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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOUTBoard Minutes 082119 Approved 10/16/19 1 MINUTES 2 ORANGE COUNTY OUTBOARD 3 AUGUST 21,2019 4 REGULAR MEETING 5 6 MEMBERS PRESENT: Art Menius, Little River Township Representative (Chair); Brantley Wells (Vice Chair), Hillsborough 7 Township Representative; Ed Vaughn, Cedar Grove Township Representative; David Laudicina, Cheeks Township 8 Representative; Heidi Perry, At-Large Representative; Erik Broo, At-Large Representative; Randy Marshall, Bingham 9 Township Representative; Johanna Birckmayer, At-Large Representative; Jenn Sykes, At-Large Representative; Todd 10 Jones,At-Large Representative; Alyson West,At-Large Representative; 11 12 MEMBERS ABSENT: Donna Musson, Eno Township Representative; Amy Cole, At-Large Representative, Chapel Hill 13 Township Representative-Vacant; 14 15 TRANSIT ADVISORY SERVICES MEMBERS PRESENT: Theo Letman, Allyson Coltrane; Teleishia Holloway, Lisa Berley; Alison 16 Smith; Erica Bryant, Beverly Scurry;Anna Sienna; 17 18 STAFF PRESENT: Tom Altlerl, Comprehensive Planning Supervisor; Nish Trivedi, Transportation Planner; Tina Love, 19 Administrative Assistant III; 20 21 OTHERS PRESENT: Zachary Hallock,Town of Carrboro; Matt Day, TARPO 22 23 AGENDA ITEM 1: CALL TO ORDER,DETERMINATION OF QUORUM AND INTRODUCTION OF NEW MEMBERS 24 Art Menius called the meeting to order. 25 26 AGENDA ITEM 2: APPROVAL OF MINUTES 27 MOTION by Randy Marshall to approve the May 15, 2019 OUTBoard Minutes with changes. Seconded by Heidi Perry. 28 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 29 30 AGENDA ITEM 3: CONSIDERATION OF ADDITIONS TO AGENDA 31 Art Menius: I have 2, one being an update on the new transportation planner and a letter thanking Abigail for her work. 32 33 AGENDA ITEM 4A: OCPT/ORANGE COUNTY COMMUTER OPTIONS(OCCO)UPDATE(THEO LETMAN) 34 Theo Letman gave updates on the County's commuter options. 35 36 Heidi Perry: Is there not currently a transit plan? 37 38 Theo Letman: The one from 2017 is still in effect. Most of that plan had a light rail component to it,so we have to redo the 39 plans. We have to start thinking of ways to reauthorize those funds. Another plan going on in the community is a 40 commuter-rail project, a long-range rail project which includes Wake, Durham,Alamance and Orange Counties. They are 41 also trying to connect a commuter-rail line from Selma to Mebane. The component that our jurisdictions cover are from 42 Wake County to Alamance. 43 44 David Laudicina: Do you think they would be expanding it out to Hillsborough? 45 46 Theo Letman: The Hillsborough station is a part of it. 47 48 David Laudicina: With the money that we voted to go towards light rail,will that be extended to cover the commuter rail to 49 Hillsborough and beyond in Orange County? 50 51 Nish Trivedi: The Hillsborough station is a committed STIP project. 52 53 David Laudicina: I'm not talking about the Hillsborough station I'm talking about the commuter rail. 54 1 Approved 10/16/19 55 Heidi Perry: The transit tax was not only dedicated for light rail; it was for all transit. 56 57 David Laudicina: Light rail was the largest component. I think people voted for that money with the thought that the light rail 58 is going to be coming along. 59 60 Jenn Sykes: I think part of your point is that during those light rail discussions Hillsborough was not incorporated into that 61 commute and for it to hit Mebane, Hillsborough is a logical stop on that commuter line. 62 63 David Laudicina: We have this money that we voted for, and it would be nice if we could get a commuter rail stop extension 64 out to Hillsborough. 65 66 Erik Broo: There is a spur, I think, UNC uses to bring coal down to its power plant. Has there been a discussion or can 67 there be a discussion about using that as a commuter-rail line for anyone who wants to get to the UNC campus from 68 Raleigh, Durham, Cary, or Hillsborough? I would be interested to learn how this goes and when incorporating Chapel Hill 69 into this. 70 71 Theo Letman: That's a good point and we will bring that up. There were discussions in the meeting and we have ongoing 72 meetings with staff and GoTriangle. We have discussed spurs and different lines that could feed into the main line, but 73 there are a lot of issues with railroads. CSX and Norfolk Southern are at the meetings and have agreements with Amtrak 74 and the North Carolina Railroad to run across their track. 75 76 Nish Trivedi: Theo, please, correct me when I speak about this. Capital Area Metropolitan Planning (CAMPO)and Durham 77 ECAC-MPO has conducted a major investment study,the MIS study regarding commuter rail. The study was completed 78 earlier regarding Wake and Durham, and is being revisited to include Orange,Alamance,and Johnston Counties regarding 79 the Mebane to Selma extension. There's a lot of work that needs to be done in conducting and improving upon the already 80 conducted major investment study that has been done between Campo and Durham for the commuter rail project. As work 81 continues in the region that would be incorporated into the new transit planning. Wake, Orange, and Durham are all 82 updating their transit plans while the major investment study is being done; commuter rail is just one component of all of 83 that. 84 85 Theo Letman: This study is just beginning. Getting all the partners and entities together is a vital first step. 86 87 David Laudicina: Will this project be a new start if they are going for federal money? 88 89 Theo Letman: I think that's one of the funding streams they will look at. 90 91 David Laudicina: That's 50 percent, and the length of time to get that is unbelievable. What will the legislature going to do 92 to this project? Are they going to nail it like they did the light rail? 93 94 Theo Letman: There are lots of issues and concerns, but in my observation everyone is at the table. We are all open to 95 ideas and expressing our concerns for our advocacy. So far so good. 96 97 Erik Broo: Are there any public access meetings concerning the new transit plan and the commuter rail discussion? 98 99 Theo Letman: I don't think we have discussed that initial meeting yet. 100 101 Tom Altieri: We will be embarking on a 1 to 2 year process to develop that transit plan and anticipate consulting services to 102 assist. The meetings that were originally conducted and the outreach we anticipate to be of the same magnitude as part of 103 this plan. Although not a new plan, it is a review of the plans that have been done and then building on services in the plans 104 to address what would be done and how to integrate services in the absence of light rail. Part of the outreach will include 105 educating the community on the finances. The light rail was financed to a significant degree and was cost shared with 106 Durham. Durham collects more money from the sales tax revenue so it will be able to do more with what it has left over in 107 the absence of light rail. Orange County is different and we also have the Chapel Hill transit BRT project that we will have to 108 fund in addition to services provided by the previous plans. We anticipate additional services as part of the effort. 2 Approved 10/16/19 109 Nish Trivedi: Durham County has an Engage Durham website if you want to participate in their transit plan update. 110 111 Jenn Sykes: Some of the insurance companies that got these contracts to administer Medicaid are doing grants to help 112 county governments and transit. The concept is called social determinants of health and it is about getting people to and 113 from appointments and making sure they have housing stability. These are some funding sources you might want to start 114 paying attention to. You may want to look at insurance companies to get grant money at the moment. 115 116 Theo Letman: We are going to provide services in the county, but how we do it is going to be the mess for us. 117 118 Jenn Sykes: I think there is a piece in Medicaid where they are encouraged to ask each patient if they have access to 119 transportation and then move that forward. 120 121 Theo Letman: I've heard some counties say they may even stop doing Medicaid transportation due to the confusion. 122 123 Heidi Perry: Will the new Sprinter-type vans have bike racks on them? 124 125 Theo Letman: Yes. 126 127 Lisa Berley: About how many seats will be in the new line? Let's say there isn't a wheelchair on there that particular day. 128 129 Theo Letman: It's probably going to get up to 15 people. 130 131 AGENDA ITEM 413: OUT MOBILITY ON DEMAND(ALLYSON COLTRANE,THEO LETMAN)— 132 Allyson Coltrane and Theo Letman gave a presentation and updates. 133 134 Heidi Perry: Will this service be available to anyone? 135 136 Theo Letman: Yes. It will be open to the public. 137 138 Heidi Perry: Is Orange County contracting with private citizens to provide the service or are we hiring full-time drivers; how 139 will it work? 140 141 Theo Letman: My plan is to hire part-time drivers like Uber and Lyft. They will go through safety training class to teach them 142 Orange County's way of providing customer services. This will be an augmented training process. We will conduct 143 background checks and they will work for Orange County transportation services on a part-time basis. 144 145 David Laudicina: Have you thought about a monthly pass? 146 147 Theo Letman: I don't know yet. I think it may be more of a debit kind of situation. 148 149 Beverly Scurry: I see on the survey that you have a 5 to 8 option; is that as late as you will operate? 150 151 Theo Letman: We are still planning with TransLok. We are looking at perhaps 5 to 9 during the weekday and on Saturday. 152 A consistent theme has been transit services on Saturday. 153 154 Beverly Scurry: How are you promoting the survey? 155 156 Allyson Coltrane: We have contacted the main communicators and the communication group to send it out, but I can 157 definitely forward to everyone here if they want to relate it back to anyone else. We will probably do a bigger push to get it 158 out there sometime next week. 159 160 Erik Broo: The vehicles will be provided by our County for these part-time drivers; is that correct? 161 162 Theo Letman: The vehicle procurements that I described will start with five vans. 3 Approved 10/16/19 163 164 Todd Jones: Is this to address the issue of a lack of consistent availability for transportation in Hillsborough? 165 166 Theo Letman: In general, it's a fresh look at a fresh service that's going on across the country. Other communities have a 167 strong presence of Uber/Lyft but not so much here North Carolina. I think by public perspective more transit agencies are 168 going to this model. Some have even replaced their paratransit services with Uber/Lyft style services, mobility on demand. 169 170 Lisa Berley: I would like to highlight that it's a way of people getting out of going into another County, maybe to Alamance or 171 Durham where the other local transportation services don't necessarily get you across there. 172 173 Theo Letman: In our region,we need to have better coordination with linking up our services. 174 175 Lisa Berley: I am imagining that you can get a ride to outside of the county. 176 177 Theo Letman: We probably won't go deep into Alamance County. 178 179 Lisa Berley: Not deep but to help people who are living near that border. 180 181 Theo Letman: Transportation services are to serve all people and it should never be looked down upon. I think providing 182 this service gets us away from that kind of stigma that had it been associated with the service. Providing a service that 183 meets the growing need will be very helpful. 184 185 Alyson West: What is the specific safety training the new drivers will go through to handle bicyclists and pedestrians on the 186 road and how they interact with them? 187 188 Theo Letman: We will keep up the standard of safety training. We have several defensive driving systems that are 189 nationally recognized that we take the staff through. We will also have our drivers take a cone course. This will include 190 EMS folks and any other admin folks who drive County vehicles. 191 192 Erik Broo: Is there any effort to put some device on the bus that measures G-forces or steering and breaking inputs to 193 determine the severity of them to determine if a driver should be flagged for retraining? 194 195 Theo Letman: We do take our drivers to regular training and retraining. We emphasize their handling of the vehicle. There 196 are devices and systems that we can deploy on our vehicles that can monitor that. Telemetry is something that we might 197 look at we upgrade our surveillance systems. 198 199 AGENDA ITEM 4C: OCPT ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATES(THEO LETMAN)— 200 Theo Letman gave updates on the department's transit projects. 201 202 AGENDA ITEM 41): TRANSIT ADVISORY SERVICES(TAS)COMMENTS/QUESTIONS(THEO LETMAN)- 203 Theo Letman asked if any TAS members had any additional questions or comments 204 205 AGENDA ITEM 5: REGULAR OUTBOARD AGENDA 206 207 AGENDA ITEM 5A: BICYCLE SAFETY IMPLEMENTATION SUBCOMMITTEE(BSIS) RECOMMENDATION ON FUTURE HANDLING OF 208 BICYCLE SAFETY IMPLEMENTATION(NISH TRIVEDI) 209 210 Heidi Perry: How regular will the updates be? 211 212 Nish Trivedi: The recommendation was no more meetings and to have this done at the regular OUTBoard meetings. 213 214 Todd Jones: We may want to make sure that's part the recruitment and selection criteria for board members is to make sure 215 there is some cycling, pedestrians, and any other alternate forms of transportation representation. If the composition of that 216 element is lost, there may not be the same emphasis on alternative forms of transportation that this recommendation 4 Approved 10/16/19 217 assumed. 218 219 Nish Trivedi: That would be a discussion for future meetings regarding the process, not necessarily a subcommittee thing 220 within the OUTBoard but a procedural administration of the OUTBoard itself. 221 222 Todd Jones: There is some mechanism for preserving that interest among the members. 223 224 Heidi Perry: Can we find out what is happening with the radio ads? 225 226 Nish Trivedi: We will try to get an update on that. 227 228 Alyson West: Are all the signs up? 229 230 Jenn Sykes: The signs are up. 231 232 Erik Broo: Do schools have ride your bike to school with your parent's day? Is this something we could co-op to get rid of 233 the swag? 234 235 Alyson West: Bike to School Day is in May. 236 237 Heidi Perry: There's one in October and there's one in May. We would have to get the schools on board with that and it 238 would take manpower. A lot of stuff was geared towards adults and should be shared with the public. 239 240 Nish Trivedi: As I mentioned the work will be continued through the OUTBoard, and you can continue discussing how you 241 want to move forward without a subcommittee. 242 243 Heidi Perry: Can we find out about the upcoming events in and around Hillsborough like a transportation fair? 244 245 Nish Trivedi: There are local events that occur in Hillsborough like Last Fridays and the Farmer's Market that allows 246 nonprofit organizations to put tables. There are similar things happen in Carrboro and Chapel Hill, and I can find out 247 information as an OUTBoard update. 248 249 Alyson West: The idea is to get the message out to people that are not necessarily cyclists. Is there staff time to do tabling 250 like other community outreach? 251 252 Tom Altieri: I don't see this as an end to the bicycle safety efforts and the work that the subcommittee was doing. If we 253 have assistance from volunteers and the ability to set up tables and give out the swag and material that would be fine. My 254 understanding is that the subcommittee's work was winding down and it seemed to make sense that it was time to dovetail 255 into the OUTBoard's work. 256 257 Art Menius: Since you are the microphone,and it is relevant to the discussion. 258 259 Tom Altieri: I would say that we continue with the new planner when they are hired. We have initiated the recruitment 260 process and have posted the position as a planner with a focus on transportation and land use. 261 262 Alyson West: I don't have a problem with dissolving the subcommittee, but I think that getting the message out still needs 263 to get done. At this point, if there is not going to be a subcommittee and specific people involved, it would benefit the county 264 to invest some staff time in getting the message out because the commissioners did support it and the money is there. The 265 materials are there, marketing is there, it's ready and there is momentum. You don't want to lose that. 266 267 Tom Altieri: That is understood. 268 269 Heidi Perry: I'd be happy to volunteer, but I do not want to be"the person". I would like for there to be a staff person, and 1 270 would help. 5 Approved 10/16/19 271 272 Tom Altieri: Okay. Note taken. 273 274 MOTION by Heidi Perry to end and the recommendation of dissolving the subcommittee and folding the work into this body. 275 Seconded by Todd Jones. 276 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 277 278 279 AGENDA ITEM 5B: DRAFT CARRBORO BIKE PLAN(ZACHARY HALLOCK) 280 281 Zachary Hallock provided maps for the Board and reviewed the Draft Carrboro Bike Plan. The next steps are for Carrboro to 282 get a completed draft by the end of this month which will be forwarded to DOT for review at the same time. Staff interest 283 was to have another opportunity to have the OUTBoard provide comments on the full draft plan probably around September 284 or October. 285 286 Heidi Perry: When do you expect to show it to the Board of Alderman? 287 288 Zachary Hallock: Sometime in the fall. November might be the window based on how busy they are. 289 290 Heidi Perry: I noticed that the Jones Creek Greenway had gone out again for a second bid. 291 292 Alyson West: The Morgan Creek one is the one that keeps going out. 293 294 Zachary Hallock: Morgan Creek. Jones Creek is in design. 295 296 Randy Marshall: Is there any designation that separates commuter cycling from recreational cycling? 297 298 Zachary Hallock: Recreational cycling is a different beast than the commuting traffic which tends to be shorter length. 299 There hasn't really been that specific intentionality and how these routes are designated. 300 301 Randy Marshall: Is there any thought to having traffic counts for bicyclist? 302 303 Zachary Hallock: I know the MPO's do traffic counts, bicycle and pedestrian counts and streamline counts. In terms of what 304 the Town itself has done, is cut a little bit outside of our manpower in the scope of the plan, but there's data that we use to 305 work with. 306 307 Heidi Perry: There is a counter right at Old 86 going out of Carrboro that they've been taking counts from, and it shows 250 308 bikes on a Saturday. 309 310 Randy Marshall: But that's simply a matter of justification as to the higher priority for putting bike lanes there. 311 312 Heidi Perry: They just don't score well.Just to talk about Old 86. It's been looked at in different lights because it is an 313 economic tourism tool from Hillsborough to Carrboro which gives people a route that way, it also is the shortest difference 314 between Carrboro and Hillsborough to work, meet, or have recreation. Bottom line we want them to be used for both. 315 316 Alyson West: The demand is there on Old 86 and should be calculated in the STIP which it isn't. That's another reason to 317 revise how that scoring works. 318 319 Nish Trivedi: In terms of SPOT scoring,were are currently going through SPOT 6.0. The bike scoring for bike-ped Project 320 6.0 is totally different than 5.0 and 5.0 was totally different than 4.0. 4.0 was when it became very quantitative and more 321 detailed. From my experience, 7.0 is going to be radically different than 6.0 and it constantly changes and evolves. We 322 have staff do our best to keep up with DOT and how their workgroups do things. 323 324 Erik Broo: In our group,we talk about Old Fayetteville between Hillsborough Road and Calvander because that stretch of 6 Approved 10/16/19 325 road is dangerous. The idea I have is to encourage the DOT to meet the expectations of the county and Carrboro. If there 326 were bike-ped improvements on either side of that sector of the corridor,would the DOT be more inclined to think about that 327 specific short piece of very dangerous road and possibly think of the idea that they are falling behind the other 328 municipalities? 329 330 Zachary Hallock: The map is to tell the MPO that these are the projects that we like to prioritize and might someday submit 331 to SPOT. DOT will see that these are our priorities, but we can't bind them into anything. 332 333 Erik Broo: Is there any way to encourage them through action? 334 335 Nish Trivedi: The other issue to remember is the local match requirement with bike-ped projects. It's not just simply 336 identifying a bike—ped project or improvement, it's who is going to pay for it and who is going to administer that project and 337 monitor DOT doing the work. Is putting the local jurisdictions responsible. The cost plays a big part in who is paying, doing, 338 and administering the project and the DOT is putting this onto the jurisdictions more and more. 339 340 Alyson West: What's the plan for restarting the conversations on the Greenways that have been adopted that are not be 341 discussed right now. 342 343 Zachary Hallock: That's a discussion for the Carrboro Board of Alderman. 344 345 Alyson West: Do they have a plan to restart the conversation, or are they just stalled? 346 347 Zachary Hallock: They have a time point have to have the current conversation completed by. I think it is sometime next 348 year. 349 350 Alyson West: Regarding the short-term and long-term priorities in the draft plan and the idea of the long-term big picture 351 ideas; are there funding implications for not having specific facilities listed in the bike plan? 352 353 Zachary Hallock: The reason for not putting some of those on the map was based on some of the reactions we have gotten 354 in the past for putting things on maps. We wanted to make sure it was still the plan to get covered. 355 356 Alyson West: Does it fall out of the CTP and the other bigger plans? 357 358 Zachary Hallock: Those are separate amendments that would have to happen anyway. Once this is adopted, and we 359 decide to amend the MTO/CTP/or MTP we could include those. 360 361 Alyson West: Keeping the Old 86 segment in the plan is important for keeping it listed in the prioritization, even if it's not 362 scoring well, right? 363 364 Zachary Hallock: Yes. 365 366 Alyson West: I'm just worried that some of these things not been in the plan are going to prolong their funding or being able 367 to move forward. 368 369 Zachary Hallock: As it stands right now, there are no protected bike lanes anywhere on a NCDOT maintained road in the 370 state. I think the idea would hinge on Jones Ferry being successful and then saying; can we show all the protected bike 371 lanes that we are interested in? 372 373 AGENDA ITEM 6: STAFF REPORTS/UPDATES 374 375 AGENDA ITEM 7: INFORMATION ITEMS 376 377 AGENDA ITEM 7A: CHAPEL HILL TRANSIT NORTH-SOUTH BUS RAPID TRANSIT LOCALLY PREFERRED ALTERNATIVE (NISH 378 TRIVEDI) 7 Approved 10/16/19 379 380 David Laudicina: I notice this is a small start program and it's registered with the FTA. Do the small starts not have to go 381 through the extensive engineering; is that why you're able to do it so quickly? 382 383 Nish Trivedi: They are doing the 30-percent engineering design right now. Their town has already approved the locally 384 preferred alternative which has been adopted earlier this year. So they are putting the package agreement together to get a 385 rating for how it's going to rate against other small start programs across the country. The engineering should be complete 386 by 2019/2020 to start construction. 387 388 David Laudicina: Where's the money coming from? Is it a 50/25/25? 389 390 Nish Trivedi: No. There is also a project being submitted in the SPOT 6.02 to get funding from the state to make it to the 391 STIR There are three versions of it right now in the current 2017 County transit plan, so there is funding from the county 392 transit plan that's going towards this. There's the Board of County Commissioners, DCACMPO, and Chapel Hill transit 393 which have all approved amending the transit plan to put more money towards this project. When the STIP comes out in the 394 next two years we will see how it does in SPOT 6.0 to get state funding. 395 396 David Laudicina: Is the state going to put some money too,and how will we be sure that they're not going to kill it like they 397 tried to kill light rail project? 398 399 Nish Trivedi: We will find out when the next STIP comes out in the 10-year window whether it's to be a committed project or 400 a development project. 401 402 David Laudicina: Where does the local money come from? 403 404 Nish Trivedi: The County transit plan. 405 406 David Laudicina: From the tax thing that they put through? 407 408 Nish Trivedi: Light rail is one project and this is another project that is in the adopted plan. 409 410 AGENDA ITEM 7B: MPO/RPO NCDOT UPDATES(NISH TRIVEDI) 411 412 Heidi Perry: So what we received is not the complete policy, right? 413 414 Matt Day: The policy itself is just those couple of pages. 415 416 Alyson West: It says under the planning and design guidelines that the NCDOT roadway design manual isn't the 417 authoritative reference, Section H. If that's not updated for the engineers, is anything going to change? 418 419 Matt Day: I don't know. One thing we were told is that DOT is changing their standard roadway drawings. The standard 420 drawing used to be with wide outside lanes as their standard bike provision, but this is no longer going to be the standard 421 bike provision. 422 423 MOTION by Heidi Perry instructing Art Menius to write a letter of appreciated to Abigail Pittman. Seconded by Alyson West. 424 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 425 426 AGENDA ITEM 8:ADJOURNMENT 427 Motion to adjourn. 428 Art Menius, Chair 8