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3-3-22 TSAC MinutesTransportation Safety Advisory Commission Minutes Thursday, March 3, 2022 5:30 PM The Transportation Safety Advisory Commission (TSAC) convened for a meeting on Thursday, March 3, 2022 at 5:30 PM in the Council Chambers, Building #4, 1400 Schertz Parkway, Schertz, Texas 78154 TSAC Commissioners Present: Dziewit, Richard, Chair Cornelisse, Chuck Heyward, Ferrando Ragsdale, Roy Stevens, Ronald Sullivan, John Wiley, Paul TSAC Commissioners Absent: Heasley, Tyler Winter, Michael Staff Present: James, Brian, Assistant City Manager Letbetter, Doug, Public Works Manager Simmons, Cyndi, Administrative Assistant Westbrook, Travis, Graduate Engineer Williams, Suzanne, Public Works Director Woodlee, Kathy, City Engineer CALL TO ORDER at 5:32 PM by Chair Richard Dziewit. ROLL CALL HEARING OF RESIDENTS • Amanda Martinez, ammartinezO.: ccmcnet.com. She is the property community manager for The Crossvine. She will speak when the agenda item she is concerned with is discussed. She made one comment at this time: o Residents are pleased that the Yield signs have been placed in the roundabouts on Hollering Vine. 1. Minutes: Consideration and /or action regarding the approval of the minutes of the September 2, 2021 and November 4, 2021 meetings. Motion made by Commissioner Ragsdale to approve the September 2, 2021 and November 4, 2021 meeting minutes as written. Seconded by Commissioner Heyward. Vote passed was unanimous. 2. Crosswalk Request: Update on the Status of the Request for a Pedestrian Crosswalk on Savannah Drive near Willow Ranch Street. Kathy Woodlee reports that upon further observation, measurements, and traffic counts, and this one has proved to be a challenge as it is on the borderline as far as what's safe to install and what the best treatment would be. We've decided to pass this along for evaluation by one of our on -call consulting firms, Kimley -Horn, 3 -3 -22 Minutes Transportation Safety Advisory Commission who specializes in this area. Commissioner Heyward asked about some things the consulting firm has done in cases like this. Kathy Woodlee responded that they may recommend that there be no treatment because we don't want to encourage folks to cross there, they may recommend that signage is the appropriate solution, or they may recommend some other traffic calming measures to slow traffic. These are types of things that have been recommended in the past in other areas and may not apply to this particular area. Other options might be to narrow lanes to slow folks down or installing "pedestrian refuge" islands in the middle of a road to allow folks to cross halfway. Chairman Dziewit asked what kind of time element are we looking at? Kathy Woodlee responded that it would probably be a couple of months. We haven't executed a task order yet, so it will be a few more weeks. They will get gather data from pedestrian traffic. Commissioner Sullivan commented that the more he looks at this as a resident and as a parent, he feels we should complete the sidewalk network on the other side of the road as well as slow the traffic. Kathy Woodlee replied that we are also using this study as a learning opportunity for our staff. 3. Four -Way Stop Request: Update on the Status of the Request for Stop Signs and/or Speed Humps in Rhine Valley. Kathy Woodlee reports that the data collection has not occurred. 4. Traffic Studies: Update on Status of Traffic Studies. a. Misty Woods Subdivision - Kathy Woodlee reports that she received the data collection from the Misty Woods Subdivision and Dimrock two days ago. They had been delayed until the construction of Elbel and Live Oak were substantially complete so that traffic patterns would return to their normal patterns. The data has not been reviewed and will have a recommendation if anything needs to be done next month. b. Dimrock — See above. c. Woodland Oaks in Greenshire Subdivision — Traffic counts were done in three locations and the results were somewhat curious. They will be analyzing the data further and do not have a final result yet. May need more studies and observations. Commissioner Cornelisse asked when this analysis might be completed. Kathy Woodlee responded that we will likely have more to report next month. Brian James also commented that the initial feedback we received was that we're not really over the speed limit that we would expect except for a couple locations. Not to get too detailed, but what happens when you compare that speed data with the axle classification data (what type of vehicle was passing), that's where the anomaly is. What he thinks is happening is that it's miss - counting what type of vehicles they are and that's skewing the speed. Public Works and Engineering will be out there next Tuesday visually doing counts and compare with the data and will have results next month. d. Bench Trail — Same as c. e. Samantha Drive — Kathy Woodlee reports that the results were that the average daily traffic was about 354 in two places, which is not high enough to meet the threshold criteria for speed humps. However, the 85% percentile speed was about 26 mph which is 1 mph over the threshold for speed humps. It's not a massive speeding problem. The police department spent some time out there and there were no significant issues observed. We are recommending no action. 5. Speed Study: Update on the Status of the Speed Study in the Fairhaven Subdivision. Kathy Woodlee reports that the speed counts were completed and they did meet criteria for speed humps and they were placed in January. We will schedule follow -up counts to gauge the effectiveness of the speed humps. This study is closed out for the time being. 3 -3 -22 Minutes 2 Transportation Safety Advisory Commission 6. Schertz Parkway — Ashley Park: Update on the Status of the Request for Signalization. Kathy Woodlee reports that we are also passing this one to the consulting firm. Chairman Dziewit commented that he lives in that area and has observed that the left side coming around towards Schertz Parkway has a curvature and you cannot see traffic approaching. From the other direction of Ashley, you can see. Maybe they can take a look at that issue as well as far as looking at the amount of traffic there. It isn't that excessive, but in that direction — especially at school time when there are a lot of kids running around there and a lot of cars — would be something to look at. Commissioner Sullivan commented that this is a scary intersection and he worries a lot about this, especially for pedestrians and kids crossing. He agrees that this a good learning experience to look at the safety for pedestrians crossing there. Kathy Woodlee responded that there is also a cost factor and when we look at placing speed humps costing maybe $10,000, a sign costing a couple of hundred, but a traffic signal hundreds of thousands of dollars. Commissioner Sullivan agrees but that you can't put a price on life and wants to make it safe. 7. Traffic Issues on Fairlawn: Recommendation for establishment of school speed zone and no parking zones on Fairlawn near the School of Science and Technology. Kathy Woodlee reports that we discussed the issues that were generated by the new School of Science and Technology at the intersection of Fairlawn and I35 access road. Things were congested during the first weeks of school and the school made some operational changes and cut down drastically on the problems; however, did not eliminate the problems. She would like to recommend that the Commission recommends to Council establishing a school zone which would lower the speed limit to 20 mph along Fairlawn and raise awareness with the flashing school zone signs and also establish that section as a no parking zone so folks don't park along the roundabout. Brian James commented that he and Sergeant Arriaga met with the school to make sure they were okay with things. The school's perspective is there isn't a need for their parents to park on the street, that they have adequate parking to cover their normal events. He would not be surprised when you have the parent/teacher night to start the school year, just like every other school in the city, you're going to have people parking all over the place; but the school's perspective was that there isn't a need for parents to park there. What they felt parents were doing is they were trying to avoid getting in the normal que and picking up their kid the way they should. They don't anticipate parents coming into the neighborhood to park. Staff has received the site plan for an expansion and we think that with the additional parking to be shared between the two facilities that will help. The school has requested the no parking zone. Commissioner Sullivan has heard one issue is that people are lining up to get out of Riata onto 35 and pulling to the right and then people doing U -turns on the frontage road coming back into the school. Brian James will have someone monitor the area to see if that is occurring a lot, it will need to be addressed. Commissioner Heyward commented that is where the I35 over is going and they are clearing the right side of the frontage road, so looking to the future, is what we're planning for going to mitigate the future as well or are we just doing a short-term fix. Brian James commented that because of the changes we have with TxDOT and roads getting improved and with new commercial and residential development, from a staff perspective, it's an evolving situation and our approach to it is that let's deal with the problem we have today and keep an eye on it, but it would not surprise him that once I35 that we'll be back with a totally different problem. Discussion regarding cost factors for putting a system in place and then having to redo in a couple of years. Brian James reports that the main issue is not parking — it is for procedures for picking up and dropping off. A couple of times a year or for a big event there will be a parking problem. To what degree do we make them add a lot of parking just to be used twice per year. The other consideration is that the charter schools don't offer the same level of service in terms 3 -3 -22 Minutes 3 Transportation Safety Advisory Commission of activities that the public schools do, so there's no football fields or other areas where a lot of parents will be coming. The biggest concern that he has is that there will be multiple lanes for the second phase of the school bringing a concern for stacking of vehicles. Chairman Dziewit asked for a motion to establish a school speed zone and no parking zone. Motion made by Commissioner Sullivan to establish a school speed zone and no parking zone from frontage road to the rear of the residential lots on both sides of Fairlawn in front of the school. Seconded by Commissioner Stevens. Vote passed was unanimous. 8. Crossvine Subdivision: Update on issues raised by HOA representative at the November 4, 2021, meeting. • Kathy Woodlee reports that there had been a complaint of long -term (greater than 15 minutes) parking blocking mail kiosks. Staff went and did not observe any problematic behavior so we just request that we get additional photographs or specific calls when it is a problem to see if we need to go back and look at it. • The yield signs were requested and they were installed by Public Works in fairly short order. There were some sight concerns at Canopy Bend exiting to Lower Seguin Road and on this one we looked at this before and looked at it again. We also had some feedback from folks about feeling there are some unsafe conditions on Lower Seguin Road at that location. We're broadening the study and we're looking at the safety of Lower Seguin Road and that intersection in particular. We're evaluating the geometry of the road with the S -curve and the speed limit is 50 mph coming from Converse and slows down to 30 mph but may not be soon enough. Folks continue to carry their speed through there. We did not find that there is a true problem with sight distance if folks are going the appropriate speed on Lower Seguin Road. The faster the speed, the longer the sight distance needs to be. • There was also a concern of parents parking and standing on the street within Crossvine waiting to pick -up students at Founders. PD also went out and didn't see any problematic issues. They did see a traffic que on 1518 at one point but had discussions with the school who changed some of their operating procedures and that problem seems to have resolved from what we've been able to observe. • Resident Amanda Martinez spoke and indicated that is the update she needed and will take the information back to the community. As far as the short-term or long -term parking, she indicates that in her experience there's not a problem during the day, only in the evening. She asked if we recommend that homeowners contact the city or take pictures and submit them to her and she forward them to the city? She'd like to know what steps to take to report to the homeowners. She thanked them for installing the yield signs. 9. Chapter 86 Proposed Amendments: Update on Preparation to Present to City Council. Kathy Woodlee reports that this one is in a holding pattern. We started to update and confirm the traffic device list that was put together and a couple of additional subdivisions accepted and we want to make sure that everything is order. We have a contract that should get started very soon to run our PCI study, which is the pavement condition index where we have a firm that comes out and drives all the city streets and catalogues all the defects in the roads so we can target which ones to expend funds on for maintenance. That study is also going to digitally pick up all the signs. We're going to wait and make sure that we have a solid confirmed list. It is ready to go, just waiting on the final list of traffic control devices. 10. Summary of New Requests to Staff: a. Request for Crosswalk on Homestead Boulevard in Vicinity of Amenity Center. Kathy Woodlee reports that from the access road to the City of Cibolo, there are no stop signs. 3 -3 -22 Minutes 4 Transportation Safety Advisory Commission There's an amenity center and trails throughout the subdivision and there's difficulty in crossing the road. b. Request for investigation into truck traffic on Schertz Parkway. Kathy Woodlee reports that this request came in recently and hasn't been looked at yet. Chairman Dziewit commented that the truck traffic appears to be from the AT&T service being done. it does have an affect on traffic and an affect on site distance with the trucks parking on the street. 11. Staff Comments: a. Commissioner Sullivan commented in his neighborhood there have been complaints on the rock trucks cutting down Belmont Parkway and going down Old Wiederstein and then Dean Road to Cibolo working back there in the several new housing developments. Are they allowed on Belmont Parkway? Should they be going that route? This has been happening in the last several weeks. He's told residents to contact the city. Kathy Woodlee remarked that Belmont is not an acceptable route because they could take 1103. b. Commissioner Heyward commented that the lighting from Old Wiederstein into Belmont is not adequate. Would like to see some reflectors and additional lighting. 12. Future Agenda Items Requests/TSAC Pending Items List: a. Commissioner Heyward asked if there's a place on our website to give feedback to residents. Kathy Woodlee advised we can add links on the website. 13. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 6:32 PM. Attest: --- -..__- Ric ziewit, Chairperson C ' Simmons, Recording Secretary 3 -3 -22 Minutes 5 Transportation Safety Advisory Commission