MEETING NOTES

Group: Bicycle and Pedestrian Issues Task Force

DATE: May 30, 2001

TIME: 9:30 AM

LOCATION: CATS Conference Room

Members Represented:

Ed Barsotti-- League of Illinois Bicyclists (LIB)

Deb Fagan-- DuPage County

Peter Fahrenwald-- Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

Gary Foyle-- Metra

Barbara Ladner-- Pace

Alan Mamoser -- Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC)

Jan Metzger-- Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT)

Bobbie Moore-- Palatine/Willow Rd. CMT

Joseph Moriarty-- Regional Transportation Agency (RTA)

Randy Neufeld-- Chicagoland Bicycle Federation (CBF)

Keith Privett-- Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT)

Tom Rickert-- Kane County

Elaine Ricketts-- Cook County Department of Public Health

Craig Williams--Edwards and Kelcey

Others in Attendance:

Amy Birrell-- Kane County DOT

Steve Call-- Federal Highway Administration

Andy Clarke-- Association for Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals

Lee Cotton-- Village of New Lenox

Mark Counselman-- Chicago resident

Cori English-- South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association

Oliver Hatch-- Velo-Mondial

Mike Jacobs-- Village of Northbrook

John LaPlante-- TY LIN Bascor

Dave Longo-- Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR)

Hilary Meese-- Cook County Department of Public Health

Marty Mueller-- Knight

Patrick Murphy-- NIPC

Pascal van de Noort-- Velo-Mondial

Artemio Perez-- CNT

Tom Poupard-- Village of Northbrook

Pat Schroeder-- McHenry County

Megan Swanson-- Northwest Municipal Conference

Heather Tabbert-- Kane County

Trisha Sternberg-- CDOT

Dan Thomas-- Edwards and Kelcey

Randy Warren-- CBF

Linda Bolte-- Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS)

Tom Murtha-- CATS

Don Kopec-- CATS

Tom Murtha-- CATS

Thomas Palzer -- CATS

Mark Thomas -- CATS

Kermit Wies-- CATS

Approval of Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the March 20, 2001 meeting were approved with no changes.

Sub-Regional Planning Update

DuPage County

Deb Fagan, DuPage County's Trail System Coordinator, reported on recent efforts. DuPage County has updated its map of existing and planned on and off road bicycle facilities. Copies of the map with a memo summarizing significant changes since the 1999 update are being sent out to other agencies and groups in the region. (Requests for these can be directed to Ms. Fagan.) She noted that a new facility is proposed along the Salt Creek that will connect the forest preserve and various communities and extend into Cook County. The section in DuPage is expected to cost $6 million. Improvements are also being made to the Elgin branch of the Prairie Path. Hanover Park and Roselle have been working together to plan and implement a bridge to provide non-motorized access across Lake Street. Other projects will improve connections between the Great Western Trail and the Prairie Path.

Communities in DuPage that have recently completed local bicycle plans and/or maps include Downers Grove, Bloomingdale and Wood Dale.

Kane County

Mr. Rickert introduced Heather Tabbert, Kane County's new (and first) bike coordinator. With over half of local municipalities moving forward on bicycle planning efforts, the county realized the need for a position dedicated to bicycle issues. He also introduced Amy Birrell, a summer intern who will help collect data for the county's bike plan update. He feels the county DOT has broadened its focus so that all projects have a bike/ped component. For example, the widening of Orchard Road in Aurora includes paths and grade-separated crossings. Four years ago, the county board would not have wanted to fund those kinds of projects. He also mentioned that the county is doing seven transportation planning area studies to investigate congestion and delay issues. The first focuses on the Dundee/Huntley area. It will evaluate alternatives to standard planning processes and address bicycle planning and the promotion of alternatives to car travel.

Mr. Rickert then turned the discussion over to Mr. Williams, who is the consultant working on Kane County's bicycle plan. Mr. Williams distributed the plan's outline. He explained that a key component is a policy education tool, which will be a resource to help decision makers understand why bicycle plans avoid placing bicyclists on sidewalks and what constitutes good facility design. For example, grade-separated crossings are not always the best or most feasible way to help cyclists (or pedestrians) across arterials. Sometimes refuge areas and signal timing improvements are better solutions.

The plan will also include a best practices guide, a bicycle and pedestrian facility inventory, an assessment of arterial roadway corridors, a bikeway map, a conceptual plan for a county-wide way finding system, and potential funding sources.

South Suburban, Southwest, Central and Northwest

Mr. Neufeld complimented Kane County for hiring a bicycle coordinator and DuPage County for being the first in the region to create such a position. He expressed hope that all counties create such a position in the future.

Mr. Neufeld is working with the South Suburban, Southwest and Central councils to update their 1996 sub-regional plans. This effort includes determining what has happened as a result of the plans, what projects still need funding, what recent projects have affected the cycling environment and what TIP projects might affect the environment in the future. An updated facilities map and set of recommendations will be provided for each council. He has also been providing resources and encouragement to communities that are interested in doing local plans.

CBF is also working with the Northwest Municipal Conference Northwest to do a bikeways inventory.

Latent Demand Modeling

Bruce Landis, of SCI consulting based in Florida, conducted a presentation on analytical tools his firm has developed to assist planning for bicyclists and pedestrians: Bicycle Level of Service, Pedestrian Level of Service and Latent Demand Modeling. BLOS was designed to provide a quantifiable approach to determining a road's suitability for cycling. It measures factors that influence a cyclist's comfort, such as traffic volume, proximity to motor vehicles and frequency of curbs cuts, to produce "grades," similar to level of service measures for motor vehicle traffic. The resulting formula has a high correlation with how cyclists actually feel. It can be used to asses existing conditions as well as to assist with planning by encouraging implementers to design or reconstruct roads to meet a minimum BLOS. The data needed to assess a road network's BLOS is not difficult to collect; 75 miles a day can be assessed in the field. Delaware and MD are using LOS to do a statewide assessment of their road networks.

The Pedestrian LOS was developed for the Florida DOT. It assesses walking conditions along a roadway section. Mr. Landis explained that conventional capacity-based measures generally do not work in the pedestrian environment, because a free flowing, empty space (considered desirable from a motorist's perspective) can be overwhelming, making pedestrians feel isolated and unsafe. PLOS measures perceived safety, using factors such as traffic speed, volume and the presence or absence of a buffer between the pedestrian and moving traffic (parked cars, trees, etc.) PLOS is being used in Sacramento and Phoenix.

Latent Demand Modeling is a tool for measuring current and future potential for non-motorized trip making. Because the current mode shares for walking and biking are low, they can be difficult to quantify, especially when there are so many impedances. SCI's Latent Demand model asks the question, where would people walk and bike if they could not drive? It assumes the absence of other cars on the road. Using data from the National Personal Transportation Survey, SCI determined how far people are willing to walk or bike for different trip purposes. This information is combined with land use and population density information to produce maps that show where cycling and walking activity is to be expected. Mr. Landis acknowledges that this is a coarse approach, but suggests it can provide a relatively simple, low cost way to provide a framework for prioritizing projects. For example, LOS and Latent Demand can be used together, so that a road with a poor LOS and high latent demand might be identified as a top priority for bicycling or walking improvements.

Mr. Barsotti complemented Mr. Landis' presentation and explained that CATS' data standards working group had compared different bicycle suitability measures and concluded that BLOS seemed to have the most potential for this region because of its high sensitivity to lane width and its logarithmic treatment of traffic speed and volume. Kane County is trying it out for its road network assessment. Mr. Barsotti added that there is a need for a sidepath suitability measure because many cyclists and implementing agencies feel that cyclists and motorists should not mix and prefer to put cyclists on paths next to the roadways. While there are certain situations where a sidepath might be the most suitable solution, there are many problems associated with this type of facility, as outlined in AASTHO's Guide for Bicycle Facilities. Mr. Barsotti has been working on developing a sidepath suitability measure, available at www.bikelib.org.

Regional Bike and Ped Plan Scope

Ms. Bolte explained we will be asking IDOT for permission to use consultant services, then release an RFP. Ms. Kilgore passed out talking points for the draft scope, explaining that she had included issues and concerns she felt had been expressed at previous task force meetings, as well as ideas from other regional efforts. She discussed the following guiding questions:

• How can we provide cyclists and pedestrians of various ages, skill levels and physical abilities access to destinations within their communities and throughout the region?

She then asked for comments on proposed consultant activities in the areas of database development, information collection, plan development and implementation strategies.

The discussion focused on data collection and the possibilities of using the Household Travel Survey to look at youth travel behavior, as well as using data collected by Illinois Department of Public Health on how much people exercise. Mr. Hatch added that, in Glascow, bike infrastructure is paid out of the health budget. Mr. LaPlante asked if the plan could play a role in highway design manuals. He is concerned that current road reconstruction projects often negatively affect the cycling environment.

Mr. Neufeld invited people interested in discussing the scope in more depth to a meeting at CBF's offices June 14, 2001, 12-2pm. Ms. Bolte requested that ideas be submitted to Ms. Kilgore by June 18, 2001. Task force members will have another opportunity to comment before the scope goes out to bid.

Bicycles and Transit Update

CTA is starting a pilot bikes on bus program on June 10, 2001, using two East/West routes that serve the lake front (the North Avenue and 63^rd street routes). Starting May 18, the bikes on trains program will be expanded to include off-peak weekday service. This means the only time cyclists cannot bring bicycles on trains is during rush hour.

Pace expects to have all buses equipped with racks by the end of the year. The routes serving the Fox River Valley (801 and 802) already provide bike access. Other buses in the Pace system are equipped with racks as well, but Pace cannot guarantee consistent bike access until all buses in the system are equipped because buses are not always used for the same routes. Ms. Ladner passed out a report showing rack usage on the Fox River routes. Although use declined in the winter, there were still 22 boardings in January. Pace will continue to collect usage data. Ms. Ricketts added that the public health community would be glad to help promote the program once it is fully operational.

Mr. Foyle announced that Metra is considering a demonstration project to test the viability of allowing bicycle access on its trains. This news was greeted with a great round of applause. Mr. Neufeld added that CBF is working with Metra on the details of the project. He explained that Representatives Judy Irwin and Carole Pankau have been instrumental in this progress.

Task force members commended all the transit agencies for their efforts to accommodate bicycles on transit.

Walkable Communities Update

Ms. Kilgore announced that 50 municipal representatives and interested citizens attended the May 15, 2001 informational briefing on the Walkable Communities Program, which included a program overview, application guidance and a slide show featuring elements of walkability. She explained that communities within Chicago must coordinate their application process with Keith Privett of CDOT. The application deadline is June 15, 2001.

Other Business

Ms. Bolte announced that the Work Program Committee is reviewing CATS' various task forces for the next public involvement plan update. She asked if the task force was satisfied with its current mission and membership structure. Task force members noted that it was reconstituted fairly recently (fall, 1999) and that they are satisfied.

Ms. Bolte also announced that the Going Somewhere poster contest was a success. CATS received 360 entries from 25 schools. The award winning entries are being displayed in the conference room.

Ms. Ricketts announced that the Cook County Department of Public Health is sponsoring a two day workshop called Health and Physical Education in a Competitive Environment: Communication Skills for Making Your Case. It is designed for health and education staff who are in a position to talk with the media about the benefits of physical education. She asked if a municipal official might be interested in commenting on the value of physical activity.

Ms. Metzger asked if there had been any follow up on the Hazard Elimination and funding questions raised at the last task force meeting. Mr. Murtha answered that he is working on them and will make a report at the next meeting.

Mr. Mamoser followed up on a question that had been raised at the last meeting, explaining that NIPC's UWP budget request was for maintaining task force participation and developing a new greenway design.

Ms. Kilgore announced that she was leading a walkabout of the west loop after the meeting and reminded people that Mr. Landis would be leading a more in-depth discussion on Latent Demand Modeling at 1pm. She also announced the Cycling Sisters Solidarity Forum being held at CATS as part of Bike Month. Ms. Fagan complimented the new agenda format which included a list of upcoming events.

The next meeting is scheduled for 9: 30am, Wednesday August 29, 2001.