Thank you.

Good morning, everybody.

Welcome to the January fourteenth meeting of the Hillsborough County Training Transportation Planning Organization.

Happy New Year to everybody.

I know it's a little late, but it is twenty twenty-six, which just still staggers me a little bit that it's twenty twenty-six, but here we are.

I'd like to ask the recording secretary to please call the role.

Good morning.

Ross.

Here.

Wolstall?

Here.

Miller.

Here.

Myers?

Here.

Cohen?

Here.

Bulls.

Here.

Clinton.

Here.

Hard tech?

Here.

Carlson.

Here.

Kilton.

Gray.

Here.

Klug.

Here.

Redak Christian.

Slater.

Hartfield.

Present.

Joseph?

Here.

You have a quorum, sir.

Thank you very much.

Has everybody had an opportunity to review our minutes from December 10th?

And if so, is there a motion?

We have a motion by Councilmember Clendennan.

I have a couple seconds of the one I heard was from Commissioner Myers.

Any discussion or corrections to the minutes?

If not, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

No nays.

The minutes are adopted.

Thank you.

Public comment.

I currently have one person signed up for public comment, Mr.

Rick Fernandez.

I see him online.

Mr.

Fernandez, you are recognized, sir.

Good morning, Chair.

I'll defer.

I'll defer public comment.

I have the CAC report to follow it.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you, Mr.

Fernandez.

I don't have anybody else signed up currently.

So committee reports and advanced comments.

Mr.

Fernandez, you are recognized as the CAC chair.

So good morning.

Thank you, Chair.

Good morning to all and also happy new year.

The uh for the record, my name's Rick Fernandez, Chair of your CAC.

Your Citizens Advisory Committee met on January 7th, 2026.

We had uh 16 individuals in attendance, so we easily met our quorum.

And uh for whatever reason, maybe it's just the new year exuberance.

That's one of the best attended meetings we've had in quite some time.

So hopefully we'll keep that uh that vibe going into the future.

At the meeting, the CAC conducted uh its annual review of member attendance, and we also, as did you last month, we also had our election of officers.

Uh the CAC voted Rick Fernandez, myself to remain as chair.

Dana Lazarus uh was voted as vice chair, and Stephen Holland Camp as officer at large.

Essentially, that's the same leadership group that's been in place now for a couple of years.

Um we just had a shuffle at the vice chair and at large positions.

A power view of the attendance.

The CAC voted to recommend to the TPO board uh removal of committee members who have had uh extended absences from our meetings.

In this case, we were talking about a full year.

Um this will be on a future TPO meeting agenda for consideration, and TPO staff is working to seek potential applicants to fill the anticipated vacancies.

Just an FYI without calling anyone out in particular.

One of those seats is a Board of County Commission seat, another, I believe, was at large.

Uh TPO staff presented the 2026 safety performance targets and public transit agency safety plan targets for action.

Uh both of those, I believe, are on your agenda today.

CAC members noted that this is a quote from one of the members that this process feels like budgeting for future deaths.

Um a comment, frankly, that's been made repeatedly year after year when this issue is brought to us.

Uh we asked about the methodology and best practices involved, and stated that these don't actually feel like targets.

Don't know what they are, but they ought to be called something other than targets.

Members asked for additional information, reiterating that this feels like it is lacking context and does not show the impact of projects, their return on investment, or the relationship to the transportation improvement program and programming.

CAC members raised concern about the transit mean distance between major uh mechanical failures that relates to the transit uh agency safety plan portion of the report.

The CAC voted unanimously to recommend the TPO board not approve the targets, again, not approve the targets.

The lack of information was cited as a reason for this.

Uh on another note, following that action, uh, the CAC voted to include the high injury network speed study results in conjunction with the upcoming March Safety Effectiveness Report presentation and the mirror targets together with that presentation.

The CAC also provided feedback to TPO staff on the prioritization process and the traffic signal prioritization study.

I think that latter study is going to be presented to you by Wade Reynolds today.

The CAC received its annual membership update, which included recognizing that its membership is underrepresented with those under the age of 25, with women, and with individuals who are Asian or Hispanic Latino as compared to the county as a whole.

Geographically, it is also underrepresented in the Greater Brandon area and the northeast and the northeast, south, and northwest areas of Hillsborough County.

That concludes my report.

I'll be happy to try to answer any questions.

Otherwise, respectfully submitted.

Thank you, Mr.

Fernandez.

Board members other questions for Mr.

Fernandez.

Seeing none, thank you very much.

Uh next we have Harmony McGee from our TPO staff.

Good morning, Ms.

McGee.

Good morning, Harmony McGee TPO staff.

Regarding today's action items, the technical advisory committee recommended that the TPO board approve the 2026 safety and public transit agency safety plan targets.

Committee discussion focused on the bus performance numbers and how they should be interpreted.

While the rates are increasing, it was clarified that the requirement is not to lower the rates, but to ensure the targets are data driven and realistic.

TBO staff also noted that when there's a single transit agency, the targets are provided by that agency.

Clarification was requested regarding the safety performance numbers, and staff stated that there's a 1% reduction on highway safety targets.

One public comment was was received on X from Bob O'Malley, who tagged the TPO and a Tampa Bay 28 news article related to the Bright Line Station Area Studies Survey.

This concludes my report.

Thank you, Ms.

McGee.

Board members are there questions for Ms.

McGee.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Everybody, I'm assuming is that an opportunity to review the consent agenda?

If so, is there a motion?

Uh so board member Gray.

Board Member Gray moved approval and Commissioner Meyer seconded.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, no nays.

Consent agenda is adopted.

We move into action items.

First item is the 2026 safety performance targets and public transit safety plan targets.

Uh Connor Treos McDonald from our TPO staff is here to present.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good morning.

I'm Connor Tray Host McDonald here to present the 2026 safety performance targets and public transit agency safety plan targets.

Next slide, please.

A little bit of a background.

The TPO is required to set performance measures by USDOT and Federal Highway reviews the progress of the highway safety performance targets.

Next slide, please.

There are several federally mandated measures, including safety, bridge and pavement conditions, system performance, transit asset management, and the PTASP.

Today we're reviewing the targets for safety and the safety for the transportation agency.

Next slide, please.

So for the safety performance targets on fatalities, we have seven measures.

Um two of those are elected by the TPO, meaning they're discretionary target and not required by federal highway, those being fatalities and motorcycle fatalities.

Overall, the takeaway is that fatalities are down quite a bit.

We did meet the target for fatalities, um rate of fatality or sorry, excuse me, and motorcycle fatalities for those on a five-year rolling average and the rate where it's just slightly above the target that we set.

However, with the fatalities going down in recent years, um, even with the five-year rolling average, we're recommending a target of those set on the right, um the furthest right column.

And to get those targets, we apply a one percent reduction factor.

That's identified in our LRTP.

It's identified as a federal highway best practice.

Next slide, please.

So for serious injuries, we met the targets that we set.

For serious injuries, we're also down as well, which is a trend that we saw with the fatalities.

We also apply a 1% reduction factor here and recommending the targets on the right side, the furthest right column.

Next slide.

Could they bring up the previous slide, please?

Thank you.

I can talk through a little bit on the serious injuries on five-year rolling average.

The actual that we saw in 2025 that we predict out because the crashes are two months behind for reporting purposes.

So that was at 931, and with the five-year rolling average moving out of the 2021 five-year group, we're recommending a target of no more than 891.

The rate, we're recommending a target of no more than 5.55, and non-motorized recommending a target of no more than 228.

Non-motorized means mostly bicyclists and pedestrians.

Scooters are not included, and an e-bike would be included if the officer reports that as a vice.

Next slide, please.

So we use the Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research to see that population per year and compared the rates against one million people.

So we are seeing a decrease with population increases.

Next slide, please.

So with the news that fatalities and serious injuries are going down, the question is what are we doing that's right and what can we continue doing?

So the state has many efforts identified in a strategic highway safety plan.

Overall, the takeaway here is that DOT is taking an all-hands on deck approach for safety.

Next slide, please.

So what are we doing at the TBO?

We have several system and corridor planning studies, including a Manhattan and Henderson study, an upcoming Beers Avenue.

We have a safety treatment effectiveness evaluation, which was mentioned in the committee reports that actually came from a safety target presentation looking at what infrastructure is contributes to lowering fatalities and serious injuries.

We also have several community events and coordinations with other peer agencies, so a world day of remembrance, we have public safety campaigns, and we collaborate with the CTSD.

In addition, we have several grant support opportunities, including the transportation alternative programs program, the safe streets for all, and the tip we fund where we program funds annually to safety projects.

Next slide, please.

So transitioning into the P TASP.

There are several measures that are used.

Fatalities and rate by mode, the injury and injury rate by mode, safety events and safety events rate and system reliability, and I'll get into what those mean as well.

Typically, when there's a sole transit agency in an MPO jurisdiction, the practice is to adopt those targets straight from the agency.

Typically, it's recognized that the agency would know more than we do on these events.

So that would be the best practice there, and that's what we're recommending to do as well.

Next slide, please.

For fatality and fatality rate, we are at zero in 2025 and recommending targets as targets and the rate at zero.

Next slide, please.

For injuries and injury rates, um, these include injuries aboard vehicles or within a facility or station.

HART uses historical data to predict future numbers and to set that target and the rate.

So we're recommending the targets highlighted in red.

Next slide, please.

Similarly, safety events are predicted out using historical data.

Safety events are things like collisions, fires or smoke, derailments, or evacuations, recommending the targets highlighted in red.

And next slide, please.

Oh, thank you.

Um, and the last target is system reliability by mode, which is measured by the mean distance between major mechanical failures.

Excuse me, Mr.

McDonald.

I think the slides are out of sync again.

You're talking about a slide that we no longer have in front of us.

There we go.

Okay, go ahead.

Thank you.

So Hart uses a 10% um increase factor.

So this is the mean distance between major mechanical failures.

So if you're driving a car, it would be around 9,000 miles between a mechanical failure and aiming for a better number at about 9,800 or 9,700.

And we're recommending those targets that Hart has recommended and the right and the red.

And the final slide, please.

So today we're recommending the TPO board approve the 2026 safety and public transportation agency safety plan targets, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr.

McDonald.

Board members.

Questions from Mr.

McDonald.

Council member for tech.

Thank you.

Um I appreciate these.

And uh while I completely agree with the CAC that you know our goal should be zero.

It's you know, as we're going down, I think that's a very good thing, and we've talked about this in previous years.

Uh but what concerns me is and and I know this is the transit agency, and I don't know if anyone's here from the trans agency, but I really believe that we should always have a goal of lower, regardless of what the numbers show is going to happen.

Um, I think that there's something to be said for that.

So I don't know if I know you explained it, but I just don't agree.

So I don't know if anyone is here from Hart to talk about that.

I think Heather Sobish is here from Hart to answer that.

Thank you.

Hi, Heather Sobush with Heart.

Um my understanding is that we just assumed a 10% increase just to be conservative, but I can bring that back to the safety team that we would want to target a lower number.

Yeah, I think just a target.

Um it's it's been very nice for us to see the the accident target with with car with all modes go down, so you know you you can't meet it if you don't target it.

So I I'll definitely bring that back to the team.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes, Mr.

Chair, just a question for Connor.

Thank you for the presentation.

So back in 2012, when the requirement for these performance targets was established, you know, there was talk around kind of financial penalties associated with not meeting them and kind of reduction of obligation authority and things like that.

And it's just kind of curious about what the current practice is on the federal front.

With are they so if you set targets that are too aggressive and you don't meet them, is there a reduction in kind of financial resources?

Um, to my knowledge, there's not a sort of punishment for not meeting those targets.

When we relate those to the TIP and the LRTP, we use them in a system performance report.

So we're required to um show what investments are contributing to meeting those numbers.

So that's how it's related, but there's not a punishment for not meeting the target.

Thank you.

Board members, other questions?

Motion by Councilmember Clinton, seconded by Mayor Kilton.

Any comments or discussions of the motion?

I do have a couple of comments, Mr.

McDonald and Dr.

Wong.

I've I've this report every year has always bothered me a little bit, and when I was first on the TPO, I used to talk a lot about it, and then I just kind of realized that this is the world of transportation, and so I kind of gave up on that.

But um I too share some concerns over this that I don't want to belabor, but because I've said it in years past, but I do think this report uh you know it's federally mandated that we do this, and I think if it wasn't, I'd probably would make a lot more noise about this than I am because it's a you have we have to check the box by federal law.

But I see very little connection between these goals and our projects and or after action reviews of our projects, and there's to me there's no straight line, like okay, we're gonna reduce motorcycle fatalities by 10.

Well, what are we doing to do that?

I mean, are we working with law enforcement or are we doing PSAs?

What exactly are we doing to accomplish that goal?

And then what happened as a result of those activities and what impact did it have on that goal, what worked, what didn't work, so that we can do the same thing again next year.

So it's not that's the world that I'm used to living in outside of here is you establish goals, you develop programs that address those goals, strategies, and then you assess what impact you had, and then you start that process over again.

I don't see that we're doing this, and I think these goals really I'm no offense to you.

I know you have to come up with goals, but they just seem hollow to me.

They don't they don't seem like they're based in any real science, they're just we want to do better than we did last year, so we're gonna reduce it by 10% or whatever.

I mean, it's not a meaningful number.

Um the second thing, and I really hadn't thought about this until Mr.

Fernandez commented about it, but I there's I think there's something to this too, and that is these are our targets.

And I don't know if we're required to use that terminology by some myriad of regulations because we're regulated to death in this industry here, but um it seems to me like it would be better to say something like reduction goals or you know, safety goals or something.

I mean, because it looks like we have a target to make sure 437 people die.

I mean, that's not really our target, or we want it, we don't want anybody to die.

So it's the same number, but if we could put reduction goals on it, it makes it clear that I mean I I think most people realize that we're not hoping that that many people die, but when you say that's our target, it really doesn't express what we're trying to do very well.

If I can respond, uh, and thank you for those comments, Mayor uh board members.

We have asked the federal highway liaisons previously if they would entertain a change in nomenclature, and the response we received was that the word target appears in the transportation authorization bill, and so they would prefer for us to maintain that to uh provide consistency with the other MPOs.

But I think what you're speaking to is a distinction between the long-term aspirational goal of zero and the annual targets, which are intended to track how well we're doing to eventually achieve that goal.

Zero as a practical matter is a long ways away.

Um, there are some ways that we could get closer to it with you know increasing investment, partnering with law enforcement.

Uh I I think you hit most of the meat of that issue.

Um, but to date, at a snapshot in this moment in history, we have been working with law enforcement.

Um we we share these targets with them, we attend the CTST and make recommendations about what trends we're seeing and advise or you know, it's really a conversation with our law enforcement partners about how they might be able to tackle specific issues with a little bit more uh precision.

Uh what I want to tease now is as a result of last year's conversation, we took on a safety effectiveness study, and what we hope to present to you in May is a uh list of the treatments that are the most economically effective.

So, with the money that the TPO controls, how can we maximize or optimize our investment?

What should we be focusing on?

But more specifically, what combination of treatments yields the best results.

We know that if we were to look at any corridor with a strong crash history, if we do one thing, that might have minimal effect.

But if we do two, three, uh, you know, what we're investigating is what's the appropriate combination that helps us reduce the number of crashes without blowing the budget.

Thank you, Dr.

Wong.

Commissioner?

Wanted to something you had pointed out where you were hoping for more of a linear painted results of cause and effect.

But I Johnny, I give you the opportunity.

I I thought I remembered in the past, you have painted pretty clear pictures about us implementing things like smart technology at intersections and and you painting those direct results that have lowered some of those numbers.

I don't maybe it wasn't in your this report, and and maybe that's the disconnect that but but you do have some of that data that has shown a cause and effect of some of the things that actions this board and your organization is taking, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Every every engineering solution to reduce crashes has an estimate of what it can achieve.

Um there's without going way out into the weeds, there's a database of uh research reports that give an estimate of what the imp what the impact would be on crash rates and crash types.

Um what you're speaking about, ICASP, we are looking to advance that.

Um when when that was presented, I felt that there was a strong positive reaction for the board.

So beginning at the end of this summer, we're looking to develop a plan to help the local governments implement that technology at the locations where it makes the most sense.

Board member Gray.

Thank you, Mayor Ross, and I echo your remarks too with the strong need for communication.

There's an educational piece missing.

If it took uh Mayor Ross some years to figure it out, certainly I would be one of those as well.

Is there a possibility that you can make those types of uh improvements to communicate more effectively?

Progress made.

Um, you know, one of the points you had shared was that in uh despite of the population growing, there's still a decrease.

Um, and then what we could expect is in what categories, in other words, that communication to to not only us but to the uh constituents.

Your thoughts?

Definitely, thank you for that question.

Um, one, there's very um, well, there's quite a few sources available to the public to review crashes.

Um, in addition, when we report um progress, we often do that through our state of the system report, and we are updating that this year, so we'll be looking at the progress that we need towards those targets.

And as far as communication, I believe those reports as well as the data platforms may assist with that.

Okay.

So be it.

Thank you very much.

Commissioner Bowles.

Thank you, sir.

Um, you know, one of the things that I wanted to kind of bring up was that we have a certain amount of money that we're we can budget from the TPO for this, right?

A couple whatever millions it is, or hundreds of thousands, whatever dollars that is.

You know, one of the things that we look at is whether it's you're talking about use working with the sheriff's department, whether it's deploying extra deputies in certain areas or you know, rotations, or you know, maybe it's traffic signals or I don't know, signage, whatever could be.

Uh a resource program in surrounding counties is they've done some drone programs with local hospitals, Tampa Journal, for example, where they're bringing blood products out to these scenes.

And um, I know that Hillsburg County is exploring that as well right now, and that would kind of effectively reduce the having that blood product get out there for major trauma, major high velocity accidents uh is really critical in getting life safety, yeah.

So in continuing uh certainly their that the treatment of care.

So that may be something we could explore as well, maybe partnering with the EMPC has worked on that with some of the local agencies, but I do know that Hillsborough County and Tampa General are looking at doing that as well.

So I think the city of Tampa just got some federal transportation dollars towards your program.

But that is a measurable outcome that you could say, you know, you could say, hey, we know that these people getting these uh these treatment modalities earlier actually have a better outcome.

So just another thought process.

If we're looking if we're looking for programs, this is I think you caught my drift.

We'd have we'd be happy to collaborate with Hillsborough County and the other cities on a grant application, kind of following the model of the One Blood program.

You're right, the city of Tampa was just awarded some federal money to get that underway.

So thank you.

Are there other questions, comments?

We have a motion on the floor.

If there are no other comments, uh all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, no nays.

Targets are adopted.

Thank you, Mr.

McDonald.

Thank you.

Next uh action item is a TPO prioritization process evaluation.

Uh Elizabeth Watkins from our TPO staff will explain.

Good morning.

Good morning, TPO board.

Um, thank you for that great conversation and insights.

I think it'll really tee up this presentation really well.

So this presentation is to present to you a few short-term actions that we would like to take to help prioritize projects.

So we undertook this effort.

Oh, I'm sorry, yeah.

You could just say next slide.

Absolutely.

The reason we undertook this effort was to be responsive to feedback that we received from you and um your advisory committees on trying to bring more clarity to this list of priority projects.

So why does this matter?

Um, from a functional perspective, this is the list that 25 million dollars of federal funds are allocated annually to prioritize to local needs.

So just as you were talking about safety, this is this pot of funding that you all have direct um authority over.

So beyond the act of programming, it also serves as a community statement of priorities.

Next slide, please.

What's required when we develop our list of priority projects?

The requirement to do this is based in state statute, which does not have a prescriptive methodology, but we're really proud of the methodology that we've been using here as its performance-based and the highest needs bubble to the top to advance projects that can address those needs.

Additionally, this is important because it's the primary document that DOT uses to develop their work program and priority and fund projects.

Next slide, please.

This project has been sort of fast and furious because annually we're preparing this list for you, soliciting projects and evaluating.

So over the past three months, we've done a few things.

First, we've reached out to our local government partners who are implementing these projects.

We've talked with some peer agencies, both in Florida and outside of Florida to try to learn from them on things they do to advance projects and get things built.

And then we've brought these recommendations as they've evolved through the different committees, and we're bringing it to you today for your acceptance because we have to start this process in the next few weeks.

So we would really love your insight and direction if we can pursue these recommendations.

Next slide, please.

So the first short-term action that we're focusing on is all about project readiness and supporting project delivery.

The challenge that we're trying to address is that the way we have been prioritizing projects has been on need and less so taking into consideration what's really ready to move that asphalt.

So some things we want to do to address that is to continue to work with our local government sponsors and DOT and navigating this complex project delivery process.

But we also want to screen projects for readiness.

That doesn't mean a project that isn't ready for design or construction funding couldn't be on here.

It's just a more targeted and strategic conversation of identifying that project and helping the project sponsor getting in advance in the most practical way possible.

The second short-term action we'd like to take is to physically reformat this list.

Oh, sorry, next slide.

Okay.

The challenge that we are have have focused on is sometimes it's unclear what the status is of that project and therefore understanding what was funded and why.

So for example, from your last priority list, priorities one and nine were funded.

But what happened through two through eight?

So we would like to restructure this list to provide more information about where it is in the process and what's next.

Next slide, please.

So this is just one example of some additional information that we would like to provide to you, where it lays out every step of the project development phases and giving a short update of its status and if it's not complete when we anticipate it to be complete.

Next slide, please.

The next short-term action is noting those symbolic projects.

So I mentioned at the top of this presentation, the primary action of this list is to program funds, but it's also to communicate priorities if our partners are going after discretionary grants.

So what we would like to do is to note in a status column explaining which projects aren't there to go after that 25 million dollar pot, but really need to be on this list to help support a discretionary application.

Next slide, please.

So what we want to do through these various strategies is to enhance transparency by illustrating where they are and what we can do to help advance these projects.

Next slide, please.

So we would like to do a better job, like Commissioner Gray said, our board member Gray of telling that story and really explaining the outcomes and what was delivered partially due by TPO support.

Next slide, please.

So to give you a flavor of this, a few things that I am personally really proud of is your support every year helps HART replace a few buses.

It's helped the city of Tampa move the green artery from planning to implementation.

For our friends in South County, the TPO help assisted by a prioritizing the I-75 big pan big big bend interchange project, as well as securing state funds to implement the the book ends of the big bend.

So I think there's a story there to tell.

Next slide, please.

So the recommendation is for um is to accept these short-term recommendations so that we can implement them and turn them around to you when we bring the next priority list later this summer.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mrs.

Watkins board members questions.

Uh Councilmember Clint Demon.

More of a statement than a question.

Um one, I want to applaud uh staff for uh taking on this challenge because it's since I've been on TPO, this has always been a confusing process.

And uh I think that this is while it's probably not perfect, it's it's on the way to that to that to that goal, uh, if we ever achieve it.

So thank you for taking it on.

Um definitely a easier way to communicate and and and hopefully be able to express our wants, needs, and desires in the various different categories.

Secondly, I just want it's not a criticism, but it'd be just it's just pointing out the inherent bias sometimes as we talk about these issues.

When you first brought talked off when you were talking about TPO projects, you talked about uh laying asphalt, and of course, it's much bigger than that.

So, but it's it's again it's one of those things that's an inherent bias in our communication.

If we and we have we need to avoid those things.

Thank you.

Board members, other questions.

Uh Councilmember Hurtek.

Thank you.

I'm gonna echo what my colleague said.

I think uh I think it's still really hard to see it in the abstract.

So I'm I'm really looking forward to going uh forward with this and seeing what it looks like in this next long this next LRTP.

And then I think by then we'll have some actual tangible changes.

It's really hard to give feedback at this stage because we are not in it, the trenches like you all are.

So uh I I will approve this going forward because I I can see what the vision might be, but until we can see it concrete, it's a little hard for us to say, but I do appreciate um your willingness to take on this heavy lift so that we can all understand better where our dollars go, what we can actually the change we as this board can affect.

So I do really appreciate that.

Commissioner Wallstall.

Hey, Johnny, I've got a question.

Might sound silly, but since the numbers are relevant, do they have to be on the list, or could it just be alphabetical and achieve the exact same thing?

I would recommend uh assigning a numerical ranking for the projects that have fulfilled all the requirements to receive the funding for the others that are in various stages of development or maybe missing an application uh or are symbolically listed with the full intention of going after a federal grant.

I would recommend maybe not assigning a number to those.

They could remain on the list, but visually you may treat those as a separate set of projects, and over time as they become more complete as they're ready for funding, then we could assign a numerical ranking.

I think that that's something that the board should keep in mind and of value.

Thank you.

Yes, Commissioner Bull.

A question for either of you.

Um, who's the discretion when you talk about discretionary grants?

You said partners.

Can you give some example who those partners are, please?

Absolutely.

When we talk about discretionary grants, those are grants that come from DC.

So recently the city of Tampa won a safe streets for all grant that we would consider discretionary to do that whole blood initiative that you were talking about.

So inclusion on this list would just help support that discretionary application.

And those and those partners are the different municipalities.

It could be plant city, table terrace, Hillsburg County, or City of Tampa, whatever.

It's here.

Okay.

Good board members, other questions?

Seeing none.

Is there a motion?

Motion by Councilmember Clinton and seconded by Commissioner Bowles.

Any comments, discussion of the motion?

If not, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed, no nays.

Thank you, Ms.

Watkins.

Next, we have a couple status reports.

Uh first one by Wade Reynolds from TPO staff regarding traffic signal prioritization study.

Good morning, Chair and Board members.

Are you able to hear me okay and see the presentation?

We can hear you, yes.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

This is the traffic signal prioritization study.

It uh pairs well with Elizabeth's presentation because items one through nine on that list are the Smart Cities program, um, which this is um looking at how we further prioritize within that category.

Uh the Smart Cities program was the highest ranked program in the LRTP survey, which is why it is at the top of that list.

Um, and there are some additional issues.

Mr.

Reynolds, hold on just a second, because we don't see that list.

I don't know if that's on the next slide, perhaps.

Oh, um, I I will get to it.

Um I apologize, sir.

I was just giving a brief intro on that.

Um, but the list that's um our our list of priority projects, the first um nine projects on that are in the smart cities category, um, which is dictated by their by the LRTP and how that survey was conducted.

Um another reason that uh kicked off this study was um structural issues with some um signals uh where we could make upgrades, but either the supports or the wires span wires that hold those signals up uh do not allow for additional signal heads on um at that intersection.

And then finally, um looking towards resilience.

Um big takeaways from the storms last year for me was when intersections went completely dark after the storms.

We were six or seven days without power, and it was very scary to go out at night um and and approach those completely dark intersections.

Um universal excuse me, uninterrupted power supply, which is abbreviated as UPS, uh you will see in this ranking.

Um so the purpose was to assess the baseline condition of traffic signals across Hillsborough County and work on a methodology to prioritize those that are not in a state of good repair, and to establish a the outcome is to establish a performance-based methodology that we can use to evaluate the LOP submissions to repair or replace or upgrade uh traffic signal infrastructure elements.

Um so this will aid in planning and response operations during emergencies.

Um we can we are hoping to be able to adjust signal timings to accommodate uh planned or unplanned events, um, unplanned might be a hurricane, planned might be a football game, and supporting uh traffic studies related to uh vision zero and safety as well, and also to serve our partner agencies as a resource for coordinating these improvements across jurisdictions.

So task one was an inventory of traffic signals that is ongoing, and I'll get to the reason for that in a moment.

Um, and then task two is the prioritization methodology, which I'll be uh explaining, and task three is a ranking of intersections based on that.

So the combined data set, it's uh just over 1200 signalized intersections in Hillsborough County across jurisdictions.

Um Temple Terrace is not listed here, but those signals are maintained uh by Hillsborough County.

Um, Plant City, Tampa, and Hillsborough County maintain their own signals.

So uh looking at resilient the resiliency component to this.

Um so for structural, the type, condition, and age of of um the signal.

Uh for cabinet, the age, the mounting type, and the height.

You may have seen um some cabinets recently placed on much larger or or higher elevation concrete pedestals and or uh attached to a um pole to elevate them above flood waters in case they're in the floodplain.

And that uh leads into the location, which is within a floodplain, could be prioritized on an evacuation route or within hurricane wind zones, which would be those areas closer to the coast.

Um so technology within the cabinet, flood sensors, and uninterrupted power supply, which I mentioned earlier.

In many cases, that will not run a full signal, but it will um allow for a bleam yellow.

So uh that is not a completely dark intersection when power is interrupted.

Um so looking at the um most vulnerable locations.

Um the task is to assign a priority rank to signal elements and assign a score to each element and compare the overall resiliency score.

So the rank of those um elements, if we look at the top under structure, that is the highest rank.

Excuse me.

And um that rank of five is basically a multiplier to get to the score for that.

So uh a rank of five multiplied by a score of two for strain concrete would be 10.

If that was uh strain wood pole, um that number would be 20 for a total.

Um, similar with the age, um, either less than or greater than 10 years.

I realize that we misspelled years there now.

And the condition, good fare or poor, um, as well as span wire condition for resiliency, those uh measures are being within a floodplain, a documented flood history or on an evacuation route.

Um, so here are some examples uh that we have looked at in this case among these intersections, Kennedy and um US92 and State Road 579 would rank the highest.

So there were some challenges.

Um was the availability of data across agencies.

Um the city of Tampa and Plant City are doing data collection efforts right now, as well as Sillsboro County uh for some of the um signals.

We are going to incorporate uh the uh measures that they collect into this evolving database.

Um, but as you may be able to see from this, there was not a great deal of overlap between agencies for the data collected.

Um so we did do some field visits to uh start to build out this database on corridors.

Um part of the reason the US 41 corridor was cle was chosen because of its is because of its um proximity to the water uh much of it being within a floodplain.

Um so that uh is a good example.

We also looked at um Hillsborough Avenue slash Tampa Road and Manhattan uh in the city of Tampa to um look at some of those signals and see how they would perform just as an example.

Um so upon implementation, this methodology will allow for agencies to submit SU that service transportation block grant funding requests for traffic signal infrastructure.

Uh, we will have a standardized data collection and database to pull from, and uh can look at some proactive repair and replacement rather than reactive when we have a failure in the system.

Um so the next steps, uh we will be coming to you next month uh for for your blessing and hopeful, hopefully approval of this um study and methodology.

Um, and for February and March, we're hoping to use this to evaluate any um list of priority projects submissions for uh surface transportation block grant funding.

Um, and ongoing, we will be building out the uh database of intersections.

So, with that, I'm happy to answer any questions uh or or take any comments you may have.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Reynolds board members.

Any questions?

Board member Rhoda Christin.

Mr.

Reynolds, thank you for going over the methodology.

Was wondering why the it covers a lot of uh structure-based analysis was any safety related considerations being given to these intersection in your methodology.

For example, if you were to overlay either your congestion hotspots or your accident hot spots over these intersections, I would think they may be some other um, you know, kind of recommendations that come out of it, whether it's dedicated left lanes or adding a dedicated left signal, things of that nature, and it might be premature to just look at structure by itself in prior to prioritization or putting money into these intersections.

So that on the methodology on resiliency one is encouraging to hear the UPS evaluation.

That still has a a limited time of how much the UPS can carry through, especially with what happened two years ago.

Um, and some of these major thoroughfare intersections being, you know, having outages for almost a week in some cases.

So thereabouts, you would think uh an analysis with the TICOs of the world in having redundant substation power to the resolution uh resilience should come from the substation level and not just localized.

Just something to consider.

Thank you for that comment uh for all of those comments.

Um, I should have mentioned, and I neglected to do so, that the CAC recommended something similar with regard to safety.

Um, and we do believe we can accommodate that.

Uh, that will be awarding additional points for signals on the high injury network.

That's the Vision Zero high injury network of our most dangerous roadway segments.

Um, and I hope that that will uh go some length to uh satisfying uh that request.

Um there was also uh an additional request from the CAC to look at um pedestrian signal um button, the recall button accessibility.

Some of those are um inaccessible for for uh folks using wheelchairs or mobility devices, they may be placed on a pole that is too far behind the sidewalk to be reachable by a person.

Um so that is something we are seeing if we can accommodate as well.

And one additional suggestion from the TAC technical advisory committee was to include a measure of roadway volume, um volume to capacity ratio uh for the approaches on those um intersections, so that we are dealing with some of the highest volume, highest congestion uh uh intersections as well.

Um, with regard to the um to the uh TICO questions of redundancy, um I I don't have a great answer for you there, although I agree that that would be a much more uh resilient way to handle this.

Um but having a minimum uh redundancy for uninterrupted power supply, uh we hope will be a first step in that.

Thank you.

If I can add something, um after hurricanes Milton and Helene, there was uh uh an emergency response working group that got together and identified uh future best practice to develop the infrastructure at the signals to allow for daisy training of generators, and so while the while the expectation shouldn't be to have a continuous uninterrupted power supply, especially in the event of a CAT three or worse storm, um, there are some workaround strategies that can ensure that uh the the intersections that need power the most can get them without requiring a generator at each specific location.

Board member Slater.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

Just a recommendation.

So um, although it didn't get into intersection specific or really condition type aspects, the Florida policy project did a really interesting study around the efficiency of signal systems and opportunities.

It identified industry best practices and identified opportunities and what you would need to take advantage of advancements in AI, uh, and it identified the return on investment with investments in your signal systems.

Uh a lot of the elements in the Florida Policy Project report are starting to show up in some of the bills that are being proposed in Tallahassee, so I would just uh encourage you to take a look at that report.

It was just done a year ago and see if there are opportunities to kind of sync those up.

Thank you, Mr.

Slater.

Commissioner Bowles.

Back at it again.

Uh if I recall, and I think Commissioner Wistel, you would maybe recall this as well.

Was it there uh Hillsburg County had a um a contract to kind of signalize uh power source with the solar power with uh transportation that there was a where we had like identified a million dollars that we're going to be put towards that.

Um not sure if that folds into any of the things that you all can do as well, but for like the really uh I don't know how do we prioritize the best ones, but um you know the ones that had the most uh traffic on it, that there was a solar backup that was going through a number of projects around the county there, and I'm not sure if that ever made it out of the blocks or not.

Um do you recall you don't recall that?

I thought that somehow someone had contacted you as well.

But I was contacted about that at some point last year, that um that that could be something that we certainly explore as well outside of just UPS because a battery is only gonna last 12 hours at the very least.

If you have maybe some solar power there that can keep it blinking yellow during you know the major times of the day.

So just something to think about that how we can fold that into the resiliency.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Other questions, board members.

If not, thank you very much, Mr.

Reynolds.

Appreciate the report.

Thank you.

And I apologize for not being in person.

Everybody in my house has the flu.

Oh, well, we thank you for not being in person.

So next up, uh, Plan Hillsborough 2025 annual report.

We have, oh, it is Ms.

Lornito.

So Melissa Zornita, our planning commission executive director is here along with Katrina Corporum.

Good morning.

Melissa's Ornita, executive director of the Hillsborough County City County Planning Commission.

It's a pleasure to be here with you all today.

Um annually, we like to come and give you all an update on our work, particularly as it relates to our um combined strategic plan.

Um, this year I'm gonna have Katrina Corgren, our strategic planning and policy manager, uh, give you a presentation of some of the highlights of our recent annual report.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

As Melissa mentioned, Katrina Corcoran Planning Commission staff.

I'm here today to present on the Plan Hillsborough 2025 annual report.

Next slide, please.

This slide, uh this slide gives an overview of the 2024 to 2029 strategic plan.

Um next slide, please.

That doesn't look promising.

Well, I apologize, board members.

You may have already figured this out, but there were some tech issues that HTV was trying to work through this morning, and so we've had we've been having to give the verbal commands to dictate the slides.

Um Katrina, do you feel comfortable continuing even without the slide deck?

They've got it in their board packet, which is available online.

Certainly, I'm happy to go through and uh I will try to describe the visuals here for you.

We might have repaired it.

Oh, this is the same.

Oh, here we go.

Okay.

Thank you for bearing with me.

Um, so this slide gives an overview of the 2024 through 2029 strategic plan.

Um, you can see here that we've divided the strategic plan into pillars and goals.

These four pillars uh are how we categorize our accomplishments and tasks throughout the year, and you'll notice these throughout the presentation.

Uh next slide, please.

So, with this, we have the uh by the number highlights.

So you can see that we have over 2100 clients served, 90 present 90 plus presentations to outside groups, um, over 65 uh comprehensive plan amendments, as well as 300 and over 370 consistency reviews, other consistency reviews, and over 1,300 maps created.

Next slide, please.

Our first pillar is integrated and connected communities.

So we have uh several studies and examples with this, uh, starting with our Bright Line Station Area Survey and Study.

So this was conducted by the TPO and considered potential users and infrastructure needs for a potential future Brightline station.

We have our Plant City Sun Trail Connectivity Study that looked at opportunities to connect Plant City to Florida's statewide Sun Trail Network.

We have our Temple Terrace multimodal connection study that looked at potential for a new trail network to destinations in Temple Terrace.

We have our City of Tampa future land use update and outreach.

So this is an update for the Tampa Comprehensive Plan and staff release surveys, conducted several outreach meetings and release drafts of the flu for public comment and review.

Finally, we have our Hillsborough County Urban Expansion Areas or UEAs.

This study focuses on I-4 and Little Manatee South as potential areas for coordinated future development.

Next slide, please.

Our second pillar is partnerships and community engagement.

Oh, starting off with the Gulf Coast Safe Street Summit and Community Conversation.

The TPO hosted this summit last February with the goal to share strategies about safer streets.

And Plan Hillsboro also hosted a related event with Speaker Gil Penelosa.

We also sponsored the Florida Greenways and Trails Summit.

And we have our Plant City Comprehensive Plan update.

So staff are working on an update to the overall comprehensive plan.

And we also kicked off with a visioning survey that had over 1,700 responses, and we'll be working on an update to that vision for Plant City.

And finally, we've expanded our future leaders in planning or FLIP program, which is a very popular program with high school students.

We've expanded that from four to five days and created an alumni connection program.

Next slide, please.

So for our third pillar, this is resilient natural and built environment.

We have our traffic signal prioritization study, which you just heard about.

So that staff updated this model with demographic estimates and budget figures to look at how USA expansion would generate revenue for the county.

We have our City of Tampa section updates, including recreation and open space, solid waste, and capital improvements.

All of these sections of the Tampa Comprehensive Plan will be in front of City Council later this month.

And finally, we have our USF studio on Tampa's environmentally sensitive areas.

And staff worked with USF students to evaluate the ESA flu category for Tampa.

Next slide, please.

Our fourth and final final pillar is technology and operational enhancements.

So we had our continued discussions on the merger study as well as a peer exchange that helped to guide next steps for the potential MPO merger.

The TPO also had their federal and state certifications for annual and four-year federal certification processes with strong positive reviews.

We had updates to our transportation improvement program or TIP mapping tool, as well as improvements to the traffic accounts webpage, which enhanced usability of these tools and added new data.

And finally, we had our AI task force.

So I'd like to note that this was not within the 2025 annual report, but it was within our 2024 annual report.

However, this AI is a big topic right now, so I wanted to go over that.

We as staff created standard operating procedures for the use of AI, including checking in with our information and technology team team on the use of the tools, as well as uh looking with uh working with your supervisor if you are going to utilize that and having very specific um components that staff can use that for.

Additionally, there are uh guide rails for utilizing that with a consultant.

So we have a timeline for that for staff to utilize that and the consultant to consult with staff if they will be utilizing AI.

Next slide, please.

Finally, we will be presenting in front of the planning commission and the river board uh later this month and in February.

And if you happen to be on either of those boards, I'll be emphasizing different projects just to keep it a little exciting.

Uh we have continued tracking and implementation of our 2024 through 2029 strategic plan as well over the next year.

Next slide, please.

And that concludes my presentation on the 2025 annual report.

I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you, Ms.

Corcoran.

Board members, questions or comments on the report.

I have one question if nobody else does.

So concerning your AI task force and the policies, I know the City County Planning Commission is an independent agency, but it's also but it's embedded like the TPO within Hillsborough County and is hosted.

So how have you developed consistent policies between the planning commission and the county so that people that are doing business with the county and the people don't understand the distinction, they think it's all the same thing.

Or the policies consistent between the county and the pol and the planning commission concerning the use of AI.

So I know that the that our standard operating procedures are within our employee handbook, but I see that Melissa Z is behind me, so I will I will pass that over to her.

Um at the time that we wrote the procedures for things like contracts and things like that that could be uh or similar for between the jurisdictions.

I think we felt we were in lockstep with them, but it is an evolving situation, so that's something we can check in again and do so on a periodic basis to make sure that as the technology evolves and the use of it does that that so do our policies.

Okay.

Certainly not up to Temple Terrace to dive into the county's business, but always just seems important that that would be consistent.

Yes.

So okay, thank you.

Board members, other questions or comments?

Very good.

Thank you both.

Okay, Dr.

Wong.

All right, thank you, board.

Happy new year once again.

Um on our calendars for February.

We have a TPO special meeting scheduled for the third and a regular CPO board meeting on February 11th.

I am looking to propose a cancellation of the February special meeting in short because there are not significant updates to present to you, and I wouldn't want to uh waste your time.

Um that being said, there are a couple of major milestones coming up in early and mid-February that we should keep our eye on related to the merger study.

We're right now working on scheduling a workshop with the League of Cities targeting the first week of February.

The intention to have that workshop is to receive some guidance on hand on how to handle the representation of lesser populated cities across the region, and we hope to get some very clear direction on that, which will pave the way for having a more robust conversation at the February 13th TMA meeting.

Um that TMA meeting will be hosted on again Friday the 13th.

Um I hope that that's that's not a uh foreshadowing.

It will be held at FIA, so thank you for hosting us.

I'd like to extend an invite to you all now, uh, but a formal invite will be coming.

We'd like to have, in addition to our TMA reps, the BOCC and City of Tampa council members attend.

We're going to present two to four apportionment scenarios, and we're really looking to take a gut check before we bring this to any other boards for formal consideration.

Um lastly, moving on to the next item, unless there's any questions on that now.

I've got a couple of legislative updates for you.

There hasn't been much movement on the bills that I that I brought to your attention in November.

Um, as we know, session just kicked off yesterday.

There are a few that I'm tracking.

First is HB 243.

I did speak to this uh in November, but it would redefine class three e-bikes and consider them electric motorcycles.

So a class three is anything that can achieve a speed of 28 miles per hour or greater, and um that just doesn't make sense for them to be operating on facilities intended for cyclists and pedestrians, scooters and and uh and strollers.

Um there is a bill in the house with a match in the Senate beginning October of this year.

Any new crosswalk built in a school zone or on a road greater than a uh greater than 35 mile an hour posted speed has to have either a pedestrian hybrid beacon or a combination of RFBs, flashing beacons, or other in-roadway warning lights to improve the visibility of the crosswalk.

We are supportive of that at the staff level.

Um804 would require EVs to pay an additional 250 dollar fee at registration and at each subsequent renewal.

All the fees collected from EV registrations will be deposited into the state transportation trust fund.

I think the intention behind that is to supplement the revenue that's being lost related to the gas tax.

Um there are some there's a proposed change in a bill in both the House and Senate for transportation network companies, i.e.

Uber and Lyft.

Uh those drivers would now be required to cover to retain insurance coverage based on whether they're operating and there's a passenger in the vehicle or not in the vehicle at the time.

That could significantly reduce the number of Uber and Lyft drivers that are circulating in our area.

Um the required insurance for a driver when a passenger is in the vehicle is minimum one million dollar liability coverage.

HB 519 relates to golf cart crossings with this bill.

If it's passed, golf carts would be allowed to cross a highway of five or more lanes at signalized intersections, provided that the speed on the road is 35 miles per hour or less.

And lastly, I'll skip that one.

Uh lastly, there is a bill in the House with a match in the Senate for TOD policies, transit oriented development act.

If this bill passes, it would require mixed-use zoning within certain designated areas identified as TOD, and it would prohibit local governments from imposing restrictions within those areas related to zoning items like setbacks.

Uh, this isn't my area of expertise exactly, so if you'd like to delve into that more, I'd defer to Melissa Zoranita or someone else.

But that is my update on the legislative bills in session.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Wong.

Any com questions for Dr.

Wong concerning either of those items?

I would like to encourage um you, if possible, and we don't have the Sun Coast League of Cities meeting scheduled yet, working on that, but um I would encourage you to uh to try to attend that if you can.

Um because anything that's given to the small cities in terms of representation, it's it affects the larger entities too.

So, Commissioner?

Yeah, I just wanted to comment that since that other meeting was canceled.

We you know, a lot of us did have that on that February 3rd meeting on our calendars.

So maybe if you are able to do the Suncoast meeting then, we'll we'll actually have some availability and know that in advance.

That's a good point.

Yeah, that's a good point.

Obviously, it was on my calendar, so that works for me too.

So any other comments, questions concerning anything.

Thank you, Dr.

Wong.

May I ask the the board to entertain uh a motion to cancel the special meeting?

Second.

We have uh motion by board member uh Joseph, seconded by Commissioner Wastel.

Uh any discussion?

If not, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed, no nay.

Most popular vote of the year right there, right?

I saw how quickly you jumped on that one.

Let's see you in June.

Anything else, Walker?

That's it.

Okay.

Uh board members, any old business or new business to come before the board.

Can I just ask a quick quick question?

Any word from Waymo as to how they're doing Councilman, no, I haven't heard from Waymo since November.

Um as you recall, we met with them.

I'm looking to schedule a presentation from their Southeast Director of Operations for this coming month.

So on February eleventh, we're gonna get uh provided that their schedule allows, we'll have an update from them.

Thank you.

If I could add something to that, I I actually spoke to them.

They're in this kind of data collection phase right now, so they're just trying to learn the system with the vehicles.

Councilman Carlson, I have um county government affairs working on connecting me to cyber taxi.

I'm happy to include you in any conversations about their announcement to come to Florida.

Thank you.

Any other old business or new business?

If there's nothing, we will stand adjourned.

Thank you, everybody.