S_TRA_2019A 01/03/2019 10:35:07 AM Committee Summary

Mike Lewis, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), discussed the department's performance plan for the coming year. The members of the committee were provided with copies of the presentation (Attachment A). He walked the committee through the PowerPoint presentation, pointing out tables related to the condition of and congestion on roads and bridges throughout the state. He talked about data collection and reporting. He spoke about safety, specifically roadway fatalities.

Mr. Lewis continued to talk about various initiatives CDOT is working on as part of its FY 2018-19 performance plan, including decreasing workers' compensation claims. Josh Laipply, Chief Engineer, CDOT, took over the presentation to discuss improvements in customer service. He specifically talked about who CDOT's customers are and how they are served. Some new ways of communicating include telephone town hall meetings and mobile device updates. CDOT is also trying to better predict travel times on Colorado roadways.

Mr. Laipply continued his discussion of travel times and the barriers to accurately predicting them. He spoke about performance improvements on various major highway corridors. He responded to questions from the committee about express lanes. Mr. Lewis also responded to questions about the usage of a peak period shoulder lane (PPSL) on I-25 and other corridors.

The committee continued talking about managed lanes through the mountains. Mr. Laipply turned to a discussion of active and upcoming projects the department is implementing using technology to reduce travel time. He responded to questions about adaptive traffic signals in Greeley and other locations.

The committee discussion turned to pavement condition and the funding needed to improve the conditions. Mr. Laipply talked about construction cost data and contracting. He spoke about road maintenance activities conducted by CDOT and process improvements that are in place.

Mr. Lewis spoke about CDOT's legislative and regulatory agendas. He responded to general questions from the committee.

Doug Dean, Director, Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), introduced several of the managers on his team. He provided copies of his presentation to the committee (Attachment B). He began with a general overview of the PUC. He spoke about the history, staff, and structure of the organization. He listed the PUC's performance plan goals and spoke about major projects with which they are involved.

Mr. Dean explained the processes of "booting" and "barnacling" as they relate to nonconsensual towing and encouraged the legislature to look at these issues. The discussion turned to rail, transit, and gas pipeline safety. Mr. Dean talked about the PUC's value to Colorado. He responded to questions from the committee about recent outages of the state's 911 system.

Mr. Dean spoke about the funding of the PUC and challenges they face in getting all of their work accomplished. He encouraged the committee to look at the issue of fees as they relate to the PUC's statutory mandates. He talked about the new public comment wizard that has recently been implemented. He responded to questions from the committee.

Skylar McKinney, Director of Public Affairs and Government Relations, AAA Colorado, came to the table to talk about AAA's initiative to eliminate automotive fatalities (Attachment C). He spoke at length about road safety and the zero deaths movement.

Mr. McKinley continued talking about ways to alter infrastructure and laws to facilitate a reduction in automobile-related fatalities. He discussed public support for most safety measures.

Michelle Shimomura, Program Manager of Community Health Planning and Assessment, City and County of Denver, came to the table to talk about Denver's Vision Zero initiative (Attachment D). She spoke to the committee about Denver's five-year action plan for eliminating traffic deaths by 2030. The key goal is reducing the number and severity of conflicts. This may be accomplished through various things like curb extensions, pedestrian refuge islands, leading pedestrian intervals, protected-only lefts, rapid rectangular flashing beacons, pedestrian hybrid beacons, and roundabouts.

The committee discussed the way human error factors into traffic accidents.