HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-01-03; Traffic and Mobility Commission; Minutes
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Transportation 1635 Faraday Avenue Carlsbad, CA 92008 760-602-2746 t
Virtual Meeting
Council Chambers
1200 Carlsbad Village Drive
Carlsbad, CA 92008
Monday, Jan. 3, 2022, 3 p.m.
CALL TO ORDER: 3:02 p.m.
Chair Perez welcomed the newly appointed Commissioner Diane Proulx to the Traffic and Mobility
Commission
ROLL CALL: Perez, Linke, Penseyres, Fowler, Coelho and Proulx
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Chair Perez led the Pledge of Allegiance.
This meeting was conducted virtually via Zoom due to the stay-at-home order for COVID-19.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
Minutes of the Regular Meeting held Dec. 6, 2021.
Motion by Vice-Chair Linke, seconded by Commissioner Fowler to approve the minutes for the
Dec. 6, 2021, meeting as amended. Motion carried, 5/0/1 (Abstained: Commissioner Proulx)
PUBLIC COMMENT: None
CONSENT CALENDAR: None
DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS:
This item was heard at the beginning of the meeting
3. SEMIANNUAL TRANSPORTATION REPORT - (Staff Contact: Tom Frank, Public Works)
Staff’s Recommendation: Receive a presentation and provide input on the informational report and status update
Transportation Director Frank presented the report and reviewed a PowerPoint presentation
(on file in the Office of the City Clerk)
Commissioner Coelho inquired about the capital improvements dashboard and whether it is
available to the Traffic and Mobility Commission.
Transportation Director Frank replied that the capital improvements dashboard is available to
the public as well as the Traffic and Mobility Commission. A direct link will be sent out to all the
Commissioners.
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Vice-Chair Linke inquired when the TIA guidelines and the MMLOS point system under the
Planning and Mobility division would come back to the Traffic and Mobility Commission for
review.
Transportation Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt replied that the TIA guidelines still need
to go through an internal review because of the various departments involved. The guidelines
will also need to be presented to the Ad-hoc Committee after the internal review. The goal is to
have the ad-hoc committee to review sometime in March and then the T&MC, after that will be
presented to the City Council for final approval.
Transportation Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt stated that the Multimodal Level of
Service, or MMLOS, is still going through an internal review as well as testing on the tool
updates. The plan is to take it to the Ad-hoc Committee one more time before bringing back to
the T&MC. The MMLOS will be presented to the T&MC sometime in February or March.
Vice-Chair Linke commented on the Vehicle Miles Traveled Guidelines, or VMT, and the
Transportation Demand Management, or TDM, Program and asked to have language added to
the Semiannual Transportation Report that states that the programs will be updated in
collaboration with the T&MC and presented to the City Council. Vice-Chair Linke understands
that the VMT program is overseen by the Community Development Department, but the T&MC
has a duty to oversee these programs as they are on the commission’s work plan.
Transportation Director Frank replied that review of the TDM program is in the T&MC’s
workplan and will be worked on in collaboration with the T&MC.
Vice-Chair Linke commented that they would like to have the opportunity to review the
proposed changes. The MMLOS point system is really defining how we are going to be
approaching pedestrian, bicycle and transit level of service and how that is going to be
monitored.
Transportation Director Frank replied that there are a lot of moving parts as these are complex
new programs which were developed to help plan our mobility within the City and to help us
condition development projects for their fair share of improvements. We are looking at how we
can provide a clear outline of how all the different programs come together to help us evaluate
projects so we can adequately condition them.
Vice-Chair Linke stated that District 1, which he represents, the main concern is parking. He
inquired as to whether there is a Parking Management Plan and whether that can be included
as part of the Semiannual Transportation Report.
Transportation Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt replied that the Parking Management
Plan would be within the responsibilities of the Community Development Department.
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Staff will reach out to them to see what we can do to bring that in front of the T&MC.
Vice-Chair Linke commented that there are many items that fall under the commission’s list of
duties in the municipal code, including parking and the work on the VMT analysis guidelines
that are under the umbrella of the Community Development. He suggested to have a liaison
from the Community Development department to be part of the T&MC to form a tighter, more
collaborative relationship with that department.
Transportation Director Frank replied that they are always looking for ways to provide better
communication and collaboration between other departments and will take the suggestion
under consideration.
Chair Perez suggested going forward to make the accomplishments of the Transportation
department with more marketing materials, perhaps getting more information on the
dashboard for the residents to see.
Transportation Director Frank replied that our Communications Department does an
outstanding job getting information out to the public and that the low attendance on zoom
meetings should not reflect on how much information is being sent out to the public.
Transportation Director Frank asked if the T&MC could nominate a representative to join him
on Jan. 25, 2022, to present the Semiannual Transportation Report to the City Council.
Chair Perez said he would be honored to join and present the information from the T&MC to
the City Council.
Motion by Vice-Chair Linke, seconded by Commissioner Proulx to nominate Chair Brandon
Perez to represent the commission at City Council meeting on Jan. 25, 2022.
1. POLICE MONTHLY REPORT – (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 Penseyres inquired about the crash rates in 2021 versus previous years. In looking
at the data it appears there has been a significant increase in the number of crashes between
cars and bicyclists, specifically teenage bicyclists. In the past, most of these accidents were the
fault of the motorist, but it seems to be trending more toward the fault of the cyclist. Does the
Police Department have any plans on how to change the direction of this trend?
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Sergeant Meritt replied that most accidents involved E-bike’s which is a quick moving vehicle
with an inexperienced rider.
Commissioner Penseyres asked if there is an effort to note on the crash report whether it is an
E-bike or not?
Sergeant Meritt replied that there is no specific coding for an E-bike so an officer would have to
clearly state the type of bicycle in the narrative portion of the crash report.
Vice-Chair Linke commented that he has seen many comments on social media regarding E-bike
use and how it is only time before a very serious accident occurs. Many people are saying it
may be time to stop the use of electric bikes. The City wants to encourage the use of cycling
and therefore it is a very difficult situation. He appreciates everything that the Police
Department is doing on that front.
Commissioner Fowler commented that there is a lot of interest in meetings of the Local
Roadway Safety Plan about collecting data regarding the number of electric bikes involved in
collisions. It is hard to find this data as it is buried in the narrative of the police reports. It would
be important to collect this type of data since electric bike is a mobility device that is different
than a bicycle and most people recognize that. Is there a plan to change this going forward?
Could a check box be added to the reports?
Sergeant Meritt replied that on a local level they could find that data relatively easily with a
review of the crash reports. The state reporting numbers that people can access on SWITRS do
not collect this data. Until SWITRS manual is updated these numbers won’t show the specific
electric bike data.
Commissioner Fowler suggested that the Carlsbad Police could be proactive and start recording
this data internally and including it in the normal local reporting.
Sergeant Meritt responded that this is something that could be easily accomplished on a local
level and that he appreciates the input.
Commissioner Penseyres mentioned that there will be a smart cycling class starting on January
10, which will be virtual. On January 15, there will be an in-person classroom session held in
Oceanside. The Police Department could help by giving out business cards about the registration
for these E-bike classes when they cite cyclists. He also mentioned that the Police Department
could implement a program for bicycle offenders, similar to the motor vehicle offenders, to have
the ticket waived if the offender takes a bicycle safety class. Usually a program like this can be
set up between the Police Department and the District Attorney.
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Sergeant Meritt responded that he will speak with the City Attorney’s Office, the District
Attorney and the courts and get back to the T&MC with information.
Commissioner Proulx asked about the age allowance to ride an electric bike.
Sergeant Meritt replied that there are three different classes of electric bike’s and that if you
are under 16 years old you can’t ride a class three bike, or electric bike, which technically isn’t
allowed on our roadways.
Commissioner Proulx inquired as to whether there is a way to encourage SWITRS to be
more proactive in creating bicycle safety programs and enforcing laws.
Sergeant Meritt replied that he would reach out to SWITRS to see if they plan to put out
an updated version of their guidebook.
Vice-Chair Linke commented that he believes safety training should be mandatory for
youth’s just as drivers education training is mandatory to operate a motor vehicle. If that is not
an option, then a program like Commission Penseyres suggested would be a great step with
the bicycle safety class being mandatory for those who receive a ticket.
Chair Perez agrees that there should be a set standard on education for anyone who
purchases an electric bicycle. Hopefully the City of Carlsbad can be a leader in maintaining
proper safety and education for E-bike’s and bicycles.
2. TRAFFIC SIGNAL SYSTEM UPDATE – (Staff Contact: Nestor Mangohig and John Kim,
PublicWorks)
Staff’s Recommendation: Receive an informational presentation and provide input
Senior Engineer Mangohig presented the report and reviewed a PowerPoint presentation (on
file in the Office of the City Clerk)
Commissioner Fowler mentioned that integrating complex systems with many network
topologies into a single point of access, like a traffic management system generates a fair
amount of risk. In the presentation, the network maps show that the Traffic Management
System would control the way the traffic devices work from a single point of access. The risk
would be that people could gain illegal access to this system and disable the streetlights. He
asks if there are any studies known that calculate this risk. Also, has the Carlsbad IT
Department thought about ways to mitigate that risk?
Senior Engineer Mangohig replied that security was a very debated topic. IT Department, or IT,
ensures that it is more secure to bring things into one system. There are multiple switches and
gateways with the new system which is something we don’t have with the current flat network.
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The system will be much more secure because staff will not be holding onto individual
passwords and access and troubleshooting will be managed by IT. The whole network side of
the Traffic Communications network is now being integrated as part of the IT Communications
Master Plan.
City Traffic Engineer Kim added that the upgrades that were performed going from the 1070 to
the 2017 controller were controlled at the intersection level. There is not a system where there
is a master brain at the TMC controlling all of the signals. The signals are still controlled
individually at each intersection. They have been enhanced so that the communications
between the intersections is better, but we don’t have a system where there is one controller
at one location controlling all the signals.
Commissioner Penseyres asked about the incident in the past where people were purchasing
illegal devices that mimicked the one’s that Emergency Vehicles’s had allowing them to access
the traffic lights and change them as they are driving. Is this still an issue today?
Senior Engineer Mangohig replied that as a result of that incident, the devices and surrounding
agencies were coded so that none of the market devices will switch our signals the way they
used to, and this is an ongoing discussion with the Fire Department and outside agencies but at
the moment that is still status quo.
Commissioner Penseyres inquired about the traffic controllers which don’t work well for
cyclists. Most cyclists don’t know how to make the loop detectors work. This is being covered in
the new Bicycle Safety Class as well as where to stop the bicycle so that they are being detected
by the camera. There is a marking that can be placed on the street to show where the signal will
be most sensitive to the position of the cyclist. Is this something that the City has considered for
those traffic lights? Or can we program the signal to better pick up cyclists?
Senior Engineer Mangohig replied that they prefer to handle this situation the same way we do
with vehicles, which is by configuring the video so it picks up the cyclist and not having to have
the cyclist or vehicle in a specific spot. Please let the team know if there is an issue with a
specific traffic signal and we will reconfigure the video. We have different workarounds if the
typical fix doesn’t work. We can use a smaller array of boxes that are set to pick up bicycles and
so far, these have been working wherever they have been placed. We don’t use the in-ground
loop detectors at our traffic lights so there is no need to mark anything on the ground.
Commissioner Penseyres asked to investigate the signal on Cannon Road where you make a left
turn onto Carlsbad Boulevard.
Senior Engineer Mangohig replied that they will take a look at that signal and report back.
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Commissioner Penseyres asked if a cyclist is crossing the limit line when a light turns from green
to yellow, do they have enough time to cross the intersection going about 12 miles per hour
before the furthest lane of cross traffic gets a green light? Caltrans fixed this issue in Oceanside
by extending red lights for longer instead of adding time to the yellow lights. You need to
calculate how far it is across the intersection and how long it would take a cyclist to be able to
cross safely. This can also be an issue for a cyclist to cross an intersection from a stopped
position if the green and yellow lights are not long enough for the cyclist to safely get all the
way through. This new program should fully account for cyclists at every traffic signal in
Carlsbad.
Senior Engineer Mangohig replied that they have been adjusting signals to seven seconds for
left turns and 10 seconds for through lanes in order to account for cyclists. This might generate
some complaints from traffic on the mainline, but this has been done for the safety of the
cyclists. This is the type of checklist we are going through as we are updating each intersection.
We are looking at using some standardized all red-light time for intersections and we can add
more time where it is needed.
Vice Chair Linke inquired as to whether we are using an adaptive system for our traffic signals
during off peak hours. He asked staff to give a brief overview of the adaptive system for off
peak hours versus coordinated for on peak hours. He wants to know what kind of expectations
drivers can have during those times for getting red lights versus green lights.
Senior Engineer Mangohig replied that staff plans to look at that data again. A study needs to
be done to see if free works better for off peak or if adaptive works better. It tries to anticipate
based on downstream traffic patterns and platoons coming in. Adaptive is really a bunch of
coordinated plans that change on the fly based on the data you input. A lot of large venue’s
including Disneyland did their own trials and chose not to go with adaptive. They found that
time of day plans work best. here are different methods of looking at coordination and this
should be a topic we discuss again at a later time.
Chair Perez asked if the traffic data is live on the City of Carlsbad website and if it is not will it be
implemented on the website? Also, is this data passed on to google traffic or yahoo traffic or
any similar sites?
Senior Engineer Mangohig replied that the data is not currently being shared with any
websites. There needs to be certain data sharing agreements written up in order for that to
happen. Not all agencies are interested in these agreements as there is some ownership of the
data. We would need to explore this option more with the City Attorney’s Office before we go
down that route. The City Map that there are links to is a system we just got access to and it is
not online yet. As they become online and we are able to extract real time data we will get
those maps running and they will be very specific to the City of Carlsbad.
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This item was heard at the beginning of the meeting
3. SEMIANNUAL TRANSPORTATION REPORT - (Staff Contact: Tom Frank, Public Works) Staff’s Recommendation: Receive a presentation and provide input on the informational report and status update
CITY TRAFFIC ENGINEER COMMENTS:
City Traffic Engineer Kim mentioned that he sent out a written memorandum update and he
welcomes any feedback from the T&MC on the content or format.
Chair Perez mentioned an inquiry that he got from parents of the Hope Elementary in regards a
speed signal stating that the speed limit is 25 miles per hour when children are present and a
temporary speed feedback sign that is blocking the official sign. City Traffic Engineer Kim replied that if an official sign is blocked by a speed feedback sign then staff would be happy to correct that issue. Chair Perez mentioned another inquiry by a resident on Edgewater Way and Carlsbad Village Drive that seems to be a sinkhole with some tape around it but there is no visibility at night. They want to make sure the City is aware of this issue or whether this was placed by private construction. City Traffic Engineer Kim replied that he would like an email with specific location information, and they will follow up on this issue. TRAFFIC AND MOBILITY COMMISSION COMMENTS:
Commissioner Penseyres commented that he has used the Carlsbad App that was presented to
the Commission in previous sessions. He has been using the App to report glass in the bike
lanes. The Consultant goes out and has to use a broom but when the glass is spread over 700
yards it is really hard to clean up. I would like to request that the street sweeper add Jefferson
Street and also the class one bike path between the city limits of Carlsbad and Oceanside to the
schedule.
Transportation Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt replied that they can inform our street maintenance crews and add those two locations to the street sweeping schedule. Chair Perez mentioned that there are five members of the commission on the T&MC whose appointments will be expiring on December of 2022. He inquired as to whether we have a plan to fill these positions. It takes considerable time to go through the process of interviews and City Council nomination. Transportation Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt commented that they will be prepared to fill all five positions by the end of the year.
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Commissioner Proulx asked if any of the Commissioners are available for reappointment? Chair Perez commented that they are all available for reappointment if they choose.
City Clerk McMinn commented that the reason that all five members of the commission are
coming up for expiration at the same time is due to Council Policy number 88 which is related
to the T&MC expiration dates coinciding with Mayor and Council Member election dates.
These positions are Council and district driven and therefore coincide with the election dates.
Chair Perez stated that the elections will happen in November of 2022 and we will have our new City Council Member and Mayor and then they will take oath when they go into office. We then might have a gap for a few weeks after the election.
City Clerk McMinn commented that there might be a gap for a few weeks. The City Council Member and Mayor should be sworn in sometime in December. They will then be given two weeks to interview any candidates for the Commission. We should have members either reappointed or new members appointed by the end of December or early January at the latest. ADJOURNMENT:
Chair Perez adjourned the Traffic & Mobility Commission Meeting on Jan. 3, 2022, at 5:36 p.m.
___________________________
Eliane Paiva, Minutes Clerk