Rural Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting   2/18/2025

All right, I have officially hit record so we can give it another minute or so or start whenever.

I don't see anybody.

I do not see anyone now.

Yes, ma'am.

We are now official.

Thank you for stopping me for going too much further and I appreciate the reminder.

are all voting members, which is most everyone.

Don't be shy, everybody.

Danny's my voting member.

Can I get a second?

I'll second it.

Happy to have you on board.

I know I didn't prompt you for that.

Just want to share that I'm excited to work with you all.

Nope, Sarah, you might be muted.

Can you guys see my screen?

Yes.

So I will stop sharing my screen and open this up for some discussion from the group.

So Sarah, please remind me, when was the Regional Bicycle Plan last updated?

I believe that one might have been in FY19, so also probably pre-pandemic, but I will make, I'll double check that, but I know it was, I believe, in FY19, so that has also been a little while.

Right, Sarah.

Did anyone come up with anything that they know or are anticipating in their particular localities?

Just a comment, nothing to add on that.

No, that's definitely a great point.

Chuck, you're muted.

No, that is... Oh, 619.

You're muted again, Chuck.

And we can talk about that more when we get to the smart scale stuff.

That's a very challenging, bicycle and pedestrian is a challenging thing for a rural county, rural locality.

And it looks like they were done by Thomas Jefferson PDC.

Yes, Jason.

So counties to the east and to the west of Albemarle, certainly, if they build this piece, the others become easier to build.

And so in here would be reasonable.

What else do you want us to say?

So I find that really encouraging, so.

I don't know how big of a deal that is for what we're doing here.

Yeah.

How is that money, or do you have particular grants you're looking to look into this year, I guess?

It's when pipeline opportunities present themselves, we can then go to this line item and say, this is the support our team can provide for that.

Or does it get like possibly reallocated in 2026 to other items that are in need?

So it has to be fully expended by June 30 of each fiscal year.

So I guess is this a conversation that the TJPDC has with our county administration staff and directors about hey this amount of money has not been spent what would we like to use it on or should we bring this item up once a year into our meetings going hey we're halfway through the budget cycle and we've not used this money what do we as a group want to so I'm just I'm not looking for an answer today I'm just throwing that out there so

And if not, do we need to amend this and put resources into a different bucket based on how priorities are shifting?

Thank you.

I mean, our work plan is internal, but is there anything that we would need to do with VDOT if we were changing the scope of what we're using those planning funds for?

But if you're keeping it all within the same like program code, then you have some flexibility, I believe.

Does that make sense?

Yes.

Is the answer just full stop yes?

The bottom line is you can't spend more than $72,000.

Does that make sense?

Sort of like what we do at the tip.

That certainly makes it, A, administratively less burdensome, but also programmatically more flexible for you all.

So as someone whose previous job was at a PDC, I say the more flexibility you have, the better.

Right.

100% agree with you.

Great discussion.

I mean, you end up spending more on administration costs than you do on getting stuff done.

Thank you.

It was immensely helpful.

Does anybody else have any other questions or comments to add before we move on to SMART SCALE, our favorite topic?

What's the best practice for us making it very flexible but also meeting the letter of like, you know, the intent?

But you don't have to sign a value to it.

So don't necessarily have to put them in the plan, but make sure that we're capturing the work that's being undertaken in that category.

Thank you.

I know Flinchburg does things differently, Carson, so Chuck and I kind of took over that one.

No point in making our lives difficult.

It's what I like to hear.

Yes, no?

Yep.

You guys have anything else?

You really need to sort it out.

That way we have time enough to put together all the information you need for your applications.

Would you like me to start first?

Carson was going to talk about the Nelson County project.

Please, please do.

It's a daunting process, but I think we did pretty good for what we had this round.

Thank you.

If you could maybe just highlight what you think it was about the project in Nelson County that helped it score or where did you think that it stood out or you know was the kind of the part where it shined in this process?

So I think having Tambark as a PSI intersection really helped make that project push it in through funding.

Thank you.

All right, our favorite topic, roundtable.

So every time we clean something else we find something we find something else to look at which is good we're getting things cleaned up and I think it'll be a busy year for Louisa County once again Who wants to go next?

And that's all I have.

Would you like me to go next, Tom?

Whoever wants to go next is fine with me.

And that's pretty much all I've got right now for Fluvanna County.

What's the TAP application for?

Still to be determined, we're probably going to submit for the Fork Union Streetscape Phase 2.

Thank you.

I can go, Tom.

Go for it, Jim.

And that's all I have.

Thank you.

And I think Gorjan had a safe streets and roads for all update he wanted to give as well.

That's the biggest updates I had.

Who else would like to go?

Do you know when that's anticipated to be released?

By the end of March.

Okay.

Was it not canceled by the administration?

Not that we are aware of to date.

But Jim, we could be doing something in Greene.

Anybody else like to participate on a round table?

I didn't know if anyone's given any thought to that or if so, whether they thought it'd be feasible or not for those who have towns within their counties.

I can't recall them reaching out either to do that, but I can forward that up to a higher power to see if that's been done in the past.

the powers that be down in Luneburg County.

For topics, Sarah, do you have a good idea for topics or do we need to brainstorm before we adjourn?

You can shoot me an email as well.

Are we going to have one this summer about anything that might impact transportation from the General Assembly?

I think he's more than happy to do that.

Great, because I've seen things about traffic cameras and things of that relation recently, and so I don't know whether there's things that we should talk about as a regional group that might impact our planning.

But we can give you more information at the next meeting and follow up with you on that discussion.

Thank you, Chuck.

I mean, there's a lot of relevant stuff just to be making sure we're paying attention to.

So that is definitely something we have when the timing feels right.

This group loves rail.

Yeah, Jason.

Virginia Breeze is awesome.

Everybody have a wonderful Tuesday and thank you again for your time.

We very much appreciate it.