Broomfield LCC, March 11^th, 2022

Stephanie O’Neill reported that DRMAC will be hosting a training on Older Adult Scam Prevention on April 5^th from 130-3pm via Zoom. To register for the training, visit https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUsceGhqT8qGtc1RxN1PnttDL88phGxMuDT

Teague Kirkpatrick went to the South West Transit Association (SWATA) transit conference and mentioned that there was a lot of conversation surrounding the driver shortages everywhere and service reevaluations; how do we want to do service with ridership being low? Some networks heavily relied on commuting and with the pandemic and everyone working from home, those numbers are much lower.

Sarah Grant reported that Broomfield provided a lot of feedback surrounding RTD service in the Broomfield area and they are waiting for a response on the feedback. DRCOG also submitted comments and feedback on equity.

Broomfield Easy Ride is hoping to get some more drivers on their team

The next meeting will be Friday, April 8^th from 9:30-11:30am via Google Meet

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 29^th 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 16^th 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

Boulder Mobility and Access Coalition (MAC), February, 14, 2022

Partner Updates:

• DRMAC Getting There Travel Training Program, Stephanie O’Neill
  • Sign up for DRMAC’s Getting There Travel Training program to learn how to ride transit. Individuals can sign up on www.drmac-co.org and click “learn to ride” to register for sessions. Organizations and agencies can schedule trainings for their teams or clients by emailing info@drmac-co.org. All sessions are free and virtual. If you complete all 4 sessions you will receive a free RTD ticket.

• RTD Service Changes, Brandon Figliolino and Nataly Handlos
  • Riders must wear face coverings through March 18, 2022. RTD will be starting the Fare Study and Equity analysis. RTD just hired their first outreach coordinator for individuals experiencing homelessness. RTD is still operating under their pandemic level of service but ridership is slowly increasing since the start of the pandemic. May 29^th, 2022, is when service changes will go into effect. They will take comments at any time.

• BCHA EcoPass Program, Chloe Grant
  • Boulder County Housing Authority is expanding from the 200 Kestrel units and will be adding 632 BCHA units into their EcoPass program. Nederland and Lyons are not included in this contract because they’re already included in other community-wide programs

Chris Akers, State Demography Office, 2020 Census

• The population is growing at a slowing rate and Colorado has seen a 14% population change (increase) since 2010- 744,500 people. Colorado has gained an 8^th congressional seat. The population only increased 0.5% from 2020-2021 in Colorado. There have been 126,000 fewer housing units built this decade.

2022 MAC Work Plan

• Angel Bond gave an overview of the 2022 MAC Work Plan and discussed what would be happening at each stage.

The next MAC meeting will be March 11^th, 2022 at 2pm.