Agenda 02-17-22; 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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13 1 Transit Service 2 These two projects are expected to allow OCPT to increase its service hours by 7,020 during 3 FY2022: Continue the "Mobility on Demand" micro transit service and add a second 4 Hillsborough Circulator route that decreases headways significantly. 5 6 • Planning Projects 7 OCPT will continue to participate on updating the Orange County Transit Plan, will start work on 8 the Regional Fleet and Facilities Study, and will initiate design of priority transit safety and 9 access improvements. 10 11 Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (DCHC MPO) 2050 12 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) 13 The federal government requires the DCHC MPO to update its MTP at least every four-years. 14 The 2050 MTP will identify the highway, public transportation, bicycle, pedestrian and other 15 transportation projects that the region plans to implement over the next thirty years to meet the 16 MPO's goals. The MTP has to be based on the future land use plans and policies of the 17 jurisdictions and counties in the MPO's planning area, and must be fiscally constrained, which 18 means that the project costs have to be covered by the expected available revenues. As a 19 practical matter, the MTP is important because the MPO requires that projects that are 20 submitted to the NCDOT prioritization process for possible state or federal funding must come 21 from the MTP, and regulations require that all federally funded projects must be in the MTP. In 22 addition, local governments may use the MTP to reserve or dedicate right-of-way for future 23 highway and rail transit projects. 24 25 The DCHC MPO released the 2050 MTP final report on January 12, 2022, for a 21-day public 26 comment period, i.e., January 12 through February 1. The final report contains the roadway 27 and transit projects, financial plan, and policies that the MPO intends to adopt at the MPO 28 Board's February 9, 2022, meeting. The report also contains performance measures and 29 analysis on the extent to which the plan and process meet other standards such as 30 environmental justice, federal planning criteria, and air quality conformity. Following is a link to 31 additional information, including the report: www.bit.ly/2050MTP-AltsAn. 32 33 Staff will provide any other information at the meeting, and the governing boards can discuss 34 issues and provide feedback to staff related to this item as necessary. 35 36 Craig Benedict, Orange County Planning Director, presented the Orange County Transit 37 Plan Update. 38 Craig Benedict said that the plan was originally formulated with the light rail project in 39 mind, but that in 2018 and 2019 they found out the county would not get federal funding for the 40 project. He said in late 2019 the plan was reevaluated, and they considered how to re-allocate 41 funds to other services. He said a policy steering committee, made of local government officials, 42 reevaluated the original goals of the plan to make sure they were relevant. He said they 43 developed similar goals but with some different priorities. He said they agreed on were equity, 44 environmental sustainability, economic prosperity, affordability, and transit access for all. He 45 said that as they developed ideas for how the monies would be invested, that they used a value 46 matrix to figure out what new bus service may be applicable. He said that even though they are 47 a year into it, most of the work has been evaluating existing service and the costs of existing 48 service. He said there are revenues from the Article 43 sales tax and that during the pandemic, 49 people were purchasing goods from home and that this increased revenues more than they had 50 projected. He said other revenue sources include a car rental and registration taxes. He said the 51 policy steering outreach has been muted some during the pandemic and that they have plans to