Good afternoon, everyone. We are going to get started. If everyone wants to get settled. Thank you for being here. So welcome to the May hearings of the California Transportation Commission in lovely San Jose, California, the home of our various esteemed Commissioner, Carl Gordino.
Thanks for having us here.
We're going to start with the roll call. Douglas.
Thank you, chair, commissioner Bradshaw here.
Vice chair Cruz.
Commissioner Brown Heinz.
Commissioner eager present commissioner Grisby commissioner
Gordino commissioner man.
Commissioner Tiffany chair Falcone present Senator Cortez.
Assembly member Wilson.
I'm sure we have a quorum.
Thank you, Douglas.
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Thank you for joining us today. You know, your time is valuable and we appreciate you
spending some of it with us. Thank you, Chair.
Thank you so much, Douglas. Okay. So for welcome to the region, we have Carolyn Gownott
with VTA, the general manager and CEO. Is that on? Yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you.
of the Commission Chair. I'm very happy to be here today and welcome you here to
Santa Clara County. I am the general manager and CEO for Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority and I want to thank you for being here as well as
those who attended the trip and the field trip to visit the BART to Silicon
Valley phase 2 presentation today. I really appreciate that you were able to
see that all the work that is being done there and the work that we've been able
to proceed on particularly the support that the Commission has given us as well.
I also want to actually today also express the support that you've given
for our transportation investments across the region in our area because
I'm going to cover a few of them to let you see the progress that you are making.
Won't we go to the next slide? So as you can see about Santa Clara County, we are
about 25% of the Bay Area population, which is nine counties. We're 1.9 million,
almost 2 million in population. We're 26% of all of the Bay Area employment. We're
the largest city. We house the largest city, San Jose, which are in their council
chambers for the Bay Area, larger than San Francisco or Oakland. And in the 2050
growth projections, we are to have 28% of the Bay Area population, 30% of the Bay
area employment and 33% of the housing growth so this area is continuing to grow
and we are ready for it and VTA, I will go to the next slide, is preparing for
that. I'm a firm believer that a huge portion of our quality of life is based
on how we get around and how we provide access to all of our residents, how they
access jobs, how they access their school trips to the doctors, to their friends.
It's all about accessibility and their ability
to be able to get around,
and that affects their quality of life.
And we are a major portion of being able to accommodate that.
And we are not just the transit agency,
we actually offer bus and light rail service.
We are a partner in Caltrain as part of the JPA,
we're the paratransit operator,
but we also are a highway delivery agency,
delivering many projects,
and you'll see me do that in just a moment.
We're also the Congestion Management Agency.
We do planning and funding across as the local
and regional funding programs and land use planning.
But through our sales tax measures,
we also offer quite a little bit of funding
to our cities on bicycle and pedestrian programs,
as well as local streets and roads.
You can see we have a number of activities
that are up there and we continue to move ourselves forward
and really continue to look at data-driven decision making
as we move into this next few years.
We are currently very fiscally sustainable at this point,
but we want to continue to be that way.
And that merely means by growing our ridership,
improving our productivity,
and being able to enhance customer service
so that we can continue to maintain
our financial stability into the future.
So if we can continue to move, next slide.
A lot of that is through significant support
for our sales tax measures.
We were one of the first counties
to actually have a sales tax measure
to support transportation improvements, that was not VTA.
VTA did not exist at that time.
That was the house and sales tax
that actually created the Santa Clara County Traffic Authority.
We didn't put that up there because it was already done
and complete and those projects are done
and that agency sunsetted in 1996, 1995, yes, 1995.
And as those projects, whatever projects need to be done,
actually were completed by VTA as VTA existed at that time.
Then there was another sales tax set also, his son set it,
which was also another nine year sales tax
that was in 1996 that we actually was paired with the county.
And so we are able to continue to deliver a set
of both highway and transit projects.
Then we have all of these measures
that we continue to actually have sales tax forward
and continue to be able to deliver projects
like the bar project you saw today. Go to the next slide. I want to talk really
quickly about the bar project. I know you heard a little bit about it today. It is
two phases of an extension, the first 10 miles that have been built. That has two
stations, 10 miles. We actually are closing out that project. It takes a lot
of close-up, put all the real estate where it needs to be, close out all the
funding. That project ended up 5% under budget, which is about a hundred and
twenty million under budget. So we have closed out that project. It opened up in
2020. And we are now, as you saw, in the construction of 2020, and as we pursue
our federal funding and continue to get our allocations for the state and the
regional monies that we have. Next phase. I mean, next slide. It is a true
partnership with BART. We actually design and we deliver the project. We will own
all the facilities that are in Santa Clara County, a few in Alameda County, and
and BART will operate and maintain.
So it is a partnership through agreements,
but we also have very close relationships.
I meet with the general manager consistently,
so do I as our team,
and we have a good working relationship with BART
at this time.
Next slide.
As you probably saw today,
this is our funding for a $12.7 billion project.
Most of those funds are state, regional, and local,
and they are in hand,
but I can't say that the $5 billion
or continue to pursue, that is a large amount.
That's the second largest amount that this federal FTA
has ever given to a project west of the Hudson River.
So to be able to have that said that we are gonna commit
five billion dollars to your project,
or five point one billion dollars to your project
is outstanding and it really shows their trust
in our ability to deliver the project
and how much they are impressed with the ability
that the state and the locals have actually raised their money to actually support this
project and how important this project is to this region and how justified it is to
actually move this project forward and to ring the bay with BART and connect the region
fully with among the cities with this regional rail. Next project, next slide, next project.
And this is our schedule and you probably heard about this. We're continuing to move
it forward it does take a long time to build a tunnel. It is a single bore and
you saw that today. It's the first one it'll be built in this country as a
single bore for transit. So this is definitely we're in the Silicon Valley
and we are innovative and we are doing this. It actually helps avoid a lot of
risks that we're having in terms of utility relocations and disruption into
the downtown and some of the geotechnical issues that we face because
right now we're heavily in a floodplain.
All of our yards are in a floodplain,
so we really want to avoid the issues
that really come with major construction risks
that come with the areas building in an old downtown,
the disruptions that we would have continue to go forward.
So I'm really happy that we were able to actually
really pursue a different kind of innovation
where tunnel technology has grown over the last few years
and we were able to move it forward on our project.
Next slide.
It also allows for a lot of transit development opportunities
and as you might have heard today,
Santa Clara, Santa Clara Station,
Dierdon Station downtown and 28th Street, little Portugal
offers over 60 million square feet of new development.
Some of it is on our own parcels.
Some of it isn't, a lot of it is on other parcels,
but there have been station plans done
around all of these areas and rezoning done
and so it is absolutely critical that the project,
once it's built that these actually help support the project, but much of this
has already been moved forward and is supported by the communities that they
are in, and I do want to talk a little bit in general. VTA has a very strong
transit oriented development program. Currently we have 2900 affordable units
in our pipeline that VTA itself are moving forward with on our properties.
it's affordable to 60% AMI and below and we're working on the state's first
employee housing bill to house our to give preference to our transit employees
who are actually within that range so we're actually looking forward to that
that's going through the state legislation this year at build out in
2045 with all of our this is our affordable housing we also have a total
of 12 million square feet that we're looking at developing that would allow
us have $60 million annually in ground leases, $25 million we could generate at the fare
box and over $500 million in our cash position by 2045.
So we have one of the most robust portfolios for a size agency that we are, and actually
one of the most in the country.
Next slide.
I want to talk a little bit about Eastridge to BART Regional Connector.
This is a project that is fully funded through state, regional, and local funds.
We have no federal funds in this project.
a $700 million light rail extension that's on the east side and serves one of the lowest income
areas in our county, one of the densest areas within the entire Bay Area region of low income.
And so this was very important to me and to others, particularly a lot of our elected officials,
our community, to actually build this extension. So I want to show a slide we were able to push
this forward a year and a half ago and put it into construction. We actually had the
groundbreaking one week before we had the groundbreaking for BART. So we had two ground
breakings at the same time. Next slide, please. And there we are. That is the construction
right now. This is heavily in the aerial down the Capital Expressway. That is our funding
picture. Thank you very much. We actually were able to get quite a bit of funding. The
funds at the end through the TIRCP put us in position to be able to award that contract.
So thank you very, very much.
This has been something that has been on our books and is something that we've been wanting
to construct for a long time.
That project is on target, on budget, and actually a little bit ahead of schedule as
well.
Next slide.
addition as I said we are one of the few agencies that actually designs and
delivers meaning we advertise the project and we construct the projects
for Caltrans large major projects we have a very strong partnership with
Caltrans the Caltrans director used to work work in our BTA offices many many
years ago and helping support that work with us and we have continued to do that
that had started actually in the 1980s with the first traffic authority so we
have continued to do a lot of the work as VTA so we have a strong highway
delivery program working closely with Caltrans so we are currently delivering
this program through actually state funds as well SB 1 funds this is an
important project in the South County that's in Gilroy so it's in a very it's
rural area and so I'm very happy we have a very strong partnership with our
counties to the south, both San Benito County, Santa Cruz, and Monterey, and this
has been a project that hopefully will allow us to continue to work with our
partners and help them with their traffic congestion needs going forward.
So this project is actually a safety project for that interchange as well as
allowing us to be able to move forward with other projects that need to be done.
This is the first step in this role in this area that where traffic backs up
substantially and particularly it becomes a safety issue on 101. Next slide.
These are additional projects that's actually the construction is going on
right now. Next slide. This is one of our bicycle projects. This is our bicycle
superhighway project. We have a number of bicycle projects as well. I wish I could
show you everything but I would be here much longer than the time that you've
given me. So this is our central bike bikeway project. We are currently in the
early stages of this. It's almost 11 miles across. I will say we've started
doing a lot of bicycle project. I do want to thank Commissioner Gardeno who
actually pushed forward this in one of our first measures and we were able to
do a number of cross connector bicycle projects and then this is now a true
cross connector project in the county as it is 11 miles reaching across many
very jurisdictions and so this first project is moving forward. We are
executing the environmental document phase at the VTA board meeting this
month and then we'll continue to have that funded so we do have the state has
funded the first few phases through the environmental and we're moving forward
looking for money for final design and right-of-way and that is a rendering of
what it will look like and I think the next slide is just a thank you and that
is a picture of the site if any of you went out there today you got to see
that and all the construction. So we do many other things, but I just wanted to give you
sort of a status of the work that we're doing based on all the help and support that your
commission has given us. So thank you very much. Thank you, Carolyn, and thank you to your staff
today for an amazing tour of the Bard Extension project. It was impressive, and so you're doing
lot of big things um I don't want to take too much time I want to make sure
that we get to public comment if we do Justin no there was no request to
comment on this I thank you any comments or questions from the dais
Commissioner Tiffany thank you madam chair a couple of things first of all we
did have an amazing tour this morning. We also had a bike
quite haven't been on a bike for a long time. Thankfully, I
remembered how to do it still. But the the engineering feat was
just it's phenomenal to see. And I really wanted to give a shot
out to my fellow commissioners past chair, gardeno. As I said
to him earlier today, he must feel like a proud father,
because he has been instrumental in that process
for the last 26 years,
bringing all those sales tax measures two-thirds majority
to fruition.
And now he's seen the results of all those efforts.
Sonia, congratulations, Colin.
Yes.
I also just wanted to mention what you highlighted
is that on my way up here from Hollister,
course, I go through 25 and one on one interchange, and that
projects coming along amazingly well. It is a huge safety issue
that you're addressing. And also, because so many of our
Samuel County residents commute, it's going to be have a huge
impact in a positive way on Samuel County. And I just want
to thank you for, you know, all your work through Measure B
the city of Toronto. I'm very,
very happy to have the money. Um and also look forward to Samuel Cog. I
know working with the B T A on future projects on on Highway 25 and at
that interchange. So thank you very much for that. Great comments. Thank
you, Commissioner Tiffany. Any other comments from the dias? Okay, Thank
you, Caroline. I've been a V T A for 28 years now, and I will say thank I
down on that for helping support us. We wouldn't be where we are without him and his support
on being able to move these projects forward. And, you know, I've been on the construction
and project development side many meetings with him. But yes, I, we, this county wouldn't
be where it is today. You will be driving on the roads that we have today without Carl.
So thank you. Or actually any of the transit systems of our light rail as well. So thank
you.
I'm sorry, but I do mind if we
steal him in the Central Valley
so he can. Yeah, truly
impressive, and I just want to
say that your your staff, you
know, really well articulated
this project and took all of
our questions, the engineering
innovations that that is going
into the project. We got to ask
all of our questions and, um,
massive project is impressive as well as well as your your intent to keep
things moving on time and on budget it was very appreciated and we are we are
proud to be partnered with you on on these major major innovative projects so
thank you again for being here. One last one last comment we were told that
you're ahead of schedule and actually below budget at this moment. So you have
set a very high bar for all projects throughout the state. So just a message
that you're sending to everyone else. So thank you very much. I did tell them that
I doubt I'll be on the Commission in 2037 or 38 but if I am I'm not looking
for any extensions or any supplemental. So we're gonna hold you to it. But anyway
Thank you very much. That was a great, great project.
Great job managing expectations, Commissioner Tiffany. I wanted to acknowledge the presence
online, Senator Cortezi. I think he's coming in and okay. Well, he will join us again. He
joined us a little bit during your presentation, Carolyn. Okay, so next item,
tab three is approval of minutes douglas thank you chair we're going to take tabs three four
and five together tab three is the approval of the minutes for the march 19th and 20th
2026 meeting tab four is the commissioner's meetings for compensation and tab five is the
committee member's compensation staff recommends your approval great um any public comment justin
not seeing any requests a comment on the item at this time thank you great any questions comments
or motion from the dais? Okay moved by Commissioner Eger, second by Commissioner Tiffany. All in favor?
Aye. Aye. Any noes? Abstentions? Okay, thank you. Next item is
update from our Chief Deputy Director Wahl-Golodzupski. Hi, good afternoon everyone.
I'm substituting again for Director Taylor while she's out on medical leave.
I'd like to start by thanking Caroline gonaut and vta for welcoming us to the region today
As you heard we had an excellent tour this morning and we're excited to see the work that's going on and bringing bark to silicon valley
So, thank you for having us
Commissioner since our last meeting in malibu we've had a busy few weeks
At the beginning of april the commission hosted our first joint meeting of the year with the california air resources board
And the department of housing and community development in san francisco
The joint meeting included presentations on how MPOs are using housing and land use strategies as a climate solution and a tour of some infill and transit oriented development projects funded in part by our agencies.
The joint meetings are an excellent opportunity for our agencies to discuss these complex intertwined issues and have been very successful enhancing staff collaboration and bolstering the housing, air quality and climate connections in our transportation funding program guidelines.
Later in April the Commission held its first town hall meeting of the year hosted by LA Metro in South Los Angeles.
The engaged and energetic participation from local neighborhood groups and residents and the strong partnerships that Metro has cultivated with the community were truly exciting and impressive to see.
I'd like to thank our planning team and our administration team for coordinating such a successful town hall and LA Metro for hosting us.
Last month also saw the observance of the 36th Annual Caltrans Workers Memorial.
This event is always an important moment to reflect on the sacrifice that has gone into
building and maintaining our state's transportation system.
Our thoughts are with the loved ones of the 195 Caltrans employees who have been killed
on the job since 1921.
As we move into today's agenda, I'd like to note that we have nearly $540 million in proposed
allocations for the Commission's consideration. This is a tremendous
investment in our state's infrastructure and our communities. As we continue to
implement the Commission's strategic plan, these investments are another step in
providing a safe, equitable, and multimodal transportation system for all
Californians. As stewards of that system, it's important for the Commission and
Caltrans to take time to review our programs and policies to ensure we're
delivering on our commitments.
In that vein, we'll be hearing an update
on the Caltrans Independent Inspector General's audit
of Caltrans Airspace Program.
We look forward to hearing about how the department
can continue to enhance its policies and practices
to ensure we're maintaining a safe transportation system.
With the next meeting as the last regular commission meeting
of the fiscal year, we anticipate a very large number
of allocation requests on our June agenda,
which will allow us to continue the progress we are making
and end the fiscal year on a high note.
Commissioners, I'll conclude my remarks
with a few staffing updates.
First, Sheila Ennis has accepted the role
of program manager for the state transportation
improvement program on a permanent basis.
Sheila has been acting in that role for several months
after overseeing the Commission's AB 744 transportation
data program and holding multiple other positions
at the Commission in Caltrans.
Second, Sasha Linker will be moving into a new role
as Assistant Deputy Director for Legislation and Finance.
Sasha joined the Commission in 2024
from the Fair Political Practices Commission,
and she's been an integral part of our equity team's work
and supporting the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee
in particular.
Next, Erwin Rufino has joined the Commission
on a temporary rotation basis supporting the engineering team
and our work to begin updating the Commission's AB194 tolling guidelines.
Erwin comes to us from the Caltrans Division of Traffic Operations and has nearly 30 years
of engineering experience across the private and public sectors.
And lastly, James Mon has joined the Commission's administration team as a retired induitant.
James is also an engineer with more than 30 years of service with the State Water Resources
and we're pleased to have him join us
and support our administrative staff.
Please join me in congratulating Sheila and Sasha
on their new roles in welcoming Erwin and James
to the commission.
I'd also like to take a moment to recognize
Commissioner Adonia Lugo and Commissioner Jason Elliott
whose last meetings with the commission
was the last meeting in March.
Commissioner Lugo and Commissioner Elliott
brought two very valuable perspectives to this dais
And we wish them both well on their future endeavors
with Commissioner Elliott having been appointed
to the High Speed Rail Authority Board.
And commissioners, this concludes my report.
As a reminder, our next meeting will be in Folsom
on June 25th and 26th.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chief Deputy Galaszewski.
Are there any public comments?
No, there was no requested comment on this item.
Thank you.
Okay, any comments or questions from the dais?
Okay, with that, next item is the Commissioner
and Ex officio reports.
I'm going to move up some comments
that I was going to put towards the end,
but I know that there's some folks joining us online
that are anxious to make comments.
The commission would like to recognize
a dedicated public servant who recently retired
after more than 30 years of service.
I believe we have, yes, we do.
We have Matthew Welbas who retired in March
from the Federal Transit Administration on the line.
Welcome, Matthew.
Hello.
Mr. Welbas served as the executive director of FTA
and was instrumental in helping to secure millions of dollars
for critical transit projects across California.
I'd like to turn it over to Pastor Gordino
to say a few words.
Matt Welbus epitomizes public service
in his 30-plus years serving our nation
at the Federal Transit Administration.
I think so many of us in this room from throughout our state
can reflect on the times that his objective insights,
his professional counsel guided us
to put our best plans forward
in a way that could be competitive for federal funding.
He never put his finger or his thumb on the scale.
He just gave great advice and counsel
to make sure that anyone applying for federal funds
across our country, add the opportunity to succeed.
I know there are many folks online and in the room today
that would like to thank and celebrate Matt's service
to our nation and his partnership with our state
and our communities here.
So I will just mention two examples.
If you enjoy the electrification of Caltrain,
Matt Welvis helped us every step of the way to keep that important improvement on track.
Yes, it was a bad pun dad joke, but he did. For Bart phase one and Bart phase two to
San Jose and Silicon Valley, his insights, his wisdom through numerous administrations
always assisted us as we moved that Herculean effort forward.
When I visit D.C., he often very graciously will meet with me for coffee and just continue to give
me guidance. And Matt, when I come back out to D.C. several times this summer, I am hoping
after more than 30 years of learning from you
and working with you,
that now that you are not a federal employee,
I can finally buy you a cup of coffee.
But I know there are many who'd like to speak,
but I hope you'll all join me in thanking
an amazing professional and public servant in Matt Wellness.
Thank you, Commissioner Gordino.
And when the other speakers are done, if it's okay,
And I mentioned this this morning, Matt,
we toured the progress on BART phase two
and gosh, I wish you could have been there.
But I was sharing with my colleagues
that these huge efforts built with our partnership
and our funding of federal, state, regional and local
and the icing and the cake in these improvements
is the visionary voters who tax themselves
for these improvements.
So you can't enjoy it with us,
but we have a cake, a four layer cake
with that icing on the top
that we're gonna enjoy for you today.
But again, I get to buy you coffee the next time I see you.
well said and well displayed thank you commissioner gordino
um do we have public comments on this she has chair we do thank you and just
a reminder to our virtual attendees you may use the virtual rant he's ran hand
raise feature to comment on any item like to first call on stephanie wiggins
stephanie you're now muted and free to speak good afternoon commissioners it is
a genuine pleasure to join the ctc in recognizing matt and his brilliant
career at the FTA. Not surprisingly, Matt's career, which started in 1992, perfectly tracks
with the growth of Metro's rail network. Is that a coincidence? I don't think so. The fact is,
over the past several decades, every rail project LA Metro has built with federal dollars has been
touched by Matt's remarkable know-how and his remarkable diplomatic skills to bridge differences
and bring people together to build transit. That in short is Matt's signature gift. He is a doer,
a builder, and someone for as long as I have known him who brings people together to get things done.
When Metro decided to build the D-Line extension, which we opened up to Great Fan Fair this past weekend,
it was Matt who knew how we could match our local sales tax dollars with CIG dollars and a large tiffy alone to get that first segment of the project built.
And when we sought to build segments 2 and 3 of the D-Line, again it was Matt who knew how to navigate these projects.
again and again from the east side to the downtown regional connector to our east San Fernando Valley
light rail project Matt's fingerprints are through all of these funding plans and for all of these
major agreements what has struck me all of the events to mark either the beginning of construction
or the opening of these rail projects, it's this Matt was never center stage at these events.
The credit went to the executive branch officials, to the politicians. So today I want to give credit
where credit is due Matt. Thank you for being the FTA's chief architect for decades,
always working behind the scenes to make great things possible. LA Metro is grateful for your
thank you so much for demonstrating your iron cloud commitment to public service and to america's
transit systems thank you thank you stephanie up next we have erin sue erin sue you're now
muted and free to comment all right seeing no response from erin that concludes all requests
a comment from our virtual attendees okay we have a couple of speakers in the room that would like
to comment. Theresa Romel with MTC. Good afternoon. Mr. Welvis, on behalf of MTC in the San Francisco
Bay Area, I want to wish you a very happy and well-deserved retirement. You have left an
indelible mark on our region. Your competence and steady hand help support and guide the Bay Area
and other regions through some very challenging times throughout the pandemic and its aftermath.
you helped secure vital funding that kept public transit moving when it really mattered the most.
In a region known for its uniquely transit-rich network, your leadership helped sustain and
strengthen the system that connects millions of people. And further your work and support on
generational transit projects like Caltrain electrification and extensions of BART to this
County, as well as others, will benefit the Bay Area for decades to come.
So in short, with the utmost sincerity, best wishes to you and your family in
this next phase, and thank you so much for your service. Thank you. The next
speaker is Casey Fromson with Caltrain. Good afternoon, commissioners. I am happy
to join my fellow colleagues here to really celebrate Matt. For years, he has
been a critical partner to Caltrain. He listened carefully, offered thoughtful
advice, and provided steady guidance during complex moments. One example is we
received the first full funding grant agreement and the first Trump
administration. And when Caltrain was successful in receiving that FFGA, thanks
to many people in this room as well, we were honored that he was able to join us
for some of our celebration events. And that really shows his commitment not
just to the project, but to the people behind it. And one unique thing about that FFGA is
Matt told me he actually signed the document, which is somewhat unique and that others often
do that. But he's part of our shared history on this project and a project that was a long
way in the making, but it became a reality in 2024. And today, I'm happy to say that
Caltrain is the fastest growing transit system in the United States. And this project is
really living up to the promise that it had for us. To honor that shared history with Matt,
we'd like to present you with a poster featuring your name and celebrating really your leadership
on the project. This is a small tribute to the many ways that you helped contribute to the project
and I'm so proud to be here today on behalf of Caltrain to thank you for that leadership and
wish you well on your next adventures. Very cool, thank you to the speakers online and
present. Okay, Ms. Goenak, did you want to speak? I'm gonna assume it is stuck somewhere,
so let's go ahead and hear your comments. Welcome back. Thank you. So I'm Carolyn Goenak,
General Manager, CEO for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and I do want to
say a few words and really to honor Matt Wellbees today. I've known Matt for quite a while now
in actually the pursuit of actually receiving funding for VTA but also in actually talking
to him and getting to know him as someone to get advice from as to how we proceed going forward.
but over time got to know him as a friend. And he actually was very instrumental in being
able to get to the point today where you saw him, what you saw today in the field,
and being able to move forward because we had moved this project into a funding program called
the Expedited Project Delivery Program and ended up having, we moved from a new starts program in
federal funding to expedited project delivery to moving it back into new starts. And how we had to
to do that was absolutely sort of a mastery in being able to look at all the requirements
that needed to be managed. And then in the end we ended up with a $9.3 billion LONP on
the project and getting back into new starts which was has allowed us to move this project
and continue the construction now in these days and times as we wait for a full funding
grant agreement. And not many projects have that. And so in a way, Matt has been able
to actually keep this project on time, on budget, and actually Matt save us hundreds
of millions of dollars. So I really do want to thank you for being able to do that. Because
if we weren't able to have that, let or no prejudice move forward, being able to move
back into new starts, we would not be where we are today and be able to keep this on the
critical path. And so those things are so important, but being able to have those discussions.
And many times when I go into DC like Carl did, I would meet...
Many times expired.
So thank you very, very much. Thank you, Matt, for everything. And hope to meet you when
I go back into DC next time as a friend. Thank you.
Thank you. Any other speakers? Anyone from the dais? Okay. Mr. Robles, would you like
to respond to all of the well wishes.
Yes.
Thank you, Chair Felkin.
And the entire commission, just thank you
for this embarrassment of kind recognition.
It really was my honor to be a partner with all of you.
And with agencies across California,
you have such powerful tools to really give people
multimodal transportation, give people choices
about how they travel.
and over and over, you and your partners in California have been leaders, not just in your
state, but across the country. I think you gave us at USDOT policies and practices that could then
be beneficially spread around the whole country. And I often told my FTA coworkers that we only
accomplish our work in partnership with all of you. The FTA doesn't own any buses or trains.
it doesn't own any construction equipment, our projects require local match. And so
we only get done our work with all of you and I really appreciate all the speakers,
CEO Stephanie Wiggins, CEO Karen Ganno, Casey, Teresa Aaron, all describing our partnership
and our work together. And Commissioner Guardino has been a marvelous partner on many of these
efforts, so I just want to thank you all for that. I do want to just take this
recognition on behalf of all the people I worked with at USDOT for over three
decades, people at the Federal Transit Administration, also people like my
friends and former colleagues on your commissioning agenda today, Doug Hecox,
the FHWA division administrator, and then FTA's regional administrator Ray
Tellis. Ray and his team in Region 9, they work with you on billions of dollars in
in active FTA funded California projects.
Early in my career, I spent time working
in FTA's region nine office.
And I know that that team cheers your successes,
advancing every bus rapid transit line
and ferry project and rail project
and new and cleaner vehicles for the entire state.
So again, just thank you for this recognition.
And I look forward to celebrating
all your future successes as well.
Thank you, Mr. Wilbison.
Thank you for your career of partnership with California,
and we wish you well in your future endeavors, whatever
that looks like.
Thank you so much.
I wanted to continue item seven, giving my colleagues
opportunity to provide updates, if they would like.
Anyone want to do updates?
If I may, Chair Falcone.
Yes, thank you.
Matt, again, thank you for joining us.
may have already jumped off the line. If it is okay with my colleagues and our guests today,
just a few weeks ago, Silicon Valley, the Bay Area in California, lost a legendary leader
who was truly called the father of modern transit in Silicon Valley. Rod Derridan,
senior who served on our Saratoga City Council, then on the board of supervisors, numerous
regional, state and federal boards, shared APTA. And if you enjoy the Dierdon train station
in downtown San Jose, that bears his name and his imprint will forever be with us in
in a positive way.
And I'm hoping we might adjourn today's meeting
in his memory.
We can definitely do that.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Anyone else from the dyes?
Yes, Commissioner Eder.
Yes, thank you.
You know, just to add, Rod was on the high-speed rail board
way back when with all of us OGs, right?
And he was so instrumental in moving that to the next step.
So I'm going to thank him and remember him
for all of his hard work there too.
I also wanted to say a special thank you to Adonia Lugo,
having served on this commission,
even during her pregnancy and trying to run
from place to place and showing us baby pictures in between,
she was very, she meant a lot to all of us
and we want to thank her
because she did bring a different perspective
to some of the work that we're doing here in her research.
And, you know, we would have questions
and she would say, oh, I researched that
and here's what it is.
So we wanna thank her for all of that.
And also commissioner Elliott, he wasn't with us very long,
but he certainly made an impact on this commission
and all of us.
And even though we're sorry to see him go,
have to say I am thrilled that he will be on the high speed rail board. I think you all know I'm a
fan and he's going to get us to that finish line. I've already told him that's a must so I'm looking
forward to seeing his next steps and what he's going to do there and I'll be going to those
meetings too to cheer him on to get him to that next place and so I just wanted to congratulate
him too on his transition to high-speed rail. Thank you. Thank you, and ditto all of your
comments. Thank you. Anyone else? Yes, Commissioner Brown-Hines. Yes, thank you. The chief deputy
director in his report mentioned our site visit and I guess it was a town hall in South LA with
LA Metro in April, and I had the chance to spend time with Commissioner Eager,
Mann, Daakon, and two days. It was just amazing to see the community engagement
in the Town Hall in South LA. Well attended, as you mentioned, extremely
engaged community. You could tell they're really putting in the work with strong
community partnerships. It was it was just amazing to see that and to to learn
about the I think the Vermont Transit corridor and the work that's being done
there. I think it's I think it's the most traveled bus route. I think they said
about 35,000 people on a workday use that and just to look at some of the
improvements that will happen and making it much more safe for pedestrians but
also the technology that they'll be on the street to see when buses are coming
just really community centered in community focused work. And then the
chance to tour the LAX Metro Transit Center in preparation for the World Cup
I was sharing with our chair that it made me run out and get my
tickets to the World Cup. So I'm taking my husband to one of the
one of the I think we're gonna go to see Iran and New Zealand.
So but it was just it was just it was great really looking at what the hell they're preparing for
the World Cup and the Olympics and to see the people mover being tested
I know we didn't get a chance to tour that yet.
I can't wait to do that.
But just it was a wonderful opportunity
to see what was happening there in Los Angeles
and appreciate LA Metro taking the time to tour us.
Yeah, thank you.
And I felt, we felt the vibe.
It was such a well attended town hall
about at least 50 people from the community
at the constituent center and so it was really great to hear the impact of the work that's
being done there through L.A. Metro and all of their community partners in the county
and just seeing the buzz and hearing from the community how important it is to improve
the Vermont Avenue corridor and and just all the vibrancy that is happening with with the D line
was it was it was a great experience. So thank you for bringing that up. Anybody else from the
dias? Just real quick. Yes, Vice Chair Cruz. Thanks for the time and I appreciate the comments
by VTA, but I also want to recognize that the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority was
was the first county in California to pass a sales tax measure in 1976, which set the
stage obviously for a lot of counties being able to put ballot measures on and put them
before voters to generate that local match that we all need and can leverage all obviously
regional, as Carl said, and federal funds and state funds to move big projects like
BART and a commitment to BART to build out a really incredible transit line that serves
a lot of folks in the Bay Area that allows both individuals who work and students an opportunity
to get to work but also live close to where they both work in school, which is incredible. So thank
you guys for your your commitment and your dedication to improving mobility in this area.
Thank you, Vice Chair. A couple of quick updates on my end. So I've been quite busy
traveling up and down the state for the past actually couple weeks for two really special
events. One was in Healdsburg. I was just there on Friday celebrating with the Sonoma Marin
area rail transit and the community of Healdsburg and the communities that surround them on the
rail extension to Healdsburg and that will be going continuing on and it was a huge event for
the community. I think I want to say it was at least 500 people that attended. I had never been
there and I took my husband Michael with me because we were celebrating our 23rd wedding
anniversary in Hillsburg, and believe it or not, I've never been in the Boeing country,
and so it was a great opportunity to do so and to spend sales tax and drop some revenue
there to help pay for the rail, and that was really neat to just be part of that.
On the opposite side of the state, I attended the ribbon cutting, so that was a groundbreaking
in Hillsburg, the ribbon cutting in Imperial County, the Calexico Intermodal Transportation
Center. And last year, CTC did a town hall in Imperial County and we traveled through
Calexico and we saw the lack of facilities in that very, I would say, economically marginalized
part of Imperial County and this project even though it's a you know small 20
million dollar intermodal facility is going to be hugely impactful for this
for Calexico. If you think about being in the summer in Imperial County at 120
degrees and riding transit with all the you know little abuelitas and abuelitas
the ground break. And so it's a
for a county that is in severe need
of these kinds of impactful projects.
And CTC contributed some ATP funding for that.
So I wanted to share that.
I also wanted to acknowledge,
as Commissioner Eger has just done the,
Well, two colleagues that are not part of our commission
anymore, Commissioner Adonia Lugo
and Commissioner Jason Elliott.
Just a little bit about Adonia.
I personally really enjoyed her time at the commission.
She was a self-professed transportation justice advocate
provide a lot of really meaningful perspective from her angle as an academic and an archaeologist.
And really shared some perspectives that we usually don't hear. And it's very human.
And she challenged us with some of her questions and her comments. But it was always coming from
a good place. It really forced us to think sometimes and to kind of relook at how we
look at transportation investments. She was also coming at it as a young mother of two
very, very little children. So that was always appreciated because in this dais, we represent
many diverse parts of the state. And her perspective as a young mom was very much appreciated.
So we will miss her. We'll definitely also miss Commissioner Elliott. And he also challenged
us and really appreciated his perspective, especially as a housing advocate. And him
challenging, challenging us with some of his questions as it relates to, you know,
how how we utilize transit and locating housing next to transit. And so we will
miss him as well. He is going to be doing some great things at the high-speed
rail authority and so we appreciate his continued service for the state of
California in that capacity. With that we have a resolution for Commissioner Lugo and we will
have one as well for Commissioner Elliott. Acknowledging the work that they have done
on behalf of the state of California on this commission and they will both be
missed. With that any public comment on any of our comments?
Well, just a personal one. Yes, sir. So last Friday and over the weekend,
Leslie and I were in Healdsburg celebrating our 23rd wedding anniversary. Did we miss each other?
So, small world. Here's to longevity and marriage. Any public comment?
That's the end. I request a comment at this time. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Justin.
All right. Next we have and pleased to have our esteemed secretary from CalSTA, Tok Soemashakian.
Welcome and thank you for being here. Absolutely. Good afternoon, Madam Chair and
commissioners. I am thrilled to get a chance to share a little bit of a broad update on all things
transportation across the state as much as I can. But before that, just a few general comments and
thanks one to to you madam chair for all the work that you're doing it sounds like you're
very busy traveling the state and meeting with stakeholders and looking at checking out projects
so thank you for all the the work that you and the commissioners all the commissioners here thank
you for everything that you're doing to support transportation in the state of california
also want to thank ceo gano for the welcome to the region thank you for what you're doing here
much of the work that you're doing. Some of the things you highlighted there are
not only California leading as far as transit agencies go but
nation leading. So thank you for
the remarkable work that's taking place especially the the boring and
tunneling work that a lot of us are
paying attention to looking forward to see the outcome in the years
to come. To Matt Welbus as well, I want to share my congratulations to him
on a very successful career in helping transit to move forward, not only in California but
of course across the country as well.
And also to Commissioner Gardino, it's good to be in your stomping grounds on your home
base where I think a lot of people in the room know that Commissioner Gardino, without
his leadership, without his efforts, there's no way that a lot of the transit that we utilize
in this region. There's no way that we would be able to utilize it. John Maxwell likes
to say everything rises and falls on leadership. Everything rises and falls on leadership and
his leadership on transportation and transit issues in particular have just been groundbreaking
and remarkable. So Commissioner Gardino, thank you for everything that you've done to make
this region and the state what it is. Thank you. So the only other brief comment before
I'll take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I'll take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that.
I will take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that for the next few years.
I will take a deep dive into that.
I will take a deep dive into that.
I will take a deep dive into that.
I will take a deep dive into that.
But the big news to report is, with all the deficit challenges that we've been facing,
the budget this year we're going to have is zero, of course, zero deficit in the budget.
And revenues are up higher than projected is the main reason why that we're going to have
zero deficit. The revenue numbers are roughly 16.5 billion dollars, and a large part of the
the reason why the revenues are higher in the state
is because of the personal income tax
and the capital gains tax,
due to a lot of the personal income and investments
that have happened mostly a lot of that in this region,
in the technology region that we are in today.
So it's good to see that.
And from a transportation standpoint in the budget,
things like generative AI, clean California
and efficiency improvements at the DMV
are some of the main things to report out
on that got funded in the mayor revised budget today.
So exciting day for the state of California
and the governor's budget.
So to my regular remarks, next slide, please.
I'm gonna focus on the core four as usual,
the four most important things that we need to focus on
in transportation for the state
and advancements that we continue to make there.
And I have one last item under innovation
that I will also briefly cover.
So starting off with the Corps Force safety,
we're fortunate that numbers continue to go down,
as you can see from the slide,
the fatality numbers continue to go down
in the state of California.
Between 2023 and 2024, you see there is a 7% decline
in fatalities within the state.
We were in 2021, we were at a record high
of 4,500 fatalities.
It's more than 12 people a day in our state
that we were losing on the transportation system.
So it's good to see that these numbers
are finally trending in this direction.
As you can see there from that 2021 high to the 2024 number,
you're talking about more than 600 fewer fatalities
in our state.
It's you, our partners in this room,
state colleagues, local government or academic institutions all working together that is
generating this decline.
And as you can see the national numbers are also trending finally in the right direction
from 43,000 plus high in 2021.
We're finally down below the 40,000 number again for the first time in six years.
So again, many kudos to all of you in this room, our partners who continue to prioritize
safety as the number one most paramount thing that we need to be working on in transportation.
So thank you for everything that you're doing.
Next slide, please.
From a safety standpoint, just to hone in on some of the things, specific things that
we've been doing, some of you may remember that recently or as of late last year, we
rolled out a program called the state priority safety corridors, state priority
safety corridors, where we're targeting three corridors in the state of
California that we identified as the highest priority for fatalities and
serious injuries. Number one is State Route 91 and two is Avalon Boulevard,
both in L. A. County and Varna Road in Riverside County. We're having ongoing
community engagement meetings, enforcement education, even looking at how generative
AI can help drive the safety challenges on those corridors in a different direction.
Telematics data also being utilized and we're hoping that the next round of state priority
safety corridors will be announced in the fall of this year. So look out for that. We've
done three already. We're hoping to announce the next round of these priority safety corridors
the fall. By the way, these safety corridors, again, a lot of this stems from our efforts
around Pacific Coast Highway. Highway 1, when we had the unfortunate tragedy that happened in 2020,
2024, the fall of 2024, is where we got the idea to have this specific program to be rolled out
out and developed.
More things that we're doing from a safety standpoint,
the Zero Traffic Fotalities Task Force
continues to move forward.
Some of you may know that I recently reconstituted
this task force.
My predecessor, Secretary David Kim,
and the governor's office actually created this program.
I relaunched this program in this last year
of our administration.
And they've had, this task force has had two meetings already.
One on March 16th, that was focused on public health and...
There we go.
Mike went up for a second.
Public health issues and injury,
injury severity related issues.
On April 27th, the meeting focused on the severity dimension
of injuries.
The next meeting for this zero traffic fatalities task force is on June 8.
So if you're interested in engaging on this task force, please connect with our CalSTA
team or you can talk to me about this as well.
Finally, from a safety standpoint, I'm thankful for what the Caltrans team is doing around
complete streets.
Alta onesy and team have been advancing workshops for the entire department
around around complete streets the first one of the first ones that was held was
in d3 and d10 on May 5th that had really good attendance also district 4 where we
are today had more than 100 people from the district 4 staff attend a complete
streets workshop so we're continuing to make issues around multi-modalism and
complete streets a priority for the department and the state overall. Also
implementation of SB 960 continues to move forward. This is a bill that
required us to continue to advance efforts around complete streets and
and transit uh transit in in particular so uh a lot going on from a safety
standpoint next slide please so from an equity standpoint usually around equity
we usually focus mostly on impacts equity related issues related to
projects specifically but in this meeting i want to highlight the
importance i'm glad commissioner bradshaw and
Commissioner Cruz are both here I want to highlight the importance of job
creation and career opportunities as a part of our equity efforts. I know they
work pretty heavily on the labor front in their in their professional careers.
So one of these efforts is through SB 150 where we're partnering with the
California Workforce and Development Board on a thirty million dollar
investment. This investment will help with training for more than 1000
participants over the next, over the next four years on careers related to
high road construction, high road construction. So a thousand people over
the next four years, a $30 million investment. Very often the people who we
targeting with these opportunities are in areas where there's often some
economic challenge. So I'm glad to see a program like this move forward and
Governor Newsom sign SB 150 into law that will continue to create jobs for
people for many years to come. Also another example of this is the heavy
equipment operator statewide academy, heavy equipment operator statewide
Academy where the Baker Technical Institute, BTI, was awarded a statewide contract to establish
on-the-job training. This particular effort will train 180 individuals on heavy highway
construction work. So another great opportunity here. The first one I mentioned, a thousand
people will be trained. This next one, this heavy equipment operator, 180 people will be trained
and workforce-related opportunities.
So when we think about equity, again,
we often think about what we're doing project-wise
in communities, but all of us know very well
how vast our budgets are in transportation
and what a difference we can make as well
by giving people opportunities,
career and job-related opportunities.
Next, I wanna highlight the fact
that the DBE program, the federal DBE program,
we continue to advance the reevaluation of many firms
as they come back in under a new process
on this current federal administration.
This federal administration in October of 2025
had an interim final rule, an IFR.
Some of you may remember this where they said,
It's no longer permissible for Caltrans and our DBE program
to use race and gender as a way to qualify
for the DBE program.
So we can no longer use race and gender.
Now it's strictly, if you will,
income and revenue, income and revenue-based program.
So we have to reevaluate roughly 3,200 firms
that are in our DBE program.
And I'm thankful for the work that the director
and her team, the deputy director, David DeLoose,
all the work that they're doing to reconstitute
or reestablish, reevaluate this DBE program.
And also we continue to make advancements
on the small business side on the state funded programs.
There's a law AB 2019, AB 2019,
that established a 25% goal for contracts across the state,
any state funded contracts across the state.
And the districts three, four, seven and 11
have applied this 25% goal.
And some of the other districts are applying a 5% goal.
So we're continuing to move forward
with the small business program on the state side
of funding contracts for the state.
Next slide.
Third on the list of the core four, climate action.
Climate action.
We've been very busy in this space on the climate front.
A few weeks ago, two weeks ago,
or roughly three weeks ago now,
there was the San Francisco Climate Week,
where on April 23rd, we had the California Africa
Climate and Economic Forum,
where we hosted five different countries from Africa
as we look to continue to establish a partnership
between us on economic and climate-related issues.
So we had a tremendous turnout
with more than 300 people registered for this forum,
and we are gonna continue to work
on this partnership effort.
Some of you may remember that Governor Newsom signed
a MOU with both Nigeria and Kenya
around climate and economic issues just last year.
Also, CAPTIE 2.0 continues to move forward.
I'm thankful for the work that both the CTC staff,
Caltrans staff are doing around CAPTIE related issues.
The current CAPTIE 2.0 has 14 new actions.
And it's our hope that by December of 2026,
we would have concluded all the actions under CAPTIE 2.0.
Some of you will remember that CAPTIE,
The first CapTide that we did had 34 actions,
and we completed all those actions ahead of schedule.
And CapTide 2.0 continues to see momentum.
And we're hoping we can get there
in the last eight months of this administration.
Last thing to report out on from a climate action
standpoint, a pretty unique law that some people may not
be familiar with that requires the department,
requires Caltrans to recycle is even though the screen says crumb rudder not
rudders but crumb rubber crumb rubber as a part of construction and using it as
a part of the asphalt mix the law requires that eleven point five pounds
of modifier be included in all asphalt mix we are exceeding that goal and we're
averaging currently thirteen point four three percent pounds of modifier in all
in all the asphalt mix. So again to the director and our team kudos for what
you continue to do around recycling as a part of the Crown Rubber Program. If
you're wondering what this means that means more than four million waste tires
have been avoided from ending up in landfills.
We're in 4 million tires, not ending up in landfills
as of 2024 because of the work
around recycling rubber tires.
Next slide, please.
Transit, obviously very connected to our efforts
around climate action within the state.
Just briefly, some of these were mentioned already,
But the city of Santa Monica, I was glad to get a chance to join the city there as they continued their efforts to advance their zero emission bus fleet.
They are one of our leaders in the state. They have 100 buses as a part of the fleet and a significant part of that is now zero emissions. So I'm thankful for the work that they're doing. We gave them a $53 million TRCP grant.
that help fund a lot of this transit work
that they're doing in Santa Monica.
For those of you who may not be familiar
with the deadline on TRCP, as of Monday, May 18th,
all TRCP projects or applications should be in.
All TRCP cycle eight applications should be into CalSTA.
And we're hoping to announce the next rounds
of TRCP grants late summer, early this fall.
This was mentioned already,
the smart rail line, Sonoma County, the rollout.
I'm not gonna touch on this at all, but Hills Pittsburgh,
the chair mentioned the fact that she was at this event.
$81 million in TRCP funding went to this.
So it's good to see that 500 people turn out for this.
Sounds like, Madam Chair, for this event.
That's great to hear.
the plan is for this project to be open in late 2028.
And also, phase one of the Purple Line,
which is now known as the D-Line project.
All of these opened just last week.
This remarkable how much is happening
from a transit standpoint across the state.
The D-Line project, as you can see there, was $3.7 billion.
We'll add 20,000 riders to the LA Metro system.
So kudos to CEO Wiggins and her team
for announcing this just amazing project.
That will be a big part of the LA Metro system moving forward.
Economic prosperity, the fourth and final part
of the core four.
Next slide.
I'm going to go into a lot of detail here,
but we continue to work on the PFET program
and advancing efforts around it.
Some of you may recall that $1.2 billion was set aside
for this program to help advance efforts
around freight logistics and ports in our state.
We're continuing to work on improving schedules
and identifying project risk
and identifying or supporting our ports
with timely reimbursement.
And also finally, infrastructure week is next week.
Keep that in mind.
Infrastructure is a big part of this state's $4.2 trillion
economy that we talk about all the time,
the fourth largest economy in the world.
Without the infrastructure and the transportation system
of this state, we would not be that four plus trillion
dollar economy that we like to talk about a lot.
So remember, infrastructure week is next week.
And the final thing I wanna just cover,
not a part of the core four,
But important part of all of our transportation work,
next slide please, is innovation, innovation.
We, the DMV, just two weeks ago,
was able to finalize rulemaking,
a rulemaking process that took several years to complete.
It incorporated feedback from multiple stakeholders
and public comment for many years.
And this new guidance, this new rules on autonomous vehicles
will help with issues related to safety readiness,
data reporting requirements, enforcement powers related
to AV.
So all the Waymos and Zoox that we
see on the transportation system of the state,
we have new guidance and new rules
that they have to follow as of May 1 of this year.
I want to commend the DMV team, CHP and Caltrans team for all the work they did to land this
remarkable new set of AV regulations that are not only again California leading, not
surprisingly, but not nation leading regulations around connected and autonomous vehicles.
And commissioners and Madam Chair, that is the report from CalSTA today.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and thank you for your continued partnership and look forward to
continuing work with you. Any public comment, Justin? There was no request to comment on this
item. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Any comment or questions from the Dias? Yes, Vice Chair Cruz.
Yeah, let me just thank the Secretary and the administration's commitment on the equity front.
The one thing we can do well, as far as government, is create opportunities
through the building of a large-scale infrastructure.
And some of the programs you outlined are doing exactly that.
We're changing people's lives through hard work and putting individuals who choose,
for whatever reason, not to get a higher education, to work and get on a path to the middle class.
and Caltrans is a good job as one of the biggest public infrastructure agencies in the state of
doing that. And also it's unfortunate that we have to retool some of our programs when it comes
to small businesses and DBEs because some of federal guidelines. But you know there are barriers
to entry for these companies small and when it comes to cash flow or when it comes to bonding
our insurance requirements, but we should do everything we can to help them become competitive
in the state. So that commitment I also applaud. So thank you. Commissioner Cruz, thank you for
those comments and thank you for your partnership with us on the workforce and labor front. Really
appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair. And thank you, Mr. Secretary. Yes, Commissioner
Eager. Yes, thank you. I just want to say a thank you also to the Secretary as the co-chair of the
Strategic Communities Task Force. Really looking at we need to hone in on the most important things
that need to be looked at from that task force. I think we all got together and we had about 50
different things that people wanted to look at and it was my understanding that you came in and said
hey this is so important in order to put something together that a next administration can look at
and say, no, here's the guidelines that really need to happen as we look at all the issues
with transportation and housing and, and, and individual communities. So I wanted to
thank you for your guidance on that for us to regroup and refocus. And I know we're going
to get back together again this summer, so I'll be looking forward to seeing you then.
Absolutely. Commissioner Eager, thank you for serving on this important committee. The,
I think all of us are very thankful for laws
that have passed like SB 743 and 375 over the years
that were groundbreaking legislation
around housing and transportation
and reducing VMT and GHG,
but doesn't mean they were perfect either.
And so there's a lot of opportunity
to come up with new ideas
around implementing 743 and 375.
And so the work that you're doing with your colleagues
to continue to encourage smart growth,
But understanding what's happening on the ground with communities is really important.
So thank you for your service.
Really appreciate it.
Yeah.
We also have a hand up from commissioner Bradshaw.
Welcome brother Bradshaw.
Uh, good to be here.
Sorry, I can't be there live.
I have been taking full advantage of the, uh, highways and byways across the whole
state, uh, and seeing challenges and also seeing a lot of good work of a lot of
great people, including Secretary Omashock. And I also want to real quick just acknowledge,
I didn't earlier, you know, commissioners that have recently left Adonia and also Jason,
and great work with them and the diversity they brought to it.
Secretary, I want to say thank you for all the work you've done. And I'm going to echo
Brother Cruz on that and certainly working with our governor on remembering the working class folks and opportunities as we bring good projects forward, but having the support of CalSTA and beyond and also on the legislative front has been crucial and appreciate the recognition, but also more importantly, the support of workers within the transportation industry currently and those to come.
And I will also say count us all in to drive opportunities so none are left out to the best of our ability. And I just wanted to weigh in on that a little bit.
And thank you for allowing me to zoom in, so to speak, so I hope to see everyone live soon. Thank you.
Yeah, Commissioner Bradshaw.
Thank you for those for those comments can't say it any better than you said it. We have to look at for this every single person who needs opportunity within the state, and the working class folks, we sometimes forget how important they are to this economic engine that
we have so thankful for people like you and leading and partnering with the state. Thanks so much.
Mister Secretary, thank you and thank you for the reminder of the TIRCP funding that
went into the smart project, $80 million, and I would remiss if I didn't also include
that SB 1 funding also contributed to that from local partnerships and solutions for
congested corridors.
So together that I think is about $160 million for this project, and it was great to be joined
by Undersecretary James Haecker who helped,
it wasn't a groundbreaking by the way,
it was a hammer and stake.
Yeah, it was really, really interesting.
And I got swag and it's going to the SB1 team.
But thank you and thank you for the continued focus
on safety and, you know,
really growing our workforce pipeline
for all of these wonderful projects
that we keep hearing about.
But on safety, it was good to see you last night
at the California Transportation Foundation.
And many of you here present were at that event as well,
honoring folks up and down the state
doing really amazing projects,
but also more importantly,
honoring the families of our fallen workers.
And so we were honored to be there
and it was good to see you.
And I just want to, again,
thank you for really focusing on safety
and hopefully we don't hear,
we hear less and less about traffic fatalities
and casualties on our system.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
It's a responsibility that we all bear on this,
all of us, every single person in this auditorium today.
We have to continue to make sure
that we're making this a priority
and driving those numbers in a different direction.
I just want to say, I neglected to thank as well
the Commissioner Adonia and Commissioner Elliott
for their service to this commission.
Thankful for everything they did while they were here.
Commissioner Elliott was super brief.
I'll talk to him about that another time.
Thank you so much.
I'm sorry.
Give him a hard time.
I will. I plan to.
And thank for commission for commissioner doing as well.
And it's good to see.
Senator Cortese here.
I think between him and.
Commissioner eager. I'm not sure who's the bigger high speed rail.
Bigger high speed rail proponent, but Senator Cortese,
I've been watching you on.
Your high speed rail comments.
So thanks for what you're doing there.
on support for High Street Road.
So thanks for being here.
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
And again, thank you, Senator Cortez for joining us.
We had acknowledged you virtually,
but we're glad to see you in person.
So thank you for being here.
virtual was on the drive down from Sacramento.
Glad to be here in person.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay, any public comment?
there was no request to comment on the item. Thank you. All right. Next item is our update from our
Caltrans director, Dina Altawansi. Good afternoon, Chair Falcone and commissioners. Dina Altawansi
providing the Caltrans update today. But before I jump into that, I just want to take a moment to
acknowledge and thank Senator Cortese and Assemblymember Wilson for being a part of our
workers memorial this year. We really appreciate you giving us the time and I think it resonates
very much with our staff across the entire state. I also want to thank Executive Director
Taylor for her attendance and support, continuous support I should say. All right next slide please.
I want to begin by updating on leadership changes that we have at Caltrans. I'm pleased to announce
the appointment of Prakash Saf as the division chief of the division of research, innovation,
and system information, also known as DRI-SI. Prakash has more than 25 years of leadership
experience in Caltrans in maintenance, project delivery, and DRI-SI. Most recently, he served
as a deputy division chief of the research and innovation program, where he led multidisciplinary
team advancing transportation through research technology and strategic partnership. He also
strengthened collaboration with academic and industrial partners and representing Caltrans
nationally through several transportation organizations. Previously, Prakash served
as a deputy division chief of Caltrans emergency services, leading statewide disaster preparedness
response and recovery efforts and overseeing over 250 emergency projects totaling 1.2 billion.
He has also held leadership roles in engineering services supporting project delivery, policy
development and construction contract management. Please join me in congratulating precaution on
this well-deserved appointment. Additionally, I want to also I'm happy to announce that Cecilia
Julia Gutierrez has been appointed as the Chief of Staff for the Director's Office
at Caltrans headquarters.
Cecilia brings two decades of combined experience in transportation infrastructure planning
and various support services.
She previously served as the Chief Executive Liaison for District 4 here in the Bay Area.
Her career spans multiple divisions and organizations beginning in Caltrans administration of headquarters
where she led the statewide strategic planning
and budget analysis.
She went on to contributing to the division
of project management,
sharing the work plan standard guide committee
and implementation of the PRISM workload scheduling tool.
In the division of business operations,
she also managed the shop office building program,
delivering capital infrastructure plans
to department of finance.
She also worked in the division of safety
and Management Services focused on statewide policy development
and performance assessment.
Before joining Caltrans, Cecilia has also
worked for seven years in the private sector
as a sales engineer and general electric.
She is trained in six SEGMA methodologies.
And she's a graduate of the General Electric Leadership
Training Program.
She holds a bachelor's of science in management science
with a minor in engineering science
from the University of California, San Diego.
Congratulations, Cecilia.
Next slide, please.
Moving now to statewide policy update.
I want to share a preview of the state rail annual report
for progress for the year 2025.
This report serves as a connective bridge
between the quaternion updates and the full rail plan
that update the TCU in 2028.
While full state rail plans are required every four years,
the annual report is not a compliance document.
Its purpose is to improve the transparency,
show measurable progress in the first year
since the 2024 plan has been released,
and strengthening coordination with statewide priorities,
including economic, environmental, and equity goals.
This update tracks implementation progress statewide
since the 2024 rail plan release,
advancement of the integrated passenger
and freight rail planning,
and the progress on multimodal coordination
and the near-term capital priorities
and foundation setting
that will be directly informing the 2028 rail plan.
The annual report is currently available
on the rail plan webpage.
We also aligned our outreach efforts
with the National Train Day, which is May 9th,
and used coordinated messaging
across Caltrans headquarters
in the district communication channels to expand awareness.
Legislative affairs and partner agencies
have also been notified about the latest update
and are engaging in our outreach as we speak.
For the Commission's purpose,
the annual report offers sharper visibility
into the statewide rail program delivery corridor performance
and capital readiness.
It supports informed decision-making
by offering consistent annual progress,
reporting and reinforcing, excuse me,
Caltrans transparency commitment
to multimodal integration across the rail investments.
To learn more about our effort,
please see our published annual report
on the Caltrans website.
Next slide.
Next, I would like to preview some exciting changes happening that will significantly
increase our effort to build a truly multi-modal network.
It begins with Caltrans's commitment to elevating rail and transit as essential components of
the California transportation system.
To fulfill this commitment, Caltrans is recognizing its rail and transit programs to establish
a deputy director to oversee transit in rail, as well as the Division of Mass Transportation,
and the California Integrated Travel Project, which is a Cal ITP program within the same
organizational structure. This new structure creates clear accountability and strengthen
collaboration with our local, regional, and private partners. The Division of Mass Transportation will
also support the implementation of the Caltrans policy on transit. For stakeholders, a dedicated
deputy director and supporting structure will streamline communication between Caltrans
headquarters, our districts, and 270 transit agencies, passenger rail agencies, federal
partners, and the commission. This reorganization will deliver stronger technical assistance and
policy guidance. Deepened federal relationship with FTA and FRA to secure resources and advance
innovation and provide focused leadership to oversee implementation of the Caltrans policy
on transit. Lastly, the benefits to partner organization include faster and clearer decision
making process and guidance, more consistent application of the statewide transit and rail
policies and greater support and transparency in grant programs. Next
slide. Next, some exciting development in equity and accessibility have taken
place here in District 4 over the last three years. Since 2020, Caltrans has
continued to make ongoing progress towards our equity goals and community
engagement efforts. Speaking of these efforts, I'm excited to share with you
that Caltrans has recently released a progress report for the second race and equity action plan
which by the way evolved and now is renamed as people and community first action plan.
This kind of report is the first of its kind. The progress report reviews and assesses Caltrans
progress towards greater equity in the communities that we serve and highlights accomplishments in
delivering on our commitment to create a more inclusive and resilient transportation network
that benefits all Californians. The 2022-2024 race and equity action plan itself includes 83
action organized under four categories, people, programs, projects, and then finally partnership
and planning. One of the actions is for the districts to consider hosting Equity Expo to
engage community and learning more about local resources and services. I'm pleased to say that
here in district four this has been a tradition for now the third year. Our third annual equity
and empowerment expo just took place last week and I have to say that this was one of our best
yet ever. The expo advanced Caltrans commitment to equity in health and economic mobility by
creating comprehensive community engagement events designed to expand access to resources,
information and services.
The event connects community members,
including Caltrans employees, to critical support
through cross-functional collaboration with partners
in the public, private, and non-profit sectors.
This year's Expo saw over 1,000 participants.
More than 40 partner organizations participated,
including health, financial, education,
regional and local services, Native American Center,
offering educational materials, referrals, and direct assistance to individuals and families.
I'm happy to report that there's so many similar efforts that are happening across our Caltrans district.
Next slide.
Before I conclude my update today, I want to share with the Commission a preview of the Big Sur reopening event happening tomorrow.
Tomorrow Caltrans will be joined by local elected representatives, residents, business owners, regional chamber of commerce, and our District 5 team to celebrate the reopening of this vital stretch of State Route 1 along the Big Sur coast.
Caltrans was able to officially reopen the route ahead of schedule this past February
after the nearly two-year closure brought about by the Regent's slide, cutting off
access to community members and visitors alike.
I'm proud to join Caltrans partners and my colleagues in District 5 in celebrating this
major accomplishment and the reconnection it brings to this beautiful part of our coast.
The innovations that has been implemented in the work
to fortify and strengthen this stretch of State Route 1
have set a new baseline for Caltrans response
to our state's challenging geography
and shifting climate realities.
And Caltrans, as always,
stands ready to serve people of California.
Next slide.
This concludes my updates
and I'm happy to take any questions.
Thank you so much, Director Altawanzi.
Any public comment?
no there was no request a comment on this item thank you okay thank you Justin any
comments or questions from dais senator Cortez it may have already been said
before I got here but I want to congratulate the director on her formal
confirmation by the California State Senate earlier in the week
congratulations thank you senator and congratulations we're really thrilled
So thank you. Um, Commissioner
Tiffany. Thank you, Madam
Chair. I just wanted to, uh,
second. Um what was just said
about the reopening of Highway
one and, um, hopefully it will
be for the last time we go
through this. Keep her fingers
enjoyed working with and his whole team. And by the way, they won Project of the Year last night at
the awards ceremony. So congratulations. Thank you. Any other comments or questions?
Great. Just one thing that kind of popped up is the Division of Mass Transportation.
So when was that discontinued and what prompted the reinstitution of that division?
Yeah, what really prompted it is the emphasis
that we are trying to put on transit and an Unreal.
With the reorganization that we are doing,
we are gonna be able to elevate that focus
and have like a consistent approach to it statewide.
We also wanted to make sure
that we are coordinating very closely
with a lot of our transit operators across the state.
And we see an opportunity for us to bridge some gaps
and help with communication and just ensuring
that we are looking at the statewide picture,
which sometimes can be missed
with all the regional different operators
and just helping to bridge those gaps together
and look at how we can truly make it multimodal
across the entire state.
Thank you, appreciate that.
And I think it was important to really expand on that
and to really highlight the partnership and collaboration
that you have with your partner agencies
as it relates to not just the highways,
but how you really utilize highways for other modal uses.
So thank you for including that in your update.
Thank you.
All right, moving along,
we have item 10,
FHWA California division administrator, Dog Hickox.
I think he's joining us virtually, correct?
Oh yes, there he is.
Hi Doug.
Please proceed.
Hi there, Chair.
I appreciate the time and thank you to all the commissioners
for giving us this opportunity to be with you today.
Yes, I would prefer to be in San Jose, but duty calls.
Had some things here at the desk to take care of.
On behalf of everyone
in the Federal Highway Administration's
California Division Office, I want to thank all of you
for helping us to keep America's roads safe.
As you know, America's 4.2 million mile network
of roads and bridges is owned and operated
by the states themselves.
In this case, California's highways and byways
belong to Caltrans.
But to help their important work,
we regularly help with technical and engineering support,
environmental analysis, and financial support.
The Federal Highway Administration has helped to advance
the $1.3 billion Otay Mesa East Port of Entry Project.
We are currently assisting with the $2.5 billion
seismic retrofit of the Golden Gate Bridge,
and we're providing endless technical expertise
to advance the Last Chance Grade Project
in Del Norte County.
Caltrans has been working on this incredible,
incredible engineering challenge for more than a decade.
And this month,
it will complete its final environmental impact report.
This is a major milestone on the path
of this badly needed tunnel
for the people of Northwest California.
The Federal Highway Administration is a key player
in a number of missions,
but none more important than eliminating roadway crashes and fatalities.
Over the last five years, California has seen entirely too many fatalities on
its roads, an average of more than 4,000 each of those years and nearly 17,000
serious injuries. These are big numbers,
but they get a lot clearer when you realize what they're telling us.
At least one person is seriously hurt or worse every 45 minutes on California
roads. It sounds bad, but as Secretary Omashakan said recently, road safety in
California is actually better now than it's been in several years. Roadway
departures are down. Speeding fatalities have been reduced by nearly 50%. Over the
last three years alone, Caltrans has reduced overall roadway fatalities and
crashes by 17% and pedestrian and motorcycle fatalities by nearly 20%. All
All total, that's nearly 1,000 lives saved each year.
That is no small feat.
Indeed, there are some communities in California
with less population than that,
but we cannot rest on these accomplishments
because our work is far from done.
Recently, we led a meeting
with California's Office of Traffic Safety,
as well as with the Federal Transit Administration,
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
and other federal counterparts
to take a look at what's working and how to do more of it.
We're exploring new ways to fund scientific research
into roadway improvements and the development
of new technologies to promote better vehicle safety,
more alert drivers, faster response times
from law enforcement and first responders,
as well as operational improvements
to make traffic jams less common.
We're also interested in developing newer,
more durable construction materials
to make highway work zones less common.
probably never eliminate the need for highway construction and repair, but we are always looking
for new ways to make such traffic interruptions less time-consuming and less frequent. I want to
thank Caltrans and its army of highway workers throughout the state for the important and often
thankless work that they do. Quite literally, no one in California can do what they need to do
without the help of these important highway workers. I also would like to thank the men and
women of the California Highway Patrol, as well as the state's thousands of tow truck operators
and first responders for participating in the Federal Highway Administration's Traffic Incident
Management Training Program. This important course teaches those who often are the most
vulnerable people on the road when arriving on the scene of a crash how to stay safe.
Now in its 14th year, our Traffic Incident Management Program has trained nearly 1 million
people nationwide and more than 34,000 here in California and several hundred this year alone.
It's been an unqualified success. In addition to a wide range of safety improvement efforts,
Federal Highway Administration's California Division has overseen the timely use of more
than $2.6 billion in federal highway funds this year alone so far with $3.6 billion expected by
end of September. Additionally, $7 billion in additional investments have been made possible
with more than a dozen specialized grant programs. About two hours ago, the Federal Highway
Administration posted its amended Notice of Funding Opportunity, or NOFO, for the bridge
investment program. This will make an additional $3 billion available to large bridge projects
nationwide. In coming weeks, we anticipate more than a dozen other notices of funding
opportunities to help communities throughout California and around the nation to improve
their roads and keep people safe. Our partnership with Caltrans is a strong one, and it's working.
In support of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's Freedom to Drive initiative,
we're working closely with Caltrans to identify and improve critical traffic choke points
throughout the state, including, among others, I-80 in Yolo County, the I-10 in and out of the
of the Inland Empire east of LA,
and Mission Boulevard right there in San Jose.
Late last month, Caltrans led a very important
peer exchange on the expanded use of roundabouts
throughout the state.
We participated because we believe that roundabouts
are one of the most important
and most effective safety tools on the road today.
Improving intersection safety is critical
to the goal of enhancing roadway safety
and showing local agencies just how effective they can be
an ongoing need and an undeniable value. We're also working closely with Caltrans,
particularly District 7 in the Los Angeles area, to increase preparations for the Los Angeles
Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2028. We're especially thankful for the increased scrutiny
being given to Los Angeles area airspace leases as they relate to the security and safety
of the 200 mile long games route network that will support athletes, coaches, families, media,
government officials and fans from all over the world. The logistics of making these Olympic
and Paralympic Games safe, secure and efficient is absolutely incredible. We're heading in the right
direction and everyone involved, including District 7, the city and county of Los Angeles,
the Federal Transit Administration, the Maritime Administration, local and regional law enforcement
and so many others, we have one chance to get it right and Caltrans deserves a gold medal for
the work they're doing to help. Before I go, I want to thank California's 28 million drivers
for keeping each other safe. We all want to get home safely and we depend on each other to keep
the road safe. There is always a surge of Memorial Day weekend travel and California feels that surge
more than most. Please drive carefully and look out for pedestrians and cyclists. It's their road
too. Working together with Caltrans, CalSTAA, and with this Commission, the Federal Highway
Administration looks forward to continued success in ensuring there are safer roads and cities,
in rural communities, and on tribal lands. Everyone deserves to get home safely,
and with your help, they will. Thank you for your time.
Thank you, Mr. Hickox. Any public comment?
There was no request to comment on the item. Thank you.
Okay. Any questions or comments from the dais? Okay. Thank you for your update, Mr. Hickox. And
I wanted to point out an appreciation for bringing up Otay Mesa East, a port of entry
and the continued investment in that project. It's, as you know, a very complex project that
is involving two countries and three governments, including Baja California,
state of California, and the regional government, SANDAG. So it's been many decades in the make-in,
so we appreciate your continued partnership, particularly in that project, but all projects
that you mentioned in your update. See you at the ribbon cutting.
indeed. Thank you. Okay. Um, next item is tab 11 regional agencies moderator.
Louis Shaw.
All right. Good afternoon, chair. Falcon, vice chair, Cruz, deputy executive director,
Goldszewski center Cortez Cortez, uh, director else, ones, the secretary of Michigan and
commissioners. My name is loose job with the orange county transportation authority. And I'm
serving as this year's R.T.P.A. moderator. The R.T.P.A.'s met yesterday at San Jose and would like
to extend sincere appreciation to Marcella Renzi from APTA and Jessica Zink and Lorraine Soto
from the city of San Jose for hosting and accommodating a group. I have a brief update
today that will highlight two key items discussed by the regions. As you heard earlier, first we
received an update from Keith Duncan at Caltrans on the state budget. A major topic of discussion
was a potential impacts of changes to cap and invest which funds greenhouse gas reduction
of fund. As the commission knows the GGRF is a critical fund source for new for several major
transportation programs including the transit intercity rail capital program and the low carbon
transit operations program. These programs are considered lower tiers within the GGRF framework
and are not guaranteed funding. As a result of the structural changes the GGRF we could see
significant reductions or potential eliminations of these fund sources over the next few years.
This would have substantial impacts statewide, including reduced capital investments in transit,
diminished support for fair reduction programs, and constraints on bus and rail operations.
The regions are very concerned that this could result in delayed or canceled projects and
place additional strain on already financially challenged transit operators.
The regions will also be closely tracking
the California Air Resources Board rulemaking process
and monitor potential impacts for our programs
and projects as the changes evolve.
As Director Elsuwandze mentioned,
we also received an update on the organizational changes
within Caltrans, specifically the creation
of the vision of rail mass transit, or mass transportation,
sorry, and this is important because it supports
both bus and rail.
The RTPA's are very supportive of this effort
reflects a stronger, more focused commitment to advancing transit planning and implementation
across California. We also want to acknowledge that this is not a small undertaking. Caltrans
engaged extensively with the regional partners and local agencies throughout this process and
we are appreciative of the leadership of Director Altawansi, Marlin Floranoi, D-LAM and Angel Powell
ensuring that the region's perspectives were heard and incorporated. This is the type of
collaboration that's essential to successfully advancing state share advancing shared state and
regional goals. And that concludes my remarks. I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Thank you, Lewis. Any public comment? There was no request to comment on this item.
Okay, any comments or questions from the dais? Okay, thank you for your update.
Okay, next tab. Tab 12, rural counties task force chair. Aaron Hoyt joining us virtually. Hi, Aaron.
Good afternoon. Let me see if I can get my video working. There we go.
Good afternoon, Chair Falcone, Vice Chair Cruz, Commissioners, Senator Cortese,
Secretary Omashak and Director L. Tawansi, and Chief Deputy Director of Olizewski.
My name is Aaron Hoyt. I'm the Chair for the Rural Counties Task Force and Deputy Executive
Director for the Nevada County Transportation Commission. The RCTF met with Caltrans and our
CTC staff partners on May 8th, we heard a number of informative updates on bills that are going
through the legislature, staffing changes at the Office of Federal Programming, the SB1 competitive
program, guidelines updates, and the creation of the Division of Mass Transportation that we heard
about today, and also the upcoming coordination efforts on SB1121's statewide local and
transportation needs assessment. We also received a presentation on the 2027 Inter-Regional
Transportation Strategic Plan update from Gustavo Alfaro and Florina Feliciano. I'd like to thank
both Gustavo and Florina for making efforts to present to the RCTF on this update. The Inter-Regional
Transportation Strategic Plan guides investments of the Inter-Regional Transportation Improvement
program that is a critical funding source for rural regions and their highways that produce
and serve as goods to market routes and facilitate in regional travel. And since 60 percent of the
inter-regional transportation improvement program funds must be invested in state highways
and 15 percent on interstate rail projects outside of large urban areas, we're heavily invested in
this update. Although this will not be a comprehensive update at this time as we understand,
the RCTF members did discuss some concerns they have with Caltrans staff regarding the relatively
compressed timelines to complete the update. And we did request additional coordination efforts to
discuss the proposed refinements to the Inter-Regional Transportation Improvement Program evaluation
criteria that is proposed to include the Caltrans system investment strategies for planning and
prioritization of projects. Back in 2022, after months of discussion, the region's Caltrans and
CTC staff came to agreement on a criteria to evaluate inter-regional highway and intercity
rail project nominations, which at that time aligned with the climate action plan for
transportation infrastructure. It's our opinion that the same level of effort should be invested
and the proposed refinements as they were in 2022. Since our May 8th meeting, Caltrans ITSP staff has
graciously reached out to us to set up another meeting to build mutual understanding of the
process, discussing the concerns we have, and also find opportunities to enhance the coordination
with the regions in the 2027 inter-regional transportation strategic plan update.
While we're concerned, we know when we work together collaboratively we can find common ground
that meets a statutory intent, the state's goals and visions, and the needs of inter-regional
infrastructure projects. In closing, the RCTF is always appreciative of our Caltrans and CTC
partners engaging with us and we look forward to more of the same. Thank you for the opportunity
to speak today. Thank you, Erin, for your update. Any public comment, Justin? There was no request
questions. I think we have one
comment on the item. Okay,
thank you. Any comments or
questions from the dais? Okay I
think it's time for a break.
But before we do so, I wanted
to do one quick acknowledgement
that I failed to do during my
update is the reappointment of
Commissioner Jay Bradshaw and
hoping went through the appointment process and to the Senate and and and is now confirmed so I
just wanted to congratulate the both of you thank you chair and with that let's take a 15 minute break
all right everyone we are going to get started again if I can have all the commissioners join
us at the dais hurting cats huh yes I was gonna call her out all right everyone
let's get comfortable all right we are now on tab 14 equity initiatives update
with miss Erasmus madam chair if you could just say for the record tab 13 was
removed yes for the record tab 13 the self-help counties coalition update was
removed from the agenda and we are now on to tab 14 Sequoia great thank you
right good afternoon commissioners item 1.13 is an informational item providing
update on commission equity initiatives and the interagency equity advisory
committee meetings that happened this week. Following my remarks today we did
have equity advisory committee member Florence Simon however we will be
rescheduling her for a meeting in the future so you will just receive updates
from me today. So thank you to those of you who were able to attend or support
the business and executive meetings of the committee yesterday. Committee
members enjoyed participating in a workshop and walking tour focused on
complete streets infrastructure and held engaged in lively discussions during
presentations focused on the California integrated travel project and the
California Department of Aging's master plan for aging report. The next business
meeting of the committee will be held on August 19th in San Diego. All three ad hoc subcommittees,
the data implementation, transportation planning and program guidance and community engagement
policies and practices met independently in April and will continue meeting virtually
through June on items related to the interagency work plan. So now I will take a moment to
highlight several ways that the Equity Advisory Committee has been actively
advising commission work since our last update in March. First on the vehicle
weight safety study, the committee reviewed the draft report in March and
provided substantive feedback on topics including impacts on disabled
individuals and disadvantaged communities, pedestrian safety and
electric vehicle considerations. That feedback is reflected in the final
report under item 17. The report's legislative considerations reflect
feedback from the transportation planning and program guidance
subcommittee on the potential benefits of a non-occupant motor vehicle safety
assessment. Second, on SB1 cycle 5 guidelines, committee members have been
actively providing recommendations on equity and community engagement policies
that will shape how approximately 1.5 billion dollars in funding is awarded
across rail, transit, highway, active transportation, and freight programs. Third
on the AB 194 tolling guidelines we will be recruiting subject matter experts
from the committee to provide input as we update our tolling guidelines through
a series of workshops with targeted adoption soon. And finally the zero
emissions vehicle or Zav equity action plan that's being developed by GO-BES.
Staff are coordinating a presentation from GO-BES which happened in to the
full committee in March and members will have an opportunity to provide
feedback via subcommittee coming up soon as when the public process public
comment process opens for that report. So that concludes my remarks. Please let me
know if you have any questions and I appreciate your time. Thank you, Sequoia. Any public comment?
There was no request to comment on the item. Okay, any comments from the dais? Commissioner
Tiffin. Thank you, Madam Chair. As was just mentioned by Sequoia yesterday, a few of us
where I'll be able to attend the Equity Advisory Committee Executive Meeting.
Sheriff Hakone, Commissioner Brown-Heidzen, myself.
And we had a very informative presentation on dealing with California aging population.
Which, by the way, I understand that this is Older Californians Month.
So yeah, so that's, here we are, older Californians, so.
We need to define what older Californians.
Yeah, right, I'm not sure how they're defined.
But Avrey had a very interesting presentation,
but I particularly wanted to focus in on a,
really what I think was an eye-opening presentation.
And I think all of us in the room felt this way
from Jillian Gillette who's the manager of California Integrated Mobility Program with
CalSTA. And she's part of that in working with California Integrated Travel Project.
got into this discussion and presentation on transit
and how fares are paid throughout the state of California
with transit.
And it's not something that we would normally think about,
but the reality is until fairly recently,
every transit agency throughout the state,
and there are hundreds of them,
have a different system for how to pay transit.
And most of them involve cash.
Some involve something like the clipper card
that you have to get ahead of time.
Thankfully, now the Bay Area is transitioning
where you can use a clipper card,
but you can also use what 90% plus people actually use,
which is a credit card or a debit card.
The point that they were, that Jillian was making
is that you don't think about these things,
but when 90% of the population pays
in a way that is different than paying with cash,
it's a barrier to using transit.
And in this day and age,
when all transit systems are challenged
with getting their ridership up.
This is just one item that is a critical area
that we need to address.
So ultimately, we need to see, you
can pay one way throughout the entire state on all transit
systems, and hopefully it will all
be integrated, which will allow more people to actually ride
and use transit.
It also will help people that are in lower income areas.
And there's a number of ways that we're addressing that
for both lower income as well as people that have disabilities.
And the point I wanted to, I guess, make
is that, number one, not only would it increase ridership,
but it would bring great cost efficiencies
to the transit system.
And there was just one example given
that kind of blew us all away, which was
the fare boxes that you see in most buses,
they cost as much as $25,000, let's say for every fare box.
And yet one of these simple systems
that we all see in grocery stores and what have you,
which you just pay with your,
you tap with your credit card,
those costs about $1,000.
So when you're talking about a huge transit system
throughout the state,
these are real cost savings, cost efficiencies.
Jillian was just using, this is just one example,
and, but I think the greater point is,
is that when we as a state are struggling
have enough revenue to cover all of the transportation projects that we need and want to get done
in our state. It's really critical that Caltrans and all of our transportation partners
are as cost-efficient, cost-effective as possible. And this is just one example that I would like
to see us move forward with in other areas with the state. So I just wanted to, you know, call that
out and again mention that it was a really spectacular presentation we heard yesterday
and I look forward to hearing more about this going forward. Thank you. Great recap. Thank you
Commissioner Tiffany. Any other comments? Okay great. It did generate quite a bit of discussion
at the EAC amongst the members of the EAC, as well as with commissioners. And it sounds like
there will be more to come on this issue as well as the master plan for planning for our aged
Californians. The fastest growing population in the United States is our folks by 2030, I think,
I think the statistic is I think one in five adults will be over 65 by 2030, and I think
it's 25% of our population in the state.
And so how do we prepare for this growing population in mobility as well as how we pay
for our transit and ensuring that it is accessible for not only our aged Californians but those
with mobility challenges. So it was a really robust conversation, a lot of productivity
coming from the EAC and so I wanted to uplift all of the work that you are all doing at
the EAC and as you know especially with our guidelines and in our project review
appreciate always the work that the EAC is doing in their partnership. Okay with
that next item tab 15 state and federal legislative matters Justin Varence great
afternoon commissioners tab 15 is the report on state and federal legislative
matters. The deadline for bills to pass the policy committees in the first house
was in April and the appropriations committees met today ahead of their
deadline tomorrow. The deadline for bills to advance out of their House of
Origin is May 29th. After the House of Origin deadline policy committees will
resume in the second house in June. The book item attachment includes 30 active
bills that staff are actively tracking pursuant to the Commission's bill
monitoring policy and staff is not recommending any positions on bills at
time. Next meeting's list will reflect actions taken at the appropriations and
house of origin deadlines and then in the meantime staff continues to meet
with bill authors and stakeholders to provide technical assistance. As was
discussed earlier today the governor released his revised budget proposal for
fiscal year 2026-27 and while there are no major proposals related to commission
programs the revised budget does include resources for the Commission to convert
one loaded term position to permanent to support ongoing development of the state
local transportation system needs assessment pursuant to SB 1121. Budget committees will
convene next week to hear proposals from the May revision and the legislature must approve a budget
before June 15th to take effect at the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1st. That June 15th
deadline is before the next commission meeting and staff will provide an update on the budget at
that time, although in recent years negotiations between the administration and the legislature
have continued past that date before arriving at a final budget.
Lastly, on federal legislation, Congress has not begun hearings on a proposal
for a federal surface transportation reauthorization bill,
and it is now expected that a short-term extension will be required ahead of the
expiration of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
in September. And that concludes my report.
Thank you, Justin. Any public comment? There was no request to comment on this
item. Okay, thank you. Any questions or comments
from the dais. Okay. Thank you. Yes, Commissioner either. I know we haven't had a chance, Justin,
to go through and really look at the May revise, but in just glancing over it, I didn't see any
transportation cuts proposed. Is that correct? That's correct. No, no major cuts or increases in
the programs that the commission oversees. Thank you. Thank you, Justin. Okay. That
to you on tab 16 budget and allocation capacity. Yes tab 16 is an informational item and Keith
Duncan from Caltrans budgets will present the update on budget and allocation capacity. Welcome
Keith. I think that word there we go. Madam Chair, commissioners good afternoon, happy Thursday.
As mentioned Keith Duncan Caltrans budgets and I'll be presenting tab 16 the budget allocation
capacity update. Next slide please. As noted in your agenda materials and the slide before you.
through March. The commission is net allocated about $5.1 billion onto 667 projects across all programs within your purview.
That represents about 45% allocated through the first three quarters that leaves about $6.2 billion left to be allocated over the next two meetings or potentially carry over to next fiscal year.
Next slide, please.
I next to provide a brief update regarding departmental activities related to the G 12. As we know, G 12 is the delegated authority by the Commission to the department to make minor adjustments to previous allocations approved by the commission.
In total, the department has made adjustments to 224 projects that resulted in a net savings of around $600 million specific that's on your slide we just want to highlight specific for the shop.
shop, the state highway operation protection program. We have made adjustments to 219 projects
worth a total value of 4.5 billion dollars and that resulted in a net savings of about 573 million
dollars. We know we're in the middle of a shop allocation plan that net savings returns back to
the shop so that reduces some of the fiscal pressures we continue to see within the shop.
Helps to reduce the fiscal pressures. Next slide please. Here just showing how the current year
compares to the prior three fiscal years, the unit of measure for this slide is percent allocated.
The current year is represented by the reddish orange line there on the top. You can see
this year continues to trend much higher than the prior fiscal years. Next slide, please.
This slide, the unit of measure is total dollars allocated. And you can see we're a little below
the highs from two years ago, but a little bit above the prior two years as well. So from a total
allocation perspective, we're seeing that angle go down a little bit. We want it to
go up a little more so we get more funds allocated. Next slide please. Here just showing a quick
summary across the percent allocated across all programs. From a fiscal perspective, there's
two items you just want to raise awareness for when it comes to looking at the amount
of funds that have not been allocated. One item we look from a budgetary perspective
is what funds could be at risk of being lost or rescinded. As we've seen over the last
few years has been instances where on the state general fund revenue shortfall some general fund
was pulled back we also saw a few years ago where the federal covid relief act funds were rescinded
so we want to try to monitor those fund types to see if there's any risks at this point in time
there's no funds that are we're aware of have any risk of being lost so that's a good thing and to
kind of piggyback off commissioner eager question just a few minutes ago no proposed reductions
at least included in the mayor rebuy. So that's good news there. The other item is time is money.
We still have over 6 billion dollars that we can allocate. These are program projects. The later
they come in, the higher costs they can be. So trying to monitor the fiscal impacts as projects
may continue to be coming in a little later than buoyant. Next slide please. A couple additional
budgetary and fiscal updates. A standing item for the federal funds, our formula funds through the
Federal Highway Administration continue to flow through California uninterrupted. We're able to
allocate, obligate, bill for reimbursement and the feds are continuing to pay us back. So that
is great news in that regards there. And as Acting California Administrator Doug Hickox just mentioned,
we're starting to see some discretionary funds break free. We only have a few more months left
of year five of the Infrastructure Investment Jobs Act. So we expect a lot to be flowing in
in a quick timeframe, so we are preparing to see what comes out, to see what we can
apply for, so we can try to maximize how much funds California can receive.
The other item, the fund penalty, United States Department of Transportation Federal Motor
Carrier Safety Administration, the notice that we received back in January of a potential
penalty as a result of the issuance of commercial driver's licenses, a finding by the feds.
continue to not receive any new information, any new updates, so for now silence, we don't know if
that's good or bad. The good thing is that the penalty won't be assessed until next year if it
truly does take effect, so we'll continue to monitor and keep you updated on that.
Shop allocation plan update, bid savings, we continue to see a large amount of bid savings,
as mentioned in the prior slides, roughly $570 million of net savings, so that helps to use some
some of the fiscal pressures, and the allocations for the SHOP program that are within the agenda
over the next two days are consistent with the allocation plan criteria that we presented
to you earlier in the year.
And lastly, for the Mayor Bebios, I think Secretary Omashak can already cover those
items and will continue to monitor.
I know Senator Kitezi, the rest of the Senate of the Assembly will be rushing over the next
month to evaluate the budget and come to final negotiations.
Next slide, please.
Looking ahead, for the month of June, obviously with the budget anticipated to be approved
by the legislature, as Justin mentioned, between commission staff and Caltrans will provide
you an update at the June meeting.
And also at the June meeting, we'll provide you the draft 26-27 allocation capacity, and
that's your new numbers that we'll be able to allocate for this upcoming fiscal year.
And much of those numbers will be based on the approved budget at that point in time.
to July. July 1st is the annual inflation to fuel excise taxes. I'll move on quickly.
And in August, we will present the final 2627 allocation capacity numbers. So we know how
much we'll have to allocate for the upcoming year. Next slide. No cliff pictures, but another
picture just from if you enjoy heights. But again, we want to thank CTC staff, financial
programming, as well as our Caltrans budgets team. It's always a team effort when it comes
to managing the billions. And I'm available for any questions you may have.
Thank you, Keith. Any public comment?
We do not receive any requested comment.
Okay, and we do have a speaker in the room, Mitch Weiss.
Mitch Weiss with Corey Consulting. We represent many of the RTPA's and MPO's primarily in
the Central Coast and Central Valley. We want to express our concern about the carved rulemaking
that was mentioned previously, and the tremendous detrimental impact that we'll have on program
capacity and future allocation capacity.
Based on CARB's estimate, if it comes to fruition, there will be no money for future
funding of the transit area capital program.
There will be no money for future funding of the low carbon transit operation program.
the Secretary mentioned cycle eight,
that's gonna be a pretty small cycle
of the Transit and Inter-Serial Capital Program,
if its main funding source is taken away
and will potentially impact
not just this program capacity,
but the allocation capacity,
and hopefully no detrimental impact
on your ability and the state's ability
to continue funding things that are allocated.
We have clients that rely on this funding
to fund the operation of their transit system.
And on one hand, the state is asking us to increase transit,
increase rail operations, reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
but here they're looking at taking
our biggest funding sources to do that away.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mitch.
We're all waiting with bated breath on the rulemaking.
Any comments, questions from the dais?
Yes.
Commissioner Tiffany.
Thank you, Chair.
I'm not sure if this is the right question,
if I should be directing this question to you, Keith,
but I'm curious, you mentioned, talked about the,
the bids are coming in under
and there's quite a bit of savings we're seeing.
Is that, is there a pattern going on here?
We're starting to see an environment, a bid environment,
which we're, where they're,
We're expecting to see more savings as we go forward,
or is it just kind of a blip?
I'm just curious.
Not really sure, just current market conditions,
but we know usually at the end of each fiscal year,
we work with our division of engineering services
and evaluates how the bidding environment was
for that prior fiscal year.
So we'll see what they may find out,
see if there's any specific products,
any particular driver for that.
And we can definitely report back to you at a future meeting.
Okay, great.
I mean, obviously we don't have enough revenue as it is,
so it's great to see cost savings
as I was talking about earlier.
So good job, thank you.
The team, thank you.
No.
Any other questions or comments?
Okay, thank you, Keith.
Right, tab 17, final vehicle weight safety study report
to the legislature, Bridget.
thanks chair Falcon commissioners tab 17 is an action item to consider the
approval of the final vehicle weight safety study report to the legislature
which is included with the staff report as attachment B staff prepared the
vehicle weight safety study report pursuant to assembly bill 251 which
requires the Commission to convene a task force to study the relationship
between vehicle weight and injuries to vulnerable road users such as
pedestrians and bicyclists, and degradation to roads, and to study the
costs and benefits of imposing a passenger vehicle weight fee. The
Commission is required to submit a report to the legislature summarizing
its findings and any legislative recommendations. The Vehicle Weight
Safety Study report was developed with input from academic research by the UC
Berkeley research team, the Vehicle Weight Safety Study task force, and feedback
from members of the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee, stakeholders, and members of the
public. A draft version of the report was circulated for public comment from March 2
to April 1. During the public comment period, staff presented the draft report at the March
Commission meeting, the March EAC meeting, as well as via a standalone workshop. We received
nine letters during the public comment period and we've compiled those as
attachment C to the staff report. We've also included a comment received on the
item after the posting of the meeting materials. So I'd like to take a moment
to summarize the feedback that we received. Commenters provided a variety
of opinions on whether the Commission should recommend the legislature
implement a weight-based fee for passenger vehicles including opposition,
neutrality and support. Additionally, commenters provided varied opinions on
how to structure a hypothetical fee. Some commenters supported a one-time fee
structure, which would be more likely to incentivize the purchase of smaller
vehicles, while others objected to the impact on vehicle affordability. Next,
several commenters highlighted the revenue generation potential of a
of vehicle weight-based fee,
as well as the need for increased funding
to support transportation safety projects.
And lastly, several commenters requested greater emphasis
on the potential safety impacts of larger
and heavier vehicles on other road users,
including vulnerable road users.
Staff made edits throughout the report
in response to feedback received,
and those additions and changes are shown
in bold text and yellow highlights.
So next I'd like to summarize the key changes
that we made between the draft and final report
in response to feedback.
Staff has further emphasized the significant need
to increase funding for roadway safety infrastructure
along with complementary education
and encouragement efforts within the broader conversation
about establishing a sustainable
long-term transportation funding mechanism.
The final report further emphasizes
that road fatalities and serious injuries
are increasing in California, particularly for pedestrians,
and that some other academic studies
have found a potential relationship
between growing vehicle size and negative safety outcomes
for vulnerable road users.
We have articulated feedback from the March business meeting
of the Interagency Equity Advisory Committee.
While much of this feedback was determined
to be beyond the statutory scope
of the Vehicle Weight Safety Study,
These important considerations have been included
for the legislature's awareness
and to inform future related efforts.
And lastly, we've stated more explicitly the need
for continued coordination between the state of California
and the federal government,
particularly the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration to improve safety outcomes
for vulnerable road users.
Staff recommends you approve the final vehicle weight
safety study report and direct staff to submit the report
to the legislature, and that concludes my presentation.
Thank you.
Thank you, Bridget.
Any public comment?
There was no request to comment on the item.
OK.
A lot of work has gone through to get this study completed.
Any questions, comments, or motion from the dais?
This is an action item.
Second.
OK, thank you.
Motion made by Commissioner Eger, second by, OK.
we have a comment from our
chief deputy commissioners. I
neglected in my earlier report
to recognize Bridget's efforts
in producing this final study
for the legislature is, you
know, Kayla McDonald had been
our staff lead on this report
and she left us a few months
ago for a promotion at the
Office of Traffic Safety and
Bridget stepped in and got up
of just wanting to acknowledge her. Great, thank you. All right, we have a motion and a second on the floor. All in favor? Any no's, abstentions? Okay, that passes. Thank you. All right, tab 18, innovations in transportation. Lalo. Thank you, Chair. Commissioners, top 18 is an informational item for our Standing Innovation in Transportation series.
Mufado Ezi, Senior Director of Public Affairs and State and Local Government Relations and Aurora,
will provide a presentation titled,
Autonomous Trucking, Lessons Learned for Safety and Supply Chain Efficiency.
As Secretary Omishakim mentioned earlier in his update,
last month, DMV adopted new autonomous vehicle regulations following a year-long rulemaking process.
Under the updated regulations,
autonomous vehicle manufacturers may now apply for permits
to test and deploy autonomous vehicle technology
on California roadways.
While autonomous trucking in California
is still in the developmental stage,
companies such as Aurora have already conducted pilot
and early commercial operations in other states.
So this presentation will provide timely lessons learned
from early deployments in other states
and help guide future implementation considerations
in California.
With that, I'll turn it over to Mufado for his presentation.
When it's read, it's on.
Okay, I thought when it was read, it was off.
My apologies.
Thank you so much, Madam Chair and Laleh
and all the commissioners for the opportunity
to present today.
Such an esteemed group.
I've been here all afternoon listening
to the really important conversations
in the work that's been happening.
So to have a little time on the agenda
is truly an honor for me.
Again, I'm Mufato Lizzi, I'm senior director
of state and local government relations
and public affairs at Aurora.
We're an autonomous vehicle technology company
working to deliver the benefits
of self-driving technology safely, quickly, and broadly.
We're north of about 1,800 employees throughout the U.S.
with a significant footprint here in California.
I've personally been working in this industry
for about 10 years, and prior to that,
staffer in the California State Senate for about 10 years.
And so it's a wonderful opportunity
to be here with our government partners
and engage in this discussion today.
For me, this is personal.
I personally was involved in a really bad car wreck
some years ago, got really, really close to not being here
and being able to do this presentation for you.
So safety on our roads is personal for me
and the work that we do every day at Aurora
is really important in that context.
I like to just drill down on our mission,
if we can go to the next slide.
The way our mission is structured here safely, quickly,
and broadly, and I just focus on that
for a second because what we're doing here
in terms of developing autonomous vehicle technology,
which I'll talk about in just a second,
is certainly urgent, and so we're working quickly
to try to bring the benefits of this technology
to the world as soon as we can.
We wanna do it broadly because we believe
there's a value for autonomy
across the transportation ecosystem,
but never at the expense of safety.
And so safely is the first word in our mission,
and everything else sort of follows from there.
Let's go to the next slide.
So this is another really important conceptual framework
that I'd like to share with you here just a little bit,
which is produced by the Society of Automotive Engineers
and their taxonomy for how you think about
the various levels of automation.
Today, when you go to a car dealership
and you purchase a vehicle that has some sort of a feature
in it that allows the vehicle to drive,
typically that's sort of between zero and three
on this particular taxonomy.
So the level of automation again
is somewhere between zero and three.
And if you look at the icons at the top,
the expectation is that you and the vehicle
are expected to be in the driver's seat and able
and capable of taking control at any point.
And so that's sort of what you can buy today
in the commercial market.
You go to a dealer and you buy it.
And so that's typically referred to as
advanced driver assist or ADAS.
Where we're working is on the other side of the spectrum,
which is on level four and level five technology,
which is referred to as ADS or automated driving system.
and we're working specifically in level four technology,
which means that when the vehicle is engaged
in the dynamic driving task,
there's no expectation that there's a human behind the wheel
ready and able to take control of the vehicle.
And we're experiencing that in some contexts
here in California, but in other parts of the country as well,
which I'll talk about in just a minute.
Level five automation is essentially a vehicle
that can drive itself with nobody in the front seat capable
or needing to take control of the vehicle
under any circumstance and that's a little aspirational right now so the level, the difference between level four and level five is that level four is constrained by what we call an operational design domain so it can perform the entire driving task without a human operator
in the wheel expected to take control under a certain set of conditions for example weather conditions, speed limits, certain types of roads, etc. So the bulk of kind of what we're seeing with Aurora but also other innovators in the space is sort of in the level four space.
Let's go to the next slide.
So how does the Aurora driver perceive the world around it
and sense?
So we have a really robust sensor suite that includes radar,
that includes LIDAR, that includes camera,
that includes microphones as well.
And so all of these pieces really come together
to help the Aurora driver see the world around it,
process everything that it's seeing,
and then take actions accordingly
to engage in safe operations on the road.
What's really exciting about this is that we at Aurora
have a proprietary LIDAR that's called FMCW LIDAR,
which I'll talk about in just a second,
that allows us to see significantly further
than other LIDAR, but also what humans can typically see.
So with our next generation LIDAR,
which I'll share in just a second,
we're actually able to detect certain objects on the road
and certain movements 34 seconds prior to an encounter,
which gives a vehicle significant amount of reaction time.
And so a lot of these are certainly built into the truck
and then roll off the assembly line with our partners
like PackR and Peterbilt Trucks, Volvo,
and a variety of others that we're working with.
So we can go to the next slide.
I figured it'd slow down a bit.
Oh, am I going too fast?
Okay, let's go to the next slide.
So here's our first light LIDAR provides
more than 34 seconds of planning horizon.
If you look at kind of our earlier generations of technology,
we were able to see about 400 meters out from the truck,
but with our next generation technology,
we're able to see about 1,000 meters out.
So that's a significant benefit in terms of safety.
I'll give you some examples in just a second
that will help you understand
how this actually works in practice.
Let's go to the next slide.
So this is actually our website, aurora.tech slash capabilities.
So you can actually go to our website today
and you can go to that URL there
and actually watch some of these videos,
being mindful of the time.
We didn't wanna show the videos here,
but figure that you could follow up afterwards
and take a look.
So the video on the left is First Light Lidar
detecting a pedestrian at night.
So if you look at the image on the top,
you can't really see the pedestrian 350 meters away
with the naked eye, but it's able to do that below.
There's a stopped vehicle
and the pedestrian is standing right next to it
and the lidar is picking it up pretty significantly far away,
allowing the vehicle to react safely.
The next one is emergency vehicles.
You're kind of seeing the top.
It's a little bit difficult to see with the naked eye
that there's a vehicle, but as you go down further,
the aurora lidar is actually picking up the fact
that there is an emergency vehicle approaching
and begins to yield to it.
Similarly, a construction zone here as well.
Three football fields away,
it can detect a construction worker
that's protruding out a little bit from those cones
and able to safely navigate around them.
So this is something that we hope you'll take a moment
to look at in your own time and experience
and we're certainly happy to answer any questions as well.
And then we can go to the next slide.
So these are some of the industry pain points
that we're working to tackle.
High driver turnover and trying to provide
a scalable, stable driver supply.
Hours of service limitations,
which puts some limitations on customers' ability
to utilize their vehicles
and continue to serve various consumers out there.
The fuel costs are really high,
and I'm gonna talk about this in just a little bit,
which is the way that these vehicles drive,
you can actually realize up to a 32% fuel
and emissions reduction,
just by the way that these vehicles drive,
and then insurance costs related to safety.
So the operation of these vehicles is significantly safer,
which reduces the types of carnage that we see on our roads
and thus brings our insurance costs down too.
So we can go to the next slide.
So this is really interesting.
Aurora commissioned a study with the steer group
who went out and looked at sort of what does this all look
like over the course of a number of years.
And as we look to 2035, we believe that self-driving freight
could generate $9.4 billion in safety benefits per year
on US highways, $9 billion in additional purchasing power
for US households in 2035.
And frankly, one of the questions we get is,
what happens to the human drivers?
A very appropriate, legitimate question.
And the way the economics work out for us,
and if you look at the size of the trucking market
and how significant it is,
how the demands that exist, the shortages that exist,
we believe that we're able to come in
and pick up some slack in the overall sort of pie
of trucking business, if you will,
and add capacity and compliment our human driving workforce.
And so we don't believe that autonomous trucks
are gonna come in and just replace a lot of human drivers.
If you look at the rate
with which people are entering the profession,
exiting the profession, the demand that's growing
and where some of the pain points are,
particularly on the really long haul routes
that are really tough to staff
where we can come in and add some value,
that's where we believe sort of the sweet spot is.
And we believe that the future
is gonna be a very sort of complimentary type future
where you have autonomous driven trucks
and you have human driven trucks
sort of operating side-by-side
and picking up different parts of the trucking ecosystem
to deliver value for customers.
So let's go to the next slide.
We are autonomously hauling freight today
across three states.
And I should note that the reason California
is blanked out there was
because when we submitted these slides,
the DMV had not completed its regulations yet.
And so the DMV has since completed its regulations.
And so California is certainly on the map for us as well.
And what we've found is with several customers
for whom we're hauling freight across 12 lanes
between Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona,
and Texas and Oklahoma,
that we're able to achieve a nearly 100% on-time performance,
a safety record where we have zero incidents,
where the Aurora driver was at fault.
We've traveled 250,000 miles since we first went
in the driverless operations last year
where those numbers are standing up.
So we're really excited about that
in addition to what we believe
to be significant economic benefits
that are gonna create opportunities
throughout the transportation ecosystem
as we begin to help increase safety
and the throughput of freight throughout the ecosystem.
And then we can just go to the final slide here.
which is, we've actually gone out and made the Aurora driver
live. And so if anybody's interested in seeing the Aurora
driver doing its thing out there on Texas roads between Dallas and
Houston, you can tune in on YouTube between 8am and 5pm
Central Time at that link there. And you can literally watch the
Aurora driver doing its thing on roads on the I 45 specifically
between Dallas and Houston and get a feel for how all of this
works. We are excited about the updates in California and the regulatory path
that now allows us to do what we call crawl walk run in California, which is
bring in some vehicles pursuant to the new rules, start to map, start to test and
then eventually build out a network. And so it is like we refer to it as crawl
walk run internally within the company, but also in our vernacular is that you
know we don't just come in and drop a bunch of vehicles out in the community
on a highway. Level four technology requires us to first come in, do some mapping with a few
vehicles, validate the routes, and then sort of slowly scale over time. So we look forward to
working with all the stakeholders and the regulatory bodies. We're thankful for the Newsome
Administration, Caltrans, DMV, CalSTA, CHP, all the other stakeholders that have been involved
Dennis to get us to this point and I'm happy to answer any questions.
Thank you so much for the presentation. Any public comment?
No, there was no request to comment on this item. Thank you.
Okay. Any questions or comments? Yes, Senator Cortezi.
Lots of questions, but just a couple that are top of mind right now. In your experience
in Texas in terms of actual deployment are the I'm gonna go ahead and for
purposes of questions stipulate that the trucks may be safer than other people
people actual people on the road but that said if if actual people who are
less who are more prone to accidents hit one of the trucks is there dispatch
communication that goes out directly to 911 or is that a is that a back room
type of operation or do you know? So we have we have the remote assistance which
is a key part of sort of what we do is level four technology which acts as a
dispatch dispatch center so if there was to be an incident and law enforcement was
to arrive on the scene there's a way for them to communicate directly with our
dispatch center to take care of what's needed. Flip side is there is also a way
for dispatch to summon law enforcement
in the event of an incident.
That's, so the dispatch is going to an Aurora virtual assistant
or an assistant?
Or is it going direct?
I'm asking if it's going directly to the dispatch
center in whatever San Antonio, Texas, where they're at.
Yeah, think about it like a dispatch center
that you have at a trucking company
or with a law enforcement agency or any other sort of agency,
right, where you have a dispatch center that's able to communicate and sort of
keep tabs on what's going on, it's sort of similar to that.
But that's your, that would, that's your dispatch center.
That's, that's what I'm asking is whether or not the nine, the 911 dispatch
center in that area for that area, be it CHP, presumably whatever the equivalent
is in Texas, do they receive the same kind of notification as if somebody was
in a Chevy Bolt and there are airbags deployed
in the OnStar at the public dispatch center.
Got it, in that sense.
I don't believe that we have like an OnStar type system,
if I'm understanding it correctly.
But I'm happy to look into that.
But I don't believe that there is like an automatic
sort of dispatch mechanism in that sense.
Okay, obviously curious.
I'm asking about what's actually happening in Texas,
you know, with an eye toward the advent of, um, you know, similar service here
in, in California.
Um, the other question I have in terms of the, um, the video, if you will,
for a lot better way to put it, um, camera view, the camera view of what's
ahead of you on the road.
Is that, in Texas, are there laws that make that video available to law enforcement,
again, in the case of somebody hitting one of the trucks?
You know, you always say, God forbid, before any of these kinds of things, right?
But somebody runs out in front of the vehicle.
There's, for whatever reason, an accident, an intentional thing or an intentional.
Are those provided or is that sort of a black box kind of an element that actually provides the refined video to law enforcement or does law enforcement end up getting something that's coded but, you know, not decoded.
Yeah, no, I appreciate that. So I think if you look at the DMV rules.
And then also in terms of some of the other kind of existing rules, there are requirements
around storing some of that data, right, in similar to kind of what you have
with an event data recorder where some of that information is required to be stored
and then it's available for these types of purposes.
We do have a mechanism for law enforcement pursuant to appropriate sort of process
to request that type of information and data when and should they need it.
then we have a team that's committed to sort of working with law enforcement to appropriately
adjudicate those and get them what they need when the time comes.
That they would be providing for Aquifer a way to put it a consumer-friendly
video like you have on your website as opposed to something that requires
a computer professional or an AI professional to decode it.
So we actually have law enforcement officials on team that work with us directly
in-house at Aurora with significant years
of law enforcement experience, number one.
And then we actually do a lot of trainings
and work with law enforcement,
both in terms of how does the technology work
and if you're an encounter it, what do you do?
But at the same time, on the design side,
how do we make the technology work well
for law enforcement, right?
What are the types of things that law enforcement needs?
So those are ongoing discussions and dialogue that we have
and we build systems to be responsive
directly to sort of the law enforcement needs that we hear.
And again, I'm not asking a question in terms of current DMV guidelines for the early deployment
that you're doing, but where you're actually operating in Texas, is that training mandated?
We have law enforcement interaction plans that are mandated that require us to provide
information on exactly what law enforcement is supposed to do, how they're supposed to
engage the technology and then we also have teams that work directly with the
state patrol and various other law enforcement or first responder agencies.
Great great. I'm just trying to... Yeah, no, appreciate it. Senator, appreciate your
interest. You've obviously been quite engaged in this discussion over the
years and so we appreciate the conversation. We're just just trying to
understand which best practices would be in effect rolling forward if you want to
are being passed forward to California as you have already deployed in other places.
And then on the workforce issue, I know this isn't the jurisdiction of this commission per se,
but you brought it up. So I'm going to ask a question on that. Similar question, I get it that
a whole bunch of people go to work on AI and commercial deployment of autonomous vehicles,
an eye opener for us in the Bay Area Caucus recently when we asked about Nvidia, which is
not obviously an autonomous vehicle company per se, great company. We're very happy about
their contributions to the state of California, especially on May Revise Day. But that said,
You know, this, their slide deck showed this major employment spike that was basically
overseas that was out of area.
Clearly the truck isn't going to have a driver.
We just talked about that, you just presented that.
There's some back room operations, dispatch centers and so forth.
Do you have data to provide to folks like me
or folks that are running our labor committees and so forth,
people at our workforce development board,
other commissions, in other words,
on what the real life redeployment,
retraining, or replacement?
I don't think anyone here knows if that's a one-to-one,
if it's a five to one in favor of the worker ultimately,
because you have a whole bunch more people working backroom
or the fear that it's, you know,
five to one in favor of the robot.
So they just, just wondering, you know,
if that kind of data is available or shareable,
again, not in this jurisdiction,
but in other jurisdictions as we have informational hearings
on workforce development.
We do.
Great.
All right, wonderful.
Thank you, that's all I have Madam Chair.
Appreciate people putting up with my questions.
Thank you, thank you Senator.
Thank you, thank you for the question Senator.
I wanna, pardon my oversight.
We do have a speaker, Eric Negomir.
Hope I said your name correctly.
Pardon my neglect to call you
from the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.
All right. Well, thank you all. And you actually pronounced my name
excellently. So thank you. Good work.
As mentioned, I'm Eric Nega. We're the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.
We represent many of the most innovative businesses in Silicon Valley and
across the greater Bay Area. We appreciate your focus on autonomous
trucking at today's meeting is this pioneering technology offers
improvement in a number of key areas. These include economic growth,
job creation, supply chain resilience, road safety, and emissions reductions.
These potential gains are significant.
Research from the SVLG foundation indicates
at least $6.5 billion in annual economic gain
for our state and the creation of 2,400 new jobs.
Consumers will benefit from more affordable
and accessible goods transported by trucks
that can run nonstop versus the traditional 12 hours per day.
We've already mentioned the $9.4 billion
in healthcare savings and that's true.
What's also true is the incalculable costs
in human tragedy saved by having safer roads,
fewer fatalities, less injuries, less accidents.
And by boosting fuel efficiency,
you saw that 32% number,
autonomous trucks can mitigate climate impacts
while reducing operational costs.
Your attention to autonomous trucking
is timely and is important.
Roughly 73% of American goods are transported by trucks,
Yet the industry is plagued by a longstanding driver shortage.
This is a vital area of opportunity,
and we thank you for your consideration.
Thank you for your comments.
I'm gonna turn it back to the dais
for any questions or comments.
Commissioner Tiffany.
Yeah, thank you.
Just a little bit of follow up
with some of Senator Cortese's questions
and this, what was just discussed here.
the complementary nature of the drive shortage of drivers
and using this innovative approach.
So I'm curious, and I guess no one really knows,
but as other jobs are replaced in other areas,
whether there would be more of an influx into truck driving
if there's a shortage because people are looking for jobs.
But anyway, I'm just wondering,
what's the cost trade-off for a company?
Assuming that they have drivers that they can hire,
versus using Aurora,
I'm curious, what is the balance there?
Because obviously companies are going to,
they're going to do what's most cost-effective.
They're in the business of making money,
so I'm just curious what's the trade-off there,
and how that plays into this dynamic about does it replace jobs or not?
Yeah, it's a good question and I think, you know, as we speak to our customers and sort of build out
kind of the business and the network, it's really about solving for pain points for us. And so where
you have these routes that are difficult to staff, we know that there are folks that are not,
you know, availing of those right away. They're dangerous, they're difficult.
There's an opportunity for autonomy to come in and provide some solutions for the customers there.
And again, like I said, as you look at the overall market, in terms of a variety of factors, right,
the way the trucks are produced, how quickly they get on the road, kind of the integration that
goes into sort of the ecosystem, all of those sorts of things, we've, we see autonomous trucking
occupying a share of the overall market, we don't see sort of a replacement kind
of paradigm and even when we talk to customers again, they view this as very
much a complementary sort of notion that can support and assist and help
increase throughput, help with affordability, all of those sorts of
things and certainly on the safety side there's a study that which is what we
cited in our in our in our slides here that if we're able to sort of even hit
some of those targets of the 5,000 some odd lives that are lost every year on the roads
that involve trucks, we can get to close to maybe about 500 lives saved, which is really significant.
And there's a cost associated with that for the customers too. So when we speak to our customers,
that's sort of where they come at it from and less of a sort of, you know, we need this technology
to replace human drivers. Thank you for that. And just shifting gears a little bit, I think you said
said that there was about a 32% savings in terms of fuel because of I'm interested in
you diving into that a little bit further. And obviously trucks are what has tremendous
impact on fuel emissions in the state. So I'm also curious whether on top of that savings
the 32% whether you're looking at working with trucking companies that also are electric or
anyway, if you could dive into that a little bit.
Yeah, no, absolutely. So,
it seems like that's a big opportunity.
Huge opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. And so, you know, an opportunity both in terms of emissions,
but also affordability, because those costs are passed down through the supply chain to consumers.
So as we think about sort of the affordability crisis and the challenge that we're facing,
right, with just the cost of goods out there, most things travel on a truck, and as the movement of
those goods is more expensive and bogged down by fuel costs, safety costs, all these various other
tough-to-staff routes, etc., right, those are costs that are borne by, you know, a lot of families and
and a lot of small businesses.
And so in that context, you know,
the way these vehicles drive, right?
If you just think about how optimized they are,
they drive generally at the speed limit.
The way they accelerate and decelerate,
how they perform the various maneuvers,
all of those sorts of things
have a significant optimizing effect in driving,
which reduces fuel consumption
and certainly the cost associated with it.
and then also has a net impact,
a positive impact on emissions.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Azian.
We appreciate your- Thank you.
Your presentation.
We're gonna go a little bit off order
and we're gonna take the information calendar
and then we will go back to tab 19.
So Justin.
Thank you, commissioners.
Tops 22 through 37 are information items
that have been reviewed and found
To have no issues raised by commission staff.
Therefore, individual items will not be presented
unless requested by a commissioner.
Please make note of the change list for tabs,
tabs 22, 23, 26, and 27.
Please also note that the book item for top 24
is missing a table on page two
that includes the county, district, PPNO, EA,
element, construction year, the post miles, and the route.
The book item will be updated for the state archive.
If there are no questions, that will conclude
the presentation of the information calendar.
Madam Chair, there's a San Jose City Council member,
Michael Mulcahy, who was here for item 26
in the information calendar.
So as we approve that section,
if it's possible for him to make two minutes of comments.
certainly as part of the public comment.
I know we have a very full agenda.
Yes, yes.
There's a council member here.
Okay.
Thanks for letting us use your chambers.
He's a leader in our musical theater here,
so I'm going to ask that he sing his presentation.
You're up.
Well, I don't think I can do that,
but thank you, Carl Gardino, for asking me.
Actually, I sit right next to where the senator is right now,
so enjoy your stay here,
and we're appreciative that you've come to San Jose
to have your meeting.
I'm actually here in support of item number 26.
It's a STIP amendment for notice,
essentially redirecting an opportunity
to sort of be the last little bit of what we need
for the Bascom Corridor Project in Santa Clara County.
It's the district I represent.
Bascom is a very important boulevard, currently six lanes being reduced to four in either
direction to improve pedestrian safety, you know, bus transit.
It is the linchpin that connects two major health facilities, our Santa Clara Valley Medical
Hospital with a new clinic they're opening within a mile, all connected by the Bascom
corridor.
This will not only benefit the city of San Jose, but also south to the city of Campbell
and north to the city of Santa Clara.
So you've been supportive of this project with direct funds for the project.
We also need this help to redirect some funds with a payback program attached to it.
Really appreciate your time and consideration to allow me to speak out of order and appreciate
your deliberations on item 26 that will be ahead of you. Thank you so much.
Thank you councilmember. Thank you for being here. Any additional public
comments? No, I didn't not see any requests from our virtual attendees to
comment on any of the listed items. Okay, any comments from the dais on the
information calendar? Okay, great. Going back to item 19, May is bike month. All
Kids Bike Presentation Lori Waters. Good afternoon commissioners, tab 19 is an
information item. As you all know every May is National Bike Month. National Bike
Month was established by the League of American Bicyclists in 1956 and
celebrated all around the country through coordinated group rides and
events like Bike to Work Day and Bike to School Day. Here in Santa Clara
County the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition promotes bike to wherever days
for May 14th to 16th. This is a Bay Area wide event where thousands of community
members can celebrate the joy of biking at local Energizer stations in all nine
Bay Area counties. Some of you attended a bike to wherever day event this morning.
Caltrans also sponsors May's bike month activities around the state including
the leadership ride held on May 7th in West Sacramento.
To help us continue the celebration,
we are pleased to have a presentation by Ryan McFarland.
Ryan McFarland is the founder of Strider Bikes.
Strider Bikes are balance bikes
that help kids learn to ride a bike.
You've probably all seen kids riding them
around your neighborhoods.
Mr. McFarland also established
the Strider Education Foundation
and launched the All Kids Bike Program in 2018
as a national movement to integrate riding a bicycle
into school curricula.
The mission of All Kids Bike is to teach every child
in America how to ride a bike starting
in their kindergarten physical education class.
With that, I'll turn the presentation
over to our guest speaker, Ryan McFarland,
to tell us more about All Kids Bike.
Well, good afternoon and thank you for having me.
And happy bike month.
Run to the next slide please.
I'll run through this real quick,
but we are kind of facing an issue in our nation
with children's health.
We've got kids spending seven and a half hours
per day on screens.
We've got obesity rates and other health related items
that are at record levels.
And we've got more kids dealing with mental health issues
than ever before.
And interestingly, the one thing that's also declining
along this same period is the number of kids riding bikes.
Next slide, please.
So we kind of need to figure out
how are we going to get kids active,
how are we going to get them more engaged in school,
and how are we going to get them outside?
The one thing about kids is they really only have
one currency that they care about, and that's having fun.
So we can tell them to eat healthy,
We can tell them to do exercise and everything,
but we can talk to or blue in the face.
What we need is fun activity that they want to engage into.
Next slide, please.
This is where the bicycle comes in.
This is the tool for the job.
You say, well, why am I here at transportation?
And I just Googled a minute ago just
to make sure I remember this right.
And the bicycle is the most efficient means of human transportation on the planet.
So this is the Transportation Commission I thought it was fitting.
Our program has a simple mission, teach every kid how to ride a bike in kindergarten P.E. class.
Riding a bike used to be just a staple that every kid learned,
but right now in our nation the majority of kids are no longer learning how to ride a bike.
This is a significant change.
It's been a 20-year decline.
We started our organization eight years ago.
We are now in all 50 states.
We've got 1,900 schools now running this program.
We're teaching over 200,000 kids how to ride bikes every year.
We've got 2 million kids in the pipeline that we'll learn in those,
on those programs that are already in place with no additional funding.
The program is turnkey.
It's everything that's needed.
We teach the, we teach the teachers how to teach the kids.
So it lives in the school.
They get a curriculum, they get all the equipment,
the storage racks, everything needed to run this program
at school.
It's like putting the books and the desks and the basketballs
and the basketball hoops in the school and making this easy
for them to learn and teach.
You know, I've, I've tasked lots of people over the years
to say, Hey, I've got a hundred bucks.
if you can tell me something that would be more impactful
in a child's life than teaching them how to ride
in kindergarten PE.
And I still have my hundred dollars in my pocket,
but nobody really can come up with something
that's going to have a more impactful change
in a child's life for life than to teach them how to ride.
Next slide, please.
In California, we have 185 schools running the program now.
So that's about 20,000 kids annually
learning how to ride in California.
With a little over 5,000 elementary schools in the state,
we've got about 3% of the schools running the program,
which is what I would say is a good pilot proving it out
that it is effective and efficient.
The one key thing here, I think,
is I've been here all day and listening to all the programs
and the investments and everything,
and one place where we as a nation
are making major investment
is into this active transportation.
So on the one side, we're investing all this money
and we're encouraging everybody to do it,
but on the other side, the reality is,
kids are riding are on the decline.
So we've got a problem here.
If we wanna really make an impact
on the ROI of all of these investments,
then we need to make sure that every kid is equipped
to go out and enjoy those infrastructure investments.
And the easiest way to do that
is simply make it part of core curriculum.
Not an after-school program, not an optional program.
It's core curriculum.
Everybody that goes through kindergarten
learns how to ride.
Every kid, rich, poor, black, white, Democrat, Republican,
every kid learns how to ride a bike.
That's like a tide that lifts every ship into the future.
Just quickly, I wanna play a little video here
about this program so you get a good visual.
And I think that'll be the quickest way to understand
the program and the impact.
We weren't prepared for a video.
What?
We were not prepared for a video.
If that is the case, can we, with his guidance,
show it tomorrow?
Can we show with the video tomorrow?
I assume it's a short video.
We don't have it.
Yeah.
Well, there's a, if you go to the next slide.
I'm not sure he's running the slides.
Can you play one of those?
It's not really the ideal video link, but.
The sound is the issue.
We're not set up to project the sound at this point.
Doug, thank you for letting us know.
Sir, if you can get us the-
Sorry about that.
Please continue so that we don't eat up your time,
but if you can send us the video,
we'll do our best.
Yes, I can do that.
We'll push that around afterwards
and that was really gonna conclude.
So I'm happy to answer questions
about the program, if you like.
Can I just ask a quick question?
Yeah.
How long does it take to teach a kid to ride?
Our curriculum is eight lessons.
So a lesson being one PE session.
And that's taking a child that a lot of times
when we go into like an inner city school
where they maybe kids have not had much exposure to a bike,
many times when I go into a school
and we deliver the program for the first day,
I'll see clearly that many of the kids
have never even swung a leg over a bike.
They're not quite sure how to even swing their leg
over the bike and sit down on the seat.
And we can take that child to independently peddling around
on two wheels in those eight lessons.
We have a very methodical program and approach
of how we do this.
I've been teaching kids to ride for 18 years
through the Strider Company and we have this.
We have the process dialed in and now we have the curriculum built out to be implemented
through the public school system so that we can scale this by teaching the teachers and
letting the teachers teach the kids very efficiently.
And I will say, because this, I come from a bicycle and motorcycle background.
I've been a super enthusiast my whole life and this was not my intent, this foundation.
It actually came to me because I was shocked by the number of calls my company was receiving
from parents of older kids saying, hey, I can't figure out how to teach my kid how to
ride.
And that's what led to this whole foundation.
I mean, my kids were riding bikes at three, and we were racing motocross at four.
I mean, we were all in.
And then I got this wake-up call, this shock,
about what the reality is for a lot of kids.
Thank you.
So that's what led to this program.
And so we have studied this and studied this.
And we're accomplishing what's not been done before, really,
with kids.
Before we continue on comments and questions from the dais,
do we have any public comment?
No.
There was no request from our virtual attendees
comment on the item. Okay, thank you. Any additional questions or comments from the dais?
I do. Mr. Guardino, please. Thank you. So, eight lessons. How long is each lesson?
About one hour. A PE class. So, within eight hours. Good. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Yep. Pretty good
on the math there. There you go. It's a gift. I don't talk about it much. And I want to thank
you. You flew in to present today. From where did you fly? South Dakota. Oh my god. That's not a
hop skip and a bike ride away. That's right. We'll do some sightseeing while I'm here.
I mean, this is a big opportunity. Just some quick math on this. This program
costs $9,000 to put into a school. That's a one-time cost for a school. And that school will teach
over a thousand kids how to ride a bike from that investment so you look at that
that's less than ten dollars per kid to teach them a lifetime skill that leads
to a healthier happier life using active transportation infrastructure an
excellent ROI you want to do more math we got 5,000 more schools times 9,000
that's 50 million dollars I look at some of these projects that are saying they're
a hundred million under budget and I'm thinking, wow, for half of that, I could elevate the
health and happiness of every child in California and we would see a huge implement or increase
in active transportation function for actually a small amount compared to budgets that you
deal with.
look your enthusiasm is is infectious thank you for the difference you're
making in the lives of so many families questions or comments yes vice chair
Cruz no I just want to thank you for coming out to California and the work
you do the seven point five hours of screen time is alarming and we need to
get kids out yeah and more things and this is a good opportunity for them to
capital agree and you can't have you can't be holding your screen if both
hands or hands on the handlebars. All these positive questions and comments I
do have one question there's been quite a bit of proliferation of e-bikes have
you expanded your program to help with safety and how to ride an e-bike? Yeah
well you know all riding has the same DNA from a little three-year-old kid on
balance bike all the way up to a professional motorcycle race or every
type of two-wheeled machine functions the same. The balance, the steering, the
counter steering, the coordination is all the same all the way up the ladder. So
when we teach kids a skill at a super young age they are inherently better and
safer at it. Whether it's you know Tiger Woods picking up a golf club at three
and becoming, you know, a champion or a little kid getting on a bike at three, they just simply are
more capable and then safer on that machine because they have just an inherent skill level.
Great. Well, thank you. Okay, we have one. We have one comment from or question from
Commissioner Brad Shaw joining us virtually. Yeah just really quick thank you chair. So for
Brother McFarland there I want to say that was a very inspirational presentation. As you were
telling a little bit of your personal story I was relating thinking about in the 70s bicycle to
minibike dirt bike to you know all in and so it got me really thinking about that and I might have
a little fun with this but uh and maybe brother card guardino i'm curious if you've ever seen the
film on any sunday made by the great bruce brown who did the endless summer which opens with bmx
bikes and ends with steve mcqueen on uh on desert racers that's all i got now i've got a strider
signed by malcolm smith hey from that movie sitting in my office behind my desk you and i get a cup
got to get a cup of coffee. That's fantastic. Would love it. Mr. McFarland, thank you so much
for the presentation and as you know we have an extensive network of bicycle lanes and trails and
such and so hopefully while you're in California you enjoy them and we appreciate you being here
for making a presentation sir thank you um I I am told that we must vacate as
soon as possible but before we do so we do want to do an adjourn in memory and I
want to turn it over to Commissioner Gordino thank you so much chair and
mr. McFarland thanks again for coming out from the beautiful state of South
Dakota and if you can send that video if we have a chance to watch it tomorrow oh
Oh, awesome, you're so good, Doug. Thank you. Thank you, Douglas. For anyone in Silicon
Valley or the broader transportation field, I think we all mourned deeply the loss of
such an amazing leader in rod diradon senior
He is known as the godfather of
Mass transit in silicon valley in the bay area
And we lost him a few weeks ago after he battled
with health conditions for well over a decade and never let
It slow him down from his commitment and passion
for a transit of all types.
And with all of your permission,
I would just ask that we adjourn today's meeting
in his memory with our thanks.
And we shall do so.
Thank you.
Thank you for the tribute.
And with that, we are done with day one.
And we will see you all tomorrow.
Thank you so much.