Quick.

Calling the April fifteenth Transportation Commission meeting to order.

The April fifteenth, twenty twenty-six meeting of the Transportation Commission is being held in person at twenty nine hundred business center drive and electronically.

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

The meeting can be accessed by the public in person or via Zoom.

So with that, I would like to open the public comment period.

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

Yes.

I'm sorry.

So I thought that was an easier way to read the seat.

Oh, good.

All right.

Yes.

Thank you, Chat GPT.

Any requested changes to the minutes.

Your motion to approve the minutes, and that's written from March meeting.

First um motion from Commissioner Beattie.

There are second.

Well, now we have the Go Alex presentation.

All right.

Well, good evening, everyone.

I'm Katie North.

I'm the division chief for mobility services with the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services.

I know some of you and SCC meet some of the other faces here.

Josh Etum, the Go Alex program manager met with you, I think it was in December, maybe December time frame to talk about this plan.

He's out on leave this week, so you get me instead.

So hopefully I will do it just this.

But this is our Go Alex strategic plan for the years uh 2027 to 2021.

Um starting with our vision and mission, really Go Alps is all about trying to let people know, inform them, encourage them about all the different transportation options there are in the city.

Um Alexander is very rich with public transit options, walking, biking, and goalyx is the group that is here to amplify that message and help and encourage and ensure people know about those options.

Um before I get too far into the plan, a little bit about what GoAlex is.

Um so do a couple of things.

Like I said, we are really trying to ensure that people know about their transportation options.

So connecting people, that's residents, employers, businesses, uh, visitors with all the different ways to bike, take transit, walk, get around town.

Um we also recognize that commuting is a big piece of how people travel, and that brings a lot of people in and out of our city.

And so big part of what Go Alex does is employer outreach to ensure that employers are sharing information about how you display in the city.

Um the Go Alex team also administers and guides the transportation management plan program, which is part of development review program.

So any new development that meets a certain threshold that goes before city council and planning commission has requirements for a transportation management plan to manage uh their traffic impact uh from the development, and that usually involves paying into a fund that then is um turned into different transportation programs and projects that are put through Alexandria.

Um and then lastly, and in general, really is just to inform and empower better travel decisions for residents, employers, employees, visitors of the city.

Um getting into our actual strategic plan.

So uh the primary reason why we're doing this plan is because we get a lot of grant funding from uh the Department of Rail Public Transportation, and uh one of the requirements from them is that we have a plan for how we're going to use grant funding um over the next five years.

Um so that was the impetus for why we're doing this plan, but it's really been a really beneficial process for us to come up with a strategic plan for how we're going to be uh putting our efforts into the work that Go Alex does.

It's given us a chance to really identify who we want to talk to.

I mean, the sky's the limit when it comes to providing information to people, and if we do that, we're not gonna be very effective.

So this this gave us a chance to really identify what those markets were and what those customers that we felt would get the biggest bank for our buck in terms of uh promoting our message.

It also gave us a chance to evaluate what we've been doing the last several years and what's been working, what we want to do and what we know other cities are doing, that could be good to try and Alexandria.

So it's given us a chance to look at that as well.

The plan also um aligns the projects of programs that we want to do with the funding that we have and the fund that we think we can get.

So um part of this plan is really mapping out the five years of projects with the funding um allocation with it.

And then and then lastly is identifying how we're gonna manage it, manage more how we are how we have been effective.

We have been effective by establishing those clear performance metrics.

So the plan has three strategic goals or three goals that are informing the work that we're doing.

Inform and educate, enhance and invest, improve and celebrate.

So inform and educate really so that mission of informing the residents, employees, visitors of Alexandria of all the different options that they have, and educating them on how to use those various modes of travel.

Learning how to use the metro, you learn how to use the bus, learning how to use bike share, learning about the bike map that we have and how you get around town.

That is identifying strategies that are going to go towards that inform and educate.

It's really building off of the funding that we get and the funding that we get from the state, the federal government, from the development program, and how we can sort of maximize Go Alex's involvement and put that into programs or projects that directly support transportation options across the city.

And then lastly, the one that I'm excited about, because I don't think we do this enough is to prove and celebrate.

A lot of times we do a program or project, and we're like, okay, on the next one.

This goal really is intended to be thoughtful about thinking about how effective those programs and projects were and how we can share that with the community and say this is this is brought to you by Go Alexandria, Go Alex by the Department of Transportation by the City of Alexandria.

And this is this is um you know your tax sellers at work.

Um so I mentioned this plan gave us an opportunity to really think about who we wanted to target, and we had a big list, and then it's sort of filtered down into what we see here.

So in terms of the market, we were building off of you might see this on the C website, this live work visit, live work play um theme, and drilling down even further into that, um, identifying the target customers for each of those.

So when we were developing the plan, um, a lot of us realized that students are gonna be the next generation of commuters.

They're gonna be the next generation of people using public transit.

And so if we can capture their interest in that mode from an early age, that would be great to be able to build next generation of our public transit users.

So we want to uh recognize that students are an important customer that we want to market to.

Um, everyday trips, a lot of focus is on the commuting back and forth to work, but there's so many other trips going to the grocery store, going to the park, going to the gym, um, and sharing with people how you can take some of those everyday trips not in a car.

The next group um we're sort of channeling spice girls with the wannabe, but um the wannabe car light households.

Um, this is that group of people who want to be car light or want to be car free, they might just need that extra nudge to like get them over to the edge and get them feeling comfortable with reducing a car or getting rid of their car altogether.

And then the last resident group is any of those new residents near transits.

Alexandria has made lots of investments in transportation across the city.

So this could be targeting the residents that are moving into Potomac Yard or Oville, or in a few years moving into the West End uh near Linmark or along the BRT lines for the West End Transit way or along Duke Street.

Um in terms of work, this is really what we've been doing already.

So we've been um I mentioned that employer operation is a big piece of what Alex currently does, and we want to continue doing that.

Um there's a lot of different sizes of employers from one to two people in your business all the way up to a thousand.

Um we have identified that we really want to try to target those larger Alexandria employees, employers rather, and um make sure that they are having the tools to share with their employees how to get to work and encouraging them to do more than just share information, encouraging them to provide those transportation benefits programs.

Um, and then recognizing that there are a lot of people regionally commuting from different parts of the Washington, DC area, and want to capture how they come in and out of our city.

And then lastly, a new kind of target customer that we've been doing some some things with and in terms of the um the programs that we've been doing now go, Alex, um, but targeting the visitors and tourists that come into the city for some of our events.

Um if you've been to some like the birthday celebration, hopefully you saw that we have we're now offering bike ballet.

Um that's really targeted to helping people that want to come and visit and um come to our city, know that they don't have to just drive to an event.

All right so the program strategies in the actual plan um is chapter two and this is really our operational plan.

So this outlines all the different programs that the um the program is hoping to do over the next five years and broken it down into these um that's seven seven bullets or seven categories rather um and within each strategy or each each program um in the chapter you'll see that we've identified which goal the program or project is intended to support and which customers um it's really supposed to be targeting to so some of these are things that we've done already some of these things are new new brand new things um so want to highlight a few of them um in terms of the train education um so the bike safety the youth and adult bike safety classes these are things that in the past we have tried um partnered with WAVA on so we want to continue doing that um but then the transit education gets to uh some of the work that um is already to be funded by some of the grants that I know this group has has weighed in on just the the free metro access for students so working on how do we capitalize giving off metro cars to students but then making sure that they understand how to use metro um terms of incentives um smart benefits is a pretty commonplace one that we promote but um looking at creating some sort of e-bike incentive program that we're seeing in other cities.

That role in the park at city events that's the bike ballet that I meant it mentioned and so trying to build that up into something that's more recognizable and expected at city events so that people can be confident when they come on a bike that they have a place to put their bike.

We've identified a few pilot programs that we want to look at um one is a lending library for e-bikes and then looking at how we use the water um through like a water taxi as a potential commuting source.

And then that recognition and um celebration one is really promoting the good work that people are doing and making it more obvious and uh sharing sharing what people are learning from what they've implemented and what's been successful.

In terms of the funding opportunities so chapter three in the plan is what gets into the numbers and the funding sources.

So there's a whole host of um grant funding opportunities that can support the work Go Alex does a lot of it is coming from DRPT.

Currently most of the programming that we do is um funded by DRPT through their commuter assistance program operating funds.

This plan actually was uh funded through technical assistant grant that they awarded us and then we've also used that program for some specific projects so I don't know if you all noticed um in the Dash facility but on the bus inside of the bus there's a little decal that says um free to ride um that was a project that Go Alex worked with Cash on through funding that DMVT provided um moving on to the the governments um this year we've been awarded uh enhanced mobility grant um from the council of governments that's going to go towards travel training for seniors and persons with disabilities so that gets to the education and informing component of our plan.

And then VAT and MBTA support the program with different um CMAC and RSDP funding that goes towards some of the projects we do.

And then lastly go out um city of Alexandria has some funding in terms of grant matches and then the the TMP funds that developers provide.

So at this point in time we have a draft plan I know that it was very long but hopefully you notice that most of it was put into the appendix we tried to keep the the meat of it light and direct so that it would be useful for to us as staff and useful to the community as well.

We are here to present it to you all to get your advice input recommendation on it and then the next step will be we're presenting it to the Dash Board of Directors next month and then city council um in May as well.

So the DRPT requires that be adopted by the governing body in council and then we'll turn that over to to the DRPD for their approval and then hopefully we can begin implementing in July.

With that um happy to answer any questions we are asking that you all endorse the the plan for the city council.

Thank you very much.

I'd like to open the floor for questions and comments from the commissioners.

I think occurred to me is radio setup, thinking about the remote workers, you know.

That's yeah, I know that the word commented that maybe that'll be coming down a little bit, but I don't know.

It's uh it's uh it's it's hanging in there with uh and it occurred to me that a lot that those emplo employers may not realize that their employees are paying for parking too one day a week and whatever, and uh and how the things could could be changed.

Now I could see why you're aiming at employers, large employers for more bank for the butt, but uh I think there's maybe some special messages for the remote workers and their employers that might be might work.

Um yeah, I think it's uh it's a really solid plan.

It's covering a lot of bases.

I have some questions, I guess maybe, but um on the funding, uh clearly this plan targets commute behavior, but it also targets non-community.

And my experience with the that suite of funders from the past is that we're often constrained in that those funds were have been uh strictly applied to commute activity and it to really the detriment of a wider road shift agenda that Alexandria's had.

Um is that still the case?

Is that a struggle?

Are we like do you feel like that the diversification that's available right now, again, developer funding sources and other things is taking the edge off of that and giving you the ability to put money toward things that are not so strictly commuter activities?

It's it's a great question because we do wrestle with DRPT on this very issue whether the work that we do should be just directed towards people coming to and from work.

Um and I think there's been some loosening to that now.

The commute assistance program, it's very specific commuters, but some of the other funds um a little bit more lenient on that.

So we see it for opening up a little bit more.

Um, and then I think just trying to use some of the other grants that might be out there, um for the shell training.

Um trying to be creative with some of those funds.

The fact that things that are not just commuting are in this strategic plan is not gonna cause DRPT to have.

As far as we know, it's not uh they have seen a version of this and have not provided any no, this is not correct.

And in fact, when we had our like our initial focus groups, we had one with DRPD and our consultant, and we brought up that issue with like you know, commute is is really changing now.

Like I think we we can't just focus on the people that are going to and from where we need to focus on more of the war trips that uh so I think one of the programs you guys are doing, which is the teaching kids how to use mass transit really should be highlighted to them because I never learned how to the only way I learned how to go to work was to drive.

And and if we can start teaching people how to begin to work in a way other than by work school or something other than by car, that actually begins to promote the idea of reducing the amount of traffic.

So I think that needs to be sold as we're we're teaching the next generation how to get around.

And it's not for me who was uh high bound by by driving my car to work, but it's really the new people and get them to start thinking about it.

And even like having them you know driving or taking um walking or taking transit or a bike to an event.

That always drove us everywhere to go.

We didn't never thought about going in the other way.

We we didn't know me better.

And so I think again, kind of pushing that as one of the ways to get to reduce the commuter should be sold as part of the project.

But I mean, big picture to them to approach.

Oh no, it's okay.

Um so in that vein, this plan has that live work visit framework.

And I have to say I was a little surprised to see the visit in there in part because I know for Alexandria visit is such a big bucket of activity, and there's a whole visit Alexandria entity that is funded and charged with connecting to people who want to come here as tourists.

And so you're not afraid of spreading yourselves too thin trying to talk to tourists because I feel like it's just such a different thing.

And that like why is it visit Alexandria carrying that load?

I think it's more intended to work with Physic Alexandria to work with the hotels that are part of the TMP program and provide them with the resources that they can then talk to the tourists that are coming.

We have uh explored some advertising and the visit Alexandria newsletter, the magazine that they have, promoting bike share through that.

So look and see how effective that is, and if that's getting some of the tourists uh to use that service, but I think it's more intended to work with specific entities because you're right.

If we are setting up a kiosk on King Street and trying to talk with every tourist that comes out, I mean they're already very effective.

Right, right.

So they got here somehow.

So we're it's gonna have to be working with some specific entities.

Okay.

But I can interject again.

That was something I raised with Josh from uh presented this back and whenever it was, which is in Leslie and I were actually talking about there's lots of communities who have seen the value of better uh ways to get around with walking button and so partnering with visiting to provide some of the resources that they could use, is probably what I think we're supposed to send you VDOS and saying, hey, go over here.

Well, because by the time it's a visit, you've already got your financial data.

So rented your car, you picked your hotel, like you're already but I think this is an opportunity to leverage uh city resources with the visit Alexandria to help us have the better mode like beyond all.

I think I mentioned this.

We used to have uh a historic Alexander's life, and there were signs off, but some of the signs are still in cheap.

But it's sort of fallen away.

In fact, it used to be an insert on like every lightning.

So I think it's an opportunity to come back to that, but it's it's also a way to help the economy by encouraging into other ways and Uber to get it.

Yeah, use that bus as should be sold to every tourist.

I I was I was getting on probably the 31 or the 30, somewhere right near City Hall the other day, and there were lots of people milling about, and there was someone that 31 of the 30 who come through, and there was someone saying to other people, like, you can get on this bus.

It goes the same way the trolley does.

It's also free.

Like it was really it was really cute.

Like trying really hard to, it wasn't staff, it was just some member of the public.

But I it's like, yeah, it's true, it's true.

I wasn't gonna like get into a big conversation, but it's totally true.

Um you can use all the buses all go the street.

Um so thanks for that.

Um the staff items, so it makes the point.

You've got clean mean staffing machine, everything in Alexandria is lean.

So three people run this whole program.

And then it's contracted staff.

And it's and it sounds like, and I have some familiarity with it from from these models from the Arlington side, it's a contractor group that has historically got a lot of experience with the employer engagement, the direct engagement, these things that have been historically TDM.

Um you've got some more unique things in this package though now.

Like in particular, I'm really interested in the water taxi pilot.

Um, both as a pilot and potentially as sort of a feasibility study.

It's it it sounds to me like a more technical endeavor.

And and that's so I was curious like how are we executing on that?

Is it with the same contractor staff?

Is it something else?

Um, is it primarily led by the city staff?

Like, how are we gonna because it seems like it has operational pieces, but also data analysis pieces, maybe like lit review pieces or peer review pieces?

I'm just curious what's gonna go into it, who's gonna actually execute on that.

Yeah, I I think our plan was that that was going to be a study to determine just the raw feasibility and less so the operations than the actual implementation of it.

Um, not pilot, even though it's a pilot.

It's listed in the pilot because it's part of the study that will lead to a pilot.

Um, I think we will have to reevaluate, like if something comes out of that plan that is like, yes, this is a great thing we need to do.

Um, there's opportunities to update this plan annually, like with some tweaks, so we can talk with DRPT, and maybe that's one of the the commuter assistance program project things that we put in for.

Um I think for now what we were planning was really just the study to see you know the work that's already been done for water taxi in the area, like leveraging that and then looking at what the commute patterns are.

Is it doesn't even make sense to do that?

Is there technology that's faster boat wise?

I think that's just sort of out of our expertise right now.

So we do need some sort of contractor to help with that.

So that's less of a like outreach contractor and more of a technical contractor.

So you do envision hiring a technical contractor who who's probably done studies like this before because I feel like it is a different edge.

Yes.

Um okay, so that makes sense to me.

And then um speak a little closer.

We've actually got uh the information that was done during the metal shutdown when they did the uh that turned out to be a very popular uh project.

I mean, I think one of the biggest fears was people were gonna drive their car to park to eat out the variance that never happened.

And when it was already the end, people were really upset because they were losing that.

So I the city's already got some, should have some pretty good data about that.

I remember yeah, no, I I worked on a very on the hill, and um and uh and some people were swinging planets and like this and and say, let's work together and we've got a fair get ferry going from from Mull Town across and across the river to the Naval Research Lab or whatever.

And I said, Well, it's cars we parked.

Oh, build a parking garage, building there's plenty of room right down there.

You're never gonna get that in front of that.

So it's I mean, obviously, the fairy uh that's running now is works and uh some modification of that, but then there's some limits for yeah, I I think it it is interesting.

I mean, I um my family took it was a it was whatever one of those really cold spring days was, but right in the middle of cherry blossom season, it was freezing and windy, so we took our bikes and we went into DC, and then my son was not having it, so we got warm inside some place on the wharf, and then took the taxi back.

Um, and it was like eighty dollars for the three of us to take that one-way ride.

Yeah, I mean, it was set up between 70 and 80 dollars, more than 70 less than 80.

And I was just like, that's not taxi, that's not taxi price.

And so it just reminded me that there's so much potential for this to be useful and fun and sort of fabric part of how we get around the region and getting to DC or getting to national harbor, like you pick it, but it's never gonna be that anything but a tourist attraction for some tourists, unless we can bring the price down.

Um, so so I'm really interested to see what we can learn, if there are any other case studies from elsewhere that that figure out that little niche without relying on a bunch of parking uh construction resources, which is horrible idea for down to Furl Town.

Um, but yeah, so so I think there's a lot of interesting stuff going on with that.

And and I presume that for us to get anywhere out of the study to the pilot, we need like collaboration with DC and Maryland and stuff.

They all have to be in on it.

At least the destination, the starting point.

Yeah, yeah, those places.

Um I noted that the you've assessed that street teams are more um likely to be the future of this program than the mobile commuter store.

And I was curious that I noted in the appendix, they said that uh I think it was the appendix somewhere in the document.

Um that we actually expanded mobile commuter store service in 25, but then now we're actually just proposing to discontinue it.

Can you explain that shift?

Like, did we expand, but then just sort of realize that getting behind that shift wasn't still wasn't necessarily taking us where we needed to go.

Um yeah, I'm not sure where that would say that we expanded.

And if it did, it was probably a type of because we've been about we had been about five days a week for a few years now.

I think we tailed out after COVID prior to that.

I think it had been maybe two to three days a week.

Um maybe just do a word search first.

Yeah, I will look at sure because that that was not the intent.

Um, because we have been sort of operating status.

So we haven't really seen that it's been super helpful or super hurtful.

It just it felt like it was money going to a service that um it was it was for like repeat customers.

We got a lot of people who wanted to load their smart chip cards when that's something that they can do at the Metro station.

Um and we felt like the street team moving to more of a street chain model would allow us a little more flexibility to go into residential buildings or grocery stores or be at the birthday celebration and like have a little bit more engagement with me that way.

Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

And yeah, so it's probably just uh type uh um those those are my detailed questions.

I think I uh I think there's a lot of exciting opportunity here, and I've I've always felt like it's important to this part of Alexandria's transportation solutions written large is really the part that thinks about why people do what they do, and that everything that all that everyone's doing every day is choice based on their upbringing, based on their current resources, based on what their peers are doing, based on stereotypes, based on available information, and so I think it's really important to have um transportation demand management and really behavior change team that's sitting alongside your transit services and your infrastructure.

So um, I'm glad that we have this team, and there's been so much thought put into how to do this work.

Questions or comments?

Yeah, yeah, so I um I keyed off the document also get through it.

I'm glad you didn't print, but I was disappointed it wasn't printed within a logic here comments instead of an on yet.

But and some of these are scattered all over.

So and if you prefer for me to come talk with you guys at yeah, uh in uh for instance in the uh role and work section, it it talks about targeting certain customers and stuff.

But and you had on you have a nice slide up here, actually kind of going through the different customer basis.

This one.

Um as I actually read through the whole document is where is the person who really want to capture the person who's not actually doing any of this?

And uh, so we're gonna get these new residents near transit, but what about the residents near the day or how are we reaching them?

So and the big picture here is can we be I I would suggest you guys want to look at an initial outreach that really and or an annual outreach that targets the all residents of the city, regardless of whether they're near transit or not near transit, and and specifically in the role of architect that we're gonna target customers who um live near metro.

Yeah, I'm riding my bike, I don't have to live in Metro to I'm rolling.

So I I think you need to rethink kind of some of the uh uh audiences that you're looking at here.

Again, this is nice, but you missed that one, which is everybody at some point we really should try to reach everybody and diverted some of it's just to one of your outreach opportunities you talk about yard signs, but don't really talk about where those yard signs.

But one of the places I bought the appropriate incorporate at school system, uh so uh you know, I think through kind of what the purpose of the break signs or indoor try to capture the people who are sitting on two street uh sign and because the topic is so miserable.

And hey, did you know that there's another way to you know I I think I've seen the like real interest of the sign, you know, if you bought here you'd be hope already kind of thing and so kind of that uh thought with the websites on social media in one place you guys talk about all these various social media possible.

One of them you include is uh blue scotten, but then in the 10th you get back there, you talk about social media so blue sky is not mentioned at all.

And in fact, team doesn't use that.

Um I personally don't use Facebook, which means when you guys put up an announcement on Facebook, somebody tells me about it.

I don't actually see it.

So I would encourage the DNS in particular, but you guys specifically to start using Blue Scott as one of your options for social media.

There is a cohort of people who are moving away from first some other social media, and the rest of them I have no clue how to use um and then as you know, I passed out uh maps to some of the folks, which is actually something that the does, but I I would suggest there's kind of a couple other maps, and this would tie in with the visitors, which is sometimes having a smaller map that tells me how to get somewhere would be more useful than this big map that I'm at from out of town, and it means nothing to me.

Um, but that would also tie with the maps that you guys put at the uh bike share stations, uh, and I don't think those have been included in the update, but uh they probably should be if not, and I don't know if that falls under uh goalis or not.

But so I have a broadened maps to just sort of the big map that some people won't look at uh but I'll point out that in part it's because it's so big, like unraveling a map is taking the whole labor.

Yeah, anyway.

Um, so and then you talk about uh partnering with ACPS kind of the education, like the metro education, and this again was something I mentioned.

You all should also make sure you're partnering with the bits program, uh, which is the bikes in the school program.

And I know that uh families for Safe Street do the pedestrian, but I think there's a again, these are the the future uh commuters that are going to get places in different ways, so reaching that uh and then on the subject of schools, you have a really nice map in the appendix of all of the public schools, but we really should include the private schools because they've got similar transportation issues, which is everybody drives a kid to school and uh creates uh chaos of the schools, and again, another place for um we've already talked about the tourism thing, but in in particular, I think partner with them like with that uh history loop.

It's actually a pretty cool uh loop uh I actually have a screenshot of what the map used to look like the um last month.

We've had a uh a briefing on uh transportation survey.

I think there were some challenges in terms of how people are you know asking some of the questions about the different modes and stuff.

So I think that's a place where you guys could partner as part of your encouraging people to make sure we get the terminology right so that you're capturing the people who use these different modes other than just community.

So this may be beyond kind of the grant money, but the whole idea that there's other ways people are getting around and doing a better job capturing that, and then in particular um regarding railroads.

Uh at last month's meeting, I was told that uh not many people uh PRE in Alexander because I was wondering about you know how many people get on and off I didn't ask the question at the time, but why not?

Why aren't people using PRE?

So there's another opportunity for guys to argue PRE and also the Virginian passenger railroad.

They seem to be pretty accommodating right now, particularly with the fourth uh track.

I think they'd be a really good partner of you guys to figure out how do we capture some of the rail can you uh why aren't people using the VRE to get up from Stanford to go to uh work at IDA or something, catch the metro the rest of the way the uh I think that's uh opportunity there.

Um League American bicyclist uh guys uh mentioned as a potential partner, and one of the things I would encourage there is to make sure that the in when you're capturing uh data and stuff that you get some of the data from the League of America, and then in terms of celebrating, um that's to my knowledge.

There are two signs in the city that have the fact that we're a silver by community, so there's an opportunity again to to celebrate uh having those put in more stations.

partner and one of the things I would encourage there is to make sure that the in when you're capturing uh data itself that you get some of the data from the League of America I said and then in terms of celebrating um that's to my knowledge there are two signs of the city that have the fact that we're a silver bike community so there's an opportunity again to to celebrate uh having those put in more issues uh one of them on the um ring trail is slightly different which sort of shows that we've been uh war winner for five or six years where the other one just it says we're uh so I think I think there's a shot there um and then one minor edit on page 70 uh reference atomic yard just the well it's always neck so whenever I see atomic yards that Orioles mean was that in order thank you that that reminded me of a little it's not a typo as much as uh the document on page 24 references I think nearby commuter services agencies or something and it mentions Arlington's Arlington did recently rebrand so it's called transportation resources for Arlington County or track um instead of ACCS so it's been ACCS for 14 dozens of years but now it's got a new name so one one I really thought it's true it's well done as you mentioned you know kind of sliding this up in the end i hope that you guys get comments really close up yeah we um took some liberties with the DRPT uh framework we told them we were doing it and they said okay uh so hopefully they went up uh because we I do think it is more useful to have the meat of it up front and have that background stuff yeah it's no fun when you have to make a report some other agencies I have a motion to endorse the go alex land happy to make a motion to endorse staff's draft draft file no ale explain so yeah motion from commissioner man second I'll second second from commissioner cane all in favor aye is also unanimous okay thank you next up we have commissioner updates all right I have no update tonight yep sure uh commissioner catherwood myself I don't have an update either uh commissioner keeps uh just a couple things we uh again uh voted and remove some parking to a found the uh capital bike share station relocation down on common well that uh West Reed Avenue uh that's to accommodate uh just it was a slight occasion we had the removes of that and then uh as of part of redoing the bus route comes from bright grove down through uh old town um we remove some parking last month month before and then add its parking and the city came back after meeting with subsist needs some site adjustments that we've adjusted the parking removal just to accommodate better location of the bus stop as well as many little issue for this and we got a bunch of updates similar to what we're doing we also talked about a little bit about the placement for me or in traffic embarking immediately raised our hands saying yes they'd be happy to do it so I think there's a little more discussion to find uh that's it only in place you case commissioner mcbin no updates for me anybody else is out is written items anybody wants anybody want to pull the items questions or comments I just have some question on the brand of the metro okay with I can full 160 okay let's let's go out the order so we'll start with thanks for getting this up in the but it feels to me like it's just giving you a lot of happy talk because that's no death again a lot

I just had some question on the Brad Road metro.

Okay.

Let's let's go out there order.

So we'll start with Chris.

Thanks for getting this up into that.

But it feels to me like it's just giving you a lot of happy talk because that's no death.

Again, along with the fact that it would the fact that it was controlled.

One of the protected bike lanes got just touched.

The only way snows was by the sun.

Yeah, this was somehow that there's that effort that goes into clearing the and that's not happening.

And um in fact, if you look at the uh thing that the city had given on this, and then it highlighted the amount of money that has been spent using contractors and stuff.

Not one dime was spent on this protected bike lines.

So it continues to be uh a problem.

Um and I whoever's providing this information should really be challenged to have somebody show where they actually did do this work that they talked about doing, but in addition, um that's what's kind of missing in this main part of it is all of the posts that were knocked down by the plows, the bumpers that were destroyed by the flowers uh on seminary road.

I've actually lifted them out of the bike line and put them up on the curb, and somebody's taken them and thrown them back in the bike, but moved them again to the curb.

In the meantime, we're now mid-April and the bike line still have cleaning the winter, and yet there's this kind of the talk again that this is being done.

And given the condition of some of those after the winter, they really should have been one of the first things cleared.

Now, again, I realize there's a priority and that sort of stuff, but somehow folks responsible need to understand it's not happening.

Uh that's generally stopped.

And the the challenge is as we keep adding uh to the bike lane and hopefully keep adding the bike lane.

Problem continues to come back.

I want to say it's indifference, but really low on somebody's priorities.

That's my comment something on that.

Yeah, okay.

I I just wanted to observe the sort of follow-on assumption is that we're trying to shift people into being those car light households and to getting more of their stuff done by bike.

Um the network isn't reliable, then they'll find that they're stuck at times when like it will undo the work that go Alex is doing and the work that we're doing in other other venues to to say, hey, we have this this network, we have this access safe as a place that you can use the street.

Um so it'd be interesting to see how staff move forward with the growing network on priorities, because like not every street is equally important for snow clearing, right?

And and there was plenty of other problems that we have with snow clearing, including just pedestrian access to crosswalks and getting across the street over these diet pumps and stuff.

Um but what is the network strategy with snow clearing once we have like equipment like this should be a game changer?

If we're literally just using lowers to clear stuff today, like sweeping, then uh machines like this should make big difference.

Um, I know Arlington has a couple.

I don't know that they had any more success.

These are not for clearing snow, I don't believe this is just for other kinds of stuff, but it would be interesting uh to see how we develop strategy for protected bike networks first, the same way we do our key, so um routes for the bus network and for emergency vehicles and stuff because that would start to have it'll be a relationship, you know, of priority that the people who are using the bike lanes can also resonate with item F.

It's looking at the maps and trying to figure out how the exactly the often pickups here, and I know I don't know something that'll be understanding.

I get I get the idea that the on West Street is where the buses are pulling over.

No, that's in they're talking about uh all the buses.

Yeah, no, no, no.

So the buses would all pull over along the entro station.

No, and then the drop up and pick up would occur around West Street.

Right.

The car did into that.

Well, no, the car just pulls right here.

This is for the buses, and the normal street is just for the car.

So it's like a parking lane that's reserved just for drop off to go.

Yeah.

And uh that's why those little bulges that uh pull was a well these are both.

No, no, no, no, these have nothing to do with buses.

These are pedestrian pump outs.

Uh yeah.

So the buses are only stopping here, they're not stopping.

And but then pick up the drop off if you were gonna use it.

Right, that would be along West Street here.

Well, wouldn't I get the parking line?

What is currently the parking lot?

Well, it's currently no parking now, but like what would normally be the parking lane with this reinvelopment along your urban.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a little easy again.

And I will say that it's um this hasn't been finalized or anything.

This is kind of an initial concept.

So there will likely be changes.

Yeah, time.

No, not yet.

But um, there is the open house uh that next week.

Yeah, next on Monday, and they'll provide a lot more information.

So they do they have a developer partner now, or they're going in search of one chicken.

Oh no.

Yeah, when I looked at this, um one of the things is this, I think looks a lot like what's in plan.

Um it's big boxes, it's not very specific.

But one of the things that I started to think about was what's the value of the plaza being where it is in the design?

Because we don't I hadn't sort of done a tour of BC um urban metro stations to see how space in front of the metro is handled.

I feel like there's some where there is sort of an arrival sense, and then there's some that are just kind of in the fabric, and you look for the yeah, the pole of the M estation or that's called.

You know, that's where you like dive into the hole in the building to get to the metro.

Um, but here if there's gonna be open space built into this area, and I'm probably gonna spend more time to talk about this in the planning commission side of this conversation.

Maybe it shouldn't be in the middle in front of the metro.

Maybe it should be like facing the retail that's across Brad on the south side of the site, so that maybe it could have the building that's built there could also have retail and face like a plaza that faces the retail or something like that.

There might just be a different arrangement now.

This might be the most efficient building footprint for building other stuff, but um sure hope it's not the most efficient footprint for building parking.

So I don't think that would be the best use of um strategic asset here at this area.

But it's really exciting to see them even talking about this openly and asking questions is this city property?

That's one month.

Yeah, we've been just waiting for them to care enough.

Yeah, oh that's down there listening.

Yeah, so I have a couple times one that's uh I have a real concern about the drop off on the body group side of the thing was to put in a protected bike lane.

Um travel lane and then a lane for uh drivers to drop uh people off, or they're dropping them off into the bike lane, right?

But if you've got a car park dropping somebody off at a vehicle when you get by, it's gonna be very big or a bus to get by.

But it's really not that large of a section.

And I think they got their uh drawing done before the city began uh approving the uh the protected bike lane, and although we still don't know what's gonna happen on that section actually may survive the council voted.

So that is a concern the city should be having in terms of how to accommodate pick up and drop off there on right and correct.

So years ago, the Mata had done a study on putting in a tunnel from Potomac Avenue to the metro station.

Uh and the at the time it was gonna be too expensive for metro to do it, but a developer maybe that's a different option.

But Potomac Avenue is a much much better place for pick-up and drop off.

I'm I'm scared mainline boulevard.

Oh much, much better place for people to drop off.

There's a nice little traffic circle and they go around there and have to make the church.

I know.

And a lot of people park along there too, but it doesn't mean they have to park.

And so I think that should be one of the city's positions to back the metro, which is nice idea, but that's not a good place for pickup and drop off.

Okay.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

And I and I the tunnel, I think it's got like well because it was 18 million dollars.

Well, it's it's actually infeasible because there's actually like jet fuel pipes under the metro rail.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, yeah, that go to DCA airport really.

So it's actually infeasible anyway, portion of yeah, that would be a very very tall bridge.

In the proposal, they included uh three options, two or four bridges and one of them.

So I mean, I really like staff's proposal to completely pedestrianize the north underpass, the north side of the underpass of this.

Like if you're gonna make people take a bridge from there if you're you might as well just go under the under the railroad tracks where there's already a pathway.

It's just that we need to be able to expand and further expand.

And so, like phase one is what's been proposed now, but those extra questions at the end of the survey that folks I don't know, I took those extra questions.

They showed like in theory, you could shift all the driving traffic to the south side of the um of the two lanes that go the two sides that go under the railroad rail.

And if you made that even bigger, you would just create a much more um easy flow of of lots of pedestrians who are parking and maybe doing that kind of piss and ride up on the mainline boulevard side.

Of course, same token at Potomac uh yard, they chose not to put uh pick up and drop off.

So remember when I was presented to city council, and there were people going, what are you talking about?

So it was uh people still picking up and dropping off.

I know, yeah.

Yeah, it's like you have to use the space that you've got for the right things, and to your point, if if it's not safe or feasible in the width to put pick up drop off on that section of Braddock, I mean it's honestly not a lot of space, it doesn't matter if like they'll lose a few parking spaces for this temporary activity, and I don't think that that's a deal breaker for the wider design.

We get a much better urban place if we build buildings here, and then all those people in those buildings get to use metro really easily.

Yes, very enhanced.

Oh, the metro in the bit.

I believe that's it for written items.

Moving on to other business, we need to have an election for the chair and vice chair positions.

Um I please have nominations from the floor.

I I I nominate him on for chair, and I nominate the NV for Rice.

I'll definitely thank you.

We have to vote.

Oh, yeah, it's not a motion.

It's a you just vote.

Oh, we just vote.

Do we vote individually on the two positions?

Yes.

Yeah, yes.

I mean, okay.

So we have a nomination for Commissioner Lovane to serve as chair of Transportation Commission, all in favor.

I'm solutions, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you.

And we have a nomination for Commissioner Beattie to serve as vice chair of the transportation commission.

All in favor.

I congratulate very quick and efficient.

Is there any other business before we adjourn?

I have a motion to I'm only adjourned.

Commissioner Beatty.

Second.

Second.

McMahon, all in favor.

Aye.

Thank you, Leslie, for your service.

Yeah.

Well done.

Oh, you're you're not off the commission yet, right?

Not yet.

Oh, okay.

But I will roll off in September.

September.

Which is no longer spice chair.

That's right.

Okay.

All right.

What's the final say is it one year?

And is