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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-05-12 CYCLING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES MAY 12, 2009 CITY OF KITCHENER The Cycling Advisory Committee met this date commencing at 4:10 p.m. Present: Mr. T. Kenyon, Chair, Councillor J. Gazzola Ms. P. Ji-Taylor and Messrs. J. Alexander, S. Burek, D. Class, D. Hilker, B. Laube, N. Meheš, T. Müller Staff: Mr. R. Schirm, Committee Administrator, Mr. P. Wetherup, Parks Planning, Ms. K. Reinert, Recorder Regrets: Mr. B. Forwell, Vice-Chair APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES 1. That the minutes of the April 7, 2009 meeting be approved. Motioned by Mr. D. Hilker Seconded by Mr. N. Meheš WORK PLAN 2. Mr. T. Kenyon welcomed the committee and commented on their outstanding work on the work plan, and opened the floor to suggestions on how to proceed with the implementation of the work plan. Discussion took place and suggestions are as follows: i) Prioritize items and stay within confines of a specified budget is important especially when committee goes to Council for approval. ii) Submission for LEAF program in the fall of 2009 or spring of 2010. ? The first group of submissions have been adjudicated. The second call for submissions is anticipated in the fall, followed by another call for submissions in the spring. ? Barbara Steiner, Environmental Planner, has been asked to make a presentation to this committee on the th type of projects being considered for approval for the LEAF program at the June 9 meeting. ? To increase the potential success of a submission partnership involvement, either financial or with another partner, for example, City of Waterloo is recommended. iii) List what areas of priority the committee should address: cycling events, cycling priorities, cycling facilities, each focus area possibly breaking down into four or five topics. iv) Determine the priorities each committee member sees as most important. v) Decide what projects the committee can get done. vi) Examine the connectivity of the network and determine which area to focus on: ? Isolating a specific area and recommending signage and road markings to promote connectivity and do a good job with one area first. ? Start with an older Kitchener south area or an area where there is a large cycling population and connect this area to the core. It was noted that no trail user studies have been conducted yet. ? Suggestion that increased cycling use is in large part linked with facility development and if the committee should focus on specific projects, such as improvements to specific linear trails to the Iron Horse standard. vii) Listing the priority within each section. viii) Separating into short and long-term goals and decide what is most important first, for example, education, or advocacy, or infrastructure. ix) Gather photos and produce mini reports including list of ideas, events and promotions, solutions and infrastructure and pick the top five. CYCLING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES MAY 12, 2009 - - CITY OF KITCHENER 2 WORK PLAN – cont’d 2. Mr. S. Burek questioned how the work plan will work together with the master plan? R. Schirm indicated that this is where the committee will ensure that the cycling master plan will reflect the work and priorities of the committee and that is one of the reasons that Messrs. T. Kenyon and B. Forwell are in the cycling master plan working group. Further to that, this committee will be the advocate of the completed master plan and do its part to ensure that the recommendations are fulfilled. Mr. T. Kenyon asked for members’ thoughts on communicating between meetings via email and doing independent work between meetings? Would there be a problem with committee members working by email to prioritize elements of the work plan? Also requested was input from membership on preference of all committee members participating in the process of prioritizing each of the four sections of the work plan, or should sub- committees be struck with groups of two taking part in working on one section each? After some discussion, Mr. T. Kenyon advised that the mandate of the committee is to identify, with concrete ideas, how to deal with the general matters of cycling and making the City of Kitchener a more bicycle-friendly city. The most important prospect is to first list priorities of what the City should look like to the people living in Kitchener; people want to get out of cars, live healthier, have greater access, have financial payoffs, go green and the Cycling Advisory Committee can produce concrete ways on how to implement this. The Cycling Advisory Committee can build a common ground with Councillors and show a more cycling friendly city with values. The cycling forum event proposal discussed at the last meeting would be a concrete way to start to relay th information from the citizens to City Hall. The event to be held June 4, during the Commuter Challenge week, would bring together every cycling group from the region that has an interest in what we should be doing. The timing of this event would enable the committee to make their first presentation to Council during the summer and provide feedback from this event. Discussion took place and, due to time constraint, the decision was made to defer further discussion and decisions th regarding the work plan to the next meeting and proceed with planning the June 4 event. PUBLIC MEETING FOR CYCLISTS 3. th The following items must be addressed for the June 4 Cycling Forum: ITEM DETAILED INFORMATION ACTION: Book the venue - The Aud. or City Hall. The picnic table area R. Schirm in Victoria park would be a good place to hold the venue as well so that cyclists do not need to be separated from their . bicycles Questionnaire - circulated by Mr. D. Class All - email suggestions to D. Class by - would be distributed at the “meet and greet” next Friday session and would be an information gathering tool to include what the attendees’ vision on cycling is; this information would be valuable for the committee’s presentation to Council. Update email address K. Reinert Develop itinerary for the evening Survey - for attendees who are unable to attend Supply Refreshments / R. Schirm Pizza? CYCLING ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES MAY 12, 2009 - - CITY OF KITCHENER 3 ITEM DETAILED INFORMATION ACTION: Advertising - posters and mini poster hand-outs on trails - Deliver advertising to locations such - should include incentive for people to come a, community centres,The Record out – refreshments, free pizza? planner; Kitchener Market, Cycling - title should start with a question, i.e., What Advisory Committees – City of do you want? What’s your say? Kitchener, Waterloo & Region, Chicopee Ski greatest City in Canada and underneath, Club and Grand River Cycle Clubs Do you want it? - D. Class to deliver to Braun’s & - opportunity to say how to make cycling Ziggy’s Cycle & small bike shops better and list some highlights from the - Websites -- Bill Bean’s Blog, Cities work plan of Kitchener, Waterloo, Region, - Universities D. Class uses desk top publisher and has - R. Schirm to investigate setting up card stock and is willing to donate his time and posters city cycling website Liability R. Schirm to check REPAIRS AND IMPROVEMENTS TO SPECIFIC ROAD AND TRAIL LOCATIONS 4. For clarification purposes on whom to forward repair and improvement requests, please note the following: ? Maintenance -- for example, wash-outs, to forward to R. Schirm or P. Wetherup -- street issues, pot holes, cleaning, trail crossings on roadways or on road/ramping forward to R. Schirm to forward to Operations staff. ? Structural/Infrastructure -- for example, narrow bridges, would be a recommendation to Council and could be a significant budget item that should go to R. Schirm CYCLING MASTER PLAN 5. R. Schirm informed the committee that the expression of interest is going out the end of next week with likely approval at the August Council meeting. JOINT CYCLING ADVISORY COMMITTEES MEETING ON MAY 30 6. Mr. R. Schirm informed the committee that St. Catharines will be having a joint Cycling Advisory Committee th meeting on May 30 and asked whether two or three members on this committee would be interested in attending. The meeting is scheduled for the morning and includes lunch with cycling in the afternoon. This would be an opportunity to see how cycling advisory committees operate in other cities and to do a comparison. ACTION: Let R. Schirm know if you are interested in attending. Mr. D. Class already acknowledged his intent on attending. GENDER BALANCE ON THE COMMITTEE 7. Mr. T. Kenyon brought forward the issue of gender balance on the committee. The committee has a quorum and does not need to fill Sarah Anderson’s vacant position but, if it were to be filled, the question arose whether there is a need to publicize or could the committee choose a female replacement via word of mouth? ACTION: R. Schirm to check into this. ADJOURNMENT 8. On motion of Chair, T. Kenyon, meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m. Ronald Schirm Committee Administrator