Group:

Bicycle and Pedestrian Issues Task Force

DATE:

October 24, 2001

TIME:

9:30 AM

LOCATION:

CATS Conference Room

Ders Anderson

Openlands

Ed Barsotti

League of Illinois Bicyclists (LIB)

Greg Dreyer

Village of Orland Park

Peter Fahrenwald

Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)

Barbara Ladner

Pace

Bobbie Moore

Palatine/Willow Rd. CMT

Allan Mellis

Cook County Forest Preserve

Carl Mikyska

Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT)

Randy Neufeld

Chicagoland Bicycle Federation (CBF)

Artemio Perez

Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT)

Keith Privett

Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT)

Tom Rickert

Kane County DOT

Mayor Jeffrey Sherwin

Council of Mayors

Craig Williams

Edwards and Kelcey

Chris Wilson

Metra

Larry Bury

Northwest Municipal Conference

Rae Casale

IDOT

Norma Cooper

AAA-Motor Club

Lee Cotton

Village of New Lenox

Christina Dudek

Village of Lemont

John LaPlante

TY Lin

Jim Massarelli

Village of Arlington Heights

Beth Meier

TY Lin/CDOT

Wayne Mikes

Illinois Mountain Bikers Association

Marty Mueller

Knight

Linda Stelle

Village of Cary

Al Sturges

LIB

Heather Tabbert

Kane County

Randy Warren

CBF

Linda Bolte

Chicago Area Transportation Study (CATS)

Brian Gebhardt

Tom Murtha

CATS

Tom Murtha

CATS

Robert Secrest

CATS

Maureen Smith

CATS

Approval of Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes from August 29, 2001 were approved with no changes.

Walkable Communities Update

Ms. Kilgore used slides to summarize and evaluate the Walkable Communities workshops. Below is a summary of her commentary.

Walkable Communities is a pilot program conceived and funded (through a matching grant) by the Federal Highway Administration. It is designed to help metropolitan planning organizations provide pedestrian planning assistance to local communities. The program trained CATS staff and brought in national experts for one week to conduct workshops on the "lost art" and emerging best practices of pedestrian-friendly community design. The program’s original scope was to provide workshops in eight communities; however, our consultants were flexible and allowed us to conduct ten—three in Chicago and seven in the suburbs.

CATS staff feels that the consultants, Pete Lagerwey (Seattle’s pedestrian and bicycle coordinator) and Charlie Gandy (of Liveable Communities, Inc.) were indeed experts—not only in terms of their knowledge of pedestrian-oriented design, but their ability to facilitate an engaging, fast-paced, multi-faceted workshop.

The workshops combined slides, discussion, walkabouts and next step discussions. At the beginning of each workshop, Messrs. Lagerwey and Gandy asked everyone to introduce themselves and explain their interest in walking issues. Although this sometimes took awhile, it helped them better understand local concerns (each local workshop coordinator had also prepared briefing materials to help give the consultants a running start). The slides provided examples of street design and land use strategies that accommodate and promote walking trips. The presenters' narrations also helped participants think about the benefits of walkable communities. During the walkabouts, Messrs. Lagerwey and Gandy encouraged participants to discuss the strengths and weaknesses they were observing in the walking environment. After the walkabouts, we discussed local concerns and generated ideas for possible next steps. Some workshops involved a consensus building exercise and others a design exercise.

Although CATS staff and workshop coordinators worked hard to identify local areas of concern and develop briefing materials to help the consultants gear the workshops to each community’s needs, this is one area where the workshops did not quite meet our expectations. CATS staff feels this is more a problem of how we advertised the workshops than a flaw in the consultants’ work. Messrs. Lagerwey and Gandy have conducted these workshops in scores of communities around the country; their presentations are necessarily broad in focus and there was only so much tailoring they could do. The workshops seemed to be more effective at providing general design advice than providing detailed solutions to local dilemmas. Even so, the workshops did generate plenty of site-specific ideas. For example, in Villa Park, business owners were interested in trying back-in angled parking to calm traffic on Villa Avenue while increasing customer parking. (Back-in angle parking is better than regular angle parking for cyclists because motorists have improved visibility when exiting a space and cyclists can easily react to someone stopped to back into a spot.) Orland Park’s workshop mapped out possible walkways through the Orland Square parking lot and generated ideas for calming the ring-road surrounding the lot.

The workshops succeeded at pulling together those vested in walkability as well as those whose work affects the walking environment. Messrs. Lagerwey and Gandy were quite impressed by the turn-out, particularly by elected officials. They were also impressed that IDOT, county highway departments, CTA, Pace and Metra were represented at many of the workshops. They found this participation very helpful and indicative of goodwill toward these efforts. Each workshop coordinator did a terrific job promoting the event at the local level and reaching out to key implementing agencies.

Ms. Kilgore also discussed themes she observed over the course of the workshops:

Trails: Communities want trails for economic development, to improve quality of life and to provide an additional transportation option. Where trails already exist, there is a need to better connect them with the street network to provide access and prevent conflicts

Crossing: Pedestrians are struggling to cross busy streets. Messrs. Lagerwey and Gandy provided many ideas for improving intersections and accommodating mid-block crossing movements, such as curb extensions, center refuge islands, higher visibility (and more creative) crosswalks, signage, changing four-lane roads to two lane roads with center left-turn lanes, and law enforcement initiatives.

Land use: Land use influences the viability and attractiveness of walking trips. As distances between schools, stores, transit centers and homes increase, and as front doors retreat behind vast parking lots, walking becomes less practical. A community can have pedestrian friendly streets without the land use mix to support walking for transportation purposes. For example, an historic downtown can be a destination because people enjoy walking around an old main street; however, to actually convert car to walking trips, residents should be able to walk to and conduct errands downtown. Mr. Lagerwey emphasized the importance of zoning codes, urging communities to work with developers to build mixed-use sites. Allow for an extra floor if the first floor is devoted to retail. Insist parking structures include retail/office space at the street level. Encourage chains to rethink default floor plans. In Seattle, Safeway now builds to the sidewalk, placing parking in back or to the side.

ADA-compliance: A street that functions well for walking does not necessarily function well for people in wheelchairs, pushing strollers or using crutches. Complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act is particularly challenging in hilly communities where steep grades and steps are common. Curb extensions at intersections can provide the extra room needed for ramps while calming turning motor vehicle traffic. Mr. Lagerwey encouraged communities to develop a program for prioritizing and implementing curb ramps.

Ms. Kilgore then shared images and information about each community's workshop. Workshop coordinators also shared their observations. Please see the interim Walkable Communities report for more details.

According to evaluation forms, participants felt the workshops were very useful to the communities. However, the true measure will be whether the workshops inspire successful efforts to promote and accommodate walking. Next steps include producing a final report, integrating local images and concerns into Messrs. Lagerwey and Gandy's slide shows and conducting follow-up with the participating communities.

Mr. Rickert transitioned to the next agenda item by asking if CATS had the resources to conduct additional workshops. Kane County is interested in working with more of its local communities.

Soles and Spokes: Technical Training

Ms. Kilgore distributed a memo outlining possible strategies for meeting the region's need for technical training on bicycle and pedestrian transportation issues. To generate the list, she reviewed evaluations from the 2000 Soles and Spokes conference and the Walkable Communities Program as well as previous task force discussions and the Regional Transportation Plan.

Interest in non-motorized modes needs to be supplemented with solid approaches to accommodating them. The popularity of the Walkable Communities workshops suggests a demand for best practices information. She proposed the following needs that could be met through a combination of strategies such as workshops, presentations, continued development of CATS' bike/ped planning webpages and reports:

• Technical/design resources: How can we affect our built environment to promote walking and biking while improving safety?

Mr. Neufeld proposed a different way of categorizing needs and audiences. For example, there are professionals who work on highway and other transportation projects who are unlikely to come out for a task force meeting or even a Soles and Spokes conference. They could benefit from a bicycle 101 and pedestrian 101 experience--something that helps them understand how transportation systems function from a walking and cycling perspective and provides ideas for accommodating those modes. For example, the city of Chicago's bicycle program has been conducting bike tours for CDOT engineers and project managers. They visit new bike lanes and experience how street design affects the urban biking experience. Ben Gomberg, Chicago's Bicycle Coordinator, feels this has helped people in different CDOT bureaus better understand the needs of cyclists and increased their willingness to address those needs in projects (see attached article from Bike Traffic). The Walkable Communities Program is another example of a "101" level approach for citizens, elected officials and transportation professionals.

For those planners, engineers, consultants and advocates already familiar with the basics of bicycle and pedestrian transportation needs, Mr. Neufeld proposed a menu of "201" services such as on-going training and targeted workshops on design dilemmas. For those who prefer "independent study," we should continue to make available problem solving resources like guides and web-pages.

Mr. Neufeld conveyed Mr. Gomberg's suggestion that we develop a mobile bicycle "101" workshop. Building on the model developed at CDOT, develop a one or two day training course on bike design and facilities, (including a bicycle tour) and offer it to small groups of people in agencies and in municipalities throughout the region, perhaps 2-3 times per month. This format would allow for easy, ongoing access to bicycle planning and design basics, As opposed to offering such a service every two years as part of the Soles and Spokes conference).

Mr. Perez added that going to different parts of the region is important; loop based "field trips" don't allow participants to observe typical walking and cycling environments. Ms. Dudek stated that many communities can not afford bicycle and pedestrian projects and that we should also offer workshops on funding resources. Mr. Neufeld added that in some communities there isn't even someone available to write a grant, but that the council of mayors could provide support.

Ms. Kilgore announced that we have an opportunity to pilot a targeted workshop format. Mr. James Mackay, PE, Denver's Bicycle Planner, is available in mid-December to conduct a workshop on bicycle-friendly grade-separation and at-grade crossings. After some discussion, the task force asked CATS staff to pursue the opportunity and work with a sub-committee to develop an education and training proposal for the next task force meeting. Mr. Murtha emphasized that CATS needs task force assistance with these kinds of projects; we can't do it alone.

Update on Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan

Mr. Murtha reported that CATS had just received comments back from IDOT regarding the request for proposals, and that staff had not had a chance to review them. Once the RFP is approved, it will be let for bidding, probably in the next few weeks. The process is moving faster than expected. CATS will email task force members when the RFP is posted.

Household Travel Survey Follow-Up

Mr. Murtha reported that Mr. Privett, acting on behalf of the task force, had distributed a letter to the Work Program Committee requesting that the age cut-off for the survey be lowered. The committee will address the issue at their next meeting.

Other Business

Mr. Murtha shared some preliminary mode split and vehicle ownership data from the 2000 census for the state of Illinois. (These documents can be viewed at www.catsmpo.com/bikeped/Means.htm and www.catsmpo.com/bikeped/Vehicles.htm)The two key columns are percent change in mode share and 2000 mode share. The data were gathered over a 12-month period from a supplementary survey that was conducted alongside the census. This survey might eventually replace the long form. Because data-collection spanned the year, it should provide a better picture of modes that are considered weather sensitive. This could account for the jump in reported bicycle and motorcycle usage. It is important to note that this is statewide data; local and regional numbers will likely be different.

Mr. Anderson noted that the survey was still only gathering information on work trips and the main mode used during those trips. This leads to an incomplete picture of travel behavior. For example, none of the downtown Chicago walking trips generated by Metra are reflected.

Mr. Neufeld announced that the city of Chicago has been honored by Bicycling Magazine as the number one city for cycling (in the category of cities in the US with a population of over 1 million people).

Ms. Kilgore announced an upcoming class on winter cycling. It’s part of Bike Winter, a series of events designed to inspire and equip people to stay in the saddle year round.

Mr. Perez announced an upcoming Transportation Summit, which is part of CNT’s effort to update its Citizen’s Transportation Plan.

The next meeting was scheduled for 9:30 February 5, 2001