Meeting Notes: September 2, 2015

Attending: Hultgren, Palmer, Waldburger, Gosselin

We convened the meeting shortly after 6:30 PM in the lobby of the Nash-Zimmer Transportation Center.

Hultgren said he had asked Elle at the MCC again about the net funds from the previous bike workshops that could be given to Bike Mansfield. He said that these funds could be used to pay the presenters and help with the impending T-shirt order. Having not heard back from Elle, he will contact Jay or Curt at the MCC.

The Town’s pedestrian and bicycle master plan/process was discussed. A kick-off meeting for interested parties and representatives of appropriate organizations is to be scheduled by the Town’s planning office. With September already here, members suggested the first week in October (Oct 6,7 or 8), or even the second week in October. Hultgren will call Linda Painter to discuss the date, and what needs to be done to set up this meeting.

Hultgren reported that he had mapped out the locations for new bike route signs on the sections of Routes 89 and 195 that were to be added to the Town’s bike route system, and he sent these locations to the Town DPW who forwarded them to the DOT for approval and permits.

It was decided that Palmer will follow up with the Town DPW on the painting and repainting of sharrows on Town roads (and the new ones in Storrs Center), and Hultgren will contact the DPW interns regarding the status of the draft complete streets policy.

Bicycle parking in Storrs Center was discussed. A railing attachment/symbol is needed to show that it is designed for bike parking; a map is needed for the designated parking areas; and some equipment references are needed for temporarily converting an on-road parking space from cars to bicycles. Hultgren and Palmer agreed to do some research on the first and third items, and Hultgren will ask Kathleen in the MDP office for assistance with the bike parking maps.

Gosselin said he would put together a flier for the October bike workshops. Hultgren will send him the information that is in the Recreation Dept Fall brochure.

Advertising/publicizing the available bike commuting facilities in the Transportation Center was discussed. Hultgren said if a flier was produced summarizing the commuting program, he would be willing to distribute it to the Storrs Center merchants (either door to door or through the MDP). Hultgren will discuss this with the MDP staff to see if the information already exists in printed form, or it a flier needs to be put together for this.

Hultgren reported that the CROG representative (Emily Hultquist) said that CROG wasn’t actually set up to do feasibility studies such as is needed for the Hollow to Hollow bike route proposal. Hultgren said that working together with Yakovleff he would be willing to drive or ride the route and note the sections that will need improvements to make the route safe. Gosselin said that he had access to the right-of-way maps of the state highways, which will be needed to determine if additional public land will be needed for the improvements. These maps could also be used to sketch the proposed improvements on and come up with some preliminary costs.

Palmer will be updating the website to include an interview with Pierce, the latest meeting notes and the October workshops.

Sundays in September are all committed and Sunday the 27^th is a charity ride for the Roots of Development project, so since it is in Mansfield (and uses the Tour de Mansfield routes), it will be Bike Mansfield’s Sunday morning ride for September! Some tentative dates for October’s Sunday morning ride were discussed, but nothing was finalized.

Hultgren said that there were 20 pre-orders for the T shirts but that he was reluctant to guess at what sizes to purchase to fill out a 50 shirt order at the UConn Coop. He will contact the Coop rep to see if a lower quantity of shirts can be ordered so that most of the shirts will be for pre-orders and only a few that will be size-guessed..

The CROG bike and pedestrian annual counts are being done again this September. Hultgren said he would count the two intersections on Route 195 (Dog Lane and South Eagleville Rd) that he did last year. Palmer said he would help (there are a few more intersections that would be helpful to count each fall to provide some baseline data).

Palmer said that he was planning to try to extend the “intergenerational bike venture project” (Denmark) to the Storrs Area, and will be writing about it on the website and contacting others in Bike Mansfield to help him. (The project involves 2-seater bikeshaw vehicles pedaled with student volunteers to transport seniors.)

The meeting ended about 7:20 PM. The next meeting will be in early October, but may not be on a Wednesday to avoid conflict with the Wednesday bike workshops.

LRH

Acting Scribe

9/7/15