Burlington Walk Bike Council

Burlington Walk Bike Council (BWBC) November 5th, 2025 Meeting Notes The monthly meeting took place 5:30- 7:00 pm via Zoom and at the DPW Conference Room. In-Person Attendees: Erik Brotz*, Phillip Peterson (DPW), Jason Stuffle*, Gordon Dragoon*, Jack Evans* (Local Motion), Jak Tiano*, Gabe Nelson, Andy Tracy, Ellery Ames, Nolan Rogers Online Attendees: R. Alex Reutter * BWBC Coordinating Committee members 1. Announcements & Updates ●​ Erik will be stepping down from BWBC, probably at the beginning of the year. Gordon will be taking on the role of Chair. Erik invited people interested in joining the BWBC Coordinating Committee to contact him or Gordon. ●​ The city will be selecting a consultant soon to begin working on PlanBTV 2050, which also includes an update to the City’s Transportation plan. 2. Debrief on North Ave. Demonstration Project ●​ Jack gave an overview of the data collected from the community survey. A copy of the presentation can be found at https://burlingtonvt.portal.civicclerk.com/event/8574/files/agenda/15359 ●​ Findings ○​ The survey was open from 10/15 at 6 PM to 11/2 at midnight, a total of 19 days. ○​ The demonstration ran from 10/19 to 10/26. ○​ The survey received 746 responses, with 704 responses indicating feelings of safety ○​ Council agreed there were some issues with the survey: ■​ Engineering and studies show that this infrastructure is safe, so the central question should have been “do you support implementing this”? ■​ Likely many of the “Way Less Safe” or “Less Safe” respondents were not less safe, but rather disliked the project for another reason. This is anecdotally corroborated by conversations Jack had with individuals who had taken the survey and said they felt less safe.  ■​ By not restricting submissions, some individuals seem to have “response-bombed” the survey (as suggested by “grouping” of very similar responses without comments in a short time period) this was mentioned on the NNE facebook group by someone opposed to the project ○​ As the survey went on, more cyclists said they felt “less safe” due to observation of bad driver behavior during the pilot. ○​ Overall, majority of responses felt positively or neutrally about the project ■​ Among people who walked and biked most often, that sentiment was stronger ○​ We received 292 comments associated with responses that were “Less Safe” or “Way Less Safe”. These comments were reviewed in full and categorized: ■​ Concerns about emergency access or ability to move over for emergency vehicles (123) ■​ Mentioning that there is a parallel path, or few users to support this infrastructure (77) ■​ The impacts on traffic congestion due to not being able to use the bike lane to bypass a left turning car (39) ■​ Additional concerns included “agency”, “winter maintenance”, “cost”, “aesthetics”, and that the cones would make drivers more aggressive and dangerous ●​ Erik reviewed the sentiments of FPF posts, and found ⅗ of the ones that appeared to have an opinion were positive. All but 3 of the total 47 comments were from the NNE itself. ●​ Our bike counts were pretty solid? 32 cyclists during 28 minutes by the school in the morning. ●​ Jack plans on sharing our data at next month’s NNE NPA. ●​ We didn’t actually lose that many cones—possibly around 3. Some damaged but cones are fairly resilient and most could be fixed by punching out from the inside. ●​ Phillip said total cost under $1000 for everything including lost hardware and staff time ●​ Phillip thinks that overall this project was a big success, and DPW staff feels good about it. ●​ Phillip thinks concern about emergency vehicles getting through is not a real issue - they will find a way. Lessons Learned ●​ Temporary spray marking cone locations would ensure proper placement by volunteers in the future  ●​ Longer demo to better collect data ●​ Likely different time of year, bike to school week suggested ●​ Survey only open once project installed, ensure user authenticity ●​ Use large programmable sign to alert drivers to demo project, continue greenbelt signs that people using the sidewalk or bike lane can read ●​ Change "do you feel safe" type question to "do you support" in survey. ●​ Collect data on other uses of bike lane - wheelchair, scooter, walk/run, grocery trolley, etc. Not just for people biking. Ideas for future Demonstration Projects ●​ Considered whether to repeat project in same location next year. ○​ Some felt like it wouldn’t make sense to “swing twice” and would rather try new ideas to add to the broader conversation. ○​ Could do a series of demos in a concentrated area to repeatedly bring conversation to the issue at hand. ○​ Could repeat demo for buffered bike lane from 127 to BHS and/or BHS to Washington St. once new BHS opens ●​ How to streamline process so a group like an NPA could pick it up and quickly get to implementation with minimum hurdles. ○​ Discussed doing an update to the guidelines on demonstration projects, or a “guide to the guidelines,” to make it easier for community groups.. ○​ Create basically a pre-planned checklist to get common demos like add crosswalk, add bumpout, etc. done. ●​ Consider pedestrian-focused demos; possible ideas - add South Union and Bradley crosswalk which is heavily used but with no proper infrastructure, Colchester Ave at Kampus Kitchen traffic calming for RFB crosswalk - sign in road is repeatedly destroyed, usually within days 3. Block Party Weekend(s) Designation Proposal ●​ We should get the city to adopt some kind of block party weekends that expedite and simplify permitting for block parties. ●​ Question: why is this relevant to BWBC? Response: It’s relevant to BWBC because it’s about reclaiming streets for people. ●​ We should draft some resolution language and put together a letter to send to the city council next month. ●​ Ideas: ○​ Have cutoff date to apply, ○​ produce map of all block parties  ○​ have incentive to have people attend multiple parties with a punch card type of system that can be redeemed for a "prize" from a sponsor. Could be attend 3 block parties and get some sort of discount at a business. Meeting adjourned at 7:00 PM