Minutes

I. Call to Order and Approval of Minutes

The meeting of the Regional Transportation Advisory Committee was called to order on Friday, February 20, 2004 at 9:00 a.m. in the Conference Room (6th Floor) at the Public Service Center, 1300 Franklin Street Vancouver, Washington. Dale Robins, RTC Planner, served as Chair for the meeting. Those in attendance follow:

Sam Adams		City of Battle Ground
Mike Clark		WSDOT
John Cullerton		Metro
Lynda David		RTC
Evan Dust		Clark County
Mark Harrington		RTC
Bob Hart		RTC
Shinwon Kim		RTC
Thomas Picco		ODOT
Ed Pickering		C-TRAN
Sandi Roberts		RTC
Dale Robins		RTC
Chuck Ruhsenberger		WSDOT
Bryan Snodgrass		City of Vancouver
Ben Vincent		WSDOT
Bill Wright		Clark County
Phil Wuest		City of Vancouver

Dale Robins asked for any changes or corrections to the February 20, 2004, meeting minutes.

EVAN DUST, CLARK COUNTY, MOVED FOR APPROVAL OF THE FEBRUARY 20, 2004 MINUTES AND BILL WRIGHT, CLARK COUNTY, SECONDED THE MOTION. THE MOTION WAS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED.

II. WSDOT, I-5/SR502 Street Interchange, Update

Presentation by Chuck Ruhsenberger and Ben Vincent, WSDOT

Chuck Ruhsenberger and Ben Vincent, WSDOT, presented an update on the I-5/SR502 Street Interchange project. RTAC members viewed aerial photographs of the project area that showed the Recommended Build Alternative. Ben said that the project was initiated with the I-5 North Corridor Study that contained some preliminary interchange designs. Several design alternatives were presented at a public meeting held in October 2003. The alternatives were evaluated based on a set of performance measures.

Ben Vincent said the objective of the project is to provide better access to Battle Ground and the north Clark County area. The new interchange may also improve mobility and safety in the I-5 corridor. The project is moving ahead with $34.7 million in funding from the 2003 Legislative Transportation (“Nickel”) Package. Funding will cover project design, right-of-way acquisition and construction of the new interchange. Ben Vincent said the Recommended Build Alternative is a result of public comment and further investigation of wetlands, soil conditions, air quality, vegetation and wildlife habitat, land use and other conditions. Approximately five residences would be affected by the proposed design. The design incorporates a 700 foot long bridge structure over the freeway with potential for a loop ramp to serve southbound traffic. There will be an open house held on March 25th at Battle Ground School for the public to comment on the Recommended Build Alternative. Evaluation results for the various alternatives will also be presented to help the public understand how the Recommended Build Alternative was developed. Ed Pickering, C-TRAN, asked whether the design included a park and ride in its 2025 operational analysis. Ben Vincent said a park and ride was not included in the design. An RTAC member suggested that RTAC should address park and rides at a future meeting. If C-TRAN has to reduce its service area RTAC should address whether park and rides should be developed outside of a reduced C-TRAN service area or whether they should be provided to support carpooling and possible future transit service. Would the I-5/SR502 Street interchange be a good park and ride location or would the investment be better made elsewhere in the community?

III. WSDOT Congestion Relief Study Update, Discussion

Bob Hart, RTC, said the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) initiated an Urban Areas Congestion Relief Study for the Puget Sound, Spokane and Vancouver regions in October 2003. The purpose of the study is to develop and evaluate system improvement alternatives for relieving congestion in each of the three regions with common performance measures and evaluation criteria for assessing the alternatives. Bob said a range of alternatives are being developed that will include highway, transit, and pricing options. The results and findings of the analysis for this study will be used to provide insight into the effectiveness of alternative strategies to relieve congestion in these urban areas.

Bob said there are three key steps: 

1. Development of alternatives to conduct “unconstrained” highway and transit model runs to estimate maximum vehicle and transit person demand, 
2. Development of highway and transit “bookend” alternatives intended to be options that accommodate the demand resulting from the unconstrained model runs, 
3. Build a series of midrange alternatives consisting of a mix of modal investment that provide a reasonable level of congestion relief. Bob said the study is to be completed by July 2004. 

Bob reported that detailed analysis would be conducted on the mid-range alternatives based on performance measures and will include information on congestion impacts, travel time, accessibility, environmental impacts, and cost-effectiveness.

Bob said the “Urban Areas Congestion Relief Analysis” is being prepared for WSDOT by Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc. Bob said the unconstrained model runs are now complete. Bob reviewed the model results for the 2000 Base Year and 2025 No Action Alternative, 2025 Unconstrained Highway Alternative, and 2025 Unconstrained Transit Alternative. Bob pointed out the initial highway and transit bookend alternatives have been defined and travel forecasting is now underway. He said the report also contains information on additional highway capacity needed to accommodate unconstrained 2025 highway demand. Bob highlighted graphs and timetables. Shinwon Kim, RTC, distributed a handout that highlighted the “2025 No-Action AWD Vehicle Volumes”, “2025 Unconstrained Hwy Option 2 AWD Vehicle Volumes”, “2025 No-Action AWD Transit Volumes”, and “2025 Unconstrained Transit Option 2 AWD Transit Volumes”. RTAC members decided not to hold a special meeting on the Congestion Relief Study at this time.

IV. Washington State Legislative Update, Discussion

Dale Robins reported that very few transportation bills passed the house and senate in the 2004 legislative session. The only transportation bill that may be of interest to RTAC was the supplemental budget that included $1.2 million dollars for a sound wall on I-5 on the west side of the widening project between Salmon Creek and 134th Street.

V. Traffic Count Data Storage, Discussion

Dale Robins reported that Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council (RTC) maintains a regional traffic count database for the Clark County region. The database contains a summary of traffic volumes and turn movement counts at approximately 375 intersections. The regional traffic count program also has supplemental pages of data such as a list of the highest volume intersections, statistics on Columbia River bridge crossings, and congestion management information. Dale said the traffic count data has been maintained along arterials for the period 1980 to the present. Raw count data is collected by local jurisdictions, including Washington State Department of Transportation, Clark County, City of Vancouver and City of Camas. In addition, RTC has contracted to collect data at key intersections. RTC takes the raw count data and factors the data to represent the average day of the average month. Some intersections have been counted only a few times since 1980.

RTC stores traffic count reports in notebooks by count year. This storage system provides little flexibility to double check data entry and obtain additional information. Clark County has offered to team with RTC to store images of traffic count reports. The document imaging is completed and the Acorde software allows for storage and easy data search and retrieval for multiple years of data. Dale said that RTC had traffic counts back to 2001 that could be archived. To begin, the County could set up local agencies with a web access to the database, agencies would then be able to search for traffic counts by road, intersections, count year, etc. RTC would hope to link images of reports to the current traffic count web interface. Dale asked RTAC members for comments regarding the region-wide database of traffic counts. He said it would not have to be limited to arterials. Ultimately we would like to open this up to the public. Dale said agencies are now requested to send all arterial traffic counts to RTC. The success of the imaging project depends on local jurisdictions sending copies of all arterial traffic counts to RTC. Phil Wuest, City of Vancouver, felt this was a worthwhile effort but somewhat complicated and may need to acquire another meeting. Sam Adams said Battle Ground would be interested too. Dale said he would send out e-mails to jurisdictions and each jurisdiction can invite the people that would best fit this project. Phil pointed out it would be beneficial to have WSDOT be involved.

VI. Other Business

A. RTAC Members

C-TRAN 20-Year Plan Update

Ed Pickering, C-TRAN, said the C-TRAN Board recommended to move ahead with service plans for Alternative #1 (no additional revenue) and Alternative #2 (0.3% sales tax increase). The Board will be asked for approval of these in April. Open houses will be held in late April/early May for comment on the service plans. The service plans will include service levels, the extent of the taxing boundaries and potential staff cutbacks. The cutbacks would begin in January 2005 and would be completed in four phases by January 2006.

GMA Process: Update

Mark Harrington, RTC, distributed a chart titled “New Alternative 9 Land Use Compared to Proposed GMA Land Use in the FEIS”. Mark discussed the chart with RTAC. John Cullerton, Metro, said Metro was going through the base 2025 Metroscope forecast. The likely outcome will be a larger amount of employment allocated to Clark County than Clark County has included in its current comprehensive plan update work. John said there needs to be policy level discussion on how to reconcile these differences. This will be particularly important in future work such as the I-5 project. John said Metro will soon release numbers for 2010 and 2015.

B. RTC Staff

2004-2006 MTIP Correction: NW 149th Street CMAQ Project

Dale Robins, RTC, said Clark County requests that CMAQ funding awarded to the NW 149th Street be moved to the NE 72nd Avenue project. Clark County currently has two pedestrian projects programmed for CMAQ dollars in the 2004-2006 MTIP. The MTIP Correction would move $150,000 in federal CMAQ funds from the NW 149th Street project to the NE 72nd Avenue sidewalk project. The County will then fund the NE 149th Street project with County revenues. By making this change, Clark County will be able to deliver both projects in a timely manner, without additional funding. Dale pointed out the letter from Clark County that was attached to the memorandum. RTAC members were in favor of the 2004-2006 MTIP correction.

MTIP Amendment: 2004 Appropriations

Dale Robins, RTC said at the March 2 RTC Board Meeting, the MTIP amendment to incorporate 2004 federal Appropriations was approved. 2004 Appropriations include funding for C-TRAN bus replacement, C-TRAN ITS, Salmon Creek Interchange and Columbia River Crossing. Dale said the federal government has not yet approved the new transportation act which means that only 5/12ths of the money is available. As yet, WSDOT is not allowing anyone to obligate the money for 2004 Appropriations and the STIP has not yet been amended. Once a new Transportation Act is passed or there is a continuation of the existing Act through the federal fiscal year, projects can then be moved into the STIP.

Walkable Community Workshops: May 12th – 14th, 2004

Lynda David, RTC, said we are still working on the final itinerary. As of today it appears the schedules for the Walkable Community Workshops are as follows:

• Ridgefield Community Center May 12th, 5:30 p.m. - 9:15 p.m.
• Best Inn & Suites, Highway 99, May 13th, 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
• Rose Besserman Community Room, May 13th, 1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
• Jim Parsley Recreation Center, May 14th, 8:30 a.m.– 12:30 p.m.

Lynda David reminded RTAC members of Jennifer Campos’s presentation on Active Community Environments she made at the February RTAC meeting. Lynda said it was recommended by WSDOT that we amend the FY 2004 Unified Work Program to incorporate work on this program and to acknowledge the limited funding available to support the program that will come to RTC from the state Department of Health through WSDOT. The work will include attending an April 13th workshop in Seattle and establishing an Active Living Task Force. Lynda said that there will be an FY 2004 UPWP Amendment placed on the RTC Board’s consent agenda at the April 6th meeting. Lynda said she is working closely with Jennifer Campos and Todd Boulanger (City of Vancouver), Elise Scolnick and Ejaz Khan (Clark County), Faye Jenkins-Edward (WSDOT) and Jan Bowers (C-TRAN) on this program.

Dale Robins asked RTAC members to consider whether they would want to participate in public outreach efforts this summer, for example a Vancouver Mall outreach event on a Saturday and outreach efforts at the Clark County Fair. In the past there has been cooperative efforts between RTC, WSDOT, Clark County, City of Vancouver and C-TRAN to staff these outreach events.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:55 a.m. The next meeting will be Friday April 16, 2004.

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