MPO Technical Committee Meeting   12/10/2024

All right, I'll call us to order and ask that we take attendance.

Present.

Ben Chambers?

Present.

Rory Stolzenberg?

Present.

Alberic Karina-Plun?

Here.

Luis Carrazana?

Charles Proctor?

Here.

Chuck, would you please state the reason?

I'm teleworking today, and so that's why I'm not at the meeting.

Thank you.

All right.

Just as a point of order, we actually need to take action to allow electronic permits.

Mitch is voting.

Yes.

Ready?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right, Mitch, welcome to the floor.

Appreciate it.

All right, acceptance of the agenda.

The agenda has to be amended because we have a

OK, so a motion to approve the agenda as amended to include the 5310 discussion.

Second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

All right, this is our agenda.

5310 discussion added.

Can I get a motion to approve the meeting minutes from October?

Second?

All in favor of the meeting minutes from October, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

All right, those are our meeting minutes.

New business choreography, going to take us into performance safety targets.

A lot of you are familiar with the Performance Safety Targets.

We have adopted them in the past.

Just want to say this is a federally mandated process.

From the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act was known as MAP-21, was enacted in 2016.

It established a framework for national transportation performance goals.

These national targets are set by the US Secretary of Transportation.

They define the overarching safety objectives for a nation transportation system.

The targets filter down to the states which develop their own targets and finally to MPOs which are which are tasked with adopting targets in support of the statewide targets.

The primary reason why we adopt safety targets is to comply with the federal funding requirements.

MPOs are not

directly held accountable for meeting the targets.

The responsibility lies with the states, but our targets are meant to assist the state in achieving its goals.

Every four years we review the state safety performance targets comprehensively and annually we adopt our own targets to align with these efforts.

The state provides us with valuable data and tools to help determine our regional targets

which we're gonna look at in one of the next slides.

So historically the same MPO adopted the state targets.

However, in 2023, they took a different approach by adopting alternative targets.

And in 2024, they transitioned to aspirational targets aligned with the comprehensive safety action plan.

Today we need to consider which targets will serve the Charlottesville Albemarle region for the upcoming year.

You mentioned that every 40 years we comprehensively look through these state targets and provide recommendations.

Thank you.

So you can see the data here.

This was provided from the state.

It's to illustrate the safety targets.

We have recent trend line and long-term trend line projections.

When we establish safety targets, we focus on three key metrics, the number of fatalities, the number of serious injuries,

and the number of non-modernized fatalities and serious injuries.

Regardless of which targets we choose to adopt, we should remain fully committed to improving safety for everyone who uses the transportation system.

It's important to recognize, yeah, that's great.

It's important to recognize that some state-level targets may show increase in the number of fatalities or serious injuries.

This is because the targets are data-driven and reflect actual trends which sometimes project increases.

In such cases, the goal shifts to minimizing the rate of increase rather than achieving an immediate reduction.

This may seem continuity,

but it underscores the importance of using data to inform our strategies.

So the state has given us several options for establishing safety targets which are reflected in the chart before you.

These options include adopting the state targets which assume no change in the rates of fatalities and serious injuries or motorized fatalities and injuries

Alternatively, we could look at the targets on the regional trends, either the recent or long-term trend lines.

The recent trend line shows a significant increase in fatalities and serious injuries, while the long-term trend line indicates a smaller increase in fatalities and a slight decrease in serious injuries.

Different just highlights how short-term data can sometimes

deviate from the long-term patterns.

And then the, finally, or the first column is the aspirational targets that align with the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan and the statewide goal of reducing fatalities by 50% by 2045.

This translates to approximately 2% annual reduction in fatalities and serious injuries.

So on this slide there's a detailed summary of the difference between what was adopted by the MPO in 2024 versus the projections for 2025 based on the aspirational targets.

For 2024 we have 11 fatalities, for 2025 we have

wealth fatalities.

So the slight increase reflects updated regional crash data and trends, while the aspirational goal tends to reduce fatalities by 2% annually.

The baseline data for 2025 includes recent short-term trends that indicate a higher starting point for the projections.

Another key factor to look at is the serious injury rate.

So even though fatalities have increased, the serious injury rate has decreased.

This reflects improvements in the rate of serious injuries relative to the vehicle miles traveled.

Even though the total number is projected to increase, it demonstrates incremental progress in safety relative to the amount of travel.

And then I would like to talk about the non-motorized

and serious injuries.

There is an increase in 2025 versus 2024.

The reason is that this reflects the challenges in reducing incidents involving pedestrians and cyclists.

The category is disproportionate, increasing in recent years, necessitating a higher baseline.

for the 2025 targets.

With that, I'm going to end the presentation.

All right.

Any discussion on this?

Thank you.

I think last year we adopted the lower targets for the first time.

I agree we should continue with the aspirational targets.

I think it's in line with the targets that we have set with city council as well.

So that makes sense for us.

Can I hear a motion to recommend this to the policy board?

So moved.

Second.

All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Abstentions?

All right.

We have a recommendation.

Thank you.

All right.

We can move along to Lucinda.

Yeah.

Oh, the TIP adjustment.

I do.

So yeah, basically you guys don't have to vote on it.

The policy board doesn't have to vote on it.

And there was, Sandy, do you remember what it was for?

Oh yeah, you guys.

The city took a while to do some projects and the federal funding was reduced.

And so we increased the state funding for it.

needed to be updated in the transportation improvement plan.

So in your packet, there's a memo with the adjusted table.

And there's no need to make a motion.

Cool.

And you can also follow that with the 5310 session.

So we have a mobility management program.

This is the end of the first year and it's starting in second year.

It's called PATH and it helps people with older adults and people with disabilities get rides.

We found that a lot need rides to medical appointments and things like that.

So we have a call center and we're working to partner with some

volunteer driver agencies to kind of fill in the gap.

We always refer to CAT first and then Jaunt and then kind of keep going down the line to find something that meets their needs.

And so this is to apply for, this is for the commission to approve us applying for a fiscal year 2020-7 grant to continue the program.

It's before you because part of the grant application requires us to notify the policy board.

So it's going before the policy board and their next meeting as a notification.

Any questions on how does the program work?

So we have a website and we have an 800 number and you can call or visit the website.

And we have transportation counselors who will walk you through like what your options are.

They often can like kind of help

You get through the system.

For example, if you're qualified for Medicare transportation, they'll work with you on getting that.

Sometimes your insurance will pay for the transportation to doctor's visits and you don't know about it.

They'll figure out if you can apply for that and help you with the application.

They walk you through the ADA application if you live in the city and you are not able to use CAT because of a disability.

They'll help you get into the Jaunt program.

So they just kind of provide like information, but they like walk you through the whole thing.

And also like last week, Sarah went out and rode the bus with somebody.

How do they know to look up that website?

15310 funding, sorry to interrupt you, is specifically designed for seniors and people with disabilities.

While they'll answer calls from the general public, it is targeted towards those populations.

Yeah, so part of our marketing program is that we work with service providers who work with people with disabilities or older adults, so like Java.

They know all about us.

We go to some of their staff meetings and we remind their counselors that we're available and they can refer people to us.

The Blue Ridge Health District is aware of us.

We go to all of the IAC meetings, which are the Rural Interagency Council meetings, and we give presentations asking them to refer people to us.

We also work with the Food Bank Network

and the Charlotte Spillery Development and Housing and Blurring.

Awesome.

Perfect.

So as this group likely knows, we applied in 2023 for a RAISE grant.

It was scored a project of merit, which means it's automatically advanced to the second round of review.

In the debrief from that year when we learned that we were not awarded the funding, they said it continues to be a highly competitive application.

Please continue to submit it.

There's just not enough funding, very competitive national program.

We submitted it in 2024, nearly the same application with a couple of revisions.

It was scored as a recommended project.

We were about a point shy of project of merit in asking the debrief team what is the difference.

She said it's a different review committee.

Literally one point can be the subjectivity of the team.

They did say it's still a very competitive grant.

They recommended that we continue to pursue it, so we are looking to submit a 2025 RAISE grant.

We are working now both with VDOT and some other partners to bolster some of the data in the economic development section to see if we can bump the score in one of those areas, but we are really hopeful that third time is a charm, but we would like to resubmit this and have asked for both City Council, Board of Supervisors, Albemarle, we're going to ask the MPO and the TJPDC, as well as several other partners that supported the project in the last application,

to give support this time so we could resubmit by January 30th of 2025.

The city manager did.

Correct.

It was the board of supervisors for Albemarle as a city manager for city.

And then we also got

Warner and Kane and Piedmont Environmental.

Just a question.

I'm tired of arguing about the alignments.

I'm not going to talk about that.

Yeah, that makes sense.

We spent so much money on other properties, like one that would be straight to this bridge.

But I, as I recall, also there was part of the region that sort of fizzled out on the local land or on the DRPT end,

was that there was uncertainty about the zoning and it didn't really make a lot of sense to do, say, math and studies before we had a new zoning.

No, we'd still be partnering with VDOT.

We'd still the PC being administering the project.

We've had a lot of behind the scenes conversations on what VDOT is authorized to do under this IHAA.

So we would still be the applicant.

We can note that we are seeking the Board of Supervisors for another resolution of support.

I expect that they will continue to support it.

We appreciate that the FBO is continuing to pursue this project.

I'm sorry, one more question.

With the new SMART SCALE rules, let's assume we got the grant, did preliminary engineering, submitted it, wanted to submit it.

It's complicated.

It would be eligible for locality application.

There's a question about whether or not it would be eligible as an MPO application with the new guidelines so you know Chuck feel free to jump in if I missed anything but it did go through a planning process that should qualify it under the like not any of the other high priority programs but as like a project that was identified as part of a study that followed the guidelines that VDOT has said I think the real question is whether or not it meets the regional

But it would be eligible for district grant?

I guess, so if we have to move forward as far as the localities application, I guess that kind of raises the question for me of why is the locality not going after for this program?

Why are we going after it?

through an MPO.

Okay, cool.

Okay, cool.

All right.

Any other discussion on this one?

I have a motion to provide a recommendation to the policy board that would be afforded with this grant application.

So, we'll get a second.

All opposed?

Any abstentions?

All abstained.

All right, one abstention.

I'm sorry, who was that?

I guess we have a resolution.

Next update is on Safe Streets for All.

Yep, thank you.

So in the past, I've provided just a general update of the program, but this is more of a formal presentation.

Before I begin, I just wanted to say thank you to all of your support for this project, because it is of very important significance to everybody that uses any type of transportation in our region.

With that being said, this is a regional project within the Township and Planning District Commission region.

Albemarle Charlottesville are obviously included there.

So I'm gonna just talk about specifically about those counties and what we have done since the beginning of the grant.

So this grant comes from the Safe Streets and Roads for All program.

This is from the United States Department of Transportation, National Roadway Strategy.

This long-term

Initiative is to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries by zero using a safe system approach.

The crash data that we gather from this project is from 2018 to 2022.

The data comes from VDOT and it's based on 13 identified emphasis areas like roadway fit, I mean,

young drivers, impaired driving, motorcycles.

And then we included two new emphasis areas for this project, which is work zones and farm vehicles.

Next slide, please.

I want to discuss a little bit in details about the emphasis areas.

So these are the factors that are contributing for the roadway fatalities and serious injuries.

But it's important to know that they correspond with each other.

And what that means is that, for example, if somebody was driving under the influence, was not wearing a seatbelt and had a roadway departure, they would fall in all three categories when that crash data is collected from the scene.

I'd also like to mention that a subcategory for impaired driving is

talking on the phone and texting as well or distracted driving.

Next slide please.

So this comprehensive safety action plan includes several components to which we are committed.

These are strong leadership commitment, an oversight group for development and monitoring, safety analysis, active public and stakeholder engagement,

and an inclusive planning process.

We also prioritize evaluating processes and policies, identifying key projects and strategies to ensure continuous improvement.

Just a little bit about the funding of the project.

So the total funding is a little bit over a million dollars.

About 857 come from the

Federal Highway Administration, and about 214 come from the local match from the six jurisdictions.

This supports various regional components assessed on per capita basis.

This ensures equitable distribution aligned with each jurisdiction scope of work.

Just a little bit about Albemarle and Charlottesville.

For Albemarle, the specific component is 84,000 from which 33 are for public engagement, while Charlottesville has 205 from which 121 is estimated for a charrette and project design demo that we recently started working on.

So I am not exactly sure about the exact number, but I can definitely find the detail for you and provide it by email.

Thanks.

So the solutions for this safety action player are integrated across the 4Es system.

We chose these 4Es to design safer facilities for all road users.

through engineering, building a culture of traffic safety through education, reinforcing safe travel behavior through enforcement, and saving lives through emergency response.

Next slide.

The process overview is divided into four steps.

The first step is identifying issues and opportunities, which during the spring of this year, we completed this step through extensive public engagement.

We conducted a survey that allowed residents to share their specific transportation safety concerns on the roads that they use.

Step two consisted of attending and gathering data from site visits in each jurisdictions.

We completed this step in September and now we are asking the public for feedback once more.

That is step three, which consists of the development of the targeted safety strategies based on the identified priorities that we gather from the site visits.

All this was done in collaboration with the jurisdictions, who I want to say thank you to because some of them did come out on the site visits and share their concerns within their locality.

So these three strategies will serve as a foundation for the final step, which is the development of the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, which

is gonna be done in spring of 2025.

Next slide.

So addition to the survey, we held six in-person public meetings, one in each jurisdiction and one virtual public meeting for all jurisdictions.

We organized 21 pop-up events across jurisdictions.

And then the site visits that I talked about

I just want to mention about the site visits.

The data we collected from those site visits were based on the high injury network.

I'm not going to stay long on the survey responses.

They're included in the packet for your reference if you want to look into detail, but some key takeaways are that over 60% of responses this year strongly disagree

that people drive safely in the region.

I would like to mention that during the Governor's Transportation Conference, on a lot of the presentations, a lot of presenters emphasized that driver behavior is a major issue across the state.

We can move to, all the way works fine.

All right, thank you.

We're now in round two of public engagement, which we are wrapping up.

This was based on the data that we gathered from the site visits.

We took the data to identify potential solutions.

And now we're seeking the public for feedback once more, but this time is what are the type of projects they think will help improve safety in the community.

The feedback is gathered again through a survey, which is currently active.

The original end date of the survey was December 6th, but we chose to extend it yesterday to December 14th.

So after the meeting, I will provide the link to the survey

And I encourage all of you to take it and share it with anybody that you know that uses our roads.

We also conducted pop-up events across the jurisdiction.

So roughly about two events per jurisdiction from November 11th to November 23rd.

And then we have two virtual public meetings scheduled for December 11th.

That's the error on my part in my presentation says December 12th.

It's December 11th.

One is at 10 a.m.

The other one is at 5 p.m.

I can also provide a link or a Zoom registration if you'd like to attend these meetings.

And then the final piece is the coordination of the project demo and shred for the ship City of Charlottesville.

We will be gathering the focused feedback from the public on a few solutions and then implement those solutions on a couple of intersection in the city, then gather feedback to see if the solutions are working or not.

This will serve as an example for future types of implementation projects that will be available for funding in the implementation stage of the SSRA federal grant.

Next slide, please.

Just one.

So I will talk about the high injury network methodology.

defined based on communication with each jurisdiction separately.

But just wanted to mention that how that was defined in this case was that road segments were divided into 0.1 mile segments disproportionately with a high number of severe crashes.

The project team met with staff from each of the jurisdictions to discuss the potential thresholds.

So the Charlottesville and Albemarle crash data were evaluated independently from each other.

As a reference in our region, 70% of fatal and serious injury crashes occurred just on 6% of the road.

The analysis breaks down roadway into 0.1 mile segments and we use the sliding window analysis that evaluates 0.5 mile segments to assess the crash data.

Thank you.

Being in transportation, everybody's familiar with the 2KA and 3KA

terms for crashes and serious injuries.

This is used to classify the severity of the crashes in the hindering network.

What they generally mean is that 2K-A crashes stands case for fatal and A for severe injury that involve at least two or more crashes within segments.

This represents a broader, more inclusive network where more crashes are counted.

and then 3KA, which is fatal and severe injury crashes.

This one limits the focus on more crashes within the segment.

This represents a more narrowly defined network focusing on areas with higher concentration of severe crashes.

The same goes for 2KAB and 3KAB, but in the case that B stands for minor injuries.

With this being said, 3K is a smaller subset of high injury areas, including more precise location with very frequent severe crashes, while 2K-A is a broader set of locations with slightly less stringent crash frequency criteria.

For this project, the high injury network is used to guide and prioritize strategic safety recommendations on the map

There is segments with 2KAs and 3KAs, but what is red stands for 3KAs and what is yellow stands for.

So basically what I'm trying to say is that 3KA used to be 2KA and then it turned into 3KA based on more crashes in that area.

and in the short term they overlap.

I just want to look at some examples for the Albemarle County.

So 3KA in Albemarle County covers 3% of the road but contributes for 47% of the crashes and then the 2KA covers 7% of the road and

contributed for 72% of the crashes.

For the city of Charlottesville, we chose, with the jurisdiction, we chose 2K and 3KAB, which covers, 2K covers 14% of the roadway, but contributes for 77% of the crashes, and 3KAB covers 70% of the road, but contributes for 80% of the crashes,

As you can see just from this data, the crashes are very condensed on specific roads and areas.

Next slide, please.

I'll talk about just the plan development and engagement that we're using for this plan.

We have four segments of plan development in which we're collecting analyzing data.

conducting site visits and developing countermeasures.

We're prioritizing strategies and projects that will lead to the development of the Comprehensive Safety Action Plan.

These four segments are supported by three rounds of public engagement, where we ask feedback from various groups of people, including the public and the jurisdictional leadership.

That's the end of my presentation.

Can you go back to the slide about, it was like the 0.1 mile segments and it had like the five gray lines.

This was defined based on the meetings that we had with each jurisdiction.

Is every green line a jurisdiction?

So if you look at the 0.3, it's going to go all the way down from 0 to 0.8.

OK, that makes sense.

Thanks.

And so what they're showing on the maps following this are these 0.1 mile segments have two incidents, such as someone killed or seriously injured, or three, that's only 2K.

OK, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

Any other questions, concerns, comments on this topic?

I don't care.

It doesn't matter.

I mean, I can do it or you can do it.

Okay.

So, first of all, we've been talking about the STARS and pipeline studies.

There are a couple of things about those.

We have the kickoff meeting with the city of Charlottesville and members of the MBO stakeholders Monday.

So that project is now officially kicked off and underway.

And then we'll be having the kickoff meeting for the two

for the two STARR studies on the US 29 corridor that we're at least kicking off in tandem and then we'll see how those projects scheduled to work out.

But we'll be having that stakeholder meeting on Friday for the project kickoff.

And then as far as pipeline studies, there's some meetings that are being scheduled by 1B with the construction districts and the CTB members to

brings the CTB members on the pipeline studies within each of the construction districts and then the CTB will be formally voting in their meeting on January on approval of funding for the pipeline projects and the pipeline project locations.

So just as a reminder that there are two pipeline study locations that are proposed within the MPO boundaries.

The first one is looking at US 29, predominantly at the I-64 accessibility

on at least the Fontaine interchange just to make sure that we're considering impacts on any interchanges related to that project.

And then also, assuming that we do not hear good news about the history of DDI, we'll be doing a reassessment of the history of DDI project and include the fifth street station intersection as well as part of that pipeline study.

And then updates for SMART SCALE round six.

All of the cost estimates for the projects have been finalized.

We are in the process of validating the scores.

Some of the scoring is not quite completed, but we're working on those as the scores are available for us to review.

And the staff recommended list of projects to be funded should be shared at the January CT.

I covered it.

I don't know.

Like mid to late.

So can you just refresh me on what the goal is for the Ridge Maine STAR Study?

Well, I mean, we've identified the project jointly with the study.

I just checked CTB's schedule.

Here to the round table updates.

Would you like to take us off?

We're starting to plan for mobility summit next year.

We're hoping to have it be with some three knocks trail.

Can you all just speak up a little bit?

PDC is doing the mobility summit and with county support, density support, and we hope for this summit to have some programming about the three notch trail that has been partially funded through the planning process through the race grant.

At the end of November just completed the statewide campaign of Connecting Communities, which the state did a lot of advertising about, and we also did some local ads for.

We are also

Reviewing the draft of the CAP strategic plan.

We'll probably be looking maybe for some feedback from this group on that draft, looking to hopefully have it adopted around February.

And then of course, the DRPT annual application process applications were just released last week.

Yeah, let me pull them up here.

It was already mentioned that our grant cycle did just open up, so I don't need to mention that again.

As many of you know, we have a new director, Tiffany Robinson, as of November, so she's kind of taken on the full executive role of our agency moving forward.

We already had our 5310 pre-application webinar so those presentation slides are available online as well if anyone is interested.

As along with our transit grant cycle there's also a rail application cycle and those are open for the same time frame as well so if anyone's interested you can reach out to Linda Balderson and I can give that to anyone who's interested as well.

On that note, on good news on the rail, Virginia won three CRACIE grants, which is Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement grant.

And so which is great.

And kind of a high level overview is the Piedmont subdivision tire replacement program that impacts Charlottesville and the Buckingham branch, just to the east of you guys.

and that's 83 miles of track improvements.

Bedford, Virginia won one part of another CRISI grant for more preliminary engineering and NEPA phases of their potential stop.

And then Staples Mill also won a grant as well and that's through VPRA.

So positive news there.

And then also if there's any

FY24, 53 or 3 contract extensions that need to get in, let me know ASAP so I can get moving on those and so you guys can keep the money flowing.

All right.

Thank you, Mitch.

Nobody from FHWA today, nobody from FTA today.

The one from CAD.

Jaunt.

The one from the EPA.

All right, I will wrap this up.

I've got sort of two big things happening in the city and maybe Tom and Kelly can throw in gaps that I have currently in budget cycle, just like everybody else.

We have our budget forum with the community at Carver Rec on Thursday night after the regional transit partnership.

So if you're awake and alive and want to know what we're spending money on in the city, please join us at Carver Rec at six o'clock.

And then the other big thing on my to-do list this week and next is we are going for city council and board of supervisors to get CARTA set up and get the county and the city as initial members.

So that's been a project long time coming and I'm excited to see that one through.

I'll just say that the draft of parks and rec master plan is also going to be the same day on 16th, and they're having an open house with the public on the 17th at 6 p.m. at Carter Rec Center.

Awesome.

What else do I add on the budget?

and then we're going before city council on Monday.