Thursday, January 15, 2026, 1 p.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Mobility Committee
0:04 This is the mobility committee.
0:06 It is January 15th, and we are meeting here in City Hall.
0:10 I am the chair Council Member Paige Ellis.
0:13 I am joined by other council members that serve on this committee, including Council Member lane, Council Member
0:18 Harper Madison. And Council Member, Council Member Vela.
0:22 Um, vice chair cadre will not be able to join us for this meeting today.
0:25 So it will just be the four of us public communication.
0:30 I know we did not have anyone earlier today.
0:32 Have we had anybody sign up for public communication yet?
0:35 Yes, we have one speaker.
0:36 Okay. Go ahead and call them scott johnson.
0:47 Good afternoon council members.
0:49 I'm scott johnson here to talk about distracted driving more.
0:52 I found out since we last spoke in December, that the city does, does have a driver program
0:58 that is listed in there to do things such as not use their mobile phone to be sure
1:04 that if they have bluetooth capability, that they're using it to not wear headphones and to not use
1:10 two-way radios. However many departments have put in place their own policy starting in the two 2010s.
1:19 I'm not sure exactly when, and this is very important when the city goes to make policy, which
1:24 I hope will happen after the proposed working group on distracted driving that I talked about to you
1:29 and the public safety committee, that we need to walk the talk.
1:33 And this is one way that you might, if you get a vision zero presentation from staff joel
1:39 meyer, someone, them that question.
1:42 We know that it's challenging to identify distractions when there's no camera in the car.
1:49 There May not be someone else in the car, but these kind of questions I think can be
1:54 very valuable. And I would encourage you to ask them if they come in your next meeting, the
1:58 meeting after that, about what's the city doing to identify distracted driving among those who drive in the
2:05 cambridge mobile telematics, uh, report.
2:09 That's very important and that the staff use from tpw it listed the awareness piece is being extremely
2:16 important for change. It always is when you can't do something that the, the government can't do something
2:26 to, uh, limit it simply by, uh, enforcing it.
2:31 There's has to be an enforcement and and awareness piece.
2:34 Hopefully both of those can go hand in hand.
2:37 We, we need to do better there.
2:39 And therefore that's gonna be the main initial focus of this proposed working group on distracted driving that
2:46 I've been talking to y'all about.
2:48 So that's all for now, and I look forward to this item being discussed further within the first
2:54 quarter, hopefully of 2026.
2:57 Thank you. All right.
2:58 Thank you for your comments.
2:59 We appreciate you being here.
3:02 Item number one is going to be approval of the minutes for December 4th, 2025 mobility committee meeting.
3:09 Do I have a motion?
3:10 Motion made by Council Member lance, seconded by Council Member Harper Madison.
3:14 All in favor of approving the minutes, say, aye.
3:17 That is unanimous for those of us in attendance.
3:20 Um, Mayor proam Vela has stepped off the dais just for the record, but he'll be right back.
3:25 Item number two is a briefing on the municipal maintenance agreement with texas department of transportation, also known
3:32 as tdot. And I have director mendoza here today.
3:46 Good afternoon chair. Good afternoon committee members.
3:48 Richard mendoza, director for transportation and public works, and I'm also joined by ms.
3:54 Amika bose, our assistant director over office of the city engineer.
4:01 And what we're gonna present to you today is a update to the work that we've been doing
4:08 to establish a new municipal maintenance agreement with the texas department of transportation, which is gonna outline all
4:18 the operations and maintenance responsibilities for tdo facilities that are within the, the incorporated limits of the city
4:27 of of Austin. So this is work that's been ongoing for some time.
4:36 Um, as you see on the slide, the last time a mma was executed, adopted, and executed between
4:45 the city of Austin and the texas department of transportation was in 1986.
4:50 And so it has been revised a number of times.
4:55 However, those revisions have been restricted only to reflect the addition of new highways, revised highways, changes in
5:05 the city limits, as well as abandoned routes.
5:10 According to the, uh, texas transportation code, txdot requires a municipal maintenance agreement with all municipalities within the
5:19 state that is crossed by state highway.
5:23 So this mma basically allows for state assistance on repair and maintenance on those routes that cross into
5:32 municipalities and those roadways.
5:34 As I stated before, our current mma was last executed in 1986.
5:40 Again, it's been revised multiple times.
5:42 However, outside of revisions that only cover new highways, changes in city limits, if there are changes in
5:52 terms of the general requirements and or responsible responsibilities for certain maintenance aspects, that requires a new municipal
6:02 maintenance agreement to be entered into with the state.
6:07 So that's what we're bringing you here today.
6:09 This has been an effort that's been ongoing.
6:12 As you can understand, texas, uh, I mean, uh, transportation and public works has been leading a multi-department
6:19 review and coordination amongst, uh, the different departments as well as with the state to arrive at this
6:27 updated, uh, agreement for maintenance and repair responsibilities.
6:39 So the new mma will cover maintenance responsibilities between the city and the t dot on these primarily,
6:46 uh, following asset items.
6:48 They include our pavements and bridges to include resurfacing, rehabilitation and preventative maintenance, roadside maintenance covering mowing, sweeping
6:59 litter, debris removal, snow and ice control, herbicide seating landscape, and, uh, tree maintenance, all traffic signals within
7:07 the city street lighting or elimination, including poles, conduit and service repairs, pedestrian facilities such as sidewalks, bridges,
7:18 rail repairs, graffiti, concrete repair, and much of the new shared, um, uh, shared use paths that you're
7:25 seeing built now and drainage facilities both inside and outside of the normal state right of way.
7:34 I'm gonna begin with an update on the general conditions that have been addressed in this, um, new
7:40 mma. So the next few slides, we'll give an overview of those, uh, updated general conditions as well
7:47 as the roles and responsibilities.
7:50 So the new agreement includes reference to specific code numbers for traffic regulatory treatments such as signs, signals,
7:58 and pavement markings. It's a lot clearer and more definitive in the maintenance responsibilities for these specific assets
8:07 than what was, than what was included in the 86 agreement.
8:12 The new agreement also differentiates between controlled and non-controlled highways.
8:17 So basically these are freeways such as I 35 and mopac versus the state surface routes such as
8:25 north lamar and east mlk.
8:27 You'll see nuances in the maintenance and repair responsibilities between these two categories of state facilities, uh, within
8:35 the city for general conditions.
8:39 Beginning with drainage requirements, the state retains responsibility for all drainage infrastructure within their state right of way
8:49 as well as their state drainage easements.
8:52 The city will maintain responsibility for all drainage repair and maintenance outside of that state right of way.
9:01 One caveat that I do want to mention, and this is particular succinct to the I 35 capex
9:08 project, where they're building a large drainage tunnel, and our watershed department has asked for enhancements or betterments
9:14 to that project, is that when the city does seek a betterment to that state infrastructure, drainage infrastructure
9:22 during construction, in that case, the city will assume maintenance for those, uh, additional betterments in either water
9:31 quality or water detention facilities.
9:36 The new agreement also contains language requiring all new pedestrian facilities to comply with the american disabilities act
9:43 of 1992. And obviously this is because the current mma predates of the a da act of 1992.
9:53 So all maintenance new facilities related to pedestrian sidewalks, curb ramps, have to comply with the a da
10:00 act and we assume responsibility for maintenance and repair of that pedestrian network of sidewalks and other accessibility
10:09 items such as a da ramps and now shared use paths.
10:15 So those are the major highlights of the general conditions updates in the new mma.
10:20 Uh, next we'll talk about, uh, city and state responsible roles, uh, beginning first with the non-controlled access
10:28 freeways within the, uh, city incorporated limits and as depicted on, uh, this map on the right.
10:36 So, um, what's new here is maintenance and cleanup associated with local enforcement of ordinances, city ordinances such
10:46 as homeless encampments, graffiti roadside vendors, no parking areas.
10:51 So this is a new caveat in the mma that was not covered in the former mma, but
10:57 essentially all maintenance responsibilities have stayed the same, uh, for the city.
11:03 Um, all streetlights on non-controlled access, uh, high, uh, state facilities are the responsibility of the, of the
11:13 city. And then an added language is that the city is responsible for all maintenance and, uh, repairs
11:23 on anything not specifically delineated as a state responsibility in the mma state responsibility for non-controlled access freeways,
11:36 or they remain responsible for maintaining the travel surface and shoulders.
11:41 This includes the, uh, pavement, resurfacing pavement, res striping.
11:46 Um, new is they assist in mowing, sweeping ice control as requested by the city if state resources
11:56 are available. This was formerly a responsibility, um, born by the state and the former mma.
12:03 However, recently we've discovered that during winter storm events, the city is more adept to respond quicker to
12:11 road treatments, then the state is able to, knowing that the district is 13 counties and they're responsible
12:17 for the rest of the roadway.
12:21 Also, state responsibility are the traffic signs.
12:24 They do retain responsibility for some of the traffic signals on state routes, specifically farm road 16 26, 18 25 farm
12:35 road 2304, uh, ranch to market road 2244, ranch to market road six 20 and 360.
12:44 They do this in the form of a compensation to the city.
12:47 Transportation, public works signal, uh, crews actually operate and maintain the signals.
12:53 Uh, you'll find these, uh, along the major state corridors, north lamar, south congress, mlk, um, but they
13:01 do, uh, compensate the city for that maintenance as well as on the controlled access, um, freeways.
13:09 So in the controlled access freeways, um, that's the access roads where you have signals, city operates and
13:16 maintains those signals. Uh, and we get a payment from the state for that maintenance.
13:21 But on controlled access, these are the freeways, uh, serve.
13:25 It can only be accessed by on and off ramps, uh, not by driveway curb cuts.
13:31 Um, for this, for this, uh, state and highway system, the city retains responsibility for, uh, bike and
13:40 pedestrian facilities. We retain responsibility for cleanups in the enforcement of local cord code ordinances.
13:50 Uh, uh, as I previously mentioned, we perform all of the signal operations and maintenance with compensation from
13:58 the state, and we also operate all the, uh, elimination and street streetlights on these corridors.
14:04 And a lot of this is the, the streetlights are covered under a separate elimination agreement between the
14:10 tdot and Austin, uh, energy.
14:13 And then again, another, um, comment is introduced all other duties not delineated as state responsibility.
14:26 Estate responsibility for, uh, controlled access freeways throughout the cities remains the traveled services surfaces like, uh, pavements,
14:36 foundations, all the main lanes, ramps and frontage roads to support proper vehicle, uh, loads all traffic signs,
14:44 pavement markings, and highway routing.
14:47 Signs remain the responsibility of t mowing, litter, clean cleanup, and snow and ice control on the controlled
14:56 access freeways remains the responsibility of tdot and they can assist outside of those boundaries.
15:04 Uh, and upon requests from the city on the frontage roads, as was stated on the prior slide,
15:12 uh, of city responsibilities.