Okay good morning everyone we are here at our Mobility Committee meeting Wednesday December
17th 10 a.m. in our council work session room first thing on the agenda is citizens comments
on agenda items all right we're not seeing any citizens comments we do have a quorum
available I will move on to item two items for individual consideration MC 25062 consider
approval of the minutes November 19 2025 in a motion for approval of minutes any discussions
on that all right all in favor okay any ups or no's any no's no okay so we'll move that
on MC 25057 receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the Denton sidewalk and bike lane
prioritization to introduce and share information on prioritization methods for developing and
improving the sidewalks and bike lanes in the City of Denton thank you good morning
chair and committee mobility I'm Roya it's me 90 senior planner bicycle pedestrian and
ADA City of Denton I'm here to present Denton sidewalk and bike lane prioritization effort
this is study intense to enhance the mobility accessibility and equity throughout the City
of Denton particularly for those who walk and bike quickly overview of what our car
today the background of this effort prioritization methodology and I will go through the implementation
plan and outcomes and results of this effort what's the intention of this study Denton
is growing fast with more people and activities we make we need to make sure that the infrastructure
keeps up as well because we cannot fix everything at once we need to build a very comprehensive
systematic approach that consistently and in a comprehensive manner identify those investments
that should come first in terms of biking and walking this map is showing the current
condition of bike lanes in City of Denton currently we have around 90 miles of bike
lanes throughout the city mostly concentrated around the downtown area and around the UNT
and Texas Women's University but the coverage are limited in East neighborhood and north
of 380 it means that residents of Denton cannot rely on biking as a commuter mode of transportation
for their daily travel currently we have around 470 miles of sidewalks throughout the City
of Denton more than 24 miles of trails however the audits show that around 35% of these sidewalks
are considered with poor very poor condition it means accessibility barriers particularly
for people with disabilities the staff we use a three-step approach to prioritize the
projects in terms of biking and cycling the first step is developing a standardized set
of criteria to score and rank those projects that should come first in the second phase
the staff will collect and gather the community input revise the criteria and the approach
based on the values and priorities of the residents in community input and then finalize
the scoring approach and finalize the list of final projects and at the third step we
will implement the highest ranked projects in the city during the time this study directly
support the City of Denton's comprehensive plan and mobility plan goals and objectives
those recruiting terms and plan and comprehensive plan are considered and safety equity accessibility
connectivity multi modality and active travel modes so the style will ensure that consider
all of these goals when developing the criteria for ranking the projects here is a list of
the criteria six criteria including safety equity accessibility connectivity trip potential
and multi modality this slide outlines the six criteria and how the staff will measure
it to rank the bicycle and pedestrian projects for instance safety focuses on pedestrian
and bicycle crashes and decreasing these crashes by targeting the hot crash spots or equity
evaluate and consider these projects consider the disadvantage communities and the communities
that are vulnerable by going through census based data identify low income people people
with no vehicles accessibility evaluates the compliance with ADA so projects selected in
a case that will be usable for people with all types of abilities connectivity looks
at to what extent these projects can fill the gaps in current network of the city in
terms of walking and biking trip potential considers those places that currently have
higher demand for walking and biking and those places in the city that potentially could
have demand for walking and biking and multi modality prioritized projects based on those
that can improve access to public transit based on the distance to travel bus stops
public engagement shape our work in different steps of this work we will gather and collect
the feedback from public because the previous service and workshops indicated that residents
have some values and priorities towards biking and walking for example they need safer routes
to school or biking lanes to recreational activities to parks school and university
so we will make sure that consider the engage the public engagement consider their feedback
into our criteria and prioritization methodology this slide outlined the implementation plan
in three phases in short time that it's the current step of the projects we're working
on developing the criteria refining the criterion approach and collecting the public input and
their feedback towards these criteria in medium term by mid 2026 we have a list of finalized
and scored projects based on internal external stakeholders feedback and during the time
in long term in two to six years we will implement those projects that have scored as the highest
priority projects in terms of walking and biking of course that we will do monitoring
and be flexible in adjusting and changing if any conditions change so we will fix and
change the criteria or any steps that is needed to be changed this slide shows the outcome
of these projects the very initial outcome of these projects will be a priority map dashboard
that brings together different and multiple set of data into one single visualized tool
that the staff can look at it and can identify what are the most important parts of the city
for investment in cycling and biking second we can identify the gap maps in the network
and third we have a list of scored projects that can guide the city in terms of the future
improvements of biking and cycling following this approach we will make sure that we are
following a systematic and data driven approach we are engaging and incorporating public feedback
towards biking and cycling investment and also we are following the goals in city of
the entrance comprehensive plan and mobility plan thank you so much I will be happy to
address any questions thank you very much that was very informative I'm going to start
on this end because we know we want to give you any questions any comments I appreciate
it and you're our resident walker I am a walker and so I know that the pedestrian part
would be very important to you is there anything you wanted to comment in regards to the areas
I only walk in areas where there's sidewalks or I walk at that big church parking lot but
I find the sidewalks that I'm on are really in pretty good shape okay yeah and that's
in the eastern sector of the city yes it's like the southeast I guess the southeastern
part yeah it's out the 380 yes yeah okay please tell me about about how sidewalks are rated
poor and very poor is it is it the quality of the of the concrete is it the connectivity
is it the placement of them where they are tell me about how sidewalks are rated yes
thanks for your question very good question yes based on the ADA transition plan the sidewalks
are currently rated in different ranks but usually the criteria that will be used is
missing ramps missing sidewalks in one side or both sides definitely uneven surfaces cracked
pavements these are those criteria that has been considered but but for this effort we
will follow with transition plan ranking of sidewalks on Carroll Boulevard for example
sidewalks just stop there they're they're going along and they simply stop is is that
is that consideration yes this be considered as no sidewalks so it will have the higher
rank in terms of accessibility because it doesn't have so it is stopped to sidewalks
yes it has higher ranked in prioritization because it doesn't have sidewalk okay okay
I'm also curious about pedestrian and bicycle crashes I've crashed plenty of times on my
bicycle and I don't remember ever reporting such a thing how are those how are those things
tallied for crash data we will consider the crease data that is the very formal data it's
coming from the crash information system throughout the system also throughout the Texas also
the city has purchased Dioxie system for reporting crash and collecting crash data that will
be implemented from next month in addition to that if for these types of informal crashes
we will have some public engagements focus group discussions and interviews with a sample
of residents that we will hope they mention these types of incidents but we will go through
the formal reported crashes from crease data or Dioxie system would emergency personnel
need need be contacted to make to make this this list sorry can you clarify it ambulance
would would would obviously that's that that that would be reported yes would that is that
is that how it would make would make the list maybe I could address this question good morning
chair and committee members for Han but deputy director transportation services yes so that
is part of the process so we have Chris database we have Dioxie software or application that
will have additional local coverage for many crashes and in addition we rely on police
reports as well or any emergency response reports that are generated and plus this will
be further complemented by I think there'll be supplementary data available from public
engagements as well I see okay very very good thank you thank you chair of course we're
going to get some long names for these these acronyms here yes Chris yes I system yes of
course my my my it's not a consternation and not even necessarily a concern but I certainly
want to put this out there I am having some questioning about the criteria is safety equity
accessibility those are all in priority order right yes ma'am so when I'm looking at accessibility
before I mean after equity I'm want to question that and I'm looking at equity being disadvantaged
communities versus accessibility meaning every community so how does the equity comes before
the accessibility and sorry for misunderstanding it doesn't mean that based on the order this
is not based on the order all of them are in the same ranking the safety equity accessibility
connectivity is just the format of this presentations okay yeah okay so yes definitely accessibility
is yes as the same oh well that you know that makes more sense to me because ADA for yes
it's very important the missing grams yes yes this is something that we consider for
scoring the projects based on ADA transition plan okay so and to his same point sidewalks
just stop I'm thinking of a sidewalk that is on Audra that goes along and then suddenly
it doesn't make it to the to the corner yeah or there's a new neighborhood that comes in
and they do their little sidewalk situation and then you know it's not connected to anything
and it just stops can the community do a three one one to request that the sidewalk is at
least completed to the street and there's no sidewalk on the other side so that puts
people on the sidewalk and then they're in the street to get to the curb you don't do
a left or right turn and go on to you know no sidewalks so how does that work for a community
member to request the completion of a sidewalk is that is a possible now or is this part
of the plan yes yes yes so Denton 311 would be an option okay and that would be the first
option for the community members to contact staff and staff can respond but in many cases
we will look for these gaps during the prioritization process and try to address them on priority
but in many cases there are other factors that come into play for example utility work
is needed there and then if that has to go then any implementation of sidewalks need
to wait before that work is completed otherwise will be we staff won't be able to work on
two different projects in parallel so I think some of those factors would be there but generally
yes Denton 311 would be the first point of contact now there's certain areas where sidewalks
are missing and I can just only assume that whoever built I'm going to use this church
for example that's on a corner this church was put in but there was would there be would
there have been a requirement to put a sidewalk along with the new development of a facility
because I noticed that there is no sidewalks when there is no facility but then when there
is a facility there's still no sidewalks how does something like that come into play I'll
have to look at that particular case and review if what got included but generally new developments
have to include sidewalks generally yes did you all have any consternation with your prior
knowledge of streets I mean not streets but sidewalks and pedestrians I know we've had
sidewalk you know people in here before I've been on the council long enough to see you
know people that have worked you know in the sidewalk and pedestrian business and bicycle
business are you all or did you all have enough of that to feel comfortable or are we starting
all over again no we are for sure not starting all over again there's as mentioned in doing
the presentation there are significant there's significant coverage in the city of Denton
already when it comes to sidewalk in many neighborhoods and we are just not reinventing
the wheel we are just improving it improving the process but the process continues city
has been developing sidewalks on in many areas and this process will continue it's just that
we are using a robust prioritization methodology now okay improved okay an improved methodology
oh let me finish my couple of questions then I'm gonna come back to you okay okay um what
is your anticipation when you get ready to do this net this neighborhood the neighborhood
conversations and taking it out to the neighborhoods I know everything is generally kind of end
up in a I'd say negative light but you know and that's because people are not aware and
there's no education involved in it I got that part but what are you I mean we're talking
about sidewalks and we're talking about you know doing things better what what's what's
your anticipation for your community engagement from the negative perspective what could someone
complain about that you all can be prepared to answer for yes all comments are important
positive or negative okay so we will we are ready to take them and we are ready to look
into those I would say critique staff understands that critique is not necessarily negative it
helps us improve our processes and informs us of any gaps to be filled all right thank
you on page two I mean on slides well you had mentioned something about important parts
of the city that was your words important parts of the city what does that mean to us
when you say we're going to look at the important parts of the city sorry I heard you say something
in regards to it and we're going to I guess prioritize or look at I didn't write the word
that came in front of important parts of the city but you use the term important parts
of the city what does that what does that mean to us yeah so that would be downtown
core okay yes so that's where we start and then from walkability standpoint and accessibility
standpoint presence of multimodal enhanced multimodal network that's activity center
for city and that's where we start the most active part of the city yes okay thank you
oh yes okay that was your question okay good good I'm glad we're on the same page see you
got to have the people I'm done yes sir hi thank you chair first I want to say Dr. Imanani
I love the the breakout as a member as I go said good job and clarifying goals and metrics
that you're going to pursue and looking at future deliverables I but that we need to
do more of that so I appreciate that a couple questions so I want to follow up on the on
the chair's point I'm glad she asked that about we've seen over the last few years as
our time on council and on mobility there's been a lot of and I want to make I'm glad
that we're we're reusing a lot of that information it concerns the community when we we seem
to stutter and skip as as we go through bikeped coordinators and we don't want to lose the
momentum that we've developed I think is what I was here concerned so I appreciate the chair
bringing that up and I appreciate counselor Holland's question but what about the conditions
so let me follow up from his question do we have an OCI for sidewalks are we sort of talked
around operational conditional index like we do for the streets where you know that's
how we're prioritizing street repair do we have an OCI for sidewalks since it is background
on historical background that's why I'm I'm addressing these questions and onwards Dr.
Manani would be able to address these as she was more more knowledge about cities previous
processes yes we have that layer we there's a sidewalk work plan layer that relies on
a lot of different factors this question was in particular about sidewalks right yes so
yes we have sidewalk work plan layer that is based on prioritize sidewalk projects and
we are relying stuff is relying on those that that work plan as well and that has it may
be termed differently but it is serving as OCI okay all right do we and I appreciate
that at some point if you could throw a document or a link or something like that at the board
so that we know where to look for that sort of thing and give feedback back to the community
because it's often asked when are they going to fix XYZ and the general answer will be
where is it on on this index yeah it will be the general answers so we'll circle back
on that perfect but let's let's follow up from that a little bit I was a little confused
and it's probably just I haven't had enough coffee or whatever when I was reading the
backup but the we had the 50 miles of construction 24 miles of private construction and 37 miles
that we did it got but I couldn't tell what was the difference between new construction
new construction that we did new construction that developers did reconstruction and when
I tried to add up those numbers I couldn't I couldn't get them to add up to to the 50
so I'm I'm clearly doing something wrong or not understanding something and so I guess
I'm not asking for an answer now unless you could just spout it off the top of your memory
but could we get back to the committee construction new construction and reconstruction and and
so that we could and then what we're doing and what developers are doing those those
categories because it makes it challenging for us to follow the progress anyway it made
it challenging for me so that's my gentle request is if we could get those numbers back
to the board and staff will research this and provide circle back great this information
and in following up we said in the background we had 90 miles of bike lanes that it seems
it when I was going through the maps and everything is that Cheryl's plus bike lanes are we adding
those together because Cheryl is it really a bike lane because there's vehicles there
yeah likely it is including data use paths or side paths that we have and that serve
on both both ends but we can look into the statistics and and provide the information
that would be helpful I I don't mind aggregating things because you know we have 90 miles of
bike accessible infrastructure is one way of saying that but also I think everyone will
agree it makes a difference whether it is a bike specific or shared yeah because we'll
we'll respond differently if we have to put bollards in or something like that okay one
of the things that I have two more questions chair and then I'll be done with this I noticed
in the plan that we we tend to be focusing on things that are parallel to streets or
parallel to drainages either side paths or trails but we don't have very much bike pad
specific infrastructure like say you might see in Europe or Asia where it's like this
is just a street for bikes and nothing else in order to facilitate the other planning
that Dr. Epimani was talking about so can we is that part of our planning or we are
shying away from isolated bike pad specific infrastructure so specific bike pad infrastructure
would require it has to be in general traffic engineering we warrant signals we warrant
different instrument or interventions that we have to do.
In case of specific or exclusive bike exclusive or pedestrian exclusive streets that's a that's
a concept in Europe very widely used and some in at some location in US as well it needs
a lot of bike pad traffic and it would require a certain number of certain threshold before
we before staff could look into that but we are happy to look into that while during the
prioritization process if the idea is to implement something like this in Denton I'm talking
about exclusive bike and pad facilities shared facilities they are by default part of this
process sure sure no I appreciate that I appreciate that we need a certain amount of activity
to justify the expenditure yeah but yeah it would be helpful if we knew whether what our
highest capacity words and whether we need to create a node that's just specific to that
or not I'd love to see that in the future in future discussions last question one of
the things and I think this will come back in the design criteria manual item is we do
a good job about mapping out the nodes and the edges in our network you could see it
there on this specific map where we just talked about whether we need specific exclusionary
edges to connect the nodes but one of the things I saw in both this presentation and
the one we'll see in a few minutes is we're not really talking about parking infrastructure
and I mean bike parking and and so I didn't see the criteria menu I'm gonna bring it up
again there so just whoever's gonna cover that item I'm gonna bring it up again in a
few minutes but maybe you could mostly address it now how how are we incorporating parking
for for bike pet infrastructure because if I get downtown and there's nowhere to put
my bike then I'm not going to use my bike and we have minimal opportunities for that
so how is that in the vision so there was a in previous mobility committee meeting staff
presented a bike bike parking infrastructure examples and shared the examples and then
there was a pilot project proposed that was budget linked and if there's a approval for
for that pilot project this could be launched as a test case so when it comes to project
that that could be implemented if the budget is allocated for that and on the on the idea
about adding bike bike parking infrastructure to the projects at the development criteria
process now we are starting the detailed transportation criteria for next one and a half year that
will continue on and many of these changes will be included the recent changes included
the significant that short term that we could do immediately because the development community
has to be on board as well with these ideas so I think we have mapped all the all these
gaps and we are planning to include many of these interventions in the ongoing that we
have just kicked off this new transportation criteria manual update and this will be part
of it but in the planning process we look for those opportunities and where there is
an opportunity we would just recommend to develop very good very good I appreciate that
I appreciate the proactive if the answer is sort of on some of these things I love that
we're going to bake this into the design criteria manual as we go forward so I guess
I won't ask that question here in a few minutes yeah but if they're if if if the three of
us at the higher level in council need need to do a budget amendment mid mid-year budget
budget amendments that we do in May and June we'll we'll need to be made aware of that
if there's not an opportunity for us to voice and have that discussion so so maybe we could
we could bring that up it now or then whatever you want to do Charlie I think in addition
to this this is part of what we can add in our public engagement process and the understanding
of whether parking is a barrier to somebody using the bicycles so as they're doing that
public engagement that would be a good opportunity yes to ask those questions of the community
as we meet with them now that sound that sounds excellent I appreciate it thank you everybody
that's all my questions can I just add a little bit to that the bicycle parking is crucial
but the problem with bicycle parking is the theft of bicycles if I could just put my bicycle
someplace and I knew it would be there when I come back in two or three hours that that
would that would encourage a lot of people to but that's not the but that's not the real
world what one has to have not only a facility to leave the bike but some place to lock the
bike otherwise it'll it'll it'll go away so that's that that's a huge I realize that sounds
like a community engagement conversation well it's it's just it's it's just a situation
that you know what when I was and I sound I say this like I go to Europe all the time
when I was in Europe once I saw lots and lots of bicycles parked very few were locked and
a zillion of them and very very little part of the very little locks I thought that was
interesting I'm yeah I didn't mean to derail that thank you that's quite all right well
we know what kind of people we are if there's not anything else it didn't look like we had
any kind of boat or anything so thank you all for your for your conversation thank you
both thank you okay so we'll move on to MC 25058 receive a report in the hold of discussion
and provide suggestions or recommendations regarding updates to the city of didn't design
criteria manual provide suggestions or recommendations good morning chair and members mobility committee
I'm Mike Linder drainage engineer for the city and I'll be kicking off our discussion
on the criteria manual updates I think there may be there may be some mistake here that's
all right I got it here if you wouldn't would have gone through that I probably wouldn't
have had a clue going with it okay oh there it is there's Mike all righty sir about that
appreciate your patience I'll be kicking off that discussion just a quick background on
our design criteria manuals so historically the criteria manuals within the city were
all separate documents so we had a separate design criteria manual for solid waste for
water wastewater for stormwater for transportation the previous update in 2024 was a really significant
push where we combined all of these separate documents into one unified design criteria
manual matched the format of the development code at that time transportation was still
staffing up there were significant improvements and updates made at that time but we knew
there was going to be additional work and updates that needed to come in the future
and that's what we're addressing with with this round of updates after this update we're
not anticipating any other major updates within the next three to five years so we should
have a period of stability on the manuals after this these updates this manual affects
a lot of different departments within the city it's a really technical document that
requires a wide variety of subject matter experts to come together when we're doing
these updates review the documents review all the comments that have been received since
the previous updates and incorporate those where appropriate after that initial coordination
is done we have an internal draft that we send out to all the other departments for
review we had a series of large in-person meetings in September where the departments
would come and review the proposed edits which produces our finalized draft update of the
document which is then posted online presented to development community we present to various
professional organizations and bring it before the various boards and committees currently
we're anticipating to have a public hearing mid-January with an effective date of February
1st 2026 just to add some context on what the design criteria manual is and how it's
used within the city the city actually has several different governing documents and
there's an established hierarchy to these the highest document which isn't pictured
on this slide it's probably the 2040 comprehensive plan which kind of guides the overall aspirations
and direction that the city wants wants to go in below that would be our development
code which sets policies and procedures for zoning and subdivision regulation it's a planning
level document below that is the design criteria manual which is what we're discussing today
this is a technical engineering document that sets forth the appropriate engineering methodologies
for the design of public infrastructure within the city underneath that is our construction
specifications which sets forth the appropriate construction methodologies how to actually
build what's been designed and lastly we have the standard details which provide a detailed
depiction actual drawings of the infrastructure that's to be built within the city and with
that I will hand this presentation off.
Good morning chair and committee members Rakeable Island principal transportation planner at
city of Denton transportation subdivision today I'm going to present the proposed changes
in the transportation section of the this latest design criteria manual update at the
beginning at the beginning let me start with the background why which what motivates this
update basically our current criteria manual has many typographical error and also is outdated
information and also recently the text has updated the roadway design manuals and our
city checklist that we regularly use for reviewing our developments are also updated but our
current manual doesn't have that so there is some kind of discrepancies there so it
creates many confusion among the development communities so to clarify that confusion and
make it more clear these changes in that criteria transportation section is needed I'm going
to present a couple of the major changes that we are proposing the first I'm going to talk
about the inclusion of the new street classification which is major collector generally our collector
roads has a smaller right of way 65 feet but here this major collector we are proposing
three concept and all of them has right of way with 110 feet and all of them has separate
bike lanes and separate walkways for pedestrian and it will have lower speed the reason of
adopting or introducing the new classification is because the city is growing and in many
developments are coming every month like 10 or 20 if I say and many of them are related
dance development concept with commercial centers and multifamily development and single
family development and which will have higher activities and our current standards all the
roadways that we have articles collector residential street doesn't have dedicated bike lane it
has sidewalks or multiuse but doesn't have dedicated bike lanes so to reduce these conflicts
regular conflicts or make a safe environment we are proposing introducing that major collector.
The next item I want to discuss about the hammerhead turn around when any new development
comes we discourage to have dead end road so to eliminate the dead end road we have
only one mechanism which is which needs higher spaces very large amount of spaces to accommodate
there are some of the developments we have reviewed where they don't have that much space
to accommodate the cul-de-sac so in that case we don't have any alternative in our standard
so we are proposing this hammerhead turn around which needs less space than the cul-de-sac
and this design three options are vetted by our city fire departments.
The next item is a turn lane requirement our city standards had turn lane warrant criteria
for four lane arterials or four lane roadway system basically but in our city jurisdiction
there are several roads arterials which are two lane road so in those cases we don't have
any standard at our current criteria manual so I'm including that and taking that from
our text or design manual and AASHTO which is basically sent for American Association
of State Highway and Transportation Officials they have their standards for two lane roadways
if the turn lanes are not so we are going to adopt that standards from this state and
federal manuals.
The next item the traffic impact analysis or TIA so as I said our current city of data
checklist for TIA is updated but the criteria manual itself is outdated so it has been confusion
and also our current criteria manual doesn't have step-by-step process how the TIA's workflows
basically so in this update we are clearly specifying what are the steps are if we go
to the TIA if the TIA is warranted or not and if it's not how the TIA waiver process
is this and everything needs to be recorded all the steps are well coordinated in our
this update.
The next important element is the in our TIA is the adding the school traffic management
plan we don't have it in our current standard we don't have any guideline even in our checklist
also so we are putting that in this update because to ensure that the students are safe
during the drop-off and pick-up it also reduce congestion and conflicts on surrounding streets
and if you have a plan and also it provides clear and orderly traffic operation for parents
buses and emergency vehicles and the next item the Q analysis guidelines this Q analysis
guidelines we have in our checklist but it's not in our criteria manual so we are just
putting in our criteria manual to have it to make it coherent to avoid any kind of confusion.
The third element is in our current criteria manual we have bike bed traffic impact analysis
but the thing is in the throughout the development review for a particular project we are already
ensuring the city bike plan city sidewalk plan is follow the standard I mean the development
follow those standards at the time of the zoning compliance plan or in the civil engineering
plan we ensure that if the mobility plan is saying there is a 10 feet trail 10 feet side
path is needed they have to build it a new development needs to build it if there is
a bike lane separate the new development when they come they have to build it so we are
already covering that element you know and also the if there are road work if the side
of condition is not good is not compliant the development needs to make it compliant
to the current standard and if there is a missing ramp on this on the development side
or on the receiving side we ensure that at the civil engineering plan stage they accommodate
those ramps so we are already covering those elements in different stages of the development
so in the TI we had it based on our previous old standard so it's kind of reviewing the
same thing again like twice we are eliminating that element from the TI because we are already
reviewing that element in different sections the next item is making some clarification
regarding the traffic coming majors because in the developer committee there is some confusion
what kind of traffic coming methods city allows and not allows in our current transportation
criteria manual we don't have that clearly specified some of them are specified in our
fire city fire department code so I discussed with the city fire division and based on that
I make it more clear as an example in our cities we allow in any kind of horizontal
measures like the lane narrowing curve extension or chicanes this kind of measures we allow
but in case of vertical measures we have some limitations the city on any public or private
street city does not encourage any kind of vertical measures like the speed hump speed
bump speed tables the reason behind because it causes delay in the response emergency
response time and it also causes damage to the city fire equipment so we normally don't
allow it but the only one exception is with speed cushion we allow speed cushion just
on the private street based on the fire and all of this when the developer comes up with
any kind of horizontal traffic coming majors or speed cushion they want to put on private
street it needs to be reviewed by the it normally get reviewed by the city fire division and
the city transportation we both review those and we look into that if it follows the city
standard the next item I want to discuss about the on street parking in our standard we have
on street parking allowed on residential street and residential collector street but we didn't
specifically mention what are the type of parking could be it could be parallel it could
be angled or it could be perpendicular parking so in that case what happens that mostly to
accommodate more park most parking the developer comes up with perpendicular parking so in
traffic perspective point of view it is really it causes safety hazard and it causes more
crashes in that case and also our downtown dendro plan doesn't also encourage that so
for to facilitate that we are coming these changes that when any street classification
has on street parking allowed so which means by default the parallel parking is talking
about but in special cases if the developer wants some kind of angled parking or perpendicular
parking it needs to be thoroughly reviewed by the city's engineer and approval so that
we can put some kind of safety encourage some safety environment for this parking and reduce
the crash risk.
The current criteria manual doesn't have any specification regarding some bike rack so
the ABPP which stands for American Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals is
a nationally known body who works on that bike pad facilities so and bike rack facilities
so they have some guidelines so as the city doesn't have any conceptual design plan for
the bike decks we are adopting that from ABPP and as you see it has provided some minimum
clearance for spacing and also safely maneuvering the bike rack and it also specify to the current
standard also specify that the bike needs to be locked not only the wheel but also with
the frame also at least two spaces to promote security that and it helps the developer community
to design it according to city standard.
This is we have for the transportation criteria manual update so the next step for this design
criteria manual update to present it at the council hearing and proposed to adoption on
the January 13, 2026 and everything goes well then it will be effective on February 1, 2026.
Thank you very much and please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you very much, that was very informative, appreciate that.
Zykl did you have any questions, any comments, any concerns?
No not at this time, not at this time, okay.
I might later as people ask other questions.
It will come to you, okay.
Please I think it's about slide seven, I may be off on that, showing okay six maybe, five,
that one.
My note was street parking competes with pedestrian and cycling lanes.
I'm thinking of Forest Ridge Street for example, there's lanes on each side of the street plenty
wide but there's no parking, there's no parking considered for vehicles so when council member
Byrd parks her big dually truck on the side of the street it completely torpedoes the
pedestrian cycling thing, you know what I'm saying.
Is that, I mean I don't see that considered here.
Well the width of the street presuming that we're going to, alright for example Carroll
Boulevard, nobody would think of parking on the side of Carroll Boulevard, you wouldn't
think of it but on Elms, North Elm Street for example, that's common, people park on
either side of the street.
I'm just thinking with new construction should that be a consideration on street parking
so that it would not compete with pedestrian lanes and cycling lanes.
I will partly answer that question and some of the portion, I don't have the background
or historical information, Chandra will assist me with that.
Regarding the new construction, if the road is a residential street and a residential
collector street, if it falls in two categories, we have on-street parking in our standards,
we have that in our criteria manual and regarding the Forest Street and Carroll Boulevard, Chandra?
Good morning Chair and committee members, Chandra, City Traffic Engineer.
So this major collector classification applies only for new developments where we have the
plan to incorporate.
In specific to Carroll, it's a primary arterial in our code so there is no parking allowed
at any time and in case of Forest Ridge, back then we had collector roadways, homes fronting
those roadways so they could park on those streets but based on our new code, no parking
on the collector roadways that accounts for I think more than 11 homes, then you cannot
park on those collector roadways.
So we have captured those in our previous updates that was not reflected in this update.
But we could take a look at it on retrofitting some old streets that has some issues on parking
and accommodating bike lanes, that's been a challenge so far, but we could come up with
a plan to have one side parking, other side could be a bike lane, so those are some options
we could consider.
It confuses a lot of people, where am I going to park, we'll park there, well I can't park
there, it's a pedestrian way, it's just a confusing situation.
So since our new bike person is here, we are bringing in those green paints, those are
considerations we are considering so that would delineate which is a bike lane, which
is a parking lane in case of Old North or Forest Ridge, so those will give a distinction
on which is a bike lane with those paints or markings so we can make it clarity on those
ambiguities.
Okay.
Thank you.
I'm intrigued with the hammerhead as opposed to a traditional cul-de-sac, I think that's
the next slide, I think.
There it is.
We don't have anything like that in the City currently, do we?
We do have for solid waste, it's in the solid waste section for the solid waste truck, but
we do not have anything in our transportation section to propose some kind of alternative
turnaround when there is a limitation of spacing, because cul-de-sac needs more spacing in some
of the development we don't, they don't have that spacing to have the cul-de-sac and for
fire or emergency vehicle, turnaround is a very important, any dead end street should
have some kind of turnaround to give a proper, to serve it proper for the fire and response,
so yeah.
Okay.
Perhaps I misunderstood this.
Is parking, is parking, pardon me, not parking, forget that.
Is around that our houses surrounding the hammerhead examples there?
Because when I think of a cul-de-sac, kind of a bulbous circle with houses all the way
around it, that's the way I think of a cul-de-sac.
Is that the same, is that the same thing?
You are right.
For cul-de-sacs, you can have houses around it, but this is an option where you have space
constraints and instead of a dead end street, we would be requiring these cul-de-sacs to
be built for, say, example, solid waste goes in, they pick up the trash, but they cannot
turn around, so with this configuration, they can maneuver out of the street.
I see.
Okay.
I got it now.
Is the elimination of speed bumps, is that a new thing?
There's been speed bumps all my life, and only recently have I noticed that speed bumps
are going away.
Am I right?
Case by case, and it varies from city to cities, and we don't have speed hunts, but elimination
in case of a dip in the roads or if there is bump, we used to use static signs, but
some cities might highlight in with the reflective material, hey, you are having a bump or something,
so it all, case by case, it varies.
But that's a relatively new, is it not?
In the past, they used to have those static signs like a dip and things, but now some,
not by manual, but it's based on some cities, they have those thermoplastic reflectors that
highlight in it, and even those speed hunts would give you arrowhead signs that says you
are going up and coming down.
That's not exactly my question.
Is the elimination of speed bumps a relatively new concept?
Yeah, not that we use, but there are some cities that do that based on if they can have
the...
He means more about fire trucks.
I'm sorry to jump in, but he means we're going away from speed bumps.
You all don't want speed bumps, is what his question is.
Yeah, that's not in our code to deploy those.
Okay.
But I think he's probably trying to ask if they relatively new in terms of did this start
happening in 1980s or 90s or 2000s?
When did we start eliminating speed bumps?
Are fire trucks more fragile than they used to be?
Thank you, Joe.
Are we more cautious with fire trucks than we used to be?
What we have been told is it damages their apparatus when they carry like 20,000 gallons
of water.
I get that, but they carried the same amount of water 20 years ago.
Yes, so the damage has been more evident based on a lot of studies that going over speed
bumps.
Yeah.
Okay.
Fair enough.
Lastly, the parking rack.
Can you give me a picture of the parking bike rack thing?
That is wonderful, but that will only work if all of the bicycles are parked exactly
like that.
When council member Byrd parks her bike perpendicular to all these guys, that's going to screw up
the whole thing unless somebody standing there and saying that's not the right way to do
that.
Education, and I don't know how you're going to do that, but that's a great thing.
That's a great concept.
I love it.
But it will only work if everybody understands how to do it.
Mark, here.
Sure.
Maybe when we install these on a new developments, we could have how to do it in a small kind
of instruction.
We could place it on there, but -- Yeah, something, something.
Even a static foe bicycle that was parked in there, just for example, I'm sorry to pick
on you.
We can show some images for education on how to secure a bike.
Thank you.
That's all I got.
So easy.
How far are we behind on our update?
When was the last time we were updated?
Was it 5, 10, 15 years ago?
In this process?
Mike?
Again?
The last update was done in 2024.
Oh, 2024.
Oh, it sounded like it was in the 1900s.
That was all the question I had in that regard.
Functional classification, new development.
When does that start?
Does that start like in the next couple of years, three or four years?
How far along the lines are we talking about starting this after the engagement, and then
we have to put in the process?
We're getting approvals.
Are we talking about in the next -- at the next development?
We got these large developments coming in.
Are they going to be prepared for what we're talking about here?
So in regards to -- I'm assuming it's the major collector.
Okay, yes.
We've already implemented one for the east Windsor section from loop 288 all the way to
Ferris on the eastern side, but we didn't capture it in our manual as one of the classifications.
So if it's adopted, it will go into effect February 1st, 2026.
Oh, okay.
That's pretty quick.
Okay, good.
Page 6 hammerhead, I think I had the same question in that regard.
I was on slide 6, the hammerhead.
I can't imagine the developers planning to develop, you know, cul-de-sacs like this.
Is this -- are you all already communicating this with the new developments that are coming
in?
Yes.
Okay.
The team are already agreeing to be done, so let's capture it in our language and process
and policy.
So that's where we are.
Great.
Speed cushions.
You said something in regards to private streets, speed cushions on private streets.
What are private streets?
Are those HOA streets?
Yes, HOA streets.
If the streets are in shopping complex malls, like Razor Ranch, those are considered --
Then we'll be able to see that?
Yes.
Okay.
What makes up a calming -- I'm talking about calming measures.
What's the difference between putting in a speed cushion versus a dip?
Are we still putting dips?
No.
Okay.
Dips are like for drainage components.
Oh, that's drainage.
Some -- we provide some surface runoffs to go -- where we don't have inlets to capture
the water on one side, we funnel it on the other side.
So there were -- some instances we were providing it, and some road settlements, it causes natural
dips, and even if we fix it with underground water tables that could go back to this original
state so where we can add dip to inform the drivers.
But it's not a practice.
We do it -- So we would be able to capture the opportunity not to put a dip in with the
new developments.
That's right.
We shouldn't see dips other than in our older sectors of our --
That's correct.
Our city.
Okay.
All right.
That's a good -- good to know because I still kind of see them around, you know?
Yes.
And those are my questions.
Thank you, Chair.
I love that, and I'm going to lead off with the -- there was a discussion about paint.
Yes, please, because that's a very cheap solution.
There's a fair degree of confusion.
Forresteridge Old North, you mentioned it, I just want to make sure that I also support
strongly being clear to our citizens about what's parking and what's Cheryl and what's
bike lane, because you're going to hear it from all of us that our citizens are confused.
They're confused.
And we -- and paint would be a cheap way of making them less confused, or relatively cheap.
I did notice we seem to be conflating sidewalks and side paths, and y'all know better than
I do that those are very -- potentially very different things, you know, lacks of 90-degree
turns and speed measures that are appropriate for side paths but not appropriate for sidewalks
or vice versa.
And I'm thinking of, like, if you look at table, like, 57A, that's -- that's in there
very minimally, and you -- but we don't -- but for sidewalks, but we don't really have a
side path, 57B, or -- and -- but if you go and look at, like, what is the one for roads?
I think it's, like, 53A.
It's, like, everything in the world is specified for it, so I think it would be useful as we
try to do the bike infrastructure that the Dr. Etmanani is going to be in charge of.
I'd love to -- I'd love to see an additional side path table with those geometric values
in it just for clarity.
I think that would help.
Okay.
So, I'm also going to have the same questions about the hammerhead or related -- I guess
some of them were asked, so I'll narrow mine down to -- for those hammerhead street or
cul-de-sac type dead ends, is -- it seems like it's primarily for solid waste and possibly
for fire EMS, and so I'm just going to float this out there.
Are we designing around our trucks?
Are we designing multimillion-dollar neighborhoods around single-million-dollar trucks when we
should be designing single-million-dollar trucks around our multimillion-dollar neighborhoods?
Are we flipping the math on this one a little bit?
Why do we not have -- is there an opportunity to maybe have, especially in downtown quarters,
the smaller waste trucks, the smaller fire trucks?
And I understand, you know, there's issues with having a large fleet, but I don't want
to design around one very narrowly targeted thing, and it goes back to speed cushions
and other things as well.
So, is that what these are primarily for, is large vehicles getting into small neighborhoods?
That's correct, but having different trucks, that's a question for solid waste, and I can't
comment, so.
I understand that, so I'm going to ask Charlie and other people at his level and up to, in
your planning, to at least consider whether a fleet solution is a better solution than
a build-out solution, and which of those is better, and I don't want us to necessarily
keep doing the same thing over and over if there's an opportunity for flexibility.
Yeah, I hear your point, and that's something that we can look into.
I want to be clear here.
I don't think that this is going to be used very often.
I think if you're thinking of a typical subdivision type neighborhood that they would have that
cul-de-sac because they can put lots around it.
This is, in my mind, something more akin to a townhome development where it's like a single,
there's one in Audre that I can think of, where it's a single street down to the townhomes.
You get to the end of that street, there's townhomes on both sides, you've got to find
a way to get around there, and so this is not going to be a very widely used type of
thing, but it's in site-constrained areas, so just want to be clear that this isn't probably
the model that's going to happen going forward, but it just allows us the flexibility to do
that in the case it's needed.
This makes sense.
No, it doesn't.
I appreciate that.
My next question-
That's a fascinating concept, though, the "which came first" kind of thing.
The trucks are the ones-
Yeah.
Okay, so I'm exceedingly grateful and excited that we are adding erosion controls for our
construction and watershed protection, so that whole section that we added in, we've
seen it at Old North, we've seen it all over the place where, particularly during the construction
phase of new roads and sidewalks and parking, I'm so happy that you're adding those in there
because we've just seen houses flooded out, and so lots of praise for having new items
like that in the design criteria manual.
Absolutely.
Because as we- the whole point of the climate- I know this is mobility, not climate, but
the whole point of that is we're seeing unusual weather patterns that are changing our development
styles.
So, you know, we have street flooding that we didn't have 20 years ago, and now we're
having to design for that street flooding, and so I appreciate y'all having that proactive
stance on that and putting those into the design standards.
Are- I know this is mobility, but it's unclear, are these- are the detention ponds and the
street runoff and that drainage, is that under Mobility's purview or some other committee's
purview?
Who's overviewing the drainage elements because streets overlaps both?
Right.
So, we did bring these updates before planning and zoning and PUB, and got some feedback
from them on the detention aspect and dual use of those ponds.
We've also included a list of native grasses that could be used in those ponds, and there's
a section carved out in the criteria manual that talks about other alternate uses.
Does that address your question?
Well, I think I'm hearing- what I'm hearing you say is that PUB and some other committees,
but not so much- we're not going to worry about street drainage in this committee, and
I just want to stay on target which committee is the right committee to address an issue,
so I'm not going to discuss those.
I just want to know where that was.
Can staff get back to us about which of the new elements in the design criteria manual
are specifically related to Vision Zero, so that we can go back to the public and say,
look at these 3,000 things that we put into our design criteria manual changes that are
related to our goals.
And so, I'm not asking for this meeting, but can you get back to us on which ones are related
to that?
Yeah, so staff is drafting an ISR that'll go out ahead of City Council meeting on January
13th, so we can include that information on that.
I love that.
Thank you so much.
Okay, so all of us talked about speed cushions, and it's a good segue from the Vision Zero
concerns.
I think you're hearing us all say, we love our fire trucks.
We don't want to damage our fire trucks because the more often they get damaged, the more
often we have to use taxpayer money to replace them.
That's bad.
We agree.
Same token, we're trying to, in the times when there's not emergency vehicles and waste
vehicles going down the street, which is 95% of the time, we're trying to go back to our
Vision Zero goals.
It feels like speed, I think we all might agree reluctantly that speed bumps may or
may not be the answer.
There might be some reluctance to that, but speed cushion seems like that consensus place
where you can still get the large vehicles down, and the fact that we're moving expeditiously
away from that in our current design standards, I'm not comfortable with, I'll just be honest
with you.
Two inches is not going to make a fire truck bounce, but it is going to slow down your
residential traffic.
I would love to hear some thoughts, comments about, are we being led again on an edge case
instead of the primary case on this one?
For Hanbat, Transportation Services.
This essentially is tied to first response time, and for that, minute or seconds would
count to save somebody's life.
That is the first factor.
The second factor is the equipment, as mentioned previously, equipment compatibility with that,
the guidance that we are getting from our first response service, including folks that
are operating ambulances or fire trucks, is that the equipment is not compatible with
that kind of, to take that kind of bump.
The third aspect is the individual neighborhoods where we are, where we may deploy, the community
has to be on board as well.
So not, even though technically it may make sense, but the community engagement session
would inform us that how the community is looking at it.
In previous cases, in some cases, that we found, our staff found that the community,
all community members are not on board.
So these are the three factors.
Transportation Services is open to this discussion, but it is budget heavy because if we are going
in that direction, then obviously we'll have to change the fleet.
So that's one question.
The second is that if, and not only fire trucks, but ambulances as well.
So that is what it is tied to.
No, I appreciate that you're being careful, that you're focusing on outcomes and safety.
I would ask in that direction, as we develop statistics, we have speed cushions in our
town.
We talked about that.
Some of the other members talked about that already in older parts of town.
I would love if I could get some data, and I know it's not you, I know it's EMS, but
if I could get some data on response times and damage in those sectors that are servicing
places with speed cushions, because if the answer is no change in the response time and
no additional damage to our vehicles, then we're not hurting anything.
So I'm just saying stay open and maybe come back to us with data is what I'm requesting.
We'll circle back with Fire Department, and they should be able to provide the information.
And then I had, oh, the street lighting.
I love the new section, again, is street lighting covered under utilities or us?
And I won't ask any questions if it's not covered under mobility.
That item would have gone to PUB.
Perfect.
Then just again, because it was streets and we do streets, then I'll leave that to PUB
to discuss and we'll leave it alone.
Thank you.
I appreciate that, Chair.
All right.
Okay.
Thank you.
Okay, we're going to move on to MC 25-063, Receiver a report and hold a discussion regarding
the Mobility Plan Boot Camp Part 3 to introduce and share the information on different elements
of the Mobility Plan, scheduled for 35 minutes.
So this is going to be kind of tight for us to get through beyond this and to be mindful.
Good morning, Chair, committee members, Farhan Bhatt, Transportation Services.
I'm here to present the Mobility Plan Boot Camp Part 3.
In previous Mobility Committee meetings, we have covered Part 1 and Part 2, and this presentation
will cover the bicycle and pedestrian plan component of the Mobility Plan and would focus
on first on how the Comprehensive Plan guides us when it comes to goals that are linked
to the non-motorized mobility, that specifically the Comprehensive Plan Goal M3 specifies that
staff should focus on creating a transportation network that allows residents to walk, bicycle,
and use other forms of non-motorized transportation for exercise, recreation, and daily commutes.
So that is the key overall focus that has been provided by Comprehensive Plan, and this
focus is directly tied to Mobility Plan's third theme that focuses on facilitating alternative
travel opportunities for the users, road users.
And once again, there are nine goals that are overall that are developed in the Mobility
Plan.
They define the mobility priorities, and so for this boot camp, we are just aligning Comprehensive
Plan with Mobility Plan and how Mobility Plan goals are then aligned with the specific theme,
and then further we look into the strategies.
To begin with, when it comes to third theme, which is about non-motorized modes, prioritizing
travel needs of pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users in every project are stated
in Goal 8 and Goal 9 of Mobility Plan.
And then also it is in a way suggesting that we provide comfortable and low-stress opportunities
to walk and bike for all the users within the city.
When it comes to Mobility Plan goals, there are two goals, and within those there are
Objective 8 and Objective 9.
So for Objective 8, there are three subsections.
First talks about expanding and enhancing and protecting the bicycle and pedestrian
network.
The focus is on ensuring that there is availability of bike-ped and bike-ped network that is interconnected.
Objective 8B provides end-of-trip facilities.
This would include first mile and last mile gaps that are there, and it talks about how
these networks should fill those gaps and those amenities should be provided to the
users.
And then encourage sustainable modes of transportation to fill first, last mile trip.
This is providing accessibility to those first and last mile trips in terms of feeder buses
or some kind of network space and other modes that could be available to the users.
Some of the selected strategies among Objective 8A to C talk about building connected and
inclusive active transportation network.
It also talks about fostering public-private partnerships to supporting bicycling.
This would include bike-share programs that are common in many large cities and are effectively
used in university towns.
And it also points towards identifying citywide infrastructure need that are needed to create
interconnected multi-trail system.
When it comes to Objective 9, there are three, there are four segments for Objective 9.
Objective 9A talks about designing bicycle and pedestrian facilities using consistent
standards.
So not only the Objective 8 was talking about how the system should be implemented, and
the connectivity, the gaps, the first and last mile.
Objective 9 is now talking about how do we implement that and what the design standards
would be.
And it also talks about in Objective 9B to strengthen and broaden safety enforcement
for bicycle or bike paths.
So within the designs, how we can look into the systems like bollards or separate lanes
or block lanes and door zones, all those considerations are covered in this.
Objective 9C focuses on ensuring bicycle and pedestrian facilities remain clean and safe
for all users.
Again, the discussion on confusion could be also covered in this, where we could re-stripe
or paint the bike lanes to ensure that they are clear and they are clear to the users.
And then, of course, the cleanliness of the facilities themselves is also in consideration.
Increasing the education of bicycle and pedestrian safety, that is indirectly or directly talking
about public engagement sessions and awareness programs on what are the needs of the users
in the city, within the city, and how systems could be further improved via public engagement
sessions and awareness.
The mobility plan also talks about pedestrian plan, and it prioritizes walking investment
for safety and equity.
This would essentially focus on covering areas that are transportation-disadvantaged communities
or vulnerable communities where there are accessibility issues, things such as availability
of go zones, if there are zero-car households, or transportation accessibility issues.
If there are bike users present, then bike lanes' availability should be there.
Providing a visionary roadmap for a walkable city, this potentially points towards developing
a walkability index for the city.
Staff is already looking into that aspect, and we are, block by block, there's a possibility
of developing a tool during the prioritization process where we will look into the walkability
index of the core areas, and include that in the prioritization process.
And then it also talks about complementing other mobility plans, items, including thoroughfare
plan, bicycle plan, and ADA transition plan.
The ADA transition plan is core of any pedestrian project because it is from accessibility standpoint.
It not only talks about how to provide those detectable surfaces, but also ensuring that
the crosswalks are not only for regular users, but they are ADA compliant in terms of pedestrian
signals and voice activation and many other guidelines that come with it.
And then they are complete.
One of the aspects that we are trying to achieve is that the bike, when it comes to ADA compliance,
we are trying to ensure that the trip is complete.
So any public building or any major attraction near a bus stop, the trip has to be completed
for any ADA or special ADA accessibility users from the bus stop to that public building
or attraction where that trip would be generated for.
And then given the growth and economic activity that we are anticipating within by 2050, that's
also core of it.
Whatever planning that transportation service is doing will be part of the process.
And we have, we are aware of the demographic data sets and how it changes in our region,
in our city, in the county.
And we are using that data set obtained from NCTCOG for all our planning purposes.
And we are, we will be continuously coordinating with the ADA transition plan.
That is also one of the core direction that mobility plan provides to the planners, that
we have to ensure that all our planning activities are coordinated with the ADA transition plan.
And for all our projects, ADA and road safety is an integral part of all the projects that
transportation services is planning to implement and even conducting studies for, planning
studies for.
So when it comes to key bicycle and pedestrian initiatives, transportation services has been
proactively applying for funding for many projects all across different focus areas.
But as I stated earlier, that whatever projects we apply, we ensure that bike, pad, and ADA
grants are covered.
For instance, we recently received 2024 Safe Streets and Road for All grant by US DOT that
was awarded about $740,000.
And a major part of this grant, well, a big portion of the grant would be on, spent on
demonstrations projects.
And all of those demonstration projects will have bike, pad component.
Western Boulevard project has been awarded around $7 million and then there are two components.
One is Safe Routes to School and then even Western Boulevard itself.
Both of these projects will have bike, pad components in it, in them.
The Safe Route to School projects will have, will look into that as well as the Western
Boulevard expansion project.
We have applied for 2025 TRIP for about $4 million.
We are looking at $2 to $4 million.
I think the amount is $2 million.
I apologize for this mission.
And so that has been applied.
And if awarded, that will update our mobility plan and also bike, pad component of the mobility
plan and ADA transition plan.
For all of these three updates, we have bike, pad component as a core part of this update
process.
And the list goes on.
We are also in consideration for Economic Development Assistance Resilience Grant.
That will be around $2 million and that will also have bike, pad, the comprehensive plan
update process will look into the bike, pad components as well.
And so there is a lot of activity that is going on.
All of these processes, staff ensures that they are in line with comprehensive plan guidelines
and then mobility plan goals and strategies.
And then we define our projects within those, within the fold of those goals and strategies
that are defined there.
For staff, why it is extremely important to align with the comprehensive plan and mobility
plan because this gives us direction, this instead of reacting to the situations, it
helps us analyze and ensure that are we in line with our comprehensive planning goals
and mobility plan goals and strategies or are we just reacting to a short term situation.
In some cases, short term situations are important.
If it is critical, if it is safety centric, if it can save lives, yes, they get priority.
But generally staff tend to align with these mid-term to long-term goals and would prioritize
projects keeping those in view and ensuring that we are delivering safe and convenient
active transportation system for the road users in the city.
That's it, I think that's, oh, there is one.
Here is, when it comes to our, yeah, when it comes to our plan, right now we are going
through bike lane and sidewalk criteria calibration as Dr. Admonani shared in earlier presentation.
So that is anticipated to be completed by the end of January.
We evaluate, prepare and submit DCTA trip project that is in line and going parallel
by 2026.
So some of that time will be used by the end of March, we have to complete that.
But at the same time, this work on criteria would continue on the side.
And then once we have submitted the DCTA projects, some of those would also be part of the prioritization.
We will start looking into the prioritization of projects that are, we have right now a
list of projects which includes more than 50 or 60 projects and we will be prioritizing
those and coming up with workable, constructable, implementable projects that are prioritized,
five or ten shortlisted so that we can focus on those in the short term.
And then we will induct those projects into work plans.
We will share those with CIP, we will share those with parks and rec if they are related
to them.
And we will also share with the regional stakeholders, tax dot and NCTCOG, if they can prioritize
those as well.
In many cases they are looking for projects and they could include them in their work
plans as well.
We have demonstration by this, all of this activity will be done by May of 2026 and then
we are hoping that the rest of the project will, any demonstration project will kick
off after that.
And we will also be pursuing, continuously pursuing federal and state and local funding
opportunities be it NCTCOG, USDOT, tax dot and county, we are constantly in touch with
these regional stakeholders and we are looking for opportunities where we can bring more
funds to implement these bike path and active transportation projects.
And that's the last slide.
>> Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I was very informative.
I appreciate all of that.
On that last slide, I think I had been asking for this last slide throughout this time as
to when all of this is going to occur.
I'll take advantage of this opportunity while I'm speaking very quickly to ask about these
demonstration projects.
Those are going to be some physical, you know, physical things that we can see and the community
will be invited in to take a look at these certain things.
I don't know, walkability paths and all of that that's going to be all over the city.
I mean, what do we, what does a demonstration project look like?
>> So once we have a prioritized list, we, so there are demonstration projects that are
already in consideration for our SS4A 2024 award for $740,000.
And a part of that would be used for a demonstration project.
When it comes to demonstration projects, they would be selected from the prioritized projects,
one or two projects, depending on the budget allocations, availability of funds.
And then, yes, the public engagement process will be an integral part of that.
We'll just take those concepts to public sessions and get the feedback.
In many cases, if the project is not well-liked, and if it is not safety priority, we'll choose
the next available prioritized project and start the process.
But in doing so, what we are hoping is that we will be able to demonstrate one fully connected,
impactful project that changes the way BikePad is visualized by the road users in the city.
And the whole perception, we are hoping that it will change the perception.
>> Okay.
Thank you very much.
That's the only question that I had.
Did you have any questions?
>> Yeah.
So in this process of developing this, okay, for the new construction coming in, are the
new developers going to be required to put in these bike lanes and things when they build
those roads that they're building all over the place?
>> These are context-sensitive.
It all depends on what kind of development is there and how large it is, all those discussions.
But typically, yes, the large developments, they include those in their plans.
>> All right.
All right.
>> That's what I wanted to know.
>> Because we've got some large developments coming in.
>> Yes.
>> Nothing.
Nothing.
>> Okay.
Great.
>> No.
I appreciate that, Chair.
No, I love the planning.
I love that you're doing these things, we can't and letting us know what the vision is, and
my only gentle comment is similar to James and that was, or sorry, Member Ziegall's comments,
and that is we have development pressures that y'all know and see and live and swim
around in on a daily basis more than we could possibly understand, even though we're approving
or not on them, and it feels like there are times where we have a comp plan and we have
a focus and we're trying to do it, and while we don't want to be rigid, we also seem like
we flop around a little bit on our mobility plans, on our bike plans, in response to some
of the developments that comes in.
And so I guess I'm gently asking us to maybe address how that, how when we are being forced
to be reactive, I'm asking us to say, well, this is the impact that this reactivity is
going to cause.
It's going to cause all these dominoes to do this, and if you're going to do that, that's
great, but just do it affirmatively and not accidentally, reactively is all I'm asking.
Yes, staff will do that and we are more and more proactively trying to address this issue
and hoping that this will continue.
Appreciate that.
Thank you.
Alright, anyone else?
Okay.
Great.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
We appreciate that.
Thank you.
I like that plan of action and timeframe, the visual there.
MC 25-064, staff memorandum, the side path work plan update.
Nutsess.
Uh-oh.
Somebody's complaining about Seth.
No, we love Seth.
No, we don't.
We do.
Alright.
No, I don't want to say that too loud.
You said it on Michael.
Uh-oh.
So we'll go ahead and work through the staff memo, so again, the first one was the update
to the side path work plan update.
So that was covered today by both Farhan in that first presentation that you saw.
We do have a couple of items that Transportation Services is bringing forward to council that
you can see there.
A speed limit change on Mayhill Road and then some changes to the Sam Houston Elementary
School Zone.
Okay.
So Councilmember Beck did catch my math error, so I interpreted the information that my staff
provided to me incorrectly on the total lane miles.
So total lane miles constructed is 74.8.
50.53 of that was done by Capital Projects, 24.27 is new development lane miles that were
added by development.
And then of the 50.53, 37.72 was done by the 2019 bond program in the neighborhood section.
So thank you for catching that, 74.8 is the total lane miles that was reconstructed or
accepted by the city.
Quick question.
The bond, are we done with the usage of the bond for the lane miles for 19?
We are not done yet.
So 2026 is when we're projected to be done with construction for the current packages.
We still have four packages that are going to be unfunded that will be brought before
council through the budget process for future consideration.
Thank you.
Yes, ma'am.
Okay and then 2023 mobility minutes, we realized that we had an error when we moved traffic
safety and made the new mobility committee.
We never brought the 2020 December 20th, 2023 minutes to you guys.
So those are attached as an exhibit as well.
All right.
So next we'll cover the future items matrix.
So we are requesting to remove three items, items three and four and then also item 12
that was the design criteria manual updates today.
Item three is the sidewalk plan and item four was the bike funds project criteria which
were covered through a couple of presentations today.
Okay and then 12 I see down there the design criteria manual which is what we discussed
today.
Council Member Begg?
So I will make a motion to do this but I thought as we got into the meeting there was a discussion
that we, the chair, we were asked to have about votes going forward on this process
or are we not doing that, chair?
You're the chair.
Well and I appreciate you bringing that up because I did have that in the back of my
mind.
Am I understanding that we're no longer going to do the matrix?
I mean we're not going to, we're not voting on it.
Right.
There won't be a vote required because it'll be part of the staff memo.
It'll still be reviewed every week or every meeting with the committee and you can still
request to add things on it but staff will kind of remove things as they've been presented
to you without the need for a vote.
Because is it being shown that we generally say yes to all of these things or we vote
on yes all the time anyway?
Is that why we are making this particular decision not to necessarily vote on it because
we are always in agreement?
Yeah, and I think that's just how we handle it with other committees, so just consistency
across the boards and commissions.
Thank you.
As part of the discussion I just, I guess, I've seen that in other committees that things
come on and off the matrix fairly readily with or without votes.
I guess I don't have a concern as long as things can, as long as we go, as long as whatever
committee we're on says, yeah, no, we don't want to not revisit that, like I know staff
you want to be done with that but we're not done with it.
As long as that's available to the committee then I don't really care about the mechanism.
But now in some cases we may say, we may have yes up there but council member Beck may make
a point to have to want to revisit that but it's already shown up there.
Yeah in those cases we would just leave it on the matrix.
Okay, so y'all are going to be keeping up with that?
Yes ma'am.
Just as we currently do.
Y'all got to keep up with it.
Okay.
Because if it's going to come up, we know council member Beck is going to.
Why, I don't have a point on this.
Okay, so are we, I guess we don't even have to have a vote on this, right?
Do we have to have a vote that we're going to?
No, no vote needed.
So it's a no vote?
We're not posted for a vote.
Yeah.
Okay.
So whatever.
Sounds like there's nothing else.
I had to say in that regard and then what about future matrix items?
We have that, the 20 meeting staff memorandum, if there's not anything else to conclude with,
do we have any kind of concluding items?
Anybody want to do any concluding items?
All right, if there's not any concluding items then we will end our meeting at approximately
1145.
Thank you all very much.
Thank you.
For everything.