In This Issue - Tuesday, January 20, 2015 Dear Friends, Welcome to the 2nd issue of FastTrack for 2015. In this issue, we introduce a new segment t

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Dear Friends,

Welcome to the 2nd issue of FastTrack for 2015.

In this issue, we introduce a new segment to FastTrack - the Transportation Term of the Month. We know that transportation and engineering seem to have a separate special language - and we are committed to helping everyone understand the terms that seem to be thrown around within the field. Let us know if there are terms you think we should help define in the coming months!

Our Bicycle Mobility Advisory Committee is looking for new members. Do you have a passion for biking? Check out the story in this issue for details on the three positions that are coming open and how you can apply to help advise our Technical Advisory Committee and the Transportation Policy Board.

We are also pleased to announce the release of a new Bike Safety Public Service Announcement - check out our new video - and please help us pass the word that regardless of how we travel - we all have a responsibility to one another!

Our quarterly newsletter is now available for download. Spotlight on Mobility is available in both English and Spanish and goes in depth into stories that we have included in past issues of FastTrack. Look for the notice in this issue to be able to download either copy.

Do you need a guest speaker for an event? Curious about how Mobility 2040 was developed or have questions about the future of our regional transportation network? Do you belong to a group that would like a presentation on bike safety and skills? The Alamo Area MPO has staff ready to present at your next function- email us today to book a presentation.

As always, we have included news from our partner agencies as well - including the public meetings being held by the Lone Star Rail District, surveys being undertaken by the Texas Department of Transportation, and some great news out of the Alamo Area Council of Governments on how many vehicle trips were saved in 2014!

Remember, we PLAN to keep you moving!

The Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization

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V-News Logo

Click here to watch VNews our monthly Video Blog about the meetings of the Alamo Area MPO

The Pedestrian Mobility Advisory Committee will meet on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 starting at 3:30 P.M. at the MPO Offices located at 825 S. St. Mary's Street, San Antonio, Texas 78205. The meeting agenda is available online.

The Transportation Policy Board will meet on Monday, January 26, 2015 starting at 1:30 P.M. at the VIA Metro Center located at 1021 San Pedro Avenue, San Antonio, Texas 78212.

For meeting notices and packets, please click here to view our calendar.

All meeting packets and agendas are provided on the calendar once posted.

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Over the next few issues of FastTrack, we want to take a few moments and help explain some of the transportation terms that you may have seen or will be seeing and hearing around the area. From types of environmental studies to agency names, from engineering terms to funding pools, transportation planning and programming, at times, can seem like a whole other language.

For this issue - we are focusing on what a Planning and Environmental Linkages Study or PEL is and why it is going to be a term we are all going to hear more of in the coming months.

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Transportion-Terms-PEL

Planning and Environmental Linkage (PEL) is an approach to transportation decision-making that helps to expedite transportation projects. It helps the MPO, TxDOT, local agencies and reviewing agencies consider environmental issues early in the transportation planning process and use this information for later analysis during the full National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation. PELs works to better utilize environmental data collection and studies concerning a project. It is used as the initial scoping of a project or corridor in the development phase so that the groundwork is already completed that can later serve to meet requirements for construction to begin. It also includes early public outreach in order to identify other concerns or issues that may need to be further examined.

PELs enables agencies to better communicate and coordinate during project decision-making. The PELs approach provides a broader perspective that reaches beyond NEPA requirements to include consultation with resource agencies and others concerning mitigation, conservation plans, regional habitat mapping, and more. PELs take the steps to streamline the overall process and make it more sensitive to all types of considerations from the beginning. Through PELs, environmental agencies and public concerns have greater influence on transportation projects and are involved early on, which can make the entire process move along more smoothly when it comes time to build the project. Previously, using older methods, it could take projects years and or decades to go from planning to construction due to the overlapping and redundancy in the environmental review process.

In the Alamo Area, we have two PEL studies occurring. Both of these studies are dealing with IH-35. IH 35 is ranked among the top 50 most congested corridors in Texas. Today, we have the IH-35 Central Study and the IH-35 Bypass study. For the IH-35 Central study, the PEL is looking at a 1-mile buffer around the downtown core of San Antonio for the collection of data to be analyzed. The IH-35 Bypass study is examining stretches from IH-35 to IH-10 E and takes in everything inside Loop 1604. With both studies, alternatives are being studied, including a non-build action. In addition, the criteria is taking into account mobility, safety, environmental impacts and economic development aspects.

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Jan. English
Jan. Spanish
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Bicycle Mobility Advisory Committee of the Alamo Area MPO

The Alamo Area MPO's Bicycle Mobility Advisory Committee is looking to fill three vacancies that currently exist.

The three vacancies are:

Citizen at Large Representative

Professional Organization Representative - note this position will be an alternate member until October 31, 2015 when the incumbent member's term ends.

Bicycling Organization Representative - note this position will be an alternate member until October 31, 2015 when the incumbent member's term ends.

The BMAC is an advisory committee that directly advises the Technical Advisory Committee of the MPO on technical matters and the Transportation Policy Board on relevant bicycle-related policy issues.

The BMAC generally meets from 8:00 A.M. until 10:00 A.M. on the second Wednesday of the month at the MPO Offices in downtown San Antonio. Evening meetings are held at least three times during the year from 5:30 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. and the meeting locations may vary.

If you are interested in applying, please visit the BMAC page of the MPO website to download a copy of the application. Completed applications are accepted by mail, emailing the Alamo Area MPO, fax or hand delivery. To be considered, all applications and supporting materials must be received no later than Friday, February 13, 2015 at 5 P.M.

For further information, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Allison Blazosky, Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Planner at 210.230.6911 or via email.

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Bike PSA Promotion Jan 2015

Alamo Area MPO Bike Safety Public Safety Announcement

The Alamo Area MPO has released a new Bike Safety Public Safety Announcement for 2015.

Click on the image to watch our brief video about how all modes share our largest public space - our streets!

Please help us share this video - remember, all modes - one Alamo Area.

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lone star regional rail

The Lone Star Rail District

The Lone Star Rail District will be hosting a series of meetings in January in support of the ongoing Environmental Impact Statement looking at potential commuter rail between San Antonio and Austin, as well as a freight by-pass for rail within the area.

All meetings will start at 5:00 P.M. and go until 8:00 P.M. The meetings feature an open-house come and go format without a sit-down presentation.

The meeting locations and dates are as shown below:

January 20, 2015 - Carver Cultural Center - 226 North Hackberry, San Antonio, TX 78202
January 21, 2015 - Carver Museum and Library - 1165 Angelina Street, Austin, TX 78702
January 26, 2015 - San Marcos Activity Center - 501 East Hopkins Street, San Marcos, TX 78666
January 27, 2015 - Elgin High School - note this open house will start at 5:30 P.M. instead of 5 P.M. - 14000 County Line Road, Elgin, TX 78621
January 28, 2015 - Georgetown Event Center - Banquet Room - 1 Chamber Way, Georgetown, TX 78626
January 29, 2015 - Seguin Guadalupe County Coliseum - 950 South Austin Street, Seguin, TX 78155

For more information regarding the Environmental Impact Statement, please visit the Lone Star Rail EIS website.

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TTI Survey - Jan 2015

TTI and TxDOT Travel Survey

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Texas Emissions Reduction Plan - a program of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

For persons who operate or plan to operate on-road diesel heavy-duty vehicles and select types of non-road diesel equipment in Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, and Wilson Counties, a rebate opportunity for upgrading or replacing such vehicles and/or equipment, which would pollute less and help improve the air quality in the Alamo Area, is opening soon.

The rebate will be offered to selected applicants through a Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) initiative. TERP is a program of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that provides financial incentives for individuals, businesses, or local governments to reduce emissions from polluting vehicles and equipment.

To provide an overview of the Rebate Grants program requirements and the application process, a free workshop has been scheduled in AACOG’s Al J. Notzon, III Board Room on January 22, 2015 from 1:30 - 4:30 p.m. Registration for this workshop is not required.

Rebate grant program applications are accepted at different times throughout the year, depending on available funds. This particular rebate grant opportunity will not officially open before February 9, 2015; however, draft materials describing eligibility, selection criteria, guidelines, and so on are available on the TCEQ website now. Grants will be accepted for consideration after the opportunity opens on a first come, first served basis, and applicants are encouraged to submit accordingly.

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Texas Department of Transportation

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) San Antonio District has launched a commuter survey for the San Antonio area.

According to David Sears from KSAT 12 the survey's questions cover a wide array of topics including travel time to the routes drivers take and looks at interests in alternative ways to travel around town.

If you would like to take part in this survey you can access if from this website.

For information on closures, and the ongoing construction around the San Antonio District of TxDOT, please visit their blog by clicking here.

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Alamo Area Council of Governments

Residents of Greater San Antonio area (Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson Counties) reduced the number of vehicle trips taken on area roads by more than 1 million during 2014, according to the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG), who sponsors NuRide, an online carpool matching, alternative transportation tracking, and reward system. The eliminated vehicle trips cited by AACOG were those of individuals who walked, cycled, took transit, carpooled/vanpooled, worked a compressed schedule, or telecommuted; and self-reported these trips through NuRide..

People who travel by means other than as single occupants in vehicles usually save money. If they record trips taken by alternative means or reduced through alternative work schedules on the AACOG-sponsored NuRide Website, Alamo area residents also get discounts and other rewards from over 100 participating businesses who appreciate these individuals’ actions to help improve our air. Because the nitrogen oxides found in vehicle emissions are a major contributor to ground-level ozone, the primary form of air pollution in the Alamo region, what citizens do to reduce fuel consumption helps to improve public health. For these reasons, AACOG refers to trips taken by alternative means or saved through alternative work schedules as “smart” trips.

As a result the smart trips that were tracked through the NuRide Website in 2014, 21,053,057 vehicle miles were reduced. That is the equivalent distance of 44 trips to the moon and back. About 1 million gallons of gas were saved by those trips. That is enough fuel to fill 113 9,000-gallon tanker trucks—to say nothing of how much fuel would have been used in driving those trucks to the Alamo area.

The fact that over 21 million vehicle miles were not traveled in the Greater San Antonio area and that 1 million gallons of fuel were therefore not consumed, means that over 33 tons of the compounds that form ground-level ozone were kept out of our air over the course of last year. In concentrations as low as 76 parts per billion in our air, prolonged exposure to ozone is considered by the Environmental Protection Agency as unhealthy for sensitive groups such as children, people with respiratory ailments, and those who work outdoors.

With the assistance of individuals who take and record smart trips on the NuRide Website, AACOG gathers data that will show progress toward the goal of regaining compliance with federal clean air standards. For this reason, AACOG asks that those who are carpooling, biking, riding the bus or taking other types of smart trips register and note those trips at NuRide.com. Thanks to such participating businesses as Dave & Buster’s, Five Star Cleaners, Mama Margie’s, Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, Linens-n-Things, and dozens more, area residents who record such trips will be rewarded for doing so. AACOG itself offers reimbursement for a taxi ride home from work in case of an emergency to area commuters who regularly record their trips on NuRide. In 2014, 13,319 discounts and other rewards were redeemed by those who recorded their trips on NuRide, with an estimated value of over $134,000.

More information about NuRide’s free carpool matching service, the reimbursed ride home from work in case of emergency, the state of the air in the Greater San Antonio area, fuel-saving tips, and other information may be found at the CleanAirDrive website.

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Get Involved! All Alamo Area MPO Board and Committee Meetings are open to the public.

All meetings of the Transportation Policy Board and supporting committees are open to the public!

Click the image above to view the meeting notices and packages for all of our MPO standing boards and committees. All meetings are open to the public. Get involved and help shape the future of our region's transportation network.

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