Burlington Walk-Bike Council — Burlington, VT
Date: 2023-07-05
Time: 17:30

AGENDA - Burlington Walk / Bike Council
 July 5, 2023, Wednesday 5:30 – 7:00 pm
MEETING OPTIONS:
 1. In-person - DPW conference room at 645 Pine Street, Burlington
 2. Virtually - using Zoom:
 https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88225473951?pwd=YzFFQ1Q3Y3J4bzcwR2VNYWRFWnht
 UT09
 Passcode: 091788 (See other remote access options below)

AGENDA:
1. Introductions, Announcements, Updates and Public Comments (10 min)

2. Discuss How we can Speed Progress on Walk/Bike Improvements (60 min)
While recognizing the significant projects currently underway in Burlington, there is so
much more that could be done to implement small-to-medium sized infrastructure projects
or to maintain existing ones. During this discussion with DPW staff, we’ll seek to
understand the barriers within and outside of DPW, and brainstorm opportunities to help
expand walking and biking improvements throughout the city. Additionally we’ll explore the
following related topics:

 ● Quick build - timelines and applications
 ● Tactical Urbanism and Demonstration Projects guidelines - which don't seem to
 have gotten much use so far
 ● Other kinds of pilots (like for the proposed signal conversion at Willard/College)
 ● Opportunities for community volunteers to help with any projects (like painting
 crosswalks)
 ● Responsiveness to SeeClickFix

3. Follow-up on Prioritization Process for Sidewalk Replacement (15 min)
At the BWBC meeting in August last year, DPW presented information about prioritization
of sidewalk replacements, but we continue to see well-used sidewalks in very poor
condition on major streets are passed over, while sidewalks on nearby side streets serving
far fewer people are replaced. We’ll revisit how the sidewalk replacement decisions are
made and determine if changes should be recommended.

4. Next Steps (5 min)
Previous Meeting – At the June 7, 2023 meeting participants heard updates on DPW priorities for
the coming year and finalized the proposal for changes to the pedestrian and bicycle ordinances
that will be presented to the Transportation, Utilities and Energy Committee (TUEC) of the City
Council as a next step

Next Month: BWBC Meets Wednesday, August 2, 2023, 5:30 – 7:00 pm

The BWBC is an all-volunteer advisory council to the City of Burlington. We work closely with and advise the Department
of Public Works and the Department of Parks, Recreation, & Waterfront on infrastructure improvements and policy
changes for walking and bicycling. The council also leads advocacy efforts and organizes events and activities that
promote and celebrate walking and biking in Burlington and beyond.

See BWBC Minutes and Agendas.

BWBC Community Liaisons
Erik Brown Brotz*, Ward 5, erik@burlingtontelecom.net, Chair
Greg Hostetler, Ward 2
Faith Ingulsrud*, Ward 6
Peter Keating, Ward 6
Karen Sentoff, Ward 4
Jason Stuffle*, Ward 1
Kerry Swift, Ward 4
Allegra Williams, Ward 3
* = BWBC Coordinating Committee
 Burlington Walk Bike Council (BWBC)
 July 5, 2023 Meeting Notes
The monthly meeting took place 5:30- 7:00 pm via Zoom and at the DPW Office.

In-Person Attendees: Erik Brotz - Chair (Ward 5), Faith Ingulsrud (Ward 6), Jason Stuffle
(Ward 1), Jak Tiano and Gordon Dragoon (VPOP), Bob Leidy, Ravi Venkataraman from DPW.

Online Attendees: Jonathon Weber (Local Motion), Grey Johnson, Dayton Crites from DPW.

The link to a recording of the meeting is available here.

1. Introductions, Announcements, Updates and Public Comments
 ● Jason announced that on Sunday July 9, you can ride your bike to the Lake Monsters
 Ball Game and get a free ticket to attend plus other prizes.
 ● The Old East End Neighborhood Coalition won a very competitive AARP Community
 Challenge Grant to improve walking, biking and rolling in the neighborhood.
 ● Discussed the new dockless rental bike share program since bikes have been left in
 locations where they block sidewalks. Dayton said that CATMA holds the contract with
 Bird for the program so the City has little control over it, but he suggested we all pitch in
 to move bikes that are left in inappropriate locations. There is a second bike share
 program that is run by VT Segue that is designed specifically for longer rides on the
 Greenway (the Bird bikes can’t cross the bridge into Colchester). Jason reported that it
 has enough power to provide sufficient assistance going up the hills but he noted that
 the high cost of using the bikes may limit its use. Dayton said that there will be some
 kind of equity pricing for those who can’t afford the cost.

2. Discuss How we Can Speed Progress on Walk/Bike Improvements
Erik introduced the question of what can be done to make faster progress on Walk Bike
improvements in Burlington, especially for the many small and medium projects that are
envisioned throughout the city.

Dayton prepared a short presentation (available here) to explain some of the barriers to working
quickly, the tradeoffs involved, and some ideas of ways BWBC and citizens can help move
things forward. He outline the following categories of why things move slowly:
 ● Process - he showed a diagram of how typical projects go through iterative cycles of
 internal and external review, planning, design, permitting, funding and contracting. He
 noted that projects involving more construction such as moving curbs, usually require
 federal and/or state funding/permitting and will take at least 3 years from design to
 construction, usually more. Even projects involving just painting can require the city to
 hire contractors and that can involve significant time.
 ● Resources (butter) spread too thin - there’s so much to do and the city lacks the funds
 and staff time to do it all so determining where to focus the resources we have is key.
 It’s easy to get caught up in addressing immediate demands and lose focus on the long
 term projects that can give a greater sense of progress.
 ● Politics and Priorities - can support or interfere with getting walk-bike projects
 accomplished.

He suggested we could help by:
 ● Focussing our efforts on work that volunteer/citizens can help accomplish
 ● Foster relationships with decision-makers and collaborate with businesses, organizations
 and individuals that need to get on-board with changes.
 ● Show up at public meetings for projects and organize support for walk-bike
 improvements to counter the nay-sayers.

Participants discussed the following ideas:
 ● Consider obtaining approvals for a whole network of improvements instead of
 proceeding project-by-project.
 ○ Could work but one controversial project in the network could derail any number
 of non-controversial projects so there’s a risk.
 ● How do we prevent last minute derailing of projects that have had a long public review
 process?
 ○ It seems like people don’t tune in until the last minute. For example, very few of
 South End City Market employees know what is happening with the Champlain
 Parkway right next to where they work.
 ○ Can we do a better job of informing people - at least providing explanatory signs
 in prominent locations so people can understand what they are seeing?
 ● Consider building a database of advocates who can be deployed to speak up and
 engage the community in situations where political will is needed to accomplish changes.
 ● Given the urgency of climate change and that big projects with Federal or State
 involvement are going to get bogged down in process, how can we do more
 neighborhood-scale projects with local funding - including crowd funding - and engage
 people power:
 ○ Burlington’s Neighborhood Planning Assemblies (NPA) could be engaged for this
 purpose - at a minimum to have the NPA’s help determine neighborhood
 priorities.
 ● Data collection of walking and biking is generally needed and specifically required as a
 prerequisite for quick-build and other such temporary or other inexpensive
 improvements. This is one area where volunteer involvement could help move things
 forward.
 ● Volunteers could do crosswalk painting as a community building exercise that has
 multiple co-benefits. DPW could invest in helping to organize more of this type of
 community labor.




Next Steps
 ● Dayton will research and report back in 2-3 months on how citizens can help collect
 multimodal data to track progress and identify priorities.
 ● Bob proposed we coordinate with South Burlington on their walk-bike improvements
 ● Everyone agreed that we should all attend an NPA meeting and reach out to the
 organizers of our NPAs to determine how they can be engaged and to help identify
 priorities.
 ● Consider organizing a crosswalk-painting event that maybe can then be replicated in
 other neighborhoods.

3. Follow-up on Prioritization Process for Sidewalk Replacement - All agreed that we table
this item.


Erik closed the meeting a little after 7 PM.
Why Do
PROTECTED BIKE LANES
POP UP PROJECTS
CROSSWALK INSTALLATION
SIDEWALK REPAIR
ORDINANCE CHANGES
BIKE RACKS
Take So Long!?
Perception
Reality
PROCESS
BUTTER IS SPREAD THIN
POLITICS & PRIORITIES
PROCESS




Fast Slow
 Secure Not shown:
 Funding - Permitting
 - Procurement
 TEUC - Legal

 DPW CITY DPW
 COM COUNCIL IMPLEMENTATION
 BOF


 BBA NPA
 Staff
 Review BWBC ETC
IDEA Staff BUILT!
 Time APPROVED!
 Leadership PUBLIC
 Review MEETINGS

 INTER-
 DEPARTMENTAL BID
 REVIEW PROCESS

 CONTRACTOR
 IMPLEMENTATION
 BID
 PROCESS

 CONSULTANT
 DESIGNS
BUTTER IS
SPREAD THIN
 Public
 BUTTER IS SPREAD THIN
Staff Time External Needs Internal Needs
 Change Parking! Build a plan
 Remove Traffic! Track financials
 Slow Traffic! Manage projects
 Improve Intersection! Procure racks/bollards/etc
 New Bike Lane! Build internal consensus
 Better Bike Lane! Collect Data
 Explain yourself! Interpret & Report Data
 Pave the street! Move ideas to approval and
 Fix the Sidewalk! construction
POLITICS & PRIORITIES
POLITICS & PRIORITIES
Data Driven Priorities or Top Down Decision Making

Equitable Investments vs Responsiveness to Engaged Citizens

Rapid Deployment vs Stakeholder Engagement

Grant Funding vs Bonding
How Can Advocates Help?
FOCUS
COLLABORATE
INFLUENCE
UNITY
PATIENCE