08.07.18 Regular Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Meeting Minutes August 7,2018 injury or death?Nationally,I can tell you nearly 40,000 people a year die in crashes.And,pedestrian deaths are up 25% over the past four years. Research shows a pedestrian hit by a car going 20mph has a 95% chance of living.Hit by a car going 40mph; 85%chance of death.America's roads are Dangerous by Design as engineers have been trained to prioritize vehicles. Lane widths are correlated with speed and it's disappointing to see this new TMP regularly prescribing lane widths in excess of 12 feet,the width of a highway lane. Staff rationalizes this stating that if you remove the gutter and lane stripe, the width is less, but that is moving the goal post and that width contributes equally to speeding.The National Association of City Transportation Officials known as NACTO recommends 10 foot lanes in urban settings and only up to 11 feet on designated truck and bus routes.The draft TMP widths are a foot too wide across the board. Incidentally, removing that foot will save a lot of money. Many communities have begun to adopt policies such as Vision Zero that acknowledge deaths as preventable and that the only acceptable target is zero.There is no such as policy in this draft and we can't wait 5-years for the next TMP to have one.Progressive communities are also measuring more comprehensive metrics. The EPA,NACTO,and others publish long lists of alternative performance measures that could be incorporated.We are not here to make perfect the enemy of good,but the TMP is currently unacceptable without a comprehensive Transportation Safety policy, lane widths that are supportive of safe design speeds,and trackable performance measures beyond vehicular level of service to let the know if it's even accomplishing its goals.He thanked Council for their service and consideration. Sarah Simpson, spoke as an architect and urban designer here in town that has followed the progress of the Transportation Master Plan this past year. She is here to encourage Council to address some foundational sustainability issues present in the proposed draft Thoroughfare Plan and the performance measures that drive its design. The draft master plan is an improvement when compared to the 2004 plan.It acknowledges active transportation options and complete streets and incorporates them into the CIP prioritization matrix. But, when you look at the thoroughfare plan,the expansive network of new roads encircling the city appears to be at odds with both stated master plan goals to shift people towards walking, biking and transit as well as comp plan goals to create a compact,connected,biodiverse, resilient, low-carbon city. There is a disconnect.That is because the TMP is still heavily reliant upon 1950s City of San Marcos Page 9