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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-10-03; Traffic and Mobility Commission; Minutes Page 1 of 8 Council Chambers 1200 Carlsbad Village Drive Carlsbad, CA 92008 Oct. 3, 2022, 4:00 p.m. CALL TO ORDER: 4:02 p.m. ROLL CALL: Perez, Linke, Penseyres, Fowler, Coelho and Proulx Absent: Newlands PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: Chair Perez led the Pledge of Allegiance APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes of the Special Meeting held Aug. 18, 2022. Motion by Vice-Chair Linke, seconded by Commissioner Proulx to approve the minutes of Aug. 18, 2022, meeting as presented. Motion carried, 6/0/0/1 (Absent: Commissioner Newlands) Minutes of the Regular Meeting held Sept. 6, 2022. Motion by Vice-Chair Linke, seconded by Commissioner Proulx to approve the minutes of Aug. 18, 2022, meeting as amended. Motion carried, 6/0/0/1 (Absent: Commissioner 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. Rod Hafeti spoke about speeding around Snug Harbor. The average speed limit noted during the study was over 40-mph in a 25-mph zone. He asked the Commission to consider traffic calming measures. Brian Connor spoke about being proactive and requiring that the residents park their cars in the garage. Residents continue to leave many vehicles on the street, and this causes safety issues for pedestrians. Other cities enforce this issue and charge a permit fee to park vehicles on the street. CONSENT CALENDAR: Motion by Commissioner Vice-Chair Linke, seconded by Commissioner Proulx to approve Consent Item Nos. 1 and 2. Motion carried: 6/0/0/1 (Absent: Newlands) 1. EL CAMINO REAL ROADWAY IMPROVEMENTS FROM SUNNY CREEK ROAD TO JACKSPAR DRIVE, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM PROJECT NO. 6094 – The Traffic & Mobility Commission supported staff’s recommendation to approve the plans and specifications of the intersection improvements at El Camino Real from Sunny Creek Road to Jackspar Drive, Capital Improvement Program, or CIP, Project No. 6094. Page 2 of 8 Vice-Chair Linke inquired about the exception language on Item 1. Associate Engineer Miles responded that the exception is the second paragraph background for green paint in the bike lane conflicts. We will be working with traffic to add green paint in the bike lane conflict areas. 2. EL CAMINO REAL ROADWAY IMPROVEMENTS FROM POINSETTIA LANE TO CAMINO VIDA ROBLE, CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT NO. 6072 – The Traffic & Mobility Commission supported staff’s recommendation to approve the plans and specifications of the intersection improvements at El Camino Real from Poinsettia Lane to Camino Vida Roble, Capital Improvement Program, or CIP, Project No. 6072. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS: 3. POLICE REPORT REGARDING TRAFFIC & MOBILITY-RELATED MATTERS DURING THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER 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 August 2022. (Staff Contact: Acting Sergeant George Zavala, Police Department) Staff’s Recommendation: Receive a presentation Acting Sergeant Zavala presented the report and reviewed a PowerPoint presentation (on file in the Office of the City Clerk) Commissioner Coelho asked how the Police Department collect the community concerns and how do they aggregate them so that they make the list shown in the presentation. Acting Sergeant Zavala responded that they receive emails and phone calls from the community with the mentioned concerns. Vice-Chair Linke inquired about the multiple bicycle fatalities that happened in the month of August and if the police department could share the information. Acting Sergeant Zavala replied that one of the bicycle fatalities was caused by reckless driving. The investigations on both fatalities are still ongoing and have potential criminal processing and filing. 4. APPROVE PLUM TREE ROAD AS AN EXCEPTION INTO PHASE II OF THE CARLSBAD RESIDENTIAL TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT PROGRAM AND ALL-WAY STOP ANALYSIS AT THREE INTERSECTIONS – 1) Approve Plum Tree Road as an exception to the Phase II of the Carlsbad Residential Traffic Management program. 2) Support staff’s recommendation to not install all-way stop on Plum Tree Road at Red Knot Street, Robinea Drive and Windflower Drive. (Staff Contact: Lindy Pham and Miriam Jim, Public Works) Staff’s Recommendation: Receive a presentation Associate Engineer Pham and Senior Engineer Jim presented the report and reviewed a PowerPoint presentation (on file in the Office of the City Clerk) Page 3 of 8 Commissioner Coelho asked staff to elaborate on what it means to be in the Carlsbad Residential Traffic Management Program. What is the path we are on if we know that we are not installing all-way stops? Associate Engineer Pham responded that the process is the following: during the neighborhood meetings, staff will present traffic calming strategies and other options that residents can consider such as speed cushions or a traffic circle. Staff will receive comments and then go back and finalize the conceptual plan and send out a survey to all the residents in the project area. The results of the survey will determine whether we move forward with the project or not. Commissioner Proulx clarified that staff will go back and review other options for the area, and she inquired what is currently staff recommendation. Associate Engineer Pham responded that staff is recommending that the commission grants approval of the exception into phase two of the Carlsbad Traffic Management Program. The critical speed is below the 32-mph threshold, so they are not currently eligible for any traffic calming measures. Commissioner Fowler asked if speed cushions are the only option left. Associate Engineer Pham said that speed cushions would be the most effective option in this area. Vice-Chair Linke said that he supports the recommendation to approve the exception and added that speed cushions are self-enforcing, and this approach should be used on all of the residential streets that have speeding issues. Chair Perez inquired about what speed cushion is compared to a speed bump. Associate Engineer Pham responded that speed bumps are often found in commercial parking areas as they are narrower and more abrupt. Speed cushions are more gradual. They are about 12 feet wide and span the length of the roadway bed. Commissioner Coelho commented that this is an opportunity to look beyond Plum Tree Road to get the change that we want at Poinsettia Park to enhance the conditions. Maybe add alternate entrances to the park, or striping on Paseo Del Norte. Commissioner Penseyres commented that when we use the critical speed of 32-mph this still means that 15 percent of the people are driving faster than that. If residents are asking for solutions, then we need to look way beyond the 32-mph threshold. Speeding is the most common cause of serious injuries and fatalities on these residential streets. Commissioner Proulx inquired about the distance between the two stop signs on Plum Tree Road. Associate Engineer Pham responded that there is an intersection between the two stop signs and we don’t have the distance noted in the presentation. Residents have complained that vehicles do not always stop at these stop signs. We will work with the residents to find a solution once they are accepted into the CRTMP. Page 4 of 8 Motion by Commissioner Coelho, seconded by Commissioner Proulx to approve staff recommendations for items 1 and 2. Motion carried: 6/0/0/1 (Absent: Newlands) 5.PRESENTATION ABOUT COMPLETE STREETS IN CARLSBAD AND ACTIONS TAKEN SINCE THE AUG. 23, 2022, PROCLAMATION OF A LOCAL TRAFFIC SAFETY EMERGENCY - Receive a presentation about complete streets in Carlsbad and actions taken since the Aug. 23, 2022, proclamation of a local traffic safety emergency. (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) Chair Perez asked staff to go over the process of what will happen at the meeting being held on Oct. 27, 2022. Transportation Director Frank said that the meeting on Oct. 27, will be a commissioners meeting. There are 44 options on attachment A for consideration. We will be looking for your recommendations for City Council. Chair Perez inquired if they ask questions about the 44 options presented. Transportation Director Frank says that yes, the commission can ask questions on the options. Commissioner Coelho asked how this will overlay with City Council’s meetings and their timeline? Transportation Director Frank responded that City Council directed staff to get the public input as well as the Planning Commission and the Traffic & Mobility Commission. On Nov. 8, 2022, staff will present the recommendations received from the Planning Commission, the Traffic & Mobility Commission and from the public to the City Council. Commissioner Coelho asked if the intent is to review all 44 items and provide a recommendation or to provide a recommendation on all 44 items? Transportation Director Frank responded that it is to review the options and provide recommendations to the City Council. Commissioner Proulx asked about education, engineering and enforcement, the three E’s. Assuming that relates to the comments which show changing laws, controlling speed and more enforcement. It looks like change laws is not part of the three E’s. Did this come out of the community input? Transportation Director Frank said that was part of the communications input effort which was used to tailor the approach for the three E’s. Commissioner Proulx asked how staff will accommodate the change laws suggestion. Transportation Director Frank said that will be covered under the enforcement efforts. Page 5 of 8 Commissioner Penseyres inquired about Assembly Bill 43 if it is already in effect. Transportation Director Frank said that he does not have this information about Assembly Bill 43 which provides cities more flexibility to set their speed limits on their residential roadways. Cities would not have to comply with the 85-percentile rule. We are reviewing what a work plan would look like to review the speed limits throughout the city. Commissioner Penseyres inquired if staff are monitoring driver behavior before and after to see how they are responding to the green paint? Transportation Director Frank said that he does not believe staff have gone out to do an evaluation of traffic operations since we have put down the recent green markings. It is something that we will be looking at in the future. Commissioner Penseyres said that one of the projects was to consider rumble strips. The rumble strips would be installed where there are buffered bike lanes. The rumble strips would be on the inner stripe of the buffer. Is that correct? How did you decide to make it the inner stripe versus the outer stripe? Transportation Director Frank said this is correct and would be for higher speed roadways. It is something that could be considered and would be brought in front of the public for discussion. We would reach out to the bicycle clubs for input as well. The rumble strip would be inside of the outer bike lane stripe. It is the bike lane stripe on the inside closest to the vehicle. The intent is to notify the driver if they are weaving over the initial bike lane line. It also provides more room for the bicyclists to ride side by side if they choose to. Vice-Chair Linke asked about whether the staff plans to present any aspect of this plan to City Council again before the meeting on Nov. 8, 2022. Transportation Director Frank said that staff is required as part of the emergency proclamation to go back to City Council every 60 days. They will be going back to City Council on Oct. 18, 2022, and he is sure there will be some mention of the actions taken as part of the Safer Streets Together Program. City Council has already acted on Option A which is moving forward. City Council will be considering options in addition to Option A on Nov. 8, 2022. Vice-Chair Linke asked about one of the aspects of Option A which is vision zero commitment. Can staff present to us what that commitment actually entails at the next meeting. As an example, on the vision zero website it says the absolute core strategy focuses in on speeds. The goal is for all non-arterial streets to have a speed limit of 20-mph. On arterial streets the absolute limit should be 30 to 35-mph. It is a step too far to say that all arterial streets should have a speed limit of 30 to 35-mph. In the absence of making that the speed limit on arterial streets it is to have protected bike lanes with physical barriers and automated speed enforcement. What is the goal for our arterial streets as far as the speed limit, the installation of protected bike lanes and the installation of the automated speed enforcement? Deputy City Manager Gomez responded that at the City Council meeting they discussed Vision Zero. The intent is for staff to return with a draft resolution supporting the Vision Zero concept and then City Council will task and direct staff to come back with an action plan on how we are going to move forward. It is in concept at this point and there won’t be any additional information by the Oct. 27, meeting. City Council Page 6 of 8 has indicated that they want staff to move forward with Vision Zero and staff will look at that and will be asking for assistance on developing the plan. Vice-Chair Linke asked if the Traffic and Mobility Commission will have a chance to review the resolution on Oct. 27, special meeting before it goes before City Council. Transportation Director Frank responded that there is no time schedule given for staff to return to address the Vision Zero resolution. The local agency gets to tailor their own Vision Zero program and therefore changing speed limits on Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real down to 35-mph would be a serious consideration. He does not see the community getting behind that change. Staff will look at what makes sense for City of Carlsbad. Deputy City Manager Gomez said that on the special meeting on Oct. 27, the Traffic and Mobility Commission will have the ability to weigh in on what they would like to see for the City of Carlsbad. Commissioner Coelho asked if each segment of road will be evaluated individually for Vision Zero and hopes that we are not just going to blanket the entire city with one speed limit. Commissioner Proulx said that she also viewed the website and understands that Vision Zero are strategies that we can implement within the city and not specific ideas that we have to implement. We can do what works within our community. Are we looking to hire a consultant to write this plan? Vice-Chair Linke asked if Option C could be considered without the $44 Million school bussing program? In his opinion, speed cushions and access plans would be more effective than crosswalks. Deputy City Manager Gomez said the questions should be deferred until the special meeting. CITY TRAFFIC ENGINEER COMMENTS: Transportation Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt said last week he sent out an email outlining the process for the Commissioners to agendize an item. There are three opportunities for bike training this month. On Oct. 4, there is a Smart Cycling Class being held virtually from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm. You can register through the San Diego County Bike Coalition. On Oct. 15, there is Smart City Cycling and that is in the city of Encinitas. This is an abbreviated course from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 pm. On Oct. 18, there is a bicycle friendly driver course virtually from 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm. On Oct. 25, is the Annual Boards and Commissioners Event and he encourages everyone to attend to celebrate their hard work. TRAFFIC AND MOBILITY COMMISSION COMMENTS: Commissioner Penseyres said they had a Smart Cycling class for the City of Carlsbad Police Department this past week. The intent is for these police officers to go on and take a league certified seminar so they can become instructors and teach others. Vice-Chair Linke brought up the public comment on Valley Street and Tamarack Avenue and inquired if staff has an update. There was a promise that staff would evaluate how it is working. Are there any Page 7 of 8 metrics that will be used to evaluate how well it is working? Transportation Director Frank said that staff has committed to a three-phase approach to addressing traffic concerns at the intersection of Tamarack Avenue and Valley Street. You heard about Phase A which we are moving forward with. We have a public meeting scheduled for next week to assess the speeding between Skyline Drive and Adams Street. The second phase is addressing the traffic signal and intersection improvements that are nearly complete. What staff committed to was returning to the Traffic and Mobility Commission within six months of completion of those improvements. We will be analyzing what will be included in that study which will be both quantitative and qualitative. We will review what operations have taken place. The third phase is what we consider our transformative project on Tamarack Avenue and that is following our Sustainable Mobility Plan. That is not going to be worked on until the next fiscal year due to staff’s workload. There will be plenty of public outreach opportunities. We have been addressing some construction related issues tied to the improvements and are working with our existing contractor and staff to alleviate some of these concerns. Vice-Chair Linke brought up the other public comment about speeding in Snug Harbor. Is there an update on this issue? Transportation Director Frank said staff will follow-up on that. Vice-Chair Linke inquired if there is an update on the Multi-Modal Level of Service since the last meeting of the Ad-Hoc Committee meeting on Aug. 3, 2022. Transportation Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt replied that the consultant is updating the tool and performing the field work analysis. Once completed they will have another ad-hoc committee meeting to present the results and consequently bring to the Traffic and Mobility Commission. Commissioner Penseyres asked to see the results in advance to have time to look at what is being done and provide feedback. He said something good to come out of the City Council meeting last week is that they want to give the Traffic and Mobility Commission about a month to review all the documents. Do we know how soon before the meeting that we will have the information in front of us? Transportation Planning and Mobility Manager Schmidt said that he can commit to provide the ad-hoc Committee a sufficient amount of time to review the results. Vice-Chair Linke wants to remind everyone about the Communication Plan. It says when City Staff plans to bring forward an item related to the Work Plan for action to the Planning Commission or the City Council, staff will seek an advisory recommendation from the Commission beforehand. He says the plan they were presented today falls under the Traffic and Mobility Commissions duties and we should be reviewing it and in contact with some of the City Council members. Staff then decided to bring it to the Traffic and Mobility Commission as an information only item but not for feedback. The City Council has since voted to have us review it. He is frustrated as when he first joined the Traffic and Mobility Commission three years ago they were being bypassed on the most significant issues. He feels we are reverting back to that and that there are a lot of issues that we have been bypassed on. Staff has gone directly to City Council with items that are on our Work Plan. We need to get back to the point where our Commission is reviewing these items. Page 8 of 8 Chair Perez commented on the pedestrian bridge between Cannon Road and El Camino Real that is operational, and it is beautiful. Lastly, schools are working on sustainability. For Hope Elementary, is there something we can do about idle parking? Is there something we can do to bring attention to this issue? Can we provide information on this or on greenhouse gas? Transportation Director Frank said that staff are working with Hope Elementary to develop their safe routes to school and access plan. Please let us know of any specific people you are talking with that we can reach out to about the idle parking. ADJOURNMENT: Chair Perez adjourned the Traffic & Mobility Commission Special Meeting on Oct. 3, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. ___________________________ Eliane Paiva, Minutes Clerk