But uh we're getting there.

I guess I should uh blur Pokemon behind me here.

Oh well, you know, it's kind of cool.

Yeah.

I guess the session is good is a will be all virtual, I guess.

Yeah, right.

Good idea.

This week, so I'm uh I'm glad I not have to do the the traveling that I I would have had to have done before.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's nice.

It's uh yeah, it's nice, especially I feel like in December it's it makes sense to do that.

Oh yeah.

Yeah, hold on just one second here.

Let me turn my camera off.

Pretty good, Corey.

Good.

Hi Melissa Melissa.

Hey everybody.

Hi, Chris.

Hey Casey, hey Melissa.

Testing.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Yes, I I wait I can hear ya.

Testing.

Can someone Melissa?

Uh no, I can't hear you, Jim.

I'm gonna keep trying until it'll work.

Okay, but we can hear you.

A new setting.

Hi, DT.

Oh, hello.

How are you?

Good.

Thank you all for letting us join.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This is uh this is exciting.

Can you hear me now?

Yep.

Okay, great.

Can you hear me?

Yep.

I've got you.

Do you have my video?

Can you see video?

Yep.

Great.

All good.

All right.

Uh Melissa, we you saw that we released the green building plan.

Um, we're gonna do those briefings for commissioners.

I mean, in the normal process.

Um, but if you want a separate discussion, please let me know.

Well do.

Thank you.

Matt.

Great.

I'm on from the public link, but hope that works.

Yes.

Okay, awesome.

All right.

Looks like we need uh it's just turned seven o'clock, so uh we need one more.

It's you, Matt, Casey, Melissa, and Jim are on if you could help me a little bit with the queuing because I don't have to have one screen.

Sure.

All right.

Leslie and uh Dan just joined us.

Great.

So the open the meeting.

Yes.

Terrific.

The December 17th, 2025 meeting of the Transportation Commission is uh electronically.

Uh it's being held electronically.

Members of the Transportation Commission and staff are participating from remote locations throughout video conference call on Zoom.

The meeting can be accessed by the public via Zoom.

So we would uh like to open the public comment period.

Yeah, and I don't see anybody from the public on.

Okay.

So we will close the public comment period unless we see anyone raising their hand or pressing nine.

Press six.

And if there, they would have three minutes per speaker.

Let us go therefore to agenda item one.

Um I think you just uh you need to ask for a motion too.

We'd like to motion period.

And that we uh open uh and close the public comment period.

I'll make a motion to close the public comment period.

I second it.

All in favor?

Aye.

Hey, aye.

All opposed.

So moved uh.

Yeah, so the next thing on the agenda is the Transportation Commission minutes.

Okay, and make a motion we open discussion on the minutes for review.

I thought make that motion.

Great.

Second.

Second.

Great.

All in favor.

Aye.

Open any discussion on the minutes.

Uh I have no changes to the minutes.

I can make a motion to approve the minutes of hold on, let me get the date right.

October 15th, 2025.

Thank you.

We are second that motion.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Yep.

All right.

So the next uh item on the agenda is we have two guest speakers, uh, Michael Schuster and DT Oliver, to talk about the age-friendly plan and transportation elements of it.

So Michael and DT, I uh would you like to take a minute to introduce yourselves and then I'll forward the slides and just tell me uh when to advance them.

Great.

Um, I'm Michael Schuster.

I'm the co-chair of the Commission on Aging.

The Commission on Aging is the advisory uh board to the division of aging and adult services, which is our um triple A or our um area agency on aging.

Uh that it's a kind of a national um concept, the triple A's um under the Older Americans Act.

And um, I won't get into all that detail, but it um uh we have a special uh mandate not only under the uh the city charter but also under the federal older Americans act as a advisory board or body to um our division on aging and adult services.

Um DT Michael.

Uh hey everyone and thanks for having us.

My name is DT Oliver, and I'm Michael's co-chair uh with the Commission on Aging and Alexandria.

Uh full-time I work um at a nonprofit called Feeding America, which is the national office for the food bank network and kind of through different methods, got um interested in food security specifically for older adults, which led to my involvement with the commission on aging and uh Michael's been our fearless leader for a long time.

So it's been great to learn from him as co-chair.

I'll hand it back to you, Michael.

Um, I guess we have the slides.

We'll just go we we're gonna just spend a few minutes explaining what the age-friendly plan is and open it up for questions.

I know you have a full agenda, and we don't want to keep you too long tonight.

Um guess next slide just to introduce you to the concept of age-friendly.

Next slide.

Um I don't recognize that, but it looks good.

Um the uh concept of age-friendly was something that came out of the World Health Organization and then ARP, which is a national organization for older adults, uh adopted uh the concept of age-friendly in uh 2012, I believe.

And ever since then, it's been trying to promote uh the concept of having age-friendly communities and cities throughout the country.

And um Alexandria was the first age-friendly jurisdiction in the state uh commonwealth of uh Virginia.

Um what um what we do is we we develop a uh three to five year plan on aging services, and it it's it's really become sort of the strategic plan on aging for the uh city of Alexandria.

Uh we we have to go through a community engagement process like all the strategic plans in Alexandria.

And then um after that community engagement, we go to the city council to get its approval, and then we get the approval of the ARP.

So it's something that that uh takes a lot of community involvement uh and it sort of uh forms the blueprint roadmap or whatever for the uh city on age uh friendly uh concepts.

And next slide.

Um it's the uh this is all based on the World Health Organization as well as ARP.

There's generally eight um domains of livability.

I think in our age-friendly plan, we have six of the eight.

Um, but just generally it's housing, for example, affordable housing, eviction prevention, things like that that kind of match what the uh master housing plan is for the city.

We kind of work in sync with with the uh office on housing with regard to housing issues.

We then have transportation, which we'll be we'll talk about briefly tonight.

We have civic participation in employment.

Uh we've been doing a lot of uh work in the employment space uh in the last uh maybe six to twelve months.

Uh uh, I think last night actually we we uh conducted a um shark tank uh presentation at Georgetown University uh dealing with entrepreneurial uh uh concepts and and uh it was uh really a great event.

And uh you'll probably hear more about that.

But anyway, we're doing more in the workspace, especially with uh former federal workers.

We have a lot of uh former federal workers now part of our uh workforce uh uh training program.

Uh we also deal with um social participation, communication and information and also health services, which will become a big issue, I think, in the next three years because of all the cuts in Medicaid and also with the Affordable Care Act.

So we we anticipate that that'll be a major part of our new age-friendly plan.

And then briefly, we started the new age-friendly plan.

Uh I think it was January 17th at the Lee Center, um, and we had a uh public uh meeting, and then we've been having pop-up uh meetings focused groups since then.

And we actually now have a final draft of the age-friendly plan, which we'll uh present to the city council probably in January to get its approval, and then it'll become the strategic plan uh on aging for the uh city of Alexandria.

Next slide.

Um see.

Okay, uh, I'm gonna turn it over to DT.

We're just gonna talk about the the two um goals and objectives with regard to the uh draft uh age-friendly plan, and then we'll just open it up for our discussion.

Uh our effort tonight is just to start an engagement with the uh Transportation Commission on uh transportation issues uh as they affect older adults in the city.

Uh DT.

Super.

Thank you, Michael.

Um yeah, as Michael went over those eight domains that were sort of our guide for the new age-friendly plan.

Intuitively, the one we're gonna talk with y'all about is transportation.

Um this first goal of the two is mainly around uh making sure that we collaborate with y'all and assisting the city attain its vision zero goal of eliminating all traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2028.

Um it was really great reading through your vision zero plan online.

Um within that goal, there's two objectives that the transportation committee within the commission on aging had aligned on.

One was around the complete streets design guidelines to roadway projects through FY28 and locations where safety issues for vulnerable populations were identified.

Um and then the second objective within that first goal was around um traffic calming.

Um I really liked that map y'all had and the Vision Zero goal around kind of where there's been public comments related to safety concerns, and then where there's been um actual incidents.

Um as we think about that through the perspective of older adults' experience in Alexandria and ensuring their safety.

Um that first goal again is is mainly around alignment with that vision zero goal within the city.

And Michael, I will pass it to you for that second goal.

Okay.

Um the second goal is um on the next slide.

Next slide, I'm sorry.

Um this is actually something that's uh based on a um directive from the city manager.

Um in September he sent out um a directive a memo to the various uh agencies in the city uh that deal with uh human services uh transportation issues or issues affecting uh older adults and uh the the um I guess the gist of the the memo is that he uh the city manager wants a lot of the agencies to come together uh including some of them that are represented in in your commission to uh have a coordinated plan with regard to human services um transportation issues like pure transit and so um this is going to be um one of our our goals and objectives to kind of collaborate with other um agencies on a uh coordinated approach with respect to human services transportation our lead agency is going to be the our triple A which is the um division of uh aging and adult services and our commission will we'll support the uh the division but it'll be the division that will be interfacing mainly with these other uh city agencies like the department of uh uh environmental and transportation services and so on um anyway so that that's our our our second uh goal and uh it's it's um I'm not quite sure what the timeline is I think there's uh the interim uh timeline and there's a long-term timeline so like and then maybe in the next two to three years there should be a implementation of a coordinated approach and I believe that uh Owen uh allbreck is going to be one of the leads uh has been one of the leads on on this particular goal and we're gonna have him be uh come before our commission sometime early next year just to give us an update on what's going on with this particular goal and what the commission can do to support it.

Um that's that's really our presentation now we we we uh again we just want to sort of engage with you for a few minutes and then we'll let you uh uh take on the rest of your uh agenda great can make a motion we open for discussion I make that motion thank you second great um uh let me uh start off and just thank you for highlighting vision zero as Chris another knows uh that is really important to all of us on the commission and by identifying particular areas of the uh our community that may be at higher risk for accidents and what we've seen from the data I think that can help guide the city uh because as we uh you know deploy the funding the limited funding available uh that really makes a huge contribution so I want to thank you for that see a hand case yeah yeah thanks uh gentlemen thank you for the presentation that was very interesting um I would suggest that you also might want to uh reach out to the traffic and parking board um they're actually the ones who oftentimes vote for changes the city has recommended in terms of the uh the streetway in fact uh later tonight I'm gonna mention that we uh recommended a removing some parking so that uh crosswalks could be installed um so I I think that it would wouldn't hurt for you guys to uh uh reach out to um uh Sheila McGraw to uh get on the agenda for the traffic and parking board and just let them know of your interest particularly on the vision zero stuff um and that there might be times when it'd be appropriate for you guys to raise your hands and say yeah we're in favor of whatever this initiative is that's uh coming before the traffic and parking board yeah thank you for that recommendation we definitely will contact them great commissioner McMahon hi Michael hi Melissa to see you again yeah it's good to see you too and I'm really glad that um we could all connect on on this evening's call um and I'm looking forward to more collaboration going forward um I had a couple questions um one is um certainly directly for for you too on the commission is the commission on aging weigh in on budget priorities and legislative priorities yeah we could probably take two hours uh we're actually I'll just give you a brief um outline of what we do uh on the commission we're part of something called the uh Northern Virginia aging network and we have a legislative platform and a lot of us work with ARP in Richmond and um we've we go down to Richmond uh probably two or three times during the year either as uh in van uh representatives or as part of ARP and then we lobby on various issues.

I'm not sure when it that's the process starts, but I know that uh usually in January or February we will have um probably um uh Mr.

Route, uh the OMB director come to the commission to talk about the uh budget, the city proposed budget.

So we we we are definitely involved uh in those issues.

And I think last year, the year before we did testify on a few dash and transportation issues.

So anyway, that's a longer answer than I you wanted.

No, that no, that's great.

And it's great for um for for the record and for the sense of anybody who who could be less familiar with the way that your commission works.

Um, and it's really it it makes me very happy to know that we're both commissions are essentially staying engaged.

We we do not do so much the legislative lobbying that that you all do, but the certainly the work with city council and providing legislative recommendations that are routed through the city and um obviously budget recommendations.

And um one opportunity we might have in the future, for instance, is to sort of preview with one another our our budget letters that come earlier in the season because then you can see what's coming through our budget letter and how we frame it.

We could see what comes through your budget letter, how you frame it.

And sometimes there could be some um ways we could support one another in how we frame those priorities.

Um yeah, just uh a thought about about something that we could coordinate on more.

And and likewise, if you and your work um being exposed to what the legislature is doing have any concerns, you know, anything that raises a flag for age-friendly transportation reasons that we should be aware of, it would it would be great um for us to connect on that so that you can raise our awareness and we can um have a conversation with staff about that.

Um another question I had, and I'm not sure if this is for you or staff, um, and that is how how does the the city's paratransit program relate to the human services transport objective that you all have in your age-friendly plan draft.

I can give you our perspective, and I guess the staff will have its perspective.

Um we have um an agency that we we work with uh the senior services of Alexandria, which I think um uh contracts with the vendor to do some of the paratransit uh transportation.

And so we um not the uh the um commission directly, but through uh our the nonprofits that we work with, uh we are involved in uh promoting and and I guess delivering pure transit transportation.

And one thing that we're looking at um is maybe some collaboration with Arlington County, because I know they have what the STAR program, I think it is.

And we want to see if there's uh some collaboration between our two jurisdictions.

And I've been in touch with the the uh agency director and uh Arlington County to see if we can do some things together.

In in March uh next year, they're gonna have uh their annual civic engagement um uh meeting.

And it's gonna feature as you probably know, Melissa is gonna feature transportation.

So yeah.

Um awesome.

Yeah, that's that's that's helpful.

Um and overall, um, sorry, before I give it to Jim, I just wanted to say that I think um pretty much all of our top priorities.

I feel like I can safely say our budget priorities, our legislative priorities are in sync with providing services that lift up the experience of older adults.

Um we emphasize the transit network in Alexandria and the way in our opportunities to push for better funding for sustainable transit funding throughout the region because whether it's our buses, metro rail, um, this whole network can better in the in the extent to which we can expand it and make it more reliable and more frequent and more accessible, um, it can it can entirely support um the experiences of older adults and their successful quality of life.

Um and the same with all of our work that we've done for years on advocating for complete streets um and network improvements that increase safety.

So I want to second Casey's recommendation.

There's a lot of on the ground advocacy you can do at the traffic and parking board.

The transportation commission doesn't vote on the hard um changes happening in the streets, but the traffic and parking board does.

So when those are coming through those project packages, sometimes they're little, sometimes they're sprinkled all over the town, sometimes they're very corridor specific, but they're really seeing that that stuff.

And if it's a meaningful place for the for the uh commission on aging to step up with I was in the city council on Saturday uh testifying on some other issues with regard to the legislative package, and there's a few transportation um items in the legislative package.

And uh I think it's it's being uh finalized the the legislative package and it'll probably be posted shortly.

But uh there are some transportation issues that we'll look at and it may be something that we'll uh we'll testify on later on.

But uh I know that the um the city is you know trying to see what they can do in terms of getting more money from the state uh on transportation.

So commissioner uh commissioner Maslanka.

Uh yes, actually, one of the things that I I was wondering about is whether or not uh your agency your agency uh has been looking at uh questions that relate to smart streets.

I I know that's the city is starting to uh do research on autonomous vehicles and and other types of things that that are hopefully gonna be coming within the next 10-15 years.

I I was wondering if that's that's an area of uh research that that you guys are pursuing and if if there's the anything any in any way that uh we could be of assistance to you guys.

Uh DT, you want to take that one.

I can give my best guess.

So the answer to that.

Uh so far uh specifically that topic around autonomous vehicles, to my knowledge, I don't think that has come up, Michael, um recently.

Um but it's I think that's why we wanted to have this conversation with y'all to kind of maybe have a two-way street of making sure that we can voice kind of some perspectives we have heard from our commission and and older adults in Alexandria and kind of in the same direction, um, things y'all are interested in getting our perspective on.

So it's something that maybe we could bring up as a discussion item at a future commission on aging meeting.

Um Michael, anything else you want to add to that?

Uh no, I think that's fine.

Um it's something we haven't really focused on.

We're more concerned about uh making sure that sidewalks are even and level so that a lot of older adults in the city don't trip and fall.

That's been it's been an outstanding issue for our commission for years about um you know uh you know, um sidewalks that have haven't been repaired or that are, you know, we have brick uh sidewalkwalks in old town, which are kind of dangerous if you're uh you know using a walker or whatever.

So um we're I guess we're not quite uh dealing with that kind of technology yet.

So but we will certainly uh it'll be one of the things that we will look at uh during the next year or two.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'd like to thank both of you for really fantastic uh conversation.

We want to keep the dialogue going.

You add a lot as uh Commissioner McMahon noted.

And a huge thank you uh for coming today.

Thank you very much.

And uh we hope to engage with you uh later on next year.

Fantastic.

Like make a motion that we close discussion.

So we'll like to ask for a motion.

Uh motion to close discussion.

I'll second it.

Great.

All favor.

Moving on to agenda item number three, curbside electrical uh vehicle charging update.

Yeah, thanks.

Uh we have uh Amy Posner and Ryan Freed from the Office of Climate Action to talk about um to give an update on uh curbside charging.

Thanks, Chris, and thank you to all the commissioners, councilman Pike for hearing um our update on our curbside EV charging project that we're gonna be proposing to council in January.

Uh so I'm Amy Posner, the electric vehicle planner for the city, and like Chris mentioned, I'm here with Ryan Freed, the climate action officer.

Um so the city has several foundational documents that set goals for our greenhouse gas emissions reductions and transportation is is, I'm sure, as you know, a key part of that.

Uh so with respect to EVs, the city has a goal that by 2035, 50% of car sales are electric, and by 2050, 100% of car sales are electric.

And our electric vehicle readiness strategy or our EVRS includes a roadmap of recommendations for how the city can can help the community meet those goals.

Um meeting the charging infrastructure needs now and into the future.

Uh and one of those recommendations revolves around developing a curb side charging program.

Uh so we'll go to the next slide.

And before I get into some of the details on the the curbside charging program, I want to just provide a high-level overview of some of the other programs that we that we have going on to address the public-facing uh charging needs.

So, kind of where do people need to charge if they have an EV?

So about 80% of charging happens at home.

And if you can't charge at home, um maybe you can charge at work.

Otherwise, you're going to be relying on public chargers.

And also if you're on a long drive, you're going to need chargers in that place and that as well.

And the EVRS showed us that the city was in a deficit of public chargers.

So if you can't charge at home, it's a pretty large barrier to be able to get an EV if you if there aren't enough public chargers to meet the need.

So on our next slide, I'm going to go provide an overview of three of our programs that are ongoing right now that are helping to address that need to get more public chargers or get more home charging options for folks.

So first is our plug-in Alexandria program.

This is this program provides technical and financial assistance to multifamily communities to help them install EV chargers.

We also have our public charging franchise, which is in the negotiations and evaluation phase, where with a vendor would be able to install publicly accessible chargers at city-owned facilities at our parking lots at you know, parks, rec centers, libraries, our parking garages.

Those would be installed at no cost to the city.

And then we have our curbside charging program, which we are providing an update to you today, which provides public chargers in the right of way installed at no cost to the city.

So you can see within each of these programs, we're kind of trying to try to broaden the chargers that we provide for all those applications that we provided on the slide before.

So the curbside charging, you know, is one piece of the puzzle of how we are trying to meet the overall need for the community.

And you know, a large goal for this program is to address that home charging option, but also provides opportunities for our commercial areas as well.

So on the next slide, I want to just go over this probably is familiar to most of you, but just to make sure we're on the same page.

Um I wanted to go over some quick terminology.

Uh so the charger, the EV charger is kind of the act of the physical equipment.

Um, but an EV charger can have multiple ports to charge more than one vehicle at a time.

Um, and so I'm gonna primarily be talking about charging ports because each charging port is going to correspond to one parking space.

So charging ports equals parking spaces.

Um, the next slide.

Um, this slide is kind of provides some key features of the program that we're proposing.

So all of the chargers installed in the right-of-way would be installed by qualified vendors at no cost to the city.

Uh, they would all be publicly accessible chargers.

Um, each one would have a five-year license.

And we would require them to have a minimalistic design.

So they would be suitable in our historic districts.

Um, you can see an example of a minimalistic design charger there, kind of that ballard style.

Um and each vendor would also be able to reserve um an EV charging only parking space per charging port.

Uh so the next slide.

We include some siding restrictions to um because for this first iteration of the program to kind of make sure the chargers aren't all concentrated in one area and to kind of limit um just some of the some of the reach of it.

So the roads on this slide are where we are where you where vendors will not be allowed to install chargers.

So Street, Duke Street, um, the Washington Memorial Parkway, Washington Street, Patrick Street, Henry Street, and Richmond Highway.

And the next slide has some additional siding restrictions.

Um each vendor will be able to a vendor will be able to install up to two charging ports per block.

Um, and then within that, so and it outside of those two charging ports per block, um, the vendors cannot locate a charger within a quarter of a mile as a crow flies of of other public curbside chargers.

So the um the circles within on the shown on this map, kind of those green circles, each of those has a quarter mile radius.

So within each one of those circles, there could be two charging ports.

Um, so two on those two on one block.

Um so within that total area, there could be a total of eight charging ports or eight parking spaces that would be EV charging only.

Um vendors would be able to install maximum of 20 charging ports.

Um then across the entire kind of first iteration of this program, we're allowing a maximum of 60 charging ports installed.

And the next slide, um this slide provides this last slide I have, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Um, this provides an overview of the timeline of this program.

Um, this is we want to kind of put some limitations on kind of the scale of the program and make sure we can collect feedback before we make a recommendation of how to continue the program.

So we are going to be issuing five-year licenses for two years.

Um that's that top row is that issue that license issue period.

Um, so after that, and do that two years, um, hopefully we'll get to those, you know, 60 charging ports.

We will pause for at least a year to collect data on the charger utilization, get feedback from the vendors from the community, from city staff, um, and see kind of um if there's any improvements that we can make to the program.

And then we'll make a recommendation based on the data and then we collect that evaluation of whether or not to continue the program as is with changes, et cetera.

So kind of at a minimum, we're looking at um up to a seven-year program with those first um that with the initial two-year license um issue period.

Um so I'm happy to answer any questions that folks have I can kick off.

That's okay.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Um I have a couple questions.

Um they actually kind of interrelate.

Um given that it sounds like the goal is to issue these five-year licenses to it's I'm anticipating to ensure that someone wants to invest because you you're doing it on a no cost to city basis.

If in year three in this this framework, you're evaluating, getting feedback, and finding that some of these need to be relocated because they're locational challenges, issues, either issues identified by the public or maybe even by the vendor.

Um what's the thought?

Like, are we going to be able to require them to move chargers, or is the idea that the license gets issued and each um charger port pair of ports where it's approved gets the privilege to stay there for the full five years, even if we determine that there's some problem with its compatibility in that location.

Sure, yeah, thanks for that.

Um so each of the vendors will have to agree to a license agreement that's going to have terms for um with like the different maintenance requirements that they have to meet and all of that.

So, you know, with with respect to that, because these vendors are putting forth the entire investment, um, you know, if there is a need to move the charger, either from the city's perspective or um, or if you know if there was low, if there's low utilization and the vendor chooses to move it, that would obviously be you know all on them.

If it if the city wants to move it, there would have to be negotiation there of kind of how how that gets gets paid for and moved.

But most likely, you know, we think we're we're hoping that we can get through that first five-year period of kind of those initial licenses.

Those initial locations, yep.

And then um another follow-up question, in terms of that location process, I I think it's interesting the the way that you're trying to distribute so there isn't like localized impact, it seems like, by limiting how many per block and how many per quarter mile zone.

But on the other hand, I wonder how staff are looking at the sort of wayfinding legibility to the charging network and how that relates to where we locate them because akin to locating retail, retail likes to be near retail.

If someone knows like there's a charging zone over here and there's several chargers, it might be easier to communicate or message around.

Um, whereas the the model that you describe is a more is more like is more dispersed, it seems like.

So I'm just curious about that trade-off.

Sure, yeah.

And um, and I would say those kind of more concentrated chargers that um where you have like you know, kind of like the Tesla model, you have one parking lot with like several charging ports.

I would say that fits well in with the um the public charging franchise of having chargers in our city lots.

Um, but but yeah, as a as a way to make sure, because you know, there's an old town in Delray, those are really the kind of um concentrated areas where there's you know folks that rely on street parking.

There's also a lot of multifamily um communities that don't have uh charging themselves.

So we want to we do want to make sure that well, you know, not all of these chargers are kind of getting stalled installed in Old Town that first in that first bit.

And we do have some flexibility in if the utilization is is extremely high in some of those chargers that um you know, we can evaluate that and allow some additional chargers within um within kind of what's the current siting restrictions.

Okay.

Awesome.

And one last quick question before I I give give up the mic.

Um in your charging in the right-of-way conversations, um, have you dealt with the question of homeowners, private property wanting to charge their vehicle, but not having off-street parking.

So their vehicle parks on the street, their parts of parts of town all over where they have to park on the street, and whether we have a means to um facilitate them charging from their own power supply, but but in the right-of-way.

So you mean like uh basically kind of allowing a cord to cross the sidewalk?

Yeah, the ones that I've seen in real life are like strung through the tree from the second though.

I think there's been a couple of those.

Yeah absolutely and that is uh something that we looked into and worked with kind of across almost every department in the city to kind of understand what the requirements would be to allow folks to do that because you're right we've seen those like daisy chaining extension cords from the second story window that's not the safest way to do that.

So the kind of when we got to the point of a of a of terms for a program that kind of satisfied um all the the the risk tolerances and requirements are different departments we felt it was going to be um a little burdensome on the um on the actual users um because these were large um kind of large um ADA uh platforms that folks would have to cover the cords with um a lot of times if folks do have um an 88 ramp uh or uh or some sort of ramp over the cord um because of the height it's probably not ADA compliant so in actually in in order to meet actual ADA compliance there are much larger ramps that are kind of expensive and heavy that the user would have to kind of take on and off the sidewalk in order to use so there's just a couple um and kind of need for some inspections and permits that made that solution seem just was maybe a little too burdensome for folks so there was more of a priority to kind of look at this more permanent public charging um as we could kind of minimize some of those risks and um kind of have a have a solution that can benefit more folks thank you Commissioner BD uh thanks I just uh Amy just wanting to understand um are the rates to be charged just market rates that that the vendors will charge for the for the use of the of the um plugins right so um because the vendors are again running the whole investment we aren't putting limitations on the rates that they can set so you know there is an aspect of the market um you know we'll help set those rates if the if the vendor sets a rate too high then you know no one's gonna use it they're gonna go to another pub another public charger but if the rates are too low then um then they're not going to be able to repay that investment so we do have some requirements in the agreement that you know the the rates have to be reasonable and in line with um kind of the other jurisdictions um in in uh mw cog um kind of just to be in line with with what's out there existing for other public chargers okay thanks are there any further comments yes I have my hand up thank you for the well thank you uh commissioner yeah Amy thanks very much for uh this presentation this actually leads into my commissioner updates later but uh Amy and uh Ryan had given the same presentation to traffic and parking board I think it was just last week um uh with a couple of additional things that they added to it which is that uh in addition to sort of restricting the the quantity and locations they also have proposed that there would be uh coordination with any ongoing projects whether it's um uh you know complete streets or small area plans or the transportation master plan to be in to ensure that these um uh charging stations don't uh impact um uh other users of the roadway including pedestrians and um uh cyclists and uh for our previous uh presenters also for the uh uh aging population uh to be able to get around um in addition um the uh there had been a proposal to the traffic and parking board to just sort of do a blanket um or give the um uh director of TNES kind of the uh ability to just approve these uh parking places uh changing the parking places to the electric vehicle only um and the traffic and parking board rejected that uh with a suggestion instead that the I think it was the first 10 would be brought uh before the traffic and parking board and this allows for uh public hearing on the the changes on the streetway but also to give the uh traffic and parking board the opportunity to kind of understand what these impacts uh might be and then I think after the 10 they'll uh go ahead and release the the approval to the director of TNES did I summarize that correctly Amy I think that was kind of what we agreed on yeah okay great other comments Jim's got his hand up great uh commissioner miss monka I don't see the hand but go for it you're um muted Jim okay yeah there you go um okay I I think I'm I'm okay I'm okay now uh I guess the uh the the the the question I have is is you know considering that uh our the current administration uh it seems to have uh uh a real thing about not using yeah uh electric vehicles and this is not uh uh requiring uh elect electrification uh

Okay.

There you go.

Okay, I think I'm I'm okay.

I'm okay now.

Uh I guess the the question I have is, you know, considering that our the current administration seems to have uh a real thing about not using uh electric vehicles and this is not uh uh requiring uh elect electrification.

Uh has that has your your program modified some of your your your timelines?

Uh I noticed that that it looks like your your your first three years are are pretty conservative.

Are you you're still going to maintain those uh uh for the for the coming years or are you gonna slightly modify that uh considering that the the next three years are likely to be kind of a um uh a quiet time in terms of the national administration.

With with respect to um the proposed timeline that we have for this program.

So yeah, we would issue licenses for two years and then trying to take that pause and evaluate the data um and then make a recommendation for how the program would continue.

Um and with respect to kind of where that the trends around EVs are going, you know, with the with the elimination of the federal tax credit, you know, we're gonna see we saw a huge spike of sales, you know, at the end of Q3.

Um, and while the the industry is expecting a little bit of slow um slower growth, um, you know the expectation is that not that the the E B market's gonna crater.

So we are we're um confident that there will still be a market for this in Alexandria that um the B adoption rate is higher than the national average.

So um, especially in Alexandria, where we're hopeful that there will be enough utilization for these vendors to you know make an investment in the city and and earn back that investment over that five years.

Did I answer your question?

Thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Any other uh commission or comments.

Thank you very much for a great presentation.

Thank you all.

Moving on to uh thank you.

Agenda item four.

Nice job.

I see we go to all right.

So uh yeah, so for agenda item four, we have Josh Adam, who's the program manager of our uh Go Alex program.

Thank you, Chris.

Appreciate that.

Hello, everyone, and good evening.

Uh Councilmember McPike.

All right.

Uh I'm here to talk about the Go Alex FY27 through 31 strategic plan.

Uh we are in the process of developing this.

And uh the purpose of the plan, um, some of the two other strategic plans that were discussed with the other commission.

We are really uh we're undergoing this process as part of a grant funding requirement in the DRPT's community assistance program.

It's one of the grants that have funded Girl Alex activities for years.

Um, but also this plan, this process allows us to take a look at all of our programs, update what's happening with our services, and respond to changes in travel demand as well as mobility and transportation needs.

Uh this is a great time opportunity for the city.

And we've been undergoing this process since uh the fall time.

And in January, we will be going to council for approval of this plan.

Overall, in the process, we've been having lots of discussions of how to promote uh person's transportation choice given their unique situation, whether they are commuting or trying to go to school or going somewhere in the community.

Um and then we've also gone through a number of discussions to recognize how does Go Alex interact with different transportation projects, whether it's a uh bus stop improvement or something on the curb side.

And then the plan overall will have a discussion about strategically aligning our resources to uh the funding that we have.

Often we have many grants that go Alex utilizes.

Uh we could go to the next slide.

Oh, I do want to say that the plan also uh connects our annual work plan since that's a one-year basis to a five-year timeline.

Uh uh really giving us a more of a longer term view and connecting with everything that's happening in the city.

Uh through all these discussions, we've been able to update our mission and really be focused on what Galax does, and that's connecting residents, employees, and visitors with a range of transportation options that make it easier to move around the city.

A lot of that kind of falls into this new for us for Go Alex, but everyone's heard of the live workplay framework.

We're looking at it that way too, where we have residential engagement for people that live here and really focusing on affordable living and the transportation options because the city is so rich in our transportation network.

Uh, then we also are continuing our successful employer engagement um work and services.

And from that, last year we started our best workplaces for commuters.

That's national recognition.

Um to identify different locations and different employers in the city to say they are doing really good with connecting their employees to transportation benefits and utilizing the uh transportation infrastructure throughout the city.

And as we are employer engagement team keeps interacting with the employers of the community of the city, uh that's a whole aspect of the plan that we are putting emphasis behind.

And then we also look at the play aspect within the city or our community engagement, where that's how Go Alex is heavily present at different tabling events, often offering free bike and scooter parking services.

If you've seen it at specific city events, we're going to continue that type of thing going forward.

All right, next slide, please.

Overall, the plan structure has eight chapters as defined by DRPT.

Uh, you can see the chapters there.

I'm not gonna say them all verbatim.

Uh, but I will say that during this process, we were able to look at what's happening from the census perspective.

And one of the highlights I want to that you'll see in the plan, and I want to say right now is the highest share of workers commuting to Alexandria are actually coming from Fairfax.

That's about 30% of people that are commuting into the city.

And then we've also been able to understand that 11,000 commuters stay in Alexandria.

So that's people that live and work in the city.

And then for the commuters that leave the city, that's around 62,000 people uh on a daily basis.

And most of those people either go to Fairfax County or DC.

It's actually evenly split um percentage-wise of commuters uh within the Alexandria workforce.

Uh the other thing I want to say is the target markets that we're looking at is new residents, new employers, new employees, students, those are the types of um some of the characteristics of the target markets that go Alex will be focusing on over the next five years.

Uh next slide, please.

With that, we've developed some strategic goals of inform educate, enhance and invest, prove and celebrate those things on the left-hand side of this slide.

Um, with the informant educate, we are really looking at how does Go Alex raise the awareness of transportation choices with so many people that either have lived here but maybe just only drive and uh because that's what they're used to.

That's a habit change.

And also as people, as new people move into city, um, that's another opportunity to inform and educate them.

Uh the enhance and invest, we want to make sure that the strength, the strengths within Go Alex are leveraged and directed towards our investments, and part of that's within the TMP program, uh, the transportation management plan program, if you're not familiar with it, um, and how the city works with different developments to make sure that transportation uh transportation choice adoption is on the forefront of a lot of the uh development owners' minds.

And then uh prove and celebrate, we want to make sure that the impacts of Go Alex are seen throughout the data that we collect and the stories that we tell about the successes that we bring.

And then some of those outcomes that we are really targeting.

Um, again, a continuation of the Go Alex services that have been happening over the last uh few years.

They will be uh we're looking into a CRM, which is a customer relationship management program, because we currently don't know how many times one person might interact with Go Alex.

Uh, yet if anecdotally, I could see the same person at say tons of trucks, and then also see them at the city's eco city um festival.

And we want to be able to communicate with people to say, hey, you saw us at one spot, here's another spot.

And if you biked or you scooter to those events, expect to have free bike and scooter parking at the next event.

We want people to continuously use alternative modes of transportation other than driving alone in their vehicle.

We're also looking and anticipating travel training outcomes.

And that would be focused on people with disabilities and the elderly to see do they need the dot paratransit services and the metro access services?

Um is a way to also see can they use the free dash bus as well and kind of shift the mode of transportation and um allow people to have more choices and access.

We'll also be looking over the next five years at an enhanced e-bike program because of uh as we all know, we have capital bike share and e-bikes, and we're buying more of those as a city.

Um, and also privately owned e-bikes is a phenomenon that's here and it will continue to grow.

So, how can Go Alex be highly supportive of that?

And then we've also recognize through this strategic plan process that youth transportation um is a very great opportunity to prepare the current, say any youth youth transportation actually spans a whole range.

We've talked about from two age two to age 18, but in different groups, say if they if we're talking about a person who's age 13 in the next few years as they continue with their transportation independence growth, we want them to know they could use capital bike share once they hit age 16.

What does that look like?

We want them to be using bus and be feeling very comfortable riding a dash bus if they've never done that before.

Um is if we give the new, if you give youth habits of public transportation now, that will lead into what they do in the future and in their workforce and what they are most comfortable and knowing their choices wherever they live in Alexandria or other parts of the world.

Next slide, please.

Uh with that, we ask that the commission uh consider endorsing this plan um or at least very much uh support the concept that we brought forth to you.

Like I said, we will be able to provide the final version of the plan in January and it'll be available available on our website and it will go to city council for approval.

I'll take questions just now.

Thank you, Joshua.

I make a motion.

Uh would anyone like to make a motion to open discussion?

I'll move open discussion.

Great.

Second.

I will second.

Um go ahead, Commissioner McMahon.

Um, Commissioner Kane actually had his hand up first.

Uh thank you.

Josh, thanks very much for your uh presentation.

I have a couple questions for you that kind of intrigued me when you had them on your uh bullet points there at the enhanced e-bike program.

Um at first, I thought, oh, this is really uh kind of neat to think about.

And so one, and I know there was an initiative last year with City Council to try to um uh create a um uh kind of a cost sharing uh program for to help support people to uh acquire e-bikes.

And I'm wondering if this might not make sense for Go Alex to kind of partner with city council on working on that initiative to uh push that forward uh this year, or if you guys have had a discussion about it, I guess.

We've had some internal discussions, but you make a great point to work with council on that.

And it's part of our overall five-year plan.

So I want to make sure that we understand the anticipated outcomes here and the things that we see in the plan.

It will be in a scheduled type of basis that we're trying to make sure we understand what we as a city can do and um implement uh legally, but then also make sure that when we do implement such a program, if different pieces of the enhanced e-bike program, um, we get the best rate of adoption.

And then kind of my second question that relates a little bit to the e-bike program is sort of creating uh kind of a goal of partnering with the uh commercial entity entities, i.e.

uh bike shops, uh, because I think they can really be an important partner in some of your uh efforts uh uh related to uh particularly biking, but I think they also have interest in other than just uh bicycle riding.

So I would suggest that you include them as part of your uh efforts going forward and making sure that you've communicated with them that aware of what your initiatives excuse me, initiatives are.

And then my last one was on the youth transportation.

And again, my eyes kind of jumped at that when I saw that.

I thought, oh, this is great.

So one of the things the city has is the bikes in the school program, uh, you know, teaching the kids how to ride the bikes.

So one of the things the city has is the bikes in the school program uh you know teaching the kids how to ride the bikes and I think it would be really cool if Go Alex could create some partnership there uh with um with the schools uh you know one of the challenges is the kids learn how to ride and then frankly they don't have lots of good places to ride so creating some city events that allow them to be you know part of something where they can ride as a group or something might be a a worthwhile uh way to sort of encourage that uh movement uh forward um I know the uh the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee puts on bike rodeos um uh you know to again help that effort but I think some partnership between the schools and Go Alex and other entities might be a useful um uh thing to consider also in that youth transportation uh bucket yes thank you for your comments and then we will be uh digging into following up on those thank you other comments uh commissioner McMahon um thanks I wanna um I guess I want to start with a couple points of order um just for clear clarity in our docket tonight item five is the action item for the Go Alex fund budget and agenda item six is the strategic plan item and so the slides say item five I thought that was where we were starting but we actually started with item six for the sake of um what we're talking about now and I guess we'll do item five next yeah I I can actually explain that Commissioner McMahon um so they there was a requirement in the um the Go Alex budget to have a public hearing which was uh and that was approved by city council and because that public hearing wasn't notified then that will actually go in January so um I uh yeah that was a very last minute change um and the the docket and the agenda are correct on the website now but um yeah that was a very last minute change so I apologize for that confusion.

Okay so if I if I reopened the agenda it would not have the Go Alex fund budget in there.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you for that clarification.

A second item point of order um which does relate to the strategic plan is that I didn't see strategic plan attached to this item for tonight and I did not see one online.

Is there a draft strategic plan available for public review or our review that I missed?

No there is a uh a draft available yet um because it's still in draft mode and we it wasn't ready to present to the commission at this time.

Okay.

Right.

So another another Commissioner McMahon another change that we made was um also making this a discussion item instead of um an action so great thank you yeah because I wanted to just mention that I didn't think we could vote on this for endorsement tonight um even though kind of the presentation closed that way I think there's a lot of terrific stuff going on here.

It's just for practical purposes we need to actually see the the full draft to say we endorse the draft rather than just the slide deck.

And so with those points of order and and thank you for the clarifications I'll see if I can get my um docket to reload so I can see the newest version.

I did also want to thank Commissioner Kane for his suggestions.

I I think all five of these focus areas are terrific focus areas.

I think having um a customer um relationship management system for this purpose is critical for for both tracking people, tracking your work, being able to follow metrics associated with the engagement work that you do um I think that the travel training connects back to some of the discussions we just had earlier tonight on the age-friendly plan and folks with differing abilities using transit services and getting that hands-on support half the time I feel like people are afraid to do something with a mode they've never done before simply because of those barriers that barrier to how hard it is to learn something new getting lost and so on and so forth um I wanted to specifically highlight the youth transportation um element that Commissioner Kane did with regard to um encouraging Go Alex to coordinate with ACPS staff and the safe roots to school programming support that they might already offer but also noting that not only does BPAC do programs in schools um families for safe streets does walk safety education in schools too and I think these things all they all interconnect really well and a good example might be especially from the Go Alex perspective is that you can put a bike on a bus.

And a good example might be, especially from the Go Alex perspective, is that you can put a bike on a bus.

So I do that every time I go to work.

And it really totally transforms my commute, the fact that I can do that.

And the fact that I think about it as a two-part trip.

And um, even youth who are in high school age, they're probably old enough to start thinking about connecting the dots in this way and having the skill set, the awareness, and maybe even their parents buy-in to understand that they could put their bike on a bus.

It can extend the reach of their trip, it can make them get you know past some sections of our network that might not be safe for biking yet, but to a section that is, and so on and so forth.

So I think the angle that Go Alex brings is maybe even different than some of these other, like BPAC is focusing on skills, skill building and the bike training.

And families for safe streets is focusing on skill building and the walk training.

But Go Alex can be focusing on the how does it fit into your lifestyle?

How does it fit into your family's lifestyle?

Um, and all of that I think goes really well together.

So I hope um I hope that these that this work within your strategic plan can really make those relationships blossom.

Thank you.

I appreciate all those comments.

Thank you, Commissioner.

And without other comments, um, I move uh is there a move to close the comment period.

Um I move to close the comment period.

I'll second that and we'll move on to the next item.

Thank you.

And thank you, Josh.

Um, so the next item is the CMAC and RSTP grant application.

Um, if this looks familiar, it should because we come every year uh with this uh program and actually the next item as well.

Um just to give a reminder, CMAC stands for congestion mitigation and air quality.

Uh and the um the goals of this are to reduce emissions and then obviously to reduce congestion or manage congestion.

Um the regional surface transportation program is a little bit more broad or a little broader.

Um, but uh this is used a lot of times with bicycle and pedestrian improvements and trails.

So uh this is also another grant that we apply for six years in the future.

So um this uh applications for FY32 funding.

Uh and there's three projects total.

Um, I'm sorry, and then uh one of the things I meant to say is that generally we we apply for both of these at the same time so that then uh to NVTA, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, uh and uh we apply uh to both of these and then so that they can choose which fund is more appropriate or um uh to fund these projects.

And generally we apply for between five and six million dollars a year.

So it's not a huge fund, but it helps a lot, um, uh especially with smaller projects.

So the first project is the Duke Street and Route One safety improvements um construction for these.

So um these recommendations come out of a regional road safety grant that we uh received from um the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments uh a couple of years ago.

Uh there's a lot of public engagement around it.

Um, but the kind of the the impetus for this is that both Duke Street and Patrick and Henry Streets uh or Route One are high crash corridors, and these in um these uh intersections in particular are uh and so we have done a study um again, a lot of public engagement and um developed recommendations, uh kind of interim and uh longer term uh construction style recommendations uh for this.

Then the traffic and parking board approved.

Um so the second project is uh a million dollars uh for capital bike share.

Uh this is mostly or actually uh uniquely replacing older stations.

So this would replace up to 24 stations.

Um we'll see how expensive stations are in FY32.

Um, but um replacing older stations ensures uh, of course, the reliability of the the network of Capital Bike Share and of uh uh promotes multimodalism.

And the third project is a um a flexible fund, I guess, uh, or a flexible uh yeah, I guess fund for safe street studies.

So in FY, you know, we're uh now, for example, we're always coming across projects, safety projects that um, you know, we would like to look at, we would like to conduct studies, and uh, but we don't necessarily have the funds.

And so um, you know, some examples of what this could include are you know, vision zero action plan updates, um renewed safe routes to school walk audits uh in corridor and intersection studies, these kind of things.

And so the idea is that this would provide the flexibility to accommodate our needs in six years, that we uh might not know exactly what they are right now.

Um so with that, uh the recommendation is that the Transportation Commission endorse the uh FY32 CMAC RSTP applications.

Um and um I guess uh yeah, let's kick it off with questions and then uh go to public comment afterwards.

Uh Commissioner King.

Yeah, Chris, thanks very much.

Uh as you know, I'm always dismayed by the the lag time on getting the funding for these things because they're always compelling projects, and then that just have them be, you know, at this point seven years from now, it seems like wait a minute, something's not working here.

So I appreciate the effort that staff makes to try to find funding.

And I think this again becomes one of those challenges for the city for city council to understand is that uh some of this stuff really shouldn't be having to wait seven years.

Um, we really need to figure out how to solve this problem uh in near term.

So for instance, the Route One project, um, I think you said you know it was approved two years ago.

I know it got rejected.

Um but that's a safety issue today.

Uh it'll be uh probably even a more uh uh critical issue in seven years.

And we gotta figure out how we can as a city uh address these kinds of uh major safety issues without relying on this incredibly lengthy uh project uh approval process.

Um and so one of my comments here though is I think we should still go pursue this money just in case.

But if for some reason we did actually find money for this project somewhere else, what would that do to this uh grant request?

Would we have to give the money back or could we redeploy it to something else?

Uh the second one, we we could actually put this these funds on a different project.

Um, assuming you know, we would go to NVTA to uh uh we would need their approval of it.

But yeah, we would generally repurpose these funds for a different project.

So I I think then as part of when this goes to city council for approval, is there really should be a discussion to identify that some of these are critical uh safety issues and that waiting seven years is the worst case solution, but the best case solution is to figure out how to fund these things some other way.

Um and I again I know we're in a really tough uh financial situation, but um man, this is really tough to hear this.

And then if you go, I think to the thirds.

And actually, if if I could address that real quickly, so I I completely agree that it would be uh much better to get these funds moved up now.

Um I I probably failed to um explain it well enough, but the these funds are for the um full build out.

Uh we we we do have funds for uh interim improvements as well to to make safety improvements.

Yeah, I understand that, but the full build-out actually creates the perfect uh safety solution.

The the interim solutions were just that interim, they weren't the the final.

So and and again, I think that would be useful though for city council understand that there is an interim uh process.

Then if you go to I think the third slide you had there talking about uh kind of the studies, yeah.

Yeah, this one.

Um so my understanding right now is that the vision zero action plan update uh along with the uh Alexandria mobility plan are supposed to be occurring in 2027, 28.

So the the goal of the vision is to uh start the update of the vision zero action plan in 2027.

But we had so where it stands now is that we applied for safe streets or roads for all funding for it.

Um and we still haven't heard back yet.

Uh and so that's why this is kind of a um, yeah, this is kind of a safety net.

Uh but again, that's just one example of uh something that we could use it for.

So yeah, no, I understand that.

And and so I think again, that should be make sure that's really clarified here, because the same with the uh the safe roots of school walk audits, you know, waiting another seven seven years to start doing those again doesn't make a lot of uh sense in terms of we already know what the backup has been for the last round of audits in terms of making the fixes.

So these are very good examples, very compelling, but I would caveat on just a little bit that uh this doesn't mean that these are actually gonna be done that that there's other ways to get those done sooner.

Um thank you very much.

Uh and again, I really do appreciate you know, trying to find uh the money.

Uh it's just I wish we could find things that if it took five more years to do, it's it's nice to do as opposed to need to do.

Yeah, thanks, Chris.

Uh-huh.

Commissioner McMahon.

Just a quick um a quick question on that bane.

Um, I know that some funds that we apply for when awarded provide some flexibility in that if we're ready to, you know, if we're shovel ready, they might let us pull the projects up sooner in the calendar.

Um is this one of those funds that offers any flexibility in that regard, or when it's awarded, it's for that year, it sticks in that year.

You can't pull it forward if it's shovel ready.

Uh there's generally some flexibility in uh in that funds can't necessarily be moved around, but they can be swapped between projects.

So if we had another project in FY26 or 27 that had 3.2 million dollars on it, um then we could move this that money to this project and then potentially move money to that that project at FY32 or something like that, or put the 3.2 million into the safe street study or something like that.

Yep.

And when we spend down when we spend these grant years down, um if we don't spend it all, does it carry over?

Yeah, it's capital funding, so it carries over.

Yes.

Okay.

So an example could be if we had um prior year dollars that didn't get, I know that the you you're for for the sake of a piece of paper, your schedule is very fixed.

But let's say we have prior year dollars that didn't get used that are currently carrying over to 26.

Likewise, 26 carries over to 27.

And if you saw that there was something that's not ready to go coming up, you could pull those monies and say, we're we actually want to front load the Duke Street at Route One because it's ready to go.

And that other thing, and it could be partially supported by carryover dollars for something else that's not moving as fast as you thought.

Yeah, so these are not moving as fast as I thought or we thought, or um, if a project ends under budget, for example, that's another option.

That's another situation like that too.

Okay, thank you for that clarification.

And um, I'm happy to support the suggested uses of this grant resource.

So when folks are ready, I can make a motion.

Uh the chair McMahonis, uh, I I want to uh reiterate uh uh the uh Commissioner McMahon's comments and and uh also uh Commissioner Keynes' comments that we have so many of these projects that have been in the docket for many years, don't get acted on.

And so if there is a way to move up things that are shovel ready, like what is our ability as a commission to tell the city we'd like you to do that?

Is that would we change the uh terminology of what you asked us to approve?

Because I think we really particularly with safety, we we don't want to study and sit around, we want to get it done.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um I think this you know this discussion that we're having right now is is very good.

And and um, you know, when we meet to talk about um budgets and things like that, uh, you know, I will convey, you know, I I convey this this type of information um, you know, to my colleagues.

Um you know, there is you know, obviously we want to fund as much safety stuff as we can, you know, right away.

Um this also though uh kind of um comes uh you know butts up to the reality of for example staff resources and you know, not just completes staff, but also like implementing staff and the engineers who oversee the construction and everything.

And then also, you know, on on our books right now, we have projects that were uh that we applied for six years ago.

And so, you know, people have been waiting for those projects as well.

So uh and and more often than not, those are also safety projects.

So um, I mean, yes, we we want to do as many safety projects as we can as soon as we can.

Um, and there's a lot of projects going on right now uh and that that we're working on.

But yeah, we're always looking for opportunities to move up projects.

Great.

Any uh Commissioner McMahon would anyone like to make a motion to close discussion and move to uh approval.

Yeah there needs to be a public comment period.

Oh we make a motion to open public comment uh anyone for that Melissa yeah I'll make a motion to open the public comment period thank you second second aye open the public comment all right there are no members of the public on the line uh do I hear a motion to close the public comment so move second aye is there um great I think Melissa has made a motion that the uh to open the recommendation voting do I hear a second aye okay uh all in favor that the Transportation Commission endorse the FY2032 CMAC RSTP applications unanimous great um and then the next item is the uh DRPT state assistance so um DRPT is uh Department of Rail and Public Transportation uh as part of uh the Virginia government um and this is another set of grants that we apply for every year um and so I'll just go through the grants real quick uh as well so the first is operating assistance so um operating assistance is um essentially we uh propose all of our operating funding for Dash and for paratransit and then uh DRPT has a um uh a calculation that they do uh formula to decide uh how much that they will reimburse us uh and typically it's about 20 to 30 percent um you know about but almost 7 million dollars annually um there's also a capital assistance program that is um that can be used for a a lot of different things we are applying for bus replacement because FY27 is a big year for bus uh to replace buses um and this is uh typically between 60 and 68 percent of reimbursement from the state as well um and then there are uh other specific grants that um we apply for uh dash is applying for workforce development uh to hire and actually I should this uh isn't correct but it's to hire one intern and one apprentice I apologize for that um to develop uh kind of the workforce of the future to get people you know to get people interested and knowledgeable about transit uh and public transportation work in general um we're also merit is another grant program that has a lot of buckets in it uh and one is the minor enhancement program uh which used to we used to apply for the same exact same thing through the trip program but um the merit minor enhancement we're uh program is um we were just asked to apply through through this program instead but um as in the last two fiscal years this would also be applying for up to 500 000 to improve bus stops uh all over the city as well and then uh in terms of trip um so we have free Womata student fairs so we um the commission approved this same application last year uh and since then uh we have learned a lot about what it takes to provide uh student fairs on Wamata um so uh first off we applied only for one year last year and in doing so and in in discussions with DRPT um we decided that it made more sense and DRPT also recommended that it makes more sense to apply for um kind of a four-year program similar to what we did to what we did with the Dash going fare free where um uh uh DRPT would provide a larger match uh 80% match um to the program in the first year and then that the DRPT portion steps down every year uh and then the fourth year uh the city would fund the entire program so um this uh 1.025 million is for the entire four years of the program we're estimating um and oops sorry and this um yeah and this uh would yeah basically fund you know all the student fare cards that would need to be um bought uh any advertising any marketing any instructional materials like videos things like that and you know because the DRPT share in the first year is is um so much higher we're actually front loading a lot of those fixed costs so um you know like the student fare cards for example where we're purchasing more than we'll need in the first year so that we'll have some for the second third and fourth years as as well um so um that's what that program is

And you know, because the DRPT share in the first year is is um so much higher, we're actually front loading a lot of those fixed costs.

So um, you know, like the student fare cards, for example, where we're purchasing more than we'll need in the first year, so that we'll have some for the second, third, and fourth years as well.

Um so um that's what that program is.

Um and then the commuter assistant program uh go alex program, uh the kind of the operations funding for that and staffing.

Um we're applying for through we're asking to apply for 350,000 um through that program.

Um so with that, um uh we're asking the transportation commission to endorse the uh applications, and um happy to answer any questions.

Do I hear a motion that we open the vote for endorsement?

Okay, and actually this this also requires public comment.

Okay.

Uh do I hear a motion that we open public comment?

I have a can I make a comment first?

You may.

Thank you.

Um Chris, uh the uh the uh bus one.

I I I know we approved it last one, but uh, I think you guys have done a much better job at uh at looking this and looking at this.

And um when I saw that Arlington was starting this, I was thinking why can't Alexander you're doing it, so I'm really glad that you're uh reaching uh up to uh to do with this one because again, I think this is going to be a really cool program and would tie neatly to some of what uh Go Alex is trying to do in terms of you know teaching kids how to use transit.

So this is great effort.

Thank you.

All right, thanks.

Um I have a quick question before we do the public hearing.

I guess if we're gonna do discussion first and then public hearing, I don't know.

Um the bus replacement funding.

Um I guess the question is am I interpreting this correctly that this is to try to get a better source of funds for the bus replacements so we can use other prior identified sources for other things.

Am I uh mostly yes?

Um so this um so there is already uh over 10 million dollars in the CIP um for funds for this, and with this capital assistance um fund, uh we are only allowed to fund things that we already have budgeted for because um it's kind of complicated and convoluted.

But when DRPT awards us this money, it actually doesn't come to the city, it's held by NVTC, uh the North Virginian Transportation Commission.

Um, and uh and we use that those funds generally to help pay for our WAMATA costs.

Um this is partly um to yeah to to help reimburse for funds that we're already planning to spend, and then also to help fund the local share of the LONO grant that we received as well.

Yeah, yeah.

So that that helps because the paragraph about this is talking about we see the 16 million we're asking for, and there's the the 15.4 million in secured funding already um but a port portions of that are local essentially, and so if we got this, we could sub out those dollars to some extent with this, and I say to some extent, like barring matches and other things, but we're we can basically kind of reposition the monies in my yeah, um because I know we're just very tight on flexible money.

So if we have money that fits like it's a it's a round peg and a round hole, then we can take the money that that is more flexible and put that in into the square hole that we might have somewhere else.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yep.

Great.

Further comment.

See I'll make a motion to um open the public hearing.

I'll thank them that.

Great.

Do we hear uh comments from the public?

Uh no, there's no one from the public online.

They can make a moment.

Do we hear much of the closed too, Melissa?

I'll second it.

And now would we have a motion uh to start voting?

I'll make a motion to endorse the FY2027 DRPT state assistance application with all of the items that have been presented and we have discussed in this hearing.

Second.

I'll second.

All in favor.

I oppose it's passed.

The next item is Commissioner Updates.

Commissioner Updates, okay.

Commissioner Beatty.

Um just probably one update for you from the EPC.

We met two nights ago, and um there was some good discussion about the Braddock Road trail access and corridor improvements.

Um I think that that's going to come up with it like in terms of like the the big discussions whether to get rid of parking um spaces on either side of Braddock Road.

And I'm talking about between Commonwealth and the Metro station um at Braddock Road Metro.

Um the commission the commission um actually decided that didn't make a hard decision about whether or not to send a letter of support in um before that before that um decision will be made on the corridor improvements.

I think mainly because um the commission didn't really feel like it had enough information about um local feedback on the parking space removal.

So I just thought I'd mention that to the commission tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um last month in November, I attended a small group meeting with the city and local uh residents from two different neighborhoods about updates to the West Taylor Run intersection project.

We discussed how the West Taylor Run intersection project at dovetails with the Duke Street in Motion project and changes that the city um needs to make to the West Taylor Run intersection project as a result of consultations with the consultants and working through the design phase.

So the small group discussed the changes and how to present this new information to the communities, which the city will start doing uh early next year.

So it was a productive conversation.

And that's it for me.

You vice chair, uh Commissioner Keene.

Yeah, thank you.

Um just a couple of things.

One of them you guys, we already talked about, which was the uh uh presentation on the uh electric vehicle charging um to the traffic and parking board.

Uh a couple other things that uh I think were of note.

Uh we approved removing parking for crosswalks near the Mount Vernon Community School, and one of the crosswalks will be a diagonal crosswalk, so allow uh users of the library, the recenter, and the uh elementary school to more easily access um the east side of um uh commonwealth avenue.

And the other was we approved uh a no-turn on red signs uh at the intersection of Russell High and Monroe Avenue.

It's it's a kind of one of those crazy intersections we've got in the city that has I think five sides to it, and so it's a somewhat uh complicated uh intersection.

Um but also in the kind of the discussion of that uh there the city uh intimated that there's actually gonna be a uh further effort to um um uh present some uh additional uh changes to intersections with uh uh you know changing them to uh no turn on red.

And um, I'm not quite sure what the number is now, but we're certainly moving uh more towards having uh more intersections of the city with uh no turn on red.

And those were the highlights from the traffic department board meeting.

Thank you, Commissioner Kate.

Agree with you on that intersection, mid-east side and um Commissioner Levine.

I don't believe he's on.

Commissioner Maslanka.

Uh yes, I uh I actually uh attended uh the uh um the the uh public meeting that occurred uh at uh landmark mall on uh November uh that was uh listed in one of the the discussion items uh later on in the agenda and it was really quite fascinating.

Uh that day was a very, very cold day, very windy, and uh I I think that uh one of the things that I the the one of the points that I made uh for the consultants to know is that you that uh any any sort of uh permanent structure that's gonna be designed for the transit center at uh the landmark uh west facility has to have some windbreaks and other things to because then if it's if it's too wide open, it it really serves no purpose.

So but it was really good to to see that and see that that effort, and it looks like they actually have had quite a lot a lot of uh quite a lot of um participation.

Uh the other thing that relates to that though is that uh uh it because of the the fact that that the buses are able to go into that into that that area, uh the traffic on Duke Street seems to be kind of um messed up uh by a lot of the um uh by by by some of the the the signals.

I'm just just hoping that that they're they're they're gonna change some of the signals so then some of the traffic is a little runs on on Duke Street a little bit better than it currently does because I notice that there is a lot of backups on on Duke Street uh currently now that the uh that's that those that movement is allowed.

Thanks much.

Commissioner McMahon, thank you.

No updates from me.

Uh Chair McManus reports he attended uh Dash Advisory Committee meeting in person.

Uh uh was a very uh fruitful discussion.

And then yesterday I participated in a public affairs subcommittee of the Dash Advisory Committee.

Uh it's a really a robust group.

We've um put in some sort of guiding documents about how we work with Dash.

The CEO of Dash was there, Josh.

Um, we got an update on uh their fleet.

Uh and I'm hoping that we can have uh when we have to go to an alternate like location, we we could have our meeting there uh in the February or March.

Thank you.

I don't see uh council person chapman, but oh I still councilman.

Yeah, sorry, sorry about that.

I forgot that I needed to have my uh camera on, so my apologies.

Um I did join late, so I may have missed some things uh as well.

But uh, you know, the big the big issue here for council now is that we're moving out of city hall um and moving to uh the West End uh service center uh for this foreseeable future for the next few years um as uh we undergo renovations with um uh uh city hall.

Uh the one thing that uh I think folks might find pertinent here, and I can uh I can send this around after the meeting.

I don't know if staff received it or sent it around, but was um budget letter um or a precursor to their budget uh submission to the city manager um about how they're looking at um their budget this year, but also looking at um challenges with reductions.

Um again, I don't want to try to paraphrase that.

I will send that to members of the commission so that you can see it uh and maybe if needed to have a future discussion about that.

I don't I don't necessarily know if it raises to that, but I do want to keep you informed.

Um but I'll leave I'll leave it at that uh for those two items.

Thank you, council.

We look forward to that letter, and I think uh we can we put that on the agenda for our next meeting?

That'd be great because I think there's a lot of um engagement with Dash here, and that really is where the rubber meets the road of a lot of uh transportation in Alexandria.

Um thank you, sir.

Commissioner McPike.

Councilman McPike.

Uh yeah, uh yeah.

Uh I just add to uh John's report that on Saturday the city adopted our legislative package for the upcoming General Assembly session, which includes a number of transit and transportation related items.

I think we recognize that one of the major focuses, foci of the uh upcoming legislative session is going to be uh funding uh for Womana and how to sort of incorporate re you know increased resources and structure you know restructuring the funding for Womata into the broader state uh transit conversation.

So we have some significant language in the package about Womata and its importance, Alexandria in the Northern Virginia economy, as well as some other references to uh seeking more transportation funding for multimodal uh transit options.

So we look forward to going down to Richmond, hopefully with some of y'all to talk to our delegation uh about these matters uh once the General Assembly convenes in mid-January.

And uh yeah, that's my report.

I do look forward to city council meeting at the Dell Pepper Center because it's gonna be very easy for me to uh bike um to and from uh Del Pepper City Hall with uh given that I am the short walk.

Yourself, my my trip is getting so much longer.

Somehow that didn't factor into my excitement.

Remember, I showed you the shortcut of Melissa.

Yeah, you did.

Yes, yes.

I will however be traversing the non-bike lane part of seminary road every time I go back and forth.

So there's that.

My life into my own hands, I shall take.

Um I think uh you heard today.

Uh we're more than happy to move up some of these items that are funded so that a lot of these vision zero and other safety improvements don't have to wait on our own bureaucracy and budget cycles, and we can move ahead sort of uh first in line.

Um, but I will leave that at that, but thank you for your support.

Um agenda item, the next agenda item.

Nine written items.

Would anyone like to pull any written items?

Commissioner Kane has his hand raised and Commissioner McMahon does too.

Great.

Mr.

Keene.

Uh thank you.

Um just on uh both of mine are really more comments than anything on the Shurlington Circle Smart Scale project.

Um hopefully this will um enable the city to have a nice conversation with Arlington County about reducing the speed limit on um Quaker Lane to match the rest of Quaker Lane.

So get it from the 30 to the uh 25 on um and maybe we could do it before 2030.

But I I it does seem like there's an opening here that uh for the city and the county to discuss that uh option uh and hope sooner rather than later.

Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner McMahon.

Well, wait a minute.

And then on H, the new Wamata route.

Um, I would also note that uh the Metro bus A25 is changing also.

It's now going to be every 15 minutes on the West End.

So I think that's a really uh good uh add to the Well it's great uh efforts.

Now I'm finished.

Great.

We I have learned that uh more frequency is gets people onto public transit as opposed to waiting.

Uh Commissioner McMahon.

Thanks.

I wanna pull um just for two quick questions.

C, the DMB moves, and D, the rail shutdown.

Um for C the question I have is um so Alexandria's really done a lot with our free fare program on Dash, but this does mention that DMB moves includes integration initiatives such as unified fare policies.

And I was curious how unified regional fare policies relates to Alexandria having free dash.

Yeah, great question.

Um, so the there's no um desire to start charging fares again on Dash.

Uh that's that this is mostly for uh other jurisdictions in the region.

So like Montgomery County, um, things like that, in terms of like you know, free transfers between you know Womata and the local system and uh the the fair parody as well.

Okay, awesome.

So no requirement to start charging just because everybody else is charging.

Okay.

And then on the um long bridge rail shutdown.

Um, well, so one, I mean this is a big deal for the region.

Um, and operationally, it's kind of fascinating that for five years, um, there's gonna be a limitation to how much rail service by time of day can go over the bridge.

Um does this mean that rail service that would otherwise operate between 8 a.m.

and 1 p.m.

and might go through to DC today, is gonna stop at our station, or are there no I want to say there, of course there is rail service.

Uh the VRE.

The VRE goes through here at that time right now, right?

So what does this mean that people are going to transfer to Metro at Alexandria Union station during those times for the next five years?

And it's like a change in foot traffic, like a massive change in traffic going between the rail station and the metro station.

Is that is that what we envision happening?

It becomes a bit of a shuttle transfer way station.

Um yeah, most likely.

Um yeah, and it's also Amtrak trains that this would affect too.

Right, right.

But um, yeah, yeah, most likely.

Uh we haven't heard like uh we haven't heard what their mitigation plan is yet.

Um and this was kind of sprung on us uh at the COG meeting a month or two ago.

Uh so um yeah, we didn't know about this uh until recently.

But um, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We we have not heard their mitigation um how they're gonna mitigate this.

But um, but in terms of like yes, like like trains would essentially stop in Alexandria, freight trains would probably uh because freight is a little bit more a little less schedule um uh sensitive, it would probably be pushed earlier and later.

Yep.

But this was but this was the time period they they showed a whole chart, and this is the time period where there's the least amount of trains.

Yeah, it's it's an interesting um like it it makes sense that it's necessary, right?

It makes sense.

Um, but if if Alexandria is this is the stopping point for uh passenger service, and a lot of people are trying to get into DC for work or even up into Arlington for work.

I know a lot of folks who get off the VRE station there and they ride the bus with me where I catch it.

Um we also have that problem that we don't have yet implemented all the improvements we've envisioned in the overpass areas of um where King and Commonwealth and whatever go under the train tracks.

So uh there's there's a pedestrian challenge that we'll have to face getting people safely from the heavy rail station to our metro rail stations, and um yeah, so I just want to flag, I don't know if there's like up at this is five years, and I don't remember where we are in the planning and execution process.

Um, but I think most of most of those improvements under the overpasses were constrained by the rail work that's going on above.

So do those overlap in any beneficial way, or are we essentially seeing like no way to increase pedestrian space um in that whole window of time?

Um yeah, good question.

I'm I don't know the exact schedule of the VPRA work.

I know it's supposed to start um next year and likely early next year.

So um this the conscious work could be going on at the same time, we know, which uh you know, in terms of maintenance of traffic would would uh definitely necessitate a lot of attention on that as well.

Yeah, okay.

How about a temporary overpass for pedestrians going from one station to the other?

Sure.

A gondola.

Yeah, a gondola.

Um thank you.

Thank you.

I just think there's a lot going on there, and it'll be interesting to see how we handle it.

But I think we're kind of in that challenge equals opportunity place on this one, because if we're we're we have people who are will be like ending here for various reasons, and I think we just have to make make the most of whatever that gives us.

Yeah.

Okay, see no other hands up.

Can we go to the next and final item?

Other business, the January meeting and new membership, Chris.

Yeah, so the January meeting.

So um City Council or City Hall, I should say, is no longer uh will no longer be accessible to us in January.

Um, so what we discussed earlier was moving to business center drive and having uh the meetings there next to Witterfield and next to the Dash uh building.

Now there will there is there was a lot of work that we told that we were told was going to be done in terms of making that area public, um, taking out a lot of the service vehicles and and opening up for uh parking for the public, um things like that, and that has not started yet.

And so um I wanted to propose having the January meeting be also be virtual.

Uh and I know um there's there might be some uh commissioners who won't be able to attend in person anyway.

Um, but uh yeah, I wanted to open that up for discussion.

Um otherwise I could look for uh another location as well, but it might just be, I mean, it would obviously be easier to to have it all virtual.

Thank you, Chris.

Uh I support your recommendation, uh, other thoughts.

And that's on the 21st of January, correct?

Yep.

Um that will be.

Can you remind me again?

We do this on a calendar basis.

So that would be the first virtual, all virtual meeting of the year out of three three, yes.

That we are permitted to have as a commission.

Okay.

So actually, uh I probably wouldn't be able to attend in person in January anyway, so virtual would work for me, but I have this bigger concern, which is who in the city is helping you to find meeting space.

I mean, it's not like this commission doesn't exist.

So um and you know, I've read nice things about how they've done a really good job making sure they've moved everybody from city hall, but how about you know boards and commissions?

So it seems to me this shouldn't just be on your back to uh solve the problem.

So I I hope somebody uh maybe is listening online or something, can step up and say, Oh, yes, uh, we'll make sure that uh commissions actually have a place to meet.

Um yeah, no, it's it's it's uh kind of a kind of a joint effort um between the the people that run the commissions and um you know the like the staff liaisons and um there's several people in the city manager's office who are also working on it.

Well, Chris seems like a uh consensus.

Um we move on to new membership.

Sure.

So yeah, just to be clear, uh yeah, the the January meeting will also be all virtual then.

Okay.

Um it might be nice.

Well, I guess we we can all sort it out, but when we do end up at business center drive, um there will be transit options.

Um bike options are limited to that location.

I'll just say it's Duke Street is still very scary along that stretch.

So folks will have too.

Um I I I will say so.

Let's move on to new membership.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

All right, new membership.

So I just wanted to give an update on new membership.

So um City Council passed a resolution to approve changes to the new membership of uh dozens of boards and commissions, uh, I think uh in September.

And the next step then, uh, and Commissioner McMahon, I think you were asking about this, like what's the next step until things get done.

Um the city attorney's office is drafting um ordinances for like basically ordinances to change or not uh change ordinances for uh the enabling legislation for each of the boards and commissions that has membership changes.

So um basically the vote in September city council gave permission to the city manager's office or administration to make the changes and now the the actual city ordinance that defines the transportation commission needs to be changed, and then that will go to the I've been told that that's should go to city council in January.

Um and there's two legislative meetings in January.

So if it goes to the early uh the first legislative meeting, then it will be able to be advertised, and then the new members will be selected at the first legislative meeting in February and then be able to start in February.

Um if it's the second legislative meeting in January, then uh the new members will be chosen the second legislative meeting in February, and then the new members would start on the commission in March.

So uh just wanted to almost there.

We're almost there, yes.

Anything good, uh can't be quick.

And we had thanks to Commissioner McMahon, we had a taste of you know one of the uh other commissions uh today.

I think it was very helpful, and we saw they synced with us quite a bit.

Yeah.

Right, and that's all the other business I have.

Okay.

Agenda item 11.

Do I hear a motion?

I make a motion to close the meeting.

Second.

All in favor, great.

We will see you uh virtually on January 21st.

And we're looking forward to finding a new and safe home uh in February, including perhaps uh DAS bus.

Right.

Great.

Thank you, everyone.

We uh we have finished on time.

All right.

Thank you.

Hey, thank you.

Happy holidays.

The holidays.