We are here for the mobility committee in the council work session room.
It appears as though a quorum is present.
We've added a couple of additional people to this committee and we're going to have
some explanation in that regard here in just a moment.
Do we have any citizen's comments available?
Did we get anything from citizens or anyone here?
Visitors?
Okay.
All right, so we're going to move on.
So items for individual consideration, AMC 24-002, receive nominations and elect the
committee chair and vice chair.
Yes, Councilmember Beck.
I'm going to move that we generally keep the structure the way it was even though it was
technically a different committee and therefore for this first half of the item, I'm going
to nominate you for chair.
Okay.
Thank you.
And I will accept the nomination.
Let me have a second.
I'll second.
Okay.
All right.
Moved and second.
Can we get a vote?
Yay.
Yes.
Raise your hand.
You raise your hand.
And we're kind of informal, a little bit informal.
I would like to see all of your qualifications for the position first of all.
I have a car.
Hey, hey, you drive one of them, Rose.
All right.
Yes, I do.
That's good enough for me then.
Well, all right.
Let's move to second.
You got my vote.
I'm going to approve that I will state a position as the committee chair and now we have a vice
chair.
We have a motion for vice chair.
Dr. Becker, are we doing the same thing?
Will you accept?
Same thing?
I will accept it if you're motioning otherwise, if everyone continues to send other hands,
I will nominate myself.
Yes.
I would like to nominate Dr. Becker as vice chair.
All right.
We have a second.
Okay.
We have a second.
Okay.
So it's been moved to second and accepted by Dr. Becker for vice chair.
So we'll put that on the roll.
Is there any discussion?
I've got one point.
Okay.
We have one point.
Yeah.
I understand why the chair should be a council member.
Yes.
I don't love that the vice chair should be a council member.
I would rather the vice chair not be a council member, but I understand.
I'm not crying.
I'm just putting it out there.
Is there any further discussion?
The ordinance that established the committee does state that the chair and vice chair have
to be council members.
Yes.
I know.
I'm just crying publicly.
Okay.
I just wanted to clarify.
Yes.
Clarification.
Okay.
So is vote in order?
Yes.
Read your name.
Yes.
All right.
So it's been approved that the vice chair would continue to be Dr. Becker.
I will move on to be MC 24-003.
Receive a report, hold a discussion and approve the mobility committee 2024 meeting schedule.
Is there a presentation?
We don't have a presentation for this one, but Megan's gonna show you the proposed schedule.
It's the last Wednesday of every month and the red circles are the proposed meeting dates
at 10 a.m.
Yes.
We have a question.
Madam chair, I don't love September, so why do we have three council meetings in September?
Due to budget.
Is one of them intended to be a placeholder in case like we've done in previous years
or are we set, we're gonna do three?
So the current budget calendar is scheduled for budget adoption on the 17th.
However, if we don't get council consensus on the 17th, it'll move to the 24th.
So that's the contingency meeting, if you will.
The 24th is a contingency meeting.
Yes.
Okay.
Which mirrors what we've done in the previous two years, right?
We've actually moved the schedule up compared to the last two years.
Usually you're adopting the very last meeting in September, so we've proposed to adopt at
that second meeting.
I mean, I know what I'm talking about, that extra meeting as a placeholder because I don't
believe we used that the previous year.
Correct.
Okay.
All right.
Then that's my qualms.
All right.
You sure have a lot of qualms.
I do.
You know what?
You're really getting reeled up.
I know.
Pray for me.
Okay.
We'll pray for you.
I'm on one.
All right.
Is there any other questions after this?
Yeah.
I don't have any problem with the schedule.
I know everyone that I'm out in July, so whatever that means ... I mean, we have additional members
now, so it should be easy to achieve quorum, so it should matter less that I am out, but
I just throw that out there for people's future planning and consideration.
Do any of our new members see anything in this regard, the time factor involved?
We used to meet a little earlier.
Things like that can change.
Yes, ma'am?
Do you have it?
Is this on?
Yes.
It's on.
Okay.
Thank you.
As far as I know, I'm available for all.
10 a.m. works great for me.
I was going to cry about 10, but I can put my finger up and tell which way the wind blows.
It's okay.
Okay.
Y'all who don't want to get up early, it's all right.
All right.
Love y'all anyway.
As long as you're here by 10, I'm too.
Anyone want to meet on Christmas?
I'm open to that.
Just so we can slot a week.
All right.
Well, it sounds like we have a consensus that these dates will be okay.
We don't have to vote on that.
We have the motion.
All right.
So we have motion to approve.
The date says noted.
Motion to approve.
Okay.
Second.
So it's been moved and second.
Discussion.
Any additional discussion?
Okay.
All right.
So let's vote on that.
Say aye.
Raise your hand.
Aye.
All right.
So it's unanimous.
Thank you for that.
So we'll move on to CMC two fours dash zero zero four received training and hold a discussion
regarding the roles and responsibility of the mobility advisory committee and new member
orientation.
Good morning, chair, vice chair, members of the mobility committee, Cassie Ogden, assistant
city manager.
First, I want to start by welcoming our new members to the mobility committee.
We're excited you're here brief orientation, not very long, but because the committee makeup
has changed, just kind of go over the roles of the committee, kind of what you can expect
on the agendas moving forward and the staff members that you'll be seeing presenting information.
So as you know, council approved the ordinance that created this committee in January.
It is an advisory committee to council.
And so the chair and vice chair must be council members.
And that was at the direction of this committee, the previous committee, I should say mobility
committee when it was a subcommittee of council.
Our meetings, as you just approved, are held the last Wednesday of each month at 10 a.m.
right here in the work session room.
Our meetings are recorded, and the video agenda and minutes are posted on the city's website.
If you don't have the address, I'm happy to provide that.
In the absence of the city council adopted rules of procedures, we follow Robert's rules
of orders.
If you need any additional training that is available through the city secretary's office.
And we do have opportunity for citizens to comment on agenda items.
So those each speaker is given a total of three minutes per agenda item.
So the role of the committee and this is really outlined in the ordinance that was that established
the committee.
So this committee provides information advice and makes recommendations to city council
regarding traffic safety, education, publicity, ways of improving traffic conditions and safety
for motor vehicles, ways and means of improving bicycle and pedestrian safety and implementation
of traffic control devices.
Our agendas, you can expect to see a monthly status for on system projects provided by
our consultant, innovative transportation solutions, you're going to be hearing from
John Polster next on the agenda, he will get an update of all of those kind of projects
related to state highways.
City council or I'm sorry, city staff provides city specific transportation project updates
in the way of presentations and or staff memos.
These are for informational purposes, usually no committee action item is required.
And then the way to add new items to the agenda, those we do have a future agenda topics matrix
that we keep track of new agenda items.
It's provided as part of the backup.
But any new agenda topics are added at the chair's discretion.
And then I wanted to give some staff introductions for those of you that may not know.
Again, I've already introduced myself, but then as our committee parliamentarian, he
is from our city attorney's office, he's the first assistant city attorney.
So if there's any legal questions or issues with council procedures, he's he's the man
to ask Scott McDonald is not here today, but he's our director of development services
over planning and then building inspections.
And I apologized already to Dr. Farhan, but but he is our deputy director of transportation.
I did not put his title on here.
So that is my apologies.
But he's all things transportation planning related, you'll be hearing from him shortly
and next couple of agenda items.
We also have a general manager of engineering capital projects position that's currently
vacant.
We are going through a recruitment process.
So I'll be giving you updates probably at the next meeting on on that.
And then Trevor crane is our director of capital projects.
He's the one you want to talk to when all of those construction projects are causing
you traffic delays.
And then our deputy city engineer, also here, and you'll be hearing from him also.
I wanted to provide some additional resources for you, the handbook for boards and commission
members you should have already received.
But if you didn't, please let me know and we'll get with city secretary's office.
I've linked all of the other items directly to the website.
So the mobility plan, our comp plan, our vision zero plan, our capital improvement plan, which
is our funding mechanism, how we how we're planning to use those funds for the projects.
And then our development services website just has general development code design documents,
criteria manuals, everything you want to know about developing in Denton.
Hopefully these are good resources for you, but I'm happy to provide more if you need
if you have any specific questions.
And that is all I have.
And I'm happy to take any questions that you may have.
Yes.
I'm curious, will there be an alternate member for this committee?
It's not currently outlined in the ordinance that I've that I'm aware of.
I didn't see that's why I asked any other questions.
I have a question.
Yes.
So I understand that the topics that are added will be at the discretion of the chair.
Are those topics going to you all go to the city and they're going to come to me or will
they be discussed here first and then we could talk about adding them or not?
Yes, that's generally how we deal with the discussion amongst the committee members about
potential topics.
And then we'll get your direction on where to add them and what day you would like to
see it on the agenda.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Any other questions?
Everybody has an opportunity.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
It's Cassie.
So we'll move on to DMC two three days zero seven eight receive a report and hold a discussion
regarding city of didn't transportation mobility project status report.
My name is John Polster.
Now you work with innovative transportation solutions and I've been working with the city
for probably two decades now on all things text I related and this is the report we provide
monthly and we'll go over it and I may do it in a little bit more detail than usual
since we have new members and in the physical report if you may have it on your laptops
at the back there's a glossary of terms that you can either ask me or look because transportation
has its own language.
So first this is just a general look at what we think the total cost of these projects
are going to be that we're working on and who is the primary mover on it outside of
the city or the state and the dollar amounts associated with those projects so we're about
to go over just shy of five billion dollars worth of roadway improvements and so the first
one I'll go over this what you see on the spreadsheet first and then it references a
map that has color coding but what I always provide the committee is the CSJ which is
basically the social security number of the project what we're doing what it's going
to cost and then if there's money in this category column that means it's funded either
partially or fully and then there are the key dates that you have to hit to get a project
under construction is you got to get a schematic approved which is basically a general idea
what the road is environmental clearance then once you're cleared you begin right away acquisition
and then once that right away acquisition is completed you start making relocations to
any utilities are in conflict and then once you get those four things done the projects
is considered what we say ready to let and ready to let means that all four of those
things are done and if it doesn't have a let date that means that there's probably not
funding for the project yet and part of what our firm does for the city is assisting getting
those dollars from the state or the council governments and the let date is when it actually
will go to construction or be let out for a bid for the contractors this project is
split into four different segments for various reasons the blue one is actually under construction
now it was part of the 455 improvements from the high school on the east out to the western
part of the county and so we included that interchange in that 455 project and then the
other three projects are broken out by cost because if they go above a certain dollar
amount they are held to a little bit higher scrutiny so what the state does is they simply
break them down into smaller projects the one that the city is most interested in is
a section from 77 north to basically just south of Sanger and that project is 074 and
it has a ready to let March of 2025 and essentially that means that all of these utilities that
you see on the sheet in one place or another you'll see that they're going to be done
by March of 2024 and that sets your ready to let date for that segment the yellow when
you see yellow on the report that means it changed from last month when you saw it that
way you don't have to guess what's different on the report and when you're dealing with
utilities you want to see yellow all the time because you want something to have been done
since the last time we met so that's that's the 35 job it's a it's a 800 million dollar
project from 77 north all the way to the cook denton county line and if you got questions
just raise your hands or whatever though okay I think we have a question here is it appropriate
to interject here absolutely it's your committee well I mean I just want you to make sure that
you're done you know yes ma'am more you're okay so what we'll do is whenever you're done
with your presentation on each one of them yes ma'am instead of us interjecting while
you're going through the front pro going through it yes sir so I know that there were changes
in their ongoing variabilities in the rodeo property placement in 74 the outer loop connectivity
I think a meeting or maybe two ago you were talking about pumping into the aquifer plants
in this region have any of those impacted 74 in so yes sir changes and I was going to
cover that in the outer loop but we'll do it here oh seven four includes where the outer
loop is going to hit my road the outer loop won't be cleared until I think 26 this project
goes under the knife next year so they're going to be building where we where the city
has the outer loop and your thoroughfare plan and master plan is around my road but we don't
know exactly where the outer loops going to tie into my 35 mile on because of the expo
and all the development on the west side of 35 and you'll note the malam go straight over
to 156 we want to hold that corridor because that will help us in the future when 156 becomes
the outer outer loop but since the expo we won't know what's going on with the expo for
another six or seven months 35 has got to go under the knife right now what text that's
agreed to do is that malam road instead of having a 200 foot opening for malam road they're
going to have a thousand foot long bridge where they're just going to take the road
up and keep it up for a thousand feet from where malam road north hits to south of where
malam road south hit so we can bring the outer loop anywhere we need to within that thousand
feet based upon what happens on the expo so you got you know i've got let me see if it
shows it probably doesn't show better on the outer loop so malam road hits on the east
it hits north and then on the west it hits south so we're talking about is y'all usually
have it on right where malam hits on the north though the coming on the east side it's kind
of where you wanted it on your thoroughfare plan but the region's also saying we need
to be able to get that road further east or west to 156 and with the expo going there
malam road going west is a natural corridor for the expo to leave so we can't say where
the outer loop is going to be till it's environmentally cleared but so the state's going to leave
a thousand foot bridge hole for us to get under depending on where we hit in that orientation
hi john i'm susie and i know you've been here for a hot minute because i was watching
a video from 2007 and you popped up and i was like man he's been here for a while so
appreciate all your work i have a general question so sometimes if residents are going
to an input meeting for a tech stop project sometimes it it feels like this has already
been pretty set correct kind of at what point does it become pretty set where it's really
hard to change anything significant excellent question so the life of a project in the state's
world when you first start doing the schematic you have what's called public meetings and
typically the state requires whoever's doing the work at least three public meetings during
the life of the project those meetings are actually meetings where the schematics are
laid out the people come in they tell you where they live they tell you what the concerns
are and then the state and the consultant try to minimize those impacts as much as possible
as the project progresses and the schematic gets approved and it moves into full environmental
clearance the last thing that you do for the project is have what's called a public hearing
and those are the ones you probably feel like you have less input than the other meetings
and that's because you do have less input it's a when they say it's a public hearing
they're there to literally hear what you have to say and then they won't respond to you
at the meeting they will respond to the document so that when the document is submitted to
the federal highway administration via state they will have responded to your answers questions
in the document and the only way to get the answer after the public hearing is to go get
the document after it's approved and read what they said so lots of involvement up front
but once they land on a alignment that's called technically preferred and locally preferred
you hopefully get the one that's both of those because locally preferred is easier to get
through the process than technically preferred once thought that that alignment is identified
and cleared it's almost impossible to move that project from that point so the schematic
phase is probably the most important absolutely and at the end of the schematic does that
include right away how much so yes though what the schematic does is it shows you where
the road is from looking down from a satellite how wide it's going to be and who all it
impact and it comes down it looks at it at the horizontal view to see where it's cutting
hills down and where it's filling in gaps so you can tell what the grade changes are
and it tells you what the maximum impact is going to be for the project the difference
between a schematic and the plan document is a plan document goes and designs the pavement
design tells you where the columns are how many bridge vents are going to be in it but
the schematic tells you what the road is going to be and what the impacts are going to be
on the environment thank you appreciate it and then that also you know puts in the mind
that that since we are talking about the outer loop there's been conversations about what
it's going to look like so input to being made all right now even though we don't see
anything we can't really imagine it but we know it's going to be huge you know so that
that just kind of ties in right now the timing on the outer lip when we get there I'll tell
I'll say this again the this is the best time for the outer lip to be done because right
now it's a 23 mile long corridor and we have 21 displacements so it's less than one per
mile which if you just go into Collin county on their outer loop it's about 20 per mile
thank you any other questions okay thank you sir okay the next one south of there is the
previous one was from 77 north this is from 77 down to the merge between 35 e and w and
it will go under under the knife in april they will be led in april some of the utilities
will have a little bit longer time frame to be cleared but what the state will do is they'll
let it in april with special provisions for a delayed start so they'll award the contract
but the contractor will bid the project all the contractors will bid the project no and
they have a delayed start on the project so if you award the contract and then you have
to delay the project the contractor has cause for for compensation but if you put the delayed
start up front and they bid it that way they bid it knowing and so that's what we're going
to do we're going to let the project and the reason we're doing that is because the of
the 480 million so these two projects right here are 1.2 billion dollars worth of improvements
that are happening in and around city of denton on the on the northwest side of the community
of the 480 340 of it is what's called category 12 and category 12 funds have a provision
that if you don't hit the let date that you were assigned you're not guaranteed that money
when you are ready so it's a strong incentive not to miss your mark and so we're not going
to miss our mark and it'll go because of the new members from the merge on 35a up to 380
what will be included since this is the ultimate cross section will be the told managed land
concrete they won't be a toll managed line yet because there's not one between there
and the lake but as we build these breakout projects like we're doing it may which will
go over in a second they build the ultimate cross section and the ultimate cross section
for 35a through 380 all the way to Dallas is three general purpose lanes up here and
then two reversible managed lanes I mean two concurrent managed lanes wanted to in each
direction so the total of four until you get to the merge and it drops down to one in each
direction because of the line balance going up to 380 so all the bridge structures that
you see that we're going to be building on this section 35 will be significantly wider
than what we need for the six lines of traffic because we're also building the payment for
the future told managed lines I'm done I would probably say this is my personally aside from
a hill this is the the one that I'm most excited about I know that we've had a significant
number of fatalities and crashes and you know rearranging of lanes and and all of that that's
come along but I'm really glad to see that this is proceeding ahead and we're seeing
2024 yeah you know that's significant for us so this also includes braided ramps and
what that is if you just if you drive down 35w and you go into Fort Worth right before
you get to North Fort Worth you see where Western Center Boulevard is you got those
big giant exit ramps and on ramps in the same location though they're great separated they
call those braids and this will have braided ramps on both the northbound and southbound
side so all of that traffic that backs up and clogs up now because they're all trying
to do this will not occur because they'll be doing this they won't be conflicting with
each other so it should make that a significantly safer drive but it will be painful you don't
have to just just leave it on okay so it seems like a lot of times when we're widening a
major road like this it at least regionally it feels like it's four to five years are
we expecting about that long for construction construction start to construction finish
ish ish ish yeah so what happens when the contractor bids the project they bid a number
of days as well but they're working days so they can be a five-day work week a six-day
work week and that could change mid-stride depending upon if we had to do recovery or
whatever but what they do put in their bid document is they nobody owns their own barricades
all the barricades you see out there are rented and so they put in the number of months that
they think those barricades though that they're going to need those barricades so what we
do they let the project we communicate to you the number of months that they are renting
those barricades and that gives you an idea what the contractor thinks the time frame
is but typically when you're taking a project like this unless it's a design build project
you're usually going to talk for four and a half years construction and the reason design
bill can go faster is because they get to use what's called dynamic traffic control what
dynamic traffic control is is that you may go to work in the morning and the road is
in configuration a when you come back in the afternoon you're not guaranteed that it's
in configuration a it could be in configuration d so they can move the traffic around dynamically
and on a design bid build project part of the bid is phasing of the project which is
traffic control and that's locked in and they have to get changes from the state if they
want to change that traffic control and they have to come back to the city and make sure
the city is okay with that a lot of the time let me let me say this I just want to be mindful
of our time no disrespect no I already know what I know I know and I'm recognizing that
you're it didn't try to give us as much as we can but we're in a time constraint for
all of us I'm talking to everybody in the room all right you'll just be mindful of you
know some some some you know some quick quick answers quick answers and questions yes sir
you take the question no no no I didn't mean to run y'all no no no no I'm just saying
I know you know we got no we got a lot of stuff to cover okay I'll just say every fifth
word okay so Mayhill the utilities are mostly done the plant that's ready to let in November
of this year and we're going to try to move it up in this current unified transportation
plan which we start doing it in January and they have to approve it in August we're going
to try to move it up closer to the beginning of the year because the money's already there
it's just a matter of putting it in the right month this will be bigger than the interchange
at 288 and 35 just get your mind around that this will have 12 lanes going under it 288
only has 10 I'm done any questions I'm excited about seeing that come through me too I live
over there I'm ready for the Mayhill job to be done all right so 35 W frontage roads this
is basically from just north is where the rural tracks are we say we say 2449 but it's
going to go a little bit north of that all the way down to 407 we're only building the
frontage roads right now because we have four lanes of traffic the long short answer is
the reason we're not doing the main lanes right now is because we want to do toll manage
lanes in this corridor and right now it's not great it's not grandfathered so we're
waiting for politics to change footprints the same so we're just building the frontage
roads I've got a question here so for that region I know a 2449 or whatever that road
they there's a because the creek bridges and everything there's a significant flooding
issue that has been here forever right and and so what with this sort of phasing that
you're describing what would we anticipate the flood management to be in that there is
no nobody wants to do that job so from where the merge ends on the previous project and
where ours begins at 2449 that trauma area you're talking about is not in either one
of those jobs so they're probably going to do it when we come back and do the main lanes
which is a long time we're doing the 2449 to 407 and 407 to dell earnhardt and then
someday we're going to come back and do the creek because there's no developable land
there it is just a flood issue and so it's going to be the last man standing okay this
is when I say 383 77 it's basically 380 from Luke 288 out to 377 it's essentially done
we're doing a little bit of cleanup on the east end of the project as it ties into the
next project that's being built but essentially it's open to traffic is six lanes with the
raised median and after we're done they'll be lighting on the western part and a little
bit on the eastern part but there will not be any continuous lighting in the core of
engineers area because they don't allow it it freaks out the animals apparently the cars
don't do anything to them but the lights do oh you know and that was going to be my question
but my also my concern is is that those raised they don't have any reflection on them not
yes that the shopping is a stripping all that's the last thing that you'll do because they
got a terrible the temporary markings first okay yeah I saw the truck go through last
week and was putting some markings down on the road that was good anybody else on 380
and so just for the new members what I do is the next page you see is a report that
we get from text art about the status and they tell us what they're doing what they've
done what they plan to do and any impacts to traffic so that the city can adapt and
deal with that going forward are you looking at furniture so down here on the bottom where
it ties into 35 that's actually 2449 it'll be absorbed into the loop the loop 288 is
a controlled access facility that means it has main lanes frontage roads and grade separations
at major cross streets and we are environmentally cleared back in 2020 it's going to take us
until December 24 this year to get all the right away which there's a report here it
tells you how many parcels we have and where we're at in that process and then we're in
the process of designing it we have about 4 million of the 220 million we need so between
now and April of 26 part of what we do for our clients has helped find that those dollars
and bring them to the project and we'll do the northbound inside frontage road first
because that sets the developable parameters for the road so you can develop to the road
and not have to worry about in the future it changing because it'll be the northbound
frontage road can you give our new members an idea a visually of the idea of where that's
going to be where it's going to begin we can see where it's going to begin 288 but where
it's going to end oh up by the north starts at 288 up north so whether your water tower
is where we're barely missing that water tower and then it curves south it hits 380 basically
that to where it says 288 that used to be where the city was going to do their next
runway 5000 foot out but then the airport decided they were only going to do one runway
where they were going to put the runway was the best place to put the road so we put the
road there so and then it ties in to 2499 right here at the curve 2449 at the curve
and this is existing 2449 and then this is vintage going into town there'll be what's
called direct connects those big bridges to go northbound to 288 and southbound to 288
but there will not be any direct connects going into vintage because it's a residential
area and then there will be full direct connects at 288 north where you can go from 288 to
go north 35 to 288 to go south 35 288 to go north 35 288 to go south 35 and not never
stop it interchange so on the first one on the environmental reevaluation what what what
generated the need for the reevaluation what what's going on there so when we came down
here underwood so text that's when they did the schematic back in whenever the guy that
was doing it for text that ignored your thoroughfare plan down in that area and they're not supposed
to do that they're supposed to accommodate you so when we caught that we were already
in environmental clearance and right away acquisition and where the road needed to be
wasn't hadn't been cleared yet because it was the wrong location we had in text I'd
had in the wrong location not not y'all so it was decided that it was important enough
to everybody to do a quick reeval while we were requiring the right-of-way to make sure
underwood ties in properly in the right location I appreciate that thank you all right
so oftentimes folks who are fishing they pull off on the south side and when a lot of those
folks from the city when they leave they've got to go to work crossroads and then hang
a ui any idea what's gonna happen to that is that carve out gonna still be there for
those folks to park and fish there it should be because it's actually it's an actual driveway
and so if it was there before the state always puts it back and I go drive out there because
it should be there okay um any thought to adding some no u-turn signs might be safe
to make those when I'm headed to work early morning I see it oftentimes at that time of
day when traffic is just to ramp it up any thought to maybe making those folks go down
to that's 7-eleven on the corner and then turn there rather than hang a u-turn so the
state allows u-turns at medians at the end when you see a no u-turn sign up it's because
it's in the city of some city and the city has ordinance on on that so to the extent
that it's within the city of Denton and you want to do look at that you can it's right
on the bridge yeah no no but they build when they build a six-lane road they build it so
that they when you make a u-turn it's supposed to be a safe movement last one when the when
the farmers market opens on Saturdays there's a lot of traffic and congestion going eastbound
in that right lane from people trying to get in trying to find parking any idea how to
navigate that that should be a Saturday morning headache yeah so when and I didn't make these
rules up I'm just telling you what they tell you what they're gonna tell you when they
build a six-lane facility like that the outside right lane is a essentially continuous right
turn line so it's there for that reason so I don't know I can do that's official I appreciate
well you know in the end you know just thinking about that there is a neighborhood called
Lakeview out there where the where the road had been extended over one to make a safe
right turn right and then you go down and you have the farmers market and there's no
you know bumping in to do that how does something like that work so like that I'll have to go
look because if that's I think that's something to do with the volume of the traffic on that
on that road typically the state doesn't do deceleration lanes on a six lane facility
but they will if the situation warrants it I think maybe the difference is because that's
a neighborhood there's constant in and out versus the Saturday morning situation where
you know we can we can expect for more traffic to be in that area on a Saturday morning so
I'm just trying to justify so up here where we were talking about 288 time into 35 at
the existing 288 what you have is that's this location right here and right now 288 by ordinance
is operating as a freeway which means there's no access to the main lanes other than across
street what this project does is adds the frontage roads to turn it into an actual controlled
access facility like the 288 that we just talked about is going to be and the what 380
is going to be in the future so we're adding frontage roads and grade separations where
the city is recommending or requesting them and where they make sense so it's a we just
started it we're looking at getting the schematic approved in January and then July of next
year so to answer your question we're getting pretty close to if you got concerns about
what we're doing the state will be less and less receptive but we meet every two weeks
with city staff or so on developments and everything to make sure that we're as much
on top of it as we can be thank you I have a you I always have a lot of questions on
this because it's my own territory and I hear from all the residents on this so I know that
we're anticipating closing Kings Row connection where it is now or Kings Row connects in eastbound
to the loop and opening up Windsor but then that does so you know that the precise alignment
is going to be all the devils in the details kind of thing because the logistics barn I've
asked you about that the the the cemetery the the placement of the church the word where
we're going over the railroad so do we have enough feel for this final alignment that
we can talk about those issues yet absolutely we can we we had like I said we have fairly
regular meetings about this and we met with what's the building out there the Southwire
so we actually met with Southwire text that city and county and said hey where we're coming
with that the one that was impacting the church those ones that were further to the east we
nixed those because that was too many impacts too much trouble too much trauma and it wasn't
doing what the original intent was which is directly connect 380 288 not be another extension
of the freeway so we pulled it in tighter we're basically hitting in the Southwire development
and it was in those meetings that city staff said hey Windsor is going to be a pretty big
deal in the future and it's hard for tech stock to get Kings Road to work so we were
asking you to move that full grade separation to Windsor and then make it right in right
out but they only have to go to Windsor which will be Texas U-turns so they wanted to go
too far out of their way to go back the other direction but that was a week I think we do
need to have a meeting on that specifically because that was a request made by city staff
your development folks and this is where we think the interchange needs to be and so we
adopted that.
So I'm going to bounce off John and if staff and John could get together and let me know
what the anticipated alignments are because the questions that I'm getting are some of
the ones you just brought up how are you going to go eastbound on Kings Road how are you going
to get into Deerwood what's the bus route and the pedestrian bike routes going to be
because that's where they go through now excellent if the access ramp connects essentially across
from Windsor where Windsor is now the 380 access ramp what does that mean for the Windsor
connection on the west side and how does that affect traffic so these are sort of questions
that this this general northeast corridor is sort of like I can't envision it so they
don't know yet what whether to support or complain so I think I think what my I'm going
to jump out of my skis here but the state is in this process of the public hearing public
meeting cycle so they want to hear about what needs to be done because now's the time to
get it fixed the way we all want it so I think I won't go back to Texas and say hey maybe
we can just make a small presentation to the mobility committee and treat it like a public
meeting since it's public publicized or whatever and just come in and kind of go over the nuts
and bolts of it all I think I'd really appreciate that I think the neighbors would too you know
there's with with this connection with the outer loop connection that the northeast corridor
is is getting a lot of well we'll call it love I'll put in air quotes right now it's
getting a lot of love right now and desktop on Friday last Friday they're doing mobility
2050 update and they pulled me aside because I represent Denton County on the technical
committee and they said we're in the early stages but our mobility 2050 is showing two
things that are are unique to what history has been in the past one is that Denton County's
demographics are going to exceed column counting so we're going to pass them up in population
and they said the reason is is because we're our future focus on our infrastructure for
that out year time frame from county line to county line and Collin County is only from
Collin County Denton County to about two miles east of 75 the rest of that's dragon country
right there's no way to live out there there's more cattle than people so 288 is important
three eight is going to be a freeway out of loops important and that's just to stay even
with what we have now as far as congestion so what is it that set up no I'd love that
and if as part of that this is a common word of the staff the the sort of for the pieces
when so John's responsible for the tech stock components but like on Windsor at a certain
distance for outside the right away from 288 it's back to our responsibility or it goes
back away from being mixed right but then there's there's tremendous heartburn about
opening that up because they don't they don't want that to be a speedway Windsor is already
an arterial which is fine no one's really beefing about that it is what it is but there's
concern that in that residential section opening up too much so the the thing that you know
I will come back to you is traffic calming as you exit on to Windsor or you're going
from Windsor well you don't need traffic coming to get back on 288 but that that little piece
do we need some traffic calming just after we exit tech stock territory to to get them
quickly down to speed as it were right so so that's a city that's a city thing so if
as part of that may be two segments that may be two different requests and I'll bring it
up again in the matrix but if we could if we could get with John and give us some some
clues that way we get the feedback started now and the the more the earlier we get the
feedback the less screaming and yelling there is we get to the official meetings thank you
guys okay so I'm glad that you mentioned the population growth that's coming so I'm always
thinking about you know long-term are we giving people multiple mobility option that takes
up a lot of space cost a lot of money to expand roads and keep them up and that kind of thing
so I did talk to Becky to Vinnie about this project before she left some of the key places
that somebody on a bicycle crosses the loop right now is Sherman and Kings Row and so
I was just wanting to make sure at this stage that we're considering is there are there
safe crossings to cross the loop at Sherman and it sounds like Windsor is going to be
the alternative later on because you know as time is going on it's getting more and
more uncomfortable and unsafe even for the really confident people to cross right there
so I just want to make sure yes not only are we but because we all of the roads if you'll
see like 380 going into Decatur there's sidewalks and in this segment on 380 going towards the
green belt we worked with the city to do a 10 foot shared use path so when we build a
road the Federal Highway Administration requires us to accommodate all modes of traffic and
that includes bikes and pedestrians as well so yes those we I think the state is open
right now to finding where y'all want your crossings to be and how to make them safer
there are pedestrian crossings and we can even though Kings Row may not traffic wise
car wise cross there that doesn't mean that that we can't accommodate pedestrians in some
or bicycles of some manner it's just that we can't have one we can't have a split interchange
that close together because of the traffic it's more just I guess emphasizing the crossing
part because a lot of times we focus on corridors but not the actual crossing so it can be multiple
lanes of high-speed traffic you're crossing so I just want to make sure that's staying
part of the conversation specifically with Sherman and I guess Windsor well our intent
is to separate the cross streets by great separation so you're not dealing with the high-speed
traffic anymore you're just dealing with the people that are going to turn on that road
thank you okay up here you see where we got this little part that's Bonnie brain segment
seven we're in clearing that with our project on 288 but we hold it out as a separate project
and show it to you what we're doing because you have it in your plan is Bonnie ray segment
seven but the federal government cog in the state is paying for segment seven so that's
why we're clearing it but it's separate project for y'all that's it's short to you and this
is it for John I apologize John but it it's just a bullet point that for me to bounce
off of I know the the the residents in that area are concerned about the city's extension
off of John's piece that's not fair to give you all the text but I'm just referring to
it that way off of segment seven here above the yellow so if we as as I know that we don't
have any concrete plans for north of this for the realignment as we re-engage north
Bonnie Bray how we bend back to north Bonnie Bray but that alignment is of great concern
to those residents again it's always the final alignment and devil's in the detail so if
we could get some expectation of the kinds of guidance that we will be pursuing because
I know we don't have a plan so I can't give them a plan but if we could get some some
something tonight that can host a town hall and get them to where they're they're feeling
like they're engaged on that sort of thing as we develop our plans north of the second
seven thank you FM 1515 y'all call it Airport Road it's going to be six lanes from the freeway
to the airport and the state has made several changes over the life of this project to accommodate
requests made by the city and that's because the city has agreed not I'm gonna take that
back the intent is to have a negotiation and conversation about taking 1515 off system
once it's built because it'll it'll basically be brand new concrete road and it's got a
ready to let of June of 2025 and we still got a little bit of way to do go on on the
funding yes we have one question yes I have one question this is another one I mentioned
to Becky before she left and it looks like I may have missed the timeline a little bit
but are there going to be bicycle pedestrian so they'll be they'll be sidewalks I know
that for sure because we're required to and I can't remember this project I'll have to
go back and look at the cross-section because for a long time the federal government was
requiring us to do a 14 foot outside lane right and that was the bicycle lane I don't
know if this was one of those that got done that way or they finally realized the bicycle
community didn't like the 14 foot outside line because that made them have to drive
the outside two feet and they like to take up the whole road because it's safer so it
doesn't accommodate anything so I have to go look but I do know there are sidewalks
and we should expect to hear that information the next time we meet I'll just go check and
get it back with staff and I guess just publicly I do want to point out that this is a segment
where I've heard a lot of feedback from the community of I want to get a job here but
I can't get there there's not there's not a safe way to get there if I don't have a
job so this is very important to people that they can access the really important jobs
out here so once we go to six lanes with the design we're talking about the road will
be significantly safer for all modes of traffic than it is right now is the Tulane Road looking
forward to it yeah I just want to stress that I I held a job out there and for co-workers
who maybe had car trouble right the job was paying $15 or $17 an hour if they had car
trouble all of a sudden they couldn't get to work because they knew that crossing that
bridge would probably end their life so I think that's very important even in a car
yeah but especially on foot or the new road will be significant you'll have more what
they call clear zone safe space in the middle and it's just a design is going to be different
and there will be sidewalks so if you have to walk there'll be a safe place to walk not
so sure about the bicycle stuff yet but I'll go look thank you 1173 is to the north going
out to crumb it ties in at where 77 ties in we're going to try to get at least the part
of this project on the east side right away clear utilities move so we can build the connection
with the 35 projects so it's there when 1173 comes across a lot of yellow on there that's
a good thing yes it's all the utilities and design outer loop we purposefully give you
a big green blob right because we started with 24 alignments and every line that has
a line on a map has somebody that Matt is mad about the line and those lines are there
because we have to look at them because if somebody brings it up the federal government
requires us to go explain why that is a good or bad alignment but for those new it's already
established in Collin County at the toll road where it's going to hit it's called the roads
already there you can drive it's called the outer loop toll road northbound southbound
frontage roads already there you can go all the way to Tioga so we know where we're going
to start at the county line we have to cross the green belt at 428 because the core says
you're not crossing my green belt anywhere else besides where you already exist that's
150 feet of footprint and we need about 500 so right now we're looking at a concept to
stack the freeway we had the frontage roads at grade in the 150 feet the main lanes will
fold in up over them and in the same aerial footprint go over so that we don't miss the
we stay inside the 150 feet but that does make us move a historical bridge that the
core is okay with us moving but Texas Parks and Wildlife isn't so we got to work that
work that out but we have to cross at the green belt and we already talked about Milam
part of the environmental clearance is what's called community cohesion and Aubrey Denton
and not so much Creweville but uh strange enough pilot point comes down pretty far we
have to hit generally where the city has the outer loop in their thoroughfare plan plus
or minus and that's what we're trying to do y'all got it a mile on road and generally
speaking 35 being built it's pretty much going to put a stake in the ground there because
we're going to hit that thousand foot area so those are our three controls Milam green
belt at 428 and Collin County's outer loop everything else there's flexibility to minimize
impact but right now we have to take two since it's a full-blown environmental impact statement
not just an environmental assessment we had to take two alignments through the public
hearing process which means there's two sets of people that are going to be mad when only
one set needs to be mad because only one of those alignments is going to be the actual
alignment that's feasible and the one alignment that we're looking at that we can show anytime
you know staff wise has 21 displacements for a 23 mile corridor and that's unheard of it
for a project this big and part of this project for the new folks is at the same time in this
exact same area but a little bit further to the west the Corps of Engineers is working
with the Council of Governments to keep the water from flowing from Denton and Wise into
Dallas down the Trinity River because it floods Dallas and they don't want to break their
levees and so they initially just wanted us to retain all the water up here and big giant
lakes we didn't think that was a good idea so we're doing a pilot project with TechStat
Corps of Engineers and our outer loop project where all of the crossing creeks that cross
our outer loop because we're basically building a 23 mile dam we're going to purchase right
away further up expand the floodplain so we can retain the water and then instead of slowly
releasing it down river we're looking at a way to best management practices recharge
the aquifers because our aquifers are being depleted so we're trying to do more than one
thing with this road.
Can I see your hand up?
Yeah no I was just wait John I'm done you're done okay so yes if staff if I could get whatever
putative alignments that that you want to to review and I'll say the reason is there's
other projects going in and I think I mentioned this in a meeting or two back where Texas
Parks and Wildlife is potentially going to consider some some expansion in some of the
floodplain in this area and whether or not that's antagonistic or synergistic is really
depends on what we're talking about and then I wasn't sure for the area of that's east
of Sherman and but all up and down the corridor then but then west as we go over to Shepard
is that where you're talking about doing some recharge as well or most of it is East of
Sherman?
Well no there are fortunately we have this project in basically three segments and for
each one of those three segments there's a different aquifer that we can charge into
because they're once you get up here they go into they go into like fingers as we have
multiple aquifers and so we we're going to try to do the work where we can hit each one
of those aquifers with our cleaned water so that we can put it we can recharge all of
them so every crossing from Collin County to Milam if there's a north-south crossing
or even a diagonal crossing of where we're going to do the outer loop we're going to
take that that floodplain and we are going to work with Texas Parks and Wildlife Corps
of Engineers whoever the floodplain administrators are and work on expanding that footprint so
that that will be the location we can hold the water long enough for us to treat it and
push it into the aquifers and it's not been done it's been done mechanically for for
actual trying to recharge the aquifer but it's never been done as a byproduct of a road
in a more natural flow scenario. Do we anticipate that that is going to be more fallow land
or are still developable land? That's why we want to go along the existing creeks right
is we want to take what's already kind of fallow and just maybe widen the footprint
on the fallow plus maybe widen a little bit of the 500 feet where we come to it so that
we can retain water both in the medians if we have to so you might have a constant lake
water feature in the middle that's draining into the aquifer and then up north of the
road mostly where we're going to widen that footprint so it had to remain fallow because
it would have to be constantly used for the recharge. Yeah no I appreciate that thank
you. All right thank you thank you those are some good questions and I'm just visualizing
all of this extra water around us and how beautiful that could actually be I like water.
And we're doing a rural cross-section on the outer loop so we're not going to have curb
and gutter it's going to be open dick so that it still flows in with the environment. I
don't do almond locust you all do but I can't tell you this project let in February for
reconstruction and you'll see we tell you that it was Jago and they got 118 working
days and that doesn't mean anything to you but they have eight months of barricades
so they think it's going to take them eight months to do. Okay. They award it into this
month which is today tomorrow I can't remember and then depending on how long they get their
contracts in and etc you can assume you'll see them in 60 days start working. That'll
be great looking forward to that yes ma'am you just leave it on. I don't know if this
is a question for you or city staff is dent it like I know text dots repaving it is Denton
going to get an opportunity to have any say on the final striping or is that just going
back as it is good question. So what actually is going to happen is we're going to defer
a lot of the striping because right after we get this done y'all pass the resolution
as a city to take it off system so you can remake it in your own image. Glossary of terms.
So if I said something you didn't understand look up it in the air and you'll find the
answer typically and then when I talk about category 12 strategic priority if I cut it
like category four or five seven these are the categories of funding that transportation
all transportation fits in one of those 12 categories and that's all I have madam chair.
Thank you very much a very informative I appreciate the additional education on that and if we
don't have any other further questions we appreciate you coming through. Glad to be
here. All right let's see you again. All right well then we're going to move on to where
are we E. M.C. two three there's zero eight zero receive a report and hold a discussion
regarding the transportation services division quarterly report. Excited about this part.
Good morning madam chair vice chair and committee members. I am for Han but transportation services
and I'm going to present some a brief introduction of our programs that we are launching in the
new transportation services division and and it will be a really high level picture of
the divisions programs and if you guys need more details about any of the these projects
or program items let me know and we can provide those. There have been a lot of requests from
the council members about their concerns they were concerns as well about transportation
issues and also how we could resolve them in a professional manner and also issues that
were the concerns were raised that we have to abide by the guidelines and standards development
reviews process had you know that there were some delays there were process issues there
as well that their concerns were raised there as well. Road safety mitigation was another
important aspect where many queries were coming regarding how we could fix these ongoing road
safety issues and improve the safety on Denton streets and city representation at public
agencies at large where you know how we could have a proactive role especially in terms
of participating in these strategic meetings and talking about fundings and how what role
city could play in some of the important projects that are of regional nature as well. In response
to these queries and and all these concerns city management city manager took this strategic
initiative to establish the transportation services division in the development services
department. The transportation services division is responsible to assist all overall city
matters that are linked to transportation planning transportation services and also
strategic partnership with these public agencies be it text or DCTA and COGS all of those agencies
where representation is needed transportation services would fill in those areas as well.
The flow chart basically explains the structure of this division and I'm going to be respectful
of time I will try to expedite this presentation so that we could complete this as soon as
possible and then if you have any questions we could address those as well. So pre August
2023 we had transportation services and transportation planning related elements scattered all over
in many departments and the issue was that the communication there was a void in controls
side project control side as well they were voids in terms of who is doing what so all
of those issues were coming and naturally those concerns were being raised by the council
members as well. As you can see that many of these focus areas for transportation services
and planning were in engineering, some were in streets, capital projects, there were development
reviews related issues which were part of development services as well and planning
and the list goes on. I have just listed here a couple of focus areas or departments which
are which were key but it goes all the way to even police department as well where traffic
safety is linked. So keeping that in view post August 2023 when this division was established
this is how it looks. Now transportation services division would be responsible for ADA planning
and coordination. I will just name a few. Bikebed active transportation is also part
of this division and we are looking into prioritization of projects as well. Coordination is active,
we are looking into the funding side of the story as well how we could bring more funding,
federal funding and state funding as well to city, DCTA coordination. Road safety is
one of the items that is very close to my heart as well and I want to look into this
very closely and ADA, both of these are main items that we are main tasks that we are taking
charge of and hopefully we will be able to put a big dent into these two items and resolve
many of the issues, ongoing issues. This represents the, this slide shows different focus areas
that we are working on. Road safety as I mentioned is one of the top program. When I say signature
program that means that we will be giving reports, progress reports on these programs
and we will be giving quarterly and annual report. ADA transition plan as you can see
is in there and the list goes on and I will go in each slide, next slide, next section,
I will go through each of these programs in details as fast as possible. So when it comes
to road safety and human factors linkages, we are going to look at vision zero implementation
and as phase two and we are already in the process of evaluation proposals, evaluating
proposals and going to the next phase of starting, launching the project sometime I think in
April or May, hopefully if the process goes smooth. Crash data collection and analytics,
we are looking into this, we are getting advanced applications so that we could get hold of
crash data not only through CRISS database which is Texas, which is organized by Texas
State but we are going to have localized data and we will channel it into an information
portal where we could not only analyze but could display how things would work. And then
we have hotspots analysis as well where we have, we are going to look at based on the
crash data analytics that we are getting, we are going to look at hotspots and would
conduct road safety audits, some of that is already going on. On pretty much weekly basis
we have some requests, we go to those spots and try to conduct the audit and then come
back with some recommendations short term and long term.
A real quick question, so whenever we have citizens, I will use Dallas Drive as an example,
that's a very busy road going out to 35, I believe Councilmember McGee had made reference
to it very recently. How are those, what we bring in, is that part of the data for the
near miss detection and hotspots, you know, whatever the council members may have something
or are you all doing that for data in some other kind of way?
It's both, so we will be looking into the councilmember request coming to us as well
as we will have our own data analytics going on based on this core database that we are
assembling right now and based on that we will do our own prioritization system on hotspot
locations but some of these requests that come to us via public or CMO or council members,
we give them top priority and they are prioritized and if some urgent action is needed, we just
do that, list them on short term recommendations and implement them as well.
So we are also planning to conduct innovative studies, assessing the impacts of traffic
conditions on emergency response time, that's one example, and complete streets and comprehensive
road safety progress report would be provided to the committee on quarterly and annual basis.
ADA transition plan is also a signature program where we are looking at it from the holistic
point of view, we're trying to understand where the problem was, where we dropped the
ball and we are just, in the last two months we have arranged in person meetings with tier
one departments, where tier one departments are those departments which are directly linked
to ADA construction or implementation of projects.
So we have met with them in person, we have talked to them about their accomplishments
and challenges and those challenges we are now narrowing down to project level, five
year plus five year program plus maybe annual work program and then we will take it from
to the next step of how to fund them and so all of these questions we are looking into
and we are trying to address those in a very collaborative manner.
In this process all of these departments, tier one departments are engaged and we are
getting feedback and then we are taking it to CMO and then this back and forth would
give us a very good place to make good improvements to the process.
Okay.
Yes, please.
Is this process focused strictly on just legal ADA requirements or is it perhaps have a little
bit broader focus on general mobility for people with disabilities?
So there are two parts to that.
One is legal would come as basically we have risk based approach.
So where we will have risk matrix where we will score the projects based on risk as well
as fiscal allocation as well and then so risk gets the priority, if the score is highest
on risk it goes through legal as well as we make sure that we are covering all aspects
of it from not only from PRO Act requirements or US Access Board requirements but also any
legal framework that needs to be addressed in city of Denton and then we move on to the
implementation stage.
The second is generalized project list.
For example, four tier one departments we are assembling the project list from each
of these departments for five year plus five year program.
Then out of these five year we will prioritize the projects for each department on a yearly
work plan.
And that yearly work plan will be allocated funding and based on whatever the funding
is available we will implement those projects.
And that's why I say that it is a collaborative process where all of these departments are
engaged.
Did I answer your question?
>> I was mostly thinking for my friends with disabilities, especially mobility, impairing
disabilities such as vision or they use a wheelchair or a walker or similar, I know
that a lot of them have a very, very hard time just getting around town due to the lack
of accessible go zones and the lack of a comprehensive bus system.
So I was just curious if that was factoring in.
>> Yes, it is, and it is on priority.
Because when we go through this prioritization process, risk plus external conditions, local
conditions, all of those factors will come in.
And we'll make sure that we are abiding by the U.S. access board guidelines and provide
guidelines and local conditions.
So that's part of it.
>> Okay.
Thank you.
Thanks.
Then we have development review processes.
To simplify, you know, in the development review process, we are just trying to make
sure that all the issues that are causing delays, coordination with tech start or local
developers or maybe within the city departments delays due to certain aspects, we are trying
to remove those voids and making sure that those processes are addressed.
And we have flow maps which we follow so that, you know, the processes are optimized.
This is just an example.
We will share more information in quarterly meetings and mobility meetings as well and
in our bi-monthly report, transportation services report as well on how many projects we have
been handling and how many got rejected.
And those which are rejected, we are looking into that if there is something that we missed
that we need to address in the development review process so that, you know, this never
happens again.
So we are trying to optimize these processes.
Transportation data and application forecasting is another aspect where we are trying to automate
the data and this includes traffic flow characteristics data.
It includes speed profiles on -- we are also working on road classification system and
trying to bring it -- you know, trying to mesh it with the GIS portal so that, you know,
we could just not only see it on paper, but we would have online version, GIS version
of functional classification, any attributes related to those and the end goal is concurrency
management system where we will be able to ultimately look at the level of service for
each functional classification system in City of Denton.
And we have -- you know, these are some examples of the site that we are looking at.
You know, the idea is that we may go for some continuous stream counting stations as well
as we get some help from the online web applications just like urban SDK or street lights.
We are reviewing that right now, but soon we will be able to make a decision on that.
And then we have traffic operations side of things as well.
We are coordinating with the traffic operations.
We are helping in signal optimization, controls on queries, all queries related to traffic
flow characteristic data.
And as part of this process, we are also looking into interactive Denton demographics because
that goes hand in hand with the development review process.
So what we found is that this is a void that needs to be filled because -- so that our
reviewers have information on what demographic data is available and how they can make informed
decisions on these review applications.
Smart mobility integration long term, no promises for short term, but long term, yes, we are
looking into this.
It is not an aspect which is ignored.
We are there, but we are trying to be cautious of these new technologies because sometimes
they outpace themselves.
So cautiously we are looking into that, and this is part of our plan.
We are also looking into mobility plan amendments, and we are going to make active transportation
plan as part of our effort.
And active transportation plan is important because we would like to look into the bike
bed and micro mobility aspects of things.
Micro mobility is emerging use, which is on the multi-use paths, and sometimes in some
cases streets as well.
So we would like to address that as part of that.
And then any other amendments that are needed based on our review.
I have a question for -- just interject here.
And this is for the bike pit people, which I'm so glad that they're here and sitting
in the room with us.
Is there any level of grace that is given to a city in regards to the time factor?
Have you heard from the mobility folks in the bike pit community that's allowing a bit
of grace for us to get caught up with what their needs are?
Are you hearing a lot of conversation in that regard?
We have downtown parking study going on through a couple of other studies where there was
a public engagement process.
We had a lot of comments, you know, on this issue.
And look, we have prioritized bike or sidewalk program and bike lane issues that we are looking
into right now.
It will not be overnight, but we are fully focused on that.
We are prioritizing our bike lane projects and even to extend sidewalk projects as well.
And we are hoping that the implementation process starts ASAP.
And this is how we are going to tackle.
But yes, there is an issue that we have identified, this void we are trying to fill.
And this will be a multimodal approach.
We are not just going to look at sidewalk, look at them as sidewalk or bike pit, but
we will look at the holistic view that where people are trying to go and where they are
coming from and how we can facilitate if they are going to a go zone or a bus stop or a
transit stop, light rail station, all of those considerations will be made.
Thank you.
Yes.
This is just a clarification question.
So on the second bullet, it says we're developing the first active transportation plan and strategy.
Is that separate from the bike and pedestrian plans we've made, or is that just another
word for the same thing?
It will be separate, but the idea is that we will merge them in the end.
Because imagine there are new users coming, even in the active transportation arena.
So there is micromobility aspect, which is a missing piece, and a lot of cities are actively
working on that, and our plan is that we look into that.
And then we would like to look at it from use perspective as a mode, and not as a recreational
aspect, assuming that, as John mentioned, that population growth and all those factors
are coming.
So we need to be ready for bike lanes to be used as a mode for commute to work, maybe,
and more.
Thank you.
This is the last slide, and also we are helping CIP for project prioritization process.
We understand that the project prioritization process would be linked to many aspects, including
fiscal allocation, and then also what needs to be built, what is a priority.
So we are in the process of developing a prioritization criteria in collaboration with CIP, and once
the criteria is developed, it will be vetted to make sure that we have addressed all the
prioritization issue.
We will look into the best use cases as well, best practices, and then once the criteria
is developed, we will run the projects through those, and that is not only to capital projects
related to streets, but also to bike path as well.
So we are creating a bike path criteria that hinges on fatalities, serious incapacitating
injuries, use cases where people are going, the attraction centers, and all those factors
are coming in.
That criteria is almost 70 percent complete, but we are still in the process.
And we will provide for any of these programs, we will provide summary report to the Mobility
Committee quarterly, and there will be annual report as well.
On the division level, we are -- we develop a bimonthly report that is sent to CMO and
the leadership.
Thank you.
That's all.
If you have any questions, I'll be happy to.
Any questions?
Yes.
It looks like you have a question.
I have.
I took notes, and I have a bunch of questions.
I was just going to throw them all out at once.
The first one is, I love the reorganization.
This isn't really a question for you, this is going to be me looking side-eye at Cassie,
and I noticed that there is three to four times the strategic goals in this transportation
section compared to every other topic area.
And so I'm just hopeful that upper management applies a similar ratio of resources to these
endeavors.
That's more of a snarky comment than anything else.
And then a real question is, on the slide where you were talking about the forecasting
of our major arterial corridors, it jumps out immediately our continuous and ongoing
problem that our arterials are composed of 50% text dot roads.
That's correct.
So if we're forecasting, can we really forecast if we're not forecasting Carroll-Bonnie-Bray
University, 288 Mayhill, I understand we only control the roads you listed, but to an earlier
point that was brought up about crossing those roads, I mean, it's gray.
So if we're going to forecast, should we not be forecasting at least our major east-west
and north-south corridors?
So pick one, like University, and then pick a north-south one.
I mean, probably University is the clearest contender, particularly for the accident deaths
and everything.
So I guess the short version of my question is, how are we incorporating the roads we
don't know?
So that's a very good catch, and yes, we are addressing that issue.
So what happens is that on one level, we are going for some permanent counting stations,
which will be providing stream data, continuous stream data.
But those will not be majority of the cases, those will be selected few cases.
So that's streets owned by us.
For the overall picture where the streets are not owned by us, we are relying on two
options.
One is urban SDK or maybe street lights data.
So urban SDK, and then, of course, text or data is available as well on selected roads.
So these are three sources.
So on these, we will get average annual daily traffic, AADT, on every single facility in
our region, including the residential ones as well.
So that's the resolution.
But with the caution that usually these data sets are interpreted on arterial or collector
level, and the lower the classification, the more noisy the data becomes.
So we will have this data through satellite source or GPS, whatever their source is.
But we are planning to have this data.
And on the side, on certain city streets, we are planning to have permanent counting
stations, text or data set, we'll merge the three, we'll have concurrency with level of
service, but this is not going to happen overnight, we are developing the system.
Because it was not there, so right now we are trying to automate GIS data sets.
We are linking these, we are creating unique IDs, and it will take some time.
But we will get there.
I think the idea is that we are trying to converge to this capacity or capability as
soon as possible.
I appreciate that, and I can't tell you, and again this will be a side comment to Cassie,
how excited I am that someone who does data analytics is going to be looking at this sort
of thing.
So it's all nice comments for him, Cassie.
I will say, I will remind you just anecdotally that there are a ridiculous number of universities
across the state that do traffic data analytics, and there's like including our homegrown university,
but more specifically UTD and UT Austin Tech that literally look at these exact problems
and there's no reason you can't piggyback on their design safe database platforms and
other things like that.
So that's just sort of as an aside that there's low hanging fruit you could grab to help you
with the analytics.
Sure, and we are relying on those avenues.
The next question I had is on the question of, I forget where it was, but traffic operation
coordination.
Yes.
So, one of the challenges and barriers that we've had in the past in the 70s and 80s
in particular was an overemphasis on flow versus safety, or at least by modern standards,
and I think that's why you saw, you know better than anyone the transition we've made to more
of a Vision Zero approach.
So I guess my question is on that central bullet item, and I guess it goes to the analytics
we just discussed a second ago.
Do we have a policy feel for how we're incorporating flow versus Vision Zero in our prioritization?
Because I think something maybe both from an engineering standpoint and then as necessary
for the policy makers, when do we need to tell you that, and have we already told you
that Vision Zero is a priority therefore prioritize that above flow?
So if we've already told you that and that's the message that you've received, then I'm
good.
I don't really have a question, but that's sort of where, is that to be resolved or it's
already been resolved?
It's resolved.
I am on the same page, and actually you know even if it was not told, I think that's a
generalized among transportation professionals, that's a generalized agreement that we all
have that safety first, flows are on the secondary scale, but I think safety is first because
especially not only because of this flow or safety integration, but it is first because
of the look at the number of crashes, look at the number of fatalities.
So we have to address this issue.
So yes, I am on the same page.
Awesome.
Two more I guess on the, so I guess it's really the integration of sort of the last two slides.
Your predecessors at the city that have come and gone over the last few years have, include
some of the people in the room, have done a lot of this work and I know you're talking
about integrating it.
Some of the outlines and timelines seem, and don't take this the wrong way, I don't mean
this pejoratively, but it's a little bit of a reboot and reorganization to go along with
the general structure reorganization, and so I guess the question is more how much are
we going to be able to incorporate the existing prioritization of goals and the existing data
that we sort of already started, I don't want to reboot to make us go back to zero, just
make us go back to ten, you know.
No, we are not going back to zero actually, we are starting from what we had, for instance
in case of ADA, we are not going back to zero, we are starting with the ADA transition plan
that had essentially, it has a list of projects for each department, tier one department,
and so we are not ignoring that, we are just taking that, and then we are collaborating
with departments to say which of these projects we would like to build first in five plus
five years horizon, ten years horizon, so that's our long list, then we just say okay,
now out of these, please help us understand which are your priorities for next one year
work plan, and once we have this one year work plan, starting October, we will start
implementing them, then next stage is of course funding, and we will match, and whatever is
available based on that we will just build, and the rest go to next year's bank, so that's
how we are trying to approach, at the same time we are trying to, through cog, through
other sources, we are trying to get funding, for example, now we are transportation services
applying for SS4A grant, which will be safe streets for all, and through cog, and we are
not going to be doing it alone, all of these departments will be collaborating with us.
That sounds great, I appreciate the clarity on that, and then my last question, I will
skip over the one because I can tell from the previous answers that there will be some
integration in our development of macro mobility, transit oriented design, I love the micro
mobility, so I appreciate that I heard that already, the last one I have is around town,
there are clear desire paths, some of those are really obvious, like along, and we will
probably come up to this later in the report on the matrix, but the exit ramp from university
south bound on to 288, there is a clear desire path there, there is clear desire paths around
other locations in town, and for the others, most people know that the desire path is where
you see the traffic is beating something down and they want to go that way and they don't
care what our plans are, so how are we incorporating desire plans, desire paths into our transit
design? So desire paths are often induced routes perceived by the users, road users,
for instance, there is a shortest path, traffic assignment problem where there is a game theory
where everybody wants to go first and to their shortest path, perceived shortest path, so
we are going to crack at this problem using traffic controls and optimisation of controls
versus what the choices are available to drivers, so part of this would be investigating that
are there other routes available, are there other options available, why people are just
using one route, and so kind of try to change that perception, maybe improve some of the
functional classification, maybe improve the visibility, attractiveness of the facilities,
whether it would be offering other modes and opening up to, yes, there is a possibility
that you could commute to your work via bike, there is a possibility you could take a bus,
that's long term, but that's also in the plan, so we will look at it from multimodal perspective
which mobility plan also talks about and also comprehensive plan also talks about, so we
are looking at it from that perspective. Now short term, we could do a couple of things
where we could improve the optimisation of controls, we could look at signal controllers
if there are any delays, cycle failures, we could look at those corridors and try to give
some alternatives to that and maybe increase the throughput of these corridors through
capacity improvements. Excellent, I appreciate all of that and I apologise for everyone taking
a whole bunch of questions, but I appreciate everyone's indulgence and Cassie, thank you
for hiring him. I got it all, I vomited my brain out. Yes, just a quick clarification
question to start, you mentioned level of service analysis for street facilities, do
we currently have a framework for analysing level of service for bike and pedestrian users
especially at a network level? No, we don't and that's part of it, so when we develop
this concurrency management system, part of it will be addressing level of service for
streets, that's our first priority and not to say that bike pad is not a priority, but
it's first priority because a lot of these crashes are happening on these facilities,
on the roads and then also there are traffic congestion, the point you raised, that are
causing bottlenecks, so we would like to address wherever there is a level of service F or
volume to capacity ratio of 1.2, we would like to go and address those issues. Then
bike pad would come as part of it where we would like to generate multiple routes and
multiple options of modes. The third is that we are also going to look at facilities with
the level of service, oh sorry, vehicle to capacity ratio of 0.2, what it tells us is
it is an underused facility and if we are putting dollars to that, we need to be careful
about it, so I'm not saying that maybe there's a good use for that, but we would look into
those issues as well. Second question, is there any integration
of climate goals into our streets plan? The city of Denton has a goal to hit net zero
by 2050 and a 46% reduction from 2018 levels by 2030 and currently vehicular emissions
are about two thirds of our portfolio, when we are doing streets planning are we integrating
those goals and those realities into our streets? First I will admit that it's a problem that
will not go away soon, because it's not just the city's problem, but at Cobb we are seeing
that it's a regional problem, but on our end we have recently applied for CMAC based congestion
management air quality fund based funding for three projects, they are bike, pet projects,
all three of them, so we are going piece by piece, we may develop a larger project, it
will take some time, we have to look at the data and try to absorb it, understand it,
and then we will be able to make a decision that which corridor we would like to address.
The challenge is that these federal fundings are very comparative, if we just apply without
looking at the data, we may get rejected. So we have already applied three projects,
bike, pet projects as part of the CMAC congestion management program. This year we applied like
two months ago. Okay. Well that sounds good, it sounds like all the, you know, all the
brain capacity is there and we certainly thank you all for, you know, all of your work that
you have done. I don't have any additional questions for Mr. Butts, does anybody else
have anything else? I'm sorry. All right. So I guess we can move on from there. I certainly
do want to recognize, thank you. Thank you so much. I do want to recognize that our time
is winding up and we have had some great conversation this morning, I appreciate our two new members
that have come on. I'm certainly going to take the pleasure of recommending that we,
because of the time factor here, recommending that we forego F and G in whole. I know that
there's a lot of information out there that we want to know, but we simply don't have
time in this meeting to do that. So I'm going to recommend that we come back next month
and begin there. Also know that Mr. Polster is not going to have to give us and educate
us. He's just going to come right on in and just keep it moving. And he's going to say,
go to the back of the form and look at all the, you know, the acronyms for all of this
stuff like he did me and I had to go back and look. So we're just going to do it there.
We're going to stop here. And I would like for us now to just simply for the next five
minutes to throw out any, any additional things that we want to put on here. If you all have
any additional questions, not questions, but statements that you want us to take a look
at the city to take a look at some, a priority that you might see. Uh, this is a time for
us to go directly to a street that we may want them to take a look at, you know, if
we say, Hey, we'll take a look. We've got a problem at Barney brain. Can we take a look
at Barney Berry in this area? So this will be a chance to go ahead and give that information
to the city. So when they come back to us next month, we'll have a leading in on what
we'd like to, uh, for them to take a look at. Is there anybody that'd like to have the
city to take a look at some specific areas that we don't see on the back here? Cause
we have, uh, some things back here, the construction report, the lighting, the landscape to 88
bicycle signages, regulations, side path with we're going to be talking about that next
month. Yes, sir.
Uh, I know that there was a response to, uh, the, the three to 88 and I don't want to belabor
that, um, about, but, um, it's sort of a small addendum and I don't know if it's a, if it's
a matrix item or not. So I'll say it and then staff can determine whether where it falls
as the sage oak owners believe they have given in escrow. So then maybe staff needs to communicate
with them, um, about the, that sidewalk escrow that was mentioned in the report. I leave
it to next month to have a full discussion on that, but there is a, uh, if we could include
next time when we get back to that, uh, our piece there in front of the DME pile on staging
area. Um, if we could include that into discussion as well, uh, I would, um, uh, appreciate that
and then at, um, uh, if we could put on the matrix, uh, something about, um, uh, uh, bike
racks and the rules and, and, and policy decisions that might need to be made. The reason I've
made this is, is, and, and one of our new members has been among me for years to do
this and I finally am doing it and my eyes are open. Uh, I have come to bike Jesus on
this one. Um, but the, there is no, I shouldn't, I shouldn't joke like that, but the, the,
uh, the, the point being that, uh, in biking around town, there's no place to park your
bikes unless it's city hall or other city facilities. So, uh, I would like some, some
update on our guidance for what our bike rack rules are, uh, to put, be put on the
matrix. Oh, and those other items that I mentioned, John, uh, talked about the, that, that I said
that we put on the matrix. Okay. Can I tack on to what he just said? Can I tack on to
what he just said about the bike racks? Can we also see, um, how we enforce our regulations
that we have on bike racks? Cause I'm fairly familiar with what we have, but I'm curious
how we enforce them to make sure that they're happening.
Okay. Uh, cost member, Maggie, you're good. Yes. Um, one area that I have concern for
is I work as a school bus driver, uh, out of Ryan high. That's where the bus base is.
Um, and there's a dollar general across the street and kids will be crossing back and
forth constantly, I think between classes or before classes started or after classes
or during a lunch break. Um, and so that's a very high volume of pedestrian crossing
area as well as being 45 miles an hour, five lanes of traffic, uh, with a shared left turn
lane. Um, so it's quite a dangerous crossing to me, it would seem. And I was wondering
if we could look into even just putting up like some barrel cones in the middle of that
intersection where people are crossing so that there's some, some level of visibility
and some something indicating, you know, please, please watch out for the kids who are going
to be crossing here because there's probably hundreds of crossings there a day. Thank you.
And mine, uh, is Woodrow and more street. Uh, we're seeing a higher traffic pattern
going on there. Um, I travel that street literally every day. So, um, please add that on. I like
for us to get an update on what we're thinking about doing with that. We know that the new
apartment complex is coming up. Uh, and so there's going to be dumping a little bit,
a few more cars onto the roadway. And so I think that we need to have that in a pipeline
as well. All right. Anything else? Well, if there's not anything else, um, yes. Are you
saying something? Do I need to address something? Yeah, I bought it up for the past two years
now. I understand it's coming to the next bond, but we really need some cheap temporary lighting
on the street. It's darker street in town and people rolling down McKinney street at
night on wheelchairs and parents pushing strollers and it's dangerous. I just want to go out there
on the record and say, we really need to have that discussion at some point.
Yes. Yeah. I just want to piggyback real quickly. The, the, the same thing on the,
the three 82 88 bike, if we could, uh, include lighting, what our lighting requirements are
again, that's a textile thing. I realize, but, but it's, it's an identical problem to the one
that the counselor McGee, we have weird pedestrian access because we have, we're in a transitional
state and the, the pedestrian bikes, also the lighting, which goes to the point of the safety
and visibility. So I mean, these are all integrated questions. Okay. Going from the shelter to the
seven 11, particularly in quick trip. Okay. And then, um, of course we have, we're going to have
a bit more conversation on that, on, on section F when they bring that back, uh, it's the report
that's discussing bike lanes and practical perspectives. So we'll get to hear about that,
um, next month. Maybe they'll have more information for us tack your, your, your questions and
concerns onto that section. Okay. Well, if there's not anything else that, um, can be discussed here,
we, I am recommending, um, you have to do a motion to close, but we're recommending, uh, that we're
going to close this session at 1153. Thank you all very much for your service. Thank you all for
getting and making the, uh, transition onto this committee. And I also want to tell the public out
there, if you're still listening, please know that there is some significant coordination.
We know about the streets. Our biggest complaints is about our streets. We said we, all the people
that are coming in, we put it on our platforms as you know, um, public service people that are
coming in to sit in these seats and we're going to work on these streets. We really literally are
working on the streets. So give us a little bit of grace. And I say us, I mean, all of us,
this entire city, you, me, everybody, we need to give ourselves some grace on, on getting these
streets together. We're just a growing city and this comes with the, um, as you can see,
there's a lot to speak on, but this goes with just growing up. So thank you all and you all
have a great rest of the day. Appreciate it. We'll close it out at 1154.