City of Batavia Bicycle Commission Met April 12.
Here is the minutes provided by the commission:
1. Roll Call: John Gamble, Amy Moore, Joanne Spitz, Jenn Ress, John Burnham, Randy Deicke, Jared Heck, Evan Thomas, Dave Pedersen, Steve Ericksen, Troy Simpson, Brett Garrett
Absent: Emil Jensen
2. Approve Minutes
3. Bikes For Batavia: Evan gave away 15 bikes this month. He bought adult trike on Marketplace for a family (Joanne saw it in use at the pantry!!!). Got another adult trike donated for a Chip In family…17 year old with non malignant brain tumor & epilepsy. John G knows of 1 more for BfB. We need more bike requests. Joanne will reach out to schools again. Amy asked if kids may need them for summer school…checking if there is summer school. Neighbors Magazine- Joanne sent press release to Evan, and Evan and Griffin made edits for next edition.
Jon C told Evan BfB has space in church building for 12-18 more months. Evan checking with Laura N and around town for space to use. No space at new pantry location. Good space would be the current food pantry- Evan working on it.
4. Jen’s Social Medial Campaign: Going great….keep sharing. Thanks John B for getting posts out. Several groups are sharing them: Elburn Parks, Bike Walk Bartlett, Ward 1, City of Batavia. A few snarky comments. Continued problem: Cars and bikes not following laws…speeding, not stopping at stop signs.
Discussed topics for John to share with Batavia Police. Include: Concern that cyclists not stopping; Can we institute Idaho Stop; Educate cyclists and drivers; promote Bike Quiz.
Jared suggested we speak to local service groups about bike safety/rules. Joanne and Amy will make a list of groups….most still doing zoom meetings.
Raffle Prizes: Jen got helmet (Prairie Path), water bottle/cage (Prairie Path), 2 person/2 hour rental for bikes or kayaks (Mill Race Cyclery), Batavia-Opoly (Chamber). All agreed she should buy bells from Prairie Path.
SIGNAGE RECOMMENDATIONS: G Holm Letter:
We want clarification from Gary as far as requirements for sign spacing and if the quoted numbers are for signs for both travel lanes. It seems that the "high" numbers must be due to signs for both directions of traffic, however, there are a few streets with an odd number of signs.
Looking at the signage proposed in the document from Public Works, they are proposing BMUFL signs plus the 3-ft law signs along all roads. We as the Commission are not recommending this. BMUFL signs should only be used on downtown streets (Houston*, Island, Shumway, Flinn, First *, Water, Union*) while the other streets should only use the 3-ft law sign (Mckee, Van Nortwick, Pine, Raddant, Knox). I starred First and Union because they are streets that have a bit of a downhill in 1 direction, so may want to consider the 3-ft sign for the uphill direction as bikes would be travelling much slower than traffic compared to the downhill direction. Houston is a bit of a special circumstance due to the bike lane in the uphill direction between Water & Batavia Ave. No sign at all would be required for the westbound travel lane here, but we want one for the eastbound lane. John mentioned that east of Water St, the sidewalk area by the depot pond is a shared use path, but there are plenty of cyclists that still travel on Houston, so signage should be used on Houston between Water and Island, replacing the existing signage.
Finally, for Wilson St, if we are not advocating people bike through downtown (Batavia Ave to Prairie) using Wilson, then we drop our signage request. However, Public Works is quoting signage for Wilson east of Prairie to Kirk. Adding 3-ft signs along this stretch sounds like a good idea.
By using either the BMUFL or the 3-ft law sign on each road, we would begin to reduce the number of signs needed.
A few things stand out in Ed Barsotti’s email. First, the federal MUTCD is undergoing an update and the FHWA is proposing Share the Road signs be removed from the manual. The FHWA is also proposing a "Bicycle Passing Clearance" sign be added. Currently, the 3-ft law sign is in the IL state MUTCD and IDOT approved. Here is specifically what Ed said regarding these signs:
"I’ve worked a lot on this issue, including getting both Illinois and Florida DOTs to adopt a 3-ft law sign into their states’ MUTCDs, and successfully requesting their installation in a bunch of Illinois locations.
Good idea to replace the Share the Road signs, which are falling out of favor nationally due to too-common misperception by motorists that it’s telling cyclists to get out of their way. In fact, a big update to the MUTCD (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR 2020-12-14/pdf/2020-26789.pdf), which is going through public review now and may be fully implemented within a year, is removing the sign from the MUTCD. Back in 2007, when I did Batavia’s bike plan and recommended those signs, Share the Road is the best option available, but things have changed.
The attached email chain with Dave Kirschner, the top MUTCD authority at FHWA, shows what’s coming in the update. He also says that a word-only sign can be used now. That’s actually the approach we used for a couple years in Illinois, until we worked with IDOT to jump the gun on the national MUTCD update and adopt into the IL MUTCD the sign in the second attachment. So, it’s legal to use in Illinois."
I have the email chain he refers to if anyone is interested in reading through it. With this information, Gary should have no qualms using the 3-ft Law sign and Ed said that he would be willing to share additional information with us or directly with Gary if needed.
5. Dave’s Map: All approved by Allison and Batavia Park District, who will pay and install. THANKS DAVE!
6. Bike To School Day: Joanne contacted 6 elementary schools and RMS with Bike to School info, registration info and asked for confirmation if they want police/fire to attend if they are available, or a Bike To School sign that is stored yearly with BPS Maintenace crew. Response from 3 of 7 schools so far.
7. Web Site: John B will be updating the web site after Jen’s campaign is over. Have to redo entire site. Howard C will help.
8. Traffic Stress Scoring: Laura will get back to Steve on this for next meeting.
Other Items:
• Well Batavia asked BBC for help for May 14 bike parade
• Kolony – putting bikes back out 1st week in May
• Dave happy to help organize and lead bike rides
• Rotary rack: By Boardwalk shops/picnic area; open May 28. Farmer’s Market opens June 4 on River St. Always need more bike parking at Farmer’s Market
http://www.cityofbatavia.net/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minutes/_04122021-1710
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