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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Minutes - Citizens Bicycle Advisory Committee - Meeting Date: 5/3/2010 CITY OF GLENDALE CITIZEN BICYCLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE Monday, May 3, 2010 Transportation Planning Conference Room Bank of America Building,Suite 315 5800 West Glenn Drive,Glendale,Arizona 6:30 PM MINUTES CALL TO ORDER Brad Meek,Chairman,called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m. Also in attendance: Fred Coury, Betsy Turner,Norman Crowell,John Horvath,Bill Wilkinson,Mike Wood and City Transportation staff—Steve Hancock Members absent: Richard Qualls Guests:None II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the March 1,2010 meeting were approved III. CALL TO THE PUBLIC There were no members of the public in attendance. IV. INTRODUCTIONS Members and guests introduced themselves. V. CONTINUANCE OR WITHDRAWAL OF AGENDA ITEMS No agenda items required continuance or withdrawal. VI. REPORTS FROM OTHER COMMITTEES AND ORGANIZATIONS Betsy Turner said that the Citizen Transportation Oversight Commission(CTOC)last met on March 4,2010. She said that information was provided on the Loop 303 freeway project and cautioned members to avoid parts of the freeway project because of expected delays due to closures. Brad Meek said that he was surprised by the pace of the freeway work noting that a large section was paved in just a 24 hour period. Betsy also said that Sandy Adams addressed CTOC regarding the upcoming Glendale Family Bike Ride on March 27th. VI. GLENDALE FAMILY BIKE RIDE AND GREEN FESTIVAL Steve Hancock handed out a presentation on the Glendale Family Bike held on March 27. 2010. Steve noted that 437 people went on the ride based on the number of ride waivers signed. He then directed members to a table showing the results of an informal survey taken at the ride. Steve said that 174 people were surveyed showing that 44%of the riders were between 41 to 60 years of age, 19%between 61 to 80 years of age,and 15%between 8 to 14 years of age. Steve said the next largest group(12%)was 22 to 40 years of age,5% 15 to 21 years of age,and another 5%under 8 years of age. Steve then commented the long lines of riders visiting the bike mechanics. Brad Meeks said that one man told him he comes to the ride only to get his bike tuned up. Steve told the Committee that the ride was incident free with no reported injuries,lost riders,or equipment failures. He did say there was a steady head-wind for the outbound riders and that a number of riders may have given up and returned to Sahuaro Ranch Park before finishing the ride. He cited the large number of snack foods and t-shirts left after the ride ended as an indication that many riders may have never gotten to even the first rest stop. Mike Woods said that some riders at the first rest stop said Citizen Bicycle Advisory Committee Minutes May 3,2010 —Page 2— they had planned on doing the long route but decided to do only the short route due to the high winds. Steve,referring to a photo, said the winds were so high at the first rest stop that the canopy for the snack table was taken down to keep it from blowing away. Mike Wood said he got tired of chasing after the wayward canopy. Steve then talked about the effort to attract returning riders to the Green Festival. He said the bike parking facility for Festival patrons was a success and easily handled the parking situation. He said there was one glitch because of staff people having to stay at the parking area after the Festival was over at 2:00 pm because two bikes remained in the parking compound. Steve noted that riders had to go to the Green Festival to get their ride t-shirts but that there had been many t-shirts left over. Norm Crowell asked how many riders had gone to the Festival. Steve said he was unsure but estimated around 200 to 250 riders may have gotten t-shirts. Bill Wilkinson said he has been told by people who have attended the ride that they thought the t-shirts being given out this year and last year were not as good as the regular ride t-shirts. Steve said that the ride specific t-shirts were too expensive in the current economic environment. Steve concluded his ride presentation by saying ridership was down this year but was still a good number given the changes in the day of the ride and the windy weather. Steve asked if any members had comments or suggestions on how to improve the ride. Bill Wilkinson said that moving the ride from Sunday to Saturday may be why ridership was down this year. He said that he forgot the ride had occurred on Saturday until he was reminded after showing up at Sahauro Ranch Park early Sunday morning to help with setting up. Fred Coury said he also thinks we should go back to a Sunday ride, citing a woman who was at the ride but regretted her husband couldn't attend because he had work to do at home. Norm Crowell said that he agreed,saying that Saturday was a"To-do day"while Sunday was a day to enjoy yourself. Norm thought we might have lost some"regulars." Betsy Turner concurred saying she saw very few people wearing t-shirts from past rides as in previous rides. Betsy also said that Lucy Ranus from St. Joseph's Hospital said she was very disappointed in the ride this year because of the low turn-out and because the ride activities had become lackluster. Steve reminded members that a reduced budget for the ride meant fewer activities. Brad Meek said that he noticed more people arriving by bikes to the ride this year a fewer people parking cars and unloading bikes. Brad said he also had people who arrived after 8:00 am think they were too late to start the ride. He said they were not aware that they could start anytime between 8:00 am and 9:00 am. Brad thought the ads he saw in the paper advertising the ride were poorly done because they did not give a start time. Betsy Turner said the ads she saw were by the Green Festival event and gave little useful information on the bike ride. Brad Meek said we should try and move the ride back to Sunday. Betsy noted that very few helmets were sold this year and that she had given free helmets to two children who didn't have money to purchase them. Betsy also asked why we had joined forces with the Green Festival when the benefits of the venture were mostly beneficial to them not to the bike ride. Steve Hancock said that it was mostly to reduce costs for staging the ride. He asked if anyone had ideas to make the ride more entertaining for participants without incurring more expenses. He asked Fred Corny as a bike shop owner if he would be willing to bring bikes and accessories from his shop to display at the ride. Steve said when he worked for Mesa he had three to four bike shops that came to events to show their products to bike-to-breakfast participants. Fred said he would be willing to do that. Betsy said we should make another effort to recruit bike shops and also noted that Tempe,as a cost cutting measure, had downsized their bike month event and eliminated the Coalition of Arizona Bicyclists bike swap meet. She said the swap meet was a place anyone could bring old bikes and parts and trade or sell them. She said many bike shops also had booths at the swap meets. Betsy thought the Coalition might be willing to move the swap meet to Glendale if asked. Steve said that idea could be explored and requested that members contact him with any other thoughts on attracting other entities to the ride that would add entertainment and interest without incurring additional costs to the city. VII. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Bill Wilkinson reminded Steve of his request for an overview of all current bicycle and pedestrian projects. Steve said he had not forgotten but that the Project Manager he had in mind to do the presentation had been laid off by the City of Glendale. Steve said he would do a presentation since the Engineers reassigned to the projects would need time to get up to speed on project status. c:\documents and settings\blimbach\desktop\minutes\2010\051 Om.doe 04/29/11 Citizen Bicycle Advisory Committee Minutes May 3,2010 —Page 3— VIII. OTHER BUSINESS No other business was raised by members of the Committee. IX. NEXT MEETING Brad meek said the next regular meeting of the Glendale Citizen Bicycle Advisory Committee would be held on Monday, June 7, 2010, 6:30 p.m., Transportation Planning Conference Room, Bank of America Building, 5800 W. Glenn Dr.,Suite 315. XII. ADJOURNMENT Brad Meek adjourned the meeting at 7:20 p.m. c:\documents and settings\blimbach\desktop\minutes\2010\O51 Om.doc 04/29/11