Mobility Committee (MOBC) Meeting Transcript – 10/17/2024 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 10/17/2024 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 10/17/2024 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. [1:03:07 PM] I don't see Esther here. Esther. Esther. Alvarez. No, I don't see them here. >> So we have Spencer Schumacher. >> Yeah. Go ahead and come up and speak as general communication. I know when we're we're still kind of sorting out if we're not taking votes on certain items, how to call up speakers. But feel free to give us all of your insight for this item. >> Yeah, looks like this will work. So hello, my name is Spencer Schumacher. I'm here speaking as an individual and I want to first start by thanking chair Ellis, vice chair qadri and the whole mobility committee for all the excellent work on the bikeway parking, prohibition resolution and for recognizing this as the public safety issue that it is. I've been tracking all the data to see how this has been implemented since January 2024. You can view it all at that qr code right there. I'm gonna walk you through some of [1:04:09 PM] gonna walk you through some of the data and then give you maybe some helpful suggestions. So first you can see immediately after the passage of the resolution, there was an 86% increase in citations for parking in the bike lane. This was largely driven by tpp's promise to do hotspot targeting, but you can see that kind of fell through in July and August. We saw a really sharp decrease, and it's only now just picking up at the same time. We haven't really seen improvements to 311 complaints. Actually, the percentage of 311 complaints ending in a citation has gone slightly down. At the same time, this approach has largely seen an increase in citations on just a few streets. You can see on the right there's a really big gap between our most enforced streets and our under enforced streets. Over there at the left. I think this data indicates that we need to have some supplemental way of enforcement in order to get to where we want to go, and ptp is going to talk about later about how they are not recommending going forward with enforcement by e-bike and the volunteer bike lane enforcement program. So we need some other supplemental way. I have two ideas for you all to consider. First is the utc's [1:05:10 PM] consider. First is the utc's original idea, which is ticketing directly from 311 photos and sending citations via the mail. When this was presented to you guys in March, ptp had three objections. So I'm going to go through all three of those. First was the idea that this violates the red light camera law under state law. I am not a lawyer, but I'd certainly like a lawyer to look at that. If you look at the definition, it specifically talks about a system working in conjunction with an electronically operated traffic control signal. The 311 app doesn't do that. So we should be in the clear there. Second, there was a concern that current city code doesn't allow this. You're going to hear about a parking modernization ordinance. This is the perfect place to update our city code there. And finally, there was a concern that we can't direct citation revenue. But the back and the utc are no longer recommending a bounty type program. So this part isn't necessary. There would be other benefits to this approach. First is that it solves the issue of delivery vehicles leaving prior to arrival. Solves after our enforcement. It doesn't put volunteers in more danger than they already are, because they're already sending these complaints. And it can be [1:06:11 PM] complaints. And it can be supplemental only when we have a clear violation and a clear license plate. The second solution I want to flag for you guys is putting cameras on city owned vehicles. You can see what that would look like right there. In July, the city of Dallas testified to the ai advisory council that they're going to begin using this technology. So it should be in the bounds of state law. This also solves the problem of wanting to stay in their motor vehicles. And this could be used for other programs as well. We could use this to ticket accessible parking, bus lanes and sidewalk violations. We could also be one of many cities that attach these to busses and make sure our bus lanes remain clear. So happy to take any questions on these ideas or the data I've been collecting. >> Do we have any questions for the speaker? I don't, but really appreciate that input and would be happy to look into that further. >> Thank you. >> Perfect. >> All right. Did we have any other speakers? >> Yeah, we did have two more signups. So I have Adam Greenfield. Okay. >> Welcome Mr. Greenfield. >> Thank you. Good morning. Council members Adam Greenfield [1:07:12 PM] Council members Adam Greenfield here. Safe streets Austin, we want to applaud staff for the Barton springs road pilot program. And obviously we're going to hear about that today. It's just been transformative. We're seeing so many more people biking and walking on on Barton springs road. And I think just as a pilot for further lane conversions across the city, I think just the choice and the execution has just been five star all around. We're also really excited about the Cameron de sa safety project that you're going to hear about today as well. This really is another frontier for staff. Six miles of lane conversions to make driving safer, biking safer, walking safer, and staff just continues to up the game on this. We want to see. We would love T hear more from staff about whether there are safety trade offs, with the three lane sections that are being proposed for about 1.3 miles of the project, and to understand that better, we think that safety should come first on this project. And I [1:08:12 PM] first on this project. And I think you'll agree this should be moving towards vision zero. And so we are still concerned about those three lane sections there. But overall very excited about this project. So thank you very much. Thank you. >> So Eric Portillo is here now. >> I see them coming up now. >> Thank you. >> Hello. Good afternoon. Welcome. >> Are you Mr. Portillo? >> Yes, I am okay. How are you doing? Go ahead. Good afternoon. My name is Eric Portillo. I'm an organizer with unite here, local 23. We are the union that represents workers and concession companies inside the airports and as well at the as a Hilton airport. We appreciate the airport support for a real living wage of $25 an hour for [1:09:13 PM] living wage of $25 an hour for our workers inside of the airport who work for Delaware north. We are also supportive of the proposed lease extension for the prospera Hilton airport, a company that pays a living wage and respects workers rights. We are primarily here today, however, to deliver the message that management and Hyatt. Airport Hyatt place Austin airport has a on a fast track to a labor dispute. One. Workers for concession companies at the airport and at the hotel in front of Hyatt place, the Hilton Austin airport are already union, all subject to Austin's living wage ordinance. The Hyatt place has been the only nonunion holdout at the airport land and does not pay workers a living wage, which is currently $20.80. On July 10th, 2024, the union won the election to be the [1:10:14 PM] won the election to be the bargaining representative of workers at the Hyatt place 24 to 8. Prior to the election, a company supervisor drove the company van in front of an off property venue where the workers were holding a union meeting. Shortly before the election was held, the company gave employees a raise. Five after the election, the company filed four objections to challenge the certification of the election. Results. The national relations board dismissed three objections. The fourth went to a hearing and the nlrb hearing officer recommended the objection be overruled and that the result of the election be certified. The company has now filed exceptions to that recommendation, effectively delaying union recognition after the election was held, a few union supporters were given discipline for job performance issues. That includes two workers who were recently fired, [1:11:14 PM] workers who were recently fired, and those terminations are subject on more federal charges with the national relations board. Now, I have another speaker, str Olvera. >> Yes, I believe we called her earlier. Are we down to our three minutes? Do you want to make sure the speakers are timed correctly? Okay, yes. Esther. >> Mr. My name is Esther Olvera. Estamos aqui por el motivo de uno. >> Memento. Do we have a translator available, or would someone else like to translate for her? >> Translate for her? >> Okay. Yes, if you would. Thank you so much. Yeah. Just so English and Spanish speakers. >> The nosotros is the hemos recibido muchas muchas Orlowski desde la union con nosotros. El la compania no ha Querido aceptar el el tovo en la union Y Y desde entonces vamos empezaron [1:12:18 PM] Y desde entonces vamos empezaron a tomar muchas gracias a encontrar de todos los trabajadores. Nos pidieron a me a otra companera. >> So she said my name is Esther. I work at the Hyatt place Austin airport in the laundry department. I have recently been fired for supporting the union publicly and since then face retaliation from management being targeted and telling me after six years of working there that I don't know how to mop and clean and do a essential job duties. >> Entonces este es lo nosotros queremos en primer Lugar nos apoyan porque este en el trabajo a me la otra Y a otros dos muchachos de Fuentes. Este Ya mas de eso es Velasquez se quedaron. Este es tan recibiendo muchas este Ya muchas empresarias en contra de todas [1:13:19 PM] empresarias en contra de todas entonces este eso es lo unico nosotros podemos toman cartas en el asunto porque para qué es mas nada para la la compania. Reconoce Ya tenemos nosotros en la union porque no quieren reconocer. Qué nosotros este Ya tenemos la union se pueda decir. >> So she there was a the company has sent people to like spy on workers so have found like recording like phones recording in their work areas and since then have been in a really hostile working environment and they fired these two union activists to kind of set the example to the rest of the workers about what's going to happen if you exercise your constitutional rights to form a union. We ask for your support and to applying pressure to the company to recognize unite here as the collective bargaining representative of the hotel [1:14:23 PM] representative of the hotel workers. There. And that would be it. Thank you so much for your time and the support. >> Muchas gracias, vice chair. >> Qadri. >> Sure. >> And then council member vela. >> Yeah, I just want to thank you all for being here today. I know myself, councilmember vela, councilmember Fuentes, and congressman and senator Sanders came to the airport. You know, they delivered a letter to management. And it's unfortunate that this dispute has continued, that they've treated you guys so poorly, us as a diocese. And we're very supportive of unions, of workers. You guys are the ones that make the city, you know, the great city that it is. So I'm so sorry this is happening. And, you know, we're going to do everything that we can from from a city side, from a local government side to, to be supportive. And, you know, shame on the Hyatt place for, for just doing what they're doing. >> And thank you guys for the support I appreciate it. >> Of course. Muchas gracias por estar aqui por Tu tiempo to dedicacion Y la fuerza has ensenado era un placer estar [1:15:24 PM] ensenado era un placer estar aqui con ustedes a ir a hablar con el director del hotel Y estamos en Tu Lado Y tenemos apoyar suerte con las negociaciones Y no mas. Quiero Dar las gracias. >> Gracias. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much for being here today. We will now approve the minutes from the mobility committee meeting from September 19th, 2024. >> We have one more. One more comment. Okay. We have Hector martel. Okay. >> Yeah. Go ahead. Hector. >> Good morning. Council members. I'm here to talk about the canyon road project. I'm a Windsor park resident. I live less than a block from Cameron, from Cameron road, and I drive that road every day to take my ten year old to school. I see kids waiting for a school, busses, 20 year Olds walking [1:16:24 PM] busses, 20 year Olds walking their dogs, commuters and bicyclists. Frankly, I avoid bicycling on that on Cameron road. So this is a long overdue project and I appreciate the hard work to get to get to here. Windsor park is surrounded by a 35 to 90 and 51st, and we need better pedestrian and bicycle connections into and out of the neighborhood. So this project will be a huge asset. In the last ten years, we saw some lane reductions that were pretty modest on in Cameron, on Cameron road below 290. That have made the road safer. So I have seen how these lane conversions do help, and I think the next step is formalizing the bike lanes and making sure that these are also kind of a good infrastructure to go with those lane reductions. I appreciate the shorter pedestrian crossing distances and helping make walking and transit safer along [1:17:25 PM] walking and transit safer along that corridor. One. One thing that I do want to point out is that this project still could be better. We're talking about the 1.3 miles of three lane segments where we know that this kind of facility can be more dangerous, so we want to make sure that this is also improved. And on Cameron road at Cameron and hillcrest, we have a memorial ghost bike for Mary day. And I'm sure all of you have the safety data to back up. How dangerous Cameron and dessau can be. So I appreciate the hard work and we really want to see this project going forward, and we want to make sure that we are especially concerned about the highway intersections. When we look at the whole six mile segment, we want to make sure that those are have good bicycle protections. And this is also especially [1:18:27 PM] And this is also especially critical because I-35 is starting construction. And we know that I-35, when stuff happens on I-35, then Cameron and dessau kind of accept more and more traffic and those higher speeds and those bicycle protections are really critical to keeping that road safer for every user. Thank you. >> Thank you. I really appreciate your input. Any comments? >> Just thank you for your testimony. And he mentioned the Cameron lane conversion Cameron road conversion. That was honestly my first experience with a lane reduction. I saw it go from a four lane road to a three lane two lanes, plus a bike lanes and the turning lane, and it was remarkable. Honestly, what a great improvement that was for just being able to cross the street. And also in terms of the number of accidents, you know, there were just a bunch of folks when someone was turning [1:19:30 PM] folks when someone was turning left in, in when it was a four lane people were trying to pull out and it was just constantly. And it's just a much better road after that conversion. So that was a real eye opener for me. Just as a, you know, a civilian at the time. And but it's good to see the city continue to move in that direction and looking forward to the Cameron design improvements, too. >> Certainly appreciate that. I know we're going to get some more information on those later on in in the programing, and so I'm looking forward to seeing some of that data and some of the plans that we'll be able to discuss further. We are now set to approve the minutes of mobility committee meeting from September 19th, 2024. Do I have a motion from vice chair qadri, a second from council member vela. All in favor? That is unanimous. For those of us in attendance today, item number two is an update from the urban transportation commission regarding actions from their October 1st meeting. Do we have chair Suzanne somers joining us today? Has she been able to log in yet? There we go. [1:20:30 PM] in yet? There we go. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes we can. We can't see you, though. I'm not sure if you need to turn your camera on. >> Seems to not be loving my video right now. Oh, there we go, there we go. >> We can see you and hear you now. >> Okay, well, council members, thank you so much for having us out here. As always, we always appreciate this opportunity to speak with you. So I'll quickly update you on our actions from October. We did see a presentation with no action on the safety barriers at medical facilities. I know you're aware of that working its way through staff process, so no action on that. But we did hear a presentation on it and we did have a busy month in October. We had three recommendations. The first one is regarding city leap. I know that council took that up on October 10th, and we and utc [1:21:31 PM] on October 10th, and we and utc had accelerated it to our October agenda to get in there right before the council meeting. So we did recommend that staff study the feasibility of the city leap concept, and also that we consider the effects on transit speed and reliability. The partnerships with capmetro and as well, keeping in mind that city leap could be a way to generate ideas and concepts that would inform future bond cycles as well, so that was our recommendation there. I know you've read it because you passed something at city council on the 10th, so that should cover that one. The second recommendation, I do want to spend some time speaking about it is the great springs project partnership. I know that the environmental commission, as well as the bicycle advisory council, also have past items in regards to great springs project. So if you're familiar with the urban trails plan 2023, it does sort of capture in there [1:22:35 PM] it does sort of capture in there some how to say approved or partners for various trails, such as the red line parkway and initiative or the shoal creek conservancy and things like that. And the great springs project is an organization, a regional organization, really, and they're very eager to partner with staff and to further the concepts in any way they can, whether it be planning, funding, other public private partnerships and just and insofar as any trails touch on their mission, they're very interested in being a partner with that. Their staff has been very involved in speaking to several of the urban transportation commissioners and is very eager to be involved, but realize that they need council action and approval to really be viewed in the same way because they're not in that list. There's like a little grid almost towards the end of the plan where it sort of captures some of those organizations. So [1:23:36 PM] some of those organizations. So the recommendation is sort of discussing what is great springs project, what are their activities and actions, how does it relate to our urban trails plan and some of our mobility goals? And ours is I mean, there's these three recommendations that you can review. The urban transportation one is a little bit more tweaked for the transportation, I think you will see. But, you know, it's talking about the benefits that we see that would could evolve from this partnership. So we do recommend that city staff, including those in parks and recreation department, watershed protection, transportation, public works and others, if necessary, be authorized and encouraged to partner with great springs project and some of the shared projects of interest include, but are not limited to onion creek greenway, Williamson creek greenbelt trail along the Colorado river along the Colorado dam, all in the proposed urban trail network, and I would add here, too, that there is an opportunity to potentially advance some of the projects that we might not otherwise be able to advance with our current funding and [1:24:37 PM] with our current funding and planning through some of these partnerships. So that would be a great opportunity, because urban transportation commission has been very focused on how we can accelerate the completion and delivery of the urban trails, which is a little bit, as we've discussed, a little bit more on an extended timeline than some of our other transportation infrastructure plans. So we do recommend that city council take whatever action it may determine necessary, such as a memorandum of agreement, memorandum of understanding, resolution of support, or similar to establish a partnership with great springs project to serve the city's interests with respect to connectivity, transportation, and other outcomes. So I think the ask here really is that we would, you know, memorialize this with city council in some way. I think that staff are open to the concept of working with great springs project, but they felt that they needed some council direction to support that. And so it would be great if some folks on the mobility, [1:25:38 PM] if some folks on the mobility, some of our council members in this group from the mobility committee would be willing to sponsor some sort of appropriate council action, whatever you all deem appropriate. That would memorialize this committee, this commitment. So I would love to discuss you there. I don't know, I think, Mike, I don't know if he signed up, but I think he might be listening in. Mike from great springs project. He's a very responsive and helpful as well. I know he would be willing to speak with you about his organization or some of the partnerships that and ways that we could benefit. And it's really it's exciting because it's really a regional project that goes all the way down to San Antonio, thinking about ways that we can connect even different cities in our region, which is really, really exciting. And then our last recommendation was the transit enhancement plan. So I know that you're all aware of the transit and transit enhancement projects, which is one of the newer offices and sets of projects where city of Austin is partnering with [1:26:40 PM] Austin is partnering with capmetro to think about ways projects, and that can be funded with city funds to support the operations of our capmetro transit system and make everything more effective and efficient and improve our experience for riders. So we have a recommendation basically to continue that work. So we recommend basically so there is a plan that is the let me make sure I get the name right here. So there is a transit enhancement infrastructure report. And that report identified 37 projects that would be of benefit to the city. And so they've been working through funding those projects in the plan. But we know that there are more and that we know that the 37 projects are probably just our first round of things. And so we would really like to see that transit enhancement plan that could be parallel to some of our other [1:27:40 PM] parallel to some of our other plans that could be continuously updated, that could be, you know, an amendment to the asmp to really make sure that we're continuously generating these projects that will, you know, support cap metro's operations. We know that that's just going to be ongoing as we continue to try to meet our transportation and environmental goals, to make transit sort of the first choice for our community. So for transportation needs. So we just said that consider making a building basically building on the work of the transit transit enhancement infrastructure project to create a more comprehensive plan. Obviously, you'll see in the recommendation, we acknowledge that this can't be done without our partnerships with capmetro, which I think, luckily everyone agrees are really quite strong. There's a lot of consultation and work going on that's very beneficial and didn't always necessarily happen in the medium distance past. So I think it's really great to see that [1:28:41 PM] really great to see that happening, and we want to make sure that's continuing the work. So obviously we know the 37 projects are there, but we know other things that are going to come from project connect will need to be incorporated into there and other things that we may not even know yet until we talk to capmetro and continuing to use the methodology that was developed for the initial transit enhancement infrastructure report to sort of measure the probable impact on transit performance and also conduct some public engagement with this plan. I think that's an important piece as well, as we continue to sort of enhance and extend this planning, we also urge city council to adopt transit enhancement funding in all future transportation bond cycles and to put a comprehensive mobility bond before the voters no later than 2026. And we recommend also the bond election advisory task force, which is being formed or formed to also evaluate these opportunities and for transit enhancement projects and include that in their final recommendation to city council. [1:29:41 PM] recommendation to city council. So those are our actions for this month. I certainly would be happy to take any questions. >> Thank you for sharing all of those updates. It seems like you all have been very busy. I appreciate the work that you all have done on these initiatives. I know with city leap we just passed that, like you said at city council and I know that vice chair qadri and I had discussed that during the budget a couple of months ago and said, you know, how do we tackle this? How do we make sure that we're showing that council is supporting these initiatives? So I'm glad that we've now taken action as a full diocese on the great springs project partnership. I think that's a pretty good idea. I think it's something that we should at least show council support for. We're lucky to have private partners working in these spaces to make to make these areas accessible for everybody. I grew up in San Antonio, so the idea of having a magical trail that goes all the way from San Antonio, connecting into the violet crown trail, which is in district eight, is something that's really important to me and something I want to see succeed. So I'm happy to look into what we can do to help [1:30:42 PM] into what we can do to help support the work of the commissions and the recommendations that you all have provided to us, and definitely want to push forward on our transit plans. I know we had some dollars set aside in the 2020 mobility bond that we championed. The $460 million, trying to make sure that these partnerships between our transportation and public works and our capmetro partners are successful and have great methods of communication, which it seems like they do. So we know every day those folks are talking about how to ensure we have access to transit, and that all different parts of town are able to connect into these networks. And yes, 2026 mobility bonds. I, I firmly believe we need to have more mobility bonds in there. First and foremost, the sidewalk program has been delivering projects so successfully for a couple of years that it's time to make sure they have enough money to continue into their planning. Did you want to jump in again, chair Summers, and then I'll see if my colleagues have any questions or thoughts to share. >> Yeah, two things. So one on great springs project. And I [1:31:43 PM] great springs project. And I think that my understanding is that staff have been very collaborative with great springs, but there's sort of a sense that maybe they aren't quite an approved partner at the level that some are memorialized in the urban trails plan 2023. So I think that that may create some barriers for, for those partnerships. And so I think that whatever we can do to remove those barriers for staff, I think is helpful. So I think that that's really the concern there and why you've seen this bubbling up in a couple of commissions. And you can like I said, it's environmental commission, a bicycle advisory council. And now utc, as well. Regarding the transit enhancement, I think there I mean, and this could look in different forms, but I think that the sense of utc was that we see this as really parallel to the sidewalks, crossings and plan and the bicycle plan and the urban trails plan is that transit enhancement should also be its own plan, and that the initial report was really I [1:32:43 PM] initial report was really I mean, it's called a report and not a plan. Right? And so like thinking about how to transition that for the long term past the 37 initial projects, I think, is, you know, and that's obviously much longer term. But like thinking through how do we continue to keep memorializing that and make sure we're doing continuous planning. So and I know the staff are eager to be doing that as well. So those are the only things. And I'm happy to take more questions or comments. >> Thank you for that insight. Do we have any questions or comments from okay, I think that's great. Thank you so much for your time. Chair Summers. We appreciate you and the rest of the commission's work. >> Thank you. Wonderful. >> Thank you. That moves us to item number three, our update on the vision zero program. I see Lewis Leff is here. Welcome. Thank you. >> Committee members I'm Lewis Leff. >> Public works I'm going to be presenting today our vision zero updates, including some key [1:33:43 PM] updates, including some key projects that we've been working on over the past couple of years. Before I jump into all the data and interesting statistics and trends, as we always do, we'd like to take a moment to recognize the profound loss that we've experienced on our streets due to motor vehicle crashes. This year has been trending about the same level as last year, which was still a pretty significant reduction from the prior years. So we've seen some progress, but continues to be a major public health issue for our community. So just taking a moment to honor these lives. As we start with the data, overall, the vision zero goal is to reduce serious injuries and fatalities due to motor vehicle crashes to zero. And what we've seen is some significant progress through the projects and initiatives that we've done over the prior years. We've been able to successfully implement quite a bit of community bonds, as well as starting to have some significant grant monies going towards improving safety on our streets across our community. As of now, through data of end of September, we've seen an almost [1:34:44 PM] September, we've seen an almost 18% reduction in 2024 relative to a five year average. Prior to that, fatalities and serious injury is down across all primary modes except cyclists. This is one area where we continue to focus on because of the nature of vulnerable users out on a roadway, we also know that as we continue to invest in the infrastructure that's making it safer for cyclists, we are seeing more people out on the roads taking advantage of that. And with that increased exposure, we're going to see some increases in some of these travel modes. So we want to continue to make sure that we're investing appropriately across the network to make sure that everybody has a safe, you know, safe path from their origin to their destination. And we're continuing to implement the bonds and other programs to make sure that we connect those gaps that exist in our network today. One area that we've always talked about is the fact that usually somewhere between two thirds to three quarters of our fatalities happen on txdot owned roadways. Thankfully, we've seen [1:35:44 PM] roadways. Thankfully, we've seen quite a significant decrease on on system txdot owned roadways, fatalities and serious injuries in the past 18 months or so. Not sure how to explain that fully, but the good part is the outcome is what we're trying to achieve. And so hopefully we're starting to see that reduction and that trend line start to shift from what we've seen in the past relative to the off system or the city owned streets that we've had better progress in the past. As far as the vision zero program and the mobility bonds that have been committed by our community. A great success story is that the 2016 mobility bonds for vision zero were fully expended as of last month, two months ago. That's 18 major intersection safety projects completed on time. And we've seen also ten more that are completed or to be completed by the corridor program, which was determined at the start of the 2016 bond process. As we saw the overlap where the corridors were relative to where the vision zero intersections were located. 2018 bond. We have in progress and we've made significant [1:36:45 PM] and we've made significant progress. We've had four major intersection safety projects completed, and the remainder of the funds really are focused on some areas that haven't typically been as high profile for vision zero. But we know that safety lighting is a is a critical need. Over half of our fatalities occur in the overnight hours when the conditions are dark, and that's just a third of the of the 24 hours of a day. So we've really focused on lighting and overcome some great obstacles to be able to implement new lighting for safety purposes. Slaughter lane lighting was recently completed. Howard lanes and construction. We've got three roadways lined up, including pierce lane and bluff springs in the southeast and east area, and Mcneal drive up in the northwest. We're also going to go back to some of those original 2016 vision zero intersection locations, and make sure that they've got appropriate levels of lighting. So 13 of those intersections will now have lighting added to the intersection, safety improvements that were already in place. Their 2020 bond implementation in progress and ongoing. We've broadened the scope of the work that we're going to do with the language [1:37:49 PM] going to do with the language allowed to us in that bond, not just focused on intersection safety, but thinking more systemically, thinking about systemic improvements with traffic signals or related infrastructure, thinking about ways that we can start to do these corridor long projects, like you've started to see and hear more about and low cost, high impact systemic treatments that can really make a difference, like lighting, for example. We're leveraging some of that bucket of funds for that 2022 safe streets and roads for all grant local match. And so we'll have a little bit of a longer time frame for that local match dollars to be spent, as it's tied to that five year grant from the us dot and to jump into that grant, you know, we were awarded 23 million in early 2023. We had a 6 million or so local match there. And that's going to provide more intersection safety projects. Ten pedestrian hybrid beacons throughout the city, citywide street lighting plan and systemic safety improvements at dozens of locations. We're expecting those first projects to really get started. We're really eager to get the seventh street and Springdale location started. We've got the final [1:38:50 PM] started. We've got the final design there and that's lined up for construction early next year, or maybe even starting at the end of this year. Sorry, March of 2025. I was getting ahead of myself, Burleson, Stastny and montopolis. Another major intersection safety project we've had on our list for a while. We're excited for that one. And then the corridor program programs like Cameron road Odessa that we're starting to do, that will have some funding from this grant as well. And the citywide lighting plan, you know, we've heard from a number of elements of our community, different areas of our community that lighting is an issue. They want to be able to walk somewhere safely. They want to be able to take transit and make sure that they're safe from that transit stop back home, and they feel lighting is an important part to that. So we're excited about that citywide lighting plan to take a more holistic look than what we've done in the past with particular smaller areas of town. And then I'll mention two more details to come. But we were awarded that $10 million ss for a grant for 2024. And so that's going to fund pedestrian crossings at about 50 locations, including about 7 or 8 rfbs. And then pedestrian hybrid beacons and [1:39:53 PM] pedestrian hybrid beacons and then crossing islands. And rfb is being the remainder of those. It will likely fund one grade separated crossing of I-35, probably up at little walnut creek area, and then funding for demonstration projects tied to the living streets program using quick build, cost effective and temporary traffic calming devices. So we're excited about that one. We'll have more kind of programmatic and schedule and timeline to present at the next update. Want to get into two of our significant projects of late? The Barton springs road safety pilot. August 24th was the conclusion of the 12 months of the pilot. After substantial completion in August 23rd, we did do some additional surveys to make sure that we had a good sense of what the community was thinking and feeling about that, and over 70% of survey respondents said that they supported or somewhat supported the pilot, and the changes that were made there. What we've seen from the data is that it's become a safer and more comfortable street. We've seen that substantial reduction in high end speeding. You can see 470 fewer drivers per day going over ten miles an hour over the [1:40:53 PM] over ten miles an hour over the speed limit that's posted there. A reduction in crashes, continuation of no serious injuries or fatalities through the pilot period. And then we did see a slight uptick in the non- severe cyclist crashes. There's a couple of locations that we've seen some interactions between vehicle drivers and cyclists, and we're starting to address those with some upgrades and new treatments as well. And then just lastly, again, that sentiment, how people are feeling about it, the increase in the share of people feeling that they are comfortable or at least somewhat comfortable or very comfortable going from 36% prior to the pilot to over 65% after. Obviously, we want to maintain the an appropriate level of traffic operations through here. We knew that going from two lanes each direction to one, we're going to have a longer queue, just like we expected. We did see that happen, and the majority of people are still getting through the same traffic signal on the same cycle that we had before. No apparent operational impacts on parallel corridors, something we want to make sure that we're not just displacing traffic to other corridors and causing issues [1:41:54 PM] corridors and causing issues elsewhere. We looked at a variety of other streets that were kind of north and south of here, and did not see any significant impacts. So overall, quite a significant project with some really significant safety results that we're really proud of. And we do have next steps there. We want to make sure that we continue to adjust that signal timing to optimize that motor vehicle operations, particularly as Morton, I know that during the really peak, you know, 30 minutes to an hour of the morning and afternoon rush hours, we're still seeing a little bit of tweaks that are needed certain days of the week with different commuting patterns. We continue to evolve as a community of when we expect people to be in different locations, so we'll continue to optimize that. That signal timing where we can. Also, looking at more robust physical protection, a good number of comments in the survey were about those white delineator posts. As we hear a lot about. So we're going to look to where those posts might be something that we'd want to transition, particularly in certain areas, like going eastbound where we've got a few businesses where the drivers are crossing over the bike lane to get into parking spots. So we're going to take a [1:42:55 PM] spots. So we're going to take a look at those locations, see if we want to make some adjustments there. Bring the bike lane behind the parking potentially, and start to address that issue. The last connection from zilker park all the way over to congress is really the intersection of south Lamar and Barton springs. Having a safe way to cross that going from an off street facility into the on street facility west of Lamar. We want to make sure that we've got that connection and again, filling the gap that's that's needed for that safe connection. All the way from zilker over to congress avenue. So we'll be taking a look at that. Another comment we got was just about what kind of impacts it might be having on emergency response. We've been working very closely with AFD, had conversations with ems, want to make sure that they understand kind of what the design allows for with the additional space in that wide protected bike lane that they can actually use. But more importantly, I think we're going to be implementing a pilot of emergency vehicle preemption, which means as that emergency vehicle starts to approach a traffic light within a certain distance, that'll send a signal to the light to turn to green as soon as it can safely. And that [1:43:56 PM] soon as it can safely. And that will allow those emergency vehicles to get through and all the vehicles in front of them, so that we can get that emergency response going in a little bit faster. And the last piece is just as we always talk about trying to enhance that multimodal data collection, you know, we were able to install what's called an echo counter just west of sterling on Barton springs. And some of the numbers were kind of phenomenal to see on a typical weekday, 250 cyclists, 320 pedestrians being counted on a weekend, 370 cyclists and 400 pedestrians. And when you talk about events, you know we don't have the numbers from acl just yet. But blues on the green over the summer, 800 over 800 cyclists and 4700 people walking by that echo counter. So we know the demand is there, the need is there for these safer facilities, and we're excited to start to better our data collection around that, to make sure that we're continuing to monitor where these locations are that need these improvements and continue to implement those improvements over time. I want to move towards a project that is more in its nascent stages. [1:44:58 PM] is more in its nascent stages. Cameron road, diesel road. This is an area that has been identified through multiple adopted plans by the city council. The smp, the 2023 bicycle plan, 2023 sidewalks, crossings and shared streets plan. I think we've known and the community has known and made it known that this is an area that needs some attention and looking at the data only confirmed that even more nearly 100 people injured or killed in traffic crashes each year, and an estimated $100 million of comprehensive cost. When we talk about comprehensive cost, what we're talking about is the cost to the individuals involved in the crashes from their hospital and medical bills to vehicle repairs. We're talking about cost to the community from the congestion that happens from these crashes and the loss of economic gain and value. We're talking about the public safety response costs. When we have a fire truck that has to respond immediately and for many of these crashes, APD is showing up. What is the cost for our general fund to be able to go and address these crashes on a regular basis? So significant cost on a six mile stretch of road. We did hear from the [1:45:59 PM] road. We did hear from the community back in 2019. Vast majority saying they were very or somewhat uncomfortable on that road. And we tried, you know, through the pandemic period to do some low cost quick build strategies, trying some signage, trying some things with the signal timing and signal infrastructure. But the safety issues just continue to persist, not only that, you know, there's an equity lens that we apply to our work as well. And over 70% of the injured people or killed people on this roadway were people of color. So we know that this is an overrepresentation relative to the community. So what we've proposed are corridor wide improvements, pedestrian crossings to make shorter crossing distances, traffic signal upgrades, continuing to work on the timing, street lighting through the whole section of the corridor, looking at access management to make sure that as people are entering and exiting, some of those destinations along the corridor, that we're not causing them to go across multiple lanes of travel to gauge each direction as they make that turn. And then bus and transit stop improvements as well. On 51st to [1:46:59 PM] improvements as well. On 51st to 290, you know, we've already had that conversion of the lanes there. And so looking at the physical protection for the existing bike lanes and spacing those a little bit more appropriately to today's standards. And then from 290 to palmer, majority of it will be a conversion to two vehicle lanes in each direction. Thinking about how we get those shared use paths where those additional lanes are needed. I think there's check my notes, just want to make sure there are four locations where we've got three lane sections that you've heard about, and I'm glad to get into more detail on that as well. And then yeah, just making sure that we've got the on street facilities where they need to be and then the off street where we can't accommodate them on street. When we went out to the community to, to talk about what this project was going to look like, we got over a thousand survey responses. A great response, and the same kind of feelings persist. You know, the uncomfortable feelings about traveling there on any mode, even in vehicles. Most of the people, when they saw the proposed improvements said they strongly or somewhat support it, [1:48:02 PM] strongly or somewhat support it, with about 12% strongly opposing it. We tried the best we could to be able to do some in-person engagement as well. Not just online presence, but going to back to school events, doing block walking, meeting with neighborhood groups directly and then trying different social media posts where they might be seen by the majority of the community members. There, including some Spanish focused outreach as part of that feedback, we really did make a few tweaks to the design that hopefully will reflect what the community wanted to see. One of those being adding that third lane southbound from Shropshire and breaker down to the breaker lane south to be able to accommodate that heavy turn movement, looking at dual left turns at breaker lane going in the other direction, and then left turn pockets at some of the median breaks for some of the major apartment complexes along Cameron dessau, and then access management generally throughout the corridor. So what we plan to do from here is, is integrate that community feedback into the final designs and then be able to start construction. Hopefully, looking at the early 2025 with a phased approach, you [1:49:02 PM] 2025 with a phased approach, you know, starting with some of those physical protected bike lanes and lane conversions, looking at those key shared use path connections and then starting to look at that one critical major intersection safety, Cameron and us 183, where we do have two of those approaches with the three lanes, because of the heavy demand and volume for those turn lanes, some of the site distance and curvature of the roadway causes some issues with trying to go down too far. And if we had traffic back up from that intersection, we'd be in some serious kind of congestion and delay opportunities outside of that zone. So what we're trying to do is really address the community concerns that we've heard, and then look at the data that's showing us that we're going to need to maintain some capacity there, and we'll take those bike facilities off street so they'll be behind the curve and protected fully. Signal upgrades and the pedestrian hybrid beacons will start to come into place middle of next year. And then the street lighting project. I think we plan to bring that forward for a council construction contract and get that started as well. The last piece will be some of those new bus stops that will be going in, related to the plans [1:50:03 PM] going in, related to the plans for future phases, somewhat dependent on available funding will be completing those remaining shared use path connections. Looking at the existing bus stops, if we wanted to upgrade those that we did not touch on the first phase and then some of those more permanent treatments with some of the protection for the on street cycle lanes. So that is the end of the presentation. And I'm assuming we might have a few good questions. So I'll be ready for some questions. Now. >> Vice chair qadri wants to kick us off. >> Great. I'm losing my voice now. I really appreciate the presentation. I really appreciate all the work that dpw does. Sorry. I'm going to quickly drink. Yeah, I know I did have a quick question around crash data, what sources are used for crash data and how do we determine whether crashes result in serious injury? But before you answer that question, I kind of want to tee it up to something that happened in the [1:51:05 PM] something that happened in the district, not not not too long ago. There was an individual who works at a restaurant on second street. She parks at the city hall parking garage, goes to work, comes back. After her shift ended, she was walking back to city hall around 10 P.M, and she was hit by a by an SUV in the crosswalk. We've been in touch with her and we've been working with dpw on, you know, on the situation, but what what happened, according to the worker fire responded to the crash. She said APD showed up. They showed up for about five minutes. They said it was a civil matter. So they didn't file a crash report, which I guess a separate question I would have then is T tp aware of the disconnect with APD relating to, to, to, to crash reports that at times they don't, I guess file them and then the APD also wouldn't run the license plate of the SUV that hit her, which also didn't make sense to me because there was something called the Lisa Torrey Smith [1:52:05 PM] called the Lisa Torrey Smith act, which went into law in 2021. And Lisa Torrey Smith was a mother in Missouri city who was struck on a crosswalk with her child, and she unfortunately died in 2017. But what that act does is that it it makes it illegal to strike a pedestrian in a crosswalk. So not not really. Also sure why why APD didn't run a license plate on the SUV that that had hit the resident in Austin. Later the woman went to a doctor. They found that she got a concussion from from the accident. Sorry from the crash and that she has chronic pain and she has some brain damage. So with all that being said, I kind of want to know how all the data collection goes. You know, like I said, in this situation, APD didn't file a crash report, APD didn't run a license plate on the SUV that hit her. Our our ems and fire [1:53:05 PM] hit her. Our our ems and fire are able to submit crash reports when you know if APD, for whatever reason, decides not to. So yeah, that's I'm laying it all out there. I might have some other questions after you give some answers. >> Yeah. Thank you. Council member. And I did become aware of that incident today through some emails that were forwarded. And it's always terrible to hear of those kind of situations happening, particularly literally just, you know, around the block from us right now. My understanding is that when APD shows up to an event, a crash incident, that they are relying on the public safety personnel that are there to make that judgment of whether there's a serious injury or not. And so with when a paramedic or a trained firefighter with that sort of skill set is there, typically there's a conversation between them about the level of severity of injury, and that's how they determine what to put down on a crash report. I can't speak to, you know, all the questions that you asked about APD. We'd be glad to follow up with them or work with your office to do so. But from a [1:54:08 PM] office to do so. But from a broader perspective about the crash data, you know, we recognize from the vision zero perspective that you can't just rely on crash reports. We recognize that 4 or 5 years ago, and we started to build out our own internal database by working with AFD and ems to say, what data do you have of the crashes that you're showing up to that we might not have visibility into because there's no formal crash report being filed. And we started to build that relationship. And at this point, I think we're pretty well formalized into getting regular reports from ems or AFD whenever their system says we're responding to a crash, you know, motor vehicle crash, we're getting that information and sometimes it lines up with a formal crash report, and many times it doesn't. And that helps us to understand the under-reporting, if you will, of incidents like this that might not be otherwise seen from just solely relying on one data source of public safety agencies filing crash reports, that gives us visibility into the trends and the overall number of incidents at certain locations. But without that crash report and the details, we don't have visibility into exactly what happened. What was the turning direction of that driver? Where [1:55:09 PM] direction of that driver? Where was the pedestrian at the time of the crash? You know, we don't have visibility. We just have an incident that happened here. It was a motor vehicle crash. It was this day and time that gives us some information again to look at places that we might not have on our radar as far as priority locations for improvements, but it doesn't give us the details on individual specific crashes. So we'll be glad to work with your office to reach out to that specific individual. But on a broader sense, I think we've got one of the better crash data systems that incorporates multiple sources of data to the best of our ability at this time. >> Got it. And just to clarify, APD can only do those some of those crash reports in any hypothetical situation, ems or fire could never, could never do it. >> My understanding is that it's public safety agencies per state transportation code. So dps, Travis county sheriffs or constables and APD are typically the reports that we see. Got it. >> Thank you. >> Reminds me I know that APD has launched the website where people can create their own reports. Is that something that folks who are involved in a [1:56:09 PM] folks who are involved in a crash or witness a crash could help provide that information. So there's something on file? >> Yeah, I'm not familiar with that site directly with APD. Your your transportation. But yeah, I'll, I'll check with the team and see if we've got that data coming to us or if that's something that we can start to build into our, our data stream as well. That'd be great. >> I'm sure there's some folks out there that may say, if I see something, I want to know how to help, and that there may be a way to catalog it regardless of whether the responding person actually files something themselves, or if folks need to go on to the website to provide that information. Did you have a follow up? >> Yeah, I had a follow up. Is there a reason? And I understand you had said that APD, you know, you know, got to the to the scene and I guess they didn't feel like they, you know, it warranted I guess filing the crash report, you know, based off of what maybe ems had said about the injuries, even though later, I guess we did find out that she had a concussion and [1:57:12 PM] that she had a concussion and some brain damage. Is there a reason why this specific incident wasn't on the vision zero dashboard? >> The vision zero dashboard, as far as the vision zero viewer online, correct. That reflects all of the cr three events, which is including all the fatalities, serious injuries and all the cr three reports. It would not include every single collision that we're aware of because we do get APD has a kind of non collision report that we get as well, and that would be something like there were two vehicles hit each other. There was a fender bender. APD didn't even show up. There was no crash report. But we know that that incident happened. This would be one of those likely where it would come in that report. A non cr three is what we call it. So that we'd have a sense of where those crashes and collisions are happening. But unless there was an injury, you know, I think cr threes it's $1,000 worth of vehicle damage or an injury. So if the person had an injury officer was there typically that would have been a crash report. That's filed. >> So would have had to have been like a physical like a like an apparent injury, not the brain damage that she suffered because I guess they couldn't [1:58:12 PM] because I guess they couldn't tell she had suffered brain damage. >> Yeah. I can't tell you what happened exactly on scene, but I think that's typically how they do it. Again, they consult with the paramedic and or the firefighter with that background to be able to understand what that severity is. And to be fair, you know, there are multiple times where we've seen somebody walk away from a crash and then they end up becoming a fatality statistic later. You know, their internal injuries are not visible. So is there a follow up? >> I mean, when I was in undergrad at UT, I got a car, ran me over and I didn't realize until after the fact that I had you know, some injuries that you couldn't that weren't, you know, visible to the eye. So is there, is there a follow up from from the hospital? >> Typically there would be a follow up from APD. They would update the crash report with that severity of injury. Again, typically it's only for fatalities when that becomes a fatality, we don't typically see a minor injury or no injury become a serious injury. For example. >> Okay. Got it. >> Okay. >> Councilmember vela thank you. Chair. >> Just in terms of the timeline, I mean, I know that [1:59:14 PM] timeline, I mean, I know that per the most recent information, believe the I-35, the northern kind of stretch of I-35 reconstruction is scheduled for start in 2026. When will the Cameron dessau improvements be done? >> Yeah, as I mentioned with the phased approach, there's going to be different elements happening at different times. I think the majority of the work, the primary kind of reconfiguration of the right of way space, there will be done next summer or fall. So it will be done by the end of 2025. Is the goal. Lighting projects, some other elements might, you know, bleed into 2026. But I think the goal is to try to get as much of that work done ahead of the other major construction, which is also something we keep in context as well. >> Great, because just my constituents in district four and district one are bracing for the traffic effects on Cameron, Bachman and other north south streets as people try to find [2:00:16 PM] streets as people try to find alternatives to I-35 during that road construction. So any, you know, safety improvements that we can get done to make sure that those are kind of viable roads during that construction timeline. But, you know, glad to hear that. It does seem to line up. You know, well, with the with txdot plans. Thank you. >> Thank you for that update. I think the Barton springs part of this project has been hugely successful. So I really appreciate you and your team going through and trying to make those intersections work. It's been surprising to me, any time folks reach out to me and say, traffic is so bad on Barton springs, I don't like the bike lanes. I say, how long were you delayed? And they usually say, well, once the light turned green, I wasn't delayed at all. And so I always have to follow up the frustration that some people feel with the queuing being a little bit longer through some of the intersections with the fact that once the lights turn green, they have been retimed so that folks [2:01:18 PM] have been retimed so that folks are not actually having to sit through multiple lights. I appreciate your team looking in great detail and the safety improvements that have happened along with it. >> Sure thing. Thank you very much. >> There's no other questions. I think we are finished with that item. All right. Thank you. The next one is an update on the bikeway parking prohibition update. We have director Mendoza welcome. >> Good afternoon, madam chair. Committee members, we're pleased to bring you an update on the bike lane enforcement that was passed by council resolution. I'm going to invite our parking enterprises division manager, Joseph al-jawahiri, to give you a brief update. >> Council members. Thank you. Richard. Again, Joseph qadri park enterprise manager I see you all again. Really appreciate this opportunity to give you all an update on what we're doing in our enforcement program. As we look at the resolution and how what we're doing next. So we're going to be talking about those [2:02:20 PM] going to be talking about those actions from the resolution that also include some code changes, specifically bike lane code. But we're also going to introduce some parking ordinance modernization changes that are essential to helping streamline our enforcement efforts. Before I really jump into the actions, I wanted to kind of speak to some of the actions piece of the resolution and the biggest impact to these resolutions will be the code changes that we're going to be recommending. It really provides a clarity for our mobility service officers that are the boots on the ground and essential to enforcing these codes. It's important to say that, you know, we were the top five customer service requests entered for parking violations. We did over 15,000 last fiscal year. So this is an increasingly need and demand on our on street system that our mobility service officers need those resources to be able to enforce effectively. So as we bring this, you'll see some things that we're not recommending, but it is a first phase step to strengthen our enforcement through these codes. [2:03:21 PM] enforcement through these codes. As we look into these other possibilities for technology and future uses. So I'll jump right into the visual cues for bike lanes. Of course, this is tbwa's obligation to continue to strengthen our bike lanes and infrastructure around them. We are moving this forward, of course, and really looking at our legacy bike lane and doing an evaluation process right now to understand what those needs are. These include, you know, the white delineators that you see, the sharrows, the markings that you see will be, you know, doing this over the next three months. We anticipate about 50,000 to $250,000, just depending on the ongoing need in the in the system itself. You know, we also do look at adding signage. We also want to reduce sign clutter as best as we can. We do have legacy bike lanes out there that do allow paid parking or sorry, just parking in general that are not signed. So we're continuing that evaluation process as well as we undergo this process, going to the electric bike fleet for mobility [2:04:23 PM] electric bike fleet for mobility service officers. Again, this is something that we right now focused on the amount of customer service requests and enforcement requests that we get using vehicles with safety lights is important to get to those as fast as we can. It provides those markers for the public to see us as well as well as, you know, not many. And when you talk about bike lane enforcement, some people are parked there. Some people are just sitting there using our lights to allow people to get out of the way. And it gives the resources to enforcement to do that. So although we're not recommending this right now, we do have the ability to reach those through our current vehicles. I also add another caveat that we do use traditional bicycles. Now, we do have an enforcement fleet that is allowed to do that. We train officers to use them. We can't, you know, force officers to use bikes, but we do train them. And when they can, they do use them to be able to get in around downtown, go to the volunteer program. So just again, unlike the accessible parking enforcement program, you know, [2:05:23 PM] enforcement program, you know, there's a risk to the approach without state code. And so we want to make sure that we are first strengthening what we can do with our mobility service officers. I want to thank council for approving our budget. We did receive ten mobility service officers approved in that really focused on our hotspot analysis and more efficient deployment for our enforcement as we roll those in. We currently have 53 msos, so this will bring us up to 60, which will allow us to really streamline and look at dedicated enforcement for our bike lanes, specifically ones that are habitual offenders, and go into those areas. We'll go to the bicycle friendly driver training program with citation forgiveness. So early research on this, we've we've talked to some peer cities. Unfortunately there's not really a high participation rates and impactful outcomes throughout research. But we're going to continue to look at this and see if it's something that we can do. You know, it's really costly [2:06:23 PM] do. You know, it's really costly for municipal court to install this in their case management system. You're talking about citations and putting them on hold while they go through a program. That's programing that can take a little while to get going. So our main focus at dpw is enforcement will do public education efforts as we go through this code amendment and transition period with warnings. So as you know, the code is adopted and we're out there. Enforcement will be handing out information as well as issuing warnings for a period of time to strengthen education. So one thing I forgot to mention, I want to just say that as I go through this, that we're going to have two parts to it. So I'm going to stop after this next section of parking code before we get into the parking code modernization, to give you all some time for q&a. So we're going to go straight into the bike lane parking code. So what we'll be doing is in our 12 dash five ordinance is adding this. This is not something that is currently in our ordinance to enforce. So we'll be adding this language to allow us to fight a [2:07:25 PM] language to allow us to fight a vehicle that is, you know, either stopped standing or parking in a lane or pathway with either markings or signage. We are working with municipal court on the specific language, you know, but we've you know, we're really follow guidance from municipal court on the language to ensure citations can be upheld. So, you know, we're looking at if there is no sign in place, can we use the markings there to write citations that's going to be the focus. Let's see. And of course you have the potential exemptions there that will be added. If someone is you know, has to use a bike lane for authorized use. The really focus here is to strengthen the enforcement program and giving those tools and resources to enforcement officers. When they go out there, they can write these citations and again, in conjunction with the visual cues as we expand those out over the next three months and figure out where those important resources need to go, this will allow us to write citations more [2:08:27 PM] to write citations more effectively. The real focus here is as we go through this and this resolution is giving enforcement the resources it needs to effectively do its job. And bring code up to date so that they can do that. And as we do this as a first phase, the first step, we can really look into these other issues and potential future technologies that we're looking at. I citations and other video enforcement that we would look to the state to potentially guide us on. So I will stop right there and see if you all have any questions. >> I have a couple, and maybe I'll start with one and see if council member Vella has any on the new code about designated bike lane. It says that y'all are proposing a motor vehicle operator shall not stop, stand or park in a lane or pathway that's been designated by official markings or signage. Isn't that what the old code said anyway? Isn't that what we tried to change? Was that it is illegal to park in the bike lane, where signage exists, and we what council approved was [2:09:27 PM] we what council approved was let's switch that and say you're not allowed to park there unless it says you're allowed to park there. Can you talk me through some of that language and what those markings that are referenced, what what kind of markings are we talking about. Yeah. >> So I mean the bike lane, Cheryl's the bike lane or the arrows on the sign on the ground itself. The markings. Or it could be the actual delineators itself. And we have guidelines to place those every certain feet, 250ft. First arrows. And further for other things, I think the focus here is if there is a legacy bike lane that has parking involved in it, that we would maybe potentially sign those. But we will research that as we go and as we kind of expand the system out. We do have those out there, right? So, you know, it would be helpful for enforcement of course, to have those signed. But we want to reduce sign clutter. And it just depending on what those agreements are with the community or what we've done in the past, will work with our enforcement team to understand that and take that into account as we roll this out. Anytime we have new code changes or [2:10:27 PM] have new code changes or anything that's included like this, where we're going to be trying to enforce the markings instead of a signage, there's challenges there. And I think that our focus now is to, you know, try to find ways to strengthen, you know, enforcement so they can do this public safety concern with bike lanes being blocked. But in order to do that, we'll have to do some more research for those specific things. So like the markings and things and legacy bike lanes that have traditionally allowed for parking, we'll do that over time. >> Okay. >> I think I would love to be involved in those conversations moving forward. As as these issues come back, I still want to understand what it looks like because we all know that those of us who have biked across Austin know that there's many different types of bike lanes with different markings, different signage and things like that. Lamar is a great example. South Lamar, where some of it looks really obvious that it's a bike lane. Some of it is kind of a shoulder that's maybe three feet. If you're really stretching it, which is obviously not a safe passing distance, even according to, I believe, state law. And then [2:11:28 PM] believe, state law. And then there's some that get a little bit wider and people start using them for restaurant delivery pickup. They pull over there so they can grab the food that they're trying to be able to get, so they can deliver it, but it is parking in the bike lane, and it's not really safe for people to enter that closest lane on south Lamar, because it's a bus lane and it's very unpredictable. There's tons of all modes of traffic. So I would love to understand better kind of how we are reaching those goals that the urban transportation commission had asked us to vet, and that council had approved to make sure that there doesn't have to be a sign. Every single step of the way, or a embellished marking on the road, just because there's so many bike lanes that don't have those added visibility cues to what? What is a bike lane and what isn't a bike lane? >> Yeah, that's that's the challenge. Right. And I think that, you know, as we look at this and we see those areas that are, you know, habitually called into csrs or have the biggest [2:12:29 PM] into csrs or have the biggest issues, you know, we might sign those. Right? I think that's important so that people understand those contexts. And as we continue to expand out, we may not have the resources right away. So it could be, you know, making sure that those are strengthened. Right? The visual cues, the markings, and then having them so often maybe it's, you know, shorter distance. This is really a coordinated effort through municipal court to understand what is going to be allowed, what's going to be upheld. You know, we don't we can't get that guidance. They can't give us specifics on language. That's just something they can't do yet. But as we kind of go through this process of making this code change, that's why we put our markings so that we have that ability in the future to try to tackle that. Right. We want to be able to strengthen without having to put sign clutter everywhere and give those tools to enforcement. And we know that we just can't right away put up signs where we can, but we can focus on those areas that are most our biggest critical issues. First and then expand out. >> Right. I appreciate that, and I know there's going to be a learning curve, because the point was to try to minimize the need for signs and to make it [2:13:29 PM] need for signs and to make it really clear if it's a bike lane, it's not for parking. But I appreciate that trying to get us to the place we want to be is a big lift. And it's going to be a learning curve for some folks in town. Did you have questions? I've got a few more, but I want to expand on the conversation. So go ahead. >> Just one. This may not be the right one, but one issue that constituents have routinely brought up has been the cleanliness of the bike lane. And I wasn't sure what do we have? Those little bike lanes, street sweepers and what are kind of, you know, rotation or time frame is because that's an issue that that again, people have repeatedly brought up a lot of times, obviously vehicles right there and they'll hit something. And so, you know, the kind of the junk ends up in the bike lane and makes it difficult and dangerous for bicyclists. >> Great question. Thank you. Councilmember. I'm gonna look to my team here. >> I don't know, it's a team effort. That's right. >> Thank you for the question. >> Council member Austin [2:14:31 PM] >> Council member Austin resource recovery does have what we call narrow sweepers for protected bike lanes. There are, I believe, three. Not all three are in operation all the time. We've experienced some alignment issues as they trailer them on and off other vehicles to get them around town. But yes, that's generally the responsibility of Austin resource recovery, and we've worked with them over the years to co-purchase that equipment and forecast the needs as the mileage increases. But to your point, just the yeah, the need is still there. And it's something that we are working across all asset classes to, to better understand maintenance as to the frequency, typically a boulevard, which from the parlance of our transportation criteria manual would be like levels two and three streets are about a done monthly and some some facilities are done every other week. Given some of the issues that you brought up, just the consistent amount of debris, all right. >> Thank you. And is that is that y'all or rr or it is rr [2:15:31 PM] that y'all or rr or it is rr it's rr yeah okay. So future kind of questions should be directed to them or requests for you know let's say hey this one is in real bad shape. Can you, you know, do a supplemental cleaning or something like that would be the rr. >> Yes. Yeah. And we would encourage folks to, to use the three on one system to help them direct those needs for the time being. As we get more proactive about that. >> Thank you very much. That's very helpful. Yeah, I appreciate that question. >> I know I've seen especially after roads get resurfaced and they use that chip and seal product, a lot of the gravel ends up in the bike lanes. And you know, I know most resource recovery vehicles that are doing lane sweeping aren't that big. But I have seen vehicles in other places that are small and can help with things like that. But that's a real danger to cyclists to have gravel or leaves as we enter the fall season. If car pulls out in front of you and you have to slam on your brakes, that bike is it's sliding. It's moving like a boat on water. It's not going to it's not going to be able to grip and stop you in a [2:16:32 PM] able to grip and stop you in a way to produce the safety outcome that you want. I have a couple more questions. Did you get all of yours answered? Okay, great. The cost estimate of ranging from 50 to 250,000. Can you tell me is that per application? Is that a citywide number when it says cost estimates depend on the context of the street and outcome of public processes anticipated to range from 50 to 250 K? >> Right. >> Can you tell me the metric that's applied to. >> I think it's our obligation currently. It's it range in between of what we can do over the system as a whole. So, you know, that's why it's such a range. We don't know exactly what those needs are right now as we do this research over the next three months and really understand where those needs are and the legacy bike lanes, you know, we'll understand a better number, but 50 to 250 K was generally around the number that we were comfortable with putting to understand those first set of needs as we go through this process. Okay. >> So that's for the legacy lanes. But that is a citywide budget item. If you would budget line item correct for all the [2:17:34 PM] line item correct for all the legacy lanes, correct? Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure I understood that. And then as the evaluation takes place, will there be a public map of the protected versus unprotected lanes? I know that we have our all ages and ability network available on the website. Is there going to be a delineation of which ones are protected lanes versus. >> Yeah. Good question. Again, a team effort here today. >> Yeah. Just to recap. So there are a couple of miles probably of legacy bike lanes that we are mapping that may have, you know, parking. So upon the code switch to your that they're working on, we would want to thoughtfully approach how that street operates with respect to parking and the bike lanes, so that maybe if we had a community conversation about modifying that parking, that could be done with the neighborhoods, that's, you know, a vast, vast minority of bike lanes in the city. So we're not it's not a whole lot that that is, is being mapped or [2:18:34 PM] that that is, is being mapped or is mapped and is being assessed kind of segment by segment. As far as like where we do have our all ages abilities, network mapped and they it is categorized by by whether it meets the all ages test that that further delineation of whether it's protected bike lane or a neighborhood bikeway typology is not yet like differentiated. I think back to the what are the visual cues that give everyone what they need to best, you know, behave in the right of way and not park in a bike lane? The principally the legends and the marking on the street are going to indicate that where maybe signage is necessary at the start of a bike, a bike facility could be added. Where where there maybe is confusion, but generally we would approach that visual cues using the current tools that we the markings tools that we would that we already that we already use, not necessarily protection every time, but where protected bike lanes are able to be installed, that's just going to [2:19:35 PM] installed, that's just going to be an additional barrier to parking, basically. And those devices are evolving from, you know, currently flex post to the rubber curb flex post combination to even yet other methods that we're exploring for higher and higher quality of those barriers. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. I think that's all the questions I had for this section. I realize you do have another part to this presentation, so I'll let you continue. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. Council member. You know, just to kind of wrap up again, it's really, you know, important that, you know, we strengthen our enforcement efforts in these parking codes are essential to that. And these tools I really appreciate, commissioner Shryock, for coming up here. And providing those data points. It's important for us to work with our community members and get in different perspectives. And there's a lot of information that comes through csrs and what we look at, you know, we're doing internal research into that, you know, to potentially strengthen the csr system to get more dedicated data, to get [2:20:36 PM] more dedicated data, to get that, you know, more efficiently enforced. And so I really do appreciate that. And this is the first step into really creating an enforcement, strengthening our enforcement program for the future. All right. So let's see if this going no okay. It's kind of late here. Okay. So this this is really exciting for me I've worked with, you know, parking start ups as an enforcement officer 15 years ago, and now I'm here. And what's important is, is we've seen our parking system grow. We've we've added modern pieces to it. We've had multiple studies that really indicate what those technologies want us to do and move towards, you know, really creating a seamless system for the future of parking. But also really helping us get to a more dynamic and managed curb system. And we've been modernizing that. [2:21:36 PM] we've been modernizing that. We've we've had new technology, new payment systems and our, our legacy code does not meet to those needs. And we've had issues with enforcement. So a part of this process as we went through the resolution and looking at strengthening our bike lane and enforcement pieces, we found other codes that needed to be strengthened as well. Through this process. You know, most recently we've had, you know, strategic mobility plan. And, you know, of course, the Austin downtown parking strategy and the climate equity plan, but most recently, the u-I-l tap that really focused on downtown and said that, you know, we need to strengthen our enforcement management to be able to effectively enforce our mobility system. So I'm going to talk about some of these pieces more like streamlined technology terminology, you know, really focused on accommodating future technology and updating our fine amounts, which is crucial because they have not been touched since 2009. So 12 dash three, which is our parking meter ordinance. This really focuses on our pay and display [2:22:37 PM] focuses on our pay and display technologies. That's out there. It's all about physical. It doesn't talk anything about the digital environment that we currently have. So we're really strengthening what the parking meter is and taking it to the future, broadening that language to allow us to adopt future technologies like we have with the parking app and, and other potential uses for technology for payment systems and really, you know, taking the next step to strengthening with the city traffic engineer has to establish parking management strategies that are aligned with our city policies and our direction for the future of mobility, giving us the ability to affect our curb space and really take on planning efforts through our policies, through the increasing demand for our curb. You know, this is kind of an example of our current code restricts hours in the core downtown area, and we have other time frames for the rest of the city giving us these. The ability to strengthen that to do better planning efforts. So that's 12 dash three. And then [2:23:37 PM] that's 12 dash three. And then we're going to 12 dash five. This is where the actual bike lane enforcement code sits. So this is where we started really focusing on on consistent terminology and cleanup so that we can ensure that our enforcement team has the resources they need. We have a legacy musician. Loading zone ordinance in there that we're looking to create more and expand more on it to allow for better use. Currently, you have to use a hang tag to be able to use those Zones. So we're looking to make it a little bit more streamlined for more musicians to be able to use them. This was another recommendation through from council. The last time we spoke. Commercial loading and unloading ordinance is capped right now to the dash C, which is the downtown Austin project coordination zone. We're going to be removing that boundary so that we can effectively enforce the entire city when it comes to our commercial vehicle, commercial vehicle loading ordinance. So this is when a commercial [2:24:38 PM] this is when a commercial vehicle does park in a bike lane. They have increased fines as well. So this will be now through the entire city. This is important as well. Right now currently electric vehicles that or any vehicle that parks an electric vehicle spot that is not actively charging, we can't write them a citation. So this added language allows us to do that to affect actively charging vehicles and this is modernizing resident only Zones. This is super important. I know some of you all have seen what's going on in south congress and the things that dpw is doing with our hybrid Zones. This really allows us to use those and add paid elements to our residential parking ordinance, as well as give us the our director, the ability to promulgate rules to update those processes that we currently have for our legacy. Pp program. We work with municipal court. This was something that was important to them to add. You know, just kind of really focuses on streamlined vehicle ownership with case, [2:25:40 PM] vehicle ownership with case, with case management and then super important with this updating or adding fine amounts to reflect a policy. So in our in the ordinance itself, when you have code language for bike lane, it has to match what the fine amount language is within the code, which also indicates the standard fine and then the late fine that's there. So we are increasing those based off of, you know, inflation over time as well as, you know, what's focused in our policy direction to really create the habits and change that we want to. So again, bike lane enforcement that's added. There's a fine there. Now that's $125 for the standard fine. 250 for the late safety related violations blocking fire hydrant tow Zones that have been traditionally a lower cost are now increased to match those needs to create the habits that we want. And then, of course, our unpaid and expired meter. Traditionally, it's a $20 fine. And most people have complained that, you know, well, I can just park and get the citation rather [2:26:42 PM] park and get the citation rather than pay the meter. We do have Progressive rates downtown, so the longer you park, the higher the cost it is. So all of these changes really help us get to the next level. And allow us to effectively enforce so that you know, our enforcement team can get out there and have the resources they need to do that. Working in conjunction with municipal corp and taking this to the next level to better manage our parking system, quick next steps. So after this, we'll be focusing going to utc with these more broad code changes and get their recommendation in November and then come back to council in January for the full code adoption. And that is my time. >> All right. Vice chair qadri said he had a couple questions on this, right? >> Yeah. >> Thank you chair. Appreciate the presentation. I appreciate everyone's presentations. I always say that I just had two questions. One had to do with musician parking, which I know [2:27:43 PM] musician parking, which I know we've been working with. Council member Jose Velasquez and his office in d3 about better access and affordability. You know, really want to thank staff for also, you know, being part of those conversations. But will will the update that you, you know, have spoken about will that also include updates on the affordable parking program. >> So the affordable parking program is still separate. We're looking to strengthen that over time through the shared parking agreements or the things that we have going on. You know, we really want to expand that program into other parking facilities. But again, it's if there are private facilities, we don't really have the push to do that. All of our current city facilities that do allow it, you know, we want to strengthen that as well and get more users to use that. So that's also opening our time frames for being able to get into the garages. We did that here at city hall. It started off at three and then we moved it back down to 1:00. So we're looking at other areas [2:28:43 PM] we're looking at other areas that we can use unused, you know, parking off street parking to be able to add the affordable parking program. But this this right here code change. You don't. We wouldn't need to make any code changes to expand that. Got it. >> Thank you. And then my other question, one of the recommendations that came from the uli technical assistance panel on parking for downtown was considering the cost of on street parking to encourage, you know, folks to not park as long and for there to be more turnover. Is that something that's being considered by dpw? >> Of course, we're always looking at our ability to affect a curb as well as off street. They kind of go hand in hand, really. The focus on on street has the bigger demand on off street, and it kind of fluctuates. So as we see demand increase and we see those occupancy rates increase, we can affect those rates. So right now we have a Progressive pricing operation for all of our parking systems. So the longer you stay per hour the more it costs we can increase those fees. Right from right now it's $2. >> Yeah I don't park in downtown instead of parking in this [2:29:45 PM] instead of parking in this building. What what is the fee structure out of curiosity. >> Yeah, it goes $2 for the first two hours and it goes $3. 354, 450 and then five up to ten. The up to the 10th hour. Got it. So you can technically park for ten hours. And I think it's like 30 something dollars, $34 for the for that ten hours on street. But we're taking in that data to understand it and being able to affect the change that we need to. So we have a range within our budget to be able to effectively make those increases when we need to. So right now it's 2 to $5. And then we can each hour we can change that. But we don't we don't just change it on a whim. We have to look at the data and understand it better. Before we do that. >> Do you have a rough timeline on what any changes when they would occur? >> Not currently. We're still looking at that right now, I think. Right. You know, the focus is getting that better data. We're still learning about it. And then, you know, we can come back with more information on a potential timeline once we [2:30:45 PM] on a potential timeline once we get at that point. Great. >> Thank you. >> And to that point when you mentioned the on street versus off street, do you mean off street downtown parking like city hall, library, convention center, parking? Are those the rates that you were talking about? >> No, those are street in general demand for it. >> What I was speaking to is more on is all on street. So that's our on street parking rates. You know off street. Yes. Those are the facilities that I was speaking to. You know, as far as the affordable parking program or those things, those rates are changing and private rates will change depending on the demand on street. So they can increase those fees based off of what we do on street. So we're constantly in conversations with the private developments and owners, facility owners to see how we can help fluctuate that. >> Okay, that's interesting. And I know you may not have this data for this presentation, but when it does come back to council, I'm curious about what are the rates of our city public garages that that we're charging for, and how does that relate to the on street parking rates? [2:31:47 PM] the on street parking rates? Like if someone wanted to park at the library and they wanted to be there all day, what's that going to cost them? So I know we've had those conversations over the past years with the diocese, and I don't anticipate, you know, them off the top of your head, but would be curious as as this conversation comes back to the full diocese, kind of what what that comparison would be. >> Yeah, I can I can definitely bring that. I just want to add a note to that. Traditionally what we want is on street is short stays to create those turnovers. So typically off street facilities are going to be priced a little bit lower to promote people for long vehicle storage stays. So that's the way we try to work on. We want to fluctuate our on street to provide those quick access points for people and reduce the long vehicle stays so that we can get those into the garages. Right. >> I would imagine the downtown business owners that have pretty narrow storefronts are probably looking for that turnover, because it's an issue of whether someone goes to their store or not. For some of the folks that don't live closer into town. Right. Did you have any questions? I didn't want to skip you. The last thing I'll say. I really appreciate the presentation, too. I know the [2:32:47 PM] presentation, too. I know the timeline of coming back in January. We would love to see it come back in December. We have some council positions that are up for election. We have two council members that are termed out, and so it would be great if we could finalize this conversation by the end of the year with the folks that have been following this journey with us as opposed to throwing it to brand new people, that that might be coming in. >> Okay. Thank you. Council member. >> Thank you. >> And that I think is the end of that presentation that segues nicely into the next one. Item number five is the congress avenue urban design initiative. Talking about our downtown streets and how we're best utilizing them for modes of transit. >> Thank you. Council member Ellis, thank you for the opportunity to brief you on this very big, bold project. Happy to be here today. I'm Laura deerfield with the active transportation and street design division, with the transportation and public works department. So we'll go to the next slide. So today we want to remind ourselves a bit about the [2:33:52 PM] remind ourselves a bit about the congress avenue urban design initiative vision plan. What kind of got us here review the what's called the full build scenario, which has been the work we've been doing since the funding for the project was identified in the 2020 mobility bond to at least understand the so-called 30% or detailed design for the project, which has resulted in our understanding of the full costs for which we are not fully funded, then we will move into the proposed first phase of the project, focusing on the Cesar Chavez to 11th street segment. Talking about that sort of block by block, to fully understand what that proposal is, and that does have funding from the 2020 mobility bond. And our goal would be to do as much of that proposed first phase, pending the public process that we're in now. And then we'll we'll end with reminding folks how to get [2:34:54 PM] reminding folks how to get involved in the process, to share their feedback, to help shape that proposed first funded phase of the project. So briefly, the vision plan for congress avenue really began in earnest around the 2017 time frame, led by both public works and the planning and urban design groups with support from from then transportation to really envision what congress avenue could be as a place that is inclusive, that is economically vibrant, that honors the city's history and continues to work with our the beautiful natural environment that is around the avenue, especially in what we call the green gateways or the connections to our trail system. In the so-called full build scenario, here we are looking at the full extent of the project from Riverside drive on the south side to 11th street on the north side, and this slide here [2:35:55 PM] north side, and this slide here shows you some of the key cross-sections and perspective renderings to help imagine what that could look like under that full build scenario. The total costs for this full build scenario are upwards of 130 million. There is about $22 million available for the project. So as you can see, where there is quite a delta in realizing this full build scenario with the resources that we currently have. But in to help just understand these pieces of the full build scenario will start over on the south side with the bridge. So this perspective drawing here shows you a couple of key elements that have been studied thoroughly. Essentially, the bridge would need to remain. The load would need to remain neutral. So in order to make some changes on the bridge that make it more hospitable to walk across the bridge thinking about things like the south central waterfront with that growth, we want to make sure that trips [2:36:57 PM] want to make sure that trips into the downtown and back are not done by car, that are done by walking and biking as as it is close enough to do so. And from a mobility balance, we want to make sure that those trips are are comfortable to get to, to do that, we were looking at things like shade. So in the kind of the background of this perspective drawing, you see some shade structures there. We also have additional space for being able to, you know, view Bartz and spend time on the bridge as well as having the bike lanes up and out of the street and having utilize utilizing as much space as possible for people walking and dwelling on the bridge, using sort of a decked material that is lighter weight. And to do that, we would need to take off some of the concrete that's on the bridge and put some of these materials on. So all in all, in order to touch this bridge, you really can't do sort of an interim treatment. You really have to go all in on all these elements in order to make it [2:37:58 PM] elements in order to make it work. And thus, in the current proposal, the bridge is not not currently funded for improvements. It would sort of be one of those things where it would be the bridge or nothing else, or portions of the avenue as, as the funded the first proposal suggests. And, and this would be something down the line moving up the avenue. This is a perspective drawing of what it could look like with elements like rain gardens, having the bikeway up and out of the street again, that pedestrian way this is facing. This is the 100 block. And this type of configuration would allow for some important traffic operations happening at Cesar Chavez street, namely a dedicated right turn lane and a dedicated left turn lane. That would really help keep circulation moving downtown, while also providing for higher quality bike and pedestrian facilities, as well as some great treatments for stormwater and other just beautification. Natural elements in the [2:39:00 PM] Natural elements in the streetscape. A third picture here is what the full build would allow for in sort of the what we call the heart of Austin. Between the 206 hundred block. We'll talk a little bit about the 500 block, maybe separately, but here in general, what you're looking at are the bikeway built up and out of the street, as well as with regrading being able to rebuild that pedestrian amenity zone, taking full advantage of that space between 25 and 30ft by repurposing those angled parking spots that currently exist and having elements like rain gardens, seating areas and replacing the trees with healthier trees and soil cells that allow them to thrive and provide the much needed shade along the avenue. This is an example of what that would look like from a cross-section perspective, so you can see that, you know, 39 foot space between the pedestrian amenity [2:40:00 PM] between the pedestrian amenity zone as well as the protected bike lanes. And then you'd see a four lane section here that allows for, you know, maybe some flexibility in how those lanes operate throughout the different parts of the day. With understanding, you know, that we have deliveries and other things happening on the avenue, but generally allow for that, that general travel lane in both directions between Cesar Chavez street and seventh street. The real big idea behind the proposal in both the first first phase proposed as well as the funded excuse me the full build unfunded is the idea of creating a plaza on the northern blocks of the avenue. So you're looking here at a perspective drawing of the 700 block that's home to the paramount and state theaters, as well as the contemporary, among other businesses and destinations. And one of the really interesting things about [2:41:01 PM] really interesting things about this, that might be a little bit hard to see in the picture, but is sort of an interesting way to handle a pretty difficult challenge is were we to have funding for this and were there to be, you know, support from the community for a concept like this, which is what we're looking for today, is, is that you'd have to recreate what to regrade the whole thing. You would have to create a higher side on the pedestrian amenity zone on the west curb versus the east curb. And what that would create is sort of some stadium seating so that people could sort of sit and watch people in the plaza. So you sort of have a theater on the theater, if you will. So you can kind of see in this cross-section those steps there on the west side allow for some really, I think, great opportunity for, for people watching and for gathering and activation of the of that block by way of having to regrade the entire right of way. So one of those future challenges should the, should the concept really hold and should the funding come [2:42:01 PM] hold and should the funding come along for those lower blocks? Here's an example. Or here's a perspective sort of bird's eye view, if you will, of the full build plaza concept from seventh street north as many of you might be aware, the state capitol complex has done a similar treatment on the other side of the capitol between, you know, mlk boulevard and north to see get that right from their their doorsteps all the way up, four blocks up north. And so it it would provide sort of an interesting symmetry, if you will, from on both sides of the capitol. So with that, that is kind of the big picture, full funded. Excuse me, full, full build, unfunded phase. And again, we don't have all the money for that. So we're going to now pivot to what are this first proposed phase of work could look like given the [2:43:03 PM] could look like given the resources available. And so here you see we're not going from Riverside to 11th. We're going from Cesar Chavez street to 11th street. Looking at how can we bring as much benefit as possible to as much of the avenue as possible? Recalling back again to be able to do something on the bridge would really require almost all of the resources that we have versus being able to really bring about the benefits to the full to the fullest amount of the corridor. So we'll go through this sort of block by block with a couple of different pictures. We'll start first with what that 100 block could look like. So rather than reconstructing all of the right of way in this section, we can provide for some of the operational needs here with currently there is a left turn lane that's working very well for this intersection. Having a dedicated right turn lane would really help to better manage the crossings north south. For [2:44:03 PM] crossings north south. For people walking and biking and people with that turning, making that turning demand on Wright right onto Cesar Chavez street. So having a little more organizational control over that will help to keep people, we think, safer and just work better than it does today. And then we would build those bike lanes up and out of the street using the available street space there. And but in this case, we wouldn't be able to do some of the rain gardens that you saw in the previous rendering. So that'd be the biggest difference. Then moving up the avenue, looking at the 200, 300, 400, 600 block, what you're seeing here is a perspective drawing of essentially spatially. It's the same idea as the full build scenario, but we're using a little more straightforward way to get to achieve that spatial trade off or rebalancing, which we're going to talk about in [2:45:05 PM] we're going to talk about in here in a moment by way of sort of decking over the angled parking and building to doing that, building a higher quality bikeway barrier so that we have just a better experience for people on bikes, more of a pedestrian amenity zone, and better ways to activate that. That space between Cesar Chavez street and seventh street. Let me show you what we kind of mean by that in a cross-section and looking at just the overall trade offs. So what you see in that cross section in the upper left would be that additional space. So you're adding, you know, between 25 and 30ft total of space from maybe about 16, 17ft now. So almost doubling it and opening up that for sitting for additional planters, what you kind of see now in terms of some businesses have taken it upon themselves to put in things like street patios similar to what you see in that lower, lower left photo. We want to acknowledge that that conversion [2:46:06 PM] acknowledge that that conversion of the angled parking spaces is a is a real trade off. And it those parking spots are important to businesses in certain in certain ways. And as well as you can see, some businesses have again made it their their priority to repurpose that space for their customers. So taking a step back from a parking supply perspective, we're really talking about a rather sort of de minimis number of spots within all that exists downtown for the public to use at various times of the day and days of the week. But again, we want to take a context sensitive approach to that, to that parking, and best understand its its use with businesses as we go through this public outreach phase to understand, you know, how they're using that parking and how we can maybe best manage the access that that does provide. One of the important pieces that we are proposing to leave in place are the Ada accessible parking spots that generally exist on each block at the end [2:47:06 PM] exist on each block at the end of each block that do help to maintain that accessibility for folks that need it. But the big picture here is back to sort of the fundamentals of the vision plan that called for a rebalancing overall of the avenue and opening up that space for people. And in doing that, we're able by converting those parking spots, we're really able to keep that bikeway barrier more consistent. So you have less people parking in the bike lane, pausing in the bike lane and motor vehicles, and having just a better overall experience for everyone. Moving to the 500 block briefly, in terms of how the first phase proposed would look, this is another place from an operational perspective that we have had a lot of success with left turn pockets to help people get you know, on and off congress, back and forth, east and west and so on, especially during those peak hours. So we would leave those left turn lanes in. And in order to do [2:48:07 PM] lanes in. And in order to do that, be building those bike lanes up and out of the street, sort of back of curb, keeping that pedestrian zone still quite generous at 25ft. But being able to keep those left turn lanes at the same time. So this is another operational consideration in in light of how congress avenue really operates for folks, you know, getting to and from work out of garages and so on. Now we'll move into the plaza concept, if you will. So what could we do within the resources that we have. And again, our goal would be to try to get to as much of this as we can within our budgeted resources. So looking from seventh to 11th street here, you're seeing that same sort of bird's eye view as you saw before with the full build scenario. But in this case, we're really looking at fully reconstructing and building out the blocks between ninth and 11th and keeping the blocks between seventh and ninth in more of an interim treatment. Now, we would still be heavily investing in the pedestrian [2:49:10 PM] investing in the pedestrian amenity zone on either side of the avenue. As we are south of seventh, but generally keeping, you know, not going to the full regraded reconstruction of those blocks just due again, to funding limitations. One of the things I think that's notable here to talk a little bit about, and we'll get into this in a moment, is just the unique opportunity that having folks like the state and the paramount and the and the contemporary have for just generally expressing arts and culture in these interim blocks, and how an interim block approach allows for a lot of piloting and experimentation in how these blocks operate in all kinds of different ways. So it does keep keep that very flexible in the near term. One thing we do want to touch on is just how how would traffic and circulation generally work in a in a configuration like this. So here you can see the existing conditions and how traffic moves around the downtown in general. You can see the capitol complex, [2:50:11 PM] You can see the capitol complex, capitol mall north of the capitol there between. Yeah, 15th and east mlk junior boulevard. How that has changed. A bit in terms of those east west movements getting getting to getting east west on, you know, 15th and 18th, for example, 17th provides that access to their their new garage. But in on the south side we would do a similar approach. But leaving the east west movements all operational as they are now. And then essentially instead of congress avenue dead ending as it does now at 11th street, it would dead end at seventh street, and we would be traffic would be moving on and off from there. One of the things we do want to also stress is within those plaza blocks, being able to maintain that Ada accessible parking is super important and as well making sure that a lot of the micro movements that occur, we've been meeting with property owners along the avenue [2:51:12 PM] property owners along the avenue over the past week and appreciate that there are these very nuanced micro movements around certain blocks for things like valet, for people who live on congress avenue for folks that get that need access to those northern blocks, those movements would need to be really understood at a fine tuned detail. Understanding Ali's access that those alleys provide as well as the paralleling north south streets. But generally speaking, an approach like this is highly adaptable and compatible with changes to the downtown grid changes that I-35 may bring on in terms of seventh and eighth streets and just work in general with with how people get around with with certainly some changes to those micro movements and something we're committed to working out, working out those details with all stakeholders here, here you can see that interim treatment expressed in a in a perspective drawing with a real focus on the state and the [2:52:14 PM] real focus on the state and the paramount interface. Here's a great example of how an interim treatment could could again create that really street space for expressing things like arts and culture. But also keep it accessible to the paramount for loading of food and beverage and, and patrons and so on. Thank you. Okay. We'll keep going with that. Here's the quick cross-section of what that 708 hundred block would look like. And then getting to the full build portion of the proposed first phase, you're looking at the 901,000 blocks. And that would be fully reconstructed. With that, I'll just offer that we're looking for feedback from the community and open up for questions and discussions as time allows. >> Thank you. I appreciate that we've got just a couple more minutes until they need to reuse the building. >> Yes. Go ahead. Yes. Go for it. Sorry, sorry. >> I have a 3:00 and I just [2:53:14 PM] >> I have a 3:00 and I just needed to prep for it a bit. Thank you for the presentation. Just a quick question on congress and some safety issues on on congress. So in the past, last five years, we've had eight crashes on congress from seventh street to Cesar Chavez, resulting in a lot of serious injuries, which includes three at the Cesar Chavez intersection. How are the how are vision zero data crash data taken into consideration on the on the street design proposals, especially the intersections where we saw a lot of those crashes take place? >> Yeah, thank you for that. And certainly we looked very closely with the interim improvements that went in in 2020, calculating the full comprehensive crash costs and what we could expect with with the changes that went in on for the protected bike lanes that would be repeated for any changes that that are proposed. I don't have that off the top of my head, but I would I can circle back with you on how has the comprehensive crash course changed since 2020? Because more or less it's not changing with [2:54:15 PM] or less it's not changing with except for that dedicated right turn lane. And so our expectation is that it it would have gotten much, much better than it than the six lane section before we made the changes in 2020. And getting back to you on that would be our pleasure. >> If you don't mind just shooting our office an email. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I've got one other question. First, a statement. I'm very excited about this. I think this is a really fantastic initiative. I've seen a lot of other communities implement these types of pedestrian plazas, and they've been very successful. They create more business for the storefronts that are in that area. I have a question, because I know you mentioned the brick and mortar locations that are there. The contemporary, the paramount and the state theater. Have you had conversations with folks like the Texas book festival, Austin marathon, the half marathon, some of those temporary users that definitely use this spot as kind of their finishing zone for their festivals. >> Thank you for that. Yes, we are really excited to host a special focus group with all of [2:55:16 PM] special focus group with all of those promoters and have had some great feedback from them already, and know that in general, a proposal like this would would definitely create the need to adapt some of those bigger events. But the intent is to not foreclose on any of how it's how it's used. So a parade as sort of the I'll go back one. The, you know, a concept like this might still allow for, for a parade to occur. Just it would just occur a little bit differently in a, in a plaza scenario. All of this maintains that same safety alley that is required for the fire department for example, we might need to divert some some events off the avenue, but maybe use the plaza, for example, as a gathering place for the end of the event. So there's, I think, lots of ways that the special events can still be supported, even enhanced with the concept. Like this, but also acknowledge there would be some adaptation to how they currently operate. >> Okay, glad you're thinking about that. Thank you. Did you [2:56:17 PM] about that. Thank you. Did you have questions? Council member vela a couple of quick questions. >> The state owns 11th street, right? >> Well, actually, that is that is city right of way. But the state does manage the parking on the 1000 block. Okay. Yes. >> In other words, do we need partnership interaction permission from the state to do any of this? >> We would we are in conversation with with them about that. And we would, as we have with many other downtown projects, be looking at, you know, a range of solutions with respect to those. There's 18 parking spots, basically, that we'd want to be sure and, and best manage. So the, the concept of maybe appreciating that a space like this could really be a value add to how people interact with the capitol complex and, and replace essentially the current parking with other parking elsewhere or, or find the equivalent amount of [2:57:17 PM] or find the equivalent amount of spots, which is another solution that we've successfully brokered with with them in other projects around the downtown. So sort of we're looking at those range of options and are in communication with them. >> And I mean credit where credit is due. The state has done a great job with the Texas mall. And so I mean, on on kind of first blush, I think they would be very receptive to this. That said, on the San Jacinto, the bus, they were very they didn't want to lose a single parking space is my understanding from the capital metro, right? >> Yeah. And in that case, we were able to create a parking neutral solution, which, yeah, would be on the table as far as how we could look at this. >> Great. And thinking of interim steps, I know we had talked a while back about the ciclovia along south congress. Any movement on that, any again for as a temporary, you know, Sunday fun day kind of solution. Anything on that. >> Absolutely. I think that gives me an opportunity to maybe really stress the notion of a managing partner. So for a plaza like this to really be successful, it is essentially [2:58:18 PM] successful, it is essentially the size of a public square, but it is activated very differently in the in the sense that it has block faces along you know, between seventh and 11th. So having a ciclovias and similar types of activation celebrations through a managing partner that can really reap sort of the recover the costs of those types of things in order to then reinvest in, in really good waste management, really good public safety management as a part of the ecosystem of how the downtown can operate safely and effectively and really attract people to the avenue, which is really the idea behind the concept. >> But there's no planned, you know, date or anything like that at this point. >> No, not that I'm aware of, but certainly it would be, I guess, with the special event moratorium, maybe a little bit different, but a concept like this would, I think, facilitate something like that on a much more regular basis. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. I think that's it for our questions. Very exciting. And thank you for the presentation. And because we have about one minute left to be able to use this room, I will [2:59:19 PM] able to use this room, I will just read through very quickly. The city of Austin mobility report that our acm and our department director cover. The topics are in it are the congress avenue urban design initiative, a darker evening commute initiative by vision zero because as it gets darker during the times where most people are commuting home, we need to be mindful of different safety issues that may arise during these months. October is national pedestrian safety month, so there's some really good information on that. The longhorn dam multimodal improvements project has an update in here. East breaker lane extension construction beginning along airport boulevard corridor and our Austin airport taking a step closer to future concourse expansion. And they have done a groundbreaking recently on the airport expansion initiatives. Delta has announced new nonstop flights to Memphis, Panama City, Tampa, Florida, San Francisco, California, and Indianapolis. And then Austin is preparing for f1 weekend. I know we just got [3:00:21 PM] f1 weekend. I know we just got through two weekends of acl and all of the road detours that happen through that, and then with f1 in town, just be careful. The hotel room prices are skyrocketing, but there's going to be a ton of folks in town coming from the airport and wanting to participate in f1 festivities. Future items. Item number seven. We've got a meeting scheduled for November. We're going to adopt our calendar. There could be some living streets program updates, Austin core transportation, our future 35 improvements have been planned for our discussions. The mayor has reached out. They are curious about doing a presentation on mopac south and so we're going to see if we can work that in and rearrange some of those conversations, because they're doing an open house that we want to make sure we're giving the information to the public in a timely fashion. And then we have about ten other things that are queued up for the next couple of meetings. And with that, at 3:01 P.M, we will adjourn the mobility committee. Thank you all for being here today. These were great [3:01:22 PM] today. These were great presentations.