Coalition Meeting Notes
June meeting outcomes identified the most important steps to happen by August 6, 2023:
Google doc to add links that CATS, CPEX, and localized things that have been done by folks to improve transit. Then categorize to identify which things need a deeper dive.
A shared historical document via Google docs
Looking for both the physical and social assets (for what organizations are in the space, who is advocating for what)
Stack what you need in order to accomplish the end goal.
Community Assets and reconciliation of current info
followed by barriers
T&M meeting purpose:
To engage a diverse group of key transportation and mobility stakeholders to advance the work of the T&M coalition.
July meeting intended outcomes:
A diverse group of interests are represented and participate.
Attendees are updated and provide input on the status of coalition efforts..
Attendees provide input on potential next steps.
Working groups and members
Assets: Kaysie
Barriers: Tina, Lynn
Planning: Caleb, Casey, Cheri
Practices: Manny, Jason, Tom, Brandon
Notes
Pepper Roussel: Hello. Welcome, Baton Rouge fam. We'll be getting started in just a minute. Or two. Raymond Jetson: Welcome and thanks for everybody joining us. It's amazing. Two of my favorite people came at the same time. Karen Stagg and Mark Martin. That's you. Also truthful. When you get those two to work together, you have a good space. Karen Stagg: It's good to be here. Great. Glad you hear my phone. Raymond Jetson: Good afternoon. Good afternoon and welcome everyone, everybody staying out of the heat. Karen Stagg: Every opportunity trying it is wise to stay out of the heat. I was communicating with some, yeah, I was communicating with two, two, two dear friends on yesterday. I lived in Phoenix for six and a half years and so I was texting with a couple of friends who remained there and their description was that, and both of them are long term residents, and both of them were marked in totally different text threads. that is unlike anything they've ever felt in Phoenix. Oh, this is exceptionally bad. It started early and we've broken too many records. Raymond Jetson: When it's... Welcome... No, go ahead. No, I was just going to welcome the rest of our other friends who are joining us. As we air here, we're going to get started on just, literally in one minute. And so thank you guys for making time to join us. Especially Matt, my dear Manny. Manny Patole: What did I do? Raymond Jetson: Just saying, so glad that you're here, my friend, along with so many other really great people. Manny Patole: We spent the morning drilling into concrete to anchor in the first telescoping mast for the bakery work. So it's dusty and it was hot. Raymond Jetson: Welcome, welcome. You guys enjoy the service. Glad that you're 01 and it's pepper and you will recall we don't want to punish people for being on time. Pepper Roussel: Absolutely not. I was just about to say though That the heat is the one thing that is deeply reminiscent of of Katrina. So if y'all know folks who are homebound, elderly, impoverished, and can't necessarily afford to evacuate themselves, if y'all could start putting together a plan for them. That would probably be wonderful. Anyways. Hey there. Hi there. Hello there. Thank you all for being here. Super duper appreciate you being here and on time. How amazing is that? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your continued support of the Transportation and Mobility Coalition. And as Raymond so eloquently said, we will for being here on time because who wants that? Raymond Jetson: Anyways, Yeah, we have to wait. Is Pepper cutting out for someone else? To the left. I am sharing my screen. You were breaking up there a bit, Pepper. You were breaking up a bit. Pepper Oh, all let me turn off the video. It seems that my connection may be unstable. The One Rouge coalitions are... And I got a phone. Why is this happening? The One Rouge coalitions are, education to career, capital area, food, equity, and transportation ability, standing up the others as we go along. But the objective, of course, is that we do address the drivers of poverty. We do that through not only these individual coalitions, but also through Friday calls, working groups, and our leadership council. And so what we are going to be doing today is having the co chairs give us a little bit. of whoops. There we go. Having our co chairs giving us a little bit of a level set by sharing and reminding us grounding. Really in both the aspirational city can you come off mute and share a little bit with us? Cheri Soileau: Yes. I'm on my feet to make sure it's been one of those days. Sorry guys. Again, also thank you guys for coming and showing up and giving your time to this. It's really important as we move forward and start doing the work, it's, and remember it's inclusive, it's not just transit, it's just not pedestrian, it's not just bikes, and dare I even say, we can't forget the cars, and I think the one thing that has always bothered me when somebody is passionate about something, people will say, oh, you can't, this is bad, and We have to understand it's about giving people choices and education. As we're doing this, we're embracing transportation as a whole, and transportation is not an island. It feeds into so many other things that One Rouge is doing, and what each of your agencies are doing, or what volunteer work you guys are doing. We're not islands. Not even transit is an island. We have to be inclusive with everything. We're looking for your feedback. It's not about me or I don't know if Tina on yet. It's not about Tina or myself or anybody. It's collaboration together to see how we can look at these options. for the future. That's inclusive for everybody. Everybody, even our paratransit or mobility impaired folks are young and old, rich or poor, whatever. That's what we're here for. And that's what we're going to have in that, that, that goal, that aspiration of folks. Just as a bit of an overview, our aspirational statement is very simple and very straightforward. The co chairs worked really hard on this that it is indeed emblematic of who we intend to be. We are, as Transportation Mobility Coalition, inclusive, accessible, and progressive mobility options. Advanced, excuse me, inclusive, accessible and progressive mobility options for the present and future of our entire community. Our goals are pretty easy to follow and y'all have been involved in these for a little bit now, but in very broad strokes, we are about asset mapping eliminating barriers to mobility, identifying and following planning and funding structures, and ensuring that we do. Implement emerging and proven practices in mobility. And one of the things that that I would share guys is these goals. If you would start from assets, barriers, planning, emerging, and just assign a number to them. One, two, three, and four, starting at the top. If there is a particular body of work that you have a particular interest in, if you just put that number in the chat, if you've not already selected a work group some of you have on the call, but if you're interested in being a part of the work group for either of these areas, if you just put the number in the chat, we'll make a note of it and connect you with that work group. Pepper Roussel: And so thanks for that. And so the next day, and what we wanted to call your attention to the last time we were together we talked about gathering these documents excuse me, gathering these documents that are already existing. Around transportation and mobility in our community. It's not a new thing but what do we need to accomplish in the next 45 days in order to ground this work to be prepared to move forward? And so what we ask was for any documents that you have that were related to this that they were to be shared with us. And thanks to those of you who did. For those of you who have not had an opportunity to do I do want to encourage you to please after today's session help us begin to populate with the document. Raymond Jetson: Pepper, are you able to to bring forth the spreadsheet of what we do have? I'll bring it up in just a second. And so what we're going to take just a moment to do ladies and gentlemen is to ask you to take a good look at the document take a couple of minutes to peruse it. We will then give you an opportunity to ask questions or share comments about what and then we'll ask you questions. And Thank you. Pepper. If maybe if you just walk through it real quick. Sure. We have very broad strokes, the foundation for what it is and where we're going to start. So one of the two outcomes from our June meeting was that we would begin with an inventory. And that would be the focus of our first 45 days. Pepper Roussel: The doc, as Raymond just mentioned, the documents that we have are here in this particular spreadsheet. And here, let me expand this so that you can see, we also have these summaries listed. This is anywhere from the Baton Rouge metropolitan plan to bike Baton Rouge putting things together and the dates are over here on the left hand side. I want to say they span from 2018 to 2022, late 2022. I don't think we have anything for 23 yet. But the idea is that at a glance, we'll be able to see what is currently available and what does it say. Oh, we do have something for 2023. So for instance, And this transportation consortium of South Central States gives us an opportunity to see what the multimodal linkages and opportunities for proposed terminal sites are in South Louisiana. And so the Yes, the document is 208 pages. Many of them are graphic heavy. You'd be able to see, say, for instance, with the one on rails. Here we go. Rails to resistance. There are quite a few maps that share information about what does it look for, look like for a railroad to run from, say, New Orleans to Baton Rouge, evaluating how it is that a passenger rail could be connected between those two cities. Imagine Plank Road, for instance, from November 2019 by Build Baton Rouge, it is just a roadmap to address equitably response, equitable responses to the needs in these areas that are adjacent to Plank Road. Pepper, can I ask you to just in the briefest of ways, just start at the top because I think we only have 15, 15 documents. Just start at the top and maybe you could tell the source of the document and people can glance at the one liner and we can just go through them real, real quickly so people will have a sense of what's there. Sure, there's just a little background noise and apologies for that. So from CPR, CRPC March 2022, we have this document of that is actually forecasting what the future of transportation would look like. It's 74 pages and it is stored in our shared file. put out a document around public safety and transportation in October of 2022. This safety plan was adopted by the board in compliance with federal regulations. It's only 41 pages, so it might be easier to get through. Cats and Some other partners in August of 2022 put together the micro transit implementation for the city of Baker. It explores the feasibility of accessible transit solutions that, might be useful for segregated land uses and unavailable pedestrians. And the unavailability of a robust pedestrian network. It's 225 pages, but the font's big, so it's not that bad a read. CATS is also put together from September 2022. We should probably put these in chronological order. Service and design standards that provide policies and frameworks. I'm going to scroll this up just a little bit so that you can see the other documents that are in here. And I will share this with all of you up to and including Anonymous Liger. So that as you are Thinking about what you might share with us, there may be an opportunity for you to fill in some gaps. And ultimately, these documents are fitting into our start point. Just to repeat, not because I like to hear myself talk, but to make sure that we are making a mental connection. From our last meeting, we were trying to figure out what we already had. These are the things that have been shared. If there are more, please do share them. But the question then becomes, what does it mean? Do you want to pick up the mantle there? I will pepper and thank you very much. I guess I'll start by asking those who are taking part on the call. Do you have questions, reactions, or contributions that you'd like to offer at this point? So I'll just open it up. If you'd like to come off mute. And ask a question or make a comment. Mark Martin: I do have a question. Okay. I don't see the Ped Bike Master Plan in here. Nor the Complete Streets Ordinance. Okay, and and we will make note of those. Share, save them again for Mark? I can send those to you. Yes. But the Both of them are currently being reviewed to be included in the update of future BR, which is a City Parish planning document. They're going to, with any luck, have that review and update done by the end of this year. And in it, in that future BR is a transportation component. That will, in theory, at least, include the Ped Bike Master Plan, which will have an updated Complete Streets Policy, which we hope to make it into an ordinance, and there's also a map that shows current bike ped facilities, not every sidewalk, but mostly bike. Plus the expected build out over the next 10 years in a way that shows that there is a skeleton or an armature from which to build out a more complete system. I can send all those to you, but again, that the future BR, the Ped Bike Master Plan, and the Complete Streets Ordinance are all under review. So by the end of the year, they should be done and there'll be a new document. Raymond Jetson: And Mark, what I would ask is if you would send those to us so we can make certain that we have a space held for them, recognizing that the content may may evolve between now and the end of the year. I will do that. Thank you. Thank you again, my friend. Other comments or questions about what we've seen. Go ahead, man. Manny Patole: Based on Mark's comment and the fact that those two documents are under review, are we looking for things that have actually been executed and implemented? Or are we looking at things that are inclusive of implement, that those that have been drafted but not been implemented, those that have been that are like working documents and those that are already in place? The second part is I think we could have clarified this earlier when we first started this was how far back are we going with some of these documents as well? Because there could be other things that have been in the past that are still in the books, but there's nothing that superseded them. Raymond Jetson: They're just really old. And so to respond to your last question first Manny, my perspective would be I'd rather have it here and we determine that it's not as effective or it's not relevant today then for it to be out there and we not be aware of it. And so my encouragement would be to contribute it and let us determine as a group whether it has utility for the conversation that we are having. And if it's related to transportation and mobility, if there's been some study, some document created that had a public presence, then we're inviting it into this space so that we can begin to build this repository of what is there. Pepper Roussel: And I don't know if you heard me, Manny, or not, but that's where we're hoping to go. And so if it's out there even if it has not been executed on. We want to be. Thank you. And to have you on a written statement to have the information is better than to have to go back. The intention is to not reinvent the wheel, right? So if there's anything out there we want to start from what is already in existence, but more than it just being in existence, being able to create bridges and logical connections between those things that may have stopped because either they were out of time or human resources or maybe the scope of the project itself didn't extend as far as we needed it to, we needed to move forward with actually fixing these issues around barriers to access and mobility. Raymond Jetson: So thank you. Pepper. Other questions, comments, reactions input on the documents that have been shared. Other than Mark, can anyone identify something that's obviously missing that it would be very helpful to have? Okay. And so then if this catalog of documents are what we have today. And Pepper I don't know if your technology will allow you to share your screen one more time. But if you would bring those documents up again. So if these at this point let's call it 20 documents. These 20 documents are what we have at this point in time. What mean they for the work that we are attempting to establish. For our coalition, what do we do now with this information in your wives opinions? Manny Patole: Apologies, Raymond. Can you repeat that? Was that for us to respond to? Raymond Jetson: Yes, and I apologize. If you guys are having a problem hearing me, please let me know and I can start typing it in the chat. But the many the ask of the group is if this is the information that we have at our disposal at this point in time, what does it mean for our work? Manny Patole: What do we do next with this information to advance the work of the Transportation and Mobility Coalition? So I can kick off a little bit. So I think It could still be a working document and things can be added in as it might just as if we come across something else just because, we were in a room and someone mentioned something and someone, we didn't think about that as related to transit mobility. But I think what we can start trying to look at I think we, I don't know if it's not already done. Maybe I just want to tag it as it relates to those items that are part of the ethos of the organization. Is it, is, does the CATS, Baton Rouge title program, is 0.1, 0. 2, 0. 3, 0. 4, all of them? And then as we start doing that. Maybe we'll see some pattern emerge that most of the things that are been drafted or documented or discussed are, have been connected with one of our four things more than another. And maybe it's... Raymond Jetson: Yeah Manny, if I could say what I think I heard from you and you can either affirm or disavow, What I heard from you is one that this remains a living document that we are contributing to it as we become aware of instruments. But then secondly, that there begins to be some segmenting of the information according to the four gold areas to see what has information that may be beneficial. In informing the thoughts and actions of that particular group. Is that accurate? Manny Patole: Yes, that is accurate. And once again, it can be maybe in some of these Maybe we assign someone to do this or it's a group effort. However, we want to but if it's a group effort we have to come up with ways of or guidelines of how a document can relate to one of the four Objectives there. So if it's an individual maybe during the next meeting, you can do a first pass of like 10 documents and see how they organized it. If we all agree, that's a good way that person or that group of people can then do everything else. Raymond Jetston: Raymond: Thank you Manny. Thank you very much. Are there other thoughts or individuals who would be interested in being a part of a very small group? To peruse these documents and begin to set them up for some response, please. I would like to suggest and maybe part of the review of the documents is to categorize them by things that are already usable in the sense of what is the CATS route system? Mark Martin: What is the existing bike bed infrastructure? What is I see move BR is not on here. Okay, What are the implications of move BR? And these things are all active. And so looking at the current status would provide some information, but maybe looking at over the next 10 years anticipated build out would provide us a And I'm thinking of a map in particular, eventually. That would allow us to look at a visual representation of what the transportation and mobility options are now. And the ones that are planned to be in existence in the next 10 years. And by plan, I mean that the funds are available. That the maybe the designing is going forward. So it's more than just somebody's idea of what we might possibly have if. Part of the reason is because we just had a meeting for the Complete Street Citizen Advisory Committee this morning. And that included the updated current and tenure build out plan for ped bike stuff. It's very good to be able to see something visually to see what the, what is available. Thank you. Raymond Jetson: The other thing about these documents is to say service and design standards, okay, good to know, but not critically important at the moment because that's not going to actually, I don't think by looking at it impact the ability to get around now. And it's also probably going to change over time. Mark Martin: Standards do that. So moving forward, go ahead. Raymond Jetson: Yeah, I was just going to say allow me to say back to you what I think I heard and see if it is if it is accurate at what you were suggesting. One is I heard some agreement with Not only catalyzing these documents but having some level of investigation to see what they might contribute to the thinking, to the deliberations, to the understanding of the work that we are trying to do. So cataloging and maybe diving a bit deeper than the one liner that we provided to see what contribution and what value these documents may be. In advancing the work right now. I heard additionally giving particular attention to those documents that, that impact what will happen in, into the future, i.e. move back rooms, the complete streets, the bicycle document, the tenure making certain that those are attached and investigated. to gain some glimpse of how all of this stuff fits into what will be happening over the next few years just based upon what's here. Is that accurate? Did I miss something or misstate something? Mark Martin: No, that's accurate. I think it's, I'm coming to discover it's very important to be able to look at something to quickly assess what is usable now and what is planned to be usable in the near term. Okay. And I love that point. So what has an immediate relevance to it and what is something that will be relevant and impactful in the near term going forward. Raymond Jetson: And so we can certainly do that. Other. Thank you, Mark. Other thoughts ladies, gentlemen. One of the things that Mark said that triggered for me was looking at a previous project. Sometimes we have plans, and they look great, and they have a lot of information on them. But they don't necessarily have an implementation component that also corresponds to resources to implement. Manny Patole: I don't know if that's, maybe that could be a second order thing or it could be ties into what Mark was saying that has immediate impact versus Subsequent impact, but there's, there's shell fart right there that some of these things are, but unless there's some sort of way of galvanizing resources to actually execute I think that might be another way of articulating what Mark said in terms of immediate impact versus delayed execution. Raymond Jetson: All right. So we are reaching. Thank you, Manny. And we're making note of it, so we're reaching the last third of our time together. I do want to ask some of our dear friends on the call who have not shared thoughts if you would not mind leaning in and sharing some input into this moment, especially those of you who are in planning and research and who have contributed in some of these police and policy work. Your thoughts would be very helpful at this point. What do we do with these documents at this point? You've heard a couple of really valuable suggestions. What say you? Kim Marousek: This is Kim. I was just, sure. And this may be further down the road, but to me, one thing that would maybe be helpful is to, as we're going through these documents to be pulling out themes of issues that these documents are trying to address, or if there are particular existing conditions, whether that's a job, a geography. Of the parish or by issue, to start to pull out any common common issues that we might be able to lift up through that analysis. Raymond Jetson: Thank you very much, Kim. I appreciate it. And so what I am hearing broadly, and I would certainly invite you guys to confirm or push back against what I'm hearing is that there is the next step is this distilling and ordering of these documents according to a number of key areas. First of all, how do they relate to the gold areas that we've established? Secondarily what is that relevant in terms of execution and impact? I think it was Mark who said, there's one thing to look at a set of standards that are in place as opposed to looking at proposed bike routes that are about to be executed or changes in bus blocks or moving to paratransit or some other things. And looking at it through. Through that lens, also looking at it in terms of proximity to impact and timings. And then this last Kim and please correct me if I express this wrong but this connectivity in terms of either subject area or domain where there are things that are related to one another is that accurate to any degree to what we were expressing? Yeah, that's right. So any other thoughts, ladies and gentlemen? So dear friends. Thank you. What I'd like to do in the time that we have, excuse me. I'm sorry. I couldn't find my unmute button. Lynn Maloney: This is Lynn Maloney. How are you? I'm well, thank you so much for trying. I just I'm putting in the chat box. The complete streets. The DOT policy related to complete streets, which is statewide policy, but it definitely affects the mobility issues that we're discussing here. And I, the policy is really important. I think it should be included in the repository. There are also some reports on there. The most recent being the 2022. You may want to add that to the repository as well. This is, these documents are available on the website that I just sent you and so the, but the, boy now there it went. That thought just in and out but, oh, I do think that what we should do very, this is very important. Related to a lot of the implementation of a lot of the plans here is that we should also as along with collecting these documents, we should start collecting the different initiatives that are being done by different agencies, different organizations and so forth. Sooraz has mentioned that there was, there's a regional bike plan. Through the CRPC. What are the other works that CRPC, for instance, is doing, and again, I can give you an example of one of their initiatives, which is called commuter crew. It is very important for us to know that actually exists out there. Another one is, of course, I think Cheri has mentioned before about microtransit. So these are some things that are ongoing initiatives of some of the agencies. I can give you things that are really more obscure. Of course, Mark mentioned the bike ped master plan, which is being updated future BR, which is being updated. So we would want to have a spreadsheet related to the who and what organization and what the initiative is. I have heard, I heard day before yesterday that the Baton Rouge area chamber has a quality of life task force. I don't know anything about it. I don't yet know who the players are, but when I do, I can share that information, but I think what, because I think what we have to be very careful of is, as Kim mentioned, where do we as a group fit in? A lot of things are being done. A lot of things are being planned. A lot of things are being thought about. A lot of initiatives have been implemented. But where do we really want to get to implementation that matters to this group specifically? And let's see if we can leverage those other initiatives and help them if it's appropriate. Or be it for me to say, or stop them if it is not but you, do you see what I'm saying? I think that's very good, a good orientation for the group. So Lynn, thank you. Thank you for chiming in. The information is very helpful. The part that I will extract from your comments. is as it relates to what we do with these documents. Next is this notion of looking at it by organization. And so if we have information from a particular organization that's listed here, are there other pieces of work that they've done that might be relevant but are not necessarily listed here? And so looking at it, ordering it by organization also, that's very helpful. And to respond to your question if we are wildly successful in our work, we actually create a space here where the purveyors of these respective works can find ways to leverage their efforts and collaborate and coordinate in the best interest of the work. If we are wildly successful if we fail miserably, then we become another thing for people to do. That's a pain in the rear end. And so obviously my hope is that we would be the former more so than the latter. And the last thing the last two things that, that I will say in the time that I have remaining, Pepper, if you will bring back up the aspirational statement and the four goals, because it is responsibly and to, to the comment that you that she will make me and it is our work as it has been determined is focused in on these four goal area. And so all of this information and all of the relationships with the organizations are intended to number one, determine. How can we make certain that the assets that are present or the assets that are in play are mapped, whatever that word mapped means there, but that they are mapped and aligned. Yes. And so how to increase it. So how do we begin to do that? Secondly, how do we regularly consider what the barriers are and what are the options in terms of addressing this? And then what are the planning and funding structures that are represented either in these documents or not necessarily represented and how do we work to increase coordination and increase this overall mobility? And then lastly, we have this body of information. One of the critical questions is what's missing in terms of emerging and improving practices that are appropriate for that group. And so our work is how do we process all of it through these four respective lenses, if you will, or for doing our work. So thank you guys. So here's my last ask of you. And then I'll turn it over to Pepper or Cheri to wrap us up. So guys, there is no wise stage at the front of the room. There is no wisdom. To be found outside of you who are on this call. And so how, however we are able to be effective will be because of you and not because of me, pepper Helena or Shari or Keen or anybody else who helps to guide this work. And so we need the wisdom of the group to come forward. We need to hear. from you and respond. And what we need now are three people who are willing to work with us to begin to segment this information according to what has been shared. And if you are willing to do if you would either come off chat and send your name so that Pepper Helena, etc. Can document it, or if you can just put your name in the chat that you are interested in being a part of the three people for if we are willing to who are willing to to help us make get this happen. Is there anybody willing to be a part of helping us to begin to segment the next step of this work? So Manny is, so thank you very much, Mark for lending your hand. We have made note of and Manny, we will make the ask by email so people can assess their availability. But the thing that I would say, and then I'll be quiet It is, guys, this will move forward or stay still based upon our willingness to work collectively to make it happen.Pepper, Cherie, thanks again, guys, for your input. Pepper Roussel: Thanks, y'all, for being here. We'll get these notes out to you soon. Cherie, do you want to give us some final words? Cheri Soileu: Just thank you. I know there's a lot of different groups working on this. Similar. topic and I think if we could, we'll come together. We're not spinning our wheels. There's strength in numbers, especially when it comes to trying to get things done projects initiated and funding from our partners in the federal government. So spread the word share your documents, share your thoughts and it's appreciated very much. Thank you.Thanks for all you do. Thanks for service. Talk to you later.
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