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ready? Ter runs a tight ship. She's like, let's go. All right. Well, we'll get this thing rolling. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the June 25th Metropolitan Planning Organization Board meeting.
Please be aware that this meeting is being broadcast. After its conclusion, a video of the meeting will be available on the county's website. At this time, please rise for the invocation and pledge of allegiance. Gracious God, we invite you into our discussions today. Unite our hearts and
guide our conversations with wisdom and patience. Help us to seek solutions that honor you and benefit everyone involved in your name. Amen. Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it
stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Clerk, could you please call the role? Mayor Scott here. Councilman Lance Smith here. Mayor John Eric Hoover here. Commissioner Ron Oakley,
Commissioner Seth Waitman, Commissioner Catherine Starky, Commissioner Liser here, Commissioner Jack Mariano, Chairman Matt here. Okay. Do we have anybody for um public comment
come to speak? Please state your name and address for the record. First thing, Pastor Jen Carowak, Shady Hills Mission Chapel, 15925 Green Glenn Lane, Spring Hill, Florida. The Pasco, Spring Hill, Florida, too. Um, I'm here and I have
some photos that I've asked. Okay, she's working on it. Um, just should I continue? any just yep it's okay so I brought pictures
and I'm just asking that that you um consider um sincerely consider um and the improvement of Shady Hills Road which has you know probably very much so
um underrated for the current capacity the traffic that you know the there's plants there's lots of development that is happening and um it's also a two-lane road that is very backed up. It's become very dangerous. We have four schools on
that road um and the oldest one being 1974 Shady Hills Elementary. So, it's been a long time, a lot of investment um in uh upgrading properties and developments over time. And unfortunately,
um, we are still in need of not just the widening of the roads to accommodate those that come back and forth between Hernando and Pasco and those that live in the area, those that are moving to the area, the um the employment
opportunities in the area, but also the pictures that I provided actually, believe it or not, happened within 45 minutes of one another. There were four accidents. Um, and it was as a result of somebody taking out a power line um,
right Caddy Corner across from Cruz Lake Middle School where there were kids that saw everything that happened. Um, and that was like the third um, accident that happened at that corner within like a couple weeks. Um there was a young man
as a result of traffic being backed up because again it's only two lane and they had um a road blocked off from the power power line being taken out. Uh a young man 18 years old, he ended up dying to his uh as a result of his
injuries. He was hit um as somebody was trying to let him come across on his little dirt bike. And that's another issue. There is a cultural shift that it has to happen. It's a very rural community. Um they're used to riding
their dirt bikes and their four-wheelers out there. And um the gentleman that the young man thought he had the go-ahad and it was just, you know, somebody going north said go ahead and the person going south thought that they were waving
somebody off the stop sign to go ahead. And as a result then there were accidents at 41 in Bowman because they had to reroute traffic because it had backed up um a very long way. Uh the
fire rescue had a hard time getting in. Um and so it's really a matter of safety um for the residents of the area, the kids going to the schools. I just would like to advocate again that we take a good hard look at the improvements
needed um for Shady Hills Road. Um appreciate your time. Thank you. Do we have anyone else for public comment? Anybody signed up? Okay. All right. We're going to move on then
to our action items. So, we're going to skip over the approval of minutes. They're not ready yet. Um, so we're going to go to NO Advisory Committee reports, citizens advisory committee, Mr. James Malo, Malo. Hey, good morning everybody. Morning.
Morning. I'll be brief. Thank you very much, by the way, for letting me be brief. Um, somebody prepared a report. Um, so again, I'm James Mao, chairman uh of the CAC committee, uh, which is a citizen advisory committee for Pasco. Um
the citizens advisor group committee had their last meeting on June 4th which we had a quorum. Uh the committee approved the minutes for the April 30th meeting and received a report from uh Miss Gorman. Thank you very much by the way.
Um regarding the May 8th board meeting, the committee voted to accept Jennifer Yingling. Go ahead and stand. Let's let's applaud her for giving up her time. Volunteer right there. Volunteer. Love volunteers. um as a regular member and approved the
uh removal of Mr. Jus Martinez from the CAC uh roster, also known as JJ. Um, additionally, the committee approved the final 2025 lop or list of project priorities and the FY uh 25 to30
transportation improvement program. Members also received uh a presentation on the final results of the micromobility traffic count strategic plan and data collection update uh as well as an introductory overview of the
Pasco County safety action plan. That's really all the minutes I have. However, I do want to make a comment as the chairman. Um I believe you're going to see the micromobility traffic count strategic plan and you're going to see um the study that they've done today. Is
that correct? pay attention like I add out of all respect pay attention to this. We have some um very serious uh issues and I'm sure they'll be highlighted very very well. I'm very impressed with this program uh that they have. I'm very
impressed with the presentation that they have and really seriously our um some of our roadways uh our major roadways and with especially with pedestrian but some bicycle as you'll see uh traffic I mean we've been having
a lot of deaths on 19 nothing's changed um I haven't been on the road in a long time but nothing's changed the C ranch 19 area and those those areas really really need to be looked at I think we make it a little bit too inviting
um for for people to feel comfortable to uh to cross the street where they shouldn't be crossing the street. Um and um so this will highlight this will highlight that I personally um again I think the we
have to do something with the medians in a lot of these places. We make it way too inviting for people to stand in the medians. So if you go with that form of thinking, I think there's been other studies that have done. I think there's other cities and counties that have
worked out ways to uh mitigate uh people from standing in the uh in the roadways or in the medians. If they feel comfortable doing that, they're going to do that and they're going to walk out there regardless of what traffic is. And
you will see that very very plainly. It is eyeopening for people that are just, you know, driving down the road just like we do every day to actually understand. You hear about these deaths and but when you actually see these people walking and and riding their
bikes at one point you'll see somebody ride out there and do a circle around and stuff and you're like there's a car coming like and they're doing circles in in it's just amazing. So, uh, please pay attention to this and and really I if if
I was on the board, I would really look at making the especially the the in um the what do you call it? Um, I'm looking for the word the medians not so inviting. So, that's it. That's it.
Thank you very much. Have a good day. Thank you. All right. All right. Next up, we have technical advisory committee. And I'm not even going to try to pronounce that. Oh, thank you, sir.
Yeah. My name is Ben Kadikuri. Uh I'm the technical advisory committee vice chairman. I presed the meeting because the chair is not here. I'm here to present a basically a report uh as uh
the first action item we approve we do not have a corum. So hence we only affirm the all the action items because of not having a quorum. The first one which we did is the approval of minutes. Again we instead of approving we affirm the
anonymously affirmed the minutes. The second item is uh the MO action items which we decided or which we reviewed are the MOS's final 2025 list of priority pri project priorities. Again
we have anonymously confirmed and recommended. Uh the second item is uh the MPA team member Scott for presented the MPOS's 26 MP's uh fiscal year 26 to 30
uh transformation improvement program for review and then uh we had a presentation from the two consultants which are working on the two MO projects which is a micromobility traffic counts and also the other one is Pasco County's fire
safety action plan. Those two presentations were very good, very informative and as uh CS chair mentioned definitely you may need to pay attention to the final recommendations. I'll more than happy to do any questions
answers questions. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next up is bicycle and pedestrian advisor committee. Angela. Morning. Angela Pasco MPO.
Um the bicycle pedestrian advisory committee convened on June 4th with a quorum present. The committee approved the minutes from April 30th and received a report from Miss Tenia Gorman regarding the May 8th board meeting. The committee approved the final 2025
list of project priorities and the fiscal year 26 to30 transportation improvement program. Members also received a presentation on the final results of the microobility traffic count strategic plan and data collection um as along with an introductory overview of the Pasco
County safety action plan. The committee requested that microobility counting be incorporated into the safety action plan and recommended that data on helmet usage rates among microobility users be evaluated within the plan. Mr. Brian Michaels, BPAC chair, also provided an
update on Project Red Light, a campaign aimed at increasing awareness for drivers to stop for pedestrians and crosswalks. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh, next up action items is new alternate member appointment
technical advisory committee. Mr. Scott Perry. Good morning board. Good morning. The Pasco NPO staff recommends the approval of Mr. Will Pune to serve as an alternate member of the Pasco MO
technical advisory committee. Mr. Pune serves as a project management engineer with the Pasco County Transportation Engineering Department. Mr. Chair, move approval. Second. All in favor? I I
looks good. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Next up, approval of the new regular member for the citizens advisory committee. Hello again. Yeah. Hey. Um, the Pasco MO is recommending Miss Jennifer Yingling to the CSC as a representative of
District 2. Miss Yingling has been a Wesley Travel resident for 25 years and has recently retired from her career with Boys and Girls Club of Tampa Bay and now does community outreach and marketing for local attorney. The Pasco MO is requesting that you vote to approve for membership. Mr. Chair, move
approval. All right, then I'll second. All in favor? I against. Thank you. All right. And the next one. All right. Removal of regular member of citizens committee. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Jesus JJ Martinez, a
CAC representative of district 2, has requested to be excused from the citizens advisory committee due to workrelated commitments. The Pasco MO requests approval for his removal from the committee. Mr. Chair, Mr. I move approval. I'll second. All in favor? I I
All right. Removed. All right. Okay, next up, final NO 2025 list of project priorities. Miss Tennia Gman. Good morning, board. Uh, uh, every year we come before you to, uh, adopt our list of priority projects
for the year. Uh, last month we came to you with a draft priority project list which you approved. Um and now we are just into the finalization of this draft list of party projects so we can move forward with the um pri the approval of
the transportation improvement program. At our last meeting we discussed removing uh five projects from the list of priority projects. Those are as follows. Bellamy brothers uh safety improvements Hicks road uh from Bolton Avenue in New York. Dubilis road from
Little to Southbridgeidge road. Uh we have Morris Bridge Road from south of Chansy Road to south of State Road 54 um with right ofway I'm sorry designated I'm sorry widening of two to four lanes and then we also have um overpass road
from old bridge to hand cart construct and construct over and construct four lanes roadway. So we want to remove these projects as they have funding from the cow fund improvement plan and then we will have our list of priority projects all ready um to go and it'll be
cleaned up. You have approved that before in the draft. We're asking you to finalize this today. We are also asking you to um make approve the motion of changing the limits on the old Dixie uh project uh that is in our list of
priority projects from um old Dixie Highway. Currently we have it uh the terminus as um racetrack road. It should be Arapa Road. So we'll go all the way up to the northern terminus.
That is all for the list of priority projects. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, Mr. Chair, move approval. Second. All in favor? I oppose. All right. Thank you, Teneia.
And then next up, final NO 2026 2030 transportation improvement program. Mr. Scott Barry. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In your packet is a copy of the final NO
2020 fiscal year 2026 through 2030 transportation Improvement Program or TIP which I am presenting to you for your adoption. The project list contained in this final tip is unchanged from the list included
in the draft version that was presented to this board for review and discussion last month. This tip document re reflects the NO's short-term transportation improvement
funding priorities and contains a descriptive list of transportation improvement projects funded for development by the Florida DOT for the next five fiscal years. The list of improvement projects
contained in this final tip reflects an investment of over 560 million in Pasco County's transportation system over the next five fiscal years.
Are there any questions or comments about the final tip? No. If not, could you please ask for a motion for approval? Motion approved. Second. All in favor? I opposed. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.
Uh, do we have any go Pasco updates? Okay. Um, status reports and presentations. Uh, micro millility traffic count strategic plan and data collection update. Angel via.
Thank you. Pasco County MO is that on the Pasco County MO is nearing completion of its microobility traffic count strategic plan and data collection study. The study involved the development of a sustainable
microobility traffic count traffic monitoring program and conducting data at four high priority locations using advanced traffic data collection technologies. The project is led by Marlin Engineering. The detailed analysis of data from these four sites will be
presented today and incorporated into the final strategic plan. Mr. Eric Katz is here today to present on the study's findings. I will let him take it away. Thank you, Angel. Good morning all. Thank you so much for the opportunity to present today. Again, my name is Eric
Casser with Marland Engineering. We were here in February announcing the kickoff of this project. So we are now wrapping up the results and the final report will be ready by Monday. Uh so if we can I will briefly go over the what the purpose of the project was and then
we'll get right into the results. So uh as mentioned by Angel uh there were four locations that were selected for data collection. This was to use uh the most advanced most innovative traffic data collection possible for microobility. Uh so the four locations
were Starke Boulevard at Highway 54, Ridge Road at the Sun Coast Trail Crossing, US19 at Cranch Road, and US19 at Grand Boulevard. All these locations were to receive some of the typical aspects of data collection such as volume mode classification, time of day
usage. But then the more innovative aspects of this data collection, which was trajectory lines, tracking behavior, and the most innovative being near miss technology. In addition to the data collection of those four locations, there is a strategic plan. We're wrapping that up
as well. So, there was a lot of public input involved in this project. So, in addition to these four locations, there are a total of 17 additional locations proposed from the community to consider if Pasco County were to move forward with more formal uh microobility traffic monitoring program development. So,
those will also be in uh communicated in the strategic plan. Uh this is a web map. Uh this is one of the deliverables. So on the web map this will show all past, current, ongoing and proposed count stations, all
microobility proposed uh throughout the duration of this plan. So this is an online web web map that can be continuously managed uh by Pasco County MO. So just as a quick refresher uh these are smart cameras. So they are portable
non-intrusive technology devices whether would be one or two sensors depending on the size of the location that's being analyzed. Uh but with those sensors you can detect all modes. So vehicle, truck, bus, pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle,
scooter, all that uh with the advantages of having one maybe maximum two sensors out there on the roadway. Uh again these will have they are AI powered. So after the cameras are taken down, they're they're uploaded through an AI uh processing and that is what not only is
going to detect volume, trajectory, time of day usage, but it's also making these very complex measurements with AI predicting potential near miss incidents. So getting right into the results, we are going to go quickly through each of
the four locations. So, starting with the Starke Boulevard uh location at Highway 54. I know there's a lot of information here. If you could just pay attention to the red squares. The total count on a Thursday over 24 hours was 133. That's bikes, ped
scooters total. The Saturday count, you'll see a massive increase in the amount of usage at this location all the way up to 532 microobility travelers at this location. We take a closer look at the traffic
patterns. So, this is what the Thursday 24-hour uh traffic pattern looked like. It fits more of a recreational or mixeduse traffic pattern. Uh one of the things that came out clearly, you can see that when the sun is down, no one's using the trail. Um and I think that
works with the policies of the county as I saw signage out there saying that these trails are sundown u sun up usage. So, the data is proving that there's really no one out there unless when the trails are officially open. Uh there are some uh upticks you can see around 2
3:00 which we consider that to be school traffic. This is what the Saturday count looks like. So a lot more volume but the same thing mostly it's people are waiting for the sun to come up and once the sun comes down there's really no more usage. And you can see a lot of uh most of the
usage here microobility wise is bicycles. So that's more of the common traffic data collection that you normally see. Uh but this is where we're tracking the trajectory lines. So the red lines represent bicycle movements over a 24-h hour period and the yellow lines
represent pedestrian movements. Um so that's what the Thursday looks like over 24 hours. If we look at the Saturday, uh you can see a lot more activity. And this is really where you can start asking questions about some of what some of these lines are doing. What are they
saying? This is where a couple years ago, this is the latest we got in technology. And now with near miss technology, we can take a deeper dive into some of these trajectory lines and see what happened. Uh this is the results of the near miss. So over those 48 hours of data
collection at this location, seven events were verified to be a near miss. Could I ask a question, Mr. Chair? It's good. How do you how do you define a near miss? Yes. So, great question. I'll do my best to summarize, but has to do
with uh you can set parameters on the AI. You can set zones and usually when we have it on just looking at bicycle pedestrian movements, that's all it's seeing. When we add the near miss analysis, it calculates all the movements of everything happening within
that lens. So, the thousands and thousands of cars and trucks that are moving in those directions, it's analyzing all those movements. So we put put a parameter of a window of 3 seconds or less. If a red or a yellow line is
moving within that zone and the AI is predicting that one of these green lines is going to intersect with that line within a window of 3 seconds or less. That is what marked it as an event. After that happens there is a visual QC. There is a human being that looks at the
results of these uh events that were marked off. And then we have a visual a visual um verification saying yes there are some false positives that are uh um noted by the machine. So there there
is a post uh human verification process as well. But that's my best of explaining how it works. No, that's great. Thanks. Yes. So, um, for each one of these locations, we picked the most interesting video clip of every site. So, this is the longest of the four, but
this is tells a really great story about how this trail connection operates at this intersection. So, if we can please just play and just take a look at all the various movements that are happening. You'll see this is a very popular trail, particularly on the weekends. There's a
lot of groups that utilize uh this location. You're going to see here it's not just bicycles. There are uh looks like to be mopeds or scooters or um you know some of these electric bicycles. Lots of movements happening in different directions.
And then yo, there's going to be another group showing up here. Yeah, I make sure you pay attention to the gentlemen all the way on the bottom right as soon as they get the uh the signal to go ahead. Lots of discussions were about this right turn and how it operated with
those that are trying to mostly people are trying to connect to the start key gap trail to go oh my gosh lots of interesting movements that were captured. Um, so that just helps. Oh, we got it's not over yet. We got a little bit more activity
happening. Yep. One of those comments about the medians. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's so dangerous. So, yeah, definitely a very interesting site. There was a lot of interesting discussion that were happening during the committee meetings and our and our
outreach meetings about you know uh the behaviors that were witnessed and how it's operating and you know discussions about if there can be improvements to to make this intersection a little safer for all moods. We'll go to the next slide. Okay, so that was uh now we're
going to the Sun Coast Trail uh coast um Sun Coast Trail crossing at Ridge Road. Uh so this is location uh kind of way out there. Definitely this is for the hardcore recreational cyclists. So on a Thursday not much too much activities
just 64 people were counted. Uh definitely an increase on a Saturday went up to 282. Here's the traffic pattern similar in that when the sun's down these trails aren't used. Um so mostly a recreational
type of traffic pattern both on Thursday and this is Saturday. Here is the trajectory lines of the behaviors as they were crossing uh through this trail crossing. Now, we do understand that this location is going to be
scheduled for already for some safety improvements. So, were the discussions about this could be an opportunity for perhaps a before and after count where you know we have great data now showing how it's operating currently. you could potentially make those improvements, come back with this same technology, and
then see if there's been differences in the behavior. So, out of this location, three near misses were detected over the 48 hours. And we'll play one of those video clips. Second,
so an interesting example there. So the drivers don't have the stop sign. That driver was being I would say courteous trying to let that person go. But it's interesting to see another car coming right behind that doesn't know that. Uh so just something that was you know that was one of the ear misses that was
detected. So next site uh so state road uh US19 at Cranch Road. Uh so this is the location on Thursday. we had 125 total count. Saturday was 122.
Now, what's different from this location from the previous two is that this is more of a 24-hour facility. So, you can see here uh it doesn't matter what time of day or night it is, somebody is out there uh utilizing these facilities. Uh so there were discussions in the committee meetings about the importance
of lighting of sightelines and just you know having a better understanding of knowing that doesn't matter what time of day there's someone out there. So drivers everyone should be mindful of of who who's utilizing these facilities. So Saturday count similar you know
distribution throughout the day mostly you know when there's daylight hours but really even at 3 4 in the morning there's people out there. So this is what the trajectory lines look like for a Thursday. So you can see there's some interesting lines going on
there. There's some ped crossings happening where there isn't a crosswalk. Uh so these are some of the um spurred some interesting discussions about how this intersection is utilized. This is the Saturday count. And then the near miss for this location
had five uh nine nine total near misses that were detected. Um, so we're going to show an example now. Here's one of Pay attention to the right side crosswalk. And this has to do with you're going to see what looks like a
sort of like a motorbike with two people and cars trying to make right turns. So yeah, there's an example you can see here where the uh the rider swerved around the car but was making a right turn. So that was one of the near misses that was detected.
And then the final site uh was US 19 and Grand Boulevard. So, similar to the other US19 site, uh constant activity uh throughout the day and night for both Thursday and Saturday.
Here were the the trajectory lines looking at behaviors. This is Thursday and then Saturday. And then this also had a total of nine near misses that were detected for this
location. And then this is an interesting video because I think it really touches on all ages and abilities. So this uh when we run this video, what you'll see what looks like a senior citizen on the bottom and then a mother with two children uh crossing US
19. We can run that. Also note the golf cart activity. So some writing very cautiously uh over the street. But I think it really touches on the idea of all ages and abilities thinking about you know um being mindful of all the different types of folks that are using these facilities
and and trying to accommodate all of them as safely as possible. So those were the results of the four locations. I would say overall I think out of all the public outreach that we did, the the feedback was generally positive in regard to what smart camera data
collection can do in regard to assisting in better understanding microobility traffic within Pasco County. Uh there were recommendations about doing something like this more in the future, maybe at a larger scale. Uh so we did have uh a total of eight public outreach
meetings, committee meetings, presentations where we went out into the field. We learned more about the different types of technologies that are available for traffic monitoring uh not just smart cameras but learning about other traditional data collection technologies that can also be utilized
uh to manage a a countywide program. Uh and with high quality data, you can do a lot of things with it. So there's a lot of different case studies. I know on in the February discussion we talked about all the things that you can do with traffic data um if collected uh
strategically at high quality using high quality data consistently uh gives you a lot of power in being able to make datadriven decisions. Uh so there are many other partners. So Pasco County no is not alone in this effort. Uh FDOT is definitely a big
partner u in this aspect. I know district 7 is very much involved in microobility safety. Also, central office is managing the statewide non-motorized traffic monitoring program. This data will be delivered to FDOT to be added to the statewide repository of traffic data.
And again, uh there is the web map that can continue to be updated, enhanced as Pasco County continues to uh work on microobility safety. And uh so yeah, that's the end of the presentation. All traffic data, all
results will be in the strategic plan and uh we're available for any questions or comments. Mr. Hey, quick question. If you go back a couple slides, I know Port Richie wasn't on there, but Graham Boulevard is in Port Richie. So, I don't know if that was is there something we
need to do to to engage more or sorry, you're so on the slide we had the had Dade City, Newport Richie, the city emblems. Port Richie wasn't on there. Oh, but Graham Boulevard was Port Richie. So, I didn't know if that was if I I I will make sure it's on that slide.
My apologies. Okay, Mr. Sure. Yes. And I mean the data is great obviously but now okay the question is what do you do to try and help and I know each intersection is going to be a different answer for that. I mean so I guess moving forward how are
we handling looking at solutions to these different intersections and that might not be a question to you or either anybody. I'll start by just saying um yeah our role was to collect the data and to provide it to Pasco County. We did have meetings with the with the county
engineer. We know that they're aware that this study is uh going to be occurring. We will be supplying that data to the county and making it available to anyone to to to access. Yeah, we'll be taking looking at the next round of whatever site that we're
looking at the intersection and then going from there. But we're also doing the same streets for all the safety action plan. So we'll be those sites as well. So we're doing a lot of planning right now and then we're going to mobility. So, we're going to use this data to try
and create some solutions in these areas. And I know the one you showed where the pedestrians and we have some areas in our city like this. You have to take a left, go up and cross and come back and the people want to cut across.
That's normal. I mean, every one of us does that, too. So, what's the solution? I I don't know. So it it's in my mind I'm like well it's almost you need to make it that be the crosswalk but that that might not be the answer but but I'm
telling you people still unless you physically cannot do it right and maybe a physical barrier you're going to do it. So that I mean it's it's something we need to think about and there's some areas that I was thinking that really we need to try and eliminate the interaction with bicycles, pedestrians
and cars. We need to try and eliminate the intera interaction totally with either an underpass or crossover, you know. So, um especially the one you showed us with on uh what was it? They were trying to access the trail. I mean, those cars were flying and the people
are right there at the edge. So, I mean just a bobble or looking at your phone, right? You those people are gone, you know? said and and that's part of I would say the the the the the big benefits of this study was demonstrating what this type of technology can do. Now
you know for many years it was just a spreadsheet with just the numbers but doesn't really tell the story of what's happening. So that's part of what the intent was with this study was to demonstrate this technology and you know consider using it in the future. Great. It was great. Thank you. and so Graham
Boulevard. So, this is of interest now because we're getting ready to um redo that intersection um to try to get that uh put I think dedicated lefts in so it can be approved for golf cart crossing or whatever. So, I wonder if if this
should this information should be passed on to some engineers or whatever. And I don't know what stage that's in. I think it's already designed but I don't know if any of this information was taken into context or not. So, I guess what I mean you welcome to information about the long. Yeah,
absolutely. Um, if you could send that to me so I could get that to him and maybe get you guys hooked up so as as we do that we incorporate some things in there that we should. Councilman Smith, I just want to say the overasses,
you know, the the utilization rate of them and also the cost effectiveness of the overpasses is not really there. Overpasses are very expensive. are more impactful. Okay. So, that's what we're looking at
and also education, enforcement, engaging um and making it safer for our community members to cross and the citizens. But you're right, the path of least resistance is where the mind goes, right? We're going to start across the street and we're put ourselves in harm and that's not where we want to go. So,
we're going to do our best over the next courses of these studies that we're doing and plans to ensure that we have recommendations that go along with them working with county engineering as well, you know, and there was one and I I don't know where the people were coming from, but they were trying to access the trail and I don't know if they were
parking in a parking lot over here and then trying to get to it. So, I was like thinking if that's what they were doing, we need a parking lot on the other side so they don't have to try and cross, you know? And I'm not saying that they may have been continuing on the trail, but I saw some coming up from the west, I
guess, heading east. And I'm like, okay, where were they coming from? You know, were they coming from the house? I don't know. So, right. Yeah, we definitely saw some folks when we were doing the site visits using that parking lot. But also interesting, we had spoken to some of the writers. Some are distance riders
coming from two, three counties away, right? And and they're just continuing and they don't know what this intersection is about. Some of the locals know, but yeah, you have people coming from outside Pasco utilizing these facilities, too. Yeah. And reducing the speed in those areas probably is a thing with the cars, too.
That needs to be looked at because we had a real good there was a good presentation made to us about the uh speed of the car versus the the the uh severity of the accident. So, um, get getting those cars slow down, but I
mean, those cars were moving through there with the people right there. So, that's real dangerous. Um, I'm I'm assuming that we're going to be doing more of these. Obviously, this is four four intersections out of, you know, the whole county. So, imagine
there's a lot more out there, uh, where there's problems. Um, the the woman was talking about Shady Hills Road. Um I know this is based on micromobility but she mentioned by a school there um so that tends to bring micromobility from school is that is that anywhere on the
radar coming up to look at or we haven't chose the next question but that defin we have 17 total that we're they're going to be in the plan that proposed during our meetings and we can add more. I think it's great to What was the time
frame that was those intersections were monitored? I know that that it was March. So all the whole month. Yeah. Early March and then the whole 48 hours. So it was a Thursday and a Saturday. Okay. So just a couple days. Yes. I just have a comment. When you when you do the
cameras for Shady Hills, can you just make sure that school's in at that time? Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. Anyone else? Any more questions? Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. And next up, Pasco County safety action
plan. Angel again. Um, the Pasco County Safety Action Plan will conduct a comprehensive analysis of the county's transportation system, evaluate crash data, and develop safety policies, strategies, and projects to
reduce roadway crashes. In response to rapid population growth, increase vehicle miles traveled and a rise in severe crashes. The MO prioritizes plan to help lower transportation related fatalities and severe injuries. Once finalized, the publicly available plan
will align with the county's transportation goals and provide a framework for implementing both short-term safety improvements and long-term safety focused transportation investments. Katherine Tles, principal planner at Fair Pierce, will present an overview of the plan and outline next
steps. Good morning. I'm Katherine Tles with Fair and Piers and the presentation before me was kind of a a perfect segue into what we're doing here with the uh transportation safety action plan. Um so this morning I'm just going to provide
sort of a brief overview of the project. We just got kicked off a few months ago, so we've still got a a lot of work ahead of us. Um, but we'll kind of provide, you know, what is the project, what are some of the key tasks, and then we've done kind of a a high level crash trends analysis to help get us started. Um, and
then we'll also go through the safe system approach. So that's sort of the lens through which we're we're looking at transportation safety in the region. Um, so what is safe streets Pasco? Um, so we'll be doing a detailed assessment of transportation safety throughout the
county. Um, and then we will be identifying new feasible safety improvements to provide on the MO road network as well as uh countywide on other jurisdictions roads. Um, and then we'll integrate this and set up a framework to integrate it into other plans so that some of those longer term
improvements can get uh constructed. Um, we'll also be identifying a host of sort of quick build type projects as well. Just watching those videos. I have a host of just signal timing changes that could be implemented next week. um provided the right strategies to to help. So, we'll we'll try and be
pragmatic and identify some things that can can happen right away and then some of those longer term projects. Um and then there'll be some updated policy information and some educational materials that will come out of the plan as well. Um so, we've got a a number of
things that we're we're doing throughout the the course of this project. Um first one being public engagement. We really want to hear from the public. Um, we know where crashes are currently happening. We have that data, but we want to understand where all those near misses are happening, where people might
not feel safe traveling. Um, you know, what are some of those conditions that are we don't quite know about? So, we want to layer on that lived experience onto the the data that we already have. Um, we have a lot of meetings that we're doing. So, we have a um a task force and we're meeting five or six times
throughout the course of the project. We're meeting with the the TAC, the CTST, the BPAC. Um we're going to come before you all a couple of times. We're going to do a couple of popup events out in the community and we'll do some workshops and uh we're coming up with some customized safety messages uh for
the county and really pulling out those local crash stats to to highlight. So, right now we're working on one for Fourth of July with a focus on impaired driving. So, that should be ready to be sent out um in advance of the holiday. Um, so that's the the public engagement
piece and we've got the the data piece. So we're doing a couple of things. So the first one is we're identifying what we call the high injury network. Um, so this is a collection of roads throughout the county where we see the highest prevalence of fatal and severe injury
crashes. So those are the roads that we know that we have to focus on. So we've sort of already been working on that. We've developed a preliminary network and we're finding that over half of the fatal and severe injury crashes in the county happen about 2% of the roads. So, we don't need to look at everything.
We're going to focus on those roads where we have the highest prevalence of crashes. Um, but then we're also going to be a little proactive and we're going to take a look at, well, what are the characteristics of those roads and are there other roads that maybe in the future could be that next high injury network segment? um and perhaps because
development hasn't occurred there yet, we're not seeing the crashes, but we can help you identify the characteristics of roads to avoid so that as new development comes online, you can incorporate some of those safety enhancements as part of that development rather than waiting for those new high
injury network segments to emerge. Um and then we're also, you know, sort of as part of that identifying those overall risk factors. So we we know that speed and then the mixture of different travel modes tends to result in higher rates of fatal and severe injury
crashes. Um and then we'll also be looking at the behavior aspects of it as well. Um we know looking at the data there's a fair number of people who were killed that were not wearing their seat belts. So can we do more to have outreach to those folks to to really encourage seat belt use and and other
safer behaviors on our our roads? Um, so once we've done all that analysis, we'll, you know, crunch all the numbers and really look at, well, what are some of the common themes? Um, and then for those top high injury network segments, we're going to do some reviews and and identify specific things that can be
done that can then be incorporated into some of the long range planning processes as well as some of those quick build shorter term type activities. Um and then once we have sort of that list of projects, we'll work with um the task force and others to come up with how
we're going to prioritize projects because the list of needs is will be greater than the available funding for the next few years. So we really want to work with everybody to prioritize where you'd like to see those improvements first. Um, and then that will all be incorporated into an action plan with uh
lots of materials that will then be incorporated into some of the other uh planning processes. Um, so we've got a lot of work to do. Um, we just kicked this off in the the spring and we've been doing some of the preliminary analysis and right now we're in the
midst of coming up with the high injury network and um the crash analysis. We'll be presenting that to the task force at our next meeting in mid July. Um then we're going to start an exercise of policy benchmarking. So what this means is we're going to review all the various
plans and documents that have already been prepared. Um and we'll highlight goals and policies that really help emphasize safety and then we'll highlight the ones that could create a a barrier to implementing some of the safety improvements and we'll we'll daylight those for discussion to see what modifications uh you all might like
to see. And then in the fall, we'll be also looking at those engineering and non-engineering countermeasures. So engineering, we're talking about all the road improvements. And then on the the non-engineering side, it's, you know, enforcement, education, outreach, some
of those things. Um, we can't rely on any one approach. It's sort of we need to rely on uh sort of multiple efforts to improve safety. And then in the the winter, we'll start to kind of prioritize things and put that all together in an action plan um coming
before you all in the spring for adoption. Um because this is funded through a safe streets and roads for all grant um the project does need to be completed I think by June 1st or June 30th. June 30th. So we have in the schedule to come before you all in May. So we've got a little buffer time in the
the schedule. Um but that's not that far away. Um, so just want to highlight some of the the overall crash trends that we're seeing. So this here is just statewide fatalities by mode going back to 2009. Um, so you can see between 2009
2021 there's pretty sharp uptick in um fatalities across the state and this rate of growth in fatalities actually outpaced population growth during that time period. Um then you can see in 2021 there was kind of what we call the COVID
spike. Um things were just different. We noticed that there was a lot less congestion. People drove a lot faster. Um there was a lot more aggressive driving and other things and that's finally starting to trend downwards and we're seeing that kind of across the country and in many different
jurisdictions. Um but what remains to be seen is that you know going to continue. Um so something that we're all all looking out for. Um, so then looking a little closer to home. So this is combined Pasco, Hernando, Citrus, Penllis, and Hillsbor counties. Uh, you
can see this is back to 2019 and then through 2024. Um, so you can again see that little bit of a COVID spike. So, you know, throughout the region about 600 people a year are are dying collectively on the roadways.
Um, and then if we look just in Pasco County, um, you know, it's about 20 people a year and don't really see that COVID spike happening in in Pasco County. Um, but we are unfortunately seeing the numbers ticked up in 2024. I
did take a preliminary look at the 2025 data to date and it's trending downwards. So, that's a good thing. We'll we'll continue to watch that. Um, but uh this also kind of highlights the mode that people were traveling. Um, so you can see a lot of it was really
motorists, so people inside vehicles. Um, but within Pasco County and the region, we do see a higher rate of motorcyclist fatalities than we do statewide or nationally. Um, it's just great weather, great scenery. Um, there's different helmet laws here than
in other states. So, there's just some some confluence of factors there. Um, and then you can also see the number of pedestrians and and cyclists as well. Um, so just this is a quick comparison to your neighbors and sort of the the
statewide average. So, um, we can see that Pasco is just slightly below the statewide average when we look at fatalities per 100,000 people, um, but above the the national average. Um, and just want to also highlight that other countries that are similar to ours that
have been working on sort of the safe system approach for many years, they're approaching about five fatalities per 100,000 people. Um, so you can see with a, you know, an approach on all of this, um, we can start to to make a difference
and have that downward trend. Um and then again just kind of highlighting um people outside of vehicles that are dying in in Pasco County and in the region altogether. So um little more than 20% on the
pedestrian side, about another 20-ish percent on motorcyclists, and then about 8 to 10% on the the bicyclist side of things. Um but you can see you're we're kind of in good company with all of our neighboring counties. So there's a lot we can learn, you know, what's going on in Penllis County and and Hillsboro
County. Um so that's kind of just a high level overview. Next time we come back we'll have um a lot more sort of trends and specific locations and other things. So as we really dive into the analysis, how we're going to look at things is through what we call the safe system approach.
And it's a a holistic approach that acknowledges that fatal and severe injury crashes on our roads are preventable and they're unacceptable. There's there's a lot of things that we can do to prevent them. Um, so there's a number of principles and then elements
that go along with that. So of the the principles, it's really just, you know, the the premise that death and serious injury is unacceptable. Um, and there's things that we can do to prevent that from happening. Um, and then just acknowledging that humans make mistakes.
We saw in those videos lots of humans, whether they're walking, biking, or driving, making some mistakes. um does it mean though that you should pay for that mistake with your life? And so trying to um like to say make the safe choice the easy choice. So instead of
having people need to or expecting them to walk 1500 feet or a half mile to a crossing because the bus stop is here and their apartment is there, they just want to cross the street. Um making that the safe choice. So maybe relocating the bus stop or adding in a mid-block
crossing. There's a number of different things that can be done. um based on the the context. We want to make sure that whatever solutions we come up with are appropriate for the context and then keeping the impacts to the human body at a a tolerable level. So if as a
pedestrian if you're hit by a vehicle, you know, let's just say a large truck going 40 or 50 miles an hour, your chances of survival are pretty low. Um but if you're hit by that same vehicle that's going 20 miles an hour, your chances of survival are much greater. Um
and then the philosophy that responsibility is shared. So there is a lot of different people that are involved in the design of roadways, the construction of them, the operations, the maintenance, the enforcement side. Um and then also the road users themselves. So there's a lot of
different people involved and everybody has some level of responsibility. Um and that also includes the judicial system. So when people um are continually, you know, given tickets for driving at excessive speeds, how many times does
that take before their license is taken away? Um and then redundancy is critical. So there's no one solution that's going to fix everything. We need to have um some redundancy built into the system and that also includes um emergency response. So crashes will
continue to happen, but can we get people to the trauma center as quickly as possible? Um because if you can get somebody, you know, on that operating table and what they call the golden hour, their chances of survival are much greater. And then we have the the five safe
system element. So the first one that safe road users aspect. So, um, things that can encourage people to, you know, behave appropriately on the roads, not drink and drive, not using your phones. That's kind of probably going to
be the sort of educational encouragement piece of the the plan. Um, safe vehicles. So, that's, you know, our vehicles today have all of these great safety features incorporated into them. um you know from this plan there's not much that we can do to help influence um
you know national regulations on what those look like but also understanding that we do have a lot of of safety features and maybe encouraging you know new fleet vehicles to have all of those um built into them and then safe speed. So that's looking at what's the appropriate context of this road and
designing the road and setting the speed for that context. So, if it's a limited access roadway, you can have your speed, you know, 70 miles an hour, perfectly fine. Um, but if this is a road where you have um transit and you have
bicyclists, pedestrians, and you have vehicles, maybe 50 miles an hour is not an appropriate speed. Maybe it needs to be something lower. So, we really want to look at who's using the road, what are the activities, what are the land uses, and kind of what's that appropriate speed, and making sure that the road design features kind of
communicate to the driver what the appropriate speed is that they should be driving. Um, and then on the the safe roads side, it's just are we we have all those features incorporated into the roads for safety. We don't have, you know, power poles right next to the the
road. We're separating users in space and time. And then I already touched on postc crash care. So can we we get the ambulances there and can we get the first responders there and get folks the help that they need. And so as we're looking at improvements, we'll be looking through it the lens of
what we call the safe system hierarchy. Um so we'll the top part is things that are the most effective. So removing those severe conflicts. So there was talk about oh maybe we can do a pedestrian overcrossing at some of these trail locations. That's sort of an
example of removing that severe conflict. Um, but at the top, those are also the most expensive and kind of the hardest to implement. So, we can't rely on those all the time. There's just not enough resources. Um, second one is sort of managing vehicle speeds. So, can we
um set speeds appropriately, have people drive at those appropriate speeds. Um, the next one is managing conflicts in time. So, a lot of that is about your signal timing parameters. Are we allowing left and right turns to cross a crosswalk when people walking across the
street also have the the green light? That was a lot of the conflicts that we saw in the video. So maybe there's things like no right turn on red or not allowing the right turns when um there's pedestrians in the crosswalk. Um and then increasing attentiveness and
awareness. Um so we can't remove the conflicts. Just really highlighting them so people can see them and be more aware of them. Sometimes this is as simple as just trimming back some landscaping so you can have better sight distance. Um, and then the last one is sort of implementing enforcing features to slow
traffic. So that could be a a speed feedback sign or some other signage. Um, so they're not, you know, you're not going to use that in a place where you need to reduce the speed from 50 miles an hour to 30 miles an hour, but maybe it's part of an overall program.
Um, so that's what we have for you today. And so interested in, you know, questions, feedback, um, you know, what crash data are you most interested in, um, what do you think is the biggest safety challenge? So we can really start wrapping our heads around that and help
you come up with some solutions and any opportunities you all might see. So happy to take any questions or feedback. Questions? Good. Thank you. That was amazing. Thank you.
All right, other business. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, August 21st, 10:00 a.m. on the east side in Dade City. Uh, does anyone have anything else before we adjourn?
Good. All right. Journ. Thank you. [Music] [Music]
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