Thank you. Good morning and
welcome to this meeting of the
mobility committee of the city
of Denton. Seeing that we have
a quorum, we have a sort of a
mini quorum. We have two
council members and a vacancy
yet to be filled, but we are
prepared to move forward. At
this time, we will call for a
motion. With our items for
individual considerations,
starting with item A, consider
approval of the minutes of
April 21st, 2021. I will
entertain a motion. I move
approval of the minutes. I
heartily second. All in favor,
say aye. Aye. The minutes are
approved. Item B, we will open
now, receive a report and hold
a discussion regarding updates
from the Denton County
Transportation Authority. Good
morning. Can everyone hear me?
Yes. Okay. Excellent. Well,
first, I want to thank you all
for having me this morning, but
second, I just want to
apologize that we were unable
to attend last month. We had a
board meeting conflict and the
board meeting ran long. We do
apologize for not being able to
attend. Thank you for allowing
us to present this information
today. I have a very long
presentation and in full
transparency, we have been in
the throes of public
involvement the last three
weeks and we have since revised
the presentation and cut it in
half. We're presenting the long
one to you, but just so that
you know, in all of our public
involvement, we're actually
presenting a shorter, more
concise version, but there's
still merit in the long version
today. I do want to share that
with you. Again, this proposed
service is a board led
initiative that staff has been
executing. As you know, the
travel patterns around the
world are really changing. This
is the DCTA board's kind of
method of addressing that
response to change and looking
at different ways to provide
transit service, but that's why
we're in the public involvement
period. We're here to collect
as much feedback as possible.
As I mentioned before, our staff
is all throughout our member
cities as well as the county
collecting feedback, doing
presentations. So, again, we
are open for anybody listening.
I just want to make it very
clear that this is the time to
provide your feedback if you
have any. I mean, that is our
responsibility, and so we are
open and welcome to all
feedback. So, I believe I have
enough time to do a presentation.
>> I believe it, too.
>> Nicole, are you wanting us to
pull up your presentation and
run it for you?
>> Yes, please. That would be
great.
>> Okay. Wait just one minute
and let us get to it.
>> Okay.
>> Are you sure you want all
our feedback? You're going to
get a lot today.
>> That's okay. I'm prepared.
We spend all day every day
answering questions and
collecting feedback, and we are
open to it all.
>> Okay.
>> Rebecca, I'm happy to pull it
up on my end, if that's easier.
I have the modified version.
>> Nicole, I think that would be
fabulous.
>> Can I go through the
modified version, which is just
a condensed version of what was
in the packet?
>> My experience with
PowerPoint is that it mostly
serves to remind the speaker
what you intended to say. So,
my opinion is if it works for
you, we'll just listen to you.
>> Okay. Perfect.
>> I have it pulled up if you
want me to share.
>> I think if I could do the
-- if I could share this
condensed version, I am sure
that the attendees today would
appreciate that.
>> And, you know, maybe at a
later point, I'm wondering if
there's some way that -- if you
want the longer version to kind
of be added into like a public
record so that people can look
at it, is there a way to do
that?
>> It should be in your packet.
The link in the agenda --
>> It is, yes.
>> Okay. Great.
>> Okay. So, can everybody see
this?
>> You can see the agenda.
You can link to it.
>> All right.
Can everyone see this?
You can.
Okay. Perfect.
Okay.
>> Yeah.
>> So, I'm just going to kind
of give you a high-level
overview of GoZone.
I recognize that the
conversation is a little bit
more important, the direct
questions are, and so, I mean,
obviously, I'll be here to
kind of answer any of those
questions that you have.
But a little bit about GoZone.
So, it is a zone-based on-demand
service that uses an app for
booking.
So, it operates much like an
Uber or a Lyft.
But the difference is, is that
it is solely for the use of the
participants within a zone.
So, whereas an Uber and a Lyft,
you could, you know, use it
anywhere.
These vehicles, these drivers in
this app is specifically for
use within a designated zone.
As the DCT board has proposed,
it is replacing the majority of
fixed route service and
we'll talk about that in a
little bit later in a bit more
depth.
But I did want to mention that
this proposed service expands
the existing service area that
we currently offer today with
fixed route, and it also
increases the service hours that
we are providing.
And then, you know, it has a lot
of benefits, right?
So, from a business
perspective, sure, you know, it
is a more efficient service.
But from a rider perspective,
that's where the service, you
know, really has a lot of
benefits.
It really improves the rider
experience from start to finish.
And all of the vehicles are,
you know, going to be equipped
to handle, you know, bikes.
A select number of the vehicles
will be available to handle
wheelchairs.
As I mentioned before, it
extends our existing service
area and it also shrinks the
wait time that people are
waiting to catch the next
vehicle.
Through a request for proposal
process with, you know, that our
board conducted, they have
decided to partner with River
North Transit or VIA to provide
this service.
And so, you know, VIA has more
than 200 partners across six
continents.
We have done quite a bit of
research throughout that RFP
process as far as, you know,
contacting partners that VIA has
to see like what are the pros,
what are the cons of going with
the service.
You know, two of their partners
are right in our
neighborhood.
So Trinity Metro uses them
currently as well as the city
of Arlington.
The fleet and the stops will
change.
I think from a visual
perspective, this is kind of a
really key note.
So we will be moving away from
the large branded vehicles, the
buses.
Obviously, our UNT shuttles will
still operate.
But from a fixed route
perspective, we'll be going away
from the buses and moving
toward a DCTA branded Chrysler
Pacifica.
So it will still be branded.
It will not be an individual's
car.
It is a dedicated fleet specific
to a zone branded for DCTA.
It allows for six passengers
without a wheelchair.
With a wheelchair, you can get
two additional passengers in
the vehicle.
And there will be 30 vehicles
that will be assigned for this
first phase of the service.
And then we will go away from
designated stops and move to
what VIA calls virtual stops.
And so basically virtual stops
are located at any street
corner, any place that's safe
for a vehicle to pull over and
for a passenger to get on.
And so I always like to use
the example of if I'm sitting
on a bench in the city and my
closest bus stop is three blocks
away, you would have to walk the
three blocks.
But with this GoZone service,
you could sit on that bench.
You could bulk your ride.
You could stay on that bench.
And the app itself would show
you the closest street
intersection that you need to go
to in order to get straight into
your vehicle.
So it offers a little bit more.
Yes, ma'am?
>> Oh, sorry.
Can I ask a couple questions
about this slide?
Okay.
Great.
And I guess I'll --
>> Hang on.
Just a question.
Do we need to take the slides
down when members speak?
Question for counsel?
>> Yes.
That would be best.
Thank you.
>> Okay.
>> Let me stop, Shini.
>> Sorry to add a technology
problem.
>> That's okay.
Good.
My technical expertise has
increased over the last year.
So I'm going to ask this one
later.
So I was wondering -- and this
is a question I've had for
some time, but it always gets
lost in my -- you know, I always
have so many questions, and I
decide I'm going to ask this
one later.
Excuse me.
This is about the vehicles.
So who owns the vehicles?
Is it VIA or DCTA?
And, you know, say -- so this is
a trial period.
You know, say it's decided that
this doesn't work or they want
to switch -- or there's a
decision to switch to some
other vehicles.
You know, who has ownership of
these vehicles?
>> Sure.
So specifically for that reason
and to allow VIA and DCTA to be
as flexible as possible, these
vehicles are actually through a
lease agreement.
And so that enables them to
scale the vehicles up or scale
the vehicles down as needed or
you can swap out vehicles if
necessary.
DCTA also retains fleet, what
we call them a cutaway.
It's a non-CDL operated
vehicle.
It's the small white bus that
you see on the road.
We also -- VIA has the
capability to integrate our
vehicles into their service
delivery so that if we see
through this real-time data
that there's just a ton of
frequency along one particular
area or one particular hub, we
could make the -- almost a
real-time switch to some of the
vehicles.
We could say we need to utilize
either a larger vehicle or a
DCTA-owned vehicle for that
purpose.
And so it gives us a lot of
flexibility to scale up or down
based on capacity.
>> Okay.
And so the lease is -- so DCTA
is leasing these vehicles from
VIA?
>> It's actually VIA is leasing
the vehicles.
>> VIA is leasing the vehicles
from Chrysler or --
>> So this particular contract
is with Avis.
But they have leasing partners
that are beyond Avis.
But for this particular program
it's Avis.
>> Okay.
>> Just -- oh, sorry.
I'm trying to make that up.
>> So as far as -- so I'm
imagining -- so a Denton
resident and, you know,
taxpayer listening and kind of
wondering, so how much am I
paying for the vehicles?
You know, how much is -- and
I'm not asking you because I
don't -- and I'm not asking you
per taxpayer.
But just, you know, how much is
DCTA paying VIA to lease these
vehicles from Avis?
>> So --
>> Several degrees of
separation, right?
>> Sure.
So the way that vehicle -- the
way that VIA's pricing model is
structured is that it's kind of
an all-encompassing service hour
rate.
So we pay per service hour per
vehicle.
So any capital or the lease
cost, that would all be
included in that hourly rate.
That hourly rate is actually
cheaper, about $10 cheaper than
what DCTA's service hour per
vehicle rate is.
>> Okay.
>> So for us to operate it
ourselves, it's actually
cheaper for VIA to operate it.
>> Okay.
So thank you.
So the cost is just
all-inclusive.
>> Correct.
Yeah.
The only things that we pay up
front are any of the retrofit
bike racks, and then also to
make select vehicles within the
fleet wheelchair accessible.
We pay that up front.
>> Okay.
Thank you.
And then my next question is
about -- well, actually, I'll
let Mayor Pro Tem, you go, and
I'll remember.
>> Yeah, I just wanted to ask
Nicole if you have a preference
whether we hold our questions
to the end, or can we keep --
you want us to go like this just
informally --
>> I'm flexible.
>> Whatever works for you, I'm
flexible.
>> Well, okay.
So obviously, we have an
interest in asking as we go, so
I'll keep going to ask whatever
you want to ask.
>> Thank you.
And I don't plan to interrupt on
that many slides, but for
whatever reason, the questions
about vehicles and the stops are
questions that I always tend to
leave to the end and decide that
there's not enough time.
So about the stops, both the go
zone stops and then a virtual
stop, you know, so you mentioned
somebody waiting on a bench.
You know, we've got, as you know
already, there's an issue with
not enough DCTA bus stops being
covered from the elements, and
also just ADA accessibility in
terms of just ability to get on
to access those stops.
And so this, you know, leaves us
with -- would seem to leave us
with a similar, you know, and
actually probably, you know,
worst predicament where we've
got, you know, a lot of street
corners where there's not very
good ADA accessibility and also
where -- and I know you've got
this access service, right, but
also for anybody, you know,
there's not protection from the
elements.
Will there be -- will any of
these go stops be protected?
And, you know, what's the -- if
you could just kind of give your
sense of how this approach to
stops compares to the current
situation as far as, you know,
limited covered stops.
>> Sure.
So let me kind of answer this
each question at a time.
So regarding ADA accessibility,
I'm going to kind of give you
two answers.
So one is that if a passenger is
ADA qualified, meaning that they
follow the federal qualification
for, you know, ADA
identification, you know,
they can select that when
they're booking a trip, whether
they're doing it on the app or
they're calling customer service
to book their trip.
They can self-select that they're
ADA qualified.
That means that the vehicle will
actually go to their door.
It's curb-to-curb service.
So this is actually an
improvement for, you know, ADA
qualified folks who currently use
our service and have to go to a
bus stop and maybe where there
isn't, you know, adequate
infrastructure in place for them
to get to the actual bus stop.
So it is an improvement.
Additionally, for those who are
not ADA certified, because there
are not designated stops, so
almost anything can be a stop.
Because there aren't designated
stops, you can sit and wait for
your ride wherever you want.
If you want to do that inside
your house or inside the store
to stay out of the elements, you
will see in real time on the
app when the vehicle is
arriving.
And you could time your exit
from a facility to literally
just meet the vehicle out on the
curb.
So it almost allows you -- you
don't have to be constrained to
just the bus stops that DCTA has
today.
Almost anything could be a stop.
>> Okay.
So it doesn't -- so you
mentioned corners.
I was taking a very literally
street corners.
But it could be -- you could
say, I'm inside the Walgreens
University.
It's raining.
Can you pull up right at the
door?
>> I mean, I would have to check
with VIA as far as like that
level of specificity.
But like certainly they can pull
up to the curb.
>> Okay.
And is the -- so the door-to-door
service, is that what you're
going to be addressing here
later as access, service,
paratransit?
Is that what that means?
>> So it's kind of mixed.
So currently today we offer
access service for both ADA
qualified and non-ADA qualified
folks.
Access service is extremely
expensive because it's very low
ridership.
It is door-to-door service.
And transitioning our access
service over to VIA from a cost
perspective and a service
delivery perspective makes a lot
of sense.
It would be a lot cheaper to
provide that level of access
service.
And the level of service that an
ADA passenger would receive is
much greater because of the
vehicle type and because of the
booking mechanism for access
service.
We have not uncovered all of the
details, which is why we're
saving that for our future
phase.
But all of the research that
we've done in looking at their
other partners who have done
this and talking to the
passengers that have transitioned
over to a VIA-supported access
service or paratransit service,
all of the feedback has been
extremely positive.
And so we recognize that we want
to do a little bit more work.
We also want to make sure that
we're doing direct one-on-one
research with our current access
passengers to make sure that
they're comfortable with the
move.
And we didn't want that to get
lost in this existing public
involvement process.
And so that's why we've
separated it out.
But the other hope was that this
service really lends itself to
an ADA-qualified service.
So why book on DCTA's access
when it might be more
convenient to book on DCTA
GoZone?
And so we wanted to give those
access passengers the choice.
That they could use access,
what works for them today,
scheduling ahead of time.
You know, we wanted to allow
them to continue that.
But we wanted to give them the
flexibility to try something
different that really might be
more convenient.
>> Okay.
So this is really in a -- it's
going to be for quite some time
in a feedback, you know,
transitional phase, it sounds
like.
But -- excuse me.
But with hours and days, you
know, will -- it appears be
different than the regular, you
know, GoZone hours and days.
The fees will be different.
>> That is correct.
>> And there's -- there are
fewer vehicles that can do
this.
So --
>> So we would be looking to
add probably 8 to 10 vehicles
to the fleet simply to address
the access piece of it.
So it would not -- adding the
access phase in early 2022, we
would be required to increase
the number of vehicles that are
wheelchair accessible to our
fleet.
And that number -- that
estimated number right now is
between 8 and 10 vehicles.
>> Okay.
And it would -- so it would
cost more and be less, you
know, available at a limited
number of days and limited
times?
>> Correct.
And so that's what we're
working out right now.
But again, the base service
that we're looking to launch on
September 7th really addresses
a lot of those needs.
And so we kind of feel like it
gives folks who currently use
access like a trial period to
see if they like the service.
And I think that that's great
because then once -- if we
launch service and then we're
able to turn our attention to,
you know, access passengers to
focus on that phase, then they
have had some time to be able
to try the service and tell us
what they like, what they
don't like, what they would
want to see in access service
and get that real-time feedback.
>> Okay.
Thank you so much.
And I promise I'm not going to
be stopping like this.
>> It's okay.
>> There are 44 slides, though.
I promise.
>> My, you know, chair
perspective on this is whatever,
you know, we need to have the
conversation.
So it's fine with me if it goes
kind of organically.
I'll just have a comment and a
question myself.
My comment is -- I don't mean to
sound ungrateful.
I'm glad that access exists.
But I don't think it's a super
convenient service now.
I think there's a lot of room
for improvement.
I think scheduling a day ahead
is -- I don't live that way.
You know?
I mean, it's -- so I think, like
I said, there's a lot of room
for improvement.
My question, since you're kind
of going through the tick-tock
of, you know, what is the
experience to get a ride, what
if you don't have a smartphone?
A lot of people are transit
dependent, you know, don't have
income to support it and, you
know.
>> Yeah, absolutely.
So our customer service
department will be available to
book trips by -- you can call in
and they can book your trip or
you can visit the DDTC and they
can book your trip for you
there.
So it is -- it's fully -- we can
book any trips for folks with or
without a smartphone.
>> So you need some kind of a
phone.
>> Correct.
Yes.
Or you could go in person to the
DDTC.
>> Okay.
It's a little unlikely.
I mean, right.
How would you get there?
I mean, that's maybe a -- you
know, probably won't happen very
often.
But you could call from a land
line phone.
>> Correct.
Correct.
And we did -- we had extensive
conversations with a lot of the
social service agencies within
our member cities to talk about
that item specifically.
So to talk about those who might
not have like a data-rich phone
or those who might need the
unbanked population to make sure
that, you know, what were the
needs that they would have that
we would need to integrate into
our system to make sure that
they were accounted for.
One thing that I will share is
that the majority of the social
service agencies and primarily
the homelessness organizations
all reported that the majority
of their clientele have
smartphones.
Which, I mean, I will be very
honest, was a bit of a surprise
to me.
So because I kind of walked in
with that concern to say like,
hey, you know, we want to make
sure that we're addressing this
for you.
>> Yeah, that's --
>> So we migrated from, you
know, luxury to bare necessity.
Yeah.
>> Yeah.
So -- but we did want to make
sure that, you know, there may
be people that have a data plan
on their phone, but they're not
comfortable using an app.
So what do we do for those
people?
And that's why our customer
service agents will have full
access to the back end of the
trip planning functionality, and
they'll be able to book a trip
for a person directly.
>> Do you have sort of a sense
of -- I guess maybe this is part
of your trial, but what the
demand would be on that -- on
those lines and kind of what
service level --
>> Sure.
>> -- you maintain?
How long do I wait on hold,
right?
>> Right.
So as it is today, we take those
existing -- we take those
existing calls.
So we operate two on-demand
zones ourselves.
So the Lewisville Lakeway zone
and the DDTC evening on-demand
zone, those two zones would
actually be replaced with these
designated go zones within the
base service that we'll be
showing you.
And so they're currently taking
calls right now to book trips.
And so these calls would
essentially just replace those
trips.
We are currently working with
our contractor, the North Texas
Mobility Corporation, to talk
about customer service demands.
Because this service would
extend beyond existing hours
today, we need to make sure that
we offer customer service
coverage during those hours of
operation.
And so we are in conversation
right now with our contractor to
talk about those customer
service needs to ensure that
there are customer service
agents available when people
call.
>> I mean, do you have -- maybe
it's too early to say, but do
you have a targeted -- you know,
targeted the whole time, you
know, 90% of the calls to be
answered within 30 seconds?
>> Our customer service
department does have some KPIs
like that.
So it would fall within those
KPIs.
I can certainly follow up.
I mean, I have access to them.
I can follow up after the
meeting and let you know what
those are.
But I will tell you that call
volumes, and especially due to
COVID, have been increasing,
like, very low.
And so the bandwidth that our
customer service team has is
quite wide.
You know, and again, that's
something, too, that we can
address in real time, that if
all of a sudden we see a major
influx, and we've done it
before, we bring in, you know,
like, temporary assistance to
kind of help with that influx
until we can hire somebody
full-time.
And, you know, we recognize
that one of the priorities in
this program is to enhance the
customer experience.
And if you're waiting on the
call for a long time, that's not
enhancing the customer
experience.
That's getting on a bad -- you
know, starting your trip on a
bad foot.
And we don't want to do that.
So that will be something that
is managed in real time through
our customer service
department.
But I can follow up with the
actual KPIs.
>> You know, I mean, I'm just
sort of raising the point
because that will become one of
those potential, you know,
points of failure unless it's
very actively managed.
>> Sure.
>> Okay.
Great.
Thanks, Kari.
>> Are we good for me to share
my screen again?
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> For maybe a second or two,
we'll see.
>> That's okay.
That's all right.
Okay.
So we'll go to this next slide.
I want to talk about the GoZone
fare structure a little bit.
So right now what we're
proposing is that we offer a
six-month fare promotion, which
basically trades out access to
our fixed route with access to
GoZone.
So I mean, I'll use kind of an
example here.
So a local day pass is $3.
It provides you service to --
you can get on UNT shuttles.
You can get on the A train.
You can get on Connect bus
service, and you can get on our
two on-demand zones.
You can do that all day long.
Basically what we would do is
you would still buy a local day
pass at $3, and you would have
access to the A train.
You would have access to UNT
shuttle services.
You would have access to routes
three and seven, because those
would be our two existing -- the
two fixed routes that would
remain.
And then you would have access
to GoZone.
So we're basically just
replacing the accessibility.
There are a couple of variations
here.
So our original proposition was
that if you were purchasing a
day pass, you would get three or
four one-ride credits on GoZone
with that day pass.
If you were to purchase a local
AM/PM pass, which is only good
for half of the day, you would
get two one-ride credits on
GoZone.
In further discussion with VIA,
they have proposed potentially
looking at kind of providing all
day service.
So if you buy a local day pass,
much like you could ride Connect
service all day long as many
times as you want, that you
would be able to do the same
thing with GoZone.
So that is some additional
feedback that we have received,
and we are currently kind of
talking about both options with
the community to kind of say
what would you prefer, what
would work best for you so that
we can pull all of that feedback
together and really make a
final recommendation to the
board.
So nothing is final on the
fairs, but we do know that we
don't want to modify the
existing fair media type.
We recognize that there are
people out there that have
passes.
We need those passes to still
work.
You know, as Ms. Arbiter said,
we are kind of in a beta test
process with this.
Like, we certainly don't want
to wipe away old fares, create
new ones, and then have to
pull them back again.
So we're integrating access to
GoZone in our existing fair
structure with one addition.
We recognize that there are
people that might not want a
day pass or an AM/PM pass.
Maybe they just want to use
GoZone.
And so we will be offering one
ride credits at 75 cents each.
So basically, if I wanted to go
to the neighborhood Walmart, do
my errands and come back home,
it's going to cost me $1.50.
And so that additional fare
type will be available.
So the booking process, which
we've talked a little bit about...
- Let's check this question
there.
- Oh, sure.
Sorry, I can't see everything.
- How long will this
promotional period be?
Is it the first six months?
- It's the first six months.
- Okay.
- How much latitude do we have,
Council, in terms of not taking
the slides down for every quick
answer?
- I prefer that we did, but we
can be flexible if it's a quick
one.
- Okay.
So, Judge?
- Sure.
So it is for six months.
The FTA allows us to offer a
promotional period for a period
of six months with the intent to
collect data...
- Let's take the slide down.
I know it's, you know, we're
being a little slavish about
folks.
- Sure, sure, sure.
- But, you know, we're a
government entity.
- Okay.
- That's what we do.
- All right, there you go.
So the FTA does allow you to do
a six-month promotion with the
intent to collect data from that
promotion in order to put
something final in place.
So while that six-month
promotional period would be in
place, staff would be collecting
real-time data based on what
type of tickets people are
purchasing, how they're using
the system, in order to make a
final recommendation to our
board about the fare structure.
It's very possible it could end
up being the same, and we would
just adopt that promotional
fare structure.
It's also possible that it
could change based on user
behavior.
- Good.
- Okay.
- That's my partnership.
Ready to move forward?
Okay.
- Okay.
All right.
Can you see that?
- Yeah.
- Okay, perfect.
Okay.
So we talked a little bit about
the booking process.
The easiest way to explain it,
it is very similar to like an
Uber or a Lyft process.
You would set up an account on
the GoZone app.
It would be a DCTA GoZone
branded app.
It is specifically for DCTA.
All you are going to see are
DCTA GoZones.
You would be able to look like
you were on an Uber or a Lyft.
You would be able to select your
closest pickup point and drop-off
point.
You could see your driver
heading to you.
You can see when they are
pulling up.
Again, I mentioned before the
convenience of like if it is
raining, you know, staying
indoors as long as you possibly
can until you see the vehicle
and go out there.
So it has a lot of flexibility.
It also gives you the
opportunity to provide direct
feedback about your driver.
So at the end of your trip, it
will pull up a screen to have
you rate your driver.
So if all of a sudden we
receive a negative rating on a
driver, then that's a notation
to us that we need to look into
that.
And so that real-time feedback
again is really important.
The one thing I will say is
that for somebody who doesn't
have a smartphone, you don't
need this app to navigate the
process.
You can book with your customer
service.
They can tell you where to stand.
They can give you all of those
directions.
They can walk you through that
trip planning.
The difference is that you
won't have these additional
visuals in front of you.
So there is a trade-off for
calling in and booking your
trip that way.
But this is kind of the proposed
process.
This is not the proposed mock-up
but this is the proposed
process for this app.
In addition, you will be able to
purchase other DCTA for media.
So say you decide I want the
local day pass because I need
to use GoZone to get to the
A-Train.
You can do all of that within
this app.
So you can purchase your local
day pass.
You can show that day pass.
You can self-select in the
booking process that you have a
day pass that would be validated
by the driver once you get into
the vehicle.
And then that pass is good.
You can use it on other system
modes as well.
>> I think a quick question.
I don't know if this would
actually occur but could someone
who had called in on a landline
or any other phone conceivably
also call in to rate their ride?
>> Yes, absolutely.
Yes.
So there are several other
methods for rating your ride.
So you can call in directly to
customer service.
You can use our social media
channels and then we also have
a system called GoRequest which
a lot of governmental entities
use and that is a customer
feedback tool which we promote
quite heavily.
And so that would be included
in all of our information as
well.
But if you want to provide
direct feedback on GoZone,
please do it in this method.
>> I'm sorry.
I don't understand the tool.
Is that also an online thing?
>> GoRequest you can use on your
phone, you can use it on a
computer or you can call customer
service and provide a comment.
>> Yeah.
I'm just looking after that
constituency that is going to be
using a phone.
Okay.
>> Absolutely.
And yes, we can see it.
>> All right.
So we're looking at the three
phase approach to launch the
service.
And the first phase of the
service which would be slated
for September 7th of this year
is really the lion's share of
the service.
And so what we started with and
we'll go through this in
detail, what we started with is
the base service.
And the base service is what
truly replaces fixed route
service.
So that was the first intent,
is to create a service that
replaced fixed route in a whole.
Then the DCTA board said this is
really cost effective.
This is going to be a very
convenient service.
Are there ways that we can
expand service offerings?
And so they created what they
called phase one add-ons.
And so these are all additional
service levels that we don't
currently offer today that are
being proposed to launch with
the base service on September
7th.
Then we have two additional
phases.
And that's phase two A and phase
two B.
So phase two A is the addition
of Castle Hills and our access
paratransit service.
And that's slated for early
2022.
And then phase two B is the
addition of late night, weekday
hours.
And that's truly just based on
ridership and demand.
And so we would slate to
consider that in the summer of
2022.
So these maps you're going to
get very familiar with here.
This is the base service that I
talked about.
This is where we started, where
the board started.
And they said if we were to
create zone service to replace
fixed route, what would it look
like?
And so these are the two zones
that were created.
There's the Denton Go Zone and
then the Lewisville Highland
Village Go Zone.
Currently the way that this is
set up is that the core hours
would be Monday through
Saturday.
You would be able to book trips
within the Denton Go Zone and
then within the Lewisville
Highland Village Zone using the
A train as a connector between
the two.
So this is just kind of the
replication of fixed route as it
is today.
I will say that the zone service
is slightly larger than where we
offer fixed route.
So it already offers expanded
service.
The board also looked at some
increased hours.
So the hours differ a little bit.
There's more hours of service
than what we currently provide
today.
But when they saw the space
level service, they said what
can we do to add on to this to
provide even more service to the
community?
And so that's where you get all
of these phase one updates.
These are phase one add-ons.
And there's various components.
So I'm going to try and walk
through them.
But certainly if you have any
questions, let me know.
So again, these phase one add-ons
would launch on September 7th
along with the base service.
The first add-on that the board
looked at is the Saturday hours
extension.
So currently service on -- and
that bullet under Saturday hours
extension should not say Friday.
It should say Saturday.
I apologize.
But they looked at hours of
service on Saturday and they
don't end at 8 p.m.
And they said for people that
want to go out on the weekends
maybe connect to the dark green
line or go to a restaurant or
some sort of, you know, a
musical play in one of these
zones, like things don't end at
8 p.m.
on a Saturday.
So they extended service on
Saturdays from 8 p.m.
to 11 p.m.
They also looked at Sunday
service.
So currently we don't offer
Sunday service.
And they said wouldn't it be
really nice if we could offer
some Sunday service?
And so they're proposing that
on Sundays the zones would
fully operate, but you would
also be able to connect between
the zones.
So what you're seeing here on
this map is you're seeing blue
being the base service and the
yellow being these add-ons.
You would basically on a Sunday
be able to travel via GoZone
with a one-seat ride between
any of these zones.
They also looked at Denton
specifically in the Demian
neighborhood and said, you
know, there's a great need for
service in this neighborhood
and we don't offer service
there today.
And so you'll see up there at
the top of the map outlined in
yellow.
They extended the Denton GoZone
to include this Demian
extension as well as I believe
there's a development, like a
new neighborhood development
within that zone as well.
And so what you're seeing in
yellow, that will kind of
become the new boundary of the
Denton GoZone.
Specifically for Lewisville and
Highland Village, they looked
at commuter traffic.
Lewisville and Highland Village
have a high demand to bring
workers into their
communities.
And we recognize that the A
train frequency is not where it
needs to be, but we're working
to get there.
And so they looked at how could
we provide sustainable
transportation to those who are
coming into that zone and need
to get to, you know, an early
morning work day for shift work
or whatnot.
And so we've created, although
the name is not very elegant,
the Dart-Frankford Station to
Lewisville-Highland Village
GoZone.
And basically what you'll see
at the bottom of the map, there
are two train icons.
The one on the top is where the
Frankfurt Station is.
That does not connect to our A
train, but it is closest to the
Lewisville-Highland Village
Zone.
So we would create a hub at the
Dart-Frankford Station that if
people were taking the green
line, they could get off at the
Dart-Frankford Station, they
could book a ride on GoZone, and
it would take them to any
location within the Lewisville
Highland Village GoZone.
And then in return, it would get
them back.
And so that service is only
available Monday through Friday
kind of during commuter peak
hours.
We also looked at growing the
areas in Lewisville, so the
Business 121 North Zone
Expansion, which you'll see off
to the right in yellow.
Before you move on, could you
pull up the Frankteloo or
something like that?
Just a suggestion.
Carry on.
I like that.
A little bit of this and a
little bit of that.
Just marrying it up together.
We'll consider that.
So the Business 121 North Zone
Expansion provides service to
highly dense areas where
there's some apartment as well
as retail offerings.
And so that would be considered
an extension of the Lewisville
Highland Village Zone.
This would be the first time
that you would see what we're
calling intra-zone travel.
So you could travel on a one
seat ride anywhere between the
Lewisville Highland Village Go
Zone and anywhere within those
yellow zones to the right, so
the Business 121 North Zone.
And then we're offering a
guaranteed ride home expansion.
And so this is provided Monday
through Saturday for three
additional hours after the base
service ends.
We have continually received
feedback that the A train does
not operate late enough.
And so what we would do is say
that you went to a Mavs game on
a Saturday.
You parked at an A train
station.
You took the A train to connect
to the dark green line.
You went to a Mavs game.
The Mavs game goes into
overtime.
And so by the time you get back
on the dark green line and you
come back to Denton or, you
know, to Denton County, the A
train has stopped running.
What do you do, right?
That's the reason why a lot of
folks don't use the A train late
in the evening to do
entertainment events.
Well, this guaranteed ride home
would allow you to come back to
the Trinity Mill Station just
like you would on the dark
green line to connect to the A
train.
You could book yourself a Go Zone
ride between those three hours
of extension.
So it's from 11 p.m. until 2 a.m.
You'd be able to book a ride on
Go Zone, and it would take you
to one destination within any of
the zones.
So you could go from Trinity
Mills to, you know, the Med Park
Station in Denton if you wanted.
You could go from Trinity Mills
to your house.
You could go Trinity Mills to a
7-Eleven.
Whatever your final destination
is, the difference is it's just
a one-seat ride.
So the core base service itself
would not be operating.
It would just be that ride home.
And so these are the expansions
that the DCTA board added to
the proposal of Phase 1
specifically to provide
additional service.
I'll stop for questions because
I anticipate that there will be
questions on this.
But if not, I can move on, but
at least want to give you the
opportunity.
>> All right.
Go ahead, Councilmember Arbiter.
Anything on this slide?
>> No.
>> Okay.
>> Just a comment.
>> Go ahead, Councilmember Moutzer.
>> Yeah, not a question.
Just a comment.
A 13-ride home is a great idea.
>> Chair, I wanted to ask you a
really quick question.
Mr. Polster is going to have to
sign off at 10 a.m. this
morning.
I know Nicole is in the middle of
her presentation, and it may take
a little bit longer.
I wanted to see if you wanted to
take an opportunity to pause with
this presentation and allow Mr.
Polster to make his presentation
and then we could come back to
Nicole's.
>> Okay.
I'm open to that.
My serious question for John is
can he do anything in 15 minutes
or 14 minutes, whatever we've
got left?
>> He has told me he can.
And so --
>> Is that all right, Nicole?
>> Absolutely.
I am here all day.
>> Okay.
I appreciate your flexibility.
>> I apologize, Nicole.
>> It's okay.
>> Just know this may take a
little bit longer and want to
give you ample opportunity to
take the presentation.
>> Absolutely.
>> You're all kinds of flexible
today.
So we're going to -- so I'll take
this one.
We'll open item C, receive a
report and hold the discussion
regarding city of debt and
transportation mobility project
status report.
Mr. Polster.
>> My apologies for the schedule
conflict.
I'm going to share the report
and I will follow the same
process.
If you have any questions, I'll
pull it down.
Do you all see it?
>> Yes, sir.
>> Okay.
So this is the city of Denton's
transportation mobility project
report.
It covers all of the primarily
on-system projects that city of
Denton are involved in or
interested in from a tex dot
standpoint.
We have general project summary
sheet of what the projects are
and who is -- when they are
going to let and approximate
dollar amounts.
So you'll see this report
covers about 2.6 billion
dollars worth of roadway
improvements in and around the
city of Denton.
First project that we cover is
FM 2181 north-south.
It's a section from where 2181
ends near 2499 and then moves
forward up to Lillian Miller.
We're widening it as a six-
lane divided urban facility.
For those new to the committee,
this project was originally
contracted to a different firm
that went bankrupt and so the
state had to re-let the project
and Zachary was the low bidder
and so it changed our schedule
to a degree to accommodate the
new time for the new contractor.
When we have a report on a
project that's under
construction, we get a tex dot
monthly project report.
It tells who the project
manager is, the contractor's
superintendent for in this case
Zachary.
When the project began and here
it shows anticipated
completion date of March 22, it
gives the current activity and
right now if you've been out
there you see we're doing
subgrade work, doing a lot of
lines, stabilization and as you
dig up on an existing facility
you'll always have various
utility conflicts and so as we
come across those we address
them and we're continually
making those changes and we are
still on track for the March
22 completion date.
The forward drive, we just had
the ribbon cutting on this
project on April 26th.
It was somewhat apropos in the
middle of our presentation the
Union Pacific drove a train
that would commemorate the
opening of the project so that
was interesting.
So this project still has a few
what we call closeout punch list
items but essentially probably
next month this will not be in
your report because the road is
open to traffic and essentially
completed as far as the
residents are concerned.
The next big project is your
Mayhill 35E project and again
those new to the mobility
infrastructure.
When you envision what was at
or is at loop 288 and 35 that
has 10 lanes of traffic
underneath the interstate.
When Mayhill is done there will
be 12 lanes of traffic
underneath 35.
We're also at Brinker we're
adding bypass furnace roads so
currently when you exit Mayhill
to get to loop 288 you have to
stop at the Brinker signal in
both directions if you exit 288
to get to Mayhill you have to
stop at the Brinker signal.
This project will also include
bypass furnace roads so if you
exit for 288 and want to go to
288 we'll go straight over the
Brinker structure and stop at
loop 288 instead of the same
one Brinker same and reverse
going southbound.
Currently we are in the process
of acquiring the remaining
parcels of land that we had to
add because of those bypass
ramps and we're working on
utility relocations and if you
drove by there you'll see that
for example on James Wood they
have already moved the parking
lot and put up the SWP3 wall
and they're clearing the right
away in anticipation of this
ready to let of June 23.
And by the time we get to that
point we'll have this thing
completely funded.
We currently have 62.
Right now it says that it's 77
and the reason it's 77 is
because we have to add in 4%
per year for the let year so
it's 4, 8, 12% but as we get
closer to June 23 and actually
let the project that dollar will
go down consistent with what we
believe the actual price is.
Next project is the Dallas
Center Improvements.
This was the project where we're
at Calloways and we were having
some issues with traffic
conflicts coming out of
Calloways parking lot trying to
get to the northbound
furniture.
City staff worked with TxDOT
area office, put up those
bollards and we think it's
working pretty well right now
and so we'll -- this project
will stay on for a couple more
iterations until we make sure
that there's nothing else we
need to do and then if we think
we're good, we'll pull this off
the report as well.
Okay.
35E, 35, 35W merge.
This is the two 35s in Denton
and then all the way up to 77.
This project, again, is fully
funded.
The difference between the two
prices is the inflation that
will come down as we move closer
to let date.
The last parcel that was needed
to get to Denton was TxDOT.
We had a contract that City of
Denton, Denton County had to
execute with TxDOT.
That happened last week and we
hand carried that contract to
TxDOT and so all the right
away is acquired and they are
now moving into the utility
relocation phase and there are
significant coordination that
is required for City of Denton
and TxDOT in this corridor
because the city has both --
TxDOT and TME and we were
meeting regularly with TxDOT
on accommodating those
utilities with minimal impact
to both the utility provider
and adjacent property owners.
And again, it's got a ready to
let of June 22.
For those that are new to the
committee, the difference
between the ready to let and the
let date, the ready to let is
when all of the environmental
work is done, the right away is
complete and utilities are
ready to let when they come to
their -- that particular year.
January 25 is an administrative
date.
It's outside the four-year
period.
But when we get the project
ready to let in June 22, these
dollars are already available
and will be moved up to the June
22 let date.
So this project includes this
area from the merge to 3/8, but
in the interim we've got so much
trauma associated with the merge
and the traffic trying to get to
3/8 that City didn't work with,
TxDOT, and this only shows the
northern half of the exhibit
because if we tried to show the
whole exhibit, you wouldn't be
able to see anything because
it would be too small.
But it's in reverse on the
backside.
So right now you have an off
ramp that's right here that
comes right onto the frontage
road.
If you want to install an on
ramp out, install an on ramp,
add pavement to the northbound
portion of the frontage road to
have a larger turning bay for
the right turn lane, add
additional lane for the U-turn,
pull the nose of the
intersection, make some changes
there because currently right
now you've got a U-turn, a left
turn lane, a dual left and then
a straight.
And what we're going to do is
have two dual lefts and two
through when we're done.
So you'll have four vehicles be
able to go through the
intersection at the same time
while not blocking your right
turn lane.
So we'll put more traffic
through the intersection.
And on the southern part, we
will take the on ramp and make
it an off ramp so that if you
want to get to 3/8, you'll exit
just further south from this
intersection and run the
frontage road.
In between those two ramps,
we'll add an auxiliary lane
between the ramps on the main
lanes so there will be more
capacity there.
And we believe that this will
alleviate the congestion that's
there currently.
And the plan is to let the
project this July.
And we believe that we'll get
it done by January or maybe a
little bit earlier because it's
mostly just maintenance.
So by the end of the year,
hopefully we'll have this issue
resolved.
That $2.3 million was money
that came from TechSite's
maintenance.
So all we had to do was provide
the problem and TechSite
provided the solution.
>> January 22, it's on my
calendar, Sean.
>> Okay.
Absolutely.
All right.
Further to the north, it's a
smaller picture because it's a
lot larger.
This is a $800 million job that
will again is ready in March of
2023 and when it's ready it will
go.
It takes it from the previous
job of '77 all the way to the
county line.
It's going from the four-lane
facility to a six-lane urban
with continuous frontage roads.
We're in the process of working
on the utility, coordination
with significant providers, and
we are in the process of
completing right-of-way
acquisition.
We should be done in a couple
of months.
And again, this project is fully
in our interest.
It's a lot of fun.
Yeah.
I'm certain that's going to get a lot of community focus,
that very question.
And then also we're passing fairly lightly
over the cut of four routes.
I think that might need a little more explanation to the public
because that's not obviously a good thing.
Why wouldn't you test your way into that as well?
We originally presented a proposal
to the board that was more of a baby steps approach
that even Bia's original proposal to the RFP
was a very kind of what I would consider like a baby steps
approach.
It was kind of testing in certain areas,
keeping certain at least half of the fixed routes.
And through board discussion, and then we also
had board workshops with each of our member cities
as well as their representative on our board,
that is how this final service plan came to exist.
So everything that has been built on that first pass
of a service plan has been through board and member city
discussion.
Well, if you take an input, my input would be they made a mistake.
Seriously, I would say test your way in.
You might end up in the same place,
but you're going to be a lot more confident
that you're serving the public better by doing it.
And that really speaks to the public involvement process.
That is why this is so important.
This is why we extended the public involvement process
to be much longer than it normally would be.
I mean, it runs April 19 to June 25.
We wanted to make sure that we were out in the community giving
this presentation, having these conversations,
so that we are collecting stakeholder, passenger,
organizational feedback, and then our responsibility
is to take that feedback back to the board.
And if that feedback indicates that we need to make modifications
to this plan, then it's our responsibility
to make modifications to the plan based on this feedback.
And so that's why it's so important.
I know throughout this process, we hear quite a bit of,
well, what are you going to do with my comment?
Does my voice really matter?
Well, your voice really does matter because, you know,
we take your feedback into account before there
is a final service plan that is taken to our board
for consideration.
- Sure hope so.
Council Member Ritter, you look like you have
something you want to say.
- I'm just kind of nodding along.
I think these are good points.
Yeah, good.
Thank you.
- All right.
- Sure.
- All right.
- Okay.
I'm starting to get really good at this, y'all.
Okay.
So as we look at Lewisville Connect bus service,
all of the Lewisville fixed routes are going away,
and that's routes 21 and 22.
And they'll be replaced with the GOZONE service.
And again, that was at the direction of our Lewisville
representative on the DCTA board,
as well as the city of themselves.
And then we have several on-demand zones.
So we've got the Lewisville Lakeway on-demand zone
that we operate.
We have the Highland Village lift zone
that's operated by Lyft.
And then we have the Denton Evening on-demand zone
that we operate ourselves as well.
Those three zones will just be replaced by GOZONE.
Very similar booking process, very similar service.
We do have an on-demand zone through coordination
with the city of Lewisville that is serviced from Lewisville
to Flower Mound via Lyft.
That service has had very, very low ridership.
And the city of Lewisville has asked us to remove that zone.
As we look at our support services,
we have North Texas Express,
which is a route that runs from Denton to Alliance
and then connects with Trinity Metro's portion
of the same service, which can get passengers to Fort Worth.
The city of Denton, during our roundtable discussion
to formulate the plan,
requested that we remove that portion of the route.
So that will be completely removed
and pending public feedback
and not replaced with the GOZONE.
Now, we recognize that there are still service needs there.
And so DCTA will continue to kind of look at
what is an effective way to provide service
and provide that connection between Denton and Alliance.
MK101 is our service that operates between Monsignor King
and our Daily Bread.
It operates in the morning, six days a week,
or it's moving to six days a week.
The original recommendation was that it be replaced with GOZONE.
However, we have an item on our board agenda next week
to specifically talk about that and get board direction.
And we believe that our board will keep
that small mini route in place.
As we mentioned, our access service
would remain the same until Phase 2A
and our vanpool program would remain the same.
We also have contract services.
So Collin County, Coppell, Frisco,
all of those services would stay the same.
UNT shuttle services, the UNT shuttle would remain the same.
The UNT late night lift program would remain the same.
The only difference right now is that students, faculty,
and staff would be required to provide appropriate fair media
for their trips on GOZONE.
Currently, they ride Connect bus service
with their university ID for free.
I will say that DCTA is in the middle
of having conversations with UNT leadership
and the UNT transportation department
about how to reallocate the Connect access fee
that they pay on an annual basis for that benefit
to reallocate it to the benefit of students, faculty, and staff.
So we just don't have a final answer on that yet.
And then again, much like we covered in the Phase 1 add-ons,
we're providing new areas of coverage
that we haven't provided today.
So we're extending hours on Saturday,
adding the Sunday service, expanding the Denton zone
into Denia, and then extending the Lewisville zone
into the Business 121 North Zone as well as Castleville.
I've talked a lot about the feedback process
and really just how important it is.
Again, that's why we extended the public feedback process.
That's why you will probably see me giving presentations
all over town.
I think to date we've done something like 18 events
and like eight presentations.
We are slated to come and speak to the Denton City Council
on June 8th to go through this presentation as well
and answer any questions that the council might have.
But we're really looking for specific feedback on the service.
And it's not just the service itself, but it's the fair structure,
any general thoughts, any questions.
We have set up a microsite that's dedicated
to kind of walking people through the service.
It's at dctfeedback.net.
We are--all of the questions that come in through that site
and then any questions that come in like via email or social media,
we have committed to a 24-hour turn to respond to those questions
and we have been meeting that KPI.
So, you know, we just--we recognize that people
have very specific needs, right?
So one person might have very differing needs
than another person.
And so we want to be able to have those one-on-one conversations
and collect feedback.
And that means feedback that's negative, that's positive,
that's neutral.
You know, I always tell people, don't shy away from just giving us
your true feedback.
- Can I ask a question about the presentations,
if you can take that one? - Absolutely.
- Just for a moment, thanks. - Sure.
- Have you had or is there a planned presentation
to our, you know, one or more of our interconnected
local nonprofits that serve people experiencing homelessness?
Have you done that yet?
- Absolutely.
So we have--I had preliminary conversations specifically
with United Way and Salvation Army
and very early on upfront conversations.
DCTA hosts a quarterly social service agency roundtable.
And so last quarter we presented this information
at a very, very high level, knowing that we had more details.
This week we're actually hosting the Lewis Bell
and the Denton social service agency roundtables.
And so this presentation is being shared
with both of those groups.
We have really good participation.
We also keep track of the organizations that are attending
and any organizations from our list that did not attend
we are reaching out to directly to either make sure
that we offer the presentation to them
or that we send them the presentation so that they're aware.
- Okay, yeah, thank you.
And I think it'd be great, you know, there are a number--
or there are, you know, several other, you know,
organizations in Denton, you know, specifically
Our Daily Bread, MN Senior King,
which are now--they're uniting as Bread to Junction,
which I know you know about.
But, you know, it's not going to be up and running
until later next year.
So, you know, it would be great to present
and I can, you know, reach out to Our Daily Bread.
You know, even to have--I can imagine a presentation
at Our Daily Bread where not only the people who work
at that, you know, nonprofit, but also the people who use it,
the people who go there to eat, you know,
could ask questions and you could get their feedback.
- Yeah, absolutely.
So we've been working with Wendy McGee
specifically about--well, one, MK101.
I speak with her regularly about that.
And then she also participates in our Social Service Agency
roundtables, but I've also been having one-on-one conversations.
But I'll definitely have our staff reach out
and see if they would be interested in a presentation
to their constituents.
And we have varying presentations,
so we try to tailor our presentation to the group.
And so we've identified some specific questions
that organizations like that might have.
And so it would be a slightly altered presentation
to what you've seen today.
- Thank you.
- Absolutely.
So that ends my presentation.
I am happy to answer any questions that you have.
And if I don't have an answer, I will commit to getting it
and getting that answer back to you.
- I have oodles.
I'm sure Councilmember Armitage does as well.
You want to go ahead?
- Sure, yeah.
So let's see.
So people who are, you know,
currently experiencing homelessness,
who are, you know, given the, you know,
current really lack of a place to go
between the time when Our Daily Bread is closed
and, you know, Monsignor King and Salvation Army,
you know, open their doors, especially Monsignor King.
And this is a gap that'll go away, this gap in time,
once we've got the, or at least for some people,
next year, once we've got this, you know,
24-hour, 365 place where people can go.
But I know that people experiencing homelessness
not only use DCTA to get from point A to point B,
but sometimes just to kind of ride around
and to be in a place that's protected and safe.
And, you know, that's not ideal.
That's not the purpose of transportation.
But, you know, but I'm wondering,
you know, what kind of, what's,
have you given any thought to that
and how that's going to be affected?
You know, will they be, you know,
do you think that's going to move on to the UNT routes,
which I hear, you know,
people sometimes already use it for that purpose.
Just wondering if you've had kind of thoughts on that
or, you know, from the nonprofit providers,
you know, any kind of concerns about how that might be affected
or increased by this change.
Sure. So, yes, that does happen.
DCTA's policy states that a passenger
can make one full round trip,
so origin back to origin.
And if they stay on the vehicle to do another round trip,
that we do ask them to de-board,
simply because we need to, you know,
make sure that there's capacity right now
with social distancing for everybody that is on board.
So that is our policy.
I'm not saying that it's always adhered to,
but that is our policy.
We have asked this specific question to VIA to say,
you know, what have you done in other service areas?
Like, we see this on our fixed route service.
How do you address it?
We have talked to some of their partners about it as well.
And they have all reported
that it doesn't occur on GoZone.
And the reason being is, I think,
because it's a much smaller vehicle than a large bus
where you might remain anonymous sitting in the back row.
But in a vehicle that holds six individuals,
you're less likely to remain anonymous.
In talking with the social service agencies,
specifically United Way and Salvation Army,
they felt like this transition would actually be a benefit
to their clientele
simply because it's a more direct service
to get where they need to go.
We do work with all of the social service agencies
and provide discounted tickets.
So many of the people that are riding
are getting their passes directly from an agency.
And so we would continue to do that,
and they would have access to GoZone
the same way that they have access to connect fixed route today.
Thank you.
And so that makes sense that, you know,
the GoZone would be less likely to be used in this way.
I'm wondering if, you know,
because the UNT routes are remaining,
will those routes be--
are you imagining and seeing an increase
in usage of UNT routes for that purpose?
I mean, that's something that we will definitely monitor.
But again, if somebody is getting onto a vehicle
and they tend to kind of finding a shelter,
a place to shelter from the weather or whatnot,
our policy states, again, one full trip around the sun,
you know, and then that individual would be asked to de-board.
I would also say that, you know,
we are continually working with the United Way and Salvation Army,
Monsignor King, our Daily Bread.
We're in constant communication with them.
And, you know, DCTA stands ready to kind of serve
when we do have those inclement weather situations.
We partner with the City of Denton.
And, you know, when the weather does get super high
and, you know, extend past the threshold,
that we do and we still would send out large buses
to kind of bus people to a place
where they can shelter that's climate controlled.
So those type of services would still remain in place.
Okay, yeah. Good. Thank you.
And can you speak to the fees for--
what the fees will be for the-- for students?
So currently we have-- we're not final on that.
So we are working very closely with UNT leadership
and the UNT Transportation Department.
So students ride the shuttle for free
through their transportation fee that they pay with their tuition.
So that would remain the same. That does not change at all.
UNT pays DCTA an annual, what we call, connect access fee.
And that is what allows UNT students, faculty,
and staff to ride our connect services for free.
We are working with UNT Transportation Department
to reallocate that connect access fee
so that students do have access to these services
for, you know, for free of charge or maybe even a reduced fare.
We don't have a final answer right now.
We're waiting to hear back from the university in June
about what their-- what their on-campus,
you know, numbers are going to look like
that would then help us kind of project ridership and whatnot.
You know, if they're back to kind of pre-COVID levels,
then we need to kind of readjust our service delivery.
But we are having conversations with them regularly
to address this question.
Okay. Thank you. I'm just going to call more.
If-- can you name, you know, one or more cities
that have-- currently have programs
that are as close as you can think of to the program
you're-- that you're talking about now.
Sure.
I know it's unique, you know, but--
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And I can actually send over a list after the meeting.
I can provide a little bit more detail as well.
But King County Metro is definitely--
and I believe that that's in Atlanta.
I don't want to jinx myself.
I'm pretty sure-- I'm pretty sure it's in Atlanta.
King County Metro is a program
that we've looked at quite extensively.
But we're also just looking in our neighborhood
because it's specific to our landscape.
Trinity Metro currently partners with them
to provide zone-based service.
And then the city of Arlington uses them
as their sole transit program.
And so we've spent quite a bit of time working
with the city of Arlington as well as Trinity Metro
to talk about the pros and cons of their programs,
what they learned through implementation
that we could, you know, adjust on the front end
so that it's not a speed bump for folks once we launch.
And so, you know, right in our backyard,
we have two entities that are using the system
very successfully.
Thank you.
And I will look into, you know,
those cities and explore that.
And then my last question is a question
that might be for city staff,
but it might also be for you.
It's really for whoever can answer it.
And it's about the...
There was a consultant,
and I'm not sure if she's still working for the city.
I think, or Brandy something or other,
and I believe she may be presented to council.
Is she...
And I don't know if she's on this call looking now at 11.
But, you know, is she still...
And she was a consultant, as I remember.
Correct me if I'm wrong, for the city.
For DCTA.
So I was just wondering if someone from city staff,
or you, if you know.
But again, I assume it would be more of a city staff question.
And I can speak to, is she still working,
you know, for the city?
Is she still working for us?
What is she doing since she's a city contractor or consultant
and haven't, you know, seen her at these meetings?
I'd just be curious to know.
So I can't answer that.
The city of Denton and the city of Lewisville
do contract with Brandy Bird
for transportation-related services.
As to the scope of work or what she's actively working on,
I'm not sure.
But I can tell you that she does attend
all of our board meetings and that she is...
She attended the roundtables that we held
with all three of our member cities.
And so she has been involved in this program
in developing this service plan
as far as consultation to those two cities.
And so I would love...
And I'll put this in as a request.
And her last name is Byrd or B-I-R-D?
I think it's B-I-R-D.
B-I-R-D, okay.
And Brandy, B-R-A-N-D-I or Y?
I will send you her email.
I can send you her contact information.
Okay, that would be great.
What I would love is that when this comes to council,
it would be great for her to be there
and to be able to address council since...
And I'm not complaining about your report.
I'm just thinking...
And not even instead of you necessarily,
but at least in addition,
so that somebody...
If this is somebody who...
Because I didn't realize until after she was hired
that she was working for council
and she was the consultant.
And I'm still exactly not sure kind of what her role is,
but I would love to hear from her as a consultant for this city,
apparently for Louisville too,
but really just in her capacity as consultant for City of Denton.
I have to say, I've never heard of her.
I wasn't aware that this person existed.
Yeah, and I'm trying to remember if she presented to council...
I'm so bad with names.
Oh, she did, I really apologize.
She was on the Denton City Council in January,
her and our chair Chris Watts presented to the Denton City Council.
Yeah, and so, yeah, I would just like...
If she's still on the contracting with the city,
I would like to hear from her as a consultant.
Sure, and I think...
I'll be ready for the next presentation to council.
So I believe we confirmed June 8th
as a presentation date just yesterday.
And I did receive an email from Sarah Hensley confirming that
and we notified our board.
And I believe our chair, Chris Watts,
is interested in doing some of the presentation as well.
So I think we just have some components of that to work through,
but I'll definitely include that in my confirmation back to Sarah.
I think that request, if she's a employee of the city,
would go through our staff,
but I appreciate the assistance.
Yeah, and thank you, yeah, I agree.
And can someone from our staff say is she...
So she is...
How long will she be in the consultant role?
Council Member Armitage,
I cannot answer the specifics about her contract
or what she is currently working on.
I know she is working on the project that Nicole mentioned
and I also know that she is working on things
with the city manager's office,
but I will pass along your comments
to the city manager's office
so that we can coordinate that appropriately
for the June 8th presentation.
Okay, that would be great.
And maybe kind of a Friday report about...
Here is our...
I don't know, meet our consultant.
This is what this person is...
This is what this job is.
I understand it's not a permanent job,
but this is what they do.
I would just love to just have a better sense of that.
Sure, I can discuss that
with the city manager's office, no problem.
Thanks.
Anything else?
Just here for questions.
Anything else you have?
Again, I...
No, I've got mine.
I just wanted to hear Council Member Armitage
say what that's called first.
So, yeah, thanks for such a thorough presentation
and for your patience
and responding to all of our many questions.
I've got a few.
One is, how would...
There's a potential affordable housing complex
that may go up in the vintage area.
They've got a resolution of no objection,
I think, from the city.
So this is a weight off.
One of the issues that's been raised by people in the area
is that that would be served by public transit.
And I asked if it would be served
in a contemplated new service,
and it's not apparently in the service area.
So how would you go about adding service areas
to what's currently proposed
if the need was demonstrated?
Sure. So the great...
One of the benefits of this on-demand service
is the flexibility of the ozone boundary.
So our planning department stays in contact
with the planning departments for our three member cities
and they stay abreast of any new developments
or any major changes that are going to happen
that would drive density.
So not even just living areas,
but also maybe shopping and new shopping centers
that might go in
that we would need to provide service to.
And so they feed that information to us
to say, like, here's the timing
that this new living area or this new residential area
or this new shopping center is going to go into place
so that we can then plan to see what it would cost
to expand the zone or to create an island zone
specifically for that purpose.
And so we would project,
we would determine what that plan looked like,
we would get the pricing models together,
and then we would take that to our board
for consideration and approval.
But that's one of the flexible things
about the ozone on-demand service
is that the boundary is very nimble
and it doesn't take much time
because they lease the vehicles.
So to put it into perspective,
like, a large bus that DCTA purchases
could take two years to procure.
Well, because they lease their vehicles,
they can scale up and scale down very, very easily
within, like, a couple of weeks.
The geography is not dependent on the location of rails,
for instance, or overhead wires or anything like that.
So the key communication
is our development department to DCTA.
Yes, and then we have great relationships, yeah.
Okay, that's very helpful to understand.
Regarding the case studies that are out there,
the M-cities that are deployed,
I'll not make you go through the detail.
I've heard comments that there are areas
where it's sort of flipped back to fixed routes later.
But I imagine you've looked at cases
that didn't indicate to you that that would be coming.
But what is the sort of total landscape of the case studies?
Like, you know, some of the time it flips back,
most of the time it doesn't or never does?
What's your sort of general learning from the case studies?
Sure, so the large majority of the case studies that we have read
shows that the service was successful
and it was so successful that the demand for ridership was so great
that they ended up expanding their service.
So adding more vehicles
in order to keep that wait time down.
There have been a few, I'll count on one hand,
a few instances within those case studies
that have said, like, for a specific,
they pulled out an existing fixed route
and replaced it with on-demand.
And the ridership wasn't so great with that origin and destination.
And so the agency maybe they took away four routes
but they added one back in.
So we do have the flexibility to do that,
even if we, you know, propose,
if what is, if the public feedback does not adjust anything
in the existing proposed service,
and we look at that on September 7,
we still have flexibility to add things back in
if our board so chooses.
And we will retain fleet for that purpose.
So we're not saying September 7,
like, let's get rid of, you know, all of our buses and whatnot.
We're gonna retain that so that we can be nimble
and bounce back somewhat if needed.
But I will say that the majority of the case studies that we have read
have said that the service is very successful
and that it has actually spurred growth within those services.
Is there any indication in those, you know,
minority of cases where it hasn't worked out
kind of what the factors were?
Like, what's the indication of, you know,
kind of the critical success factor?
Sure.
So the service will have, like, standard KPIs.
And so that will be, like, the number of passengers
that have booked and traveled on the service per service hour,
the number of people that are in each of the vehicles,
the on-time performance as related to--
I'm sorry, I don't think it's clear in the way I put that.
I mean, in the cases that are out there that have already occurred,
what has been the critical success factor
that didn't work in a minority of cases?
Like, what would be the circumstance
that would make it need to flip back?
Sure.
Off the top of my head, it's always primarily low ridership
is the key surface indicator.
But as they looked into that, there were other factors
based on each case study that indicated
what was leading to the low ridership.
I would have to go back and pull the specifics.
Wait times-- was wait times a part of it?
If you will allow, I will go back to those--
Oh, sure.
--and provide you with the details.
I haven't read them in a few months.
But they were all based on low ridership.
But I know that they did a deep dive
into what was the underlying cause of the low ridership.
The low ridership, yeah.
I'm more into the underlying cause.
Sort of low ridership, obviously.
But is it a certain kind of community
or certain populations it doesn't work for?
Or was it something about the way that the program was managed,
which would be great if it were that,
because you have the opportunity to not make the same mistakes?
Sure.
Absolutely, yes.
I will follow up with that information.
I think that would be awesome to understand better.
Thank you.
And incidentally, you talked about we're continuing to--
or you'll continue to own some bus fleet in case that's needed.
But the bus service--
I think this is not generally understood.
I'm going to make sure I understand it right.
It's owned by DCTA now anyway, right?
You're talking about going from one outsourced service
to a different outsourced service.
Is that accurate?
So we own all of the fleet, the facilities,
the software services.
We own all of that, but we contract out the labor.
Our bus service is currently contracted out
to the North Texas Mobility Corporation for that service.
Prior to NTMC, it was contracted out to First Transit.
And that's a locally owned company?
It has no--
NTMC is a local government corporation that's
actually a subsidiary of DCTA.
Oh, OK.
Interesting.
I did not understand that.
Since labor-- you brought up labor.
That's a good segue into my next comment.
I'm going to just express what I would think would be ideal.
And then you could tell me, like, yeah,
that's exactly what we're doing.
Because it could be.
The bus drivers have been in that subset of people
in our community who have really been
the front line heroes through the pandemic.
They took personal risk to their life
and safety to continue to provide transportation
to people who need it.
And I would hope that we're not going
to turn our back on them.
So my ideal scenario would be there's a certain number of jobs
that aren't going to be needed because they're
driving vehicles that aren't going to be on the road,
at least for a while, at least until different decisions are
made.
But there's a whole bunch of new jobs
because it's going to be these other drivers.
And I would hope that a kind of requirement of the contract
with VIA would be that our drivers, existing group of drivers,
would be first in line and would maintain their wages
and benefits.
Now, I'm kind of agnostic, or it's
a conversation for another day, about whether that class of job
stays that way forever.
I mean, we don't pay people to be weavers when we have--
when we change technologies and so on.
But those people who stood by us,
I would hope that we stand by them.
So how close am I to the envisioned process?
Pretty close.
So the plan right now is we have been
in constant communication with both NTMC leadership
as well as the Amalgamated Transit Union, Chapter 1338,
who oversees all of the operators
and represents all of the operators for NTMC.
And so I believe Kenneth Day spoke at the council meeting
yesterday.
We've been communicating with them for probably six-plus
months just to kind of let them know this is what's happening.
We want to make sure that we're doing this in alignment
with both NTMC and the union.
We do recognize that there will be a reduction
in force of operators.
It's pretty standard.
As we scale service down for the summer,
the same thing happens.
As we scale service up, we end up adding positions.
But we're working very closely with NTMC
to make sure that they're minimizing that impact
as much as possible because we still
have service to provide, right?
So we are also working with VIA to hold a job fair
specifically to what you just stated
that operators that would be impacted by the reduction
in force would have the first opportunity
to apply for those jobs within VIA.
VIA has their own salary structure.
They're contracted employees.
They do not provide benefits, but their hourly wage
has received very positive feedback.
And so we would work with VIA.
I mean, there's more than 30 jobs that would be available.
We would work with VIA to kind of hold a job fair
and give the operators impacted by the reduction in force
the first opportunity to apply for the job
and fill those roles before those jobs
are open to the public.
I would hope--
I won't ask you to respond to this,
but I would hope that we would look
to what we could do to keep them whole
if what's being offered is not the same.
Because I don't think--
I'm so aligned with the improvement of service,
with the added hours, with the ability to wait inside
instead of out in the rain and the sun.
And I put no--
I do not romanticize the value of running empty buses
around the city.
Maybe someday our land use will be different
and that would be a great solution.
But in the short run, I don't see--
put any value in running empty buses.
So I think the idea of efficiently providing
better service to more people in more areas
for more time all for it, but I don't
see that it's intrinsic to do that.
That we hurt people who have stood by us.
So I'm not going to ask you to respond to that.
I will ask you to carry forward the suggestion
of calling that one addition to Frank Toulou.
Yes, sir.
And I, too, am concerned about the jobs of--
what is going to happen to current drivers
who will not be needed by this new model.
As well as for those who do decide to or are able
to be employed by VIA if they would want that.
That would be moving from a job with benefits
to one with no benefits.
So I would want to see that, at least
during this trial period, that those benefits
could be extended.
That would be really critical.
I will take that feedback directly to our board.
You asked for input.
You got it.
That's right.
All right.
So if there's nothing else, thank you
for your extended presence with us.
Great preparation.
I'll close the item.
Great.
Thank you.
OK.
Thanks, Nicole, so much.
Great.
So we have one item remaining, which
is item D, staff reports.
And open it up.
It's open.
And thank you, Councilmember Meltzer.
I'm happy to present the staff report to you today.
And I don't have a formal presentation, really.
Today, what we're going to do is just
bring you an update of the future agenda items
that you placed on the agenda at the last meeting.
And so the first thing I'd like to talk to you about today
is the senior planner, bicycle, pedestrian, ADA coordinator
position.
As I promised, I told you I would be bringing you
a monthly update on the position.
We did hold our second round of interviews.
And a candidate was selected and offered the position.
He is coming into town today.
And we will be visiting with him, with staff,
answering questions and working through with him
any of the questions that he might have.
Also, really, he actually provided
a very detailed list of things that he wants to understand.
So we're very excited to have that conversation
and look forward to bringing more information to you back
at the next meeting in May.
Can I ask a question about that?
Can you let me know his name and how people can contact him?
I'm guessing it's just firstname.lastname@cityofdenton.com.
And then is it possible that his, if not his entire application,
VITA or background or something can be made public,
maybe in a kind of Friday report?
Again, is that mention about Randy Bird kind of--
We missed you for a couple of solos.
Your background, et cetera.
Councilmember Armitage, we missed you for a couple of solos.
You kind of froze. You're frozen now.
Oh, I'm sorry. Can you hear me now?
Yeah, your back audio, your visual is still frozen.
Okay.
Now you are all frozen.
Technology at its finest.
Councilmember Armitage, I believe I understand
your question is the specific contact information.
Okay, there are some things better about meeting in person.
I'm going to talk.
I'm going to hold until, okay.
I know she's turned her camera off.
I don't want to interrupt her.
And I want her to be able to hear this.
Does this sound better? Is this better?
Audio good.
Yes, ma'am, I can hear you.
So I will be happy to work with our Human Resources Department
to answer those questions.
We can provide a summary at this time.
That individual does not have a city email address, obviously.
But once, if he does accept that position,
we'll be happy to share that information.
But at this point, we're still working through the process
of him looking and entertaining the position.
And he has not formally accepted.
So at this time, I'd like to work with our Human Resources--
Oh, okay.
Yes, ma'am.
So until he has formally accepted it--
Okay, I'm so sorry.
Never mind.
So then never mind.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
My bad.
I misunderstood.
So I take back that question then.
I thought--
No problem.
I think today I was--
I misinterpreted that as, oh, he's moving today.
But that is not what you said.
So anyway, so I will reel that back.
Forget about that.
But I know that if he does get hired--
So he's the one finalist, right?
He is the finalist.
Yes, ma'am.
So whoever the finalist is, I would like that of them--
I'm sorry, not the finalist.
The hires--
Hire.
--of them shortly after they get hired,
thinking the Friday report about here's who they are,
how to get in touch with them.
Absolutely.
And my goal is also to present that individual
if he shall accept.
If not, we will go back to the process of acquiring
and facilitating another candidate if that happens.
So we're hopeful with this process,
and absolutely will be willing to bring him forward
and introduce him to the committee
and also to other boards and commissions
that he needs to and will be involved with.
So I appreciate that.
The second item I wanted to bring up was one of the items
that was on the agenda for the future agenda items.
It was actually listed as item number, let's see, three.
And it was in concern for the Highway 377 I-35 intersection
and that interstate exchange.
I understand at the time, Councilmember Ryan brought forward
the question about when you're heading southbound
on 377 Carroll Boulevard and going underneath 35,
that there is either a left turn straight or a right turn.
And at this time, we've been working with TxDOT
and the city staff is actually conducting
a traffic count for the intersection.
This was per the request of TxDOT,
which we received that data and that's completed,
the collection's completed.
We'll be sending it over to TxDOT for their review
to discuss with them on any improvement measures
that can be made to either signing or striping
based on the results of that traffic count.
So just wanted to give you an update that that's in progress.
We appreciate you bringing that forward.
The next item that was brought forward
was also by Councilmember Ryan.
It's item number four, which is Hobson Lane.
He was concerned about traffic that's traveling on Teasley
and a right-hand turn onto Hobson.
City staff has evaluated that intersection
and plans to make some needed improvements to the roadway,
including some repairs at the intersection,
along with relocating the stop bars
on both of the lanes at the intersection.
What this will do is increase the turning movement
from Teasley onto Hobson and allow for wider turns.
The question and concern was in relation to the fact
that those individuals who were driving a truck
and pulling a trailer were having a very hard time
navigating that turn as somebody was sitting at the stop bar
on Hobson Lane.
And so we are hoping and looking for those improvement measures
and those are ongoing.
And so definitely excited about having those improvements made.
The next request came from actually you, Councilmember Meltzer,
was the item number five on your agenda.
It was specifically related to West Oak and Bradley
and the concerns.
I believe the terminology used maybe was roller coaster
or something of that sort.
So we wanted to address your concerns there.
After further evaluation,
it appears that the previous design standards
that have been used for roadway construction
did not always require that soil samples of existing conditions
were completed prior to design and construction.
The design standards...
Did that shock you to find that?
I mean, I noted that in preparation,
like that we didn't ask for soil samples before.
I was staggered to read that.
Well, what I will tell you is there is a soil, you know,
description and map that basically shows
what the different soil types are throughout the city.
Those are the generalizations that are used
for the different pavement sections
and the different subgrade, subbase
that's used in roadway construction.
What we've found is it's a better practice
to actually perform the soil samples
to get an actual, you know, on-the-ground explanation
of exactly what's happening in that area.
So now that the soil samples are actually being pulled and taken,
then we can look at that and an engineer can determine
what actually the subgrade and subbase should be,
if there's any improvement measures.
There's many different, you know, I would say recipes,
designs that can be put together
to ensure that the soil can be stabilized
and provide that foundation.
So just wanted to bring that to your attention.
And also, you know, they do proper gradation testing.
Excuse me, Councilmember Arbiter,
if you can turn your camera on so we still have quorum.
Oh, good point. Okay. Good point.
And we can see and hear you well now,
so maybe the technical difficulty...
Yeah, I'm so sorry.
There was a thing flashed on my screen
that said, "Internet connection unstable."
I understand completely.
That happens from time to time.
Okay. Sorry. Karen.
So just wanted to bring that to your attention
that we do appreciate the concern and the comments.
And we've looked into definitely some improvement measures
along with not only collecting the soil samples,
but also some additional design standards
that are going into the roadway design.
So, you know, the hopes are that those measures,
including the proper amounts of stabilization,
are taken care of
and taken into consideration on future roadways.
I so appreciate the, you know,
the fact that you've respected my underlying concern,
just like, wow, if this happened there,
how, you know, what are we missing?
So that's great.
Do we intend to repair the, you know,
the outcome that did occur on West Oak?
At this time...
As a living example of why you should test the soil.
Yes, sir.
At this time, there are not improvement plans
to make any kind of replacement to that roadway,
but we definitely will work
and continue to work with our streets department
to see if there's things that can happen
through a maintenance process,
whether it's the minor maintenance or major maintenance
that needs to be completed in that area.
So definitely something that we will visit
with our streets department on.
Just wanted to make you aware
that for the future, you know,
we realized that that concern was addressed
and wanted to make sure that you understood
that the proper improvement measures are being taken forward
to help ensure that condition does not exist again.
I get that.
I suspect as a layperson that it needs reconstruction
and that it will, you know,
have to be part of some future bond,
but, you know, it's...
You don't think it's right, do you, the way it is now?
I have...
I would state that I believe that definitely
there are some areas where there are pavement
that is, you know, maybe higher than...
I'm not going to use the term roller coaster,
but there is pavement that is, you know,
absolutely not stabilized,
and the soil is not stabilized underneath the roadway,
and I do agree that there are improvement measures
that should be made in that area.
It's just a matter of putting it in a work plan
or a future bond plan or a future maintenance program
in order to address that concern.
You may not want to use the term,
but if the amusement park ride fits where it...
I'm sorry, Carrie.
Councilman Romford?
Oh, yeah, no, just a follow-up question about that.
I'm curious also about kind of, you know,
the cause for the soil being like that in that area.
Is it because of aquifers in that area
or, you know, something like that?
Is the soil more moist, more dry?
Is there more shifting?
And, you know, I'm also curious,
even though this is not quite a mobility question,
but if it's a problem for the city in construction,
you know, I would imagine that would be a concern
for private construction, too, in that area,
so I wonder if...
Or I'll just say I would hope that our,
you know, streets engineering people would share
with, you know, development services,
you know, if there are any concerns about that
in the area that could affect, you know, private construction.
Sure, I'm not...
That makes sense.
I'm not aware of any aquifers in that area.
I simply think that it's just the situation
where the existing soil was not stabilized properly
with improvement measures such as LIME, such as,
you know, different types of...
Even to the fact of bringing in new soil
so that the compaction could be appropriate in that area.
And I will tell you, you see Chandra on the phone today,
he is heavily involved in a lot of the development projects
that are coming through the city,
and so with this being a standard,
this is something that we're looking at implementing
not only for the projects that are capital project delivery,
but then also development services.
We coordinate with them on a day-to-day basis
and actually are all co-located in the same building now,
which, you know, is definitely helping
with the day-to-day operations and questions that arise.
Wonderful, thank you.
No problem.
So the next item that came up was item number six,
and Council Member Armitage, this came from you.
It was in concerns of Hickory and Bonnie Bray
and traffic speeding in that area.
You mentioned cars going too fast,
and so the city staff will perform a traffic study
once the construction is completed in that area.
Currently, traffic studies do not provide realistic data
during the construction zones,
and so once the construction in that area is completed,
then we can perform an official traffic study.
We will and have been coordinating with our police department
as different things are brought to our attention
from a speeding perspective in areas such as this
where construction is currently happening
and we cannot perform an official traffic study.
So we will be notifying and working
with the police department of the concerns
and request additional enforcement in that area.
Well, and can I ask about that?
Sure.
You know, I also wonder about, you know,
because obviously, like, for, you know,
police enforcement that involves staffing,
you know, having people there, you know, at that area,
who would be there instead of elsewhere,
you know, I wonder also about, you know,
the possibility of, you know, temporary speed bumps,
you know, signage, something like that,
you know, things that are temporary,
because I understand this construction is temporary,
and so if any, you know, speeding problems there
are related to the construction,
and I'm not sure that they are,
but if they are, you know,
then these would just be temporary things
that, you know, using materials that we already have.
So anyway, I would love to see that for areas like this,
you know, where there's a temporary problem,
because, you know, I'm concerned that,
you know, I don't want to see someone get hurt
in the interim, right, even though,
and I do understand what you mean by it's not ready yet
for a traffic study, but kind of looking at
what can we do besides just police enforcement,
you know, to make sure that it's,
to make it a little safer in the interim.
Sharon, I will also tell you that police enforcement
doesn't always just mean an individual
at a police vehicle or, you know, a motorcycle.
Sometimes the enforcement actually
is them deploying the trailer
that has the actual speed sign on it,
so people can see, you know, how fast they're going.
It's sometimes, in many cases,
it's just making folks aware
of how fast they are actually traveling.
And so we will continue to work with the police department
in that area.
So just wanted to give you an update on that.
We can talk to them about if there's
any other improvement measures
or any other concerns they've seen in that area.
So we'll continue that conversation
with the police department. -Thank you.
And there's also, I don't think that there's a sign,
like, that, you know, when you turn off,
you know, when you turn on to Hickory
at the beginning of Hickory right there,
it says what the speed limit is.
You know, I know that it's 30,
and then it changes to 20 and then back to 30,
but I could understand someone not knowing that,
so, you know, maybe, you know, a speed bump and a sign.
And, again, I might be wrong about sign not being there,
but I'm pretty sure that that's how it is.
And did staff get to look at the issue of the Avenue G?
-Yes, ma'am. That's the next one I was...
-Okay, good. Okay.
Item number seven actually came also from you,
Councilmember Armature, which was Avenue G.
And city staff conducted a site visit.
We found that all proper signage
is currently constructed in that area.
There are one-way signs, there are stop signs,
there are all of the proper signage in that area,
and we are going to work also with the police department
and notify them of concerns
and additional enforcement in that area.
Currently, the intersection,
the offset intersection of what you described last month,
it is currently working and operating as designed
with all of the proper signage.
Unfortunately, it's very difficult to have drivers
not do what you described,
which was go down the wrong way
and then travel onto Avenue G.
And I guess that would be further south.
But we did want to make sure from a signing perspective
that all of the proper signs were there,
so we did do that field investigation.
At this time, the best thing that we can do
is continue to work with our police department,
get to their attention, and allow them to work
through many enforcement measures
that can be made in that area.
- And thank you.
And it makes sense that the signage is fine
because I see the signage.
- Sure.
- I've seen the signage there, and it's still, I don't know.
Are people deliberately ignoring the signs
or is there something about, you know,
they're not seeing the signs, even though they're right,
it's right there in your face, it says one way.
But, you know, as per usual, you know,
I would love to know if there are any additional,
you know, forms of signage that could be used to,
you know, not just in this case, but in other,
and I forget the term you used,
but it was a good term, not disconnected,
but, you know, to describe that situation
where you've got a street that's broken up
and then another street where there's a one way.
I don't know how many areas there are like that around town.
And, you know, but I would imagine
that it might be a problem in those areas.
So it could be that more signage
than we would think would be required, might be needed,
you know, to maybe multiple signs going,
no, really, you know, really, it is one way.
You know, I don't know, a big X,
a picture of someone going in the street within,
I have no idea, but kind of like when you go,
I'm thinking of, you know, the roundabout on Bonnie Bray,
I know it's because it's under construction,
but when you're approaching it,
you know, as you're approaching it,
there are all these signs,
there's a roundabout, there's a roundabout,
there's a roundabout, you know,
and so there's no way you're going to miss
that there's something there.
You know, it's kind of in excess of signs,
but that has, I think, a good effect.
So anyway, just my two cents on that,
but thank you so much.
- No problem.
So I guess the last thing that I just wanted to do
was take an opportunity to see
if there were any additional agenda items
that either one of you had
that you wanted us to bring forward.
I think we addressed all of the concerns
that you brought forward last month,
so just wanted to take this opportunity
to see if there's anything additional.
We will continue to bring you updates
on the senior planner position
and anything else that we feel like
is important to bring your way,
but wanted to give you the opportunity
to let us know if there's anything else
you'd like for us to look into.
- If you keep addressing the items,
that's going to encourage us to bring you more.
- Well, I'm trying to be responsive to your request, sir.
- I appreciate that.
Councilmember Armitage?
- You know, one thing that would be neat,
and I don't know if it would be more complicated
than I'm imagining it would be,
would be for future mobility committee meetings
to have as a backup in this section of the meeting,
maybe a list of engaged Denton
and kind of council member-initiated traffic concerns,
mobility concerns that have come in between the time,
you know, between the previous mobility meeting
and this meeting for the past month or whenever.
You know, if that would be really complicated,
then that might not be worth the time.
And I'm not saying that we go over every single one
and that there'd be a presentation discussion on one,
but I would like to look, I would like to know
just kind of what those are and to just look for patterns
and, you know, I know that I do that with my own email,
emails that come to me,
and we get that nice report about,
you know, council member requests,
how many have to do with traffic, et cetera.
I wouldn't have to know the names of the people
and, you know, but just kind of, you know,
what intersections, you know, just a very brief little chart.
I don't know if Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer,
if you'd find that interesting or helpful.
I'm not 100% sure I get the vision,
if you could try again, between the meetings.
Yeah, just kind of, so a list of,
so Adam, the mobility committee meeting, right?
So we're meeting next, I guess next month, right?
So if, you know, next month or the month after that,
there could be a list attached to this part of the agenda
where we could just get a list of or a chart of,
these are all of the mobility-related concerns
that have come in through Engage Denton
or through council during this month.
Yeah, just to see, again, we already get a chart
of those, yeah, how many of the Engage...
Sorry, I didn't mean to talk about you.
Exactly, okay, so you get it, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, 'cause like it's a little disconnected, right?
There's kind of a running list of, you know,
kind of requests that council members raise
that go on the Friday report,
but it doesn't necessarily carry over
in some efficient way to this group, right?
So, I mean, probably if they occurred, they're there,
but it would be kind of helpful
to kind of carry over into this matrix.
Is that kind of the idea?
Yeah, yeah, and not even necessarily for discussion.
So, again...
But just do they all.
Yeah, and it'll help me, and this is something that,
you know, I know that our traffic engineering staff
already have a good idea of, you know, know very well
what the concerns are coming in,
both from council and Engage Denton, right?
'Cause it doesn't matter so much to me
where it comes from,
but looking at what are people's traffic concerns,
you know, mobility concerns this month,
I know that traffic engineering has a good idea of those.
I don't know how heavy a lift it is, honestly.
So, I mean, I appreciate your sensitivity
and the way you put the question of like,
is it going to be too complicated to be worth it?
So, I mean, I would support, you know,
letting Director DeVinney hear the request
and think about it and let us know what's practical,
you know, but I get it.
Sure, I'd be happy to look into that.
I do know that the council responses
are in the Friday report, obviously,
and then the Engage Denton.
There are quite a few Engage Denton that come through,
so we'll have to look at kind of the number of those
and what type of lift that would be for the team,
whether or not that's something that could be provided
in a table with just a summary of the item
and, you know, maybe even the council district it's in
or, you know, if it came from a resident
or if it came from a council member.
I also know, you know, we're working through
the update of the new 311 system,
so whatever, you know, measure that we might put into place,
I would want it to be something that could be succinct
and, you know, that we could streamline our process
to move into the new system, too.
So I'm happy to look into it and see what that might take
to, you know, provide additional information.
I know the one thing that goes through my mind
as you're asking the question is really,
is it more for awareness of kind of what--
are you wanting to be aware of what is going on
and kind of what are the questions that are being asked
simply from the standpoint of, you know, the Engage Denton?
I know you see all of the Friday Report items
because you get a copy of the document,
so I guess that's really my question.
I'm really trying to understand the why behind it
so that I can help facilitate that.
And that's a good question.
It's basically, you know, I want to know--
because I'm only knowing-- I only know what comes to council,
right, and so I want to know
what the biggest traffic concerns are
or mobility concerns are in the city
this month, you know, in terms of the number of people
who have, you know, complained or asked questions
because I know that what I hear is selective.
You know, it just happens to be the people who decide
that they're going to either write to all of council
or they're going to just write to me
or sometimes even tell me, you know,
see me somewhere on the street and say,
"Oh, by the way--"
So I want-- I would love to have that big picture
that I know that traffic engineering has
because I know that all of these things end up coming to them,
you know, no matter whether it comes--
would come from Engage Denton, 311, or from council.
So I would just love to know, you know, for instance,
you know, including, I mean, things that--
so you mentioned district, right,
it would be interesting to know if-- is it the case that,
you know, every month there are more issues in district four
or district one that come--
you know, that come forward through either--
any of these means than the other districts.
I just made that up arbitrarily.
Sure.
It would tell me things that I don't even really--
give me questions that I don't even know
what the questions are to ask or the patterns to look for.
It would just help me know more, have more of a bird's-eye view
about what's going on in the city
and so that I can know more of what traffic engineering knows
as far as where the problem areas are each month.
If I can, you know, pick back and comment before your response.
I mean, I see the value
and I think it kind of comes under good to know.
You don't know where it could lead.
And I've also spoken with a previous city manager
about the possibility of like a heat map
where instead of just a long list,
different people absorb information different ways.
So, you know, rather than a list,
for me, you know, at some point a map
where you can kind of see here's where the issues are.
You can kind of see where there are lots
and where there are little.
But the value of good to know is a little unknown,
but it's certainly like it's a better deal if it's easy to do.
You know, if it's like a lot of work and it's of mild interest.
I completely agree.
But it may be the case that it wouldn't be a lot of work
because if it's coming through 311 and before that,
if it's coming through Engage Denton,
like those things may all be tagged anyway.
To the extent that it's sort of automated,
the more automated it is, the more worth it is.
That would be my point of view.
It's like I don't know what the value is.
Yeah, it might be there.
Low cost would be good.
Yeah, I concur.
I won't be heartbroken, you know,
if it turns out it's too complicated.
I'm just genuinely curious.
And, you know, it also might be of interest and use to staff, too,
if people don't already have, you know, a list like that.
It might be helpful to staff.
The way I imagine it is that everybody in traffic engineering
has, you know, photographic memories
and just a really good mental picture of this.
But I don't know.
We have a pretty good idea of the questions and comments
that come through.
We're addressing them on a day-to-day basis.
So, you know, I would just say in general,
a lot of the Engage Denton requests that come through
are specifically related to a construction project.
Maybe there's something to do with signage
or something to do with standing water
or a concern about access.
And so those are things that if there's an issue that comes up,
we're directly taking care of almost the day of,
if not the next day.
So many of those requests that come through are that way.
I will also tell you quite a few other requests
that come through are specifically related to TechStat.
It's something that we as individuals can all do
to help our residents understand the difference
between the TechStat roadways and the City of Denton roadways
because many times we're passing along those messages to TechStat
and we coordinate with them monthly
on specific questions related to concerns that come up
that maybe are larger in nature in our collaborative effort
in order to address the concerns of the residents.
And then I'll also tell you many times residents also copy
their council members or the city manager's office
on their concern as it comes through.
And the majority of those make themselves back
to either the individual also copying
and including the council, but also many times
those make their way back into a Friday report.
So I think we can look at the different ways
that media is coming through
and see if there's a way to address what I would...
The reason why I brought those things up
and the reason why I wanted to make you aware
is because I don't know that it's a benefit to you
to understand that a cone is not in the right place
and the cone needs to be moved.
I mean, it sounds like to me the request...
No, not so much from the point of individual cases
because as you mentioned in a situation like that,
I mean, I just assume that these things are being taken care of.
Absolutely.
It's not so I can keep a list of what needs to be taken care of,
but so that, for instance, if we're having a discussion
about construction or contractors,
then I will know, or permits for construction,
then I will know that we do get a lot of complaints about,
even though they're easy to fix,
that there's not... Of missing cones.
And do we have something in there that's...
Or for instance, you mentioned standing water.
It's just kind of looking at patterns.
It's primarily what I'm interested in because in the minutia,
I know staff is taking care of it
and I'm not going to be following up on every which one,
but I want to be aware of the patterns because I know y'all are.
Sure. No, thank you. I appreciate that.
So let us look into that and see what we could possibly do
to address the question that's been asked
and see what type of additional staff time
that that might add
and kind of how we could work through maybe that process
to see if we could provide additional information.
Yeah, that would be great.
And maybe another way to look at it would be,
is there a way to kind of...
To do that, that would be also actually helpful for staff.
You know, that staff would actually like to have for themselves
a kind of sense of the patterns actually, you know...
I want to tee up, if I may, another sort of option
that you may like, Councilmember Arbiter,
that you sort of want to do the analysis yourself in a way,
you know, by seeing the raw data.
But as an alternative, if it turns out to be easier
and potentially more useful both for you and me and for staff,
what if at some period that's different than a month,
maybe it's month, maybe it's quarterly, whatever,
what if there's simply an analysis of,
here's requests by type and requests by area.
You know what I mean?
So it's already analyzed.
So you don't have to like be the analyst.
Oh, yeah, yeah, that would be excellent.
To me, it sounds like that would require more work.
But I don't know.
But that is something I would love to see.
You know, quarterly would be fine, too.
You know, wouldn't have to be monthly.
I'm just throwing this out there.
I hope it's not, you know, too stressful.
It's just an expression of kind of my looking for patterns
and always in my knowledge that I have a limited sense
of what the patterns are because I only see the requests
that come to me and the requests that are in the Friday report.
That's all.
Sure.
Have we given you enough to--
Absolutely.
--make everyone resign or no?
Oh, no, sir.
I'm here for the long haul.
So I'm happy to listen to those concerns and those ideas.
And I really like the quarterly update
and kind of request by type.
We are, you know, tracking the different things that come
through because ultimately a lot of those
become specific projects or they're
in coordination with the capital project.
They're a part of our work plan.
So, you know, I think it's just really listening to your ideas
and finding the best way that we feel like we can provide
the data and bring that back to you.
Where it's a useful document not only for yourselves
but also for ourselves.
So--
Yeah, I think that's--
--no problem.
--a super good goal.
Anything else, Councilmember Armitage?
You're good.
I have just a couple pretty narrow ones.
Why are there still barrels at the Bonnie Gray Roundabout?
I will have to look into that.
But my assumption is that it is specifically related
to the North-Southwater Main Phase 3 project in that area.
And I will look into that and get our inspectors also
to look into that.
And then we will address that concern.
OK, appreciate it.
And I'll just ask this as broadly as I can.
Any update on the Hinkle Roundabout?
Yes, sir.
The Hinkle Roundabout staff is working
through the process of speaking with the individual today.
And they're going to be having a conversation
with that resident.
I believe that's happening today.
It might have happened yesterday, today.
I don't know if we're talking about the same thing.
I'm talking about the roundabout itself,
like the enhancements we're talking about.
Sure.
Well, part of the enhancements are going to--
I'm sorry, say that one more time.
I just don't know what individual you're talking about.
Oh, sure.
The individual that is going to have the tree that's
going to have to be removed on our property.
So it was very important to us to make
that coordination with that resident.
Staff will be speaking with that resident.
We've been working through the next steps
for the project itself from signage, striping, and then
also the sidewalk.
So staff is coordinating that and working through that process.
And working to-- really, one of the biggest things
is the tree and working through that step
so that we can then begin additional construction.
So our team has been addressing those concerns.
We've been hoping to get that process completed fairly soon.
So in progress?
Yes, sir.
You think it's like many weeks out or--
I would have to double check with our staff.
But when we're committed to getting it completed,
the rain is not working in our favor
currently right now on construction projects.
I would say that it's probably going to be a couple of months.
And really, that depends on the actual drying of the area
just before we can be able to get some of that.
That's close enough to set my expectations.
Yeah.
And really specifically, the couple of months
is really related to the roundabout signage
and the additional markings in that area.
The actual sidewalk construction itself,
I will have to get back to you on a time frame specifically
for that because we're still working through the process
of removing the tree.
I don't need it that sort of granularly.
It's any second or it'll be a while.
It's in progress.
That much I knew.
All right.
Thank you very much.
That's all I have.
No problem.
All right.
If there's nothing else, that'll conclude item D.
I don't really know what number two concluding items
would be other than mine.
Those were concluding items.
I know.
I was kind of unsure at which point we would address this.
So I'm going to judge that there is nothing else
and we'll adjourn at 1129.
Thank you so much, everyone.