WEBVTT

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 Good morning, and welcome to this meeting of the Mobility Committee of the City of Denton.

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 We have a quorum present Council Member Byrd isn't able to join us this morning, but two

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 is a quorum.

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 I'm going to exercise a little discretion from the Chair before we get into items for

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 individual consideration.

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 I'll recognize members of the public who would, you know, come and would like to speak

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 to us.

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 I know Ms. Greco is here if you'll give your name and address.

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 I'll start the clock and we'll give you four minutes.

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 There you go.

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 Good morning, Eva Greco, 802 West Oak Street, Apartment 5 in Denton.

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 I feel like I haven't left since yesterday, since last night's pleasure is on mine Ms.

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 McGuire.

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 I have been talking about this GoZone and we were discussing it last night, Mr. Meltzer.

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 My issue is not specifically with temporary change, lack of a better term, it's how everything

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 was done.

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 I am on Citizen Advisory Committee for DCTA and at one particular meeting, Nicole Recker,

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 multiple things that she stated to me turned out to be false and just pushed and pushed,

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 did not listen to the citizens, the ones who use, the ones who make mass transportation,

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 the riders.

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 Nobody listened to us.

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 We were ignored.

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 We've had multiple issues, okay.

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 At the Jazz Festival, GoZone, complete failure.

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 They were not able to accommodate the people.

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 We had a council member or two that I spoke to, they attempted to use the GoZone at the

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 Jazz Festival.

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 Nope, nothing available.

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 We were told months before preparing for the Jazz Festival that GoZone, they were going

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 to make sure they had extra vehicles available.

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 They did not accommodate.

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 Two days, no, yesterday morning or two mornings ago on a social media group, there was an

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 individual who was in a wheelchair, had a doctor's appointment.

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 She went on to GoZone the day before to set up her appointment and she was told that they

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 don't have any wheelchair accessible vehicles.

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 Unfortunately, she had to scramble and she got a ride from a friend the next day.

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 These drivers, it's just how this whole thing was done.

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 The city of Denton gives millions of dollars to DCTA every year.

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 There is no tracking of that money.

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 Where is that money allocated?

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 I've been asking this for about four and a half years.

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 I've been coming to meetings.

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 I've been asking this question, to this day nobody has been able to answer me.

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 I just was hoping, because I had individuals coming to me, "Well, you're from New Jersey.

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 You know mass transportation.

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 Give us ideas, this and that and all."

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 I was just shunned, shunned.

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 It's not fair.

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 You can't take a vehicle that holds six individuals maximum, no social distancing by the way, and

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 you can't tell me that's better than a vehicle that will hold 75 people.

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 Your zones, another complaint from citizens is your zones for GoZone are small.

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 I cannot take, if I am at the bus station on Hickory, I cannot get a GoZone to take

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 me up to the loop.

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 That's a different zone.

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 At a May council meeting, Mr. Suarez stated, and it's not going to be verbatim, that in

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 at least 10 years that he's been with DCTA, he has seen no improvement to the bus service.

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 Well, that leads me and a lot of other people asking, "Well, what have you been doing with

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 the money?"

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 Thank you for your time.

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 Thank you for coming, and I hope you'll stay and hear the update.

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 We're not posted to respond, but I think people who are giving reports, touch on those subjects.

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 That may be helpful.

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 Are there any other members of the public who came and wish to speak to us?

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 Okay.

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 That's great.

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 Let's go ahead with our items for individual consideration.

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 A, consider approval of the minutes of October 20th.

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 I'll entertain a motion, I'm looking for any possible person who could-

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 I move approval of the minutes.

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 Okay.

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 I'll second.

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 All in favor?

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 Aye.

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 Aye.

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 Minutes of October 20th are approved.

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 Item B, receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the City of Denton transportation

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 slash mobility project status report.

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 That's not me, I promise.

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 You're welcome.

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 Maybe.

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 All right.

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 Good morning.

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 John Poulster, Innovative Transportation Solutions.

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 I'm never sure where to look, so if I'm looking down, it's out of disrespect.

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 It's out of visualness.

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 It has to be-

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 Safest choice.

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 Okay.

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 So we'll start with the first project, and I will say right now, overall, these projects

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 are all moving as they should, so there's not a lot of issues we need to talk about

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 as far as negative 2181, we're still on track for completing in August of next year.

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 They have done the traffic switch will be done right after Thanksgiving and before Christmas,

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 and that still works within the timeframe for the contractor to be able to finish the

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 project by August, including the sound wall that has to be relocated, so there's no problems

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 on this job.

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 The Mayhill 35 project, we continue to work with all the utilities in the corridor, and

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 if you'll look, there's quite a few that we're dealing with, but it looks like all the providers

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 are playing nice together, and we are working with the city staff, Becky and Rachel, they

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 stepped in and really have done a good job keeping that project on track for the letting

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 date, and we're still targeting the September 23 timeframe.

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 So everything on Mayhill is tracking as it should, and that's a $72 million job, and

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 I think I told you last time, I can't remember, but the reason the numbers aren't highlighted

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 anymore is because they actually lowered the construction cost to its actual and they matched

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 the category two funding, so it's fully funded, just waiting to get the right-of-way utilities

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 relocated.

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 Then your big job around the corner, the 35E merge, 35W, again, it's on track for that

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 same timeframe of 23, utilities are the critical path item, you'll see again that it's a full

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 page and a half of utilities, same here, Rachel and Becky stepped in and we're on track to

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 keep this project on its current let date, and I'm bringing up utilities because we're

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 in that phase of the project, the design's done, cleared, the right-of-way's acquired,

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 and so the utilities are the critical path item on this project.

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 And again, it is fully funded at the, just shy of $400 million up to 77.

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 Then the breakout job, we are still on track for January, I think it'll be substantial

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 in December, the traffic issues, we are moving to the next phase, probably the next two weeks,

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 which means that the exit ramp will be open and there will then be moving to construct

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 the entrance ramp just north, or just south of 380, north on this project, so everything

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 is progressing well, except for the traffic on the main lanes.

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 And then your $763 million job north of 77 all the way up to the county line, it is progressing

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 for a late 23 let date, again, utilities are a critical path, and we seem to be in a pretty

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 good position on this project, it'll be led as three projects again because of the dollar

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 amount, not because of the, that they need to do it in three projects, they need to keep

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 the contracts below a certain number.

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 Is that a statutory requirement?

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 No, sort of, because if you get above a certain dollar amount, then you have to do a design

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 bill alternative, and TechSoc doesn't want to do a design bill on this, so they have

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 to keep it below a certain dollar amount, and then they can do, it's what's called

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 design bid build, which is a standard contract letting.

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 And you get more contractors bidding on a design bid build than you do on a design build.

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 Design builds are for mega projects that, like when we did 35, AGL stood for Archer

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 Western granite and lane construction, so those are three big companies that came together.

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 I want to make sure I'm tracking, the thing they don't want is to not have the bid stage,

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 they want bidders.

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 They want bidders, exactly, because it attracts more bids.

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 So your main lanes on 35W, we are continuing, we had to resubmit the environmental through

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 the tip cycle, which was October 23 was the deadline, February is when it will be approved.

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 After the tip is revised, then the project will be environmentally cleared, but we've

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 already cleared the frontage roads back in June of 2020, which is the same footprint,

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 and we are being told that we'll have HNTB sometime in November, but they told me in

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 October it would be sometime in October.

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 So we'll see, I'm not sure what the holdup is on that, but they are focusing HNTB's efforts

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 on 407 North to the city of Denton.

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 Now this could change, their contract, they've been selected for the entire corridor with

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 the infrastructure bill, and what we think we're going to hear in December where Houston

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 doesn't make their deadline for the Grand Parkway, that some of that money will come

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 back and then the commission will reprioritize that money to other projects.

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 We think that 35W is pretty high on the list of projects that are eligible.

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 So we might end up expanding in the scope.

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 Okay, so this is the project from Luke 288 out to 377.

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 It continues to move rather well.

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 The speed limit will be enforced, I guess starting seven days ago, six days ago throughout

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 the corridor, and we are progressing on that project, and we are still on track for the

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 December 23 completion date.

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 The east section, we've had a kickoff meeting last week, and then yesterday we met with

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 some of the "keep it, make 380 safe" folks, and we are anticipating this project starting

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 first or second week of January for construction-wise, and again, it's really related to co-serve.

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 So we just got co-served clear, and the reason that's important, now that's co-served gas,

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 electric.

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 We are anticipating them to be done sometime in November, and the reason that's important

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 is because Grande and Suddenlink and several other entities hang on those poles, and they

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 can't move until co-serve gets their lines done.

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 So that's our critical path for this project, but we think we're going to make it, and it'll

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 begin construction sometime in January, and it's a 36-month contract.

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 Okay, so there is a feasibility study completion meeting that will be held December 2nd.

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 This is basically to come in and tell the communities along that corridor what the feasibility

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 study has found, and essentially what it has found is that the most feasible alternative

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 for 380 is a controlled access facility along its existing alignment.

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 And we have buy-in from the county standpoint.

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 We have buy-in from all the communities along 380.

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 The two most impacted are Crossroads and Little Elm, but we're coordinating with them on how

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 we can make that impact less.

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 The Commissioner's Court on Tuesday, I think it was Tuesday, in the past, this month, put

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 a contract, an RFQ on the street for doing the environmental clearance for the Luke 288

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 Brown section as a controlled access facility like it shows up in both the city and the

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 county's thoroughfare plans to add frontage roads.

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 So and then we had a meeting yesterday, that was yesterday, right, yesterday with Tech

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 Stock, the big man himself, the district engineer, Travis, and then Becky and Scott McDonald

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 were there.

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 And we think we've got an interim workaround for the developments that are, you know, have

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 rights there, but we're controlling their access to 288.

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 So we think we've got a solution.

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 We're going to be meeting with Scott and Becky and company and just kind of see what we can

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 do to work it out, but it holds to that philosophy of building frontage roads, either temporarily

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 or permanently, in this section of roadways so that they're not directly accessing the

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 main lanes, 60 miles an hour.

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 In 28 West, we had a kickoff meeting on this project in October and Chank Patel is, Jay

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 Bog is the Tech Stock manager and Jacob Roberts is the PSNE program manager for CPY.

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 And we are just getting started on that, but the coordination is primarily between Chank

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 Patel and the city because this is fully within the city and impacts a lot of the developments

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 going on in the city to the west of 35.

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 1515, again, same thing.

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 We had to do a little bit of work on this one.

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 You'll see that we had a couple of changes to the schematic that required us to do a

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 re-eval.

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 We've got the re-eval done and we are now progressing forward with the PSNE.

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 You'll note that it's about $36 million and we had 500,000.

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 So between now and October of 2024, we got to find a way to come up with $36 million,

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 not insurmountable.

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 1173, again, $47 million job.

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 This was also put on the street for design and it's already environmentally cleared.

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 So we should have somebody on contract probably January, maybe end of December to do the design.

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 And our intent is get the project ready so that when 35 goes under the knife, like this

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 section is 400 million, the section just north of it is almost 800 million.

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 And we're thinking that we can find a way to jam a little $47 million job into that

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 nearly billion dollar project, well, it's over a billion, at the same time, because

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 this section of road is needed, because we're already building the interchange at Barthold

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 and the realignment to 35 job.

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 Yeah, so we are still, text I still analyze in the course and we are scheduling a meeting

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 and we'll get back with city staff to come up with a plan and we're close on it.

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 I don't know if Becky wants to add anything to it, but I think we're close on getting

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 at least a project that we can bring back to everybody to say, here's what we plan on

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 doing.

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 What say you and the intent is to do it in such a manner so that text I can use their

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 maintenance funds as opposed to the actual straight out contract, because that would

00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:07.680
 take time.

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 Maintenance is a quicker route to do it.

00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:18.600
 Well, I think I'm done with questions, you are quiet today.

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 I noticed in my peripheral vision, Councilmember McGuire, previously writing notes.

00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:25.480
 Do you have questions?

00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:32.000
 No, I just am a note taker.

00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:33.000
 Thank you so much.

00:20:33.000 --> 00:20:34.000
 That's good.

00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:36.960
 I like it when there's no questions.

00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:37.960
 Great.

00:20:37.960 --> 00:20:38.960
 All right.

00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:39.960
 Thank you, John.

00:20:39.960 --> 00:20:40.960
 Okay.

00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:41.960
 Moving on.

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 Item B, receiver report and hold the discussion regarding the city of Denton, regarding updates

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 on the Denton County.

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 Item C, let's do C.

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 Receiver report and hold the discussion regarding updates from the Denton County Transportation

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 Authority.

00:20:56.760 --> 00:20:57.760
 Morning, Ray.

00:20:57.760 --> 00:20:58.760
 Good morning.

00:20:58.760 --> 00:21:08.240
 Good morning, Chair and members of the committee.

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 Let me find, I believe this is it.

00:21:16.160 --> 00:21:21.600
 And do I need to share the screen or is it already being shared?

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 You want to help me out here?

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 Make sure that...

00:21:24.040 --> 00:21:25.040
 It's just going to be...

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 Is that where you are?

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 Right there.

00:21:27.040 --> 00:21:28.040
 Yes.

00:21:28.040 --> 00:21:29.040
 And then just choose the one you're...

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 Is that one there?

00:21:30.040 --> 00:21:31.040
 There you go.

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 Just pick that one.

00:21:32.040 --> 00:21:33.040
 Sure.

00:21:33.040 --> 00:21:57.920
 And... okay, how are we doing for some reason?

00:21:57.920 --> 00:21:58.920
 There we go.

00:21:58.920 --> 00:21:59.920
 All right.

00:21:59.920 --> 00:22:00.920
 Hopefully, that's sharing.

00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:04.840
 Well, good morning.

00:22:04.840 --> 00:22:06.600
 Welcome.

00:22:06.600 --> 00:22:12.840
 I'm here to provide an update on GoZone and fixed route service.

00:22:12.840 --> 00:22:19.320
 Since the launch on September 7th of GoZone, we continue to see significant increases in

00:22:19.320 --> 00:22:21.320
 ridership on the GoZone.

00:22:21.320 --> 00:22:27.520
 The highest ridership day is nearing 1,500 completed rides on a day.

00:22:27.520 --> 00:22:33.080
 We've seen a significant increase in the number of unique riders, which is good.

00:22:33.080 --> 00:22:38.800
 Overall, there's a rating function in the app after somebody takes a ride.

00:22:38.800 --> 00:22:41.640
 It prompts them, "How was your experience?"

00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:44.240
 Overall, it's trending very positively.

00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:51.240
 We certainly always have concerns by citizens with particular rides, but overall, 4.7 out

00:22:51.240 --> 00:22:54.200
 of 5 is a very good rating.

00:22:54.200 --> 00:22:58.120
 The average duration on wait times is 12.6 minutes.

00:22:58.120 --> 00:23:03.920
 Now, I've tried to use the service myself at times, and it can be longer than that,

00:23:03.920 --> 00:23:06.320
 but that's the average wait time.

00:23:06.320 --> 00:23:10.320
 And the average distance that's being covered by the trips is 3.9 miles.

00:23:10.320 --> 00:23:11.320
 I'm sorry.

00:23:11.320 --> 00:23:18.880
 The 12 point -- don't mind going back -- the 12.6 minutes is the wait time, it's not the

00:23:18.880 --> 00:23:19.880
 ride duration?

00:23:19.880 --> 00:23:25.240
 Ride duration, so that's how long the average --

00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:26.240
 That's the ride, but --

00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:27.240
 The ride.

00:23:27.240 --> 00:23:28.240
 Yes.

00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:29.240
 I'm sorry.

00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:30.240
 If I said average wait time.

00:23:30.240 --> 00:23:31.240
 What's the wait?

00:23:31.240 --> 00:23:32.440
 Do you have that as well?

00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:39.480
 So we've been trending under 15 minutes, around 14, 14 and a half.

00:23:39.480 --> 00:23:42.880
 The application, the way it's worked, is purely on demand.

00:23:42.880 --> 00:23:48.840
 We have a zone that covers Highland Village and Lewisville, and a zone that covers Denton,

00:23:48.840 --> 00:23:53.120
 and the vehicles, the way it was originally set up, would move to wherever the priority

00:23:53.120 --> 00:23:54.120
 is.

00:23:54.120 --> 00:23:59.160
 So there's been some shifting going along with the number of vehicles in each zone.

00:23:59.160 --> 00:24:04.720
 We're going to continue to try to smooth that out over time, but that's just a process that

00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:06.200
 we have to go through.

00:24:06.200 --> 00:24:11.600
 But it does seem to be hitting around the 15-minute average wait time, which was expected

00:24:11.600 --> 00:24:12.600
 in the contract.

00:24:12.600 --> 00:24:13.600
 Okay?

00:24:13.600 --> 00:24:16.600
 I shall also ask you -- I mean, I need to ask that for clarification.

00:24:16.600 --> 00:24:17.600
 Sure, sure.

00:24:17.600 --> 00:24:20.080
 Harold, do you want us to hold our questions until you get all the way through?

00:24:20.080 --> 00:24:21.080
 No, please.

00:24:21.080 --> 00:24:22.080
 Yeah.

00:24:22.080 --> 00:24:23.080
 Okay.

00:24:23.080 --> 00:24:24.080
 However you want to do it.

00:24:24.080 --> 00:24:25.080
 Yeah.

00:24:25.080 --> 00:24:29.960
 So I -- obviously, I've seen -- I saw all of this on Monday, but a question came up for

00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:40.920
 me since Monday that's only tangentially related to this, but where is VIA's, like, base of

00:24:40.920 --> 00:24:43.720
 operations for the GoZone program?

00:24:43.720 --> 00:24:49.020
 Like, where are -- for example, where are the GoZone vehicles stored and maintained?

00:24:49.020 --> 00:24:54.280
 So at the end of shift, in the Denton zone, they're at Med Park.

00:24:54.280 --> 00:24:55.280
 Okay.

00:24:55.280 --> 00:25:02.400
 And what happens once the operators get to their vehicle and they unlock the vehicle,

00:25:02.400 --> 00:25:11.160
 they're dispersed to -- based on the system's knowledge or the data, it will disperse them

00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:17.040
 into areas throughout the zone, so they're not all just sitting at the hub waiting.

00:25:17.040 --> 00:25:18.040
 Okay.

00:25:18.040 --> 00:25:20.960
 So first thing in the morning, they get there, they turn the vehicle on, and they'll drive

00:25:20.960 --> 00:25:28.240
 out to locations around where they typically see active rides happening in the mornings,

00:25:28.240 --> 00:25:35.920
 and then as the rides start coming in, the system will automatically start combining

00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:42.040
 the trips that are going within reason to a similar area so that you're getting the

00:25:42.040 --> 00:25:44.320
 effect of shared ride service.

00:25:44.320 --> 00:25:45.320
 Okay.

00:25:45.320 --> 00:25:46.320
 All right.

00:25:46.320 --> 00:25:47.320
 Thank you.

00:25:47.320 --> 00:25:48.320
 You're welcome.

00:25:48.320 --> 00:25:49.320
 Other questions?

00:25:49.320 --> 00:25:50.320
 Not at this time?

00:25:50.320 --> 00:25:51.320
 Oh.

00:25:51.320 --> 00:25:52.320
 Okay.

00:25:52.320 --> 00:25:55.320
 I can always go back on the slides.

00:25:55.320 --> 00:25:58.560
 That's just a quick update on what's happening with GoZone.

00:25:58.560 --> 00:26:02.880
 Again, we're in our second month and going into our third.

00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:06.200
 We're still very, very early, so there's things that we need to work out.

00:26:06.200 --> 00:26:12.120
 I think VIA has been very responsive in addressing issues, but there's still some, and we'll

00:26:12.120 --> 00:26:14.840
 work through them.

00:26:14.840 --> 00:26:19.800
 Really focusing on fixed route, because we have the December 2nd date coming up, which

00:26:19.800 --> 00:26:24.020
 is an important board date for DCTA.

00:26:24.020 --> 00:26:30.160
 Just to ground the conversation before we get into this, the way the vote was cast in

00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:37.160
 July, the July board meeting, the board agreed and motioned, and it was approved.

00:26:37.160 --> 00:26:43.400
 That budget would be approved through December 6th, and the intent was that service would

00:26:43.400 --> 00:26:50.080
 end subject to any data that would suggest that we would need to continue service on

00:26:50.080 --> 00:26:51.080
 fixed route.

00:26:51.080 --> 00:26:58.040
 Then it would take a motion by a board member and a second and, of course, approval of the

00:26:58.040 --> 00:27:00.140
 board to continue service.

00:27:00.140 --> 00:27:08.600
 As it states right now, or as it sits right now, is the service is budgeted through December

00:27:08.600 --> 00:27:11.360
 6th, December 2nd.

00:27:11.360 --> 00:27:15.880
 We're going to walk the board through quite a bit of analysis.

00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:22.760
 The board gave direction to DCTA staff that they wanted staff to work with.

00:27:22.760 --> 00:27:28.000
 The experts, in this case, that would be Accenture and VIA themselves, and so we've been through

00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:33.620
 a lot of collaboration and discussions about fixed route, what recommendations we would

00:27:33.620 --> 00:27:41.720
 make to make it more effective, as you've heard a lot about the ten passengers per hour.

00:27:41.720 --> 00:27:47.520
 There's certainly portions of the day where we're hitting ten passengers per hour, but

00:27:47.520 --> 00:27:52.680
 the intent and the direction that was given by the board was to come back and make recommendations

00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:57.240
 based on what we've heard from board members, from certainly what we're hearing from the

00:27:57.240 --> 00:28:04.000
 City of Denton about wanting to retain fixed routes, so we'll be making some recommendations.

00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:08.880
 Likely we'll receive a report from Accenture and VIA themselves about what they think with

00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:11.080
 respect to service.

00:28:11.080 --> 00:28:21.560
 I think the general direction has been that there's certainly, the data does support keeping

00:28:21.560 --> 00:28:26.360
 fixed route, but there's going to be some discussion about what that looks like.

00:28:26.360 --> 00:28:32.600
 It may not be exactly the same level of service, and I think everyone has suggested that that's

00:28:32.600 --> 00:28:35.680
 a reasonable approach.

00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:41.040
 I have not had an opportunity to present this nor have the experts to the board, but there'll

00:28:41.040 --> 00:28:46.480
 be a very good, healthy discussion about the data and the dynamics.

00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:50.440
 What I want to walk you through today is this data that you're seeing is data.

00:28:50.440 --> 00:28:53.080
 It's from September.

00:28:53.080 --> 00:28:57.840
 The reason for that is it takes a while to gather all the data and parse it out and present

00:28:57.840 --> 00:29:03.080
 it to the board, so the board, to give you the latest information the board hasn't seen,

00:29:03.080 --> 00:29:06.960
 we don't feel like that's appropriate this time, so we will bring the information once

00:29:06.960 --> 00:29:07.960
 the board has seen it.

00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:09.780
 We'll certainly share it with you.

00:29:09.780 --> 00:29:13.920
 What you will see is September data, but it's still relevant as to how the board is going

00:29:13.920 --> 00:29:17.900
 to go through some decision-making processes, and it'll give you an idea of how the data

00:29:17.900 --> 00:29:20.840
 actually looks.

00:29:20.840 --> 00:29:27.520
 These are the primary objectives or the framework that's going to be used for the board with

00:29:27.520 --> 00:29:30.320
 regard to decision-making.

00:29:30.320 --> 00:29:32.280
 We've all heard about the 10 passengers per hour.

00:29:32.280 --> 00:29:41.520
 We want to make sure that we're also looking at relevant measures of performance, and we

00:29:41.520 --> 00:29:49.440
 should be looking at density, productivity, equity, and stability for alternative solutions,

00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:54.840
 as well as looking at things like what's the seat availability, both on fixed route and

00:29:54.840 --> 00:30:01.080
 on demand, what's the on-time performance, what level of trip cancellations we're having

00:30:01.080 --> 00:30:02.480
 on GoZone.

00:30:02.480 --> 00:30:07.960
 I will say that the way GoZone has been deployed and some of the feedback that we received

00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:18.320
 and the data that we've looked at as staff is a 75-cent ride for a three-mile trip is

00:30:18.320 --> 00:30:21.920
 the same price that you pay to go completely across town.

00:30:21.920 --> 00:30:26.480
 The longer the trip, you would think you'd have an opportunity to aggregate more people,

00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:29.600
 and it would be more efficient because you can pick them up and drop them off, but it's

00:30:29.600 --> 00:30:31.760
 actually the inverse.

00:30:31.760 --> 00:30:38.760
 When you occupy a vehicle for 30, 40 minutes on a long trip, it makes it less efficient

00:30:38.760 --> 00:30:45.640
 and therefore would argue that we should have more smaller zones as opposed to one very,

00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:46.640
 very large zone.

00:30:46.640 --> 00:30:51.440
 But these are the types of things that we're going to be looking at, not only for via but

00:30:51.440 --> 00:30:58.320
 for fixed route, and then coming back to the board with some of these productivity measures.

00:30:58.320 --> 00:31:00.760
 And so while you look at average --

00:31:00.760 --> 00:31:06.000
 If I may ask you a couple of questions.

00:31:06.000 --> 00:31:07.000
 Yes, sure.

00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:11.760
 About the idea to be discussed about smaller zones, is the idea that you would only be

00:31:11.760 --> 00:31:13.840
 able to ride within a smaller zone?

00:31:13.840 --> 00:31:16.760
 No, and actually, let me retract on that, if I may.

00:31:16.760 --> 00:31:22.680
 I don't know that -- I'm not sure what the data is going to present.

00:31:22.680 --> 00:31:25.120
 The consultants have not come back with that.

00:31:25.120 --> 00:31:28.560
 I don't know that it'll be a shorter -- a smaller zone.

00:31:28.560 --> 00:31:33.800
 I believe that there's an option that the zone will stay the same.

00:31:33.800 --> 00:31:46.080
 But how people travel -- there's a series of variables that will help shape travel decisions.

00:31:46.080 --> 00:31:49.000
 Pricing as an example is one concept.

00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:52.200
 Right now, we charge 75 cents for a trip on via.

00:31:52.200 --> 00:31:54.040
 That's promotional pricing.

00:31:54.040 --> 00:31:57.040
 That wasn't the long-term intent of the board.

00:31:57.040 --> 00:32:00.940
 It was to get people to start using the system.

00:32:00.940 --> 00:32:04.160
 One seat ride on bus is $1.50.

00:32:04.160 --> 00:32:12.680
 So there's been discussions about -- well, I believe even from council meetings in Denton,

00:32:12.680 --> 00:32:21.720
 there's been the request of, why don't we make fixed route free, as an example.

00:32:21.720 --> 00:32:26.640
 So if you start thinking about, well, how does pricing change people's choices?

00:32:26.640 --> 00:32:32.920
 If you still allow that long trip, as an example -- and it's not 75 cents, but the further

00:32:32.920 --> 00:32:35.840
 you go, the more time you're occupying.

00:32:35.840 --> 00:32:40.800
 Should that person pay a higher rate for the distance traveled?

00:32:40.800 --> 00:32:47.520
 Or could they alternatively use fixed route if it were priced less expensively or free?

00:32:47.520 --> 00:32:51.720
 Those are all things that should be considered when you're looking at how do you build an

00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:56.320
 effective and efficient multimodal system.

00:32:56.320 --> 00:33:01.040
 So that's one variable.

00:33:01.040 --> 00:33:05.600
 There's certainly a lot of flexibility in how you shape and design a system.

00:33:05.600 --> 00:33:10.980
 One way would be to -- and you've probably heard a lot of first and last mile, so a lot

00:33:10.980 --> 00:33:15.400
 of on-demand is what they call first, last mile, connections to hubs, connections to

00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:20.960
 a rail station, connections to a Fouts Field hub, as an example.

00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:26.600
 And you can set up a physical constraint that says we have a zone around that within, let's

00:33:26.600 --> 00:33:30.400
 say, two or three miles, and everything feeds into that, and you feed into a fixed route

00:33:30.400 --> 00:33:31.400
 system.

00:33:31.400 --> 00:33:32.400
 That is one solution.

00:33:32.400 --> 00:33:38.880
 Another solution is you use pricing and distance to determine -- just like taxicabs and Uber

00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:42.280
 and Lyft -- the further you go, the more it costs you.

00:33:42.280 --> 00:33:45.800
 So those are all things I believe that the consultants are going to be looking at to

00:33:45.800 --> 00:33:51.960
 make recommendations on how we leverage both fixed route and on-demand GoZone, and it will

00:33:51.960 --> 00:33:53.240
 be presented to the board.

00:33:53.240 --> 00:33:58.480
 I thought you might have been heading -- but I totally take in what you're saying, that

00:33:58.480 --> 00:34:03.000
 many ways of looking at it are going to be evaluated, but when you talk about smaller

00:34:03.000 --> 00:34:09.760
 zones, I thought that led is you might have a two-zone ride, but not that -- I think there's

00:34:09.760 --> 00:34:15.720
 a concern that I've heard that with smaller zones, you can't get there, but I think it's

00:34:15.720 --> 00:34:20.560
 really just how do you structure the pricing to make it equitable?

00:34:20.560 --> 00:34:21.560
 Correct.

00:34:21.560 --> 00:34:25.280
 And that's where the expertise of VIA and other on-demand companies that we've worked

00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:30.240
 with have other ways to allow -- to still allow that trip.

00:34:30.240 --> 00:34:34.280
 If you're insistent you need to have it, and you're willing to pay more for it, then go

00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:39.840
 ahead, but there's also alternative modes of transportation.

00:34:39.840 --> 00:34:44.880
 So if a vehicle is not available, there's nothing to say you can't call Uber or Lyft

00:34:44.880 --> 00:34:50.600
 to take a trip with them as well, and so if you go to any major city or where there's

00:34:50.600 --> 00:34:58.520
 a major event happening, you walk out, there's usually fixed route, there's taxi cabs, there's

00:34:58.520 --> 00:35:03.920
 all different modes of transportation, it's a healthy way for a rider to be able to make

00:35:03.920 --> 00:35:09.880
 a choice of how -- is money more important to me, savings, or do I need to make that

00:35:09.880 --> 00:35:14.560
 trip immediately, and if so, I have multiple options on how to get around a city, and I

00:35:14.560 --> 00:35:18.360
 think all of those things go into healthy planning.

00:35:18.360 --> 00:35:21.640
 Lots to debate and discuss.

00:35:21.640 --> 00:35:25.520
 There's a lot to unpack when you start talking about service planning, and that was not my

00:35:25.520 --> 00:35:26.520
 intent today.

00:35:26.520 --> 00:35:27.520
 Sure, sure.

00:35:27.520 --> 00:35:28.520
 Yeah.

00:35:28.520 --> 00:35:29.520
 I did have just one other question.

00:35:29.520 --> 00:35:35.160
 You've already sort of expressed your decision on this point, but I just say I kind of couldn't

00:35:35.160 --> 00:35:40.440
 quite let it go that you were saying -- well, let me just ask a part of the question.

00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:47.880
 Would it be your intent to be able to take some feedback to your update from us and as

00:35:47.880 --> 00:35:52.360
 potentially to share with the Board of Laws, we've got a board representative here, too,

00:35:52.360 --> 00:35:57.120
 but just the reason I ask that is you said you didn't think it would be appropriate to

00:35:57.120 --> 00:36:02.440
 share information here that it wasn't shared with the board yet, but if your intent is

00:36:02.440 --> 00:36:08.800
 to have, you know, comment, filter up, then why would you do that, right?

00:36:08.800 --> 00:36:15.520
 Because once it goes to the board and it's acted on, then, you know, where's the opportunity

00:36:15.520 --> 00:36:18.840
 to potentially, you know --

00:36:18.840 --> 00:36:21.360
 Well, I don't have the data to share at this point.

00:36:21.360 --> 00:36:25.800
 Oh, well, that's a different matter.

00:36:25.800 --> 00:36:26.800
 Okay.

00:36:26.800 --> 00:36:30.840
 The consultants -- I'm sorry if I was unclear, but the consultants are still parsing through

00:36:30.840 --> 00:36:36.080
 the data, and they will be coming back with recommendations, but it's just not available

00:36:36.080 --> 00:36:37.080
 at this time.

00:36:37.080 --> 00:36:41.120
 What we're showing you is data, but it will give you a sense for where we're going.

00:36:41.120 --> 00:36:42.120
 What the issues are, anyway.

00:36:42.120 --> 00:36:43.120
 Yeah, okay.

00:36:43.120 --> 00:36:48.600
 And again, I would caution any decision-making to be made because we're talking about a month's

00:36:48.600 --> 00:36:52.960
 worth of data, and we're very, very early on the service.

00:36:52.960 --> 00:36:55.120
 Any questions about this before we move on?

00:36:55.120 --> 00:36:57.440
 I'm ready to let you get back on track.

00:36:57.440 --> 00:36:58.440
 Let's see.

00:36:58.440 --> 00:36:59.440
 Okay.

00:36:59.440 --> 00:37:03.880
 So I'm going to rifle through some metrics and trends just so that you can kind of see.

00:37:03.880 --> 00:37:10.680
 Again, this data in yellow were the GoZone trips in September.

00:37:10.680 --> 00:37:16.680
 If you were to see the October/November data -- and bear in mind, we have to provide the

00:37:16.680 --> 00:37:22.400
 presentation earlier, about a week and a half, I think, before this meeting.

00:37:22.400 --> 00:37:28.440
 So information that I'm sharing with board even in a weekly report may not be readily

00:37:28.440 --> 00:37:32.600
 available for this meeting because we have to submit it beforehand.

00:37:32.600 --> 00:37:37.280
 But I will say that the October data actually almost shows an inverse where you'll see the

00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:41.720
 yellow outpace in the number of rides that we have on fixed route.

00:37:41.720 --> 00:37:45.560
 Now, as I've mentioned before, with fixed route, we've had on-time performance issues.

00:37:45.560 --> 00:37:46.680
 We've had lack of labor.

00:37:46.680 --> 00:37:51.160
 We've had a lot of things that we can shape differently as we move forward.

00:37:51.160 --> 00:37:53.160
 But this is an idea.

00:37:53.160 --> 00:38:02.240
 This is total by-day GoZone, and you can see by the day of the week how the travel patterns

00:38:02.240 --> 00:38:06.400
 and demands change ridership by route.

00:38:06.400 --> 00:38:14.800
 So we have information here for Route 1 and all the other routes, 1 through 7, and then

00:38:14.800 --> 00:38:17.720
 by the day of the week and by time of day.

00:38:17.720 --> 00:38:22.040
 Time of day is important because there are portions of the day on almost every route,

00:38:22.040 --> 00:38:29.600
 for the exception of Route 1, where we actually see that 10 passengers per hour being achieved.

00:38:29.600 --> 00:38:30.900
 But it's not the whole day.

00:38:30.900 --> 00:38:32.080
 It's through a portion of the day.

00:38:32.080 --> 00:38:38.120
 So that starts providing some insight to how we might shape fixed route and how fixed route

00:38:38.120 --> 00:38:40.640
 and GoZone might work together.

00:38:40.640 --> 00:38:45.240
 This is an interesting way to look at the trip patterns and travel patterns.

00:38:45.240 --> 00:38:52.200
 So every little dot or heat map on this slide is a pickup, if you will, from GoZone in the

00:38:52.200 --> 00:38:53.840
 month of September.

00:38:53.840 --> 00:38:57.920
 If we were to aggregate September, October, and the first week of November, you'd probably

00:38:57.920 --> 00:39:04.760
 see very similar patterns, just the map would just start getting hotter and hotter and you

00:39:04.760 --> 00:39:08.680
 wouldn't see specific dots, you'd just see a big red heat map.

00:39:08.680 --> 00:39:11.120
 Overlaid on that is a specific route.

00:39:11.120 --> 00:39:19.480
 So you can see of all the dots that were trips on GoZone, how many of those are actually

00:39:19.480 --> 00:39:21.520
 on the alignment of the fixed route.

00:39:21.520 --> 00:39:25.020
 So some of them are, but the majority of them aren't.

00:39:25.020 --> 00:39:28.860
 So this starts to indicate that, well, wait a minute, some of these trips are new trips.

00:39:28.860 --> 00:39:33.240
 They're not necessarily cannibalizing fixed route.

00:39:33.240 --> 00:39:37.920
 So it starts to inform, and then if you look at the length, and I will say by and large,

00:39:37.920 --> 00:39:42.960
 most of our fixed routes are very long, and when you have a long route, it means that

00:39:42.960 --> 00:39:46.440
 you're on a vehicle sometimes for a very long time.

00:39:46.440 --> 00:39:51.320
 So one of the things that we would naturally want to do is to improve the frequency, to

00:39:51.320 --> 00:39:56.080
 address labor shortages, is we'd probably want to see, well, now that we have GoZone,

00:39:56.080 --> 00:40:02.160
 it can complement, how do we take these very long legs, shorten those up, allow GoZone

00:40:02.160 --> 00:40:07.400
 to feed a fixed route service so that we can then increase the frequency of the fixed route

00:40:07.400 --> 00:40:12.360
 service and have our labor force that we currently have not affected because they're still operating

00:40:12.360 --> 00:40:13.360
 some fixed routes.

00:40:13.360 --> 00:40:18.560
 So you can kind of see how we're thinking about life before and after.

00:40:18.560 --> 00:40:22.640
 And I'm going to rifle through some of these fairly quickly.

00:40:22.640 --> 00:40:28.640
 Not spend so much time on the right-hand side because, again, those metrics aren't as relevant

00:40:28.640 --> 00:40:34.240
 the first few months as they will be in the future, but the travel patterns and where

00:40:34.240 --> 00:40:39.280
 you're seeing the pickup and drop-offs tend to be fairly consistent.

00:40:39.280 --> 00:40:41.360
 This is route three.

00:40:41.360 --> 00:40:49.440
 You can see out this far leg, it's not heavily traveled with fixed route, but we also don't

00:40:49.440 --> 00:40:54.840
 see that many trips, at least in the first month or so, coming from that area.

00:40:54.840 --> 00:41:02.320
 So this would argue that maybe truncating the route more closely into the center might

00:41:02.320 --> 00:41:03.320
 make some sense.

00:41:03.320 --> 00:41:07.320
 And that's, I think, the process that the consultants are going through and then looking

00:41:07.320 --> 00:41:11.700
 at, well, are there other places that the route might need to maneuver through to get

00:41:11.700 --> 00:41:14.560
 better performance?

00:41:14.560 --> 00:41:20.440
 And again, route four is a very, very long route.

00:41:20.440 --> 00:41:26.800
 Probably needs, if we're going to, if the board's desire is to retain routes, this probably

00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:29.480
 would need to be broken into a couple of pieces.

00:41:29.480 --> 00:41:31.880
 Along the top is University Drive.

00:41:31.880 --> 00:41:34.840
 What's interesting about this, I'll just spend a little bit of time, if you just look at

00:41:34.840 --> 00:41:38.800
 the heat map, this is UNT in here.

00:41:38.800 --> 00:41:45.640
 So you can see a lot of likely students are using GoZone price at 75 cents to take a lot

00:41:45.640 --> 00:41:49.560
 of trips that aren't necessarily along the route.

00:41:49.560 --> 00:41:54.240
 You can see there's certain portions of the route that are not heavily traveled.

00:41:54.240 --> 00:42:01.200
 It might be because there's another form of travel, the density might not be there.

00:42:01.200 --> 00:42:05.680
 But along, certainly along University, you can see that there is some competition going

00:42:05.680 --> 00:42:07.960
 on between GoZone and FixRoute.

00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:13.120
 And so those are things that you would naturally look at and say, well, why do we have two

00:42:13.120 --> 00:42:14.920
 modes of service competing against each other?

00:42:14.920 --> 00:42:18.560
 Is there a better way to entice people to use one versus the other?

00:42:18.560 --> 00:42:26.480
 And so that's where things like, do we present, and I'm not saying that this is the plan,

00:42:26.480 --> 00:42:27.760
 but do we want to present--

00:42:27.760 --> 00:42:28.760
 Just for illustration.

00:42:28.760 --> 00:42:34.760
 Just for illustrative purposes, do we present multiple options, or do we present the option

00:42:34.760 --> 00:42:44.040
 that's most efficient, or do we use pricing to help people have a choice?

00:42:44.040 --> 00:42:46.040
 Just for illustration, right?

00:42:46.040 --> 00:42:50.480
 That might be one where you'd say, what would the dynamics be if there were a frequent shuttle

00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:51.480
 back and forth?

00:42:51.480 --> 00:42:56.360
 You have a frequent shuttle, it's free, or it's priced less expensively than a van.

00:42:56.360 --> 00:43:03.680
 And I think even via, with all their experience, will likely suggest something like that would

00:43:03.680 --> 00:43:04.680
 be my guess.

00:43:04.680 --> 00:43:10.680
 But you can see that there's a lot of trips happening in and around the University, some

00:43:10.680 --> 00:43:19.760
 around the mall, along University Drive on 380, and then through the heart here is TWU.

00:43:19.760 --> 00:43:23.600
 And so you can see how people are tending to use the system.

00:43:23.600 --> 00:43:25.760
 And that travel pattern kind of holds true.

00:43:25.760 --> 00:43:28.240
 We're just going to move it around.

00:43:28.240 --> 00:43:34.680
 Route 6 goes from the DDTC straight up, it used to be Bell, I believe it's going up Locust

00:43:34.680 --> 00:43:44.720
 now, and then up to Discovery Park, and it's a heavily traveled route.

00:43:44.720 --> 00:43:48.720
 I don't think there'd be many modifications suggested to that.

00:43:48.720 --> 00:43:55.600
 But there's quite a few students at TWU and UNT that are finding access and enjoying the

00:43:55.600 --> 00:43:56.920
 new service.

00:43:56.920 --> 00:44:02.960
 But I think fixed route does a very good job of being able to carry more people in a cost-effective

00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:04.880
 manner on that route.

00:44:04.880 --> 00:44:08.680
 Route 7 is our highest performing route.

00:44:08.680 --> 00:44:14.240
 It certainly continues to look like it's achieving well over 10 passengers per hour the majority

00:44:14.240 --> 00:44:15.560
 of the day.

00:44:15.560 --> 00:44:18.360
 And so wouldn't expect a lot of change there.

00:44:18.360 --> 00:44:25.260
 And this is Route 21 in Lewisville and Route 22.

00:44:25.260 --> 00:44:28.340
 And so you can see how we're looking at parts of the day.

00:44:28.340 --> 00:44:38.160
 You'll notice that in a lot of these routes, there's a significant amount of ridership

00:44:38.160 --> 00:44:39.680
 in the midday.

00:44:39.680 --> 00:44:44.560
 So transit typically looks at travel patterns.

00:44:44.560 --> 00:44:53.280
 The peak is usually from 6 a.m. to about 9 a.m. pre-COVID, and then roughly 4 p.m. to

00:44:53.280 --> 00:44:59.240
 about 6 37 p.m., so about 4 hours in the morning, 4 hours in the afternoon.

00:44:59.240 --> 00:45:04.400
 Since COVID, we've actually seen the inverse, much smaller numbers, but there's a lot more

00:45:04.400 --> 00:45:08.560
 utilization during the middle of the day, which means that the people aren't taking

00:45:08.560 --> 00:45:11.660
 transit right now.

00:45:11.660 --> 00:45:16.000
 For business purposes, going into down, down Dallas or the like, they're using it to go

00:45:16.000 --> 00:45:17.000
 to school.

00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:26.240
 It's retail, it's a lot of different types of trips that typically you would see during

00:45:26.240 --> 00:45:29.160
 a normal situation.

00:45:29.160 --> 00:45:35.080
 Under normal circumstances, you'd actually see the peaks grow significantly higher.

00:45:35.080 --> 00:45:39.080
 And what we're seeing in the middle of the day is what people continuously do.

00:45:39.080 --> 00:45:45.540
 And so what you're seeing is those important trips that people need to go to the grocery

00:45:45.540 --> 00:45:49.680
 store, go to the doctor's offices, all those different things, that's what you're seeing

00:45:49.680 --> 00:45:56.320
 as the core that's driving the demand and the ridership day after day, week after week.

00:45:56.320 --> 00:46:03.040
 I recall Mr. Polster making a similar observation about highway traffic during, you know, under

00:46:03.040 --> 00:46:07.120
 COVID that people working at home, so it's kind of when do they get to the point where

00:46:07.120 --> 00:46:11.600
 they need to get out and get something done or, you know, so it is the inverse.

00:46:11.600 --> 00:46:19.800
 Well, I think it's important that everybody remember that we're still in a pandemic situation,

00:46:19.800 --> 00:46:20.800
 right?

00:46:20.800 --> 00:46:28.120
 So we're analyzing all this data with surgical precision, but we're doing that within a very

00:46:28.120 --> 00:46:32.620
 abstract time when travel patterns can continue to change.

00:46:32.620 --> 00:46:33.620
 So we're going to be making...

00:46:33.620 --> 00:46:35.040
 Let's set it for all time right now then.

00:46:35.040 --> 00:46:36.040
 Pardon me?

00:46:36.040 --> 00:46:37.840
 Well, let's set it for all time.

00:46:37.840 --> 00:46:38.840
 Right.

00:46:38.840 --> 00:46:43.880
 And so that's what I want to show you as far as the data, and that we're getting a lot

00:46:43.880 --> 00:46:48.120
 more forensic around the data because we have more, so we're actually...

00:46:48.120 --> 00:46:53.360
 The next time I present, we'll show those midday travel, the peak, the demand.

00:46:53.360 --> 00:46:58.880
 You'll see that there's certainly parts of time where fixed route is getting closer and

00:46:58.880 --> 00:47:01.600
 closer to that 10 passengers per hour.

00:47:01.600 --> 00:47:05.360
 On some of these routes, we've actually seen in the month of October a ridership growing

00:47:05.360 --> 00:47:09.680
 on some of them and hitting or getting really close to that 10 passenger per hour.

00:47:09.680 --> 00:47:15.240
 So that gives us an idea of, all right, so there's times where fixed route is efficient.

00:47:15.240 --> 00:47:17.000
 The length of the trips are probably too long.

00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:22.160
 We don't have enough operators to operate that service effectively anyway, so there's

00:47:22.160 --> 00:47:27.200
 some options for us to consider, and we're looking forward to getting a lot of that data

00:47:27.200 --> 00:47:31.640
 back from the consultants in short order and starting to share that.

00:47:31.640 --> 00:47:32.640
 So next steps.

00:47:32.640 --> 00:47:36.840
 We're going to continue to collect the data, we'll evaluate the factors that we just talked

00:47:36.840 --> 00:47:38.120
 about.

00:47:38.120 --> 00:47:41.480
 We have the December 2nd board meeting.

00:47:41.480 --> 00:47:47.720
 If there's a decision or interest in continuing to advance the routes, then someone will need

00:47:47.720 --> 00:47:52.280
 to make a motion to do that, but as it stands right now, the board has these options all

00:47:52.280 --> 00:47:53.280
 available.

00:47:53.280 --> 00:47:57.800
 Of course, we know about the elimination, but we can continue to run the routes as is

00:47:57.800 --> 00:48:01.960
 or we can modify them, and as you can see, the data starts telling you some things about

00:48:01.960 --> 00:48:05.680
 what we might choose to do as a DCTA board.

00:48:05.680 --> 00:48:13.240
 We'll also sit down with UNT and start having discussions with them about some of the travel

00:48:13.240 --> 00:48:19.040
 patterns, how their investments are made with the shuttles, and see if there's interest

00:48:19.040 --> 00:48:25.080
 for them as well to take out some of their less productive routes and maybe move some

00:48:25.080 --> 00:48:27.360
 of that over to a different model.

00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:33.540
 So we've had a contract with them that runs 10 years, but I think there's interest from

00:48:33.540 --> 00:48:35.120
 UNT.

00:48:35.120 --> 00:48:39.560
 They were very interested to see what was happening with GoZone, very interested to

00:48:39.560 --> 00:48:42.600
 see how their students were going to potentially use it.

00:48:42.600 --> 00:48:49.640
 We haven't had any discussions about GoZone today, but once the board feels comfortable

00:48:49.640 --> 00:48:56.000
 in how we're shaping the transit system for DCTA and the Connect system, we'll start having

00:48:56.000 --> 00:48:58.200
 conversations with UNT as well.

00:48:58.200 --> 00:49:03.120
 I keep checking you in my peripheral vision, Councilman, to see that.

00:49:03.120 --> 00:49:07.800
 Just a briefing item, the Castle Hills is being, I believe it's already been annexed

00:49:07.800 --> 00:49:11.440
 by the City of Louisville.

00:49:11.440 --> 00:49:16.800
 We will, there was a request by the City of Louisville to start providing connectivity

00:49:16.800 --> 00:49:21.720
 to the GoZone, and we're going to do that on January 19th.

00:49:21.720 --> 00:49:28.840
 Speaking UNT, is there going to be a change in their own policy in terms of whether students

00:49:28.840 --> 00:49:32.120
 can just show their ID and ride?

00:49:32.120 --> 00:49:36.320
 That policy has not changed.

00:49:36.320 --> 00:49:40.240
 So they pay a fee, an annual fee, to ride Connect.

00:49:40.240 --> 00:49:44.240
 They show their ID and they can ride the Connect system.

00:49:44.240 --> 00:49:48.080
 It's free to the student, the university pays for that.

00:49:48.080 --> 00:49:58.100
 With the potential decision to discontinue the Connect service, UNT is rethinking what

00:49:58.100 --> 00:50:00.680
 they would do with that amount of money.

00:50:00.680 --> 00:50:03.520
 I believe it's $50,000 that they pay.

00:50:03.520 --> 00:50:05.440
 So would they put that in additional service?

00:50:05.440 --> 00:50:09.560
 So they're waiting for us to figure out what we're going to do with our fixed route service

00:50:09.560 --> 00:50:14.160
 and then determine what they want to do with the money that we're paying in through the

00:50:14.160 --> 00:50:15.160
 contract.

00:50:15.160 --> 00:50:20.240
 There's no proposed changes to date on the UNT service.

00:50:20.240 --> 00:50:26.440
 If anything, they're looking at additional, potentially adding a small shuttle route.

00:50:26.440 --> 00:50:31.720
 It's important to note that they subsidize or they pay for their service, but they're

00:50:31.720 --> 00:50:39.480
 considered public routes, and that's important to note so that when you look at these heat

00:50:39.480 --> 00:50:44.200
 maps and we talk about maybe eliminating a route because it's not productive, it's not

00:50:44.200 --> 00:50:49.040
 that there's not service there, it's just it's always been thought of as UNT routes,

00:50:49.040 --> 00:50:57.880
 but they're open to the public and DCTA provides a portion of the funding for that, so they're

00:50:57.880 --> 00:51:00.440
 routes too and people can use them.

00:51:00.440 --> 00:51:02.920
 So there's plenty of fixed route coverage.

00:51:02.920 --> 00:51:08.560
 When we come back to the Mobility Committee in the future, I've already given some direction

00:51:08.560 --> 00:51:15.520
 to also show the university route so we get a full picture of where there's access, mobility

00:51:15.520 --> 00:51:18.080
 access moving forward.

00:51:18.080 --> 00:51:19.080
 So that's the briefing item.

00:51:19.080 --> 00:51:21.760
 I'm happy to answer any additional questions you might have.

00:51:21.760 --> 00:51:22.760
 Yes.

00:51:22.760 --> 00:51:30.520
 Yeah, I want to briefly address what you just said about UNT routes being open to the public.

00:51:30.520 --> 00:51:37.320
 I think it might have been Eva was talking to me just last week about, was it you that

00:51:37.320 --> 00:51:40.320
 was turned away from Eva?

00:51:40.320 --> 00:51:43.120
 On the number 8 bus, which is, yeah.

00:51:43.120 --> 00:51:48.240
 So that's, there may be a communication issue with the drivers.

00:51:48.240 --> 00:51:50.240
 I'm not sure what you're speaking about.

00:51:50.240 --> 00:51:52.240
 Oh, sorry.

00:51:52.240 --> 00:51:59.200
 So Eva has been turned away from riding UNT routes on several occasions because the drivers

00:51:59.200 --> 00:52:04.760
 were under the impression that the UNT routes were restricted to UNT students.

00:52:04.760 --> 00:52:07.440
 So there may be just a communication issue.

00:52:07.440 --> 00:52:09.440
 That's certainly a communication issue.

00:52:09.440 --> 00:52:10.440
 Okay.

00:52:10.440 --> 00:52:11.440
 Yeah.

00:52:11.440 --> 00:52:12.440
 And that's inaccurate, right?

00:52:12.440 --> 00:52:14.880
 Like they should be accepting fares from members of the public.

00:52:14.880 --> 00:52:15.880
 Okay.

00:52:15.880 --> 00:52:19.800
 So that just needs to be something that's better communicated maybe to drivers.

00:52:19.800 --> 00:52:24.680
 Obviously, you and I have spoken about this, but I was wondering if you could speak to

00:52:24.680 --> 00:52:33.820
 the public and Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer regarding, my perception is that one of the biggest obstacles,

00:52:33.820 --> 00:52:40.380
 if not the biggest obstacle right now to on-time performance and improving ridership on fixed

00:52:40.380 --> 00:52:43.440
 routes is the staffing issues that you've alluded to.

00:52:43.440 --> 00:52:49.080
 I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to the current state of staffing at NTMC

00:52:49.080 --> 00:52:55.640
 and what is being done to address those shortages.

00:52:55.640 --> 00:52:59.400
 So labor shortages are not unique to DCTA.

00:52:59.400 --> 00:53:07.920
 I think in every form of mode of transportation, there are labor shortages.

00:53:07.920 --> 00:53:12.700
 They're being experienced not only regionally, but nationally.

00:53:12.700 --> 00:53:20.520
 If you look at other workforces for industrial restaurants, entertainment, everybody's struggling

00:53:20.520 --> 00:53:23.700
 to find applicants and to hire.

00:53:23.700 --> 00:53:27.200
 So that's an issue, probably the biggest one.

00:53:27.200 --> 00:53:30.960
 Certainly understanding what we're going to be doing moving forward, the feedback that

00:53:30.960 --> 00:53:35.580
 I've received from the general manager is the sooner we can decide what we're going

00:53:35.580 --> 00:53:41.120
 to do, the more stability folks will have in their jobs.

00:53:41.120 --> 00:53:50.160
 I believe that if it's the desire of the DCTA board to continue to provide fixed route,

00:53:50.160 --> 00:53:55.800
 we need to shape the service because I don't see this workforce issue going away anytime

00:53:55.800 --> 00:53:56.800
 soon.

00:53:56.800 --> 00:54:02.160
 We need to make the service so that it can provide the two most critical things, is it

00:54:02.160 --> 00:54:07.600
 on time and how frequent is it because if it's not frequent enough, then I'm going

00:54:07.600 --> 00:54:13.840
 to typically look for other modes of transportation, not the service.

00:54:13.840 --> 00:54:19.680
 So I think it's critically important if there is a desire for fixed route to continue, that

00:54:19.680 --> 00:54:24.760
 the focus needs to be how do we make a system on time and frequent enough that it just becomes

00:54:24.760 --> 00:54:26.920
 second nature for people to use.

00:54:26.920 --> 00:54:35.760
 Now typically in transit, and this is across the nation, you'll work on 5, 10, 15, 20,

00:54:35.760 --> 00:54:43.160
 30, 45, and hourly frequency depending on the density, if you're in an urban canyon

00:54:43.160 --> 00:54:47.220
 in the middle of the city, you're probably going to be running 5 to 7, 8 minute, people

00:54:47.220 --> 00:54:51.200
 just walk out and they're not worried about the schedule because they know something is

00:54:51.200 --> 00:54:54.160
 going to come by any minute.

00:54:54.160 --> 00:55:04.000
 For our density and population patterns, 15, 30, 45 minutes seem to work on weekends, hourly

00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:12.360
 headways seem to be appropriate based on ridership, but there's a lot of desire from board members

00:55:12.360 --> 00:55:14.160
 to try to increase that frequency.

00:55:14.160 --> 00:55:18.300
 In order to do that, guess what, you need more vehicles and more operators.

00:55:18.300 --> 00:55:25.980
 So we can build a very aggressive schedule around on time performance and frequency,

00:55:25.980 --> 00:55:32.600
 but if we can't deliver the bodies to put in the seats, then all we're doing is we're

00:55:32.600 --> 00:55:38.160
 not delivering against the expectations of our riders because they'll open their schedule

00:55:38.160 --> 00:55:43.800
 or on their phone and they'll go stand at a bus stop and they'll be looking for a ride

00:55:43.800 --> 00:55:46.800
 that may or may not be there.

00:55:46.800 --> 00:55:55.360
 So NTMC is actively recruiting, they don't necessarily know what they're actively recruiting

00:55:55.360 --> 00:55:57.720
 to what number they're recruiting to.

00:55:57.720 --> 00:56:03.120
 So the sooner the board can make a decision, and I also think that doing this in increments

00:56:03.120 --> 00:56:08.440
 of two or three months is a big challenge for them.

00:56:08.440 --> 00:56:15.880
 They're doing a lot to incentivize operators to retain them, number one, because hiring

00:56:15.880 --> 00:56:18.920
 is one thing, just making sure that they're not leaving is another.

00:56:18.920 --> 00:56:24.840
 And there's been a fairly consistent turnover rate for a lot of various reasons, it would

00:56:24.840 --> 00:56:27.120
 take a lot of time to unpack it.

00:56:27.120 --> 00:56:31.360
 But there's folks that are leaving, so the first thing they're trying to do is make sure

00:56:31.360 --> 00:56:37.220
 that we're providing incentives for the operators to stay until we understand what's happening

00:56:37.220 --> 00:56:42.360
 with the workforce locally and regionally.

00:56:42.360 --> 00:56:49.720
 And that's been budgeted and approved through the NTMC board to provide incentives.

00:56:49.720 --> 00:56:54.520
 And it's been done, I think, on a monthly increment.

00:56:54.520 --> 00:56:58.760
 Now the budget for that is available because if you don't have a workforce that's already

00:56:58.760 --> 00:57:01.960
 been budgeted for, there's typically money available to do that.

00:57:01.960 --> 00:57:03.660
 So they're working within their budget.

00:57:03.660 --> 00:57:10.680
 So they're actively recruiting, they're trying to provide retention options, incentives

00:57:10.680 --> 00:57:13.320
 for operators.

00:57:13.320 --> 00:57:17.520
 But I think the single most important thing is just trying to understand what we're going

00:57:17.520 --> 00:57:18.520
 to be doing long-term.

00:57:18.520 --> 00:57:23.540
 - All right, thank you so much.

00:57:23.540 --> 00:57:29.760
 And I want to kind of highlight, I think, that you mentioned you were going to be bringing

00:57:29.760 --> 00:57:38.600
 to the DCTA board a couple of options that involve a budget amendment to fund fixed routes

00:57:38.600 --> 00:57:44.600
 through March or a budget amendment that will fund fixed routes through the remainder of

00:57:44.600 --> 00:57:45.600
 the fiscal year.

00:57:45.600 --> 00:57:53.080
 - Anticipating questions from the board, we're trying to prepare a few things.

00:57:53.080 --> 00:57:58.680
 The board gave direction to go back, talk to the experts, come back with recommendations

00:57:58.680 --> 00:58:02.360
 on where we might think fixed routes should stay.

00:58:02.360 --> 00:58:05.880
 Not to say that it will, but it gives the board an option.

00:58:05.880 --> 00:58:10.200
 And then, of course, the next logical question is, well, how much is that going to cost and

00:58:10.200 --> 00:58:12.040
 for how long?

00:58:12.040 --> 00:58:14.520
 So we think it's important.

00:58:14.520 --> 00:58:18.640
 We typically will set a budget for a fiscal year.

00:58:18.640 --> 00:58:24.120
 So anticipating the question of what will it take for us to get through March, what

00:58:24.120 --> 00:58:28.560
 will it take for us to get through the end of the year, we'll provide some options for

00:58:28.560 --> 00:58:29.560
 the board.

00:58:29.560 --> 00:58:34.760
 That way we don't have to wait yet another board cycle, given the fact that it's currently

00:58:34.760 --> 00:58:40.960
 budgeted through December 6, it'll give the board an option to determine how long you

00:58:40.960 --> 00:58:42.800
 want to run the service.

00:58:42.800 --> 00:58:47.120
 We'll likely have an average monthly cost in our heads.

00:58:47.120 --> 00:58:51.680
 I don't know that we can put it on paper yet, because it just really depends on workforce.

00:58:51.680 --> 00:58:57.800
 The complexity, as you're probably aware, when the universities go on summer break,

00:58:57.800 --> 00:59:01.760
 the demand for operator workforce is significantly less.

00:59:01.760 --> 00:59:08.360
 So it's just a timing thing to kind of understand what the board wants us to do and what the

00:59:08.360 --> 00:59:11.360
 ultimate impact would be on the budget.

00:59:11.360 --> 00:59:12.360
 All right.

00:59:12.360 --> 00:59:14.320
 Thank you so much.

00:59:14.320 --> 00:59:15.320
 You're welcome.

00:59:15.320 --> 00:59:16.320
 Close that?

00:59:16.320 --> 00:59:22.480
 Yeah, I got some comments and questions, too.

00:59:22.480 --> 00:59:29.980
 I think I can detect the answer, but I'm not 100% sure I've seen the data.

00:59:29.980 --> 00:59:35.800
 It seems to me like what you're seeing is -- we've definitely described incrementality,

00:59:35.800 --> 00:59:40.080
 right, that it's not drawing on necessarily the same population, but is there something

00:59:40.080 --> 00:59:45.120
 that would show total ridership is up with the two services operating?

00:59:45.120 --> 00:59:50.000
 I mean, you'd have to look year over year, but the years are weird.

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:53.160
 We report that every month to the board.

00:59:53.160 --> 01:00:04.380
 I think the slides presentation on the slides themselves, let me see if I can minimize this.

01:00:04.380 --> 01:00:10.620
 The short answer is, yes, we can provide total ridership, and ridership is up from prior

01:00:10.620 --> 01:00:11.620
 year.

01:00:11.620 --> 01:00:12.620
 I'm never interested in the answer.

01:00:12.620 --> 01:00:15.240
 Not that I need you to prove it to me, but just like is that what you are?

01:00:15.240 --> 01:00:18.440
 Yes, we're seeing ridership growing over last year.

01:00:18.440 --> 01:00:21.200
 It's not where it was pre-COVID.

01:00:21.200 --> 01:00:29.000
 I don't think anybody is where it is pre-COVID, but we're seeing significant increases.

01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:39.240
 Across the nation, we saw anywhere from about a 50% to 80% decrease in ridership.

01:00:39.240 --> 01:00:49.120
 We were probably closer to 75, 76% on rail in the high 70s, and bus were now somewhere

01:00:49.120 --> 01:00:56.100
 around 60% of where we were pre-COVID, and continuing to grow every month.

01:00:56.100 --> 01:01:04.140
 The beauty of what we have done, whether it's been depending on your personal view, is we've

01:01:04.140 --> 01:01:12.320
 done exactly what the rest of the nation hopefully is doing, which is responding to significant

01:01:12.320 --> 01:01:19.000
 changes in consumer behavior, travel patterns, a lot more people are working from home.

01:01:19.000 --> 01:01:28.320
 The CARES Act, the ARPA money, was provided to the Federal Transit Administration and then

01:01:28.320 --> 01:01:33.600
 parsed out to all the transit agencies.

01:01:33.600 --> 01:01:40.000
 One was to try to bolster and keep the transit agencies providing service, but the other

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:46.520
 portion of that was innovates to respond to the changes that are happening across our

01:01:46.520 --> 01:01:47.520
 nation.

01:01:47.520 --> 01:01:50.800
 I think we've done that exceptionally well.

01:01:50.800 --> 01:01:56.400
 What we need to do now is focus on how do we make what we've done more efficient.

01:01:56.400 --> 01:02:00.200
 I think from an effectiveness perspective, we're certainly carrying a lot more riders

01:02:00.200 --> 01:02:02.660
 than we were.

01:02:02.660 --> 01:02:10.400
 What we're seeing is significant growth over last year, which is great, but it's not efficient.

01:02:10.400 --> 01:02:15.000
 Our fixed route isn't efficient, VIA is not efficient, and I think we have a wonderful

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:19.840
 opportunity here to redesign our network.

01:02:19.840 --> 01:02:26.360
 Can we come back on December 2nd as staff and consultants and design a network that

01:02:26.360 --> 01:02:28.600
 we can implement in December?

01:02:28.600 --> 01:02:36.440
 Likely not, but what we can do is we can make some significant advancements in it and allow

01:02:36.440 --> 01:02:43.120
 some time for the consultants to come back with what our future designed, I won't call

01:02:43.120 --> 01:02:49.140
 it perfect, but near perfect scenario would be for our transit system to build a healthy

01:02:49.140 --> 01:02:52.680
 multimodal transit system for the future.

01:02:52.680 --> 01:02:55.840
 That's what likely staff will propose to the board.

01:02:55.840 --> 01:03:04.000
 I'll tell you, I for one am just so pleased hearing about just the thought process and

01:03:04.000 --> 01:03:12.280
 about how you might balance the two to create efficiency that there's a way to improve

01:03:12.280 --> 01:03:19.040
 the fixed route so that it may end up costing less and arriving more frequently and it may

01:03:19.040 --> 01:03:22.120
 have a better paid driver.

01:03:22.120 --> 01:03:26.600
 As a result, as you figure out how do you get the workforce where you need it to be,

01:03:26.600 --> 01:03:31.760
 I think that's at least a potential direction.

01:03:31.760 --> 01:03:42.640
 I'm very optimistic if the board is going to listen to the data.

01:03:42.640 --> 01:03:47.240
 I was very pleased with the direction the board gave at our last board meeting which

01:03:47.240 --> 01:03:53.200
 was we as a board do not want to be-- and you were there so please correct me if I'm

01:03:53.200 --> 01:03:57.840
 paraphrasing incorrectly, but we don't want to be in the transit planning business.

01:03:57.840 --> 01:04:04.240
 We'll leave that to the experts, come back with recommendations the board can look at

01:04:04.240 --> 01:04:07.880
 as we deliberate and try to move the agency forward.

01:04:07.880 --> 01:04:10.440
 So I'm optimistic as well.

01:04:10.440 --> 01:04:16.640
 Well, thank you for coming again and sharing all this with us.

01:04:16.640 --> 01:04:18.400
 Well, thank you for the opportunity.

01:04:18.400 --> 01:04:19.400
 Okay.

01:04:19.400 --> 01:04:26.840
 You need a break or are you okay?

01:04:26.840 --> 01:04:36.000
 I know I tend not to like check and see if people need breaks because I just get fixated.

01:04:36.000 --> 01:04:37.000
 Okay.

01:04:37.000 --> 01:04:43.080
 Item E, Receive a Report, Hold a Discussion and Approve the Mobility Committee Annual 2022

01:04:43.080 --> 01:04:44.080
 Meeting Schedule.

01:04:44.080 --> 01:04:52.080
 I saw DCTA twice.

01:04:52.080 --> 01:04:56.520
 I'm just-- you know, I have a very simple job to do here.

01:04:56.520 --> 01:04:58.620
 There's not that many items on the agenda.

01:04:58.620 --> 01:05:00.980
 So I apologize for the misdirection.

01:05:00.980 --> 01:05:02.980
 Thank you for correcting me.

01:05:02.980 --> 01:05:07.560
 There's a second DCTA related item, Item D, Receive a Report and Hold a Discussion Regarding

01:05:07.560 --> 01:05:13.440
 the City of Denton's Proposed Application for Funding under the DCTA Reinvestment Program,

01:05:13.440 --> 01:05:16.000
 et cetera.

01:05:16.000 --> 01:05:17.000
 Good morning.

01:05:17.000 --> 01:05:18.000
 Good morning.

01:05:18.000 --> 01:05:20.120
 And you were ready to present the correct thing anyway.

01:05:20.120 --> 01:05:22.120
 I knew you would get it right.

01:05:22.120 --> 01:05:23.120
 Yeah.

01:05:23.120 --> 01:05:24.120
 All right.

01:05:24.120 --> 01:05:26.560
 So that needs to be right there.

01:05:26.560 --> 01:05:27.560
 I'm Robin Davis.

01:05:27.560 --> 01:05:32.920
 I'm the project manager with Capital Projects and I'm going to be going over this presentation

01:05:32.920 --> 01:05:35.720
 with you this morning.

01:05:35.720 --> 01:05:41.720
 So this is to discuss the additional funding that we've now been aware that's available

01:05:41.720 --> 01:05:48.000
 for the proposed-- the 2020 year fiscal year trip funds.

01:05:48.000 --> 01:05:59.160
 Is that working?

01:05:59.160 --> 01:06:02.760
 Thank you.

01:06:02.760 --> 01:06:08.440
 So you guys just got through talking about the DCTA program.

01:06:08.440 --> 01:06:13.200
 This is for the Denton County Transportation Authority DCTA Trip Funds, which is the transportation

01:06:13.200 --> 01:06:23.440
 reinvestment program that provides financial assistance to DCTA member cities for their

01:06:23.440 --> 01:06:26.960
 long range-- if it's within their long range goals.

01:06:26.960 --> 01:06:29.000
 So I'm not going to go through every bit of that with you.

01:06:29.000 --> 01:06:34.440
 You probably all know all of that.

01:06:34.440 --> 01:06:39.380
 So in 2020, the sales tax performed much better than expected.

01:06:39.380 --> 01:06:44.240
 So it is providing an additional $906,000.

01:06:44.240 --> 01:06:45.680
 I think that this skipped a slide.

01:06:45.680 --> 01:06:51.960
 Hang on one second.

01:06:51.960 --> 01:06:57.840
 Maybe there we go.

01:06:57.840 --> 01:06:59.120
 And now it's back on that view.

01:06:59.120 --> 01:07:00.120
 Let's see.

01:07:00.120 --> 01:07:06.520
 I'm not sure how you got it off of that view in the first place.

01:07:06.520 --> 01:07:10.560
 There's one.

01:07:10.560 --> 01:07:11.560
 Thanks.

01:07:11.560 --> 01:07:12.560
 It's moving right back to the same place.

01:07:12.560 --> 01:07:13.560
 Do we have one?

01:07:13.560 --> 01:07:14.560
 Yes.

01:07:14.560 --> 01:07:15.560
 Don't know.

01:07:15.560 --> 01:07:16.560
 I'll delete it.

01:07:16.560 --> 01:07:17.560
 There we go.

01:07:17.560 --> 01:07:24.560
 Thank you.

01:07:24.560 --> 01:07:30.720
 So for 2021, we submitted projects for the 2022 available funds.

01:07:30.720 --> 01:07:36.000
 And those projects were listed below, the A Train to UNT Bike and Pedestrian Path, which

01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:37.000
 is along Sycamore.

01:07:37.000 --> 01:07:43.560
 It's a 10-foot side path down Sycamore from the DCTA train station to Welch, the All Way

01:07:43.560 --> 01:07:48.720
 Crossing Downtown Pedestrian Improvement Project, which is the diagonal crossings that will

01:07:48.720 --> 01:07:53.180
 be installed at all four intersections around the courthouse on the square, Jennings and

01:07:53.180 --> 01:07:59.280
 Alexander Elementary School's sidewalks, which is part of the Safe Routes to Schools program,

01:07:59.280 --> 01:08:02.120
 and Nettie Schultz and Pecan Creek as well.

01:08:02.120 --> 01:08:06.280
 And also Bell Sidewalk Construction, which is a sidewalk gap on the east side of Bell

01:08:06.280 --> 01:08:11.880
 Street between Hickory and Sycamore, and the Med Park sidewalk construction, which is also

01:08:11.880 --> 01:08:15.480
 a gap section over there.

01:08:15.480 --> 01:08:23.760
 Those were the projects that were submitted for those funds in 2020.

01:08:23.760 --> 01:08:28.280
 So the sales tax for that year performed better than expected.

01:08:28.280 --> 01:08:32.680
 And so we've got an additional $906,000 in funding available that we would also like

01:08:32.680 --> 01:08:37.420
 to apply to two of those projects that we've already reviewed.

01:08:37.420 --> 01:08:42.760
 It will help fully fund the construction of the All Way Crossing Downtown Pedestrian Improvements,

01:08:42.760 --> 01:08:47.040
 and it'll help reduce the city's obligation for the A Train to UNT Sycamore Side Path

01:08:47.040 --> 01:08:52.160
 Project.

01:08:52.160 --> 01:08:58.460
 And this is just an overview, the approved DCTA trip funding for those projects submitted

01:08:58.460 --> 01:09:04.800
 is in this column, $2.5 million, and the proposed additional funding of $906,000 and how it

01:09:04.800 --> 01:09:10.600
 will be applied.

01:09:10.600 --> 01:09:16.540
 So the next steps will be upon council approval on December 7th, the Grant Administration

01:09:16.540 --> 01:09:22.480
 team will submit the projects, their applications to DCTA for consideration.

01:09:22.480 --> 01:09:26.460
 It'll be placed on their next agenda.

01:09:26.460 --> 01:09:31.880
 And then we'll be sure to closely monitor all of our projects and report appropriately

01:09:31.880 --> 01:09:34.420
 per the agreement.

01:09:34.420 --> 01:09:40.960
 And staff will present for the next proposed fiscal year 2021 grant funds, which we think

01:09:40.960 --> 01:09:50.440
 will be around $3 million for the December 15 mobility meeting.

01:09:50.440 --> 01:09:51.440
 And that's that.

01:09:51.440 --> 01:09:53.440
 Does anyone have any questions?

01:09:53.440 --> 01:10:00.420
 Yeah, my apologies for my lack of familiarity with the Sycamore Project.

01:10:00.420 --> 01:10:02.520
 Can you repeat again?

01:10:02.520 --> 01:10:07.440
 It's going to be a bike and pedestrian side path, you said it was going to be eight feet

01:10:07.440 --> 01:10:08.440
 wide?

01:10:08.440 --> 01:10:09.440
 Ten feet wide.

01:10:09.440 --> 01:10:11.200
 Okay.

01:10:11.200 --> 01:10:16.000
 And is there going to be any any separation between bike and pedestrian facilities or

01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:18.280
 is it just no on Sycamore?

01:10:18.280 --> 01:10:19.280
 It's a shared path.

01:10:19.280 --> 01:10:20.280
 Okay.

01:10:20.280 --> 01:10:21.280
 Ten foot wide shared path.

01:10:21.280 --> 01:10:28.080
 And then down at Welch Street from about the existing bike path on that around Eagle North

01:10:28.080 --> 01:10:32.000
 to Hickory will be installing a bike path on Welch.

01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:33.000
 Okay.

01:10:33.000 --> 01:10:34.000
 All right.

01:10:34.000 --> 01:10:35.000
 Thank you so much.

01:10:35.000 --> 01:10:43.280
 Um, yeah, fantastic and you know, obviously there may be changes to the projected, you

01:10:43.280 --> 01:10:48.860
 know, fiscal year, this fiscal year's trip funding because of the conversation we're

01:10:48.860 --> 01:10:51.160
 about to have on December 2nd.

01:10:51.160 --> 01:10:53.520
 But yeah, thank you so much.

01:10:53.520 --> 01:10:57.120
 This is obviously great use of that trip money.

01:10:57.120 --> 01:11:01.680
 Yeah, I agree with that prioritization for what it's worth if anyone gets to talk about

01:11:01.680 --> 01:11:02.920
 it again when it comes to council.

01:11:02.920 --> 01:11:03.920
 Very good.

01:11:03.920 --> 01:11:04.920
 Thank you.

01:11:04.920 --> 01:11:10.000
 So, I don't know who who's already teed up to talk to us about meeting schedule.

01:11:10.000 --> 01:11:14.080
 Item E. Receive a report of the discussion and approve the mobility committee annual

01:11:14.080 --> 01:11:16.120
 2022 meeting schedule.

01:11:16.120 --> 01:11:20.440
 Is that you, Becky?

01:11:20.440 --> 01:11:22.680
 Thank you, Chair.

01:11:22.680 --> 01:11:26.040
 Rachel's going to share from down there.

01:11:26.040 --> 01:11:32.080
 Just wanted to take the time to go through with you the proposed schedule.

01:11:32.080 --> 01:11:37.960
 As you know, there is a ordinance that talks about specifically the times of which we were

01:11:37.960 --> 01:11:43.040
 going to meet and that it's always going to be the third Wednesday of the month at 9 a.m.

01:11:43.040 --> 01:11:48.580
 And so my hopes with the meeting today, we've reviewed and looked at the spring break calendar

01:11:48.580 --> 01:11:54.040
 for the Denton School District, also looked at some of the holiday timeframes and wanted

01:11:54.040 --> 01:12:01.820
 to propose these as the timeframes for the I'm sorry, the dates for the 2022 meetings.

01:12:01.820 --> 01:12:04.920
 There is a holiday that is the week of the 17th.

01:12:04.920 --> 01:12:08.200
 The Martin Luther King holiday is on January 17th.

01:12:08.200 --> 01:12:10.640
 But we just wanted to take that opportunity.

01:12:10.640 --> 01:12:15.440
 You'll see a difference on the March meeting as the week of the 14th through the 18th is

01:12:15.440 --> 01:12:17.560
 Denton School District spring break.

01:12:17.560 --> 01:12:21.120
 So we're proposing to go to the 23rd.

01:12:21.120 --> 01:12:26.600
 And then the other item that you will see is the week of December or week of December

01:12:26.600 --> 01:12:32.000
 12, instead of doing the third Wednesday of that month being that it's so close to Christmas

01:12:32.000 --> 01:12:36.520
 time, we were anticipating actually meeting on the 14th.

01:12:36.520 --> 01:12:40.520
 I know a couple of those are a little bit closer together than our usual span between

01:12:40.520 --> 01:12:41.520
 meetings.

01:12:41.520 --> 01:12:45.160
 But wanted to go ahead and try to lock those down and get those on everyone's calendar.

01:12:45.160 --> 01:12:48.480
 So happy to have any discussion if there's any questions.

01:12:48.480 --> 01:12:52.240
 But that was really the purpose of today is just having you have an opportunity to review

01:12:52.240 --> 01:12:53.240
 it.

01:12:53.240 --> 01:12:59.960
 Yeah, a quick glance through my 2022 calendar, which isn't very full just yet, I shows that

01:12:59.960 --> 01:13:01.720
 these look good.

01:13:01.720 --> 01:13:02.720
 Wonderful.

01:13:02.720 --> 01:13:07.640
 Yeah, I think none of these dates work for Councilmember Byrd, but she's not here so

01:13:07.640 --> 01:13:12.120
 looks good to me.

01:13:12.120 --> 01:13:13.120
 Thank you, Chair.

01:13:13.120 --> 01:13:14.120
 All righty.

01:13:14.120 --> 01:13:17.200
 Well, with that, do we need to make a motion?

01:13:17.200 --> 01:13:18.200
 All righty.

01:13:18.200 --> 01:13:20.200
 So I will request a motion please.

01:13:20.200 --> 01:13:21.200
 Okay.

01:13:21.200 --> 01:13:24.880
 I move approval of these dates.

01:13:24.880 --> 01:13:26.720
 I second.

01:13:26.720 --> 01:13:28.760
 Any discussion?

01:13:28.760 --> 01:13:29.760
 Seeing none.

01:13:29.760 --> 01:13:30.760
 All those in favor?

01:13:30.760 --> 01:13:31.760
 Aye.

01:13:31.760 --> 01:13:32.760
 Aye.

01:13:32.760 --> 01:13:33.760
 Wonderful.

01:13:33.760 --> 01:13:34.760
 Thank you very much.

01:13:34.760 --> 01:13:35.760
 All right, you bet.

01:13:35.760 --> 01:13:40.080
 Item F, receive a report and hold a discussion regarding an update on sidewalk projects and

01:13:40.080 --> 01:13:57.960
 future priorities of the Department of Capital Projects/Engineering Sidewalk Work Plan.

01:13:57.960 --> 01:13:58.960
 All right.

01:13:58.960 --> 01:14:02.520
 Thank you, Nathan George, Bicycle Pedestrian and ADA Planner for the City.

01:14:02.520 --> 01:14:06.560
 I'm going to talk to you about our sidewalk work plan.

01:14:06.560 --> 01:14:12.120
 For the purposes of presentation, I included a link in our AIS for this item that will

01:14:12.120 --> 01:14:14.280
 take you to the web page that I have on the screen.

01:14:14.280 --> 01:14:17.840
 It is an ESRI story map, so we're going to walk through a lot of information.

01:14:17.840 --> 01:14:22.760
 I'm not going to read through this word for word because that's not how I present, but

01:14:22.760 --> 01:14:28.280
 the key feature that I want to highlight here is that we have a lot of data, and so this

01:14:28.280 --> 01:14:31.720
 is a good format for us to share that data in an interactive format.

01:14:31.720 --> 01:14:34.520
 I'll walk through that as we get into the presentation.

01:14:34.520 --> 01:14:37.040
 The subject is our sidewalk work plan.

01:14:37.040 --> 01:14:39.480
 How are we going to get sidewalks built around the city?

01:14:39.480 --> 01:14:45.280
 Clearly we've got a lot of need, so why are we talking about a sidewalk work plan?

01:14:45.280 --> 01:14:51.840
 Well, clearly, folks like to walk, and they prefer, generally, to walk away from cars,

01:14:51.840 --> 01:14:54.320
 and sidewalks are a facility that allows folks to do that.

01:14:54.320 --> 01:14:58.440
 It's an enjoyable way to get around, but we can't just go out tomorrow and start building

01:14:58.440 --> 01:15:03.220
 sidewalks everywhere in the city, so we do need to outline a plan for where we're going

01:15:03.220 --> 01:15:05.800
 to build sidewalks and work through that process.

01:15:05.800 --> 01:15:11.200
 I'll highlight some of the features of how we get there as we go through the presentation,

01:15:11.200 --> 01:15:17.160
 but generally speaking, folks do enjoy walking, and we need to have a plan.

01:15:17.160 --> 01:15:22.560
 We do have a long-range plan that guides overall what our vision is for the city, and that's

01:15:22.560 --> 01:15:23.560
 our mobility plan.

01:15:23.560 --> 01:15:28.320
 It outlines where we're going to accommodate cars, bikes, and pedestrians, all the travel

01:15:28.320 --> 01:15:35.720
 modes, and that's a very great plan for the future, but a plan for sidewalks specifically

01:15:35.720 --> 01:15:40.880
 is how we're going to deliver those projects that are necessary to get sidewalks into our

01:15:40.880 --> 01:15:41.880
 different parts of our community.

01:15:41.880 --> 01:15:44.960
 I just wanted to acknowledge that we do have that plan.

01:15:44.960 --> 01:15:48.920
 It takes plans like this that offer that more fine-grained detail of where we're actually

01:15:48.920 --> 01:15:56.920
 going to build sidewalks, so that's how clearly, as we're looking at our streets, there are

01:15:56.920 --> 01:16:00.600
 needs, and where do we need sidewalks?

01:16:00.600 --> 01:16:06.360
 Generally, as I've spoken with this committee before when I first joined the city, it's

01:16:06.360 --> 01:16:09.760
 generally preferred to have sidewalks on both sides of our urban streets.

01:16:09.760 --> 01:16:12.040
 There are exceptions to that rule.

01:16:12.040 --> 01:16:15.840
 Maybe a lower-volume street, we don't need to have a sidewalk on both sides of the street.

01:16:15.840 --> 01:16:19.080
 At a low enough volume, maybe a sidewalk isn't even needed.

01:16:19.080 --> 01:16:23.760
 At a low enough stress level, not a lot of cars on the street, it's comfortable to walk,

01:16:23.760 --> 01:16:27.360
 but generally speaking, we want sidewalks on both sides of the street, and then there

01:16:27.360 --> 01:16:32.120
 are some character differences, so a street may be more rural, and so maybe instead of

01:16:32.120 --> 01:16:35.480
 a sidewalk, we might prefer a side path or shoulders.

01:16:35.480 --> 01:16:41.160
 There are varying levels of pedestrian accommodation that need to be acknowledged, but generally

01:16:41.160 --> 01:16:45.720
 speaking, as we talk about city streets, we want to have facilities on both sides of the

01:16:45.720 --> 01:16:48.800
 street.

01:16:48.800 --> 01:16:54.640
 Another important acknowledgement is not every street in the city is a city street.

01:16:54.640 --> 01:17:00.120
 We do own the streets that are shown in blue on this map, and I'll click here to take

01:17:00.120 --> 01:17:02.120
 that icon away.

01:17:02.120 --> 01:17:05.480
 The blue streets are city streets, but there are also streets that are owned by the state,

01:17:05.480 --> 01:17:09.640
 Texas or TxDOT, shown in red, and then there are also streets that are owned by Denton

01:17:09.640 --> 01:17:13.640
 County, shown in purple.

01:17:13.640 --> 01:17:17.440
 That's an important acknowledgement that just like we can't go out and start building sidewalks

01:17:17.440 --> 01:17:21.520
 tomorrow everywhere in the city, we also need to work with our partners as we're looking

01:17:21.520 --> 01:17:26.280
 at those streets to make sure that everybody's of a common understanding before we get started

01:17:26.280 --> 01:17:27.640
 on sidewalk projects.

01:17:27.640 --> 01:17:31.640
 I'm going to pause here for a moment just to highlight some of the features, the interactive

01:17:31.640 --> 01:17:33.800
 features of the mapping.

01:17:33.800 --> 01:17:40.040
 First, there is the ability to search in the city using the icon that looks like a magnifying

01:17:40.040 --> 01:17:45.600
 glass so we can look at an address in the city, and it'll zoom you right there.

01:17:45.600 --> 01:17:50.960
 There's also an interactive legend that allows you to turn on or off any specific layers

01:17:50.960 --> 01:17:51.960
 of interest.

01:17:51.960 --> 01:18:00.260
 It's a really handy feature that you can isolate where we have TxDOT or county or city roads.

01:18:00.260 --> 01:18:05.920
 That's a feature that's used in this map, but it will be a bit more beneficial in subsequent

01:18:05.920 --> 01:18:06.920
 maps.

01:18:06.920 --> 01:18:11.560
 I just wanted to highlight some of those features for anybody who wants to interact with that

01:18:11.560 --> 01:18:12.560
 tool.

01:18:12.560 --> 01:18:17.160
 All right, so how did the staff develop this sidewalk park plan?

01:18:17.160 --> 01:18:19.040
 This has been an iterative process.

01:18:19.040 --> 01:18:21.200
 It's not something that's just happened overnight.

01:18:21.200 --> 01:18:23.840
 Sidewalks have been in development for years.

01:18:23.840 --> 01:18:30.040
 So initially, a lot of these projects were identified and then screened through a process

01:18:30.040 --> 01:18:33.520
 that we call the Pedestrian Potential Index, or PPI.

01:18:33.520 --> 01:18:38.880
 I'm certain you've probably heard of that before, but just a reminder, Pedestrian Potential

01:18:38.880 --> 01:18:44.600
 Index is a measure of where we'd expect to see high levels of pedestrian activity.

01:18:44.600 --> 01:18:49.720
 We also recently completed an ADA transition plan, which gives us a lot of robust data.

01:18:49.720 --> 01:18:56.640
 This entire platform's built using that ADA transition data, which is really rich data.

01:18:56.640 --> 01:19:01.160
 I'll show you that once we get into the maps.

01:19:01.160 --> 01:19:06.540
 The PPI is a way that we can look at these areas where needs occur and then start looking

01:19:06.540 --> 01:19:12.040
 at where the needs align with where those gaps are.

01:19:12.040 --> 01:19:17.320
 So I'm going to go through these Pedestrian Potential Index indicators, and then we'll

01:19:17.320 --> 01:19:19.920
 dive into the data.

01:19:19.920 --> 01:19:26.960
 All right, so to rank each sidewalk segment, we looked at a variety of factors.

01:19:26.960 --> 01:19:28.440
 Some of these factors have changed over time.

01:19:28.440 --> 01:19:32.920
 I'll give you one highlight towards the end, but to walk you through each one specifically,

01:19:32.920 --> 01:19:34.480
 the first is major streets.

01:19:34.480 --> 01:19:38.920
 So pedestrians tend to travel like drivers in the most direct route.

01:19:38.920 --> 01:19:42.760
 Our public major streets tend to be the most direct and connected routes.

01:19:42.760 --> 01:19:49.820
 So each of the sidewalk needs was given a point if they occurred along a major street.

01:19:49.820 --> 01:19:57.320
 So these are our like Loop 288, McKinney Street, Carrable Boulevard major streets in the city.

01:19:57.320 --> 01:19:58.400
 Schools.

01:19:58.400 --> 01:20:03.640
 So schools and students represent a large percentage of our population who aren't able

01:20:03.640 --> 01:20:05.200
 to drive.

01:20:05.200 --> 01:20:10.520
 So our students are certainly potential users, and as they want to express some independence,

01:20:10.520 --> 01:20:15.400
 walk to school, that sort of thing, they're certainly a user that we want to accommodate

01:20:15.400 --> 01:20:16.480
 safely.

01:20:16.480 --> 01:20:22.680
 So sidewalks around schools, specifically our great public schools, that is definitely

01:20:22.680 --> 01:20:23.680
 a need.

01:20:23.680 --> 01:20:25.520
 So we've given a point to them.

01:20:25.520 --> 01:20:26.520
 Government facilities.

01:20:26.520 --> 01:20:31.000
 So this is a factor in our ADA transition plan, and we want to acknowledge that as we're

01:20:31.000 --> 01:20:36.520
 looking at needs for sidewalks to make sure that those public facilities, our city buildings,

01:20:36.520 --> 01:20:41.240
 the park trails, places like that, public libraries, those are places people will want

01:20:41.240 --> 01:20:42.240
 to go to.

01:20:42.240 --> 01:20:46.280
 They're public assets, so we want to make sure they're well connected.

01:20:46.280 --> 01:20:47.560
 And then there's everything else.

01:20:47.560 --> 01:20:51.880
 The points of interest is how I labeled this, but effectively this is your medical office

01:20:51.880 --> 01:20:55.760
 buildings, your shopping, dining, all the other places that people can go to.

01:20:55.760 --> 01:20:59.800
 We have a really rich data set around that as well.

01:20:59.800 --> 01:21:02.660
 So making sure that we acknowledge as people want to get out of their community and walk

01:21:02.660 --> 01:21:09.360
 to places, these are the places that really attract our pedestrian activity.

01:21:09.360 --> 01:21:13.240
 And then the final data point to highlight is safety.

01:21:13.240 --> 01:21:18.600
 So pedestrian collisions tell us where something isn't working.

01:21:18.600 --> 01:21:23.200
 And so it draws our attention to a need to address safety and make sure that folks can

01:21:23.200 --> 01:21:26.920
 get through walking on city streets safely.

01:21:26.920 --> 01:21:34.020
 So we certainly want to look at those locations specifically to see is there a need to address

01:21:34.020 --> 01:21:37.080
 some disconnect.

01:21:37.080 --> 01:21:43.280
 So the process of developing this work plan initially, like I said, it was very manual

01:21:43.280 --> 01:21:50.440
 of looking at a need and identifying a rank and then pairing all of those identified needs

01:21:50.440 --> 01:21:53.920
 to develop a capital program or the sidewalk work plan.

01:21:53.920 --> 01:21:57.880
 So everything, you add up all the checks, you get a number of the PPI score, and then

01:21:57.880 --> 01:21:59.640
 make sure that you have budget to build.

01:21:59.640 --> 01:22:00.640
 No, we already have a process.

01:22:00.640 --> 01:22:02.560
 You just respond to the squeakiest wheel.

01:22:02.560 --> 01:22:03.560
 I'm kidding.

01:22:03.560 --> 01:22:04.560
 Keep going.

01:22:04.560 --> 01:22:05.560
 Never mind.

01:22:05.560 --> 01:22:09.280
 So that's, you know, that was the process that was used before.

01:22:09.280 --> 01:22:12.960
 We're going to talk through how we're accelerating that by using this rich data that we've got

01:22:12.960 --> 01:22:15.020
 through the ADA transition plan.

01:22:15.020 --> 01:22:16.920
 So I have two maps that I'll walk through next.

01:22:16.920 --> 01:22:20.920
 I wanted to pause for a moment and give you an opportunity if you have any questions,

01:22:20.920 --> 01:22:23.880
 you can go through this methodology part.

01:22:23.880 --> 01:22:27.120
 Initially, if not, I can jump right into the data.

01:22:27.120 --> 01:22:31.120
 All right, let's do it.

01:22:31.120 --> 01:22:32.200
 All right.

01:22:32.200 --> 01:22:38.600
 So first, we're going to look at the current projects in the 2021 to 2024 time frame.

01:22:38.600 --> 01:22:42.000
 So these are projects that are currently ongoing in delivery, right?

01:22:42.000 --> 01:22:44.940
 Some are in construction, some have been completed.

01:22:44.940 --> 01:22:49.320
 And then there are those out years that haven't gone to construction yet, but have been designed

01:22:49.320 --> 01:22:52.520
 or will be designed in the next few years.

01:22:52.520 --> 01:22:56.120
 It's important to acknowledge that the purpose of this presentation is to talk about new

01:22:56.120 --> 01:22:58.360
 sidewalks and not ADA transitions.

01:22:58.360 --> 01:23:05.120
 So if it's an existing sidewalk, that's not specifically discussed in this presentation,

01:23:05.120 --> 01:23:11.640
 but we are completing a parallel process to look at sidewalk needs of our existing but

01:23:11.640 --> 01:23:14.680
 out of date or out of standard facilities.

01:23:14.680 --> 01:23:17.120
 So that's something we're looking at separately.

01:23:17.120 --> 01:23:18.440
 All right.

01:23:18.440 --> 01:23:20.160
 So first, our sidewalk projects.

01:23:20.160 --> 01:23:22.400
 So this is sidewalk projects around the city.

01:23:22.400 --> 01:23:27.800
 Again, like I said, this interactive map is really the feature of it that's really helpful

01:23:27.800 --> 01:23:30.880
 is you can isolate data that you want to look at.

01:23:30.880 --> 01:23:34.880
 In the case of projects, you may not want to see the existing, so turning that off is

01:23:34.880 --> 01:23:36.640
 really helpful.

01:23:36.640 --> 01:23:40.360
 And that allows us to look at where are these sidewalk projects around the city.

01:23:40.360 --> 01:23:45.460
 We can also turn off the trails, but we included trails to show that connectivity with other

01:23:45.460 --> 01:23:48.000
 existing facilities around the city.

01:23:48.000 --> 01:23:52.840
 And then you really get an idea of where are those projects being delivered.

01:23:52.840 --> 01:23:57.000
 It's also these projects, some of them are standalone.

01:23:57.000 --> 01:24:02.000
 Some of the projects are also where we've identified where an existing capital project

01:24:02.000 --> 01:24:04.320
 is delivering new sidewalks.

01:24:04.320 --> 01:24:06.040
 So wanted to highlight that as well.

01:24:06.040 --> 01:24:11.680
 When I talked about the richness of the data, a lot of times when we've delivered, when

01:24:11.680 --> 01:24:15.320
 we talk about projects, we're looking at them as like a center line mile.

01:24:15.320 --> 01:24:20.920
 So here's the center of the street and we're going to build a sidewalk from this street

01:24:20.920 --> 01:24:21.920
 to that street.

01:24:21.920 --> 01:24:26.340
 But you can't really understand kind of which side of the street, where is that sidewalk

01:24:26.340 --> 01:24:27.340
 going to be.

01:24:27.340 --> 01:24:31.000
 And this data is actually, where does the sidewalk start?

01:24:31.000 --> 01:24:32.000
 Where does it end?

01:24:32.000 --> 01:24:35.000
 It was built around all of those existing features.

01:24:35.000 --> 01:24:37.200
 So ramps are included in that data.

01:24:37.200 --> 01:24:42.080
 So now we can really look at does a sidewalk get built on the east side of the road or

01:24:42.080 --> 01:24:44.200
 the west or both.

01:24:44.200 --> 01:24:47.640
 So it's really helpful to have that sort of level of data.

01:24:47.640 --> 01:24:53.240
 So then as we look at cost information on a staff level, we can see which side of the

01:24:53.240 --> 01:24:57.920
 street, how much sidewalk is it, how many ramps, how many driveways, the nitty gritty

01:24:57.920 --> 01:25:00.160
 details that we need to look at for cost.

01:25:00.160 --> 01:25:03.260
 But it's also very beneficial from a public perspective.

01:25:03.260 --> 01:25:09.000
 If we're talking about a project, say the Belle Avenue sidewalk along the east side

01:25:09.000 --> 01:25:13.600
 of the street, it's clear the west side has a sidewalk and the east side is where we're

01:25:13.600 --> 01:25:14.600
 delivering a project.

01:25:14.600 --> 01:25:17.760
 And that's really helpful information if you want to get into the specifics.

01:25:17.760 --> 01:25:20.000
 How did all this data get in there?

01:25:20.000 --> 01:25:21.000
 Sorry?

01:25:21.000 --> 01:25:22.000
 Yeah.

01:25:22.000 --> 01:25:23.760
 How did all this data get in there?

01:25:23.760 --> 01:25:26.360
 It looks like naturally everything is there.

01:25:26.360 --> 01:25:32.000
 It was a lot of hard work done by our consultants who delivered the transition plan.

01:25:32.000 --> 01:25:35.960
 And then I've been playing with the data pretty much ever since I got here.

01:25:35.960 --> 01:25:36.960
 Cool.

01:25:36.960 --> 01:25:39.920
 And yes, it's a rich, lots of data.

01:25:39.920 --> 01:25:52.160
 So hopefully that gives you an idea of where we're currently working.

01:25:52.160 --> 01:25:56.120
 These are where the projects that are currently being delivered over the next handful of years,

01:25:56.120 --> 01:26:00.880
 we have a set-aside capital amount of our bond funds that go into these capital projects.

01:26:00.880 --> 01:26:05.600
 And so this is where those projects are being delivered along with existing capital projects,

01:26:05.600 --> 01:26:11.740
 some of our street widenings that are delivering sidewalks as well.

01:26:11.740 --> 01:26:15.760
 Moving on.

01:26:15.760 --> 01:26:21.400
 So the next step is to identify where we're going to focus our attention in the years,

01:26:21.400 --> 01:26:23.460
 the next set of funded projects.

01:26:23.460 --> 01:26:31.160
 And so the PPI, the purpose is to look at where do we have the greatest potential for

01:26:31.160 --> 01:26:36.760
 pedestrian activity that allows us as staff to look at those areas specifically and try

01:26:36.760 --> 01:26:43.880
 to identify where should we allocate resources to build the next round of sidewalks.

01:26:43.880 --> 01:26:48.440
 Could you remind us, and I'm sure you just said it 10 minutes ago, but what drives the

01:26:48.440 --> 01:26:51.240
 PPI, what data inputs drive it?

01:26:51.240 --> 01:26:52.240
 Yeah.

01:26:52.240 --> 01:26:58.760
 So it's a nearness, a proximity of those different variables like schools and parks

01:26:58.760 --> 01:27:02.160
 and safety, like where crashes occurred.

01:27:02.160 --> 01:27:08.720
 So we take all of this data and layer it with a buffer to each of those elements.

01:27:08.720 --> 01:27:15.440
 So it'd be like, you know, city hall and within set distance to like a quarter mile, typically,

01:27:15.440 --> 01:27:19.460
 and any of these features that are within that quarter mile that would get a point.

01:27:19.460 --> 01:27:26.040
 So it's just a GIS analysis where you say, I want to know everything, every sidewalk

01:27:26.040 --> 01:27:30.000
 that's within the set distance, and then I give it points, accumulate the points, and

01:27:30.000 --> 01:27:31.000
 it gives you the PPI score.

01:27:31.000 --> 01:27:36.000
 So proximity to things on my drive traffic or pedestrian traffic, and then how does the

01:27:36.000 --> 01:27:38.520
 safety piece feed into it?

01:27:38.520 --> 01:27:43.640
 So each one of those variables gets points, gets a ranked point.

01:27:43.640 --> 01:27:54.700
 Actually if I click on one of these lines, I think it would give you each of those scores.

01:27:54.700 --> 01:28:02.360
 So we have mobility major, these are major streets, so this particular street was along

01:28:02.360 --> 01:28:08.160
 a major route, it's an existing sidewalk gap, it was within a quarter mile of a government

01:28:08.160 --> 01:28:15.160
 facility, there are points of interest, and there was a crash that occurred within a tenth

01:28:15.160 --> 01:28:16.160
 of a mile.

01:28:16.160 --> 01:28:21.040
 And so the accumulation of all of those drives up to the PPI score of five for the segment

01:28:21.040 --> 01:28:22.040
 that I just identified.

01:28:22.040 --> 01:28:23.040
 Really cool.

01:28:23.040 --> 01:28:27.640
 So it's sort of this layering of a lot of data and a lot of calculation, and then the

01:28:27.640 --> 01:28:34.600
 results yielded are these PPI scores, which the data, these are just numbers.

01:28:34.600 --> 01:28:38.120
 We could certainly play with the methodology, we could apply weighting, but...

01:28:38.120 --> 01:28:42.560
 I just want to understand what you're doing, that's great.

01:28:42.560 --> 01:28:47.600
 Looking at the results, I've been pretty happy to see, you know, one of the things that I'm

01:28:47.600 --> 01:28:53.000
 looking for as I look at this data is to make sure that it's not inequitably applying a

01:28:53.000 --> 01:28:57.980
 lot of priority to downtown or to a place that, you know, we don't want to see the data

01:28:57.980 --> 01:29:05.360
 driving us just to one spot, and there's certainly a range of areas that we see are higher priorities,

01:29:05.360 --> 01:29:09.680
 some along our major streets, some in areas where we have a combination of, like, parks

01:29:09.680 --> 01:29:14.680
 and schools, so that gives us a little more priority of our neighborhood areas that we

01:29:14.680 --> 01:29:21.040
 might want to prioritize for sidewalks, and really the goal is that it tells us where

01:29:21.040 --> 01:29:28.320
 to focus our most direct attention, these higher PPI scores, but then, so I'll move

01:29:28.320 --> 01:29:34.080
 into the rest of the presentation and then we can jump back to this map if it would help

01:29:34.080 --> 01:29:35.080
 for discussion.

01:29:35.080 --> 01:29:39.760
 You know, what's next, what do we do with all this data?

01:29:39.760 --> 01:29:46.440
 So the data tells a story, but we still have to apply some critical thinking to determine

01:29:46.440 --> 01:29:51.000
 where to build the next set of sidewalks, the first part of that is just identifying

01:29:51.000 --> 01:29:52.280
 or the project selection.

01:29:52.280 --> 01:29:57.960
 So typically you run this level of analysis, look at the highest scoring, and then start

01:29:57.960 --> 01:30:05.320
 to apply some other factors to identify where do we want to focus on the next set of sidewalks.

01:30:05.320 --> 01:30:10.280
 Once we've identified a few sidewalks that we think are probably our next priorities,

01:30:10.280 --> 01:30:16.120
 we still have to go through a degree of feasibility evaluations that's looking at, do we have

01:30:16.120 --> 01:30:21.680
 right of way, are we going to run into significant obstacles, things like major utilities that

01:30:21.680 --> 01:30:29.120
 would require relocation, would it be necessary to build a wall, things that are very costly

01:30:29.120 --> 01:30:30.120
 improvements.

01:30:30.120 --> 01:30:35.680
 It's not to say that we won't still work in an area that has a lot of those challenges,

01:30:35.680 --> 01:30:41.000
 but it's, you know, we iterate a lot as we work through developing programs like this,

01:30:41.000 --> 01:30:45.760
 so you may identify a significant challenge and find a way to work around that challenge

01:30:45.760 --> 01:30:49.880
 by, you know, this image example comes from Carroll Boulevard.

01:30:49.880 --> 01:30:53.400
 We may be able to work on a parallel street if we're in a gridded network of streets

01:30:53.400 --> 01:30:59.440
 and accommodate that travel, you know, very short distance, a block away, so, you know,

01:30:59.440 --> 01:31:04.400
 looking at feasibility and balancing priorities and making sure that we're achieving that

01:31:04.400 --> 01:31:08.040
 connectivity objective.

01:31:08.040 --> 01:31:12.320
 Once we've identified segments that are feasible, we still need to go through a design process

01:31:12.320 --> 01:31:16.580
 because, again, we can't just go out with shovels and dump trucks and start building

01:31:16.580 --> 01:31:21.880
 things, so we still need to go through a design process, make sure that everything is balanced

01:31:21.880 --> 01:31:29.080
 from a budget perspective, so we're looking at projects and making sure that we're identifying

01:31:29.080 --> 01:31:36.640
 priorities and building out a program that fits within a set budget.

01:31:36.640 --> 01:31:42.320
 And just to give you guys an idea of what all of this means, we're a little cut off

01:31:42.320 --> 01:31:43.320
 here.

01:31:43.320 --> 01:31:46.880
 Let's see if I can isolate that, there we go.

01:31:46.880 --> 01:31:49.840
 So the summary, what's the overall need?

01:31:49.840 --> 01:31:57.880
 So across the city we have almost 450 miles of sidewalk needs, this is just city, it doesn't

01:31:57.880 --> 01:32:04.400
 include the tech stop or county roadways, but if you break that down into the PPI scores,

01:32:04.400 --> 01:32:11.280
 you see that the areas that have a really high potential pedestrian activity level are

01:32:11.280 --> 01:32:17.480
 small numbers, about a half mile on our highest ranked sidewalks based on this evaluation,

01:32:17.480 --> 01:32:22.160
 then five miles and it continues to grow as we reduce the priority.

01:32:22.160 --> 01:32:26.640
 So that is the ultimate goal of an evaluation like this is to have small numbers at the

01:32:26.640 --> 01:32:29.800
 top so we can focus our attention in those areas.

01:32:29.800 --> 01:32:36.120
 We certainly would pick up any lower ranked sidewalks that may provide a mobility benefit,

01:32:36.120 --> 01:32:42.320
 connecting a network so we don't leave gaps, that sort of thing, but the outcome of this

01:32:42.320 --> 01:32:48.800
 process was really that we can focus in these higher ranked areas and look for the sidewalk

01:32:48.800 --> 01:32:52.760
 segments that we can really achieve those desired outcomes.

01:32:52.760 --> 01:32:58.920
 So that to me says we've got some good results from this analysis, it's not to say we'll

01:32:58.920 --> 01:33:07.860
 just go build the sixes and fives tomorrow, but that's where we're gonna look at first.

01:33:07.860 --> 01:33:18.880
 And then to wrap it all up, this is information that was put out on Discuss Denton to share

01:33:18.880 --> 01:33:24.880
 with the public where we're working on sidewalk projects, so the goal of this presentation

01:33:24.880 --> 01:33:29.180
 or these materials is to continue to drive that conversation.

01:33:29.180 --> 01:33:33.280
 Folks can see where those sidewalk projects are and now we have a map that shows exactly

01:33:33.280 --> 01:33:37.400
 where they are, which side of the street, where they start and end, but also kind of

01:33:37.400 --> 01:33:44.000
 where are the priorities, what's scoring the best, and so continuing to drive everyone

01:33:44.000 --> 01:33:51.600
 to Discuss Denton to continue this dialogue because we talk a lot about living documents,

01:33:51.600 --> 01:33:57.080
 this is living data, we're gonna use this data in an ongoing process to identify projects

01:33:57.080 --> 01:34:02.160
 and deliver the next round of sidewalk improvements around the city, and then we'll have also

01:34:02.160 --> 01:34:07.240
 a conversation around budget and how we're gonna accelerate getting more sidewalks built

01:34:07.240 --> 01:34:08.840
 throughout the city.

01:34:08.840 --> 01:34:13.520
 That concludes the presentation, I'll be happy to answer questions or dive into any of this

01:34:13.520 --> 01:34:16.360
 material as you see fit.

01:34:16.360 --> 01:34:26.840
 - Yeah, so first of all, thank you so much for this, this is, what a fantastic visualization

01:34:26.840 --> 01:34:33.920
 of how these priorities are working out and I think it's very clear, should be very clear

01:34:33.920 --> 01:34:41.800
 to the community now that this isn't happening in a haphazard way, that there's a lot of

01:34:41.800 --> 01:34:48.880
 thought going into how the city is prioritizing these sidewalk projects.

01:34:48.880 --> 01:34:53.680
 I'm sure that there are, if there's anybody out there listening, I know this isn't like

01:34:53.680 --> 01:34:58.880
 a council meeting, so I don't know how many folks might be out there listening, but folks

01:34:58.880 --> 01:35:03.940
 out there listening might be wondering and I'm certainly thinking, it would be great

01:35:03.940 --> 01:35:10.120
 to see, if we could see an expansion of these projects coming up the next few years or an

01:35:10.120 --> 01:35:18.400
 acceleration of the timeline and you bring up very important points about how capital

01:35:18.400 --> 01:35:24.360
 projects are inherently slow moving because there are so many steps that have to be worked

01:35:24.360 --> 01:35:27.760
 through in order to make them happen.

01:35:27.760 --> 01:35:32.440
 And of course, funding capital projects are inherently expensive.

01:35:32.440 --> 01:35:38.200
 The city has to purchase right of way in order to get the right to build sidewalks in certain

01:35:38.200 --> 01:35:43.560
 areas and then the design and the construction requires a great deal of funding.

01:35:43.560 --> 01:35:48.760
 I was wondering if you could speak a little bit to the sources of funding that are typically

01:35:48.760 --> 01:35:50.880
 drawn upon for sidewalk projects.

01:35:50.880 --> 01:35:55.760
 Are they different from the sources of funding for other capital projects?

01:35:55.760 --> 01:36:02.260
 Can you kind of give a thousand foot view of funding for these projects?

01:36:02.260 --> 01:36:05.040
 I may defer to our leadership.

01:36:05.040 --> 01:36:09.800
 I can tell you that we do have a set aside amount of funds for the sidewalk projects

01:36:09.800 --> 01:36:16.960
 that I highlighted in that map, which I believe is $2 million out of a bond fund.

01:36:16.960 --> 01:36:19.520
 And anything beyond that, I'll let Rachel speak up.

01:36:19.520 --> 01:36:20.520
 Sure.

01:36:20.520 --> 01:36:22.820
 So we actually have several sources that fund sidewalks.

01:36:22.820 --> 01:36:26.520
 Of course, anytime we have a major roadway reconstruction project, sidewalks are going

01:36:26.520 --> 01:36:29.680
 to be a component of that roadway CIP.

01:36:29.680 --> 01:36:35.700
 We also had $12 million included in the 2019 bond program, specifically for sidewalks.

01:36:35.700 --> 01:36:39.280
 And in addition to that, we're augmenting it with other sources, including what Robin

01:36:39.280 --> 01:36:44.840
 just presented on the TRIP program and then other Safe Routes to School cog-funded projects.

01:36:44.840 --> 01:36:48.640
 So we do have several different sources, but if it's tied to a roadway project, we use

01:36:48.640 --> 01:36:53.400
 the project budget and the source for those funds to include the sidewalk as well.

01:36:53.400 --> 01:36:54.400
 All right.

01:36:54.400 --> 01:36:55.400
 Thank you so much.

01:36:55.400 --> 01:37:01.080
 And for the public listening, that's franchise fees, impact fees are the primary funding

01:37:01.080 --> 01:37:14.560
 sources for roadway capital improvement projects, right?

01:37:14.560 --> 01:37:18.720
 There are some impact fees that are used for roadway projects, but the majority of the

01:37:18.720 --> 01:37:22.880
 projects that we're delivering right now are through capital programs.

01:37:22.880 --> 01:37:26.720
 And a lot of the projects that we have currently are through the bond actual programs, so the

01:37:26.720 --> 01:37:30.720
 2012, 2014, and 2019 bond program.

01:37:30.720 --> 01:37:32.680
 Thank you.

01:37:32.680 --> 01:37:40.080
 So if I may offer a suggestion, and I concur with the impressive amount of Iowa option

01:37:40.080 --> 01:37:41.080
 in this.

01:37:41.080 --> 01:37:46.600
 It's very slick and I think makes it very accessible.

01:37:46.600 --> 01:37:52.720
 On the map, and I appreciate the fact very much that it's analytically driven.

01:37:52.720 --> 01:37:57.480
 And with the kind of objective criteria, I've made a little joke before about, "No, we just

01:37:57.480 --> 01:38:03.040
 respond to the squeakiest wheel," and that used to actually be the method.

01:38:03.040 --> 01:38:09.880
 So it's much fairer to kind of apply arm's length standards.

01:38:09.880 --> 01:38:20.920
 I do, however, notice that Southeast Denton, which unfortunately has a history within the

01:38:20.920 --> 01:38:27.480
 lifetime of people living in the city, of some pretty heinous neglect on the capital

01:38:27.480 --> 01:38:29.640
 investment front.

01:38:29.640 --> 01:38:34.840
 And I would just say, it's unfortunate that Councilmember Burt couldn't be here today,

01:38:34.840 --> 01:38:38.680
 but it would be worth taking the extra step to sit with her, just see if there's anything

01:38:38.680 --> 01:38:45.680
 that was overlooked that might be a driver of priority, because it kind of stands out

01:38:45.680 --> 01:38:49.360
 as being like all yellow, all low priority.

01:38:49.360 --> 01:38:56.440
 And there might be factors that maybe, you know, you might need a kind of closer understanding

01:38:56.440 --> 01:39:02.560
 of what drives activity at the neighborhood level.

01:39:02.560 --> 01:39:04.640
 So I think it's just worth the extra step to check in.

01:39:04.640 --> 01:39:11.600
 Yeah, to offer a few thoughts on that, I mentioned that when I was going through those priority

01:39:11.600 --> 01:39:17.680
 indicators that one data point that was left out is transit, which is, you know, clearly

01:39:17.680 --> 01:39:22.800
 we want to be prioritizing accessibility around our fixed route transit.

01:39:22.800 --> 01:39:27.520
 We've already heard there are a lot of questions around what that's going to look like in the

01:39:27.520 --> 01:39:28.520
 future.

01:39:28.520 --> 01:39:32.680
 So that's a layer of evaluation that's not in this current analysis.

01:39:32.680 --> 01:39:41.200
 And we want to revisit that once we understand what transit looks like after DCTA's stamped

01:39:41.200 --> 01:39:42.200
 that out.

01:39:42.200 --> 01:39:45.920
 You know, you've identified sort of points of interest in government buildings as drivers,

01:39:45.920 --> 01:39:52.320
 and they may be under they may, in fact, be under invested in that neighborhood, you know,

01:39:52.320 --> 01:39:55.240
 in points of interest in government things, but other things might drive traffic.

01:39:55.240 --> 01:39:58.660
 I don't know that there are any that there are any factors like that.

01:39:58.660 --> 01:39:59.660
 Just more of the extra step.

01:39:59.660 --> 01:40:00.660
 That's all I'd say.

01:40:00.660 --> 01:40:04.200
 But and I take your point on, you know, that that being one, but even what's the point

01:40:04.200 --> 01:40:09.000
 of interest, you know, I just don't know.

01:40:09.000 --> 01:40:12.640
 You know, I would just add to that, you know, obviously, there's a lot that's up in the

01:40:12.640 --> 01:40:17.520
 air with the fixed bus routes, but the downtown transit center isn't going anywhere, right?

01:40:17.520 --> 01:40:22.280
 So that's I mean, that should absolutely be is that considered a point of interest or

01:40:22.280 --> 01:40:24.840
 public facility under your current framework?

01:40:24.840 --> 01:40:25.840
 It is.

01:40:25.840 --> 01:40:26.840
 Yeah.

01:40:26.840 --> 01:40:31.120
 The points of interest is probably 4000 or more points of data.

01:40:31.120 --> 01:40:35.240
 So it's, you know, it's a broad category, if you look at a heat map, it sort of follows

01:40:35.240 --> 01:40:42.120
 the major roads and you can it's sort of logical, it gets drilled down to home based residences.

01:40:42.120 --> 01:40:47.200
 So it's such a rich data set that we actually can start to peel out what's the most important

01:40:47.200 --> 01:40:50.520
 and maybe give a little higher weighting to some of those.

01:40:50.520 --> 01:40:54.880
 Another layer that would be nice to look at as the data becomes available is the next

01:40:54.880 --> 01:40:59.400
 round of census data, because that will give us the opportunity to look at maybe some measures

01:40:59.400 --> 01:41:01.480
 of equity.

01:41:01.480 --> 01:41:06.520
 So as that data comes out through the Census Bureau, that'll be another layer that we can

01:41:06.520 --> 01:41:08.920
 look at or another lens that we can apply.

01:41:08.920 --> 01:41:13.160
 And then there are some other ways we might look at, you know, Safe Routes to School is

01:41:13.160 --> 01:41:19.320
 certainly a tool that Rachel touched on that we could look at specifically based on that

01:41:19.320 --> 01:41:20.320
 funding source.

01:41:20.320 --> 01:41:24.880
 So we'll look at those at funding and pair that with need so we can identify projects

01:41:24.880 --> 01:41:27.440
 based on the funding source.

01:41:27.440 --> 01:41:30.800
 Churches come to mind as possibly drivers of pedestrian traffic?

01:41:30.800 --> 01:41:35.880
 That was that was in the presentation as a point of interest.

01:41:35.880 --> 01:41:40.720
 Yeah, churches, daycare centers, there's a lot of data in that part of the data set.

01:41:40.720 --> 01:41:46.880
 And I just want to, I guess, add my support to Council Member Mayor Pro Tem Meltzer's.

01:41:46.880 --> 01:41:49.280
 Nobody is ever going to just call you Mayor Pro Tem on the first.

01:41:49.280 --> 01:41:54.800
 Yeah, no, that's actually the title, Council Member Mayor Pro Tem.

01:41:54.800 --> 01:42:00.120
 I just want to add support to Mayor Pro Tem's point about, you know, looking at equity and

01:42:00.120 --> 01:42:05.840
 taking into account those communities, particularly Southeast Denton that have historically been

01:42:05.840 --> 01:42:10.280
 under-resourced and neglected when it came to capital projects.

01:42:10.280 --> 01:42:14.960
 Yeah, one anecdote I can share because we are, like I said, looking at the ADA transition

01:42:14.960 --> 01:42:23.120
 priorities is that we had a sidewalk, part of our Southeast Denton neighborhood rebuilding,

01:42:23.120 --> 01:42:26.920
 and we had a segment of sidewalk that was really poor condition that's being delivered

01:42:26.920 --> 01:42:31.580
 as part of that capital project is to repair or replace that sidewalk and break up standards.

01:42:31.580 --> 01:42:37.680
 So there's a good alignment of this data that's not just with our new sidewalks, but it's

01:42:37.680 --> 01:42:42.400
 even catching some of those existing sidewalks that are in desperate need of repair, so I'm

01:42:42.400 --> 01:42:47.120
 seeing really good alignment with the data and really excited to start using that as

01:42:47.120 --> 01:42:53.280
 we work into our capital projects throughout the city, these sidewalk needs.

01:42:53.280 --> 01:42:58.320
 So that's been an exciting development, even as recently as two weeks ago.

01:42:58.320 --> 01:43:01.960
 Is this your first presentation before Ability Committee?

01:43:01.960 --> 01:43:02.960
 I think it is.

01:43:02.960 --> 01:43:03.960
 I mean, other than being introduced?

01:43:03.960 --> 01:43:06.920
 A very brief presentation before this first full presentation.

01:43:06.920 --> 01:43:07.920
 Yeah, okay.

01:43:07.920 --> 01:43:11.440
 Well, congratulations on your first full presentation.

01:43:11.440 --> 01:43:16.080
 I just wanted to mention that we're very pleased with the effort that Nathan and Robin Davis

01:43:16.080 --> 01:43:19.160
 has also put a lot of effort into putting this together.

01:43:19.160 --> 01:43:22.920
 I really enjoyed the way that Nathan is presenting this information.

01:43:22.920 --> 01:43:27.680
 He'll also be presenting this same presentation to the Committee on Persons with Disability

01:43:27.680 --> 01:43:29.240
 tomorrow.

01:43:29.240 --> 01:43:34.960
 And then I wanted to mention that on January 4th, and we will be having a work session

01:43:34.960 --> 01:43:40.400
 on the sidewalk work plan, the ADA transition plan, and the park trails plan.

01:43:40.400 --> 01:43:43.640
 So it'll be an overall conversation.

01:43:43.640 --> 01:43:49.320
 Wanted to bring up the 2019 bond program, as specifically you have spoken about the Southeast

01:43:49.320 --> 01:43:51.120
 Indian neighborhood.

01:43:51.120 --> 01:43:53.760
 Nathan has been a part of the design review team.

01:43:53.760 --> 01:43:59.320
 As you know, Seth Garcia is leading that bond program, and Nathan has been involved in a

01:43:59.320 --> 01:44:01.040
 lot of the conversations and questions.

01:44:01.040 --> 01:44:02.400
 He just mentioned that.

01:44:02.400 --> 01:44:06.880
 I also want to note for the bond programs, I just want to remind you that the bond programs

01:44:06.880 --> 01:44:10.020
 actually are specifically related to street programs.

01:44:10.020 --> 01:44:15.960
 So the funding that will be added to do sidewalks comes from those $2 million that are, you

01:44:15.960 --> 01:44:20.080
 know, they're separate funding buckets, so that comes from that $2 million per year.

01:44:20.080 --> 01:44:23.720
 And the first two years of that are allocated, as Nathan mentioned, on the program.

01:44:23.720 --> 01:44:25.960
 He's currently working through.

01:44:25.960 --> 01:44:28.360
 And the project, Robin's actually delivering those projects.

01:44:28.360 --> 01:44:33.160
 So just wanted to bring to your attention that, you know, we're hoping and trying our

01:44:33.160 --> 01:44:38.040
 best to make projects from a holistic approach, especially with starting with that Southeast

01:44:38.040 --> 01:44:39.040
 Indian neighborhood.

01:44:39.040 --> 01:44:44.160
 It's been very exciting to look at sidewalks and water sewer, street lighting.

01:44:44.160 --> 01:44:48.000
 You know, there's a lot of things that go into evaluating all of those project sidewalks,

01:44:48.000 --> 01:44:49.480
 definitely one.

01:44:49.480 --> 01:44:53.480
 But there is a limited amount of funding in that overall program, and that's the reason

01:44:53.480 --> 01:44:57.760
 why Nathan wanted to show you at the end, you know, the amount of actual sidewalk that

01:44:57.760 --> 01:45:03.280
 actually needs to be installed throughout the city, and that the amount currently allocated

01:45:03.280 --> 01:45:06.960
 is just $2 million per year, so that total of $12 million.

01:45:06.960 --> 01:45:11.440
 So we're going to do our best in every angle we can to fill in those gaps on some of those

01:45:11.440 --> 01:45:18.200
 high traffic areas, use the data that Nathan's put together with the PPI scores and the research

01:45:18.200 --> 01:45:22.480
 that they're actually doing on the ground out in the field to make sure that we're providing

01:45:22.480 --> 01:45:24.960
 the best connectivity we can with the funds available.

01:45:24.960 --> 01:45:25.960
 Great.

01:45:25.960 --> 01:45:29.720
 You know, this is not going to make you any friends on staff.

01:45:29.720 --> 01:45:36.640
 We're all used to doing normal PowerPoints, and now, oh, great, new guy does this really

01:45:36.640 --> 01:45:38.280
 slick colorful thing.

01:45:38.280 --> 01:45:44.960
 Well, and to the point about limited funding, again, for any, you know, citizens who might

01:45:44.960 --> 01:45:50.840
 be out there listening, it's, of course, the job of council to come up with funding.

01:45:50.840 --> 01:45:56.960
 And if we want to see these projects expanded or accelerated, then it's going to be incumbent

01:45:56.960 --> 01:46:01.480
 upon council to come up with that funding.

01:46:01.480 --> 01:46:04.320
 Point taken.

01:46:04.320 --> 01:46:10.880
 I would also add to that point, and certainly want to commend Becky and Rachel and Nathan

01:46:10.880 --> 01:46:15.680
 and everyone on the efforts for this plan, and specifically on the conversations for

01:46:15.680 --> 01:46:18.560
 Southeast Denton and the work that's gone into that.

01:46:18.560 --> 01:46:23.840
 This year, as we go into the budget, we're going to place a priority on the capital side,

01:46:23.840 --> 01:46:28.440
 bring a more formalized capital plan to you for consideration earlier in the budget process

01:46:28.440 --> 01:46:32.280
 so we can have a robust conversation, not just what are we doing next year, what are

01:46:32.280 --> 01:46:36.680
 we doing in the next five years and beyond, and some of that will lend into some of the

01:46:36.680 --> 01:46:39.920
 conversations later as we even think about what does a future bond program look like.

01:46:39.920 --> 01:46:44.000
 So we're really trying to take that long-term view and place a different emphasis on our

01:46:44.000 --> 01:46:46.320
 capital program this year in the budget process.

01:46:46.320 --> 01:46:49.640
 Looking forward to that.

01:46:49.640 --> 01:46:50.640
 Thank you so much.

01:46:50.640 --> 01:46:53.640
 Thanks for your time.

01:46:53.640 --> 01:46:56.720
 All right.

01:46:56.720 --> 01:47:01.000
 So we're up to item G. Did I miss anything?

01:47:01.000 --> 01:47:05.560
 We're up to item G. Okay, staff report.

01:47:05.560 --> 01:47:06.560
 Go ahead.

01:47:06.560 --> 01:47:12.840
 And council member Byrd specifically wanted me to make sure we hear about both more permanent

01:47:12.840 --> 01:47:19.800
 measures as well as, you know, swift measures to address speeding concerns on Curley and

01:47:19.800 --> 01:47:20.800
 Moores.

01:47:20.800 --> 01:47:21.800
 Sure.

01:47:21.800 --> 01:47:22.800
 Thank you very much.

01:47:22.800 --> 01:47:23.800
 Becky Devaney.

01:47:23.800 --> 01:47:28.400
 I just wanted to take the time to go through several of the items that have come up from

01:47:28.400 --> 01:47:33.800
 between the last meeting and this meeting, in the October meeting.

01:47:33.800 --> 01:47:39.480
 So the first question you just mentioned, Mayor Pro Tem, Chair, about the more permanent

01:47:39.480 --> 01:47:42.560
 measures to address speeding concerns on the Curley and Moores street.

01:47:42.560 --> 01:47:47.560
 I will mention that many staff were in attendance last Thursday night at a meeting with the

01:47:47.560 --> 01:47:51.400
 Suddenon neighborhood and council member Byrd where several additional questions have been

01:47:51.400 --> 01:47:53.040
 asked.

01:47:53.040 --> 01:47:57.800
 Staff is currently evaluating, and I apologize, there's a mistake.

01:47:57.800 --> 01:47:58.960
 It's not Malone Street.

01:47:58.960 --> 01:48:04.600
 It's actually Moore Street that's written in that paragraph for a potential roadway diet.

01:48:04.600 --> 01:48:08.380
 So that's one of the things that staff is currently evaluating is the possibility of

01:48:08.380 --> 01:48:14.780
 actually narrowing Moore Street and providing for additional parking, bike lanes, and actually

01:48:14.780 --> 01:48:22.320
 using street marking to provide that one-way traffic in each direction, along with looking

01:48:22.320 --> 01:48:26.620
 and evaluating for additional speed limit signs and some of those driver feedback or

01:48:26.620 --> 01:48:29.480
 notification signs in that area.

01:48:29.480 --> 01:48:33.040
 Other traffic calming measures that are being looked at specifically, I know this states

01:48:33.040 --> 01:48:37.920
 that we currently have no plans to modify the configuration of Curley Street.

01:48:37.920 --> 01:48:38.920
 That is correct.

01:48:38.920 --> 01:48:43.920
 But I will mention that, and I apologize, my voice has been coming in and out since

01:48:43.920 --> 01:48:52.200
 last week, we don't have current plans to modify the configuration, but there are several

01:48:52.200 --> 01:48:54.040
 folks in the room today.

01:48:54.040 --> 01:48:58.280
 We have folks from our fire department, also from our traffic operations department, and

01:48:58.280 --> 01:49:03.640
 then also engineering that will mention to you that we are looking at one of the major

01:49:03.640 --> 01:49:10.120
 themes that came from the southeastern meeting as we've evaluating our traffic calming devices.

01:49:10.120 --> 01:49:15.080
 And there are definitely some concerns with building actual speed bumps as they're damaging

01:49:15.080 --> 01:49:16.080
 the fire trucks.

01:49:16.080 --> 01:49:19.920
 And so we're looking at traffic cushions and several other measures in some of these

01:49:19.920 --> 01:49:22.720
 areas where we've conducted a speed study.

01:49:22.720 --> 01:49:27.380
 It does appear that there are enforcement-related issues that need to be considered, but then

01:49:27.380 --> 01:49:31.540
 also that we can look at some alternative measures such as those traffic calming.

01:49:31.540 --> 01:49:34.120
 So we're taking all of those things into consideration.

01:49:34.120 --> 01:49:38.560
 Unfortunately, we published this document prior to having that opportunity to make some

01:49:38.560 --> 01:49:43.840
 additional comments, but did want to bring up the fact that we are hearing the community,

01:49:43.840 --> 01:49:48.080
 we understand their concerns, and we are evaluating Morris and Curley to a little bit greater

01:49:48.080 --> 01:49:53.600
 degree based on some of the additional feedback we received last Thursday.

01:49:53.600 --> 01:49:57.920
 The next item was talking about the next proposed bond package to council.

01:49:57.920 --> 01:50:02.160
 I think David really kind of just touched on this item, but we're currently working

01:50:02.160 --> 01:50:06.760
 through and assessing potential projects for a future bond program.

01:50:06.760 --> 01:50:11.540
 That election would be something that would happen in fiscal year '22, '23 during that

01:50:11.540 --> 01:50:14.760
 budget process like David just mentioned.

01:50:14.760 --> 01:50:18.200
 The CIP budget planning process, we've already had one meeting.

01:50:18.200 --> 01:50:22.680
 We have another meeting, I believe it's next week, to start that kickoff of the CIP.

01:50:22.680 --> 01:50:26.920
 And then officially we'll begin through our finance capital administration team in the

01:50:26.920 --> 01:50:31.120
 December time frame under the direction of Cassie Ogden.

01:50:31.120 --> 01:50:34.800
 And that will be presented to council during that budget process, but wanted to let you

01:50:34.800 --> 01:50:40.960
 know that we're going ahead and beginning some of those next phases and next steps.

01:50:40.960 --> 01:50:46.160
 The next item I will mention is the, this was one that council member Bird brought up,

01:50:46.160 --> 01:50:49.200
 the curbing signage and tree concerns at Janey Street.

01:50:49.200 --> 01:50:55.000
 So I'm happy to report that the entire length of Janey Street is in the 2019 bond program

01:50:55.000 --> 01:50:58.120
 and Mr. Seth Garcia will be delivering that.

01:50:58.120 --> 01:51:03.320
 The curb and tree issues will be considered during those actual design sections.

01:51:03.320 --> 01:51:07.680
 And we will be coordinating with traffic operations to install that temporary signage for the

01:51:07.680 --> 01:51:10.000
 area until the construction is complete.

01:51:10.000 --> 01:51:14.520
 And for those of you who don't know who the traffic operations team is, Mr. James Andrews

01:51:14.520 --> 01:51:17.280
 is in the room with us today.

01:51:17.280 --> 01:51:19.880
 And so he is the individual that's over traffic operations.

01:51:19.880 --> 01:51:22.320
 So I wanted to take a minute to recognize him.

01:51:22.320 --> 01:51:27.200
 He does a fantastic job with helping our team throughout many items that we come up with

01:51:27.200 --> 01:51:28.800
 and many different ideas.

01:51:28.800 --> 01:51:31.840
 Sometimes he wants to tell us no, but he never says no.

01:51:31.840 --> 01:51:38.080
 And I will make mention of the fact that recently we had some concerns with a particular intersection.

01:51:38.080 --> 01:51:41.960
 He actually stayed late on a Thursday night, made sure that the stop sign, temporary stop

01:51:41.960 --> 01:51:44.080
 signs were installed on a Friday morning.

01:51:44.080 --> 01:51:48.560
 So he is a definite huge asset to our team and we're very pleased to have him.

01:51:48.560 --> 01:51:51.920
 He works underneath the leadership of Daniel Kramer.

01:51:51.920 --> 01:51:55.120
 So those temporary signage we'll be looking into.

01:51:55.120 --> 01:52:01.380
 Just to talk about the street sections, it's Janey Street from Davis to McKinney, Noble

01:52:01.380 --> 01:52:03.560
 to Paisley and then Paisley to Noble.

01:52:03.560 --> 01:52:08.200
 The reason why we break it into sections is because the bond program is typically, as

01:52:08.200 --> 01:52:09.940
 you know, it's based on block.

01:52:09.940 --> 01:52:14.520
 And so I just wanted to let you know those different block sections.

01:52:14.520 --> 01:52:18.760
 And you can see a picture here that shows those trees in the middle of the roadway.

01:52:18.760 --> 01:52:23.800
 So I understand where Councilmember Byrd had some questions as it's a very interesting

01:52:23.800 --> 01:52:25.280
 area part of town.

01:52:25.280 --> 01:52:28.880
 And I would also mention with a lot of the development in the area, as you can see on

01:52:28.880 --> 01:52:32.480
 the right-hand side of that picture, there's been some new developments.

01:52:32.480 --> 01:52:37.960
 So definitely something that we're happy to be taken care of as part of the 2019 bond

01:52:37.960 --> 01:52:39.880
 program.

01:52:39.880 --> 01:52:43.960
 The next item is the Paisley Street and Roodale Street intersection curbs.

01:52:43.960 --> 01:52:47.000
 And so it was asked about the different types of curbs.

01:52:47.000 --> 01:52:51.720
 And I wanted to mention that Paisley Street at Roodale is an older section of street that

01:52:51.720 --> 01:52:55.480
 really has never had curb and gutter installed.

01:52:55.480 --> 01:52:59.440
 Staff is currently studying the potential impacts of installing curbs and gutters.

01:52:59.440 --> 01:53:04.960
 But currently, the street department does not have a plan to execute putting any curb

01:53:04.960 --> 01:53:07.240
 and gutter in or the funding identified.

01:53:07.240 --> 01:53:12.840
 I also will mention, as you know, water flows naturally across the ground.

01:53:12.840 --> 01:53:17.440
 And so if you install curb and gutter, what's sometimes hard to remember is it also will

01:53:17.440 --> 01:53:21.800
 take into consideration infrastructure that actually has to be built underneath the roadway

01:53:21.800 --> 01:53:26.080
 to collect that water and then convey it across underneath under the ground.

01:53:26.080 --> 01:53:29.640
 So just wanted to make note of that.

01:53:29.640 --> 01:53:34.640
 There was also some questions about the curb cuts and crosswalks on Hickory Creek Road to

01:53:34.640 --> 01:53:40.640
 connect the Lake Forest Park Trail and Cross Timbers Park Trail.

01:53:40.640 --> 01:53:43.240
 Those are mouthfuls.

01:53:43.240 --> 01:53:47.200
 There is no current plan to have the Lake Forest Park Trail or Cross Timbers Park Trail

01:53:47.200 --> 01:53:50.040
 connect to the Hickory Creek Road.

01:53:50.040 --> 01:53:54.600
 Pedestrians will be able to walk the Lake Forest Park Trail via the Waterside Place

01:53:54.600 --> 01:54:00.500
 by walking down the west side along Hickory Creek Road using that existing five-foot sidewalk

01:54:00.500 --> 01:54:05.360
 that will connect to the planned eight-foot sidewalk along the north side of Hickory Creek

01:54:05.360 --> 01:54:06.360
 Road.

01:54:06.360 --> 01:54:11.720
 Then, pedestrians can cross Hickory Creek Road at the planned signal at Montecito Drive.

01:54:11.720 --> 01:54:16.120
 And then they can then use the planned eight-foot sidewalk along the south side of Hickory Creek

01:54:16.120 --> 01:54:20.840
 Road that will then connect to Cross Timbers Park Trail.

01:54:20.840 --> 01:54:26.160
 The planned eight-foot sidewalk along Hickory Creek Road and the signal at Montecito is

01:54:26.160 --> 01:54:28.600
 estimated to be complete in March of 2022.

01:54:28.600 --> 01:54:33.480
 It's hard to believe that we're already saying March of 2022.

01:54:33.480 --> 01:54:39.200
 So this graphic describes what I tried to read to you, but you can see where folks will

01:54:39.200 --> 01:54:44.840
 go from Cross Timbers Park down to Hickory Creek Road, down Hickory Creek Road, across

01:54:44.840 --> 01:54:47.080
 Montecito and then back.

01:54:47.080 --> 01:54:51.160
 So it's taking you all the way down and across on one side of the roadway, you'll get to

01:54:51.160 --> 01:54:57.600
 the signalized intersection at Montecito and then travel back to the west.

01:54:57.600 --> 01:55:02.120
 The next question that was asked were details on the long-term plan for McKinney Street

01:55:02.120 --> 01:55:05.520
 from Limp 288 to Woodrow.

01:55:05.520 --> 01:55:09.840
 And obviously, Woodrow is one direction, Audra the other direction.

01:55:09.840 --> 01:55:15.600
 A roadway safety audit meeting is scheduled for December with COG.

01:55:15.600 --> 01:55:20.080
 At this meeting, staff will be making recommendations for additional improvements to McKinney Street.

01:55:20.080 --> 01:55:24.880
 COG will then decide if the recommendations qualify for funding for any improvements.

01:55:24.880 --> 01:55:30.240
 And I also wanted to mention that this is a section that we have included, Rachel and

01:55:30.240 --> 01:55:36.080
 myself worked on a plan to include several different projects to the Denton County 2022

01:55:36.080 --> 01:55:39.280
 bond program that we understand will happen in November.

01:55:39.280 --> 01:55:44.160
 And so we submitted a list of multiple projects and this was a part of that project as the

01:55:44.160 --> 01:55:49.680
 city currently does not have funding for improvements on McKinney Street from the loop to the Woodrow-Audra

01:55:49.680 --> 01:55:52.520
 intersection.

01:55:52.520 --> 01:55:58.240
 The next question that came up was to address concerns about Malone Street speeding and

01:55:58.240 --> 01:56:02.280
 bicycle safety between 380 and Scripture.

01:56:02.280 --> 01:56:08.200
 We had a Friday report item, I'm sure you both read that, on October 29th that talked

01:56:08.200 --> 01:56:13.560
 about and I know Mayor Pro Tem, you requested that staff evaluate this.

01:56:13.560 --> 01:56:18.160
 You noted that there had been drivers using the middle turn lane to pass other cars and

01:56:18.160 --> 01:56:19.760
 people were speeding.

01:56:19.760 --> 01:56:26.760
 We actually conducted a traffic study from October 18th to October 24th where speeding

01:56:26.760 --> 01:56:32.960
 was observed with a 9.3% of the drivers going over the posted speed, which is a less than

01:56:32.960 --> 01:56:35.720
 that 15% threshold.

01:56:35.720 --> 01:56:40.080
 Staff is currently evaluating different calming measure, traffic calming measures at Malone

01:56:40.080 --> 01:56:44.380
 and also Cordell and we'll report back in a future Friday report.

01:56:44.380 --> 01:56:50.040
 We also requested the police department enforce in this area and it's also been added to their

01:56:50.040 --> 01:56:52.800
 high visibility engagement list.

01:56:52.800 --> 01:56:57.200
 They have a list that we currently coordinate with them on current areas where there are

01:56:57.200 --> 01:57:04.280
 visibility, I'm sorry, to raise the visibility of the concerns that are addressed and those

01:57:04.280 --> 01:57:07.800
 items are speeding, crime, and other traffic related issues.

01:57:07.800 --> 01:57:13.880
 Did you see the correspondence from Susie Remore about questioning whether the study

01:57:13.880 --> 01:57:18.080
 was done in the right place, you know, that she didn't, because she lives there, didn't

01:57:18.080 --> 01:57:26.760
 observe it, being on Malone, did see it, I think on Cordell, did we confirm back to her?

01:57:26.760 --> 01:57:31.520
 We did receive a correspondence from Ms. Rumer and we're currently evaluating her correspondence.

01:57:31.520 --> 01:57:37.760
 Chandra, who is also in the room, there he is today, has been working on a response back

01:57:37.760 --> 01:57:43.880
 to her and working to address her questions and we plan to submit that back to Ms. Rumer

01:57:43.880 --> 01:57:49.420
 and offer up that conversation with her later this week, but yes, we did receive her correspondence.

01:57:49.420 --> 01:57:50.420
 Okay.

01:57:50.420 --> 01:57:52.980
 I think that will be helpful.

01:57:52.980 --> 01:57:57.880
 And with that, I believe that those are all of the items we currently have.

01:57:57.880 --> 01:58:04.000
 I know there is one item that was mentioned at the last meeting and I wanted to make sure

01:58:04.000 --> 01:58:09.200
 we have addressed all of the current items we have, minus one, and that was the questions

01:58:09.200 --> 01:58:13.760
 about the timing for the 35 and Bonnie Bray projects and we will be bringing that back

01:58:13.760 --> 01:58:18.600
 to you on the December 15th meeting as we're currently working through some items with

01:58:18.600 --> 01:58:24.320
 text-out and some internal planning items and so that definitely will be addressed during

01:58:24.320 --> 01:58:30.000
 that December, I'm hoping it's 15th, that's what's in my head meeting, so look forward

01:58:30.000 --> 01:58:32.600
 to having that conversation with you at that time.

01:58:32.600 --> 01:58:35.480
 So, future items then?

01:58:35.480 --> 01:58:36.480
 Yes, sir.

01:58:36.480 --> 01:58:37.480
 I'm ready.

01:58:37.480 --> 01:58:47.120
 So, I don't know if this necessarily calls for a specific report to the Mobility Committee,

01:58:47.120 --> 01:58:52.640
 but I wanted to address with you something that came up in, I attended the DCTA Board

01:58:52.640 --> 01:59:01.200
 Members Orientation on Monday, and there was some talk about if Denton is going to keep

01:59:01.200 --> 01:59:08.720
 its fixed bus routes, which seems likely, but is certainly not a sure thing, that moving

01:59:08.720 --> 01:59:19.120
 forward it might be wise for there to be greater coordination between DCTA and city capital

01:59:19.120 --> 01:59:29.440
 projects planning to ensure that things like the curb radius is adequate for buses to make

01:59:29.440 --> 01:59:39.400
 turns and there was a suggestion that streets that have a lot of bus traffic could be planned

01:59:39.400 --> 01:59:45.720
 with cutouts for the buses to pull, you know what I'm talking about, like into a separate

01:59:45.720 --> 01:59:53.160
 drive that's off the street, so that's very nonspecific obviously, but it's just something

01:59:53.160 --> 01:59:59.200
 I kind of wanted to bring up and put on your radar as future projects are being planned

01:59:59.200 --> 02:00:06.240
 and designed that I think it would be great to have increased cooperation on those types

02:00:06.240 --> 02:00:07.240
 of things.

02:00:07.240 --> 02:00:08.240
 No, I appreciate that.

02:00:08.240 --> 02:00:13.400
 I will mention that Rachel and myself have reached out to Raymond and Brittany and asked

02:00:13.400 --> 02:00:17.160
 that if they would like to have a standing meeting that we would have a standing meeting

02:00:17.160 --> 02:00:22.160
 with them and we've given them access to all of the tools just to share with them all of

02:00:22.160 --> 02:00:25.160
 the current capital projects that the city has going on.

02:00:25.160 --> 02:00:27.360
 We're very excited about our new CIP map.

02:00:27.360 --> 02:00:29.800
 We think that's going to be very helpful.

02:00:29.800 --> 02:00:35.040
 And they also receive our street construction report to talk specifically about construction.

02:00:35.040 --> 02:00:40.200
 If there are changes for designs of roadways and those types of things, those are things

02:00:40.200 --> 02:00:43.640
 that we want to be able to catch with them on the beginning of projects.

02:00:43.640 --> 02:00:47.120
 And so I think we've mentioned this to you before, but we actually have something called

02:00:47.120 --> 02:00:53.480
 a racine that we run through when we have a project that is in that initiation phase

02:00:53.480 --> 02:00:57.920
 and beginning in the design phase, and we've actually added some external stakeholders.

02:00:57.920 --> 02:01:04.740
 It typically was internal stakeholders, but there are folks such as DCTA, TWU, UNT, TXDOT,

02:01:04.740 --> 02:01:08.100
 other folks that we want to continue coordinating with and collaborating.

02:01:08.100 --> 02:01:12.200
 And so we're working through addressing some of those concerns so that they have an opportunity

02:01:12.200 --> 02:01:17.480
 to have their eyes on some of the designs and some of the areas of which they have concerns.

02:01:17.480 --> 02:01:22.060
 We also are paying very close attention to those actual routes.

02:01:22.060 --> 02:01:25.880
 Because there's other things, they're not the only big vehicle that tries to travel

02:01:25.880 --> 02:01:26.880
 through.

02:01:26.880 --> 02:01:31.720
 I mean, we have fire trucks, we have solid waste, you know, obviously the trash trucks

02:01:31.720 --> 02:01:37.240
 are very large, wastewater collections has a number of trucks, also line trucks for DME.

02:01:37.240 --> 02:01:40.600
 So there's a number of considerations that go into play, but I do appreciate you bringing

02:01:40.600 --> 02:01:41.600
 that up.

02:01:41.600 --> 02:01:44.960
 It's just more reason why they need to be a part of the conversation at the very beginning

02:01:44.960 --> 02:01:48.640
 of the conversation versus at the end when something's going into construction.

02:01:48.640 --> 02:01:53.120
 Of course, yeah, if we're talking about, you know, cutouts for buses to pull off the street,

02:01:53.120 --> 02:01:56.440
 that's something that needs to be designed right from the very beginning when there's

02:01:56.440 --> 02:01:58.800
 right-of-way acquisition happening and all that.

02:01:58.800 --> 02:02:05.000
 Yeah, so I'm so glad to hear that that seems like that increased coordination is already

02:02:05.000 --> 02:02:06.000
 in the works.

02:02:06.000 --> 02:02:07.000
 Yes, ma'am.

02:02:07.000 --> 02:02:08.000
 Great.

02:02:08.000 --> 02:02:09.000
 Thank you.

02:02:09.000 --> 02:02:11.300
 I have just a few questions.

02:02:11.300 --> 02:02:15.720
 How is the intersection of Parkway and Locust going?

02:02:15.720 --> 02:02:20.040
 You know, that was signalized in the past.

02:02:20.040 --> 02:02:24.680
 It was, you know, it wasn't obvious why it was taken out and then it stopped signs, not

02:02:24.680 --> 02:02:26.120
 stopped signs with little flags.

02:02:26.120 --> 02:02:30.760
 I mean, is it working or is there something else that needs to happen there?

02:02:30.760 --> 02:02:35.920
 Any, maybe if you're not ready to address it now, we can pick up next time.

02:02:35.920 --> 02:02:36.920
 Oh, no, sir.

02:02:36.920 --> 02:02:37.920
 Sure.

02:02:37.920 --> 02:02:38.920
 We can bring your report back.

02:02:38.920 --> 02:02:43.280
 I will tell you, that's the actual project that I'm talking about, that James stayed

02:02:43.280 --> 02:02:44.280
 here overnight.

02:02:44.280 --> 02:02:50.400
 They're late Thursday night when I realized and Chandra and I evaluated some of their

02:02:50.400 --> 02:02:54.520
 most recent crashes and some of the concerns I had in that area.

02:02:54.520 --> 02:02:58.480
 You know, our building is right there at that corner also and we witness or hear accidents

02:02:58.480 --> 02:03:00.160
 from time to time.

02:03:00.160 --> 02:03:03.520
 And so it was definitely something that was high on my radar.

02:03:03.520 --> 02:03:10.080
 Chandra and I evaluated that and worked with James and Danny to get those additional stop

02:03:10.080 --> 02:03:11.080
 signs.

02:03:11.080 --> 02:03:15.760
 And I can tell you from what I can see, and I actually obviously use that every day, multiple

02:03:15.760 --> 02:03:16.760
 times a day.

02:03:16.760 --> 02:03:19.200
 So there are multiple staff that we have.

02:03:19.200 --> 02:03:23.400
 From all indications, the stop signs are working very well and the permanent stop signs have

02:03:23.400 --> 02:03:24.400
 been installed.

02:03:24.400 --> 02:03:29.000
 And from all indications, it appears that that is the traffic measure that was needed.

02:03:29.000 --> 02:03:33.560
 But we'll continue to evaluate if there's additional concerns.

02:03:33.560 --> 02:03:38.520
 If there are, would flashing stop signs be sort of the next step up?

02:03:38.520 --> 02:03:40.880
 There's many different options that we can look at.

02:03:40.880 --> 02:03:47.480
 There are ways to make, you know, I mean, more noticeable, such as a flashing stop sign.

02:03:47.480 --> 02:03:51.360
 But that's something that we would really rely on our traffic operations team for their

02:03:51.360 --> 02:03:53.640
 recommendations and we'll work through that with them.

02:03:53.640 --> 02:03:58.920
 But currently, we are not having as many concerns and we have been working with the police department

02:03:58.920 --> 02:04:02.520
 and meeting with them monthly when different concerns and questions come up.

02:04:02.520 --> 02:04:04.880
 And that's one of the intersections of which we did discuss.

02:04:04.880 --> 02:04:12.480
 Okay, great, apparently you need to have your office move around so that you're, if you're

02:04:12.480 --> 02:04:14.720
 hearing the crashes, right?

02:04:14.720 --> 02:04:20.640
 Well, believe it or not, I spend a lot of time following social media and looking at

02:04:20.640 --> 02:04:22.520
 where accidents are happening.

02:04:22.520 --> 02:04:23.720
 I pay attention to those.

02:04:23.720 --> 02:04:27.960
 I do talk to the police department when they do happen almost immediately to ask if it

02:04:27.960 --> 02:04:33.400
 is an engineering related concern or something where a driver might have been impaired.

02:04:33.400 --> 02:04:37.660
 And our entire team spends a lot of time driving through the community, especially if we receive

02:04:37.660 --> 02:04:38.660
 a concern.

02:04:38.660 --> 02:04:42.240
 We drive it ourselves so that we can understand what that concern is.

02:04:42.240 --> 02:04:47.640
 Many times we may not be on that roadway and taking our own venture and going on our own

02:04:47.640 --> 02:04:50.360
 field trip is a very useful tool.

02:04:50.360 --> 02:04:51.480
 Yeah.

02:04:51.480 --> 02:04:55.040
 This is an incredibly tiny point, but I noticed that when we're going through the sidewalk

02:04:55.040 --> 02:05:01.120
 plan that in the visual, there was one of the wayfinding signs pointing to development

02:05:01.120 --> 02:05:06.200
 services where it no longer is, and I just wondered, did we catch that?

02:05:06.200 --> 02:05:09.240
 Have those signs been updated?

02:05:09.240 --> 02:05:12.840
 Some of those pictures that Nathan used were older pictures.

02:05:12.840 --> 02:05:16.320
 He might not have even been aware of where, he has no idea where the development services

02:05:16.320 --> 02:05:20.160
 building used to be, but it's definitely something we can check out, so thank you for bringing

02:05:20.160 --> 02:05:21.160
 it to our attention.

02:05:21.160 --> 02:05:23.840
 I did not notice that level of detail, so I appreciate it.

02:05:23.840 --> 02:05:24.840
 That's my job.

02:05:24.840 --> 02:05:25.840
 Absolutely.

02:05:25.840 --> 02:05:31.960
 Yeah, just lastly, just because concerns have been expressed to me, would you mind speaking

02:05:31.960 --> 02:05:39.360
 for a moment about how you're just coping with the difficulty of recruiting engineers?

02:05:39.360 --> 02:05:42.240
 How are we getting the work done?

02:05:42.240 --> 02:05:43.320
 Sure.

02:05:43.320 --> 02:05:48.720
 Our team is obviously very committed to making sure that we are getting our work done.

02:05:48.720 --> 02:05:53.440
 We have the authority through the city manager's office to look at contract help as needed.

02:05:53.440 --> 02:05:59.620
 We currently have a consultant on board assisting with our drainage engineer position.

02:05:59.620 --> 02:06:04.580
 As you may be aware, Chandra has taken a new position and moving to an assistant director

02:06:04.580 --> 02:06:06.800
 at NTTA.

02:06:06.800 --> 02:06:07.800
 We currently have a...

02:06:07.800 --> 02:06:12.320
 Which incidentally I did not get permission for.

02:06:12.320 --> 02:06:14.880
 Get in line.

02:06:14.880 --> 02:06:20.040
 I would just tell you that we are very pleased for him and very happy with his new opportunity

02:06:20.040 --> 02:06:25.340
 that he's taking and I know we've had many conversations, he's very sad about leaving

02:06:25.340 --> 02:06:29.760
 the city, but it brings me much pride to see someone like him move up in his career to

02:06:29.760 --> 02:06:30.760
 the next level.

02:06:30.760 --> 02:06:31.760
 Good luck and congratulations.

02:06:31.760 --> 02:06:36.880
 I'm very proud of him, but I will tell you that we do have a transportation engineer

02:06:36.880 --> 02:06:41.640
 still on staff and I will tell you that we're currently evaluating.

02:06:41.640 --> 02:06:46.240
 David and I have had multiple conversations also with human resources and working through

02:06:46.240 --> 02:06:50.320
 some different measures, whether it be hiring a contract on staff.

02:06:50.320 --> 02:06:52.080
 We are having weekly meetings.

02:06:52.080 --> 02:06:56.960
 I should say I am with HR talking about filling some of these different positions, but there

02:06:56.960 --> 02:07:01.720
 are things that we have to do sometimes to hire contract labor just for the stopgap.

02:07:01.720 --> 02:07:06.680
 That's the short answer, right, is the contract labor gets us through till we solve the longer

02:07:06.680 --> 02:07:07.680
 term.

02:07:07.680 --> 02:07:08.680
 That's absolutely correct.

02:07:08.680 --> 02:07:13.440
 And so obviously it's one of my top priorities is to get our team fully staffed.

02:07:13.440 --> 02:07:18.800
 I will mention Rachel is only down in her division, one individual.

02:07:18.800 --> 02:07:23.320
 She has a new individual starting on Monday, December 2nd.

02:07:23.320 --> 02:07:24.320
 Okay.

02:07:24.320 --> 02:07:26.720
 Trevor has two new individuals that are actually starting Monday.

02:07:26.720 --> 02:07:31.120
 That'll be the first time the public works inspection division has ever been fully staffed.

02:07:31.120 --> 02:07:33.120
 And so engineers are a hot commodity.

02:07:33.120 --> 02:07:36.880
 I will tell you, I have a lot of conversations with others in the community.

02:07:36.880 --> 02:07:41.440
 My father, my husband, they are all in the business and I will tell you, I have reached

02:07:41.440 --> 02:07:45.280
 out to many of my resources and they're having the exact same problem the city of Denton

02:07:45.280 --> 02:07:47.560
 is with hiring engineers.

02:07:47.560 --> 02:07:51.560
 Down to the point where many people are not even looking at hiring professional engineers.

02:07:51.560 --> 02:07:55.840
 They're looking at hiring engineers in training, which do not have their professional engineering

02:07:55.840 --> 02:07:56.840
 license yet.

02:07:56.840 --> 02:08:00.480
 We'll be working through those next steps to get their professional engineering license.

02:08:00.480 --> 02:08:04.560
 So it's a good time to be an engineer, but it's also a sad time when we really want to

02:08:04.560 --> 02:08:06.720
 work on focusing on hiring our individuals.

02:08:06.720 --> 02:08:12.360
 But it is definitely our intention to make sure that we take all steps necessary to make

02:08:12.360 --> 02:08:15.520
 sure that we have that contract help as needed.

02:08:15.520 --> 02:08:20.800
 And we've worked really hard with this new drainage contract and I actually have an individual

02:08:20.800 --> 02:08:24.200
 on staff that's managing that contract and that process.

02:08:24.200 --> 02:08:28.960
 And I plan to do the same for the transportation to make sure that we have an individual that

02:08:28.960 --> 02:08:29.960
 can help.

02:08:29.960 --> 02:08:33.000
 But there are still some other folks on staff too that are working through transportation.

02:08:33.000 --> 02:08:34.960
 So I appreciate you bringing it up.

02:08:34.960 --> 02:08:36.720
 It's definitely top of my priority.

02:08:36.720 --> 02:08:40.680
 If I told you that it didn't keep me up at night, I'd be lying to you.

02:08:40.680 --> 02:08:44.760
 But I know that I have the support of the city manager's office to make sure that we

02:08:44.760 --> 02:08:46.780
 get all the stuff that's necessary.

02:08:46.780 --> 02:08:51.000
 And our HR department is solid and really helping us through these different steps that

02:08:51.000 --> 02:08:52.000
 we go through.

02:08:52.000 --> 02:08:53.520
 So it's just another part of the job.

02:08:53.520 --> 02:08:58.520
 Okay, kids, if you're thinking about career choices, if you can handle the math, you may

02:08:58.520 --> 02:09:00.080
 want to look into engineering.

02:09:00.080 --> 02:09:01.560
 100% agree with that, sir.

02:09:01.560 --> 02:09:06.000
 I can't talk to enough high schools to explain to children how important it is.

02:09:06.000 --> 02:09:07.680
 Engineering is a great career.

02:09:07.680 --> 02:09:10.320
 My own son says, "No, mom, I want to be an architect."

02:09:10.320 --> 02:09:13.760
 I try to tell him an engineer would be a fantastic career.

02:09:13.760 --> 02:09:18.520
 But I definitely understand and happy to have those conversations with those young children

02:09:18.520 --> 02:09:20.960
 to explain to them what a great career it really is.

02:09:20.960 --> 02:09:21.960
 Okay.

02:09:21.960 --> 02:09:22.960
 Phil, thank you so much.

02:09:22.960 --> 02:09:23.960
 I think that's it.

02:09:23.960 --> 02:09:24.960
 Yes, sir.

02:09:24.960 --> 02:09:29.160
 Unless we have anything else for concluding items, we usually kind of did that.

02:09:29.160 --> 02:09:31.600
 So by the way, I'm the son of a high engineer.

02:09:31.600 --> 02:09:33.760
 I don't know if you ever had that conversation.

02:09:33.760 --> 02:09:35.400
 I didn't know that.

02:09:35.400 --> 02:09:36.400
 Yeah.

02:09:36.400 --> 02:09:38.800
 So we will conclude our meeting at 1110.

02:09:38.800 --> 02:09:39.600
 Thanks, everyone.