Transportation Committee
RECORD OF
MEETING
WORKING
GROUP C
DATE/TIME/PLACE:
ATTENDANCE:
DISCUSSION SUMMARY:
The
working group reviewed the “Consideration of Big Idea and Big Ticket
Initiatives for the Capital District Transportation System” paper. Overall, the working group was satisfied with
the tone and content of the paper but made the following recommendations for
revisions:
· Because there is currently
no sense of urgency to pursue many of the big initiative concepts due to the
lack of rapid growth, it is difficult to plan, gain support for and build such
projects for the future. As a result, minor
incremental improvements are made but they will likely never have the same
impact over time as a big initiative type project. The issue of incremental change, how it
impacts the ability to plan for the future and whether incremental change
should stop us from thinking big should be addressed in the paper.
· With respect to the “yes”
and “no” indications for the question of whether the big initiative fits with
community value and consensus, the managed lane program should be changed to a
probably from a yes and the video surveillance and enforcement program should
be changed to a maybe from a no.
· A big initiative concept
that addresses traveler safety regardless of mode should be considered.
· Additional detail for the
lay person should be included in the paper on each of the big initiative
concepts, likely in the form of a one page fact sheet.
· A few of the concepts should
be selected for more comprehensive review and testing against the alternative
growth scenarios to be developed by working group A. Which concepts are selected will be suggested
by CDTC staff in the next month.
The
working group also reviewed two charts that depict the potential impacts of managed
HOV lanes under different policy scenarios.
The first chart depicts the approach of an HOV lane that is not tolled
but the vehicle occupancy requirements for the lane are changed over time. The second chart depicts a more elegant HOV
lane concept that involves changing the vehicle occupancy requirements with
respect to the tolling over time. It represents
a more dynamic approach that can be very flexible and could represent a model
on which a number of policy choices could be based.
NEXT STEPS: CDTC staff will revise the
report as appropriate, prepare the fact sheets and identify and test a few of
the concepts against the alternative growth scenarios. After refinement of the report,