Bicycle and Pedestrians Advisory Committee
Thu, Apr 10, 2025 · Bicycle and Pedestrians Advisory Committee
https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/483

== Executive Summary ==
The Bicycle and Pedestrians Advisory Committee held a productive meeting, approving their agenda and previous minutes. Key discussions revolved around promoting active transportation and improving infrastructure. Updates were provided on the Safe Routes to School program, including upcoming Bike to School Day events, and Bike Santa Fe's advocacy efforts, particularly regarding the new Idaho Stop law and the need for more bike racks. 

A significant portion of the meeting focused on modernizing and securing funding for the 13-year-old bus pass rebate program, which incentivizes volunteering or bike purchases with discounted bus passes. The committee also reviewed and approved the design for Phase 2 of the city's bicycle wayfinding signage project, aiming to expand signage beyond downtown. Finally, the committee passed a Vision Zero resolution, committing the city to eliminating traffic fatalities by 2050, and discussed strategies for public awareness of the Idaho Stop law. New members were welcomed, and an orientation will be scheduled.

== Key Decisions ==
- Approved the amended agenda.
- Approved the minutes from the February 13, 2025 meeting.
- Appointed Kathleen Gish to the Policy Planning and Law Subcommittee.
- Approved the design and moved forward with the construction of Phase 2 of the bicycle wayfinding project.
- Approved the Vision Zero resolution, committing the city to eliminating traffic fatalities by 2050.

== Motions & Votes ==
- Motion to amend the agenda — Passed.
- Motion to approve the agenda as amended — Passed.
- Motion to approve the February 13, 2025 minutes — Passed (Chair Garcia abstained).
- Motion to approve the design and move forward with the construction of the wayfinding project (Phase 2) — Passed.
- Motion to approve the Vision Zero resolution — Passed (Yes votes from Member McConnell, Member Piltchure, Member Schiffler, and Chair Garcia).

== Public Comment ==
No public comments were made during the designated "Communications from the Public" section. However, during discussions, committee members and a representative from Chainbreaker Collective provided input and suggestions on various topics, including MVD collaboration for information dissemination, expanding eligible volunteer organizations for the bus pass rebate program, the importance of a 'Contact Us' feature on the website, and the impact of the bus pass rebate program on community members.

== Topics ==
- Bike Infrastructure
- Safe Routes to School Program
- Idaho Stop Law
- Trails and Pathways Projects
- Community Engagement & Events
- Road Maintenance & Hazards
- City Council Engagement
- Bridge Projects
- Funding for Trails and Parks
- New Committee Members

== Full Transcript ==
Thank you, Romero. Can we call this meeting to order? Can we get a roll call, please?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Eric is excused. Member Angela Burkay, excused. Member Judith Gabriel, here. Member Tony Gerix, excused. Member Mark McConnell, here. Member Steve Pilchure, here. Member Ben Pengilly, here. Member Gary Schiffmiller, here. Member Helen Wang. Chair Michael Garcia, present. You have a quorum, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Thank you so much. Next up is the approval of the agenda. Are there any changes from staff today?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Member Gerix cannot come tonight, unfortunately. He wants Member Gary Schiffmiller to talk about the bill, the Idaho stop, if he can do it. So, item 7F will be represented by Member Schiffmiller instead of Member Geritz. Yes, Mr. Chair, and Santa Fe MO cannot come tonight.

Okay. So, we're confirming they cannot come just because we don't want to delete them and have them come in a couple minutes.

No, they cannot come.

Okay, great. So, those two changes. Anything else from staff?

Nothing, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Any changes from committee members? If not, I'll get a motion to amend the committee, I mean, the agenda.

Motion to amend the agenda as discussed and approved.

We've got to do the motion to amend. Yeah. Motion to approve as amended.

Okay. Move to approve as amended.

Oh, no. Sorry. Sorry. It's the end of the day. We have to amend first, then we have to motion to make final motion. So, amendment motion first. Will we approve the amendments of the agenda as presented?

Second.

Okay, we've got a second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Miss Glorios, can we get a roll call vote, please? Member Bird Gray. Oh, no. Are you... So, Member Gord Grave, it's just we're removing the MO update and we're changing the committee member presenting on the Idaho stop from Member Geritz to Member Schiffmiller. So, those are the amendments.

Member Gabriel, yes. Member McConnell, yes. Member Piltchure, yes. Member Penguili, yes. Member Schiffmiller, yes. Member Wang. Chair Garcia, yes. Motion passes.

Okay. Now that the agenda has been amended, we get a motion to approve as amended.

Move to approve the agenda as amended.

Second.

Okay. Any discussion? Hearing none. Miss Glorios, can we get a roll call vote, please? Member Beray. Member Gabriel, yes. Member McConnell, yes. Member Piltchure, yes. Member Pengilli. Member Schiffmiller, yes. Member Wang. Chair Garcia, yes. Motion passes.

Okay. Next up is item 4A, request approval of the February 13, 2025 minutes. Are there any changes from staff? Okay. Any changes from committee members? Hearing none. What's the will of the committee?

Move to accept.

Okay, we got a motion to approve the amendments.

Second.

Any discussion? May I get a roll call vote, please?

Member Bird Gray, yes. Member Gabriel, yes. Member McConnell, yes. Member Pilture, yes. Member Bengilly, yes. Member Schiffmiller, yes. Member Wang. Chair Garcia, I'm going to abstain just because I was absent from that meeting. Motion passes.

Thank you so much. Next up, communications from the public. Do we have any members of the public that would like to address the body tonight? And if so, just please step up to the podium. Anybody online? If so, please just raise your virtual hand. Okay, seeing none, let's go ahead and close that portion of the agenda and move to communications from other agencies. First up, Safe Routes to School. Mr. Harris, the floor is yours.

Good evening, Mr. Chair. My name is Ryan Harris. There's a few of you that I haven't met yet. So, I'm the Safe Routes to School Coordinator for Santa Fe Public Schools. And just very briefly, we are federally funded, hopefully for the remaining couple years. So far, so good. We're a federally funded program that encourages kids to walk or ride their bikes to schools through various programming. Great idea. So, just to give you all an update, now that the warmer weather is here, all 11 of our schools that do a weekly morning walk and roll to school program are up and running. We're getting really good turnout. Many of them, some of them are getting 20, 25 kids a week, which is awesome. Really excited about that. Our bike rodeo program is finally up and running. So, we've held seven successful bike rodeos. There were about 250 pre-K through first graders all on balance bikes, and we're seeing huge improvements in their skill level just in the 45 minutes to an hour we're working. The goal is to get this to the point where every school is checking this out, giving kids the opportunity to play with balance bikes, really start to get that balance when they're young enough to really make a difference. And then be looking next year, as long as I update pedal bikes to being able to pedal, with the goal of having higher youth being able to ride. We're seeing right now third to fifth grade, we're seeing maybe about, so we'd like to see that increase. The big one I wanted to talk about today is on May 7th, which is Bike to School Day. In the afternoon from 5:00 to 7:00, we are holding a family bike fiesta at Aspen Community Magnet School. That's going to be a district-wide invitation. I would like to invite you all to come as well. We'll start at French Field and do a two-mile bike parade with decorated bikes, cowbells, stuff. Excited. When they get there, we're going to have a bike rodeo as well as a mountain bike skills course for older kids. We'll have free popsicles. We'll have some people doing free bike repairs there. We're going to have the eco-hip-hop stylings of All Aboard Earth, who's going to be performing off the back of a trike with a battery-operated system. And I think it's just going to be really great.

Is the bike parade going to be up the river trail?

Yes. So, we'll start at Frenchies, go up the river trail. We'll have a secondary meeting point at John Grigo Park for the younger kids who maybe don't want to ride the full two miles, and they can join up with us there. And we'll have people at both sites with the bike decorations and helmets to give away. Well, and we have rid everybody's good and make sure the crossing all. So, yeah, 5:00 to 7:00, May 7th. I'll be sending a flyer to Raola. Yeah. It'll be really exciting.

Do you need volunteers or are we, are you asking us to come just as boosters?

I would love more volunteers. I mean, the more the merrier. And when you have that many kids on bikes, having adults around for the ride definitely helps. But whether you're at all...

So, just bike riders, basically, is what you would need.

Yeah. Okay. Right now, that's, that's got it. Okay.

Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Harris? Well, thank you, Ryan. I look forward to the update and thank you for the invitation. Next on the agenda is an update from Bike Santa Fe. Arya.

You members of the committee. First, I want to thank the committee for your help with the letter of support for passing SB73. That was really fantastic, and it has passed. So, Bike Santa Fe is working on informing the public about the new Idaho stop law, which goes into effect in July. And I believe you'll speak on that later. Tony Geritz is a big part of helping us with that, too. So, yeah, we definitely need the city's help, particularly, I think, with educating police officers and drivers would be fantastic. Bike Santa Fe is working on events for the Summer of Bike, which runs May through July this year. So, we're excited to have three months of bicycle-related events. It begins with the annual bike swap, which is a little early, on April 27th. And just make sure to keep an eye on our online calendar with all the other events coming up. Bicycle, Bike Santa Fe is partnering with MO and Reanimator on a grant to install bike racks around the city. So, we really want to thank MO for leading this project. The advocacy committee of Bike Santa Fe is also compiling a list of businesses in town that really need bike racks to improve bike parking. We are planning to host multiple bike valets again this year, but that's kind of a temporary solution for major events, and we really hope that we can improve, we recognize the need for more permanent options of bike parking. The advocacy committee is also continually discussing improving bike infrastructure, such as protected bike lanes. We plan to create a presentation on various types of protected bike lanes to this committee, possibly next month. We're following road improvement projects to try to add protected bike lanes to these roads that are already being worked on. One more note on road improvement, there's an issue of gutter seams that has been brought up to our committee as well as to this committee, I believe, by Hubert Van HC, maybe among others. So, when the pavement, when roads are paved, there's a seam between the curb and the road, which is creating a hazard for bicyclists. So, that's kind of another issue we're looking at. Lastly, we received an email from a cyclist about hazardous vegetation on Rabbit Road, which they've also reported to various officials. This is in addition to many other county and state roads in need of maintenance. And we wonder if the city has suggestions on how to reach the county and state to better maintain these roads, or if the city can help make sure they're maintained. That's all I have.

Thank you, Arya. Any questions for members?

Sure. Tell us a little bit more how you're going to decide where bike racks go, and are they going to be on property adjacent to businesses or maybe even on private property?

Yeah, I'm not sure of the details on MO is kind of leading the project of getting grants for those, and I believe they're probably looking mostly at public property for those. We are just starting to compile lists on private businesses as well that are, you know, really popular with the public or with us that don't currently have bike racks. So, we plan to try to connect and communicate with those businesses, too, and possibly in cahoots with our bike valets, such as Canyon Road. We have had been doing a bike valet in the summer, and so last year we were supposed to kind of talk to businesses on Canyon Road about installing more bike racks. So, that's an example of, yeah, possible projects moving forward. Yes.

Yes. Member McConnell, on the informing the public and the police, do you already have ideas or a campaign in order, or what's, do you have a plan?

We're starting to. Tony Geritz, who isn't here, is on our education committee. So, we are starting to create like a flyer for that, which will mostly be for the public and for cyclists, probably, of informing them of how it works. We also have a coalition with BikeABQ and Cusus, who I also believe are trying to create a campaign. So, we're going to try to continue to collaborate on that. But, yeah, it would be nice to have the city's help, especially for informing like law enforcement and other officials.

Okay, thank you. I think the media is a powerful mechanism. I don't know if we have access or what the method would be, but I would be interested in help.

We are looking at trying to get a video made, just a short video to share.

Thank you. Member Bericary.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you. That's great stuff. Regarding also getting the word out, I don't know how this works with the Motor Vehicle Division, but it's a law now. It's a state law. So, does anybody care to shed light on how they do or don't publicize this or make it a questionnaire? Yeah, driving test. I know on the driving test or on like state, I know there's a special state driving test for state employees or for other kinds of safety driving courses.

So, it would be great if it was included in those. Any other questions? The only comment I have, Arya, is if you wouldn't mind sending me the locations of Rabbit Road and the state roads, I'm happy to work with our partners at the county. Yeah, sure. The resident wasn't clear on the section they were talking about, but I can give you the idea of what is state and what is county. So, sure. Okay. If it's outside of our jurisdiction, we won't take action, but we can definitely work with our partners to hopefully get some action taken. Okay, thank you. Happy to do so.

I don't see any other. Oh, Member April. Really just a comment. I really like the idea of working with MVD somehow, even if we just leave informational pamphlets or something at MVD offices. And as a former state employee, we were all required to take defensive driving, which I think you're referring to, and that would be a great place to get some information. So, thank you for that. Any other questions? Seeing none, thank you, Arya. Thanks. Appreciate the update.

Next up is Public Safety Committee. Member Pilchure. Thank you. I have nothing to report. The committee did not meet last month due to the lack of a quorum. Whatever we decide tonight in terms of particularly advising the police department, I'll be happy to carry that forward to a meeting next Tuesday. Any questions for Member Pilchure? Seeing none, let's go and move on to the next agenda item, which is 7A, appointment of Kathleen Gish to the Policy Planning and Law Subcommittee. So at this moment, Ms. Lariosa would like to appoint her to that subcommittee, and we'll have the appropriate subcommittee chair reach out to her to inform them of the meeting schedule, cadence of meetings, etc. Okay, great.

Next item is item 7B, discussion of Resolution 2013-60. Mr. Andrew Baca, Interim Director of Operations Trails. Is the little light green on there? Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, committee. I wanted to bring to the attention, out of respect for this committee and utilizing this public forum, a reminder of City of Santa Fe, New Mexico Resolution 2013-60. If you're unfamiliar, it's to promote healthier lifestyle and cleaner environment by creating a bus pass rebate program for the residents of Santa Fe with working or working with vendors of bicycle equipment and the relocation of $50,000 out of the general fund to create this bus pass program. So, I wanted to bring the attention to the committee and reintroduce this for a few reasons. One of the biggest reasons is coronavirus relief funds, free fare funds, ARPA funds, pass-through grants and funds. Those are all now expiring. And of course, in the current climate that we have with the new federal coming in, we worry about that potential. We hadn't really had to draw down off of this resolution in the last three years or so. So, I didn't want people to forget that it was there, and we are definitely looking to reincorporate it into what we do. One thing I would like to do with the permission of the committee is call up Tomas Rivera, who is one of the founders of this resolution and also of Chainbreakers, one of the entities, if not the largest entity that we partner with for this bus program.

Mr. Thank you, Director Baca, Chair Garcia, and members of the committee. Yes, my name is Tomas Rietta. I am with Chainbreaker Collective. I have been for 20 years. For those of you who don't know, Chainbreaker is a membership-led economic and environmental justice organization here in Santa Fe. We do have a bicycle resource center that distributes bicycles. We've given out 10,000 bikes over the last 20 years through that program and taught mechanic skills to countless amounts of people. This is a resolution that we worked on 13 years ago. It did come through this committee, which was then by ETAC, under Chair Councilwoman Boucher. And it's been a great resolution. I think this is an example of really good coalescence of bicycle and pedestrian and bus rider policy. Good policy, good politics. And I'm here to just answer any questions. And again, with Director Baca here, to just let you know this is moving forward. Now is the time, I think, to expand and to really go deep into community policies like this that have been really just quite a benefit to people's, really making a difference in people's lives. So, I guess I, we can stand for questions or if you have any more information that you'd like to hear. Questions?

Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Reida or just going to go left to right? Shift Miller filter. Could you just briefly explain how the program works? I'm unfamiliar with it.

Currently, the way the program works is an individual has to go and participate either their time or spend a certain amount at these bicycle vendors, which then qualifies them for a rebate to utilize the bus service where they would get a discounted or even free pass to connect or create that first to last mile connectivity with transportation, public transportation in the city of Santa Fe. We would like to develop it even further. We again wanted to use this public forum as an opening to again announce to everybody that we will need to utilize these funds, but as well as take any opinion, anybody who wanted to come in and further discuss the parameters of it and just shed light to the public. And we thought it was very befitting that this committee, because of bicycle pedestrian as well as transportation related, be aware of it and then be welcome to join in in the discussion with it and start that conversation. So again, they would, for instance, go and provide some time with Chainbreakers to a certain level and then they would then qualify for an annual pass, which is a cost savings of around $200 to $250, which would provide them that connectivity for one year. That's just one example, but there are several kind of variations. They could go into a bicycle shop, so a for-profit vendor, spend a certain amount. I believe the threshold is $250 to $300 depending on the vendor, and then that would qualify them for that free annual pass. But again, we would like to kind of discuss and reset the parameters. I think that $250 in this climate is kind of a large hurdle, and we would like to see and reach as many people to promote that connectivity and maybe see if we can negotiate or figure out a better stance for those parameters and see what we can do to get more people connected for bicycle to transportation to pedestrian to make sure again we're connecting that first and last mile. Please.

And so I guess just to tack on to that for a little bit of background, at the time, again, this is 12 or 13 years ago, the idea was actually modeled on a washing machine rebate program or something like that that the city was doing at the time. So, I think that is definitely some of the policy. The funds, as I understand it, are there and been allocated, but some of the, some of the way it moves needs to be updated. And so we're here and committed to work with the transit department, with Director Baca, and with the rest of the community to help update that and make it more functional for the current day. One thing I want to mention that I don't think I did before is Chainbreaker, our mission is largely to help people who don't have access to transportation to get one, to gain access one way or the other. And really a bicycle, as you all know, can be a challenge in the city if that's your main source of transportation, but a bicycle plus a bus pass is how so many of our members get around. So this really bridges that gap there for people all over the spectrum.

Question filter. So the resolution talks about a $50,000 of funds. Was that just a one-time? So we're still drawing down on that original $50,000 or is it being replenished?

It's an annual expenditure from the general fund. Okay. Thank you.

Anna. How do people find out about this? What are you doing for publicity?

That's part of one of the reasons again to come here as a public forum, thinking of course this committee and where they stand as a pillar for the community, create that public discussion and then potentially utilizing some of these funds or help to redistribute and make people aware of this program. We do currently provide some variation of advertisement as far as flyers on public transportation. A lot of it is word of mouth as well as utilizing the vendors to help promote and enroll that, especially with our membership base. So we want to again figure out a way to make this more transparent. Me myself, interim director of transportation. So I wanted to hit the ground running. I was looking at all different variables and aspects, and if you've been enlightened to what we're doing in transportation, we kind of have a new rollout. I have different phase planning that we're hoping to engineer and we're kind of distributing out through the year. And this was another one of those facets that we needed to make sure that we hit that we're across all demographics, across all walks of life of everybody who needs that connectivity that we're promoting. So, this was just another one of those key pieces that I find are fundamental to transportation as a whole for the public here in Santa Fe. So, I wanted to address it. Fortunately, we reinstated TAB, the Transit Advisory Board, and one of those members is Andreas, who is part of Chainbreakers, which he and I started the conversation. And so, we just wanted to kind of keep rolling with it, make it more public, see where we're at with it, invite other people to discuss it and kind of start that again and reinitiate, make it public that this rebate program is out there, but also again evolve it. Right? This is 13 years ago. So we need, just like transportation in my previous speech to the board, etc., we need to evolve. You need to continue to evolve. Times are changing, climates are changing, circumstances are changing, people and their modes. I mean, smartphones huge nowadays. Transportation itself is already testing its, how would you say this? It's in the background testing its visibility to the public with soon to roll out an application that lets you see exactly where your bus is. This will be large for individuals with the biking. We're able to put out announcements, one of which would be potentially that this rebate program exists. So again, just being as transparent, creating that connectivity. That's our ultimate goal is that connectivity, getting people where they go. Everybody knows that Santa Fe streets aren't laid out perfectly engineered. So we want to make sure that everybody has that outlet and some of the hardest things are bike paths to get here and there. So we want to make sure that at where a bike may not be able to traverse there, we are as public transit and again activity. Any other questions?

Member Gabriel and then Member Porter Gary. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I have one question and one comment, and I'm wondering if it's possible to expand the volunteer organizations so that people who are actively working on improving transportation like Bike Santa Fe or other organizations could also solicit volunteers. So, just something to think about. And the other thing is, and I'm going to talk about this on the next agenda item, we could put this on our website. It's just a newly improved website. I have no idea how many hits we're going to get, but I think we, if we could get this information out in as many venues as possible, that would be great. So, I would like to put it on the website.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair Garcia and members of the committee. To speak a little bit to the outreach, the Chamber has 800 dues-paying members. We are riding buses, doing outreach constantly. We're doing events. We're working with some of the organizations you mentioned. So, we'll continue to do that kind of outreach, especially once it gets updated.

To speak directly to what you're saying, the reason that Chainbreaker has been carved out as a volunteer organization in the resolution in the beginning was because of that rebate approach to it. Because we do distribute bicycles, the volunteering was considered by what was then the city attorney as payment for the bicycle. Yes, payment for the bicycle, which was a key component of the resolution as it was written 13 years ago. So, we're really hoping to work with Director Baca here to update it, and that's one of those things we can update, and I would love to see that expansion. Of course, Chainbreaker will work towards that.

Thank you, Chair. It's new information for me. I'm glad to hear about it and just sort of the explanation for this rebate program, for dummies like myself. So, I'm a resident, and I use a bus to go where I go, and I don't own a bike. So, this is intended for transit people who are using the bus and need that extra vehicle, as it were, to get somewhere. So, it has a pretty targeted demographic in that regard.

In a sense, it does. It doesn't indicate that you must own a bike, but you can go and participate, like Chainbreaker. Your time would make relevance to you being able to procure one of those annual passes. So, your time would be of that value, not necessarily because you own a bike, but because you provided time at that bike vendor to help somebody maybe fix their bike, learn to ride a bike, help with the distributions. They do a lot of surveying on the side of our buses. Different variations like that would help you still gain access to that bus pass rebate. So, you being a proprietor of the bike itself is not really a necessity, but providing that kind of outlet through the bicycle program. As I said, it's just to formulate it as a rebate program. It's the initiation of change of either the purchase through the bike vendor or your time to that vendor that allows you to receive that rebate.

Thank you. Now, it's not to put you on the spot, but I'm curious about the metrics in terms of the participation rate as the program has been in existence. Can you give us an idea? I don't know if you have numbers or just examples of how this has worked for many people.

Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Chair Garcia and members of the committee. I think that a lot of the language is so specific to that moment in time and where those funds were meant to be allocated at that time around bicycles. Hopefully, it's Chainbreaker's intention to keep working with the Transit Department to expand it, to update it, and to detach it a little bit from the history there.

To answer the current question that you asked, I think that there are two ways: there's a qualitative data and there's a quantitative data approach to this. Chainbreaker does track those numbers. As I said, we have given out 10,000 bikes. The majority of those are to people who are using them as their main source of transportation. Internally, we do that through our own database process, and we track our own records. As far as this goes, I'm sure that the actual Transit Department has records of the bus passes themselves. So, I'm not going to speak to the quantitative approach to it.

What I can say is that our members, transportation is such a fundamental need that people have. We've talked to members who, because of this program, have been able to get a job in the first place, get to job interviews, get to school. Because the annual bus pass was actually created to support this rebate at the time, it didn't exist before. People having access to that $200 essentially in their pockets really makes the difference for so many of our members. I would be happy to bring some of them to talk to BPAC in the future. It is a life-changing thing to have access to transportation, school, anywhere. As you all know, what we always say is a bike plus a bus pass is how you get around the state.

To add to that just a little bit in the quantitative portion of it, prior to COVID, we did have several enrollments, up to one of the highest years of 45 individuals who utilized that bus rebate program. COVID, of course, put a damper on things, but again, those different funding sources did help alleviate, like the COVID relief funds, things of that nature. So again, to bring this to the attention that we will need to start utilizing, because all of that has stopped as of now. It did trickle off because again, fewer people were venturing out, more people were inhibited, and so we wanted to open it back up. We were as low as, I believe, 11 individuals last year. The year prior to that was our lowest with 10 individuals. So again, to promote it back out there, to get back up to those pre-COVID numbers, because we are in the turnaround, right? We want to get to pre-COVID lifestyle, pre-COVID levels. We want to turn everything around. We're now again evolving, but we want to hit the ground running. We want to do it from an evolved state and make sure that we now have an understanding of this. We have some pre and post numbers, and then help make sure that we're reaching all those communities and then let them know that this program is available and redefine it.

Thank you. Any other questions from committee members? Thank you for the information, and I'd be happy to work with you all offline to begin to start modernizing this resolution, and then we can bring it before the body as we and move it forward with legislation.

Mr. Chair, if I can ask a question.

Sure. Does Director Baca, does Transit still receive this funding, and if so, is it in the budget for 2026 for Public Works?

So, we have not drawn down on this funding because we were utilizing, as I said, the ARPA, the Coronavirus Relief, and other pass-through grant funding. We will be looking to draw it down again. So again, utilizing this committee, as well as the respect you have and the foundation you have with the public, the bicycle, the pedestrian, this directly relates and translates to them. So, we wanted to start here, but it is not currently proposed in that. So, the look is to start it for the next fiscal year and make sure that we have those funds readily available, allocated as seen fit in the resolution.

So, just to clarify, we've been using the outside sources in the past. The upcoming fiscal year budget that the council, the governing body, will be considering within the next month, it is not in that budget. Am I understanding that?

You are correct.

Okay. So, thank you. That'll help me to fight to put it back. Thank you, sir. I guess the question is, at minimum, how much do you foresee us needing? Because if push comes to shove and I can't get the $50,000, will $25,000 suffice? I don't want to undercut any appropriation, but I also don't want to put us in a position where we overestimate either.

Chair Garcia, committee, and I appreciate that so much. I would say that about $27,250, just pre-COVID, was the number that we had on file in regards to the books, would be sufficient enough to carry us over for the individual fiscal. I think with the evolution that I'm looking to do for transportation, whether it be new farebox system, the micro-transit introduction, the visibility at the bare minimum of the buses may help promote this utilization and then therefore would need the increase. But yes, for the first year, I would say about $27,250 would be the appropriate fund.

Okay. And then should it be successful and we run out of money for the program, obviously they would cease. But how close of an eye is going to be kept on it? Because let's say we get the money in there and we promote the heck out of the program, and it's super successful, and by December, we've used all of the resources for bus passes. I don't want to turn people away by any means. So, I guess the question is, how quick of a time and turnaround will you be able to inform at least me to inform the powers that be to see if we could get a bar made to put more money into this particular fund?

With the partnership we've developed with the vendors, working bilaterally, we would be able to give you within a couple days' notice, I guarantee it. We keep on hand those normal metrics, and I think we would operate as the control with the independent variable being institutions such as Chainbreaker to help us go ahead and keep a running track and a live document that would let you be able to be up to date with that information.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Baca. Now, back to the original kind of comment I was making in regards to modernizing this resolution. Is the TAB already discussing this? TAB is, sorry for committee members, TAB is the Transit Advisory Board.

There was just the introduction to TAB to let them know that we wanted to start here out of respect for what your committee stands for and then introduce to them to maybe help define if again, open it up to your feedback and see where you felt the evolutionary state needed to develop towards. And then Transit is just a portion of that facet, right? So, this leans more towards the bicyclist as well as the public transportation. So, at best, they're one half of the entirety of the conversation. We wanted to start with the bicycle front first and then transportation itself. They're providing the rebate, but they're essentially just providing the ride and the pass itself. So, essentially, this comes from the work of the bicyclist. And so, we wanted again to bring it to this committee, open it up to public notification, and allow them to provide that feedback, start the conversation there. Then we'll go ahead and introduce it into TAB because they would be the secondary portion to that. A little more, we're already going that direction kind of thing as transportation. So, we would just kind of add you on board. They would become a committee that would help with the evolution of it. But again, to re-distinguish the terminology and make it a little more vast so we can incorporate more individuals into this program and really get people to utilize it.

Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that update. I appreciate bringing it here first, and but I do see it as a collaborative opportunity to work alongside TAB, and then we develop a strong resolution that could ultimately be introduced at the governing body level that would still come back to BPAC and TAB in an advisory role versus the kind of policy suggestor role. Thank you. I appreciate that.

And I think, Mr. Baca, we'll continue to have this conversation with you offline around the allocation for fiscal year '26 because with the budget process, the way it works is I've got to figure out where to pull money from. And I'd like to lean on your expertise if there's anywhere within your department that we can utilize funds from, because if not, then I've got to search high and low where to find $27,000 for this program. But I fully support it and want it to continue. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, committee.

Any other questions for Mr. Buck or Mr. Ietta? Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate this update, and we'll continue the conversation. Let's go ahead and move on to the next agenda item, which is BPAC webpage development.

Member Gabriel: I think most of you know we have been working on updating the BPAC webpage for some time now. It might be more than a year. I don't know. It's taken forever. So I just wanted to take people through it very quickly, and also thank Romela and Aaron in the Communications Department at the city for helping with this. They have a lot going on regarding communications for the city, and this took quite some time. So the city has a standardized format for all the webpages. So when our subcommittee—Oh, I would also like to thank the subcommittee of the Promotion, Education, and Communication, and Randy is here tonight, and Angela—we went back and forth many times to figure out what we thought was most important to put on here. And I think we had a slightly different vision, but as I said, there's a standardized format that the city likes to use. So everything looks very similar when people go to different pages.

So all the information we wanted is here, and it starts with just an explanation about the committee, who we are, what we do. There's more details to follow. And then it gives information about how to get on the agenda, or if you want to see the agenda and packet for the upcoming meeting, you just go to where it says "click here," and it takes you to the agenda and packet. If you—oops, went back twice. If you are interested in reading past minutes, you click here, and you can actually access all different committees and meeting minutes. And you do have to scroll down to find BPAC, which I am not doing very well right here. And then you can get past meeting minutes so you can keep track of what's been happening.

And we have our current strategic plan. I think the city's strategy to keep some of the webpages very clean, most of the stuff is done through links. So here is our strategic plan. Oh, I didn't mean to do that. Use the back arrow. It really is very easy to navigate through here. So we have the strategic plan. Then we have resolutions and ordinances, and it occurred to me just yesterday that perhaps we should change this to legislation. I would like to add the Idaho Stop legislation here. I think it would be a good place to add it. And I'm just going to click on a couple of things here. This is our enabling legislation. And then we have our Complete Streets Resolution, the Electrical Bicycle Ordinance, and the Maintenance Resolution. Not going to click on them for saving time.

We have links of our essential partners, and the three that we decided to focus on were Bike Santa Fe, Mo, and the Santa Fe Conservation Trust. I recently requested of Aaron that we add an events link, and after listening about this latest program, I think we should have an events and programs link. And it's not up yet, but we are going to have the bike swap on there. We are going to have the Santa Fe Conservation Trust Vomos program on there, and Summer of Bikes. So that will be a heading, and we will have any kind of event, and would appreciate it if people actually send us information about events or programs that should be on here.

We also have a little bit about our history. As many of you know, it's evolved over time. It used to be called the Bicycle and Trail Advisory Committee. So this is where our history is. And then we have membership information. And see, already we need to make changes. We've got two new members. So I will be seeking bios from both of our new members. And it's broken up by district. So it's just a brief description of why we have joined the committee. We originally thought we were going to have our pictures on here. So I apologize because I hounded everybody for pictures, but I believe it's for safety that they don't put pictures on, right? So no pictures on the website.

And last thing, we wanted lots of pictures of diverse types of users using the trails. So we're talking about ability diversity, racial and ethnic diversity, age diversity. That proved to be a huge challenge. There I am with my dogs. And if anybody has pictures that they could share, we got a whole bunch of these from the MO. They had a photo contest last year, and they had already gotten permission to post pictures. So a lot of these are from the MO. And that is basically it. Are there any questions about the webpage? And again, thank you to everybody who helped with this amazing site. Any questions?

Member Pilchure: Member Shift Miller. Judith, was there a link to or like a "Contact Us" tab? Why did we decide not to do that? Oh, that's why it's not allowed, because I remember we talked about it in case anybody had suggestions or anything. So I still think it's kind of important to be able to be in contact with us, and I'm not sure what would be the best approach for doing that.

The decision was to ask for an email just for BPAC, and you will manage it, but I requested it, and nothing happened. So maybe Chair Garcia can ask them.

Is that, do we work with the communications folks or IT?

No, it's IT.

Okay. They, I, yeah. So what would need to happen is similar to any email domain. Like, for example, mine is mgarcia@santafe.gov. Hypothetically, we should create one that says bpac@santafe.gov. Now, the technicality of it that we wanted to check with IT is, can we give permissions to residents to have access to email, or would that permission be granted to me, and then I can just farm them out? So I would have access to the email inbox as a city employee, and then we as a committee would determine who would be the appropriate entity that I can say, "Here are the emails we received for the day," and I can send them off that way. So that could be an avenue we can go about it.

So, are you saying, Chair Garcia, that it would have a BPAC address, but you would be vetting the information and sending it to us?

Right. And I don't want to say vetting. I mean, I would just be the facility, the conduit, really. Yes. Because I don't know if a resident can have access to the servers, so to speak, because you've got to log into the system to check your email. I mean, mine is automatically set up, but if I wanted to remote in off of a personal device, you have to have credentials. And I think that's the question: Do we give credentials to a resident, or would it be more appropriate for it to be assigned to me as a BPAC chair, and it lives with the BPAC chair? Because the BPAC chair is going to be a councilor. And the BPAC chair can work with the committee to get that communications out. I don't, and the reason why I see that as a viable option is I don't see this as an email address that's going to be receiving tens of thousands of emails a day, and it should be a manageable process. I think it's just, what does the process look like once the chair gets the emails? Who do they farm them out to? You know, for example, if it's a maintenance issue, well, the chair could address it because they're a councilor, and they can route it through constituent services. But if it's more of a recommendation for the committee to take a conversation and discuss discussion topic, then there's got to be appropriate committee person. We can continue to have that discussion.

Member Gabriel: Just because I think it is viable to have a point of contact, so to speak. Thank you.

Sure.

Member Reporter Gary: I did notice that your email address is in the first paragraph, and it seems to me that people might contact you. I mean, that's already there. Not that you want it, but I see the value of this, but I just wanted to point out that if somebody wanted more information, they email you, I guess. Looks like your phone number's on there, too.

That's what happens because I'm the staff liaison. So all correspondence comes to me, and then as Councilor Garcia, other members of the committee, I do think there's a value to having a "Contact Us" button or whatever to encourage accessibility and encourage to contact us directly. So however we can figure that out, I think it would be great.

Right. And it would be helpful to not overwhelm Romela with BPAC inquiries because this isn't your only job. This is one of the many hats you wear.

Sure.

Member Pilchure: On the links to the outside agencies like Bike Santa Fe, etc., does it warn people that they're exiting the city's website? So if you start to click that I want to go to Bike Santa Fe, does the city have it set up so a little window pops up, "You're about to leave the City of Santa Fe website"?

It does not. And I might sound ignorant, but tell me the importance of that so that they know that it is not part of the city.

That helps, and also so they realize that they may have to go all the way back around the building, come in the front door again, like you just had to do.

All you really need to do is use the back arrow. I was just being incompetent this evening.

Oh, I've seen a number of other places where they'll give you a warning that you're leaving the site, or it could just say "Links to outside agencies." That might be clear enough.

But yeah, that's interesting because Aaron never mentioned that as being a necessary thing. So maybe the city doesn't, that's not a concern of theirs.

Yeah, I would agree. It's not necessary. It's maybe nice, but not absolutely needed. Do you think I should talk to Aaron about it? Okay. Any other questions or comments?

Yeah, about a comment. And first of all, I'd like to say I agree with Member Pilchure. I think it's important that people know that if they click on an outside link, they are no longer on a page that's affiliated with the city, just for clarity. Also, in the legislation ordinance section, you might consider a link to the most current UTO, Uniform Traffic Ordinance, that has all the ordinances related to bicycles, pedestrians, and automobiles.

That's a great idea. Thank you. Anything else? Right. Seeing none, thank you, Member Gabriel, for the beautiful website.

Thank you. It's been a long work in progress.

Okay, with that, let's go and move on to item 7D, review of Phase 2 Bicycle Wayfinding Signage Project. Mr. Tim Rogers, the floor is yours, sir. Tim, one second. Just want to make sure the mic is on. Is it lit up green? How about now? Perfect. Yeah.

Okay. So, we have a trails program, and initially funded by the city. We have a lot of other diverse funding now. It includes the city. We do, we have agreements with City Parks to maintain the dirt trails, La Tierra and Dale Ball trails. We now have a similar agreement with the county to maintain their dirt trails. And in the, we promote trails, walking, biking. We created the Safe Routes to School program and handed it off to Santa Fe Public Schools. And so a wide variety of activities to promote walking and biking. I do have an email list that I'd be very happy to put new members' emails on that publicizes trail work days, other public events, planning and design meetings relating to walking and biking, things like that. So I would be very happy to add you to that list. I'm here today to talk about a, oh, and I should also add that I have been doing bike and pedestrian planning in Santa Fe and New Mexico for 20 years. And so I really have some knowledge and expertise on the guidelines for the design, planning, and design of bike pedestrian facilities, which I'm always very happy to share with the city and the county.

For that reason, I have been on and off, but I'm back on the technical reviews of BPAC. Thank you.

So today, under agreement with Public Works, I'm presenting what is Phase Two of the Bicycle Wayfinding Project. This is an activity that did come out of BTAC years ago, Phase One, and it's been continued under BPAC. So Phase One, if you've noticed, there's bike wayfinding signage, which is white-on-green signage providing guidance to bicyclists on trails that has been put up downtown and connecting downtown to the River, Acequia, and Rail Trails. So that was kind of the focus of Phase One. In Phase Two, we're really expanding it outward, both geographic scope, but also encompassing new improvements that have happened that really is where wayfinding is needed when suddenly you have choices. And thanks to all the trail projects that we've had and the street projects that link the trails, we have a lot of needs because our system is not, it's pretty confusing if you get out on a bike and try to figure out, "Well, okay, I'm on the River Trail. How do I get to the Rail Trail?" Now there is some wayfinding that shows you how to get from Alto Park, for example, to where the Acequia Trail meets another trail, takes you to the Rail Trail. There's various ways to do it, and that was all part of Phase One.

This is Phase Two. Actually, in your packet was the entire kind of first draft product that we provide Public Works with. So the mapping of where the signage goes, tables with the actual, there's two sets of tables. It's very repetitive. One set is for the people who are manufacturing the signs, one set is for the people who are installing the signs. And so it's just a different presentation of the same information. But that was from early February, and so I did receive input from the city and had a chance to revise some things and expand some things. It's pretty much the same, but I did want to present the latest, which is what we have here.

So I'm going to go to, here's the map showing what's in Phase Two. And I don't have, normally when I've presented this information to BPAC, I've shown the sequence. So here's Phase One, here's Phase Two. I don't have that here. This is really focusing on Phase Two. You can see that there's a lot of solid lines, blue lines that are the central and west and southwestern part of the city. There's a lot of circles on the east side. The circles are kind of remedial work on areas where Phase One was, and certain trails, specifically the Acequia Trail, is one that's very hard to follow. And there are places where there was past wayfinding that already existed that wasn't part of Phase One that kind of needed to be revisited and revised. But really, it's critical connecting now that we have a connection from the Acequia Trail to Rufina Street. That is really right now the biggest need. I mean, I run into people on Otowi, like when I'm scoping out where this signage goes, I run into people all the time that are asking me, "You know, how do you keep going?" And that's why the signage is going up. It's also why, I forgot to mention, I'm doing, leading a community cruise on May 2nd, which I'll invite you all to, or May 10th, I'm sorry. It's part of the Summer of Bike, which May is Bike Month. And that's initially how I got kind of in this business of trying to help people find their way on these trails and helping the city and the NMDOT make the bike map. You know, what are the mellow streets we can use to connect the trails? It's all the same. The community cruises, I'm taking you there. You know, these signs, I can't be there all the time. The signs can actually be there all the time. And if we design them right, put them in the right spots, then people won't need me to lead them through.

So the Acequia Trail is one, and it's a little tricky because it's going to change soon, because soon we're going to have, not real soon, but we're going to have a trail that will go from the end of Otowi Drive to Maze through Maclovia Park. That's a future piece of the Acequia Trail. So for this one, I had to do kind of some signage that shows how to do it now, but they can very simply be changed when after that project comes in. But the ends are the same to town from Otowi. How do you get out from Armijo Rodriguez Park, which is what the Acequia Trail arrives at now, to get to Rufina Street? That won't change. So the contingency, the changes are very few, in fact, to make that happen.

So you can see on this map, we also include way in the southwest, the Tierra Contenta Trail. That is anticipating the next project that will be under construction by the city, which will bring the Tierra Contenta Trail up to South Meadows. And so people in the past asked, "Well, how come you're not doing wayfinding on the south side?" Well, it's because there weren't really choices. There were streets, and the streets, the wayfinding is the same for the cars. Now we're getting connectivity with trails that's giving you, there's alternatives, and there's a purpose for giving people wayfinding. You don't have to ride your bike on the streets that you drive on. So we're trying to get people to discover the bike lanes of Rufina and that they now connect in from town. They will soon connect out. Another project, the Acequia Trail West or the Acequia Trail extension, is under design. And in fact, I'm showing it in red there because we realized the NMDOT suggested and the city agreed that instead of making that part of this standalone wayfinding project, that that information could just go into that trail design project. So that was taken out.

Another very tricky thing is the Arroyo Chamiso Trail. When you get to the end of the trail, how do you continue? And you actually have to go through Nava Ade and use Nava Ade trails. You can also use Governor Miles Road. Los Soleras Park is where you can get to Los Soleras. Presbyterian Hospital hasn't actually built the trail beyond there yet, but you can get to Los Soleras Park. And so, in terms of destinations of wayfinding, we use well-known places. You know, in the first round, Plaza and Railyard are obvious destinations. And parks are also great destinations. It's not that everyone riding a bike is looking for a park. You just have to understand, where does this trail go? How does it connect to something else? So being able to say Los Soleras Park was very helpful because it's named after a large area that hopefully people understand.

Also, the other main pieces I haven't mentioned are going north, and we have a new trail, the Cañada Ancha Trail, that can be connected from Rio Vista and Cañada de los Alamos. It's a natural route. It can get you all the way up to Tano Road. And so that is a route that actually is piggybacking on what we were already planning, which is the route to get to La Tierra Trails. So both of those, there's wayfinding. There will be wayfinding from the River Trail across from Gonzalez School. So you on the trail behind Gonzalez School, you get to Rio Vista and Camino de las Casitas. So it'll say, "La Tierra Trails straight, Cañada Ancha Trail, take a right."

So as I mentioned, those are the main pieces. We do have with the Acequia Trail, we are putting wayfinding on a lot of the connections to and from the River Trail, including on the River Trail, pointing out how to get to the Acequia Trail or how to get to Henry Lynch Road, for example, and which is a minor, which is, there's a little bit of county here because the county is building a new piece of River Trail, but it's about 90, more than 95% city. We have presented this to the county staff as well as NMDOT. We do have some other, some really small spots like St. Francis Drive that relate to NMDOT as well. So these are just a lot of notes that explain some of the technical stuff that follows.

But to go over like the sum total of what we're proposing here, this is probably as hard for me as it is for you right there. We are looking at 137 assemblies, which means, you know, a spot where there's a sign on or on something that is affected. Now, they're not all new. In fact, we try to use existing assemblies as much as possible, as well as power poles. And so actually, it's 75 new assemblies, so a little more than, in some cases, we're moving plaques, moving assemblies farther away. And then the number of plaques, which is the number of actual signs to produce, is 174. So this is, I think it's a little bigger than Phase One was. I'd have to review that. See, it's much bigger. Phase One was 100 and something, low hundreds, I guess, into the plaques. So this does have a broader geographic scope.

And so, and I should mention that the purchase order we have with Public Works, three-quarters of it is this Phase Two. We did call it Phase Two and Phase Three, but it's really just, we put it all into Phase Two. Maybe there'll be a Phase Three. There's definitely other needs in the future. Again, this is really focusing on connections between the major trails. And so major trails themselves actually don't have a lot of way to tell you like, "How far are you from the Plaza or something?" Also, wherever they connect to streets, there should always be a sign that says, "You know, Rail Trail and this street, Cañada," you know, whichever. And that's just a standard. So whenever, wherever I'm doing this work, we're actually putting a lot of those in on Tierra Contenta Trail, for example. But there will be more needs on the trails. That really wasn't necessarily the focus of this.

So that's really the information. The rest of it is, we could maybe look at one of the trails if you're interested so you can see kind of what it's going to look like. I was thinking about the Acequia, but the stuff is very complicated because of the contingencies and because some of it's remedial. So it doesn't show everything. So one that's pretty simple is maybe River to La Tierra Trails. Just going to look. So apologies. I know we talked about the Acequia Trail and showing that. I think the Acequia Trail is the most important one to try to do first because people are just lost in terms of presenting this information. We could maybe go to the trail app. See that? Great.

So these symbols here, the black dot and the straight line, this is how you show a signpost, you know. So in my, in what I'm doing, the solid dot is a new spot for signs. So as I mentioned, the route to La Tierra Trails will start and finish if you're at the River Trail across from Gonzalez School and a trail that leads up to the crosswalk that leads to the trail that goes behind Gonzalez. What we're going to direct people on. So we'll have signs that will say, "Take this trail. It goes to La Tierra Trails." We'll also have wayfinding, as I mentioned, the type that's needed on this, putting this kind of wayfinding for connections. We'll put this here on the River Trail. You might not realize which way is downtown, which way is not. Again, using downtown, everyone can understand Alto Park. They might not know, but it's like, "Okay, that's not downtown." That's what's in this. It's kind of the strategy. So we would take people when they get on the trail, we'll let them know, "Oh, you're trying to go to La Tierra Trails. It's two miles. Cañada Ancha Trail is a mile." You get to the back of the school. Actually, there is a nice route downtown when you arrive there. You can, that we incorporated into this because we didn't need to tell people, "Take a left to go to the trails." There'll be follow-up signage that will tell them that needs. There is a good route to go downtown from here across St.

Francis, you can get West San Francisco Street. That's one at St. Francis. It's a state highway. Putting that one sign up, a lot of people don't realize on San Francisco, you're puzzled. But for the folks looking for the trails, they get to Rio Vista Street trails straight. Right. And so, see, there's signage showing people we're doing. That's the roundabout up at Alamo Drive. We'll give them a little reinforcement. La Tierra Trails is one mile away. This is kind of unique to this project. We have the dog park connector when you get to Buckman Road from Camino Las Cruces.

So, sorry, Los Cruces, that's right. So, we're actually using a white on brown sign to indicate that it's a little different from the rest of the wayfinding, that there's a dirt trail you can take a right on. We even invented a little mountain bike icon to show that it's different. We put in a hiker. It's a hiking and biking trail. Just as a note, when we have the wayfinding on a trail, we don't put the bike there. Trail bikers don't need. We're trying to get rid of these signs that say "bike route" everywhere you go. "Bike route." Don't need those. Actually, some of these are replaced, and the ones on the trails are not needed. If you're on a trail, it might be a bike, it might be a pedestrian, but when you have signs on the streets that are specifically about where bikes can go, that's where we. So, this is unique. It's also giving people the option of riding, staying on the road, or getting on the trail. And then we have to give them another right turn indicator at Caminos. And that's it. Once they get up to the La Tierra Trails area, there's already wayfinding signage up here that tells them how to use the underpass.

And so, the only other little hanging chad, you could say, of what I just showed you is what I mentioned, that we directed people downtown on Camino de Las. They would cross on Peralta, which actually has a very nice shoulder, and they can take a right, cross three quarters. So, absolutely, that's this is exactly how far I wanted to make it. I wanted to show you guys one route that's straightforward. I can show you others more complicated, but I think this gives you about. So, I'm standing for questions. Thank you.

Thanks, Tim. This is great. Forgive me if this is in the packet. I kind of looked for it. I have a question about a sign that is at the end of the St. Francis Trail at Galisteo. So, I use that trail quite frequently. I come up St. Francis, and then it goes east. And where the trail ends, it says "St. Francis Trail," which doesn't make sense to me because you're getting off the St. Francis Trail, and it seems like it should be facing the way you would see it getting onto the trail. Is that in there? I couldn't tell.

Absolutely right. And that was actually in phase one, and it didn't happen. So, it's in phase two again. Those little blue circles. There are little blue circles in the area you're talking about. It's needed at Zia. It's needed at St. Michaels, and it's needed twice at Siringo. So, yeah, the signs are facing the wrong way. They're telling the people coming to a street that they're on the St. Francis Trail. Tell people who are getting onto the St. Francis Trail. That's what it is.

Great. Thank you. Member Pilcher. Emma, what's the standard sign height?

These are, these signs are a sign like this that is just one line is six inches tall.

I meant above, above grade, those sign signposts.

That's up to the installers, but you're supposed to have, like, I think at least seven feet. That's when you're in a street next to a sidewalk. Also, if you're like on a trail and you're off the trail further, you know, it might be okay to have it lower, but if you're close to the trail, you also. But I don't really have those specifications here. That's up to the installers and the city's direction to the installers. Follow the ordinance. There's a standard.

Yeah. Are these going to be installed by city crews or no?

So, this was a BPAC project in, when did we start? 2020. And then it was designed by Mr. Rogers and then implemented in 2023, the first phase. So, Public Works hired the contractors to install all this signage, and that's what we are going to do also. If the committee votes to move forward with construction, this is your project. So, you have to approve the design and then move forward with construction.

Is this all turned over to the contractor, or does Conservation Trust maintain some role to make sure things are, because what happened with phase one, because Mr. Rogers was the consultant design consultant, if he sees something is wrong with the installation, he calls the project manager who's implementing the project.

I think you answered my question I had before the meeting. So, some of the signs have the bike symbol on them because they're on streets.

Yes, there are other times when you would put it on the trail. For example, we tell people from the area, like St. Francis Trail, you can go to the plaza via Galisteo Street, but that's using a street. So, on that one, we put the bike even on the trail to show people it's not just a trail. This is actually guidance for bicycles. People can walk along Belliso Street, but that's an exception. Otherwise, on the trails, we generally don't have a symbol. And, you know, it's really, you know, we need to really try to economize the information. Having these gigantic bike route signs that have a huge bike symbol and just say "bike route" when they're on their own, it has no meaning. Actually, it made some sense when they were first put up to try to indicate, "Oh, if you're on Bo Street, you're not on St. Francis, so it's good. It's a bike route." That's how why Galisteo and Don Gaspar made sense. They were like the first ones to have the bike route signs because, you know, they were counterparts to St. Francis, basically. But now we have lots of different choices and lots of different places. Most of our streets have bike lanes. We don't need signs saying, "Oh, this street's for bikes." They're all for bikes, except maybe one drive, maybe two. But really, we're beyond that. We're at the point where we can be trying to give people the best guidance on how to get around on the. Sure. Any other questions from committee members? Member Border.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Tim. I'm so excited about this, the so-called low-hanging fruit visual communication. I have a quick couple questions, and it might be for, I guess, maybe later, but because you, we're talking about the trails, Arroyo Chamiso's trail to Los Soleras Park. I'm not familiar with the park. Is it built, or is it?

The park is brand new. So, it is why I mentioned, you know, we like to use the names of parks, and especially that one, because it's Los Soleras Park. It's actually what trails arrive at from both directions. I was very happy to realize because La Tierra itself has not completed the trail. Presbyterian Hospital has not completed the trail, but you can get to Los Soleras Park, and that name is a, the trail goes right to it. The name is a giveaway. That's you're heading to Los Soleras, which is as far as the guidance, there's not much more to tell people after Los Soleras at this point.

Mhm. That's the second part of my question. There's an underpass. There's a bike tube tunnel under under Cerrillos Road that was built however many decades ago that when I was on the planning commission, we learned about and for the trail. So, I was wondering how that fits in and what's going on on that side of. Well, that's the Walmart side. It's a whole another topic, but you're one of the few people that knows about that underpass, and that's really a different topic, but I can tell you that I'm, I've been in communication, you know, La Tierra Contenta next phase is being designed, and Swan Park is being designed. Arroyo Chamiso Trail has really good prospects on coming up from the Swan Park in the direction you're asking about. So, it's an obvious next priority to unearth this underpass that was built maybe 30 years ago or more, because it was when they worked on that part of Cerrillos Road that makes it out, you know, that crosses the road to Los Chamisos. And that's before my time. That was well before my time. So, it had to be at least 25 years.

I bring it up, and I'm glad you know about it because it is there, and I wonder, are there any plans if that can ever be unearthed about at at DOT in terms of who's, who knows about that? But if anybody's looking into it, I'm glad it's you, and because that would connect under Cerrillos Road, right? Would we want that to be? I mean, that's a tunnel, though. So, that's another tunnel.

Well, tunnels are great. And actually, if you poke around near the Presbyterian Hospital, they actually built an underpass of one of their streets after the Arroyo Chamiso Trail crosses the side to the north side of the Arroyo. It doesn't really fit into anything right now, but hopefully it'll all come together. But those are, you know, next major priorities that you're asking about. I thought you were going to ask about the diverging diamond interchange trail. It's also.

Well, I was, that was next. Yeah. I mean, because we're going to need to tell people, pretty confusing. I mean, look, get to the Arroyo Hondo Trail because that infrastructure is all there, you know.

Yeah, a lot of signage working with Santa Fe County on that one, because it's not clear. There's a lot going on there. So, yeah, signage, signage. I hope they do that. My one, one last question, and I don't know if you know about this. Maybe this is broader. Is the De Vargas Bridge now gone as access across the river? What's this? What, what's the status of it? I've read that it was being under construction.

Clausen Street Bridge.

Clausen. Thank you. The for. Yeah. Is it gone?

It's gone right now.

Is that? So, what's going to happen?

So, there was a request for design, redesign of the bridge, and that's currently where we're at right now. So, it's a redesign.

Okay. All right. The other question, this, it was, we phase one, we put a sign that said "Clausen Street" at the end of that bridge on the river trail. So, it's still there, but the bridge isn't there for now.

Okay, good. And then the, the bridge that's still not been constructed across the river at Alameda. It's a big thoroughfare. And what I haven't heard while I've been on this committee, maybe I could ask it after this about the status of that and why that's like that. It's the bridge between Alameda Street and then across the river south, General Land Office, Supreme Court. Yeah, that one.

I don't think they're going to rebuild that bridge. That's been what we've been told. The one that is downtown.

Oh, yeah. Then that needs to be on our next agenda. I'll add that to the agenda. That's, that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable. Can I hear you? Thank you. Thank you, Tim. Thank you. Any other questions for Tim? When do you plan to start, and how long will it take? That's a follow-up question for Romela, really. This, you know, is at this point, this work is 99% done and ready to hand it off to Public Works, but they'll be the next steps. I did want to mention while I still have the mic that the other kind of 25% of our contract with the city on this activity relates to Bike Route 66, which is a different activity. Happy to give you guys an update that we have also spoken with the county and DOT about that, but I don't have it developed to this point, but I can share information on it if you would like.

So, what's next? So, the committee needs to vote forward with construction, or do you want anything changed?

As Mr. Rogers stated, this has been reviewed by our city engineer, traffic engineer, also by NMDOT, and who else? The county as well. The county.

So, if you vote tonight to move forward with construction, then the next thing we need to do is to estimate the, we need to have a cost estimate of the installation. Because for phase one, it's much smaller signage, and we spent $10,000 to install those signage. We may need $30,000 this time. But if you vote to move forward with this for construction, I think we have some funding to construct this project. Any other questions from other members?

What's the will of the committee? I'll try a motion.

Member Portig: If I understood that, I just want to move that we approve this. Is that the review? We reviewed this, the wayfinding project, and the motion should be to approve the design and go forward with construction.

Okay. So we have a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Okay, we've got a second. Any discussion on the motion? Being none. Miss Glorio Sask, can we get a roll call vote, please?

Yes, Mr. Chair. Member Bordiger. Member Gabriel. Yes. Member McConnell. Member Piltchure. Yes. Member Pengilli. Yes. Member Shipmiller. Yes. Member Wang. Chair Garcia. Yes. Motion passes.

Okay. Thank you. And thank you, Tim, for the presentation and all the work that went into this.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee, and members of staff. Looking forward to this moving forward. Let's move on to the next agenda item, 7E. Request for approval of Vision Zero draft resolution. Member Piltter, this is your item. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I worked on this with Romela on putting this together, and actually she did most of the work, but I gave it a good review. So this basically will establish the city as a, excuse me, Vision Zero, meaning having no horrible traffic accidents by the year 2050. It kind of establishes some priorities for the city as it works on various projects, those various programs. That's it in a nutshell. I think it's probably pretty ready to go forward to the governing body, if that's okay. Any comments on the drafted legislation?

Member Gabriel: Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, it looks like we would need to be incorporating this into our strategic plan, and I'm wondering, are we talking about very concrete steps in our strategic plan? How it's in already. So, do we need to come up with more action steps related to it, or do we already have them, which I'm sorry, I should probably know. But it is in there.

Okay. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? I guess the only comment I have is, should this be passed by this committee tonight, to start the process of introducing it for governing body approval, then the next steps will be, it'll come back to this committee in a formal legislation review. Then it goes through the council committee review process as well. Heads up on the next steps should this be approved. Any other discussion? Hearing none. What's the will of the committee?

I move to approve.

Okay, so we got a motion to approve. Is there a second? We've got a second. Any discussion on the topic? Hearing none. Miss Gloras, can we get a roll call vote, please?

Member Berdiger. Member Gabriel. Member McConnell. Yes. Member Piltchure. Yes. Member Pengilli. Member Schiffler. Shiff Miller. Sorry. Yes. Member Wang. Chair Garcia. Yes. Motion passes.

Okay. Let's go and move on to the next item, which is item F. How to raise public awareness regarding the NM Senate Bill 73, Idaho Stop. Member Schiff Miller, the item is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's a very good question. How to raise awareness about the Idaho Stop. So, for anyone who may not know, the Idaho Stop, SB73, was passed and signed by the governor. And very briefly, it allows bicyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs, and it allows bicyclists to treat red lights as stop signs. And it's called the Idaho Stop because Idaho implemented this sort of law, I think, back in the 80s. There are several states, I think probably 18 or 20, that have a similar law. Not all of them have the red light as a stop sign provision, but New Mexico does. So, the question is, of course, how do we let bicyclists and motorists know that this is the law? And also, how do we let the police know? I think it's probably pretty easy with the police. I'm sure they have methods of communicating to their officers whenever there's new legislation that affects the way they're going to patrol the streets and enforce laws. So, I'm assuming the police will become aware in a timely fashion. I think it's probably more challenging to get word out to the public, both bicyclists and motorists. And there were a few suggestions earlier that were pretty good. As a former state employee, I can confirm that in defensive driving, all state employees every few years, every three or so years, have to take defensive driving. And when I did that, I would usually ask the instructor if I could have five minutes to talk about bicycle safety. And they would usually allow me. But this was very informal. And I don't know if we're going to be able to get them to formally include a portion of that defensive driving course for bicycles, because it's very limited in time. But I think the idea of getting flyers and distributing them at the defensive driving course might be a good way to go, because it won't take up the instructor's time during the class, yet it'll get the information out to the 20 or 30,000 state employees, which is a significant number. It's not the whole state, but there are a lot of state employees out there driving, and they'll know, and their families will know, and city and county as well. So, having said that, I'm open to any suggestions anyone has as to how best to get the word out. I think, you know, maybe radio PSAs. I know there's already been some newspaper articles, or at least one that I saw. But if anyone else has any other ideas.

So, unfortunately, Member Gerix is not here, but he initially spoke about this with Chair Garcia. The city has a communications division, and they produce or create videos for the city. They put it on Facebook, Instagram, etc. And what Member Gerix is thinking is for the city, first he asked if the city or BPAC can pay for the video that Bike Santa Fe wishes to create, and I said that I'm sorry, but we don't have that kind of funding. BPAC has no funding, so we cannot do that. However, the city has a very strong communications division that can produce videos. And I said that it needs to be discussed at the committee, and if the committee wishes that I go and coordinate this activity with communications divisions, then I can, or if Chair Garcia wishes to ask communications division, then we can do something for raising awareness among bicyclists and pedestrians and motorists about the Idaho law.

Member Piltter: To me, this raises a good question. What does BPAC do versus what Bike Santa Fe is? Is there a clean dividing line between the two of us, or working together, or maybe that could be a longer term? Several things have come up over the months where it sounds like we're kind of doing the same thing. The bikes out of basement, or vice versa. And would it be more efficient to have one of the two entities take the lead on? Certainly, I think we should look on getting it up on our webpage and what we can do at the city level. But to me, this question is, are we stepping into their arena, trying to do too much more, like produce a video or something?

To speak to that, Member Piltter, when Member Gerix reached out, he was actually reaching out to see if we could do something on our end, because for Bike Santa Fe to take any action would require resources, which I don't think that they had. But to Romelo's point, I'm happy to request our team do it. It would not, at the most, we would have a product, a PSA that could be distributed on social media, with hopes we can bring more awareness by the BPAC reaching out to formal media.

Formal media. Right. And so the more formal media, at minimum, we can have the city create a PSA that could be promoted in social media at no cost. Then we can look at other avenues that cost money. But I was continuing to think of no cost where we can reach out to whether it's radio stations, TV news stations, but be proactive in the sense, we can work in collaboration with Bike Santa Fe on such engagement. And we got to remember, this is a statewide law. So, we want to frame it in that sense that it's not just being implemented here in Santa Fe, it's statewide, and we want all residents in New Mexico. And I think this is a good opportunity for us to take the lead in educating the community. I don't know what other biking organizations might be planning, and I think that was the outlier.

Member Gabriel: Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was thinking along the same lines as Steve, except on a larger level, that this is a statewide law. I don't, there is a New Mexico Bike Coalition, right? I'm wondering if the Department of Transportation has a role here. It seems crazy to duplicate something that may be getting done at another level, and it would be great to have consistent information distributed throughout the state. There is somebody from DOT on the Summer of Bike Planning Committee, and I've been in communication with her because they're going to be having an event, and I could certainly ask her. I don't know if she's the right person, but she might know. It seems like this is bigger than us, and we should do something, but we may be able to not do as much as we think we have to. Thank you.

Member McConnell: I was just going to follow up what you're saying about, I mean, I'm from Oregon, a lot of my career, and ODOT has an extensive public relations vision. I'm assuming the DOT here has a department like that. Well, and I think getting that information out, it's really pertinent to get it to the drivers, because it's probably going to create some animosity. Why do you get a special privilege? Thank you.

Any other comments? Just to follow up on the comment made there that Mark made about, I remember when this was getting some publicity in the newspaper when it was under consideration, and the reporter used the phrase, "it allows bicyclists to blow through stop signs," like that's not really the type of language you want to communicate this with. That's the type of stuff that really generates resentment. So yeah, we want to maintain some level of control over what message is going up. It could be reported the same way again, positive in the way that it, why is the benefit, why would you allow this, so that you can create some understanding, because a lot of times that's the biggest issue. People just don't understand, and they sometimes we just, okay. Any other?

Member Schiff Miller: Well, just to respond to that, it passed the Senate and the House by pretty wide margins, actually. It wasn't all that controversial in the legislature. And I think that's because the lobbyists, which I was one, did a pretty good job communicating to the legislators why this is advantageous not only to bicyclists, but also to drivers, because drivers don't have to wait behind a bicyclist who's sitting there in front of them at a red light. And it also just makes it safer for everyone. You know, when you're making a right turn in your car, you're less likely to hit a bicyclist who's in the bike lane to your right. Things like that. You know, motorists, most of them, I think, will be able to understand why this is a win-win.

Other comments?

Member Bordigar: Thank you, Chair. I just wanted, I agree, going to the Department of Transportation, because the mares go out on rodeo near my house, and it says, "Watch for motorcycles."

Watch for motorcycles. It's akin to that, in my opinion, as far as defensive driving goes. So, I hope you can find an inroad, so to speak, on this. And thank you for the lobbying being successful because it's all about what you call things. Language matters. So that's all. Thanks.

Sure. I mean, at minimum, what I can do is I can reach out to our comms team, and I want to commit Member Gerlett, since he brought it forward. I can make him the point of contact, or maybe even you, Member Miller, because as you all mentioned, it is important regarding how we frame this. Our comms team is not going to know this from up and down. We're going to have to guide them on what the PSA looks like and what is actually going to be a quality product that folks are going to understand. So, I can at minimum move forward with that, and then we can connect with other partners to see what folks are doing, and then maybe by next month, we'll have a better understanding of who's doing what and what gaps there are, and we can work to fill those gaps.

That's helpful. Okay, thank you for offering your services. Member Billy, as I mentioned earlier, I will bring this up in next week's Public Safety Committee. I'm going to have the Police Chief right there where he sits and make sure they're aware and ask and get some more information. How do you get the word out to your folks? I think it's going to change the state law. Thank everyone. Remember, it's July 1st. Based a couple months here to thank. She has signed the bill, right? Yes. Okay. Any other comments, questions, recommendations?

Well, thank you all for this, and thank everybody for the work and discussion that happened during the last meeting on this topic as well. So with that, let's move on to the next item, which is item eight. 8A is Policy, Planning, and Laws of Committee. Member Pilter, nothing to report. Okay. Item 8B, Promotions, Education, and Communications. Member Gabriel.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As everybody has heard, May is usually Bike Month, and in Santa Fe, it is going to be Summer of Bike, and it's going to be May, June, and July. And there's, I've been participating in those meetings, and there's a ton of opportunities for BPAC to have a presence. One of the things we're participating in is this Saturday, the Acequia cleanup over by the Acequia Trail in coordination with Bill. We will be at the bike swap on April 29th, and oh, Councilor Garcia, you'll be there on Saturday after I attend the Easter egg hunt. I have a little one that will not let me miss. I don't blame him. And Tony and I will probably be there. Bike swap on April 29th. This DOT person that I referred to is having a Bike to Work Fair on May 13th in the morning and at lunchtime. If anybody is interested in participating in that, and I can send all this information out, and then I think it would be great to participate in the Family Bike Fiesta because it sounds really fun. So, lots of stuff happening, and you don't have to be on the Promotion, Education, and Communication Committee to participate in one of these events. Thanks.

Okay, thank you for the update. Technical Review Committee. I guess the only thing is that we didn't actually have a meeting about the wayfinding, but we did have an email discussion, and we're all in favor of it, and we had no issues.

Okay, thank you for the update. Matters from staff. Oh, sorry. One more.

Sure, sure, sure. So, I also attended a meeting about the Henry Lynch and Agua Fria Street roundabout. Okay. And so that's moving forward apace, and I made sure that the contractors were aware of the trail coming in from the River Trail and needs to be accommodated in the rotary, in the roundabout.

Great. Thank you for that. Matters from staff. Sorry, Romeo.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wish to welcome our two new members, District 1, Member Helen Wang, and District 4, Member Mark McConnell. And so we need to have an orientation meeting. I will reach out to both of you, and if other members would like to attend, please, up to a quorum. Huh? Up to a quorum. Yes. And then last month, I applied for five funding applications for construction of St. Michael's underpass, the design of St. Michael's reconstruction, the construction of Rail Trail, the construction of Henry Lynch reconstruction project, and the design for the Acequia Trail from Otowi to La Cieneguilla. So the Acequia Trail from Buffalo from San Felipe Road to Fina Street is ongoing. We are receiving more funding for the Pacheco sidewalk, which was prioritized by BPAC in maybe 2020, 2021. We're receiving the funding for that, and we received the executed funding agreement yesterday. We're receiving more funding for Governor Miles reconstruction, and we are starting the construction of Trail Content, Tiara Contenta Trail from Buffalo Grass to South Meadows. We have a meeting with NMDOT to start construction, and they call it transitioning phase from design to construction on Tuesday. We completed the Canyon Road Trail, and it's on YouTube. We began one of the prioritized BPAC prioritized this project, which is the Arroyo Chamisos extension linking West Zia to East Zia. We had a kickoff meeting last week. Yes, that's happening. That's all from me, Mr. Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Clario Sas. Matters from the committee. You know, we typically will ask folks if you have anything, but in this instance, I would like Member McConnell and Member Wang to, wouldn't be, would be so kind to introduce yourselves to the rest of us friends up here.

Sure. Well, you know my name, Mark McConnell. I grew up in the Midwest in Kansas, and I moved to the West Coast at about age 20 and spent most of my adult life in Western Oregon, besides five or six years where people would ask me where I lived, and wherever the plane lands is where I live. I've been in construction pretty much my entire life. I did seven years in commercial building construction before I transitioned into heavy civil, and it's primarily been rail, bridges, highway work. And the reason I would be interested in this particular committee and supporting bicycle advocacy and well-being for everyone is I've been an active cyclist for at least 15 years, and I've been hit twice, and I don't want to ever be hit again. That's a little bit about me.

Welcome. Look forward to working alongside you. How about any other matters from committee members? Member Gabriel.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'm glad to hear that you're involved with the Striders. I was talking to my husband about the web page before I came to the meeting. He's active with the Striders, and we talked about having a link to the Striders on our BPAC web page. So, that's great. I have a couple of things I wanted to ask about. One is I read in the paper today that there is $100,000 for parks and trails that it sounded like got approved at the City Council meeting last night, or what exactly is the status of that $100,000?

I have to go back and look at a specific item. I know last night, excuse me, we had an update from Director Willer around some of the beautification and maintenance that's taking place. And in that report we got, it said there was $150,000 that went towards bicycle and trail maintenance for that infrastructure. And I've asked for a breakdown of how that was expended because it didn't, it didn't go further than saying expended, and I don't think that's, that's okay.

It didn't actually use the word maintenance in the newspaper article this morning, so I was going to ask if there was any for maintenance. So that sounds very promising.

Well, so that, it was the way I read the report was that in 2024, the department spent $150,000 on that, and that's why I asked, it's not future money. I'd have to hold that thought. Let me quickly look at the agenda. I can, by Chair's comments, I can.

Okay. And we can also maybe find out about it at the next meeting. I was all excited. I thought, "Oh, there's money for maintenance." But the other thing that I wanted to bring up is last year we talked about coordinating a bike ride in each district and also a walk in each district and invite the City Councilors. I was talking to Tim about it because Tim said he would lead a ride. He actually suggested the Community Cruise, which is on May 10th. That is very soon. I'm also a volunteer with the Conservation Trust Vamonos program, and we would like to co-sponsor a walk with a councilor in the districts, and they requested that we create an invite, and we could do the same thing with the bicycle ride if it is the will of this committee to do something like that. And we're early on in the season, and I feel like we missed the opportunity last year. So I'd like to put that forward again to offer an opportunity to go on one of the Vamonos walks in a district. Those are between May and October. And then also have a bike ride if people think that's a good idea too. And Tim would be happy to lead it. So, I think this is a really good way to get the councilors out on the trails and see what's been done. We could be very strategic about what we pick. So, interested to see if people would like to pursue this and how we might, how we might invite them to do that. That's all. Thank you.

Okay. Comments, matters from the committee. So, I am, to answer your question, there was $100,000 approved for Fiscal Year 25 Property and Trails CIP revenue and WIP design, and looking like it's for Swan Park. I'll follow up with, offline, that, well, what I'll do is I'll forward this to you, and you can send it to the committee, if that's okay, that way everybody has all the information on that $100,000 and where it's going to work. Okay.

Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can I ask you to weigh in on what the best way might be to invite the councilors on a walk and/or a bike ride?

Yes, invite. That's the best way. Just reach out to us, and I think the challenge is to get everybody at one place at one time. And so I would maybe recommend having a couple options, and yes, with the Vamonos walk, there's a whole list, and they could select one in their district, and that's for several months, right? And that could be a great option, and they can also do something else. So that is a perfect option. I think we wanted, would, would, would that would be helpful in two means. One, help with the scheduling just because the, the, the commitments, whether it be council committee meetings, outside meetings, or other. And then the other challenge is quorum. You know, whenever we had five of us, and so five councilors or four and the mayor, it becomes, it could become a public meeting. I mean, and I think that's where if we know in advance, we have to notice, but if everybody gets invited and everybody shows up, we, we kind of know that we can't be huddling together and talking about business, et cetera. Because that's, you can't avoid inviting the entire council to an event and having everybody show up. I mean, for example, Tuesday, we went to the Governor's Cleanup Initiative. All eight of us councilors were there. We didn't notice it, but we didn't huddle either and talk business.

So, so what is the best way to invite them? Via an email, a formal written invite?

Well, it's sufficient. Okay. Yeah. And with contact info, should they have any additional questions? You know, somebody might say, "Well, can you tell me more about what takes place? How long is it? Can I take my kids?" Et cetera.

Okay. Maybe my subcommittee can work on that. Thank you. One thing I do want to correct myself on the comments around the bridge. So, Member Bordary, it was the Claussen Street Bridge that's not going to be rebuilt.

It's the bridge that is on Shelby and Alameda that they're working to find the money for redesign. That's the one that has been closed for probably going on two years, three years now. It's the more historic-looking tiny bridge. That one, absolutely, the city is trying to work it out, but I think the big sticking point is the cost of design redesign of it because it is so, yeah, and it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and I think that's raising some ears. Why does it cost so much to redesign a bridge? So, sorry for that misinformation.

No, thank you for bringing it up. I apologize for my reaction in a public forum, but it's one of those, it's been quite some time since I've heard about it, but when we closed it back, I want to say it was 2022, 2021, we heard loud and clear, residents want that bridge. So, it's right now still closed from my understanding, but the intention is to figure out how to bring it back to life. What it takes, four or five more years, but maybe not. Who knows? But it's coming back.

So, the Clawson Street Bridge, Clawson Street Bridge, we were demoing it, and it's not going to be rebuilt. And that's the from Alameda to Awafria. Yeah, that was bridge. That's the one that failed. Oh, like the year before last, started to fail. Is it too expensive, or I don't know the justification for not to rebuild it. But when we, it's all coming back now. When we allocated the money to demo it, there was money to also restructure it. The sense we're rebuilding the walls of the river where a bridge isn't going to be. So, sorry for the confusion. It's the end of the day since 4:00 a.m. today. So, I say this in jest, but I think we need to have a community ceremony about the death of a bridge. And I don't, I mean, I'm serious. This is a pedestrian committee, too. And it's, yeah, I mean, I really, I'm thinking about that. I'm bringing it up if I want your involvement. Right. As I learn more, happy to update the committee, especially on the bridge that's kind of been in limbo.

Welcome to the committee. Look forward to having you on board. Romela will work with you all on orientation, potential subcommittee assignments. But as you can see, engaged in active committee. We're getting out probably 20 minutes earlier than we usually get out. We usually go till about 8:00. It's because they're very active and engaged, like to get work done, which is exciting. With that, no other dates for me. Sorry, I missed last month's meeting at a migration event. I can't think of anything else. I may think I'm missing Romela. What was that? Oh, you didn't meet the, oh, yeah, right, because he didn't have the quorum. Yeah, sorry. It's been a while since this committee, and with you all on board, there's no excuse for us not meeting quorum. I was, I was thinking about it earlier. We're going to have some challenges with seats because if we're ever at full capacity, there's 10 of us, only nine chairs here. So, yeah, we'll, I'll join you all over there. Well, thank you all for a very productive and successful meeting, and I'll look forward to seeing you all in May, which is the celebration of Mike's summer. So, see you all in May. Have a good evening.