a determination or a desire to construct a roundabout there, that would 00:43:30.762 --> 00:43:32.350 - necessarily involve 00:43:33.058 --> 00:43:39.574 - You can't build half a roundabout on the intersection. You could widen the sidewalks on half the intersection 00:43:39.574 --> 00:43:45.556 - or remove a turn lane on one part of the intersection, but what kinds of conversations, if any, have 00:43:45.556 --> 00:43:51.598 - you already had with the county about it? We haven't talked to the county about that intersection. We 00:43:51.598 --> 00:43:57.522 - have talked to them about the Madison Street Bridge and what we could do there, and those have been 00:43:57.522 --> 00:44:02.142 - very productive. I'm excited about that. That's good. As far as Country Club, 00:44:02.850 --> 00:44:09.093 - Honestly, we haven't gotten that far in terms of where exactly does right of way and where does the 00:44:09.093 --> 00:44:15.523 - county begin. It is a city control intersection. That said with almost any, I don't want to say almost 00:44:15.523 --> 00:44:21.891 - any, but with most roundabout constructions, there will be some right of way acquisition just because 00:44:21.891 --> 00:44:28.384 - roundabouts are big. And so I imagine not even just with the county, but with adjacent property owners, 00:44:28.384 --> 00:44:31.006 - there would need to be those discussions. 00:44:34.434 --> 00:44:41.218 - to come back to the bridge, the bypassing Kinzer intersection. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard that Indot has 00:44:41.218 --> 00:44:47.935 - plans to replace the bridge that ends on Gurley Pike in the next few years. And I've spent a lot of 00:44:47.935 --> 00:44:54.652 - time thinking about that intersection. I've gone over it on foot, on bike. It's sort of a bridge to 00:44:54.652 --> 00:45:01.973 - nowhere project now. Gurley is busy. And there are long-term transportation plans to go through to Arlington 00:45:01.973 --> 00:45:02.846 - Mobile Park. 00:45:03.682 --> 00:45:09.908 - So this seems, I feel like one of the best opportunities there is to move the bridge as long as you're 00:45:09.908 --> 00:45:16.073 - going to take it down. The best place to put it is at Kinzer in the bypass. I'm a high school parent. 00:45:16.073 --> 00:45:22.419 - I've gone through that intersection a lot on bike and on foot. Not only is it a high crash intersection, 00:45:22.419 --> 00:45:28.524 - but I've seen a lot of people using it. And I feel like there's no better time than what we're doing 00:45:28.524 --> 00:45:30.398 - now with this corridor to say, 00:45:30.722 --> 00:45:36.869 - look, we're working really hard to make this a pedestrian friendly corridor. There's a high 00:45:36.869 --> 00:45:43.684 - crash intersection. It feels like a great opportunity to propose putting the bridge there. Can I just 00:45:43.684 --> 00:45:50.699 - pile onto that slightly, which is that we explored with relative depth converting cascades into at least 00:45:50.699 --> 00:45:57.580 - partial or all of a multi-use path to be the route that got to the high school. And that's sort of run 00:45:57.580 --> 00:45:59.518 - its course and not happened. 00:45:59.938 --> 00:46:05.526 - And Kinzer is also really well suited to that, the east side of Kinzer, because there are less hills 00:46:05.526 --> 00:46:11.170 - and very few drive cuts. We've already talked about recommending an east side of the street multi-use 00:46:11.170 --> 00:46:16.869 - path all the way up to the bypass. Yes, and also as a high school parent, I have tried every different 00:46:16.869 --> 00:46:18.142 - way to bike to school. 00:46:18.370 --> 00:46:23.950 - And the problem with the Cascades is the big hill. And Kinzer is a flatter route. And you're going to 00:46:23.950 --> 00:46:29.421 - be late for school. You're going to want to get there at the last minute, right? So you're going to 00:46:29.421 --> 00:46:35.057 - take the fastest, shortest route. So that route needs to be safest. And for all those reasons, I think 00:46:35.057 --> 00:46:40.528 - if we can pile on to proposing that we would like a bridge to be at that intersection for almost no 00:46:40.528 --> 00:46:47.038 - cost if they're going to tear it down and rebuild it. OK. I can tell you a little bit about what discussions have been 00:46:47.170 --> 00:46:54.708 - And then what we are thinking for next steps here so in talks with in dot They so there are feasibility 00:46:54.708 --> 00:47:02.029 - concerns on their end of moving the bridge too far east just because of the of the Topography of the 00:47:02.029 --> 00:47:09.640 - land on either side of the bypass and how they're going to do it Relatively inexpensively they are going 00:47:09.640 --> 00:47:14.206 - to move the bridge over a certain amount of feet. It's hard to 00:47:14.562 --> 00:47:21.640 - talk about without visualizing it, but Gorley Pike west of Kinzer travels west and then there's a little 00:47:21.640 --> 00:47:28.448 - jog in it where it goes north and then west again. And then the bridge is further west of that. What 00:47:28.448 --> 00:47:35.391 - NDOT is proposing as kind of a compromise is they will move the bridge over from where it is currently 00:47:35.391 --> 00:47:42.267 - over to that jog in Gorley Pike. So it's not exactly what we would like as a city, but that's I think 00:47:42.267 --> 00:47:44.222 - the best we're going to get. 00:47:44.354 --> 00:47:50.841 - We are going to continue to try, but I think we've hit a wall on that one. In terms of a grade-separated 00:47:50.841 --> 00:47:57.452 - crossing at Kinser and the Bypass, because that's what we're talking about. Whether it's a tunnel, whether 00:47:57.452 --> 00:48:04.001 - it's a bridge, we would like something that is a grade-separated for vulnerable road users to get around, 00:48:04.001 --> 00:48:10.179 - under, or over the bypass, right? Because that is right now about a 110-foot crossing across about, 00:48:10.179 --> 00:48:13.886 - how many, about eight lanes of traffic or so? That's a lot. 00:48:13.986 --> 00:48:22.587 - And so as part of this past Safe Streets for All implementation grant, one of the projects that we applied 00:48:22.587 --> 00:48:31.027 - for was a multi-use path from Gorley and Kinzer that travels down to Gorley to Old 37, under the bypass, 00:48:31.027 --> 00:48:39.306 - and then up west, north of the bypass on NDOT right of way up to Kinzer. And NDOT has sent in a letter 00:48:39.306 --> 00:48:40.190 - of support 00:48:40.290 --> 00:48:46.989 - We would be using the right-of-way and there would obviously need to be some permitting and agreements 00:48:46.989 --> 00:48:53.688 - there But they are largely supportive of that project and right now That seems to be the most feasible 00:48:53.688 --> 00:49:00.582 - way to create a great separated crossing at that intersection You said take just to clarify taking Corley 00:49:00.582 --> 00:49:06.110 - down to old 37. So not at the intersection exactly but the closest thing to it. Yeah 00:49:06.658 --> 00:49:13.390 - Got it. And for INDOT, is it primarily cost-constraint-driven, this idea of moving it just slightly 00:49:13.390 --> 00:49:20.257 - to the Corley Bike Jog versus to the Kinzer intersection itself? And I wonder if a match could change 00:49:20.257 --> 00:49:27.125 - that conversation as well. Their constraint has been feasibility. That said, feasibility and costs go 00:49:27.125 --> 00:49:33.924 - hand-in-hand. I mean, anything can be feasible if you have the money to do it. But this is something 00:49:33.924 --> 00:49:35.742 - that honestly has not been 00:49:36.674 --> 00:49:43.201 - It, matching a cost to repair this bridge has not been on the city's radar because we already have so 00:49:43.201 --> 00:49:49.664 - many projects that we would like to construct. I'm not sure if it would be a priority for us, but it 00:49:49.664 --> 00:49:56.191 - hasn't been a real conversation yet. Okay. Yeah, it is special with the grocery store on one side and 00:49:56.191 --> 00:50:02.782 - like a lot of housing on the other. Right. When I've seen people going across, they're just doing what 00:50:02.782 --> 00:50:05.086 - they need to do to feed themselves. 00:50:07.682 --> 00:50:14.859 - On that note, when we were out, walk at that intersection. So I would assume part of it is just topographical 00:50:14.859 --> 00:50:21.449 - feasibility because where it is today, you know, Gorley Pike is above the bypass and the bridge goes 00:50:21.449 --> 00:50:28.234 - over. But at Kinzer Pike, it's like the area around the street is depressed and there's like a drainage 00:50:28.234 --> 00:50:34.302 - ditch area. So when we were out there, we were thinking, oh, underpass would be easier here. 00:50:34.722 --> 00:50:43.538 - Obviously, that's way more extensive and complicated. So my guess would be it has more to do with grades 00:50:43.538 --> 00:50:52.103 - and the ability to ramp up to a bridge at a gentle slope, a 2% slope, would be really difficult. That 00:50:52.103 --> 00:51:01.255 - was my guess. Yeah. Drew, I have a question for you on capacity. Anticipating some people who are interested 00:51:01.255 --> 00:51:04.446 - in driving will be interested to know 00:51:05.026 --> 00:51:13.191 - How do these designs anticipate changing capacity? I understand the roundabouts may improve flow for 00:51:13.191 --> 00:51:21.517 - cars. There was at least one traffic calming device, the bricks. Do we anticipate more congestion with 00:51:21.517 --> 00:51:30.167 - this design? How many cars, you know, will we be changing the number of cars that are able to move through 00:51:30.167 --> 00:51:33.886 - it? No, we're not reversing any of the lanes. 00:51:34.178 --> 00:51:40.713 - Right now it operates as a two lane street with left turn lanes. So we wouldn't be proposing removing 00:51:40.713 --> 00:51:47.119 - any left turn lanes. We're just proposing narrowing it. So we still have one through lane in either 00:51:47.119 --> 00:51:53.525 - direction. And I have to pull up the numbers from the last time, from our first presentation. But I 00:51:53.525 --> 00:52:00.060 - can pull them up briefly in a second here. As I recall, the traffic volume, yeah, the highest traffic 00:52:00.060 --> 00:52:02.302 - volume is 11,000 vehicles per day. 00:52:02.946 --> 00:52:09.854 - The lowest is 9,300 vehicles per day from what we recorded. So typically, the carrying capacity of a 00:52:09.854 --> 00:52:16.898 - two-lane street with left-turn lanes is up to 25,000 vehicles per day. So we're less than half of that 00:52:16.898 --> 00:52:23.943 - threshold. So there's plenty of capacity with a two-lane street. And we're not changing that. And with 00:52:23.943 --> 00:52:30.919 - the traffic calming, it's not so much that we're really about taking speeding and bringing it down to 00:52:30.919 --> 00:52:32.766 - the intended speed, right? 00:52:33.890 --> 00:52:40.779 - It's about changing the design to match the posted speed. Yeah. Great. Thank you. I have no further 00:52:40.779 --> 00:52:48.288 - questions. Anyone else? I have a last one. Go ahead. Which is just about interaction with the transportation 00:52:48.288 --> 00:52:55.246 - plan. I know you mentioned, Hank, the broader updates you all are looking at. Something that kind of 00:52:55.246 --> 00:53:02.686 - came up in the context of Hopewell discussions and I think you all are looking at is this idea that we have 00:53:03.234 --> 00:53:09.604 - existing conditions and we have street typologies with cross sections that don't always match what's 00:53:09.604 --> 00:53:15.911 - possible even with a street change. We need some flexibility there that doesn't undermine our goals 00:53:15.911 --> 00:53:22.217 - with respect to what a street becomes. And so I'm curious about, I know you all are already looking 00:53:22.217 --> 00:53:27.326 - at those, what type of mechanisms we would need for flexibility in that context. 00:53:27.522 --> 00:53:33.907 - Also curious how something like a corridor study then interacts. So if you're looking at just a stretch 00:53:33.907 --> 00:53:40.108 - and you say, okay, something we could do here is basically widen the sidewalks from five feet to six 00:53:40.108 --> 00:53:46.554 - feet, put in a five-foot tree plot, and that's all we could do. And right now it's monolithic sidewalks. 00:53:46.554 --> 00:53:50.238 - We don't really have a mechanism to allow for that exactly. 00:53:50.338 --> 00:53:55.575 - So what would that look like? Would this corridor study basically supersede and say, this is the more 00:53:55.575 --> 00:54:00.761 - detailed look at this? And so, you know, general urban street topology, notwithstanding, we use this 00:54:00.761 --> 00:54:06.100 - quarter study to guide decisions on this street. Like which comes first? Yeah. Or how do they interact? 00:54:06.100 --> 00:54:11.234 - And they might all change when we do a trustee spread update. Do you have feedback on that, though? 00:54:11.234 --> 00:54:16.574 - Yeah, that's a very good question. Honestly, I don't have a definitive answer for you yet, but based on 00:54:17.250 --> 00:54:23.602 - how detailed these corridor studies are and how much feedback we are getting from the community specifically 00:54:23.602 --> 00:54:29.779 - about these corridors when we are looking into them. My guess would be that these studies would supersede 00:54:29.779 --> 00:54:35.839 - what is in the general transportation plan just because we've done the deep dive look. This is not just 00:54:35.839 --> 00:54:41.899 - a general look at what we would like in the city. The goal is to know what the community wants and what 00:54:41.899 --> 00:54:44.638 - fits our goals best on this specific corridor. 00:54:45.026 --> 00:54:51.826 - to expand on that, Ryan Rolland, Planning Services Manager. The transportation plan actually gives the 00:54:51.826 --> 00:54:58.626 - planning and transportation director power to override the transportation plan in design criteria. And 00:54:58.626 --> 00:55:05.294 - so this would, we would assume that the director would then default to this until the transportation 00:55:05.294 --> 00:55:12.028 - plan matched. So the idea would be that this new corridor study plan would be the plan going forward. 00:55:12.028 --> 00:55:13.150 - Okay, thank you. 00:55:14.690 --> 00:55:22.792 - All right. I believe we've reached the end of our Commissioner's comment. Hank, it's my understanding 00:55:22.792 --> 00:55:30.815 - that we don't need, this is a report. We're not acting on it. Great. Thank you. At this time, public 00:55:30.815 --> 00:55:38.759 - comment is optional. We can engage it through a majority vote. Is there? I'll second it. All right. 00:55:38.759 --> 00:55:44.478 - I'll just do a voice vote. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Any opposed? 00:55:44.802 --> 00:55:56.300 - None. All right, is there anyone in the room or online who would like to make public comment? You can 00:55:56.300 --> 00:56:08.362 - have up to three minutes. I see one hand from Paul Russo. You should be able to unmute. Thanks for letting 00:56:08.362 --> 00:56:13.886 - me say something. I strongly oppose roundabouts. 00:56:15.106 --> 00:56:23.211 - don't build any roundabouts. They create an expectation among motor vehicle drivers that they won't 00:56:23.211 --> 00:56:31.397 - have to stop usually. There's an expectation of not stopping. There's oftentimes a failure to yield. 00:56:31.397 --> 00:56:39.663 - My experience with roundabouts in the city already is hair racing. So besides being, I was not hit in 00:56:39.663 --> 00:56:40.798 - a roundabout, 00:56:41.026 --> 00:56:49.399 - But every other time that was the most dangerous for me in the last three years was in a roundabout. 00:56:49.399 --> 00:56:57.938 - I don't know why you're proposing them, but they're bad news. I'll be glad to give you research if you 00:56:57.938 --> 00:57:06.394 - want to see it. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else at this time who would like to make public 00:57:06.394 --> 00:57:10.622 - comment? I'm not seeing anyone on Zoom. All right. 00:57:11.458 --> 00:57:19.937 - In that case, can you hear me? Oh, yes, I can. This is Buff Brown. Can you hear me? Yes, Buff Brown, 00:57:19.937 --> 00:57:28.921 - you have three minutes. All right. I would raise my hand, but I can't find the hand. It's under reactance. 00:57:28.921 --> 00:57:37.568 - It's OK. Find it for text. I found the mute. I'm mute. Oh. OK, I just want to introduce myself. I just 00:57:37.568 --> 00:57:40.926 - now chimed in, not chimed in, tuned in. 00:57:41.314 --> 00:57:50.296 - So I really did not see much of the material. But I just want to tell you a little bit about me, because 00:57:50.296 --> 00:57:59.192 - I am going to be speaking in the next session. And I think I want to keep it short so that I don't have 00:57:59.192 --> 00:58:07.918 - to reintroduce myself. But just so you know. So I grew up in Bloomington, raised my kids there. I now 00:58:07.918 --> 00:58:10.142 - live in Portland, Oregon. 00:58:10.434 --> 00:58:18.365 - I have been a transportation planner for 25 years, so I'm contacting you from Portland. For decades, 00:58:18.365 --> 00:58:26.453 - I've been involved with Bloomington Transportation. I was a traffic commissioner in the 90s, and I ran 00:58:26.453 --> 00:58:34.541 - a group called Bloomington Transportation Options for People from 2004 to 2014, where we advocated for 00:58:34.541 --> 00:58:36.190 - bike pet in transit. 00:58:36.834 --> 00:58:44.917 - BTOP had a major contribution to the downtown parking policy and many, and I would say that we were 00:58:44.917 --> 00:58:53.161 - involved in many of the bike lanes that exist in your town. So I still keep in touch with Bloomington 00:58:53.161 --> 00:59:01.486 - transportation issues. I just want to, the two things I would like to say is roundabouts are actually, 00:59:01.486 --> 00:59:06.174 - you know, really good safety features. You know that from 00:59:06.370 --> 00:59:17.022 - data, but they can be too big. I really argued that the one on South Rogers and Sarah Road was excessively 00:59:17.022 --> 00:59:26.978 - large for the traffic that was necessary that the one that's actually on Hillside and helped me out 00:59:26.978 --> 00:59:33.150 - here. The neighborhood. Thank you. Renwick is the right size. 00:59:33.506 --> 00:59:41.947 - for many of the transportation needs of Bloomington. People go through it slowly. It's very possible 00:59:41.947 --> 00:59:50.388 - to go through it easily on a bike because people travel quite slowly. And I'm sure it has the fewest 00:59:50.388 --> 00:59:58.746 - wrecks. In fact, an analysis that I did about 10 years ago showed it was significantly less crashes 00:59:58.746 --> 01:00:02.590 - than the other roundabouts, which are larger. 01:00:02.786 --> 01:00:10.927 - I do like a lot of the things that you are proposing. Tool design is an excellent consultant, so I'm 01:00:10.927 --> 01:00:19.229 - really glad to see what they're proposing so far or what I've seen here. So those are all my comments, 01:00:19.229 --> 01:00:27.532 - and I'll have more for you at the 7 o'clock meeting. Thank you. All right, thank you. Any other public 01:00:27.532 --> 01:00:32.126 - commenters who would like to speak? I am not seeing any. 01:00:32.418 --> 01:00:39.685 - Okay, before we adjourn, for anyone listening who's interested in talking about Kirkwood, that's a separate 01:00:39.685 --> 01:00:46.482 - meeting of the same group that starts at 7 p.m. and due to rules we don't start that early, we start 01:00:46.482 --> 01:00:53.278 - it on time. With that said, we're done with this session and we will adjourn. Thank you, Mr. Barker.