January 19 Meeting Minutes

TRANSPORTATION ACTION TEAM MEETING MINUTES

Meeting Date: January 19, 2012
7:00pm
Keller House

Chair: Bruce Lyon

WELCOME: Dave Pitman, Wes Laubscher, Mary Lou Laubscher, Bruce Lyon, and Harold Blair

ANOUNCEMENTS:
Bay Area One Plan meeting Monday January 23, 2012 from 5:45 - 8 p.m. at the Richmond Convention Center, 403 Civic Center Plaza, Richmond, CA

Contra Costa County Clean Water Parcel Tax Public Hearing Tuesday February 7, 2012 10:00am Board of Supervisors Chambers, Room 107, 651 Pine Street, Martinez California

COMMUNITY REPORTS:

TRANSIT TO TRAILS:
Dave Pitman reported that he attended a meeting with the Spare the Air Resource Team to work on a health oriented project. Stephanie Andersen facilitated the event and they discussed various projects like Transit Buddy, Anti idling (vehicles), Walking Wednesday, Carpool Events and Transit to Trails. The projects were focused toward various segments of the community like Schools and General Public. The committee voted to work on two projects, Transit to Trails with a local focus and an anti idling campaign focused toward schools. Some ideas that Dave shared for a Transit to Trail plan included a web site with maps depicting various walking excursions coordinated with bus and transit schedules. Participants including senior groups for instance could take a bus from their neighborhood to the trail head, go on the walk that could last up to an hour and a half and board a bus at the end of the trail with their bus transfer for the ride home. Dave shared a spread sheet that took into consideration the length of the trail and the speed of the participant, to facilitate the connection. The path displayed connected the Contra Costa Canal Trail and Shared Use Trail from San Miguel / Treat bus stop to the Mohr Lane / Del Rio circle bus stop. This fascinating project would allow community groups like seniors to board the bus, walk the trail to the next bus that could deliver them back to their neighborhood. Information could be added that would indicate the difficulty level, surface conditions etc.. Mary Lou suggested that Transit to Trails could show connections from various transit pickup points to City Parks like the Markham Nature Park and Arboretum, which would be enjoyable destinations for seniors.

WALKABILITY:
Mary Lou reported on an article titled What Neighborhoods Need to Succeed at Walkability.
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/01/what-neighborhoods-need-succeed-walkability/922/
The article mentions the idea that "residents of neighborhoods with a central core of shops and services- a pattern found in older, traditional communities walk nearly three times more of the than do residents of neighborhoods whose nearest shops and services lie along a major arterial roadway, a pattern typically found in newer suburban development." The shared use trail is an example of a community trail improvement that will certainly provide improved walk ability to our cities central core of shops and services.

COMMUNITY CLEAN WATER INITIATIVE:
Bruce reported on a proposed County Parcel Tax of $22.00 per parcel which would support the Contra Costa Clean Water Program and their proposed 2012 Community Clean Water Initiative. The web address ishttp://www.cccleanwater.org/ A link to an educational video that describes water quality problems and proposed solutions to water pollution is http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/stormfilm/slow_the_flow.shtml

Since the parcel tax must be spent in the same community, the parcel tax could provide grants for community projects, like a community garden, that would demonstrate native landscaping, bio swales, and have educational elements to encourage individual water quality projects. The idea is to reduce water pollution caused by flooding by increasing pervious surface areas. Replacing concrete driveways with pervious concrete or pervious pavers, collecting rain water from downspouts, and replacing lawns with native landscaping utilizing mulch, are encouraged by clean water advocates to "slow the flow". We are interested to see what specific projects that the County is planning.

NEXT STEPS:
Invite Jeff Rogers to our next meeting to report on updated to the progress of the Shared Use Trail. Keep Ray Kuzbari informed of our activities and ask him to report to our group on input from the City of Concord.

Ask Jeff or Ray if the Police Department has weighed in on the Shared Use Trail. We are interested to see if trail markers would allow users to identify their location if they are in need of Police, or Ambulance services, and to see if the existing Bollards that currently block emergency access will be replaced with a suitable gate or specialized bollard.

NEXT MEETING: February 23rd 2012

NEXT AGENDA: Seniors driving.

POSITIVES: Good meeting because much information was shared about the Transit to Trails project and the environment.

THINGS TO CHANGE: Improve the meeting to keep from going over time, and encourage more concerned residents to attend the meeting.

Bruce Lyon
blyon@pacbell.net