Huntsville Bike Committee

BASC Meeting Minutes
4/07/10

BASC Attendees:

Peter Hannah
David Stone
Sharon Bayler
Marjorie Holderer
Michael Holderer
Rodney Baker
Scott Erwin
Clint Patterson
James Moore
Jo Somers
Jamie Miernik

Other Attendees:
Benjo Clark, Project Ruwanda

Meeting was called to order at 5:10 pm.

Minutes
March meeting minutes approved as amended. M/S/P.

Membership
• Motion to accept John Scott to BASC committee M/S/P.
• Peter Hannah to inform & welcome Mr. Scott to the committee
• Peter Hannah will invite Mr. Scott to the May 1st Cycling Essentials class.

Mayor’s Ride planning
• Rodney Baker to check on transportation of equipment (tables, chairs, tents) to event.
• Rex Reynolds to authorize overtime of city personnel if needed.
• 3 tables, 9 chairs per tent are needed
• Michael Holderer will confirm tent size
• Tent distribution
o Safety City (1 tent)
o Registration (1 tent)
o Advocacy (SCCC, BASC, Alabike) – (1 tent)
o Planning Dept. (1 tent)
o Earth Fare ( 1 tent)

• Event Footprint – Rodney Baker needs at least 2 weeks notice on footprint, blockage of Fountain for more vendors is possible but needs to be confirmed..
• Clint Patterson has hi-res map of site to help with footprint.
• Michael Holderer will review number of vendors and how to place them.
• Michael Holderer to check permit for vendors & revise as necessary.
• WHNT/Robert Reeves will do morning show spots on May 10th – 5:25 AM – Michael Holderer will do 2 min spot. Additional 2 min spots at 6:25, 7:25 and 8:25. Members should decide who will do spots then email Rex Reynolds with names. Rex Reynolds and the Mayor are available for one of the spots.
• May 14 – WAFF midday news – 11:45 am – James Moore will do an in-studio spot.
• WLRH – Sharon and Marjorie to do PSA
• Music for event – No response from Jim Cavender. Marjorie Holderer to check with Microwave Dave’s bass player.
• SCCC has PA system, need to decide on where on footprint & how to get power to it.
• Mayor will do a National Bike Month Proclamation similar to 2009 release.
• Invites to other Mayors, council members etc – Trent Willis will invite & advise list of invitees to BASC.
• 200 Mayor’s Ride flyers were printed & need to be distributed.

PSA update
• PSA is almost done, similar to Baton Route PSA. Need cyclists for shoot on April 13 and 14.

Cycling Essentials
• Course is set for May 1st, 8 am – 5 pm at Safety City
• Cost is $60, discount available for SCCC/Alabike members, cost for COH employees and BASC members is $50.
• Dave Stone to send out registration form to BASC list.
• Form needs to be returned by April 21st.
• Cycling Essentials is a pre-requisite for LCI certification.
• LCI certification course is planned for October.
• Scott Erwin to send May 1st Cycling Essentials announcement to city employees.
• Dave Stone to send LCI outreach information to Jamie Miernik for Madison for their SRTS grant.

Redstone Arsenal Activities
• MWR Fair April 22nd
• MWR Fair May 11th
• Jamie will distribute Mayor’s Ride Flyers at both events.

BASC Logo
• James to incorporate changes as discussed and send out by email for approval.

CARS Grant
• James to provide history by email on CARS grant correspondence.
• James Moore, Jo Somers, Jamie Miernik and Marjorie Holderer to set up a time to coordinate on CARS grant & set up action list and report by next BASC meeting. M/S/P
• Jo Somers will provide lunch.

Traffic Engineering updates
• Jo Somers presented progress and visibility of the intersection triggering/stenciling sweet spots. The following are complete:
o Governor’s and Memorial Parkway (L turn lanes)
o Technology Drive and Sparkman
o Pratt Avenue and Meridian
o Franklin and Governor’s
o Left turn signals at Airport and Chateau and Queensbury Dr.
Still to be marked:
o Add – 9th and Jordan as a priority
o Gallatin and Governors
o Holmes Ave and Jordan Lane
o 14th Street and Governors
o Longwood Ave and Brandon Street at Whitesburg
o Donegal Dr. and Cecil Ashburn
o Sutton Road and Old US 431
o Marsheutz at Whitesburg and Franklin

• TE can mark 6 or 8 more in April, arterials & collectors are 1st priority, after that by request.
• Route signage that are needed along 40,55 and 59
• Route 40/55 turn signs are needed at Breckenridge Dr. at Balmoral Dr. SW – Jo to address
• Route 55 shortcut on sidewalk – The city is reluctant to sign the sidewalk due to ordinance – tabled.
• City Council may designate by ordinance certain sidewalks as “Bikeways”. This will be done by the end of the calendar year, especially sidewalk on University between Oster & Meadow.
• “Sweet spots” were painted using stencils, TE to monitor to see how paint wears.

Bike Pike West/$5K
• Thermoplastic sharrows to mark Technology Dr. are expensive – $143.00 each, $3500 to mark Technology Dr.
• TE per Richard Kramer will not use paint on that large a marking.
• Speed test on Technology – will recommend to reduce speed limit on Technology to 40 MPH as part of a bundle of streets to be presented to City Council.
• Technology Drive has been signed with “Share the Road” and “Bikes Allowed Full Use of Lane”.
• TE would like to have a list of bicycle commuters & their routes.
• Survey Monkey provides 7 free questions
• Clint Patterson & Jamie Miernik will work offline on questions
• Survey will be on hsvbike.com
• TE will do bike counts during Mayor’s Ride.
• Also can do equipment test for bike detection at Huntsville High School as part of Bike Month.

Bike Map
• Jo Somers still has 30 boxes of maps. Members need to check various distribution outlets and restock as necessary.

Google Maps
• Google Maps now has bike data, but HSV bike routes are not the most current
• Jamie Miernik and Clint Patterson will keep trying to get this updated.

ProBike/ProWalk
• Sharon Bayler to send email to committee to remind them to register.

National Bike Summit
• Jamie Miernik attended and will send trip report on the National Bike Summit held in Washington, DC.

Police Reports
• Data from Feb 1st to March 31st – one incident on Feb 4th, vehicle struck a cyclist at Taylor and Sutton.
• Sharon Bayler reported on cyclist struck by car at Bankhead and Maysville – official data not yet available.

Next meeting
Tuesday, April 27th, 5:00 – 6:30 pm. Mayor’s Ride and Bike Month planning only.

Traffic Engineering has finished adjusting all the intersections on their list, which is attached. Only Brandon/Whitesburg could not be adjusted, and many bikes will trigger it now. If you have problems with the intersections listed, try rolling through the same point at the back of the loop as marked on the front and stay on the metal line the whole way. If that does not work, report your problem and the type of bike used here. It may be worth trying to lay your bike down to get as much metal as possible close to the stencil; I would like to know how well this works.

The 2nd annual Mayor’s Bike Ride opens for events and registration on May 15 9:00 am at the corner of Williams Avenue and Fountain Circle. The ride rolls out at 10:00 on a family-friendly HPD-protected 4 mile loop around downtown with a 2 mile bailout option. Helmets are required. Come enjoy goodies from Scallywags Bikes & Coffee and Earth Fare and learn about safe routes to the new store on University. Microwave Dave and the Nukes will be playing before and after the ride. There will be Safety City and advocacy tents where you can learn about what is being done to improve bike safety in Huntsville. At 11:00 there will be door prize drawings.

from Traffic Engineering – We have practically no data relevant to bicycles. Our accident information is good but that is it. We need bicycle counts; good information will help us make better decisions. We need your advise on where to count. Where are the intersections that are most used by cyclist? We’ve all ready counted at Sparkman and Technology. Where should we go next? Note last time they measured from 9:30am to 4:30pm.

One of my class projects for this semester is a GIS tool to help Huntsville, Madison, and the county select roads that will need special bicycle infrastructure the most in the future. An intermediate of this is a road suitability map. Hopefully this turns out well and could be published like the bicycle routes map that you can get in pdf form on this site. I’m looking for feedback on the content of it right now, the labels and appearance and such can be improved later. The levels are 1-5 with 1 being the best, and 0 is no data.

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The Mayor’s bike ride is Saturday May 15 at 10am this year. If you want to participate as a vendor or musician let us know soon.

Here is a picture of the new traffic signal stencil. You can see the metal lines in the road near the stencil. The spot of highest sensitivity to bikes is marked at each intersection. In the following picture, the area where 3 metal lines intersect is a good place to put your bike. You may also find it helpful to roll through the similar area at the back of the intersection and ride up the metal line to the point near the stencil.

The following intersections have been changed and marked so far, just roll up on your bike in a straight path to the stencil of a cyclist:

Governors and Parkway
Technology at Sparkman
Pratt and Meridian
Franklin and Governors
the rest of Queensbury/Chateau at Airport

6 more should be completed in the rest of April. I was told that at least 1 of the intersections changed so far did not work after 11pm, so if you have complaints please post them. The city wants to have all loop triggered lights be bicycle compatible in the future. I will try to get some pictures soon.

What: BASC Meeting

When: Wednesday, 7-April, 2010 at 5:00pm

Where: 308 Fountain Circle (in GIS/Zoning Building meeting room)

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