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- Thu., June 3, 2004, at 6:30 p.m.
One Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Rd. 8th Floor
Conference Room
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- UTC members present: Tommy Eden, chair Mike
Dahmus
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- Others present: Preston Tyree Scott Johnson
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- 1. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to
order at 6:30 p.m.
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- 2. PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE PEDESTRIAN PLAN WITH
REGARD TO PEDESTRIAN RIGHT OF WAY AND SIDEWALK
EASEMENTS Tommy Eden reported that he had
contacted Mike Librik, who was responsible for
preparing this proposal. Mike Librik had agreed that
the issue should be removed from the list of pending
issues until he was ready with a formal proposal.
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- 3. PROPOSAL TO ADD A BICYCLE-RELATED MESSAGE TO
THE MESSAGE SIGN OUTSIDE OF PALMER AUDITORIUM
Scott Johnson reported that the person responsible for
this issue was Bob Sessa, who was not present. It was
unclear exactly what kind of message people would like
to see on the message sign at Palmer Auditorium; the
sign currently reads, "DRIVE CAREFULLY." It was also
unclear just how many words could fit on the sign.
Mike Dahmus suggested posting a request for
suggestions about what message should be displayed.
Tommy Eden agreed to include the issue again in the
agenda for the next subcommittee meeting.
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- 4. DISCUSSION ABOUT BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN
PROGRAM BUDGET GOALS AND STAFFING LEVELS Scott
Johnson reported that he was being hired to lobby the
City Council to improve the budget for the
Bicycle-Pedestrian Program. He said that the City
Manager had set low goals for the current year's
budget in terms of the number of linear feet of new
sidewalk to be constructed. Even so, the goals were
not being met. He suggested that the City of Austin
should add an additional staff member to the
Bicycle-Pedestrian Program.
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- Preston Tyree stated that the City of Austin
currently has three staff members who deal with
pedestrian or bicycle issues, if the person
responsible for ADA issues and the person responsible
for the Child Safety Program are counted along with
the acting Bicycle-Pedestrian Program Coordinator. One
more position in the Bicycle-Pedestrian Program is
vacant.
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- Scott Johnson suggested that the budget should
include enough funding to provide responses to
requests on the Bicycle Service Line and funds for
bicycle and pedestrian needs, such as writing grants
for new projects. He suggested that the budget should
include salary for at least three Bicycle-Pedestrian
staff members.
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- Preston Tyree reported that the Austin Cycling
Association and four or five bike shops are pooling
resources to hire Scott Johnson as a lobbyist.
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- Mike Dahmus suggested that the three staff members
for the Bicycle-Pedestrian Program should be (1) a
long-range planner, who would be the Program
Coordinator, (2) a short-range planner, and (3) an
engineering technician.
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- Tommy Eden suggested that these positions should
be included in a formal proposal.
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- Scott Johnson pointed out that funding was still
available for bicycle and pedestrian CIP projects. He
said he would look at the current budget, and he
agreed to prepare a formal proposal for the next
subcommittee meeting.
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- 5.PROPOSALS FOR FACILITIES NEAR THE UNIVERSITY
OF TEXAS CAMPUS (FROM PREVIOUS MEETING): a. BICYCLE
LANES ON DEAN KEETON ST. The subcommittee agreed
by consensus to recommend the following proposal for
approval by the UTC:
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- The Urban Transportation Commission recommends
that the City of Austin establish bike lanes on Dean
Keeton Street from Guadalupe Street to Manor
Road.
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- b. BICYCLE LANES ON 21ST ST. Tommy Eden
reported that he had discussed this issue with Alan
Hughes, who had checked an aerial photograph from
1997, but had not seen that bicycle lanes had
previously existed on this section of 21st Street.
Tommy Eden believed that the segment had had bicycle
lanes before 1997. He had further suggested that
space should be sufficient to provide for a bicycle
lane adjacent to a bus queuing lane, similar to the
one on 11th Street in front of the State Capitol. He
agreed to check back again on this proposal and report
back to the subcommittee.
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- c. SIGN FOR BICYCLISTS ON 24TH ST. AT GUADALUPE
Tommy Eden reported that he had discussed this
proposal with Alan Hughes, who had agreed and had
written a work order for a sign reading, "Right lane
must turn right EXCEPT BICYCLES." The sign should be
posted soon.
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- 6. DISCUSSION ABOUT SETTING PRIORITIES FOR NEW
BICYCLE LANES Tommy Eden brought some old
documents from the last century which listed some of
the criteria under consideration. Mike Dahmus said
that the criteria in the documents were included in
one of the files attached to his spreadsheet, but that
he still had some work to do before the spreadsheet
would be ready.
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- 7. DISCUSSION ABOUT NEXT BICYCLE-PEDESTRIAN
SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING DATE AND AGENDA Mike Dahmus
suggested that Colly Kreidler should be extended a
special invitation to attend the next subcommittee
meeting in mid-July in the hope that he could provide
more information regarding the following
projects:
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- Big Stripe, which has recently reached the top of
TxDOT's waiting list for bidding Loop 360 Bridge
sidewalks, especially with regard to the Central Texas
Regional Mobility Authority's toll road proposal
University of Texas issues discussed in item 5
above
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- Tommy Eden agreed to request that Colly Kreidler
bring the engineering drawings for the projects in the
Big Stripe Project.
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- The next meeting will be after the July 4 holiday,
probably on July 15.
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- The meeting was adjourned at 7:45 p.m.
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