Notes from the Meeting with Wannetta Mallette, Burlington-Graham MPO Administrator
Saxapahaw Forward Meeting, Tuesday, July 11, 2023 @ 6:00 pm
Overview of BGMPO’s efforts and how they might align with Sax Fwd:
This office executes regional transportation planning for Alamance and parts of Guilford Counties – total population 187,000.
They cover multi modal transit improvements: vehicular, bike, pedestrian, etc.
Ms. Mallette reports to 2 boards – one is a staff-oriented technical planning board (“TCC”); and the other is a policy board (“TAC”). The TCC’s main member relevant to our effort is Alamance planning director Tonya Caddle. The policy board is comprised of elected officials from the 12 member jurisdictions, who come to the BGMPO meetings and prioritize efforts.
Every 2 years the NCDOT allows member jurisdictions to submit project requests. That window opened in March and is open until Monday, July 17, 2023. Currently the BGMPO has received 100 projects for 18 possible slots (there are 18 allocated projects per mode - i.e. 18 pedestrian projects, 18 cycling., etc.) The BGMPO has an evaluation strategy to rate projects for approval. Steve Carter is the political representative for our area and is the recommended contact on the policy side since Saxapahaw is unincorporated. Ms. Mallette’s office is based in Burlington, and consists of herself and a GIS support staff member. Dan Cata is the serving public member on her team, and could not make tonight’s meeting. All of this info is available on https://bgmpo.org/
Ms. Mallette’s presentation slides can be found here. She covered the following topics:
Statewide data trends
The federal government gives North Carolina funds from USDOT to reduce crashes. In 2019 over 1500 people died in NC in crashes – a $30 billion impact. The federal government requires reporting and tracking on safety. The BGMPO contributes / utilizes a SHSP (Strategic Highway Safety Plan) to set targets with the goal to reduce fatalities and serious injuries by half by 2035, and by 100% by 2050.
Each year the state identifies 5 safety target areas metrics based on the rate and number of fatalities and serious injuries, and the rate and number of non motorized & pedestrian injuries and fatalities. The data shows that fatalities have leveled off somewhat, but are going up slowly. The criteria for serious (disabling) injuries changed in 2016. This caused a technical jump in the data, but serious injuries are still on the rise. Pedestrian and non motorized vehicular injuries & fatalities are generally higher than motorized.
Regional BGMPO data trends
Regional trends show a sharp spike in fatalities in 2020, then a drop, and now fatalities are trending back up. Serious injuries were up in 2020, but now leveling off. Non motorized fatalities are bouncing up and down but still trending upwards regionally. Unbelted fatalities and serious injuries are down (a data subset of the larger metrics).
BGMPO’s Action Plan Development
The federal government requires comprehensive safety action plans. There are data inconsistencies that have historically been a challenge, such as law enforcement at crash sites and hospitals inconsistently log fatalities / injuries.
In 2019, $100,000 was awarded to BGMPO to develop an action plan, and it was finished in 2020. BGMPO's TCC and TAC adopted the plan last October, which won awards and is a model for other jurisdictions. The plan is available online on their website, called the “Transportation Safety Plan” at this link: https://bgmpotransportationsafetyplan.com/documents.htm
The Action Plan uses a safe system approach outline, with the idea that we are all responsible for reducing crashes. In other words, let’s not pass blame but promote a holistic approach to safety that is data driven and evidence based.
Emphasis areas: lane departure; unsafe intersections; distracted driving; speed; motorcyclists; pedestrians. Older drivers are a high percentage of crashes (visual impairment, lighting conditions and weather conditions provide distinct challenges to older drivers).
Equity is a focus - 13 underserved populations in BGMPO area are "at a transportation disadvantage" - and high injury networks are identified.
BGMPO prioritizes bus stop safety as well - they identified 8 in the region needing improvement. Priority locations for interventions are included in the plan.
Our Community – and of special interest to Sax Forward
Sax-Beth Church Road and Mineral Springs Road are already identified as vehicular High Injury Network Roads.
Sax-Beth is identified as a Bike / Pedestrian High Injury Network Road.
Saxapahaw is within a medium Transportation Disadvantaged Index (TDI) area.
The east side of Saxapahaw (east side of river) is located in a USDOT Transportation Disadvantage Census Tract.
Public engagement, Plan outcomes and implementation
BGMPO welcomes public involvement. For project implementation, a strategy is to look at packages of systemic projects. Projects must be in a high injury network. All interventions are based on 5 year averages of data using the 5 metric targets (fatalities, injuries, non motorized, etc). Most accidents are occurring on 40 and 85, and 70. There are federal and state funding paths.
In 2021 - USDOT Secretary Buttigieg appropriated over $5B towards safety improvements. $1B per year over 5 years is for the SS4A program. BGMPO is eligible for SS4A funding since they have the completed an action plan. Only one project was submitted for this cycle - the deadline has passed.
Sax Fwd could work with BGMPO to submit for the next round. Alamance County (Steve Carter) and BGMPO have standing to apply for funds. Many projects require 80% federal and 20% local funding matches. Ms. Mallette recommends to also send a representative to the BGMPO meetings. These meetings are held in Jan Mar May Aug and Oct. The best way to obtain funding through the state is to go through our local representatives.
Q&A
Can BGMPO assist Sax Fwd with planning? A portion of BGMPO’s time is set aside for creating plans - but does require a 20% local match. A consultant-prepared plan can cost in the $40,000 to $50,000 range. If the plan is safety based, sometimes the state will step in and fund the plan 100%.
There are public meetings and TCC / TAC meetings coming up that Sax Fwd members could attend. Rob White and Brandon White plan to attend the next one in August.
On Jul 25, 2023, at 8:28 AM, Wannetta Mallette <WMallette@burlingtonnc.gov> wrote:
Good morning,
I hope you are well!
As I mentioned during your meeting a few weeks ago, the BGMPO recently kicked off its Regional Transit Feasibility Study. I am working with Nelson\Nygaard, the consulting team conducting this study. Because Saxapahaw is a key stakeholder in our region, I wanted to reach out to you to share information about the study and ask for your help getting input from a diverse group of community members.
About the Regional Transit Feasibility Study
This study is being developed by the BGMPO with support from partners at Link Transit, GoTriangle, Alamance County Transportation Authority (ACTA), Orange County Public Transportation (OCPT), and Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation (PART). The goal is to holistically evaluate existing transit service by all providers and identify equitable and innovative opportunities for improvements, including assessing multimodal connections, reducing service duplication, determining cost-effective ways to enhance service, evaluating safety performance targets and measures, and developing funding recommendations. With limited available transit funding, understanding tradeoffs and priorities for service improvements will be central to the project.
A flyer with key project information is attached and project website with more information is available here: bgmpo.org/transitstudy.
How You Can Help
We want to better understand how current transit service is working for our riders and which improvements would be most helpful to their lives. I hope you are willing to share information about the online survey and public meetings.
Online Survey
We are hosting an online survey to get broad community input. The survey will be live from July 24 to August 27. It takes about 10 minutes to complete. The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BGMPOTransit
Our goal is to get responses from as many community members as possible. Could you please share the attached posts announcing the transit study survey through your social media accounts to help us reach a wider audience? Post graphics, draft captions, and a QR code are included. Feel free to adjust the captions to sound more like your organization.
Community Meetings
We will also be meeting with community members to learn about their experiences with transit and ideas for future improvements. To accommodate different schedules and preferences, we will be hosting virtual and in-person sessions, which will cover the same content.
Public Meeting #1 – Virtual Meeting
Tuesday, August 22
6 – 7 pm
Zoom (online or by phone)
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Public Meeting #1 – In-Person Open House
Thursday, August 24
4 – 7 pm (drop by any time!) Formal presentation at 6 pm
Paramount Theater, 128 E Front Street, Burlington, NC 27215
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I am also available to attend any community events that you have scheduled in the next month. We will also be hosting a second round of public meetings to review draft recommendations on October 24 (virtual from 6 – 7 pm) and October 26 (in-person from 4 – 7 pm). We will follow up with more information about these events as they get closer.
Thank you for supporting our region’s transit riders by helping us spread the word about this project! If you have any questions, please let us know. You can reach out to me or Jim Baker (the consultant project manager at Nelson\Nygaard).
Thank you!
For more information, contact:
Wannetta Mallette Jim Baker
BGMPO Project Manager
BGMPO Nelson\Nygaard
336.513.5418 470.375.6472
wmallette@burlingtonnc.gov jbaker@nelsonnygaard.com
Wannetta Mallette, PTP
MPO Administrator
Burlington-Graham MPO
234 East Summit Avenue
PO Box 1358
Burlington, North Carolina 27215
Phone: 336-513-5418
Email: wmallette@burlingtonnc.gov