2020 October BBAC Meeting Notes

Information
Meeting minutes

Date: Thursday, October 15, 2020

Time: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Location:  Zoom Meeting

Meeting Co-Chairs: Josh Linden and Lauren Bates

Staff Support: Chris Warner, Demetri Finch-Brown, Jeramy Patton, John Brady, Katie MacDougall, Matt Grumm, Ryan Kinsella, Tyler Berry, Vanessa Micale, Catherine Ciarlo, Chris Armes, Mike Crebs, Amy Roberts, Peter Koonce, Michael Magee, Erick More

BBAC Committee Members: Arlene Kimura, Douglas Armstrong, Elanie O’Keefe, Evelyn Amara, Farrell Richartz, Femi Oluwanfema, Josh Linden, Maria Hernandez, Messa Long, Momoko Saunders, Pia Welch, Rob Martineau, Ruthanne Bennett, Ryan Hashagen, Sage Gieselman, Sarah Iannarone, Shani Harris-Bagwell, Thomas Karwaki

Welcome & Public Comment - 10 minutes

Welcome 

Vision Zero- Reading of the Names

Public Comments

Update from the Director - 10 minutes

Presenter: Chris Warner

Materials:  Healthy Business Update into winter, Safety Net

Safer Street

  • Expanded walkways in Gateway

Healthy Businesses Program

  • Tremendous success – PBOT issues over 700 permits
  • Extended the program through the winter months in order to support these businesses

Federal Government

  • Federal Government is moving the fence out of the public Right Of Way after several months of legal back-and-forth

Question: Are the Feds going to pay their fines accrued? We need to consult with the city attorney about pursuing legal action. The feds have been very clear that they won’t pay.

Question: Is the Safe Streets|Slow Streets program on our Neighborhood Greenways going to be extended as well? We’ve talked about ways to make it more permanent. We’re focusing on Healthy Businesses because those are so time-sensitive. We are planning to keep the installations up through winter. We don’t want these installations to get shoved aside. These installations are showing up in google maps.

Question: what outreach are you doing to healthy businesses to east Portland (and other areas)
could you use volunteers to get the word out more.

Program Manager Presentations - 90 minutes

Presenters: PBOT Program Managers

Materials:

Active Transportation & Safety – Catherine Ciarlo

  • Talk about goals, performance measures, major accomplishments
  • We’ve tried to connect the work to our strategic plan
  • Goals: Improve safety, advance equity, strengthen community connections, and manage demand on Portland’s transportation system by replacing auto trips with walking, bicycling, and shared micromobility
  • Performance Measures: Miles of streets where speed limits were reduced to improve safety, percentage of commuters who walked, biked, took transit, or working from home, etc.
  • Question: Does your team have data that shows the geographic information for where the speed limit was lowered and how transportation modes vary based on location? For the speed limit, we have a map of the city and we focus on the High Crash Network, which is predominantly in East Portland. For trips shifting, we’re in the early stages of understanding how to measure that. We have a lot of programmatic data and survey data, but we’re learning more about how to use this.
  • Accomplishments: We’re in the middle of this set of cataclysmic shift in work over the past 8 months. We pivoted our work first to respond to COVID-19 and now we’re centering racial equity in our work. We did a series of 80 virtual events for Sunday Parkways, with activities focused on BIPOC Portlanders. 90,000 people participated in these online programs.
  • Question: Does your team have one or two priorities that you’re keeping in mind? All of our goals, like Climate Program Implementation and Community Partnerships, cost money. In many ways, we’ve been creative about funding these programs. We have challenges ahead of us for how we’ll fund this work. It takes more work to deliver these programs and reach new audiences.

On-Street Parking – Chris Armes

  • Goal: Support traffic safety, access to goods and services, economic vitality, and neighborhood livability by using data to manage public parking
  • Performance Measures: Number of area parking permit “opt-outs”, number of area parking permits issued, on-street parking expenses as a percentage of revenues
  • Accomplishments: Online Area Parking Permit, Changing Parking Kitty Signs, New Meter Installations
  • Since demand is down, we’ve had to delay significant initiatives like Event Pricing Areas.
  • Question: Can you give us an estimate of how much revenue might be generated from these expanded parking management areas? It’s hard to estimate that right now, because we have to work with the community to identify boundaries.
  • Question: Can you give a breakdown of parking revenue decline and then (hopefully) it’s increase over the past 8 months? For on street meters, PBOT generates about 36 million dollars. From mid-March, those transactions were about 20% of what they normally are. They’ve grown to about 50% of what they were pre-COVID.
  • Question: Has there been any progress on ensuring expenditures of Parking Permit Surcharges are being used only on Transportation related expenses? We are making progress on that. Council adopted guidelines for surcharge expenses. We are providing the Central Eastside some assistance.
  • Question: Is there any work to shift parking enforcement to a purely automated system to reduce police interactions? Mike Crebs with Parking Enforcement can handle this question.

Parking Enforcement – Mike Crebs

  • Question: Is there any work to shift parking enforcement to a purely automated system to reduce police interactions? The police aren’t involved in any part of our parking enforcement. We deal with police sometimes for homeless encampments. We don’t deal with moving violations.
  • Goal: Ensures equitable and convenient access to parking in the public right of way. Supports traffic safety, access to goods and services.
  • Performance measures: Number of abandoned auto complaints received, number of derelict RV’s reported, number of parking citations issued. We do more than just write citations.
  • Question: Are the # derelict RVs reported = # reports or # of vehicles.  In North Portland it is taking dozens of reports to get action.  Also - kudos to parking enforcement staff working with the RVs residents.  Finally - is PBOT working with Police on repairing the vehicles? (State funding). There could be duplicate reports in there, but I think the number of cars that you see reported (5,199) is accurate.
  • Question: Does parking enforcement also handle finding adequate shelter for those camping on our multi-use paths? I know the Sweet Water and I-205 paths are of particular concern. We don’t get involved on the multiuse paths. We focus on the sidewalks.

Sidewalks, Bridges & Structures – Michael Magee

  • Goal: Maximizes the city’s lifetime commitment and investment by preserving existing assets, preventing deterioration, and avoiding costly repairs and loss of asset use. Ensures the city’s corners and sidewalks adhere to federal ADA standards.
  • Performance Measures: Number of corners improved or constructed to comply with ADA, percentage of PBOT-owned bridges in non-distressed condition.
  • Question: Does your team have any information about the geographic distribution of the curb ramp work? We have maps of all our curb ramp projects that we can share with committee members.
  • Question: In East Portland, lots of people have boats.  The boat trailer is parked with the hitch really intruding on to the sidewalk.  My understanding is that the city employee has to actually see the violation before a posting is issued.  If the violation is mostly on evenings or weekends, how do we get resolution?  The person with the mobility device or a walker ends up in the street.  How is that being handled? Or is it? You’re not supposed to park your boat on the street. That is something that people should call in to PBOT.
  • Question: which organizations if any do you work with to try and harness citizen volunteers to help manage trash and other debris ? We do work with other willing volunteers and provide them with materials like garbage bags.
  • Question: Are there plans to salt streets again this winter if we get ice events (is there leftover salt?), or what is the plan for traction/de-icer? Yes, we do have salt here at our Maintenance facilities and the equipment to do so. We’re in our Winter Training Program right now. We only put the salt necessary to keep the road maintained. We don’t over-salt. We work with BES to monitor the impacts of salt.
  • Question: Do you think that Maintenance costs are roughly the same over time, or is it getting more expensive over the years? Every program is a little bit different. We’re definitely seeing some costs associated with the ADA ramps and drainage issues, but we’re working to provide these improvements. We bill what’s necessary and do what’s right.

Streetlights & Signals - Peter Koonce

  • Goal: Responsible for the planning, design, operations, and maintenance of traffic control and street lighting. Create and maintain streets that keep Portland a walkable, bikeable, and mobile livable city. We are being proactive and advancing racial equity.
  • Performance Measures: Responsible for delivering transit signal priority to support Division Transit, Rose Lanes, and Streetcar operational improvements (10 to 25% savings), Implementation of safety measures like leading pedestrian intervals, collaborating with projects to upgrade traffic signals with development to reduce life cycle costs

Streets & Signs – Michael Magee

  • Goal: preserve or upgrade the conditions of Portland’s improved streets, maintain traffic signs and markings, and manage  traffic to provide a safe and accessible transportation system for the public.
  • Performance measures: Number of crosswalks installed, number of potholes repaired, number of signs maintained or replaced
  • Question: Can PBOT make signs for other agencies? Yes, we can and we do. We don’t have the large equipment. We’re not a custom sign shop. Our signmake is one woman who makes 20,000 signs.
  • Question: What is the estimate duration of pothole repairs? The goal is to fill them within 30 days. This was the first year that we actually had every pothole filled within 30 days.

Streetcar Operations – Christine Leon

  • Goal: Connects neighborhoods, employment centers, and cultural destinations around the central city with seven-days-a-week service. Provides both transportation mobility and an incentive for denser, urban development. The streetcar is a catalyst for development.
  • Performance measures: Annual streetcar ridership, percentage of streetcar fare revenue contribution to operating budget, percentage of streetcar on-time performance.
  • Question: how do you account for people who transfer from the bus and don’t buy a ticket - or do you count the people who enter the street car - independent of if they have a ticket? A lot of focus has been on dealing with the governor’s directives for transportation during the pandemic. We’ve seen a number of mental health crises out on the line. We don’t participate in the transit police like TriMet does. We have streetcar managers who respond if the operators need help, but that doesn’t happen very often.
  • Accomplishment: We are 100% in compliance with new safety guidance. We’re working on featuring BIPOC artists on our streetcars. We’re excited about the Rose Lanes projects. We’ll continue to look at the alignment extension between Northwest and the Hollywood District.

Committee Updates and Closing - 10 minutes

Past Events