April 13, 2026 — Transportation Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:01] Okay, we're good to go. I'm calling the April 13th meeting of the Transportation Advisory Board to order. My name is Trini Willerton, and I serve as chair. Veronica San is our technical host this evening. Veronica, would you review the rules of the virtual meeting, please? Could someone confirm they're able to see the PowerPoint? Yes. Perfect. Thank you for joining the Transportation Advisory Board meeting. To strike a balance between meaningful, transparent engagement and online security, the following rules will be applied. This meeting has been called to conduct the business of the City of Boulder. Activities that disrupt, delay, or otherwise interfere with the meetings are prohibited. The time for speaking is limited to 3 minutes. No person shall speak except when recognized by the person presiding, and no person shall speak for longer than the time allotted. Each person shall register to speak at the meeting using the person's real name. Any person believed to be using a name other than the one they are commonly known by will not be permitted to speak at the meeting. Please use the raise hand function to be recognized for public comment. If you are on your phone, you will need to press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to unmute.

[1:15] No video will be permitted except for city officials, employees, and invited speakers and presenters. All others will participate by voice only. The technical host at the meeting shall enforce these rules by muting anyone who violates any rules. The Q&A function is enabled. It'll be used for individuals to communicate with the host. It should be used for technical and online platform-related questions only. If an attendee attempts to use Q&A for any other reason than seeking assistance from the host, the City reserves the right to disable the individual's access to the chat. Only the host and the individuals designated by the host will be permitted to share their screens during the meeting. Thank you. Thank you so much, Veronica. Our next order of business is to welcome our new 2026-2031 TAB team member, Michael Mills. We're happy to have Mike Mills for a full 5-year term to satisfy requirements.

[2:08] Mike needs to take and read the oath of office into the… into record. So. Mike, if you're ready, the author is gonna be displayed on the screen. Alright. I, Michael Mills, do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America. and the State of Colorado, and the Charter and Ordinances of the City of Older. and faithfully perform the duties of the office of a member of the Transportation Advisory Board. Which I'm about to enter. Wonderful. Thank you so much for your time and commitment, Mike. This term is from April 2026 until March 2031, and we're eager to see the progress to be made. So, moving on, as the start of the new boards and Commissions year, TAB's practice is to review and reaffirm or elect new officers serving in this manner.

[3:10] And it requires additional time, effort, and preparation. TAB members fill the offices of Chair and Vice Chair, and city staff serve as TAB Secretary. So… Are there any nominations for chair? Yes, Mike? I would nominate Darcy. to be chair. And I'd like to second that nomination. So, Darcy, would you accept the nomination? I accept. All in favor? Say aye, or raise your hands. I can't see anybody other than Dr. Bye. Bye. Aye. So it's unanimous.

[4:01] So, Darcy is elected as TAB Chair, and I'm turning it over to you. Congratulations. Thanks, everyone! Glad to be your chair for this year. Okay, so now, we need nominations for a vice chair. Anyone want to nominate our vice chair. I'd like to… Me, me. Wait, wait, who had to hit up first? Nominate Mike. Okay, and I'll second that. Okay, Mike Mills, do you accept the nomination? Yes. All right. All in favor, raise your hand, say aye. Aye. All right, anyone opposed? No? Alright. Great! Mike is our new… Mike Mills is our new TAB Vice Chair. Call me, JV. Everyone.

[5:00] And thank you, Trini. And, yeah. Thanks, everyone. So, as Trini mentioned. staff, city staff, serve as our boards and commissions secretaries, and so I'm appointing Meredith Schlesky as our TAB Secretary. Thank you, Meredith, for all of your wonderful service. Yay. I'm special. Okay, excellent. Do you need to second it? I'll second it if you need. No, I don't… I don't think so. I don't think we have to vote on that. It's just… That's a matter of course. Thank you, Meredith. We appreciate your service and your, your wonderful assistance to the board. So the next item on our agenda is approval of the March minutes. Has everyone had a chance to review the minutes that Meredith sent out? Yes. Okay, great. Are there any corrections to the minutes? - No? Okay. Hearing none, is there a motion to approve?

[6:05] I move to approve. Okay, is there a second? Second? Okay, we'll say Ernon? All in favor, raise your hand, say aye. I… I… alright, anyone opposed? Nope, great. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much, appreciate it. Okay. Now, on to public comment. We welcome your comments on anything pertaining to transportation and mobility in the City of Boulder. Please use the raise hand function on your screen to be recognized. And state your full name. You'll have 3 minutes to speak. Veronica, do we have anyone wishing to speak this evening? As of right now, we don't have anyone raising their hand. Okay. All right, great. Well, we're… 10 minutes into the meeting, so I think we should probably, if there's not anyone waiting to speak. Right now, let's go ahead and, move forward.

[7:09] Okay, so we'll move into, since we don't have any formal issues. We're going into matters. Moving on to agenda item number 7… the, EcoPass 35-year celebration. So let's go ahead and invite our speakers for that. Staff members will let you know if they'd like you to hold your questions until the end of the presentation. Blythe, do you want to introduce this item? I would love to, Darcy. Thank you for your patience. Hello, TAB members. This is a program that I am particularly,

[8:01] joyful about, given that I've been here for a short period of time, and it's one of the things that I use a lot. We're going to be sharing today about the RTD Eco Pass. We're here to recognize and celebrate this transit access program that began as a small pilot program in Boulder. Not only has the EcoPass made a huge difference. pressed. Strengthening transit ridership in Boulder, but the program's demonstrated success here helped blaze the trail for Senate Bill 25-161. Enabling far more Coloradans to enjoy the benefits of a convenient and bundled transit system pass. I invite you to join me in celebrating today, while also creating a call for action for the future. Allison Moore Farrell with the City of Boulder and Jotzna Khatri with RTD are here to share more. Thank you. I think, Allison, you'll take it away. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Blythe. Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us this evening. I'm Allison Moore Farrell, Senior Transportation Planner with the City of Boulder.

[9:08] Joe Snow if you'd like to introduce yourself? Yes, hi, hello, I am Jotzna, Market Development Manager at RTD. Very happy to be here today. And like Blythe mentioned, we're here to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the EcoPass, share the impact it has made in Boulder, and identify the future growth of this program. A lot of exciting things happened in 1991, but the most exciting thing to happen for transit nerds on the Front Range was the birth of the RT Eco Pass in September 1991. And I'll let you enjoy these images from those early 90s days of the Ecopass. In 1990, Colorado's population was 3.3 million. By 2000, the state had grown to 4.3 million, a nearly 31% increase. Most of this population came along the Front Range. With this growth came significant congestion from vehicles. In the early 1990s, RTD worked with the City of Boulder on a novel idea to address some of the issues associated with this population growth. An unlimited transit pass called the EcoPass.

[10:12] I'll hand it off to Jodes now to discuss the primary goals and implementation. Yeah, absolutely. So it started out in 91, it's now 35, almost the same age as me. Just kidding right there. And so the primary goals, obviously, were to increase transit ridership, reduce congestion, reduce air pollution, and also single occupancy vehicle miles traveled. And, as Allison said, it began with the City of Boulder. It started out as a city-sponsored pass, and… I don't know, a lot of you probably are still holding onto this little EcoPass card that you see on the left-hand side. Obviously, we've evolved so far from that point now, to where everything is either on your phone, or you could still get a card if you want, but it doesn't have your photo anymore.

[11:01] Next slide, Austin. So we started off 35 years ago, a very small program, and today it is, quite a big suite of products. We have the Business Eco Pass, the first one, then the Neighborhood Eco Pass program, which probably, like, 80-90% of you, even on this call, probably have some sort of pass, out here, most likely the Neighborhood Eco Pass, and then the College Pass program, and the newest, addition to our suite of products is the Semester Pass program, which is about Two years… a year and a half, two years old, and that is more for those colleges that do not want to provide an all-in option, they just want to do, you know, like, a couple of students use it, so that's what that's for. Right now, the cities that have active programs are all listed on here, and as you can see, most of those are in Boulder County. And then, for Nico Pass, the entire town's, town of Lyons? I always want to pronounce Lyons, but I think it's Lyons, right? That and the town of Netherland are the ones that are provided to their entire town at the moment.

[12:10] And then, if you look at this beautiful map here, you will see all those little yellow dots are where all of the EcoPass companies are located. Let's talk about the financial impact. I mean, first of all, the environmental impact, right? It's really, again, moving people away from that single occupancy vehicle. Right now, approximately 38,000 unique riders, use their pass every month, and they're averaging about 370,000 rides a month. So that is all these folks that would have been on the road, driving single occupancy vehicles now are either on bus, trains, or another form of RTD transit, right? And then… if you're looking at the financial impact, and you're thinking, like, okay, well, as a company, why should I, you know, participate in this, or as a neighborhood, why should I participate in this? The Eco, or an EcoPass, the retail value is about $1,056 a year, if you're looking at $88 per month.

[13:09] That's what it comes out to, but most companies are paying somewhere between $25 to $75 per person for the entire year. That is, you know, if you're looking at $25, that is 2 trips to the airport, and then maybe a day pass, or half a cup of coffee, right? So this is, like, literally cheaper than an Uber to the airport. there is another price category that's a little bit higher, but that is only for employers that are at the airport, so, that's about $460 a year. Again, still, when you're looking at the fact that it's $1,056 per person in retail value. This is an absolute steal. Allison, did you want to talk a little bit about the subsidy that, the City of Boulder provides? I'll discuss that on one of the next slides, so we can jump ahead. Alright, so, actually go back to… go back one second.

[14:00] One thing I did want to point out here, if you look at it, right, the red kind of outlines where the RTD, like, district ends. But then you see there are a couple dots that are even outside of that area. You'll see two in, like, Black Hawk, and then you'll see down by, like, Parker, you'll see another one right down there in the bottom. The reason I'm pointing these out to you is because, like, even these companies that are not within the RTD district, they're seeing the value of what the EcoPass provides. I specifically had this conversation with the, the… casinos at Blackhawk, and they were, you know… I told them, like, guys, you're outside of our district, we don't provide service there. They're like, we understand that. However, our employees are living in, Aurora. So we provide a bus shuttle that goes from Aurora to the, casino, but they need a way to get to the bus in Aurora. Not only that, we also want them to have a good quality of life while they're there. I guess they get a lot of, workers that come in and work for short periods of time, 9 months to a year. So while they're here, you know, obviously they're not gonna buy a car. Good thing, right? And so they really want them to have that quality of life to be able to enjoy

[15:08] all that the Front Range has to offer, so I thought that was interesting, and again, you know, it's nice to see it, like, spreading to areas that you wouldn't think. Alright, next slide. So right here is, again, a more zoomed-in version of what we just looked at. As you can see, most of the EcoPass companies right now are kind of focused in those, you know, central, like, business districts, but again, even in this one, right, there are some that are kind of far away. I'm hoping that the next time we have this conversation, maybe a year from now, with all the work that Darcy, her team, and other TMEs are doing around, this map will look very different, and, you know, maybe we'll put it in green to be like, these are all the new ones, and look at how exciting this is, right? So… Yeah, so these are… this is a zoomed-in map of that. Next place. Alright, so now looking at some stats, because I know all of you love numbers. So in 1991, when we started our region-wide, we had 47 companies.

[16:08] we were proud of it back then, and now we're so proud of what we're doing today, right? When we ended the year in 2025, we had 588 companies. We just finished first quarter for 2026, so we're sitting at about 603 companies right now. And then in 91, we had $261,000 in revenue from this. We ended 2025 with $7 million in revenue, and then almost 4,000 employees in 91, and 130,000 in 2025. Right now, for 2026, we're sitting at $10.5 million in revenue, compared to $7 million, so… already, you know, like, we're… we're doing better, we're growing, again, even compared to 25 to 26, you know, from 588 to 603. So, we're really optimistic for the growth, and, again, I think a lot of this has to do… With, you know, some of that visibility that's coming from that Senate Bill 161, as well as the partnership, the very strong partnership we have with our TMAs, which I'll talk about a little bit later.

[17:09] And then, if you look at the chart… wait, go back one more time. And the chart below shows you the, EcoPass taps, right, versus total boardings. Now… This is where I keep on harping to everyone, like, make sure you're tapping, make sure you're telling everyone to tap, because again, I suspect that this data is still lower, it should be a lot higher, because sometimes people tap once, and they're like, okay, I tapped, I'm good for the week. Right? And so they're still traveling, they're still utilizing the pass, which is great, but it's not showing up in these, Charts. Okay, next. Alright, so Boulder-specific, about 110 companies, out of that EcoPass are in Boulder. They make up approximately 18% of the total business Ecopass holders, which is about 24,000 employees.

[18:00] I think, actually, there might be a larger number of employees who have access, but those are about who are using it quite often. Allison, correct me if I'm wrong. I don't think so, but… Yeah, I think that's… yeah. Okay. And then… if you look on the bottom, you see these are, again, specific taps related to Ecopass riders in… in Boulder, right? And so it's, it's pretty steady, averaging at about 50,000 taps. A month, which, again, is pretty, pretty impressive. Next one. And then this is looking at the total taps, throughout all of EcoPass users versus, the blue ones on the bottom is just Boulder EcoPass. So, one of the things that we thought was really interesting when we were looking at this data, Allison and I, was that, If you look at the neighborhood ecopass, program, right? About, I would say, like, maybe even 70% of it is in Boulder.

[19:04] And 80% of all, like, taps that come from Nico are from Boulder. But then when you look at this one, it's still a significant amount, right? It's about, what, 18% of the taps, total taps, are coming from Boulder. But, 18 versus 80%, right? So there's that, like, Nico is being used It's worked flawlessly, and I'm sure, Allison, you're going to talk about that next as to why it's been so successful. So when we look at opportunities for growth, and where we can make this program more successful, what the next 35 years look like, really, we have a lot of opportunity here to be able to, like, really grow this. Again. 18-20% is not nothing to, like, laugh at or cough at, right? It's still a significant amount, but again, when you're looking at growth, Nico… Boulder's got, like, Nico completely wrapped around. But then here is where we're like, okay, now we see this, looking at this, we'll… we'll make more of an effort to try to, you know.

[20:01] Increase either participation with businesses, or the businesses that already participate have their employees ride more. Can you just clarify that, blue… the Vita? The neighborhood, or it includes. No, this is just the EcoPass tabs. This is the biggest one. businesses. Okay. So, Business Eco Pass. So it's Boulder versus the whole district? Yes. Okay. Any other questions? Over 10 questions at the end, sorry. Okay, go ahead, Alan. All right, awesome, thanks so much, Josna. So I'm here to speak a little bit more about the Neighborhood Ecopass, Mike, so I'm glad you brought that up. So two pivotal actions allowed Boulder's access to transit to thrive in the 1990s. First, the City of Boulder created the Community Transit Network. These are the named buses we all know and love today that create high-frequency, well-rounded routes like the Hop, Skip, jump, dash, bound, and Bolt. I think I got all the active ones there. The hop began service in 1994, a few years after the experimental EcoPass debuted. So the combination of this high-frequency transit network and convenient transit access through the EcoPass allowed BoldRites to access transit more easily and reduce dependency on SOVs.

[21:19] Soon after, CU students actually voted to create a college pass using their student fees. Next, Lafayette began a pilot program for neighborhood eco-pass, which was then offered district-wide in 1997. So these three programs increased access for community members. In 2003, over 60,000 Boulder community members had access to transit through one of these three Eco Passes, and by 2017, that number was over 80,000. Through our Boulder Valley Employee Survey and Resident Surveys, we found that people who have Eco Passes are more likely to take transit for a work trip and for non-work trips, and interestingly, those with EcoPasses also walked or biked more for both work and non-work trips.

[22:04] So again, it's really incredible to note the wide-ranging impacts of the access to an EcoPass, even outside of transit. Today, over 12,700 households are eligible for our neighborhood EcoPass, so that means they are within a neighborhood, that has an active program, and you'll see the map here on your left. This is also on our city website. And those folks in those neighborhoods are eligible to, to be part of the program, and any neighborhood can start a program in the RTD region. Boulder currently has over 50 neighborhood EcoPass programs, far more than any other community in the RTD region. Part of this success lies in the financial and programmatic support that the City of Boulder provides. We provide financial subsidies for neighborhoods and businesses, and we provide staff support to help programs start. So we've explained how the EcoPass came to be, and the impact it's had in Boulder. So what's next, and why are we sharing about this right now?

[23:06] Well, our region is growing again. Currently, Colorado has approximately 6 million people. By 2040, the state is expected to have 7.8 million people. Again, most folks live along the Front Range. So once again, we're facing increased congestion and vehicle miles traveled. And we now have a proven tool in the EcoPass to get people out of single occupancy vehicles and on transit. In addition, we're seeing bills at the state level that are supporting more development around transit. Region-wide, these land use changes will support more transit access. In Boulder, we've been working on development near transit for many years. All the steps we've put in place over the past few decades set us up well for a unique Senate bill passed last year, SB25161, that will allow more people in Boulder to gain access to an EcoPass. I'll hand it back to Jotzna to discuss how RTD and partners like BCTC will be administering outreach for neighborhood EcoPass programs to increase access for Bold Rides.

[24:07] Yeah, so it's, we are doing a lot for the Neighborhood Eco Pass, but again, like I said, in Boulder specifically, right, the Neighbourhood Eco Pass is already so successful. So, we're looking at both the Neighborhood Eco Pass as well as EcoPass and other pass programs as well. So some of the things that the Senate Bill 25161 asked us to do was to create a more comprehensive outreach program, to be proactive, to provide, quotes, you know, very openly, and make the administration simple, and to really work with the TMAs. And so, taking all of those, points into consideration. We did create, like, new marketing and communications, strategy. We're looking at all, like, earned media, paid media. all of that, right? So, we are a little bit, limited by, budget constraints at the moment, but again, this partnership that we have with all of our TMOs and TMAs.

[25:09] That really has elevated what we are able to do. And Darcy, I don't want to steal your thunder, but Darcy just submitted her first Q1 report, and even in that, like, they've made… they've reached out to over 50 employers in this last quarter. You know, again, on our end, we have a team of two, market development consultants, plus me, who's doing this outreach, so for us to be able to reach out to 50 in, you know, a matter of 90 days, we could, but then we wouldn't be able to do anything else, right? And so, just, again, and then Darcy is one of, I think, what, 7 or 8, different TMAs that we have in the region, so if everyone is having that same type of impact, I'm pretty, like, confident that we're gonna see these numbers soar, like, to, you know, I'm hoping, like, 800-900 is what we're gonna be saying.

[26:02] So anyways, we've created two, markets. Instead of being reactive with a lot of our outreach, with a lot of our, communications, we're being very proactive with that. And, now that there are, like, you know, actual area managers, they're also, getting A good level of service where, again, we're not just reaching out when people reach out to us, but we're making sure that we're doing that ahead of time. All of our… Yeah, sorry, go ahead. I was gonna say, Oliver, did you have a question? No, no, I was just gonna add on. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead, add on. Oh, I was just gonna say, I love the new suite of tools you all have put together, but I think one of my favorite things is the calculator for both the Nico Pass and the BECO Pass. It's just such a great way for folks to be able to go on your website, kind of plug it in, see, you know, kind of estimate, before kind of digging in really deep, so it's really a convenient tool. Yeah, and again, even those, I can see the stats on the back end, so I can see Darcy, like, plugging away at that. at that tool all the time, right? But anyone can go on there, right? If you're curious, you're like, hey, my company does not provide EcoPass, but I really want them to. So you can just go into our website, put in a couple pieces of information to the best of your knowledge, right? And then submit it, so that way you're able to, see,

[27:19] what that would look like, and then you can go to your HR to petition with them. So, I'm not saying that you have to do all this work yourself, you can definitely just reach out to me, Allison or Darcy, and all of our teams, but if you did want to be that go-getter that's like, oh, I want to see how much this costs, and, you know, if we can do this for ourselves, or you're a small business. I say, like, for any company that has over 2 people, it makes so much sense to… to participate in the ECOpass program. And then, We've also put in the, neighborhood, EcoPass self-survey tool. It's on the NECO webpage on our website, and so there are two options available on there if you want to administer this, survey to your, residents.

[28:03] You can do that on your own by downloading the file there, or if you want us to administer it for you, we can actually work with you, because we also have a link on there, that way you can look at it, you can decide when you want to administer the survey, and we'll give you the results that we collect from there. So it just makes it a little bit easier to do that. And so these are some of the things that we're doing with Senate Bill 161, and the other requirement was that we present to a joint committee in the beginning of every year, starting this year. We already did that at the beginning of the year, so… Yeah, we'll look forward to doing it every year, and hopefully every year we can show that graph just going up and up, and, you know, that we're doing an excellent job with it. And Darcy, did you want to add anything to this part? Because I know you guys are doing a ton of outreach with these things. Thank you. Well, thanks for the recognition, Chota. So, Boulder Chamber Transportation Connections, of course, is one of, as you mentioned, eight, transportation management organizations in the Dr. Cogg region, and I want to really give the credit to my staff, who, my outreach staff, which is

[29:09] who are amazing, so Elena Erb and Will Shepard are doing incredible work. And, thanks, you know, I think here in Boulder, something that makes it, kind of easier for us to do that outreach is just that, you know, RTD services in Boulder are really, useful to companies, you know, and people can commute into Boulder with a lot, you know, in a really reasonable way, that, you know, catching the Flatiron Flyer somewhere along the corridor or the bolt from Longmont is a really, really realistic option, and so I think that's also why we get a lot of really good feedback from our outreach, so thank you for recognizing that. Appreciate it. Of course. Okay, I think we're done with this slide. Alison, next one. Alright, great, thanks.

[30:01] So, wrapping up with a few action items for our community. Employers still have the opportunity to access the state's Alternative Transportation Options Credit when you purchase EcoPasses for your employees, which is a 50% credit in most cases. Property managers can work with RTD and BCTC and other TMOs to connect with residents about the benefits of the neighborhood EcoPass could offer them, and TAB members can continue to raise awareness of these programs. So in Boulder, like Justin mentioned, we really appreciate BCTC's efforts on this front, and I'm sure Darcy and your team can provide more details as well. So, thank you so much. And with that, we'll wrap up and are happy to answer any questions or dig in deeper. Yeah, wonderful. Thank you both so much. This is… it's really something to celebrate, EcoFast, and its success in Boulder, so thank you for your wonderful presentation. I think, Michael, you had your hand up first? Yeah, sure. I was wondering… I've just poking around on Boulder's website, looking for, materials about how to participate in the Neighborhood EcoPass program.

[31:11] If you're a Spanish speaker. Like, I didn't see… and so I'm wondering if that's part of the vision, particularly… and I'm also thinking, too, about… You know, this, move towards improved bus service to some of the, sort of, outlying cities, right? The… the bus rapid transit, and… how… what mechanisms we would have to stimulate neighborhood EcoPass programs in the areas adjacent to those routes where we might get high levels of participation. Yeah, that's a great question. I can go ahead and start with that, Michael. So, we do have, bilingual staff, so when there is, you know, requests for that, we can go ahead and connect them with city staff, and then I'll, of course, also connect them with RTD, because the contracts are between RTD and the, and the neighborhoods. The city, we're here as a support and to make connections and those subsidies and staff support. But we do have those resources. I'll also share,

[32:14] We actually work with Boulder Housing Partners. For Neighborhood EcoPass programs. Right now, there's over 15 BHP sites that have neighborhood ecopass programs, and I'll share with you, I work with someone over at BHP, and we're always trying to find ways to have more BHP communities, and even if there's a way we could have all BHP communities, so, it's a start there, and it's a conversation that we, continue to have. But there is a lot of connections there, which is really helpful. Yeah, that is a great question, Mike, and I'll just… Michael, before I let you speak, Mike, I just wanted to say I'm… I'm super… proud to, report that, as of today, I have hired a Spanish-speaking person to do

[33:02] this to do our EcoPass, outreach, kind of writ large, you know, for the city, and also on our, the grant that we received to do, Nico Pass outreach in accordance with, Senate Bill 161 specifically. So we will have a Spanish speaker on staff. Starting in May, which is so exciting. Okay, Mike, go for it. Yeah, Some of us did, see this presentation at BTC a couple weeks ago or something, and, Just wanted to give credit to Chuck Brock for asking, A good question that, about the Neighborhood Eco Pass, and How it works, and why… why we can't just allow everyone in the city to… get a neighborhood ecopass, which I believe requires you to… to contribute voluntarily to get one. And, and I think your answer was about the,

[34:04] Requiring some administration, somebody in the neighborhood to administer it that Would… if you open it up to the whole city, that would require the city to… to do that task, I guess. And I noticed early in your presentation, you said the cities of Lyons and Erie do this. Is, is that… is my understanding correct? Yeah, Mike, I'll start with that, and then I might hand it off to Jyotna. So there's a couple pieces to that. And this is a question that's brought up often, I'll share, about, can we have a citywide EcoPass for the City of Boulder? And in 2014, the City of Boulder and Boulder County actually did a study on this, I'm happy to send you. the, the study there, it's also on our city webpage. And there were a number of, number of blockades there, that were identified. A piece of it is the administration, so each neighborhood does require a volunteer coordinator, so that is… that is kind of a tricky piece of the neighborhood EcoPass program. At multifamily developments, it's oftentimes the property management, which does streamline it a bit, or if it's the HOA, that does streamline it a bit. But if, if it is a neighborhood that doesn't have an HOA or

[35:17] multifamily or property management, then it does require a volunteer, so there is that administrative piece in terms of, kind of processing the passes. I think the largest piece that was identified in that study was the lack of a funding mechanism. So, there was not an identified funding mechanism that would be able to pay for all of the EcoPasses for the community. There were some different suggestions. That were brought up in the, in the study, but it was not brought further. I don't know if, Joe Sneo, if you have any more information from RTD on, any potential there, or in terms of the administration of, Lions or Nederland. Actually, I think you hit it on the head, though, with the… with the part about the funding being the biggest,

[36:07] hurdle that needs to be, you know, crossed, because, as far as administration goes, if we're putting everybody on one, right, you could potentially have city staff or somebody else administer it, and also RTD… our staff also does help with administration if it came to it. But really, being able to fund it for the entire city, I think, is the part that, once you're able to get beyond that, I think we can look at the administration, right? More of, like, how we're going to do this, Hi, Chris. I guess I'm not understanding the funding, because… Neighborhoods can do this, where the funding is all just from the people who buy them, right? Correct. So, it's not some external funding. No, but what I'm saying is, like, so if you're gonna do a citywide pass, right? So then that would have to be, like, basically RTD would get one check from the city. So how are you guys… that would be…

[37:06] No, well, I meant… I meant it would be more like a neighborhood. EcoPass, where, everyone would Would pay for it. Every single neighborhood would pay for it, but then… Or… Yeah. Maybe I'm not understanding how the neighborhood works, The neighborhood means that everyone in the neighborhood is… Yeah, so basically, what… to be a part of a Neighborhood EcoPass program, you have to, either be represented by, like, a HOA or something of that sort, and if not, let's say you and… you know, 30 of your neighbors that are on the same street decide that you want to create your own little neighborhood, right? And you want that to be, represented. So in that case, you'll get every single house contiguous on that block, that has to have, like. defined parameters, you will say, okay, from A Street to B Street. all of the houses in the middle, 40 houses… there are 40 houses in the middle, all 40 of us are going to participate in this, and then at that point, Allison or somebody from the city will sign this on your behalf.

[38:10] and make, like, a neighborhood. But it's your job, whoever, one of you there, to collect the money from the neighborhood, and get that check together, and then send us, like, send RTD1 check for that neighborhood. So I would write out a contract, somebody from the neighborhood would sign it, but then, like, the city basically guarantees that. So, I guess the question is, why do they have to be contiguous and not just… Allow anyone in the city to join. because programs have to have parameters, otherwise there's no point… the reason we're able to… okay, so it's $125 per household per year, with a $4,000 contract minimum. And so, when these programs were created, these were the parameters that were put around it. For the neighborhoods, they would have to be contiguous, they would have to be that minimum $4,000. It used to be $7,000,

[39:04] drop down to 4,000, and all of the households have to participate in it, and that's why you're able to keep that Price… at that 125 for the first two years, and then after that, make it utilization-based. Now, you know, if people decided not to participate in it, or they didn't want to pay into it, which happens quite often, you are still responsible for all of it, but, you know, you can spread it out the way you want to. I think there's a lot more detail, I don't. Yeah. I was gonna say, there's a lot of detail. I will share, Mike, thank you so much for that explanation, Josna. Mike, again, it really comes down to the funding mechanism. I will share, back in the early 90s, there were a number of, neighborhoods that actually had a ballot initiative to create their own general improvement district, specifically to pay for a neighborhood EcoPass. I was told it was, like, over a dozen neighborhoods were on the ballot for this, and only one actually approved it, the Forest Glen General Improvement District up in North Boulder,

[40:04] on the west side of Broadway, kind of by Lucky Market, and what's… administratively, it's very straightforward. It actually comes out of their property taxes, and so it's very easy to pay, RTD through that way. So, again, if there was a fairly straightforward funding mechanism for this. That's very small scale, it's not… not a ton of homes, but if there was a funding mechanism, then it would be… You know, more straightforward. I think your point about the fact that that was an election, I mean, people have to have the option to say, you know, yes, we want to buy into this. I mean, if you're talking about the whole entire community, so, you know, CU is, like, 30… thousand members of our community, right? And they already pay for EcoPasses out of their student fees, or whatever mechanism CU uses. And then, so we're talking about, you know, 80,000 additional people, and those people would have to vote on… on this. And I guess, Michael, maybe you were going to ask this.

[41:04] whether… I think Netherlands and Lions… Netherland and Lyons went through that process, right? They voted about whether or not to have the EcoPass be a town or a citywide, amenity, correct? Yeah, so that's what it would have to be. It would have to go to an election. Okay, Michael? I… well, so my neighborhood has one of these, neighborhood EcoPass programs going, and from what I understand. It's, for whoever's serving as the organizer, it's fairly laborious. They're having to run around and… You know, get people to pay attention to this program in the first, you know, to begin with, and explain it to them, and then, you know, collect fees and sort of communicate with all these folks. I am wondering what the motivation… I mean, there's certainly some sort of advocates and people who are passionate about transit, but…

[42:00] I would imagine that this program could grow Much more substantially and quickly if we weren't… Dependent entirely on the goodness of people's hearts. to do this kind of work. I'm wondering if there's some kind of incentive program that would maybe help the program grow in neighborhoods that don't have somebody who's already doing that organizing? Just because, you know, it is time-consuming, and I'm wondering if, like, some of the revenue that comes out of this could be redirected at rewarding people for taking on that role. Which I would imagine would otherwise… My big concern would be that a community gets this thing going, and then that person, you know, they move out of the community, they get sick, whatever, and they're not able to continue in that role, and I'm just wondering if there's a way to… Make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen, and also to support the program in growth. Absolutely, no, these are great points, Michael. And you're right, that is one of the largest barriers we see in, you know, getting programs off the ground, and continuing

[43:07] We do… I have regular communication with the neighborhood EcoPass coordinators, and when there are transitions, we… we do help folks transition, and I will share that the… the largest lift is when you start a neighborhood, because you have to get everyone's information on the online portal and push out the passes and all of this. That's really the largest lift there. So when there is transitions, myself or Jotzner or others, you know, at RTD will help folks the new person walk through that system. We also at the City have set up two different ways for folks to… for folks to send in money to their… for their neighborhood EcoPass program, so that you don't have to bring a check or cash to your neighbor, because that can be uncomfortable. So, we set up an online system. We have this third-party provider, where you can go ahead and, you can send a credit card payment online or a check, and then we also have a non-profit that we work with locally that you can literally take a check to Chase Bank and put

[44:05] put it in the account there, and then that accountant will write the check to RTD. So, we have streamlined it in ways that we have found possible to do so, but again, it's always great to hear feedback like this, because there's always room for improvement and always room for expansion. That is… the volunteer piece of the, neighborhood coordinator is one of the biggest barriers, so these suggestions are really great, you know, kind of for myself and Joseon and others to kind of, you know, sit on and figure out. And if I may add to… sorry, if I may add to that really quickly, one thing I didn't know that Allison and team already does also is, if they wanted to, if there was a coordinator that wanted to send out, like, mass mail to all of their, residents, they can do that, and… you know, Allison's team pays for the postage, or the printing, or whatever it is, to be able to do that. So, I think, Michael, it might also be not just that, like, it's difficult for them to do it, but I think it's difficult for them to do it because they don't know what resources might be available to them, or they haven't asked, right? So, there is definitely, we do a yearly meeting with all of the, EcoPass coordinators as well, when we… where we sit down, we'll

[45:18] Tell them, like, you know, okay, these are the things that are available, these are the things that are changing. what feedback do you have, and how can we help? So there are some things… definitely, like I said, more feedback is always great, but there are… Things that are there that they may just not know about. I'll tell you where my question is coming from, right? Boulder is, we all know, a relatively affluent community, both in terms of… you know, financial resources, but also time. And so, this is a community where, I think. it's, you know, it's not that hard to find somebody who's willing to take on some, you know, voluntary administrative role to set one of these things up and to manage it or keep it active over time. But I think…

[46:02] Less affluent parts of our community. The folks in those communities, or sub-communities. maybe less time affluent, and yet they're the folks who might benefit most from having an neighborhood EcoPass program in place. And so that's why I was saying, well, is there some mechanism we can use to kind of help them? find the time, to manage one of these programs for their community. And, and I, you know, I… I'm not just thinking about Boulder, I'm thinking about all these communities strewn along, you know, Arapaho and, you know, into Longmont. These are the communities that, if we don't get them to get on, you know, get an EcoPass and get on those buses. We are going to be dealing with some, you know, ever-worsening congestion, so that's. That's fine. Kind of thinking strategically about how we get those communities plugged into this program in a way that they, maybe aren't already. So anyway, that's… that's my question. I don't need to say any more. Thanks.

[47:04] Yeah? Well, and Michael, that was part of the purpose of Senate Bill 161. You know, written into the bill is the requirement that, multifamily communities within, I think, a quarter mile or less of a high-frequency transit corridor need to have the option to, kind of internally vote on whether or not they want to have or pay for a neighborhood EcoPass. So, this is part of what Fuller Chamber Transportation Connections got a grant from Dr. Cogg to do, was to do that outreach and to basically administer that in partnership with property managers and, others in those communities, so that we can really, create more access to the Neighborhood EcoPass program.

[48:00] along high-frequency transit corridors among, communities that may not have, as you said, the coordinating time, and the other resources to do this. And kudos to RDD also for getting that survey up. I think it's bilingual, correct? You have it in English and Spanish? Yeah, that's great. So, the community members in any community that has 50 or more units, including mobile home communities, can vote using this survey that RTD has created. And if a plurality, if a majority of the members of that community say yes, then the property management has to provide it. And they can, you know, pay for that however they choose to do so, right? adding it to rent or, however they want to do it. So that's… that's… that's part of what… it's getting started. This is a new, a new effort, and we're all, figuring it out, but really excited to see that, have a broader reach beyond Boulder.

[49:05] And Darcy, I'm not sure if the survey that's available currently on the website is in Spanish or not. If it's not, I'm happy to give it to you. And also, we are happy to also translate everything that's on our website, or any of the materials that we have in any of the Safe Harbor languages that we have available. I think it's about 9 languages, so if you have a need for something further, please do let us know. Yeah, excellent, thank you. Well, and also, thanks to your staff who provide those, resources as well, so it's always easy to find someone to speak to in whatever language is needed, so thank you very much. Great. Any more comments, questions? These are… this has been a really good conversation. Thanks to you both, Allison and Josna. It's really exciting to see this work, and, I think, you know, yeah, continuing to work together to provide greater access to the neighborhood eCapass and the business ecopas, I mean. And… and create more frequency of service, and all the pieces are coming together. So, thank you so much for all of that.

[50:06] Absolutely, thank you, Mitch. Yeah, great, great to see you both. I appreciate your presentation. Okay, if there's nothing else for Allison and Jessna, we'll move on to matters from the board. I just wanted to take a moment, I didn't do this at the beginning of the meeting, but I'd like us to just take A moment to recognize, Another death in our community. Through traffic. Violence, and this person was a well-known person, on… Thursday, April 2nd, Tim Wolcott, 76 years old, he was killed in a crash on, in the Boulder Canyon. And, there were only 2 drivers involved, and, Tim was killed. And he was a driver for the hop.

[51:03] And so this was, someone who was well known by everyone at View Mobility Services and the community, and I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Tim Walcott. And the… ongoing tragedies Presented to our community by, crashes. And, yeah. So… Thank you. Are there other… Comments for matters from the board? Yeah, I… I wonder if, deaf… Has any update on… the status of the Safe Streets for All grant we're expecting from federal government. Do you want to speak to that? Have you… do you have any news?

[52:03] Not to report at this time, I think, our… if… how about I… how about I pull together some things and share out with the group after the meeting? Okay, great. Thank you. Anything else other… Comments from board members? I… I just have a couple of things that… I would suggest for future meetings. Oh, my queue froze. Oh. Is it me? Or is it you? Can people hear me? Go ahead, I can hear you now. I just had a couple of items that, I would suggest for future meetings. Would this be the time to do that? Meredith, I think we could… we do have, future agenda topics listed in the agenda, but why don't… if you have things that you'd like to see, added to the agenda, why don't you go ahead and speak about those now?

[53:06] Yeah, I think I… well, I, want to check in on… Progress on the… in the city on, signal policy? And, also, a discussion at some point about policies for… I would say… Reducing, the… Well… Her… maybe, as I discussed last month, the, street hierarchy for Reducing the impacts of these, strodes that we have. Mike, I'm sorry, that was for me. This is just, suggestions, yeah, for discussion in future meetings.

[54:05] Okay. Thank you. Well, Mike, I think we can also address that in the context of Projects that are brought to us, and, looking at how… The street hierarchy is being… discussed in terms of specific projects. Do you have another way that you wanted to see that addressed? Yeah, I, I mean, I know the city does have a street hierarchy, That is a bit… More complex than… what I discussed is in the Netherlands, like a model example, and I just thought we could… At some point, go over that and discuss What would be optimal?

[55:00] As a policy for the… for the city. Yeah, that might be something that we could speak to when we're putting together our, comments for the… for City Council as, you know, as we sort of wrap up the year. Let's… let's… let's talk about that further. because I remember that you brought this up in the context of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. And, you know, as we look at how the Transportation and Mobility Department is approaching its, Plan with, within the, the, the, the city, we can start to ask those questions, because I'm sure that that will come to us, at some point. This year, Bly? Is that plan, that kind of, the right word is… escaping me. It's not… it's no longer a Transportation Master Plan, but now it is part of the city's,

[56:01] What plan? strategic planning. Strategic plan, yes. I thought that there was another word you guys were using, but yeah, okay, so part of the city's strategic plan, is that something that will come to us this year, or is that still further out? We are just now, and I, I regret that I don't have this committed to memory, Darcy, but we… we are… we are just now starting to launch the new process. And I hope you and others on the tab will give me some grace as I'm… I haven't visualized the full process that we've had before, so it's a little harder for me to visualize a new process, but Matt Chesansky at our citywide M-Team meeting yesterday gave a… gave an overview of how we would start to launch this, and he and I have been talking, in fact, today, on how he could start to come to our staff. And talk about the sequencing of it. And so, I'm eager to have a better picture of how all this goes on a 12-month cycle. I'm relatively optimistic that there will be progress between now and the end of the year. I don't know, I think we'll have a sense for what's in our strategic plan, certainly towards the end of the year, but then as we carry over into the next year, keep in mind the… the council retreat that typically happens in January, that's a… that's a,

[57:19] that's a pivot point or a node in the process that's helpful to remember. I'll make a note to, to circle back on that, too, in anticipation of maybe some more questions at future TAB meetings. Yeah, great, thank you very much. I mean, I imagine that that… that process… Will take some time, and it may not be something that produces a document this year, but like you said, maybe moves into, 2027, 2028, Yeah, we'll be, we'll be, excited to see how that develops. I see that in, are there other open board comments? Because we can talk about the future agenda topics, which do kind of

[58:01] Get to this in, in, relation to the, the, capital improvements project… program, because I think that that's a good place to talk about, you know, what are our streets, how are our streets functioning, you know, so we're talking about capital improvements, The other thing I was going to just mention is, you know, this… the council, did prioritize, Bike safety in terms of, Reducing bike theft. And, creating a safer environment to ride bikes in town, so I guess if there is room for an update about how the city is addressing that priority, I think we'd be very interested to hear about that. And, any particular, you know, decisions that are being made about how to improve, bike safety in that particular council priority. Any other items for open board comment before we move into those future agenda topics?

[59:09] A very light and very quick meeting this evening. Okay, so all I see on the… Blythe, do you want to talk about these future agenda topics? Yes, and actually, I… I wanted to, just highlight some of those, but if I could, there wasn't a place for this. There's a couple of announcements, they're not future agenda, but they are future, so I hope it's okay if I… if I… if I audible a little bit. I wanted, Tab to be aware of a couple of upcoming events, that you may already… you may already be aware of. But one is the Front Range Passenger Rail Town Hall, which is the second of three events You may know that Commuting Solutions is serving as the outreach partner for the Northwest Metro Regional Town Halls. to offer an opportunity for the public to learn more about and provide input for Front Range Passenger Rail Service Vision. And so the second of those is this Wednesday. It's the one out of the three that is in the City of Boulder at the East Boulder Community Center at 6 to 7 30 p.m. That's this Wednesday, April 15th. So I wanted to make sure that TAB members knew about that.

[60:22] And then another one, we're really excited about the 19th Street celebration for the completion. There's still some landscape to be installed, but for the most part, the 19th Street multimodal improvements And Four Mile Canyon Creek Underpass is complete, and next Wednesday, a week after, the Front Range Passenger Rail Town Hall, but not in the evening, in the morning, on April the 22nd, from 8 to 9.45, we'll be celebrating, starting at Crestview Elementary School. At… on Sumac Avenue. And then at 9 o'clock, doing a bike ride to Centennial Middle School, and wanted to make sure that TAB members were aware of that event as well.

[61:07] And so again, apologies for going… going audibling a little bit from the agenda, Darcy, but I wanted to make… That's great, thank you. Yeah, thank you for mentioning both those. Good, and I'm happy to, also roll right into our future topics. As you mentioned, and I made a note for myself, again, to better describe our strategic planning process, and Valerie sent me a note that reminded me, the strategic planning process, and then there's the department planning process that will follow. Right. And so, I don't know that those are fully named yet, but I've heard a number of names, Darcy, so you might be thinking of… there's a couple of… I think the city's trying to figure out how to had to roll into this new process, which feels very well integrated top to bottom. And so, as we… as we do, you'll see over the next 3 months, some capital improvement program.

[62:01] presentations led by Garrett, and so those will be good timing to also talk about that overall process, although I don't yet understand exactly how they will fit together, but clearly they will. And then also just wanted to highlight that next May, we do plan to review TAB representative… representation at existing committees with the TAB, and then in June, in addition to the CIP, Also plan to talk about the Boulder Valley Employee Survey findings, and get tab feedback on our Mode Shift dashboard. And then lastly, in July, for a staff presentation, also talk about our pavement management program and the mobility enhancements work that we do. And that kind of maps out the next 3 months of TAB. Yeah, excellent. Thanks so much. I'm looking forward to those presentations and those opportunities to provide feedback. I'm especially excited about the Boulder Valley Employee Survey findings. That's always a really exciting moment to see what's changed, and

[63:06] whether, you know, how we're bouncing back from the low numbers of transit ridership during COVID and other things like that. So, I'm excited to hear that and all of the, opportunities to weigh in, so thank you so much. Okay, well, if there are no further comments… Or questions for anyone on the meeting. Would someone move to adjourn? I'll entertain a motion. Move to adjourn. All right, Michael, second? Anyone second? 20 seconds? Excellent, thank you. All in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Anyone opposed to adjourning? No. So we voted unanimously to adjourn at 7.07 PM! Wow. Very short meeting. Thank you all very much, appreciate you being here, and thank you for, your, support of me as your new chair, and Mike as your new vice chair, and we will see you next month.

[64:13] Bye, thank you! Thanks.