HomeMy Public PortalAboutBikeways Committee -- 2016-04-07 Minutes Bikeways Committee Meeting—Thursday April 7,2016 at 4PM Town Offices, Brewster MA
Attendees: Jack Clarke,Susan Riseman, Rich Scannevin, Chris Miller, R.J. Koch, R. Patrick Ellis, Greg
Wright, and Hal Minis
The Meeting was called to order by Jack Clarke, Chairman of Bikeways Committee, at 4pm.
Jack read the minutes from the last meeting which was on July 14, 2015. A motion was made to accept
the minutes as read, and all in attendance voted in favor to accept.
The following items were discussed:
Progress and issues concerning 6A construction and Bike Lane issues.
General discussion began with concerns about width of lane for cyclists and hard curbs with minimal
ability to move out of traffic. It was stated that the 6A construction was not necessarily meant to
benefit cyclists but should be considered more universal as a benefit for the town in general enabling
many to use safe sidewalks with high volume of towns people and visitors during peak season. Would
better serve pedestrians and families walking throughout the town.
Roads Program and Railtrail Crossing
Pat was asked to discuss his proposal and circulated it to the attendees regarding the "Town of Brewster
Complete Streets Policy", a five page docment,that talks about"Vision and Purpose", "Core
Commitment", "Exemptions" and "Best Practices" of this program for Brewster. The Cape Cod
Commission is offering$50K per grant for those towns that are eligible and who adopt the program.
$400K is the maximum grant afforded under this program. Projects must be completed within one year.
This allows towns to create and fix streets in their towns and to focus on connectivity and provide an
integrated network that serves all users of the street. It was noted that this could be used to take some
steps to advance some of the key initiatives under the Bikeways Strategic Program. This initiative and
There was a great of discussion about ideas and thoughts on how this could be done. Some thoughts
were given to universal signage on rail trail,flashing lights at difficult crossings and ideas for connectivity
throughout the town (e.g., 6A to the bike path). We will be focusing at upcoming meetings around
ideas for usage.
Pat indicated that we could adopt this program "as practical". Pat's proposal was well received by the
group and there will be more to come. Jack asked if anyone would be willing to work on the grant for
the program. Greg offered to take the initiative to work on this.
Jack asked the group whether there were any other questions at this time. If anyone has further
thoughts or questions they can email Pat at pellis@town.brewster.ma.gov.
There was motion made to provide a letter of support by Jack to the Board of Selectman regading Pat's
proposal. All were in favor and motion was passed by full acceptance.
Bike Rack Inventory
Jack asked Greg to discussion the work he did on inventorying Bike Racks in the town that are not town
owned. Greg circulated his inventory of places indicating whether bike racks were present or not. He
noted that surprisingly most places that typically you would expect to see cyclists utilize the location
actually do have them. Places such as the Animal Rescue League, certain restaurants, and art galleries
do not.
Chris noted that locations on town property such as beaches(and other locations such as Lemon Tree
Shops) may not have bike racks, but may have railings,wooden racks or other stationary fixtures that
could easily act as railings which could be used, so really not a significant issue. Ponds probably need
more bike racks.
Brewster Map
Hal raised the issue of preparing a Brewster Map for cyclists. Some ideas and issues were discussed:
ways to get it done, use Chamber of Commerce, print costs, do an initial one,what should go on it,
reach out to the community for advertising costs. More discussion to come on this topic at upcoming
meetings.
Meeting Time for Bikeways Committee
Jack said that effective immediately that we will hold our Bikeways Meetings at a regular meeting time
on the first Thursday of each month at 4pm at Town Hall.
Flashing Signage
One of the attendees asked about the Flashing signage that is often seen around town on 6A and how
we might be able to use that. Chief noted that it was owned by the Brewster Fire Dept. It was asked
whether it was something we could borrow from time to time as a way to provide Bike Safety
messaging. Chief suggested that Jack make a formal request to the Fire Dept to borrow it on specific
dates and times if the group wanted to find out about using it. It was mentioned that we should
consider creating a "Bike Safety Week" maybe when school is out and provide some signage around that
on 6A.
Humanizing the issues starts with us
Greg asked the group to adopt language that would attempt to humanize the concepts around cycling,
biking and driving. For example,that we all utilize the terminology"People walking", "people biking"
and "people driving". Greg made a motion that we all adopt the terminology going forward. Motion
was seconded and all voted in favor.
Reminder:
Conservation day is July 911. It is always the 2"d Saturday in July and many of us will be managing booths
including the Bikeways Committee.
Jack made a motion to adjourn the meeting, which was seconded and all voted in favor of adjournment
at approximately 5:40pm.
Minutes taken by Susan Riseman