Morgantown Municipal Bike Board

Regular Meeting

Public Safety Building

February 1, 2007

New Action Items:

Due date	Responsibility	Action Item
03/01/07	Gmeindl	1. Finalize vision statement
02/07/07	Gmeindl and Good	5. Finalize report for Traffic Commission
03/01/07	Hein et al	6. Create report on Commuting for Traffic Commission

Meeting Minutes:

The February monthly meeting of the Morgantown Municipal Bike Board was started at 6:00 pm with a presentation by Keith Inskeep.  The official meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m. at the Public Safety Building by chairman Frank Gmeindl with the following members attending:

Betsy Shogren,  Nick Hein, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Don Dickerson, Chip Wamsley, Greg Good, Marilyn Newcomb, Tyler Pearson, Don Spencer, and Frank Gmeindl.  Absent members were Nancy LaRocque, Jim Rye, John Lozier, Sonitt Bhatt, Bruce Summers, and Bill Reger-Nash.

à Agenda Item 1 (University Wood Lot):

Keith Inskeep, as a concerned citizen of Morgantown, gave a presentation to the MPO on 11/30/06 entitled “Roads and Apartments are Not Highest and Best Uses of WVU Farm Land!”.  This presentation addressed the proposal that road improvements for access to and from Morgantown would run directly through WVU property, including the University Woodlot, the WVU Organic Farm, and the WVU Animal Science Farm.  Mr. Inskeep urged the members of the Bike Board to consider the future; roads through the WVU property would effectively destroy these facilities, thereby severely weakening WVU and its educational resources.

à Agenda Item 2 (Agenda):

All members present agreed to follow the given agenda, although time constraints may prevent the discussion of Agenda Items 8-11. 

à Agenda Item 3 (Infrastructure Committee Recommendations):

Please see attached “Report of the Goal Group: Bicycle Infrastructure,” for a summary of this committee’s recommendations to the Traffic Commission.

Overall, the report was well-received by the Bike Board.  There was unanimous positive decision for the report to go forward to the Traffic Commission, with the following changes/additions:

· A sentence detailing the justification for the recommended improvements/additions needs to be added

· Consider recommending the a “Bicycles on Roadways” sign that is directly painted onto the road surface. See San Francisco report for details (Frank will send the link).

· Delete the list of goals at the beginning of the document, and change the opening paragraph to address the Traffic Commission, rather than the Bike Board.

· Enlarge the photos for better clarification of the suggested street designs, signage, and use of tinted asphalt

à Agenda Item 4 (Education Committee Recommendations):

Please see attached “Morgantown Municipal Bicycle Board Recommendations to the Traffic Commission,” (specifically the education section) for a summary.  After Frank outlined the plan, the following discussion points were made:

• Encouraging key MPO members to attend the Road I course
• Creating a schedule/timepoint for all key public officials to attend a LAB class
• Adding Boy and Girl Scout Troops and 4-H Clubs to the Target Groups
• Specifying Driver’s Ed instructors (both public and private) under the Teacher Target Group
• Consider working with the WVU SGA under their Cool City initiative

Overall, there was a unanimous positive decision for the report to go forward to the Traffic Commission, with the aforementioned suggestions.

à Agenda Item 5 (Commuting Committee Recommendations)

The Commuting Committee is still working on their recommendation report.  So far, they plan to focus on “transportation cycling,” or cycling for school, work, and shopping, with the main obstacles identified as road safety and bike parking. Ideas for achieving the commuting goals include:

• Encouraging employers to fit commuting into their Wellness Programs
• Public Safety announcements for driver calming
• Map to identify trip generators
• Map for spot improvements

The committee will have a report to be presented to the Traffic Commission ready for discussion at the next Bike Board meeting.

à Agenda Item 6 (Plan for Presenting to Traffic Commission):

After the suggested modifications to the Infrastructure and Education reports, they will be combined into 1 document for a compelling report to the Traffic Commission. This will be done ASAP so that the Traffic Commission can review the report at their next meeting (2/7/07, @ 5:30 pm). Greg and Frank will make a very brief presentation to the Traffic Commission during this meeting, as well.  All members of the Bike Board are encouraged to attend the Traffic Commission meeting.

à Agenda Item 7 (Replacement Members):

The 10 possible replacement members to the Bike Board (of which three will be chosen) were briefly discussed and whoever knew the candidate personally was encouraged to give a brief description.  After this, the present members of the Bike Board each had 5 votes to give to whichever candidate(s) they feel would be the best addition to the Bike Board.  The voting results are as follows:

11 votes—Alice Vernon

 9 votes—Sam Chico III

 8 votes—Sam Stone

 6 votes—Judi Reckart

 4 votes—Tim Nelms

 3 votes—Chris Rasekh, Marc Glass

 0 votes—Steve Kite, Than Saffel, Roger Toffle

These results will be forwarded to the Traffic Commission. 

à Agenda Item 8 (Vision Statement):

The Vision Statement has been narrowed down to the short version vs. the long version.  The short version is what is bolded below, while the long version is the whole thing:

 All Morgantown residents can enjoy bicycling safely and fearlessly anywhere, anytime, for any reason. Morgantown residents choose to ride a bicycle for transportation as well as recreation.  Our state and our nation recognize Morgantown for the benefits of bicycling on our health, our environment, our economy, and our quality of life.

Seven Bike Board members preferred the short version, while 3 preferred the long.  More discussion will ensue, but for now, Frank will use the long version, with the short version part highlighted.

à Agenda Item 9 (Ripe Banana Issues):

Time ran short before we got to this agenda item.

à Agenda Item 10 (New Action Items)

While there are technically no new action items, the present members of the Bike Board were tentatively distributed to the next three goal groups, as follows:

PR:       Chip, Marilyn, Betsy, Jonathan, Tyler

Bike Friendly Award:                Frank, Nick, Greg, Don Spencer

Law:     Nobody

These groups might be modified at the next meeting.  Members should just consider some ideas for the completion of the goals listed under these headings, for the time being.

à Agenda Item 11 (Meeting Evaluation)

Time ran short before we got to this agenda item.

The next regularly scheduled meeting is March 1, 2007 at 6:30 pm, at the Public Safety Building.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Betsy Shogren

02/05/07