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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMin - TSP - 2022.01.131 TRAFFIC, SAFETY AND PARKING COMMISSION Approved Minutes Regular Meeting of Thursday, January 13, 2022 1. CALL TO ORDER 7:05 p.m. 2. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG 3. ROLL CALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Israelit, Leigh, Martos, Ng, Rebelos MEMBERS ABSENT: None 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES a) December 9, 2021 Meeting Minutes Motion: To accept the December 9, 2021 Meeting Minutes as submitted. M/S/C; Leigh/Ng, 5/0/0 5. PUBLIC COMMENTS – NON-AGENDA Keith Good requested the consideration of a stop sign at the intersection of Hillside Drive and Bernal Avenue for a future agenda item. He said they continue to see accidents every other week at that location. Mr. Good stated that people speed up the hill west to Vancouver Avenue and they are slow to break when they are traveling down the hill. More specifically, Mr. Good explained the difficulties coming out of Bernal Avenue and said visibility on the left side is very poor due to the curb at the northeast corner, where large vehicles tend to be parked. He indicated that a lot of BIS students cross at that intersection in the morning. Additionally, Mr. Good stated he submitted an initial request to the City in August and followed up in October, where he was redirected to former Commissioner Howard Wettan. He reiterated his desire to obtain more data about this location and to have the opportunity to present his concerns to the team. Chair Martos stated the traffic staff will evaluate the area and if it meets the criteria of the state 2 and City, it can be brought to TSPC for consideration. Denise Good stated she has talked to a lot of parents in the area and many kids cross in that area to get to BIS. She said you can see children playing chicken across that road. Mrs. Good also shared that she is a nurse and has discussed this with staff of the fire department and indicated they would welcome a four-way stop at Bernal and Hillside. She also stated the intersection is crazy between 8:00 – 8:20 am. Chair Martos said he appreciated the feedback. Mr. Wong indicated this is one of the intersections that has been under review and that staff would keep them updated as to when this topic would be addressed by the Commission. Mr. Good closed to say there is strong local support for additional stop controls at Hillside and Bernal and that he can provide a petition from neighbors in support of this request. Jim Evans inquired about a letter provided to the Commission back in June 2021 with regard to speeding on Bernal Avenue between Devereux Drive and Adeline Drive. He stated this has been a problem for quite a while. Mr. Evans said cars consistently exceed the speed limit and it warrants some attention. Mr. Wong stated he would check with Sergeant Perna and that an upcoming quick-build project may address the speeding concerns on Bernal Avenue. 6. DISCUSSION/ACTION ITEMS a) Community B/PAC Update (Informational Item Only) B/PAC Chair Lesley Beatty stated B/PAC discussed the projects from the City’s list that they would like to see prioritized in 2022. She said bike priorities include the bike boulevards (Carmelita, Paloma, Capuchino) because of where they are and that this is laying the ground work for future bike boulevards. Ms. Beatty stated the second bike priority includes the area of Broadway, Carolan, and Cadillac to the pedestrian bridge, which she indicated is a tricky interchange to navigate. For pedestrian priorities, she said the B/PAC is excited to see the pedestrian quick-build improvements in place and they are supportive of those efforts. Ms. Beatty shared that B/PAC is interested in seeing the designs that reference overlaying brick work and with improving the pedestrian crossings at California Drive and Burlingame Avenue to which she would be sharing some recommendations soon. Commissioner Leigh made the following motion to move the Police Department Reports up on the agenda due to the upcoming lengthy priority discussion. Motion: Move item 7.b up to 6.b tonight. M/S/C; Leigh/Israelit, 5/0/0 3 b) Police Department Reports Sergeant Perna shared the collision report and stated there was an increase in collisions for the month of December with 22 documented collisions. He stated three of those collisions involved either a pedestrian or bicyclist. Sergeant Perna went into additional detail regarding those three accidents. He stated on December 10 at 3:55 pm there was a minor injury collision at Broadway and Capuchino Avenue involving a vehicle and bicyclist. He shared the bicyclist was riding southbound on the sidewalk on Capuchino approaching Broadway, did not stop at the stop sign, and rode off the sidewalk and into the crosswalk where it struck a vehicle. Sergeant Perna explained the bicyclist was at fault for not stopping at the stop sign and riding off the sidewalk right into the crosswalk. Vice-Chair Israelit confirmed the bicyclist was a juvenile. Commissioner Leigh stated as a parent she would probably tell her children to ride on the sidewalk at that location due to the diagonal parking and she said this also highlights the need to have alternative routes in that area for bicyclists. Sergeant Perna explained the second collision on December 9 at 3:01 pm involved a vehicle turning left from Bayswater onto California Drive and struck a pedestrian in the crosswalk. Commissioner Ng clarified the pedestrian was crossing eastbound on Bayswater. Commissioner Leigh inquired with Mr. Wong if there are zebra stripes in that crosswalk and said she thought this location is one of the higher collision areas on the map. She suggested design considerations for left-turns in the future and perhaps a four or seven second delay. Mr. Wong confirmed they are high visibility crosswalks at that intersection. Chair Martos confirmed with Sergeant Perna that it was a major injury collision. Sergeant Perna shared that on December 31 at 1:12 pm there was a collision involving a juvenile and vehicle. He explained the pedestrian was crossing Broadway northbound on Laguna Avenue and the vehicle was westbound on Broadway. Sergeant Perna said the notes indicate the driver was focused on another vehicle and did not see the pedestrians in the crosswalk and struck one going 10-15 MPH. Commissioner Leigh stated she hopes we improve the engineering and design of our top collision intersections. Commissioner Rebelos inquired if Broadway and Laguna Avenue have the flashing yellow beacons. Mr. Wong stated the only one like that is the crossing at Paloma but the others are considered high visibility crosswalks. Chair Martos asked Sergeant Perna if the motorist was cited to which he replied they were not. Vice-Chair Israelit inquired as to why the motorist would not be cited for hitting a pedestrian in the crosswalk. Sergeant Perna explained it is not a department policy but he could bring that to the attention of the Police Chief if the Commission desired. He said the reason why they do not make it a practice to cite vehicles is because the DMV takes action on your license based on the type of collision. Additionally, Sergeant Perna said they don’t want people to flee the scene because they are worried about a citation or the fact that collisions are not typically criminal in nature. Vice-Chair Israelit clarified that she did not ask the question with the intent to change the department approach, but to understand the reasoning. Sergeant Perna explained with 4 this type of accident, the driver will receive two points on their record; if the driver was to receive a citation that would add an additional point to their record (totaling three points). Commissioner Leigh inquired if other cities in the area issue citations in similar situations and suggested we consider issuing citations when a driver hits a juvenile in the crosswalk. Sergeant Perna said he did not know if other cities issued citations in cases like this but that he would look into it. Commissioner Rebelos thanked Sergeant Perna for his explanation and then asked if that was consistent with departments across the region or if it’s unique to BPD as he would like to understand the approach a little better. Sergeant Perna said he would be happy to look into it and report back to the Commission. Chair Martos said he and Sergeant Perna spoke earlier regarding the Police Department reports. He explained the report is categorized by street and then Sergeant Perna highlights injury accidents so the Commissioners can start seeing groups of problem streets or intersections. Chair Martos also confirmed that the heat map has been updated. Sergeant Perna then reviewed the heat map with the Commission, which includes five years of collision data, broken out by vehicle, pedestrian, and bicycle collisions. Sergeant Perna also stated the data for the heat map is from the BPD’s internal database. Commissioner Leigh said she is interested to see the SWITRS data and indicated she would look into it. Chair Martos stated he asked for Sergeant Perna to share the heat map this evening with the intent to possibly use it as a tool to help identify priorities for 2022. Commissioner Leigh pointed out that the map shows the Broadway, Burlingame Avenue, and Bayswater areas as high pedestrian areas and mentioned Broadway, Cadillac, and Rollins as tough areas for bicyclists. Additionally, Commissioner Leigh stated areas surrounding schools such as BIS and BHS are high pedestrian and biking areas. During the review of the heat map, Commissioner Leigh stated she knows Quesada has a lot of bicycle hits based on her work with Rusty Hopewell that are not showing up on the map. Vice-Chair Israelit stated that in the past TSPC discussed receiving heat map updates on a quarterly basis as anything more frequently would only show miniscule changes and inquired what the preference would be now. Sergeant Perna stated he can keep it updated and provide a monthly update. Commissioner Rebelos requested filters by collision type (primary collision factor) and Sergeant Perna stated he could do that by creating another overlay. Commissioner Ng asked if the heat map could be accessible to the Commissioners to which Sergeant Perna said he did not have an issue with that as long as Mr. Wong and Chair Martos agreed to it. Due to multiple suggestions received about the frequency to receive the heat map updates, Chair Martos requested a motion. Commissioner Leigh made a motion to receive the heat map update every other month unless otherwise requested, but the motion failed with no second motion. Vice-Chair Israelit made a motion to ask Sergeant Perna to present 5 the heat map of collisions quarterly to the Commission. That motion also failed. Commissioner Rebelos then made the following motion. Motion: We have it every month but don’t necessarily take a deep dive every month. M/S/C; Rebelos/Leigh, 5/0/0 c) 2022 TSPC Priority List After a productive exercise to prioritize the Commission’s efforts in 2022, the Commissioners outlined their upcoming priorities as presented in the table below. RANK TOPIC/AREA OF FOCUS 1 Broadway/Carmelita Bike/Ped TSPC Study 2 BIS School Safety Improvements 3 Pedestrian Safety at California/Burlingame Ave 4 Lorton Corridor TSPC Study (Roundabout to Howard) 5 SB California Lane Configuration (Bike Mobility) 6 Bike\Ped Plan Priorities 7 Parking Garage Usage 8 Downtown Parking and Access 9 Broadway Parking 10 School Transportation and Safety Issues Included in the priorities is a joint meeting with City Council and parking and traffic considerations with the Planning Department. The Engineering staff list of priorities was revised to remove completed projects. The revised 2022 list is below. RANK ENGINEERING AREAS OF FOCUS 1 Caltrans’ ECR Corridor 2 Downtown Parking Strategies 3 City Hall Traffic Calming/Floribunda 4 Oak Grove/Carolan Traffic Signal 5 Bike\Ped Plan Implementation 6 Chapin Avenue Green Streets Project 7 Old Bayshore Corridor Study (n/o Broadway) 8 Grant Opportunities 9 Broadway Grade Separation 10 San Mateo's Peninsula Ave OC 11 School Speed Limit Updates 12 School Safety Improvements 6 13 Lyon-Hoag Neighborhood Traffic Calming 14 300 Burlingame Point Traffic Impacts 15 Broadway/California Update d) TSPC Sub-Committee Selections The Commission discussed which committees they would like to have in 2022. Ultimately, Broadway Parking/Traffic Issues, School Traffic, and the Citywide Transportation Alternatives was removed. The following two Committees were agreed upon for this calendar year: • Community Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory (Leigh & Rebelos); and • Downtown Parking was revised to Burlingame Avenue Safety + Access (Leigh & Martos). Commissioner Ng volunteered to be an alternate for the Community Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Mr. Wong said he would confirm alternate representation with the Assistant Director of Public Works. Chair Martos conveyed that committees can be revised/added at any time. 7. INFORMATION ITEMS a) Engineering Division Reports Mr. Wong provided an update on the following Public Works/Engineering projects. • Highland Parking Garage Update – Staff currently working to inform all businesses and parking users of the location and availability within the new parking garage. • Old Bayshore Highway Feasibility Study – Staff scheduled to present the preferred alternative to City Council at their February 7, 2022 meeting. Commissioner Leigh inquired about the progress of the bike rack in the new parking garage. Mr. Wong stated he would speak to Ms. Michael to see what the status is. Mr. Wong also stated that excerpts from the Bike and Ped Master Plan have been mailed to the Commissioners today. Commissioner Ng asked to what magnitude is the new parking garage underutilized. Mr. Wong said the first floor is full, second floor is somewhat utilized, but parking on the third, fourth, and fifth floors is not being utilized. 7 TSPC Priority List (revised November 2021): TSPC Led Effort 1 Bike\Ped Plan Priorities 5/13/21: Item 6b 2 School Transportation and Safety Issues 1/14/21: Item 7a 3 Caltrans’ ECR Corridor 4/8/21: Item 7a 4 Neighborhood Traffic Calming/Controls 2/11/21: Item 7a 5 Old Bayshore Corridor Study (s/o Broadway) 10/14/21: Item 6c 6 Electric Vehicle Discussion with Planning 10/14/21: Item 6b 7 Downtown Parking and Access 10/14/21: Item 7a 8 Broadway Parking 2/11/21: Item 7a 9 Citywide Transportation Alternatives 10/14/21: Item 6b Staff Update via Report 1 Caltrans’ ECR Corridor 4/8/21: Item 7a 2 Hoover School Update 8/12/21: Item 7a 3 Downtown Parking Strategies 7/8/21: Item 6c 4 City Hall Traffic Calming/Floribunda 4/11/19: Item 6b 5 California Roundabout 5/9/19: Item 7a 6 Oak Grove/Carolan Traffic Signal 3/11/21: Item 6b 7 Bike\Ped Plan Update: fwd to BPAC 1/14/21: Item 7a 8 Rec Center Parking 3/12/20: Item 7a 9 Old Bayshore Corridor Study 10/14/21: Item 6c 10 Grant Opportunities 10/14/21: Item 6d 11 Broadway Grade Separation 8/12/21: Item 7a 12 San Mateo's Peninsula Ave OC 5/13/21: Item 7a 13 School Speed Limit Updates 6/13/19, Item 7a 14 School Safety Improvements 3/12/20: Item 7a 15 Lyon-Hoag Neighborhood Traffic Calming 8/12//21: Item 7a 16 300 Burlingame Point Traffic Impacts 12/10/20: Item 7a 17 Broadway/California Update 11/10/21: Item 6b 2021 Agenda Item Action Status 1 Highland Garage Parking Restrictions Approved by Council February 16, 2021 b) Farmer’s Market No update; will revisit next month. 8 c) TSPC Chair/Commissioner’s Communications Commissioner Rebelos said he received information from a resident about requesting speed humps on Dufferin between El Camino Real and California Drive. Commissioner Rebelos suggested to the resident that they send an email to staff with the request but indicated the resident did not want to “get involved in politics.” Commissioner Rebelos asked if staff could look into this request. Mr. Wong suggested Commissioner Rebelos contact the resident again because part of the process to evaluate the street includes the circulation of a petition for neighborhood support. Commissioner Leigh asked if the area near Dufferin was being resurfaced. Mr. Wong clarified there was utility work in the area. Commissioner Leigh inquired about balancing the bike lanes with 6.5 feet for both sides of the road there but Mr. Wong explained the small area that was worked on would be returned to how it was prior. Vice-Chair Israelit asked about the plans for the rehabilitation of El Camino Real and the work currently being done. Mr. Wong explained the work currently on El Camino Real is for utility work—replacement of water lines. Mr. Wong said he would include updates in the monthly division report. Vice-Chair Israelit indicated she did not see any updates in the eNews about the work and suggested residents receive updates via the eNews because the work is disruptive. 8. COMMISSION & SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS a) Downtown Parking (Martos) No new update—new subcommittees established under item 6.d. b) Broadway Parking/Traffic Issues (Israelit & Leigh) No new update—new subcommittees established under item 6.d. c) School Traffic (Israelit) No new update—new subcommittees established under item 6.d. d) Citywide Transportation Alternatives (Rebelos) No new update—new subcommittees established under item 6.d. e) Community Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory (Leigh & Rebelos) No new update—new subcommittees established under item 6.d. 9 9. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS • Top two items from the new 2022 priority list 10. ADJOURNMENT 9:49 p.m.