Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutTransportation Board - Minutes - 11/16/2005MEETING MINUTES of the TRANSPORTATION BOARD November 16, 2005 5:45 p.m. City of Fort Collins Municipal Building Community Room 215 N. Mason Street FOR REFERENCE: CHAIR: Brent Thordarson 679-2165 VICE CHAIR: Gary Thomas 482-7125 STAFF LIAISON: Mark Jackson 416-2029 ADMIN SUPPORT: Cynthia Cass 224-6058 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Sara Frazier Neil Grigg Jeannette Hallock-Solomon Bruce Henderson Tim Johnson Ed Robert Gary Thomas Brent Thordarson Lee Watkins CITY STAFF: Don Bachman Cynthia Cass Linda Dowlen Mark Jackson Ron Phillips 1. CALL TO ORDER ABSENT: Kevin Westhuis OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE: The meeting was called to order by Chair Thordarson at 6p.m. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board November 16, 2005 2. AGENDA REVIEW Page 2 of 8 There were no changes to the agenda. However, Chair Thordarson did take a moment to recognize and present a token of the City's appreciation for Board Member Henderson's years of service on the board. His term expires next month. Jackson also took a moment to recognize that today is Linda Dowlen's birthday. She is here to give a presentation to the board. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT None 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES (OCTOBER 2005) There was a motion and a second to approve the minutes as presented. Discussion: Chair Thordarson stated that on page 2, first sentence of the second paragraph under the TRANSPORTA TIONDEVELOPMENTREVIEW FEE heading, it reads "...process for 2006 and 2006..." The correct wording is"... process for 2006 and 2007..." The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 9 — 0, with that revision. 5. COUNCIL LIAISON REPORT None. 16. TRANSPORTATION DEMAND MANAGEMENT PRESENTATION I Linda Dowlen gave a PowerPoint presentation about the Transportation Demand Management Program that included the following highlights: Background: • Need for trip reduction programs first recognized in 1996 • Charlier Associates, Inc., hired to update the 20-year Regional Transportation Plan 0 1.8 million daily trips in North Front Range predicted to increase by 85 percent by 2015, reaching 3.3 million trips/day. o Cost for road improvements: $900 million. • Recommended a comprehensive strategy of urban planning, capital investment in travel options, charging direct costs of roads and parking to drivers and particularly Transportation Demand Management. • Predictions fell short. Today there are 3.5 million trips/day in Fort Collins alone. • TDM more vital than ever because there is not enough land or money to build our way out of the congestion. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 8 Transportation Board November 16, 2005 Purpose • TDM/SmartTripsTm program part of TSA since 1998. • Provide options and incentives to help people make a variety of transportation choices o Save time, money o Healthier lifestyle o Transportation equity o Extends lifetime of existing road infrastructure, reducing maintenance and expansion costs • Not intended to act alone. • Part of a comprehensive approach to solving transportation issues and necessary to have a complete transportation package • Most effective for peak -traffic times and highly congested locations • Cost-effective and sustainable way of stretching the dollars spent on road improvements o For example, about $160,918 spent on carpool and SchoolPool programs in 2004 took 153,679 vehicle miles or 20,221 personal trips off the road during peak traffic periods in key, congested school and employer zones of the City. This is the equivalent of taking almost 500 cars away from each school drop-off point. o Victoria Transport Policy Institute: A potential $2 million savings in car ownership costs to Fort Collins consumers from all TDM trip reduction efforts in 2004. TDM today • Provide a full compliment of services to encourage travel by bus, bike, carpool, vanpool, walking as well as telework assistance • Relationships with more than 366 businesses in Fort Collins • Database of 18,000 participants • Target: Employers and schools • Work with individual employers, the Poudre School District, the Downtown Development Association, the Chamber of Commerce, Colorado State University, Larimer County and other private and public entities. • Programs include o Carpool matching assistance for employers and schools, o Vanpool information and subsidies for new riders, o Employer tax benefit information, o Discounted employer transit passes, o Loaner bicycles for businesses and their employees, o Guaranteed Ride Home and other incentive programs for employers and schools o Telework policy and training assistance o Bus schedules and bike maps o Information and assistance on any transportation choice that reduces traffic congestion. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board November 16, 2005 Page 4 of 8 o Facilitates some public awareness promotions such as Walk a Child to School Day and Bike Month activities. • State and national recognition and awards Effectiveness • Average 25 % reduction in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) achieved each year since this division was started in 1998. • Peak period was the first half of 2004, when this office was last fully staffed. o 2004 VMT reduction of 3.5 million miles or more than 1.lmillion trips from high -traffic locations during peak -travel times on City streets. A 40 percent increase over 2003 VMT savings. o Victoria Transport Policy Institute: Total cost home by governments and businesses averages $5-20 per day for a typical peak -time automobile commute trip. Equates to a savings ranging from $70,000 to $7 million in costs saved in Fort Collins by the TDM programs in 2004. o Miller and Moffet estimate average traffic service costs at 0.5¢ per VMT, which equates to $1.8 million in costs saved in Fort Collins from TDM programs in 2004. • Compare extremely well in both productivity and cost-effectiveness with others in the state. The City of Fort Collins has an effectiveness almost equal to that of RideArrangers in Denver and greatly exceeding the effectiveness of programs in Colorado Springs: • To date, almost 225 CSU employees are signed up for carpooling. Vanpools — which the Fort Collins TDM/SmartTripsT program facilitates with the MPO VanGo program — frequently have waiting lists. Fort Collins TDM transit promotions have resulted in a 26 percent increase in bus ridership in August 2005 and a student bus pass distribution that exceeded 9,303 since school started in September. TDM future • Hiring freeze for two years meant losses in key personnel resulted in challenges in 2005 • City budget cuts funding by 53 percent in 2006 and staff by 63 percent. • TDM ends in September 2006. • Workplan for the end of 2005 and into 2006/2007 includes study and development of Transportation Management Associations (TMAs) in highly congested Fort Collins business districts. o First steps on this plan are scheduled to begin this month. • Highly focused on carpool, SchoolPool and vanpool promotion. • Goal: build these programs to become key contributors to trip reduction in Fort Collins and give them as outstanding a reputation as our full program has been in past years. • Carpool o Employer focused service o New database is less labor intensive APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board November 16, 2005 Page 5 of 8 o Employees sent to on-line form to apply, receive list of matches and map o Collaborate with MPO for out -of -city requests o Follow up surveys done once a year SchoolPool o 42 schools participating currently o SchoolPool is a FREE service that matches families from a participating schools with others who are interested in sharing a trip to school via carpooling, biking or walking. If you attend a SchoolPool school, participating in SchoolPool is easy. Here's how it works: o Families provide information to the SmartTripsTM office, including name, grade, nearest major intersections to home and phone number (call for a free application) o The SmartTripsTM program uses an innovative computer program to match families based on home and school locations. o Families receive a customized match list of possible SchoolPool partners. o Interested SchoolPool members then work out convenient transportation arrangements among themselves. o Follow up surveys done once a year Vanpool o Serve as liaison when we work with businesses o Provide subsidies to new riders o Work with employers to obtain private subsidies — NRRC o Coordinate with MPO for operations This, along with taking the next step toward assisting businesses — through TMA development — to manage trip reduction programs on their own, is the new direction for Fort Collins TDM/SmartTripsTM programs in the near future. 7. ACTION ITEMS a. COUNCIL POLICY AGENDA —M. Jackson Jackson apologized and stated that he made a mistake on the timing of this issue and learned that it was approved by Council just last night. He stated that Phillips took the board's comments to the Council retreat on November 5 when this was discussed and shared them with Council. In looking at the final version of the Council Policy Agenda, it reflects the board's main concerns. Jackson said that in his opinion, the board could still submit comments if they want to. After a brief discussion, it was agreed that the Pavement Management policy item should be included as a reminder to Council. Jackson suggested that perhaps the board could send a memo congratulating the Council on approving their Policy Agenda, but please APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board November 16, 2005 Page 6 of 8 don't forget "x, y, and z". Henderson suggested asking Council to actually amend the Policy Agenda to include it. There was a motion and a second to craft a memo stating that with regard to adding something in regards to pavement management, that the board recommends adding a policy item statement to the effect that they would act to ensure that funding is available to maintain the city street network and that the statement be placed at the top of the memo, not at the bottom. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 9 — 0. b. 2006 WORK PLAN APPROVAL — Chair Thordarson Robert distributed a handout with his suggested changes to the Work Plan. Jackson edited the Work Plan onscreen as the board addressed each one. Upon conclusion of the discussion, there was a motion and a second to approve the 2006 Work Plan. The motion carried by a unanimous vote, 9-0. 8. DISCUSSION/INFORMATIONAL ITEMS a. CITY BUDGET and BOB WRAP-UP—D. Bachman Phillips distributed a question and answer sheet that Transportation Services provided to the Council recently. It gives a good overview of what's been going on in this area. Bachman gave the board an overview of the latest news regarding the City budget and spoke briefly about what happens next with Building on Basics. Phillips expressed thanks and appreciation for the Board's support during the BOB campaign. BOB will go back to Council in either January or February to appropriate 2006 funds to get some of the projects started. Bachman then gave an update on the Transportation Development Review Fee. Handouts were distributed showing sample tables with figures if the fee were implemented in different scenarios. The fourth item brought up was the Transportation Maintenance Fee. Phillips stated that staff will be having a discussion with Council at a work session in February to present the plan without having a lot of specifics yet. Loveland has had a TMF in place for about 3 years now and has had very good experience with it. Since they are a close neighbor, staff would like to use them as an example to help present this to council. 8. REPORTS a. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS Johnson: Red Light Monitor. I noticed in the paper an article on the red light monitor, maybe other folks saw that as well. I would like to have Eric come in and talk to us a little bit about how that's working with the potential use of a second one. I thought the article was extremely negative on the use of the camera. Would be good for Eric to bring the board forward to where they are and what changes are being made to operate a little better. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board November 16, 2005 Page 7 of 8 Hallock-Solomon: Mason Street Groundbreaking. I went to the groundbreaking with my two boys, 2 & 4. Very kid friendly event and I wanted to say thank you to the City for that. We're still talking about the yellow shovels. Robert: Economic Development. The Economic development activities are on hold. They've cancelled the last two meetings and are waiting to see what the City Manager folks are doing with the Economic Advisor position. New Development. There's a new development north of Vine and it includes extension of Linden Street into what's called Redwood then ends. Bike trail is there and the other end is connected to Conifer and all the way up to Willox. There's a gap of 400' or so. In your plans and maps, it shows it to be completed. When is that going to happen? Phillips: We have the Right -of -Way now. It will be done with new development. Jackson: I believe that it's due with the next phase of Old Town North and Dry Creek goes through there too. So it's out there to be done at some point. Chair Thordarson: Traffic Signals near Fire Stations. My question is with regard to traffic signals that are located adjacent to fire stations. For instance there's one on Taft Hill that I'm aware of. It's only used for signaling when the fire trucks need to get out. I'm wondering if it's also possible to have those be used as a pedestrian crossing signal. Is there any policy with respect to that? Staff will check. Mason Groundbreaking. I just wanted to commend the City on this very wonderful and exciting event. It's great to see that project actually start. Germanv. I was in Germany last month, my first time to Europe. was expecting to be and was quite impressed with the level of public transportation that is available. I was kind of surprised by the amount of motor vehicles that are on the roads there. b. STAFF REPORTS Jackson: Seminar. Every winter Utilities puts on a series of seminars dealing with sustainability, alternatives, energy savings, and those sorts of things. They've approached Transportation Services to do a seminar this time. The focus will be on the future of transit in Northern Colorado. This is scheduled for March 22 and Transportation Planner Kurt Ravenschlag will be the lead person. We'll provide more info as it gets closer. APPROVED Regular Meeting Minutes Transportation Board November 16, 2005 Page 8 of 8 December Meeting. The board agreed to cancel their December meeting and meet at Coopersmiths on December 14 instead. Next Agenda • US 287 Update (if ready) • Airport Master Plan (if ready) • US 287 EOS • SH 398 EOS • I-25 EIS • Guest Speaker - Professor from CSU (at some point, no hurry) • Non -route based strategies Phillips: Farewell for Transportation Services Employees. We're going to have a service area wide farewell event for all the folks we're losing due to the BFO process. It will be December 6 from 4 — 6 p.m. at Club Tico. You're all welcome to come. 9. OTHER BUSINESS None 10. ADJOURN Chair Thordarson adjourned the meeting at 8:40p.m. Respectfully submitted, �( — 44z� Cynthia Cass, Executive Admin Assistant City of Fort Collins — Transportation Services