Agenda - 03-21-2017 - 8-a - Minutes

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11 1 The NCDOT Rail staff have suggested that the two new incoming administrations at the state 2 and federal level get settled in the first quarter of 2017 before any further forward motion on this 3 project occurs. It is expected there will be a meeting with Rail Division staff in March to receive 4 an update. 5 6 b) Ped/Bike issues and strategies (Hillsborough connectivity plan**; sidewalks across 7 jurisdictions*; bikeshare program; Mountains to Sea Trail connections*) 8 9 The town's connectivity plan addresses bicycle, pedestrian, and transit improvements in town, 10 along with other amenities in the public right of way. The document is a component of our 11 comprehensive plan and is regularly updated. The bulk of this year's updates reflect the recent 12 investments by the towns and others to improve walkability and connectivity in town. The 13 recommended improvements focus on high traffic areas where safety is a concern for mixed 14 modal travel. The town's development code refers to this plan in requiring developers to 15 construct sidewalks. 16 17 The updated plan is approximately 100 pages long. The document begins on page 34 of this 18 linked plan set (the first 33 pages are pans for Collins Ridge) 19 https://www.hillsboroughnc.gov/media/plans/planning-board-plans-1-19-2017.pdf 20 21 Commissioner McKee said part of the expanded GoTriangle plan efforts have included 22 the Orange-Durham/Mebane-Durham route and 35,000 additional bus use hours. He said he 23 has seen recently that 25,000 hours of that plan had already been implemented or committed. 24 He asked Craig Benedict if that number is valid. He said he is concerned that many total hours 25 have already been used or committed, because it leaves little for the County. He said he does 26 not know from where funding would come. 27 Craig Benedict said the Orange County Bus Rail Investment Plan (BRIP), which was 28 adopted in 2012, had a series of allocations for different modes of transit: the Amtrak station; 29 bus rapid transit (BRT) in the MLK corridor; light rail (LRT) between Chapel Hill and Durham; 30 and 35,000 hours of bus service to be divided between Chapel Hill Transit, GoTriangle and 31 Orange Public Transportation (OPT). He said of the 34,000 hours, some was to support 32 existing service while roughly 28,000 hours were to support new service. He said GoTriangle 33 has been the first to implement all of their allotted hours. He said Chapel Hill is in the process 34 of implementing their hours, as are OPT with their roughly 6,000 hours. He said the question 35 has pertinence now because those were the hours to be used until 2035. He said the BRIP is 36 being updated currently, and GoTriangle is asking the County if it needs additional bus hours up 37 to 2045. He said all staffs are meeting to discuss potential new needs. He said the new 38 Orange County Transportation Administrator is involved in all these discussions. He said the 39 County is trying to have complementary service to the GoTriangle ODX route, which runs from 40 Mebane to Hillsborough to Durham. He said if there is interest in additional service to support 41 central Orange, he encouraged people to speak to their Commissioners. He said there will be 42 some sort of intergovernmental transit meeting in the next month or so. 43 Commissioner McKee said he has raised this at this meeting as some are advocating 44 for a reverse circulator route. He asked if this would qualify as new service under this plan. 45 Craig Benedict said yes, and this is not currently in the plan, but now is the opportunity 46 to ask for additional service. He said this would be supported in part by the transit tax and the 47 tag fees. He said other monies could be leveraged through state and federal funds. 48 Commissioner Weaver said she thought the reverse circulator was already in the works.