Mobility Committee Meeting Transcript – 08/20/2020 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 8/20/2020 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 8/20/2020 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [12:59:03 PM] >>> >> >>> >> >>>( Audio was not up first 30 seconds ) [1:02:00 PM] >> Kitchen: I have a motion to approve the minutes of the [indiscernible] 28th meeting. The mayor pro tem moves them and councilmember Ellis seconds. All in favor to approve by acclamation? Okay. So I think first to get started our street impact fee item has been postponed at staff's request and our project connect item postponed also. So what we're going over today is the asmp policies in chapter 6 related to coordinated housing and transportation. We're also going over to get an update on options for implementing and funding active transportation. And finally we'll go over the B cycle system update with the new capital capital [1:03:02 PM] metro/city of Austin partnership. I think I'd like to start with that last one on B cycle because I know those were two that councilmembers alter and Flannigan are more familiar with. So let's go ahead and start with that, staff, and then hopefully they'll be free by the time we get to the other items. So do we have staff to present to us? There's also an item -- there's a presentation posted in backup on this. >> What item number is this? >> This is item number 6. Do we have staff that's going to present to us? >> Councilmember kitchen, mayor pro tem, councilmember Ellis, this is Jason [1:04:02 PM] john-michael. Can you guys hear me now? >> Yes. >> And ctm, I've got one slide. Great. So I'll make this brief and then open it up for questions. As indicated, councilmember kitchen, we've -- this is a report back from our last mobility committee meeting where through council action, council approved APD to move forward with execution of an interlocal agreement with cap metro a how to better operate and continue to expand the Austin B cycle system. And that's what I'm here to present on. It's been really successful, a collaborative relationship that we've gotten capital metro and the electric bicycle system of the future of Austin will be used for transit as well as mobility for all within the existing [1:05:04 PM] region. We've entered into a seven-year interlocal agreement with capital metro and we've set up a committee with representation from both Austin transportation department, capital metro and bike share of Austin to be formed to make the planning and management recommendations of the system. Atd will need authorization in the future in order to move forward with purchasing the ebikes. I want to remind everyone that trek was benevolent enough to put that on loan through an ebike program, 170 bikes to the city of Austin and [indiscernible] To bike share of Austin for the purposes of [indiscernible]. This rca should be coming to you guys in October and there will be for us to make good on that pilot with trek and purchase the 200 bikes currently on the system that we've already seen now. [1:06:07 PM] As part of that cap metro is also prying on a consultant to work with the city, cap metro and bicycle share of Austin, to expand the life of the system over the life of the Ira. It will provide access to transportation in a shared environment and improve coordination of station placement as well as maximize the access to transit as I mentioned earlier, but providing the right type of first and last mile solutions for this initiative. This move will also continue to support the access to the system for visitors and active transportation users. A little bit of detail on that, as an occupant of this planning -- as an output of this planning effort you're looking for increased authority to purchase the ebikes over the seven year time frame. Ila, as well as stations. There are new stations which I described in the last mobility committee. Meeting. This contract authority will [1:07:07 PM] give us the ability to leverage the combined assets and resources of capital metro, bicycle share of Austin, develop the funding which we've identified in previous years for purchase of ebikes and stations as well as future budget approvals and other initiatives in the future that help purchase these ebikes and stations. With that that's really the end of my update is to let you guys know we've had a very successful negotiation with cap metro and that we're in a place of ready to move forward with the operations of that Ila. The next step is for us to start the overall conversion of the fleet from pedal only to electric assist on these ebikes. This will bring -- the first one in October will convert the 200 that we have in town. That leaves about 520 or so remaining. Ebikes as part of the [1:08:08 PM] current fleet to still need to be converted over to ebikes. And we'll be presenting a report that lays out what we think would be the natural conversion rate over time of that seven year agreement to see the overall conversion of ebikes, the addition of the new bicycle stations and then ultimately a rope map that will hopefully -- roadmap that will hopefully lead towards the bicycle plan that was adopted by council. That's a pretty big goal, lofty goal. That goal would be well served under the seven-year Ila of converting the remain willing of the fleet, which is about $1.3 million, in addition to what we're asking for in October. Then last that it's a determination of how we [1:09:09 PM] begin expanding the fleet in order to continue to incentivize active transportation and other healthy modes of transportation that are not single occupant vehicle. With that I'll close and open it up to questions. >> Thank you, councilmember Ellis? >> It's very exciting. Every time this topic comes up I get excited about it. Can you tell me if the intent is to to merge the opinioning for this service to they could get a week long pass if they're visiting and to be able to ride the bus and use the bikes? Is that still part of the process you're looking at? >> That is. And my colleague Chet Valentine is also available. I think he's been added by a panelistly ctm. Chad, would you like to go into some detail in the fare component piece we've worked on? >> Absolutely. [1:10:09 PM] It's great to see you. Yes, so I'm really excited about how we plan to roll this out. We do want to offer everything that's currently being offered as bike share is today. So any of the B cycle passes, we'll represent running those as well as all we're doing is adding a mixed bike and bus pass. We'll start with a day pass and a monthly pass combined to do one purchase and you get access to buses and bikes so you can go all over the place wherever you want and the same with the monthly pass. And so we could continue to roll it out to expand it even more from there. >> Ellis: That's great. I think I remember a conversation around being touchless. Whether people are getting an actual car to scan versus having an app on their phone where -- how is that working [1:11:14 PM] working? >> That is something that we are also looking at the technology for. Right now we still have -- some of you have the tags that you can touch the kiosk with and others have the code that you will type in. The way it is right now is you have to touch, type in the code, but we will be rolling out a newer version of those bike dock stations, verse 3.0. Those are not done yet, but we hope to be one of the first areas to really be installing those and that could give us options as far as touchless. We don't have the details on that also john-michael has more. >> No. Chad and I are in weekly conversations, coordination with one another. The bikes are being -- the stations are being manufactured by B cycle in Minnesota and we're looking to put in an order to get a few of them down here, [1:12:15 PM] hopefully in time for the launch of the rebrand as we do that. So one of the thing to mention is that officially the rebrand hasn't happened yet. We're looking to strategize the correct day to launch that on. As part of that hopefully we'll have a couple of stations to be a part of that new launch of the metro bike system. >> Ellis: That's really exciting. My last question I think would be about are the docking stations going to keep being where you see a lot of them together or are you moving to a more flexible type of docking station so don't have to necessarily travel to go dock their bike and undock it again where there may be more flexible stations as demand changes. >> Solution. That's one of the wonderful things -- absolutely, that's one of the wonderful things will the docked shared bicycle systems is [1:13:16 PM] understanding how to appropriately have the ability to move things around dynamically a lot easier. As you're very familiar, those 40-foot long stations are somewhat clunky for lack of a better term. Especially as travel patterns change throughout Austin. We're looking to go smaller and be more direct focused with the type of work that we're doing and where we put these stations. Being a smaller station it gives us the ability to really deploy these deeper into the neighborhoods, which will definitely help with first mile, last mile mobility. >> We're not doing festivals this year, but I'm thinking of hot sauce festival, acl, south-by, trip fest, really to mobilize in a way that you know that the population is going to be and there will be demand for those bikes in order to be flexible. I think that's really innovative. >> They're about the size of a downtown trashcan. So it also works very well [1:14:17 PM] for the developer community and hopefully it will help incentivize more mitigation of some of the early developments because we're creating another methodology and tool to put into the toolbox. >> Ellis: That's great. I could talk all day about it, but I won't. >> Kitchen: I want to see where your bike is, Paige. I know it's behind you. >> Ellis: It's in the closet right there. >> Kitchen: Okay. Mayor pro tem, did you have any questions. >> Garza: No question. I will say I had a similar bike to Paige's and they are very hard to put on the buses. I didn't think about that when I bought that pretty bike. [Laughter]. >> Kitchen: So I have a few questions to follow up. This has to do with the expansion of the system and what process you think you [1:15:17 PM] all will -- will be pursuing. I think I remember you said about pulling in a consultant to help think through that. Can you speak yet to how we might -- how you're thinking about getting input from the community on where they might like to see more expansion of the program? >> I'll start and turn it over to Chad for additional information. The way we're looking to do that is with this natural setup of our managing or searing committee that's made up of Chad, myself, some of our staff from both sides as well as representation from bicycle share of Austin, which obviously has a long pedigree of understanding where the demands are. So I think between the three of us we really begin understanding what are those immediate needs in areas [1:16:18 PM] that -- gap fill areas that we can begin filling in and then ultimately with, you know, larger programs to begin understanding how we can take advantage of those larger programs such as project connect to be able to continue to expand the fleet. I think I mentioned in the past that Chad and I went after a grant with the federal transit administration, atd supported cap metro in going after that grant. That would help with the system as well. The fact that Chad is taking on -- cap metro is taking on bringing on a consultant now I think helps us to ensure that that steering committee has meaningful work to be able to give to that stunt and setting up the planning of that. Obviously we will be going to the community to make sure that we're gathering the correct intake on the community on where the services need to be and some of the great work that capital metro and us have [1:17:19 PM] already done related to those other things will help with that. Chad? >> Yeah, I think I would just build on what you said because bike share of Austin has been gathering a lot of data already and so we've got that and we're going to plan to be using that data as well. So everything they've already done, all the work to gather, but then we're also, like Jason said, we'll be getting a consultant on board. So part of that will be looking a the how -- where are good areas for expansion, criteria for expansion. And then also how to effectively get good feedback and do good community outreach. I think one of the areas that we've identified as a shortcoming is we need to do more outreach to the Spanish speaking communities and November native speakers. That's -- non-native speakers. That's an area that we don't have a lot of feedback on. So we have to figure out how to loop some other groups into that. So that's where we want to get the help from consultant to give us a good comprehensive look at this and not just go to where we have the focal people, but [1:18:21 PM] where there's the most need as well to really balance out those things. >> And what atd will do is look at the built environment to make sure the built environment is supportive of active transportation as well and we'll be working across the atd portfolio to make sure that those are elements of that planning. >> That makes sense. I just remember that B cycle had sort of a wish list map, but of course that's just the people that went on and actually responded to that. The outreach that you're talking about, Chad, would be very important to do. I think that whatever process you all come up with I think that will be important for us to let community know how they might express their interest if they have an interest in seeing project -- in seeing [1:19:24 PM] the B cycle expanded to their area. One of the things that we had always seen as a limitation on the existing B cycle is the ability to get like you said deeper into neighborhoods but also to get further north and south and east APD west because one thing that's always been of interest to me is is there the potential to -- speaking of the south, for example, is there a potential to add B cycle capabilities or access for the south along slaughter lane or William cannon or stassney even, further south where they can be really used as a way to be a first and last mile to the spines that we have in place and will have in place in terms of our rapid transit. And you know, in other access. Our just as an ability for people in neighborhoods that may be closer to like south park meadows, for example, or maybe closer to some of [1:20:24 PM] the other retail along slaughter or any of those areas. I'm just trying to give some examples. So -- I think there's some potential for B cycle that we haven't really seen and that's for use of B cycle in more parts of town that are not central. So I would just encourage y'all to think about that. And is there -- do you have to have -- maybe flexibility now with the smaller stations and the capability there, but are there criteria in terms of a level of need or interest that is going to be necessary before we can try expansion in parts of town? >> I definitely think that we need to ensure that we're matching the demand to the resources we bring there. And that's the work that we'll start with with cap metro. I think that there's some -- [1:21:25 PM] to your point, some very low hanging fruit that we could start with right off the bat, considering that we now have this agreement in place where we're both bringing our assets and our resources together to -- on one unified goal. The criteria, that is some of the stuff that I think that might be part of some of the planning work that we do is understanding what are those key performance indicators that we're wanting to see preexisting conditions [garbled audio]. Good confidence and going forward with implementing something in the area. >> Kitchen: Okay. All right. I don't have any further questions. Councilmember alter, we're just getting a brief update on the expansion of the B cycle program. >> Alter: I apologize that I was late. >> Kitchen: That's okay. Therapy? [1:22:31 PM] Mayor pro tem? >> Garza: I wanted to emphasize what was said about going further south. I appreciate when scooters are a continual controversy for a variety of reasons, but it was amazing how many -- they were very intentional, many of those companies were very intentional about reaching areas of town that would not normally be reached out to and I was very surprised to see scooters in my district and people on -- going down south congress south of 71. And we even had a couple of scooters across the street in my neighborhood. And so I think that definitely that showed that the need and the desire to use that kind of first and last mile help is definitely -- goes as south as councilmember kitchen mentioned, south park meadows. So definitely if there's anything my office can do to help with locations or where [1:23:32 PM] I would notice a lot of scooter use, I'm happy to be a resource. >> Thank you, mayor pro tem. I want say as we look at the rest of the fleet conversion that will take care of the predominant areas where the bikes are currently being docked and used. System expansion will obviously focus on those new areas of operations. So I'm very excited about the potential of the system expansion because it will begin reaching a lot more people. >> We can really look at that data of the micromobility devices out there. We've got all the data, we've got all the data from micromobility Austin. We have the bike trails mapped out. We have great data, so just putting that out there, but also with the ebikes you get a lot longer range than what maybe someone would use for a scooter. So the possibilities for the bikes are actually way more [1:24:32 PM] than I think even the micromobility scooters really offer the computer. So I'm excited -- I'm really excited. I'm really glad to grow this, as big as you will let us. >> Kitchen: All right. Thank you very much. So councilmember alter and councilmember Flannigan have joined us now. So we were just finishing up the last item, item number 6 6, so we'll move on to item number 2 now. Thank you all, Jason and Chad. This is very exciting. So -- it's a wonderful program and the ability to partner and expand it is going to make it much more accessible for folks, I think, and there's a lot of possibilities. So thank you all. >> Thank you, councilmember. >> Kitchen: So now we'll move on to item number 2, and item number 2 is the Austin strategic mobility plan policies regarding [1:25:32 PM] coordinating housing and transportation investments to maximize affordability and minimize displacement. So I think we have a presentation around that. And just as a reminder to folks, that is -- there's a section on the asmp that's actually chapter 6 that speaks to the importance of as we do transportation planning, actually connecting transportation planning to housing and also being deliberate about the impact of our transportation planning on our -- on the needs in our community. And aligning that planning and actually planning at the same time before we begin implementation of transportation investments. So let's see. I see Erica and annick. So I'll turn it over to you guys. >> Hi, everybody. I'm actually at the airport so I don't know if y'all are [1:26:33 PM] hearing the announcements as well. [Background noise]. >> Can you hear me? [Background noise]. >> Yes, we are hey you, hear you, but there's lots of background noise. [Indiscernible]. >> I'm going to try to talk over the announcements and hopefully they will stop in a second. >> Kitchen: It's a nightmare of every traveler. >> So thank you for this item. Erica leak and I -- I'm annick Beaudet with transportation and I am with the asmp planning department. And specific to -- I wanted to start out by talking about chapter 6 very [1:27:33 PM] briefly. There are over 20 policies in the asmp around affordability, displacement prevention and equity. And chapter 6 has the lion's share of it. And we have the need to learn from the negative effects of past transportation and land use decisions. The need to amplify historically underserved and underrepresented populations and proactively assess displacement impacts of transportation projects as well as making sure that we engage community members -- we engage stakeholders and community members in all our decisions in a meaningful way. So as we look to implement our existing funding towards projects, we need to operationalize these policies. And as we look to future [1:28:34 PM] funding we need to operationalize these policies. So I wanted to point out and I'll let Erica speak a little bit about their work, but we are coordinating transportation planners with the other planners and housing, and throughout the organization and we've been doing so for awhile. We had a housing and jobs group that met over the last several years around transportation investment, specifically coordinated with cap metro. And we will continue to be committed to the partnership with cap metro for our current investments as well as any future investments and to also coordinate the policies that are within the Austin strategic housing blueprint related to transportation investments. So with that I'll pass it over to Erica to see if she wants to comment a little [1:29:36 PM] bit. >> Hello. This is Erica leak with the housing department. As staff mentioned in the response to the resolution on this issue, we are prepared and excited to work with the innovation office and the equity office to develop an equity scorecard related to project connect. We would be working with community members to develop that scorecard to enable us to make sure that we have a very clear understanding of community needs and what we as a city, as a transit partnership, would need to be able to do to make sure that investments in transit [1:30:37 PM] result in equitable outcomes. So we've already begun discussing what that work could look like. As we mentioned in the memo, we are already planning to create a new division within the housing and planning department called the displacement prevention division, and we'll be identifying staff who could work on the development of this equity scorecard and determining the best strategies to ensure that we have anti-displacement activities and programs in place as transit discussions move forward. I'm happy to answer further questions. >> Kitchen: Well, I wonder if you could give us a little more detail. I guess I was expecting more [1:31:37 PM] information for us today. And perhaps you are not as far along as I thought you were. I was expecting to get some information about what processes you all were going to put in place and who was working on them and those kinds of things. So is that something that you all are still working on? Is that what I'm hearing? >> Yes, we are still working on forming the interagency and interdepartmental group that was mentioned in the memo from assistant manager [indiscernible] From the 21st and working through what that might look like and what the process will do. And so we are still developing what the process would be. >> Kitchen: Okay. I guess I had been thinking that chapter 6 of the asmp is not solely about project connect. Project connect is the large [1:32:41 PM] item in front of us. And you mentioned a number of different policies within asmp. So is what you're presenting to us today an approach that's going to work and be used for all the projects going forward or can you help me understand that? >> That's a really good question. And as I mentioned earlier, with our current funding and investments, we are working on evolving or equity lens and how we continue to develop those projects. [Background noise]. And we will be able to use the process that we come up with to develop the community, the equity scorecard for our existing project development as well as any future funding. So we're hoping we can come back in the next month or so with more of a framework. And I apologize if you were expecting that today, but we're just not at that point yet. But you're right, this is [1:33:44 PM] work that needs to be done around affordability, displacement prevention and equity regardless of any future investment. It's relevant to our current operationallizing our policies in connection with investment 2025 and the investments in the 2016 bond as well. [Background noise]. >> Kitchen: Okay, thank you. I'm sorry. >> I was just going to say that with the sense of the displacement prevention division that Erica spoke of, that's going to really bolster effort. And so we're looking forward to moving forward on that within the next month. >> Okay. Do others have questions? Okay. Erica, could you tell us again -- councilmember Ellis? >> Ellis: It's not so much of a question, but for the [1:34:45 PM] housing and planning committee, I know this is coming up on our agenda. I think it's September 8th to talk a little bit more about that. So it may be something we could do double duty and talk about mobility and housing and planning as it's well suited to do. >> Yes, absolutely. So on September eighths at the housing and planning committee we will be talking in further detail about how we better coordinate investments in affordable housing and transit. So yes, that will be an ongoing conversation for sure. >> Ellis: Okay. Is that going to be specifically about project connect or is it going to be a higher level than just project connect portions? >> I think it is going to through not only project connect, but also or transit and mobility investments. [1:35:49 PM] >> Ellis: Okay. >> But I can't actually remember how exactly that item was posted. But we'll check on that. >> Kitchen: Thank you, councilmember Ellis. That might be a time that's a number of weeks from now and perhaps y'all will be more developed in your thinking around chapter 6 and we can have that conversation then. So if that makes sense. Okay? All right. Are there other questions at this point? All right. Thank you all. >> Certainly. Thanks for having us. >> Kitchen: Thank you. So we're going to move on now to item number 5, and that's an update on options for implementing and funding active transportation. And I believe we have Mr. Spillar who is going to make a presentation to us? [1:37:19 PM] >> Ellis: We can't hear you. I don't know if there's a setting that needs to be changed. >> Kitchen: Okay. No pressure, rob. >> Ellis: Still can't hear you. I don't know if ctm does magic, I don't know about unmuting. >> Unfortunately there's nothing we can do from our end. >> Ellis: Appreciate it. >> Alter: Do you have any headphones plugged in? [1:38:20 PM] Mayor Adler sometimes you just need to go out and come back in. >> Garza: Turn it off, turn it on. >> Kitchen: There we go. >> Still can't hear. >> Kitchen: We still can't hear. Rob, you may want to just try -- just coming back in. [1:39:57 PM] >> Hello, can you hear me now? >> Kitchen: Yes, we can hear you now. That's great. Okay. >> For some reason, switching between zoom and webex in the same day messes up the audio connection. So I apologize. >> Kitchen: That's fine. No worries. >> It's rather embarrassing. I think I have a presentation. >> Kitchen: Okay. Go right ahead. >> If city hall could pull up the presentation. >> I was not given a presentation for this. >> Item 5... >> I can try to look for it real quick and see if it's in the drive. >> If you'll allow me to share my screen, I could also do it that way. >> Okay. I'm going to do that then. >> Okay. Very good. Let me know if you can see it. [1:40:59 PM] >> Kitchen: Not yet. >> All right. You should be able to present now without any issue. >> Very good. >> Kitchen: Okay. We see it now, rob. >> Very good. I'm sorry for the technical problems. I'm sure -- >> Kitchen: That's okay. >> Well, good afternoon, councilmembers, the pressure of my presentation is to give you some -- the purpose of this presentation is to give smu background on the policy framework that we use for transportation improvements, for instance active transportation modes of transportation investments. You should see a slide that says Austin strategic mobility plan. I should point out this is the foundation for our policy discussion and it really is the first comprehensive transportation plan for our community. Previous plans we certainly operated under strategic plans before, but they were [1:42:00 PM] primarily roadway based or transit based. And this one really focuses on all modes of transportation, including those active modes of transportation. It was a process to get here. As you all know, many of you were with us between 2016 and 2019. But council did adopt that plan and it's really a step forward. Other cities call us to find out how we developed this strategic mobility plan going forward. [No audio]. >> Kitchen: Rob, we seem to have lost your sound again. [1:43:06 PM] >> Well, let me come back. Can you hear me? That's interesting. >> Kitchen: We can hear you now. >> Okay. Let me try sharing one more time. So the strategic mobility plan was developed through a long tradition of public outreach. We went through a series of asking the public. And what's important here is that we specifically tracked how we were interacting with the public to make sure that for those populations, whether they were the very young and the older populations within our community, latinx community or other underrepresented communities, if we weren't hearing or getting feedback, we made adjustments to our public engagement process. And specifically went out [1:44:07 PM] and sought information from those organizations or those communities. So that we could make sure that our plan represented the entire community. What's important is to make sure that everybody remembers the goal, and that is to get to a future where we are less dependent on the single occupant vehicle. To get to a goal of 50/50, if you will. And you can see this slide not only is our challenge that our travel markets are growing, almost doubling in size we think over the next 20 years, but that we dramatically need to change the way people travel. Active transportation is really important. You'll see that sort of pie-shaped or pizza pie shape on the right side there that shows the 50% goal and you will notice the other slices. And that was a best guess and clearly you can see the active transportation modes like walking and transit we include as active [1:45:07 PM] transportation because often you have to get there by walking, bicycle and so forth as active modes. It's not really important which piece of the pie grows and so our 11% carpool if that's foreign percent that's okay too. And what's important about that notion is that the pandemic has really shown us that in fact teleworking is even more important than was anticipated before the pandemic so we know that lots of people are teleworking now. Even through the implementation of the asmp we're beginning to think about broadband and access to wi-fi as a mobility infrastructure that we also need to start thinking about because people can't telework just like they can't bike and they can't walk if think don't have the infrastructure to support that. So increasingly that's how we're thinking about our investments as we move [1:46:09 PM] forward. The asmp had 126 policies identified in it and literally hundreds of projects to achieve that asmp goal of the 50% non-single occupancy vehicle vehicle. In terms of strategies, the strategies that you all helped us adopt were reduce traffic fatalities, build active transportation. That gives us the statutory sort of nexus to invest in active transportation, as well as move more people by investing in public transportation. That's really the nexus for our investments as we go forward here. Of course, by mention and by reference in the asmp, there's a whole range of other plans that fold in there. Vision zero really talks to the community about our desire to invest in ways to reduce and change policies to reduce serious injuries [1:47:09 PM] or fatalities so that's affecting how we review development in terms of driveways. We know that driveways where there are left turns as high speed roadways are a a huge risk for us. And so we're actively investing to address those. We had many mode specific plans and so of course the sidewalk plans and the Ada transition, the Americans with disabilities act, transition plans, well the urban trails and bike way plans, outline thousands of projects that are putting into our rolling needs and moving towards investing in those projects. As I said or alluded to it also defines the program guidelines. And those are in the process of a new criteria manual, councilmember, that will help define streets in terms of complete streets. So one of the places we see and I think in district 2 is a good example. [1:48:09 PM] A lot of the roadways down there that are substandard in many ways are because we've -- we've inherited or taken over what were formally rural roadways that did not have sidewalks, that did not have adequate facilities. And they were not urban streets and not designed to handle it. So that criteria will be important to be defined when we talk about a street what we're talking about is the full implement of attributes, sidewalks, trails, trees and so forth and safety devices. We also look for opportunities to partner and just a really great example, a shout-out to the Texas department of transportation, if you're on I-35 north of 51st street now you'll notice that there is a raised barrier to address safety issues. And that came out of a partnership with txdot. We developed the design and [1:49:10 PM] they figured out a way to fund that improved safety device. So they're even participating in terms of partnership opportunities as we move forward. And all of our regional partners have shown themselves tore excellent partners. To be excellent partners. When we look at our what needs are overall, and I'm nearly finished and can answer questions, we're a growing city. Austin is a growing city and we will always have transportation needs. I wish I could tell you that I could define what our total need is and that when we invested that we would be done, but I just don't see that happening. As long as we're a growing economic power house of a city, we will continue to need to make transportation investments both to correct prior lack of investment and to add new investments. And we do that in a number of ways, which I'll get to in a following slide, but just to give you a sort of cross-section of what we [1:50:11 PM] know our needs are -- and these are needs that I previously communicated or our department communicated through, assistant city manager [indiscernible] To you, and it came out of the various modal plans, we know that we have about 2500 miles of missing sidewalk that we are actively seeking to construct. And similarly urban trails, we know that we have a tier 1 system identified that we're short about 275 million in construction right now. And similarly, safe routes to school has over 10 plans and we know we have over 4,000 individual projects that we need to address. So these are just a snapshot of the needs in active transportation that we know right now that we have. In the bike ways we have defined in all ages and abilities network, and again [1:51:12 PM] as we probably have disclosed, we're about 200 million short of finalizing that first investment. But there too I would tell you as soon as we get through with that initial investment in the all ages and abilities network, there will be additional routes that will have surfaced as needing to be developed. We have other programs that are more data based or reactive if you will. For instance, the neighborhood partnering program relies on realtime data applications from neighborhoods and a variety of different types of projects. Similarly transit enhancement programs we work closely with cap metro as they identify a need that we can help decrease through infrastructure -- help address through infrastructure. And of course the vision zero is a database program to take the highest risk intersections and highest risk situations and address them where we can with infrastructure to eliminate them where we can. You know, in terms of our [1:52:14 PM] ongoing investment, right now we are currently building out the 2016 and starting on the 2018 bond programs as they relate to these programs. 2016 mobility bond program is probably the largest program and it's fully under construction right now across all areas of that program. The 2018 bond provided monies in some of these programs and those programs are actively being integrated with our construction delivery program. We also look to private investments and partnership. So I already mentioned the partnership with one of our regional agencies, txdot. But we also look to private development opportunities to improve significant areas. One of the benefits of the Austin strategic mobility plan is that we -- the buildup to the street impact fee which I'll talk about in two seconds, is that we really define a long list of projects throughout our community in small areas [1:53:15 PM] that we know we need. And so that gives us a list to always be looking for money to move forward with improvement in terms of those. Both public works and Austin transportation use our program funding on an annual basis to build infrastructure depending on the type of infrastructure, that is. Practice soso from a transportation direction, they are are constructed from capital and programming money depending on the type of construction that goes on. So a lot of those programs are funded on an annual basis. Of course there's miscellaneous funding, you know, ranging from grants and other agencies. Jason john-michael spoke about a partnership with capital metro where we are actively pursuing funding, both grant funding and capital funding to improve the b-cycle system. We're still building out some of the quarter-cent projects and we've been very [1:54:18 PM] successful since we stood up a grants program thanks to councilmember kitchen. You encouraged us several years ago to actually have a grants finance employee focused on that, so we've been very pro testify in pursuing grants. Of course, when you're going for grants you have to think about the match money and not overmatching. So we are -- we're still learning in that vein and you all have been very generous to help us with finding match for the various grants that we pursue. The street impact fee, which we -- as was noted, staff has asked for that to be pulled from consideration right now. As you know, we went to the planning commission and got some really great comments and, you know, we were finding ourselves needing to postpone it at least one more time. And we thought it was more transparent and more genuine if we just pulled it off. And when we're ready to come back to council we'll bring it back to council. We took a little bit of a [1:55:19 PM] gamble trying to get it on to save time, but sometimes we just need to say we need to pull it off and do a little a bit more work. So that's where we're at. We plan to get back to you in the september-october time frame hopefully with the street impact fee. But we believe that the street impact fee will identify new capacity projects and I want to focus that the street impact fee only funds new capacity. Unfortunately the state defines that as new roadway capacity. That type projects. But we'll provide considerable income or investment to do that. On those new capacity where they have sidewalks and bike lanes and transit facilities defined as part of the complete street, then of course we can fund that as part of the complete project. But the state law does focus on street capacity improvements. So that's sort of our plan, if you will. On how our process on how we [1:56:19 PM] fund new active transportation projects. You know, it's not a secret. It's capital funds delivered through the bond process. It is partnerships with other agencies in the private sector. It is our operating fund. And of course it's grants and in the future where it is possible, it will be street impact fees assuming that council passes that. So that's my presentation. I'm really sorry about the technical problems. But if there's questions, and I'm not too embarrassed to answer, please go ahead and ask. [Laughter]. >> Kitchen: Thank you very much. That's fine. Your technical issues were minor. So as we all know and the public is aware, that there is another bond item that the council recently approved that will be on for the community to consider in [1:57:20 PM] November. And that includes many of these kinds of programs that you mentioned. Does anyone have anything they would like to say? >> Yes, ma'am. If I could just say one thing about that. >> Kitchen: Yes. >> The law department is right now final finalizing the contract with the voters and we're working with our program leads to identify what anticipated outcomes could be if that proposition B is approved by the voters. And we anticipate sharing that information with council in the very near future and also we're working to stand up a website to provide the standard functional information for the public, as is our standard process when it's available. >> Kitchen: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Spillar. Councilmember Ellis, did you have anything you wanted to say about this? I know you have been championing active transportation as have others on the committee, but is there anything you would like to add or ask? [1:58:21 PM] >> Ellis: I think Jimmy had his hand up first, but I look forward to seeing the information that it sounds like the transportation department is wanting to put forth to the public. And I'm excited for that contract with the voters to be authorized and signed. I think it's an exciting program. I think our city is ready for active transportation and I am glad that the voters will have the opportunity to completely understand that information and make those decisions moving forward. It is. >> Kitchen: Councilmember Flannigan, did you have your hand up? >> Flannigan: Yes, I've had my hand up. Rob, thank you for that presentation. I really wanted to have that happen today. I think it's a good reminder for us, but especially the public and the media to know that longer history of the asmp. It's a really -- as you have noted, other cities have noted, it was a really great process, engaged a lot of [1:59:22 PM] stakeholders, took multiple years, ended up with a unanimous vote of the council last year, glad to be a part of that. We were all glad to be part of that. Really good stuff. Effective effective you answered some of the questions I was going to ask already, but the last one is, how does equity factor into the sequencing of projects? So each of the subparts of the asmp has a lot of, here are all the sidewalks that need to be built, here are all the bike lanes, but we never have all the money so there's a sequence process. How is that sequence determined? >> Thank you, council member. So some of the programs actually have prioritization methodologies put together that absolutely do include equity. That's not to say that we can't continue to improve that. We know that in neighborhoods where we have traditionally failed to invest -- and when I [2:00:22 PM] say "We," I mean us as an industry and as a city, not necessarily us as current professionals -- that we need to make an extra investment or extra effort to get those investments out there. So we've been incorporating equity throughout the asmp and including equity considerations as we move forward with our implementation of our programs. So, you know, some programs like vision zero looks for where the greatest risks are, and we know that people of color are unduly represented in the serious injury and fatality numbers that we see across our cities with regards to automobile violence, and so we really strive to make sure that the limited funding we have are going to intersections where we're going to most dramatically address that curve. And so it's directly in the evaluation process of the highest ranked intersections, for instance, to make [2:01:22 PM] revisions to, or the highest ranked areas where we need to spend attention. Similarly, our bike system looks at it as a system level, and so again, because we're investing at a system level, we believe that helps push us towards equity. But we are always looking for new ways to improve equity. We've heard through this process of a discussion that there's some programs that we need to go back and add additional equity considerations to. You know, we've just gone through a speed management reprogramming and really added equity because we knew that neighborhoods that may need modification of the roadways to get to safer speeds were not the ones that were speaking up, necessarily. Many of the east side communities are not able to voice their need, and so we're focused on making sure that we're hearing from those neighborhoods as we're making those investments, and we're committed to [2:02:23 PM] that equity investment going forward. If you have further suggestions, we'll continue to work with council, of course, as we try to make those improvements. >> Flannigan: Yeah, I'm particularly interested in opportunities to reevaluate. >> Yeah. >> Flannigan: You know, certainly that's one of the older programs that have that, and it's a challenge, you're trying to build a system, and if lots of the system already exists in areas that have -- those are the ones that got investment. Are you connecting pieces that exist that are broken, or are you building new pieces? Right? And that is, I think, a continuous conversation that has to be brought back to the council so we can be assuring that the decisions being made are aligned with the equity concerns of the body. And then the last thing, on -- you mentioned for the bond item, that staff is working or law is working on [indiscernible] Of the voters that council adopted. Did you say that staff is [2:03:23 PM] going to be bringing more detail than was adopted last week? >> No, I didn't say that. I said with bond programs, when we go to voters on appropriations, we typically publish very standard, factual information, that's what we're working on, to make sure we can stand up those capabilities probably in a website environment. >> Flannigan: Okay. But the website will probably -- so one of the questions that I had about the bond that has kind of buckets of dollars set up, buckets for sidewalk, buckets for bikes, will those just point essentially to the asmp work that took all these years, you know, the two years, or will there be more specificity on which priority 1 projects are going to be considered part -- you get the question. What do you -- >> I understand the question and I'm not sure I have an answer for you. So sorry. We're working on it and I don't know how much specificity -- if I can say that word correctly -- that we'll be able to provide. [2:04:24 PM] So... >> Flannigan: All right. Yeah. >> Flannigan: Thanks. That was a good presentation. Thank you. >> Kitchen: Council member Ellis. >> Ellis: Appreciate those questions. I wanted to read one of the clauses that was in the further be it resolved. I don't live with all my documents open all the time, so I don't think anyone else does, but this sentence that is in the document says, existing project prioritization criteria for all programs identified in this resolution should be reevaluated and, where necessary, modified to further prioritize equitable outcomes. So I hope that gives cover to staff to know that what council adopted has a caveat in there to do exactly this. And I think -- I think that's really helpful. But I also have a question about street impact fee because I know that -- we've talked about it a few times, you know, it's been on council agendas. My understanding right now is that there's more board and commission feedback that, in this present moment, the [2:05:25 PM] transportation department is evaluating and processing. Do you have a timeline or expectation of timeline for us to be prepared for, for when other phases of that might move forward? Because every time I get into it, I have to put on my street impact fee hat and carve out time and really focus on it because it is very detailed, but very important. So I just didn't know if you had more information on when we might see those impact fee analyses come back. >> Right. Council member, let me get back to you on a specific schedule after I have a better vision for how much additional time this will take. You know, the other thing we know you all are very busy right now with a lot of different things, so we think this is really important, so we want to make sure that when you do put on your hat, it's the only hat you have to wear at the moment. So we'll communicate when that might be back. >> Ellis: That's appreciated. Doesn't it always work like that. -- It doesn'talways work like that. [2:06:29 PM] >> Yeah. >> Kitchen: Okay. I have another question, unless other councilmembers have questions. No? Okay. Well, also, so thank you. This was good conversation, and through, council member Flannigan, for making the points that you did. I think the other aspect of it that we've talked about, or actually part and parcel of it, is that the fact that we are -- we think in terms of a transportation system for the entire community and to provide options for people. And so what we're talking about is active transportation as an important piece of those options so that we actually truly can get to the -- to our goals in terms of [indiscernible]. In order to have that, we have to have the infrastructure in place for those options, and we have to make sure those options connect so that -- and/or can be leveraged against each other and can work together so that people truly have an option [2:07:31 PM] which, you know, may include multiple different modes in one day, or may include, you know, multiple different modes in getting to one destination. So I know that as part and parcel of considering equity, we also consider -- or we also are working to build a connection, so with our transit system, for example, and our bus and what we are projecting and hoping for in terms of our vision, the vision that we have -- when I say hoping for, I'm talking about the vision that we put out for project connect, that our investments in active transportation work hand in glove with that. >> Right. You know, council member, if I can, you know, a lot of the time we spend, it's not -- you know, we're not building the bike system in a silo or vacuum. We're definitely looking at where we connect to transit and how we bring people from more distant [2:08:32 PM] locations to transit. You know, a good example is how important those scooters that mayor pro tem talked about are in terms of getting people that are further away from a transit stop to those transit stops, you know, or if you miss your bus, being able to use that scooter to, you know, get travel to the next stop until the next bus catches up with you or whatever. So, yeah, you know, and a lot of the work we're doing in the corridors program right now is building the sidewalks to the transit stops that have been there for decades, but people haven't been able to really safely get to those stops, or they've been able to get to those stops, but in less than ideal conditions. How do we connect up those systems and really make those -- those neighborhoods as complete as possible. And so that is absolutely part of what we're doing, is that -- thinking about these in tandem. In fact, our active transportation different [2:09:32 PM] divisions that work on different modal subject areas actually have been coordinating extremely well together through the 2016 and 2018 bond process, to the point that, you know, everybody is on the first name basis and nobody makes an investment without, you know, coordinating that across an investment. So, in fact, projects are not singularly modal investments. They often involve sidewalks and some trail and some bike lanes and some roadway improvements and some transit improvements. And so, really, the way these all come together is really, I think, indicative of how far we've come as a city and as a transportation department in the last 12 years from, you know, almost no experience to really a pretty sophisticated integrationof those different modes. >> Kitchen: Yes. Thank you. That's a huge advance for us in this community. [2:10:33 PM] All right. Other thoughts or questions that anyone has? >> Thank you very much, again. I really appreciate being able to present to you. >> Kitchen: Yeah. Thank you. All right. Okay. Well, thank you very much, rob. So I think we're now -- that is all of the items that we have on the agenda for today. Does anyone want to mention items for the future? I'll just note, again, what I said before, that as we've been talking about, the street impact fee is postponed, so we'll be taking that up again. And we postponed items related to project connect as well, and so we'll be able to talk about that again in the future, as well as follow-up in the housing committee and in this committee again as need be on the interpretation of -- or the implementation of chapter 6 of the asmp related to the coordination of [2:11:34 PM] housing and transportation. So, any other comments or anything people would like to suggest at this point? >> Flannigan: I would just say, you know, moving forward, probably good to have possibly a standing review of progress on bond -- >> Kitchen: Okay fills -- initiatives, how much has been billed, it doesn't have to be a full had of on briefing as we've done in the past, committees are good at, having them come back and say here's the total bonds, here's how much is done, here are the ones that I think are coming, here are some that we're running into some issues we'd like to talk to you about. I think that could be valuable. >> Kitchen: Yeah. The other aspect of that that can be valuable, too, we can actually see as we progress how the system is connecting across the city. And that's something that I know that there's information on the websites that the transportation department does a good job of putting out there, but [2:12:35 PM] it's helpful to have it as a conversation, and it's something that might be easier for the public to see. So we'll -- we'll add that. >> Flannigan: I'd be interested, too, in thinking through the relationship with the commission, the urban transportation commission. And, you know, I'm doing some of that with the public safety committee and the commission, and there may be a natural similar type of work where we can be closer partners with them and they can do some work in advance. >> Kitchen: Thank you. Council member Ellis? >> Ellis: We've been having some conversations about dedicated lanes in the transportation criteria manual. I know that the criteria manual is something that we had brought up a bit ago. I can't remember the last time we talked about it in this committee. But we've been doing some work to think about dedicated lanes and what policies say we can and can't do and, you know, what's kind of our best practice for us to do in [2:13:36 PM] the manual to identify those criteria. So that could be a cool one to talk about in this committee. >> Kitchen: Okay. Yeah.% I think that would be -- that would be very helpful for us, especially as we -- we had some conversation around asmp about which roads to -- to consider for potential dedicated lanes in the future, so it would be very timely to circle back around to that and have some conversation. >> Ellis: That's an interesting one. >> Kitchen: Yes, it is. So -- all right. Other thoughts? Okay. Thanks, everyone. I'm going to adjourn our meeting today at 2:14. And thanks, everybody.