Mobility Committee (MOBC) Transcript – 11/10/2022 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 11/10/2022 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 11/10/2022 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. [1:05:27 PM] Leave by the vice chair Kelly and council member harper-madison. And then we also have mayor pro tem alter has joined me here on the diocese council member kitchen will not be in attendance today. Before we get started. I just wanted to give people a brief rundown of, um we're going to approve the minutes. We're going to take up [1:06:27 PM] the schedule for next year's mobility committee meeting dates. Get an update from the urban transportation commission chair and then we're going to go to item five and update on vision zero. Just so everyone knows which order we're taking things up in mayor pro tem alter is going to be leaving a little bit early before the end of the meeting, so we wanted to make sure we covered that one in an appropriate amount of time. We have no speakers signed up for public communication today. So item number one is to approve the minutes of the mobility committee meeting for October 6th 2022 motion made by vice chair Kelly we have a second mayor pro tem alter all in favor. It's unanimous with council member kitchen not in attendance today. Item number two is selection of the 2023 mobility committee meeting dates . We have circulated those list of dates. I know it was flagged by a mayor pro tem alter that we might want to adjust the August 31st meeting. We had changed our council meeting scheduled to [1:07:29 PM] accommodate some other scheduling conflicts for late 2023. So we just wanted to flag that we will probably be moving that date to August 24th. So we're just gonna flip what meeting date was going to be a council meeting with the mobility committee and to change those mayor pro tem alter. Thank you. I didn't mean to be confusing on raising that for you. We still haven't changed the council meeting. Um, because they when we discovered that it was the week after budget, they wanted to wait until the new council was ceded to make any other changes at once. But it would likely be the 31st when we have the scheduled the new meeting so that that will likely shift but we haven't actually changed the council meeting yet. So for today, let's set it at August 24th but say, T V D just in case anything happens with those couple of meeting dates outside of that that will be currently the same as the council, which is we'll change it later. If we need to. Sounds good. And then there is a meeting on November 16th. But [1:08:32 PM] the national league of cities is meeting that week. And so mayor pro tem alter won't be present for that meeting, but just wanted to flag there. There might be some conflicts there. So another meeting date if we decided to move it that be on the lookout for that mid November meeting of the mobility committee. Let's move on to item number three and update from the chair of the utc. I see. Mr champion is here with us. Welcome. Thank you for having me committee members. So utc met, um at the very beginning of this month. It was not a very dense agenda so I can go through it actually, pretty quickly. We had a briefing that we had two briefings, one of which you're going to have in a little while. On vision zero. We had a fair amount of discussion on that around where the bulk of severe accidents and injuries occurred. Interesting stats the it is overnight. Is mostly along the state owned. Highways or stay on the roadways. So there was a very interesting data. Um we [1:09:32 PM] talked a bit about things like slip lanes, and it turns out that they are not as dangerous as or there aren't as many severe crashes. I think almost no fatalities in the last several years. So there was an early doers a excellent amount of data with enough story in there as well. To understand how the pieces fit together. That was a that was a very good discussion. I think I'll probably have a very similar discussion. We also had a presentation on place making, which is part of the 80, D S general. Initiatives to make the city a. A place where people can hang out outside in the public space. We also had a quite a fair amount of discussion in the section is called creative crosswalks, which the pride crosswalk is the same one that there are other crosswalks. And it turns out that you can, um, sponsoring cross walking, which is basically to take on the maintenance operation costs for it, and there was a fair amount of discussion over what organizations can do that if they were grants or not to help organizations who might I want to make things safer. We discussed how those might [1:10:33 PM] overlap with vision. Zero goals in terms of making crosswalks and safer place by making them more creative, more colorful and attractive to people. In case of them quickly. And there's an additional ones like art boxes and various other place making spaces, creative crosswalks for the one that gathered the most attention. And those were the two agenda items that we had. That is it certain tweet. Any questions? Thank you for that update. Do we have questions for Mr champion? It does not appear . So thanks for being with us, thanks for the work. And just doesn't matter of bookkeeping. I realized we did not make a motion on the committee meeting calendar. Would we like to make a motion to adopt that they by mayor pro tem alter, seconded by vice chair Kelly. All in favor. All four of us are voting to approve that. And next item up [1:11:38 PM] is going to be the vision, zero safety measures and projects. Thank you. Chair and committee members. Uh, my name is Luis left. I am the transportation safety officer with Austin transportation department. Appreciate the opportunity to come back and give you an update . Please care. Ellis, can you see me? Yes ma'am. I can't see. I was having a computer issue and didn't get to raise my hand while the previous well Mr champion champion was still here. I actually do have a question. Can we go back to that before we move forward, please? Yes let's take a brief pauses, Mr champion still on the web backs. I think he may have already left the Webb back. That's unfortunate. Okay. Thank you. Alright uh, Lewis, left [1:12:40 PM] transportation safety officer. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me back. One of the just try to get through this somewhat quickly today. I know you've got a packed schedule and we'll go through the slide. You've got a copy of the deck and glad to leave a lot of time for discussion. Any questions that you may have before we get started with all the data and information as we usually do, just a reminder of why we do the work that we do in mobility and particularly around vision. Zero work. We lose way too many people in our community to these mostly preventable car crashes on a regular basis. These are people from all races, all backgrounds, all income levels, all ages as you can see. The reality is this is a physics problem when we have a large vehicle at a high rate of speed, it's going to cause severe outcomes in those provisions when they do happen. We do use a public health metric called years of life lost. There's 3200 years of life that these folks will not get to experience relative to an average lifespan. So as we think about upcoming holidays. And as we think about upcoming travel plans, and all [1:13:40 PM] the excitement we have. These are folks that are gonna have families and friends that won't be able to experience that with them. So vision zero program here is a safe systems approach . That means we're looking at not only just, uh, you know, one particular aspect, like roads or people were looking at the whole system and understanding that it is a systemic issue, and we've got to address not only the crash itself when it happens not only the history of crashes but looking at the system as a whole and being proactive as much as we can across all these different topical areas. It's an ethical approach. It means we should not accept just as the cost of getting around that people have to die or suffer life changing injuries. We understand that the human body's vulnerable can only accept so much kinetic energy. When the crash happens. We also know that humans make mistakes. We know that people are going to be behind the wheel and nobody is perfect. And so how do we design a system and operate a system to make sure that those mistakes don't have to be fatal or create [1:14:41 PM] a life changing injury? Separating users and time and space is a critical piece to the safe systems approach. That's why you see the investments that we make consistently and sidewalks and shared use paths protected bike facilities. That's why you see the signal timing changes that we do to make sure that we don't have those conflict points, particularly at intersections, so that's a key aspect of what we try to accomplish. And the last point here. We really can't predict where the next crash is going to happen. I can't tell you tomorrow where the next fatal crash will be. But I can tell you that we know the history of crashes. We know the conditions that can exist. That's why we try to look at the street and roadway network as a whole to understand where those convinces are and how we can start to address those in a proactive manner. A lot of folks asked me how's vision zero going and what's your team doing? And I tell them, you know, my team is a team of five and we're in a department with a few 100 employees, but vision zero should be and can necessarily has to be a holistic approach across all these different departments that we have at the city and our partners with other governmental agencies understanding that all of these [1:15:41 PM] pieces come together for a safe system to actually work. And to achieve these new outcomes that we're trying to achieve. We've got to have changes across the board to really see those significant changes over time. This is a graphic from vision zero network talking about kind of most U. S cities and where vision zero cities are in the U. S in particular. And where we need to head and when we talk a lot about is the transformative changes that are needed to really get to the outcomes are trying to achieve we made a lot of progress at the locations that we're doing work at. However it's going to take a lot more change, scaling up and doing different types of things in our roadway network to really see significant differences over time, and the transformative change to the outcomes were trying to achieve we'll dive into a little bit to the data. I'm trying to go again somewhat quickly, so just highlighting some of the trends that we've seen year over year through October. We are seeing an increase in pedestrian fatalities. That's been an increase over time here in Austin. It's also what we're seeing statewide and nationally. We've also seen an increase in [1:16:42 PM] motorcyclist fatalities. We've already exceeded last year's total, and we're still a couple of months out for the end of this year, so seeing that some of that shift there in the modes so at this point this year compared to last year we had the same number of number of fatal crashes, not the same number of fatalities. We'll talk about that next slide the same number of fatal crashes and just to remind her last year was a record year for fatalities in Austin. So as we go to the individual people impacted, seeing the same sorts of things , same sorts of patterns again, pedestrians and motorcyclists having a higher number than where they were last year and seeing a similar trend with serious injuries as well for those particular modes. As we recognize that impact on people outside of vehicles. There's some national stats that come out. I talked about that increased growing that that 40 50% increase in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities relative to a 15 20% increase in overall fatalities on the network. We chose to do a similar analysis here in Austin with the data that we have. We have to change [1:17:42 PM] the scale of this graph a little bit. We've seen it 100% increase in the past 11 years in pedestrian fatalities, and some of that's because the numbers are a little bit smaller than a national level. But that is reflective of how much of an increase we've seen in the past decade here relative to overall fatalities being about a 50% increase. As was mentioned earlier by you teach you see chair. We also noted some something of a trend that we've seen and we're going to continue to monitor over time. In the change of where these crashes are happening on system. Roadways are state owned textile roadways of system, railways or the city owned and managed roadways. We do manage some of the signal timing and things on some of the frontage roads for tech stop so just looking at the ownership of the roadway and again, it's not because the words on a paper say this organization owns it versus the other. It's really about the way that those roads are designed. And when you're designed for moving as many vehicles as fast as possible through a space with wide number of lanes wide right away, you're going to see different outcomes over time, and that's what we're seeing. Play out as we continue to have [1:18:43 PM] a flat or decreasing trend line here on our local streets. We're seeing somewhat of an increase, particularly up to three out of four, usually two out of three now three out of four happening on system roadways. So just some of the key takeaways. We look at fatal and serious injury numbers as part of our vision. Zero goal. They're up about 6% through through October. Fatal crashes same number as last year. Serious injury crashes up about 7% early and evening and early morning hours at eight. P.M. To four. A.M. Timeframe account for over half of those fatal crashes, and that's only about a third of the day. So we know that those evening late our conditions when you think about lighting when you think about impairment. There are some factors overnight. We're trying to continue to address that really leads to more fatalities happening in those early morning hours. And just mentioning even higher number for pedestrians in that time of day. We've seen that increasing percentage of fatal crashes on on system roadways. We've seen those pedestrian fatalities starting to exceed motorist fatalities. First time I've seen that in the [1:19:44 PM] five years here, and alternative data sources were continuing to use as much data as possible. Looking outside, just crash reports trying to understand how we can get a better picture of what's happening on the ground. One example of that we've connected with the Travis county medical examiner's office, and we've looked at the toxicology results that come in from all fatal crashes that that they see in their office. We're seeing a much higher number of drugs and alcohol being present in those fatal crash victims than what we're seeing on crash reports continue to try to understand the full picture and exploring different data sources to try to get to that full picture. So let's talk a little bit about the work that we are doing here in Austin. Um we've got some engineering as our key focus and some highlights here. You know, we have completed. I think 20 intersection safety projects since we started doing this work in 2015, and in just this year alone, we're going to have four projects completed tour in construction now to her scheduled to begin construction a couple of months five and detailed design and 20 plus more, I think, 25 now and [1:20:44 PM] scoping or awaiting textile approval, so we really tried to scale up and ramp up as we've had these additional community supported bonds to really ramp up the work. We're starting to see that as we've got contracts in place and designs in place and starting to push more of these projects forward over time. So that's looking mainly at historical crash data, again mentioning being proactive with a systemic approach. Systemic safety is another area that we've started to make some real progress on we've got a curve warning project that we've implemented over 40 locations. New signage, new lane line markings, different treatments that we can do is try to be proactive. Even if there's not a history of crashes. Their access management is another key area where we really got to focus in on reducing those conflict points. That can happen when you see the graphic like that reminds you of a lot of our arterials throughout town, and you see how many conflict points are there and that's just for the drivers. Not to mention what happens when you're walking or biking across these driveways. So reducing conflict points through access management treatments and other focus areas for us as we move forward. Really working on signal timing as a key, low cost treatment [1:21:45 PM] that we can do across the network and trying to work towards more protected left turn movements. And just want to highlight another bond supported program. The pedestrian crossing program. We've implemented dozens of crossings on a number of streets, and we've got a dozen dozens more coming up in the next few months that are going to be implemented. That's something that we didn't have in place just two years ago, and we're starting to see some real results and getting those designed and constructed over the network. I want to mention that we've also been very successful in working with our partners at text dot on applying for federal funds highway safety improvement program. We've identified five lighting projects and five signal projects to try to address some key intersections and key segments where we've seen dark condition crashes. We've seen the intersection conflicts that don't have a signal there, so some of those projects will be getting out the door over the next 12 months, and we're really excited about the progress there with over. I think 5.5 million of federal funds to support our community supported bond work. People ask how how's it going with those projects and how we looking? Well we did. We'd like [1:22:46 PM] to focus on evaluation. You want to make sure that the work we're doing in the dollars that we're investing are actually having an impact as well. I mentioned the intersection safety projects. 13 of them have at least a year of data. They've been complete for at least a year, so we started to look at the impact of those. No, this is quite worth it. So uh, for those 13 intersections, we've seen some significant reductions 30% reduction in crashes going from 330 almost 230 so significant reduction and overall crashes, but more importantly, those serious injury and fatal crashes going from 12 to 8 per year, so four people in our community will not suffer severe injury or fatal crash at these locations because of the work that's been done so far. And that's compared to control group where we've seen serious injury or fatal crashes increasing by 8% so quite a difference when you look at the full delta, what's happening at those locations we treated versus the ones that have not been treated just yet. Again evaluating what's happening with the signal timing. We've been able to reduce some conflict points that signalized intersections where you've got [1:23:47 PM] one driver trying to make a left and an oncoming driver. We've got the ability to make changes, and we've done some significant work in that area. Thanks to our signals team at at D and being able to reduce overall crashes reduced the minor injuries, serious injury and fatal crashes as well. The policy area and procedures areas is another interesting area for us to make progress on this council has been very supportive at reducing speed limits. We've had multiple packages come through and over 900 miles of streets will receive reduced speed limits in the next few years. So that's an exciting area of progress. I mentioned access management trying to have a more standardized approach. Same thing with signal guidelines. One area that we're going to just be starting on in the next just this month and moving forward is intersection control evaluation and really looking at roundabouts to be a more significant part of the treatment toolkit that we have at signalized or at intersections where we see a lot of conflicts. And then there's been some interest utc in particular talking about right turns on red or leading pedestrian intervals, random, really making sure that we're doing all that we can with signs [1:24:48 PM] markings operations to really holistically addressed the network where we can just a few more slides and wrap up. Want to mention again, thanks to counsel for the support applying for this federal grant opportunity, the U. S government is moving in a historic pace towards a safe systems approach and really trying to understand how to make an impact. And they've provided a lot of money through the infrastructure and jobs act. To move all communities in the us towards safer streets. We've applied for 28 million of project costs about 20% of that would be local match through our bonds, and with the goals being really focused on equitable investment. Towards reducing serious injuries and fatalities with proven safety countermeasures. We know that the work that we've done shows significant progress, and I think we're one of the leading cities that people point to and how we've been able to scale up the work that we've done, so hopefully we'll be successful there and be able to again ramp up even more with federal funds, helping to support some of the costs of those projects. I just want to mention as we move towards trying to achieve these policy goals that we have not only vision zero goals but mobility goals overall and [1:25:49 PM] shifting the mode of travel that people are using. We've got opportunities like this project that we were able to complete, uh, threw a TD partnerships with multiple groups being able to change the layout of the roadway and the right of way that we have available to us and expand some of those shared use past. Have a much more comfortable and safe environment for everybody trying to get around. Drivers were experiencing a lot of rear end crashes because there wasn't a left turn day to get into creek fields, and we provided that by reallocating some of that space. It also means we've got pedestrian hybrid beacons and multiple spots and why'd shared use pass? See more people with families and strollers and strollers attached to the back of bikes crossing that longhorn bridge and we never saw it before because it wasn't enough space to do so. Mentioned roundabouts. They are effective . They work against severe crashes. 80% reduction. We're seeing new studies come out all the time from different places that are starting to implement it and evaluate them. That's a significant reduction. It's a little bit higher upfront costs. But these operate 24 7 without the need for maintenance and can [1:26:50 PM] actually help with throughput as well. If we're talking about overall looking at mobility plus safety needs the last slide here, just mentioning the you know, how do we achieve this vision? Zero goal. It's going to take time. We know that we know we've got to scale up the work that we're doing and all the other mobility partners that have bond funded programs and capital programs. We gotta move towards really transformative, safe roadway designs. We've got to make sure that the transportation network is lit for all people of all modes. Going at all times a day. You need to have some narrowly focused traffic safety enforcement to reinforce those areas where we don't have control over the design of the roadway, and we know that there's severe crashes happening frequently. Collaboration sorry. Implementation of project connect is going to be a critical piece, and he location any city or country around the world that's made significant progress has a well functioning mass transit system. Project connect is another key critical piece to getting us towards our vision. Zero goals. Collaboration with textile. We've partnered on a number of projects. We've continued to reach out and have good [1:27:50 PM] discussions on a number of locations that are on system that we've seen some problematic trends. We're supporting through community supported bond dollars . Some of those improvements on those text dot roadways and knowing that it's going to benefit all of our residents, austinites that are also Texans as well. Continue to collaborate with them and getting some progress there. And then just mentioning the opportunities that still exist on local and state legislative changes. There are policy areas, you know, something that might be a little bit more outside the box like land use and how that impacts people's choices to get around and where they can access the goods and services and jobs that they're trying to get to that does have an impact on safety goals. Understanding that enforcement and prosecution has some limitations based on what's in current state law and how we can advocate for some of those changes that are necessary. So I'll pause there with just another example of a great project done by et de partners and be glad to answer any questions. It's great. I really appreciate that. We have any questions. And they are pro tem alter. Thank you. I really [1:28:52 PM] appreciate your work and the way that we're really meaning. And to this, it is frustrating nonetheless, to still see increases in um, fatalities. Um, I think I have two questions one how? What are the mechanisms? We have? For working with textile on some of their roads. So my district's been expanded to cover a good chunk of 6 20. We are hearing tremendous numbers of worries about the safety. Of 6 20. Every time we try and do something, we're just told. Well we can't because it's text dot or, um but it's just a series of fatal accidents waiting to happen, but they haven't happened yet. Because the developments that are creating the conditions just open. Yeah I can tell you from my perspective , you know, we constantly have communication about specific areas that we've identified as problematic because of the historic crash patterns. But there are a number of avenues that we have as a department [1:29:53 PM] where we have regular conversation. There's Austin district. There's the different north and south area offices for textile where they've got Aaron engineers kind of focused on those particular areas, so I think feel could reach out and be glad to try to set up some more discussions about being more proactive as we anticipate new development. We've got a number of avenues in the number of context that we can try to facilitate some of those discussions. Yeah, I think it would be really important to do that, um for 6 20 because the development that's happening out there is tremendous and they're all sort of packed onto this one. No way to go anywhere except 36 20 and you know you have a road and like 15 ft to her. Stop. Stoplight or, you know they're just crossing the road. No doing U turns and things and um I think we really need to make sure. That we're leaning in and doing some planning there, so I would I would welcome that, um and then, um. My other question has to do [1:30:58 PM] with how how are we coordinating with campo and their safety plan from the. Sort of cities perspective because we talk about the need for the Campbell plan. They're working on the campo plan. And we've talked at times about while we're doing all this work. How do we share what we're doing? With the rest of the region. Um but doesn't seem to go anywhere. So can you tell me what kind of coordination is happening or what other levers we need to be? Pulling yeah, absolutely. As I mentioned the safe streets and roads for all grants isn't exciting opportunity for folks organizations that don't have an action plan like we already have. For them to go and get federal funds to help support development of an action plan. So my understanding is that they did apply as an organization for a regional action plan around vision, zero type work, safe systems approach. I've had conversations with them about our plans and how we've approached things and how we might do some some things [1:31:58 PM] differently and how we prioritize some things differently from what we've learned seven years ago. So we've had those conversations as they were applying. I've also had conversations with their technical advisory group and their chair and presented on our data and our management and how that informs and gives us the insights towards where we can have the highest opportunity construction projects to really make changes. So they've been interested in learning more there, and we've had some of those conversations, so I think, really, as as they hear back and hopefully are awarded that money. They're going to start up a task force where we will have a particular role on that task force. Will be able to present what we've been doing and what other Texas cities that are vision zero cities have been doing which we call to wait. Coordinate with us as well. And hopefully that will inform some of their planned development so that they can really quickly ramp up towards implementation of the plan actions and we don't get too bogged down in the planning and thinking about things but really move towards implementation and scaling up and that regional coordination is key as we talked about and some of our equity analysis as well. We've seen the shift as the region grows around Austin Austin been growing fast, but [1:32:59 PM] the region around Austin grows. We're seeing more people that have to rely on those wide, high speed roadways, and we're seeing some of that. Maybe play out in the data that we're seeing, as this increase happens on those on system roadways, so it's critical to have that connection, and we continue to have conversations with folks that are involved in campo and their planners, not only the staff but also the it is that are represented there. Have a question about dark sky areas. How how does your work interplay with areas where they specifically try to keep the lighting at a minimum? So my understanding I'm not a dark sky expert. My understanding is that really depends on the lighting fixture itself, and we don't want to have apply ting. So the fixtures are a standard that Austin energy is put in place to achieve that dark sky ordinance and goal that we have. And so anything that we do with street lighting, you know, the except funded lightning and the lighting that we're going to do. They all meet those standards for those lighting fixtures to make sure that we don't have that up lighting that would then cause some of those kind of [1:34:00 PM] noncompliant dark sky approaches. So everything we do is coordinate through Austin energy. It's all following the same standards and approaches that they use. That's great. I should have figured you'd have a good answer for that. Do we have any other questions? I think that does it for that presentation. I was alerted. We do have a public speaker signed up on this topic, so I'll let him take the microphone. If you'd like to say about three minutes of comments for us. Thank you, Mr left. I see. Council member harper-madison hand up. Do you have questions for Mr left? I do. I do. Are you all might, for whatever reason, my computer is slow, so I'm trying to get back on and I'm just missing it. And if I could follow up with the first presenter at some point, that'd be really great, too, because I did have one big question that I wanted to ask on behalf of a constituent who really like to know their response, but for this presentation, thank you very much for the presentation. I do get a lot of vision. Zero questions as you can imagine, and I think you and Caleb have probably been in communication about some of our specific projects that we have questions on. But I have a few others. Um [1:35:00 PM] so I'll start with, um, the status of the city's contract with but the sheriff's office that Travis county sheriff's office to help enforce moving violations. Where are we on that? Thanks for the question council members, so we had conversations that was actually the Travis county constables that we had had conversations with. For um, yeah, almost a year now, and they were interested in scaling up the work that they're doing on traffic enforcement. They saw some really positive results and kind of southwest Austin to 1971 area as they started to have a dedicated traffic enforcement unit, so they actually submitted a budget request to the Travis county commissioners course court to have additional staffing there. And so during that budget process over the summer, we committed to provide some city funds to try to help increase the amount of enforcement that could happen on freeways in particular for speeding in particular, if they would, you know, provide some of those resources that they were going to get. We provide some funding to help cover that cost. Um my understanding is based on the conversations at the commissioner's court. They did not move forward that budget request items, so commissioner's court decided to not fund those [1:36:02 PM] new positions so therefore we do not have any outside enforcement opportunities. Um we continue to have conversations with a P D to try to ramp up some overtime shifts and see what we can do there, and we will have a full response back to that June council memo. Coming back on December 1st and so hopefully there'll be some more information in there that we could continue the conversation. I appreciate that. Thank you for thank you for clarifying that between the sheriff's office and the constables, I think you know it's really important that we say the right thing in our constituents know who does what? So thank you for that, um, has the visions your program have yours? Spoken to a pd about increasing the enforcement of, um oh, the distracted drivers ordinance. We usually talk with a P D about the key and behaviors that we see on the roadway. They're usually about four behaviors that we see that are most likely associated with these fatal crashes. It's uh, speeding. It's impairment. It's fair to yield and it's also distracted driving. And so those are the four key behaviors that [1:37:03 PM] we really try to focus on. We really moved towards more of a focus on the speeding aspects because if you think about it just kind of theoretically if everybody was distracted, but they're all driving 15 20 miles an hour. We're not going to see the same number of fatalities that we see the same thing with impairment. Speeding is really the key factor, and so we really try to focus on that speeding but distractions always part of that conversation as far as some of the key behaviors that we see in the crash reports so whenever we have the conversations with a P D, about trying to get more resources to do some proactive traffic enforcement. Usually we mentioned those key behaviors and we talked to the areas that we're trying to address that we see most frequent severe crashes happening. Okay I appreciate that. Thank you. For that clarification to um I think the one of the last questions I have is about strategies. Um dad, does the program have any specific strategies to address or to address something that I witnessed just considerably more of? You know, I'm from Austin. I learned how to drive in Austin, and I just don't ever remember. Driving in Austin feeling so much like, um oh, I'm gonna set [1:38:06 PM] the name of a city listen, almost made some enemies. Sorry, y'all. I won't say the name of the cities in Texas. But there are two of them where I've been run off the road before because in a city that starts with an age people won't let you merge onto the freeway and in a city that starts with a D, they won't let you get over. In either direction. I'm just feeling like even turning my turn signal on is an invitation to gun it and, you know, hit me in the in the back end of my car. And so I'm really just, um, personally, anecdotally and you know, talking to friends finding so much more aggressive driving. And I wonder what we're doing to really address and think through . You know some solutions, you know, first of all, but more importantly, how can we kind of get in front of? You know some of the aggressive drive and I find that my kids watch how I drive, and if you know young people who are going to be driving here in the next couple of years or watching people [1:39:07 PM] aggressively, um, drive around town, I want to know what we're doing. A pre empt young drivers and their understanding of safe and friendly, courteous driving. Again appreciate the question council member. It's been something that we've seen really since the start of the pandemic. You know when the roads opened up, we have fewer people on the roadways. We saw a number of drivers taking advantage of that and driving a lot faster than they might. Normally it's the same thing we see in the overnight period on a regular basis, when we build a road in the capacity for moving peak hour volumes of vehicles. When that capacity is not there, and those vehicles aren't there. The capacity is still there and that roadways wide and it feels like you can go very fast. And so we've seen a lot more reckless driving a lot more speeding, and I think that's showing up in our fatality numbers to be frank in the last couple of years relative to the years prior. There's really only a few strategies that that makes sense to try to address that individual behavior. One is that enforcement when we talk about that, having a high visibility [1:40:07 PM] presence of peace officers on those roadways so that those drivers know that that behavior is not going to be tolerated. And there's a penalty for that. That's where we talk about really focusing on reckless driving, speeding impaired driving on those freeways where the outcome is going to be the worst. The second piece is really moving forward with this redesign of the roadway. When we talk about humans make mistakes . That's that's one of those mistakes that humans make. You know, some drivers are going to feel like they need to go as fast as they can to get where they're going. Everybody else on the roadway might feel the same. But you know, everyone's trying to prioritize themselves. So when we can redesign those roadways to not be built for that peak hour capacity, but be built for safe operations and safe mobility for everyone to get where they're going. That's where we'll have the biggest impact over time. And that's what we continue to strive to do not only on the city streets but working in partnership with text that as well. Awesome. Thank you. That was really thorough. I really appreciate you answering my question. I had one more question. But you already took care of that. Thank you. I appreciate the presentation and answering my questions. Thanks thank you for that. And I know we had we were able to [1:41:08 PM] collaborate with text dot in my district down on S. H 45 escarpment and people had alerted us to, you know people running red lights and at the corners needed to be readjusted. But now has a lot more population. I think there's four elementary schools. Very close to you know, near that intersection in in the corresponding neighborhood streets around there and so just trying to make sure that we are right sizing that intersection and they fixed the fixed lighting. We fixed how the intersection function just like very, um, you know, very simple, quick, deploy type of strategies. And I've heard it's really going well. So I know people are always asking. How are we collaborating with all these different entities and it's happening. You know, these conversations are happening among staff to make sure we're in touch with text dot and we're talking to the county and coordinating with campo and trying to share what we've learned as a big city that's growing fast to make sure that our neighbors also understand how to best plan their cities for traffic safety, too. Thank you. I got word, Mr Johnson that [1:42:10 PM] you had tried to sign up and weren't able to. So thanks for joining us, you'll have three minutes. You're welcome. Good afternoon council members. My name is Scott Johnson. I'm a founding member of the vision zero task force, which is now the visions who are alliance, which is the group that Lewis left staffs and he's doing a very good job. I'm also the lead citizen on the citizen led effort that accommodated August of 26 2014, which is our distracted driving ordinance. It is true that speed as we've learned in all the vision zero meetings is corporate that we need to try to identify while working on the other ones as well. However there are situations where people are using mobile phones in parking lots and in other areas where they're not on a road or they're even blocking a bike lane or overlapping a sidewalk. So distracted driving peace is essential. And I'm not here to bash were overly criticized. A P [1:43:10 PM] D. I'm aware of the funding and how that changed and we're building back, actually coordinated for neighbor watching my neighborhood some deep into that world as well. What I do know is that from 2015 through about 2017 many of the months we were in forcing it to a high level. We were getting approximately 1000 citations per month. For distracted driving, so it was working, hopefully his working long term in terms of habit changes, but that's uncertain. Now the citation figures that you see there from October one of last year through October 31st of this year, which is a 13 month period. There were 173 violations written for being in a vehicle lane and moving so that's about 13 per month versus hundreds per month, which we hopefully can get back to also there's citations in a school zone and only went to seven and there have been more in the past . I don't have the historical numbers. Those related to bicycles has been zero. And so I [1:44:13 PM] would love for the council to discuss this further along with staff and see what we can do. I do know about the program using constables because we hear about that. I'm sad. It didn't get funded. What I do know. Council member harper-madison is that the Travis county has hired people who can write grants to expand that capacity. And maybe it's worthwhile to revisit that because there are grants out there related to public safety. Happy to answer any questions. There's any questions. Thank you for coming and sharing that information. You're welcome. We will try to and go back in numeric order. The next item will be the 2020 active transportation and safety bond update. [1:45:14 PM] Good afternoon. It looks like they're trying to get our presentation Teed up free for us. Um my name is Anna martin, assistant director with the Austin transportation department . And I'm joined today by Eric Bailey, assistant director with the public works department, and we'll share duties during this update on the 2020. Uh, transportation bond. So we've shared this graphic in previous communications to mayor and council as well as in presentations, but I think it really shows well where I wanted to start today, and that's what are overlapping bond delivery. We're very, very lucky to have funds from 2016. 2018 and 2020 all going towards mobility improvements, so the dark blue and the light blue, um represent the workloads of our teams that we're working on the 2016 and 2018 bond. And then the green in both the light green and the dark green represents what we added on with 2020. So we've divided our 2020 bond delivery into two categories. Um, the [1:46:14 PM] first is ramping up our local mobility programs. Um to deliver at a higher rate through 2027. The second is, um. Delivering larger projects in the band like substandard streets and the largest pipe projects through more traditional delivery methods. And as a reminder per our contract with the voters. We have a six year delivery goal to expand the 2020 funds and that started earlier this year so began in 2022. This breakdown is already very, very familiar to you, but we have eight buckets that make up our local mobility programs, along with five larger named projects, um, that make up the 2020 portfolio. I want to take the opportunity to celebrate our first project that was delivered earlier this year , um pedestrian crossing islands were constructed on Wickersham lane at three locations to provide safer access to transit stops, as well as local [1:47:15 PM] community amenities. We committed to starting, um 2020 band delivery this year in 2022. After a year of planning and scaling up work. And we were able to meet this commitment with this project and many more that will touch upon today. I'll cruise through the vision zero pretty quickly. Lewis gave a really thorough recap of all the work we're doing. We had additional 65 million and 2024 vision zero. We've started work , um on signals and new ph. B S, um we're working on Howard. It's Garfield ridge parkway, as well as des and Bradberry lane currently we also installed battery backup systems that 76 intersections and what that means is that if there's a power outage instead of the signal going black, it'll keep operating. Um as it normally would, which is, of course, is a much safer condition for everyone. Ah Louis talked a lot about our systemic safety [1:48:15 PM] approach. We have installed curved warning improvements at 40 different locations. Um, we also use these funds to, um installed interim improvement at hotspots or, um, locations for severe crashes are occurring. So the picture on the right is the location of the slaughter lane where we had a, um, a cluster of collisions and we were able to install some delineate ear's to minimize conflicts and those will be in place until a quarter improvement. A traffic signal is installed as part of this water lane project so great example of the interim improvement to um, improve safety. In the meantime. The vision zero intersection program has been really successful. Lewis noted that 30% reduction in severe and fatal crashes were seen. Uh um. With $2020. We have three new locations currently in design. There are 12 others that are we have concepts developed and we're reviewing and getting approval from text dot to be able to move those forward. And [1:49:16 PM] another nine that are currently in the project development phase . So um, we're really pleased with the improvements we've seen with this program and, um, really thrilled to have the have the resources to continue on. And two other really popular aspects that fall under vision zero um, the first speed management and this is traffic calming focused on neighborhood streets, so really getting that that quality of life feeling like your kids can play outside, like to school. Things like that. We completed a new methodology to per advertised funds for level one and level two streets. Those are those neighborhood streets. Um we have 11 projects that we've already selected and communicated to neighborhoods and we'll see construction begin here, probably early. 2023. And then again, Lewis spoke of the pedestrian crossing program. We've already completed 18 just this year. Another 13 are currently under construction. And, um. We are working on a holistic infrastructure plan for pet crossings as part of the 80 [1:50:17 PM] X walk, bike roll update that's going on right now. Another local mobility bucket. This is new to 2020 is transit enhancement. And these funds are focused on improving reliability and speed of our local bus network building on existing partnership between kept metro and 80, D. We've completed bus stop construction at four locations as well as pairing those and more with pedestrian crossing islands to make it safer for folks to get to those bus stops. Um our team is also working on a transit enhancement plan, and that will help us prioritize how to spend the balance of the 2020 funds. Um we did a great amount of outreach in the fall talking to bus operators. Writers of course, um , macho staff, etcetera to really help us hone in and prioritize what our next set of projects will be. And bike ways. Um we have 40 million dedicated [1:51:18 PM] bike weighs. In addition to what we're delivering with the 2016 bond. Um happy to say we just completed the second round of public engagement for 80 X walk bike roll, which will help us prioritize our next set of investments. Um, well, that's going on, though we continue to deliver projects. Um some recent ones are new protected bike lanes and Mcneil spicewood springs metric um, it's Springdale. And now I'm gonna a shift from our local mobility portfolio over to the large capital projects. And um, a portion of those dedicated to substandard streets. And these were streets that were studied using, um, blonde funds from 2016 and are now moving to design and construction. So happy to report. Ross road is at 90% design. We think we'll be back out to the public in January to show our progress. Um and hopefully get to 100% and construction the following year , um, where the same point with Johnny Morris wrote as well. Moving towards 90% design will [1:52:20 PM] have a public meeting, probably February of 23. Then wrap up that that project design and go to construction so looking forward to breaking ground and both of those. And also in the substandard streets bucket. We um there were two name projects that we're going to study so that we can hopefully fund those at a later date. And that's Bradshaw road, um, in southeast Austin, as well as Nichols crossing, um public outreach has been going on this fall, and we expect those plans to be done in early 2023. Okay with that. I'm going to hand things over to Eric Bailey. Okay um, thank you. And I appreciate that many members appreciate it. My name is Eric Bailey. I'm the assistant director of public works over capital project delivery and I'll be running through the large capital project budget associated with the 2020 bond. Um there were four main projects that were identified in here. The longhorn [1:53:22 PM] bridge, the congress avenue urban design initiative. Pardon springs, road improvements and the south pleasant valley corridor. Improvements as well as $5 million was identified for, um, the existing corridor program. Some enhancements there. For the congress avenue urban design initiative. That project is that the 30% design effort is underway. The renderings and schematics you can see here on the left or from the P er. We're having ongoing meetings with staff. And designers, including an initial historic review in November with the first draft of the 30% design, due in early 2023. For the south pleasant valley project on the right hand side there, you can see a connection from the existing self pleasant valley road to Burleson road north of 71 year. Mabel Davis park. This is connecting this building a new road that's extending pleasant valley all the way through to Burleson. Um the 60% design was completed in September. You can see some of the outlines here in terms of [1:54:23 PM] the link configuration, as well as an overhead view of what the new roadway will look like. But 90% design is targeted for the end of December. Two additional large city projects that identify the longhorn bridge. Um the 100% design on that project is doing January. 23 was scheduled for advertisement in the summer of 2023 as well. So looking to get that 12 construction here, um within the next, um you know, year or so and then the Barton springs bridge was the fourth project that was identified. Um we have a further update on the Barton springs bridge. Um in item six on this agenda, so I have some more details there, but the design the preliminary design and alternative selection is underway and we're scheduling some some public meetings in early 2023 for that project. Moving on to the sidewalk program. Right now, sidewalks is, um completing projects that were funded by the 2016 and 2018 bonds, sort of wrapping up that [1:55:24 PM] funding cycle and moving, um, field engineering, and I'd ike contracting under the 2020 bonds , so on track to meet our spending targets for fiscal 23, this is the sidewalk program is one of those that coordinates the bond spending across a bunch of different programmatic fields, including bike ways and safe routes to school. Uh for urban trails, $80 million was assigned to urban trails. Virtual open house for the brook stream spur project is complete over 700 responses to that, um, open house, which were mostly supported the project and then design work is ongoing for the northern walnut creek trail system. There's several projects in there that are we are undergoing a phased approach based on the different constraints of the different areas, but we have designers onboard to begin working on those additionally, neighborhood partnering program was funded for a million dollars in the 2020 bond. Um right now again in some of our other programmatic, um uh, programs are wrapping up [1:56:27 PM] the bond funding from previous bonds. So is the neighborhood partnering program, so they're working currently on allocating the 2020 bond funds as well as working with, um, you know, neighborhood partners and neighborhood outreach to identify projects for the 2020 bond. Um and then safe routes to school. Um. They've used the 2020 bond funding to supplement some of the quarter cent funding. To complete projects such as the Austin woods sidewalk you can see on the right hand side here. And safe routes is also beginning project selection for the fiscal 23 projects will take place in the summertime. The book of that work happens when school is not in session, so that way we're not disturbing children walking to school. Ah another piece that we're working on here is the update the 20 to 2023 update to the mobility plan. Um this has been before you before in previous meetings and the purpose. The plan is to look ahead and mobility projects across the city that made [1:57:29 PM] possible with the 2016 2018 and 2020 bond programs. Right now staff is putting the finishing touches on the plan with intent to schedule meetings with individual council offices in December to review those plans. Um and then after meeting with the council offices the map will be rolled out to the public in January February of 23. Um and then, finally, the publishing date for the 2023 plane will be in scheduled right now from March of 23. Um some of the program risks wanted to touch base with you on this a little bit. Um, you know, one of the things we face on a lot of our projects across the C I P program is contractor availability. We're working with capital contracting financial services. Sn br as well as the local, um associated general contractors chapter on the plans to increase awareness about city projects as well as work with those groups on issues that they see as various to bidding on city projects. We can cast a wider net on contractors that we [1:58:30 PM] have coming in doing city work. Um cost escalation. Inflation I'm sure everyone knows a lot about that. We've seen, um you know a lot of inflation since the 2020 bond went out, you know, view the pandemic and the existing economic conditions, so we're working on what we can do to mitigate the effects of those , um, as well as playing a program. The budgets based on revised cost estimates, given the current economic conditions and then finally, um, you know, one of the things that Lewis mentioned in his, um program as well on vision zero is facing the issue that a lot of the some of the projects that we have are not on right away. That's run by the city, so we have to coordinate with various agencies. Text dot Travis county cap metro, um, to implement those projects. And it it. In addition, we're working with the other, um city C I P partners to deliver projects and expedite processes. We've been working with our capital contracting counterparts as well as folks in [1:59:30 PM] , you know, watershed protection and 18 awesome transportation as well. And you've seen that recently through code. Amendments and updates have been coming before council to help expedite the projects that are in the right away and clear up some of the permitting issues. With that I will close it out and see if you guys have any questions. So appreciate your time today. Thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Do we have questions from the committee members? Council member harper-madison. Why don't you kick it off? There we go. Hi there. Thanks for the presentation. Appreciate it actually only have two questions . Um I'm wondering what that. In fact, in you access your presentation still and refer back to slide number 11. That one. Yeah, almost had it. I [2:00:32 PM] must. Thank you. Is that the one you're looking for you? So the question that I had was about the Johnny Morris project. Sure. Please go ahead. It's just, um, curious to know what the process looks like for public. Um public engagement for the Johnny Morris project. Sure so we engaged with the community during the development of the plan for Johnny Morris road. So um, I can remember being out in the corner going to do with tacos to the mobile home park and engaging the residents there as well as at the sacrifice fields to develop the plan. Um right now we're at 60% design. So what we'll do is in January February time frame. We'll take the design plans as they are to date , engaged with the same community members and get their feedback. See if there's anything we're missing overlooking and really just kind of let them know next steps as we go forward towards permitting [2:01:32 PM] and design. Okay I mean, I guess then the question would be uh, because it sounds like you know you're seeking them out. I'm curious to know how do people engage with staff to advocate for things that they want, like safe routes in their neighborhoods, or, you know some of the other potential amenities that could it's um innovation and dedicated resources be built out. How do they seek you out and advocate for stuff that they'd like to see in their communities? Yeah. Thank you for the question. Um I would be happy to coordinate with your office and get our project manager engaged. We are active on social media project website . Um things like that will be much more visible as we get ready for that public meeting. Um we've talked with folks already about, um, the routes they used to get to school. If we could connect to the urban trail that's just to the west. A lot of those things have been uncovered. Um but would be happy [2:02:33 PM] to engage further. That would be great, really like that very much. In fact, it's kind of you know, top of the list priority for me to really um operationalize and, you know, have a more universal approach to exceed our expectations around how community engagement works. I think there was just too little consistency. Um, and so frequently. It doesn't go. Well, that would be great. If we could, you know, just pull from best practices and figure out the best way to engage with communities when we're talking about these really transformational generational changes to communities. Um and then you know, the other question I would have is about disruptions. You know, how will the disruptions construction disruptions affect the lives of people who live and work and play along Johnny Morris and then I guess it's another public engagement conversation. How well you know those above, said disruptions be communicated to people and what assistance are we offering for rerouting and [2:03:35 PM] you know what that might but challenges that might provide just curious about how that all looks as well. Those are really good questions, and by the time we come back to the community in January, February, we'll have a good idea of the duration of construction. What the impacts might look like what any closures might look like, um, so we'll be prepared to answer those questions and communicate that with the ah, with the public when we come back. In the spring. That would be great, and I'm assuming there's still an opportunity at that point for folks to point out by way of their lived experience with the gaps may remain. It's not you. You're not bringing a finished project. You're saying this is what we proposed, but there's still room for this to be flexible when you come back in the spring, certainly, especially if the things that they might notice our connections, um, from the road to a trail or to a school, um if it can be added to the existing contract. We have local mobility programs that can come in and fill those gaps as well. There's going to be a lot of work going [2:04:36 PM] on in the next few years in this part of town with the improvements to, um fm, 9 69, some work and the county park areas so they're working. We're going to have an impact in this community. We want to make sure everyone is aware and knowledgeable and we give them alternative routes for sure. Yeah and I think you might be being very conservative. When you say the next few years. You know, I've been telling people for four years that most of the development and our beautiful fair city is going to be happening east of 1 83 for the next three decades at the very least, and if we're gonna do it, we've got to get it right on the front end because then you know, we've sort of established what the protocol is for how you do development in this area, and I think, starting on the front end of that, with all our transit infrastructure and improving mobility connection um, is it will really offer us the opportunity to once again be the ground breakers be the you know the municipality who really created the template for how you do consider it thoughtful, condensed compact, um, dense, [2:05:39 PM] living, uh, community a minimum community amenities rich, uh, development like we in in that area of town to your point about the amount of development that's coming there. We really in a lot of ways have a blank slate to really get it right. And so you'll find it will probably be meeting a lot in this next four years. Thank god, uh, to talk about how to think about this regionally for the area and get more granular and just really make sure that we're taking all this stuff and consideration and really get it right. I'm very committed to that. Great points. I definitely look forward to working with you and your staff as we go forward. Awesome. Thank you. You have more questions from committee members. I've got just a couple in no particular order. Um are y'all keeping track of a substandard streets list? I know we track them in my office when we when we know that they're there, but I didn't know if you have this citywide and if all the offices or giving you [2:06:39 PM] this information yeah, that's a that's a great question. We have the list of those that were identified in the 2016 plan. 2016 bond, which we have plans for, um, as well as those that were identified in 2020, the SNP . Also each street has a classification, and we have the sub standard streets identified there. Um and we also have them as part of the street impact fee as well. So we have various lists. Um that will be slowly kind of cranking through as we move forward. And is that something that if the council office knows one or becomes aware of one is there someone in your office that they can feed the information to or check to make sure it's on your radar. Would they just contact you? Yeah you can certainly contact me or the or the area engineer that works with your office. Okay, that's fantastic. And I love the mobility annual plan website. I think it's a really helpful way for people to know what projects are planned for their neighborhood or near their kids. Schools um, are there non bond funded projects on that as well? I know a lot of it is the [2:07:41 PM] bond funded projects. Are there other just departmental funding things that could be added that's a that's a great question . We have some internal things that we look at as we're planning projects. So we have the project connect system map. We have the street resurfacing map things like that. I'm sure, though, if those are public for others to view we've tried to keep that to a pretty clear and concise. It's already very, very crowded with so much work going on. Um but that's a good thought. Now I'll certainly ask our staff to look into it. Yeah, I've actually found the interactive version is a little easier to understand then when we would get printed versions I would just have to sit there and flip through it and kind of understand everything that was going in, even though it was well developed and had lists by by council district. I just found it to be a little hard to understand everything that was in it. As far as the neighborhood partnering program , and this is my last question. Are there set deadlines for submitting applications are trying to get into the [2:08:42 PM] neighborhood partnering program for these local projects, or is it a revolving door all year round? It's um there are some deadlines and things like that. We're trying to focus those programs, but it's not. You know, a hard and fast, you know, you have to apply by January 1st or you're not going to get any money. Associated 25. So if you have projects we have a neighborhood neighborhood programming our neighborhood partnering program coordinator who, um, can be in touch. I can give you his contact information as well, who basically coordinates that program for us and works with the community on perspective projects and things like that. That would be great. I'd like to include that information in one of our upcoming newsletters. I know I had a neighborhood in my district create their own. It was. It was really a walkable trail. They had a street that kind of dead ended, but the schools, the middle school and elementary school near the neighborhood. If you cut through the woods, it was safer than going, you know on the streets because we have some big wide streets and district date and they loved it, and they just rolled up their sleeves. Work together, you know, built that trail and created a nice safe pathway for families to be able [2:09:44 PM] to walk their kids to school. So it was. It was a great success, and I can't recommend it highly enough. You have any last questions? No. All right. We will move to the next item, which is going to be an update on the Barton springs road bridge project. Would you alluded to earlier didn't get very far. All right. Thank thank you again . Eric Bailey, assistant director of public works or capital project delivery here to give a quick update on the progress of the Barton springs road bridge project, as funded by the 2020 bond. Ah, um I wanted to talk about our picture of success for today is that this committee leaves with an understanding of the current state where we're at and where we're going with. The next steps are for the Barton springs road [2:10:44 PM] bridge going to give a quick briefing on the current condition. What, what it's like out there now outline some of the alternatives that were studied so far by the engineer, and then the staff recommendation on the path forward. I want to make sure and make it very clear from the start. This is by no means the absolute be all end. All of what we're going to do. This is our first step. We reviewed what the engineer's report says and come forward to y'all with the recommendation followed up with some future community outreach as well as more, um, communication with counsel. So a little bit of history here you can see from the lower right hand picture of the original Barton springs road bridge alignment. This is actually not the bridge that's shown in here. We were digging through the archives and found actually a really cool picture of a bridge over Barton springs. It was probably before the time of the bridge, but anyway built in 1925 originally expanded in 1946 to basically its current configuration where it's at now. Um, the existing bridges in fair condition. Structurally there is some evidence of Smalling and some exposed rebar things like that. Um and so we're seeing some some issues in there nothing that that is [2:11:44 PM] structurally deficient or raises to any level that needs immediate attention tomorrow, but something to that we need to plan for the future. Um and it needs to be really rehabilitated or replaced to ensure the safety and longevity. As well as improved circulation in this area for vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles, all the modes of transportation. I'm sure you all have been down there on a CL weekend and or when there's other festivals with things going on, and it's a real kind of narrow point where it's difficult for pedestrians and cars to interact going through there, so um and again like I stated previously in November 2020 Boston voters approved funding to continuing to evaluate and address the Barton springs road. So that's really where. Now isn't that evaluation period we've hired an engineer has been on board and it's prepared an initial report. Outlining some of the design considerations that are possible with this bridge. So in here, you can see five options. Option one is a quote unquote light touch option, which would be [2:12:45 PM] just basically rehabilitating and preserving the existing structure. Option two is a major rehabilitation where the existing structure remains in place. The deck gets widened. Um, and some additional features are added. Option three is replacement with a single arch type of design. Option four is replacement with a single Y type of appear. And then option five is replacement with a double Y type of peer right off the bat. The light touch option was discarded based on um, and an initial inspection report as well as what we've seen out there, and ultimately, the needs of the community in terms of circulation through this area that light touch wood basically leave the configuration roughly the same. With some pretty small sidewalks and lanes and things which I know is not something that we really want to. It's really a realistic option. So um the result is that we've focused on options two through five, and all of them results in a widened bridge deck. Um that keeps the four current vehicular traffic lanes but adds two new 10 ft [2:13:45 PM] bicycle lanes and pedestrian paths on both the north and the south side, um of the bridge. You can see here, and this is an overall schematic showing what the new upper bridge deck would look like given either the rehabilitation or replacement options. Um again, you can see the additional bike paths as well as the pedestrian Zones and the connections into existing, um, trails and paths in the area. The sort of dark green shows the bike path. This sort of teal color is the, um pedestrian path and then the red is the connection into the existing the existing pads and things that are in that area. Um so. Replacement as the preferred alternative. Um the what? We're calling the double Y option you can see in the rendering here. There's two rows of, um why shaped piers? There's a couple of benefits here from that configuration, maximizes the [2:14:46 PM] views through the bridge and maintains an open center channel in Barton creek. It better accommodates the zilker eagle train you can see on the far left hand side and enhanced trails underneath the bridge to keep that connectivity throughout the park. In addition, the replacement option . Um is 40% less cost 40% less than the rehabilitation option. Additionally, there's less risk in a replacement. Um then a rehabilitation because once you get into that rehabilitation, you don't 100% know what you're going to get into. When you start demolishing the bridge deck and things like that. So next steps we have here council briefing number one and the mobility committee is today we're going to have a memo that's going to go out to council. Um either today or tomorrow with some of the details of this explaining where where we're going. What we're doing. Our first public engagement is going to be in the winter of 2023 were currently targeting targeting the January time frame for that. Then we'll [2:15:46 PM] be going to the Texas historical commission and the spring of 23 as we refine the options and going to a second council briefing in the summer of 23 with as well a public in a second public engagement. And then we're looking at complete the preliminary phase in the fall of 23 so the project is currently funded through the completion of the preliminary engineering phase as part of the 2020 bond. Future funding. We need to be identified to move the project forward into the construction phase right now. Our current cost estimates are in the 30 to $35 million range in terms of what the new bridge will cost and again that may change as the design is developed, and as we move forward through construction, as well as with inflationary concerns and other things in a part of a larger economy that that would be happening so um with that I will leave it open for questions and or comments. Committee members. Does anyone want to kick us off? I can run with it. I really appreciate [2:16:49 PM] this. I know this project has been in conversation for a long time. I remember there was a previous meeting in 2015. To look at this bridge and the red, but I'll bridge because they both had historic nature's to them if you will, so I know this is a long time coming. Um you know, in my anecdotal experience , a lot of what really needs to be solved is the fact that the bike lane heading west just shoves you into traffic and the lane jogs at the same time, so it's basically throws you into the curb. Um and it doesn't have a whole lot of room for people to be able to make their choices and try to have a safe maneuver through that intersection. So um , I also want to be very respectful that I know in years past, probably predating any of our service. There were conversations about trying to expand this and expanding Barton springs road into more lanes, and I think the community has told people loud enough that they don't want to expand it. I've even heard people call for, you know, minimizing the number of lanes through that area. So I [2:17:50 PM] think this is more about bike and pedestrian safety and making sure that people can use the bus route that runs through there in a safe way, and not trying to increase speeds and not trying to add lanes into this project. I want to be mindful of that historic context to this particular um, conversation. Can you tell me a bit about the public engagement? How how do you plan to go about doing that? Where can people find out how to provide their thoughts? So um, we have a project website. That's obviously up and running. We will notify folks in the neighborhood was well in the area and um, you know, obviously we recognize that this is a larger connection throughout the city than just that affects more than just the people in that in that neighborhood, so we're currently you know, working on what exactly that plan is going to look like, but there will be a lot of notice through all of the various methods that we do to make folks aware of the public meetings that are coming up where they can review and comment on the plans and you know, talk about exactly the things you're talking about. You know the number of lanes and [2:18:51 PM] pedestrian access and bicycle access and all the those things . Um as we move forward with the design, so I don't have. We haven't developed exactly what the specifics are that yet? We're working on on that plan as we speak, getting get it out and advertise here pretty soon. I appreciate that, and I think the timing is perfect because there's liquor vision plan is happening and very shortly. They're going to be releasing some information that the people who have been conducting the study over these years, you know we'll be providing their report and getting public feedback on what the recommendations are going to be for the vision plan, and I know that the conversation around accessibility both in the perception of is zilker park truly for everyone, or is it only for people who can afford to live or work nearby? Um but also there I believe, is consensus around making sure that the bike pedv bus accessibility needs to be improved needs to be safer. There's going to be other multimodal improvements over near the zilker botanical garden that are going to be kicking off for the exact same types of, you [2:19:52 PM] know, a bus platform and the pedestrian bicycle safety that needs to be in there, so I think this is great timing where it's at the forefront of everyone's mind. There's already a lot of public engagement and awareness about this conversation, so I'm hoping you'll get a good balance of viewpoints for people who want to access the park and figure out what's going to happen with the bridge. Let me see if I've got other questions. I think I. I think that might do it for me. Let's see if we have more questions. Do I see council member harper-madison? Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, I just have the one question you know, in 2018 public works. They identified the that this bridge was one of the top five in Austin that needed major replacements or repairs. I'm wondering if you can tell me the status of those other four bridges that were in that study. Oh that's a great question. I don't have that information, but I'm going to call up Bruce marine who is the assistant [2:20:53 PM] director over our street bridge division. And I'm sure he knows that off the top of his head. So yeah, thank you. Good afternoon . Peters moin, assistant director of public works over operations. We maintain the streets and the bridge network in the city. The other five major, one red but trade they are. We have been in the design and that. Funding came into place in 2018. We are moving on that with the consultant and all of their department. The other bridges were delvaux. There is still waiting for funding for that bridge. The idea was William cannon. The bridge approach. We had failure on the road on the approach. And Montana half ago, which we responded to your having an [2:21:55 PM] emergency repair on that approach that would respond to have the need so basically west approach to the bridge would be taking care of under this, uh emergency contract. And then the east approach is being designed. Man would need funding. Slaughtered lane. Two approaches. Istan missed the other one. That is just like William cannon deserve old. Mechanically stabilized Earth wall in the city. The first to that 2nd and 3rd. Type of this construction that built in this city, the first one being congress. So these two boats, slaughter and William cannon need findings so we can go ahead with three paths. Are. You know , I hadn't heard about the failure until you just mentioned it. Can you give me any [2:22:57 PM] information about what constitutes a failure and sure what exactly transpired did anybody get hurt what was required to make the repair lutely? Yes so what happens? The. Mechanically established world contains in between. And because of the construction and then the method that was used by the batch, then 42 years ago. There has been leakage of that material in between the wall panels. So as the material leaks out or the water gets into that cavity. Um washes away defines. The field below the asphalt below this street settled and then the we would see deflection and settlement. On the surface. This is what we saw. So as soon as we side we closed the road. The event in the next morning opened it up. And started [2:24:00 PM] responding to the needs. This was again just like the previous failures that he had seen its hasn't been. Fortunately to the it hasn't been catastrophic failure. It is that road settles and provides very good indication that it requires attention. So we're going to feel it in this case we had because we had the consultant also. Did you take engineer with us? We looked at the failure together and we put it system in place that will prevent that failure there as well as looking at the need. Realizing that they are getting more of these failures because of the movement that the deflection of the world itself. We decided to use some of our funding emergency funding. Put a contract in place. To respond to that wrist side, the west side being the worst sight on the video on Canon. The soil on the either [2:25:03 PM] side of the war and either side of the bridge. I'm sorry. It's different is worse than the west side, and that's where we're going to have the images contract. We are talking to the contractor be have clear the vegetation we are getting ready to start. Do you mind? If I ask real quick? How did you discover the failure? You said you went? You were looking at it. Did somebody reported or were y'all just checking the condition of the bridge street started certainly started. This street itself started Saturday. O P D a P D closed the door and called us and we immediately went. Put the traffic control in place. And then it started opening it up and responding to them. I understand, and so then one last little follow up so in light of the new development in the area, including the, um upcoming parks facilities at the old private racetrack. I'm really interested in, um, getting something done [2:26:03 PM] for that dough. Pauline bridge that you mentioned in the one. How can my office or council as a whole really helped to fast track the work? Um, getting done there. Funding we need the funding and basically, that has been the major. The issue is because of the boggy creek had going right under Delva and the amount of water that we get during major rainfalls. I've been here over the bridges the last 17 years and four times have experienced water being three ft over the bridge. The bridge is 20 ft over the crease. Then we get the major rainfalls. The flooding goes three ft over the bridge, so we have two X put [2:27:05 PM] in place a breach. That is probably three times the size of the existing breach. Original. Cost estimate we put together this was about five years ago be the extended land extended span. $6 million. Hmm. So comparatively, where do you think the gap lies today? It would be at least the number you would at least be eight million these days. Thank you. That's very helpful. I really appreciate your responses. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for those questions. I know we've been talking about at least the William cannon and slaughter bridges trying to figure out if there's other sources of funding like you, campo or doesn't text dot also have some on off fridge funding they do where they will do work. That's not on a text dot roads simply because the traffic in between his traveling to and from text dot roads they do absolutely and previous years about eight years ago. They did [2:28:08 PM] , and then they stopped with of system bridges that would respond to this. Additionally they follow the structurally deficient bridges in the case of William cannon and slaughter link. The bridges themselves are okay. The approach sitting on mechanically stabilized Earth. Is experiencing this issue. There was mechanically stabilized panels are moving. And creating these deflections and settlements in the roadway. So the bridge itself is okay. The approach needs to be repaired. And text that likely won't pay for that. Yeah that that makes sense. I appreciate that background and I know when we talk about, you know, regional financing of projects. We always come around to which of these roads are just for Austin and people who are within and only traveling within Austin limits and which roads are being used by people who aren't in the [2:29:08 PM] Austin tax base. So I know these conversations are happening, and we're constantly trying to get creative with what? What parts of money are available so that we can try to get these projects done. Any last questions. I don't believe so. And mayor pro tem alter has stepped away. I think that takes us to our last item, which is going to be the mobility outcome report that the assistant city manager creates. Yeah good afternoon. I'm Jane snow. Yeah. We always get confused. Getting good afternoon. I'm James snow. I'm the public works. Interim director. I'm here on behalf of a CMP in Dhaka to provide and present the mobility outcome. Report for November 2022 instead of going through the report in detail. What I like to do is highlight a couple of areas and bring to your attention. The first one is and actually we're talking about today about the neighborhood partnering program. It 133 M. A award of excellence. And specifically for the Buffalo pass mural project. Ah the mural [2:30:11 PM] brought together more than 200 volunteers in 2500 volunteer hours to make this happen, where they designed and painted and glazed, or, uh, glazed over a little tiles and made this made this incredible wall and project. What was interesting was the common one of the judges as they saw it was, he said that this was specifically about outreach, they said often we see a public outreach engagement garner the attention, enthusiasm with the community, but we rarely see to this extent as far as how many volunteers and how many hours are put together and they had to comment that there's one of the few times that I've ever seen this in a project. So it was incredible effort. It's one of the great things that we do with neighborhood partnering program is trying to reach out to the to the neighborhoods and create such things like this to make the make it a more livable neighborhood. Ah as we all know, last month we had the F one. Come through the 21st of the 23rd. It was a great event. But what celebrated that was the next day was on record the busiest day for our Austin airport, 43,177 departures in one day as the largest ever [2:31:11 PM] recorded, and I was obviously some of that 400,000 people that came to see the event decided to leave the next day. It was incredible. Shows the growth of the airport and the need to continue with the 10 year plan that we're doing. The last thing I would like to highlight is under the partnership. Recap and that's talking about the traffic conditions coming to the Y intersection to 1971. There's two changes the traffic flow that you'll see. There's one is if you're heading west on 2 1971 word. Actually the split is usually can take a right and you have that road that gradually turns into right and then you can go forward with 71. That will be shut and then what we'll do is making it harder right up at the light and turning to that section. The other areas that they're going to be doing a starting construction and changing traffic patterns by Seton hall seating hospital about up on the road there, so those two will be affect here shortly. We want to bring that to the attention of the committee so that obviously there's going to be more information coming out from our partner. Text dot we thought this was appropriate time to, uh allow the committee to know about that and bring it to the [2:32:12 PM] top of mind. If you don't have any further questions that is report for this month again, not as graceful as in Dhaka. But if you have any questions or points, I we won't take them. That is great. And I will say for any folks that traveled through the Wyatt don't kill. They do have a Twitter handle so you can see exactly which lane closures and road closures are happening on on a daily basis, so I know we stay very much in tune with it just because it's the area that I represent, but certainly need to be mindful of all the traffic pattern changes as the project continues. Um I will also say I would be remiss if I didn't say I was at the airport this morning. They did a groundbreaking for their new baggage claim, and I got the biggest wrench. That I've ever seen. So we were very excited about. You know the movement that the airport is working on and trying to. I think it's 800 more more bags per hour or per I can't remember the exact timeline. But you know hundreds and hundreds more bags being able to be moved smoothly through through airport check in, so we're very excited about [2:33:13 PM] those improvements. Do you have any questions for Mr snow? Director snow? It does not appear. So I think I think on that note. It is 2:33 P.M. O before I adjourn. I'll just read a brief list of ideas that we have. Coming up, potentially for future meetings. We have a public works department service plan update. We have daylight id a need to revisit discussions of scooters and micro ability, devices and parking enforcement , the south congress parking district status update on the comprehensive trail system and any gaps that are left to fill. The strategic direction 23 metric regarding overgrown trees and plants blocking bike lanes. Update on progress measuring SNP mode shift goals, um, autonomous rideshare services, and I know it was. It was mentioned earlier today about aggressive driving, and I thought that might be a good conversation for us to take up, but it might be more appropriate for the public safety committee, which the three of us left here. Serve on [2:34:13 PM] so I'll get with y'all offline. But I think there is a link between aggressive driving and other aggressive behaviors. And so as we're being mindful of you know, our new office of violence, prevention and other other ways to keep our community members safe. That might be something we figure out if we take it up in mobility, or if we take it up in public safety. I see. Vice chair Kelly has her hand raised. Do you have other future ideas? You'd like to add. I just wanted to piggyback on that micro mobility discussion. I know my staff is diligently working on the final touches on a micro mobility resolutions of any member of this committee would be interested in correspondence. Oring with this , please let us know so that we can get you in on that. That's great. Thank you. Alright if there are no other concepts to throw into the bucket. It is 2:34 P.M. And we will adjourn the mobility committee meeting. Thanks for being here, everyone.