Thursday, April 2, 2026, 1 p.m. (Austin time), Austin City Hall
Committee: Mobility Committee
0:02 Afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the mobility committee.
0:05 I am the chair, Paige Ellis, and I am joined by vice chair zoe cadry, Mayor Pro Tem
0:10 Vela and Council Member lane, who are all on the daes in person with me.
0:14 I it is 1:03 pm and it is April 2nd, 2026.
0:22 And we are operating in Austin City Hall today.
0:25 So welcome to bike month.
0:27 We are now shifting bike month to April instead of May to take advantage of the great temperatures.
0:32 And I believe we have one public speaker.
0:35 Is that still accurate?
0:37 That is correct. Okay.
0:39 Just scott johnson. Perfect. Welcome.
0:43 You'll have three minutes.
0:51 Morning, Madam chair and council members.
0:53 My name is scott johnson, here to talk about distracted driving.
0:56 April is national distracted driving awareness month, and what I had done some years ago after the ordinance
1:03 had passed is brought these to the travis county center where people reregister their car, get plates and
1:10 all. And, uh, I'm doing that again in the new location.
1:14 And these are some that are dated that, uh, we, we need to update, but hopefully we'll get
1:20 more and more awareness by working together myself with transportation public works, and that being the vision zero
1:27 program. Next slide, please.
1:30 Austin is a hands free city.
1:33 You can see the flashing information on the capitol metro buses, which is great.
1:38 We are, uh, trying to enforce the ordinance as much as possible, but that's a growing back to
1:44 the numbers that we had in 20, in the 20 teens.
1:47 My main ask today is that for those of you that have a monthly newsletter or twice per
1:52 month, if you can work with me or work with the vision jira program to get the wording
1:58 to put in during April to focus on this very important issue.
2:02 Some of you already know that distracted driving is now more important, more relevant to crashes and injuries
2:10 than drunk driving is.
2:12 All of them are important.
2:13 Sometimes they're interrelated. There's two or three of them including aggressive driving.
2:18 So I'll be happy to contact your staff and see what we can do to get the word
2:23 out. If you don't have a monthly newsletter, please do something to promote distracted driving awareness month, another
2:30 opportunity that I seized on 11 years ago.
2:33 Um, go to the next slide and then go to the last one.
2:36 There's, there's a cute picture of something you might used to wear, wear on your ear.
2:42 Next slide please. This is something, so Austin has its own digital messaging signs that are smaller than
2:49 on lamar and other streets within Austin.
2:54 Txdot, of course, has some that are very large, and, and they agreed in that timeframe 2015 to
3:00 put on information about the Austin ordinance, which is wonderful 'cause they always reject city's requests to put
3:08 city ordinances on there.
3:09 But they cared enough about this issue and they're doing a great job in terms of education on
3:14 cycling and walking, et cetera.
3:17 You see them on the bus and in other places.
3:20 So this is an example of one of the signs and the transportation public works department's reengaging with
3:26 them to do some signage here, uh, during this month, and I just spoke with staff yesterday and
3:33 it's gonna be tried to do something through the rest of the year.
3:36 It won't be every month necessarily, and it won't even be at peak commute times, but we're gonna
3:42 try our best to get the word out.
3:44 'Cause many people that have moved here since 2015 when the ordinance was effective, don't know about the
3:49 ordinance and we need to do better questions.
3:55 Sure. Vice chair cadre.
3:57 Great. Uh, why is it doing that?
4:00 Don't touch the mic.
4:00 There you go. Uh, no, I just wanna thank, uh, mr. Johnson for, for his work on this.
4:05 Uh, we were chatting yesterday at the north loop, uh, neighborhood association meeting, uh, in 20, uh, 11.
4:10 When I was a student at ut I was walking in west campus.
4:14 Uh, there was a student who had been on his phone who drove through a stop sign.
4:19 Uh, and I ended up in his front, uh, front window.
4:23 And when he put on his brakes, I went flying out.
4:25 Long story short, I, I have to have my semester drop dropped and I still have scars in
4:29 my arm. Uh, but he was a distracted driver.
4:32 Uh, and thankfully I was able to come out of it relatively unharmed.
4:35 Um, but that's on the case with everyone.
4:37 So I appreciate the work that, that you do.
4:39 You're welcome. Thank you for sharing that story lot you for your comments.
4:43 A lot of people watching and watching on the video loop.
4:48 Thank you for your comments mr. Johnson.
4:50 We will now move to item number one, approval of the minutes for the March 5th, 2026 mobility committee meeting.
4:56 Do I have a motion made by the vice chair?
4:58 Seconded by Mayor pro tela.
5:00 All in favor? Looks like we are unanimous for everyone on the dais.
5:05 We are now gonna take up item seven.
5:08 So this is the only one that we're gonna take up out of order, but we had a
5:11 request, uh, due to some time constraints to listen to our intergovernmental relations office.
5:17 And so item seven is the briefing by memorandum, and we have kerry rogers here to present to
5:22 us. Thank you so much, chairwoman.
5:25 Uh, again, as you said, I'm kerry rogers, the legislative director for the city of I am on
5:31 mute. Does anybody else turn off their alerts today?
5:33 I got two alerts earlier today, so happy test alert system day to all who are celebrating one
5:38 saw, uh, the news alerts, uh, this week about the testing.
5:42 Um, I am the legislative director for the city of Austin, and I have with me today erica
5:47 zagare, who is our grants officer here for the city.
5:50 Uh, to answer any, uh, hard questions about our community project funding request.
5:56 Um, the, uh, office of government relations sends a a legislative update each month, as you know, to
6:02 our Mayor and City Council with information related to our goings on.
6:07 And so our our topic today is just to hit a few highlights related to that particular memorandum,
6:13 specifically in mobility. I think I've told, uh, most of you that I spent the first 20 years
6:19 of my career as a, as a transportation professional, and so have great affection for this space.
6:25 Um, over the last, um, you know, 15 months or so in the time that I've been here,
6:30 and not unlike other local governments across the country, we've spent a lot of time focusing on transportation,
6:37 funding, affordable housing, and other topics.
6:40 Um, the last big transportation bill that, that we all saw and familiar with are of course, the
6:45 infrastructure investment and jobs act.
6:48 Um, and the bipartisan infrastructure law that, that, um, were put into place back in 2021.
6:55 Those programs are starting to expire, um, meeting, meeting their conclusion date.
7:01 And so there's been a lot of chatter around the next surface transportation reauthorization legislation, um, as a
7:09 mouthful. And, um, in the last few months, the basics bill has been file filed.
7:16 That's hr 74 37. For those who are listening and wanna know the acronym, bridges and safety infrastructure for
7:24 community success act, that's basics.
7:27 Um, the, the good thing about this legislation and what the city of Austin and and I imagine
7:32 many across the country have been advocating for is greater local control over those dollars.
7:39 Uh, most lane miles within any community belong to local government.
7:44 And, and, um, often with many issues, we are best positioned in understanding what the needs are of
7:50 our community. And so, um, as this particular bill moves forward, I think that, um, um, we are
7:58 well positioned. I think we've done a, um, a very robust job of expressing the city's position on
8:04 this particular bill. And so we're watching and waiting.
8:08 Uh, we've received questions about timing.
8:10 Um, I, you know, I think if you're, uh, reading the tea leaves you, uh, um, um, would
8:19 expect that this legislation would hopefully come up before the conclusion of this, uh, fiscal year.
8:25 Uh, we're not expecting that.
8:27 Um, we are in an election year, uh, adjacent to this.
8:31 They're of course, working on the appropriations bill that if everything went well and we had our magic
8:36 wand, that would be, um, completed by October one, which is when their fiscal year concludes.
8:41 But we're not anticipating that.
8:44 So the abbreviated version is basics bill.
8:47 We love it. It's more about local authority, but we don't see it, uh, getting signed or taken
8:53 up. This particular year.
8:55 I mentioned appropriations, so we're in the process right now.
8:59 Uh, appropriations actually in washington is in the process of doing bill markups for the ve the 12
9:06 appropriations committees. Um, we work met with our City Council members and our, uh, departments about projects that
9:14 we May wanted, want to have submitted to our congressional delegation for consideration as part of community project
9:20 funding. Erica and our grants division and government relations led that effort.
9:26 And, and so what I would like to do is just ask her to hit on a couple
9:29 of those mobility projects.
9:30 And of course, chairwoman and council members we're pleased to take any questions as well, erica.
9:38 Thank you, carrie. Good afternoon.
9:41 Erica zangre, uh, grants officer Austin government relations.
9:45 And, uh, we submitted the powerpoint presentation, um, that includes the full list of the community funding project
9:53 requests that we submitted, uh, to our congressmen.
9:57 And so, um, the memo, um, lacks a few of those projects, and so wanted to submit this
10:04 to you all so that you can have the full list of projects.
10:08 We presented this to the directors of all of the projects that we submitted.
10:12 Um, and just wanted to, uh, call your attention to slides five through nine.
10:17 That's where the, you will see the full list of projects and it increased, um, the, uh, submitted
10:23 total from 78 million to 79 million.
10:27 Um, just, uh, just a, a hair over, but, uh, just wanted to make sure that you have
10:32 the complete list, which is different from, uh, what we'll share in the memo.
10:36 Um, at the last minute, one of our, um, congressmen requested for us to submit an additional projects.
10:43 And so that's why there was that increase.
10:46 Um, and so this number, the 79 million includes projects, as carrie mentioned, um, that focus on transportation and
10:54 trails and even, um, some that was submitted by, um, or for on behalf of our, uh, partners
11:02 in the community, the trail conservancy, for example.
11:05 Um, and so I can take any questions you have regarding, uh, the full list of projects, if
11:13 you have any. I have one to lead us off, I had noticed that both of our local
11:21 congressmen had listed $4 million for the east avenue trail, which is the one that runs along, will run
11:27 along I 35. Um, is that half and half or is that the total dollar amount for the
11:32 betterments that we're hoping to see the city add the total dollar amount?
11:37 So we submitted two projects to both of our, uh, congressmen, um, east avenue betterment trail, and also,
11:47 let me see the, the second one best, yes, the emergency vest mm-hmm <affirmative>.
11:57 And so, um, both of those are the full amounts that we submitted to both of the congressmen.
12:02 Okay, sounds good. So they're on both of the lists and it just May be one gets carried
12:06 forward or the other, but not both.
12:09 Uh, it's a possibility that both could be carried forward.
12:12 Yeah, it's, um, it underscores the importance I think, of the project if both members are choosing to
12:18 advance it, even if it's the same project.
12:21 Okay. Yeah. See, that's great to hear.
12:23 Are there other questions from committee members on this particular item?
12:27 How about Council Member lane?
12:30 Um, it's not a question, but more thank you.
12:32 I wanted to thank you for ensuring the inclusion of the red line trail segment that connects the
12:37 lakeline station to the higher density housing that went in and the surrounding area, um, after it opened.
12:46 So thank you so much for ensuring that, that, that made it in there with the information needed.
12:52 Um, thank you very much, Council Member.
12:53 And one thing I wanted to flag, this has come up in a couple of other conversations because
12:58 we have this, um, centralized structure, if you will, for funding pursuits, projects that May not have been
13:06 advanced under this particular, uh, process for community project funding.
13:11 We still have that information for other grant opportunities that May come up, um, throughout the year.
13:17 And so I say that for you all, but of course, anyone else who May be listening that