CART
Community ACTION to REDUCE TRAFFIC

Meeting Notes

Meeting #2 -- October 21, 2011

Participants: Jim Fraser, Jeff Slavitz, Jerry Butler, Sandy Donnell, Diane Furst, George Rodericks Michael Cronin, Cathleen Andrucci, , Felicia Wheaton, Wendi Kallins, Howard Block, John Frick, Peggy Curran

1. Tiburon Vice Mayor Jim Fraser welcomed the group and provided a brief overview of the results from the first taskforce meeting on October 7th.

2a. Tiburon Police Chief Mike Cronin provided data sheets from CalTrans. See attachments.

·  Data was taken in 2001. CalTrans has not taken any new data on Tiburon Boulevard.

·  Data sheets indicate that there are approximately 2600 vehicles inbound and outbound on the Boulevard during peak hour (1300 in each direction).

·  The existing traffic signals are old and are currently maxed out on the amount of green light time i.e. can’t make the green light longer without installing new signals.

·  If vehicles were traveling at the maximum speed on the boulevard (35 mph), this would equate to approximately 650 vehicles.

·  As more children walk/bike to school, there are more interruptions at each traffic signal, resulting in slower traffic.

·  It was suggested that school crossing guards should wait until there are at least 5-6 children at the stoplight before pressing the signal to cross. This would allow more cars to travel through each intersection.

2b. RUSD Business Manager John Frick from provided student demographic data by school and by grade that currently utilize the buses that the school district operates. See attachment.

·  Buses have 78 seats, which the younger students can fill up (Reed Elementary). The older students (Del Mar) need more space because of the amount of things they have to bring to school, and therefore there are less than 78 students on each bus.

·  It currently costs a family $427 one-way to use the bus. This breaks down to $2.30 per trip.

·  There is a higher population utilizing the buses from Reed, rather than Del Mar, most likely due to older students walking and riding their bikes to school.

·  Availability of buses for the school district is an issue, but breaking even is a more important issue if the school district starts to provide more buses. They need to have the additional buses full in order to be able to pay the driver, and pay for itself.

·  Last year 31 families were turned away that wanted to purchase bus passes, so there is a need.

·  It was suggested that the group should determine how many vehicles need to get off the boulevard during peak hours, then prioritize solutions, rank by impact, and then tackle the low hanging fruit.

2c. Wendi Kallins from Safe Routes to School (SR2S) provided additional data on bicycle and pedestrian improvements within the town that were funded through SR2S or by the Towns general fund. She also discussed how SR2S has been surveying and educating students/parents:

·  Travel surveys have been conducted within the school district to determine how students are traveling to school.

·  SR2S needs more volunteers to assist with this survey process to keep data current.

·  The surveys indicate that students which attend Bel Aire are more likely to walk or bus to school than students attending the other schools in the district; however there is still a small percentage of students walking/cycling and riding the bus at Reed and Del Mar.

·  SR2S has used the “School Pool” program to encourage parents to find other carpool parents/students. In Corte Madera, this program has been further broken down by neighborhood. School Pool also helps families socialize and creates additional networks besides just carpooling (i.e. emergency preparedness).

·  It was suggested to use SR2S as a solution to help mitigate traffic impacts, however, SR2S does not currently have an active taskforce in the Tiburon/Belvedere area. CART may be a solution to this.

·  It was also suggested to invite the PTA to the next meeting as they are a source of volunteers and can help find more volunteers with assisting with the survey taking and carpool programs.

3. The group discussed the following points and ideas:

·  Traffic should be reduced not only because it is inconvenient, but because reducing it would improve the reality and perception of safety; parents/children do not always feel safe walking/cycling to school.

·  Traffic is not only a school related problem, but also employees and contractors that work on the peninsula increase traffic during peak hours. This should be addressed by the group, too.

·  Consider using Blackie’s Pasture as a staging area for carpoolers to allow students to get dropped off in order to walk or ride to school, instead of driving them down the boulevard.

·  Incentives would be needed to get students of all ages, including parents, to buy into carpooling or walking/cycling to school.

·  The PTA should get involved with Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC) to work on incentive ideas in the forms of gifts to aid in cycling to school.

·  Each school should focus on a different mitigation to traffic, i.e., Reed has the youngest students so carpooling would be a better alternative than walking/cycling to school since children are too young to be traveling to school by themselves.

4. Brainstorming/flip charts notes:

·  Signals – timing issues, platoons

·  Buses – need more of them; need additional routes; is cost an impediment?; would schedule changes help?; can one bus make 2 trips if school start times change?

·  Carpools – can we create incentives to carpool; organize neighborhood gatherings “school pool”

·  Walk/Bike – incentives through students

·  Involve the PTA

·  Rec Programs – these may be useful in the morning before school starts if school start times change

·  Approach traffic as a community problem

·  Tie into safety, not just traffic congestion

·  Explore using Blackie’s Pasture as a staging area for carpoolers, etc

·  Explore bike gear options for helping carry books to school

·  Training session for kids about walking/cycling to school (Bike Rodeo)

·  Reed Elementary may be the highest safety priority due to age of students and layout of school drop off

·  Consider creation of preferential carpool drop off lanes, especially at Reed

·  Small incentives work for the younger students, including raffle tickets for a few prizes

·  Explore modifications to school start times

Next Steps – include any additional ideas to the list and prioritize at the next meeting. Discuss other mitigations to traffic besides school i.e. contractors, employee’s, etc. Determine what to tackle first.

CART Meeting Minutes October 21, 2011 1