DRAFT

(Contact the town clerk's office at 919-469-4011 for official minutes)

Minutes of the Town of Cary , NC

Comprehensive Transportation Plan Update

February 12, 2008

5:30 p.m.

Cary Town Hall

Conference Room 10035 , 316 N. Academy St. , Cary , NC

Present:  Mayor Harold Weinbrecht, Council Members Gale Adcock, Don Frantz, and Erv Portman, Jennifer Robinson, Jack Smith

Mayor Pro Tem Julie Robison arrived late and her arrival is noted in the minutes

Mayor Weinbrecht called the meeting to orderat5:30

Roger Henderson of Kimley-Horne and Associates reviewed the purpose of the work session and introduced David Fields from the Manhattan based transit planning firm of Nelson/Nygaard and Todd Delk of Kimley-Horn and Associates.  (The PowerPoint Presentation is attached to and incorporated herein as Exhibit A; the Goals and Objectives are attached to and incorporated herein as Exhibit B.) 

Mr. Delk reviewed the changes that have occurred since the 2001 plan, provided an update on the progress, and reviewed the goals and objectives for the current plan.  He said there are six major issues on which they need policy direction from council to work toward the final plan:  level of service standards, roadway and lane widths, median widths in design standards, transit status and expansion, bicycle standards/direction, and pedestrian requirements/direction.  (The Draft December 2007 Town of Cary Comprehensive Transportation Plan is attached to and incorporated herein as Exhibit C.)

Mr. Delk said that there are four major elements to the transportation plan:  streets, transit, pedestrians, and bicycles.  He said that the pedestrian plan was developed outside of the comprehensive transportation plan because of available funding from the North Carolina Department of Transportation and some other grants.  He said that they have used the triangle regional model to update the transportation plan, predict the demand for 2030, and to understand future roads improvements.

Streets

Mr. Delk said council direction in previous work sessions was to minimize six lane roads.  He said in order to deal with the projected growth in western Cary on the corridor at Highway 55 and Davis Drive around I‑540 interchanges it is critical to look at six lanes rather or not it is desirable.  

Mrs. Robison arrived at this point in the meeting at 5:41 p.m.

Mr. Delk said that Cary continually looks at ways of improving level of service, not just widening roads.  He said if Cary is not going to expand past four lanes they will start to have lower levels of service causing major delays at certain intersections.  He said they could revise the level of service standards ensuring levels of service D on main streets, accept a level of service E standard in the future and decide to move to that immediately, or accept level of service D for developments through 2010 and after that accept E until 2020. 

Mr. Delk provided examples of two street element models, Florida and Baltimore .  He said that Florida has started looking at levels of service on a multimodal level—looking beyond how the street, intersections and segments are working for motor vehicles and instead looking at how pedestrians, transit and bicycles can go through the area.  He said their system figures out how to move people to different modes.  Baltimore uses a load factor.  He said they look at every movement at an intersection to see how many cars are stuck in a cue and whether they all clear the signal in one cycle; any cars that have to wait at a stop light is a load factor of one.  He said with the Baltimore plan once an intersection or any of the movements reaches a load factor one they do a moratorium on the growth around that area—their plan is tied to the land use. 

Mr. Delk said that they could look at the different size lanes in the area and take the medians from the current standard of 18 feet to 23 feet.  He then reviewed the pros of cons of increasing median size. 

Transit

Mr. Delk provided an update on regional transit.  He said that the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) put together a special transit advisory committee of local representatives who worked on a new transit vision for Raleigh beyond the 2001 TTA.  He said it does include some rail service along the main corridor. 

Mr. Fields said that C-Tran ridership has increased and is performing as expected.  He said in the future Cary may want to extend the north/south and east/west routes and split them in half with everything meeting up at the train station.  He said when evaluating transit they look the catchment area, which is how many people live or work within 10 minutes of one of the transit lines.  He said that one specific thing in the study was that they needed to look at park and ride locations. 

Pedestrian and Bicycles

Mr. Delk said that Cary is a nationally recognized bronze level bicycle community He said they are looking at ways to expand the bike system and move forward to make it a silver level community. 

Mr. Delk said one recommendation is a sharrow, which is a symbol that is put on the road showing bicyclists that they have extra width or that they have the right to be on the road.  He said it also let’s motorists know that this is a place where bicycles may be.  He is there is a pilot project in works for Cary on Kildaire Farm Road .

Council Discussion & Direction

Mr. Frantz asked about doing a simulation for roundabouts were at some of the intersections.  Mr. Delk responded that they didn’t address roundabouts or different types of intersection selection; they looked at a regional model.  He said that the regional doesn’t look at how specific intersections operate; it looks at basics of travel patterns and not specific operations.

Mr. Portman asked about the rationale for redefining the level of services.  Mr. Delk said that the level of service D is a national standard set by the highway capacity manual.  He said changing a level of service would be moving it to a level of service E.  He said they would decide whether that would be for the entire intersection or whether they want to ensure that level of service D is maintained on the main street.  Mrs. Robinson suggested calculating the level of service over an hour-and-a-half or two hours.  She said they need to determine the acceptable level of service and determine the land use plan that supports it.  She said they need to look at treating the intersection. 

Mr. Portman asked about a tie-in to the transportation plan and the land use plan.  Tim Bailey of the engineering department said that the land use plan was used to generate the trips to put into the model.  He said that Cary has about 10 percent of land left.  He said that most of Cary ’s congestion for the 2030 plan will be based on region’s growth, not Cary ’s.

Mrs. Robinson said Cary has not been involved in some the regional decisions that impact the Town.  Mr. Portman said they don’t want to deteriorate the quality of live in Cary by widening  roads more than four lanes to make commuting more convenient for other areas.

Mr. Bailey said the CSX corridor parallels either Davis Drive or Highway 55.  He said that staff worked to see if we a rail system could run along that corridor and staff was told nom that CSX would not remove the freight trains to accommodate transit.  He said that they would allow the Town to do a parallel track and pay them for the use of that corridor.  He said with current transportation plan Cary can run a bus along that corridor and then look at going to rail at a later date.  

Mr. Fields said that the Florida model addresses the quality of service.  He said that may be a model for the Town because it will meet Cary ’s goals.  Mr. Delk added that the Florida standards for transit are specifically tied to the frequency of the buses.

Mayor Pro Tem Robison said changing the way they look at level of service to the quality of service appealing.

Mrs. Robinson asked how the pedestrian and bike component fit into the Florida model.  Mr. Delk said it is making sure that facilities are attractive for people who want to bike or walk and that they feel safe traveling in that area.  Mr. Henderson added that the distance between origin and destinations is critical.  He said it’s a community-oriented investment because you are making improvements for both ends of the trip.

Mr. Delk said he’s heard direction that council doesn’t want to go to widening roads.  Council members concurred.  Mr. Portman added that they need to recognize mitigation of traffic up to a certain point.  He said staff should provide council with information on what is currently programmed for six lanes so that they can determine whether or not it should stay in the plan. 

Mayor Pro Tem Robison asked if the models have taken into account traffic signalization working at optimum capacity.  Mr. Delk said that was not in the regional model. 

Mayor Pro Tem Robison asked about the standards going from bronze to silver.  Mr.Delk said that it would be a fluid analysis:  how much of the system is bicycle friendly, how many bicyclists use the lanes, and whether bicyclists are creating a specific share of the trips in the community.  Mr. Henderson added that it would also include education, enforcement, and encouraging people to ride.

Mr. Delk said they would like feedback on whether to change the median standard from 18-23.  Mayor Weinbrecht said widened cross sections shouldn’t come within 8-10 feet of houses.  He said there has to be tradeoffs.  Mrs. Robinson said they should set a standard and then look at situations on a case-by-case basis.  Mr. Portman said it’s important to incorporate that one size doesn’t fit all.  He said they need to be able to differentiate between new Greenfield standards and infill.  Mr. Frantz said they should set 23 as the standard unless there’s a hardship and then adjust on a case by case basis.  Council members concurred. 

Mr. Delk said with the bike element they will continue with the Town’s current standard and work on improvements to extend the network and get to the silver level.

Mrs. Robinson said they need to look at grade separated crossings for pedestrians and then put it into the budget for widening roads.  Mayor Weinbrecht said he likes the idea of grade separated pedestrian crossings to be considered for road widening projects.  She said they should have an east-west corridor and north-south corridor.  She said that people should be able to cross at grade in very little or no places.  She said that liked the sharrows.  Mr. Delk said that the standard being set is that the sharrows would only be on streets that are 35 mph. 

Mr. Frantz said it’s worth looking at the roundabouts.  Mrs. Robinson said they should look at all treatments for intersections.  Mayor Pro Tem Robison said they should have a holistic approach. 

Mayor Pro Tem Robison asked if the population density analysis takes into account the Town center area plan build out projections.  Mr. Bailey said that the Town center area plan is a small area within the land use plan, so it’s considered.  

Mr. Portman said he would information on capital infrastructure and costs. 

Mr. Smith asked about the ridership for C-Trans. Ray Boylston of the planning department said there are about 2000-3000 intermittent users.  Mayor Weinbrecht said hitting major shopping centers and employment areas will increase ridership. 

In describing the next steps, Mr. Delk said they are finishing up meeting with different municipalities and agencies.  He said that the full draft plan incorporating council’s direction will go on the Web and they will start planning the public meeting.  Mr. Bailey said staff will send a report through committee to ensure that they are on the right track.

Mr. Portman asked about time frame.  Mrs. Andes said their goal is to have plan adopted by the summer. 

Mayor Pro Tem Robison said that level and quality of service is important. She asked about an intermittent update on the concept moving forward with level of service.  Juliet Andes of the planning department said that they will add a step into current schedule. 

Mayor Weinbrecht adjourned the meeting at 7:38 .