Mobility Committee (MOBC) Meeting Transcript – 3/20/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 3/20/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 3/20/2025 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. [1:04:55 PM] >> I am the chair of Paige Ellis. I am joined by vice chair zo qadri and council members. Vela and Krista Laine. It is 1:05 P.M. February. These are the wrong notes. It is March 20th. You thought there was a time warp in here? Here we go. It is March 20th. This is the mobility committee, and we are meeting here in our Austin city hall. I'm calling the meeting to order at 1:05 P.M, and we have a handful of folks that have signed up to speak. It looks like we have more than our normally allocated five speakers. I would like to hear from everybody that's here today. So we were checking to see if everyone's comfortable with doing two minutes instead of three, just so we can make sure to hear all the presentations too, because I know we all want to see those. Okay, I'm getting some thumbs up from the audience. So let's go ahead with our speakers today. >> All right. Our first speaker is Hayden black walker. [1:05:56 PM] is Hayden black walker. >> Good afternoon, council members. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. I'm Hayden black walker. I will try to cut out some of this to keep it short. I'm a long time advocate for sidewalks, public spaces, and walkability plus vision zero. I wanted to publicly thank the urban transportation commission for their professional guidance on both the I-35 frontage road discussion and the Austin core transportation plan. I've been working with reconnect Austin to make I-35 better since 2012. And with txdot record of decision in 23, they are quickly moving ahead with this project, demolishing a lot of homes and businesses in the corridor for this massive expansion. A key area where the city can have really significant impact is on those frontage roads or boulevard downtown. The utc recommendations are spot on and [1:06:56 PM] recommendations are spot on and I hope that they get implemented. I would recommend, in addition to those that you remove, all of the high speed free right turns from the frontage road onto city streets. Those are really dangerous for pedestrians. It took us about nine years to get txdot to agree to 35 mile an hour speeds on the frontage roads, 30 would be a whole lot better. And I would encourage the city to continue to push on txdot to actually design those frontage roads, not as a second highway, but as real city streets where the design speed and the posted speed actually match. The Austin core transportation plan is our chance to get transportation correctly prioritized for the needs of our citizens. The company I work for, black and Vernoy now, black and metal, was a consultant on the great streets master plan, which was adopted in 2000. Just for perspective, I think some of your policy aides were children at that time, so it's been a while. >> Some of us may have been children as well. [1:07:57 PM] children as well. >> I'm getting old. Second street was the first iteration of the great streets master plan. So I wanted to share this image. This is what second street looked like when I was in high school in the 1980s. And this is what it looks like today. This is a significant improvement in the city. Oh, there we go. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate you being here. >> Our next speaker is Philip Wylie. >> Oh, there we go. Thank you for allowing us to speak here today. I'll try to be brief. The other way I think was better. The first chart is basically a request or a repeat of a request we'd like for the downtown Austin neighborhood association to be considered stakeholders in the uno plan. The uno plan is a transportation and a housing plan, and it probably [1:08:58 PM] plan, and it probably contributes more to 50 over 50 by 40 than any other plan we have in the city. In 2017, Dana pointed out that there were some improvements that could be made if we planned uno and downtown together on the mlk corridor. And so this is just a follow up on that. The next chart, please. And. I there there should be four. The next one would be a photo. Okay. Thank you. So this is mlk and a big part of why we talked about this in 2017 is because the graduate school of business was being relocated to the corner of Guadalupe and mlk. And what I've shown here is from the crosswalk to downtown [1:10:01 PM] the crosswalk to downtown Guadalupe, what a ten minute walk looks like. So this is ten minutes. This is half a mile and it gets you to the other side of robin's place. So in 2017, we suggested that that be the area that we look at. Next chart please. There should be a text chart in between. Okay. We can. Yeah, yeah. Let's go to the bottom of the text. Thank thank you very much. A little bit lower I'm going to get to the punch line here. I'm going to suggest that that we consider doing a data driven charrette on uno. So that we can have everybody in the community understanding what we're doing and why and how that fits all together. Part of the reason is because a goal in where the outer west campus subdistrict is being established in the latest [1:11:05 PM] being established in the latest proposal is a 15 to 20 minute walk from campus. And I've just shown you that a ten minute walk is to robin's place. A 15 minute walk would get you in peace park. So essentially we don't need an outer west subdistrict. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mr. Wiley. >> Ruben brooks. >> I've discovered that I'm wearing several hats this afternoon, and that I will be doing another. Presentation later. Whoops. We have the wrong slides up. Okay, but that's all right. Since I didn't intend to speak with slides in the first place, what I would like to speak about is the campo regional transportation plan 2050. At least two of people on [1:12:05 PM] 2050. At least two of people on the dais will be voting on that plan in may, and others have been encouraged to review it. Most of the reviews have probably been directed towards the project list, but underneath there's something vastly more powerful in terms of how it affects many institutions and many lives. That is the transportation plan or the. Transportation plan which has underneath it the demographics forecast. Okay. And that demographics forecast gets used in surprising places. For example, it's part of the ridership forecasts for project connect. It's used by aid to allocate to decide where they're building new school buildings. There. And of course, it's used to lay out to justify new highway projects. Okay. You all [1:13:06 PM] highway projects. Okay. You all have a chance to review, or the general public should have a chance to review that model before it's finally accepted and becomes the official model. Apparently, there are no opportunities to do that. In theory at least. The technical advisory committee reviews the traffic demand model. And you can, in theory, ask questions of the people who are on the tac about the model. Fortunately, Cole kitten is in the room. He is our representative on the tac. Has any of these people asked you questions about the traffic demand model? Okay, that's. >> Yes. Just your time to speak at us. But I know we know Cole very well, and we'll connect with him. [1:14:06 PM] with him. >> Adam Greenfield. >> Good afternoon, council members. Adam Greenfield here with safe streets. Austin. I'm here to talk about the Austin core transportation plan. But first of all, I just want to share safe streets, Austin's deepest sorrows and sympathies with the victims of the I-35 crash last Thursday. It's just it's just horrific. It's hard to find the words. This was predictable. This is a dangerous roadway. We knew something like this was going to happen. And in fact, since then there has been another fatality. So txdot just needs to work to make sure all its roadways through Austin are safe. So regarding the Austin core transportation plan, we're excited that this is on the agenda today. We really thank staff and we applaud staff for their proposals so far, which if implemented as is, would be a significant step forward for downtown. However, we think the [1:15:07 PM] downtown. However, we think the plan should go much further in maximizing the potential of downtown. One critical aspect that we are highlighting is converting all streets that are one way to two way vehicle flow, including fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. There is an unbroken run, as far as we can tell, in over 75 cities across this country of converting downtown streets from one way to two way, one way streets are a mid-20th century, outdated facility that was about speeding cars, and it came at the cost of everything else, including safety mode, shift, local businesses, crime and so forth. So this would be a huge transformation for downtown. And it really needs council to set the policy direction on this item. We also strongly support and advocate for bicycle lanes in both directions. Bus lanes where called for street trees and bike facilities on all stretches of [1:16:13 PM] facilities on all stretches of sixth, including old sixth. We've looked at the cross sections of old sixth and we think there is space, so thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Miriam Schoenfeld. >> Good afternoon, council members. Miriam Schoenfeld here with rethink 35. So the crash that happened last week that Adam just alluded to is, of course, top of mind for many of us who are thinking about transportation. That incident was particularly dramatic, but unfortunately, loss of life on roadways in Austin is far too common, and tragedies have a way of bringing people together. And it's really in the spirit of collaboration that I'm making my comments today. I think there's a lot of opportunity for the city and txdot and advocates to collaborate on making all of the on system roadways in Austin much, much safer. And a great place to start would be looking [1:17:15 PM] place to start would be looking at the I-35 frontage roads that the utc has a recommendation about. So frontage roads, as probably many of you know, are a Texan specialty, but not one of our good ones. They are extremely dangerous. Frontage roads are basically the match made in transportation hell between vehicles traveling at high speeds in a very complex environment, and that is why they are largely not built anymore. In the early 2000, the Texas transportation commission recommended that we stop building them in Texas because they are dangerous. And I quote the Texas transportation commission that frontage roads contribute to congestion and crash frequency. So the utc has some great ideas about how to redesign these roads. And so I'll let the chair speak to that. But I think the one thing I want to emphasize about this particular recommendation is that this is not a hard ask. [1:18:15 PM] that this is not a hard ask. This is very doable. Klyde Warren park in Dallas is surrounded by city streets, not frontage roads, with no more than two lanes of three through traffic. Trees, parked cars, food trucks. So txdot has done this. It can be done and it should be done. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Daniel Cappleman. >> Good afternoon, council members. I want to start very quickly with an acknowledgment again of the crash on 35. And I hope it's a reminder of our commitment that the reason that we do all this is a lot about how people get around, but most importantly, it's that people make it to their destinations at all. And so I just hope that it is an opportunity for us to renew our commitment to keeping people alive on our transportation system. I'm here to talk about the Austin core transportation plan on behalf of the shoal creek conservancy. We [1:19:16 PM] the shoal creek conservancy. We would encourage the adoption of this plan, which, again, is a huge improvement for our transportation system in the core of Austin. While there are many good things to like about it, it can be made better. Specifically, the shoal creek trail is one of the premier active transportation facilities in Austin and serves as really a major artery on the western side of downtown. We hope to see that the upgrade of the entire length of the shoal creek trail to urban trail standards in the future, as envisioned in the community led and city recommended shoal creek trail plan, published in 2018. The Seaholm district improvements highlighted in the plan are also a major improvements to the shoal creek trail and third street right of way area, and these were put together initially by the downtown Austin alliance in collaboration with the shoal creek conservancy. And there's a suite of projects that we believe should continue to be prioritized together, as [1:20:19 PM] prioritized together, as highlighted in the plan. When Austin transportation or Austin transit partnership installs the light rail in the third street right of way, the crosstown bikeway will be moved to fourth. We believe that this should also be a high quality, separated bikeway, as it is currently on third and should be built prior to the removal of the third street bike Laine. Thank you so much and we appreciate all the work. >> Thank you. >> Mateo barnstone. >> Good afternoon, council members. My name is Mateo barnstone. I'm a resident of Austin, speaking today in my personal capacity, I support advancing the Austin core transportation plan, along with the recommendations from the utc planning commission. Safe streets Austin to convert downtown's remaining one way streets to two way streets. In particular, I urge the committee to prioritize the critical role [1:21:20 PM] to prioritize the critical role of street trees, protected bike lanes, and adherence to great street standards to ensure our downtown is not only functional, but also welcoming, safe and vibrant for all. One way streets create unnecessary confusion and inefficiency, forcing drivers into detours, increasing travel times, and diminishing the experience of moving through downtown. More importantly, they reinforce the outdated notion that downtown is a place to pass through rather than a destination. Our message should be you've arrived and not. Here's a fast way out of town. The benefits of two way streets include safer streets, stronger economic activity, and a more resilient street network. Equally important is that these conversions align with the Austin great street standards, which emphasize pedestrian friendly infrastructure and a healthy canopy of street trees. Street trees are not just esthetic enhancements. They provide critical shade, mitigate urban heat, improve air quality, and make walking and biking more comfortable, especially in [1:22:21 PM] comfortable, especially in Austin's climate. Regarding technical concerns, whether it's left turn accommodations, potential gridlock or competing priorities for right of way, I strongly encourage that the city bring in an outside expert to review our downtown streets for two way conversion strategy. Someone like a Jeff beck, a nationally recognized leader in walkability and urban street design, could help address these concerns and ensure we are following best practices while balancing competing needs. Austin has already converted several one way streets to two way, and every single time it has worked. The evidence is overwhelmingly supports these changes as a way to create safer, more accessible, more economically vibrant downtown. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Kimberly Levinson. >> Hello. >> I'm here speaking today, partly for myself and partly for the downtown Austin neighborhood association. We definitely urge [1:23:21 PM] association. We definitely urge you to follow the utc standards. The their resolution and suggestions on the frontage roads, because the frontage roads are definitely going to be dangerous if we don't do something more about them than they seem to, then they seem to have planned. And we also urge you to adopt the act plan. The Dana board voted to adopt the safe streets recommendation on this, particularly the conversion of two way streets, especially seventh and eighth. We understand that there could potentially be reasons why fifth and sixth should not be converted to two way, but we definitely believe that seventh and eighth can and should be completed with two way. And we also urge you to adopt more. Great to adhere to the great streets with wider sidewalks, shade trees, shade structures where trees might not work because getting around downtown in the summertime is rather miserable unless you have some shade and we want as many people [1:24:21 PM] shade and we want as many people out walking as possible. Thank you. Thank you. >> That's all we have. Any other speakers? >> No, that's all our speakers. Okay. >> Thank you so much. We're happy that all of you were able to join us today. That moves us to. Item number one is approval of the minutes for mobility committee meeting February 20th, 2025. Do I have a motion made by vice chair qadri and seconded by council member vela? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Yes. And I see Natasha harper-madison with her hand up. So we will call the approval of the minutes. Unanimous. Item number two is an update from the urban transportation commission regarding actions from the March 4th, 2025 meeting. They brought up the Austin core transportation plan, I-35 frontage, road crossings and pedestrian crossings, and Austin light rail draft environmental impact statement. Thank you for joining us, ruven brooks, I know we asked you very last minute to [1:25:21 PM] we asked you very last minute to come and speak with us. The chair was not available. So we give you grace and thank you for stepping up. You have switched hats. >> Okay. We passed three recommendations at our last meeting. All of them passed 7 to 0, which was unanimous of those present. One recommendation was on the Austin core transportation plan, which you've heard about from some other speakers, but we have some specific recommendations inside that in addition to recommending the overall plan. Let's see. Should I read the. There are quite a few further resolves. Let me suggest that people who want to who are interested, look at the text of the resolution. Okay. Probably more immediate of [1:26:24 PM] Okay. Probably more immediate of more immediate concern is the resolution on frontage road crossings and pedestrian crossings. And the utc was very concerned that if we paid all the money for caps and stitches, that people still couldn't get to the cap and stitch areas because they would have to cross high speed frontage roads, even with even with a 30 mile an hour speed limit, that's still fairly high speed. And that other actions are needed besides that. Besides limiting the frontage road speeds, although that would be a good one. And in particular suggested that design should result in average speeds at or below urban speed limits no higher than 30 miles an hour. In other words, not just have the [1:27:26 PM] other words, not just have the sign that says 30 and have everybody go 45, but actually have average design speeds to restrict cars to be less than 30 miles an hour. The frontage road should contain more than two travel, no more than two travel lanes in each direction throughout the length of the project. Laine widths should generally be ten feet and no wider than 11ft. Design should include street trees along the entire corridor, generally on both sides of the roadway and wherever medians exist. There should be vehicle parking on both sides of the frontage roads at a minimum, and if the city of Austin are future 3535 staff states that there is a need, any cap should be allowed. Entry access for service vehicles and emergency vehicles. And finally raised crosswalks and pedestrian bulbouts should exist at every roadway intersection with the [1:28:27 PM] roadway intersection with the proposed each avenue trail, and there should be crosswalks at all east west streets that have no more than one straight Laine in each direction. In other words, the streets on either side of a cap and stitch or cap or stitch need to be redesigned for the volume of pedestrians that are likely to result from having that central facility. That was the second resolution. A third resolution was in regard to the. Draft environmental impact statement from. Project connect, the Austin light rail initiative. Let me. Well, let me just state that we strongly supported the draft Eis, and we also recommend that in keeping [1:29:29 PM] also recommend that in keeping with the contract with the voters, atp should prioritize right of way for pedestrians, bicyclists, micromobility users, and other transit options in future design iterations, or preserving access for private auto traffic. And I note those were the three resolutions. I note that the draft Eis traffic plan has conversion of quite a few streets from two from one way streets that now carry only car traffic to two way streets, and with other with the current one way streets being some of them being devoted to transit. So that wasn't officially part of the resolution of the resolution. But I just note that in passing. Any other questions or. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for being willing to step in last minute. I think the chair had something personal [1:30:29 PM] chair had something personal come up that just couldn't be moved. I appreciate the speakers and our urban transportation commission people coming to speak to us today about I-35. It's clear that this issue resonates really strongly with folks that interact with this area daily. And what happened on I-35 this last weekend was awful. It's unacceptable. Txdot has had a death on their roadways every day for 25 years, and I don't I don't know how to change that. So I'm going to implore the folks who willingly stepped up to join campo and to talk about state highway funding and to put their efforts toward that commitment, because one of the issues that I talked about most was about vision zero, and the fact that the statewide plan for vision zero basically doesn't exist. It just says, we hope the number goes down, but we're not going to do anything to actually change the way we design roads and to make sure that a dense downtown area that's going to have cars operating at high rates of speed are not going to be a danger to [1:31:30 PM] are not going to be a danger to the community. So that's that's the request that I have of the folks that have graciously and willingly stepped into the role of our campo delegation. There is a lot of work to do, and I want to say our city staff gets that. Our city staff is doing vision zero. Our city staff is trying to make our pedestrian crossings safer. They're trying to lower speeds through neighborhoods, and we just have to make sure we're all on the same page, because we can't do this if we're working toward different goals. One is high rates of speed and lots of car throughput, and one is about making sure that you're centering the people in the conversation and making sure that everybody gets home safely. So that's what I'll say on the matter. I don't know if anyone else has questions. Okay. >> Krista Laine actually, I have comments. >> Go for it. >> Thank you for not making me reformulate that with a question at the end. I know it's a joke. It's fine. Okay. >> It's not jeopardy. >> That's all right. Okay. So I really want to thank you for the [1:32:33 PM] really want to thank you for the comments that you just made and express how much I agree and see similar things. And, you know, I'm really new on the dais for a topic as complex as transportation, especially as complex as transportation is in a city with the values and priorities that Austin has in a state that the values and priorities that txdot has. And of course, in the larger landscape, I'll stop listing them off by name, because that's probably not a good idea. But I am learning as fast as I can. And I have things to add on to what you just said. I am fortunate to sit on the campo board learning as quickly as I can there. I represent district six in northwest and Austin. I don't think we should think of it as far out, because we want to connect with each other across the city, so I tend to refer to that as the northern and northwestern suburbs of Austin. I haven't counted how many txdot roadways run through [1:33:33 PM] many txdot roadways run through any districts besides mine, but I will list for you the txdot roadways that run through the suburbs that I live in. 183 six 2045 and Parmer Laine. Those are the primary routes that connect my suburbs to Austin. There are a lot of people living in my suburbs and district six who came from central Austin, who value many of these same things or from farther away, but are very familiar and comfortable with transit that happens through your own force, through your feet and your and your bike, and any other way you might get about with your family. I currently in the three months maybe that I've been in Austin city council have really seen the challenge of bringing all of the knowledge and experience on how to provide that type of transit opportunity in central Austin, out to my suburbs, while also bringing in some of the momentum that txdot [1:34:34 PM] some of the momentum that txdot has in this conversation. And so as I sit on the campo board and I sit on the mobility committee, and I am not on the metro landscape yet, this is my struggle. And so I have been putting together my own feedback, with the help of many people who have come together to really help me learn as fast as possible. I appreciate you all. I see many of you here. I am really struggling with how to effectively address a road like palmer with no bus route, mostly no sidewalk. A whole lot of kids who need to get to a high school that has no transit and that you can't safely bike or, you know, ride on it. And I am already having some of these conversations with other board members who aren't from Austin and aren't from Travis county, who are on the campo board with txdot. I'm working with our amazing staff who some of you [1:35:35 PM] amazing staff who some of you know. I'm so happy with you in so many ways, but I want to and I know that was kind of long, but I wanted to provide some context because I also could use some help in the campo 2050 conversation about the need to provide a way for people to make their way along. Palmer and 620 by bike or foot. If we can't figure out all of us working together, how to bring some more transit options to district six than in ten or 20 or 30 years, all these conversations we're having about 35 and its frontage roads we will be and all the money that is getting spent on it will be happening on 620, which will already be called 45, because it will have been converted into an outer loop that I'm sure frightens people who really care about the very precious environmental landscape out there, as well as those who are here in the room today who [1:36:35 PM] are here in the room today who care about transit and people centeredness of it. That was super long, and I won't go on like that again, but I wanted to just express that I'd love some help with campo feedback as well, and with just figuring out how to bring us all together in a way that slows down the transformation of 620 into 45, and then the next it being the next 35, right through the sos zone. Once they start getting to the south. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do we have any other questions or comments? Vice chair qadri. >> I just got one question and it's for tpw staff. But I know when we passed the I-35 resolution during the draft Eis process, it included things like having no more than two travel lanes in each direction and along with ask for more connections over the highway. And I know staff worked really hard to negotiate the connections. So my question is, what was the review process that looked like internally of txdot plans and the coordination being [1:37:36 PM] plans and the coordination being done by our engineers and planners on the design of this project? Cassie director Mendoza getting up. >> Thank you. Committee member Richard Mendoza, transportation and public works director. Yes, this has been a conversation between our traffic engineers with the city and our department and txdot for the last two plus years as this design and I capex project has moved from concept to preliminary design, and now through final design and the eyes and dis. Process. My division manager, Eric Bolick, has been intimately involved working with their design engineers along this process to relay our city's desires for this design. And he can give you a broad overview of that process to date. >> Great. Thank you. >> Good afternoon, Eric Bolick Austin transportation public [1:38:37 PM] Austin transportation public works as director Mendoza said, I've been sort of our staff liaison with txdot over the sort of five years when this kind of began in earnest, working with txdot and their designers. I will say a lot of the points in the resolution we have been discussing with txdot over those years. The suggestions for improvement. So, you know, I think working with our staff. The project does look different than maybe it could have been at this point. Some of it's reacting to kind of the alternatives that were proposed. You might remember there were 1 to 3 alternatives. Txdot went with number three, which does provide those what they're calling the urban boulevards downtown. So we were in those negotiations or discussions about trying to minimize the number of lanes. Looking out for pedestrian cyclists, safety speeds, speed limits that were discussed early on in the design process. So yeah, we have a good collaboration and working relationship with txdot. But [1:39:38 PM] relationship with txdot. But yeah, I think they do look at us for our expertise on multimodal design and kind of really looking into the fine points beyond just the broader highway design, that they're kind of more focused on. >> Great. Thank you. I don't have any other questions, but I want to retweet everything that council member Laine said. And I think it's extremely important for this dais to very much center people and not center cars. And anytime we bring forward any policy, any recommendations to really make it so people focused and centered. Our office sent out a letter around campo 2050, and it was kind of just that, like the general vibe of it was to make sure that when we fund projects that we're thinking about people. So I appreciate you all and appreciate councilmember Laine for her comments. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Comments? I see council member harper- madison. Thank you. The floor is yours. [1:40:38 PM] Thank you. The floor is yours. Council member. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. Hey everybody. Sorry about the tech difficulty earlier. Happy afternoon. I am I actually have a question that's applicable to most. Projects we're going to discuss in the future as it regards to public projects and trees. So I'm not sure who all is in the room. I can't see behind the podium. But multiple people made reference to I really appreciate Mr. Barnstone and others making reference to trees, street trees, a question slash concern that I have, most especially as it relates directly to some of the urban food production policy work team d1 is doing. There is, if I'm not mistaken, a rule, a law against foraging on state property. So I'm wondering if that rule is also applicable in the city of Austin, because it would be great if some of those [1:41:38 PM] would be great if some of those street trees were fruit bearing, and we could encourage foraging in the city. >> I am not sure who here could answer that. >> At the same, or if anybody in the room can just, I can defer to them to put me in touch with the right people. >> I see a lot of transportation engineers. >> Hey, y'all. >> Thank you. Council member. You know, actually, our department is actively working on a council adopted resolution to effectively clear obstacles for more street trees and shade within our right of way. To carry that a little bit further into fruit bearing trees, I'd like to revisit with my team that's actively working on that and get back to you. >> That would be great. Thank you, I appreciate you. >> Yeah. >> Council member Laine. >> Thank you. Chair. >> Thanks, Natasha. >> Councilmember harper- madison, [1:42:39 PM] >> Councilmember harper-madison, I would welcome putting our heads together on this because I come from a long line of farmers and vegetable gardeners and fruit tree growers. And I think that we could probably have a productive conversation. But I don't really go for fruit trees over sidewalks. In general, I'll just put that out there. Okay. >> Sounds good. And I've got a note that you may not be allowed to pick plants or mushrooms from city parks, state park, national park, city nature trail, nature preserve, state historic sites, or any other public property without permission. Fines could be 500 to 2000 or more dollars to do this. There is a deep seated history in this conversation and I'm willing to continue it. I think it's a great one to continue offline. Because I think we all have a lot to share, but it may not necessarily be something that our traffic engineers are able to help us with in this very moment. So let's switch gears. [1:43:39 PM] moment. So let's switch gears. >> Thank you. I appreciate visiting it. And I appreciate y'all expressing mutual interest. So let's let's revisit it. I think it's just one of those many things that we have sitting on the shelf that's antiquated and just needs a little push. You know. >> I'm happy to have that conversation. I think it's a good one for us to have. >> Appreciate you. >> Any other questions or comments before we move on? Let's switch gears a bit. I know road safety is definitely high of mind in this very moment. Our next item is a briefing on the Austin court transportation plan, which focuses on mobility strategies downtown. So we've got a presentation from staff to talk about the dense downtown area and what some of the overlapping plans might be for transportation. >> Good afternoon, chair, vice chair and council members upul barua, assistant director, Austin transportation and public works department. And today I'm joined by Cole Keaton, our division manager. So this [1:44:40 PM] division manager. So this afternoon we are going to brief you all about the Austin core transportation plan. And I know this is a long time coming. I'm going to open the presentation and talk about the intent and purpose of the act plan. And Cole Keaton is going to talk us through about the planning process, the analysis, engagement, project recommendations, implementation plan, and the next steps. So the very first question is what is Austin core transportation plan or the act plan? Austin core transportation plan is the small area mobility plan that covers our downtown, and our intent is to take it to city council for adoption. As an addendum to our Austin strategic mobility plan, for the past 15 years, we have developed so many plans for our downtown, but the skyline of our [1:45:41 PM] downtown, but the skyline of our downtown keeps changing very frequently, and it has changed significantly for the past 1015 years. So it is high time that we really update our transportation network and laid out for our future. The primary intent of Austin core transportation plan is to accommodate all the mega projects that are really slated for construction for the next ten years, namely I-35, capex, capitol stage, project connect, congress avenue, urban design initiative, a convention center expansion, and all the developments and developments that are going to come into downtown. So what eggplant does is it takes all of these potential changes from all of these mega projects, and it efficiently allocates the right of ways and, you know, optimizes [1:46:42 PM] of ways and, you know, optimizes the street network for the future to accommodate and support all of these mega projects. We also have taken a look into the available right of way and spaces, and recommended to allocate the spaces to prioritize pedestrians, bicyclists, transit operations, green infrastructure, and all the back of the curb improvements. And we also prioritize the overall network operations in our downtown. As part of the act planning process, we also looked into different streets and looked into the opportunities for converting them from one way to two way, or vice versa, and provided some recommendations for certain streets. And in that process, we looked into certain factors, like spaces available for pedestrians, bicyclists, sidewalk cafes, green infrastructure, and also the placement of transit priority [1:47:43 PM] placement of transit priority lanes or transit only lanes, like how we can make it more efficient for all the modes all together, and how the downtown street network can operate more efficiently to increase safety, accessibility and mobility for our overall downtown. So basically, the output from the act plan is a set of projects with a priority list, associated cost estimates, and an implementation plan for our downtown in the future. So this is the history of our planning process in downtown. I'm not going to go through all of the plans that we have developed so far. I think all of you are well aware of these plans. Greatest street master plan, downtown access and mobility plan, downtown transportation framework and so forth. And eventually in 2019, we have adopted the Austin strategic mobility plan. That is really [1:48:45 PM] mobility plan. That is really the backbone of our mobility in the entire city. And our plan is to take the act plan to city council to adopt it as an addendum to our Austin strategic mobility plan. So without any further delays, I'm going to hand it over to Cole Keaton, who is going to walk us through the act planning process. The engagement analysis, the project recommendations, and the next steps for us. Cole. >> Good afternoon everyone. Cole kitten, division manager and systems development division, transportation and public works department. We're excited to be here today. As you can see on this slide, this has been a long time coming. We're towards the end of our presentations to boards and commissions and on our way to the full council for consideration this spring. But the act plan process initially [1:49:47 PM] the act plan process initially started as a data collection effort in 2018 to understand our constraints into and out of downtown. In 2019, after the smp was adopted, we started developing developing the plan itself, and then it was put on hold in mid 2020 due to the pandemic. And then we restarted in early 2022, where we went through that that planning process, which included two phases of engagement project development, and then we're in a plan development phase for the for the most of last year. So the next few slides will recap our public engagement effort. But one of the key things that we did was we worked closely with downtown Austin alliance to develop a working group that we that we used as a basically a [1:50:48 PM] that we used as a basically a focus group throughout different touch points of the project, the planning process. But we also identified more than 80 specific downtown stakeholders. We held public events, pop up events, different meetings at different neighborhoods within downtown. But we also surveyed outside of downtown to understand people's preferences. For people that lived outside of downtown, that worked downtown and per our asmp public engagement policies, we also made sure that we looked at our public engagement feedback across different demographic focused populations to ensure diverse feedback. In our phase one engagement, we had a mobility preference survey where we asked people to express what street elements were their priorities, whether it was the a wide sidewalk, a bicycle [1:51:48 PM] wide sidewalk, a bicycle facility, a transit Laine, a travel Laine, or the curbside. We also asked people how they would, how they travel downtown, how they would prefer to travel downtown in the future. And we had a significant response rate. Considered considered that it's a small area mobility plan. The response rate was almost equivalent to kind of the feedback that we receive at a citywide effort, taking the information that we received in phase one, we developed a phase two survey that built off of those stated preferences. We developed hypothetical cross sections that people could express their preference based on the trade offs in space. So how many travel lanes versus providing a bicycle facility versus providing transit only lanes, as well as just the variations in in space [1:52:48 PM] variations in in space allocation for wider sidewalks and trees? And so this feedback is really foundational to what we were able to then develop in the draft plan. To note about the public engagement and our analysis across those different focus populations. Everyone was saying the same thing, which was a really good a really good test of the engagement. So everyone was stating the same preferences for an improved streetscape environment, prioritizing bicycles, transit. And so it was a good starting place for her to start to develop the plan. So that leads into the developing the act plan project recommendations themselves. Looking at the projects, looking at the streets downtown that haven't already been planned for, we needed to understand [1:53:50 PM] for, we needed to understand whether or not they were going to be able to address these smp goals as we, as well as major outcomes for downtown. So this means all of these streets that haven't been planned for needed to address our our increased demand and manage that growth, coordinate with those mega infrastructure projects, support emerging transportation options such as scooters, micro mobility devices. But probably most importantly, prioritize safety, climate and our mode share goals. And so the project act plan project recommendations must address or incorporate all of those out drums, as well as integrate with the planned projects that are shown in the map in in yellow, such as I- 35, project connect, congress avenue, the convention center, and cap and stitch, and so the [1:54:51 PM] and cap and stitch, and so the remaining streets downtown that we identified are fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth as our priority projects. And then we have a list of supporting projects that further support build out of a full system or full network transportation network downtown. In addition to that, we have system improvements and strategies that are more programmatic in nature, low cost that further support a complete system downtown. So in addition to the public feedback that we received, we started developing the project recommendations based on an analysis of the modal networks and what that looked like was starting with an analysis of the vehicle capacity constraints downtown. And what we found is that those constraints occur at our gateways into and out of [1:55:52 PM] our gateways into and out of downtown. So as you see in the map, those are those red circles at those major, major intersections into and out of downtown. And so what what that allowed us to do is understand that downstream of those bottlenecks, there's an inefficient use of space, because if you go into to downtown, such as on sixth street, and it's two lanes and it opens up to four lanes, those outside lanes are considered excess capacity. So what that allowed us to do is reallocate that space to more efficient modes, as well as serve more of our our goals, such as wider sidewalks, green infrastructure, as well as supporting the economic investments in sidewalk cafes. And then what this allowed us to do at a network [1:56:55 PM] allowed us to do at a network level is to complete our bicycle network. And prioritize transit network, so our priority projects on fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth allowed us to allocate space for transit only lanes on those east west streets, connecting to our north south transit only lanes. So now that now we would have a complete transit priority network downtown. From a bicycle network perspective, our priority projects provide a complete bicycle network, at least by providing one bicycle facility, at least in one direction on almost every street, and that connects to many of our existing north south routes and trails downtown. So this is meant to show our our project development process was iterative. So it started with that needs assessment, understanding our constraints. And then in the [1:57:57 PM] constraints. And then in the middle it's engaging getting public feedback but also testing what our feasible options are, refining our project recommendations and then moving into this plan development phase. And so one thing to note, this is considered our final phase of engagement as we publish a draft plan and we go through this process, boards and commissions, presentations, public testimony, and that that is intended to provide that final feedback for us to revise and publish a final plan for y'all's consideration. The next few slides are just meant to show what you can expect to find in the plan document itself, and I won't go into any level of detail about the projects themselves, but our priority projects provide the greatest level of detail. It provides a description of the proposed change, what the anticipated benefits are, as well as capturing some key [1:58:57 PM] capturing some key considerations as we advance into project development. It provides a typical cross section associated with the different segments along the street, and then each of those sub segments have further description on the project. A conceptual level schematic map, and then often a 3D rendering, so that you can kind of better understand what it is that you could expect to see out of this type of improvement. The supporting projects don't go into the same level of detail, but they still provide that description of the project. The benefits, key considerations, the typical cross section and where it's associated in the map. The system strategies include bicycle system, trail system, and transit system. It it identifies additional improvements that would be implemented programmatically. We [1:59:57 PM] implemented programmatically. We also include a list of system strategies, such as mobility hubs on street parking, curb management, and some of these programmatic improvements that can be done throughout downtown. Outside of our our priority projects. So the act plan also focuses on implementation. The priority projects are envisioned to be long term visions that are large scale in nature, much like our second street streetscape improvement project was in 2003, following the great streets master plan. So with that in mind, these projects, these these priority projects, they [2:00:58 PM] these priority projects, they reflect the feedback that we heard throughout the process. However, we need to further develop them through the project development process. So this last phase of engagement has already kind of initiated those additional conversations with stakeholders in the community. And those conversations will will continue to happen, especially as we look at priority projects like sixth street. So the plan itself, though, is meant to be a starting point. So it provides a range of project costs based on the recommendations shown in the plan, so that we know how to plan accordingly. While we look at different funding sources, whether that's through grants or bond development cycles, etc, but also the plan is what we needed as a starting point to [2:02:00 PM] needed as a starting point to coordinate with Austin light rail, project connect and I-35 to understand how how all of this change can occur at the same time over the next ten years. So moving forward, we need to make sure that we coordinate these these very specific changes, street by street with the great streets update. But we also want to make sure that we're identifying quick wins, interim implementation strategies, and things that we can do to make sure we're we're making progress towards implementing the vision and the plan. So the project costs provided in the implementation chapter are considered hypothetical implementation scenarios to understand our range of cost estimates. And these ranges account for inflation and the impact of that inflation over time. So it reflects year of [2:03:04 PM] time. So it reflects year of expenditure costs. And then we'll be looking at incorporating these projects in the 2026 bond cycle. So with that the next steps we have one more meeting at the joint sustainability committee on March 26th. And then we'll be advancing to council. And fortunately we've received recommendations from the design commission, planning commission and urban transportation commission. That we'll take any questions. >> All right. I have one clarifying question on one of the slides before I turn it over to my colleagues. On number 18, there is a map of bicycle system improvements. And I just wanted some clarification. There's a light blue that says existing and proposed bicycle improvements, and then a green one that says bicycle system improvements. Can you tell me [2:04:06 PM] improvements. Can you tell me what the difference is or overlap between those? >> Right. So the bicycle system improvements are intended to be separate from our large scale cip projects. So those are the more short term or near term type of bicycle improvement treatments that we see citywide. So it could be a neighborhood bikeway style improvement, making sure that the street is safe, calm, that you can travel, share, share the travel lanes with cars. But there's also the opportunity to do those near term separated. Flex post treatments. So those green lines on the map are are meant to show where there's additional opportunities to create a complete system, as well as advance some near term bicycle improvements downtown. >> Okay, so the green ones are more major infrastructure and the blue ones are more on [2:05:08 PM] the blue ones are more on street. >> The green ones are the opposite. They are more programmatic in nature. The blue, the light blue ones are either reflective of existing bicycle facilities downtown, or ones that would be implemented with our priority and supporting projects. Okay, okay. >> That's helpful. >> Thank you. >> Colleagues, let's start with vice chair qadri. You represent this area. So I figure you probably have some questions or thoughts. >> It's such a fun area to represent. Thank you. Chair I had a questions comments and then more questions. So I'm going to be all over the place. My first question is with with god turning into a transit into transit lanes. Where will busses queued? Normally the queue right around republic square. So is there going to be a need for need for a new transit center, or is it going to be a larger hub that will help with kind of the circulation with with busses? [2:06:08 PM] busses? >> Yeah, I would say the act plan itself doesn't go into the great level of detail about anticipating those needs. Really. The act plan was focused on the corridors that are not planned for yet. Yeah. So in partnership with Austin transit partnership and capmetro, outside of the act plan, we've we've talked about where transit service would operate. So Guadalupe isn't anticipated to be that that primary transit corridor north south, but also San Jacinto Trinity on the east side. But my anticipation is that we would continue to have those conversations through those channels, but not necessarily the act plan. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you. And then I part of me kind of wanted to bring up a whiteboard. So I'm going to ask anyone to kind of [2:07:08 PM] going to ask anyone to kind of imagine what I'm about to say. I had asked myself if I could bring up a whiteboard and they said, absolutely not. So. So imagine. So I'm, you know, generally I'm supportive of this plan. You know, I think it's actionable. I think it pushes out us, you know, towards our multi-modal split goals. But the concerns I have have to do with the key considerations. That's on every east west street from fifth to 10th. It mentions that consideration will be required to allow curb inserts for parking into the bike facility. So I'm trying to understand why we are planning to ensure conflict Zones, mid- block and bike lanes where we're planning when we already have intersections that conflicts with, with, with bicyclists. So my question with all that, and I have a picture of it on my phone, but I don't know if it's going to if anyone can see it. But my question with all that is, how can we ensure in this plan that we're in fact prioritizing vulnerable road users in implementation as we move forward? But we're not compromising bike and scooter [2:08:10 PM] compromising bike and scooter safety? That was a lot. Sorry. >> Yeah, I would I would say first, that's great feedback. And for us to consider during the project development process. And so at a minimum, that's what we're trying to acknowledge in the act plan document itself, is that we need to consider it carefully. Some of the examples that we see downtown on third street, whether it's outside of a restaurant or outside of a hotel, what we see is the bike facility becomes offset or recesses back into that behind the curb area. So it displaces a row of trees, but it preserves the bicycle facility around that inset. And so those are the examples that we have currently downtown. But those design details would be figured out during the project development [2:09:11 PM] during the project development process. >> Got it. >> Thank you Cole. And just to add on to what Cole just explained for our street cross section, it is challenging. Like we have limited space and limited right of way for all the elements out there. So one of the things that we need to do as part of our project development phase is to also coordinate with the stakeholders and all the, you know, business owners out there and make sure that we are able to fit in all the elements. I think there are going to be some compromise, but we need to make sure that we provide a design in such a way that it provides safer street for all the modes on the street. >> Great. Thank you. And hold on. I'm going to ask a very bizarre question, but if I could, if I could hold my phone and to kind of explain what I'm, I guess thinking about, I guess you can't see it. Oh, you can. So if you're if you're going up [2:10:12 PM] So if you're if you're going up here, this is a street right there and you're on your bike and you're making, making a, you know, a right turn, then you're, you know, you're getting into that conflict zone. Or if you're right here and you're waiting to if you're a car and you're waiting to go into this little parking spot and you're just, you know, you might be waiting in a, in a bike Laine. So that's also creating that conflict zone. So that's what I was articulating, which I think you got. Yeah. >> No thank you councilmember I think that's a good feedback. And those are the elements that we need to consider as part of our design and project development phase. And of. >> Course, thank you. >> It was almost like Katie porter, but not quite. Council member vela. >> Thank you. Chair. Quick on page 911 of the act plan recommendations where you were talking about the constrained intersection. And I just want to make sure that I'm understanding [2:11:14 PM] make sure that I'm understanding this and my, my, my context for this would be the discussion that we had a call over Cameron and dessa, if I'm remembering this correctly. But whereby the there would be Laine reductions broadly speaking in the core street. But then as you got to the intersection it would the capacity would increase at the intersection with the idea being that that was where the capacity was kind of needed for people to go this way or to go that way, or whatever the case. Whereas in the middle of the street, you had more flexibility to do some Laine reductions. Is that analysis or is that that my understanding of on page 11, where you're talking about those constrained corridors, in other words, you have more flexibility to kind of manipulate the street to add bike lanes and different things in the middle of the street. But as you get to the intersections, that's where there's just more going on, and you need more room to allow [2:12:14 PM] you need more room to allow people to go left, go right, whatever the case may be, I just wanted to make sure that I'm understanding that kind of conceptually on that, on the project recommendations. >> Yes. Council member. So what we are trying to do is, you know, the gateway intersections, we are trying to keep the capacity on and not reduce or worsen the capacity. But as we move into downtown, I think there are opportunities for reallocation of these spaces for transit, for bicyclists, for green infrastructure, but yet keep the overall network operational and accessible and mobile. So that's what we intend to do as part of the plan. >> So then when we're talking about a constrained intersection, then then what does that mean exactly? When we're talking about a constrained intersection. >> So the gateway intersections are critical for the downtown operations. People come to downtown and exit downtown. And [2:13:15 PM] downtown and exit downtown. And we need to make sure that we don't take away capacity from those, because if we do, then there could be ripple effect inside downtown and outside of downtown. So we are keeping the capacity at the gateway intersections and not reducing capacity at those intersections. >> Got it. Thank you very much. That's my only question. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Okay, I just wanted to flag I've been looking at some of the bicycle connectivity and trying to work through this. You know, in my own mind, as someone who does ride their bike on third and fourth street and, and go underneath I-35, and I'm curious about the decision point to include them east west on what is it? Third through seventh in some of those areas. Sorry, I'm trying to flip through this map. And so I just wanted to flag through eighth, fifth through eighth has a lot of these different intersections I'm trying to work through mentally. If every single street is where [2:14:15 PM] If every single street is where we need that bicycle infrastructure, I certainly understand the need to make sure folks who are on a bicycle can get where they're going quickly. Right now, I kind of find my where I take third or fourth street, and then I go north on the next closest intersection and then walk my bike. I don't want to preclude the presentation we're about to get in a few minutes with, in conjunction with the police department and their sixth street safety pilot. Right now, they have those extra barricades so that the sidewalk is extended essentially into the right of way. And I'm curious how that works with expanded sidewalk, additional bike Laine, car lanes, and the vehicles that come through to make sure that our our entertainment district has the supplies they need, a lot of those trucks will come through at ten, 11, 12:00 at night to make sure that all the supplies that those areas need are available. So I'm going to look into that a little bit more. But just wanted to flag that. I'm trying to figure out if bicycle infrastructure needs to be on every street or, or [2:15:16 PM] to be on every street or, or some streets are kind of which ones should be designated for which types of uses and how to make sure that we're creating that, that happy blend. The program that former council member and mayor pro tem Leslie Poole had created the shop, the block program was fantastic and was mirrored in a lot of different cities about expanding some of the restaurant uses or retail uses into that sidewalk space. So I'm going to think about that over the time that we have to evaluate this. But just wanted to flag for staff that I'm thinking about that and trying to understand as a bicycle user, how how do we kind of interact in that space and especially on sixth street, make sure there's enough room for all of the needs, because there are vehicles that use one of those lanes for pickup and drop off of materials and supplies for the businesses, as well as a lot of other considerations and uses along the way. Any further questions on this item? I don't think so. Thank you. That'll move us into the presentation I just mentioned, which is a [2:16:16 PM] just mentioned, which is a briefing on the sixth street vehicle access pilot program. Welcome. >> Good afternoon. I'm Lee Austin, the central area engineer for the traffic engineering division for tpw. And with me is commander chancellor from APD. To kind of give you guys an update on the sixth street pilot, how do I advance this? This. There we go. Okay. Do we need to make it full screen or there we go. Goals of the pilot reduce crime, improve safety, reduce violent. This is an initiative of chief Davis I don't know. Did you want to say any more about this? >> No. I think our general goal is to, as the slide says, reduce crime and create an atmosphere that's safe for everyone down there. >> And my understanding is the previous concerns with the complete street completely shut, we were seeing a lot of patrons come down that weren't actually patronizing the bars and were sort of hanging out in creating [2:17:17 PM] sort of hanging out in creating some concerns from that aspect of it, and it was a cross-departmental team. It was APD, dpw supporting it, esd supporting. We developed the traffic control changes and what we would do with the street. Ed and dsd worked with the business owners, and in particular, I'd like to call out Brian block, who is on the left in this picture here. He's in the music office, and he was instrumental in setting up the meetings with the stakeholders, both the bar operators as well as the landowners and the restaurant owners. The pilot was launched in early January. We actually started planning it way back in September and had to go through some refinements to get the equipment we needed to make sure it would work safely. Originally, pd came to us with the idea to put the fencing to stop the jaywalking so the street could remain open, and we were like, we need a little bit more there to keep it a little bit safer from cars. We wound up ordering some rubber curbing. There was a long lead time with our vendor and that that sort of pushed the project back. But we did start early and did the stakeholder outreach and finally implemented early January. And [2:18:18 PM] implemented early January. And then we've been weekly checking in with pd or as needed for anything they need to help fix it. And here's the traffic control changes. And it's primarily focused in the 200 through the 500 blocks, which is from brazos to red river. It's four blocks. The primary place where pd sees the most congestion is a 304 hundred block. So that's where the very popular bars are. And they are on the south curb mostly. When we looked at this, we were looking at what we could do. Originally. Pd was like, could you take it down to two lanes? And from a vehicular standpoint, that would work just great. As Cole and bill were just talking about, sixth street is fed by two lanes from 35. Then we have a lot of pretty minor side streets. They don't need much screen time. And our big constraint that councilmember vela you were just asking about is that congress, because congress gets a lot of north south green time. Sixth street needs a lot of westbound green time. So that's your constraint. So we need the four lanes at congress, but we didn't really need it in between. However, we also knew we had a lot of vehicular loading that happens in this area because as we mentioned before, we see a lot of deliveries to the establishments there and that we [2:19:18 PM] establishments there and that we thought two lanes wouldn't really suffice to accommodate the deliveries. So we settled on three lanes. We took the southmost Laine because that's where pd saw the most congestion in the busiest bars. And then on the north curb, we only took the parking Laine. And there's a little difference between the blocks and the 205 hundred blocks the one at brazos and the one at red river. The bars aren't, aren't really, really busy. So we just took the travel Laine and we just put in some curb stops, like you see on congress and some delineators to make it visible to the drivers. And we left the parking on the north curb. And then in the 304 hundred blocks, the two middle ones that go from sanjak to neches, inclusive of Trinity, we actually put rubber curbing and behind it there's fencing to keep people from crossing mid-block. And we took the parking on the north curb, because those bars are a little busier than the 200 500 blocks. So they had a little bit of additional space, but not as much as on the south curb. And part of our idea was taking the entire curb line was that in non-peak entertainment hour days or times, the bikes and the pedicabs can use that south Laine as they need it to go back [2:20:19 PM] Laine as they need it to go back and forth. So we were piloting what's in the act plan as far as the three Laine cross section that had bike lanes. So that was part of the idea as well. We could pilot it. So this increase in pedestrian space, it's worked out well for pd as far as having additional space for queuing. We also modified the signal timing so we get a slower progression through there, and it's about 20mph. They've timed it so there's no stale green. So you don't you shouldn't ever be rushing to catch the yellow because of the way it's timed. We also, at the request of pd, added a little bit more all red time. So we make sure the vehicles come to a complete stop before the pedestrians start out there. And then daytime deliveries are accommodated in street. As I mentioned before, we have a commercial vehicle loading program that allows you to deliver in the traffic lanes with a hang tag, and we've had this for a number of years, and that's pretty much how all the vehicles deliver on sixth street. They never use the parking spaces, they always use travel lanes. It works better for the beer not to have to pull in. You guys probably saw the recent article. I think it was casinos was complaining about some of their drivers getting ticketed. So I did reach [2:21:19 PM] getting ticketed. So I did reach out to parking enforcement to ask where that came from. They said yes, they have been writing more tickets because this time of year with south by was fast approaching at the time. They're seeing a lot of more deliveries from trucks that are not part of the program. They don't have the hang tags, so they're delivering their illegally. They should they should go through our program and get the hang tags. And so it's a lot of like out of town trucks making extra deliveries because of south by. So there were more tickets being written. But it's not because of anything that happened with the street changes. It was because of additional trucks delivering for south by that weren't going through the program. Okay. Observations and adjustments. So one just real quick, this picture is a render and it's not quite correct because the curbing is between the travel lanes and the parking spaces. And the fencing is on this side so that the vehicles don't hit the fencing. So this this picture was not actually the best example here. We don't see any operational issues. As I mentioned before, we've got two lanes coming in from 35 the constraints at congress. So operationally as it functions it [2:22:20 PM] operationally as it functions it works just fine. The vehicles that deliver tend to deliver usually like mid- afternoon. Sixth street is busiest in the am peak when people are coming into downtown. So we don't see a lot of conflict that way. It usually works out pretty well. I mentioned the signal timing changes already. Rideshare drop off Zones. We did add a few in that previous picture I showed we didn't block off the parking in the 205 hundred blocks that was already no parking, so they could always drop off there anyway. But we went ahead and changed the signs to say five minute drop off to make it really clear. And we did convey to the rideshare companies and waymo that they couldn't drop off in the blocks between neches and brazos. Excuse me, because the fencing keeps you from getting to the corners. And in addition, pd was seeing a lot of issues with in particular, the bars on the south curb at Trinity street are very, very popular and lots of lightning problems and crowding problems that created issues at the intersection. So on peak nights they close the Trinity [2:23:21 PM] they close the Trinity intersection. So as a pedestrian, you do have to walk to the farther intersections, you either have to go to neches or sanjak to cross the street. So you have like a two block area where you can't cross, and then you cross at the corners. And the last thing was a public safety Laine that's a pd initiative where they will block off the northmost Laine and use it for DUI checks and other other traffic things that are addressing. And I'm going to turn it over to pd about the results. >> Thank you. And I'll just add to that, we're really trying to keep that Trinity intersection open. We keep it open as long as we can. But what happens is if there's a disturbance or a fight and the officers that are there have to leave that area, we ended up shutting it down so that intoxicated people don't walk out into the street or anyone else to get hit by a car, to be able to open that up more fully, we've created a mobile gate there that we're going to be trying out this weekend so that if we do have to run away, we can slide that in place, but then come back and open it back up. As you can see by the slide on the screen there, the use of force has gone down [2:24:23 PM] force has gone down significantly from last year to this year. Last year in George sector, the second column over there is 222 uses of force through the first five weeks, six weeks of the year. And this year there's only been 139. And so that's only a statistic that applies to downtown. The rest of the city has been keeping pretty much the same consistency and use of force. And so you can see that bringing a little bit of structure to it has changed the way that, you know, the fight, fights and violence are breaking out. And so that's what we're looking at. And we're continuing to track those numbers to make sure that those things are going down. And so with the exception of the south by southwest closure, APD has kept the streets open to vehicular traffic since the third weekend in February. In fact, this past Sunday, we even kept the north and south streets completely open. So that was kind of the day right after south by closed down. And then that was kind of the first day of spring break for a lot of people. And so it [2:25:25 PM] for a lot of people. And so it was a good weekend to see what we could do with that or a good Sunday to try it. And we were successful in having that. We didn't have any issues with vehicular traffic, pedestrian traffic there, crimes against persons, simple assaults have gone down compared to the same time last year. And so that's again, what we're going for is safety in that area. Traffic enforcement. We have had a push with traffic enforcement. If you're not aware, we do have a dontown Austin rapid response team of group of detectives that's moved downtown. And they they have some officers that traditionally do traffic enforcement as well as some dwi officers for that area. And so along with those officers, detectives that are down there, we've been having the officers pull cars over within that 3 to 4 block range that we've been having the white fencing, and that's specifically to make sure that cars understand they need to slow down. They're not all getting citations. We just want people to understand, hey, like this is new. We get it. But we want people to slow down to make sure no one gets hit. And we'll [2:26:25 PM] sure no one gets hit. And we'll continue to monitor these changes and track these stats and make sure that we're meeting with stakeholders on a regular basis so that we can get feedback from them. >> Okay. So yeah, I'll take over. So we reinstalled the curbing. We took the curbing out during south by because we had to rejigger how the fencing worked for the, the peak crowds. But it was reinstalled this week. So we're back to where we were today. This Thursday we are looking at a midterm plan. We don't have it very well developed yet. We met with assistant chief Greenwalt on the fifth, like the Friday before south by, and we worked on a little bit with the idea of can we come up with an interm solution? That is maybe the chief thought about planters. We have some sustainability concerns as far as keeping them clean and free of debris. Rr is having already having a little difficulty getting in there to clean it. We've got to work with them on that one, but something sturdier that's not rental fencing that would look nicer and be a better mid-time midterm solution. I've got a couple of example pictures on the next one, and then after that it's [2:27:25 PM] one, and then after that it's long term. What can we do long term? Can we do something where we rebuild the streets, fill in the parking spaces, make it all more pedestrian area, more sidewalk cafes, and like real crash barricades versus what we're doing now, which right now we our assumption was a reasonable driver. A curb will redirect you into the street. You can't just roll into the fencing, but it's not the same as a crash barrier. And we know we're facing a difficult climate right now. And here's just a few example pictures. Midterm. We found this one on the bottom that's like a painted concrete barrier. That would probably be the safest thing that could maybe look really neat if we got local artists to paint it. Like I said, I think we have some concerns with the sustainability of planters, but we're looking into it. There's some on red river if you guys have gone up there in the red river, cultural districts that look really nice. But Eid says they're hard to maintain and people steal the plants and the sun bakes them. So that doesn't seem like a great long term solution. But we're looking into it. And then over on the right hand side is Broadway in Nashville. And they went and did a giant project where they rebuilt all the [2:28:26 PM] where they rebuilt all the sidewalks and put in crash bollards. I don't think they had the same jaywalking issue we do, but it does look very nice and very successful there. And I think that's it. Yep. >> So. I for one would love to see planters tested because I think there's a number of different applications where these could be helpful in other, other spaces. And if they could be successful in a place like sixth street, I think they could work in all these other applications as well. I had not thought about the fact that some people might steal plants. There's plenty of plant sales folks. If you really are looking for something to tidy up your back yard, there's other ways to go about it. I'll open it up to questions. Let's start with vice chair qadri, who represents this area. >> Yeah, I appreciate you both for the presentation. I had a chance to go out with Lee last week at south by and kind of see everything, you know, in real time, and I appreciate commander chancellor and NYPD's work. It's encouraging to see positive data coming back around, you know, public safety. And I appreciate [2:29:28 PM] public safety. And I appreciate we're doing the pilot and we're kind of seeing what works and what doesn't. And it's kind of an evolving, you know, you know, concept. And I wanted to take time out for, for this item. So my colleagues had a chance to, I guess, learn more about it and ask questions. But also the public can can kind of be up to speed. I did have two questions, and I appreciated seeing the data around, you know, public safety that APD had. But do we have any information on metrics from dpw or acme on the pilot? >> What what sort of data? I'm sorry. >> Just any sort of data when it comes to pedestrian, you know, you know, crash data, anything of that sort. >> We're not seeing any significant crashes yet. And we definitely hear about it from pd if it was occurring. We do have a crash database, but there's nothing popping up currently, which is good. So even if something occurs it's probably going to be very, very minor. But yeah, we don't have any current data that's showing [2:30:29 PM] current data that's showing that. >> So and no data revolving, evolving, involving anything related to pedestrian safety. >> Well that would pretty much be our data would be the, the crash metrics. >> Okay. So there's nothing. >> I'm trying to think of what else we would do that would mostly be it. >> Okay, great. Sorry I wasn't sure. And then going back to the people stealing plants, you know, I see I see that the barriers are being considered along the street in place of the fencing. Is there any interim design ideas for the intersections? If we're concerned about cars driving into the pedestrian areas? >> Well, right now pd has been deployed. Meridian barriers at. The Esther's, and they're just about to purchase $1 million worth of them to cover sixth street. >> Yeah, we've just purchased 65 meridian barricades. So we have them here that we can shut them off. But depending on which way the pilot goes, we would like to open up some of those north and south streets. And that's what we did last Sunday. And we'll be doing that again tonight. Now Friday and Saturday it's a little busier. So we're going to [2:31:29 PM] little busier. So we're going to continue to shut those down until we see how the Thursday and Sunday go. But we just what we need is that somewhat permanent structure for the sidewalk so that people understand it, you know, and meeting with the business owners last week, they brought up a good point. You know, we shut down these north and south streets, and people walk up there in the middle of the street thinking it's open. And when they get there now, the streets open, vehicular traffic is there. And so it can cause some confusion. So we're looking at all of those options. And, and that's why we're kind of opening up those north and south streets. So people understand that. >> Great. And then like I said if possible, when it comes to both memos from APD and if we do have stuff from dpw, just more comprehensive memos would be great to see. Thank you. >> Let's kick it over to council member Laine. >> This is just pretty brief. Thank you for all the clear thought and work with stakeholders that has already gone into this. I will say that I like the look and feel of the planters the best. I understand the maintenance concerns. I'll [2:32:31 PM] the maintenance concerns. I'll throw in the possibility of some sort of art implementation of that rather than plants, if that's helpful to maintenance and that sort of thing. I think I had one more, let's see. Oh yeah. And then on the retractable bollards I'm my biggest concern. There is a long term thing is the maintenance cost. And I wanted to shift over to page five where you were the speaker, and it was super detailed in the analysis of peak hours and such. But I wanted to just mention as of this morning, this is the case. I, I was driving down sixth street in my car this morning, and there were two trucks unloading, one on each side, just diagonal from each other, which brought it down to one Laine of traffic. But you couldn't identify that that's what was happening up ahead early enough to all consolidate. And it wasn't clearing that line of traffic, even in the amount of time that the light was there. And so it got super dicey. So I just want [2:33:31 PM] got super dicey. So I just want to bring in the off peak hour analysis, too. So thanks. >> Duly noted. Questions. Council member vela. >> Yes, the oh man, the plants, the planters need some really hardy plants that can survive the prickly pear. Yeah, really. In some alcohol resistant plants where people don't pour their beers in there and whatnot. And so just to be clear though, so we're seeing a reduction in assaults in officer injuries. Again positive factors that we're looking for. And I know some of the fears behind the pilot were that we would see an increase in vehicle pedestrian conflict, conflict in particular. I just want to be clear. So thus far, and we're three months into it, we're not seeing we are seeing a reduction in the assaults and use of force and whatnot. But as of this [2:34:33 PM] and whatnot. But as of this moment, we're not seeing any increase in accidents, pedestrian things like that. Again, I just wanted to clarify that. >> Yeah, we don't have any actual data that's showing that we're seeing increased accidents there. It is very pd is everywhere when it's down there. So people are going very slowly. So yeah, so far it seems to be good. I will say we don't actually see that many crashes in downtown. As everybody point out, it's the busier on system streets in txdot that that where we see the concentrations of severe injuries and fatalities in downtown's usually pretty mellow, but we haven't seen a lot of new stuff pop up on sixth street with the pilot. >> Great. So how long would we need the pilot to run to make some conclusions about its effectiveness and to decide on, you know, what we want to do? I mean, how much data do we need until we feel pretty comfortable saying, you know what, this is working. Let's make it permanent. [2:35:35 PM] permanent. >> I was gonna say the chief isn't calling it a pilot anymore. It's more of a phased approach. The people seem pretty convinced it's working very well and that this is our first phase. And then we have an interim phase, and then we have a long term phase. And so I probably shouldn't have used the word pilot because more my understanding is this is the direction we're going. I don't want to speak for the chief or for my director, but that was my understanding. >> So yeah, that's correct. We're trying to move towards a midterm solution, towards a permanent solution. And obviously that requires a lot of different groups to work together to, to get there. Transportation. Public works has been awesome to work with and move towards these solutions. But yeah, that's that's the direction we're going. >> Great. And I haven't I don't I don't spend as much time on sixth street on Friday and Saturday nights as, as I used to. So actually and I was I was half joking, but actually quite serious that my, my staff and I need to do some field visit to sixth street on a Friday or Saturday night and see exactly [2:36:36 PM] Saturday night and see exactly how it's functioning. But the side streets and again, I'm working off a member of red river Trinity. Those continue to be closed. >> So sanjak Trinity nueces those are typically closed Thursday through Sunday. However this past Sunday we opened those up to vehicular traffic. We had zero issues. Now Thursdays and Sundays are a lot less busy than Fridays and Saturdays, so Fridays and Saturdays will continue to be closed for the meantime. But Thursdays and Sundays will be open moving forward, unless we see some issues that we need to shut them down for safety. >> And traditionally, red river and brazos remain open. So it's just the middle streets. >> Okay. Got it. And then the issue that you were talking about on on Trinity in particular, where that's kind of where a lot of crowds gather and whatnot. Could you just elaborate on that a little bit more? >> Yeah, just on that southeast curve, there's a ton of the bars that get frequented quite a bit. [2:37:36 PM] that get frequented quite a bit. Right. And it just draws a lot of customers, a lot of people. And so the majority of the crowd is in that area. And so there's a lot of people there. They're crossing. They're used to sixth street being open to just pedestrian traffic and close to vehicular. And so as we're moving forward and making a public awareness campaign and letting people know, however, we're still not quite there yet all the time. And so if a fight breaks out over here and I've got six officers working this intersection to help keep the pedestrians out of it and make sure it's safe and they have to break away for that fight, well, then sometimes that pedestrian traffic will start moving towards the roads. And so in in order to keep that safe and make sure no one's getting hit by a car, what we've been doing is shutting that down with additional white fencing that we have in that area there, so that no one gets into the street moving forward this weekend, we've got a gate that will kind of open and close, so if we need to move away, we can just put that gate there and then move back to it. So. >> And again, thinking about [2:38:39 PM] >> And again, thinking about what y'all are doing on sixth street, are there other cities. I know there was a picture of, I think, Nashville with the bollards. What are your kind of, you know, your, your models that, that you're looking at and that you're following nationwide? >> Well, so we took a couple of field trips to we went to Tampa where they have the Cuban district, I can't remember name of the street that's very popular, has a lot of bars on it, one of the cigar shops, and visited them to see what they were doing. They kept their street open. They made it sound like they kept it open all the time. They had the same issue we did, whereas once it reached a certain critical capacity, they would shut down their street, but they kept their side streets closed. And then we also went to Nashville. I tested positive for covid the day we were leaving, so I didn't go, but checked out Broadway and what they did there and how they rebuilt their sidewalks. And so those are the two major cities that we've been looking at that have pretty intense entertainment districts near somewhat busy streets. New Orleans has got a busy entertainment district, but it's not on their main, you know, CBD, and they don't have quite the same issues we do. >> Okay. And with regard to and I'm just trying to think of how [2:39:40 PM] I'm just trying to think of how this is interacting with the, the, the act plan. I guess these were not kind of the pilot started while the act plan was finishing. And again, to the chair's questions about bike lanes and whatnot on sixth street and how that's interact and any just kind of general thoughts on, on on what we're thinking about or looking at on sixth street with this plan and combining the act plan. >> Yeah. We thought this was actually a good trial of the act plan, because that was a proposal to have like a three Laine cross section with bike facilities and one Laine. That would be like a flex Laine, that could be maybe parking in the evening or valet to serve the district and keep two through lanes. So it seemed like a good example to a good time to trial that, to see how well it worked. We were pretty sure it would work, but we can just show it works and keep the bike facilities. As I said, that blocked off southmost Laine can be used by bikes and pedicabs during the non-peak times. The peak times it gets really crowded, but non-peak times they're they're free to use it. >> And then finally the and this goes to some of the other the parking management study and the [2:40:40 PM] parking management study and the new ticketing plan. But the hangtag for the deliveries. Can you talk a little bit about that? >> Yeah, we started that a few years back where we knew there was a need for deliveries downtown. We don't have enough curbside space. There's a huge demand for curbside space everywhere. And honestly, the guys don't even want to use the curbside space because it's too hard to get your truck in there. So we said, okay, we have streets that have extra capacity off peak hours. They can deliver from the street. We're okay with that. They just need to be part of our commercial delivery program, which is I think they have a limit of being there for 30 minutes. They have to have the hang tag, have their truck registered, and it's been working out great. And we say like I think on sixth street we say you can't deliver before 10 A.M. We try to Marc off, I'm not don't hold me to that. But it's something like that. We went through and looked at where are we seeing the peak delivery times? When do we our peak volume times? Where do we need to restrict them from delivering during certain time periods? Some streets are really busy in the am peak. Some streets are really busy in the pm peak, so it depends on where you are. And [2:41:41 PM] it depends on where you are. And we're not always successful at chasing them out, but we try to chase them out to keep, keep the keep the streets moving. But that's how that works. And it's been very successful because it frees up our curbside space for other uses for either parking or 15 minute customer service Zones or bike lanes. If we need room for bike lanes so that we can still get deliveries to our central business core. >> All right. I mean, again, I it seems to be working. I understand that that there's definitely folks, you know, they pull over on the on the outside lanes. But and again, in the conversations that that had with the dpw where you do need those three lanes because that way, you know, people can be blocking both outside lanes. And at least there's one Laine that, you know, you had to go to the three lanes because of that configuration. So anyway, I appreciate the pilot, I appreciate the update. And just, you know, looking forward to seeing where we go from here. >> Thank you. Good questions and appreciate the presentation that you all have given us. I'll just end on that note by saying, I think that some of the considerations around sixth street in particular, it may be a couple blocks by a couple blocks about what actually [2:42:43 PM] blocks about what actually works, because I know the bike lanes heading toward mopac are much less friendly than the ones coming in on fifth street that are, you know, further further west. But there may be just different considerations for different segments of that area. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I'm going to do a quick time check. It is 243. And we still have a briefing on the climate pollution reduction grant program. So I'm going to ask for Kristin pipkin to come up and help with that presentation. And then we do want to hear from our director of transportation public works, on the ongoing mobility programs report that we have as a standing item, and then collect any other items for future meetings, all within 17 minutes. Yes, we can do it. >> We can do it. Council member that's just what miss pipkin and I were discussing. So I will just take 15 seconds to introduce miss Kristin pipkin. She's our newly addition to transportation public works, and she is leading the cpr program for us. [2:43:46 PM] for us. >> Welcome. >> Thank you and welcome. I appreciate the warm welcome. Thank you, Richard, for the introduction. So we've got an exciting update today on the climate pollution reduction grant program. Appreciate your time today to kind of speak to it. Let's see if I can if I can figure out the buttons here. There we go. So today's presentation will include a grant overview. It's going to include highlights on the grant goals key measures and benefits and an overview of the grant schedule. So jumping right into it what is cpr or the climate pollution reduction grant? The cpr is a federally funded program administered by the EPA to develop and implement plans for climate pollution reduction. There are two primary funding categories. There are planning grants and there are implementation grants. Thanks to council support and the work of our city leaders, in 2023, the office of climate action and [2:44:47 PM] office of climate action and resilience successfully applied for a planning grant to develop the priority climate action plan. Last year, and because of the city's and because of the city's planning grant, this enabled the transportation and public works department to successfully apply for a $47.8 million grant implementation grant, called moving central Texas. The purpose of moving central Texas is to identify opportunities to reduce traffic congestion by reducing vehicle miles traveled, or vmt, on the central Texas roadways. As you as you guys have already pointed out, transportation is the number one category for greenhouse gas emissions or or carbon emissions in our area. By reducing vmt, we can reduce our environmental footprint in central Texas. Here we go. The vision. The vision for crg is to [2:45:52 PM] vision. The vision for crg is to reduce vehicle miles traveled in the short term, while our region develops a premier multimodal network in our area. Leveraging this moment to create a new sustainable ridership group in central Texas. Over the next decade, approximately $20 billion in public investment will be spent on projects such as the I-35 capital express project and project connect. These projects will be there to help people move through our city and visit key destinations. While these investments are important to our community, it will impact the capacity of our roadways in the near term. Through these short term, short term challenges. The crg program will leverage this moment to advance options that reduce the demand on our roadways now, and to support our future mobility needs. For instance, moving [2:46:54 PM] needs. For instance, moving people through our area might look like riding a scooter or riding a bike or walking, taking busses, doing and riding in car share rides. By using these alternative modes of travel, we can achieve our goal of reducing vehicle miles traveled by 39 million miles over a five year period. While this. While this sounds very challenging and daunting when broken down, this translates to 820 people each day or changing how they travel through our city. A vision like this cannot be done alone. It does truly take a village. In this case, a seven agency partnership is working together to achieve this goal. As I'm kind of showing on the screen as well. These agencies include txdot, cap, cog carts, cap metro, our own transportation [2:47:54 PM] metro, our own transportation and public works department, and movability. This slide helps us take a look back before we start to move forward. Just to take a quick step back and to bring everybody up to speed. In October of 2023, our partner coalition received the EPA notification about this funding opportunity. In April of 2024, which was just 11 months ago, city council approved the grant application in July of 2024, the EPA awarded the city the grant in October of last year. Six months ago, city council accepted the grant award and on January 20th 1st or January 1st of this year, the EPA grant agreement was executed. So there has been a lot of work that's happened in the last year and a half. Key measures of the of the grant include measure one is [2:48:56 PM] grant include measure one is improving existing transit service, which has a budget of approximately $17.5 million. Measure two is investing in our transportation demand management infrastructure, which has a budget of about $7.1 million. And measure three is introducing travel options, and this has a budget of approximately $22.6 million. By achieving the goals of each measure, this will help us move the needle on reducing traffic congestion on central Texas roadways, which is the number one concern in our community. In addition to this, it will also help us improve air quality, expand our regional transportation demand management programs, and enhance the livability in central Texas. So now, taking a closer look at the tools that we have in order to do this. This is what we are [2:49:56 PM] do this. This is what we are looking at to reduce vehicle miles traveled. Part of our plan is to take is to is to provide strategic, regional, local and local transit services. Working with our partners at cap, in carts, expand our coalpool, our carpool and vanpool services with our similar partnerships with carts and capmetro, and expand cap metro's bike share program. In addition to that, the city is going to be building out 48 new mobility hubs in public areas, such as right of way at metro facilities, as some of the city's parks and libraries as well. We will. We will also be introducing a new transportation demand management platform, and this will be done in partnership with with campo and with txdot to provide options and incentives for trying trying new modes of travel. And then finally, we're going to be amplifying our message through our our marketing and promotional strategies that will be [2:50:57 PM] strategies that will be supported by our coalition partner, movability. As you can see, we have a significant amount of work of work ahead of us. The grant officially was executed on January 1st. The grant is a five year program, with the first year focusing on planning, and then after the first year and starting in 2026, we begin to transition into implementation. In the grant term ends on December 31st, 2029. So what is next? Currently, our partnership coalition is planning the best strategies to deploy the various tools that I had already mentioned to achieve the grant goals. In April of this year, we'll be at city council with. One of our first big steps is to is for council to consider our las our interlocal agreements with capmetro, with carts and with cog, and then also to take into consideration two key contracts we have moving forward [2:51:58 PM] contracts we have moving forward with movability and with eco counters. So as as I mentioned earlier, it truly takes a village to deliver the outcomes of the grant. I really appreciate your time here today and hopefully, you know, I'm ahead of schedule so that we can kind of keep the presentations moving forward. But thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Are there any questions from the committee? I don't think so. I've got one quick one. I'll try to make it so fast. Oh, I see, council member harper- madison. Hands up. Why don't you go ahead? >> I will, and it's not a question. It's a comment. And I'll go so fast to. I really appreciate hearing the integrated approach to updating our traffic management platform with. Campo and txdot. I really appreciate that that effort. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. My statement is along that line too. I know that campo has its own vehicle emission reduction plan that it has been [2:52:58 PM] reduction plan that it has been working on, I believe. So I'll just mention it's not a question about the status, but generally we had thought in that moment that we need some sort of planning to make sure we're not duplicating efforts. So if that's not already on your radar, I just wanted to make sure that it was to make sure, like schools are doing one thing and, you know, city of Austin doing one thing and campo working on another angle. And so I just wanted to make sure all the parties were understanding, you know, how to make our dollars stretch as far as they can to make sure we're getting the most impact for the investigations that are going on. >> Yeah, absolutely. And just on that note, I mean, when I, when I was mentioning the coalition of partners that we have, we it's not just something that we're saying to help us kind of advance the work. We tis is truly an integrated approach. We have our program structure involves as an executive committee from all of those agencies. And then for each measure, we have representatives from from each of the agencies that want to participate and do have, again, you know, work that they are also advancing as part [2:53:58 PM] they are also advancing as part of their mission. We're bringing them all to the table so we aren't duplicating efforts. We do stretch and be as efficient as we can with all of our public dollars. So not just of this grant, but all the other federal funding and local funding that we have available, too. >> Excellent. Thank you. Absolutely. I think that does it. And thanks for the presentation. >> Thank you. >> That takes us to our standing item. We have a report from the director of transportation, public works. Welcome, Richard Mendoza. >> Thank you. Committee chair and committee members you have in your packet this month's mobility report report. And I'm just going to hit the highlights. It includes an update on the work. Transportation public works has been involved in with the capital delivery services, as well as the convention center. On looking at the impending potential traffic impacts related to the convention center project, our transportation [2:54:58 PM] project, our transportation engineers have been actively engaged and looking at the traffic control plan, as well as developing truck routes for the immense number of construction traffic and trucks that we expect in the next three and a half years. So you have information regarding those impacts. There's also in the month of March, we have the newly council adopted parking regulations. They went into effect, notably the bike Laine parking enforcement requirements. Do know that we are in a three month educational period where our enforcement officers are only issuing warnings and educational materials, and not citations. As our public gets accustomed to these new parking regulations in our bike Laine infrastructure. Also, there's some quick project updates to include west 25th street sidewalk pilot project, where we used environmentally friendly porous materials. This [2:56:00 PM] friendly porous materials. This is a new application that we're trying. It's going to be friendlier to trees and reduce our impervious cover related to our sidewalk program. Traffic signal upgrades, as well as completion of the violet crown urban trail extension project, and then an update on the William canyon corridor project. We have a lot of activity working with capital delivery services to wrap up a lot of our remaining corridor projects from 2016, and then finally, but not least, Austin airport held a groundbreaking for their yellow parking garage out there as part of their airport improvement expansion master plan. And you'll find information from that on that in your packet as well. >> All right. Any questions for the director? I don't think so. Oh, Natasha, why don't you go ahead. >> Real fast? No questions. Just a shout out. In my recent experience at the airport on [2:57:00 PM] experience at the airport on occasion, because of a medical condition, I'll need to use a chair when I'm at the airport and there is a new handicap hub where you can wait. It used to be you'd have to get yourself all the way over and now there's a hub. I don't know that it's advertised well enough so that people know it's there, but I really I heard Mr. Mendoza mention the airport expansion. I really just wanted to offer a shout out for that service. I know it's very helpful with people with disabilities. >> Thank you very much. And that will take us to identifying items for future meetings right now, potentially for April, we have lined up an update on the residential parking program review, a shared micromobility update, and outreach and safety planning for major construction projects. Since we have a handful of large scale projects that are going to be breaking ground pretty soon. So we will dive into that a little bit deeper. And as always, may is bike month. So we will talk about city leap, the Austin [2:58:02 PM] about city leap, the Austin strategic mobility plan, six year status report and potentially a metro bike update. I know there's some information going on now about federal grants, metro bike expansion, any fare updates, things like that that we need to be apprized of at that point in time. And we've got another laundry list of things that aren't are not yet slated for a specific month. And then I know Krista you said that you had a couple things you wanted to add to the list. >> Okay, so just observing that both today's meeting and the last meeting focused almost entirely on transit and Austin's core to the exclusion largely of outlying areas, including even how outlying areas connect with our core transit. So with that in mind, I've got two things that I want to put into the mix I have. I am agnostic as to when leave that in your hands, but number one is a presentation on how people living outside of central Austin connect to Austin's core transit network. Of course, I would like that to [2:59:04 PM] Of course, I would like that to include consideration of some of district six challenges, txdot roadways, that sort of thing. But I'm also really interested in the patterns that impact our outlying areas as they're trying to connect, and that I actually include in that the larger region, because we have so many people trying to get to jobs and things in the central city. So that's one and the other really big question that I want to elevate is I would love to better understand how new transit networks or priorities are set, how we may be used to set them, and it's evolved into how we currently set them. I'm in a district that's had one of the most rapid growth rates in the city. Most of that growth has occurred in Williamson county, which is 60% of the district. So I'm not sure that that's getting factored into the link. You know, frequent analysis I see of Austin and Travis county. Excuse me. We [3:00:04 PM] Travis county. Excuse me. We also have the second largest immigrant population, which has in the city, which has been part of that growth. And I would not be surprised at all if we don't have the fastest growth rate in apartments opening and coming online, all clustered along the same txdot roadway without any multimodal transit options. So just understanding how I know there have been so many challenges with the pandemic coming back from it, all of the different changes in use patterns. So how are we identifying where we might need to make an addition to, for example, a bus route or that sort of thing? So those are my two. Thank you. >> Those are all well taken. Any other items to add? It does not appear so. I think on that note, we are adjourning at 3:00 pm as promised. Thanks everyone for being here. I was looking at staff. I was like, did I miss something? Are we off schedule? I appreciate everyone being here. All of our city staff that's working really hard to [3:01:04 PM] that's working really hard to make our roads safer and to help us plan for the future and for the folks who came and gave public comment at the beginning. I know you all are involved every single day on on trying to make transportation work better in Austin. So thank you.