 everyone thank you for being patient welcome it's great to see everyone here tonight so my name is Chad Irvin if you don't know me I the Vermont production collective sign is gone now but I and one of the people who runs that it's a group for filmmakers Vermont filmmakers and we an organization that networks and we also look to put on events to highlight work that are made by local people in this case it happens to be worked it I did which is pretty cool thank you wait until after the film to applaud maybe just in case but we also have with us tonight the complete streets committee Holly from the complete streets committee is going to tell us a bit about what they've been working on to improve pedestrian and bike ability here in our town I think is that right is there Holly there you go yeah come on up super nice and informal I love this thanks so much we have our number one fan right here good evening everyone thank you Kristen and Chad for the opportunity to include complete streets and I know Jen is here from Onion River Outdoors and we have a number of representatives even from the committee for sustainable Montpelier and some of the other sponsors of the evening my name is Holly Fowler but I'm joined as well by Nancy Schultz the I have bright lights in my eyes so I can't really see where everyone is but David Ori is here Hanif Nazarelli Susan glasso from local motion who's a very important statewide partner to all of the complete complete streets committees in the state John Kim Scott Richardson Brett Appel did I miss anyone and we have a couple of representatives Merrick Moden and Steven Page who aren't here but complete streets what are they they are basically a design planning concept for creating and maintaining streets that are inclusive and safe for all users so that is people who walk use mobility devices cyclists public transportation and our automobile drivers out there as well complete streets Montpelier has been active since 2016 I'm looking at Nancy to keep my statistics right and we do events outreach and education to raise awareness about complete streets and some of the initiatives that you may have heard of are the be bright at night campaign so that's coming up this fall where we help to promote folks wearing lights and being seen at night especially as it starts to get dark connecting our recreation path soon with the two-way bike path on Berry Street we've been partnering with sustainable Montpelier for the e-bike lending program and we're planning a bike rodeo to help those cyclists when everyone's trying to get out in the spring we're going to do that in the spring so lots of things are happening we're gaining some momentum I think now and we always love new voices in the conversation we meet the first Wednesday of every month at the memorial room in City Hall at 5 30 all are always welcome and we also have a virtual option on zoom so we're here you know part of complete streets is born out of the fact that we've had rising numbers of pedestrian accidents over the years and I think we're going to see and learn a lot more about that in this film so again thank you for the opportunity to be here and we look forward to meeting and hearing more from all of you about your reaction to the film and possibly at a future complete streets meeting so thanks okay and I guess we'll go ahead it's nice and dark enough to get this started hopefully before it gets too cold on us tonight really happy that we have representatives from the complete streets committee here tonight and that they spoke to us a little bit and we would invite anyone if you guys have any questions either about the film or about just redesign here locally in general if you guys have any concerns to start a conversation you know we have people here who are better equipped to talk about that sort of thing than I am but if there's anything that you guys wanted to bring up you know we have the right people here to listen yeah so thank you and if there's if anyone had anything else to say we would we would definitely welcome you guys to come up here and yes you can have the microphone because it's hard to hear without it oh yeah please come up Nancy thanks Kristen I just wanted to mention I have some handouts tonight that our committee prepared and they're on specifically night safety for drivers for bicyclists and for pedestrians I have about a dozen tried to make more but there were some complications with the copier so you're welcome to have one and if you don't get one tonight I can arrange to get you one in the future and I don't know about you but I found the movie very inspiring the things that they're doing in big cities we have a tiny city we could do more to make our streets safer for bicyclists and pedestrians and I love the green paint you know Montpelier did a little bit of that but it hasn't we haven't freshened it up lately and I'm thinking of the intersection of state in Maine and certain places could use I forget the technical name for it but it's a green box basically that places makes an indication of where cyclists should position themselves at a light it's like this is a space for you that's safe I would love to see that at that intersection as one example and our our shadows and things have faded they need to be repainted we need more parking meter hitches for designated cycle parking and I would love to see Langdon Street become an open street even if it was one day a week on Sunday when stores aren't open and there wouldn't be so much pressure to have cars on that street I mean there's a lot we can do so if you feel the same way I hope you'll be in touch with the complete streets committee and and share your ideas thanks hi Elizabeth Parker and I'm on the Montpelier Transportation Infrastructure Committee with Hanif who's also on complete streets and we drafted a new transportation plan for Montpelier which then went through our committee and through the Planning Department got majorly altered I do encourage you to look at it you know we have had unfortunately pedestrian death in in front of Shaw's and the other side of the street a couple of years ago we've had a number of pedestrians who've been hit in crosswalks so we are not exempt from the challenges that were discussed in this movie it's really pretty serious and that's my you know my gloom and doom side the thing I'd like to say is that I am encouraged because since COVID we have a lot more people bicycling there are a lot more parents with children with cargo bikes there are a lot more people commuting to work we know that the recreation demand has gone up and and so that's exciting but how we as NLC was discussing how we mark our streets to help move us in the direction of a really zero death zero accident city is hugely important so I encourage you to you know read the transportation section of the city plan make comments on it still and get involved in antique or in complete streets thanks okay so I'm just a bicyclist and I have two questions one is how do we deal with situations where you are going from one city to another because I feel like right here in downtown Montpelier is not the worst the worst is trying to get from Montpelier to Barrie or Montpelier to Middlesex or Montpelier to Worcester on a bicycle or even just a little bit outside of Montpelier like Main Street is maybe kind of sort of okay here but if you keep going past the library and start going up the hill then there's no shoulder or no protection no green paint no slow no shadows nothing you're on your own and there's no shoulder so that's that's a question how do you how do you deal with things once you start getting a little bit outside of the core of Montpelier question number one question number two why why is did I understand you to say that the you said the city planning department altered it and I assume you mean they made it better but it you may have possibly meant they made it worse and I'm not sure why they would do that like how does this work how do we advocate and who is like why do they have the right to do that like I don't I didn't see even in Phoenix they didn't have a planning department there was an intermediary between the citizens who said we want to save our streets and then watering it down and then presenting it to the city council why is that why do we allow that okay and to the first point do we have anyone who might be able to speak to that I know that I'm also afraid to ride very far out out of the downtown area also I'm I think it's really a V trans issue because some of the roads that you're talking about are basically supervised by the state and I know that there are a number of people working at V trans who are in charge of the marking of the roads my greatest anxiety is I like to go up to the reservoir however it's really scary just before the the boat landing there's a metal on a curve and I have been boxed in many times so that's a scary point with regard to the transportation plan I think there is a great confusion about what capacity we have and what our finances are and where we should put our finances and you know how we should spend city money on making innovations and you know doing the work that's necessary to make biking more safe so that's where your advocacy advocacy comes into play thank you have a turn thank you hi so my name is Susan Susan Grasso and I'm the newest employee at local motions I've only been there for just two weeks now but I just wanted to comment on this issue of rural roads which is really a tricky situation most of my experience has been in cities and and larger towns so I know that is a topic that local motion is really thinking about unfortunately I haven't been there long enough to really give you a lot of information about that but I do know that you know when we talk about traffic safety I think it's something like 80% of crashes take place or fatalities are take place on our rural roads so it's a real a real concern in Vermont and I also know that there are some communities you know where there are people who are trying to jog or walk or ride bikes on their local roads in their community are asking their Public Works Department to look at you know giving a little bit more shoulder so that there's a little bit more space for them and doing some striping I'm not I don't know the data on that how you know how that affects for example traffic speed or accident crash rates but I know that is something that's being done in some places in Vermont so I just wanted to share share that and please feel free to contact me if you have any questions because I if I don't know the answer I'll know some people there to to ask so it's really great to be here and I'm excited to work with your community and do what I can to support the things that you want to do here so thanks oh if you're not familiar with local motion local motion is Vermont's statewide bicycle and pedestrian advocacy group so we do several different things I'm part of a program that helps helps support complete streets and communities so we work with community groups in cities and towns throughout the state but we also do on other things we have a program that works on safe routes to school so schools in Vermont can be part of a safe routes to school program and get support from local motion where they we have a bike trailers that can bring bikes to schools and do a bike education training and skills training in schools we have an e-bike lending program which I know you guys have one here so you're probably familiar with that and we do you know basic education learning events will put on webinars on different topics if there are topics that you're interested in learning more about please feel free to reach out to us we're always looking for different ideas understanding what it is that you want to know more about and then we can if we don't know we can bring experts in we can do have different speakers and do different events to to help us all you know move forward and learning about how we can make our streets safer for people who walk and bike so thanks anyone else one other thing that is sort of funny watching these films I last I worked on this was probably like a year ago so I haven't seen it in a really long time so it's a little bit nerve-wracking but it sort of speaks to the last eight months I've been working on a project that's about the decline in civic engagement across America and so one thing that I would say relative to without diving into too much this thing that I'm thinking about constantly now that will be out next year and hopefully we'll have a screening for that is how to help with these things is be involved show up at get council meetings talk to the complete streets committee you know these small things that we can do will help and and show that there's a desire for things like this and so that's all I will pitch on on that film join or die coming next year we have one more person do you want to go yeah hi so I have a question I'm a bicyclist and I often commute to and from work which is in middle sex so I'm doing exactly what we were just talking about like riding outside of Montpelier but I also ride around town a lot and I'm just noticing that like as people are talking about what we're doing in Vermont to improve things like I keep hearing about like improving like the painting of the lanes and stuff but what was in this documentary and what I've read and then heard other places when I researched this is that that's actually not very effective and that we need like more than that and so I'm just wondering if anybody like if any of the groups working on this are thinking about like looking at some of these solutions that actually have you provide like bike lanes that are separated in some way from the traffic or things that might might do more than just painting and I you know I understand like that we have to start somewhere but I also think like as a bicyclist I just want I want the goals to be like for what we really need not just for like a band-aid solution so anybody if anybody has any comment on that hi I'm honey from on the complete streets committee this committee has actually been trying to get a two-way bike way on Barry Street and the idea is to connect the shared use path which is getting so much more use in these last 18 months so to connect the or to bridge the gap from shores along Barry Street to where you can connect with the shared use path along stone cutters so that's one very concrete proposal and we were hoping that that would be implemented this summer but we're struggling a little bit the cities having difficulties with the line painting but actually the materials are in place for an interim solution so it will just require converting the parking spaces about 13 parking spaces from the intersection at Main Street up to the rec center senior center so it's not a big not a very long stretch and that would basically make a complete shared use path all the way from the Dog River Road you know close to the Amtrak station right the way across town and now it's extending along all country road and thanks to the cross Vermont trail linking up practically all the way to East Montpelier so we do have like a connection going out of Montpelier that's sorry yeah so the Barry Street bike way the idea is to have it protected by quite and it's an interim solution because there is already a plan and there is funding which hopefully will come through in 2023 to actually make a proper shared use path meaning a pedestrians and bike path like the rest of the shared use path that separated on Barry Street that separated from the asphalt roads so that's one really really great asset that we have in Montpelier it's an east west shared use path now I'll just refer to a study and a plan that was made in 2012 called Montpelier in motion so that's more than 10 years ago there was a big study that would basically came up with the proposal that we should then prioritize a north south shared use path a safe way to cross this city going north to south so from you know the north either from National Life Group and Northfield Street coming down through town hopefully crossing the east west shared use path and perhaps going out along Elm Street so we would have another way out of town that would have focused attention and resources to at least give a safe protected bikeway shared use path going north south so those are the plans that were made 10 years ago and I would encourage as Chad has said for us to get more engaged with our city and all of the ways that we have to advocate for that to actually happen my question actually to you Chris and Chad is are there going to be more screenings well the film is actually it's on Amazon now streaming and I think their PBS International is distributed I think that's just outside of the US though so I don't know that we have any more screenings planned right now but I'll have to check with Jennifer the director producers is gallivanting around in Italy right now we could be jealous of her one of the other things I was it was fun remembering watching the film that I co wrote was that the that you could have one thing is that solutions don't have to be perfect and permanent you can put up something and see how it works and then you can make it more permanent later the other thing is the city even older cities that were designed pre pedestrian automobile with smaller street ways you know like Copenhagen we would think oh it's it was made that way always and when we saw in the film they had to rebuild the city back to be being more bike friendly again which was fun for me re learning for like the 50th time thank you great movie I am excited to chat afterwards I wanted to share a national advocacy resource I work at a national nonprofit called Smart Growth America I've met a couple of the complete streets folks because we also run a complete streets coalition and I'm sure you came across this researching for the film we do report every year called dangerous by design that looks at the statistics of pedestrian deaths in industry state by state and something that I wanted to share is I'm you know while there's been tremendous advocacy successes over the past few years which are really inspiring the stats are getting worse and worse and especially during the pandemic where there were more people on the road and fewer cars that were driving therefore faster you know the stats were terrible over the past year so you know there's just such a need for advocacy and so you know wanted to thank you to have the film is another tool for people to you know get inspired to make a change so yeah thank you and I'm happy to you know I can share the I'm sure the coalition members know the report if anyone wants wants to get the link I'll be around over here so thank you it's a good very good point anyone else sure everyone is freezing by now I think thank you guys again oh where here I just wanted to mention I've been biking pretty straight year round for about seven years but I did get hit by I was hit twice once in Randolph and once in a player here and I was actually hit pushing my bike either through a crosswalk or on a sidewalk so that is really freaky and I am for all the things that we're talking about and the bike safety everything but I also think there's got to be some way to also approach the driving population to be more to help them understand the whole biking thing it it's pretty freaky luckily I didn't get hurt the car that hit me and ran I hit my bike in Randolph hit my bike and knocked it out of my hands and I the person slowed down and said are you all right and I said yeah but you got to pay for the bike because it was in the roadway and they drove off and everybody got their license plate though and then the other time I was pushing my bike up Northfield Street and a fan came by me and was so close that it hit my arm but anyways I'm just thinking it's really wonderful to think about all the great things we can do on the bicycle end of it and then two I think we have to think about how can we make this more knowledgeable for drivers and unfortunately I'll be getting a car soon but I'm even scared being out driving and I just want to you know make it a really good effort for everyone you know drivers and bike bicyclists so I hope you understand what I'm saying because I'm not very good at explaining it but yeah some public service for drivers too because they get really frustrated I understand that so just trying to look at that aspect too thank you sure yeah I think that I statistically I think that I'm not the statistics person I'm the how do we tell this story in an entertaining way store person but I think that there's like a threshold of the amount of bicycles on the street that heightens the awareness for drivers and I think that it's interesting that you by mentioning that someone else talked about the challenges in rural areas so how are you gonna get that threshold of the amount of bicycles on the street to heighten the awareness of drivers the way that they have in Copenhagen you know it's easy to be aware of bikes because they're everywhere you know but thank you for sharing that it was very it's a very good point that the drivers need to be involved to it's not bicycles versus cars or bicycles or cars it's us together yeah and thanks again oh yeah yeah and thanks for the great feedback and questions and everything too thank you all