OUTBoard minutes 032013 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Approved 4/17/13 Craig Benedict gave an overview of the plan and map. Highlights include the creation of a rail station in Hillsborough, 10% will come the BRIP and the rest would come from state and federal funds. New and expanded bus services is part of the plan and will amount to an additional 40,000 hours by 2026 with 8,000 hours to be used in the first five years. Craig Benedict told the OUTBoard that its role may come when monies come in to TTA or OPT to suggest or prioritize where funds may best be spent. Craig also talked about the implementation agreement which is between three parties, Orange County, Triangle Transit who is the implementing agency, and the DCHC and BG MPOs. Triangle Transit will be receiving all monies collected but each year they will report to the Commission and participants will be invited, municipalities, etc. and the questions can be asked at that time. Craig discussed an east - west route to connect the western side of Orange County to Hillsborough, Chapel Hill and Durham and coordinating with Piedmont Area Rapid Transit (PART). Alex Castro asked if there are any plans to combine the Chapel Hill Transit EZ Rider with OPT that makes more sense in terms of staging and shorter trip times, etc. Craig Benedict responded that the both the boards of Chapel Hill and Orange County have responded that they would like to take a look at a potential OPT/CHT consolidation between those two agencies for efficiency. There is a grant that was acquired from DOT /Public Transit Division to study that issue and a consulting firm was hired to analyze both systems and it has taken over two years to produce a draft report. Craig remarked that at some point he would like the consultant to come and speak to the OUTBoard. Jeff Charles suggested that if you use percentages of rider increase, etc. it means more to the public than saying that there will be X more hours added, X more buses, etc. David Bonk gave an update on the proposed Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) noting that an alternatives analysis will be done and a Request for Proposals (RFP) will be out in April. and once selected it will take about 18 months for the consultants to perform that work. He also noted that the Town of Chapel Hill has initiated a Small Area Plan for the area around Estes Drive /Martin Luther King Blvd. and through that process they are very aware of the fact that they are adjacent to that BRT corridor and what decisions they make about land use will have a direct impact on the Town's ability to meet the federal requirements. Those requirements have a very heavy emphasis on not simply having good intentions with regard to coordinating land use and transportation but actually adopting plans and in the best case scenario, actually having projects that have been built based on those plans. Paul Guthrie noted that while everyone thinks light rail is a wonderful thing and in his opinion a necessary thing by 2030, we don't have to go there at this point but what can have a major impact is how we carefully decide where to put in bus services, where the connection points are located between routes so all this interchange can be made to expedite and also look at a few things relative to the light rail system that perhaps need to be worked on such as terminating the light rail system at memorial hospitals. It would have been smarter to curl it around so that it came up somewhere near the rail route and come in to Carrboro on the hard rail system, because sooner or later hard rail will run between Greensboro and Raleigh. The major work that is already underway on the track between Durham and Raleigh tells you that. One of the key ingredients for Orange County is to get the rail station in Hillsborough done and use the parking facilities as a connection point for bus service and other kinds of services for connections. Build that into the fabric of the community and then you are ready for the more sophisticated systems. Paul continued that 54 is a major feeder and as PART can't service it, the area of Mt. Carmel Rd. /Stagecoach Rd. is becoming the bypass for commuters and truckers to skip around the problems on I -40 and Chatham County. This is going to be increasing, sending traffic northbound and needs to be considered. AGENDA ITEM VI: REGULAR AGENDA Next Steps for Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Plan Adoption and Implementation. OUTBoard Action: To receive information in preparation for future OUTBoard role. This item was moved to the April meeting due to time constraints.