Tucson-Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee
Corrected minutes of the Wednesday, August 9 Regular Meeting
Tucson, AZ
Submitted by Melissa
Antol
Members and guests present introduced themselves. Attendance list is below. A quorum was present.
The minutes of the July 26th Special Session Meeting were approved on motion by Brian Beck, and seconded by David Bachman-Williams.
Meeting minutes from the June 06th meeting have yet to be approved. Staff (Melissa Antol) emailed the document to the BAC on July 31st, but most members said they did not receive the minutes, and some new members may not have been included in the email. Melissa announced that the June minutes will be included in the September BAC packet for members to review and vote on at the September meeting.
Lt. Pryor admitted he did not have the law enforcement report from
TPD. Staff has been working closely
with the City Transportation Department to get ready for the upcoming GOHS
summit panel on bike and pedestrian safety and education, and the motorized
bike issue. He inadvertently pulled the
wrong document for the meeting. Lt.
Pryor did ask the BAC if it was planning to submit an award application for the
Real Hero award from the Red Cross as a way of acknowledging the heroic efforts
of the gentleman who lifted the car to rescue an injured cyclist. Lt. Pryor said that TPD would be happy to
coordinate an application and recognition effort if the BAC decided to pursue
that award. Diana recommended taking
the issue to the Executive Subcommittee for review and to have them make
recommendations on a course of action at the September meeting.
In addition, Lt. Pryor reported approximately 17 injury crashes with
cyclists over the past year and noted that the amount of activity is an
indicator of the number of incidents, for example, good weather means more
cyclists and potentially more incidents. The trend seems consistent from year
to year.
Sgt. Murphy from Pima County reported three accidents – one hit and run
accident where the gentleman turned himself in and two wrong way riding
incidents. The accidents were sited as
three misdemeanors.
Matt Zoll mentioned that Jean Gorman, although not present at the meeting
had a request for the Sheriff to site for violation of the three foot passing
law. Sgt. Murphy said he would look
into it.
4: Call
to the Public
Roland Bosma, Owner Spooky Tooth
Cycles, LLC attended the meeting. He
requested an opportunity to read a letter to the BAC that he felt would cover
many of the concerns the BAC had stated in their position letter for motorized
bicycles. Diana Tolton agreed. Roland read his letter voicing his
concerns. There was conversation
amongst BAC members on whether or not they could engage in a question and
answer session. BAC members stated
that item number six on the agenda was entitled staff update on motorized
bicycles, so we could move item number six up in the agenda and use that time
to converse with Roland. David Bachman
Williams moved to have the BAC consider agenda item number six during call to
the public, Hank Rowe seconded, unanimous support to change the agenda.
Melissa Antol, informed the committee that the Transportation
Subcommittee meeting that had originally been scheduled to consider the issue
of motorized bikes, was canceled. She
stated that she would keep the BAC informed as to when the issue would be
scheduled with the subcommittee.
Fred
Frolick, spoke during call to the public in support of
motorized bikes. He explained that due
to his health condition and limited physical mobility it was difficult for him
to travel by use of a bicycle exclusively.
He explained that the motorized bike provided him mobility options when
he cannot use pedals alone.
Some of the comments and questions raised by BAC members included:
Merritt- questioned engine size, the speed capability of motorized bikes,
wondered if the braking power was sufficient to stop the bike at high speeds,
asked if bikes were made to federal standards, are bikes equipped with a
speedometer.
Hank – mentioned that he supported alternate modes of transportation, but
his primary concern is that alternate modes also are a safe form of
transportation. He asked if Spooky
Tooth sold engine kits, or if they could purchase engine kits online and affix
them to his bikes.
Brian – Asked what was the size of engine put on Spooky Tooth cycles, and
would they be willing to increase the engine size to 50cc to have to bicycle
qualify as a moped.
John – Mentioned his concern with safety, and where the motorized bikes
would be allowed, particularly with respect to shared use paths, he thought the
impact on bicycles and pedestrians would be of great concern. He discussed his
additional concern for children and immature users as a safety issue. Discussed the need for regulation on shared
use paths.
Merritt – asked what they were doing to promote responsible ridership, do
they provide safety information at the store, on their website, and when they
purchase the motorized bike.
David – Asked if the Spooky Tooth web site featured information on how to
increase the power of the motor
Roland – responded to questions about noise pollution. He explained that the noise produced from a
motorized bike was at the same decibel as an automobile, it was just at a
different pitch. Roland said he took a bike down to emissions testing and it
passed. He also invited everyone down to his shop to check out the bikes.
Roland also said that he does get a large portion of his income from on-line
sales of kits to convert bikes to motorized bikes.
Discussion ensued with respect to items that might be considered for
regulation, and included proposing an age limits, helmets, safety equipment
equivalent to that required for bicycles and prohibition of use on shared use
paths.
Hank - mentioned that he appreciated the dialogue and information
Martha – said she liked the idea of alternate transportation but was
concerned about the ability to alter engines to exceed 20 mph. Also concerned
about braking, especially at higher speeds.
Eric – said he would like to see some sort of training class made
available, but that he would support regulating use of motorized bikes
Wayne – asked what other jurisdictions were doing, and said he would like
to see consistency across the region.
He thought there could be some sort of compromise between an outright ban
and regulation of motorized bikes.
Matt – mentioned that this issue was not even on Pima County’s radar
screen yet.
Eric – mentioned that regulations can actually help protect a business,
and might be beneficial for Spooky Tooth
Diana – Asserted that Tucson’s entire traffic philosophy is oriented
towards speed compared to smaller towns.
She voiced her concern with introducing another device geared towards an
increased speed in travel
Brian made a motion to stick with the present BAC recommendation letter,
until the enforcement subcommittee has an opportunity to meet and discuss new
information learned through this conversation with Spooky Tooth. The subcommittee will consider areas where
some sort of compromise could be reached through regulation. The subcommittee will make a recommendation
to the full BAC whether or not to change the letter at the September meeting.
Wayne seconded the motion, unanimous support to send the issue to the
enforcement subcommittee for reconsideration.
Hank concurred with opening the issue to discussion, and to address the
issues outlined in the BAC’s original recommendation letter.
Roland asked what happens if a motorized bike were to go over 20 mph.
Lt. Pryor explains that a speed of over 20 mph would change the definition
of a motorized bike from a bicycle to a moped.
5. BAC Subcommittee Reports-Updates
The Education subcommittee clarified their membership: Dave, Martha, Brian, Jean, and Eric (maybe/definitely ).
The Enforcement subcommittee did not have a report.
Planning and Program Facilities subcommittee– no report
Communications subcommittee – Zach announced that they meet (plan to
meet) the fourth Wednesday of every month
The Executive subcommittee did not have a report, but said it would look
into the hero award available through the Red Cross.
Hank asked how the committees work.
Diana explained retreat process that took place to establish committees
and that objective and goals were discussed, and that Diana and Wayne will work
on guidelines for the subcommittees.
Matt mentioned that he was interested in having the clerk of the board
come to the October meeting to discuss the open meeting law again, since we
have had some new BAC members join, and have formed committees.
6. Staff Update on Motorized Bikes – Moved to
call to the public
7. BAC members/staff reports and announcements
Matt Zoll announced that the attention transit signs and the bus shelters
signs were up. Folks should be noticing
them around town. Pima county and City
of Tucson signed and passed the IGA for the Bicycle and Pedestrian safety and
education grant. This grant gives the
city and county $570,000 in the next three years to spend on education and
safety efforts. Matt mentioned that we
have purchased 440 bike legends with this grant. They are already applying them to bike lanes in the county, and
we are identifying locations for their application within city limits.
He also mentioned that the city and the county will be developing PSAs
and other educational media for bicycle and pedestrian safety as part of the
grant. The messages will utilize
information we receive as part of a best practices study we are planning on
conducting in November.
Melissa reported on their success in implementing the Safe Streets
Campaign as part of a $63,000 Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) grant
the city received. The campaign
included development of two PSAs, one about slowing down in school zones, and
the other an educational piece on HAWK crossings. The campaign includes close coordination with TPD who will be
stepping up enforcement all over the city from the start of TUSD into the next
month. The campaign was launched at
TPD Headquarters downtown. PSAS and
pedestrian safety information will be distributed to all the local television and
radio outlets as well as to Cox and Comcast stations. In addition the grant helped to safety devices for kids, and
funded updates to the Traffic Safe Kids Coloring book. The Traffic Safe Kids Coloring book, and
safety devices are distributed through the city’s Traffic Safe Kids Program
which reaches several thousand third grade children each year.
David explained that he sits on the Citizen Advisory
Committee for the Downtown Links Project as a BAC representative. He mentioned that he met with staff,
including Melissa to discuss potential alignments and concerns. He stated his interest in seeing bike lanes
along the roadway, as well as seeing the continuation of the shared use path
through downtown as far as it can go.
David also sits on the Transit on the Move Committee.
Hank mentioned he sits on the Fantasy Island Committee.
Diana mentioned the web site betterthanever.com as one that
members should check out.
8.
Potential Items for Future Agendas
Subcommittee reports, motorized bikes
9.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 8:03 pm
Donna Aversa, Oro Valley
Brian Beck, City Ward 2 (Parliamentarian)
Dave Boston, Ward 6
Steve Cohen, Pima County
Wayne Cullop, City Ward 4 (Vice-Chair)
Zach McDonald, City Ward 5
Diana Tolton, Pima County (Chair)
David Bachman-Williams, Pima County
Jonathon Mabry, Pima County
Eric Post, Pima County
Hank Rowe, Pima County
John Thaxton, Davis Monthan, AFB
Martha Lemen, Pima County
Matt Zoll, PCDOT
Lt Mike Pryor, Tucson Police
Sgt Bill Murphy, Pima Sheriff
Ronald Bosma, owner Spooky Tooth Cycles, LLC, citizen
Jeffrey Ryals, citizen, DM AFB
Charles Franz, citizen, University of AZ
Fred Frolthielt, citizen