Integrated Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting

Minutes

Meeting #:

Date:

Monday, September 23, 2024

Time:

7:00 P.m. - 9:00 P.m.

Location:

Hybrid Meeting - Virtual and Room 305

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1.

Members Present:

Patricia Debly (BAAC)(Chair), Andrea Grebenc, Naomi Williams, Irene MacDonald, Michael Gioseffi, Ellie Castonguay (Cycling), Steve Shuta (BSAC)

2.

Member Regrets:

Tom Hayes, Sean Morrison (SDC), Jon Milman (Cycling), Lachlan Fraser

3.

Others Present:

Lisa Palermo (Clerk)

4.

Land Acknowledgement:

The Chair read the Land Acknowledgement.

5.

Declarations of Interest:

None.

6.

Approval of Minutes:

6.1

Minutes from the meeting held June 17, 2024, were approved.

7.

Delegation(s):

8.

Regular Items:

8.1

Transportation Planning and Active Transportation

Stephanie provided an update:

• the Downtown Parking Plan was launched at the Food for Feedback event.  Transportation staff are looking at all parking availability and inventory in the downtown.  The plan will look at parking needs and land use, 15-20 years into the future.  A Get Involved page is up and running on the City's website and has an online survey for the public.  Members are encouraged to complete the survey.
• Kaylan and Stephanie will present a more fulsome overview of the Downtown Parking Plan at the October meeting.  An in person Public Information Centre (PIC) will be held on November 19th at the Art Gallery of Burlington.

8.2

Traffic Signals and Operations

Staff was not available to provide an update.

8.3

Transit

Tony provided an update:

• ridership continues to increase
• no service changes in September.  Changes are anticipated for November to increase frequency and add routes.
• Transit staff have been working on some issues regarding connections with downtown Hamilton.
• The advance light system pilot is almost ready to begin. The equipment is currently being tested.  The pilot will take place on the Fairview corridor and staff are hopeful that the system will alleviate challenges on the busiest street in the city.
• Transit staff will report to Committee of the Whole on free transit on November 4, 2024.

Irene relayed a concern from her neighborhood where residents have observed buses traveling at speeds higher than the posted speed limit.  The example provided was driving 70km in a 40 km zone. Tony will bring this up with his team at transit.

8.4

Work Plan Initiatives

a.

Student safety working group

Naomi provided an update on the working group's student safety project:

• committee members and staff have reviewed the survey and provided feedback.
• The working group met in the summer, took member and staff feedback into consideration and created supplementary documents to accompany the survey - a letter and an FAQ.
• the committee is ready to roll out to elementary schools in Burlington.
• Next steps.  Andrea will connect with the Associate Director at the Public School Board to discuss having the surveys sent out to schools.  Further timelines will be established once that contact has been made.
• Pat will send out suggested wording for the letter and the survey and distribute it to members for review.
• The original plan was to align with National Walk to School month in October.

MOTION: support Andrea approaching the Associate Director at the Halton District Public School Board to request that the survey be issued to students in schools where a large population have the opportunity to walk/bike to school.

 

8.5

Events

a.

BurlingtonGreen National Bike Month event - comment card analysis

Pat provided an update regarding the National Bike month event:

• Pat, Ellie, Jon, Lachlan and Irene attended the event on June 8th at the Burlington Beach from 10 am to 3:30 pm
• Members engaged with cyclists and pedestrians, gave out swag and asked participants to fill out an ITAC comment card.
• Tom typed out the comments from the cards and grouped them into themes. Lachlan reviewed the survey summary document and provided a thematic analysis and data summaries.
• The committee will share the comment card results with the City's Transportation Planning team.
• The committee is concerned with e-scooter safety and will consider initiatives about this for the 2025 work plan 
• https://www.ontario.ca/page/electric-kick-style-scooters-e-scooters#section-2
• What are Burlington residents thoughts re e-scooters.

 

b.

Food For Feedback Debrief

Andrea provided an update:

• Jon, Lachlan, Michael, Steve, Naomi, Pat and Tom attended the event to represent ITAC.
• does the engagement team have stats to share about demographics? Lisa will reach out to see if there is information that can be shared with Advisory Committees.
• The committee engaged with a large number of residents at the F4F event and they were able to gather information regarding transportation preferences through the engagement materials.  Feedback was gathered through 3 dotmocracy boards and 60 comment cards.
• through interactions like the Food for Feedback event, committee members can understand community needs and provide feedback to council.

c.

Take Action Day - Oct. 19, 2024

9.

Advisory Committee Liaison Updates:

9.1

Sustainable Development Committee (SDC)

No update at this time.

9.2

Cycling Committee (Cycling)

No update at this time.

9.3

Seniors' Advisory Committee (BSAC)

Steve provided an update:

• At their last meeting, BSAC members discussed concerns they had heard from seniors about not being able to make it to their seat on the bus before it starts to move. Transit staff attended the BSAC meeting to hear the concerns. Transit staff committed to bringing the information back to their team to incorporate more specifically into bus driver training.

9.4

Accessibility Advisory Committee (BAAC)

Pat provided an update:

• The BAAC discussed starting their Respect the Space campaign back up again. The campaign encourages people to not park in Accessible Spaces if they are not eligible.

10.

Other Business:

10.1

December committee social gathering

Lisa to send an email poll out to members to see which December date works best for the majority. December 9 or 16.

10.2

Advisory Committee Recruitment

Lisa relayed that advisory committee recruitment will be starting up in the coming weeks.  The recruitment takes place each fall to fill vacancies on the various committees and boards.  More information on recruitment is available on the boards and committee's page on the city's website.

10.3

2025 city budget

• with budget engagement going on around the city, members are interested in any opportunity to provide feedback regarding transportation in Burlington.
• members are encouraged to attend budget sessions to learn more and hear from the community.  Members will decide if they want to provide commentary to council during budget deliberations. Information is available on the Get Involved Burlington webpage.
• Lisa will reach out to transportation staff to understand if there are transportation matters included in the budget that may be of interest to the committee.
• Members suggest taking the information gathered via the engagement events attended, to provide feedback on the budget.

11.

Adjournment:

Chair adjourned the meeting at 8:55 p.m.