Transportation Advisory Board Meeting - February 8, 2021
4:49PM Feb 19, 2021
Speakers:
Keywords:
plan
longmont
transportation
projects
region
cog
road
piece
safety
people
important
hear
sidewalks
goals
rtd
regional transportation plan
transit
talk
reducing
vehicle
Okay, so we're gonna get started again here returning to our transportation advisory board meeting. So we'll invite our transportation advisory board members to return with their video and get rolling again. And give everyone just a minute to fully get back. And then we'll invite Stacey to let us know if there are any members of the public wishing to be heard at this point.
Stacy,
it looks like we do have one user show a name.
Okay, sounds good. Well, we'll invite that caller in just one second, just to reminder to the rest of the folks on the call here just to keep your mute button on there when you're not speaking, just to make sure that we don't have any crosstalk taking place. So all right, for the individual who is on the phone here. The floor is yours.
Thank you, Chairman. Can you hear me?
can hear you fine.
All right. Thank you, Chairman and thank you to the members of the board for your public service. My name is Rebecca parrot. Today I speak to you as a concerned citizen as attempt to shine a light on a neighborhood that needs to be attention. It is my belief that Longmont has not done enough enough for Northern Longmont. North Longmont is rock, pedestrian and bicycle safety concerns. Yet I see little evidence of any capital improvement projects that address the safety of North Longmont residents. North Longmont sidewalks and roads are not good enough, especially on the arterial highways. Last week, a car driving eastbound on 17th Street plowed over the sidewalk adjacent to Janet Pearson's property between Atwood and Kohler. This is the 12th time that something like this has happened. This isn't about drunk driving and watching the road This is about the fundamental design of the roads and sidewalks in North Longmont. For example, when walking down 17th and you cross the top would all of a sudden the East phone right hand lane goes from about 20 feet wide to less than 11 feet wide less than the width of the small driveway and the sidewalk was right next to it. It is my belief that this funneling and road narrowing of the road contributed to why that drunk driver would have killed any pedestrian on that sidewalk. And 17th has multiple cases of these Grove narrowings there's no shoulders on 17th and it is a four lane road. It is also the location of many families front yards 17th it's just one road in North Longmont like that Ninth Street 19th Colyer, they all have instances of road narrowing with sidewalks adjacent to the road. I'd also suggest with the lack of attention in the north depicts an underlying disparity of the public projects in the city. North Longmont is one of the densest and lowest income parts of the city. And many of the people are renters, who are unable or unwilling to perform their civic duties to bring up their concerns to the city. yet because the density of these areas, any capital improvement projects will impact the most people. We all have things that we think our neighborhoods could improve upon. And I'm not trying to devalue other concerns. I just suggest that the city prioritize public safety over what to me sound like city niceties. I challenge each and every one of you to take a walk down lines and walk down 17th see how it feels. See what it feels like to know that if you trip and fall, you'll be falling face first into traffic and see what it feels like to know that if you stick your hand out, you can touch a vehicle that speeding by you might not live here, but the neighborhood and the people in it need your representation. I seen the plat maps and the challenges of these roads and I really do sympathize with the city on how to address the issues. It is a challenge and it might need some creativity to figure out what to do. But just because something gets hard doesn't mean that it isn't the right thing to do. I ask that the advisory board in the city focus on the public safety of the sidewalks in North Longmont which is the right thing to do. Thank you.
Thank you Rebecca good to hear your voice there. Hope you're doing well. I'm sorry to hear about the incident that happened on 17th street we invite Tyler to be able to come on back here for just a moment there and to see if if he has any comments there or or thoughts from from an engineering perspective about this stretch of 17th street or anything I
appreciate the feedback and opportunity to come in. I think that, yes, Miss parrot mentioned, there are a lot of challenges in this area, a lot that we're looking at. I think in general, our design standards have definitely evolved over time. And at one point, we had the sidewalks attached to the street. I think that's definitely a change that we've made for the better where now we're looking at the detached walks and the new builds, we're not attaching the locks to the street. I heard ninth Avenue in there. part of the discussion, I'm not clear on exactly which parts of ninth Avenue. But we are looking at a project this year on ninth Avenue between over and Kauffman street where we would be doing some type of road diet, reallocating those lanes to create kind of a three lane section bike lanes, which would provide some additional buffer for the sidewalks similar to what we did on Sunset a couple years ago. So that is an example some of the projects we've done for some of those issues. But the 17th Yeah, it probably needs a closer look into some of the issues going on there.
Thank you for doing your due diligence on that in the weeks ahead. Great, Phil.
I just wanted to add, we're following the Dr. cog presentation now with our equitable carbon free transportation roadmap presentation, and we're gonna address some of those equity issues in that in that plan. So I'll just give you a heads up that we will be talking about this later tonight as well.
Great. Sounds good.
Thank you. Stacy, do we have anyone else on the phone at this point?
Only other caller I show is it looks like Alvin
Sanchez. I'm
not sure if he's
calling in as public or private group tonight.
He's with. Okay.
And that looks like that's all then. Okay.
Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Rebecca. Thank you, Tyler, and Stacey and Phil. And we will jump ahead to our information item here from the tweak that we did to the the agenda. So let me turn it on over to Lisa, and let you lead the discussion for this next section there on the 2015 Metro vision transportation plan.
All right, thank you, Chair, I everybody. My name is Lisa hood. And I am the public engagement specialist or Dr. cog. And we are so excited to come and talk to you today about the 2050 Metro vision Regional Transportation Plan. We're actually going out to all of the transportation advisory boards just like you around the region, to the local governments that had those and I am so grateful that you, you all volunteered your time to be on a board like this and to advise your city on transportation issues. I also wanted to do a couple shout outs before I get into the introductions. First to Tyler because he's one of the only people that's ever pronounced my name correctly on the first try. So great job, Tyler. And then also I just wanted to say thank you to Phil for plugging the citizens Academy, which is one of my other main roles at Dr. cog. And I just want to second that. I think it's a really great opportunity for interested community members like you all or if you have friends or family who are interested in transportation issues or demographics or civic engagement with our virtual format this year, especially for Longmont, folks, it might be perfectly ideal. So yeah, thank you, Phil. And then I also wanted to say hello to Joan Peck because she is our Dr. cog director. She's on our board of directors, the representative for Longmont. So great to see you here as well. So I'll start with introductions of my colleagues who are also here. So you've already heard from me, but Jacob, do you want to introduce yourself?
Yeah, thanks. Can everyone hear me? Yep. Great. Well, good evening, everyone. My name is Jacob Rhaegar. I'm the long range education planning manager at Dr. cog. The biggest part of my job at Dr. cog is actually what we will be discussing tonight, which is the metro vision regional transportation plan. So I just want to echo Lisa's comments you really really, really grateful for your time tonight having us here, and we're excited to have this conversation with you.
All right, and I'm also joined by Alvin
evening everyone. My name is I'm a transportation planner here at Dr. cog. And similar to Jacob, my work underneath tickets, my primary role is helping with the long range plan, which we'll be discussing today.
Some three of us will be giving you a short presentation, we've also planned some interactive polling just to kind of facilitate a discussion, and we're hoping to chat with you about transportation. Just a background, I know now, we've already thrown out the acronyms several times Dr. gaag, the silliest acronym of them all stands for the Denver Regional Council of Governments. As you can tell, we take up a lot of land area in the region. And we are composed of 58 member governments, including Longmont. And we have a variety of different issues that we handle, and one of those is transportation. So that's what we're here to talk to you about tonight. I'm actually going to try to show a video because we created this cool little video to summarize the transportation plan. And hopefully this will work. It's only it's a short video. That gives you a good overview.
We're always on the go. Walking, driving, biking. We all have places to be. But how often do we stop to think about everything that makes it possible to get what we need to go
out and train? Don't
think we're seeing the actual video. So
I was wondering, I was like there's an awkward pause. Let's see. Let me as I'm sharing Microsoft PowerPoint,
we try get
technical issues are very fun part of the virtual experience.
All right. So again,
this time,
we're always on walking, driving, biking, we all have places to be. But how often do we stop to think about everything that makes it possible to get where we need to go. Adding transit lines constructing and fixing roads, creating bike paths. All these things make it possible for us to move around the region. They help us connect to the world around us, whether we're going to the grocery store, and our jobs or schools, to visit with family and friends, or to explore nature. As our region continues growing, we simply can't take for granted that our current infrastructure and systems will always be able to support our population. The Denver Regional Council of Governments brings community leaders together from across 10 counties to decide how our region funds and prioritizes transportation investments. The Metro vision Regional Transportation Plan looks ahead to 2015 so we can prepare for our populations continued growth over the next 30 years. The plan anticipates the region's needs. And we're involving residents to learn how we can meet those needs, from expanding our public transportation network to improving our roadways, to making biking and walking safer and more accessible. Learn more about the metro vision regional transportation plan, and how you can shape the future of transportation.
Alright, so that I feel like gives a better summary than just our PowerPoint slides. But just one, so wanted to kick that off, and I will stop sharing my tray. Get over to PowerPoint.
There we go.
I'm gonna pass it over to Alvin who will walk through kind of more of the nuts and bolts of the plan.
So for the 2015 RTP, and for any RTP that we work on, we have these that are common throughout each of our developments. So the RTP sets the region's multimodal vision, and by that we we do mean multimodal, so we're not just talking about roads and rail. We're also talking about the sidewalk and bicycle facilities, the aviation system in the region. Then we're also talking about the impacts that that transportation system has on users and residents. So safety, freight and goods movement. You'll hear us discuss how the plan might be fiscally constrained or cost feasible. So we'll be talking about just what projects are included in the plan that we were able to prioritize through our solicitation evaluation process. If you're familiar with our short range plan, the Transportation Improvement Program, any project that's a new road or road widening, or a new Rapid Transit project that wants to be in the tip also needs to be in our RTP. This is one way that we implement our Metro vision plan, which is the region's larger guiding document about where we want to be in the future. This plan is updated every four years, but you can see that we have a 20 to 30 year vision. So we're looking at a 2050. For this development, we work with all the partners in the region, so not just see got an RTD, but also our local government partners. So the local government, the county governments, toll authorities, and then any transportation providers like airports. And then we also have a couple other functions that we do as the designated NPO for the region.
By the time we get to hopefully our board adoption, and ultimately, the approval from the Federal Highway and Federal Transit administration's this will be about a two year long effort to develop our Metro vision regional transportation plan, you can break that up into about four different phases. And with each of those, we've had a public engagement component each of them, you can see we're finally coming up on our draft plan review. So that'll actually be going out end of this week, beginning of next week to actually begin our official public review period, where we'll be continuing to present to the public to stakeholders like yourselves, and then hopefully ending up in front of our board and committee to adopt this RTP. Regardless of whether we've heard from the public or to advisory groups, and whether that's been a survey, or our political events, or even our online engagement activities, we've heard some similar themes across each of those phases. And from each of those groups of the biggest one has been investing in quality transit in the region, as well as expanding our sidewalks and our bicycle paths, and also improving safety in the region. We've taken a number of actions in the last year for each of these, but this plan sets the long range vision for each of those compared to that there's been less interest in building new roads and new highways in the region. And they've also been interest in improving our air quality, so reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and reducing company's vehicle miles traveled per capita in the region. In addition to the public engagement we've been doing, we've also been meeting regularly with our stakeholders. So that could be our County Transportation forums, where we get all the different local governments within the county together and talk about the transportation issues within that county at a county level regional level, we were meeting pretty regularly with the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation district almost weekly at some point over the summer, as we work through Project sortation. And product evaluation. We've also been doing one on one meetings with local government. So not just through the County Transportation forums, but one on one to discuss their priorities for the for their for the long range plan. And then we've had our own committee and board structure that we've been working through over the last few years, providing regular updates, doing workshops with them developing the framework that we use to solicit projects, evaluate projects, and ultimately bringing forward to them those investment priorities that they adopted at the end of last year that have informed how we've built out the plan that will be available for public review. At the end of this week. I'm getting into the meat of the plan, what the top are most interested in will focus on some current conditions of some 16, six, six important topics we heard from the public. And then we'll be discussing what some of those investments look like just at a high level, providing some examples, and then what some potential outcomes are for the region that we hope our investment choices will improve in the region. There are four components of the plan, we'll be focusing on regionally funded projects. So these are new projects that are included in the plan using federal or state dollars. We also have projects that we said we would bring to the new plan. So from 2014 into 2050. There's also projects that we know the local governments are going to be working on. So those could be new roads with white names. Those could be by local governments, county governments, or even toll authorities, but just projects we need to have in our plan to show and then a significant investment is just in what we call categories or allocations. So we don't list every sidewalk project, every bus route that we know, is in the region, but we know there's gonna be significant investment in those types of projects. So that's just an allocation that we show in the plan, but the focus of the presentation will be these new regionally funded projects. And I'll pass it over to Jacob.
Thank you. So as Alvin mentioned, we wanted to kind of talk through what's in this plan regarding these six themes and these themes Really correspond to some of the major things that we heard through both the public and stakeholder engagement process over the last year and a half. So let's start with safety, you know, really is, you know, our highest priority, your highest priority, really across the region and beyond in terms of, you know, wanting to improve safety outcomes in this region. So you're seeing a lot of data and a lot of information on this slide. This is what the next few slides will look like. In the interest of time, I'm not going to cover all of this, but both, you know, really wanted to give you a sense of what's in the plan that you'll see starting next week, in terms of kind of the profile of the issue, some data around each of these issues, and then what's really in the plan to address it. And for each of these issues, what's in the plan is a combination of kind of what I call sort of major projects, you know, really sort of, you know, capacity multimodal type projects, like some of the ones that you see listed here. But there's also a lot of programmatic and sort of smaller investments that we don't necessarily identify projects for just yet, but we make those allocations in the financial plan. And I think it's important to clarify for each of these topics, because we're such a large region, in our regional transportation plan, you know, we're covering an area that's parts of 10 counties, you know, almost three and a half million people, we really sort of concentrate on listing, you know, the major multimodal projects, and then some of the smaller projects, you know, some of the things even that you started talking about tonight, in terms of like, local sidewalks, local streets, we don't list those projects in the plan, we focus on the big projects. But we do make sure that our financial plan includes all of the allocations from all of our partners, including local governments that help make our transportation system work. So this one is talking about active transportation, this is really any type of transportation that's not engine powered. So if you're walking, bicycling, rolling, whatever it may be, this is really what this is about. Dr. Kahn worked on an active transportation plan that we adopted, adopted, I think just about a year and a half ago, that plan is actually become part of this larger regional transportation plan. And then like the other slides, you see some of the major projects that are in this category that will be in the regional transportation plan. One I'll highlight in the long run areas, the same thing, Greenway, as well as the RTD rail trail and Boulder County. And then you see a few other projects around the region, similar to safety and the other slides, again, both some major projects, but also some programmatic investments in the financial plan on this topic. Air Quality is obviously an important issue, you certainly don't need me to tell you that. There's a lot that both Dr. cog and our partners at the regional and state level as well as the local level two, around air quality, this one's a little bit different. Because if you don't typically have an air quality project, you know, per se, in the plan sort of individually. But we handle this in several different ways. We've started to incorporate household 1261 on the greenhouse gas emission reduction, the Climate Action Plan. And we anticipate as that work gets finalized, we'll be amending this plan to further incorporate some of the requirements that we'll have for regional transportation plans like this. And then the big thing that we always do at Dr. cog, and frankly, it's a federal requirement that we do is we make sure that the entire network and program of projects that we include, in the regional transportation plan, meet what's known as emissions budgets that are set for us by the state through the state implementation plan for air quality. So we have done that air quality modeling work for this plan, that this plan will, the projects in this plan will meet the air quality conformity standards. So again, this is really just a highlight that this continues to be a major issue in this region. And something that we've been focused on is we've put the plan together.
multimodal mobility, again, you kind of see a lot on this slide. The idea here is that, you know, this plan is about many things, but in one way, it's ultimately about the scarce allocation of dollars, just like you all locally, us at the regional level, state level, national level, you know, we just don't have enough dollars for transportation, we don't have enough to do everything that we want to do. So when we put this plan together, one of the things that we really consciously focused on was the notion that, you know, we really want the best of the best of these projects and investments to fund. And what I mean by that is that any of these major projects, we didn't want them to just serve a single purpose, even roadway projects in this plan, you know, we really wanted them to be multimodal, we wanted them to have active transportation or transit components, or if we funded a transit project in the plan, you know, maybe that's also a safety project. You know, we wanted these projects that would do multiple things, and make the best use of the resources that are being used to, you know, to allocate dollars toward them in this plan. So really, the point of this slide is just kind of demonstrate, you know, the variety of modes that this plan covers, and how we try to integrate those modes in the projects in the plan that we put together. freight was another important topic, a little bit harder to resonate with us on an average day. But, you know, if we think about our collective experience during the pandemic, I'm sure that we've all gotten, you know, grocery deliveries and food deliveries, Amazon packages and all those, you know, all those sorts of things being delivered to us. So freight is really important in terms of, you know, our ability to function, our economy, the effect on the roadways, you know, railroads, trucking, you know, many dimensions to freight. So we do have several freight projects in the plan, similar to some of the other topics in this plan. You know, the Dr. cog has recently adopted a safety plan, an active transportation plan, we've also recently adopted a free plan that becomes part of this larger effort that we're talking about tonight with our regional transportation plan. Regional Transit, I know that's important to you locally, it's important to us as a region, we have several aspects of transit and regional transit within this Regional Transportation Plan. You see some of the major projects listed at the bottom of this slide. One of the things that we've done is based on our TDs, regional BRT feasibility study, we felt the long range plan was really an important mechanism to help implement that regional BRT study. And so this plan actually defines a BRT network of I believe, about 10 corridors across the region over the next 30 years to start implementing a regional BRT system, which does include state highway 119. In your part of our region, we've also identified several quarters that we're calling transit planning corridors, that will get significant financial and planning allocation over the life of this plan to help develop the unique transit vision for each of those corridors. So state highway seven, is an important example of one of those types of corridors. And then working with our partners. You know, as Alvin mentioned earlier, obviously, RTD was one of our key partners, we were able to include the Northwest rail peak service plan, in this long range transportation plan, I will say not really a caveat there, because it's in the plan, but just sort of a note that, you know, as RTD, picks up, reimagined and continues on that work, just like with hospital 1261, for greenhouse gas emission reduction, we do anticipate, probably in the next year or so, needing to update this plan, or do an amendment to this plan to incorporate the outcomes of the RTD reimagined process once it's complete. So with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Lisa, thank you.
All right, thanks, Jacob. We're gonna talk about all the different ways that you can provide or get your community members to provide input on this plan. You really need to hear from the public on this. We, like Alvin mentioned, our draft plan will be released for public review, starting actually on Friday, so the end of this week. And we would really love you to help spread the word to your contacts for you to take a look at the full plan yourself. And we really just want to hear from as many people as possible as this is the transportation system that we will all be using for the next 30 years. So tonight, though, I wanted to talk with you all about kind of these topics that we've raised, just thinking about the interactive, how to make virtual meetings interactive, I certainly wish I was meeting you all in person. But virtual meetings are the name of the game now. So we are going to try some interactive web polling with you. And that's really just to facilitate discussion, sometimes it can be hard to get everybody to talk on a virtual meeting. So we'll try that and see how that goes. And just kind of start talking and have some opportunities for general discussion as well. There are going to be several more opportunities to provide input once the plan is released at the end of this week. So don't feel like this is your only chance to provide input. And we we certainly know that you haven't seen the full plan yet. So you're really just providing input on these last 10 slides that we've given you. So over the next 30 days, there will be a online on demand open house. So kind of a website that we've built that people can go through on their own time and go through these topics and kind of summaries of each and give feedback on that and participate in discussion boards. We're also going to be holding some virtual live public meetings where you can have more q&a with Dr. cog planners, we've built an interactive map so you can explore all of these different projects and when they're planned, and they're funding. And then we'll have the kind of typical availability for public comment, and then we'll have a public hearing at our Dr. cog board of directors meeting. So I'm going to jump over to this tool called mentimeter. And some of you maybe have used this before, but it's a pretty nifty little interactive polling tool. If you just want to open an screen on your laptop or your computer, since you're already looking at it, or it can be a little bit easier to do it on a smartphone if you have one. And then what you'll do is you'll go to www.mentee.com. And that's m e n t i, and Jacob Alvin, if you want to throw this in the chat to to make it easier, that'd be good. And then you'll enter the code 7422062. Give me a second, we'll do a couple test. Or just fun, fun questions just to get you familiar with how this thing works. So the first one, I love trivia, so this is the first one. Which of these fun facts about Colorado is not true. And then you'll just use your phone to answer. The road to mount Evans is the highest paid road in North America. Colorado has the most national parks of any state. No, US president or vice president has been born in Colorado, or Colfax Avenue is the longest continuous street in America. Which of these facts is not true?
All right.
You guys are correct. We do not have the most national parks of any state. That's actually California. I think we're technically third. But so now you see how the kind of voting works. And then the other thing that we'll do is an open ended question. And you'll type in, in what state or country did you grow up?
And you'll see a pop up on the screen. Indiana, Texas,
Arizona,
Colorado natives,
New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, guys are from all over. It's a perfect Colorado soup. Alright, so you get the gist. Now we will get into the transportation question. So we're gonna kind of structure it in those six topics that we talked about, or that Jacob talked about? And it's just a couple simple questions. So the first is how well do you think that this 2050 RTP, the regional transportation plan will improve the safety of the regional transportation system? And then the second question is knowing that all of these topics aren't equally important to everybody. Sorry, freight. How important to you, it's the safety of the transportation system. So you're writing each of those questions from zero to 10. And that will pop up with a the average
group.
And feel free to unmute yourself and ask questions or start discussion while we're doing this. I certainly don't want to close off discussion. It's just we'll get through these interactive polling questions. All right, looks like safety is very important. That's what we've heard through all of this public and stakeholder engagement over this two year process. But it looks like maybe we're pretty middle of the road on how well the plan is going to improve it. So that's really good to hear. Okay. All right. You'll see these questions up. Did I hear somebody wanting to talk? Okay, so you see, the questions are framed the same way. The next topic is active transportation. So like Jacob said, That's anything that's not using a motor. So usually walking, biking, rolling, and also be scooters, things like that. How well do you think that plan will improve active transportation in the region? And how important is it to you? All right, still really important, but maybe not quite as far up there as safety. Looks like we're doing a little better on that than safety in the plan. All right. Third one is air quality. How well do you think the plan will improve air quality in the region? And how important to you is air quality?
All right, another very important one. I think we all like to breathe cleanly. And right around that 566 mark for the plan. All right, good here. multimodal mobility. So like Jacob said, these are projects that have multiple uses, so roads, spikes, transit, really hitting those different modes. I Well, do you think that the plan is going to improve that and how important All right, let me look slightly less important moments interesting and a little bit better than the other ones. All right. Then this is our last one, six very similar questions, right? How well do you think it will improve freight movement and how important to you is freight?
freight 10?
If you could tell from my freight jokes, I anticipated that it would be a little bit lower than the other ones are important to our region, but maybe not as important. everybody's life everyday. And then right in the middle with the five, what's the plan? Alright, so that kind of goes through the ranking questions. Now. I really Oh, wait, I forgot transit. Most important. Sorry. It was last. Oh, well, you think that the RTP will improve Regional Transit? And how important to you is Regional Transit?
All right, another very important one. That's that's what we've heard throughout, including three, four regional transit 6.3 for the plan. I'm kind of in that road, but maybe a little bit higher than the others. All right. That was our last one. This one is more general. So just generally thinking about all of those topics, and we all have kind of a vision, especially you all who think about transportation a lot. How does the train that plan align with your ideal transportation system? When you think of where the Denver region should be by 2050? How well do you think this plan is gonna get us there? Looks like very mixed results. Alright, see some extremely well, some very well, and not so well. And some some NSM? What Well, alright, so I'm gonna draw out a little bit more about why that is why you answered that way. So we have some open ended questions, you can type in as many as you want, it will pop up on the screen. But also, at this point, really feel free to unmute and start talking if you don't want to type it into your phone. But we're just going to ask kind of, at least in most, so first is in what areas does the plan least align with your ideal transportation system? Where did you notice maybe we're falling short? Or where I think that there should be a little more priority?
I think I have a just a comment. And it kind of refers to the first question. And in the in all of the sets that you asked is that I don't know that I've seen enough detail with a plan to to gauge how well it will meet in any of these things. But for those for those questions, where you were I rated high it was because it was clear that you're talking about it, and not just assuming that you know what needs to happen. And so I think that the fact that you are seeking input, and you're looking for driving multimodal and active transportation and clean air, I think if they if we were to ask that question 30 years ago, I'm not sure those items would have been on the table. Perhaps they would, I don't know. But the fact that you are asking those questions to me implies that at least there's a it's a better shot that those items will be included in the plan then then had you not brought them up.
That's a really good and then definitely apologize that the the plan isn't quite ready for you to see the whole thing to really give your full input at this point. But that's that's why we're hoping you'll engage again once it's out for the public and you can review it more thoroughly and and answer those questions. But I think that's just a really, you hit on a really important point that these are topics that have not always been priorities. I I don't pretend to know what was in every single Dr. cog regional train Implementation Plan. But I'm pretty sure this is the most emphasis that's ever been put on bike or pedestrian. And safety is certainly newly very important that many different levels from ranging down from federal level as well. But there's such an emphasis recently, with safety and programs like Vision Zero and things like that. So it's certainly a new topics are are emerging priorities for sure. And that's what we've been hearing through this process. And I think that that is why this process exists is for us to check back in with the community and see what's important and what where we really need to get to with our transportation system.
Since that opens it up maybe just any additional comments from other transportation advisory board members there. Yeah, Jacques?
Yes, it's gonna quickly say thank you for bringing the presentation tonight. This is excellent. And I thought it was very key that on almost every topic, it was ranked very high as a priority for people who took the poll. So I think you hit on the right. key indicators there. It'll be interesting once we kind of evolved to the next step, which is how do we take this vision? And then drill down into how do we know we're succeeding as a data person? That's always on my mind, which is, what are we going to measure our work against? Are we going to measure the emissions? Are we going to measure number of cars, you know, how are we going to measure it? And of course, that's the next step. And that'll further guide us, but I think this is excellent. And I really appreciate you guys doing the roadshow and coming out virtually.
Thanks, jack.
I want to throw that actually to Alvin, because you do have a big performance measures part of the plan, but definitely not something that I am. expert in. So I'm gonna talk about how we measure. Maybe.
Yeah, Calvin's not able to chime in, I can answer it. Well, let me go ahead. And Alvin, if you're still here, feel free to jump in in time. Yeah, there's so much in this plan. You know, it's ironic when we set out with a goal when we put this plan document together that we wanted it to be shorter and punchier, and, and more publicly accessible. And I think when you see it next week, I think you will definitely pick up on that it is the best designed, and I think most engaging regional transportation plan that we've ever done. But it turns out, it's actually longer than our last, which is not what we intended, it's actually slightly longer. And then it has 19 dependencies, which is a lot, it sounds like a lot, it is a lot. So this is a little bit like drinking from a fire hydrant. So a lot of the things you're bringing up really appreciate. And we didn't have a chance to sort of get to in our presentation, this is one of them. So when it comes to performance management, I'll just kind of summarize really, really briefly, there's several ways that we do it. But probably two of the most important are, I think was Alvin that mentioned our overall Metro vision plan, which is our aspirational, kind of regional vision plan. We do have quantitative measures and targets in that plan, you know, relating to things like vehicle miles of travel, and vote share to work and greenhouse gas emissions, and safety and in several other topics. And those are really, really important to us. And you'll see in chapter four, this plan, we actually talked about, you know, both how this plan, it's it's hard to model some of this stuff or forecast some of this stuff. So we can't do that for every Metro vision measure. But you'll see in chapter four next week that it talks about how this plan relates to Metro vision, and frankly, how we're proposing to amend Metro vision to bring it even more in line with some of the things that we've talked about tonight. So for example, for safety, you know, I mentioned that we did a safety plan, a regional Vision Zero plan, we committed in that plan as a target of zero for fatalities and serious injuries. That's an amendment that we're going to make to Metro vision based on that work. And based on the regional transportation plan. The other thing quickly that we do around performance management is there's a whole raft of federal requirements that is known as transportation performance management. And there's five sort of buckets of areas which I won't get into but five themes of things around congestion and safety and others that transit and others that they have us measure. One of the dependencies in this plan is actually what we call a system performance report that talks about, you know, those federally required things, how we measure those, and how this plan kind of squares up with those. Thanks for
all that to say. There'll be lots of good data for you to dig into in the full plan when you see a shock
but one quick follow up question there for me, Lisa and and Alvin if you're there and to Jacob. I realized this is a long term plan. But this has been such an extraordinary 2020 you know, post 2020 timeframe that was in one of the largest shifts in transportation probably in decades. where people actually really made work from home and necessity? To what extent does Dr. cog currently get involved with any sort of, you know, transportation infrastructure is really expensive. But being able to try and do public awareness and public encouragement, public influence campaigns, as it relates to encouraging, you know, more transportation demand management along the lines of working from home, it seems like that's a missed opportunity here, given the huge shift in in behaviors we've seen over the last year. Is that, to what extent is, is that that that the Dr. cog even gets involved in in general and and is that has that shifted at all in the last year? Yeah, that's
a really good question. I'll start an answer. And then I'll defer to Lisa to help me answer it. The short answer is both in this plan, specifically, and in Dr. cog, generally, you know, this whole sort of framework of let's call it transportation, demand management, or TDM, is actually a really important part of the plan in the work that we do with Dr. cog, we actually have an entire program and Dr. Khan called the way to go program dedicated to that very notion and the work around that. And that's what I'll defer to Lisa to in a moment, she could probably talk about it better than I can. But for the for anyone who doesn't know, Dr. cog in this region, when we say we work for Dr. Congo, what's that a doctor's office, the one thing that they might know us for his Bike to Work Day. That's one of our signature events. And it's one of the show pieces of but certainly actually a small part of the work that we round, we do around transportation demand management, specifically in the plan, we get a lot of work around that issue, we did a whole scenario analysis, piece of work that I didn't even have a chance to mention tonight, and won't go into now. But the bottom line is, in terms of how it showed up in the plan is that there is you'll find that in chapter two of the plan. And I think you'll find some references in chapter three of the talk about the importance of providing alternative means of transportation, including telework, meaning not making that trip at all, we actually in our regional traffic model that we use, as part of this plan, make some assumptions around telework. And in sort of increasing those assumptions around telework, based on what we've seen in the pandemic, and based on the likelihood, although no one knows for sure that at some level, it's probably going to continue at a higher level than it has in the past. So again, you know, apologies in the sense that that's yet another topic that we weren't able to sort of touch on initially. But I can assure you, when you see the plan, you will see that work in there.
Green, it just seems like a particularly timely topic there and one where you can really move the needle at just the right time here.
Absolutely. Just to add on,
I'm going to switch to the Well, the next question is the more positive version of this one, which is an area that is the plan most align and feel free to just Drop in your comments as we did on the last one. But still follow up on what you have said, our way to go program has been working on alternative ways to commute for 20 years. But this in the last year, they focus just on telework. So we have a telework tomorrow campaign, which is provides working a lot with large employers around the region to provide telework resources to them and kind of assist in whatever they need to make telework an option or their base. So that's where we put our focus there for the last year. It's really on telework. And I do think one important thing about the plan is that we updated every four years. So it's it's a snapshot in time of this crazy last year, also evolves in is this long term, you know how it remains to be seen exactly how much our commuting patterns will be changed. I personally hope that I'm able to telework more in the future, once we get back to normal, and I hope that that will be the case for a lot of people and that that that could be a really huge shift in our transportation system in the region.
Yeah, I certainly think so there, I can tell you that my organization used to have 30 people driving to work there. Now we only have 14 people driving to work therapist 16 people who can work from home are now working from home. I don't think any of them would view it as telework. So maybe I wonder if there's a more modern term that we could consider moving forward. But for future discussion, any that's a
great, that's a really great point, I kind of have the same. Same thing. But wfh work from home a lot more than I use telework.
additional comments here before we jump to the next topic there? Yeah, Liz.
What you just said Neil made me think that perhaps information infrastructure needs to be considered at least tangentially to transportation.
Thank you.
timely,
irrational thoughts? Yes, Andy,
I just thought I was excellent the information that you gave us and like was mentioned, we didn't have enough time to really focus in on the depth and breadth of what you've got. And I look forward to going online and reading more. But, you know, it's so important. And it's a personal responsibility for each one of us, as individuals, as well as corporate, to make these decisions to make our air quality and our safety on the roads and multimodal transportation options. We all have to own it, to get it to work. So thank you for the good work. And I look forward to seeing how things progress in the months and weeks and years ahead. So thank you. Thank you.
Thanks, Liz, you'll get the last word in this one.
One thing I mentioned in the thing that was missing. In my business, I am touching on a lot of non manned aircraft, non manned delivery, non man robots kind of things. And I was hoping that either in transportation or multimodal that by 2050, we're going to have an awful lot of these things. And that needs to be planned for. And it seemed to have been missing. And I think we need to be thinking about all these new ways. We're going to be interacting with transportation in the future. Thank you.
Just if I could respond to that real quick, really appreciate that point. It's a really important point. Yet another thing that we didn't have time to touch on tonight, one of the many dependencies. His plan is something called mobility choice blueprint that we did about a couple years ago. And that was a project in partnership with C dot RTD, the Denver Metro chamber, local governments and others to really look at the very issue that you're raising around what is the what's the role? And what's the potential impact of technology on mobility in the future. So you know, drones, autonomous vehicles, you know, all those buzzwords that we hear, but really an in depth look at how you know how we can start preparing for that over time. And Dr. cog has initiated some programs and workgroups based on that work to carry that forward. So you'll see that in the plan as well, again, it's another thing that we weren't able to give its due diligence, or, or do, you know, due process in terms of our compensation tonight, but you will see that in the plan as well.
Awesome. Thank you, Jacob.
Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Alvin. just in closing there, if anybody would like to get a lot more information about Dr. cogs activities, what's the best website to be able to get that additional information.
So just homepage, Dr. cog.org will have information. But there you'll see the link through to the online on demand open house and all of the things that we've created to try to give you a good virtual experience of this plan. So and we'll be sure to pass on. Once the plan is released. Well, we'll pass on information to Tyler and Phil and I can share with you so you have a more direct link to
Wonderful,
thank you so much.
Thank you all for your time.
Great. Awesome,
thank you. We're
gonna move forward to the next agenda item, which is the equitable carbon free transportation roadmap and filled in francy. I'll let you take it from here.
Great, thank you very much. Sure. And board. Again, Phil Greenwald, transportation planning manager with the city of Longmont joined with my fancy jeffy today. And she can give you her title. Since I can't memorize all that. All those fun words that she has in her title.
Hi, my title is water conservation and sustainability specialist. Still mentioned I'm fancy Jessie.
And then also Tyler steamy was a critical part of this roadmap as well. So just want to give him some props of helping us work through this, this this effort as well. So you'll see on the title page here that we're talking about the equitable carbon free transportation roadmap, and that there's a lot in that. So we'll try to unbundle that a little bit for this group and talk about that. It really is the idea of, we have a lot of things that are in current planning efforts today that do a lot of equity, the carbon free peace and trade and transportation. And so this roadmap is really trying to put all those pieces together. We didn't include this slide because we wanted to show that this there was we did work with if you want to go back to France, he just explained that we did work with a consultant, three Consulting Group, well, one consulting group that had three parts to it. And they did put this together and they helped us out. But when we got it at the end of the day, quite frankly staff was we really felt like they needed It'd be more to it and put more kind of meat on the bones for that piece to happen. So we kind of took it over, just in full disclosure, because you did hear from some of these folks, a number of months ago, they came and did speak to us. And let let you know what was going on with this project. And so I just wanted to let you know, kind of where we're at on that. And we did take it over. And we finished it up as staff, we actually made it much more succinct, we think. So in your packet today, you'll see 18 pages of of our plan. So thanks, Francine, if you could turn to the next one. So as I mentioned before, we really did take a number of our plans. And this doesn't show all the plans that we worked from, this just shows a kind of a snippet of the different plans that we've been working on over the years on. But they all had something that had to do with equity and may not have called it out specifically, because that term is really been used more maybe in the last couple years, then then when some of these plans were done, but they all had a carbon free piece to it as well that there was the we were trying to get better air quality. And then we do that through our transportation system. So reduce, reduce, single occupant vehicle travel through a variety of modes. So this is what the roadmap is really leading us to is all these different pieces of these plans and putting them all in one place. So again, the goals were really to reduce those emissions. And, and in doing so, you know, that's there's a lot of different ways to do that. And so we talked about increase the vehicle electrification across the city. And that starts with us with the city of Longmont. So one of those items is really to make sure that we're looking internally when we're talking about vehicle electrification, but also incentivize it across the city. So there's those different things and to incentivize it. So it is equitable, so that different people who may not be able to afford a new electric vehicle are able to get an electric vehicle through other financial means, possibly offered through the city and, or through private firms. So that we've got a lot of goals that kind of reach out about that, and then reduce the single occupancy vehicle miles traveled, I talked about that. And that really talks about shifting the modes. We'll talk about that later. And then obviously, increase that air quality and make make make our air better for everyone. Next slide. Thanks. So we do this through talking about guiding principles. And really, we're gonna probably change this slide around. So you, I hate to say this to the TV, but you're kind of our guinea pigs here with, we're trying to this is the first time this, this presentation has been taken out to public. And we're pretty excited about how this actually rolls out. But the idea is that really the four pieces on the right side of this, of this guiding principles piece is really the foundation. So the equity priorities are the foundation of everything that we're working from. So maybe I'll turn it over to France at this point, and just talk a little bit more about those equity priorities and how they kind of create that foundation for this piece. Thanks.
So yeah, so we have four main equity priorities. So the first one is connect. So that focuses on ensuring activity, ability for the rest of our community. The second ones include so under include you have include various languages, cultures, abilities, in the development and implementation of projects, kind of part of that is not just making sure that projects are accessible, but how do we include all community voices in the development of projects. The third one is barriers, address cost burdens and eliminate barriers are an access to programs and jobs. And the last one is safety. So identify and resolve actual perceived safety concerns, we thought about actual procedures was an important thing to highlight. Because during our engagement process, individuals highlighted that even if it is statistically safe, its people do not perceive it as safe, they may not use it. All four of these really kind of are the building blocks for how we create are actually reduce our carbon emissions. Because if we're not being inclusive of all members of our community, then we're not going to reach all of our goals, if only some of the community
so thank you. So
really, this gets to our goals and you'll see this in the document is, you know, we already have a stated goal that greenhouse emissions need to be cut by 69% by 2050. In the city, that's all GHG. That's all greenhouse gas schools. And then we're also looking at a statewide plan that was just released recently, it was also called a roadmap. And it, it refers back to that 12, six, the House Bill 1261, that Jacob mentioned a number of times in his presentation with Dr. cog. And that was actually, in that in that program, they actually mentioned that, well, they don't just mention they they are, they're striving toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector by 96%, in 2050, so a lot of that has to go with this as well. So those equity priorities that the fancy talked about, then the base strategies have shortened and reduce the number of trips, and shifting modes, and then reducing those direct vehicle emissions are very critical, they kind of sit on top. And that's what the new slide will hopefully show us as a as kind of how those work together. Next slide.
So here's the roadmap, we actually are working on this as well, at this time, we've got the, we hope it's a little cooler, more interesting and more like a trail map, maybe than a road map, but getting people out of their vehicles. But this really does talk to the ideas that the roadmap is getting us from year to year to year, in different segments, we really start with the base goals in 2021. And we kind of move from there, talking about what we're doing already with Eevee charging stations, street safety, we're working toward, you know, safer streets, the financial incentives that are already in place through lower low income housing and those different things. And then we're already doing a lot with Evie education, where we're the electric vehicle education piece where we're letting people know, kind of what's out there, and what kind of incentives are already are out there from the state, especially, so we're doing that. But in the next two years, we really have to start talking about how we, you know, embed more equity into the into the discussion. And I'll let you read through those different things. But the other piece is that's pretty important as the go EV resolution. I'll let francy talk a little bit about what that means. And what the timing is on that.
Yeah, so the resolution is a resolution that has been going around the state but a different groups bring that to different communities. But we wanted to recommend a very long life specific because what might work well, in a different community for go Eevee resolution might not work best for Longmont. So this is really we don't have currently any specific goals. For zero emission vehicles, we don't have a golden percentage by the city. So the go Eevee resolution, something that I'd be by city council, but it would actually have maybe a have some more specific goals. And I do want to highlight that even though this is called a go either the resolution in Longmont on we do like as you can see zero emission, First Fleet want to make goals around zero emission vehicles. As even though electric vehicles are once we have 100% renewable energy will be a mission vehicle. There are other zero emission vehicle opportunities that could come up over time already with current technology. A lot of our waste services
provide renewable natural gas.
So we didn't want to just limit it to electric vehicles.
Thanks, fancy. So then we move along from 2023, which is kind of that two year in the next two years? What can we do? How do we start climbing that ladder to get to zero or 290 6% reduction in some cases, or that 960 9% reduction of all greenhouse gases. That's the city goal. And so the next step is really taking it for that more five year plan from today, and more into the capital improvement program that I think you're keenly aware of. So I won't talk too much about that. But getting and getting programs into that capital improvement program that really, and it doesn't show necessarily in the specific projects here. But that is that five year timeframe that we're looking at. We're also looking at, you know, having some very exciting new projects online, specifically the new transit hub first and main bus rapid transit, opening up that micro mobility piece so that there's more availability to different micro mobility pieces, like electric bicycles or shared electric bicycle programs, possibly shared electric scooter programs. And then smaller vehicles. We have via that works within Longmont and they have some smaller vehicles that they use to get people around. So just those kind of things and then just expanding those different education pieces and those incentives that we talked about. Then we kind of move into The medeor piece of this plan, you know, halfway home kind of thing where we talk about really completing those earmarks or enhancements, I use corridor for plans and different facilities that we have planned, we really hope to have that done, you know, between 10 1520 years from now. So that's what we're looking for that well before 2035, I should say. And then those more accessible bus routes, just so that people have more access to the actual routes. If that means that the buses running more often, that's one thing, making stops more convenient for users. And then we talked about the electric vehicle workforce development, and so fancy if you want to talk maybe a little bit more about what that entails.
Sure. So as we move on from combustion vehicles to electric vehicles, and this is just one example this could apply for a number of different things of a multimodal system. But we may there may be need for training of new mechanics or current mechanics, how do we make sure that they are prepared to work on different types of cars or in different situations, especially for moving away from cars, and trying to promote people to walk and bike more? So how does that work force transition. So this is kind of looks at how do we work with our school and the Innovation Center and local maybe Front Range Community College to look at kind of Evie workforce development and partner with those organizations to make sure we have accessible workforce development and kind of transitioning kind of our workforce that works on maybe combustion vehicles to more electric vehicles or other multimodal transportation.
Thanks. And then they kind of homestretch pieces really talking about having a complete and entertainment connected bicycle system. So basically, wherever you're crossing an arterial Street, that's that should be done at a at a grade car, great car, great separated crossing, excuse me. And so we're talking about really connecting that bicycle system. So there really are no islands of of, of the city where people are kind of feeling separate or locked in with bound with with the different barriers that we talked about earlier, specifically, kind of the street system and some of those things so that you're comfortable and safe on your bicycle throughout the city, and then deploying our residential Evie charging program. Basically, having Evie chargers as part of the MA, they really have already are part of the current building code, that's, well, then the next iteration of the building code, really make sure that those get inside all the building all the residential buildings, so everybody has access to that. And then replace your ride ed program. Kind of like, you know, I hate to say it, but Cash for Clunkers was kind of a popular program to this is kind of that idea of replacing your ride with an Eevee or an electric vehicle so that we think that all those programs combined, they're all again in different parts of different plans. So we're not really reinventing the wheel here, what we're doing is just taking the different pieces from all the different plans that are out there, including envision Longmont the sustainability plan, the EMA plan, and putting them together so that they make that they kind of guide us to reducing the carbon emissions based on council direction. So those have all kind of been happening is and so that's that's the roadmap. What I'll do is we'll go to the next slide and just ask you, show you what we're asking from you specifically, request from the board. staff's recommendation is obviously that you recommend the city council accept this equitable carbon free transportation roadmap, and recommended recommendations there in we also have some other pieces for you that you can certainly go forward with as well recommend that city council accept the plan with additional feedback or direction that you may have. So that's, that's great. We'd love to take that today. or recommend that the city council not take action on this plan at this time. Maybe it's not ready for primetime. But again, it's all the things that are kind of going on in various plans already. So with that, we'll open it up for questions. Hopefully, we have time, we tried to do about a quarter of the slides that Dr. cog had. So hopefully that worked out.
Sounds good. Thank you very much, Phil, thank you very much Francey. Any clarifying questions or comments from transportation advisory board members, and maybe we can take it off the slide here just so we can actually see the rest of the faces there. So as the questions pop up,
we can see the questions. David, you want to go first
Just for a second, I have questions, but it was it was with regards to the handouts. So I want to find the specific items, and then maybe taught those.
Yeah, we were really hoping you're getting the plan. That's actually part of the attachment. That 18 inch plan is. Yeah. Great.
Yeah. So give me I'll be back in just a second. Find what I had to talk
about. Right cable in there to you there. I saw some other questions or some other hands raised there for clarifying questions or comments.
It's not clarifying questions, but I just want to say how much I appreciated you taking the time to give definition to what equitable was carbon
free
transportation roadmap. So we knew what you were talking about from the get go. And I personally appreciate that. So thank you. Yes.
The question about the percentage of reducing greenhouse gas emissions
in the plan
is 13 66% by 2030. And then 69%. By 2050. It doesn't seem like there's a very big difference there. The state has it to do by not 50% by 2050. I assume those came out separately. And there? Is there a way we can try to get that higher? Or how did that number come about? due for that
collection? I can go ahead and answer that show. those percentages came from the 2016 sustainability plan, which at the time was a different city council who like and have different priorities. So we were directed to usually you might set a goal and then see what your objectives are to that goal. Instead, we were asked as to map kind of what was feasible and easily accessible within that time period.
So the reason
you don't see a large drop between 2013 and 2015, just because it was more, there was
more reasons
for action items could be done in that 2030 timeframes. And then it would be a direction from City Council is to increase our greenhouse gas emission goals.
Thank you.
And thank you so much for much work and collaboration between find it amazing that I think is actually attainable. And I'm really excited about that. I'll echo that. Thank
you. It
was really fun. I wanted to just add, in the barrier section under equity priorities, what felt to me was two things that are missing. And I think that our lowest income and honorable people face two barriers that weren't listed and one is reliability. The question of whether will there be transportation available when I need it, especially being on time to work. And the other one is, well, that round the clock availability, we have a lot of shift work that happens in Longmont. And a lot of our transportation systems aren't available to those people and they need to get to work. And they need to come home from work. As matter of fact, there's someone that maybe many of you missed as a McDonald's on May I get up at 630 every morning, and drive my little electric car, make sure she can get to work because there's not a reliable public method for her to get to work. And so I think that reliability and timeliness are considered when we look at barriers. Thank you.
Thank you. Appreciate that. Right.
Yes, me?
on some of these. I'm wondering because you put a timeline, but I wonder why we're waiting so long. Why GM? electric vehicle education, you have five years 2026 Why aren't we working? Now to have that happen quicker. I mean, I'm gonna be dead before a lot has happened. And I would like to see it happen before I die. So I'm ready to move forward and I realize it's a lot of education that's necessary. But there are other things, you know, the Bible can pass and stuff that we know that are not connecting from point A to point B or point A to point C. And I know a cost. But it seems like maybe there's a better way of getting those things going. So people get in their minds, we can ride our bikes, or we can do those hover vehicles or whatever. Or walks to get where we need to get instead of relying on our cars, or our multiple trips, places instead of just bundling, and going with neighbors or whatever. So
yes, sadly, just to answer that question, we do try to put the education throughout the document, or through the different time periods. So it's in there, but it is, we've had a difficult time on how you kind of grow it from simply telling people about the system or about what an electric vehicle is, and how it works to that next level of education, you know, how you actually start to figure out how to acquire the electric vehicle and get it into your home and actually use it. And then there's other steps as well. So we we try to keep those in different timelines, but I don't you know, I think we've been struggling I guess with that, too. And fancy you might have more to add about that.
Yeah, we do we have? Well, Ed education first shows up in the started, we have mostly worked through a partner organizations and supporting them. But with an emphasis to kind of cleaning it up front there with the need to expand that, I think the the education that's in that nice looking to the side, because I have my eight up on the other screen. In the five year timeline. One of them was a design contest for to kind of make a field correct highlight our own electric vehicles, we've been told by our fleet services that actually paint the cost to the design contest. It's not cost prohibitive, but actually, updating the rack on our vehicles can actually be a little bit more costly. So I think that was put in the five year timeline just to make sure we can factor in our budget and make sure we have enough budget. And also hopefully, in that timeframe, we'll also have more vehicles. I think we have a very small percentage now, but I have a larger percentage. So as Phil mentioned, we're trying to integrate it throughout and try to have different kinds of points where it makes sense to expand the education. And then one of the recommendations we had in the two years was hire a cultural broker, because we think it's that having a specific staff member who is a cultural broker will really help expand our education.
Wonderful, thank you. Great, Jacques. And then maybe we'll see if there's a motion to approve as is or, or approve with changes there. And David will do your question first, before we go to that both are shot.
Yeah, and this one's just quick and easy. When you talked about the bus wraps, it brought me back to when I had to buy bus wraps. So I understand that process. I was looking at the equity priorities, because I think equity is really going to become a big topic over the next four years. And I really like the way we've had safety barriers, which I think barriers is a big one. Inclusion, which I think is really good to start with that broker that you were talking about. And then connect. At first I looked at Connect, and I was kind of feeling vague on it, like what does connect actually mean? But then I started thinking about it. And I think this is actually one of the biggest here is this connectivity and connecting to the community. I almost want to throw the word community in there. Because I think of our paths that we have in some of them are in disarray. connecting to a community on a neighborhood sponsoring a cleanup effort, something like that, I think is can be a very powerful way to empower equity and to connect, and I don't want to get that lost in there. Because I think that there is there is a potential there to add a little bit to that community piece. So there's my two cents. Thank you. Thank you, David. You'll
get the last word then we'll by emotion,
okay, the so. So I'm looking at the PDF with the tricks. And it shows, you know, steps versus goals and priorities. And street safety shows up three times. And then none of them are base or any of the base goals selected as being hurt net. And I think that that's a real disservice that reducing car trips and miles go a huge distance to reducing pedestrian deaths and bicyclists. And you know that the, the report, we had an accident, I was looking through it after I saw this. And it said, What 50% of the of the fatalities between 2015 and 19 were pedestrians. So I think that reducing the number of cars on the road, how far they're driving would go a long ways to helping address some of that. So I think that that should be selected. And I didn't see street safety on the on the PowerPoint that you just provided. So I think I think it should be there.
I saw
one other thing I was surprised at it's one of the street safety things it says to continue to focus on moving towards your address, and focus on safety improvements that align upon one's goals and development pattern.
Now it
sounds to me the way I read that, and we're already kind of doing some of this stuff. So it shouldn't cost much. But it says it's very expensive. And it's hard. Except in the description, it says we're already going to be doing. So. So it sounds like it should be cheap and easy. At least at least that bullet. I mean, actually implementing it may be very difficult. But but this is just this is a benefit that would come of this development. It's not. It's not the street safety isn't necessarily the reason why this project is happening. It's just it's one of the outcomes. So I'm just trying to, I guess elevate street safety into a pertinent and plausible, feasible aspect in this plan.
We just tried to identify where the different street safety pieces were in all the different plans that you'll see out there. So it's on page
10. And tape Klaus.
Yeah, right. Right. As you see, you know, we just mentioned it in the PowerPoint presentation as well as something that we've already started, it was the very first thing on our on our list, because street safety is obviously one of the most critical pieces of it. I think you're correct, though, we probably need to figure out where that goes into these goals. So Francine, I can kind of take a look at that make sure we're getting the base goals covered correctly, where they need to be there. And then the only piece that I would say is because of the fact that it's moving towards zero deaths, and making zero deaths our goal. In that particular, that particular piece of envision Longmont moving toward zero deaths is going to be difficult because it's going to take a lot of sources. And it is going to be difficult because it's so hard to and I think council got a brief taste of this when they talked about it at the retreat last year. It's so difficult to eliminate all deaths from the street system, just because of their so you know, when you hear about the fatalities in a given year, which is you know, horror horrendous to talk about, when you hear about those different things. I think there's this, there's this idea that, gosh, there's no way we're gonna be able to get rid of all those deaths. And this is more of one of those goals that you just try to, you need to aspire to because
the aspirational goal is zero death because you're not gonna say, you know, Dr. cog, you know, they were they were on earlier piece here. And they were great about talking about all these different things, but they just have aspirational goals to go from, you know, 250 deaths per year to like 150 deaths per year. Well, we didn't think you know, to put in a comment like our aspiration is to go you know, cut our deaths in half or three quarters is is not an aspiration, we want zero deaths. system they do too now.
So
we're all working toward that, but it's gonna be very difficult. Well, that
right, I understand it. But But in that case, we should probably rephrase the thing. The goal Or the turret, the text says it's in lines with our current goal. And our development pattern and it doesn't sound like it really does.
So I
scratch that last part and just say continue to focus on moving toward zero deaths, period. And that is hard. And that is expensive. is the last piece that makes it like it
sounds like it shouldn't be.
Okay. It's only a small part of what we normally be doing.
I understand what you're saying no, great. Thank you.
Wonderful. That's all.
Right. So staff has asked us to consider a motion where we could now obviously, they'll take the the feedback to heart here, and we'll look at incorporating things. But I think we've got a pretty good idea of the big picture of the plan is there motion and we would like to entertain as it relates to endorsing the equitable carbon free transportation roadmap. Anybody like him make a motion? Okay,
I'll make a motion
that we
go ahead and accept the plan. But then they consider the comments that have been made.
Okay, so moved.
Is there a second?
This is Joe, I'm not aware of our three options fall into?
I think number two.
Okay. I'll second that.
Okay. Sounds good. Second from Joe, any comments on that before we go to a vote? Okay, hearing none, all in favor? Raise your hand or signal in some other way? Okay. Like widespread support? All right, hands down. Any opposed? Seeing none, the Motion passes. Congratulations, and well done. Team.
Thank you very much for your support tonight. Appreciate that.
All right. Really cool to see that plan moving forward. Alright, comments from board members? So why don't we just go in the order people happen to be on my particular screen, it's probably different than the order on your screen. But Joe will start with you. And then David and jack,
go from there.
Really, the only comments that I have is probably recency bias. So this weekend's tracking time traveled to train matters. That was a five minute way to bark, and we had some pretty serious traffic blockages. So again, I say it's probably well worn. But I guess as traffic increases, population increases, it's only going to worsen. So I guess, beat the dead horse. But what what plans we have within the project plan to address
Phil or
Tyler? any insight the mind to be?
Sure, thanks.
So I think you're one of the best. Unfortunately, there's very little we can do to regulate rail in terms of how they operate and there is a form that I can share or a blocked process and fra is looking at. I don't know what may come of that. But it is something a place where you can model those comments and concerns and raise them BNSF has another you can call their mixed results on whether what you get for just from calling their local number.
It's the type of it I have to assume that other municipal issues is it pretty much the same answer across a state that it's great railroads control and
it is a part of I know Fort Collins is the same train runs up through
and you know that
was actually recently there prior traffic engineer contacted me asking if there was a way we could work together in terms of providing notification when the supercharger really long trains are coming apart. Zef has been doing in the last year or so is running what they call super trains. So they're, it's basically their backhaul trip with empty containers. And they are piecing together mile long trains that unfortunately block crossings for a long time. And so some discussions with Fort Collins in the past about Is there a way that we can share information to provide notification, hey, 45 minute longer mile long train headed your way. And we'd have some notification between the two cities in terms of when it gets there. Similar discussions, we've had a little bit with boulder in terms of that we maybe have an idea on both ends if and when trains are coming. How do we best use that information and share that to the community? Not sure yet, but to some discussions that have been happening.
Thank you for that. Great, thank you, Tyler.
David, do you want the next?
Thank you. I don't have anything else to add. Thank
you. Thank you, Chuck.
Oh,
not a ton to add? No, I, I guess was really briefly, I don't want us to forget about our local transportation. And current, we have the contract with RTD for the free bus service. And when we talk about equity, and we talk about investments in North Longmont, all these things start to swirl in my head and reducing emissions. And it all kind of comes back to what are we going to do for an equitable solution that serves the population that really rely on that local transportation. But do it in an efficient and a hopefully, non emission manner. So those are those are my musings. Thank you.
Good meeting. Thank you. Awesome. Great, Courtney.
I have nothing
else. Thank you, Courtney. Liz, anything from you.
I just want to thank the person that takes the notes to do a great job. And thank
you. Thank you, Stacey. And thank you, Jane. Awesome, Sandy.
I just thought it was a good meeting. And I don't want us to forget the lady that called in the losing North Walmart is concerned about the sidewalks cuz that's a scary thing happen. Fast traffic, knocking down fences. So anyway, it was a good meeting. Thank you.
I believe Tyler will do some due diligence there. And we'll come back to the DAP when to do a little digging into his research there.
I forgot to mention too, that you know, and we talked about right after the call. And I fail to mention in my in my presentation, but part of the equitable pieces, the carbon free transportation roadmap is to really look at how we spend money across the system and who who benefits and who is not. And if we're going to talk about carbon free, we're talking about people who don't have access to cars or vehicles, making sure that they get a bulk of the of the projects to support that stuff.
Oh, sorry,
it's not mentioned that earlier. Thank you.
Okay, the only thing I'll add on my side is prestige, thanks to our transportation staff here for adding a speed radar over on third. And I guess it's my third and Francis. There is now a little device to let you know how fast people are traveling right in front of the west side tavern. It was an area where I definitely had some some times where where people were crossing the street. But when you have cars parked on the road, it's kind of hard to be able to get to fully see all the cars coming and all the people who are coming across there. So that little speed sign there. lets you know how fast you're going. There is definitely a good reminder to slow down. So thank you for making that happen. I mean responses to the feedback here some months back. One quick question, though. The same brain Greenway. I know over the course the last year we've had an extended detour. That was going around, I guess it was around self threat. just recognizing some of the construction that was going on there. And I don't know if filler Tyler might be able to just give a quick update in terms of when do you anticipate that section of freeway opening again if it's not already
Sure, so I think the next phase is anticipated here sometime in February. I think we're anticipating early February, but I think it's delayed at this point. And there'll be a couple, a couple of interim phases right now, the next phase is to the way the construction is laying out. Unfortunately, the underpass under the railroad tracks won't be open for
a little bit about
another month longer than I had hoped. And so we'll have an interim condition before that opens. Once that opens, then we'll go into another round of detours, unfortunately, but it'll be a much shorter, deep step on your path is open and available. So we're doing everything we can to get to that.
Right, say,
Do you anticipate that finally, complete in 2021? Yeah,
the underpass, not the whole project. So we'll get to the underpass, the underpass will be open access to get into the tracks. And then like I said, a much shorter detour route at that point. Thank you. Awesome. Don't
miss anybody. Does everybody. Okay, great. Awesome.
Councilmember Peck, any comments on your site?
Um, yes, I would just like also to thank the transportation department, I think they're, they're awesome. They're constantly working on ways to make loans. And they always ask for input, which I think is really, really helpful. Also, I'm going to be logging in to the RTD study session tomorrow, they're going to be discussing that Northwest corridor for your governor posters, a letter to them telling him he wants to complete by 2025. So we'll see what goes there. I I personally think that's really important for air quality. Because
if
passenger rail and Amtrak are can perform, give us we would have. So you know, why, why wouldn't we do that? So I'll let you know how that goes.
Thank you.
Great. Um, so looks like we have some upcoming transportation related meetings there. I know. Phil gave a quick update earlier. Phil, is there anything else to add? Or Tyler, anything else to add on the upcoming transportation related meetings? Well, I
did. I did want to mention the RTD piece too, because you're all you can all join us. So thank you, Councilmember fact for mentioning that as well, because we do. If you do want to listen in on that study session, that would be wonderful to hear what the board members from RTD are actually saying. And then we talked about the February 18, Boulder County piece, and I think that was in the chat. Well send us all to you. Or actually Tyler sent us a link in the in the email, I'll send you a link to the RTD to this as well. So you have that for tomorrow, if you want to join. Then we talked about February 2016. Walmart Economic Development Partnership summit, advanced Walmart 2.0. So if you want to be part of that, that's available too, I think, for people to join. Great. That was it for me, Tyler. Looks like Councilmember pack has one thing though.
Oh, yeah, it is. I just wanted to say that study session will begin at 530.
Yes, good point. Thank you.
Sounds good. Well,
we have a partial key agenda item there around Archie's annual report too long month, so that'll be timely and interesting. Can't wait to hear what we learned from there. Anything else pressing before we wrap up? All right, we will consider this transportation advisory meeting closed and look forward to continuing the conversation in March. Thanks, everybody. Have a good night. Thanks. Have a great night.