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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-03-16 Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Meeting Minutes Town of Ocean City, Maryland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) Meeting Minutes OCEAN CITY BICYCLE & PEDESTRIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE (OC BPAC) Meeting Minutes DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 2019 TIME: 2:00 PM to 3:35 PM LOCATION: City Hall, Executive Conference Room 301 Baltimore Avenue Ocean City, MD 21842 RE: OC BPAC Meeting#8 ATTENDEES: See Sign-In Sheet for all attendees (only Members are shown below) X Joe Marx X Sgt. Allen Hawk(Vice President) Sandy Gillis X Glenn Irwin X Mike Steinen X Tony Deluca X Paul Mauser(President) X Jana Potvin (SHA Member) X Hal Adkins X=In Attendance at Meeting ACTION ITEMS: #: Name: Action Item: Due By: 1 Paul Mauser Review BFC Application: "Engineering" (Pages 8 to 25) 2 Joe Marx Review BFC Application: "Education" (Pages 25 to 32) 3 Sandy Gillis Review BFC Application: "Encouragement" (Pages 32 to 38) Allen Hawk& Wed., 04.10 4 Rick Wawa Review BFC Application: "Enforcement&Safety" (Pages 38 to 42) 5 Bill Neville & Review BFC Application: "Evaluation & Planning" (Pages 42 to 49) Glenn Irwin Link to BFC Application: https://bicVclefriendIV.secure-platform.com/a *Application is due August 8, 2019 and Awards will be announced in November. DISCUSSION ITEMS: General 1. Review & Approve 2019.02.13 Meeting Minutes and Action Items: Glenn motioned to approve the Meeting Minutes, Mike seconded, none opposed. Bicycle Friendly Community(BFC)Action Steps 2. Bike Lights Program—discuss department and staff member to spearhead program (Tony Deluca): a. Tony discussed having a member of the"Green Team"to spearhead the program. Mike Steinen volunteered to assist with the program. Page 1 of 4 Town of Ocean City, Maryland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) Meeting Minutes b. The Town is expecting to receive approximately $2,500 from a Walmart community grant program which is expected to fund approximately 400 new lights. c. Glenn offered that OCDC will consider applying to match the grant from Walmart. d. SHA is also expected to provide lights for the program — the amount is not determined at this time. e. As a modification to the 2019.02.13 February Meeting Minutes, the Bike Lights Program will continue to be discussed and reported on a monthly basis. Bicycle Collisions ear Collisions Injury Bicycle at Fault Fatalities 2019 0 0 0 0 2018 26 8 1= 0 2017 30 8 16 1 2016 29 6 21 0 Bicycle Lights Distributed 2619 January February Year to Date B 4 4 3. Bikes on the Beach—should Town Code(Section 90,ARTICLE V.-BICYCLES,SKATEBOARDS AND SIMILAR CONVEYANCES) be amended to accommodate this activity(Tony Deluca): a. Tony discussed that a cycling group has been in contact with the Town's Special Events Coordinator with a request to host a "Fat Tire Bike Event" on the beach. b. Bicycles on the beach are not addressed in Town Code and,therefore,the activity is currently not permitted in the Beach Reserve District. The Code would require amendment if Council desires to permit it. c. The actual beach sand in Ocean City may be too "soft" for cyclists to be able to even enjoy riding a bike in the sand. d. Tony will discuss this with Butch Arbin to get his thoughts on the subject. e. Allowing a 1-time special event permit may be worth considering to vet out this consideration. 4. 60th Street to 64th Street — discuss modification of solution presented in 2019.02.13 Meeting Minutes (Tony Deluca,Jana Potvin): a. Tony discussed that this was reviewed at the February 19th Council Regular Meeting at that Council was unanimously concerned about the safety implications of a cyclist yielding into a travel lane upon termination of the Bike/Bus Lane. b. SHA discussed that this design is standard protocol and is in compliance with the January 2015 SHA Bicycle Policy& Design Guidelines. https://www.roads.maryland.gov/ohd2/bike policy and design guide.pdf c. This same treatment is used throughout the state on high volume roads and SHA will provide examples of other locations. Page 2 of 4 Town of Ocean City, Maryland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) Meeting Minutes d. Referencing the 2018.11.14 and 2019.02.13 Meeting Minutes,the Town may still add sidewalk markings for clarification for those cyclists who wish to dismount from their bicycle and walk along the sidewalk from 60th Street to 63rd Street. e. Tony requested that this be further discussed with Town Council at the SHA Spring Meeting on April 9th at the Council Work Session. 5. J-1 Student Education (Mike Steinen): a. Mike has been in contact with the local representative from Aspire Worldwide and a good next step for promoting education of J1 Students is attending the Thursday, April 11th meeting at the Grand Hotel, starting at 08:30. b. Tony discussed that he will plan to attend the meeting and would like to speak about bike safety. c. Allen discussed that he would like to have a representative from the PD at the meeting as well. 6. Street Smart Event through Maryland Highway Safety Office (Paul Mauser): a. At the February 6,2019 quarterly meeting of SHA's Pedestrian Safety Committee, Jeff Dunkel (Pedestrian / Bike Coordinator) from MD Highway Safety Office and Paul discussed a potential opportunity to bring the "Be Street Smart" Virtual Reality(VR) car event to Ocean City. http://www.bestreetsmart.net/ b. The event includes participants sitting in a yellow Chevrolet Camaro and driving via VR glasses and being presented with 3 high-risk, close call scenarios involving bikers and pedestrians. c. The VR is projected onto a screen for bystanders to observe. The goal of the event is to reinforce being more aware of pedestrians and bicyclists. d. Allen discussed that he is also in contact with MD HSO about this event and will follow-up with them about scheduling an event during our peak season. This VR car is in very high demand all over the country. 7. Bike Route Connection to Delaware—Modification from 2019.02.13 Meeting—Bike Route will be located on 146th Street instead of 142nd Street (Paul Mauser): a. Tony discussed that this was reviewed at the February 19th Council Regular Meeting at that Council provided concerns that use of 142nd for shared bike lanes is not advisable, mainly due to traffic volumes and motorist speeds. On the other hand, 146th Street has very low traffic volumes. Hal seconded Council's concerns. b. The Committee unanimously concluded to stick with the original plan of using 146th Street for the connection. 8. West OC Hiker/ Biker Trail project update (Jana Potvin). a. SHA discussed that the project is funded for construction and that construction may occur during the summer months. b. The Committee discussed that summer construction is very concerning given the location of the project between 611 and the west abutment of the Route 50 bridge. The Committee recommended to look at the Traffic Control Plan if any of the two travel lanes would be interrupted. As the project would not be completed in time for the 2019 peak season, it may be worth considering to delay Page 3 of 4 Town of Ocean City, Maryland Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) Meeting Minutes the Notice to Proceed until the off season such that the project is completed for the 2020 peak season. c. Tony requested that this be further discussed with Town Council at the SHA Spring Meeting on April 9th at the Council Work Session. 9. MBPAC Friday, July 12th Meeting 10:00 — 12:00, Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce (Paul Mauser): a. In 2019 the MBPAC meetings will be held at MPO regions around the state. b. MBPAC typically has 30 people in attendance and it will be good for OC BPAC to have a few representatives in attendance as well. Initially, Paul plans to attend the event and other Members will consider as the event gets closer. 10. Review Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC)Application (All Members): a. The BFC application is "intense" and is 52 pages long. b. The Committee agreed to "block off' the entire April 10th Agenda to discuss and break down the application. c. Committee Members were assigned to review specific sections, as noted in Action Items#1 to#5. Existing Infrastructure 11. Review GIS Maps: Physical Impediments— Hotels, Businesses, Condominiums (Bill Neville / Karen Zera): This item was brought up at 3:35 and the "Green Team" was scheduled to use the Executive Conference Room at 3:30 — the Committee agreed to move this item to the May Agenda. 12. Open Session. If there are any corrections to the Meeting Minutes, please notify the author within seven (7) calendar days. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 10tH Best Regards, Paul B. Mauser, P.E. Engineering Manager Town of Ocean City Page 4 of 4