Regional Transit Partnership (2017-2025) Meeting   8/28/2025

Yes, so Peter said he wanted to.

Oh, that's right.

I'm looking in my brain now.

Hey, yeah, that's all that we see on my screen now.

All right, sounds good.

So we have a form and I will find a superman.

Brian's not coming, but he assured me you were coming so we can do it.

So Christine, just so as not to confuse people, would you move your...

All right, with that, I'm going to call the Thursday, August the 28th Regional Transit Partnership meeting to order.

And our first item of business is I would entertain a motion.

Do I have to do anything fancy, Christine, about introductions as long as they say where they're located?

and their reason for virtual.

We have very fancy language that we have to use at the Board of Supervisors.

We love fancy language.

I'm simply going to say then that I'd like to recognize Jen is here, Jen Flesher.

That's exactly.

Sorry, Diantha, my apologies.

Just to clarify.

So that's great.

We're sorry you have COVID.

I would entertain a motion

to invite Jim into the meeting.

So moved by Scott and second by Mike.

Councilor Oschrin?

Yes.

Supervisor McKeel?

Yes.

Supervisor Pruitt?

Aye.

Katy Miller?

Aye.

Randy Parker?

Aye.

I don't see Randy again.

Let us know that he had conflict for today and he would not be here.

Here.

All right.

So you are now legal.

And we don't have anybody else on the screen that we need to accept into the meeting, I don't believe.

Yeah.

So with that, we do have our first order of business, which is introductions.

Jen has introduced herself.

And I'm going to turn, as I always do, to my left.

Mike Murphy.

OK.

I'm Katie Miller.

I'm a program manager at the department of Brown with Pigeon.

That's right, good morning.

Jamie Gellner, Albemarle County Public Schools.

Scott Silsdorf, UVA, Department of Transportation.

Taylor Jenkins, TJ Driesen, and Diantha, I do see now in the attendees section, we do have a few votes, so I'm going to vote them.

Yep.

Hi, I'm Peter Krebs from the Piedmont Environmental Council.

I'm on the road back from Loudoun County.

So we need to vote to approve Peter.

Correct.

Yes, I've been in Loudoun County all day.

So I'll entertain a motion to invite Peter DeJolle to the meeting.

All right.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right.

There's a second.

Supervisor McKeel?

Supervisor Pruitt?

Aye.

Katy Miller?

Yes.

Randy Parker?

Scott Silsdorf?

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm confused, though, because I see Peter Thompson has joined.

So, Jim, we can only have one person representing.

No, Peter.

All right.

There you go.

All right.

Sounds good.

I would entertain a motion to ask Peter to do Peter Thompson to do an official salute.

and Seth.

So we have a motion in the second.

Would you call the roll?

Next time we'll have to get this organized and do it as one vote perhaps.

Supervisor McKeel?

Yes.

Supervisor Pruitt?

Aye.

Katy Miller?

Yes.

So this is everybody.

Yes, I'm working.

And I will say, Christine and I had a discussion about this earlier and in the past, we have invited into the meeting

officially, those people that are virtual, only those members that it was voting members.

A re-look at the legislation, the rules, it's a gray area, but it would appear that regardless of whether or not you're voting or non-voting, you need to be invited into the meeting.

So that's why today was a little different.

and next time we'll have to figure it out ahead of time.

So maybe we could just do, people would go through the folks and we could do one motion.

We'll figure that out this day.

Anyway, so that's why the change in the process today.

And with that, we have a draft meeting minutes from June the 26th.

Anyone have any questions or concerns about the minutes?

If not, I would entertain a motion.

To approve the-

So Mike has made the motion.

Second.

And then Natalie has seconded.

Dr. Oschrin?

Supervisor McKeel?

Yes.

Supervisor Pruitt?

Aye.

Scott Silsdorf?

Yes.

All right.

And our next item matters from the public.

Would anyone online like to speak?

No.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

We are looking forward to it.

Taylor, do you need us to stand or is it sitting okay?

The only reason I ask is I'm going to turn it over to Patrick, but I will start by saying that I've been at UVA now two years and my first RTP meeting was also Patrick was here and those of you who remember it from years ago to then talk about the award that he had won from the UVA president's office who launched

So it's kind of fitting that two years have gone by.

We've had a lot of hard work to get the system planned for and up and off the ground.

So since October of I Don't Steal This Thunder, since October of last year, it has been operating and issuing incentives to people.

And I think the sound is better if people go to the podium, so that's great.

Walk and Commute is here as well.

All right, well, thank you.

I'm really excited to be here.

Yeah, we've come a long way since two years ago when this was more just a dream with a little bit of funding to get us started.

But yeah, let's dive in.

So for those who don't know, Walk and Commute is a QDM program launched by UVA Department of Transportation.

TDMB, Transportation and Demand Management.

We're looking at how we can more efficiently apply strategies to better use our transportation network.

And I wanted to just highlight a few, like set the stage for what the program is and how we use it to kind of better get into the, help you guys understand what we're doing and what we're hoping to accomplish.

So the program uses a youth management platform powered by an company called Loom.

And the main feature that Loom offers us, this management platform, is it allows our employees to log their commutes.

So basically, how are they getting to work every day?

And then based on which modes you select, you earn an incentive associated with that.

So the qualifying modes that we support are walk, bike, scooter, transit, carpool, and vanpool.

The Loom platform also allows us to implement some important integrations from a user experience that really kind of take this platform, this program to the next level in terms of the 21st century and make it easy to use, easy to engage with.

And so we have the insurer integration that pulls all of our employee information into the app, sets up an account for them,

So when they first sign up, they can just kind of get started from there.

And then we have a general integration that, very importantly, that's how we deliver the incentives to the employees.

And this is what allows us to leverage cash incentives to pay people directly for any of the alternative transportation.

And then there is membership.

So most employees at UVA can participate in full or part-time staff and faculty across the academic, medical center, and university physicians group.

Those that can't, there's a few categories right now, student employees, temp employees, and contingent employees.

but our eligible population is right around 25, 26, 27,000 total employees can participate.

Then we have specific commuting requirements.

The big thing being that we do not allow members to have an annual permit to park on campus or on grounds.

So parking transportation, we sell permits to park in the various lots.

If you want to see the program, you can't have the annual version of that.

and that's our measure to make sure you're not parking when you're planning you're doing something else, you're tweeting in a different way.

So you can have a permit or if you do have one you have to turn it in as part of joining the program.

And that gets us into the purpose or why we're doing this.

Parking and transportation, our primary function is to manage the university's parking supply.

Right now we sit about 19,000 total parking spaces.

But we have way more, like I just said, 26,000 or so faculty and staff and another tens of thousands of students.

And so we have to find that balance to leverage our parking supply to use it efficiently, but also get the parking they need.

But the problem comes when demand

I have here surpasses even before that when demand encroaches the total supply capacity.

We have an issue on our hands as a department, how are we going to address that?

We can either increase the parking supply or increase the demand.

On the increased supply side, we are currently underway.

The university is building two new parking garages you're probably aware of.

There's the one at Fontaine, the medical research park,

and the one at North Grounds by John Paul Jones Rita.

So both of those together were at about 2,300 parking stalls.

And so we're attempting to increase the supply, but you know, the university in terms of growth, we're just not, this isn't going to be a panacea, is what I'm trying to say.

Well, we're adding more parking, but with the U.S. too still,

not count on that to take care of all of our parking problems.

And so where I come in and walk and commute is in an effort to reduce the parking demand.

How can we get people to not bring their vehicles to grounds to begin with?

And so we are, the program is an effort trying to incentivize a community behavior change, leave your single occupancy vehicle at home, take an alternative and get to work.

In terms of timeline, just to give you a great history, so in 2019, PMT did a parking study where the consultants told us pretty much what we already knew, that we had an impending parking shortfall on our hands.

And as part of their recommendations, they submitted, you know, had a TDM program.

At the time, we were, it's really just centered around Parkland,

we would have discounts on permits.

But we didn't have a robust program in that it's incentivizing all the different modes of alternative commuting.

So they came and said, start a TBM program.

Then we had COVID.

Everybody was sent home, teleworking took off.

Still today, we have a lot of employees that engage in hybrid work schedules.

that have, so there's still that parking need, but then it's even trickier now to how do we meet their needs, but they're not here every day.

But with the return to normalcy, people start coming back to work.

We're kind of up against it again in terms of that parking demand.

In 2023, as Scott mentioned, being a colleague with the Office of Sustainability, we submitted an idea for an internal grant that the Office of the President was seeking.

They were seeking ideas that would support staff success, centered around making lives easier, better to come to work, and also had a sustainability focus.

And so we pitched this idea of

Walker Commute, they called Commute Club.

But this idea that you can get incentives coming to work just using an alternative mode.

And we were one of the winners selected.

And so we got a one-time funding of $100,000 to implement the idea.

So we kind of took that, brought it back to the department.

And we'll say, we have a great opportunity here.

We know we need a TDM program.

We have this seed money.

One is like the biggest thing you can do with this and really make something that would be impactful and meaningful and a difference-making for staff and faculty.

So with that, understood getting Walkie Commute started.

October 2023, we selected Loom as our commute management platform among the available vendors.

And then a year later, through all the setup, in September of 2024, we launched Walkie Commute.

And so yeah, we're coming up on our one-year anniversary.

So it's really exciting to see how far we've come.

But yeah, let's get into some of the fun stuff, the incentives that we offer employees.

There's three core incentives.

The primary one is what's called the commute bonus.

So this is the daily cash incentive that an employee can earn.

So you log into the platform.

You say, I rode the bus today to work.

I rode cat.

then you get $1.50.

And the platform tracks that.

And then at the end of your payroll period, that is processed and sent to payroll and deposited on your paycheck.

And so employees, Monday through Friday, you can log your commute.

And so if you do the math, you can earn between $20 and $30 per month if you're consistently using alternative transportation.

Then we have the commute raffle.

So right now we're talking $1.50 per day.

That's not going to move the needle for everybody as there's some higher dollar amount that we can get that would also be engaging for some.

So we implemented this raffle idea where your daily commute bonuses that you log count as raffle entries.

Quick question about that.

Yeah.

And so it hasn't happened yet, but if I redrew it, if I hear someone saying that they've already won, I would redraw a different name.

Yeah.

We've got a little large pool of employees.

So just trying to get equal chance to have a chance to win the raffle.

And then we have the e-bike rebate reward.

So with the rise of e-bikes and how beneficial they are at helping people commute, we thought it prudent to help people to earn

just a little bit of money that they can put towards their first purchase of an e-bike.

And so if an employee logs 100 commutes, 100 of the qualifying commute modes, then they qualify for the rebate.

We have some other conditions meeting certain standards as far as what e-bikes are available for purchase, but that's the essential part.

Log 100 commutes, you get $400 towards an e-bike purchase.

Oh, and then I have it here.

So, you know, the change we made, we had some, our own set of rules, but we looked at what the city was doing and actually changed our offerings to better align with their voucher program.

And you mean by that, I mean, like what stores?

Exactly.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

So it was more centered around the safety certifications.

Yes.

So the idea initially was to give, you had more options available to you.

If you've met certain safety standards, the problem is kind of where the market is right now.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

There are manufacturers that will claim that when it's not the case, when you actually go and look up their company's listing.

And then, but we know that as the provider.

But the problem is that it was putting too much burden on the employee to try to figure it out on their own.

It was creating a lot of headaches.

And because I'm not in the city, I don't help me understand.

So within the city, our e-bike voucher program, we have an understanding with the local bike shops that they will take those vouchers.

Thank you.

The other idea with the bike shops too, which is probably played into the city is the idea is the customer may not know anything about e-bikes.

It's a lot of you can just click and buy something on Amazon or if you're going to go to the local retailer, they're probably going to say, what are you interested in?

What's your commute?

What are you doing?

Those local retailers also tend to offer maintenance and revenue warranties and things like that that you might not do with a non-confluent line retailer.

And so we don't want to have a bunch of broken e-bikes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was key for us because what I found in processing these applications is that while the bike may have met safety standards, it wasn't necessarily a quality bike.

And so we were supporting the purchase of a device that over time, as it breaks down, isn't something that can be repaired and maintained.

It just turns into e-waste basically.

So these are the ones that I see at the county line?

No, they're not.

So that's the program.

There's a rent in there somewhere.

They're not going to need to get around easily.

It's just that because I'm not in the city, I don't understand all these programs.

They happen right at the edge of the... Because when they get to the county, they drop.

It's the edge of the service zone, so we get that view.

I think this is a very good indication of where we do need to provide better transportation options within those corridors.

It does also happen within the city and outside of areas that are not allowed on grounds.

I mean the lawn and the JPJ and areas.

So for football games, so you'll see it.

If you see a collection on Emmett Street, it's because there might be a concert and they're not allowed to

So it's not just Albemarle.

It helps me understand a little bit better.

We plan to offer other rewards as well as we continue to find our footing, but specifically highlighting

I have here as an example, like Bike Month, we can offer additional incentives.

Like if you choose to bike that month, you can get another dollar.

So that's what we do.

So here's a glimpse of what the commute calendar looks like.

So this image on the left is the web-based.

You log in, you go to the calendar, and this is a screenshot of mine.

So you can see the red here is the two people in the car.

So that is a carpool.

I have a question about how carpooling is showing up.

So you said you have to charge in your parking pass.

I see what you're going to say.

So we have a few exceptions.

So the carpool permit is one because you still need it to park, show that you're valid to be in that specific lot.

So what we do is we have the carpool participants in order to qualify

You have to have at least two UVA employees in the vehicle, and then they split the cost of the permit.

But they are allowed to- And it's a specific part of the permit?

Yes.

And then here on the right is a screenshot.

So there's an app version as well.

You can download the room app from your mobile store.

One of seven.

You said it, but you cannot go back in time.

So you're stuck within your payroll period.

So you can't ignore this for three months and all of a sudden go back and say, oh, I did this, this, this, this.

Yeah, if you look at the screenshot, so the 11th through the 20th, that wider background is my active pay period.

So I can't log into the future, the 21st and beyond, and I can't go back past the 10th and back over

Once it locks out, there's no Edison.

People will say, well, I've been driving my car to work for six months now.

Can I ask real quickly, for the purposes of the program, you are grading all of the alternative ways of getting there equally because you've dealt with this as a, I know there's the $1 billion.

Right now, though, you are on the right track that I hope to where we can take the program to.

but as of right now, just PMT supported program.

I didn't say specifically if you're going back to the incentive.

So the $1.50 is four walk, five scooter and transit.

And then a dollar is parkour and vanpool.

We did want to make a small distinction because while you are alternative commuting using parkour and vanpool, you still don't bring a vehicle in the grounds taking out the parking sadly.

In terms of features that the platform offers, a big one is guaranteed ride home.

So that's definitely something we'd like to have in the program as well as that's one of the biggest hurdles that people, fears that they have giving up their permit and not having access to their trip because they need a way to get home if something happens.

Needs to leave, work early because you have a sick child or you hadn't stayed late and you missed the bus because you had to do mandatory overtime or something.

Wherever the case is,

you have a fallback if your alternative mode that you use to get to work can get you home.

So for free by its own per year via Lyft, there's also powerful matching features that you can, and that's what this screenshot here is.

You can put in your commute details, where you're starting from, where you're trying to go to start and stop time.

And then it'll show you on the map from there

Yeah, and that was one of the, before we had this program, that was one of the most consistent questions that we got.

I'm interested in park polling, I don't have anybody.

Now we have this that we can push them to.

And what's your usage of the Guaranteed Ride Home?

I'm just curious.

It's actually pretty low from, I think, what most people would assume it would be.

You have a few people that, look, because we just had a rollover with our new fiscal year, so we've reset the code of rides.

And then you have a bunch of people that kind of use them right away.

Not a bunch.

You have a few that use them right away.

But by and large, people don't, not that they don't take advantage of, but they just don't need them.

Once you've established an alternative community habit, most people just make it work.

They figure out a way to make it work.

So to more specifically answer your question, I think in July we had around 20 or 22 lives claimed.

Again, that's not all I'm going to get to later on, but out of like 800 or so participants.

then we also have a band pool finder so similar to call for matching you can search existing band pools that we sponsor and then we have it set up so you can do payroll deduction to pay for your band pool so there's additional savings there but we as a department subsidize band pools participation and then sign up in the app and everything and then there's some gamification elements so you can see here you can earn like badges so

At this level, I was a level three carpooler.

I was a friend, Tony Pace.

So that was my badge.

I recently leveled up to level four.

And you're not going to show us the picture of level four.

But you can earn badges.

There's also leadership boards so you can see how you stack up against your fellow employees.

Some actually get like pretty competitive like with their peers in the office, you know, who's biking the most miles as a big one So this gives more people, people more reason to want to engage So here's the July 2025 snapshot So like I said, membership, we're up to almost 800.

As for active members, so those who are

logged at least one trip or one commute in the month was 584.

Saw a slight dip in the summertime.

People were on vacation.

And then the eligible population of 26,000.

So 3.1% of right now the eligible population is participating in the program.

A little over 8,000 commutes logged.

And then that top pie chart, you can see the breakdown based on load type.

and we calculate this to be roughly 532 spaces saved for the month.

Is that how many?

So we're at roughly 19.

We're going to add 2,300.

Yeah, 2,300, so a little over 21,000.

21,000 parking lots.

It is roughly $35,000 per variance.

So you could do this for 1,000 months, and it would still be a better deal to do it this way and to build another parking space.

Well, right.

And that is a structure that the two garages that we have under construction.

So the state, this is a lot of concept.

I think most of you know, in addition to being a transit guy and the parking guy at UVA.

So all the other universities generally do it the same way UVA does, where there's a parking and if they do a transportation, it's usually in the same bus.

So very

We're constantly trying to manage the whole system.

In talking to them, thankfully, we are one of the leaders in terms of getting an understanding of the need to pay so that we can do things like this.

Because in a lot of schools, there's pressure to, oh, we can't charge the parking.

Well, we've got to keep our parking rates low.

And then the reality is that there's no funding for these sorts of things.

So yeah, it's a balance.

And UVA is not going to build, not a chill airport, but I don't want to pick on any airport or state.

Our parking garages are not just precast concrete.

They've got bricks, facades, and aesthetic treatments.

So that adds to the cost.

The darted garages...

So yes, I mean, so we're not going to just do a standard green cast or cast-in-place, gray concrete parking structure.

Yeah, so I mean, big picture to Ben's point, like if we are willing to spend that to build one parking space,

What's the difference between a carpool and a vanpool?

Yeah, so if it will, we would distinguish it for our purposes as to the nature of the vehicle and ownership.

So if it's a private vehicle,

and we would discount that as a carpool.

We use vanpool specifically if we are sponsoring a vehicle that we procure from a third party and you will use this vehicle for the group ride.

Got it.

So that's why they're broken out separately.

How many vanpools are you all operating?

I am interested in your commute modes and whether or not you have data that determines

How many people have chosen alternative commute modes because of the program?

Or were they already taking transit or riding to buy carport?

So it's not perfect, but one way we can measure that is by permits turned in.

So of course, we knew there was already a bunch of people doing this.

And of course, they're going to sign up for the incentives.

But I haven't looked at it recently, but I would estimate

Um, roughly 70 permits have been turned in as a whole.

Um, and so, so yeah, so a lot of the people that are already doing this are really front loaded.

When the program went live, they were really excited.

The people that have the permits, they're the people that we need to win over.

Here's the incentives.

I know this is how much you can earn.

Well, I was going to ask the same question, but

I want to hardly answer your question and say that taking Albemarle County as an example, there are people who've been riding Connect from Crozet three years, but because of this program, and maybe not exclusively because the Crozet ridership on the various Connect routes is up 58% and on 29 North it's up over 9%.

So there are ways in which this is moving new people into the system.

So that's a win too.

But that whole changing behavior is really, it's a good win there for you all related to parking.

It's also a really good win on those that are working in climate and sustainability.

So

I'm curious how we all actually originally landed on this approach because I'm thinking I have worked in organizations that gave free parking or you could turn in your parking pass and you would get a transit subsidy, a flat transit subsidy that was pretty hefty.

Or I've also worked in places that just, if you do not have a parking pass,

then you are eligible to put in transit rebates directly.

Both of those seem both much more substantial subsidies and also frankly a lot easier to administer than this system.

I gather you get a lot more data with this system, but it seems like the actual, like the size of the subsidy and thus the push off of parking is smaller and like the overhead seems to me

You have a whole software system that you had to buy for it.

I would need to give some clarification on transit subsidies and how they're applied elsewhere.

Sure.

So when I worked at the DOJ, I lived in Baltimore.

and I had the DOJ bought my market ticket every day, which is actually quite expensive because I was in Baltimore.

I was right at the edge of what the subsidy would even permit, but like every DOJ employee in the nation's capital had the option to just have the DOJ pay their transit fees.

Similarly, when I worked at the Office of Naval Intelligence,

If you did not use, if you did not have a parking pass at the Sugellen Federal Center, then you got that like quarterly transit subsidy.

I would venture the difference, Michael, is that that's what they're both DC metro area.

So there, and I'm not up to speed on this stuff, but it's air quality.

And those are, those are, those were mandated programs under air quality attainment, where there were specific federal or state or regional incentives that gave a pot of money to employers to offer those things.

We don't have those needs or programs here, so that's not available.

And then the flip side of the other piece of that, I was going to ask you where the employer, you answered it.

I think it's partly due to the nature of it being a university because universities are somewhat unique in that we have to fund parking as an auxiliary, which means that we have to charge people to park.

Whereas if it was a private employer or a government, they use some other general funds or bonds or other sources of funding, but I don't get, as the director of parking at UVA, state funds for parking.

It all comes from fees.

And so therefore,

We have a natural, we already are charging people, so people are already kind of accepted that, you know, they're frustrated by it, but they're accepted it.

And so then that creates this kind of market-based approach.

The other challenge in our region is all the transit service is free.

Right.

Peter Krebs had his hand up.

Oh, sure, Peter.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

And this isn't a question, but sort of an observation that, first of all, it's so great that our largest employer in the region is showing leadership this way.

And I also love that you're making a business case to people.

And you're approaching it from a business standpoint.

as well.

These people are saving UVA significantly, and they're getting a little piece of that saving.

So that's great.

Yeah.

So do you have a notion of like, OK, so by choosing not to park, this person is saving UVA x amount.

And of course, we're giving back some of that saving to the commuter.

Do you have like a, have you calculated that like,

Commuter X is saving UVA this much.

No, so we haven't gotten that far yet in terms of analysis.

It's mostly just been focused on the kind of much more like directly in front of us, how many parking spaces are we saved.

in terms of how much it would cost to build those additional parking.

Yeah, and you're under no obligation at all, but that would be helpful for us to take to other businesses who are, you know, maybe thinking of expanding their parking and then we could go to them and say, well,

Very good point.

I have another question, but I don't want to interrupt your flow.

We are almost done.

Yeah, so I see by now that that's how much we've spent in terms of incentives for July.

and so divided by the number of spaces saved, that's how much was spent per space saved.

Lessons learned in terms of this whole process up to this point.

Really, it's a nominal growing experience for myself having never done something like this.

And so having better learned at UVA how to bring together all of the stakeholders needed to

get something of this size and scope kind of off the ground.

And then over the year, kind of fine tuning the details to better meet our needs.

You know, this is, to Peter's point, a business-like approach.

We are an auxiliary.

And so we need to make sure, you know, the spending that we are doing makes sense and it aligns with our objectives and what we're trying to accomplish.

And then most recently has been the e-bike update.

And so yeah, a lot of lessons learned so far and that helped us refine the program, but we still have pretty long ways to go.

I don't have like a slide here, but there are several initiatives kind of underway in order to grow the program.

As far as like where we're to next, number one, we want to increase our staffing.

So we, mostly it's been myself managing the program,

but we are taking on some student interns.

It helps with more of the administrative side.

To Mike's point, there is an administrative lift required to maintain the program and then marketing.

So up to this point, it's mostly been word of mouth and those that I'm kind of plugged into around the university and a few newsletters have announced it but we really haven't really gone out and tried to like

really raise awareness.

Like I said, we've used this first year kind of as a soft launch, but we really, going into the fall, we'll make a big push in terms of now we're trying to get those permit holders.

So we'll have, the platform offers onboarding emails.

This is what I'm really excited about.

So whenever an employee starts, the first time their name comes across that roster file, it'll send them an email telling them all about their various commute options.

before it would be a service like onboarding at UVA.

It's mostly up to the manager to tell you what your options are.

And they tell them, oh, you need to buy parking for a million.

That's the first thing they hear in terms of P and P. So now we can get to them first and say, you can buy a parking permit, but there are all these other options to take advantage of.

And here's the program.

So we would get to the point where they never got that permit.

They never established that habit of driving to Browns.

Maybe we can get them on the bus or on the bike from day one.

And then in terms of technology that we're exploring to further incentivize people, we're looking for what we sell right now, daily parking, in addition to annual permits.

So if you don't have an annual permit, you can buy daily parking just for the days you need via park mobile or a parking portal.

But we're looking for something that is a little more robust and helping us

manage who can park where and giving that access.

Cause if I could paint a picture for you for a second, those familiar with grounds, you'll know we have a few close in lots that are highly desirable, but we're talking, you know, a hundred spaces.

Those that have the permits there have rolled a wait list for years, finally got the permit.

Now they, you know, you have to, you know,

Rip it out of their hand.

So they, you know, no matter what the incentives are, it doesn't feed back flows in parking when you're right next to the building.

So with some of the new technology that's coming out, though, we have the opportunity to help to enable them to maintain the ability to buy parking there, but on a daily basis, instead of having to have an end of employment.

So we'll go to them and once it's in place, hey, turn in your permit, we'll let you buy parking there when we need it.

But on those other days when you're working remote or you know, the weather's nice and you're fine with riding your bike, then they have that option.

So not only will that get more people involved in the program and in terms of again, efficiency, using our space more effectively, it'll allow us to fit more cars, more people,

into the space we do have.

And then lastly, going to funding sustainability.

And the steps goes back to the point that you made, Mike, about, you know, seeking out other potential stakeholders that benefit from this directly or indirectly.

So other departments like the VA, medical center, HR,

You know, this program has these benefits as well.

We're helping employees out.

There's the sustainability element.

There's some other potential funding avenues that can help us continue to grow and improve.

All right.

All right.

Thanks.

Thanks so much.

Yeah, it's great to see UVA doing this.

It's a lot of people paying cars coming from outside of the city and one of my main goals is to not make sure I would spill a parking lot further surrounding town.

So it's great to try and get people out of their cars and see all the different ways that you're offering it.

My first question is about the $400 fee by free date and the 100 commutes that have to be racked up before that becomes available.

So that's on one side, but then you also said getting people on a bike from day one is something that you want to try and offer.

Well, one point of clarification I wanted to, you don't have to log 100 bike commutes.

It can be any other qualified commute modes.

But I mean, at the same time, we do need to balance budget concerns.

So we can't be like, OK, you just joined the program.

Here's $1,200.

That would exhaust our budget pretty quickly.

At least, you know, we're trying to take it cautious at first.

We don't want to get ourselves in trouble.

We've over committed.

And then actually, you know, membership spikes and all those people are faking the rebate.

And then there's the other side.

Did you just sign up to get the rebate?

Now you can, you know, end your membership, buy a permit and you got for a free $400 off of E.T.

I was thinking about the practical application of that and like I live over on this side of town and if I needed to get over to the VA for my job it's like a four and a half minute bike ride but it's an hour long walk and the bus

is kind of tough and it would probably take 45 minutes.

And so in order for me to earn that, that's pretty onerous.

And so I'm wondering if to counteract the, oh, people could get the thing and then go buy the permit and maybe they have to wait a hundred days before they can buy a permit again.

And so you'd flip it, the waiting period to be, it's more pro-life from the start.

I will say, I mean, it is a rebate, so you can purchase the bike from day one.

You do have to have the cash on hand to do the purchase, but you can join, you bought your bike, you bought it from one of the local shops.

And then once you get your hundredth news, you submit the application and get the money back.

That's helpful.

I was thinking it was more like the city's- No, no, no.

Okay.

That is helpful.

Thank you.

Yes, there is.

We're super excited.

So I think to a lot of Scott's hard work, making sure it got in there, both garages will have indoor bike covered parking.

Fontaine will have, we can fit, I think it's 36 racks, so like 17 bikes.

There's also a fix-it station on site.

As I said, it's covered and secured, and so that's one of the biggest feedback points we get from regular bike riders.

Covered parking, secured parking, especially if you're riding a more expensive e-bike, you have an extra layer of protection.

Then, more grounds go out next year.

So we have covered indoor bike parking.

We'll have designated e-bike charging racks as well.

So you go to charge your bike there,

And then we'll also have a, we haven't settled on the name yet, but there's a facility at the garage too, which will support bike programming.

So we will have a, again, we're figuring out the details, but we'll offer clinics there, support students and employees doing their own bike repairs.

We'll have our stands and stations set up.

It'll be kind of like the new hub for everything bike-related.

Community members can come there.

OK, great.

Very cool.

Yes, Christine?

I have a question.

This is great.

I love this.

But I was also, I couldn't help but think about the Regents Rideshare Program and the states Connecting VA app.

and my thinking was is that 530 some people that are no longer logging their rides in Connecting VA because they're using this one.

I don't think that's a problem as long as they're using an alternative route.

I'm wondering if there's some like way that in registering folks for viewers, you can also turn them onto the idea of registering for the states in order to get additional incentives that you all are offering, but they

Yeah, we do have it on our platform under the other resources.

But yeah, we could do a better job promoting this.

Hey, if you'd like getting rewards here, here's another thing.

If you're doing it, you're doing things already, the hard part, the community.

Log in here, too.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm curious, certain, if there are people who

What sort of the daily average of people who are using a temporary parking pass on the UK?

Is it about the same size as the number of people who are using this?

I think it's a lot bigger because you're talking the other 17,000.

I guess I'm wondering how many people are using

Right, and to Patrick's comment about the marketing and making people aware of it, for now, our method of feeling success is annual permits turned in, but then ultimately, and that's not the only one, but that's somewhat easily measured to say, okay, annual permits have been gone down.

but ironically, as I was saying earlier, that's permanent revenue for us and we only really have two sources of revenue.

It's parking revenue and it's the student fee for transportation and there's charters for transportation and there's an assortment of things related to parking.

We have been parking citation fees, but it really boils down to those two things.

So it's a little bit, which is our internal struggle, which is we need to have enough revenue coming in to be able to afford things.

that we're looking at, what does that look like?

What's that proper balance?

There are institutions, most of them have fixed rail transit systems as their regional transportation system, but there are institutions, I'm thinking of MIT, I think maybe Berkeley might do this too, where they've scrapped annual permits, they've scrapped semester permits, and they basically say, pay for parking by the day.

like across the board because they want me to make the decision every day, what's my community?

How am I getting to the one today?

So that would, I mean, I would love to be able to do that, but that would kind of change our full approach.

And, you know, I keep saying I want our annual funds to go down, but I don't want to lose revenue.

So, and we said it quickly,

But really the key is the technology.

Unfortunately, and I don't want to turn this into a bigger parking conversation, but when you're selling short-term parking, park mobile or apps like that are the easiest.

But the problem with that is there's no restriction.

You turn it on and anybody who sees it in the app can buy it.

And the difference is with the system that we're looking at and hoping.

So it's our own parking vendor.

We just need them to kind of catch up to 2025 and what we want them to do for us.

We want to be able to say, hey, you 50 people that have this really high, you know, desire, but you're never going to give up your annual permit.

What if we could still let you buy parking in that location because you earned it, you waited it out, but you don't use it every day.

We're not getting guaranteed to you every day.

We're only going to guarantee it to you on certain days.

Right.

Versus like you don't reapply every year and you may not get that same ideal location.

Right.

It's yours.

Right.

And so there's an inherent desire at UVA once you've got that close-in, high-dollar parking to not give it up, even if you're not parking.

And I remember those days.

I was one of those people that had one hand for me, seriously.

Yeah.

One comment, one quick plug.

I saw your one slide where it ended with this punchline about saving $25.

I think there's a different calculation which is much more compelling about your program which says if it cost me $35,000 to build a space and the useful life of a parking deck depending on who you consult is somewhere between 20 and 30 years we divide that by somewhere between 200 to 360 months

Every month you're saving between $140 and $97 per space that you change the behavior.

That's really much more about it particularly when you multiply it by 500 some people.

So I think there's a different way of storytelling.

Think about the math.

I don't know, but I really think that that would be interesting in casemaking for you all.

The other is like, you know, I mean with

Scott sometimes, Allison and Kendall pretty regularly.

We talk a lot about ridership and we've got like 50,000 rides a year that are moving people almost exclusively to UVA on these commuter routes.

So we talk a lot about what the routes are and whether we need to add to those.

I did, you know, in preparation for a grant over this last week, we talked about like, can you tell me where the people are who might ride?

and there seemed to be some firewall there, right?

About like, who do you get to go to?

And so just wondering from a vendor perspective, somebody who's already partnering with you in a big way, it'd be great when you have the page in like telling people about all the things around your carpool, vanpool, all that.

How are you telling them about JAWS with other providers?

And how is that going to people who aren't already on it?

Absolutely leveraging what data we do have.

We have annual permit data.

We know where these people are coming from.

And we look at, we can identify pockets of employees that live close together.

From my perspective, it's been more like, okay, I see there's like 15, 20 people here that live in this neighborhood.

Maybe I can reach out to them and say, hey, you're interested in forming a van pool.

And then we get them all on the same ride together.

That's, yeah, taking that to the next level.

There are these pockets along those florals.

Yeah, maybe there's a fixed route solution that we can partner with to meet that need.

Thank you, Patrick.

I appreciate it.

It's not a question, so hopefully it won't generate tons of discussion.

But just as a response to what you were just saying about people hanging onto their permits.

Oh, yeah.

That made me think of when I did a bike tour in Mexico City and the tour guide was telling us about their smog problem.

There's 26 million people in this dish and there's, you know, they realize we have to get people out of their cars.

What do we do?

And they have a citywide color coded permit on every car.

So on Mondays, people with the red sticker can't drive.

On Tuesdays, the green sticker can't drive.

And I don't know exactly

How to apply that to this situation, but something like that where there's like a forced rotation, if not annually, daily, weekly, monthly, something like that, it would take some fine grained detail to figure out how it would work better.

But that could maybe be a slow, gentler way of breaking that grip a little bit while still giving people the space that they need.

I don't know.

Just that made me think of that.

And moving on to any other burning questions, just so we can move on.

It was a great presentation.

Thank you.

We'll have to hand you back in another year or two.

And congratulations on your two years.

Sure.

Yes, sir.

All right, regional transit authority working room update.

Turn it over to you.

So you might recall the TJPDC applied on behalf of CARTA for a technical assistance grant from DRPT that we did receive.

Included in your packet was the final scope of work for that study, which is called the Transit Service Prioritization and Implementation Feasibility Study.

And that did go out to DRPT's bench and with the deadline of tomorrow.

And so after tomorrow, the working group will begin reviewing proposals and we hope to have a project team selection by the next CARTA board meeting, which is September 25th.

At their July meeting, CARTA also received a brief legislative update from David Blount from the PDC about discussions that the working group has had.

Legislators just to share background about CARTA and what CARTA is doing, what work the board is doing.

And finally related to that, one piece of material that was finalized after your packet went out with a CARTA one pager, just about more background for CARTA and information on the work, information about the vision plan and other studies that have been done over the years related to transit.

These would be great, this one-pager.

It's actually two pages from that.

We really appreciate David doing that for us.

It's really great.

Feel free to pick them up and use them as you need to.

It's sort of everything about it, all in one single piece of paper.

So it's really good.

Any questions for Taylor about that?

All right, then moving on to the RTP transition update.

Yep, and this is quick.

It's not going to take a lot of time on the agenda, but most folks in this room know because we are the RTP that the RTP was established in 2017.

It was a recommendation that came out of the transit coordination study.

but it was always designed to be an interim body to get developed the Regional Transit Authority and so as the authority has been established we're really starting to think about the role of the two bodies and sunsetting the RTP so that there are not two regional transit planning bodies here but there's a memo in your packet that really talks to some of the successes of the RTP and it being so critical in getting us to where we are in the region

Better coordinated discussions, you know, regional thinking around transit rather than just urban.

Many, many studies, as you guys know, you know, one led to the next, which made a recommendation of what we really need is a vision plan.

So we know what the 20-year outlook is going to be and the vision plan recommended.

You need a governance study because if you're going to set up a board, you want to think about its governance before it's been enacted and then

You know, we had the great fortune of doing the Albemarle Transit Expansion Study, which resulted in the microtransit pilot, the microcat.

So a lot of really great work has come out of this body.

And, you know, there's a tendency to, we don't like to let things that are going really well go, but I'd like to say that our staff recommendation is the RTP does sunset come December, 2025 of this year.

And all of the work that's being done by the partnership gets continued at the authority.

so that there are not two different bodies.

So our staff recommendation, we brought the same recommendation to the CARTA board is that with CARTA being enacted, they become the primary regional transit body for all of the coordination and that this body ends in December.

And you're just telling folks, this is not something that we need motions on and votes on.

This is just for information.

One's a question and one's important.

One is, I went back and read because I couldn't listen in on the part of the meeting, and I couldn't tell what the action is that would constitute dissolution.

I was curious, have you gone back to figure out exactly how it was stood up?

Was there a vote by council and board?

Does council and board have to vote?

Because I was trying to piece out, was the discussion like,

Can CARTA vote to dissolve RTB?

No, they can't.

So, you know, there's a question there.

I'm sure that you all have that.

The other is, for me, John, representing outside of Charlottesville Albemarle, which will at least be the initial focus of CARTA, I'm interested in having a discussion that I just want to elevate to the whole group and then talk with Taylor and Christine about

Is there any additional scope needed or different way of thinking about RTAC now that RTP isn't having some of the discussions that it has?

And if so, how should we be involved in that?

Yeah, we'll go and we'll go back and look at the initial.

We haven't done that yet.

We plan to do that before that December meeting.

So if it requires a formal action, it would have to go before your bodies.

And I will say, and you're sort of talking about this, I think, as well.

I think one of the really big benefits of this body, the Regional Transit Partnership, was getting all the providers together.

And for me, one of the most, I won't say interesting, but valuable parts of the agenda were the report out and people hearing what other providers were doing.

And that has been a huge, I think, benefit because I've seen a lot of work coming down with those report outs and sharing of information.

And I'm a little concerned that we're going to lose that piece.

So I'm just going to declare that you all have to keep coming back once a month to do a report out at the table.

But I'm just not sure how to get that in.

I do think that was a valuable piece of our conversation.

Because I learned a lot about what was going on.

I'm not as critical as Scott learning what Mike was doing and Mike learning what Jamie was doing.

There's a real value in being around the table and talking.

And I figure we're going to miss that some.

And I'm not sure how to

to read about that.

And I just look at Christine as that noted, maybe been that noted.

Yeah.

And it's definitely something we've talked about at the part of working with us.

Yeah.

And I won't stress that any further.

And Mike, a further response to your other statement is the other side of that, right, is not only the dissolution of the RTP, but currently the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County give the TJPDC funding to staff the RTP.

And so getting into an MOU and an order agreement that we would staff the CARTA is just the other side of that, is making sure that that stand up is the same as like whatever the dissolution of the RTP process.

Well, I always said that when we started RTP, we had to show the community and the university and the players that we could play in the same sandbox.

And I think we have.

It's all good.

All right, with that, I was talking about the provider updates, and I guess that's where we're going next.

Sure.

Well, we started school August 13th, which was

a week early for us, but it aligns with the city now.

So it was a little bit more chaos for us since we weren't used to starting early, but things are starting to smooth out.

We've lost a few people to various reasons the past couple of weeks or a bit short-staffed.

We have eight open routes right now.

Some of the exciting things that are happening is we partnered with Baltimore County Police Department,

to an ultimate to add some school bus stopfire cameras on four of our buses, and we'll monitor staffing and how that's going.

We can go up to 10 and let it into the schools, you know how it goes.

And then the police department also expanded speed zones.

Looking ahead, last time it was here I talked about we implemented new routing software, so we're still kind of working through that.

Next school year, there is a parent application that comes with that where families will be able to see where the bus is, but we're going to kind of pilot that in the spring and then we'll see where that goes next year.

And then you've probably seen around the schools, there's construction on Center 2 next to Albemarle High School and then Mountain View.

The upper elementary is being built since year.

They had the topping on a certain day today.

And so we'll make some adjustments next year for that.

But that should be informational.

But thank you.

What's going on?

Any questions?

It will be interesting to see because the data coming from the school safety, the safety zones, the data has been pretty shocking.

And it certainly has, as that year has gone by, the culture of driving in that area has changed, which is what we really wanted to happen.

And we have had a lot more students walking through that area, students from like lots of years ago.

So it'll be interesting to see, I'm thinking what the data shows from Western.

What'd be interesting at some point, we could just share it.

I don't think it has to be an agenda item, but maybe we share that data with this group.

Just Republican needs a new bat, just in the vision of folks to see.

Oh yeah, and I do have one question.

So when you talk about the school buses, you're talking about the arms that go out.

The stop arms.

They're on the side.

But they're deployed, I guess, when the stop arm goes out.

So you can see people that are passing.

Yeah, and the partnership with the police department, so their staff actually reviews them answering the information.

which is why it gets stalled out for a while just because of the staffing.

So as with the speed zone cameras, the firings which go back into programs to impact driving safety and safety around cars and vehicles that are

That money goes back to the school division for the same thing for impacting safety.

I'm not sure if we've decided how the money is going to be spent yet.

Because we get those questions from the public.

And I will say that I have heard from the police that there is chatter right now in the general assembly

about taking that money away from the schools and speed zones because the state wants it.

And that's what happened with our lottery money, if you remember.

And that's why I kind of hesitated because we were supposed to go back to the literacy fund.

I'm just saying.

But it's good to know with the General Assembly coming up to be aware of some of these so that we can maybe fight for what we need.

Any questions for Jamie?

You're the one from the school year?

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, similarly, we're back.

Students are here.

This is our first week of full academic service since May.

So UTS is operating on all of our routes.

I might have given this update at the previous meeting, but we did, we are adding, we added one bus to one of our things throughout services, Silver Route, which can go from, or does go from JPJ through Central Grounds and Medical Center.

So those cute little EJS buses are actually, we are using them instead of one big transit bus, we're using two of them.

And so far, so good.

It's been really nice.

So there, we finished doing all of that remote parking, which I think I reported on the last time, for our orthopedic center.

So that was kind of like a charter service, but this is actually using our mini electric buses on route in service.

And I rode with myself on Monday with 18 people, which was about its max capacity.

It was the eight o'clock run.

And people were happy.

It was good.

That was what I was going to say is that those are actually in service.

And then, more related to that, we did receive three of our four gilling poolside batteries.

They are in our yard.

We are waiting for the fourth one.

It's still in California because we're waiting on all four of you here to do the next round of things.

We need the cameras connected, radios installed, and hopefully by then I'm agreed upon, but we're apt to put on them.

Well, we would hope to get them actually in service before this semester ends.

I don't want to over-promise, but that's our, we're hoping to get it better.

I skipped the training and the safety piece too, but those are all elements that we need to offer.

And those are the two biggest operational updates for UTS.

Any questions for Scott?

I know you've shared this previously.

I just can't remember.

So the one at Pontaine is this close.

They're hoping to get the occupancy permit this week.

I don't know that that will happen or not.

We intend to open it as soon as practicable after that.

And then I think I might have explained this to you before, that when that opens, that we're going to initiate a new transit line

That will actually be later in October because the roadway infrastructure at the research park needs to be completed.

So the roundabout, there's a roundabout there, but we've been parking cars in it all for the last year and we need to move those cars out.

We need to realign the road and we need to do some other infrastructure work.

So hopefully we will start that new, we're calling it the Purple Line, connecting Fontaine Research Park to the Medical Center probably by the end of October.

And so the second garage, that was the real question.

The question was about the Purple Island and second garage.

The second garage at North Grounds is basically a year behind on purpose.

It was a year scheduled to be behind.

Do you have a question to respond?

I have a quick one.

Are you doing a contest for the bus wrapping?

I haven't heard of any of that.

Because certainly, Pat does that.

That was one option.

I'm going to leave it at that.

That was one option that was discussed out of frustration with not giving food and green.

Yes.

Well, I don't think the answer is no, but that was considered.

And one other question.

So the small buses that you now have to use, they're called the small buses that you use.

Old Abbey Road?

It's those are the ones that you... You saw them on Old Miami.

No.

No.

Even if you saw them on Old Miami, that was when we were doing our, we were basically, we had an offsite about 75 people from the, the old Commonwealth Court part of the area for community orthopedics.

But it will be important for eventually to get buses over there with those two rail crossings.

Yes.

I just don't want it to go away, but okay.

All right.

Any other questions for something for good?

The battery electric school bus pilot program will officially start September 26th.

2025.

They already broke ground.

They have been dominion as far as we already have the transformer on hold for Charlottesville.

The challenge is getting the charging stations because those charging stations are different.

They're supposed to release back to the grid.

So we're waiting on the delivery of those and then we should have everything up and running

is set by January 2026.

And we get the two buses in September.

And then on the transit side for the battery electric bus program, the opposite of the charging station and the transformer.

We have the charging station is not that difficult to get, but the transformer, we're waiting on that.

We don't have a timeline for that yet,

The NEPA program, the NEPA that we just did, we're at 95% completion and all the steps are being done.

We're compiling the report so we can sign that over to DRPT and FTA by November.

So we're on track with the

for the facility.

We tried the CATS tri-annual, the FDA tri-annual review was completed last week, and we made it through with fine colors.

We had three minor items noted, no major findings.

The final report will be issued at the end of September.

And as far as the artwork that we've been talking about,

So the contest has been won?

Yes.

I don't think I've seen the wrap, but you might talk about it.

I guess I could go to the CAT website and say that about it.

But that contest is over, so that's good.

Yes.

Any questions about CAT or Charlottesville Transit School System?

Well, since we were here last fiscal year, we had some

Favorable funding from the Commonwealth Transportation Board that's going to allow us to add over $3 million to the joint budget without asking for any local dollars.

So saving about $1.1 million in local money because of the favorable match rates, which is great.

As a sub-recipient, the CAT, we participated in some fashion in that audit, but also in six other audits over the course of the summer.

That's what happens when we do like eight different things.

So we start our FY 25 year end audit on Tuesday.

So welcome back from your holiday, which is fun.

We're getting ready to experience a little turnover on our board.

Council made a couple of new appointments so the city will have some new membership, some folks moving out of the area, some just fresh applications to the council.

So we'll be onboarding some new folks.

Like some other folks, I was in Roanoke for a good while last week for CTAB.

learned about some really interesting strategy financially that allows federal match with other federal programs.

And so calling for less local and state dollars.

So we're going to be exploring that with the consultant who's presenting to folks there.

We saw some really interesting new technology that will certainly

We'll talk about some ideas about how we could share a purpose about training staff in a different, more collaborative way than each discipline agency doing it, which I think will be, I hope will be powerful at some point.

Tomorrow we'll be submitting a national RTAP grant that Katie alerted us to

The intent of that particular request is we have the data that tells us that it would be very productive and sensible to extend 29 North Connect routes and add to them and not stop at how we need to go over and recount.

And I have support letters from Christine and CAA and UT.

So, fingers crossed.

We're talking about that in a way where if we're successful, we'd continue the service through a trip award.

And if not, then maybe we'd apply for that in the 27th invocation.

So more to come on that.

For Albemarle folks, our 29 North route is starting to ramp up ridership-wise in a way where we're thinking about whether we need an additional line already.

And so this may add some resources

that would help build the flexibility on that front.

A couple of weeks ago, our board meeting presented to the board the completed communications marketing design strategy that we've been talking about.

It had some interesting takeaways for us about the work we can do in that area.

And I have asked some folks

to be a part of a group that's going to take us through the next six months in implementing the plan.

And as part of that process, and separate from that process, we've also recently completed a survey of local people, people who are riders and people who aren't, and pretty

I would say that type of survey, pretty good response, almost 800 people.

And so I'd be happy to hear anyways from that at some point with you all certainly bringing those to the board.

And then last thing I would close with is just to say that I have yet to arrive at the date that this thing happened.

Sometime in the month of September in 1975, the first six people rode on a job bus or van.

And so we will be talking about over this next year what it means to be in our 50th year or so or to come on that.

Absolutely.

All right, Katie from DRPD.

Oh, were there any questions for Mark?

So right now we at the purging of the current administration at the state level, we're doing a really big

evaluation of our merit systems, that's our capital and operating funding.

I would recommend if you're interested in, they have all the recorded meeting from the TISAC meeting yesterday that walks through all the updates and what those impacts would be.

So the operating assistance, the major challenge on the most simplified level is it's moving away from it being based on statewide trends and to have it be purely performance-based.

in that portion of the formula.

So there would still be a sizing revenue metric, but just from a performance-based side, you'd be moving away from trends to like pure performance data.

They've run a bunch of different scenarios as to what they're looking at.

Part of the intention of doing this is to have it be more metric-focused and have it be simplified and have better predictability year after year.

That's something we get a lot since our formula is very complicated and it's hard

for agencies to know what they're going to expect to get.

So that's one of the intentions of this formula, the shift.

It is gonna, there's an overall shift benefiting rural agencies, but specifically John is called out as not being one of those benefits.

And so, yeah, it is, I mean, I would really recommend tuning with that.

I know, yeah, Mike and I think Garland was on yesterday.

I'm not sure what kind of impact we'll be able to have and what decisions are being made, but the staff is being kind of informed and then the CTV will take action in December, but this would be impacting fiscal year 28.

So there's also some uncertainty that the administration then changes in the next year, what that would then mean for this process and how it takes effect.

which is important to have kind of on everyone's radar.

It also has some changes to the capital program.

It expands and differentiates the state of good repair projects and then removing some incentive scoring for innovation and low and no emission vehicles and has more of an emphasis on good grants management.

But those are kind of smaller.

The operating is kind of the major shift.

And again, it's definitely pretty complicated, so I would definitely recommend

Can I say something?

Yes.

A state employee can.

Yes.

So really, Rumba, if you look at any time this has happened in either this part of government or in other sectors, this is a process that typically happens over a 12 to 18 month arc.

And because of the end of this administration,

They're trying to accomplish it in a six month arc.

And so the process is, you know, whether John is a winner or loser in that process, it is not an optimal process for a lot of reasons.

And so I don't know that you're going to influence the outcome, but I think it's worth talking about whether there's anything to talk about with the legislature.

Interesting.

I think my brain froze up when you were talking about the changes to the operating funding.

You said that there were any changes to the

Yeah.

So there are some, it's differentiating the state of good repair categories.

It's breaking it out into like, once I have asset dates and then once without asset dates and then it's changing incentive scoring.

The minor or major is still a component.

It's just putting different parameters, I would say, around say a good repair.

But again, I would recommend going with the size.

It's getting kind of locked in all of it.

The other thing that's the big one going on that, again, Mike has been really involved with, which has been great, is the 5311 ongoing shortfall analysis.

So it's really the rural funding, federal funding, due to, you know, census realignments in the state and then also running out of the COVID funding.

We're going to be kind of bumping up against having a shortage based on our projections for year 11 for rural funding.

We're kind of in the process where we're coming up with revenue strategies and different strategies that how we might be able to structure our programs

to help kind of fill some of those gaps.

Some of the ones that are being suggested are prioritizing operating over capital in terms of where we prioritize the federal funding.

We're also looking to change how much, currently we have about a 68% cap on how much state funding we put on projects.

So we're looking to increase that amount, but that takes you to the actions that we can kind of make out some of these differences with state funding.

and then there's a way that we would change, we're changing how we allocate to 311 operating funding.

It's also, we're considering an increase in local match.

We're considering 10% for 20% for capital.

Currently, there's a 4% for this.

So there's, you know, a shift that might happen there.

There's also the opportunity to leverage special state programs

There might be changes to what is eligible for capital and operating.

And then there's, we're looking at changing the useful life of vehicles.

The impact of that, I think is kind of variable.

A lot of agencies are already running their vehicles beyond their useful life.

Okay.

So back to the local match.

That's very concerning.

So I knew that we were going to have to have more skin at it.

I had not heard what that increase would be.

They're looking at, there's a scenario that they're looking at 10% at 20%.

And again, we're still deploying in the kind of strategy production phase.

Mike can actually probably speak more.

Well, I mean, it's mixed, right?

First of all, the kind of plateau of the research originally was supposed to impact 2017.

The ERBT is definitely projected that they were going to get past 2017 without any change.

And so this is a 28th change.

That's one thing.

But that's a two.

They've got over seven and a half million dollars in potential grant awards that will move this out even further in years.

Three is there is something that a lot of states do that the Virginian doesn't about intercity bus routes where the governor can sign off saying they need to met.

that would deploy $3 million that goes to Virginia Breeze today back into 5311.

Possibility, no guarantees.

But that leaves Virginia Breeze.

But there's other ways to fund Virginia Breeze.

And so the question is, how do you make the funding streams that have more availability and access and flexibility stretch further?

I think that

looking specifically at the job is the one that's been funded out of this program.

But while we've got this super favorable match rate now, either 10 or 20 percent will be better match rate than the 37 percent that's been paid for the last five years because of the cure letter coming out of that arm in 2021.

So

We're actually better equipped for that than most other localities.

And it's already preserving 68% of capital gains.

There's a lot of people who misinterpreted them.

You're going from 4% to 100%, right?

I would say if somebody was on the state board group, there was no peer state that had anything other than 40% binding.

Not even close, right?

So to be outside of double digits is not real world thinking.

So we were an ally.

Totally.

A complete ally to that person.

Yeah.

And so that does have to shorten.

You know, the useful life stuff, double-edged sword, right?

Like, you know, you might get a little bit more maintenance.

Some of the standards are too low.

but not everybody releases the equipment as quickly.

So I'll just give you the jogged example that I gave to the group, which is by regulation, I could ask for new buses if they're four years old and or have driven 100,000 miles.

Well, on average, if I look at the last decade of replacements, they are on average seven and a half years old and have 163,000 miles.

So nobody was

and there's other people stretching them further than I've seen.

So nobody's like turning them in that day, you know, hold four years or 100,000 miles, let's get new.

This doesn't work that way.

So it's hard to say whether you'd say anything really.

I think that there's been a lot of good talk about different ways to share, defray, collaborate, to take away from the false.

that will be really productive.

But there's going to be some decisions that will be out of our control.

And I think another thing that we should keep thinking about is what has been a lot of hard and federally funded programs since January, not really,

in transit and transportation, right?

And so you have to just be thoughtful, prudent about how heavily you invest right now in those areas because you can't say whether that's a we're waiting for that to happen or if it's gonna remain unknown.

But I think that DRPT has done a great job of bringing people in and out of meetings based on their station.

And with that, we thank you.

That's great.

That was helpful, Mike.

Thank you.

Anybody have any questions?

We did like the film.

Excuse me.

All right, no more questions then?

Given that, I don't have any other business that, you know, anybody else does.

We can bring it up now or forever on the loose.

Well, with that, I'm going to adjourn our meeting on October 23, 2025 at the Water Street Center.

So have a lovely Labor Day, Holiday!