Mobility Committee Meeting Transcript –3/1/2017 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 3/1/2017 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 3/1/2017 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [3:02:58 PM] >> Kitchen: I know our colleagues are on their way. >> Kitchen: I understand what you're saying. Okay, I want to call to order the meeting of the mobility committee at 3:03 or 4, something like that. So, we'll start with approval of the minutes. So do we have any motion to approve the minutes? Council member Flannigan moves and council member alter seconds. All in favor? Aye. It's unanimous. Okay, next, I think you mentioned no citizen communication, correct? Okay. We'll start with item number 3 then, and that is a staff [3:04:58 PM] briefing on the transit priority policy. So -- and just by way of reminding us all and myself, this comes from a resolution that we passed last year about this time asking the staff to come back to us with a policy related to transit, and the resolution had a number of items in it requesting staff to look at, and I'm sure you'll probably go over that with us. And so we appreciate you bringing this back to us, and I wanted to let everyone know also, I was very intrigued by the backup that you all from provided, and when we get to the appropriate part in your presentation or maybe at the end, we can do this at the end, I particularly wanted to talk about the king county excerpt or king county plan, because I thought this was very interesting the way they did this. >> Absolutely. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> We'll get started. The presentation is pulling up, so thank you. Good afternoon, council members. I am a division manager with the transportation department. I'm pleased to be here to report back on the resolution that was adopted back in April of last year, that directed the city manager to look at recommendations of what a transit priority policy might look like for the city of Austin considering the goals and metrics, criteria and conditions, agreements, any new or approved agreements with capital metro that might need to be in place, and, of course, alignment of any recommended policy with our existing plans and policies. And specifically, also, to look at recommendations for how the public should be informed and engaged before we implement transit priority applications for projects. And also that we collaborate with cap metro, of course, and also talk with relevant stake holder groups interested in transit in the development of the recommendation that's going [3:06:59 PM] to be presented back to you today. So specific to collaborating with cap metro on looking at what a transit priority policy best practice would look like for Austin, we started with the transit priority working group, which was created about a year ago, and it's a collaboration of staff, operation, and planning staff at cap metro and engineering and planning staff at the city of Austin, and they have been working very successfully in forwarding transit operational improvements over the last year. We then also reached out to the alliance republic transportation, apt, the planning commission, the urban transportation commission, and aura, austinites for urban rail action. With aura, over our meetings really deep diving into what the community feels would be the best opportunities for enhancing transit use in Austin. So we did a comprehensive overview, and what I want to say about that outreach with the stake holder groups is that we talked a lot about different criteria, such as people through-put, what conditions should be present to identify transit-only lanes, for example. What kind of engagement could be employed with regards to getting greater consensus or understanding about what's happening or what the plans are. But the greatest consensus amongst all the groups was that this issue deserves a focused effort and a comprehensive approach to be successful. So that's what you see in our recommendation. I'm going to back into the details that built the recommendation. We are recommending that a transit party policy be developed as part of the Austin strategic mobility plan that is currently under way. This plan will take a portfolio approach to a transit priority policy, that includes policies, programming, and projects as well as identifying the transit [3:09:00 PM] priority network, and so all those four things together, when the plan is brought to city council, will compromise and become our transit party policy. The plan will include goals and metrics as outlined in the resolution, will include criteria and conditions as we identify projects to be included, will include any recommendations for enhanced or new agreements that might be necessary with capital metro, and, of course, the number one goal of the Austin strategic mobility plan is to align existing single mode plans with each other, and to make sure all the policies align with each other to the extent that they can. So right now, our recommendation is to include recommendations about how the politic should be informed, with public outreach tools being engaged with matching the most intensive transit priority treatments. So with that, I'm going to go through this portfolio of what we in our best practice research found to be effective with regards to policy, programming, which we'll get to the king county model, city of Seattle model, identifying a transit priority network. We'll have an example from L.A. And what they've done with their plan. And then example of transit priority projects. So, again, the strategic mobility plan will include a portfolio of all these elements to create our transit priority policy. So there's some cities who have standalone transit priority policies. San Francisco is one. It identifies ten principles with the fourth one being a bold statement saying that transit priority improvements such as designated transit lanes, [3:11:00 PM] improved signalization, transit priority signalization, shall be made to expedite the movement of public transit vehicles and to improve pedestrian safety. So this served San Francisco well to a degree, but it has its criticism in that it's not part of a whole. It's not part of a policy that's part of an entire transportation plan. So an analogy to Austin right now, the guidance we have, which is broad guidance, is with transit priority policy in imagine Austin, that basically says to give transit priority. And what we've been able to do in the last year or so working with cap metro, with this general guidance is to implement transit only lanes on Guadalupe, implement transit signal priority technology along metro rapid routes. Of course, express buses will be running on the manage lanes on mopac, and, of course, the mobility bond has transit supportive improvements along major corridors. So that's an example of standalone policy in one city that has been a little bit criticized for being a standalone policy, and then also what we've been able to achieve under our imagine Austin umbrella, and, of course, the asmp is going to go from a 100,000 foot view to 50,000 and get more specific on transit priority. So moving to programming. So what we put in our recommendation as backup is the example of king county and the city of Seattle's speed and reliability program that has been highly successful in accelerating transit improvements in the Seattle area. And there's a quote here that talks about exactly what they're focused to do, which is to identify and prioritize projects to improve transit performance. The program focuses on working with partner cities to increase [3:13:01 PM] the operating efficiency of existing bus service by improving transit speed and mobility in a highly congested corridor. So it's both local and regional in focus, which is really important as we cue up the project connect presentation, which comes next. So, in Austin, I talked about what we started over a year ago, and which was the basis for looking at what this recommendation would be coming back to council, which is our transit party working group, which creates a really good platform to build on. We have, like I said, planners and operational folks from cap metro and engineers and planners from the city of Austin working together to accelerate projects. However, the one difference is that there's about 1300% dedicated ftes in the speed and reliability program in Seattle, so I believe it's eight on the transit agency side and five on the city side that are 100% dedicated to accelerating transit priority projects. If the staff who worked on that group are 100% dedicated to transit priority, there's a loft things that wouldn't get done. So we're not 100% focused. We are focused to the extent we need to be to move things forward, but in order to accelerate, we would need to have more dedicated staff. >> How many staff participate in that working group? >> Oh, that's a good question. Probably about the same. I'm going to defer to Cole for a second. How many people are usually there? >> [ Off mic ] >> So about the same, but about ten, give or take, but not 100% dedicated. So they have a conversation, but the implementation slows down a bit because they're not 100% dedicated on that. >> Kitchen: So this king county plan -- I should know this, but that's Seattle, right? >> Yes, exactly. >> Kitchen: Okay. [3:15:01 PM] So what you're saying is they have -- did you say 12 dedicated? >> 13. Eight on the transit agency side and five on the city side. >> Kitchen: To work on this plan essentially? >> Correct. To work on forwarding the projects and working through, as you can imagine, all the details that need to happen in order to forward a transit priority project. >> Kitchen: I have a lot of questions about that. I'll wait to the end. >> Rob spiller is here as well, who worked in Seattle, and can probably speak to the speed and reliability that's been in place since 2000. They've been doing this for a while. Between Cole and Lewis and rob, myself, I think we can answer those questions. >> Often, we're thinking about the infrastructure needs rather than the staffing obstacles and obviously infrastructure costs a lot more than staffing does. So at some point, I would be curious to know if there are staffing blockages that are preventing things that don't necessarily require infrastructure investments that would move things more smoothly. Obviously, that's a question that we've been asking with respect to the mobility bond to some extent. Are there situations where they could make a huge difference on what could happen because you need to have that human capital? I think it would be useful for us to know that. I think the focus, as it often is on the built environment, is maybe skewing us to look for certain solutions, and I'd love to know that broader picture. >> Yeah, absolutely. We can certainly circle back with you through the city [3:17:02 PM] manager's office on a response to that. And building on that, my last bit, which is somewhat related with regards to programming for transit, it's about -- a good example is working groups, a reliability group that's focused to the infrastructure. A transportation demand management program, that is also new in the last year at the transportation department that has many programs within it, one being the smart troops program, and is a partnership with capital metro, and we've done two -- we've done a pilot out in the runberg area, and also a second area in central north Austin with great results in looking at increased transit use, and reducing occupancy vehicle use to help manage our traffic congestion. Transit screen is another program. We have two here. OTC is looking to install one, so folks can use transit as a choice, make it competitive or in some cases better than driving a car. So those are some examples of programming that would be recommended within asnp to support our scenario as we get there through the planning process. >> Alter: If I'm not mistaken, it was in district 10 and 7. I would love to see the data on that and see if there's any follow-up we can do in keeping that momentum as an office to help that. >> And that's a great point, because with demand management, making the analogy, we have to maintain our infrastructure, but we also have to maintain the demand management education that we do. We have to keep it going. You can't just go in once and expect people are going to keep remembering or keep sharing that information. And so we could definitely use that help, and I want to ask Marisa, our Pio manager real [3:19:03 PM] quick. The smart troops report is on our website already, I believe. So we can send you a link to that 2.0 report. So, again, in programming -- so now I'm getting to the heart of it here, a transit priority network is really important to the portfolio of a transit party policy. We will be establishing that network with the asnp in partnership with capital metro using their connections 2025 recently adopted plan as well as what's coming out of project connect to really look at the framework of transit priority system for our overall transportation network. Los Angeles, as I said before, has a transit enhanced network map. That's part of their overall mobility plan. And it depicts a network of streets prioritized for transit, and the transit enhanced network is described in policy 2.5 of the plan, and then sample cross sections and treatments sit in their complete streets guide, so Austin has an analogous process moving forward. But I will say that the policy that accompanies the math in their mobility plan says that the transit strives to increase transit mode share. It strives to reduce single occupancy vehicle trips and strives to integrate infrastructure investment, so being context sensitive, which I think is really important, which is why standalone policies don't work as well, because you really want to do the planning to make sure that what you're recommending is appropriate to the area, to the district, or whatever the context may be. So for Austin, what we have right now -- what's shown on the screen is not an adopted transit enhanced network, but rather it's -- it shows you where we've been able with the current guide [3:21:03 PM] dance we have, the current policy guidance we have to make transit enhancement improvements. Transit priority improvements along transit routes right now. So we have a metro rail, of course, which is transit priority. We have transit priority lanes on some of these routes. We have transit queue jumps. We have managed lanes, signal priority, tsp treatments. And, of course, we have improved access to transit within a quarter mile in some areas through our very successful sidewalk, urban trails, and bicycle programming. So, again, this is not an approved transit enhanced network. That will be established with the asnp. Questions. >> Flannigan: So the signal priority, is that fully implemented for the full length of both metro rapid routes? >> I'm going to ask Todd. That, I don't know. >> Hi. So the metro rapid routes are prioritized fully throughout the corridor. In the center of the corridor in downtown, we do that with transit-only lanes, because that's where their greatest number stops loading and unloading, but interaction with pedestrians. And in that area, they flow with the signals. We don't prioritize with the signals. We give them the dedicated space. As we move away from downtown where it's more difficult to dedicate space, that's where we do the signals. Working with capital metro and the way we do it, it's prioritization. It's not preemption. So if you can imagine the way you mess with the signal or change the signal, if you will, there's zero change, and then there's preemption, much like we do for emergency vehicles, and everything in between, we call [3:23:04 PM] prioritization. And so the question becomes, how much priority do you give to transit? Right now, the system -- the signal system has to make a change to the set signalling to benefit transit, about 30% of the time, is that right? >> Right. >> And so, you know, one question is, well, why don't you do it more? There is a dynamic between how aggressive the schedule is and how much prioritization or help the signals have to give the buses. And so we think the system is working well. I think the next round is cap metro dials up the aggressiveness of their schedule, and aggressiveness on schedule is, you know, they - - and Todd, please join me here. [ Laughter ] >> He looks pretty comfortable in the gallery there. [ Laughter ] >> So when you're planning routes, you plan it with how reliable you want that bus. So I think one of the areas for future growth in this area is to, as we increase the frequency of the buses, then you'll see that signal timing prioritization go from 30% and start to creep up as we need to help the buses through that. So that's what I mean by more aggressive scheduling as we get through. >> Flannigan: To be clear, every signal along the entire length of rapid metro bus routes today is participating in this opportunity -- >> Except, in the core where we dedicate lanes. >> Flannigan: I get that part. I'm thinking the full extent all the way to the domain. I bet you know where it is. [ Laughter ] >> Thank you. >> I will also say that when you start to look at transit speed and reliability, it's not just the signals, it's not just dedicated lanes. It's also how do you deal with the boarding? [3:25:06 PM] A lot of the time that is eaten up by transit is in loading and unloading passengers, and so if you can address that to make that more efficient, for instance, allowing passengers to build for multiple doors, allow passengers to pay for their fares off the bus. Go to a different enforcement mechanism. All of those allow you, even the spacing of the stops allows you to adjust how fast and frequent and then how attractive that transit is. >> As a follow-up, so the transit signal priority, that is on every single light that the metro rapids are on? >> On these corridors, yes. The signals -- the bus tells their transportation management center where it is. Their transportation management center tells ours where it is. And our transportation management center then adjusts the signals to help the bus along its schedule. If it's behind schedule, we can hold the light green for a little longer, or we can hurry up and get to green, so we can adjust the time. All that happens in the blink of an eye, so it sounds like -- you know, it's instantaneous. >> Kitchen: It's automated, right? >> It's totally automated. >> It looks like it's Riverside. Is that transit -- would that be a transit signal priority area? >> Right. So with regards to that, I believe we have already started to upgrade the signals there, but that is part of the bond program where we're looking to extent prioritization. So there were two corridor studies. There are two corridor studies that are part of those definitions, look to increase the level of prioritization for transit. One is along the river side corridor, because it's a very [3:27:07 PM] good transit corridor. Another one is through the university district. We have a corridor plan evolving that really looks at increasing the prioritization for transit through that corridor. >> All right. So the last element is identifying actual projects, actual street segments that should receive a degree of transit priority treatment. And the example we include in our response back in appendix D is that of the district of Columbia -- Columbia, and they drill down to specific recommendations for dedicated bus lanes on Georgia avenue from Florida to Barry, and, you know, transit signal priority on 16th street, etc. And so with the strategic mobility plan, we will also be looking to create those projects as feasible in the timeframe of the plan, and as we can do that analysis to the degree possible, and it's important to note that the consultant who did the overall mobility plan for district of Columbia in 2013 and their two-year action plan for overall mobility looking at strategic road improvements, bicycle, pedestrian, and transit is also the consultant working on the strategic mobility plan. A very successful plan and represents the highest degree of establishing transit priority policy within a transportation plan. And so, what we have going on, analogous is we have a street design guide that is going to be complete in the next month or so that's going to establish new cross sections that will be tested in a pilot over the next year with our own public works, engineering design staff who do in-house design for our projects. They'll be helping to use the cross section that include a multi-modal perspective. Our criteria manual now for [3:29:08 PM] street crosssections is severely outdated and needs to come up to speed, so this approach is taking an incremental approach to looking at how we might have new cross-sections. As you can imagine, there's a lot of coordination that needs to happen with above-ground and underground utilities. We've collaborated with water shed with regards to green infrastructure and what might be appropriate on different functional classifications. So there's a lot going on with this guide that implements imagine Austin that we hope will then lead to an easier process in amending the TCM around the same time codenext is approved. So all these things are running concurrently. We have connections 2025 that was just approved this week, and project connect. So all of the projects and ideas that are coming out of these three projects are going to make their way into recommendations for projects into the strategic mobility plan that will ultimately come to council for adoption. >> I'd like to speak to the examples of priority elements. Our bus-only lanes, although they're not red, we are in conversations with public works to see if we wanted the try out a colored pavement technology. So we'll be coordinated with them over the next year. Bus stop placement, that is an active discussion that we have with capital metro. Many of your in your blocks, and I'm sure many of you can picture one where the bus stop has to be moved because of driveways until it's not really at the intersection anymore. So we're working on that. Simply having the stops on crossing streets closer to each other reduces the delay for both the vehicle and the passengers. So that's something we're [3:31:09 PM] working on. Transit queue jumps are a technology that allows the bus to get an advanced jump on a signal, and so good examples right here up at Guadalupe and 4th street, just south of the main transit here. You'll notice all the cars have a red lying, and suddenly the bus jumps out in front. It's an odd feeling, but it's protected because the bus has its own signal. It's the white diamond that you see over to the side that you probably didn't know what it was. So the first time I saw it, I grabbed my steering wheel really tight, because it was like, oh, my gosh, what's going on? It's specifically designed that way. We've also implemented one at the north end of lavaca right there at mlk. That one has not worked as we planned, so we continue to tweak that, because of all the diverse movements, and I also think the construction right there is a problem. And then enhanced boarding environments. The station improvements that cap metro built along Lamar and south congress, and north Lamar definitely help with ease of boarding and so forth. >> Thanks, rob. So just a couple more slides. This is our integrated approach to looking -- forward thinking to a transit priority policy within the strategic mobility plan, and we'll be looking at taking the recommendations in connections 2025, the recommendations that are in process that are going to come out of project connect, using those as the transit basis to evaluating our scenarios with the strategic mobility plan, validating them, to so to speak, and then the projects that come out of the strategic mobility plan will then guide our network investments into the future. [3:33:11 PM] The scenarios that we'll be evaluaing are these three travel needs, which travel through and around Austin, in and out of the core, and in activity centers and neighborhoods, and we'll be looking at how to be efficient with all modes for those three travel needs. And then the plan will be, as I said, amending imagine Austin, the transportation element will be adopted by council. And it will be a coordinated strategy for all modes that supports the growth concept map of -- the growth concept of imagine Austin, and, again, it will be a portfolio of transit priority policies, programs, and projects that will then become our transit priority. So with that -- >> I think one of the things that's important, previous slide, please, to note is that one way we can help transit operate better in Austin is from a mobility department, your mobility department being able to help articulate the needs of our citizens to capital metro in terms of service needs. Any time you start to prioritize transit, it needs to also come with visible service improvements to the customer. A good example are the transit only lanes downtown. They're almost self-enforcing. We still have people violating the transit lanes, but that's because they're either new to the city or don't understand what to do. But the reality is that they actually operate pretty good because there's enough buses on there that people recognize, oh, okay, that's the transit lane, I need to stay out of there. So there's this dual purpose, we need to express what our needs are as cap metro presents their needs from an operations basis. We need to be able to present our needs from a service basis so that those two goals match up and make sense, and so that's why the asmp has a major transit element as part of it. We know cap metro is also doing 2025. You just passed it the other [3:35:15 PM] night. And then the long range high capacity transit plan as well, project connect. This is not in opposition to those. This is to help the community communicate what we need. Some of our transit improvements in the future, transit services in the future may not look like buses or rail vehicles. They may look very different, whether that be mobility as a service or you've probably seen the chariot fans running around town, and so this gives us a good basis to expand on all of those modes. >> Last slide. I want to talk a little bit about engagement with regards to further developing transit priority policy for Austin. This -- some of you have seen this before. This is our approach to public engagement for the strategic mobility plan. It started with mobility talks, which was a process to give input that helped shape the mobility bond, but it was also the kickoff to getting input for this plan and what we learned in mobility talks that is over 40% of folks would like to use transit more. And over 30% felt that investments in more reliable transit was the number one way to relieve congestion, and so we're building on that by having information out there for people through traditional routes, project websites, social media. We'll be doing some surveys. We're taking opportunities to go to community events. But one of the -- some of the unique things that we're doing, we're developing our public engagement plan right now, and I've reached out to council offices to set up one-on-one meetings to look at that draft before we finalize it, to see how we can do things differently with different results with regards to hearing from historically underrepresented communities, and I keep saying that because it's really important as we look at a affordability and making sure we're growing. One of the exciting things that we're doing is working with the quality of life initiatives, and [3:37:16 PM] we've had some great milestones on that since I last presented on that with regards to working with reverent Horton, the chair of the African-American resource advisory commission, and we're going to be doing some focus groups with his district youth ministry, which is really interesting public engagement. So I'll be happy to run through all of that if y'all would like to have a meeting one-on-one to talk about the engagement plan. And, of course, we'll be talking a lot about public transit needs. I want to say thank you to Cole kitten and Lewis Alcorn, who were instrumental in putting that recommendation today for you. So we'll be happy to answer any questions. >> Kitchen: I think we all have questions. So shall we -- you want to start? >> I think mine is probably a simple one. I was curious to what extent you've reached out to seniors? >> Yes. On the multi-modal advisory committee, a shared advisory committee, we have multiple folks who represent aarp and others within the community to represent that important facet. >> Kitchen: I think we also had someone from the commission on seniors. >> Correct. >> Kitchen: The city commission on seniors. >> I can't remember her name right now. She has a long last name. >> Kitchen: Janie breistmeister. >> Yes. We are getting the word out that we are happy to come just like project connect and do presentations for any type of neighborhood association or organization who would like one. And we have a request from a state seniors conference that was here in Austin just this morning, and Leanne Miller and our staff gave a big overview on how people could get involved. >> Flannigan: A couple [3:39:17 PM] questions. The results of the mobility talks, I mean, it may sound like this is an ongoing process. Some in the community think it was a process that concluded. If there's this analysis -- and you referenced that 40% wishes they could take transit, 40-plus, 30-plus thinks transit will help traffic. Can you please send my office the backup on that? >> Absolutely. >> Flannigan: I'm always curious about methodologies when a certain percentage of the community feels a certain way. I find that renters are often underrepresented in this type of analysis. I also think it's important for us to remember that if only 30% of the city thinks transit will help traffic, I think it might be difficult to go to the voters and ask for a bond election. So we have to really step up the public engagement in a very critically informed and participatory way, so we're not just listening, but we're also engaging. Because if we get all the way around to another bond election, then we're putting something out that we already talked about only 30% of the city thinks will help. I'm not necessarily encouraged about the outcome of that bond election. So that's pretty critical to me. And then, kind of as a side note to that, and this may seem not that important, but two slides prior, you have this graphic with the arrows and circles. My district is not even on the graphic. I think half of council member kitchen's district is cut off with this graphic. This is another one of those, seems like a small thing, but when you go to the community and say we're doing this strategic mobility plan, but in graphics, your part of town is not included, I think it becomes a problem. >> Kitchen: Yes, please fix the graphic. We were talking about south Austin doesn't end at 290. >> Yeah, it was more meant to convey the flow. >> Kitchen: Oh, I understand that. [3:41:17 PM] Oh, I understand. It's not a criticism. The folks we represent, they notice that. I want to talk for a moment about the king county project. Television it was very detailed around specific bus routes. So it took each of these bus routes, I guess the ones that they were focusing on and talked specifically about those routes and what was going to be done on each route in terms of, you know, transit priority improvements. But I really liked this. What it said to me was, okay, we're getting down to specifics, that we have analyzed specific routes and talked about specific things along those routes. And also, it's pretty easy to understand, and it's all in one spot. So is this the kind of deliverable we're talking about? I appreciate the recommendation to do this as part of the asmp, so I'm not concerned about that, except for two things. I don't -- I would like to see transit called out, and so I don't know if that's a separate chapter, or I'm not sure how asmp will be organized. >> It will most likely be its own chapter. >> Kitchen: What will be hard, I think, is if it continues to be disbursed as one of the things that we do, as opposed to all brought together like this is. And this is organized around -- not around the roads, but around the routes. So I think that that -- from my perspective anyway, I don't know how you need to organize the asmp, but I'm concerned about it getting lost, because the asmp handles a lot of stuff, and we keep saying this is going to come, it's going to come, and the asmp, which is a year away. [3:43:20 PM] So I just wanted to give you an example of what I felt was a really great deliverable. >> So, council member, either that is a product of a number of years of Seattle deploying their program, and so I certainly think you will see a north star presented as part of the strategic mobility plan. I think that in the coming budget, you'll see a proposal for staffing, to address the staffing issue, to initiate the process. Just like with the corridor programs, we have -- when we developed those corridor programs, we were thinking about all the routes that went through that corridor, how we could improve transit, and certainly for the current corridors, I think we could create something like you're thinking there, in terms of what the transit prioritization or level of improvements will be. But it's a process. When I got there in 2004, this transit prioritization program had been going for four years. They were starting to get their feet on the ground. I think they've made a lot of ground since then positively working together. I'll also say they have a 45% transit split, meaning 45% of the people head into downtown or more are on transit. And so clearly, they don't see transit just as a utility. They see transit buses and routes as high capacity transit routes that they need to build and support. And so there's a number of programs that they've implemented, either just through the dense vification of downtown or whatever -- dense vification of downtown that have helped them get to that point. Very few buildings in downtown Seattle, when you rent space, very few people expect to also get enough parking to meet the needs of all their employees. So like we've done, the university district overlay district, we've forced the market to separate those two discussions, the parking discussion from the rental [3:45:21 PM] discussion. And so that then generates some pretty interesting feedback to the user. Similarly in downtown, the condos really only typically provide one space, and when we opened up the transportation department eight years ago, one of the most common calls we got from citizens is what do I do with my second and third car? We don't get those calls anymore. I think people have converted to, yeah, if I'm moving downtown, I've got to get rid of most of my cars. So it's a process. I think that's where we're headed. Some routes, we can be there. I think there's other routes where we'll need to build over time. >> Kitchen: It sounds like you're saying this level of detail is something to strive for. And, again, this isn't all the routes. >> Right. It's their key route. >> Kitchen: It's just their key route. So I'm understanding correctly, that this kind of planning is what we're shooting for? >> Yes. I don't know that it will be part of the strategic mobility plan other than the routes we already have, because there's probably more routes that we'll be identifying over the next several years as, hey, we need to develop a detailed plan for, you know, William cannon, for instance. >> Kitchen: I guess what I'm getting at is I would -- well, let me just ask this. I'm hoping that the asmp doesn't just repeat what we're already doing. >> No. >> Kitchen: Okay. So I'm not hearing that. That's why I would think that this kind of planning, at least for some of the key routes, maybe it's one, two, three, four, whatever it is, that we would see that level of detail in the asmp? >> I think certainly that level of planning is working now in the transit working group. We have an interagency staff working group. I think that group will actually produce the ideas for how to improve transit in specific [3:47:23 PM] areas. That could certainly be incorporated in the strategic mobility plan as we know it. I guess what I'm getting across, it's an ongoing process. I mean, we'll have much more than we're doing right now in the strategic mobility plan identified, but hopefully that plan will also identify a process to add more routes and more route planning. >> Kitchen: Yeah, I wouldn't expect it all to be done, but I'm trying to understand something concrete, because I know that the asmp is still about a year away. So I'm not wanting to wait another year to -- and then not have some detail about the key priority routes that we're working on. I'm trying to find -- I mean, you guys can tell us how far we can get, but I'm just saying that I wouldn't want -- I'm not expecting -- if it's resource issue, then I'd like to hear about it, but I'm not expecting that the asmp is just going to have a chapter that says what we already know without some level of detail about which routes we're going to prioritize and what we're going to do on those routes. >> Right. We want the transit enhanced network to be identified that is where we're identifying actual transit priority elements from the most aggressive to exclusive lanes to other treatments that might be appropriate, and we'll be looking to define that in the context of all other mobility needs to best assure implementation success. >> Kitchen: So to tie that to specific routes, instead of just a list of enhancements. >> Yes. >> Yes, absolutely. >> Those priority routes are, in fact, the corridor plans that have already been done. So certainly the priority section of the strategic mobility plan, we'll want to reach back and grab those corridors where we already have a pretty good idea about how we're going to prioritize transit and create a route where we can kind of cheat, if you [3:49:25 PM] will, on that. >> Kitchen: Okay. Go ahead. >> I was just going to ask about the interface with the corridor plan. I think you just answered some of that. I mean, it seems to me that you could pull that in there and say, you know, this is -- as we're mapping out the corridors and filling out those plans, this is what we're aiming for. I think that would be part of the planning anyway. And then we already know which are the next corridors that are being planned in that regard. So it seems to me that that should very naturally follow. >> All the currently funded projects in the queue will be looking at our scenarios, when we create goals and metrics of how we want our transportation network to perform into the future, ten-years plus. We'll be taking into account what's being queued up, what's in the corridor plans already that's been funded. A lot of that is still being figured out right now. We have enough to do our scenario planning, which is order magnitude, big picture, especially analysis of how many people within proximity to a route. All these different criteria that we'll be evaluating, to then evaluate where those specific routes and specific treatments would be recommended. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> I'd like to add some background. Cole kitten. That is an example of a work product that a program developed. So similar to what our transit priority working group would do, we would develop a product like that. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> So their speed and reliability program developed that document. So something that might have come from a plan saying focus on these corridors, develop a plan on how to implement transit priority, that would be a similar product that would come out of the asmp and could be [3:51:27 PM] assigned to a similar program like the transit priority working group and they would develop more of the details to implement that. >> Kitchen: That helps me understand, but that raises -- that keys into the concern that I'm raising. So because what that means to me is that we're -- help me understand. It sounds like to me that when we get the asmp, which is in a year, then we will say these are the corridors we need more detail on. I mean, don't we know that right now? And why do we have to wait a year to know that and then it's probably going to take another year, or another amount of time to develop details on those. So that's what I'm trying to short circuit. And I know you guys are doing a lot of work. I'm also asking at the same time what kind of resources are needed. So please understand that. I know you mentioned already that the transit working group needs the resources to deal with that. A related question I have before you answer that, is I know y'all will be coming back to us with additional resources or at least some discussion of resources that might be needed to carry out the bond program. I would think we should be thinking of the resources that are needed to do this kind of planning for transit as it relates to the bond corridors. So I would encourage you to think about those resources, too, so that if we need to beef up the transit working group with dedicated resources, for example, in order to get to this kind of level of details, then that would be something I would be interested in understanding. >> I would tell you that the top priority routes, transit routes, are already incorporated in the current bond funded corridors for construction. [3:53:30 PM] And so the metro routes to the north and to the south. Ask I would tell you that I think we have the budget to move forward with some of those. In fact, you know, traffic reduction and transit benefit were some of the criteria that council asked us the focus on. So those are certainly part of the focus. There's new corridors where there's not existing transit priority. As I said, and so that you'll see quickly coming on. But you may also see big yellow lines, highlights on other streets. I don't know what they are. Red river, for discussion, for instance. Where we might indicate we need to go ahead and start planning it. And so we'll have that level of information that you have, or similar for the corridors we already have. >> Kitchen: Okay, that makes sense. >> Those are probably the highest priority. As cap metro starts through connections of 2025 and project connect identify their next priorities, then we'll start to work with them through the transit working group. With regards to resources, I would tell you that I think with our -- when we come to you in April, it's going to be focused very much on what do we need to carry the corridor programs through to October, which would be the next funding cycle. I do plan to present to the city manager and hopefully to council a proposal of new program for transit speed and reliability. >> Kitchen: Okay, good. >> The cost to it in terms of staffing. Cap metro is interested in matching what we're doing, and so, again -- >> Can you just repeat the name of it? >> Transit speed and reliability. That's what makes transit attractive is speed and [3:55:31 PM] reliability. If we bring two employees full-time to that, I believe I have a commitment from cap metro to try to match that from their side as well. That gives us the staffing base. It's very much the Seattle model in terms of creating a joint working group to systematically work through issues. It's not all about the signals and the dedicated lanes. It's also about, well, do we have too many stops along this corridor, do we have good sidewalks so that people are safe along this corridor, are are we using smart technologies to take boarding passes. All of that contributes. What groups -- my experience with groups like this is they focus on how do we save minutes, not blocks of minutes, because you've got to do a lot of little things to add up to a benefit. >> Kitchen: Did you have a question? >> Flannigan: I do have a question. >> Kitchen: Go ahead. >> Flannigan: We're doing a lot of planning at the city right now, and some of it has got very long time horizons, like codenext, which I hear should be another 30 years before we have to do that again, let's hope, cross our fingers. And then there's the comp plan imagine Austin, which has a similar longtime horizon. And there's other plans which have shorter time horizons, like the strategic housing plan, which talks about a ten-year horizon. So we're talking about the transit component of an asmp in general. Over what time horizon are we planning? >> So the asmp looks out -- >> Ten-plus years. Go ahead. >> So on slide 15, it talks about activity centers and corridors. And then there's the corridors that are defined in the mobility bonds, which have an eight-year horizon to implement. [3:57:32 PM] But there are additional activity centers and corridors to find in imagine Austin, some of which the community is not necessarily onboard with transit, or concerned about development, and jollyville, for example, is a corridor, and we've attended many public meetings of people who are receiving different bits of information about what that means. And so I want to really be able to communicate back to my folks and to the city, when you're talking about the asmp, talking about transit priority, talking about corridors, we're talking about development over the next ten years, and is it specifically the corridors that were in the mobility bond, because there's a similar time horizon there, eight years to implement, ten years, or is there going to be more expansive conversation over the next year as the asmp gets developed? >> Well, I would tell you that I think the conversation will be more expansive over the life of the new program that we're proposing as part of the upcoming budget cycle. I mean, really, this is a process that once we start down it, it will identify short-term quick fixes. For instance, we need a right turn lane here to get cars out of the way of the buses to get through it. We need a signal preemption at this intersection, for whatever reason. Those are quick. But if that's in working groups, as we really need some sort of transit prioritization, more like dedicating a lane, then that shifts into its own longer-term project. It's not just the corridors. We're looking to approve transit wherever high capacity transit or transit can move more people. If you can think about it, if we can get people in the inner part of the city to get onto transit, they get out of the way for other people that are commuting in from outside of Austin, or even the further out districts that may not be as amenable to [3:59:34 PM] transit. But likewise, one of the things I also want to work with is the idea of expanding our park and ride system. We've talked about that as part of our regional corridor programs, whether it be south or I-35. Because I think there's a lot of people, if they had a different type of transit, they could use that. >> I want to speak to that for a second. >> Flannigan: So this is not about my district getting on transit. My district already rides the train, and that's about the only transit they get, and they're packing it in. So it's not so much about that. But it is that we've seen prior proposals that suggested to put transit in areas that were not defined as corridors. I think that was a mistake. When we're talking about corridors as they're defined in imagine Austin, that is where transit should go, and we're in parallel talking about where housing should go. And those things really should be lined up. It kind of makes me a little nervous to hear that we're not necessarily talking about those corridors, but I do think we should be talking about those corridor consultants, unless this is like an engineering thing, where it's this corridor. >> Let me speak to that. The asmp is looking at growth. It's not looking at planning for what we have today. In our assumptions, we're looking at where are we going to be ten-plus years from now, 20-plus years from now, and what transportation network is going to best work to serve to not -- to serve that population now and into the future. So the investments that we're making with the bond are a more short-term, even though from a planning perspective, eight years is a short amount of time. We're looking at ten- plus, 20 years, 30 years into the future for a scenario of identifying transit priority, identifying strategic road investments, identifying bicycle investments [4:01:36 PM] into the future. So it's short-term to the extent that the bond projects are going to address the here and now, and we're going to look at what we need to continue. We also need to work on demand policies, which will be cuequeued up. We're going to make assumptions, if we succeed with better speed and reliability on our transit network, if we succeed on better programming in neighborhoods and education through smart trips, and we hit our entire population with information about how to ride a bike for transportation, how to use the bus, what are some reasonable assumptions about how we will manage that growth on our transportation network, and then the projects and the programs will be derived from that. I don't know if that helps you. >> Flannigan: I just think there's a big difference between a ten-year plan and a 30-year plan. And I don't think we can go back to the community, and I'm not saying this is what you're saying, but I don't think we can go back to the community with a single line of anything. We have to show a network. And I'm glad that you said the word network, because that's absolutely critical. But a network we think we can do in ten years is different than a network we think we can do in 30 years. I am on the 30-year train here. Let's really think about long-term. It's what we're doing with codenext. Let's plan for the future. It's really one of the things the community complains that they don't think that we've been doing. So let's -- to butcher a metaphor, let's go down the road and do the long-term plan. >> Kitchen: Go ahead. >> Alter: I just wanted to go to the engagement process, and I appreciate that atd is taking the engagement process really seriously. I think I've been here almost two months now, not quite, and I've had to clean up a lot of messes that have been created with respect to transportation by other entities that you work with respect -- with your help, mind you. The transportation department has been very helpful in that [4:03:36 PM] regard. And I would like to avoid similar outcomes, because I think they take resources away from where they need to be spent, and they create confusion and they make it less -- people less excited about alternative transportation modes. With respect to cap metro, I understand that the plan passed and whatnot. I still regret the fact that they made decisions on bus routes without actually posting on bus routes that we're going to be canceled, that people, you know, alerting people who are on those bus routes that they would be canceled, which is the most simple, most basic public engagement thing that you can do, and I think it's very unfortunately that that was part of the process, as has been reported to me by those buses, so I don't know for sure, can't confirm that. But people who have ridden those buses that are said to be canceled were not notified. So we need to make sure that we are covering those basic thins in the most obvious places. Because we've seen that this can create hostility. It can create animosity. It can create a lot of negative spirals for our mobility policies that are counterproductive, and those are avoidable, if we have the right conversations. So I know sometimes we feel like the engagement part is another chore that we have to go through, but it is really important for the success, especially if we're going to be putting demand management front and center for how we succeed. So I just want to say I appreciate what you're doing, but I also hope that you will learn from some of those lessons. You've been right in there with me on some of them, and I have appreciated your staff joining me with respect to jollyville. But those are avoidable. >> We agree, council member. We work really hard to coordinate with our sister jurisdictions that have the responsibility and the mobility portfolio here in Austin, whether that be central Texas [4:05:37 PM] regional authority, the county, the state, capital metro, movability. I mean, it's an alphabet soup. I will tell you that it is a tough job to make sure everybody is on the same page. We do a lot better job now than we used to years ago. We actually talk to each other now, as I think our cohorts will communicate. It's important for the city to be at the table on those conversations, because I work closest to the constituents that are often affected. I hope you see that it's been a hallmark of our process. Yes, there's sometimes things we have to go address because, you know, a different agency has communicated inaccurately or not as well as we would have liked. But that's why we step in immediately, and as you've said, helped that one project and there will be others, I'm sure. >> Kitchen: I think we're going to move on, but first, I want to make two connections. We can have a longer conversation about this later. Because we do need to move on. First off, the metrics that you'll be putting together, obviously, around transit priority will be something we'll want to connect the dots with on the metrics that come to us out of our retreat. You know, mobility was one of those buckets, and I forget what we called it now. Strategic outcome bucket, mobility. Under that, there are indicators, thank you. And metrics under that. I'm certain those metrics to transit priority. The second thing is a smart trips program. I want to say I'm very interested in that program, and I'd like to connect the dots. Probably you guys have already connected the dots on this, but I think that engaging some approach similar to the smart trips program could be useful in the innovation projects that have been identified by cap metro in the connections 2025 [4:07:39 PM] plan that we passed. In that, for those innovations to be useful and helpful, there's going to need to be an engagement in the community in each of those areas. I know that you all know that and I know that cap metro knows that. I'm just thinking that there might be some connections with that smart trips program. We can have a longer conversation about that. >> Thank you. >> Kitchen: Any other questions before we move on? Okay. So our next agenda item is number 4. Okay. We have a briefing from cap metro on project connect. Now, we did have someone sign up for citizen communication, so let's go ahead and take that first, and then we'll do project connect. >> Good afternoon, council members. My name is Scott Johnson, here to talk to you about distracted driving. The history for those council members that are new is that in the late 2000s, it was recommended out of a bicycle safety task force that I was on to do one of two things, ban texting or ban hand held mobile phone use. The city chose the texting. It couldn't be enforced well because people could say that they are dialling. So in 2013, 2014, started agitating again on this issue. There was a distracted driving working group that was set up, and I was on that group. We recommended a hands-free ordinance. The council adopted it in August of 2014. It became effective early 2015. And since then, over 10,000 citations have been written. They do have a diversion program for those people that are getting cited for the first time. What I'm here to do is to talk about some opportunities. One is to reach back to 2014 when the distracted driving study group, which is mostly citizens, but staff that was involved from the transportation [4:09:39 PM] department, APD, etc., to look at one of those recommendations again, and that is about when someone is stopped, stopped at a traffic light, a stop sign, or in traffic. We recommended that they could not pick their phone up and use it. There were some people in the community who didn't like that, and the former council in 2014 stripped that provision out. We know now more about the science of it, and one of the things that we know is that, according to research that's been done in the last couple of years, when you look at your phone, there can be a cognitive distraction for upwards of 25 seconds. And therefore, when people put the phone down, it's not simply directing your focus back on the task at hand. So that's one recommendation. Could you cue that up, please? The first one is the one that I mentioned the you. These are draft ideas. They're in my own writing. They're not based on city legal or other cities putting it into the mix. So prohibit the use of any mobile communication device while a vehicle is stopped at a traffic light, stop sign, and traffic, or at any time when their vehicle is in drive, but not in motion. And are not designated. C, is prohibit anyone from sharing any video recording with the driver of the vehicle. Don't see that much. And D, prohibit anyone in motor vehicle from taking a still photograph while the vehicle is in drive or is in motion. I've brought this out to the bicycle advisory council as well as the vision zero task force. These are my ideas. There is a recommendation that says make the distracted [4:11:41 PM] ordinance more effective. These are my ideas. Questions? >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Kitchen: Okay. Next, we have item number 4, briefing on project connect. >> Good afternoon, chairman kitchen, council members. I am the director of long range planning capital metro. And with me is a member of our consultant team. And Jackie, our manager for communications and public involvement with capital metro. We have a presentation for you. This is the first time that we have the opportunity to bring up to you project connect. The efforts that are being done. The presentation is divided into segments. I'm going to talk about the background, everything that we have been doing. We're going to take you a little bit more into detail about the evaluation process, how we are communicating this process to the community, and then Jackie is going to be talking to you about the public involvement process. So thank you very much, once again, for being here, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to interrupt the presentation. More than happy to take any time you need. We started project connect about nine months ago on -- we wanted to be sure that the strategy, the capital metro partners had in front of us was the correct one. So rather than beginning a big [4:13:41 PM] opening effort, we wanted to really be careful and ensure that we had the consensus, that we are on the right path to move forward with project connect. During this self-launch, we have very interesting questions. By our partner entities and the community, too. For example, unfortunately, the community forgot about what is project connect, so we had to go through the process. Project connect is a regional adopted high capacity transit plan. It was adopted in 2012, and as you can see on the slide, there were several entities working together to create this vision plan. The map that you see in the slide is a 2014 upgrade of the plan and includes another one of the corridors. Other questions we have, okay, what are you doing today? We thought project connect was basically dead, and so we are addressing the issue and beginning to revamp project connect. What I would do, basically, we are redefining project connect plan. As you remember in 2012 plan, the city -- not the city, the region was basically divided in nine priority corridors. Those priority corridors were the strategy ordinance to continue identifying those projects, and moving forward with implementation of the strategic mobility plan. Why was that done? That continues to be the same objective today, to select new transit solutions for accessing within the central Austin area. What are we doing today is basically redefining that approach. I'm going to go back to this map. We found that the community really didn't believe in this approach. By segmenting the region and nine priority corridors and [4:15:42 PM] developing those corridors one at a time, wasn't necessarily bringing the entire vision of their regional plan. So we were asked to revisit that strategy, and look for a strategy that will bring at the end entire vision, not just a portion of the region. And so if you remember in 2013, capital metro sponsor, the development of the north corridor, which is that box that you see in the center of the picture, and out of that, we have already projects and some result in moving forward. It was successful, and we are moing through the implementation. That's the transportation development plans. This is a regional plan, so we have areas where capital metro -- within the city limits, the service area limits, and so we are going through different mechanisms to bring transit into other areas that are not currently part of capital metro service area. The second corridor that was actually moving forward was sponsored by the city of Austin, and that was what we call in 2014 central corridor, and that became urban rail. Urban rail proposition one was not approached by the voters, so that's when everybody got confused and everybody thought that project connect as a transit plan was basically defeated, and that's not the case. It was just one component of project connect, which was central corridor. From that time, we are moving now to a different strategy, recognizing what the community has actually requested, and we are moving to a different approach. We recognize that project connect is a regional plan. It's not just focused on Austin. It's a plan that has to resolve many different troubled markets, and we have to address those issues. So we are redefining project [4:17:43 PM] connect, and we have now a new strategy. The strategy basically is defined in three different measures. We have what we call the regional area, which is our metropolitan area, and that is why? Because we have many cities that are growing very rapidly, and they are generating a lot of different trips that are coming into and out of the central area. The second measure that we identify as different market trips is what we call the focal area, and that is by 183. These are lines to help us administrate better information. This is where we find the biggest centers of education, business, healthcare, a lot of these activities are happening in this area. So we'd recognize that we have a special trip and special trouble market that is happening here. Flows that are going from the urban fringe, coming in and out, and traveling through the focal area. The third part is what we call activity centers in central business districts, and we have downtown, which we're using as an example. For that area, is where we find the high volume streets. So, again, we have different trouble markets and we have to address those markets. Project connect has to be flexible towards those issues. We want to be sure that we are contributing and communicating with the owners of the right of way, in this case the city of Austin, the Texas department of transportation, other states and entities that aren't going to allow us to provide this service. The other question that we had also to answer to the community is that people are still kind of confused about what exactly do you mean with a high capacity transit investment? So out of fta, the definition [4:19:43 PM] is, is the system -- has a dedicated right of way, or has the priority treatment, and it is running, especially on high frequency during peak times. And that frequency should be at least 15 minutes. And it has significant branding components. I mean, it's recognized throughout the entire region. These are three examples of what we are referring to when we talk about high capacity transit. Examples where our consultants had the opportunity to successfully bring the project from the beginning to the end. That's pretty important for us. Very important. The process that we decided, that we selected, that we designed this time, based on the input that we obtained during the soft launch, you are absolutely right. I was hearing your comments through the previous presentation. We're doing a lot of planning. The community is tired of the planning. They want to see the results. And we need to move pretty fast. We are really behind. And that is the reality, unfortunately. For project to launch again, another lengthy planning process with no necessarily results, it's not what the community wants. There's a lot of great planning. A lot of transportation corridor studies. A lot of transit studies that are done. So rather than paying consultants to do something that has already done, we are directing consultants to create a large inventory of everything that has been done. So we went back and collected everything, created a large list of projects and ideas and studies that were done, and so we are phase number 1, which we call big ideas, bold starts. And what we are doing is precisely that. Finalizing that inventory of all the projects so that we can present basically what are the corridors that we study at that time. So we are about to finalize that phase number one. It will help us to really define [4:21:44 PM] what are the corridors that the community is very interested in moving forward to the next level so that we can study and begin to talk about the projects, what projects -- the projects that are best suited for each particular corridor. Phase number two, we call solutions for real problems, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to define what are the best solutions. We're going to find what is the most efficient way to move forward, a system of projects. How are we going to implement them, what are the challenges from the cost and environmental perspective. And then phase number three, which we call it path to implementation, is basically how are we going to pay for it. That is crucial. And we think that that is really our biggest challenge today. We have the quality planning. The planning. Now it's time for implementation. The biggest question is how do we pay for it. >> Kitchen: So let me stop you there. Let's talk about timeline for just a second. >> Sure. >> Kitchen: Oh, I'm seeing you got here, phase one is -- you're going to be moving from phase one to phase two -- >> Six to nine months, correct. >> Kitchen: From when? >> We started, actually, in March last year. Our notice to proceed was already given, and we are about to complete that phase. >> Kitchen: Okay. So you'll be moving from phase one to phase two in -- >> Around April, beginning of April. >> Kitchen: Around April. And that's where we'll narrow down the projects and start the more technical evaluation? >> That is correct. >> Kitchen: Okay, I'm going to ask you, because we're a little tight on time -- >> Perfect. >> Kitchen: To skip to slide 17 and start diving in for us, into where you're at right now in terms of existing corridors. >> Correct. >> Kitchen: I'm sorry. Or you could start with the [4:23:44 PM] specifics about the corridors on number 17. >> We are going to start on slide 18. Basically what we did is after collecting all the information, we had a big bucket with different studies. So in order to get organized and be able to move forward with the information, we defined that into two specific categories. Some of the the studies that were done were specifically on investment corridors, meaning these were big projects, you know, basically regional approaches. And it will require high investment, and so we were able to identify the character of those particular studies. The other project was related to a specific goal and enhanced the existing structure that capital metro has. So we divided those two projects into buckets. The second one, we called it enhancement projects. >> Kitchen: So if I'm understanding, those are the two buckets of places that you're identifying? >> Correct. So the investment corridor, it could be a railroad corridor. It may require alternative or federal funding. These are big investments. So the study is basically if iing these corridors and really define them and begin to work on them. As you can see in this slide, we were able to identify three different type of corridors within this investment corridor initiative, and so we called the first one community corridors. These are the yellow lines that you see on top. High capacity frequency proposed bus service under the new plan. The commuter corridors are [4:25:46 PM] basically our major, major trouble patterns. We have, for example, I-35. We have a combination of streets in avenues and arteries in the south. Some other corridors, were basically railroad infrastructure. For example, the read line the proposed corridor. So those were the kind of commuter corridors that we identify. Then we identified what we called connecter corridors. So they were basically located in what we call the focal area. All these lights you see there, which are a lot, you know, where are studies done looking at this particular corridors, and what kind of benefit for the community they may have. So large lengths on the connecter corridors, and the next phase, there were basically that smaller square that we see in downtown, and where we have the biggest frequency of trips, but these are short trips. So with the high capacity investment corridors, we define three different type of corridors based on the market demand that we have, and those were the commuters, the connecters, and the circulators. When we talk about enhancement projects, those that were part of all the studies that has been done. I mentioned before, specifically targets two investments that capital metro already has in regards to high capacity transit. That will be metro rail, metro rapid, metro express, and these projects will go from improving our bus stops, better collection systems, more priority lanes, better -- more frequency on metro rail, more frequency, a better downtown station. That type of projects that we're [4:27:48 PM] identifying in this bucket. So the output of this effort is what we are targeting as a project connect on the investment corridors. It's basically to have a set of commuter projects, a set of connecter projects, and a set of circulators, all those projects being part of a system plan that basically addressed the three level of market trips we identified, the regional, the central focal area, and the activity centers. All of this is very, very close to what imagine Austin strategy is as far as transportation. On the enhancement projects, basically projects -- a set of projects that will help us to improve metro rail, metro rapid, metro express, and additional mobility hops in different areas that also were identified through the process. So that is what we would like to see at the end, is a set of projects that basically are all part of a system, transit system plan that we'll be presenting to the community. To move forward, I'm going to pass the presentation to miss Julia to talk about the evaluation process, how we are planning to narrow down the lease, because we have a big lease, and we want to prioritize what corridors are going to give us the best return in our investment. >> Kitchen: Unfortunately, we're running tight on time. So, yes, to get into that detail, but the higher level stuff we can read in the background. And we may have to read the public input process part, too. Go ahead. >> Okay. I will try to abbreviate this. I just quickly want to go through what the overall process here is, looking at this flowchart. So as Javier said, this is a three- phased study. We're finishing up the first phase right now. So identify that universe of alternatives and divided them into those two buckets, the [4:29:48 PM] enhancement projects and investment corridors. We subjected them to a qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Those criteria were linked to the project goals that were established at the outset of the study. At the end of phase one, what we want to have is that subset of projects to take forward into phase two so we can define them in detail, and then evaluate them in detail, and then take a smaller subset forward into phase three for eventual implementation. We wanted to design the system to be both data-driven from a quantitative perspective as well as that qualitative element. Data doesn't estimate everything. We understand it's critical to overall implementation viability. So to that end, two- step process. The first is the quantitative piece, where we generated a whole lot of data using gis-based analyses to rank and score projects based on natural break points. We then divided those projects into one of three tiers. Tier one being the best performing. Then we took that analysis and moved it to the qualitative process. And what this graphic is meant to show is that the qualitative process is when we could incorporate sort of observed conditions, or again, those things that aren't captured in data, to change the tier into which a project fell. So something may have performed very well from a data perspective, but we sort of know logically or intuitively that it either should not be implemented or perhaps something didn't score that well from a data perspective and should be moved forward. So, again, wanted to have that sort of two-part process to enable sort of a full robust evaluation of the projects. So quickly go through these. These are the four goals that were used in that quantitative analysis, looking at things like customer experience for existing riders, reliability we know is critically important to accruing new riders and overall system success, sustainability, environmentally, reaching more people, particularly transit dependent populations as well as making transit preferable option [4:31:49 PM] to getting in your car and driving. And then land use and policy. We certainly know transit investment on the one hand can be designed to move people quickly from point a to point B, but it can also be used to guide and shape land use policies, so wanted to incorporate that consideration in. So from the quantitative perspective, those four goals are in the left-hand column. And then we designed a series of evaluation metrics in the right-hand column that link to those goals, and assigned points to each of those metrics. Each of the goals were weighted at 25 points, so the total points a project could accrue were 100 points. So the perfect project could accrue 100 points. The weighting of each of the criteria was designed for us to acknowledge that some of these factors are more important from a local perspective or from a federal funding perspective. So if I could just quickly draw your attention to the service equity line, for instance, which is given 15 points in the sustainability goal. That's because the fta, when it's looking at making funding recommendations, looks at things like households below poverty, communities of color, and zero car households, and that's what that metric captures. So that's how this system here was designed. And then again, once we perform that quantitative analysis, we move forward into the qualitative, and there are four components that feed into that piece, that regional equity. I think what we've been saying over and over again is that this is not an Austin centric project. This is a regional project, so I want to take into consideration how these investments better connect sort of outlying communities into Austin and vice versa. Community support critically important. Funding opportunities in this first phase. We don't have the detail to generate cost estimates, so this is just an estimate of how successful they may be at attracting funding. And then special considerations. These are things, again, like constructability or cost. The need for policy agreements. Or if there's something operationally, either positively [4:33:50 PM] or negatively that could impact overall implementation viability. We also did the same process for the enhancement projects. So these enhancement projects are the investments in the existing system. So this chart here shows that it was sort of parallel concurrent processes. The only difference is in how we're sort of accruing community support, because these enhancement projects are a little bit more difficult for people to get their arms around, we don't talk about the projects specifically. What we did on the technical side was to take the list of projects and break them into three buckets, access, connect, and ride. And what that did was sort of orient people into how they experienced the transit system. So how do you get to the transit system? How do you access it? Whether it's by foot, bike, or car. These will be like A.D.A. Compliance, how do you get to that station? The next is connect. So now you're at the station. How do you actually interface with the system? How do you get onto the buses and the trains? So things like upgrades to stations, expanded capacity, either from vehicle or a station perspective, fair payment, and then critically transfers to other bus and rail service, anything that we want to do certainly has to improve overall network, mobility, and connect. And then finally, that third piece of the transit rider experience is the actual ride itself. So once you're on that bus or train, how do we reduce delays, increase speed, and make transit service more reliable. So primarily, this relates to things -- relates to dedicated transit lanes. So, again, we sort of felt like that was a good way to sort of take a lot of very technical projects and kind of put them in buckets that are a little bit more public facing. >> Kitchen: So let me ask you this. The list of projects and their scoring, when are y'all -- I know you've shown that to those of us on the cap metro board. Is that something that we can [4:35:52 PM] share with our mobility committee folks at this point? >> Absolutely. >> Kitchen: Okay. We can get that information from you. >> Well, we actually -- last part of the presentation, we would like to extend an invitation about our event that is coming this Saturday, which is called traffic jam, and basically, that's where we are going to be working with the community, we are going to be presenting those preliminary results, and that's precise. >> Kitchen: You want to go to that slide? >> And then we can go to the last one. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> That is the invitation. And yes, council member kitchen, we have some preliminary results. And then we want to share those. Those are available. We can share them with you. We didn't know how much time we were going to have. That is really getting into a very detailed conversation, and we didn't want to take all the time. But definitely March 4th, traffic jam event is the right place to really dig in, come and ask all the questions. We will show all the process, and more than anything, we are excited to work with the community to get their input. >> Kitchen: Well, let me ask my colleague how much detail he'd like to see. Because you don't have a list of all the projects or anything at this point, do you? >> Flannigan: No. >> Kitchen: Okay. Would you like that? >> Flannigan: Yes. >> Kitchen: I think that the members of the mobility committee -- council member Garza would already have it, but council member alter, before she had to leave, she said she'd like to have that detail. So to the extent that you can provide us -- >> Will they be okay if we provide the full binder? >> Kitchen: Oh, yeah. >> Flannigan: Yes. Please send everything digitally, and don't hold anything back. Because we want to avoid the moment where there's a question asked where, oh, we should have sent you the other thing. Send all the things. >> Kitchen: He wants everything. >> Flannigan: Yes. >> Absolutely. [4:37:52 PM] >> Flannigan: I don't need the binder. Send me the digital. >> We have a lot of information. Just want to let you know that the information, the intent of the binder, or the information that is being developed is to keep you up to speed, so everything is being submitted draft format. Every time that we have a revision, we update the information. And so just be aware that you're going to be receiving several interactions. >> Flannigan: That's good. Being on the mobility committee means I signed up for that. >> Thank you very much. >> Kitchen: The only other thing I would say is about the public engagement process. We've talked about this some on the cap metro side, and that's the fact that there is a point to go from phase one to phase two, and that's the point at which we narrow it down to what the system might look like in terms of starting to examine in more detail those particular routes. I'm just wanting to understand that I still have that correct, and if that's coming soon, in a couple of months. This is a step towards that with the traffic jam on Saturday to start to present that information about what the scoring is showing us so that we can start to get some public feedback on that before the cap metro board hears your recommendations on which routes to go forward with and votes on that. >> That is correct. >> Kitchen: Did you have any questions? >> It's not really a question. I know it's hard to try to coordinate these big kinds of things, but I think it's the same day as it's my park day. >> Kitchen: It is. >> I guess it just kind of happened unintentionally. >> Yeah. We realize that there's -- there are other events, it's not the [4:39:54 PM] only one, and it's really difficult, especially in the spring, and we really wanted to do a Saturday so that we could get people with families who would be able to come. So it was inevitable it would step on something. I will say that we'll have online engagement available for people who want to participate. So we'll have that tool available to people via our project website. So there will be other opportunities to get involved and to give feedback on phase one. >> In addition to our technology, we know that not everybody will be able to come to the event. We are aware of that situation. So the team is working on designing a small traffic jams, wherever and whenever the people want us to go, we will provide that. We want to go to where the community is. So if you feel the need, or if there is an event where we have a little bit of time to share this information, that's what we want to do. We understand that Saturdays is a lot to ask for families, but we want to to also complement this event with little events that will basically emit the same information we're representing. >> Flannigan: I appreciate the clever branding, but there's got to be a better way to say staff is designing traffic jams. [ Laughter ] It's not a good idea. After the 4th, I'm glad it's a Saturday, because it's great for folks who aren't always downtown, or find it difficult to get there. What is -- or do you know what is next one is? I mean, there's this one meeting downtown. The content that's provided here will be online to understand that. Did you say you're in the middle of designing taking this on the road? You don't know for sure what that will look like yet? >> We are just waiting on basically from the community to hear from who wants us to go to actually set up the time and the dates. >> We can take a variety as [4:41:55 PM] well, depending on how much time people have. If it's on the agenda of an existing meeting, we can do a briefing and have a survey, or have tablets available for people to do the survey. There's lots of ways we can do it. >> Flannigan: Okay. Over what time period are you hoping to get this public input received? >> The month of March and the month of April. >> Flannigan: Two months. Awesome. I will help you do one in my district. >> Perfect. >> Kitchen: You all have been working very hard, and that's why we've got these phases. So I'm going to continue -- and I will help you in our district, too. I think it's going to be really important that we get a lot of input before we make the decision of which projects to take into phase two. >> One quick comment. Phase one, if you notice, we as a team decided on purpose to really concentrate on the corridor analysis. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> We are staying away from the mode discussion. The mode discussion is very passionate and has some other elements, and the team has not really developed all the information. We want to focus on the corridors. We want to make sure that the community feels very strong about the corridors. Once that decision is made and we have the right foundation to move forward, we begin the discussion of what mode is the best for each particular corridor. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> And that's going to be pretty intense. But we wanted to be sure that the steps we are making are solid steps, and we don't create any controversy. That's where we are. >> Kitchen: Okay. Other questions, anybody? Okay. Thank you very much for [4:43:56 PM] presenting. This is very helpful to us. I know that the council wants to be -- got two hats on here. But the council side of me wants to be very helpful to the cap metro side, because what you're doing here is very, very important for the community, and I am hopeful that we will -- as we go through this process, we will reach an end point that the community can embrace so that we can really make some -- really move forward on high capacity transit. Because this is something that's way past due for our community. All right, thank y'all. All right. Colleagues, we're going to finish by 5:00, so the last three things that we have -- actually, we did one of them, and that was the announcement of the traffic jam. So we've got violet crown trail project and the electric drive launch event. So let's do the electric drive launch event very quickly first, and then we'll turn to the violet crown trail. >> Thank you for the opportunity to talk about electric drive. How do I forward slides? Thank you. All right. We got it all figured out. So I will probably talk a little quicker than I normally do. If I need to slow down, let me know. I think I have a total of 11 content slides. So the agenda is pretty straight forward. What is electric drive project and what is the event coming up here in March? So what it is and what's being celebrated is is a project that includes integration with the Seaholm ecodistrict. There's some dcfast charging infrastructure there. There's a solar powered kiosk. There's car and bike share. [4:45:58 PM] Basically, a physical showcase to show the community and nationally that Austin is ready for ebs. We rolled out our first charging station in 2012, so this is our five-year anniversary. Those started at 113, and now over 500 and growing. So this is the slide that shows how we integrate within Seaholm. So physically the drive is located just west of the Seaholm power plant. It's part of the overall vision of the ecodistrict. So here's just some visuals. We're one of the first industries in the nation to employ this standard. Why it's important, first generation of dcfast required you to choose to supporting the American and European standard charging infrastructure, so before we rolled out our own owned and operated dcfast charging station, we were very supportive of that standard. So that's the vision moving forward. So you can go there now and see the construction. This is the architect's rendering of a solar powered kiosk. There's some very interesting design features of this kiosk. It has the solar panel, so it trickles through this beautiful blue light and showcases it. And then there's an upcycled '50s era gas station pump that encases lithium ion batteries, so what's actually being charged when you plug in your motorcycle or scooter is power generated from that panel and going to the batteries. There's also display, instead of the old dollar per gallon ticker, it shows you how much kilowatt hours are being produced by the solar and how your storage works. There's also a plan to integrate that display in with a dashboard in the new public library, and potentially allowing that information online as well. [4:47:59 PM] So here's another component. There is some I think very interesting design futures. So one example on the right, that's normally a pretty ugly infrastructure piece, which is a pad mounted transformer. And rather than just put a utilitarian type fence around it, we actually made a design element. So around there, you can see the branding once again, the Seaholm ecodistrict. There's actually some recycled components from the historic Seaholm power plant there, and you can kind of see in that blue area there, there's a place for information kiosks to talk about electric drive, Seaholm ecodistrict, the history behind Seaholm, the library, and other components. There's also integrated branding. There's banners that go up and down within the motif of the Seaholm, so electric drive. And then the street has been designated honorary designation of electric drive, and if y'all recall, city council did pass that 11-0, so thank you for that designation a while back. Y'all all came together on that one. We do appreciate it. So now it's the second half of the agenda. What is the event itself? So the event is on March 27th. It's an open community event. It is a public private partnership to help leverage some national attention as well as sponsorships with zpryme's energy thought summit. We have a ribbon cutting, so we appreciate you coming out there for that. We also are going to have information booths, or stations where media and the community can talk to subject matter experts in about ten different fields related to energy. So everything from solar to electric vehicles to what the chiller power plant does here in Austin, art in public spaces. So there's a lot of kind of interesting showcase areas where media can get realtime quotes and interviews, as well as the community to kind of interact. [4:50:00 PM] And, as part of that public-private partnership, it kicks off a much larger event. That event generally draws around 400 participants. A lot of sea sweep type folks, as well as regulators and that type of audience. So we expect probably about 100 or so of those attendees to be there mixing in with the crowd. So part of that, over 100, both local and national media have been invited, so we're already getting quite a bit of confirmed from "Forbes," "Houston chronicle," Austin business journal, Texas tribune and others will be on site looking for interviews and those type of things. This is basically just the run of show, nothing too special here. Talking events, time to have interaction with the subject matter experts and a little bit of happy hour inside the Seaholm power plant. This is the site map of the event itself. You can see all the stations. Now, there was a lot of thought put into even placement, so during a ribbon cutting and speakers, their backdrop will be that top photo. So you'll see the city of Austin, you know, power plant. You'll see the flags. We actually have a branded electric drive banner, one to help highlight the event, and also covers the Aetna logo there, who is an occupant. Not that we don't love Aetna, but we just really want the focus to be on the city of Austin event. So there's a lot of thought in how things are placed. The elevation of where the media is going to be invited, the elevation, the speakers into that. And it's a very picturesque, beautiful part of downtown. And on my last two slides, one is this is not a vacuum. The event is not in a vacuum. So one, it's part of a much larger outreach campaign. That's referred to as the ultimate conversation starter. And/or electric greater than gas. So, for example, one of the most popular social media sites for south by southwest. You'll see heavy placement of [4:52:02 PM] digital ads to encourage people. They'll go to an online calculator comparing evs to a traditional gas car, specific to that user's experience of where they live, what kind of gas they have, to what kind of ev they have, to promote the savings, both in cost and co-2 emissions in what evs can mean to the pocketbook and maybe criteria that's important to you. And my final slide, to just wrap it up. The outreach campaign is also part of a much bigger program. Obviously, if we didn't have the goods and services to back it up, what's the point of promoting it? Because we've moved from creating an idea to really promoting some specific services and call to action. So that's just kind of a laundry list of things, and really it goes to the point of Austin is an ev-ready city. It's our five-year anniversary of deploying plug-in everywhere network stations, which has gotten close to 200,000 charging events. So there's a lot of great stories and unique things in Austin, as well as national leadership in the ev space. So unless there's any questions, that would end my formal presentation. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. This is very exciting. I think that electric drive is close by to city hall also, if I remember correctly. >> You can walk it. It's a pleasant little walk. It's close to trader Joe's, right there -- just east of the ymca there. It gets a lot of foot traffic. You're in the hike and bike trail. It really is a great spot. >> Kitchen: Very visible. >> I agree. We're honored to be having our project in the middle there. >> Kitchen: Thank you. Do we have any questions? >> Garza: I have a quick question. It says backed by 100% renewable energy. Is that saying that average charging station, like the elect -- the electricity is 100% renewable? How do we control that when it's coming off the grid? >> It's called green choice is [4:54:02 PM] how we do it. We purchase green choice credits, which is west Texas wind product, to power all the kilowatt hours that go through those stations. Not too unlike how all city facilities from starting a few years ago is 100% green choice as well. >> Garza: Okay. >> Kitchen: Thank you so much. >> Great, thank you very much. >> Kitchen: Okay. Our last presentation is on the violet crown trail. Thank you very much. >> Hi. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Chad Craiger with the division manager with public works department. And to my right is Jenae Ryan, the urban trail manager, and Richard Mendoza, our new public works director. I'm going to make this very quick in the interest of everyone's time. All right. So this is violet crown urban trail north. Why are we here today? As part of the urban trail master plan that was adopted by council in November of 2014, we are required to come before appropriate boards and commissions as well as the appropriate council committee. In this case, it's you guys. And so we've already been to the parks and recreation board etc, and environmental commission as well to give this briefing to them. As a reminder, urban trails are not hiking trails, like you would experience in Colorado, but more of a 12-foot-wide typical trail with hard surface. The overall violet crown trail, this was envisioned by the hill country conservancy in 1999, and it goes 30 miles all the way down into haze county. The piece that's done goes up to the 290, there's a trail head there. We will be extending it south as part of this piece from -- I'll show you here. Home Depot boulevard off of Brody lane. There's a street there. And it will continue south through part of sunset valley, and into the sidewalk in front of the upcoming Garza [4:56:05 PM] development adjacent to mopac. One section that you see there stays along Williamson creek, under mopac, and ties into the back of a Randall's parking lot. They are giving us an easement so that we have parking for it as well as a trail head, which is extremely impressive, I will say, for a national retailer. Let's see. We went through a preliminary engineering report, a P.E.R. There were some concerns regarding alignment that we've adjusted as well as parking, which is why we worked with Randall's to establish a trail head with a parking lot there. For design considerations, because we're in sunset valley, we do have an interlocal agreement to build the trail in sunset valley. In tx-dot, we have a multiple use agreement to be in tx-dot right of way. Because we have a partnership with hill country conservancy, they are maintaining this trail, which is really a big deal. The trail will be made up of concrete as well as a product called stay lock, essentially a binder that makes dirt, decomposed granite stay together so it doesn't wash away, so it seems natural. Also, it's important to note that this trail was walked to make sure that we adjusted it appropriately to miss trees where we could. We are mitigating appropriately for every tree that we take out or remove as part of the project. Lastly, design. We should be done in August 2017, and it will be coming back to council with the rca for construction project. The second bullet, we are going to -- we've already been through briefing the different boards and commissions, and this will be our last briefing as part of the mobility committee, and next, we're going into construction. So next steps will complete design, begin construction in September of this year with approximately a year [4:58:05 PM] construction duration. And that is it. I apologize for the briefness of it. >> Kitchen: Oh, that's all right. So you said it will come back to council for us to approve the rcas? >> Yes, ma'am, that's correct. We'll advertise, and when a low bidder is selected as part of that process, we'll have a request for council action for them to approve the construction project. >> Kitchen: And you're expecting that when, did you say? >> We're expecting that in August of this year. >> Kitchen: Okay. All right. This is great. This is a very exciting project. So let me ask you a question on slide 2. Just as a reminder to myself -- was it slide 2? The map of the whole project. So what we're saying here is that the -- it will come up in a minute. That's okay. So what we're saying here is the red part is what is -- oh, it's part of the capital campaign. So it's funded essentially. >> There are a number of different entities involved. One of the first pieces done was a neighborhood partnering project with the sendera hills neighborhood. The parks department is also constructing part of this project. It's important to note that south of sunset valley is baconas preserve land, and there are strict environmental requirements, so that will not be a wide trail, but it will be very much for pedestrians. >> Kitchen: So I guess what I'm getting at is I'm looking at the full map. >> There we go. >> Kitchen: There we go. So the dotted line part of it that goes further south then into Hayes county, that's the part that's not funded yet; that's right? >> That's correct. That's where the environmental regulations are because of the preserve land. [5:00:07 PM] >> Kitchen: All right. Go ahead. >> The part where the -- so the extension, the next line, 3, where it goes past Home Depot, and it looks like you go back to the big picture one, it looks like it goes up Brody and across 71, and I was at the ribbon cutting for the one just I'm concerned about directional signage because -- they're crossing the intersection to get across 290. Is that right? >> Part of the project, we'll be working with hill country conservancy for the wayfinding and the trail heads so they'll be responsible for that. They've done great wayfinding down in that trail that you had a ribbon cutting at. After that I agree as a user that there needs to be some extensive wayfinding. Right now, because remember, we were in the city of sunset valley there. We were using the sidewalk on Brodie, but it will have to be very clear as far as the directions on how to go from one part of the trail to the next. That is the only part of the trail that is on a busy sidewalk along an arterial, such as Brodie lane. >> All right. Thanks. >> Kitchen: Other questions? Thank you. >> Okay. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Kitchen: Okay. That's all we have unless anybody wants to bring anything else up at this point. Okay. We are adjourned at 5:00 -- >> I had a brief announcement -- >> Kitchen: Oh, okay, I'm sorry, go ahead. >> Sorry, the Austin transportation department staff is setting up outside for a meeting and wanted me to give a shout out for what they're doing, the walk invites talk of conversations, 6:00 to 7:30 in the city hall atrium and this is the third of those, you can visit Austin -- to learn more about the action safety action plan and give more feedback on how the city should participate in [5:02:09 PM] implementing the bicycle master plan. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. Thank you all. We are adjourned.