ASHLAND TRANSPORTATION COMMISSION

MINUTES

AUGUST 22, 2013

CALL TO ORDER:  Chair David Young called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. in the Civic Center Council Chambers, 1175 E. Main Street.

Commissioners Present:  Joe Graf, Corinne Viéville, Pam Hammond and David Young

Absent Members:  Shawn Kampmann, Craig Anderson, and David Chapman

Ex officio Present:  Steve MacLennan

Staff Present:  Scott Fleury and Tami De Mille-Campos

Council Liaison Present:  Carol Voisin

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The commission welcomed Joe Graf as the newest Commissioner.

CONSENT AGENDA

A.  Approval of Minutes, June 27, 2013

The minutes of June 27, 2013 were approved as presented. Graf abstained.      

PUBLIC FORUM

No one came forward to speak.

ACTION ITEMS

A.  N. Mountain Ave.

Eleanor, resident of 769 N. Mountain Ave. spoke about the visibility issues which are now an increasing problem as the traffic has grown in that area, specifically up and down the hill. She is requesting a 4 way stop at Fair Oaks and N. Mountain to slow down traffic.

Staff Report

Mr. Fleury stated that he had spent a few hours out there during the morning and afternoon and he did notice a high level pedestrian traffic in that area especially when the Nature Center had an activity going on. Staff provides the Commission with a general overview of the area. There is sidewalk, parkrow and a center median with two travel lanes and bike lanes in each direction. The parkrow and center median have trees spaced approximately every 15 feet. There are six crosswalks between Hersey and Fair Oaks. A speed and count study was conducted drivers are increasing their speed as they head north on Mountain Ave out of town. Staff stood on all crosswalks and in order to verify sight distances for pedestrians crossing. There are a couple crosswalk ramps that provide limited pedestrian visibility for drivers as they approach the crosswalks. One is at the NW Corner of Mountain Meadow Drive & Fair Oaks /North Mountain. If someone is not in the ramp then it is very difficult to see them.     Staff also spoke to the planning department regarding the trees that impede sight distance.  The accident data shows a majority of the crashes single car fixed object crashes. There are a few signs in the corridor that you can’t see due to the growing vegetation.

Commission Discussion

• Commissioner Graf drove up and down the area. He thought that the majority of the crosswalks were visible during the day but he could see how the hill could cause speed to increase and the signs were visible if you were really looking for them. 
• Commissioners thought that a few options would be to request that a few trees and vegetation be removed. Adding stop signs would be a last resort. Rumble strips might be a good option to help slow the traffic (heading up the hill on the rise). Also, adding more pedestrian warning signs.
• Staff stated that they have been switching to bright green pedestrian signs and change crosswalk striping to the continental design. Staff stated that rumble strips could be used in the rise area (about 150’ out of the crosswalk) and the rumble strips in that area would provide an advance warning for drivers and last approximately 5 years.
• The Police department stated that they don’t generally see much speeding in that area.
• A suggestion was made to look into signs with a senior citizen symbol or a LED lighted sign.
• Staff noted that striping, signage and rumble strips would be the most cost effective solution.

Commissioners Hammond/Viéville m/s to add rumble strip on the uphill side at Fair Oaks, clean vegetation & maintain it, remove a tree where necessary, re-stripe crosswalks to continental crosswalks, change the signs to green for better visibility & add advanced warning signs. Discussion: Fleury stated that Mike Faught will look at the request and determine what is needed and whether it needs further review by our consultant working on the road diet. Voice vote: all AYES. Motion passed.

B.  Downtown Study Advisory Committee

Commission Discussion

·         Commission members voiced their interest in serving on committee.

Recess at 6:57 pm

Back at 7:07 pm

After a discussion about criteria for, and individual interest in, selecting of the two TC representatives was scheduled for the next meeting when more members are present.

NON ACTION ITEMS

A.   Audible Pedestrian Signals Update

Mr. Fleury stated that SOU has all of their APS buttons in and ODOT has installed all of the APS buttons that were purchased with the CDBG Grant. The homing sound is now activated. The diagonal crosswalk at Indiana is in. So far 21K has been spent on our buttons and the ODOT installation. There is 7K left to spend by November for the Polera buttons and the ODOT installation of them. He will need to talk to ODOT first and then see how the last of the money can be best spent. Commissioner Viéville will put together a list and get with Mr. Fleury to discuss issues that she has heard about regarding the APS buttons.  

B.   Miscellaneous Concrete Project

Mr. Fleury reported that the concrete contractors have done all the work on C Street between 6^th and 8^th street, filled in gaps, and they are working on sections of B Street. They are also on Francis Street right now connecting a new section of the sidewalk and should be done within the next three weeks.. Another miscellaneous concrete project will include the Hargadine fork/Pioneer intersection bumpouts; the engineering design has been completed and is now awaiting the traffic engineer’s approval on the design.

C.   Attendance Review

The commission reviewed the attendance list per the code.

D.   Oak St. Rail Crossing Improvement

Mr. Fleury reported that the project is now back on track. The person in charge of the project with ODOT retired. ODOT stated that CORP is expecting trains to start coming through in 2015 and now they are moving on with the project. Staff expects it being 2014 before CORP gets their work completed. Once the CORP work is completed the City can make the final sidewalk connection.

E.   Bollards

Mr. Fleury stated that after the motion was approved to remove the bollards was made Risk talked to Fleury about it and they feel good with the removal of them. If there are issues after the removal then they will need to look at another solution. They most likely will be removed in fall.

FOLLOW UP ITEMS

A.   Downtown Study

Mr. Fleury stated that it has been approved by the Council and they are now moving forward with it. U of O is ready to go. Staff is currently working through some issues with the scope and the agreement.

B.   Crisping Striping

Mr. Fleury reported that it is there and more visible than before.

C.   Crossing at Senior Center and Ray Lane

Mr. Fleury stated that Commissioner Chapman had brought this up at the last meeting but isn’t present to speak to it further. Fleury did report that there is no sidewalk there to connect a crosswalk to.

INFORMATIONAL ITEMS

A.   Action Summary- No comments

B.   Traffic Safety Connection June/July Newsletter- No comments

C.   Traffic Crash Summary- No comments

D.   Road Diet Analysis- Mr. Fleury stated that this is what was presented at the last Council meeting and there are still 2 more months of analysis to be completed.

A concern was brought up regarding traffic backing up at the turn onto North Main from Valley View. The Commission & staff agreed that it was probably due to the work on the new traffic signal being done by the County.

COMMISSION OPEN DISCUSSION

Concern was voiced about the Ashland Street/Siskiyou crosswalk & if that is going to be enough for over 700 students to cross & how that is going to impact the traffic. The new cafeteria isn’t going to be ready yet which means that there will be quite a number of students crossing. It was stated that this is one of the high priorities in the TSP. There is a lot of concern regarding the corridor around SOU and the pedestrian impact on that area.

Officer MacLennan was asked what Oregon’s jay walking law is. MacLennan stated that generally pedestrians aren’t ticketed in Ashland as long as they aren’t impeding traffic. Ashland does have an ordinance that states that you are required to use a crosswalk if it is within a certain distance.   

Mr. Fleury stated that Brandon Goldman from our Planning department asked that next month we have an agenda item with public comment for the Normal Ave. neighborhood plan. The commission asked if they could get the information on this agenda item a little ahead of time so they are prepared.

A comment was made that the new Open City Hall tool that is being used for the road diet can be a dangerous tool. Staff stated that the Open City Hall tool isn’t scientific and there will be further analysis of the comments by the traffic engineer and staff.

It was requested that staff look into our SOU liaison since they haven’t attended in awhile.

A concern was brought up regarding pedestrian issues in the downtown area. There are great concerns with the Lithia/3^rd intersection. Concern was also raised regarding the Irvine development and the closure of alleys and sidewalks.

ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 8:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Tami De Mille-Campos, Administrative Assistant