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Home My WebLink AboutReg 2008-07-21 Item 5 - Public Hearing - Walk and Roll Plan Draft I1L A COUNCIL AGENDA S YNOPSIS ITEMNO. 4 s C 1k 9 1l I zzting Datz I Prepared by I Mayor's review I Cozutczl rzurzlu us: o: I 07/14/08 1 JR it%%& $1L, 1 07/21/08 JR i4-�� hf 1 1 1 1 I I G ITEM INFORMATION { CAS NUMBER: 08-086 I ORIGINAL AG1 NDA DATE: JULY 14, 2008 AGENDA ITE,NI Trrl,r, Draft Walk and Roll Plan C.1I )RY Discussion I I Motion Resolution Ordinance Bid Award Public Hearing Other 11tg Date 7/14/08 1ltg Date Mtg Date Aft; Date 11tg Date Mfg Date 07/21/08 1ltg Date SI'()NS()R n Council n ma 1 1 Adm Stcr DCD 1J Finance Fire 1 I Legal P &R. Police PW SPONSOR'S Provide comments and direction on changes to the draft Walk Roll Plan, in preparation SVM' I. \RV for finalizing the plan. This plan would provide a list of projects and design standards for bicycle and pedestrian related improvements. RI ?�`II,�G`I?u F31' [1 COW Mtg. CA &P Cmte F &S Cmte Transportation Cmte l L tilities Cmte Arts Comm. n Parks Comm. I 1 Planning Comm. DALli: Transportation 5/28/08 6/10/08; CAP 6/9/08 RECOMMENDATIONS: SPONSOR /ADMIN. Consideration and discussion COMMITTEE Unanimous Approval by Transportation Com.; Forward to C.O.W. COST IMPACT FUND SOURCE E \P7 NDITURI:R1,QUI1U I AMOUNT BUDGETED APPROPRIATION REQUIRED Fund Source: Comments: To be determined through the budget process MTG. DATE RECORD OF COUNCIL ACTION 07/14/08 Forward to next Regular Meeting for Public Hearing and continued discussion MTG. DATE ATTACHMENTS 07/14/08 Informational memorandum dated 7/14/08, with Attachments A, 131, B2 Minutes from the Transportation Committee meetings of 6/10/08 5/28/08 and Minutes from the Community Affairs and Parks Committee meeting of 6/9/08 07/21/08 Additional comment received on the Plan dated 7/10/08 (Please bring your Racket from the 7/14/OR r 0 W the Draft Plan) July 10, 2008 1/4 Ms. Jaimie Reavis Assistant Planner City of Tukwila Department of Community Development 6300 Southcenter Blvd, Suite 100 Tukwila, WA 98188 ireavis@ci.tukwila.wa.us 206.431.3659 Re: Comments on City of Tukwila DRAFT NON MOTORIZED PLAN Dear Ms. Reavis: I have reviewed the bicycle elements of the April 2008 City of Tukwila draft Non motorized Plan report and offer my review comments below. Let me begin by noting that I found the report extremely comprehensive and well organized in its analysis of existing conditions, needs, alternatives, design guidelines and recommendations for project, policy and system management improvements. The planning team and community /stakeholder contributors are to be commended! My recommendations for modifications to the report mainly focus on the regional -class bike routes and the City's primary bicycle route system improvement needs and systems and several policy elements. 1. Southcenter Parkway: Klickitat Dr to SW 180 St. It is very evident from even a cursory examination of the "Existing and Planned Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities" map (Figure 2) that the above corridor represents a major north -south gap in the planned bicycle system. This gap hinders access to major employment and commercial activities in Southcenter. Provision for bicycle accommodation in this vital corridor will be challenging to be sure, but it must be addressed, and it will also help maximize the benefit of the plan's recommendations for the several planned east -west bike- friendly routes which terminate at this segment of Southcenter Pkwy 2. The Southcenter shopping mall is a major employer in aggregate. The mall is just east of the missing Southcenter Pkwy corridor bike route link addressed in item 1 above and should be given the "major employer" map symbol on all system/citywide maps in the report giving further emphasis to the importance of the draft plan's unmet need discussed in item 1. 3. Bike access from Klickitat Dr into the Southcenter Mall area. This is a critical gap and needs more attention (see also Item 1, above). orangediscBikelssuesBe7 -07 July 10, 2008 2/4 Comments on Tukwila Draft Non Motorized Plan (continued) 4. Martin Luther King, Jr Way S north of Boeing Access Road. This is a regional -class bicycle route. The need for bike accommodation improvements 011 it as it enters Tukwila and intersects the draft plan's recommended bicycle facility improvements for Boeing Access Road/S. Ryan Way should be addressed. 5. Military Road. Military Road should be incorporated into the "Recommended Bike- Friendly Routes" plan map (Figure 5). It is an important neighborhood route and alternative travel route and supplement to bike travel on the more challenging Tukwila International Blvd (Hwy 99, formerly Pacific Ave S.) with the latter's far greater traffic speed, volume, commercial traffic, and commercial driveways. 6. Implementation Scheduling. The plan should address nominal scheduling for major bicycle facility improvements. An excellent way to convey this to the reader and the public is by providing a map figure series in the report (it can be scaled down in size) showing the completed bicycle facility network for several planning horizon points e.g., (1) Existing, (2) 2013 (i.e., say 5 years hence) (3) 2018, and (4) Long -range "build- out (See Figure 6, page 59 in the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan report for a good example of this graphic depiction). This graphic is an excellent way to convey the character, scale and speed of the plans implementation program. Some corresponding implementation tables would also be helpful, or at least the nominal implementation target date could be added to the improvements tables now in your draft report, such as Table 4 "Recommended Bike Lanes" (p. 55). 7. Bike Lane design guideline elements: (a) Full standard bike lane with parallel curb parking case. A total of 15 feet measured from the face of the curb to the outer snipe of the bike lane is required to have a bike lane installation which is free of the narked car opening of the driver -side doors (the "door- zone" safety nroblem). This provides for a 5 -ft wide bike lane and a 10 -ft-wide parking lane (7 or 8 -ft marked parking stalls plus buffer for the door zone). Unfortunately the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official's (AASHTO) current bicycle lane design guidelines does not address this fact. Installations of 13 feet and 14 ft width .are shown in the Tukwila plan for several projects: 13 ft for the vital Andover Park East bike route improvement (page 69), and 14 feet width for Baker Blvd (page 70). July 10, 2008 3/4 Comments on Tukwila Draft Non Motorized Plan (continued) (b) Bike Lane adjacent to "High" Barriers. AASHTO and WSDOT design guides show 5 feet minimum width (measured from the face of the curb) for a bike lane width adjacent to a curb (Tukwila plan page 36). Where there is an extremely high curb, guardrail, "Jersey" barriers, retaining wall or other "tall" barrier at or within a foot of the curb -face adjacent to the bike lane, the bike lane should be at least 6 -ft wide measured from the curb -face. This is especially important on horizontal curve alignments and where there is a barrier curb on both the left and right edges of a single traffic lane (e.g., curbed two -lane roadways with a curbed median). 8. Curb Bulb -Outs Design. Revise the text (Page 52) to more clearly state that the bulb -out should not encroach upon or pinch -down the travel pathway of a cyclist at the right edge of the traffic lane nor encroach upon the bike lane where a bike lane is present. 9. Standard for block length. The City's current standards for maximum block length 1,000 feet for residential areas and 2,000 feet for commercial and industrial areas- are too long and should be reduced. Such long block lengths are now generally seen to be a great impediment for convenient, efficient and environmentally friendly circulation and access especially for non- motorized travel, but for motorized travel as well. Adverse examples are Tukwila's greater Southcenter area and Bellevue's downtown, with these superblocks now posing difficult and remedy costly barriers to development and redevelopment of more efficient circulation and access. 10. Adopt a Complete Streets Policy. The City should adopt a policy ordinance for "Complete- Streets which a number of local cities have now done in connection with their non motorized transportation and comprehensive planning, e.g., the cities of Redmond, Kirkland, and Seattle. I note that on page 97 under the performance goals for "connectivity" it states that "Ensure that bike lanes are included in CIP sheets that include recommended bicycle- friendly routes (I've added the underscores), and sidewalks are included on all CIP sheets. In contrast, under Complete Streets all projects on all streets should include bicycle and pedestrian and transit accommodations /facilities regardless of the street segment's non motorized plan network status unless there are specific major over- riding reasons for omitting their provision. Copies of the complete streets policies of the above cities are available from those cities and the Cascade Bicycle Club. July 10, 2008 4/4 Comments on Tukwila Draft Non Motorized Plan (continued) Thank you for the opportunity to provide this input to the City's exciting and vigorous plan for improved non motorized transportation! Sincerely, Dennis Neuzil, D.Eng., P.E. 2307 94 Ave NE Clyde Hill, WA 98004 425 -455 -1419 dennisneuzil a.foxinternet.com orangediscBikelssuesBe7 -07