# Transportation Policy Committee (TPC) - June 22, 2022 > Auto-transcribed civic record · June 22, 2022 - **Permalink**: https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/meeting/5598 - **Source video**: https://lfucg.granicus.com/player/clip/5598?view_id=14&redirect=true - **Date**: 2022-06-22 - **Last revised**: June 22, 2022 - **Length**: 4,289 words > ⚠️ **Auto-generated content.** Audio from the official Granicus video was auto-transcribed with OpenAI's open-source Whisper large-v3-turbo model, run locally by The Lexington Times. Structured facts were extracted with GPT-4o; the narrative summary was written by Anthropic Claude. Verbatim wording may contain errors. See [methodology](https://meetings.lexingtonky.news/about/methodology) or [report a correction](mailto:editor@lexingtonky.news). --- ## Meeting Overview The Transportation Policy Committee (TPC) met on June 22, 2022, at 1:30 PM in the Lexington Fayette County Council Chambers, located at 200 East Main Street, Lexington, KY 40507, with Jessamine County Judge Executive David West presiding. The committee addressed five agenda items during the session, taking two formal votes and receiving three informational presentations. No public comments were heard during the meeting. The committee accomplished several key tasks, including the approval of meeting minutes from their April 27, 2022 session and the adoption of Resolution 2022-9, which established the Fiscal Year 2023 Lexington Area MPO Title VI Plan. The remaining agenda focused on informational discussions covering federal transportation programs and local planning initiatives. Committee members received updates on the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SSR4A) program, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, and ongoing MPO Area Transportation Studies. The meeting represented routine business for the Transportation Policy Committee, combining necessary administrative approvals with educational briefings on emerging federal transportation funding opportunities and local planning efforts. ## Votes and Decisions The meeting included two formal votes, both conducted by voice vote and passed unanimously. **Meeting Minutes Approval** The board voted to approve the meeting minutes from April 27, 2022, with one correction. The motion passed by voice vote with no opposition. The approved correction changed "kytc" to "lex tran" under item 2c sub part 3 of the original minutes. **Resolution 2022-9: Title VI Plan** The board voted to adopt Resolution 2022-9, which formally approved the Fiscal Year 2023 Lexington Area MPO Title VI Plan. This resolution passed unanimously by voice vote with no dissenting votes or abstentions recorded. Both votes were conducted without roll call, so individual member voting positions were not recorded. No specific vote counts were documented for either motion, as is typical with unanimous voice votes where no opposition is expressed. ## Approval of Meeting Minutes from April 27, 2022 The committee reviewed and considered the meeting minutes from their April 27, 2022 session for approval. During the discussion, a correction was identified and addressed regarding the accuracy of the recorded information. The specific correction involved changing the reference from "kytc" to "lex tran" under item 2c sub part 3 of the April 27th minutes. This amendment was necessary to ensure the minutes accurately reflected the discussion and decisions made during that previous meeting. Following the discussion of the correction, the committee proceeded to vote on the approval of the amended meeting minutes. The minutes from April 27, 2022 were approved with the noted correction incorporated. This agenda item represents standard procedural business for the committee, ensuring that official records of their meetings are accurate and properly documented for future reference. ## Resolution 2022-9: Adoption of Fiscal Year 2023 Lexington Area MPO Title VI Plan The committee considered Resolution 2022-9 for the adoption of the Fiscal Year 2023 Lexington Area MPO Title VI Plan during their meeting. The Title VI Plan is designed to ensure equal opportunity for participation in transportation planning processes, fulfilling federal civil rights requirements for metropolitan planning organizations. A notable update to this year's plan includes provisions for translating documents into Mandarin Chinese, reflecting demographic changes in the Lexington area. This addition demonstrates the MPO's commitment to serving the evolving linguistic needs of the community and ensuring that non-English speaking residents have meaningful access to transportation planning information and opportunities for public participation. The Title VI Plan serves as the framework for the MPO's compliance with federal civil rights laws, which prohibit discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs. The plan outlines procedures for public engagement, language assistance services, and methods for ensuring equitable access to transportation planning processes. Following discussion, the committee approved Resolution 2022-9, formally adopting the Fiscal Year 2023 Title VI Plan. This approval ensures the Lexington Area MPO maintains its compliance with federal requirements while adapting its services to better serve the community's changing demographics through enhanced language accessibility measures. ## Discussion regarding the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SSR4A) program The committee reviewed agenda item 4.1, which focused on the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SSR4A) program during their June 22, 2022 meeting. Chris served as the primary speaker for this discussion item, presenting information about the federal SSR4A program. The program is designed to address highway safety by working to reduce both fatalities and serious injuries occurring on roadways. Key program requirements were outlined during the discussion: • Development of a comprehensive safety action plan • Establishment of a vision zero goal targeting the elimination of traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2050 The SSR4A program represents a federal initiative aimed at improving road safety through systematic planning and goal-setting. The vision zero approach reflects an ambitious safety target that seeks to eliminate preventable traffic deaths and serious injuries within the next three decades. This agenda item was classified as informational in nature, indicating that the committee received updates and details about the program rather than taking formal action. The discussion provided committee members with an understanding of the program's structure, requirements, and long-term safety objectives. The presentation covered the foundational elements that participating jurisdictions must address, including the development of strategic safety planning documents and the adoption of measurable safety goals aligned with the 2050 vision zero timeline. ## Discussion regarding the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program The committee reviewed agenda item 4.2, which focused on the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program and its implications for developing charging station infrastructure along designated transportation corridors. Chris served as the primary speaker for this discussion item, presenting information about the federal program's requirements and implementation strategies. The conversation centered on how the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program would facilitate the development of electric vehicle charging stations along key transportation routes. The discussion was informational in nature, with committee members receiving updates on the program's framework for establishing charging infrastructure along designated corridors. These corridors represent critical transportation routes where electric vehicle charging stations would be strategically placed to support long-distance electric vehicle travel. The committee examined various aspects of the program, including planning requirements, funding mechanisms, and coordination with state and local transportation authorities. The discussion covered how the program would integrate with existing transportation infrastructure and the timeline for implementation. No specific concerns or objections were raised during the discussion, and the item concluded without requiring any formal action from the committee. The session served as an informational briefing to keep committee members updated on federal electric vehicle infrastructure initiatives and their potential impact on local transportation planning. The outcome was purely informational, with no votes taken or formal decisions made regarding the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program. The discussion provided committee members with necessary background information about this federal initiative and its role in supporting the transition to electric vehicle transportation infrastructure. ## MPO Area Transportation Studies – brief update Chris provided updates on various transportation studies currently underway in the MPO area during this informational agenda item. The presentation covered progress on multiple ongoing studies, with specific mention of two key projects: • **East Lexington Trail Connectivity & Traffic Safety Study** - Updates were shared on this study examining trail connections and safety improvements in the eastern Lexington area • **Northeast New Circle Corridor Land Use & Transportation Plan** - Progress was reported on this comprehensive planning effort for the northeast section of New Circle Road, which examines both land use patterns and transportation infrastructure needs The updates were presented as part of the MPO's regular reporting on active transportation planning studies across the metropolitan area. These studies represent ongoing efforts to improve connectivity, safety, and coordination between land use and transportation planning. This was an informational item with no action required from the committee. The updates provided members with current status information on these important regional transportation planning initiatives. *Note: Specific transcript timestamps are not available for this agenda item.* --- ## Decisions - **Motion** — passed (0-0): Approval of Meeting Minutes from April 27, 2022 - **Resolution 2022-9** — passed (0-0): Adoption of Fiscal Year 2023 Lexington Area MPO Title VI Plan --- ## Full transcript from 38 different states within three weeks. And so again, as you... All right, we want to thank everyone for coming. We'll call this meeting, the TPC, to order. And we do have a quorum today, so we can conduct business. Always nice. First item is the call for public comment. Is there anyone that would like to address this board? all right we'll move on to our action items and our approval of our meeting minutes from april 22nd do we have a motion to approve these minutes motion and second all in favor please signify by saying aye i do have a correction to offer for the minutes it is under item 2c subpart 3 it mentions fred combs said that kytc had received feedback i believe that should be lextran had received feedback so if we could make that correction in the minutes please thank you all right we'll make that that's a menable to first and motion and seconder correct all right very good then we have resolution 2022-9 do we have a uh any explanation for that yes sir okay uh every year uh we are required to produce a title six plan which is a requirement out of the federal program and basically what we're trying to do is ensure that all folks have an equal opportunity to participate in the transportation planning process and we also identify where we have concentrations of traditionally underserved populations and documenting our efforts to reach out to those groups and make sure that they have an opportunity to comment and also be aware of the decision-making that's taking place with this organization as I mentioned this is a exercise we go through on an annual basis what we accomplish here is documenting what activities we're going to take place during the next year to ensure that all folks have this opportunity to to participate. This year we have a new little wrinkle in that we have new updated census data. So we did an exercise to identify any changes to demographic patterns within our region. What we determined is that the distributions or concentrations of our underserved populations did not change significantly since the previous census. One area that we do have to look at is also our limited English proficient population. We do have one change there, and that is those that speak Mandarin Chinese but also speak English less than very well did cross an important threshold under the federal program. And so we are now required to translate the two documents that we have up there into Mandarin Chinese and have those available for folks who speak that language to be able to understand what their rights are under Title VI. And how to file a complaint if they feel that we are not accomplishing what they feel is appropriate for them to be able to understand what we're working on. And just as a note, the MPO also currently provides these documents in Spanish. So that is a real brief overview of what the Title VI plan is, and if anyone has any questions, we'll be happy to address those. Any questions? Yes, ma'am. Is it just the three languages that's offered in, English, Spanish, and Mandarin, or are there others as well? Well, Mandarin Chinese is the same, is a dialect of Chinese. the one that's crossed that threshold. Spanish is the other one that has crossed that threshold. Other languages have not crossed the threshold under the federal program, at least as of yet. It's a federal guideline that that establishes the languages that were required. That's correct. So it's basically 1,000 people within our region that speak that language and also speak English less than very well. Yes ma'am. Yes ma'am. Thank you for this. So it looks like the percentages that you have of people that speak Spanish and maybe some of the other languages are different than that of the census. Is that because it's combined with Jessamyn County? That's correct. Okay because my understanding was Jessamyn County had a high percentage of Spanish speakers as well. So that just looks low to me. I'm pretty familiar with the numbers. Yes, but since we represent both counties, we have to include both county statistics within the total. Do you happen to have the statistics for just Jessamine County in terms of? Yeah, Kenzie, who is our Title VI coordinator, has those. I think there's a table in there that separates them by Fayette and Esmond County I don't have it right in front of me it may be that we're only reporting those who speak Spanish but that also speak English less than very well so it's not the total Spanish speaking population it's just those who are not fluent in English as well English speaker okay okay I think the total Spanish speakers would be much higher but they're also fluent in length and in English okay okay those numbers just look low for what I'm used to okay Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Do we have a motion to adopt this resolution? Motion to adopt the Title VI plan for the MPO. Motion and a second. Second. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. And opposed? All right. Those are our action items now for the information discussion items. Chris, we'll turn it over to you. All right. First information item I want to brief you on is the new Safe Streets and Roads for All program, sometimes referred to as the SSR4A program, and I am disappointed that we couldn't come up with a better acronym than that. This is a new program under the federal act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, sometimes also referred to as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This program has a billion dollars annually associated with it, and it's for plans and projects aimed at reducing fatalities and serious injuries on our highway system. The interesting wrinkle with this program is that state DOTs are explicitly not eligible applicants. These are only intended for local governments and tribal governments. And MPOs can also be an eligible applicant. Now, there is one little interpretation change here. We were under the impression that $5 million was the minimum project award. It turns out that smaller projects are or will be considered as part of this program, but it still does require a 20% non-federal match. The other important part of this program is that with a lot of federal programs, if you provide more than the minimum, you score better. At least here, that's not the case, or at least that's the initial guidance. So the intent is to try to get more of these dollars out to places that need the assistance to address that safety issue. So when we're looking at eligibility requirements, there's some mix and matching that's here, but we're kind of looking at trying to adopt all of these for our region in order to ensure that we have met the requirements for this particular program. And the first is to adopt a Vision Zero or Safe System Approach Target or Goal. and we'll get into that in a little bit what that represents but you may remember that each year about february we adopt a new set of targets and i'm seeing some folks do we need to take a pause here okay no we're good all right um the other requirement is that we have to develop and adopt a safety action plan for the region. This is a requirement for all of these new programs that you have some type of implementation plan. You're gonna see that in the next program we're gonna cover in a second here. But the safety action plan is supposed to identify what your problem areas are, how you're incorporating public input into those problem areas and possible solutions, recommending a set of countermeasures, and then at the back end, evaluating outcomes and effectiveness of those countermeasures. The final part of this is to establish some type of oversight committee or work group. And this may be a work group that already exists or one that we might want to consider establishing as part of this exercise. The good news is that at least for Fayette County, KYTC was developing a local road safety plan already and that plan is already about i'd say two-thirds to three-fourths of the way complete is identifying hot spot locations within fayette county and providing some recommendations on what could be done to improve those those areas the estimate from kytc is that this plan is probably about 75 compliant with the new requirements for this particular program and so the office of highway safety improvement program is going to add those tasks to the existing contract where HDR is the consultant that's working on that and the estimate is that probably around January a revised plan that's compliant will be complete now we're also discussing about doing something very similar to this for Jessamine County so that way at some point Judge Jessamine County would also be eligible for this program and then identifying some countermeasures that well hopefully aren't five million dollars because we know that a one million dollar match is a pretty heavy lift for pretty much anyone in our region the other discussion point that we'll have between now and February is the vision zero or safe system approach and basically this is to try to adopt a zero fatality goal, also a zero serious injury goal by a planning horizon, which in our case would be the year 2050. The way this would work is that on average, last five years, we've seen about 34 annual fatalities. We have 27 years until we get to the year 2050. And so in order to get to zero, we're looking at a reduction of about five fatalities every four years. That would be a goal. Now, that's a goal. That doesn't mean that we actually have to accomplish that, but that's basically what we would be committing to is trying to adopt plans and projects that would be trying to get us into that area by the year 2050. So here's our timeline that we're proposing for Fayette County and wanted to get a little bit of feedback from you on this. We'll have the compliant local road safety plan, a draft of that probably by fall, conduct public outreach in the October November timeframe and then bring this to, well we're trying to decide whether the TPC is the appropriate group or whether that's the urban County Council is the appropriate adopting agency for this but that would probably be a January February time frame we would also be considering the division zero safety targets in that same time period which puts us in a good position for the next notice of funding opportunity which we anticipate will probably be April or May of next year any implementation applications from this program have to be specifically identified as part of that safety plan and then this also coincides with the budget process since there is that non-federal match requirement we feel that that's important to have that discussion occurring parallel to any implementation application being produced and then sometime next summer looking at an oversight committee or work group establishing that to determine how effective our countermeasures might be. So, Judge, I'll be happy to address any questions the TPC may have at this time. Questions for Chris? All right, seems comprehensive. If anyone does, we can revisit as we move along. All right. The second item we want to review is the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program and electric vehicle corridor applications that were submitted by the Transportation Cabinet. The slides that you're about to see are courtesy of the Office of Highway Development, which is from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, so we want to thank them for being able to use these slides. What we're interested here are basically vehicles that you plug into the grid somewhere. And so that's going to be the battery electric vehicle on the far left or the plug-in hybrid electric that's in the center. The other important point from this is that we see typical battery ranges. Here being advertised is between 150 and 400 miles. The vehicles that are coming out onto the market right now are actually closer to 300 or 400 miles. That's an important statistic as we start having this discussion here. Why are we interested in electric vehicles? There are a lot of benefits, not just from improved air quality, because these vehicles do not have tailpipe emissions, but they're also a lot more efficient. The cost to operate is much less. There's no moving parts for the actual powertrain either, so you have a much reduced maintenance cost. They're also a lot more quiet, although if you're a pedestrian trying to cross the street, that's something that we're going to have to talk about, how to improve that. But also when we're looking at electricity, we have a much larger range of renewable sources to operate those vehicles. When we're looking at charging stations, we have three levels. We are interested in level three for this particular program, and that gives you a full electric charge in about 30 minutes. Now, there's a drawback there. The fast charging significantly degrades the life of the battery over time. So we anticipate that most vehicles are not going to be utilizing this except for the really long-distance travels, which is what this program is aiming to accomplish. Basically, the folks try and get from, say, Chicago to Atlanta or something like that. Most of the in-town driving would be accomplished through a level 2 charger, which does give you a full charge overnight or maybe during the day. And so we anticipate most of that charging is going to occur at a person's house or at a person's place of employment. And what you'll notice here is that's 250 miles of charge, which essentially is a full charge for the entire week, because most people drive their vehicles anywhere from 200 to 250 miles in the course of a week. This is important because although right now only one-tenth of one percent of Kentucky's vehicle fleet is a battery electric vehicle, We anticipate that the sales of those vehicles will represent one-fifth of the total, even using the most modest projections by 2030. The more aggressive projections have that as one in three vehicles being an electric vehicle. So what's coming to Kentucky for this program? It's $69.5 million over five years. The important part of this is, once again, we have a deployment plan that has to be in place and approved by USDOT in order to actually be able to utilize those dollars. And that plan has to be turned in by August 1st, and the Transportation Cabinet is working on that right now, and in fact is giving a presentation on their initial recommendations within that plan as we speak. And so I do have a staff person that's paying attention to that right now. and after today's meeting we'll have some idea of what the recommendations are coming out of that plan. But the initial focus of this program is for alternative fuel corridors. What are those? These are corridors that the Transportation Cabinet nominated and were approved by USDOT for focus of electric vehicles. Right now on this map, the ones in green are the only ones that actually officially have been designated. For our region, that's only Interstate 75. The blue lines on here are the ones that the Cabinet proposed back in May 13th, and USDOT is right now evaluating as to whether they will accept these as additional corridors or not. We anticipate that all of those will be accepted, and that actually puts Lexington in a very important crossroads situation for electric vehicle. We think this is actually a very good map for our region. Now, NEVI is focusing on these corridors as far as infrastructure requirements, and the requirement is that you have a level 3 charger, so this is the fast charger, at least every 50 miles along that network, and it can be no more than a mile off of those corridors. The anticipation is that the first approximately 40% of the NEVI program that's coming to Kentucky is going to be needed to actually comply with this requirement. Now, after that, you can start looking at other corridors. You can even start looking at other locations for some of these fast charging locations. And the reason this is important is because there are only currently four fast charging locations anywhere within the state of Kentucky and none within Lexington. The closest one is actually in Georgetown. So that's why this program becomes pretty important. And then finally, to round this out, the transportation cabinet has also looked at at least the initial other corridors once we get beyond the official designations. And there, for us, again, it's good news. We've got U.S. 27 coming up through Jessamine County from the south, New Circle Road, and then Paris Pike going off to the northeast, once again emphasizing the crossroads aspect of the Lexington region. So I failed to mention that there is also a $2.5 billion dollar nationally competitive application program that's also associated with this also trying to accomplish something similar and so that's something that we're going to be looking at to see if there are opportunities for our region for that program now the challenge there is we don't yet know what the requirements are those are hopefully coming out later this summer but we wanted to brief you on this because this is something that has been noted to us by a number of folks as being really important for the Lexington region and something that we want to make sure we're on the cutting edge in terms of making sure that our folks can benefit from this technology. So, Judge, I'll be happy to address any questions. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. So in terms of locations, I know you said within a mile of the highway, would it be like rest areas? Would it be a separate new spot created, or would it be an easement somewhere? Where would they go? Well, the transportation cabinet is trying to identify those possibilities. We know for a fact they cannot be a rest area, And that's where federal law steps in and says that you cannot have any kind of private sector for-profit operation at an official rest area. That's something that I know that folks have tried to change in the past, but that federal law still exists right now. So who would be operating? I mean, these would be private sector that federal, I mean, that public funds going into private operation of these? So, yes. I misunderstood. The federal dollars would be providing the infrastructure. The anticipation is that you would actually have it operated by a private party. Okay, okay, I missed that for some reason. I was thinking that the government was going to be providing these. Yeah, they'll be providing the funds for the infrastructure. Okay, interesting. Okay, thank you. Anyone else? All right, continue. All right, so we want to go through a couple of transportation studies, give you a few updates on those that the MPO are involved in right now. The East Lexington Trail study is well underway. And just as a reminder, Strand Engineering is the contractor for that study. They are engaging in public process right now to find out what are the interests for folks in trying to connect downtown Lexington and more specifically the IMAG area down to where the Bryden rail trail currently terminates. They are also doing outreach to the private sector along that corridor to find out how their clientele accesses their business using bicycles or pedestrian within this area. And what we're hoping for is sometime later this summer or early fall to have at least some conceptual designs for review. The Northeast New Circle Road Study is a combination of land use and transportation study, not too dissimilar from what we saw for Nicholasville Road a couple of years ago. is probably having this probably has a little bit more of a land use focus however we are also coordinating with the transportation cabinet on the roadway designs for that area similarly this project is currently in public process and we've received over a thousand survey responses for that study to give us some perspective of some concerns from residents in that area and also what they would like to see in terms of not just a transportation facility but in terms of businesses and services that would best serve their needs within that area and so let me take a pause here to see if there are any questions on those two particular studies? Okay. And the next study is the LexTran comprehensive operational analysis, which is actually in the process of wrapping up as we speak. And Jill, I don't know if you'd like to give just a brief update on some of the recommendations from that. Sure, I would be happy to. As you said, that study is in the process of wrapping up, anticipating that to be complete by June 30 of this year. The final draft is in review. We are reviewing that in our office. Incorporating some of the changes to the recommendations that we feel are necessary based on some of the public feedback that we received. We received more than 200 pieces of unique feedback from members of the public through our outreach events and pop-up events that we held at the Transit Center. Some of those changes include reinstating some service in the idle hour area that had been recommended for reallocation, combining an existing route that does not operate all day, that is Route 17, that's the Northside Connector, that will be combined on a schedule basis with Route 6, which is North Broadway, to ensure that they have all-day service and also that we are able to offer more front-door service to the Walmart that's at North Park Shopping Center. We needed to combine that route to ensure that we were able to maintain the headways that we have now. And one other change that I have top of mind is some service that is on Palumbo Drive. There were times of day where we saw very little ridership. However, other times of day where it was critical that we were serving some of those employers there. So we'll be able to reinstate some of that service that was slated for readjustment in those recommendations. So we want to make sure that we are thoughtful in hearing that information from the public, responding to those needs, and making sure that that is incorporated in the recommendations that we have. We do not have a timeline for implementation at this time. As I said, we expect the draft to be available following June 30, and then we'll move forward into how we look to implement some of those changes. All right. Okay, the final study that we want to update you on is the statewide interstate and parkway plan. And as the name implies, this is focusing on the interstate and parkway system within the state, Basically trying to identify what sort of challenges and needs may exist over the next 25 years for that system. And the first part of that effort was identifying 30 segments that are the highest priority amongst the state. And I'm very happy to say that most sections of I-75 within our area are part of that top 30, as well as Interstate 64 going west towards Louisville. And I guess maybe I'm not happy to say that because that also means that there are some pretty significant challenges, whether it's capacity, roadway condition, or some type of safety issue along those segments. So the next section or the next effort as part of this is then to prioritize those based on data that the cabinet is collecting and giving some idea of what type of work may be required for which segment and then when. And so we're looking at probably having a final report on that probably later this summer. And once we have that, we'll bring that to the policy committee for your information. Any questions for those business items, updates? All right. then that brings us to our other items questions comments or new business is there any questions for chris any new business all right the heat's getting to all of us all right our next meeting date is wednesday august 24th uh in person here in the fayette County Lexington Fayette County Council Chambers so we have a motion to adjourn second and all in favor leave the room Thank you. The Bell House Tears Keep Flowing The desk clerk's Dressing Black Well, they've been so long on the street They'll never, never look back And think you're so, think you're so lonely, baby Well, they're so lonely Well, they're so lonely They could die Well, if your baby leaves you You've got a tale to tell Well, just take a walk down on the street too I'll break forever, you will be so lonely, baby You'll be lonely, you'll be so lonely, you could die