Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee Meeting   5/1/2025

All right, before we get started, just to confirm that our folks online can hear us.

Bob, Bill, Matthew, can you guys, Nellis is saying yes, I assume.

Bob, I did not hear you.

Yep.

Nope, that's affirmative, I hear you.

All right.

Great.

And I'm moving people over as panelists as they join.

You don't have to be if you don't want to be, but it makes it easier to engage with the meeting.

I'll just say research, because I did not say this, as opposed to

Meredith has offered.

OK.

Meredith.

And so I don't know if that requires anything before she starts.

Accolades.

Yes.

Five seconds.

Yes.

Thank you, Meredith.

Of course.

So we can talk offline about how much or little you want that to entail.

Thank you very much.

We really appreciate that.

Yeah.

OK, anything else to add?

That's it.

I'm from IMG.

OK, thank you.

Let's call this meeting to order.

It's 5.03 PM.

and start with introductions.

I'm Peter.

I love all the busy activities.

I'm Peter Krebs.

The puncture.

Natalie Ashburn trusts the council and then

Kyle Robin, the city's safe rest school coordinator.

I like sleeping with the windows open.

Favorite thing about spring?

Oh, we would.

Some like, get a brief in.

Okay.

Um, so Tommy Sopranik, bike and pedestrian coordinator, City of Charlottesville.

Uh, also sunlight, like to, uh, run in the mornings with light.

I'm not running.

Herb Levy.

Live in North downtown.

One of Derek Higgins.

I live in Belmont.

James Van Brinken and Birdwatching.

Let's go online.

Sure.

So Bill Emery here, and the thing I love about spring is planting more trees to provide Peter with plenty of pollen.

So up to like 132 in the backyard this spring on the Willam Mills Walk.

Hopefully you guys will get to see him anyway.

Thanks, Bill.

Matthew?

Matthew might not be with us at the moment.

That's okay.

My phone wasn't in my hand.

Kevin?

Or Nell?

Sorry, you have your hand up.

We can.

Hey, all right.

First BPAC meeting, but I'm Kevin.

I'm the executive director for Charlottesville Community Bikes.

And my computer is so new that this is my first Zoom meeting ever on it.

So I had to install everything.

So forgive if my video is not on right now.

Is it my turn?

Yeah, go for it.

Nelson Oakerson, I really enjoy taking a cold shower, and it feels refreshing after a hot run.

If I move you over to a panelist and you accept, then you can have more functions to engage.

If you wish to.

Let's give everyone a minute.

We've got more people coming in online and coming in the room as well.

Okay, everyone's good.

Patrick Keith, thank you for joining us.

My favorite thing about what?

Spring.

Oh, spring, so the season of spring.

Hi, my name is Patrick Keys.

I'm the EVA Micromobility Coordinator.

My favorite thing about spring is the relief from allergies that I get when I take my medication on time.

I think that's everyone online.

Feel free to interrupt me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, is there, where's the mic?

That's why I can't hear from home.

Hi, I'm Josh.

I'm a volunteer at Liverpool Seabill, bike parent.

And for old people, I like poison pigeons in the park in the spring.

It's a cultural thing.

Everyone who's here is too young.

Poison?

Poison pigeons in the park.

Poison pigeons in the park?

Yeah, it's a classic Americana thing.

OK.

That's wonderful.

I didn't expect that.

My name is Mike Breezy.

I'm the Rose Hill Neighbor Association Vice President.

I'm on the Housing Advisory Committee.

Thank you.

Next up, approval of this meeting's agenda and last meeting's minutes.

This is your opportunity to complain if you have any complaints.

No complaints.

Excellent.

Does anyone have any public comment?

This is an opportunity to address the committee.

Thank you, Kevin.

We have to speak up a little bit in the room.

Yeah, literally speak.

Does anyone have any public comment for the committee this evening?

Let's move on.

So the next section, which is questions for staff, we have Tommy and Carl in the room here, and they've provided written staff updates.

Thank you very much for that.

I hope you all had a chance to read them if you're interested in them.

I know Josh has some questions.

Yes.

I have specific questions and a procedural request, which is sort of the same thing.

The request is that, at least when you're reading the notes as a doc on a computer, some items have a link to a public document or a spreadsheet.

Those are great.

Some don't.

The ones that don't, I can't always tell what they are about.

So, quick builds, phase one, phase two, and multiple where systems.

That sounds great.

I don't know what the list is or what phase one or phase two is or where they are in the work queue.

So, question for right now, I want to know what those phases are and when they might get done and where I can find the projects.

General request, if it's not a headache, can these reports link to documents where they exist?

So Tommy, I might have seen a spreadsheet, but I don't know which list these come from, but what are these coming from?

That is which one?

So the lists that we're talking about aren't public.

They're inter

Well, is it our list or is it private or is it somehow both?

So this is referring to the EPECS Quick Build List from like a year ago that was started.

So phase one is the first one that we entered with Public Works, I think literally in March of last year maybe.

And phase two is the ones that got approved over the summer.

So each are a group of 10 that were approved.

So I think, I don't know which ones are in which phase, but we've seen it on a float point like this every month for a while.

Does Public Works tell you anything about where these things are in the queue or

Because like you did your part like six plus months ago, I don't know what has been built out of this list so far and what we can expect into this progress.

I'm trying to, so there's, there's it.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

So there is an element to that.

That's not the answer I want to provide.

And there's an element that there's a level of frustration.

So I'm trying to articulate things clearly.

I've been trying to find out where the movement needs to happen.

Some of this stuff for a few months now.

But that conversation has kind of been put on hold during the winter, especially as we have been

talking about the urgent transportation projects, and they have been kind of almost folded into each other just to one degree or the other.

But regardless, the conversation from Public Works has been recently that they need more design on these projects.

And what that meant was not very clear to me until recently.

And that design requires someone above my skill or even like software on my computer.

So that then questions, how quick are these quick builds?

And that conversation's been had above me about these projects and all of the projects we identified.

And it's kind of getting wrapped in, like I said, with the urgent transportation.

And if you'll see, and I think Ben's noticed, and he provided an update kind of where we are with that stuff, just that it's a topic, I think.

I also want to say, if a whole lot of this put builds, we can take out several of these bullet points from the reports because they're not truly happening.

In my world, they're happening.

We all have.

I just, I don't, I don't want to poke people in different departments about progress if that's not where work is happening, right?

So like, if you tell me, public works is working on this, I'm going to go talk to them about that.

If you tell me they're not working on this, I'll just ask about other topics under the bigger umbrella topic of, like, representation projects.

So like,

My question is, is this a live issue or not?

Because if it's not, I won't ask any questions about it.

But if it is, we've had it watched on the Cube for many months with no progress.

So it sounds like you're saying, fold it into the bigger conversation.

But I read that as, this is no longer a cube of work.

This is experiment.

I want to fold it into a different thing now.

But nothing has happened since they were insured.

I know how I interpret this, I don't.

But I guess that's fine.

You can.

But I guess if I was on this board and I wasn't an employee, I would like to see that and understand what is happening with that, even if it feels like there isn't any movement on it.

And I do think that one thing we've encouraged staff to do is to kind of

Great, yes.

I think I hope a lot of what I would ask would be covered in that five-thirds item.

OK.

Does anyone else have any other questions for us?

I would repeat the same question you already asked for Kyle, which are the three Tier 3 projects this summer?

Because that's different from the QuickBuild question, right?

What are the three Tier 3 projects?

Yeah, the names of these projects.

One of them is at Trailblazer Elementary.

It's a sidewalk.

It's three sidewalk projects.

The other one is a really obscure one.

One's in the Greenbrier neighborhood, and it's a piece of sidewalk along... Get back to me.

So they're like sidewalk pieces, four routes to school.

Correct.

Yep.

Yeah.

Is that all the sites I can look at or is that?

Yeah.

Okay.

It's on the website.

It's on the school website.

It's a public facing list.

Can we just drop a link in this as well, so we don't need to go Google it?

Yeah, I have that link.

Are they, I can't remember, are they separate entities in that list?

I believe so.

I had another question for Kyle, since that was such a good one.

For the summit making the pilot permanent,

Yes.

You have to be like, what's there is not a bike lane.

It's just a bunch of flex posts offset from the curb with no markings.

Or is it just still going to be flex posts

The idea is it won't be flexible.

Oh, interesting.

So that's not making what is there permanent.

Any other questions?

Yeah, sure.

Yeah, I guess, so is the crux of the question, or should I give a review of where we just are on things?

I think that's a good idea.

So, as context, this all really stemmed, the urgent transportation projects really stemmed out of the fatality on Elliott Avenue in October.

Council asked staff to go

was similar to Elliott's to try to make our community safer.

And management said that they had some money to throw at these projects.

Over the past few months, Kyle, Ben, myself, Brennan, the traffic engineer, and once he arrived, Caleb, the new traffic engineer, compiled a pretty extensive list.

So, you know,

It started with just looking at like places just like Elliott.

I personally, I think Kyle too had a hard time just looking at places like that and needed to look at the whole city to have a better context of what is what.

And as we got started exploring it more and more, Ben asked BPAC for specific projects that you all team.

you know, just similar and things were broken up into a singleized, un-singleized and traffic calming type project.

And then we listed, I think we'll probably list here shortly.

What, 60 some odd project, Kyle?

Does that sound about right?

Maybe more than that.

You combine all three categories.

And then staff kind of ranked them.

And we got word of how much money we had.

And then we had to kind of go back and readjust based on cost estimates.

And now

Ben is working with the fire department to kind of make sure that the fire department is okay with these projects moving forward.

And I know Ben had a meeting last week with Joe, and I think it sounds like they are.

They had a couple just questions about some of the designs.

Mine are saying Joe Phyllis is on the fire department.

In the state of Virginia,

the Commonwealth, I guess the fire department has approval over things that matter, traffic calming specifically.

So the conversation, once we kind of conclude with the list was like, well, who's going to manage these projects?

And I think it's fair to say that Park Public Works started installing them because you can see a couple out there now in the wild.

and they kind of pumped the brakes when we realized we hadn't gotten approval from our department.

So we're waiting to fully get that recognized and now we're going to, Ben's going to go in front of council with the list on the 19th is from what I understand and present that list and get the money appropriated for these projects.

That was helpful.

Thank you.

So things are moving soon.

And I think maybe another thing, James, to keep in mind is this list is also an opportunity for us to try different techniques in different places.

So the list does call for speed tables, mini roundabouts, in addition to rapid flashing beacons, pump outs like we've seen already.

Just to clarify what I think you said to Josh, is that the projects we were working on as part of the quick build subcommittee that we kind of passed out to you, were they included

They are on the public works marking crew assignments and they're in the queue for public works.

They are not on this list.

So they won't show up.

And I personally don't want them to show up because that

Will one be prioritized over the other?

I think that management

is trying to figure out how to move these projects forward.

And I'm hopeful.

And I know there's been conversations without me, especially since I haven't been in town the past few days, about how to manage these projects moving forward between us and public works.

But yeah.

I wondered if

Everything will be, all this stuff that gets approved by the fire department and that we have brought to council will get put in the same queue for public works.

And there is no prioritization between feedback or the urgent transfer.

Yeah, my understanding is that once they're in their queue, they're in the queue.

You know, they're not, they might be in the queue and like these were entered, you know, back in the first phase of BPAC, but those were entered a year ago.

So maybe we'll try to tackle those.

But these are all public works projects like the installation of rapid flashing beacons or speed tables that public works will do.

That's not a contractor.

Correct.

I think the beacons, yes, because we've done that in house.

There's also like, I mean, with the way that the cube works is like, there's really not a set algorithm of how

We do have a lot of flex posts right now.

They stocked up the past like six months on flex posts.

Yeah, I guess maybe I'd just like to add a little bit more, like, the conversation about how much design work needs to be happening on these projects is still unclear to me.

I understand what public work says they need.

And it's unclear to me who's going to be doing these designs.

And are there, how much of these designs maybe they can do in the field like they had done traditionally?

Because they have done a lot of these projects, like the ones that were installed last week.

So I want to ask about that, because I saw you all on your staff, Brian, by the flexibility of my pore shells part.

Those were great.

I assume you all didn't design them or do compact design, because I think we were all surprised to see those projects built, which implies that maybe it's not consultation, but they look great.

I couldn't still complain about them.

That's the question, Joss.

And to get at the crux of it, I think the city needs to define what our quick build program is and what that looks like.

We lost video.

Oh, you just need to click the video.

Down here.

Yeah, so I thought we had a, what was, we were going towards a defined definition of what our, the city of Charlottesville's quick goal project was.

I thought I heard a good one, but I think we need to like get some,

We're getting closer to

doing more of that every day.

And it takes people to actually do it.

So Public Works is hiring people who, they're in the process of hiring a concrete crew who can do that.

So we can do more and more in-house.

So the idea is that we become more self-sufficient and efficient with projects like this so we don't have to outsource

piles of design and have it take months and months and months or years to do.

A good example of a kind that does it really well is Henrico County because they have their own link works and they've had it for the last three years and they've done it so they have a very robust, low, no-plan process where they have all their in-house engineers, in-house crews thinking people can go out there and be like

We need to build a sidewalk, we need to build curb cuts, whatever, and they can just like lose paper, draw it out quickly, and just go in the next week and just build it.

Because a lot of what we want is, I don't know what it means technically, but like low planning sounds right.

Like I don't imagine there was, was there an engineer who came out in a site visit of the park?

It looks like someone painted some lines down and said, put posts here.

And when they were there, it was an engineer.

So they like come out and do that.

Okay.

Like it seemed to go fast from my perspective.

Like we weren't, was it not fast for real?

No, that part, because there was an example of what we want, right?

So to be perfectly blunt, they got pressure.

They, they initially got a lot of pressure to go do stuff real quickly.

And then they were like told to pump the bricks because we hadn't yet gotten approval from fire.

So like,

We're trying to use this as an example of how to get to the latter, what you just said.

They haven't seen what a mini roundabout looks like, so once they see it and see how we use it in the context, they can then

So I think the idea of low plan makes a lot of sense for me, and that's kind of what I've been asking for.

We have a new traffic engineer who's new to the city, new to being a traffic engineer.

He works in design for a consultant and designs a lot of great stuff, from what I understand.

But this is a new role, a new city for him, so he's learning how we work and

And I think a lot of these projects were punted until he started.

So they're kind of like, we'll wait until Caleb starts and then we'll get the ball rolling.

And now that he starts, he's kind of like, whoa, what's going on here?

I need to see more.

So I think we're moving in the right direction.

I will say that

Our office did try to get another employee to be a designer.

I think that was more about like sidewalk design, like doing more in-house like concrete type projects.

This is how we're doing all the safe routes, two or three projects that are coming up.

Last year's round and this round, so all the sidewalks and all the design and everything will all be taken care of in-house.

Yeah, and I think some of the people on this call and then this

group already knows this, but like design means like not just sitting down and like designing like what we think is cool and would be good for bicycles or pedestrians, but design meaning like that fits with MUTTD and fits with all like the federal guidelines and so on and so forth, right?

So in the end, that fits with our standards and design manual, stormwater, and specifically fits with like fire, like turning radius, like so that forest

But Forest Hills got done quickly, one, because we did the in-house.

Everybody worked for the city.

And also, there was a directive from the city manager's office for them to do that quickly.

So we need that, too.

So it shows it can happen.

We can have the resources all we want.

I mean, to be blunt, right?

What I want to know is like, who can make the thing happen?

And so the question is, how do I get Sam to ask for more of those projects?

Like if he's, if that's the key thing, okay.

Like, because that worked, again, my perspective as a resident, it's great.

So maybe my goal

I would, I would wait to like ask for that now, cause we've got like half a million dollars that we're about to put out on the streets.

And then we're about to ask everybody their feedback on that's going to be part of this is like, there's going to be guard signs with QR codes and a survey that put up like, what do you think?

How did this play out?

So like, you might want to like start talking to your neighbors about like making sure they understand why these.

Flex posts were put up in the way that they were so that everyone who's answering the survey understands the concept behind these projects, you know what I mean?

And so that we can then get more out onto the roads and turn this up into concrete one day and all of that.

What you're saying is the urgent transportation things and they already have that behind it.

So there's no need.

It's just possible.

What bucket of work did the Northeast Park and Forest Hills Park projects come from?

Northeast Park and Forest, was there a third project?

That's an urgent transportation project.

That's from the urgent, it's a half a million dollar, yeah.

Those are the things that are going to council.

Does some of the ones that you presented back to us in December are on that list, for sure.

We gave you many more.

Yeah, like a bunch of those.

Yeah.

There was, I mean, when we, cause we were working with all that, all that feedback that we got from y'all and in the middle of doing all that, then urgent transportation, like, like we just found out like the, like the city manager's office was like, we're doing this now.

And we're like, what?

Okay.

And so there was a lot of those projects and those intersections and places that y'all had pointed out that.

that got put into urgent transportation because if we didn't have that from you, they would have been on there anyway.

So yeah, there was something I was going to say about that.

I can't remember how many.

I think we have a spreadsheet that says where the project ideas come from.

So we can go through.

But I mapped them all to get an idea of where these projects are and how many neighborhoods are getting eggs and so on and so forth.

But I just want to underline what you said, Tommy, about the opportunity for people to provide

survey feedback and for us on feedback to make sure that we are amplifying that to people who are not on feedback.

So I think the most important kind of feedback that you could get about projects is people who like past my neighborhood and say, I want that thing, my neighborhood.

For once,

My neighbors have no complaints about this project, and they usually are complaining.

And I think the question is going to be, if somebody wants that same thing, where is the intersection?

Like, they put it on Myseville.

I don't know if anybody believes Myseville works.

Does it?

So I have like, parents at school talking as we do about flex posts, I can tell them if you want a thing like what you can see on Shamrock and Cradle Ridge or Florida Tilting Forest Ridge, you ask for that thing.

You say like, I want flex post proof extensions like here, but I want it there.

Yeah, I think I'm pretty sure that's the, I'm pretty sure he gets it.

I've seen that he responds.

Yeah, I would, yeah, logistical question if it's going to

Council on May 19th.

Maybe a question for Natalie.

You can put in the minutes.

I want to ask a question, but I've been talking a little too much.

Does anybody want to ask questions about this topic?

My comment is just meetings for talking.

Meetings are for talking.

Quick is good, but we don't want to be too quick that we're not good.

Nextdoor blew up about the Goldcrest sidewalk being poured and then like destroyed because it was wrong.

I don't know what that was about.

Sheridan looks fine to me, except there's one little piece of the flex post that should be white instead of yellow if you're really being an MUTCD perfectionist.

That probably is not going to matter.

I'm just saying fast is good, but we do want a little bit of like, make sure it's

or at least easy to tweak.

It's data.

That's what I fear is the city puts the flex posts in and

There's no way to go change it because we're on to the next one.

That's not what I've observed at Summit.

Part of this also is going back to defining what a quick build program is.

And I know it's been a while since Ben has brought this up, but I know part of it is inventory assessment and tracking how long this project has been in place.

Was it effective?

And can it move into a more permanent form?

OK. Ben, do you want to ask?

I want to repeat a question I think one of you asked like nine months ago.

And it's about how you all are prioritizing projects for this urgent list.

Because I think you mentioned you can't fund everything you want to build.

When we had that fatal crash in Elliott last year, I remember one of you wanted to orient us to, do we care more about neighborhood improvements, or do we care more about the roads where people are wanting to die?

I don't want to jinx it.

I don't think people are dying by Forest Hills Park.

People are dying or have died on Elliott, on the bigger, wider roads.

Yeah, so every staff member got an opportunity to vote and on what, you know, five to one and rank the projects.

So based on that number, we came up with like the ones that like met the most priority.

But like, is there a group or is it just everyone votes based on their gut?

It's not good.

I've been in this job for almost two years, and all I've had the past two years is the community telling me what projects are important to them.

So it's coming built out.

A lot of that is coming from MyCbill comments.

So a lot of the spreadsheet here has, this comment has come with X number MyCbill requests and so on and so forth.

but I don't there's not a rubric other than these projects were ranked by staff based on their expertise and other variables like oh this is already on the sidewalk priority list so we're hoping to move forward with changing the safety of this corridor with that project or this project is on

you know, a VDOT SmartScale project, so they're trying to change it based on that, whatever.

But that's how we came to, and like I said before, kind of making sure that these projects are spread out throughout the entire community.

But, you know, it's pretty easy, in my opinion, to

There's also data, you know, we got, we made a point to, I mean, the whole, everybody who's involved in transportation, you know, like had a vote basically, and we wanted, you know,

Me come from my side of things, from the school side of things.

Tommy looked like and the engineers with their data and their standards.

And then we wanted everybody to have their own perspectives and then rank and then list everything, rank it.

And we had 1,000 meetings where we went line by line and we spent an hour talking about four projects.

And why did you rank it this way?

Why did you rank it this way?

Let's look at every perspective that we can.

I'd say at least half the time in those meetings talking about this project, people would change their rankings based off of what they heard from other people.

Why is this important?

What do you know?

What does the data say?

Also, what is the community saying over here?

Do you have all this community feedback?

That's what we need.

So there wasn't a set

formula for like, you know, data times number of comments equals important, you know, or anything like that.

So, uh, I mean, that's, you kind of get into like a, like a really kind of dangerous AI ish kind of zone, you know, that way.

So we relied on numbers.

When we look at the list that we came up with, even the list that was kind of approved, once we got a number of how much we had, it's all the high scorers.

Working on any landscape, you can't have a rubric that's final because every site, every piece of landscape is unique.

But what might be helpful, though, is if there's a notation.

I mean, there's got to be some kind of paper trail or meeting minutes.

We have all those notes in the projects on our spreadsheet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's super important.

So yeah.

Thank you for explaining that.

I see that Jen has said that,

And I just wanted to jump in on that rubric comment because I very much appreciate how vigilant and thorough y'all were about incorporating all those voices, but it does seem like for a public facing justification and to speed up the process, there

And maybe it's a project even that BPAC takes on, but there should be some rubric that starts the, that allows the framework of ranking to begin so that you can speed that along because opinions do change as more knowledge comes in and people do learn more.

But you can really distill and filter that down.

And then when folks come to you and say, how did that

get chosen as a priority you don't have to say well 8,000 meetings and we spent six months talking and it was about the emotions it brought up and what the people said you can easily point to that rubric and said it scored the highest in this quadrant so we moved it forward first and then you leave the legacy behind for everybody else who takes this task on to have a starting point so someone new could come to Charlottesville and still be a decision maker because at least they have a guide

So that's just me nerding out on process and criteria for justifying.

Though you probably ended up in the same place that Rubrik would.

I would agree that that would be helpful.

I think that I normally, I think

I think we learned a lot through this process.

I think that there could be a rubric made after going through this process now that might set us up better for the future.

I don't think going through this process, like I said earlier, we expected to come up with 150, 200 places that needed something to happen.

Again, I started that because I didn't know how to understand where things needed to get done without looking at the entire community.

And if I had a rubric, I still had to look at the entire community and see where things fit into where.

I thought about my experience with rubrics and stuff for projects.

Yes.

So we, for the county, we had one that was, when I first got here, that was very much kind of what you're going to combine, kind of focused rubric.

And we had- But it wasn't all vibes.

I don't think he was saying- It wasn't all vibes, but it was- He was saying it's not vibes.

It's not vibes.

It was based on a sports scale, but a lot of it, we were assigning, we were assigning a value based on what we felt made sense for that project.

So it's like from one to 10, we're like safety,

We think it's a seven, but that was us making kind of, it's a seven out of 10 for safety.

Like we need a lot of safety stuff, but there's, it was hard to justify why it was not an eight or why it was not a six.

And we went to the board with a proposal for like 150 projects.

We were getting hammered on basically being like, why are we choosing eight instead of seven here?

Like, you know, why is a little bit of that?

So I've spent the last two years with it on and off trying to create a root break.

That's,

much more away from that one to ten scale with like five different things and it's more just kind of like a yes no where it's like when you have pedestrian crashes here yes no kind of like it's a pretty streamlined decision tree literally yeah decision tree almost because yeah in future we had 150 projects and the maximum score

I don't think any project actually scored a perfect 60.

And we've had a ton of projects that were all like, right, they're all got like 45 points because they're just about the same or they, you know, the numbers add up differently.

So the scale is too big.

You kind of refine it.

Making a rubric is really hard.

I would, I would, I don't know how to say this, but I think

There is an element of like, we live in Charlottesville, this is a small community.

And yes, we might be in hearing from, I've heard from people all over the city on my neighborhood walks and seeing them firsthand.

And I mean, this is, there's an element of going with Rose Hill neighborhood and seeing what works and doesn't work at Rose Hill.

and making sure that that input gets added into this program.

I'll say right now, though, I've got friends who live on the corner of St. Clair and Bellevue.

And if you look at Street View, they've been complaining for years about people speeding.

And if you look at that quarter, you will just see the tire marks on that asphalt.

And there's something that you all have told us, or Ben has mentioned numerous times, where there's like the feeling of safety.

Which is the feedback.

We're trying to be proactive rather than reactive.

I mean, this whole urgent transportation project was reactive in its nature because of the fatality on Elliot.

So it's just like when I was fighting for the leading pedestrian intervals.

And it's like, oh, well, by the numbers, by the rubric, by the VDOT rubric, we don't have x number of children crossing here to justify programming this light for a leading pedestrian interval.

It's like it needs to have x number of children.

We're altering the traffic pattern for the ambulance when the child gets hit by the car to let the ambulance through.

Right.

I think I want to move us on since we're over time but I appreciate Jen's comment about the rubric which acknowledged that there were a lot of problems with the rubric and it wasn't appropriate so you didn't have time to write to it this time

Perhaps it's still worth looking into.

I want to push past the, say one more thing, pushing past the conversation of the actual rubric itself.

I think what Jen was saying was the rubric would be helpful as a way to communicate to the public how we're coming up with this.

It might not have to be an actual rubric, but I do agree with Jen that

I think that four months ago, we as a team, staff,

We were not on the same page of what that rubric would look like.

Having gone through this process, I think we could come up with a rubric that future staff or future iterations could maybe work through this process in that manner.

Thank you.

That was really good.

Next item is bike month.

Today is the first day of bike month.

And we have a lot going on.

Peter and Tommy have things to talk about.

If it makes sense to combine the next item, bike seat build, as well, then feel free to do that.

And we have 25 minutes for both of those.

Yeah, just posted a bunch of stuff on the social medias a couple hours ago.

So this weekend kicks off a lot.

Today is the first bikes month thing.

It's on the VPAC meeting.

It's on the bingo card.

They're printed off.

I can get you one.

Tomorrow is the first Friday after Bike Valet.

We have a fair amount of people who signed up for tomorrow to help out, which is great.

If you signed up and I said, you don't have to, Deb, you're more than welcome to still come and help me out.

I know you're on the hook for the other Fridays.

You signed up for all of them.

So that's great.

Not the last one.

Not the last one.

OK.

So I think I do need some help on some of the other ones if people are so interested.

And then for Saturdays, we have our group rides that are scheduled at nine o'clock at the farmers market.

I'm excited to partner with Parks and Rec for the future.

We weren't able to kind of get things squared away for this month, but I think a lot of good conversations were had on how we can partner on a regular group

ride with Parks and Rec on what are now our quiet routes to Charlottesville.

All of this can be found on the BikeSeedville website, which is live as of April 19th.

Thanks to Meredith.

And at that, what's that?

Awesome design.

Well, the big one is this Sunday.

It's National Ride-a-Bike Day.

So we have the Family Bike Day event, which, you know, in terms of planning is like, I'm very proud of.

There's a lot to like about this event.

The weather does not look great, unfortunately.

But we have free bike helmets.

We'll have bikes there.

We have a pump track that has gotten a lot of good publicity and helped us in a lot of different ways.

In fact, I was out on a run with some prolific folks, and I just overheard a group of guys talking about the pump track.

And I was like, I hate it like that.

I love it.

It's really cool.

Traffic garden, safety check, DJ, boot trucks,

guided ride over the Triangle Trails.

So we moved it.

This is our first time doing it in McIntyre and partnering with Parks and Rec.

So I think like this is for sure the mechanism moving forward, even though it hasn't happened yet, but it's greatly increased the events status.

Parks and Rec also paid for a flyer to go home and everyone's backpack.

Did you, I think maybe- It came home for me.

the division sent a message and school principals.

It's on Parents Square.

So anyway, we opted not to do a flyer this year because we were short-eyed.

My time got hijacked.

And it was unclear if the flyer itself was key or if there are these other information channels.

So we decided to do a digital version.

But part of what we were promoting through principals and through Parents Square was Family Bike Day, in addition to directing people to community bikes and the Vail Access Program and the e-bike library.

So it went out in a division-wide update?

I want to clarify because it's a lot to celebrate by the sounds of it.

The flyer that went out?

That's just for family-biked it.

The flyer that... Who got the flyer?

Was it a backpack flyer?

It was a backpack flyer.

It was a backpack flyer.

Well, oftentimes, there's, like, a Friday set on a folder.

Well, I will say yes, but the Albemarle County, Albemarle High School

is coming to lead the Triangle Trails group ride with the CHS Mountain Bike coach and hopefully several of the teenage riders as well.

And then I think we're having an e-bike demo there as well, right?

Which event?

Family Bike Day.

How's the weather looking?

If that's what it takes to get some rain.

than it did last year, which was down West Main.

I think that last year, they had a little bit more support from us.

And you're leaving.

Months ago, I had a plan to go out of town.

And then weeks ago, I promised Tommy

I'll go with you Natalie.

I'll go with you tomorrow.

But yeah, I'll go.

Okay, great.

And Jen's been there too.

I don't know if it's still on the call, but I think everyone in the office might want to be at Vite Month events.

Big impressions.

That's why Jen is not doing the Vite.

Because there will be a ton of CCS families there because it's the opening for our connections.

And it's right after Vite.

Yeah, so Kevin, it can be cancelled because the weather, if it's dangerous, windy thunderstorms, lightning and so forth, it will definitely be cancelled.

If the pump track is dangerous or the skate park is dangerous, I think we're going to cancel as well.

And if it's dangerous, I don't think that there's going to be a whole lot of people who are going to come out anyway.

No, it won't be rescheduled.

I mean, what I'm trying to do with the bike month is trying to find ways to build more sustainable bike program throughout the entire year.

So that includes like the guided bike rides.

And on May 22nd, the bike repair clinic at Carver Rec Center by working with Parks and Rec.

But this event is just going to be a one-off.

If you reschedule, you set back, you exhaust your stuff for your future events.

Hopefully we'll soon be in a place where something disappearing from the calendar doesn't mean no more bike events.

Or we have it, Family Bike Day is multiple times a year.

Yeah, my understanding is that there might be a bike event at Tonsler on Saturday, May 31st with West Bellamy as part of the Tonsler project.

Well, you know, there might be an opportunity in a few weeks to collaborate with that as well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, and Azalea Park, for that matter.

but it may not stay at that location.

What I will probably push for is some sort of permanent structure and it's undecided where, but there might be a better location.

Trust me.

Trust me.

Let me give you another opinion.

No, that's, that's a good opinion though.

That's, that's, that's

There was a world in which I was going to try to move the pump track over to Tonsler for the Tonsler May 31st event, but after setting it up and going through that process, it's not like the easiest.

It's modular, it's not portable.

I think that the biggest thing might be to focus on the last event of the month, which is the group ride on the 31st.

I think that's the one I think that we're not quite sure what we're going to do for that yet, but I'm pointing people to that date as a

a place to do so.

I should take, let me even ask another thing.

So for the group rides on Saturday, I also asked a group of folks to maybe set up just a 10 to table at the farmer's market for bike month.

So that could be a B pack thing.

And from nine to one, there's a four hour shift at the farmer's market.

And I've got some people who said they were willing to do that, but not like a ton.

So that's every Saturday in May.

So there's a lot else going on.

So like May 10, the county is doing its own bike rodeo that's going to also have, what else are you doing?

That's what police does.

Yes.

Yeah.

We're going to have another one.

I'm going to have a rodeo.

We're going to have another demo at Crow's Day on the 15th as part of the three notch trail event.

So we're going to just be in the back of a school with like, hey, I'm here for bike stuff.

That's week two, then week three is bike to work week.

So we're doing our usual table in West Main on Friday, but UVA is also hosting a bike appreciation station on Tuesday at the AFC.

And I think that's going to be super cool because it's going to be a little bit more UVA student engagement than what we usually get.

So that's the Tuesday of the week, so the 13th.

Then on the Thursday, they're doing another station at the hospital.

And again, folks who have been to that one have seen that's pretty hopping.

And it's amazing to see the number of bikes parked at the hospital.

It's quite encouraging.

Check those things out.

Walk, bike, and roll to school day.

That's like a whole thing, but it's sort of a lead your own adventure for that, which that's fine.

That is what it is.

And then Tommy also mentioned the closing rides.

So each of the four weeks, there's multiple events.

CBC is for the, sorry, last thing, Charlottesville Bike Club for the first time stepping in and actually adding like hospitality to a couple of their events and making them walk up friendly.

So that will be cool.

I just had a quick question about the May 31st.

No, the morning one.

So we have four loops that are part of the quiet routes.

So the first four Saturdays in May, we'll just check off each loop, you know, for each ride.

But that leads for the fifth Saturday, kind of an option to maybe do a combination or do something different or whatever.

And then Meredith is waiting on me to make a decision so she can make a social media graphic.

And I keep not giving her directions.

Question about that and graphics.

For the monthly walks, do we want to incorporate that into the same visual language we're using for the new website, new graphics?

Because right now they kind of are standalone.

Yeah.

For 2026, we'll do that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, I don't want to do that because there's other, there's a bunch of other things I want to do with that.

Yeah.

Seagulls having its launch in, you know, January.

So, so let's not make that a little like sidecar to bike month.

I have a question that might be a Bike Month question, it might not.

It's a totally selfish question, but it's possible others might be interested.

You can rent mountain bikes from some of the bike shops.

Yeah, Blue Recycling does, and actually Meredith has posted on- Those are on the BikeCBL website now.

It's a great investment, I mean, it's like whatever,

70 bucks.

You can correct me, Matthew, but maybe $70 to rent a bike for a day or overnight return the next day.

And if you know somebody

There's plenty of people wanting to borrow a bike.

We'll have the Safe Routes to School Bikes.

Well, they're like 24 inch.

Well, elementary school kids.

Anything else on like Seaville?

Yeah, and there's also the business challenge.

Peter, you mentioned about BikeSeville.

Website's up.

It's looking great.

Now we need to fill it with things.

You mentioned maybe asking us to asynchronously think about what to fill it with.

I mean, this is my idea.

I don't own BikeSeville.

Well, so that conversation is happening, but I welcome more ideas for content and or help providing that content.

We've had a couple meetings with the Charlotte Swills Comms team.

We've said, hey, these are some ideas.

Meredith has actually shot, gotten some video for some stuff.

Oh yes.

Thank you.

Yeah I mean they ran out

Yeah, I even made a couple phone calls.

There's definitely some people who did not use their voucher.

I can tell you guys for a sec.

Do you have one for the next round?

Not the next round, it's the following rounds that we can roll this into.

Because they have technically until May 7th to use their voucher.

Yeah.

Yeah, but there's been a couple, I've seen a couple invoices come through my email the past couple days, so... That's got a hump, right?

Yeah, so right now there's still 13 people who have not used their voucher, if they're supposed to use it up to date, and two of them I know aren't going to use their voucher, so... Do you know why?

Yeah.

We need a dealer for that.

Yeah.

I'll tell you about it later.

OK, I think that's

everything.

You can still get the update and it'll be included in the minutes.

I think James said the AC 44 draft transportation chapter plan.

We had a chance to read it.

If we did, any main comments on Tony on this ad?

We're on a PC on May 6th and then board on the 20th.

No.

Can we first?

Something.

Put it in the email.

OK. Yeah.

But if you know, I know we're city residents, but if you want to also talk about what things that you can do, we're always happy to have people.

I'm supposed to go to that.

They invited everybody.

What is it like, the mall or something?

Well, I would offer that if anyone knows, if I bring people who care about bike and pedestrian infrastructure in their neighborhood to encourage them to attend.

We are positioning this as a listening session.

We want to hear from folks in the neighborhood about their concerns.

Yeah.

I guess.

If you could make sure we get them at least a few hours before we go.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, we can talk about it later.

Yeah, we'll just see that.

And if anyone knows of another neighborhood that wants to hear from feedback or wants to be heard by feedback, that's cool.

We were, if I follow, almost a year ago last June.

Cherry Avenue.

It could be an email also.

Well, before I go back to FIFIL, I would like to say here's an update on the massive concerns you shared with us a year ago.

And I don't know if there is one.

There is one coming for Cherry.

Yeah, I guess we'll find out.

No, it just looked like you went once you jumped in.

I have a new stuff.

Yeah, new stuff.

Monday, Liveable Seaville is hosting a webinar.

Next Monday.

Monday the 12th.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Sorry.

Monday the 12th.

At 6.30 a little we'll see those that's your webinar.

You can go on the website and sign up for it.

It is with Anna Zebarts who wrote the book when driving is not an option.

She herself had vision issues, so she doesn't drive and

works in this space about transportation and so has put together a book about people who are non-drivers by choice, people who are involuntary non-drivers, and specifically in Washington state where she lives, but widely applicable information.

You're encompassing.

Yeah, not just attending, you're in conversation.

So that's going to be happening.

And something that I wanted to ask before I get up there in front of people is, are there anything, any things in particular that this group would like me to make a point about?

Does that make them feel confident?

I don't want to add more work to staff, so maybe it goes to livable Seville, but it would be good to have the local picture, which you might not have.

So like, how many people of work age cannot drive?

and Charlottesville.

Like the number is going to be like five digits between Charlottesville and Albemarle.

There'll be five digits of people that cannot drive and yet have to work.

And you mean don't can't qualify to drive?

Well, because they cannot or do not.

But cannot.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

Because of impairment or a suspended license or papers or

Yeah, it's a little project.

The livable Seabill people are capable of doing that work, so it might be better for them.

And teenagers.

I was late to my first day of work ever because I couldn't drive and my parents were supposed to drive me and forgot that I had work and were gone.

And I was stuck.

I couldn't do anything about it.

Yeah, and I'm not sure exactly how the conversation will be steered, but if there's like highlights about like the work that we're doing here, anything that you want me to announce, not just inquire.

Let's think about it.

I wanted to make a quick announcement of sorts as well that I've noticed in the last few weeks a whole bunch more leading pedestrian signals that has gone in.

Kudos asked Ben about that.

I knew it was on a to-do list.

Yeah, it's been happening.

It's awesome.

It's on the list.

I went to Poland once already.

I started taking them off.

That is one thing that someone on the head of the nation wants to see and why.

That would be a cool video for us.

One more before we adjourn the question.

Leading the best dream people.

Oh yeah, it would be for you.

Because that also finally shows, like, yes, we're good with that stuff.

One more thing?

Yes.

And this is maybe a question for Tommy.

It might be more of a question for Ben, but I know he's not here.

Maybe.

But there's no action on it right now.

I think there are a lot of people who can't use it.

It's not.

I think, and this is just the beginning of a larger conversation, there was a moment where a lot of their scooters were ending up in a public housing community in town.

And they were like, oh, this is a problem.

So let's put a geofence around it so they can't put the scooters in there anymore.

And we're like, well, you can't just walk right by a public housing community.

and so bringing it back.

Right.

You would need a lot of docs and it'd have to be like, I think, like I said, just the beginning of a larger population.

So it would just be like they'll counter it like that.

The reason why I bring it up is because we have people who are

don't love this fooders, even as amazing as they are for micro mobility purposes.

And we're not at the point where it's like, we have to change it or get rid of it.

So I think we should talk about the next meeting.

I will say that they have an extended permit till July 1st.

I just sent in my comments for changing their permit.

And we have a meeting next week about that before we hand over our comments to them.

I'll say right now that there is a lot of stuff in the current permit that they just don't do.

and that we need to hold them more accountable for it and I'm trying to make it easier on me to hold them more accountable.

So while we have a permit that we want signed on July 1st, I feel like we can work with B.O.

to reduce stress over the summer months before we head back into fall in UVA.

and we can talk a little bit about the future of the program, so on and so forth.

But one of the things right now, and we presented at council about this, is getting them to create a strategy for virtual parking hubs within all Charlottesville.

So that would require, it wouldn't be geofence, but it would say this is where you're supposed to park.

Um, and I don't, yeah, I, right now I'm pushing for them to have an increase on staff to help manage the program.

They haven't had to staff.

Um, and that's why it's been flying on you and that's not your job.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't like that.

Sorry.

What are you talking about?

We're doing the work of a private corporation by doing the e-bike subsidy.

But they should pay, since we don't need money in our community.

It should be, though, because I've been putting for the past four months, everyone keeps telling me, you need to do this, you need to do that.

I say they have a temporary extension.

Part of what you have to do is manage this business for them.

And there are other things that serve all of us better that are not happening.

So one thing I'll point out about OLLIA is don't let senior citizens decide how the micro mobility program works.

I'm going to end recording.

Meredith, I'll follow up with you tomorrow about some other stuff.