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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-05-19Clarbgton Meeting: Active Transportation and Safe Roads Advisory Committee Date: May 19, 2022 Time: 7:00 pm Location: Microsoft Teams Meeting MINUTES Present: Rick Stockman, Jim Boate, Bart Hawkins Kreps, Phil Haylock, Connor Houston, Councillor Janice Jones, Connie Kobelka, Richard Oldfield, Jeanne Winters Regrets: Rob Brezina, Arnold Mostert Staff Present: Andrew Johnson, Catherine Verhoog 1. Agenda Moved to approve by Jim Boate, seconded by Bart Hawkins Kreps. CARRIED 2. Minutes of February 3, 2022 Moved by Bart Hawkins Kreps, seconded by Jim Boate. "That the minutes of the ATSR meeting held on February 3, 2022 be approved." CARRIED 3. Presentations 3.1. None 4. Discussion Items 4.1. Bike Month Subcommittee Update— Connor/Jim Subcommittee is following the lead of the Region and are attending meetings involving all of the municipalities in Durham Region. Region -wide events are planned for Bike Month (June) and a website has been set up at www.durham.ca/BikeMonth with all of the information and how to participate in the different events planned. There is a large social campaign planned to advertise all of the events across the Region. Page 115 As Active Transportation and Road Safety Week from June 5 to 11 has been proclaimed by Council, walks have been planned for each Wednesday during June, starting June 8. A different trail has been chosen for each walk and these include Tooley Mills, Farewell Creek Trail, Bowmanville Valley Creek Trail, and Samuel Wilmot Nature Area (SWNA) Trail. Rick has volunteered to lead the walk at the Bowmanville Valley, and Jim has volunteered to lead the walks at Tooley Mills and Samuel Wilmot. Jim will reach out to Leo Blindenbach of the Samuel Wilmot Nature Area Committee to see if the committee can provide someone to do a short presentation on the monarch butterfly migration during the SWNA walk. A Bike Clinic is planned for June 10 at South Courtice Arena and is being run by the Municipality. 4.2. Bike Friendly Community Application Update — Jim/Connor/Rick Rick and Connor virtually attended the 2022 Ontario Bike Summit in April. The impression that they received is that there is a lot to the Bike Friendly Application, and it is not straightforward and gets more complicated each year. Municipal buy - in would definitely be needed as the committee could not manage it on their own. Commitments also increase each year, both financially and with staff time. Andrew will reach out to municipal staff to see if there is support for bringing this forward. There are currently 57 communities in Ontario that have the Bicycle Friendly Designation, either as an honourable mention, bronze or silver. The Committee brought forward the following motion: "That the Active Transportation and Road Safety Advisory Committee request that Council investigate the merits of pursuing a Bike Friendly Community Designation, and that staff report back in the fall of 2022." Moved by Rick Stockman, seconded by Bart Hawkins Kreps CARRIED 4.3. Trail Signage Update and Budget — Jim/Bart Different signage has been reviewed and recommended to staff and we are waiting to hear back on their suggestions of what they would prefer. Andrew to follow up with Rob for an update and circulate his response to the Committee. Some great visible progress has been made during the Committee's term, such as stop signs where trails are crossing busy roads and improvements in different signs. 4.4. Document Sharing and Collaboration in MS Teams Follow Up - Andrew Andrew is waiting to hear back from the IT Department and as soon as he does, he will forward the information on to the Committee. Page 215 4.5. Bike Racks - Connor A Region wide bike rack assessment/inventory is being looked into. A new bike rack sculpture installation that allows bikes to be locked to it was recently unveiled at the Region's Head Office. There are approximately 80 bike racks being installed at different bus stops throughout the Region and they are about halfway complete. 4.6. West Beach Road Safety Concerns - Jim New signage for cyclists has not yet been installed. Slav had indicated that the municipality was in favour of installing Share the Road signs, trail crossing signs, and chevrons on the roadway. The extension of the Bowmanville Valley Creek trail has increased the traffic along the waterfront trail significantly. Andrew to follow up with Rob/Slav on the signage, as well as confirm if there are stop signs for the trail users coming out onto the roadway, and if there aren't any to have them installed. 4.7. Durham Region Active Transportation Update - Connie Flashing signals being added to some road crossings that have been added. New multi -use path (MUP) estimated for installation in 2023 at Liberty, Freeland and Bons. Some federal and provincial funding was approved for the Region in 2017, and $314,000 was allocated to Clarington. An extension has been approved to the end of 2022 so that it can be utilized. The Region has applied for $12 million in upcoming new federal transportation funding that would be available over the next four years. If successful, it would result in about 40kms of new trails by 2026. The new BMX Park in Oshawa should be open now as it was slated for completion this spring. 4.8. Brochures Giveaways — Richard The Municipality is working on putting something together for the Committee. A bike club event was held recently, and it would have been nice to have something to hand out from Clarington as we have handouts from Ajax and Whitby to distribute and engage with the community. Rick will arrange to come in and see Andrew in the next couple of weeks to see what supplies are remaining in the office and where the kiosk is stored, and he will share their findings with the Committee. 4.9. Committee Priorities — Richard As our term comes to an end, priority requests from our committee, such as bike "sharrows" on Concession Street, should be brought forward to municipal staff and Page 315 Council. Andrew will follow up with Rob for an update on the "sharrows". The Committee has spoken several times about an east/west multi -use path for pedestrians and cyclists etc. to travel safely along Highway 2 from Maple Grove Road to Roenigk Drive, as well as a wider safer shoulder along Baseline Road. An Active Transportation Master Plan is being worked on by municipal staff that will have a holistic approach for across the Municipality. A consultant will be hired to complete the study once the outline has been prepared. The Committee would also like a safe north -south connection looked at for the north end of the Bowmanville where all of the new subdivisions are being built. Many of the rural routes are in bad shape as well with little to no shoulders and quite often there is a four to six inch drop at the edge of the pavement to the gravel which is extremely unsafe. A concern was brought up regarding the cleaning of the bike lanes in the spring after winter maintenance activities. It was suggested that this could be just a cultural change that is needed so that Operations staff are aware of when the sweeping needs to be completed and why. Janice will reach out to staff to discuss. Committee members are to email Connor with priority concerns such as trouble spots, missing bike lanes, unpaved areas, issues that have been brought up multiple times in the past etc. Connor will compile a list and create a coinciding map from the emails that will be used to liaise with municipal staff so that they can be made aware of the Committee's priority requests. 4.10. Staff Updates The tender for the Lions trail in Newcastle has recently closed and is pending award; construction will hopefully be starting in June. The Toyota Trail construction is ongoing and hopefully it will be completed by the end of summer. Farewell Creek Trail Phase 2A in Courtice is awaiting fabrication of the bridge before they can continue looking at completion, hopefully by the end of the summer. Council has approved allowance for limestone screenings to be installed to create a connection from Darlington Boulevard to the trail which will be installed at the completion of the project. Andrew will forward the complete update information to the Committee members. 5. Other Business Year End Report — A summary report will be drafted to be presented to Council outlining what the very first ATSRC dealt with throughout their first term, and setting out some of the items that are recommended to be prioritized moving forward. This report could also provide a template for where the next committee could start from. It was discussed what current members could do to encourage new people to become involved with the committee, including speaking to potential new members to try and recruit them. Page 415 Each member will email Rick the items that they would like to see in a final report, and Rick will comb through the information and create a draft to be circulated for comment. The report should showcase the many great things that have been accomplished by the committee, as well as the priorities going forward. Rick has offered to give a presentation to Council, and Janice will look into what Rick needs to do to register as a delegation. 6. Next Meeting 6.1. The next regular meeting is to be determined. 7. Adjournment 7.1. Moved by Jim Boate, seconded by Connie Kobelka. That the meeting be adjourned at 8:43 PM CARRIED Page 515