Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-11-07; Traffic and Mobility Commission; Minutes Page 1 of 5 Council Chambers 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive Carlsbad, CA 92008 Nov. 7, 2022, 4:00 p.m. CALL TO ORDER: 4:03 p.m. ROLL CALL: Linke, Penseyres, Coelho and Newlands Absent: Perez, Fowler and Proulx PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Acting Chair Linke led the Pledge of Allegiance APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes of the Regular Meeting held Oct. 3, 2022. Commissioner Penseyres pointed out that on page 7 under Traffic & Mobility Commission Comments, “The third phase is what we consider our transformative project on Tamarack Avenue and that is falling our Sustainable Mobility Plan.” The word falling is incorrect and the correct word is following. Motion by Acting Chair Linke, seconded by Commissioner Coelho to approve the minutes of Oct. 3, 2022, regular meeting as amended. Motion carried, 4/0/3 (Absent: Perez, Proulx and Newlands). PUBLIC COMMENT: Tim Morgan spoke about the intersection of Tamarack Avenue and Valley Street and its Phase II of the Traffic Calming Study. There was a lack of engagement and community involvement, and the HAWK signal is putting our community / neighbors in a dangerous situation. Commissioner Proulx joined the meeting at 4:12 p.m. CONSENT CALENDAR: Motion by Commissioner Coelho, seconded by Commissioner Proulx to approve Consent Item Nos. 1 and 2. Motion carried: 5/0/2 (Absent: Perez and Fowler). This item was pulled for discussion by Commissioner Josh Coelho 1. APPROVAL OF THE 2023 REGULAR TRAFFIC AND MOBILITY COMMISSION CALENDAR - Adoption of a resolution approving the 2023 Regular Traffic and Mobility Commission Meeting Calendar. (Staff Contact: Nathan Schmidt, public Works). Commissioner Coelho inquired about the meeting scheduled for July 3rd which is a Monday. He asked if they can move that meeting to the following Monday which is July 10th. Transportation Mobility and Planning Manager Schmidt responded that they looked at the July calendar extensively and July 3rd was the only date that was available due to the other Commission Meetings. Page 2 of 5 2. 2021 SIDEWALK CONSTRUCTION PROJECT, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM PROJECT NO. 6002- 21 – Support staff’s recommendation to approve the plans and specifications for the 2021 Sidewalk Construction Project, CIP Project No. 6002-21, as part of the Sidewalk Construction Program. (Staff Contact: Kevin Moghadasi and Hossein Ajideh, Public Works). DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS: 3. POLICE REPORT REGARDING TRAFFIC & MOBILITY-RELATED MATTERS DURING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER 2022 – Receive a presentation from a representative of the City of Carlsbad’s Police Department that provide an overview of traffic and mobility-related police matters during the month of October 2022. (Staff Contact: Sergeant Scott Meritt, Police Department). Staff’s Recommendation: Receive a presentation Sergeant Meritt presented the report and reviewed a PowerPoint presentation (on file in the Office of the City Clerk) Commissioner Newlands asked about the criterion between a citation and a warning. Sergeant Meritt said that it is the officer’s discretion. It is up to the officer who stops the vehicle if they want to issue a citation or a warning. Commissioner Penseyres asked about the fatal crash on Armada Drive and if it was near the roundabout. Sergeant Meritt said the crash was on a straight portion of Armada Drive going northbound. 4. COMPLETE STREETS ENGINEERING WORKSHOP – Receive a presentation on the transportation department approach to the design of complete streets throughout the city. (Staff Contact: Tom Frank, Public Works). Staff’s Recommendation: Receive a presentation Transportation director Frank presented the report and reviewed a PowerPoint presentation (on file in the Office of the City Clerk). PUBLIC COMMENT: Gary Nessim asked the commissioners to go out and ride a bike and head onto a sharrow lane. He claims that sharrow lanes should be 25mph maximum. If the speed is more than 25mph then it needs a bike lane with a buffer. He would like all commissioners and staff to have experience riding bikes so they can understand how to share the road. He also asks the commissioners to walk on Carlsbad Village Drive under the I-5 freeway to see that this area needs improvement for pedestrian access. Also, while in Costco please check out the parking lot and try to take a left out of the lot while exiting by the gas station. When you allow an engineer to use an angle there is no visibility for the driver. Commissioner Coelho asked about our approach to Class I bike paths outside of intersections. He understands that it is really expensive. Is there long-term planning to create a network of Class I bike paths? What does this look like in the future? Page 3 of 5 Transportation Director Frank responded that there is a plan for transformative corridors which would likely include class-I bike paths. Commissioner Penseyres commented that we recently installed some bike lanes along parked cars on Tamarack Avenue where we used a buffer along the car doors. The one in the presentation tonight had a seven foot parking lane next to a six-foot bike lane. Was the intention to provide 2 feet of buffer against the car doors? Or would you leave it at six feet and let bikers ride right next to the car doors? Transportation Director Frank answered that the first choice is to put in the buffer along the car doors. This is an example where you could do either option. The objective of doing 7 feet is that it hopefully encourages people to park closer to the curb. The code says a car has to be parked within 18 inches of the curb face, otherwise the driver can be cited with a ticket. A typical car width is 6 to 8 feet so by providing the 7 feet it encourages the vehicles to park closer to the curb line. Acting Chair Linke said that he is skeptical about reducing quite a bit lane width. He heard from the City Manager a reference of lanes being reduced down to 9 feet. What is staff’s thoughts on 11 feet versus 10-feet-wide lanes? What about buses that are a bit wider? Transportation Director Frank said that there is a range of recommendations from AASHTO between 9 feet and 12 feet. We look to balance the needs of the roadway. For example, Carlsbad Village Drive is currently at 9.5 feet wide. Staff is recommending a 10-feet travel lanes, with the acknowledgment that the lanes that are being used by the busses and trucks are going to be adjacent to the buffer lanes. If we don’t have that buffer lane, then we would stripe it as an 11-foot travel lane. Acting Chair Linke said that he travels on La Costa Avenue often and has noticed that the curbs are vey high in the portion west of El Camino Real. He has witnessed cars hitting the curb and going out of control. He is concerned if they put the lane that is directly adjacent to the high curb down to 10 feet that it will create an uncomfortable situation for drivers. Transportation Director Frank said that there are situations with a high-speed roadway and a high curb where we want to reduce the lane down to 10 feet. He sees people running stop signs, wavering into bike lanes and not following the rules of the road. When we change the radius of the curb we hear a lot of comments. This is not an indication of a bad design but of bad drivers. With these narrow lanes, it might change the driver behavior to slow down and drive safely. Acting Chair Linke inquired if painting the bike lanes green is helping or hurting? Transportation Director Frank said that staff is open to study what are the impacts of what we are putting on the roadway. Staff will put it on the work plan to look at and study an intersection to get data on driver behavior. It is very common practice to use the green dash in the conflict/transition zone. We are using green paint in conflict areas only to avoid overuse and make the green striped areas more visible throughout the community. If we put green paint everywhere then it loses its effect on drivers and it is also expensive. Thirdly, there is some environmental concern with all of the paint on the street washing off and going into the storm drain. Acting Chair Linke said he noticed that a lot of the green areas are fading and then need to be painted again. He assumed over time drivers will get used to the green paint and know that they are supposed to Page 4 of 5 enter the dashed areas. Vice-Chair Linke brought up another area of concern which is the protected bike lanes. He knows there are a lot of bicycle advocates that like the concept and cite studies that show they are safer for bicyclists. There are also cyclists that feel that they make the streets more dangerous and can also cite studies that prove this. There are conflicting viewpoints. Our commission needs to keep in mind as we review each one of these that we need to evaluate if it will make the situation better or worse. The third area of concern is the bulb-outs which are supposed to make the streets safer. However, there is a situation at Tamarack and Valley where residents are saying it is making the situation more dangerous and pushing vehicles and bicycles into the opposing lane. Transportation Director Frank said that he will use a project where the city added 20-foot curb extensions as doing so provided a more efficient intersection and increased the green time on El Camino Real. It reduced the pedestrian crossing distance by 20 feet and lessened the pedestrian phase. By shortening the pedestrian crossing phase, you can give that time to the green light phase. Busses and trucks have been able to make the corner just fine. We won’t design something that would not accommodate those vehicles. This has been in place since 2016 and has been working fine. Acting Chair Linke said that studies have shown that adding a roundabout is the safest way. Many experienced bicyclists are comfortable merging in with vehicular traffic lane where less experienced riders may feel that they must get off their bicycles to safely get through the roundabout. CITY TRAFFIC ENGINEER COMMENTS: Transportation, Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt mentioned that staff has been working on the update of the Transportation Management Demand, or TDM, Handbook which is the guide that developers use to develop TDM plans for their sites. Staff will be sending this out to the Commission after today’s meeting. At the December meeting we will discuss the handbook and some results that we have received from our consultants regarding the TDM programs. The TIA guidelines will also be updated following the update of the Growth Management Plan. We will need to add an additional member to the Ad Hoc Committee for that program as well. We are still working on the Multimodal Level of Service with the consultant. Staff will be bringing that back in front of the Ad- Hoc Committee and giving sufficient time to review before bringing to the Commission. The last item is regarding the applications for the Traffic and Mobility Commission which are out right now. Applications are available on the city website and must be submitted by November 30, 2022. TRAFFIC AND MOBILITY COMMISSION COMMENTS: Acting Chair Linke inquired if the new appointments will all start at the beginning of January? Transportation, Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt answered that he will confirm with the City Clerk on the start date of the new commissioners. We will send an update with this information via email to the Commission. Commissioner Penseyres mentioned that in the past two months there have been three e-bike riders that ran into car doors that opened in front of them. We need to provide buffers against those car doors as Page 5 of 5 much as we can. Even dashing the left side of it so they can go into the street. This is a new issue with the e-bikers as they don’t have a lot of experience and they don’t understand what to do in these situations. Jefferson Street, Cannon Road and Paseo Del Norte could all use these buffers. Commissioner Coelho encouraged staff to continue the exploration of developing the plans in rectangular fashion. He thinks it would be great for the city to have a connected Class-I bike path or buffer along the rectangular area of La Costa Avenue, Palomar Airport Road, Cannon Road, El Camino Real and the coast. Motion by Commissioner Coelho, seconded by Commissioner Proulx, to nominate Chair Brandon Perez to represent the Traffic & Mobility Commission at the City Council meeting on Dec. 6, 2022, on the item related to Safer Streets Together Plan and nominated Commissioner Josh Coelho as an alternate – 5/0/2 (Absent: Perez, Fowler). ADJOURNMENT: Chair Perez adjourned the Traffic & Mobility Commission Regular Meeting on Nov. 7, 2022, at 5:47 p.m. ___________________________ Eliane Paiva, Minutes Clerk