A humble midwestern basketball junkie with high expectations riding on her shoulders, Rose balances her commitments to Team USA, competing as a student-athlete, and finishing her schooling to become a first-generation college graduate.
Denver County Local Coordinating Council
August 18, 2021; 9-10 AM
Zoom Meeting
Attendance:
Carol Buchanan – DRMAC, Kenna Davis – DRMAC TATF, Julia Wcislo – CDOT, Matthew Helfant – DRCOG, David Krutsinger – DOTI, Mayra Gonzales – Montbello Organizing Committee, Mike Hughes-West Corridor, Moira Moon – CDOT, Robbie Roppolo – Atlantis Community, Michael Davies – RTD, Steve Martingano – RTD, Cooper Langdon -RTD, Saidel Sobrevilla – Transdev/IntelliRide, Julie Skeen-CIG, Bill Sirois- RTD, Jake Swanton – Lyft, Jeff Prillwitz-CDOT, Christian Steward – DOTI, Cheryl Webb- RTD
Welcome and Introductions
- Due to the full agenda, attendees were invited to put their names and organizations in the Chat. All were reminded of the need for additional steering committee members to plan and lead the LCC.
Presentation: Reimagine RTD- Julie Skeen, CIG and Bill Sirois, RTD
- Two-year process to answer “what’s next” for RTD
- System Optimization plan (SOP)
- Redesign RTD’s services to balance mobility needs and fiscal limitations
- Initial SOP implementation took place with adoption of January 2021 runboard
- Rebuilding service working group established to provide input to RTD on performance measures, metrics, indicators, and milestones
- Mobility Plan for The Future
- Identify long-term strategies (i.e., between now and 2050) to address region’s future mobility needs
- Utilize an existing event to include travel training
- Guiding Principles
- Mobility
- Equity
- Financial
- Partnerships
- Workforce
- Sustainability
- Discussion:
- Colorado Center for the Blind – needing better announcement systems on buses
- DPS transportation cuts – DPS is facing a driver shortage (along with RTD); RTD does have continuous conversations with DPS
- Service loop with fare changes and service changes – better messaging to the public.
- Access-a-Ride messaging – utilizing partnerships (i.e. DRMAC), letting people know its available
- Next Steps
- Modeling Results will be used to evaluate strategies – October 2021
- Public Engagement
- Late summer – continue to identify strategies
- Winter – provide feedback on draft recommended strategies
- Contact information: julie@cig-pr.com
Presentation: RTD Accountability Committee- Matthew Helfant, DRCOG
- Established 3 subcommittees: Governance, Finance, Operations
- Recommendations sent to RTD for response included:
- Federal COVID Funds – RTD should use a portion of these funds to restore transit services, attract new and returning riders, and help the agency recover from the COVIC 19 pandemic
- Improve operator retention
- Subregional Service Councils – Implement the use of subregional service councils to create a more collaborative decision-making structure to increase input from local communities
- Make changes to fares and pass programs to better serve equity populations and streamline/simplify pass structures
- Improve service delivery focusing on the needs of frequent transit users and diverse mobility options
- NW Rail and unfinished Fast Tracks
- Support the NW rail alignment for the FRPR corridor and pursue all reasonable partnerships with the FRPR project
- Perform a complete and comprehensive analysis of the NW rail project to establish a common set of assumptions needed for dialogue in the region
- Emphasize partnerships with local govts, anchor institutions, TMOs, and employers
- Greater transparency in reporting
- Apply an equity lens
Sun Valley Travel Training
- Impact of COVIC and Delta variant creates need to “pause” on any in person events with possibly the exception of outside events.
- Possible outdoor events include West Corridor E-bike events and September 18th West Area bike event being planned by Eugene Howard with the City and County of Denver.
2021 Goals – Partner with Montbello to encourage youth transit ridership
Mayra reported plans for the August 27th Walkable Loop event continue and invited participation from DCLCC members.
Next meeting: September 15, 2021 at 9am, Zoom Meeting
Community Active Living Coalition (CALC), August 11, 2021 via Zoom
Updates of note:
- The CALC scholarship program is still going on. Applicants can visit https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvHCwmE609r0VyQlZhJXJlGDhF5r6q3KzP1i9NBDUOvNgPNA/viewform to apply.
- There are 2 more community markers at Athmar Park Library for 2021.
- CALC has started their next round of microgrant program. Information can be found here https://www.denvercalc.org/microgrants
- Denver Streets Partners is running a sidewalks campaign to give sidewalk access to everyone. Currently the maintenance of sidewalks rests upon owners of the residences behind them.
- Montbello Organizing Committee- The last of Summer of the Walkable Loop will be on August 27th and they will be riding the whole 6 mile loop. If anyone is interesting in tabling at the event, contact Mayra Gonzalez at gonzales@montbelloorganizing.org.
Those who were awarded the microgrant from the last CALC meeting reported on their projects. One recipient hosted a Zumbathon event and has since hosted Zumba at all the Summer of the Walkable Loop events. Another noticed that the kids weren’t super engaged while parents were doing Zumba, so they brought toys and games for them to play with. Additional conversation from previous Microgrant recipients continued surrounding any challenges they’ve encountered, whether the funding was enough, and what their favorite part was.
The next meeting will be on October 13th, 2021 from 5:30-6:30pm.
Mobility and Access Coalition (MAC) Boulder, August 9, 2021 via Zoom
Updates of note:
- A new youth transportation resource was presented by Cammie Piller Edson. It is a one-page guide to all transportation options available to youth in Boulder County. Any suggestions can be sent to cedson@bouldercounty.org.
- State Highway 119 Bikeway Public Meeting, Angel Bond- There is a goal to get a bikeway on State Highway 119 like the one on 36 so there is a safe and direct place for folks to ride bikes. A presentation on conceptual design will be held on August 30th from 5:30-7:00pm. It will primarily be in English, but there will be a simultaneous Spanish translation via Zoom.
- The Center for People with Disabilities is ending their home healthcare program on October 26th, 2021. They will work with individuals to make sure their care and needs are continued to be met.
Other updates included those for the Mountain Mobility Working Group and the MAC Redesign Timeline.
Gabe Christie, RTD ADA Manager, and Jan Rowe, CDOT Region 4 Transit Liaison, introduced themselves to the group.
Presentation: Bustang and Outrider, Kyle French and Brandon Najdovsk, CDOT Operations
- There will be 4 new Outrider routes arriving in 2021. The newest route is to Estes from Union Station, Westminster, Boulder, and Lyons ($5 each direction). If you take this route, you do not need a timed reservation pass to get into Rocky Mountain National Park. Masabi mobile ticketing is now active with Bustang and Outrider. They are bringing back the Bustang to Broncos service and the Snowstang service for the 2021-2022 snow season. Additionally, a new I70 shuttle service called Pegasus will be introduced. These vehicles are shorter, giving them the ability to travel in the express lanes. The expected launch is late December 2021-January 2022.
Coalition members were assigned to breakout groups to brainstorm ideas on how to address driver recruitment, retention, and recognition. We discussed if there were any steps the MAC could take to help providers address driver shortages.
The next meeting will be on Monday, September 13th from 2:00-4:00pm.
The air has been on a lot of our minds this week. While it may be easy to simply blame our current air quality on wildfires, the truth is that these fires have become more prevalent as California’s climate has shifted to a drought condition. Without change, smoky skies may become the norm in the mountain west. In Denver, this pollution is exacerbated by ozone particles worsened by traffic. We seem to be stuck in a loop and it can be hard to see the best path forward. This week, we also learned that Denver is rolling back their Shared Streets program, and returning several streets to car traffic. We’re seeing car culture prevail over climate action.
We need bold action. We need it now—at all levels of government. We find taking collective action to be energizing (and we could all use some energy right now) so we invite you to take the following actions:
Locally:
- Call your City Council member and let them know that decisions they make related to transportation are directly related to climate change. Ask them to prioritize our planet and health over the convenience of single occupancy vehicle drivers. Here’s a script and all the info you need. Let us know how your conversation goes.
- Join your Registered Neighborhood Organization or other neighborhood group. We need people like you making the connection between climate and transportation at all decision making tables.
At the state level:
- Tomorrow the Colorado Department of Transportation will release their draft Greenhouse Gas Pollution Standard for the transportation sector. You can catch up on what to expect and why this is so important in this recorded webinar hosted by our friends at 350 Colorado, Sierra Club, Conservation Colorado, CoPIRG, and others last week. We’ll be following up in the coming weeks with ways to get more involved.
Nationally:
- The Senate Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill has historic funding for public transit but also has historic funding for highways. As our friends at Transportation for America said, “you cannot fill a hole with a teaspoon that’s still being dug with an excavator.” This is not the kind of legislation we need to meet this urgent moment. DSP is reaching out to Denver’s U.S. Representatives (since the ball is back in their court) to let them know our priorities (spoiler: expanding highways is not one of them). Join us by doing the same.
Transportation and climate are inextricably linked so you can expect more updates and actions related to the two from DSP.
Tuesday, September 7th 1:30pm-3:00pm
More and more we are thinking about transit differently and incorporating other options. These options are often those we may need in closer proximity to our homes. These alternatives may include those that get us to locations where we can access transit or may be newer options we can use to help us get around in our neighborhoods or local communities. Join DRMAC and our guests as we explore some of these options.
Interested? RSVP to dcastro@drmac-co.org to register and receive the Zoom link.
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