Sep 10, 2019 Mobility Committee on 2019-09-10 8:00 AM (AMENDED)
September 10, 2019 Mobility Committee
Full Transcript
>> Good morning and welcome to this meeting of the mobility committee.
Seeing that we have a quorum, I'm going to open the meeting at 8, 10 AM.
That appears to be an inconvenient time, so next time we'll try for seven.
We'll move into item A and consider approval of the minutes.
I'll entertain a motion.
>> So moved.
>> All in favor?
>> Aye. >> Aye.
>> We're going to jump a little bit around in order to accommodate our high maintenance
representation from TXDOT and go into item E,
receive a report and hold a discussion regarding TXDOT on system projects in the Denton area.
>> Thank you, Mr. Chair.
John Polster, Innovative Transportation Solutions, 2701 Valleyview Lane, Farmer's Branch, Texas.
So we'll start with the report we have here.
The first sheet, hopefully, is the, how do I get rid of that?
How do I get- >> I'm going down, that's the next sheet.
>> How do I get rid of the black thing?
>> Just click anywhere.
>> I got other talents.
>> There we go.
>> Okay.
>> It doesn't disappear until nine o'clock.
>> Okay.
>> It's too early in the day.
>> Okay, so this is a list of all the projects that's in the report.
And the estimated revenue strain that we think that that represents.
And most of these projects, now the 35 projects are funded, are fully funded.
So we're looking at a little less than $2.5 billion worth of improvements on this report.
So your first report is 2181.
This is a project that was suspended when TXDOT terminated the contract with MCM.
We have gotten information back from the Dallas district after our last meeting.
We met with the district to see what the efforts could be to exploit this project.
And they decided that they think they're going to go ahead and
just surrender on all of the issues related to time and money.
And get the new contractor onsite by this about mid-October.
So they were saying end of year.
Now they're saying they think they're going to be able to get a new contractor
back on site by mid-October.
But they only sent that to me in a text message.
So when I get it officially, I'll put it in the report.
Then your next project is your Fort Worth Drive project.
It's under construction.
So we have a TXDOT report related to this project.
Again, this is- >> Actually, if you'd just wait a moment.
So I know that Councilmember Briggs gets a lot of questions on this.
Just so you're here.
>> 2181, TXDOT has said that they're going to basically give in on the time and
the cost and just try to get a new contractor onsite by October.
They were saying the end of year.
But when we met with them, we went over the history of how well TXDOT
negotiates with shirty bond companies.
And at the end of the day, they end up giving up anyway.
And so we're just telling them to surrender earlier and move on.
>> Okay, thank you.
>> So October, mid-October, we should have a contractor back on site.
So on your Fort Worth Drive, this is a seam of construction, essentially.
The major emphasis of work right now is at the shoe fly for the railroad.
And a lot of the concrete pavement up at the frontage road at 35E.
So that's pretty much what that says.
And they're still on track for 2021 timeframe to complete the project.
>> I believe August 29th is said and done.
>> Yes. >> But it did not happen.
Do they have an updated date as to when they're gonna shut it down?
>> Yeah, so the last time we met was two weeks ago.
>> Yeah, so I was out of town.
>> Cuz I saw the bridge there on the 28th.
>> I think they moved back to September sometime, but they didn't give us a date.
>> The concrete still had the wood forms on it, so I knew they weren't ready for it.
>> We'll get that updated before we send it back out.
>> Okay.
>> TXDOT never meets their schedules cuz the contractors don't.
All right, so this is your I-35E Mayhill ultimate project.
This is a project that will add the 12 lanes for both Mayhill North and 2499 South.
We have basically, you're in the process of acquiring the right of way.
And we have a November 2020 let date and
this project is funded at the $53.4 million.
So it'll go when it's ready to go and the right of way is pretty much controlling
that right now.
And the city's got some utilities that we need to coordinate to make sure
they're consistent with our schedule.
All right, so then this is the Luke 28835 existing brinker project.
The good news on this is that they continue to progress and
we're looking at mid September for the brinker interchange to be open.
We're working with your fine staff.
The contractor would not agree to a change order to put in a temporary signals.
They don't want any more work cuz right now they're paying the state about $7,500 a day.
For the privilege of doing this work.
So your fine staff has stepped up and said they'll help try to get it installed.
TechStux got some material and so we're working to try to get this
signal up in time for us to have the road open in September.
Cuz if you go drive there, it's physically there.
The pavement's put down, U-turns are there, and it's barricaded.
So we're gonna be having a lot of trouble keeping people out of there.
And so we want to open it, but we don't want to open it till we have the signals
up because the traffic on the furniture is pretty fast.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
>> Council Member Fritz.
>> Just for clarification, so we do have the light and
the city's going to install it mid September and then it can open?
Is that the chain of events?
>> So there are a couple things that we need to do.
Before we can go out there, we need an agreement with TechStux that they'll reimburse us.
TechStux just sent the agreement yesterday.
So we have to get it through our legal and get it on council to get it approved.
In the meantime, we can work something to get materials ordered and
other stuff moving so that we don't miss the deadline.
But we're gonna try every bit to meet that.
>> So we're doing a temporary signal now because remember we're coming right back
on the previous job, we're coming right back and tearing all this out in November.
And that project will put in a permanent metal pole.
So this will be temporary signals in the interim span wire.
And I think TechStux said they'd even be, they've got some poles they can
let the city use if they're up to standard.
So we're working every angle we can to make sure that we don't have this
setting there barricaded off when the governor comes into town in October.
>> Councilmember Wright.
>> Yeah, and I believe I saw a email come through that, I think it's next week that
they're shutting down the southbound ramp for that exit.
And it will reopen around the 20th.
>> So that's the official plan.
They're trying to keep those closures on that ramp at night as much as possible.
But yes, in theory, it could be closed for a week.
They're trying to work with the contractor to see how much time they can keep it open.
All right, so everything I just said is right here on the TechStux report.
And then you've got, this is the merge.
You'll note that we've changed the limits to meet what TechStux had funded.
So this section is what we call the merge.
And it is, I'm saying 320, it's like 319 million and some change.
For these improvements, and this is permanent improvements.
So this will add, ultimately on 35E coming through Denton,
you'll have managed lanes just like you do south of the lake.
So as we make the curve going up to 380, 35E and
35 will include capacity in the middle of the facility for
future additions of those managed lanes.
Similar to what they did at 407, where 407 has been built for the ultimate.
And we're only using two of the four lanes for managed now.
We'll build the permanent structures in this corridor,
which will include availability to restripe the managed lanes in the future.
And its partner project, if it can be left at the same time it will be,
is the rest of the project from 380 up to basically the county line.
It's just north of the county line to 3002.
This project is at 546 million.
The commission improved it before we were telling you it was funded because it was
draft at the previous highway commission meeting past Thursday into August.
They approved it and it included these funds.
So this is now officially funded in its entirety.
So between the wishbone and these two projects,
you're looking at just under $900 million in funding.
It's gonna be brought to our region in this area.
And again, it's got a September 22 let date.
A lot of right away to acquire in this corridor.
And then this is the 35W, the other leg of the 35s in Denton County.
Right now we're waiting on, we just got the traffic from TP&P on August 27.
So now H&TB can go back to doing their work on the schematic.
We're looking at spring of next year, having the schematic approved.
And then a sister companion project to this project
is the 35W frontage road project and this is being done by Jacobs.
And they are actually doing the full on construction documents for
the entire corridor.
So now that we've got this part of the bottleneck on 35 resolved,
our next effort will be to finding sections of 35W where the frontage roads
appear to be warranted, similar to what we're doing down here in the south where
we're building sections of frontage road as a development occurs.
It appears that that will be in the northern part of this project based upon
what Hillwood's doing and what the city's got going on in this corridor.
So even though it's $300 million, we'll be taking in sections of those frontage
roads and building them once they're environmentally clear.
We can build any part of it that we want.
And we're looking at having it cleared again sometime next year.
And then this is for the ultimate to be let.
So once we get it cleared, we can identify individual sections and
build limits like from 1171 to 2449 or 2449 up to 35.
We don't have to build the whole corridor.
So the date to watch on this one is March 2020.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
Okay, and this is your 380 East job, a couple of things.
One, it's fully funded.
It's just a little under $130 million.
There are significant parcels to acquire in the blue section for sure.
Text that wants to expedite the construction of the green section which
is in the city of Denton, which requires us to do a little bit more coordination
with the city related to their utilities to make sure that what text that schedule
is for this corridor is consistent with what the city can do to get their utilities
out of the way and so we're meeting every two weeks on that.
And we should be okay on this project but they want to let the green section first.
Cuz they have, remember I've told you that time about it.
We never worry about money because it's not a 10 year plan.
It's 10 one year plans and it's not 10 one year plans.
It's 12 months per year so they have to let those dates and
hit those times and those monies.
They've got a project that fell out in this fiscal year and
they want to backfill it with this project because it's ready to go essentially.
And they have to let those dollar amounts and so they're looking for
an assist from us on their budgeting.
Which helps us cuz we get the project sooner.
That's that faith based engineering I talk about.
We get it ready and then when somebody else fails we just step in.
Loop 288, okay, so about the only good news we got on this is we finally
do have our traffic, we got that on August 27th.
So CP&Y is now in the process of updating their schematic to
incorporate the assumptions related to the traffic.
And why is that important?
Because this is a controlled access facility with ramping and
grade separations at major intersections.
And you can't show the public officially the schematic that has the ramps
in certain locations unless you have the traffic to justify those locations and
those ramps.
And so although we've had the schematic for a long time, without the traffic,
we're not authorized to publicly show it and get public input from it.
Cuz we didn't have the backbone for the traffic on it.
So this is important, which means that we'll probably have a better chance of
meeting that April 2020 environmental clearance date.
And once we hit that, all of these are as fast as you can get them done.
So if we can beat the schedule, then we can move the project up in this time frame.
FM 1515.
So we finally beat down TechStock to go ahead and
show the roundabout at Western on their next public involvement process.
So there'll be a, I'm not calling this a roundabout.
Is a traffic circle a roundabout?
>> It's a roundabout.
>> A roundabout.
>> Here, this is where there's gonna be a circle, essentially.
So when the 18 liters get lost and come into the airport's parking lot,
they don't have to do a 15 point turn to get out.
>> Pardon me, can you remind us of what the difference is?
>> Yes.
>> So a roundabout is a intersection control measure.
It's similar to stop control or a signal.
But it is a intersection control where traffic is channelized
through the intersection in an orderly fashion.
A circle, in the other sense, it is more of a it's not a device to,
it's an older design that does not take into account the speeds, the flow of traffic.
And in order to maneuver through a circle, there could be stop signs before that.
There could be yield signs, so there is no definite way of assigning traffic in their right of way.
But in a roundabout, it's assigned pretty appropriate.
>> In essence, is a circle one lane around and a roundabout is two?
>> No, it could be multiple lanes.
>> Okay, so I grew up in Fort Worth, and on the western part of Fort Worth,
we used to call it the Weatherford traffic circle, have you all ever been out there?
And to me, a traffic circle is the stuff that European vacation people get stuck on,
where it's a big giant.
To me, that's in my mind what I call it, but this is a turnaround at the end so
the trucks can get back out.
At western, there'll be a roundabout for that intersection, and
then the rest of it will be a standard six lane facility all the way to 35.
>> Question?
>> I attended the tech stop meeting on this the other day, and
the alignment of the service road, which right now hits kind of at the top of the bridge.
If you're coming south, and then you gotta turn and go to the west before you can actually get back on it.
>> Correct. >> As I said, when they come in with the project for
service roads- >> We'll fix it with that big project with the merge.
>> So will it be under the Y project or under the service roads project?
>> It'll probably be under the Y project cuz it's north of the railroad track, isn't it?
So that's your demarcation, nobody wants to touch that track.
>> Yeah, but the service road goes over the top of the track.
>> All right, we'll get you there, to that you're on your own.
>> Yeah, everybody's fighting over who's gonna have to deal with the railroad track.
All right, and then as a part of the 35 project to the north, the larger project,
we've made sure that the schematic includes the location of FM 1173 consistent with
the city's thoroughfare plan, which is that red alignment.
And Garver has now given us additional information on their schedule.
We're looking at having an environmental clearance, basically they just got started now.
So about 18 months from now, we think we'll get it environmentally cleared, and
that's when we can start really pushing on the rest of the schedule.
It's not funded, but again, we're doing it under faith-based engineering,
because this is a project that TechSite asked us to do.
And so you figure they're asking us to move it forward.
Once we get it ready to construct, they'll help us find the money.
And the reason that dollar amount is so high is there's a lot of drainage
associated with this section of 1173 that also has to be dealt with in the job.
Okay, so here's your 428 project.
We've separated the color coding.
This is the work that Preetam and his group is working to make some improvements on
the inside of the loop.
They're working with TechSite to get a signalized intersection at 288 and 428.
And then we're working with TechSite to hire somebody.
I think they're saying they'll have it by the end of the year, yes.
Have somebody on to analyze 428 as a controlled access facility.
So we'll have frontage roads and main lanes.
And so we're slowly but surely bringing this project up into the system and
getting it reviewed through the regulatory process.
And the new one is Bonnie Bray, phase seven.
Is that my Roman numeral's right?
>> You're right.
>> It doesn't have a money sign on it, so I can't do it.
And this is the project that this section right here is the section that basically
the MPO has told us, or COG has told us that they'll work with TechSite to get
this section funded.
So the city's done some preliminary engineering.
TechSite and the MPO have looked at it.
They like the design.
And so we're working with TechSite to get this segment funded.
And then this is a segment where the COG is working with the city and
the county to make improvements for the new high school didn't high.
And so we don't really have a schedule yet.
We're just not getting started on it, but yeah.
>> But why isn't it straighter?
>> The green section?
>> Yeah. >> There's a creek channel right
through there, if I had an aerial, basically all of that is a giant creek.
And so we're having to straddle it at the more opportune.
Which is why right now it jogs.
You come up and then you go up 77 and then you go up because they missed that creek.
But with this job, with TechSite and COG funding it,
some problems are solved by geometry, others are solved by money.
And so this one's just going to be a little bit more expensive.
>> That's what we're basically doing.
>> So it's like a, is it an environmentally sensitive area?
>> Not after we're done with it.
>> I'm joking, I don't know.
Whatever the environmental regulatory process is, we're going to have to go
through that obviously because it's federal dollars.
So it'll go through the same, you know, regulatory process as all of them do.
So it'll be any, if we do wetlands, we'll have to mitigate.
If there's any type of floodplain changes, we'll have to address that through FEMA.
So it'll be federally funded.
So it's fully regulatorily reviewed.
>> So the existing alignment, if you see that little piece that comes down from Bonny Bray,
that's the alignment along the creek.
So there's more areas in that area.
That's why we're getting away from that.
The other thing is the spacing.
You see there's an interchange with 77.
If we align Bonny Bray away from that, we get better spacing along loop 288.
So there are a couple factors that we're looking at.
The other thing also is loop 288 at that location is dipped and
there is an elevated area so that you have a better bridge to go over the loop to it.
So there are several things that we had looked at.
That's why it's a little bit not straightened out.
It's a little bit at an angle.
>> Engineers like straighter than get it.
So if it's not, there's a reason.
And we're also looking at potential for in the future with 428 improvements,
making actual frontage roads along 288 in this corridor at some point in the future.
And I believe that's it for me.
>> That's more for bricks.
>> Yes, I have a couple of questions at the Dallas Regional Mobility Committee.
We heard two updates and I just wanted to ask here if any of those would affect
the city of Denton that Mr. Vaughn was appointed to the Texas Transportation
Commission and the 2020 UTP funding proposed funding has been approved or is out.
So as we go through all of these updates for any of those affect our projects?
>> Yes, ma'am.
So the 2020 UTP fully funded the I-35E merge and the north segment.
So it was some 800 and almost 900 million dollars is fully funded in the 2020 UTP.
And then they also funded the segment in Dallas County from 635 up to
the Dallas County line in Denton County.
So although it's not in Denton County per se,
it impacts Denton County because most of our commuters travel down 35E.
But they'll be coming in and adding additional general purpose lanes,
all the managed lanes.
So there'll be four ultimately in that corridor, and
putting all the permanent improvements there it's like 700 million bucks.
So Denton County in the surrounding infrastructure
fared very well in the 2020 UTP.
Because what also was reaffirmed in that were all of our breakout projects.
So Mayhills reaffirmed 1171 corporate and 121 business.
Those are all close to $300 million worth of improvements that
were reaffirmed in the 2020 UTP.
The gentleman that was appointed for the Highway Commission,
we technically have two representatives from North Texas right now.
Cuz Victor Vandergriff is still on the Highway Commission, he hasn't resigned.
But in order for the region not to be able to say we don't have any representation
on the commission, because Victor's not allowed to go to the Highway Commission
anymore, the governor appointed the new guy for the North Texas area.
So the next appointment will be for the East Texas region.
So we now have a Dallas representative on the Highway Commission.
And he seems, he made the motion, I mean this was his first meeting in August.
And he made the motion to adopt the UTP that he didn't even know anything about.
So it looks like he's gonna jump straight in and start doing stuff.
>> Okay. >> So I think he's a good guy.
>> Okay, thank you for that update.
>> Hey, Preetam, this is something that I know you did a year ago.
And I think it might be time to relook at it.
Tell me if this is a very burdensome request.
But I think it'd be helpful for me and probably for the public to see all
the construction that's intended to be simultaneous on a map.
But ideally, a sequence, maybe it's two or three.
If you line up the dates, right, here's a snapshot of time.
Maybe you use yellow for the text out projects and green for the city ones.
But here's everything that's gonna be going on.
And then the next phase, here's everything that's gonna be going on.
I just think it'd be helpful for communication.
>> We are currently working on a map like that between all our departments.
And Water Wastewater has their own projects as well.
So we're trying to match everything and as far as phasing,
we do have our plan in the future where in the next couple years this is coming online.
And in the next five years this is coming online.
So yes, we can definitely bring something like that forward.
>> I mentioned you needed it from mobility plan anyway, it just occurred to me.
>> There is an update from mobility.
>> Well, I do one for each of my counties where you have projects in all the precincts.
And there are always times like we have here on 35 where your best laid plans
go astray because you gotta chase the funding.
And so you have all these projects being built in one heat area.
And it goes on for a period of time.
And so we've got this 11 by 17 that kinda shows everything in a pictorial view.
So we can get it to pretend if he wants to copy it.
>> That could help create sort of a narrative of what's the big picture that's happening.
>> What we do is we use red for the construction.
So that when you look at all these projects overlapping each other,
you see this big giant heat map.
>> They reflect levels of frustration for drivers by color.
Thanks.
>> Great, okay.
Thank you very much for that update.
Let's move on now to item B.
Receive a report, hold a discussion, give staff direction about bicycle and
pedestrian facilities in Southeast Denton.
>> Yeah, this is the hopscotch.
>> Do you want to see it or do you want to be surprised?
>> Good morning, Mark Oliphant, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the city.
This morning I'm going to be talking about facilities in the southeast quadrant of Denton,
both for bicycles and pedestrians, where we are with built facilities,
what our former plans are, and looking ahead as we are currently
formulating our mobility plan, what sort of improvements we're looking at with that.
So quickly, just to familiarize you with the area,
generally we're looking at south of McKinney Street,
west of the Elm Locust Corridor, south of, I'm sorry.
I went south of McKinney, north of I-35, and on the east May Hill.
Yes, here's your, it makes sense, you can see on the map.
So that's the general area that we're looking at.
Now first off, I'd like to point out, now this area has our crown jewel of bicycle and
pedestrian facilities in that the Katy Trail or the A-Train Trail goes through the area,
which is a really fantastic, safe, protected facility that we'd love to see more of.
And so, that's a, as far as discussing this area of town,
that's really something important to point out, that it has this.
And it's something that we can grow off of.
So, let's look at, here's the city GIS layer that shows bicycle facilities and
it shows what's built and what's planned to be built and so forth.
We don't have, this is on the street, so we don't have the A-Train Trail highlighted.
But you can see, so up in the downtown area, we do have some different things.
We do have some segments of bike lane, sharos, and
then as we get further from the downtown area, there's not as much.
And we have planned but not funded facilities,
you'll see those dashed lines, planned but not funded.
We do have on Moores and on Shady Oaks some shared roadway signage,
which is something, it's not the very best, but it is something.
And I think we can use this as a stepping stone to even better facilities as we
look ahead with the mobility plan and so forth.
Also over here is the Mayhill, which was a funded bicycle route and
is essentially finished.
There has been some discussion lately, Mayhill is beautiful.
We have this nice wide path next to the roadway.
But getting to and from Mayhill is an issue.
And that's something that we're aware of and that we are looking into.
Next one here, this is from the actual plan map from
an adopted bicycle plan five years ago and what that was looking at building.
One important thing to see on here is if you'll look at these dotted green lines.
Those are in the stream valley for Pecan Creek, I believe it's called.
And that's something that as part of the mobility plan,
we are making an extra effort to rope the Parks and
Recreation Department into our comprehensive planning for non-motorized travel.
Because for cyclists, pedestrians, they don't care whether the asset is provided
by the transportation department as part of the roadway network or
it's a park facility or something like that.
And we're seeing a lot of opportunities to build off of that.
Another thing I mentioned is possibilities for
using the rail trail, the KD train or
a train rail trail as a spine network so
that we can build off of that with road crossings.
Council of Governments, they also keep their own map,
which ideally is synced with ours, although timing doesn't always work out with that.
But they also have some similar aspirations.
You'll notice a lot of the detail in that area of town is the dashed lines,
or dotted, which are planned but not yet funded.
But all of these, just because they are on that regional plan,
they are eligible for funding through the Council of Governments by getting them on their map.
We then have a leg up in getting funding assistance for those.
Finally, I'm going to talk about what's going on currently with the mobility plan.
Well, you'll get a full update, but recently we've done some outreach,
some public meetings, things like that.
And on the right here is just a photograph, a screen capture of a poster board that we had.
And we invited all the participants of these public meetings to come and mark up.
On the bottom is a legend, red, barriers or stressful routes.
Blue, desired routes or destinations, now those two things aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
But you can just see how it fleshed out in that connections to 35 and across 35 are important.
Connections to the rail trail facility were important.
Between the dotted and the solid, there's no difference.
It was just different people filling that in with their markers. The star there is downtown, just to orient yourself.
So there's a lot of interest in McKinney, but it's seen as a barrier and a stressful route.
This Woodrow corridor, as far as North-South travel, being able to get along 288.
From my perspective, I'd like to keep bicycles off of 288 and use a parallel route, you know.
So that's where Mayhill comes in for being useful.
And if I don't know what's going to happen, I know that this area is slated for some future development.
And that is something that we need to keep our eyes on is finding connections within that area inside of the loop.
That's, I mean, a lot of it's just open land right now.
But so this is the good feedback that we got from people.
And it's fairly consistent with what we're seeing in our plans.
I will say I just checked in with our consultant we're working with on the mobility plan.
And one of the things that we want to do is in our past plans, I'm going to pull up.
In our past plans, we've been using a lot of the shared lane where bicycles and cars are intermingled,
shared lane with parking, wide curb lane or urban shoulder where bicycles don't have a delineated designated space.
And there's confusion there.
I mean, I think it is a step in the right direction and it has been a good step.
But in talking with our consultants and so forth, we really want to we want to move this up to the next level of comfort.
Going to actual bike lanes or actual barrier bike lanes, protected bike lanes by barriers.
Also, we have a lot of these shoulder bike lanes through town, which are bike lanes,
but not bike lanes because people are allowed to park in them, which is it's it can be confusing and difficult.
You know, if a road has sparse enough parking, then maybe people can get around it.
And it is a gesture towards inclusion of cycling as a mode.
But we want we want to get away from that in there.
So some of the things that they're thinking are looking at a side path on Woodrow.
Now, this is all draft thoughts, you know, as part of the plan that trail along the concrete could really be a great connector parallel really to the to the rail trail on McKinney bicycle lanes.
But buffered separated something like that.
There are widening plans for the eastern parts of McKinney there.
And Spencer also Spencer has an opportunity.
It's two lanes in each direction currently, but maybe maybe it goes to one in each direction with a center median turn lane or something like that.
And that would allow some room for bicycle lanes.
So that's that's just some of the things.
And this is still very much in the draft, the brainstorm stage and so forth.
But just some of the things that we are looking towards with that question.
I'm glad to hear you say that, because the one thing that I've heard from the bicycle community and even those who aren't necessarily in the community, but you ride bicycles around town or those who don't and would like to is that they don't feel safe.
And having something protected would encourage them to ride bicycles more.
So I'm glad to hear the consultants bringing back the suggestions.
I feel like anything going forward if we do implement would need to be somewhat protected.
If not, we're not really solving any problems in the past.
And so I just want to show you quickly a demonstration of this is on Morse.
Morse is actually a nice east, west street.
And I've used a fair bit on on my bicycle and does have these wide lanes, you know, fairly low traffic volume.
Whoops, there we go.
But all we have right now are these signs encouraging people to share the world, to be aware of cyclists.
But if we could increase the level of protection, put some more pain out there, maybe some barriers, things like that, it would really make it a much more comfortable bicycle facility.
So that's generally where we are and where we're going, the direction.
I hope I met the intent of your question on the topic.
Yeah, you actually know it's going to result in a presentation.
Oh, I appreciate your sensitivity to the to the fact that it didn't look like there was a whole lot there.
And I appreciate the thought that, you know, that it's going into it now.
Other questions or comments?
That's one of the bricks.
So is there a I'm at a lot, but I drive there and so I'm not the right center.
Yes. Yes. Is there a a safe bike plan now from downtown to that center or from?
I know that the school's right next to it, but but I'm just wondering if there is a any.
Safe bicycle route path to the center currently from in the area.
I. I don't think from like from the courthouse to the rec center,
I don't think you have bike infrastructure the whole way, but I would recommend.
John Hickory there. Yeah, you go behind the police station.
Yeah, I can pull up the map.
So and it may be just something for a different, you know, for the mobility discussion.
It's just that I know that lots of kids in the neighborhood from all around walk there to to play,
you know, basketball or after school to use that facility for several things and either walk or bike.
And so. It just this presentation just made me start thinking,
well, is there anything safe right now, a route that we could recommend or.
Have them use. Yeah, I have gone that way and done that.
My recommendation would be Hickory.
You do have protected lanes back over here and then it gets fairly quiet behind
between the police department and the downtown transit center gets quieter.
And you can make the right here just before the court and go straight into it.
You don't have a protected land along here, though, not currently.
But but that is one thing that we are absolutely looking at as part of the mobility plan is
what are the nodes that people are trying to get to and from elementary schools, rec centers,
downtown transit center and how do we connect those? OK, thank you.
He mentioned that there are certain routes that are planned or sort of on the map for Cog and make.
Yeah, make them eligible for funding. So what's the process for getting the funding?
So typically, so for funding by bicycle, I don't know if you heard the side comment that we wrapped up all those points for all those great.
Projects. Correct. So there are a couple different things that points that we're racking up would be good match from the city side for some of these infrastructure projects for the upcoming bond election.
That's that's our plan. Since it's early on, we're already starting that conversation with Cog, saying if if we get the bond passed and if there is interest in funding, some of those are match would be the points that we racked up.
As far as the bicycle infrastructure every year, every couple of years, depending on the frequency, they cog typically issues what is called set aside that is active transportation dollars for bicycle and pedestrian facilities.
So it's multi-use trails. We've done one trail in the city on the north side by North Lakes Park and I'm sorry, by the Evers Park.
It connects Evers Park and North Nikosha along Nikosha. We've already done that. Currently we have two projects that are funded through to set aside monies.
One is the multi-use trail on sick more that connects the train station all the way to and then there is another one.
It's the other one. I forget the other one was one more to set aside. But what would happen is once we move forward to design and construction of the current funding that we have for the projects, then we can apply for another one, another grant.
So every year we're trying what projects we can move forward. I think there is a little lag right now because we're going through our mobility plan update.
Once we have a solid plan, then next year we can definitely go and go ahead and say, hey, this is part of our plan and this is what we need funding, we really see a need in this area.
I think it was CMAC, the other one, isn't it? CMAC program, I think, you know, federal funding program.
Thank you. Anything else?
Well, since you brought it up, what is the status of the sick more multi-use path?
We're still waiting on text out to kickstart the project.
So I did have a phone call with them last week. The ball is in their court to give us the notice to proceed.
They have received the the green light from FHWA that we were waiting for.
So that has gone to them. And I did had a phone call with them last week.
And it's just a matter of we can ping again, but it is up to them to contact us and say you're ready.
OK. I just want to make sure that we didn't end up in a situation where we're getting close to the funds expiring.
No, no, we're working with COG. We every TIP mod that comes up, I think it's quarterly, we are in touch with them.
We update our schedule based on what's happening with text out and the way they're managing this project.
The issue with this particular project is all the dollars are federal dollars.
That means we can't really kickstart any of the design or anything without approval else.
We won't get our reimbursements. We won't get the money reimbursed through the federal dollars.
That's my breaks. Just a question.
Why you had the map that the COG bicycle and it's not necessarily in this area, but I just I really wasn't aware of that map.
So I'm wondering if Mingo is on that.
Is this do they consider that a I can follow the link?
Well, you can just get I was just curious. I can follow the link myself.
And look, I didn't I just wanted to ask if you knew.
Thank you. I believe it is OK.
And thank you for showing us that map. I hadn't seen it before.
Here it comes.
Well, there you go. You have the green.
OK, so regional velo web, that's actually a very high priority, important infrastructure there.
And it's part of the velo web. Off Street planned as well.
So that would be a side path, not on the street, but next to it.
It's a high priority for twenty forty five.
It'll come sooner than we know. Thank you for checking.
I think what happens is if it's on the cog velo web, that gives us higher points when we go for some of the federal dollars saying that this is a regional connection for active transportation, not just a local little bike trail.
So that would definitely put us in a better shape if we ask for funding.
Great. Thank you very much. Close that item then.
And I just noticed, I think what you're trying to point out to me before, John, that it was not only are we not sketching around, but it was originally listed a C B.
So I think we're successfully eluding anybody trying to follow us.
And let's let's move on to the second item, which we're covering fourth, which is item C.
Receive a report and hold a discussion regarding updates from D.C.T.A.
Absolutely. Please. Thank you for coming.
I make sure your mic is on the little yes.
All right. Thank you.
My name is Michelle Boomer, and I'm the vice president of operations for the Ditton County Transportation Authority.
So I oversee all the rail and bus service.
So a really quick update today, I just wanted to give you a heads up.
You're probably aware we've had some changes on our board.
Our board is now one hundred percent seated seated.
The representative is Mayor Chris Watts, the council member.
Excuse me. Yeah. This little signal means that your voice isn't going right into the mic.
So is the green light on? Yeah, John, you want to be tech support?
Oh, that was on. Sorry. OK.
For Louisville, council member T.J. Gilmore is the representative and Claire Powell is the alternate alternate.
Diane Costas is from Highland Village. She is also the chair of the committee.
And at large, we have Sam Burke and Paul Christina.
Oops. Sorry. Randall Christman, Paul Christina and Shannon Joskey are the two alternates for Denton County.
At the next board meeting, which is on the 26th, they'll be reviewing the bylaws.
We'll need to change the DCTA bylaws in order to accommodate the new board structure.
And we'll also be asking the board to approve our twenty twenty budget.
One of the items that was added to the budget at the last meeting was the seventy seven thousand dollar request from the city of Denton to provide shuttle service from senior King Outreach Center to our daily bread, starting in the beginning of January twenty twenty.
Just want to let you know that at your meeting next Tuesday, our CEO Raymond Suarez will be providing a presentation.
Just want to make you aware of that. So if there's any questions I can't answer, I'll give him a heads up and he'll be able to answer them then.
We just went through August service changes. So was it two Mondays? Two Mondays ago, August 26th, we implemented some service changes.
Those main changes were around the train. And so we added midday service on the train, went to 30 minute headways or consistent service every 30 minutes, except for a one hour period in the middle of the day due to shift change.
We just could not accommodate that 30 minutes throughout the entire day.
And then we had to adjust the schedule to allow for implementation of positive train control and a positive train controller. PTC is a federal required safety mandate.
And so we're currently operating trains in what we call revenue service demonstration.
So we're testing PTC to make sure that it works and then we'll go 100 percent live.
And then as a result of those changes to the train schedule, we obviously had to change some of the bus schedules in order to make sure that we could still meet the train.
And so there were changes to the Denton Connect, Lewisville Connect, Thailand Village, as well as the UNT routes that pulls off of one of the train stations.
Some other things we're working on. There were two locations identified in the trail safety study, as well as the recent FRA Federal Railroad Administration audit at Colorado and Brinker at those two railroad crossings.
I did want to thank the city. It's a joint partnership between the city and DCTA.
The city is taking care of the striping and the signage and DCTA is taking care of the curb cuts at that location.
And so with that cooperation, we'll get that done a little bit quicker.
And then coming up on the horizon is the 2020 service changes.
I'm not sure how much you're aware of DCTA has issued a request for proposals for mobility as a service or what's called MAS services to have a bunch of mobility as a service providers in our two blocks that we can use.
And so we're looking at how do we incorporate mobility as a service into our existing service or more transition from a traditional fixed route system,
which is what we currently have in Denton, Louisville and Highland Village to something that incorporates a hybrid of fixed route where you have that density and we can increase the frequency.
And then on those outskirts of the area that we don't currently serve or we currently serve, but at not very high densities, could we implement mobility on demand service?
And so we're working with HDR consulting company to help us look at all of that through our entire service area and determine how best to implement that.
It will most likely be a phased approach.
We when we implemented that didn't enterprise airport zone, it was to a new area that wasn't previously served.
So the transition was a little different when we did it in Louisville.
It was the Louisville Lakeway zone replaced a portion of an existing fixed route.
And so there was a little bit of transition for those individuals that were using the fixed route system to learn how to use the on demand system.
And so we wouldn't want to go 100% on demand in Denton or Louisville all at one time because that would be a lot of change for folks.
And we're still trying to figure out how we get over that.
If you have a fixed route, you just stand at the stop and eventually a bus will come by.
But on on demand, you can stand at a stop.
And unless you call either DCTA to request the trip or you do it via the app, the bus will never come.
So we're trying to figure out how we can overcome that so we don't have individuals standing at the stop waiting for a bus.
And so we're looking to implement that service and combining that with what Raymond is calling our our first year was the year of change.
And we joke we didn't realize how much change we would see.
But the second year is the year of transition.
And we'll be bringing in some consultants to assist DCTA in figuring out how we can work better, basically how we can work smarter, not harder.
And we'll work with those transition consultants as well as HGR to determine how best to implement that new hybrid service going forward.
Excuse me. Just had a thought.
This might be technologically impossible or challenging.
But I wonder if there might be something like a call button at the stop.
That is one of the things we're looking at.
The question becomes is how many because right now we have over five hundred stops.
And can we can we put call buttons at every stop?
And then if we put one, our people just going to be pressing it and not really so.
But it is one of the options we're looking at.
And that's a testable proposition to see if they abuse it.
Yeah. And one of the question on that years ago, you had a program called Dial-A-Ride.
Yes. When you pull out of neighborhoods and went to the main.
This was up on university for people who were would have to cross a major thoroughfare like university.
They could call in and a car would come pick them up and drop them off at the bus stop.
Is that something that you all are that's similar to what we're looking at?
So just off the top of my head, you know, we we might want to run fixed routes down east, west, north, south.
But then from there have zones and then within that zones like neighborhood zones that we would take you to the closest fixed route stop or just take you directly to that location depending on where it was.
And so that's really what we're working with the consultants to determine is what's the best way to overlay the on demand service on top of fixed route.
So when you say overlay, in other words, it would necessarily replace it would be a supplement.
Correct. I think it makes it wouldn't make sense to completely take away fixed route because we have some routes seven, eight, five, six that have very high ridership.
And if you were to try to transition all those trips onto a smaller vehicle, we would need a lot more vehicles and so trying to find the most efficient way to serve the most people.
And so if you have those routes that you know are sort of your spines, it's best to run fixed route down those and then you can increase the frequency because right now our frequency is 30 minutes during peak in 30 minutes or 60 minutes and off peak.
If we can get that down to say 15, 20 minutes, that's more attractive to folks and then we can get you certain, you know, to a certain point.
And then from there you would on demand to your direct location.
What is the average weight now?
Is that something that that you know?
I mean, I understand the frequency, but in terms of rider behavior, what is the average weight they experience on the fixed routes?
It's really based on the frequency.
So, I mean, if I know the bus comes every hour on the hour or every hour and then 30 minutes, it just depends if I we recommend people get to the stop at a minimum of five minutes before the bus is scheduled to be there.
So they would be waiting five minutes and what would the typical wait time be for mobility as a service?
We currently in didn't airport zone, I don't believe the weights more than 10 minutes and then in Lewisville, we currently have it set if it goes over 15, we send another vehicle out, but we constantly monitor it to see where we are.
And most times it's not more than five to five to seven minutes.
So would the goal be to sort of engineer it to be comparable to what the current wait time is?
We'll have to see how many vehicles that requires.
I'm imagining somewhere between a 10 and a 15 minute wait.
We're also looking at options.
When we did Lewisville, we looked at an option with lift where if the weight was longer than X amount of time and you can set whatever amount of time that is, you can say if it's more than 10 minutes or more than 20 minutes or more than 30 minutes, that trip would automatically push to lift and they would they would respond.
So that's part of the issue that we'll be working through with the consultants is we're providing them with all of our ridership information, origins, destinations, time of day, loads and then trying to figure out, okay, based on that, if we were to go to a on demand service instead of the X number of big buses, we have how many smaller buses would we need and what would that cost?
I'd certainly be interested to know what sort of what the system engineering would result in if it were designed to create more convenience, not just less cost.
Okay.
And what we'll probably have the consultants do is work up multiple scenarios.
You know, if it's a 20 minute wait, this is how many vehicles it would be and this would be the cost if it was a 15 minute, et cetera, and then take that to the board and allow the board to make that decision is where do they want to balance?
Convenience or wait time with cost, but yeah, obviously it's a trade off and I notice you didn't mention routes one, two and three with the vision, you know, that you anticipate being overlaid there as well or or you're looking at a different approach, potentially taking portions of those routes away and putting on demand in place of it.
And so they're sort of fixed route hybrid and then places where they'll just be on demand service.
There won't be any fixed route service that would certainly increase my interest in increasing the convenience before you make it for you reduce the convenience of mass transit.
One of the other things that on demand service will allow us to do is expand beyond our existing service areas.
So there are portions of the city of Denton that are currently not served and by doing on demand that allow us to serve a larger portion of that instead of sending a fixed route vehicle out.
Other questions? Actually, I sort of paused you for questions, you might have had more to share.
I was done. We're good.
Thank you very much for coming in and updating us.
Thank you. OK, are we in the hopscotch game now?
So, all right, we're ready now to move to item D, which we're taking up fifth.
Receive a report and hold the discussion regarding the city of Denton mobility plan work completed in future task items.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Ella Mutul, traffic engineer with the city.
So I'm here today to share what has been accomplished so far and where we're headed with the mobility plan.
So from the last meeting, we did update the survey to rephrase some of the questions based on your feedback.
So we did do that. We held a third public meeting on August 22nd, further south of the city.
It was a great turnout. We had about 50 attendees.
The consultant has developed the draft maps for the thoroughfare, the bike and the pedestrian.
We had a staff initial review.
So the engineering transportation engineering division had a one on one with consultants to have an initial look at the maps on this previous Wednesday.
And I wanted to share preliminary preliminary survey results.
As of August 29th, we had two hundred and twenty one surveys.
I just put a screenshot of some of the questions and answers what I thought were interesting.
So the first question is, how often do you travel by?
And there's several options. Vehicle, walking, bicycle, of course, the primary answer for.
The three or more times per week is vehicle.
What I found interesting was, well, unfortunately, the public transportation was the top option for never.
So I think we can definitely improve on that as a city wide.
Question eight, please indicate how much you agree or disagree with the following statements.
The first question is, I would use my vehicle less if taking the bus, walking or biking became more convenient and, of course, just interject to come in.
Yes. Just imagining a possible future.
If I knew the bus stop right outside my house, if I knew I could hit a call button and get a ride within five minutes, I'd probably take it.
Right. I know it would be great. No pressure.
So strongly agree if it became more convenient.
Question number five was, how often do you use technology to plan your daily trips like Waze, GPS, go pass?
And I was pleasantly surprised that forty percent said all of the time, thirty five percent every now and then.
So it's great that we're really using Waze and we're pushing all this technology to be used online as the citizens commute around the city.
So how would you describe the quality of the current roadway system in Denton?
The top two responses was existing roads need to be better maintained and congested roads need to be widened.
What are the things that prevent you from bicycling and did you want to say pretense?
Oh, I was wondering if that was like a half a response on everything is fine.
The little green line on that. Everything.
This is also only two hundred. We're expecting more responses.
It's kind of interesting. Like, it's it should we interpret when we see that it's below 50 percent say congested roadways need to be widened.
Does that mean a majority did not feel congested roadways need to be widened?
You kind of have to look at it overall because you were able to select all that you felt.
You were able to select each one if you wanted to. So it's just overall ratio.
Clearly, existing roads need to be better maintained.
Yeah, and we're working on it. We're working on it very hard.
Which means we need more construction. That's what I heard from that.
I thought you might hear that or traffic control plans. Yes.
I should give two seconds for reactions.
What are the things that prevent you from bicycling and Denton?
And it was the main two were not enough bikeways and bikeways do not feel safe or comfortable, which kind of really marks message earlier.
What are the things that prevent you from walking in Denton?
This one had kind of three that stood out.
Sidewalks are not connected.
Destinations are too far and sidewalks are in poor condition.
And the fourth one was weather, but yeah, we have no say in weather.
If you had to focus somewhere, it would be sidewalks are not connected, right?
Right. And that's moving the destinations closer to each other.
Yes, connectivity. And we're definitely looking at that and figuring out where all the gaps are and prioritizing them.
Which improvements would you make? Which improvements would make you more likely to walk around the city?
And the top three, which we are definitely aware of and working towards is better lighting, more sidewalks, better connectivity, more landscaping, including trees for shade.
And where are we headed?
So the plan is to do a final push and send, I guess, an advertisement in the utility bill to have all the residents go out there, take the survey that will be sent out soon, I believe this week or next week.
And we will be closing the survey early October, so it'll be open the rest of the month.
And we are, as I mentioned, we are reviewing the draft maps.
We already did the internal one and then we will have the technical stakeholders.
We have a meeting set this Thursday, so we'll be presenting that map to them and asking for feedback.
We are looking, excuse me, the consultant is working on the model, they're going to be looking at one way versus two way, the general concept of the city as a whole and seeing how the change would impact mobility near it and as a region as a whole.
Another thing they're looking at as part of the mobility plan is TWU has requested us to look at a potential Bell Avenue closure from Chapel to college.
So they're looking at that option, how it's going to affect adjacent north-south connectivity.
>> I'm sorry, who's requesting we look at Bell Avenue?
>> TWU.
>> Oh, okay.
>> Yes, the university.
>> Council hasn't asked for that.
>> Yes.
>> I don't recall us, we haven't had a vote on that or anything.
>> No.
>> You mentioned on the survey putting it out in the utility bills, are we able to get a email list from the utility company for those that are on paper lists and/or auto pay that do not open up a utility bill?
>> That's a good question.
I know we do have email groups, but I don't think it's related to the utility bills.
>> We'll definitely work with the public information office.
I think they have good contact for most of the, and then we can also work with customer service where they actually have information of who is paying what way.
Are they receiving the bill?
>> Was the light coming on?
Okay, well, and I just say that because I'm paperless, I'm on auto pay, I don't remember the last time I've opened up a utility bill.
So it's, yeah, if it's opened, it's opened a couple months later to put it into QuickBooks, and that's it.
>> Yes, Stephanie mentioned there's, in the list, there's 55,000, so yes, it's a portion of all residents.
And all of this, basically, all the analysis, we're refining the maps.
And we will be presenting the analysis for the one-way bell and the draft maps to council at a workshop on October 24th.
I believe they're aware of it.
>> To come forward, yes.
>> Yes. >> We're at least planning at this point that October 24th we'll have some bases of discussing one-way versus two-way.
And some of the other layout, big picture layouts of the map.
One of the things that will be looked at is also capacity requirements on Carol.
I think there are a couple of items on the matrix that talk about can we do road diet on Carol and then one-way, two-way.
So both those items will be covered as part of that work session item in October.
>> Councilmember Briggs.
>> Yeah, just to, while we're on this item, I'm sure you guys are aware that the mobility plan update was a council priority that we discussed.
So I didn't know if this was going to, if that affects the timeline at all or if it's pretty much the same or if it kind of expedites it.
>> So, we are planning on getting substantial at the end of this year, right?
The mobility plan?
>> A draft.
>> The draft mobility plan.
Yeah, we're planning on drafting it by the end of the year.
And originally we had a 12-month timeline on it and we kicked out the project at the end of May.
So it was supposed to go on to next May but we have understood that it is a priority.
So we've asked the consultant to cut down the time and they're wrapping up the first draft by end of the year.
Of course, it'll go back to public hearings and council early next year as well but we want to make sure that we have a draft ready.
And we're pushing the consultant as soon as we can.
>> Thank you.
>> As fast as we can.
>> On the one-way, two-way thing, it might make sense to look at it kind of in a multidisciplinary way with economic development.
Because I hear persistently, particularly from one member of the public, but citing supposedly many studies that there's a mobility aspect and there's also a kind of what promotes commerce aspect.
So that might affect, you know, which you wait, how might affect where you would consider one-way, two-way.
>> Correct.
So the way we're going to present the one-way, two-way concept is, yes, we're going to look at the mobility aspect of it.
But on the same side, we're going to look at, you know, two-way streets and more exposure as far as traffic or even the parking components.
So they're going to look at pros and cons, both mobility-wise as well as economic-wise as far as businesses.
>> Council Member Briggs.
>> In the mobility, I assume it will, you'll discuss speeding?
>> Correct.
>> Because, like, Locust or Elm, I sit inside a building and I look out and people, it feels like they're going like 50 miles an hour down the street because it's the one-way.
So I don't know if you have two-way, if that discourages any type of-
>> Yeah, I mean, two-way, we can definitely see that opposing traffic will have that effect and reduce the speeds.
We'll look at all the options that are coming online for Locust and Elm as well as Hickory now.
So it's overall, throughout the city, it's one-way versus two-way.
>> Oh, okay.
So just an overall concept?
>> Overall concept.
>> Gotcha.
>> What happens?
>> Okay, thank you.
>> When I did a ride along with the police for an evening shift, there's a spot along a one-way street.
I won't divulge his spot where, you know, we were able to place bets on how brief a time it would take for him to catch a speeder.
So those one-ways are a good revenue generator, one way to look at it.
>> So that's the economic side?
>> Yeah, yeah, so there's that aspect.
While we have our representation from DCTA, how does mass transit fit into the mobility plan?
Is that part of the picture?
>> It is, I mean, primarily it's more on the lines of accessibility for access to a location.
If it's one way, you have to go around the block.
Two-way, it's direct access.
But at the same time, if we're reducing, if we're going from one-way to two-way, the available widths and the intersections, it becomes narrow for buses to maneuver.
So there are a couple aspects to it, and yeah, definitely DCTA will be,
once we decide or once council gives us a go and no go on one-way versus two-way,
we'll get them in the room and, I mean, help them plan their routes.
>> And then I also wonder if you want to comment on how our vision for
accessibility for disabled people fits into mobility planning?
>> Okay, so the question was, how does accessibility for the disabled fit into the mobility?
>> Yeah, or vision for achieving accessibility?
>> Yeah, well, we have two aspects of that.
So the ADA transition plan, which the city has been working on.
We, just this past week, got all of the draft delivered to us for our review.
We are going to be going over it with the committee on persons with disabilities next week.
I think that's Thursday the 19th next week.
And yes, we're including ADA and
accessibility really under the pedestrian component of the mobility plan.
But it's absolutely there, and yeah.
>> So moving forward, all our facilities are ADA compliant.
It's just getting everything that was before an older infrastructure in compliance.
And that's part of what the ADA transition plan is going to do is identify the infrastructure and
plan it out in the next 15, 20, 30 years, depending on the funding.
How do we go about fixing what's existing that's not compliant?
>> Thank you, any other questions?
Okay, that's no.
Thank you.
>> All right, thank you.
>> So we can move on to item F, staff reports.
>> Okay, so.
All right, let me start with the matrix.
I can pull it up there but.
>> So I'll start with the first one, a quick update on that.
We are having our contractor on board, supposed to start either this week or
next week, in the next couple weeks, for that signal,
replacing the signal at Oak and Jago, and then Oak and Fry.
So those are the two signals, which is Avenue C is Jago.
Those signals will be replaced in the next two to three months.
I think their schedule is about 90 days.
>> Excuse me, can you tell if that mic is on?
>> This, I'm sorry.
>> Yeah, because I'm just getting light here and I'm wondering if that's the reason.
>> Is that why?
>> Do you think it's good?
>> It looks like it.
>> Okay, all right.
No, it's, hey there, back in the booth.
Notice this, the problem light is on.
>> It's setting tone, it's just flickering.
So Avenue C and Oak, that signal will be replaced in the next two to three months.
They are going to schedule it so that there are less disruptions to traffic.
They're primarily working on the four corners, so some of the lanes.
>> Okay, thanks.
>> You made him come here.
And then I think we got an update from DCTA, what their plans are.
They're looking at multiple different things.
And yes, benches and shelters is one aspect of it.
Striping on forward drive has been completed.
So we ultimately sneaked in our crews and
got the things done because we've been waiting on tech stuff for a long time.
>> Saved me from having to do it in the middle of the night.
>> [LAUGH]
>> I've got a striping machine.
>> [LAUGH]
>> So we did talk about the one way versus two way streets.
>> Mm-hm.
>> We did talk about one way versus two, and Carol wrote that.
So these two will be coming forward to the whole council
late in October as part of the mobility plan update.
We looked at the intersection of Bonnie Brand University, one of the things.
And let me see if I can quickly pull it up there.
>> Hang on, question, Council Member Briggs.
On the Carol Road diet, will there be data coming with that decision?
Or is it just kind of hypothetical?
>> No, so as part of our mobility plan, there'll be a full traffic model,
not just for existing conditions, but for future conditions when most of
the city would be built out, and during that conditions,
they will have traffic volumes on Carol.
So it would have an idea of, okay, this is not just only
traffic that's traveling today, but in the future, if we do the one way versus
two way, what would happen to Carol?
Would more traffic move to Carol if we change any configuration currently?
And those numbers will be available in the discussion saying, hey,
currently there are 10,000 vehicles daily.
In the future, there'll be 20,000 vehicles daily.
That's still good enough for a four lane divided facility.
Carol has six lanes, so we can really go down and reduce it.
So that's the discussion, and we'll come with data to back it up.
>> Okay, thank you.
>> Going back to University and Bonnie Bray.
So I think the request was to put a yield for
pedestrian, one of the things that we found out, especially on this particular arm.
This is an old signal, there are already quite a few things here.
So in order to add that yield on pedestrian next to this will be a tough.
If we put it here, it becomes an issue.
So we're kind of struggling.
This intersection will be redone completely as part of the Bonnie Bray project.
So it's not far away in the future.
It's something that's going to happen pretty soon as part of the phase six,
which is with the high school project coming in.
And what we're trying to do is, once we get this completely update,
we'll make sure that we'll have the right signage.
We're also looking at this corner and seeing if we-
>> Question? >> Yeah.
>> Yeah, well, just on that, when the school is built down there,
there will be a lot of people, I suspect, walkers.
If they're walking, that would be the intersection they would use to cross.
>> Correct. >> And so,
I'm just throwing that out there.
I'm sure you've already thought about that, so.
>> It'll be part of our new signal plan.
We'll definitely look at adding the yield signage here.
But we're also looking at this corner, if we can find a place to put that.
But it's a tough spot, sorry.
All right, I think Mark touched on this.
We're still coordinating some of the access issues at Allison University.
There is a coordination with TechStop.
It's TechStop property and private property.
So we're kind of the mediators trying to move this forward.
I really want to move.
So TurnBack, we're currently working with legal and
finalizing the TurnBack memo that was submitted.
It's a memorandum of understanding from TechStop.
And we're getting close to getting it to council and getting it approved.
And there are several streets on the memorandum of understanding that will be.
And Elman Locos will be part of that.
So it'll come to council very soon in the next few council meetings,
within the next few council meetings.
>> I comment on that.
I've seen some comments lately about, I forget which one of those has several
potholes or one of them is in pretty bad shape.
And it was my understanding that TechStop would have to fix those before we get,
would that be, is that part of the understanding or?
>> So yes, before we take it over, TechStop is going to reconstruct the entire
length of Locos to Allen.
That is the understanding.
That's exactly what's laid out in the MOU.
>> In our MOU.
>> What we're doing right now currently is working on a project to
relocate our utilities and redo our utilities.
Once that utility work is done, we're primarily based in the section south of
the downtown area between, I want to say between Hickory and all the way to Eagle.
We're working on relocating utilities there currently.
Once that segment is done, we'll move north up until all the way to university.
And TechStop will begin their reconstruction project for
the roadway on the south side.
So yes, they are upgrading the pavement before they hand it over to us.
As far as the forest ridge drive, we did check there were speed surveys back in
April and the 85th percentile speed was 35 miles an hour based on the survey.
We have the files.
So I think at this point, when the, I think when the survey was.
>> Was that what you expected or not or what are the implications of that finding?
>> Yeah, so I think the road is in fairly bad shape right now.
So that's why the speed is around 35, if you fix the road,
there might be chances that it may go up.
So yes, we're definitely doing a speed survey after the road is fixed.
And then, yeah, construction fatigue.
I think you saw the survey from Residence Day, one more construction well maintained.
No, I'm just kidding.
But definitely, as part of the mobility plan, once we have that in place,
then for future projects, we'll have a better planning,
a better idea of how we plan and stage projects.
We won't be going in and working on a whole segment in every piece or
every part of the city, it'll be more strategic.
As part of our, even as part of our bond program for the street rehab,
we're considering neighborhoods that we go in and do it at once, water, waste water,
and streets, and then get out of the neighborhood and don't go there for 30 years.
We do not do bits and pieces that we've been doing in the past.
So we do have a plan to address construction fatigue.
>> And I think that time phase map we talked about before.
>> Correct. >> Communicate that.
Councilmember Briggs, do you have something?
>> Any questions?
>> Okay.
>> Any other questions?
>> I actually wanted to reopen item C for a minute.
I had another question for you I neglected to ask, but are we done with staff reports?
>> Yes, I think so, unless you have no questions.
>> Okay, yeah, if you don't mind.
Would you mind coming back, Michelle?
So I'm going to reopen item C, which is DCTA update.
I just forgot to ask you, some time back when Nicole was still on the job,
we talked about the possibility of altering routes on the west side, bus routes,
to provide access by mass transit through the razor ranch amenities.
And I wonder if you could tell us anything about the status on that.
>> I think we are definitely looking at razor ranch, and
we're more looking at how we serve it with on-demand service versus fixed route service.
And so that will be part of the planning effort that we're kicking off now for
the implementation of mobility as a service, is how we serve those areas like razor ranch.
>> Is that because you don't see the demand for access for workers and
transit dependent people to those amenities?
>> The level of service versus the demand isn't quite there.
And we really tried with this last service change not to make major changes to
any of the routes, because we didn't want to make changes to the routes and
then take a look at the entire system and then change everything again.
And so we're looking at areas like north of university.
We've had some requests from the city and council members of serving, like Explorium.
We don't currently go north of 380, so the question becomes how do we serve 380
when the demand for service isn't there to justify a fixed route?
And so razor ranch is sort of a similar way.
And then like you said, it's retail.
Currently our service stops about 9, 930.
If you're working retail, you're generally working till at least nine.
If not later, especially if it's a restaurant,
how do we serve those individuals in those areas best?
And maybe that's not necessarily a fixed route, but some on demand type of service.
>> Okay, thanks for coming back to the shared perspective.
>> No problem.
>> Okay, so I'll reclose that item and are we then closed on staff reports as well?
So concluding items, council member Briggs.
>> Just one and it's more of a follow up to a message that I sent with the city manager.
It was about the university and carol intersection and the turn.
I think there's been a couple accidents there with the yellow turn lights, the yield on yellow.
It's hard to see if all the other lanes straight in front of you are full.
It's hard to see if cars are coming or not.
People are attempting to turn on the yellow arrow and it's causing accidents or near misses.
And so that was a, I'm just following up on that because our process has changed and
I just wanted to make sure that that was looked at in this committee.
>> Follow up question on that.
This is from University onto Carol.
So it's westbound to southbound Carol.
Is that the movement?
I just want to get the movements right so that we're, it's on University.
>> I'm not sure exactly, I've heard it from people using in all,
either coming onto University off Carol by Kroger or by the other intersection.
>> Okay.
>> So, yes, I guess.
>> We'll definitely look at all directions and make some changes as a matter of signal.
>> With accident data, I don't have the data to prove it.
I've just had people send me messages and there was a pretty bad accident recently.
>> Okay.
>> So, I'm just following up on that.
>> Mr. Brian, any items?
>> Yeah, I've got one and I've already brought this up in engineering, but I'll just put it on the record.
And that is at Dallas and Teasley, especially when you are southbound
Dallas Drive turning onto Teasley Lane, taken right there.
Where the old pavement and new pavement and new pavement and curve line up.
There are some dips.
>> Okay.
>> They're not truly potholes because the pavement is still there, the pavement has just sunk.
>> So, this is, you're talking about the right turn lane or the left turn lane?
>> This is on the right turn lane.
>> For the southbound right onto Teasley.
>> Onto Teasley and then as you get onto Teasley where we widen the road just before the,
you have that triangle of new pavement where we widened it.
There's a huge bump right there as well.
>> I know what you're talking about.
>> I'm trying to remember the name of that street that I know we've communicated about.
That's just a short segment that connects between Sherman and Bell.
Sherman and Bell.
>> That's it.
It was wood something.
Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for getting out there and filling about six potholes.
I suspect while the crew was out there, you probably noticed that everything that isn't
a pothole is almost as bad as a pothole on that one block.
And I appreciate your attention on that matter.
>> Thank you, I'll let Danny know.
He runs our street crews.
>> I'll be interested to hear sort of what that timing is for kind of a complete resurfacing.
It's about the worst stretch I've seen in Den of a block.
>> Maybe there are other candidates.
>> You just opened up.
>> Yeah, okay.
Maybe we should have a little moment at each meeting to try to pick what is the worst segment in Den.
Candidates?
All right, I like that.
Okay, that's everything then.
Thank you very much.
We'll conclude the meeting at 943.
>> Thank you.