Denver County Local Coordinating Council, March 16, 2022

Denver County Local Coordinating Council, March 16, 2022; 9-10 AM via Zoom

 

DRCOG Senior Transportation -Travis Noon

  • DRCOG receives three types of funding for seniors and funds a variety of subrecipients that operate throughout the Denver metro area.
  • In 2019, they provided 117,181 trips and served 3,899 clients
  • In SFY2021, they provided 46,784 traditional trips (34,247 trips were COVID Related Services), 12,332 were provided with HopSkipDrive, and 91 trips were via Uber; serving a total of 4,087 clients
    • Provided discount and Access-A-Ride tickets through DRCOG, Senior Support Services, and Southwest Improvement council
  • Ridership in SFY2022 is increasing back to pre-pandemic ridership
  • Providers report consistent struggles to recruit and retain drivers, theft of catalytic converters, raising gas prices will impact costs, and pending fiscal cliff in SFY 2025

CDOT Bustang Pegasus – Mike Timlin

  • Bustang Suite of Services:
    • Bustang serves the I-70 and I-25 corridors
    • Bustang Outrider serves rural routes throughout the state
    • Snowstang serves ski resorts in winter months including Loveland Ski Area, Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain, and Steamboat Springs
    • Other specialty services include Estes Park in the summer, Bustang to Broncos and RamsRoute from CSU to Denver
  • Bustang Pegasus uses fully accessible vans that can travel in the MEXL lanes in clear Creek County.
    • This service does not require CDL drivers to operate and has a fare of $0.20 per mile, (Denver to Vail costs $20).
    • Pegasus Phase I launches April 29th with frequent near hourly express departures bi-directionally with weekend service increasing to daily Summer 2022 and then again during the Christmas/New Year’s holidays.
    • Focuses on recreation/leisure traffic and GHG mitigation between Avon and Denver
    • Phase II will launch in mid to late 2023 (coordinated with the Floyd Hill-Veterans Memorial Tunnel construction)
      • 12-15 trips per day with more locally focuses stops with Vail/Avon, Keystone, A-Basin, Breckenridge, and Winter Park

Legislative Update – 15 minutes Jaime Lewis

  • HB22-1114: Using Medicaid dollars for non-medical transports through on demand services like Uber/Lyft. Similarly, RTD is trying to use TNC’s for Access-a-Ride trips.
  • SB260 (past last year): Deliveries will have a 27-cent charge.
    • Implement charging deliveries in the fall. This revenue will be divided up amongst these Enterprises. Should have their 10-year plan in place by June 1st.  Colorado Energy Office
  • Community Access Enterprise: Ensuring that electric charging stations are distributed throughout the state
  • Clean Fleet Enterprise: Business and government fleets
    • Transit systems like RTD
  • HB1028: Intersection right-a-way for bicycles. Bikes would need to stop at traffic lights but can proceed if they think it is safe to move.
    • When approaching a stop sign, if it is safe to proceed, the person may, after slowing to a reasonable speed of 15 miles per hour or less, or 10 or 20 miles per hour or less if so specified by municipality or county for a particular intersection and marked with appropriate signage, and yielding the right-of-way to any traffic or pedestrian in or approaching the intersection, continue through the intersection without stopping; and
    • When approaching an illuminated red traffic control signal, the person must first stop at the intersection and yield to all other traffic and pedestrians and then, when safe to do so, may proceed straight or make a right turn through the intersection or, subject to specified conditions, make a left turn onto a one-way street only
  • Michael Davies discussed some legislative updates from RTD including:
    • RTD is tracking and participating in the effort for potential state legislation to provide funding for fare-free transit to promote improved air quality
    • RTD Board took a support position on HB22-1026
    • At the Federal level, Congress passed an Omnibus Appropriations bill that will unlock funding authorized in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
    • Also included in the Omnibus bill was language and funding that allows for the return of RTD’s security deposit on a low-interest federal loan that was repaid in 2014.

Roundtable Discussion

  • David said that the 16th Street Mall reconstruction will be occurring soon; CCD is applying for a TIP grant to complete the construction of the Colfax BRT.
  • Coleen announced that DRMAC is hosting the Regional Coordinating Council on Tuesday, April 5th, 2022, from 1:30pm to 3:00pm via Zoom; rsvp to dcastro@drmac-co.org.

 

Next meeting: Wednesday, April 20th, 2022 via Zoom