Like to call this meeting of the house transportation committee to order. It is currently 102 PM on Thursday January 22nd
And we are in the barns room 124 in The Alaska State Capitol members present today are representative St. Clair. Welcome
Representative Nelson also welcome to new members today
Representative Stutes representative Mina
Representative McKay bright under the wire coach air eyeshide and myself coach Eric Eric
Let the record reflect. We have a quorum to conduct business and please take this time to silence your cell phones during our meeting
Before we begin, I'd like to thank Jordan Nicholson from House Records
Susan Quigley from the Juneau LIO and her counterpart who's brand new today, Jude Augustine. Welcome
Our committee aid is my staff Griffin Suquayo and Meredith trainer from my co-chairs office. Thank you for being here today
on today's agenda. we are hearing a presentation from
the Department of Transportation on Pedestrian Safety and Fatalities, we will be having before us
Pam Golden, our statewide traffic engineer Alex Reed,
our central region design and Shannon McCarthy,
our communications director. Welcome to the House Transportation Committee.
Thank you so much for being here today and please remember to state your names for the record
before we begin. Come on up to join us.
And during this presentation today while they're coming up,
if members would like to ask a question,
just feel free, we can take questions
while the presentation is ongoing.
Yeah.
It's my new special seat right across from my wheels
and it's a technical thing.
It sure is not easy.
This is, I feel like I'm being punished here.
It is your lucky one.
You're moving on up on the table.
I'm the referee.
Yeah, I'd rather be done with it.
It makes it much easier for me to shoot spit wads that way.
That's not right.
We can also revisit the seating chart before.
Oh, that's right, just kidding.
I don't know what to say.
You know me.
I can make trouble from any seat.
Right, so thank you so much for being here again,
and take it away.
For the record into the chairman and chairs and committee members. Thank you so much for asking us to come back again
It's going to be I think a good touch base from our presentation last year
And my name is Shannon McCarthy and I'm the communication director for Alaska DOT
And just to kick us off before I turn this over to Pam Golden the traffic and safety engineer
I just wanted to touch based on a couple of quick things
I'm sure that the committee has noticed that we did reissue an updated 2026 HSIP plan that was done in cooperation and partnership with the municipality of Anchorage where we really got together and we
really focused on what what we can deliver to Anchorage in the short term and how we
can work together as partners to ensure that that gets delivered this year.
We are employing a technique called Advanced Construct that will allow us to capture next
year's dollars for projects that we can deliver now or can obligate this year.
We're excited about this.
We haven't used Advanced Connect and HSAP for a number of years, but I think it's going
to be a great tool among some other things that Alex will talk about later.
We aren't going to continue conducting those technical reviews that enable us understand
those lane reductions and how they're going impact the network of roads given the number
that are underway and then of course I just wanted to point out that we were able
to take a look at the available projects, update some estimates and
then add some other state funded dollars so that
we have restored the Anchorage funding to around 30 million dollars for 2026.
And just really briefly if we could just have our presenters make sure to
speak into the mic as much as possible.
Do we have any questions on slide two, Representative St. Clair?
I think the chair, the updated 2026 Anchorage funding of $30 million, where did that come from?
Through the Chair, Rep. St Clair, that is federal highway administration funding through the highway safety improvement program.
So you already had access to that? That's not new money or is it a match or?
through the chair, representing St. Clair.
It is not new money, but we are using advanced constructs,
so that would tap into FY 27.
I got it, thank you.
Representative Mina.
Thank you, co-chair Kerrick,
and thank for representing to the committee.
I just have a few questions.
So first, can you clarify your coordination
with the municipality?
Was this just with update to that H-SIP,
or how is your co ordination
with a municipality on your current?
on these projects.
So through the chair, Representative Mina,
I would say that we do coordinate with the municipality,
of course, through AMAS and through Vision Zero Task Force.
And you'll be hearing a lot about that Vision
Zero task force in this presentation today.
But in terms of the update to the 2026 HCP program,
we definitely met with The Mayor and her staff
to examine what we could do
and how we can deliver the program faster.
Thank you through the co-chair.
I wanted to know about the technical review for the lane drops.
I have a lot of community members and constituents who are concerned about dropping the lane drops
What is your timeline for those technical reviews?
So through the chair, Representative Mina,
we're really fortunate in that those analysis
is coming pretty quickly.
And there'll be one project that is actually
in the new updated plan that we were able
to complete the lane analysis,
I'm sorry, the traffic analysis A street,
and that one is moving forward,
that where we initially had left that off on the 2026 plan,
that particular project is being,
move forward into 2026 using advanced construct for example and then Miss Golden can address
the lane reduction versus road diet discussion that we're having internally as well.
For the record Pam Golden, if we are ready to advance in the next slide and I'm not
saying that it's actually about this topic. Do we have any other questions on slide two?
Thank you, co-chair Kerry.
Yeah, just representing St. Clair just brought up
this advanced construct.
Is that a short for advanced construction?
Am I reading that?
And I guess, well, you're not at your head,
so I don't want that to be my question.
Can you explain what that is?
Because I heard what you said before,
but just can you flesh it out a little bit more,
Interesting, I guess. It sounds different.
Yes, Chairman Eisheide and Chairman Carrick.
So advanced construct is a tool that we can use.
It's a financial tool, and we
can, as long as the project is ready to move forward in different phases,
we could use advanced construction.
It is actually called advanced construct and not advanced construction, because we might be moving forward, you know, for example, a design phase.
But it is a tool that is allowed by Federal Highway Administration, and it gives us a lot of flexibility.
The H-sit program is very flexible in itself, but we can move a project in during the same year without having to do a STIP amendment.
flexibility within the regular program as long as a project is listed in the
step, for example, we could move it up by a year and HSIP allows us a lot of
flexibility as well and advanced construction also be used in that program.
Follow-up? So I think I understand it. So to clarify though, does it mean that a
As a advanced construct, is it a funded project?
I mean, it's that money there and it is not like a down payment that the repo man might
come later.
I think is a fund project and has funds to completion?
project on a credit card in that we do have to make regular payments on our
advanced construct balance. And that can be done, you know, either in a in any
given year, but we plan for that also and recognize that in the step as well.
We have two account for
that.
Follow up.
All right. So
if
if there's a change in
and incoming governor doesn't like this project.
Can they cancel it somehow?
Chairman Ayesha, I'm probably over my skis a little bit
when it comes to this federal highway administration
funded our federal aid program.
When we put a project in a step and put federal dollars to it, we are making a commitment to follow through on the project
Counseling a Project would take
significant agreement with
Across the Department and with Federal Highway Administration and even then we might owe that money back to Federal Highway Administration
Thank you
Any other questions on slide two
Seeing none, we can go ahead and advance.
Okay, again, for the record, Pam Golden.
So the whole concept of road diets,
lane drops, the chief engineer directive,
we know that this has caused quite a little concern,
and we understand that.
So to clarify what we're calling a lane drop
versus a road diet.
A road-diet is a proven safety countermeasure
of federal highways is studied extensively.
It's generally taking a four lane road to a three lane
road, so a one lane in each direction, a center two way left
turn lane. So a 4 lane row, two lanes in
each directions is the standard, well studied,
well documented, proven countermeasure, that then that
lane space can be reallocated for other uses, whether it's
vulnerable road users, snow shortage, whatever that might
Anchorage is full of a lot of one-way streets.
We do not have a proven countermeasure
for taking a lane away on a one way road.
There is one study that's out there,
one's study in and of itself is not enough
to call something proven, and it is in downtown Manhattan.
So just pointing out Anchorage
is quite urban, but maybe not as urban as downtown manhattan.
So that is our distinguishing.
That's how we're clarifying when we talk about them.
My apologies, there's actually one missing from this. Northern Lights should be on this
list as well. So there are actually, as we met with our vision zero team, you know, internally,
and we started talking about four HSIP projects, which would be Northern Light's Mountain View,
Ingrid Gamble, I understand it's two roads, but it is one project, and A Street. We realized
taking a lane away was being proposed in Anchorage.
So through the Vision Zero team, there
was discussion about we need some sort of system-wide analysis.
At what point do we break the system?
Like if we start taking capacity away on multiple roads,
we want to ensure we're not pushing a problem somewhere else
for one.
Are we pushing cars into new neighborhoods?
You know, as we start looking at, you know are some of these on top of each other,
you relatively speaking, making sure that we just aren't pushing a problem somewhere else,
and knowing that were stepping through this carefully to make sure
that, we end up with a safe and efficient network for all users.
So, the other things to consider is impacts to emergency response,
To freight you know all these different things that come in so the real goal with why that chief engineer directive then came out
Why we're working with amats on the system wide analysis is to make sure the the network as a whole remains safe and
Works for everyone to still get around and and through Anchorage
I have representative Mina and then representative McCabe
Thank You co-chair Kirk through the co chair
Could you clarify what is the difference between a road
diet and a lane drop because I feel like, you know, a lot of
people use them interchangeably?
Through the co-chair rep, Mina.
So we're considering a row diet to be a two-way road
currently with at least four lanes.
And that's only because of that proven safety countermeasure
and making sure that when we are out having discussions with
folks that they're not relying on saying that this is going
proven crash reduction. We want to make sure that we're differentiating that what we are
doing with potentially taking a lane away on a one-way road, we don't actually know
the outcome. There are elements of reducing a lain or a
laine drop as we call it that are true to both the distance of pedestrian would have
to cross active moving traffic. Yeah, that's a shorter distance. One of the many benefits
of a road diet is the introduction of that two-waste center turn lane and that is where
turning traffic crash reduction. So there are elements of a lane drop that
are also elements over a road diet but we just want to make sure that we're
not giving false promise. Thank you. Just to follow up through the
co-chair. You also said that there isn't an example of doing a
Last summer, two summers ago, there was the pilot in downtown Anchorage on 6th Avenue
where they had the protected bike lane.
Wouldn't that be a lane drop or an example of doing that in Anchorage?
Through the Co-Chair Representative, I mean, yes, that isn't a pilot project that did
include a Lane Drop element.
I'm sorry if I wasn't clear.
What we don't have is that depth of study nationally.
So one summer's worth of crash data is cool.
It's not enough.
as much as we are here to say, you know, any crashes is a bad thing.
You know a fatal or serious injury crash, we don't want those to happen.
We had a good experience with the pilot bike lane,
but it's just a small piece of a body of knowledge to come with something
that we can go out and solidly say to the public, this is what we expect.
I have representative McCabe next.
Yeah, so this is a little bit weird to me because for years anchorage has struggled with east-west traffic
Just capacity
It was I mean I used to live on the west side. I've lived on a east side
I'm trying to get across town all the time and it's always been during peak traffic. It's all he's been an issue
There's just not enough east west arteries and now it seems like you're taking taking that away
So I guess my question is have we considered maybe
almost like the zipper thing you had out on the highway.
So in the morning commute, you get two lanes going one way
and only one coming out and in evening commute
you move the barriers or whatever
and you go the other way so you can facilitate the commute.
So it just seems to me like we are going to restrict traffic
and create more gridlock.
And I'm wondering if that's really,
if there's any studies, are we doing this just for safety?
Sometimes I wonder if moving cars faster isn't safer.
And, I don't know.
Through the criteria, Representative McCabe,
you're describing a reversible lane.
And then I lived in Atlanta, Georgia, and they had those.
It is a technique that is out there.
So, that particular example, but your point is exactly one of the concerns we had about
making sure that if this is done, there's 13 on the slide, we know there is 14, again,
my apology.
There are more being proposed, and this why that Vision Zero team kind of sat there.
So follow up so what one other one out other thing that I would hope we could explore is you know
I've traveled to many many different foreign cities and
They restrict
Pedestrians by putting a barrier up on the curb and make the pedestrians go
They either got to leap the leap to cable barrier or whatever fence they put up or they go down to the
down to the stoplight. So it seems to me that a good chunk of our pedestrian deaths in Anchorage
have been caused by people jaywalking. Just crossing the street,
willy-nilly, not even with a light, and I just wonder if maybe if we want to keep traffic moving
and yet we wanna be safe and keep pedestrian depths down, then maybe we ought to stop the
But barring that, maybe DOT could just put up barriers or fences or whatever we want to call them.
I know it's probably not really great during snow season, but it just an idea. I don't know.
Through the co-chair, Representative McCabe, one of the projects my colleague Alex will be talking
about later in this presentation is pedestrian fencing on Fifth Avenue near Merrill Field. So
that it is a technique that has been employed in Anchorage. It is something that is on the table.
And you know every time we look at a project we're trying to figure out what that best countermeasure could be
Representative students. Thank you, madam choke chair
So I'm going back to representative Mina's question and I listened carefully
But I am still confused as to what the difference is I can see the the diagram of a road diet
but
I'm lost as to what the difference between that.
Can you simplify it just a little bit for people like me?
Through the co-chair reference, dude.
Absolutely, and we struggle ourselves to always say it right.
One-way road versus two-away road.
So a lane drop is what we're calling.
This sort of technique of reducing
Removing a lane on a one-way road. We're referring to that as a lain drop to keep it clear in our own minds
Versus that road diet
Which if you you know want a Google road diets, you're gonna come up with that body of knowledge on the that four-lane to three lane
reduction as they prove encounter measure
follow up
So it was a 1-Way road to begin with you are just reducing the lane
through the co-chair representative suits, yes.
Thank you.
And I put myself in the queue,
but I just had a,
you mentioned that Northern Lights is not listed on this slide,
but is part of the road diet and lane drop
has been re-added back to the Co-Chair.
It is one of those that we are waiting on the analysis
to complete, so it was not officially added back in.
We moved it to 27, along with Ingrid and Gamble,
For purposes of making sure it was clear,
we don't intend that these aren't canceled projects.
And we understand that with some confusion
with how at least our internal way of referring
to things was seen from the outside.
A project that wasn't funded in 26 looked like it just
disappeared.
So for atleast this update of the funding plan,
we've pushed those at 27 on our side.
It's not a big deal to move a project from 27 to 26 if things are ready and funding
is available.
The challenge is the coordination with the MPO, their transportation improvement program
process is a little bit more convoluted, I guess, for lack of a better word.
And so making sure that those align will be something we'll have to work through with
and just as a quick follow-up.
So this list in front of us is projects
that are scheduled for FY 27 to the co-chair.
This is a sampling of projects beyond HSIP.
I'm only familiar with the delivery schedules on.
Mountain View is one of them, that is the city road.
So we, you know, they're doing,
and it actually is road diet, it is A2 way road,
The and then the other ones were anger gamble a street which a Street is moving forward to start design in
26 and
Now I forgot which but the last one was
For the record Shannon McCarthy
this this was actually just to illustrate the number of
Road diet and lane drops that have been proposed within the lost 12 to 18 months
And do we, I have not looked yet,
I super apologize.
Do we have a slide data that shows the full scope
of projects that were included with AMATs
and then what has been essentially,
what is going forward?
So are we going to see that later?
For the record to Pam Golden to the co-chair.
We have some of that information and the HSIP funding plan which is available on our website does have you can get that off of our
Do T dot Alaska dot gov slash be safe
That's one of her action plans
So it is it's available. We don't we don' t have a lot of detail on that in this presentation
Okay, I have couple folks in the queue coach your eyeshide then representative Mina. Thank you coach Eric Eric
And I have two questions, but before I get to the questions
I did want to note that I had a meeting with Ms. Golden
and Ms McCarthy and Mr. Mills to explain some of the changes
and was super helpful.
So I just wanna say I really appreciate that
and I invite any members as you see things
either before meeting or afterwards,
DOC staff has been great.
So thank you.
The first question is about lane drops and I understand what lane
drops are. I
understand the chief engineers directive and the systems approach and
you know avoiding unintended consequences and those are things that make a
law sense to me. The question I have is so we have a we're analyzing lane
drops now we are going to analyze their impacts on traffic, local traffic movement
how long would that process take? Because I understand there's not a lot of studies.
And I think for a range, you know, not
a guaranteed time certain, but people want to know how
long does this take. When will the impact of lane drops be able to be a
evaluation tool for pedestrian safety? So arrange with 90% certainty, please.
Pam Golden, in case I wasn't the current last one on the record.
So Ingrid Gamble, we are waiting on our traffic analysis.
We have a draft.
We've got some comments we're working through with regional staff
to get back to the consultants on.
The AMAT study, which is the more system-wide one,
I apologize.
I do not have the time frame on that.
Last I heard they had a consultant.
on board. So I don't know, I can be sure to ask at our next vision zero meeting and we
can get that answer to the committee. As we discussed, you know getting that body of
knowledge, we are going to be that Body of Knowledge. If we go forward with these projects
in Anchorage, which we may go for with all of them, or we might go with a handful of
them. You know we don t know until that system analysis is complete. But once we have the
We're in an incredible place to be that report that ends up in that clearinghouse that has
that research study that says, hey, you should go do this in your community too because we
found this crash reduction in serious crashes, fatal crashes whatever it might be, it makes
that leader that gets this out there
for other communities to follow.
We're taking a leap of faith at this point
to a certain extent to go forward
and knowing that there are some elements
that are common between that lane drop concept
and the road diet concept.
So at what point is there a proven safety countermeasure
for this?
It's probably five, seven years out.
That doesn't mean we have to wait.
to go forward, it just means we have to be careful.
So before I get to my second question,
my understanding is we do have
to wait because we had to
go through the policy analysis,
unless I'm just misunderstanding.
But I did hear five to seven years, and that's.
to the co-chair.
Please.
Five to seven years until perhaps there's a proven safety countermeasure out there for
the rest of the world to use.
The analyses are going on right now.
So Northern Lights is being done through the work that's already being on the companion
projects through AMAPs, that the switch is sort of complement as an HSIP piece to those
projects.
In Gregamble, we are looking at right
Missing link to us going forward is we can know what's happening in a vacuum on that road
It's that system analysis piece that joins with that that gives you know everyone the confidence that
This is the right this is The right path forward. There are other countermeasures
We could possibly consider for pedestrian safety for vulnerable road user safety
As well, so you it's not one if one thing doesn't go forward there are potentially there Are other options out there
to reduce vulnerable road user crashes.
We just, for our own level of confidence, need to know
the road in itself as a vacuum has got the capacity,
everything looks great, you know, we're not delaying
emergency services, all of those things that are
in the chief engineer directive, and then that system
analysis, which I cannot imagine is,
you now, too far down the Road if they've got a contract
underway, there's always the things
that take time, but within the fiscal year,
You know what goes what should go forward not just with the HCP projects, but with a whole list of 14
Thank you the second question if I made the so I follow up
I I heard within the fiscal year, so that's what I was just I
Thank you for that detailed response.
But I was just looking for the short answer.
And then just on the safety thing,
because I also use those East West arteries in Anchorage,
my colleague asked the question, does speeding traffic up?
Does that improve safety?
I mean, it's a fair question.
Posing does that or is there a reverse correlation to slowing traffic down increased pedestrian safety? What does the signs say?
to the co-chair
so
It's tricky. There's not a there's no a good answer to that. You know a high-speed access controlled facility is safe
Access control right but crashes that occur at high speeds have higher severity results. So
There's so many factors that play in how many driveways are there you know
What are the what are they origins and destinations for cars for pedestrians for bicyclists for transit it's it?
It's not an easy answer
Thank you representative Mina
Thank You co-chair Carrick through the co chair
I should have asked this earlier related to the technical overview, but you brought up a
Having to have this be improved by a mats for the study related to the lane drops
So I understand the timeline
What is the process for sharing that information with a mat with the public?
Is there going to be a role for public comment before dot has a final decision on what they're going?
To do
Sorry, I'll jump in
through the chair, Representative Nunez.
This is actually kind of complicated,
and we have a slide to address this a little bit later,
but HSIP is a really different kind
of program in that it is data-driven,
it's typically done within the right of way,
and there is, by the time we get to the public,
we've often, the solution has been identified,
and were starting down that process.
So there are fewer opportunities for the Public 2A in.
However, we recognize how important
public, you know, conversation and feedback are to the Department. So we do plan to go
out to The Public and ensure that we're presenting the project, asking for feedback in terms
of, the viability of the Project, any things that
we have missed. But we really are after that project that is a proven safety countermeasure
Oftentimes it will be an interim solution and you know, we recognize that a
Larger project may be the final solution as well so we can be having those conversations with the public as
well
Follow-up. Yeah, thank you coach. Eric and just one more follow- up kind of a different question, but I was thinking about how
In the wintertime, when we get a lot of snow, we have natural road diets because we're plowing all the snow onto the side and we lose it in a lane.
Has DOT ever thought about studying the impacts on our traffic network from those road diet in the Winter?
Through the co-chair of Representative Mina and for the record, Pam Golden, it's, again, one of those,
it is complicated. We have more traffic on the roads in summer.
We have less traffic on the roads in the winter.
So so many variables at play.
These are all things, you know, as we sit there,
we kind of try to amortize.
Maybe that's not the right word.
Our traffic, so that we're making sure we are accounting
for these variations in seasonal traffic.
So, to your earlier question, I don't know the timeline
will be complete. But they do have all their own processes that they go through for when they
do a study. And I imagine there's a public process on their side for that study and so these are
great things for me to make sure I'm letting the AMAT folks know our of interest. Thank you.
have the committee hold questions for a couple of slides
just so we can get through a little bit more of the presentation.
Going back to what was in that updated spending plan, there are a suite of projects, we refer
to them as the sister projects if we referred to it, that's what we're talking about.
On Inger Gamble, Alex will cover those more in detail later, but sort of what those projects
entail.
There are also $6 million in projects on Tudor Road.
One is the channelization project between Baxter and Patterson, and then there's a design
To start a VRU improvements projects at Wright Street and Dale Street on Tudor Road
I believe that one also pairs up with a another project, but
He doesn't know I was looking
It does yes it does
A Street as we mentioned A street was one of a million drop projects A-Street also has other elements in it
Including a new traffic signal at 16th Avenue a pathway on the west side of A
Street to connect 14th avenue down to the Chester Creek Trail where there's not a facility right now
And then the fifth Avenue project which we will also cover in a little bit more detail later
for that pedestrian improvements of safety fencing type such a
solution up north of Merrill Field
Sorry, we're holding questions.
Again, just a quick recap of what HSIP is.
You know, it's 29 types of projects.
It's a federally mandated program.
Every state has an HSAP program,
it does cover infrastructure,
which is what people most commonly think of,
but it allows us to do audits,
collect data, implement connected vehicle technologies,
and do all kinds of safety planning,
whether it is our strategic highway safety plan,
a local road safety plans, you know that sort of that multi...
multi-departmental, multi faceted sort of safety planning that we do with others to
figure out how we can make our safest system out there. We are, I believe, the
only program that requires us to analyze how well we're doing cost
benefit-wise.
Every crash has a cost that the federal government assigns,
you know, and so it's not us saying what a human life is valued at,
but there are these numbers out there.
Our average is 5.96 to 1.
We, in my quick Google search, the normal is four to six,
or across the board seems to be about where folks come in at.
So at almost six to one, we're doing very well.
We're pretty proud of that.
And then, you know, we are a small piece of the overall budget.
We're 5% to 6% of entire DOT highway budget, so it's a
small program and so you do see all of our projects have
safety elements, but you will see if the projects get too big,
we have to push them out of HSIP program or,
you you don't even consider for them for the HCIP
program, and we look for larger funding pots to make sure
that those can get what they need.
We talked about these a little bit last year, but again, these proven safety countermeasures.
When we start looking at a project, we look for these proving countermeasures because
that's where we can go out with this body of knowledge that says we know this is going
to do good.
So we dive into crashes, re-crash narratives, sometimes we follow up with law enforcement
You know, we evaluate which of these countermeasures might work.
We evaluate them in the context of the location.
There are counter measures that work in warm climates
that really aren't going to work so well for us.
We look at, is this something our maintenance crews can maintain?
We looked into existing planning documents whether a local road safety plan,
you know a MPOs plan you coordinating with communities to see if there are things
that are already in their plans that we can advance.
All right, we'll keep going.
So then, once we've sort of come up
with what we want to do, the regions
prepare their nominations, which they describe the problem.
The countermeasure, we do all that benefit cost prediction analysis, work with our,
the rest of our engineering staff on estimating how much it's going to cost,
you know, how long it is going take.
Statewide does in the past few years,
we due projects that are of statewide importance, whether it was trying a new technology,
or, you, know something that just applies across the state,
like our Road Safety Audit Project, so it just being managed out of one location,
but being performed in multiple regions.
At my level, my job is to make sure that what is proposed is eligible for HSIP spending
under the rules under section 148 so that where anything that gets put forward we know is
not going to get questioned later for was this actually eligible based on the funding.
And then I present that information to the commissioner's office to then what goes forward
for funding?
Prioritization for funding is spelled out in our handbook.
But again, it's what can we get on the street?
It's something that's ready to go right now.
It how good of a project is it based on benefit cost ratio,
predicted benefit, cost ration.
And then we do have to do some massaging of fund management
to make sure we have a robust program going forward
so that there's always something in the pipeline being
developed.
So we don't want to get to the point
where everything is built and we
ready to be built the next year. Again, just real quick recap, you know, project development
and delivery once an HSIP project is there is really no different than another project.
We've got to get them into the transportation improvement program in our MPOs now.
So there's that coordination, and then we do our normal design and construction process
with public involvement.
I mentioned this last year, but as a reminder, if the scope of a project needs to change,
we have a way to walk through that.
So if we just randomly—if we said we were going to build a roundabout and we really
need to be able to traffic signal, we can have the process that we step through, that sort
of change.
But worrying about a scope being locked in does not have to be a worry.
And then once the project is constructed, and we have the three years post crash data,
we see how we did.
And we do great so far.
We've covered this a little bit through representatives mean an excellent question.
HSAP projects can be among our most controversial and the reason why is that because we're so
focused on maximizing life saves and reducing serious injuries, we are looking at oftentimes
interim solutions, projects that are within the right of way and that may not have an
for community purposes.
We are looking at low cost solutions
and oftentimes are not unfortunately able
to entertain some betterments that the community
has been interested in or would like to be included.
And it also might change, these projects may change the way a person uses the infrastructure.
So we've talked about a little bit about the channelization of vehicles.
So, we're basically telling vehicles you can't turn left everywhere, you've got to pick your spots.
The same thing goes with safety fencing for pedestrians.
We're trying to get people to cross at safer locations, or locations where their drivers are expecting them to
cross, such as signalized intersections or even un-signalized intersection.
infrastructure like around about it kind of forces a driver to take a right in order to
take the left.
So we are basically making people behave a little bit differently and that sometimes
is a big change and not always welcome.
And as I mentioned to Representative Mina earlier that we oftentimes are coming to the public once the solution has been identified and we do try very hard to ensure that
we're engaging with community councils or local community groups, making sure that
we are providing those opportunities for people to be aware, ask questions and if we can make tweaks we'd like to do that.
But these projects can be controversial.
maybe I'll go first and then have my co-chair go.
So I am a little bit interested, I guess,
in the safety fencing for pedestrians.
Can you talk a bit about what that looks like?
Like what's an example of a safety fencing?
Yes, Chairman Carrick.
So safety-fencing could be a wide variety of things.
In Fairbanks, you know, they have jersey barriers and chain link fencing down in Anchorage.
It was, over in Minnesota, it was some metal sheeting that's woven.
They typically have to be crash worthy.
So we are limited in terms of the type of look that we can have, but there are some options.
We can do we can't do some things in terms of statics and we certainly have
Indicated to the community that we for the Anchorage area
That we'd like to make sure that were touching base with them about the aesthetics of any fencing that project that
We have and just as a follow-up. I
Grew up in Anchorage. We're really familiar with the Minnesota
Area you're talking about there and it seems like there's
sometimes just disregard of those
barriers, and people trying to jump over them and just trying across anyway.
So can you talk a little bit about the efficacy of the safety fencing and also community input
on some of those projects in Anchorage and have they been supported by the public in
Yeah. Chairman Karak, I'd actually like Pam to answer about the efficacy because we were talking about that earlier today.
Or Alex, pardon me.
For the record, Alex Reed, with Central Region Design,
I'm a group chief in Anchorage for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Through the chair,
Studies have shown about an 86% reduction in crashes with pedestrians from mid-glot crossings.
And then do you have an answer about the community output?
So, as Shannon mentioned, we have installed one of these on Minnesota,
and there was definitely some mixed input that we had received from the
community. Anytime you're restricting movement, there is controversy with that.
It is a proven safety measure that
Shows that there is safety benefits pedestrians, but it of course is limiting their ability to cross in those places
so it's
Mixed feedback you get with that
And then ofcourse the aesthetics we've received feedback on that as well
There is a little
Some dissatisfaction with the one in Minnesota
There's another slide that'll be coming up with an upcoming project where we're putting in a safety fence
And we'll discuss the things that we are looking at on
that one
I think it's relevant to note that you had just mentioned in the heading here that these projects can be controversial and
Yeah, it seems like that would certainly be the case with potentially some of those options
co-chair eyeshide
Thank You co chair karaoke
Co-chare kareke you took my question, but I I would just like to reinforce
the Minnesota Drive median fence, the so-called cheese grater, I don't have any strong opinions
about personally but I do remember a lot of consternation from some members of the community
It says how important a public process is before we build a project and I'm not making any comment about the public
Process that was done before that because I am not aware of it
I don't have that knowledge, but I I did really like the idea that representative McCabe mentioned about
You know a barrier along the say sidewalk in the street
You Know I also have some concerns about jaywalking in
anchorage and I've had constituents raise that and anything to not only keep people from crossing
the street in the bad places where it's not safe but also it creates a barrier for cars
who might swerve on to the sidewalk because many of our sidewalks are right up against the
street and i know i feel vulnerable just walking by high speed traffic by there so
Thank you, Co-Chair, Karak, through the Co Chair. Is your, the cost benefit study,
the three-year crash data for the different HSIP projects? Is that publicly available?
Through the co-chair representative, Mina. We file an annual report every year with federal
highways. You can Google any states, 2024.
HSIP and your report. They're all out there publicly. It don't believe it is project by project.
That is information. If you had a specific project you were curious about, we could provide that
information." Thank you. Just follow-up. Thank You. Through the chair, I know that the Minnesota
barrier that was put up in 2024, and so we're still not at the end of the three-year period,
as you're collecting it or do we have to wait until after we reach the three years?
Through the co-chair representative Mina. So our last year of finished crash data is 2024.
So it's not that fresh. The we could, yes, we
get data that we have that's available.
It's not certified, past 2024,
so whatever we had in the database from 2025,
we can not guarantee is complete.
So if that was completed in 2024 we would need
24, 25, 20, we wouldn't have to wait until 2024-2526.
No, 26, 27.
We would have wait till the 2027 data
was complete and certified before
we'd be doing our formal analysis.
Thank you
Oh a couple more questions our representative Nelson yes, thank you
Landco chair correct me on etiquette if I get it wrong, but
All right, well we're close on the top point
Just a quick question on The goal of maximizing lives saved in serious injuries reduced per dollar spent as you've been looking at other
Studies that have gone on I recognize that the road or the lane drop versus road diet deal would just set that aside
But as you looked at this
What is the goal? I mean as far as or what is?
The average of dollar spent versus live saved or is there something that makes a project worthwhile?
Through the criteria representative Nelson
We have a minimum predicted benefit cost ratio for what we call a ranked project, and this
could get very technical and I'll try to keep it at high level.
We just kind of switch that up a little bit in our last handbook to sort of have different
threshold per dollar value, so the more expensive projects we want to have higher predicted
benefit costs.
And that's just making sure we're getting the best projects out there, because projects
have gotten fairly expensive over time.
So, you know, that 5.96 to one,
that is our sort of statistical value of a life
and what have we done, what've we achieved?
And I'll put out there, even a property damage crash
has a crash value to it.
It's just, it's an exponential scale
between that and a fatality.
So.
That answered the question.
Yep, yep, thank you.
And Representative McCabe.
Thanks.
So I dabbled in.
aviation safety a little bit and one of the things we say is the safest airplane is
the one that stays on the ground, right? It seems like to me that the
safest road is one where nobody travels, so how do you prioritize or what do
you give priority to movement of cars or safety of
the pedestrians or maybe there's a different
Way to look at the the separation that you talked about is separating the two access control. I think you said to it
So I'm curious it says the goal is maximizing lives saved and serious injuries reduced per dollar spent, right?
So, I get that but do we ever consider
the cost of doing that in
limiting you know obviously on the road diet you're going to drop the speed
right I mean you gonna go from 45 miles an hour to 30 miles per hour because
maybe like on Spinar Road they did that when they put that center turn lane in
right so did do we study how much that impacts say commerce or or people's
travel or extending the days for a longer commute and those sorts of costs
through the coach here, Representative Cape, sorry about the squeaky microphone.
Yes and no. Again, I don't have a great answer for you.
There are studies nationally that look at things like, there's this.
For sure out there called safe access is good for business and it talks about how you know
Having reduced access points actually makes it your market area larger
So, you, know, we're not economists in the safety program so that's we we really focus in on the
Safety piece so when we were talking about live saved in serious injuries produced per dollar spent
We're saying this countermeasure has this effect on this type of crash so we are really into the weeds with that
There are other types of studies and our chief engineer directive sort of getting it
that with that whole piece of freight and you know and anger gambles and
interstate and all those other sort of factors that need to weigh in somehow
but aren't as cut and dry as to how we weigh and with them follow up and more
of a comment and I think you touched on one of the points a lot of this is
education so was a little bit involved with the KGB as well as the parks
for Lane, you know, just south of Big Lake Road.
There's a lot of people that were really upset.
Well, my customers need to turn off
directly off of the parks.
They don't want to go to a frontage road.
And I talked to one of business owners,
not too long ago, who's been dealing now
with the frontaged road for a couple of year,
18 months, however long it's being.
And he's like,
my business increased because now people
that might not have wanted to
are in this kind of lower speed, you know, on and off access to his business.
And especially people that, whether it be old people like me or inexperienced drivers,
would not stop as a business because it was too hard to get back out into the park.
So it seems to me that some education of business owners would,
at least it would help us out because we wouldn't get so many.
complaints about about DOT limiting access to a business, right? Anyways, just comment more than
anything. Co-chair Aisha. Thank you, Co. Chair Carrick. Just, you know, I know part of this
revolves around the tragic death of, last two years of 30 pedestrians in Anchorage and in a
but
When you talk about your cost benefit and analyses
You know, I've heard of this thing many
points of my life this
the statistical value a statistical human what someone is worth and it seems like
Kind of a cold calculation
Do you but do you know what that is currently and is that something that? Is used in these?
analyses of cost benefit, and it would seem like it
would be, but I don't know.
To the co-chair, yes, that I
don' t know the number off the top of my head
for the record, Pam Golden.
We adjust that down within HSIP because it's $10, $12 million,
I think, for a $0.10-ish for fatality.
But then you have a property damage crash in a fatality,
and it tends to skew to just the random fatalities are random.
And I'm sorry, again, statistics is not always warm and fuzzy, right?
So we're trying to make sure that we were capturing
that whole class of we look at property
damage, a possible injury, minor injury.
Serious injury or major injury and fatlity.
And so we kind of squished the scale within HSIP
And so I don't know the numbers, but that is exactly what we start with.
Thank you.
Seeing no additional questions here, we can keep going.
For the record, Alex Reed.
and the safety improvements we're making there, we have two active projects now,
they have both gone through our 75% design milestone. The first project is the Ingrid and
Gamble Street overhead signal indication upgrades. At between 5th and 3rd we are looking at
adding signal heads. A lot of those intersections only have two signal
heads now. It'll be four signalheads, one over each lane. That also includes a
reflective back plate. The safety measure is shown to reduce angled crashes by
about 23%. And the other project is Ingrid and Gamble, I'm sorry, Gamble
These pictures are a pretty good demonstration
of what we're looking at.
The existing utility poles right now
are in the middle of the sidewalk, toward the traffic lane.
Looking at undergrounding those utilities
and increasing the lighting.
Right now our lighting is just off of those signal poles
where they happen to be.
We would actually be designing proper spacing
and lighting for that quarter section.
Both these projects we have in the HSP plan for this fiscal year the
Signal indication upgrades there's a good chance we'll be able to get that one done as quickly as possible and get
That one this year
The other project with the pole removal increase lighting is going to be a challenge. There is 50 temporary construction easements with that project
We're doing what we can to expedite it as quickly as possibly though our
Consultant that we have on board has just brought on staff from another state so that
We're not slowing down other projects and we can prioritize and move forward with that project as quick as possible without
impacting other parts of the program and then we are also using an
Incentive program or we're looking at using in incentive program for those
Right away impacts what that does is it financially incentivizes the property owners to sign within 90 days when an offer is made
Realistically, we're gonna move as fast as possible,
but there's a good chance that those will be next year.
And then the next project I'm gonna talk about
is the 5th Avenue Concrete Street,
two Karluk Street pedestrian improvements.
There's two major elements for this one.
There is a safety fence, as we were talking about before.
The safety fences, six feet tall.
It's a barrier with a glare screen on the top. A glare
screen prevents the lights from traffic on one side of the
road from glaring into the opposing traffic. We are going
to go through a public process to get input from the public on
and stakeholders on what they want this fence to look like.
There's lot of different options we can consider.
We're potentially looking at designs from that, the barrier,
colored concrete.
As Shannon mentioned before, though, whatever we do
is that barrier has to be crash-rated.
It is a great addition to the traffic,
and that does limit what we can do.
But we'll be exploring different options
and working with the public to find what the best solution is
there.
As I mentioned, before this is approval and safety measure.
Studies show about an 86% reduction in crashes
And then the other part of the project is lighting.
There's a large gap in lighting right now.
That's due to Merrill Field.
We are currently working with Merrill field.
We actually just met with them a couple of days ago
to figure out the best placement of those lights
and what we can do with the lighting
to help improve that as well.
And I have a question here.
I'm wondering if this was the...
pedestrian fencing a little bit earlier and also earlier in the presentation about how
a lot of improvements you want to see some up to three-year data just for how well that's working so
help me understand how long have we had not that it's directly informing this project but how
long if we have the Minnesota pedestrian fencing barriers and does that information inform it all
Coach Eric Eric, that one was constructed in 2024.
Yeah, so we only have about a year's worth of data for that.
So we haven't started to analyze that,
it kind of goes back to the same question
that Representative Mina asked earlier.
We are using studies and statistics
from other states and other studies right now,
so it is still based off of actual data.
as far as data that we have in Anchorage, it's still too early to have
solidified data from that Minnesota project. And as a follow-up are there
other pedestrian safety measures being taken in this particular
area? Right now with this project it is
just the increased lighting in the safety fence.
Thank you, co-chair Carrick through the co chairs. I'm happy to hear that there will be engagement with the local communities on this project because I feel like my communities will definitely have some feedback on on
this area.
I am curious with different types of pedestrian safety improvements that you have.
How is this barrier being prioritized versus other types
pedestrian safety improvements through the co-chair.
I mean, may I ask a follow-up is that are you referring to specifically at this location
or?
Okay.
Thank you.
That helps.
You know, specific to this locations, again, this was a project nominated, you know probably
a couple years ago at the point, um, You Know, what's interesting is there's, there
You know, Merrill Field has fence up along their facility and there are not a lot of
Origins destinations one side from the other. This goes back to what representative McCabe was saying that sometimes
blocking access might be your quickest solution, and I'm super paraphrasing him. I apologize for that, but
This is one of those, you know when we're looking at what can we do quickly? What can, we, do
that saves these lives the fastest or the reduces these injuries.
This is potentially an interim solution.
There is the Seward Glen,
all that work and studies being going on
that might potentially take the traffic off of this road in the future.
This was one of those perfect examples of
this could be the interim solutions that gets us that five, ten years
that we need until something different happens with this route.
Thank you
Seeing no further questions feel free to continue
So we wanted to highlight a couple things that are going around the state because of course HSIP is a statewide
program and
There's a something that's actually very I'm very excited about there's as smart pedestrian lighting pilot. That's going into Kodiak
Actually next week. It's it will be installed in a singular
Crosswalk and it's right on Resinoff Drive near Cope Street
And what this is, it's a dynamic lighting system,
so it detects when there is a pedestrian in the crosswalk
and lights the, cross-walk, much like you see
in a photograph, lights cross walk
while the pedestrian crosses.
And this, this provides.
some conspicuity for the driver to see the pedestrian and of course the
pedestrian that light to cross as well. So we're excited about to install this.
We're very excited to study it and see how it works. Obviously this is an area
that there's actually a lot of pedestrian crossing it's right near a hotel,
but there is in terms of AADT.
annual average daily traffic it isn't very high so it could be a great place to study
and then if we are successful we could bring it to other communities as well.
I didn't think we would get off this Kodiak slide without a question from representative
students. Thank you Madam Chair. I do have a
question. i hope you're doing something to educate the people in Kodiok that this is going to be
50 years or something they finally fixed it and for the next year nobody stopped at it because they weren't used to it working and
So I can foresee this same thing in a small community like that
People are like you know a rat in amaze and they're used
To go in one way and unless you educate them or inform them that this is coming
It might not be as successful as you hope it will be
Through the chair, Representative Stuitz, we agree completely,
and we're actually sending a public information officer
from South Coast to go to the installation to get footage
so that we can create materials to educate the public.
Well, wonderful.
Thank you.
So to continue on this slide I also wanted to point out that we do have a a region-wide guardrail inventory and upgrades
This is a modernization project
There are two areas and Kodiak that. We are going to be replacing guard rail
One is just a very short section basically from 1.5 mile to 1,6 and then a larger section from about mile post 4
to mile, post 10 and guardrails
Modernizations we have been trying to get them done all over the state
our targeting roads over 40 miles an hour
because as we know, slower speed crashes
have less severe outcomes.
Guard rail is, while it is a mitigation feature,
it's not a safety feature.
And we probably could go in to talk about that
for the next hour.
But when a vehicle crashes into a guardrail
at 40 mile an hours, it isn't obstacle in the right of way.
So we wanna make sure that we have
the most modern guard rail possible.
on those higher speed roads.
And then I also wanted to mention that coming soon
is the Chineac Highway Rehabilitation Project.
That's mile post 15 to 31.
And that also includes guardrail replacement.
Oh, sorry, representative Stu.
Thank you, thank you.
Madam Coach, I appreciate it.
This is good news.
I was told three years ago that all of our recalled
guardrails in Kodiak were going to be replaced, of which none of them have.
I'm hoping that very near future that these guard
rails that have been recalled and have
been called because they're deemed to
be dangerous are replaced.
Through the chair represent of Stutes. So guardrail is an incredibly complicated subject and and part of what happened is that they didn't actually recall the old guard rail
So what what they did instead is they passed new standards and they said that
That the guardrail can stay in place until that is
It that as modernized and so that's what these projects are aiming to do is to identify
that old Guardrail and get it replaced and
I think what might be appropriate if I can offer to you is that we probably should sit
down and talk about where the old guardrail is and what our plan is to replace them with
you because I know that that's been an interest for quite some time.
Thank you kindly.
So I'm going to jump into this one although I thing Pam is actually the expert.
This is a highlight from the Fairbanks area and this is, actually, for me also an exciting
For those of you that have driven around Fairbanks for a number of years, you know that that Sheep Creek Parks Highway.
intersection many years ago started off as an angled intersection so that people could
zoom right onto the Parks Highway and not come to a complete stop. So there's been a number of
improvements over the years. Back in, I believe, both 2008 and then 2011, we had interim steps to
make that safer. This project, though, it's a continuous green tea, so I'm looking at Pam
for the Parks Highway, but what we really found was that the crashes really were coming from
the drivers that were come off Sheep Creek.
So it controls their access in terms of it, it allows them, or it gets them to a signal.
But then also for vulnerable road users, and actually it provides a-
I had to write this down, it provides a protected crossing for both bicyclists and pedestrians
so they can get across this intersection safely and connect with the trail on the same side
of the road.
And of course we can't get off this one without me asking two questions here.
I drive this probably six times a day, so I'm super, super familiar with this intersection.
kind of westbound sidewalk traffic. The sidewalk currently abruptly ends at the corner and does
not continue down Sheep Creek Extension to hook up with the bike path onto the university campus.
Is there any plan to have a bike pass there as opposed to the current shoulder use that we see?
For the record Pam Gold into the co-chair I know our designer for this project has been working
with FAST planning to figure out how they might find some funding for that. It does not fit into
And I would just say that is such an important priority
for increasing pedestrian safety at this intersection
for one thing.
And then the second question is,
the standard practice for drivers,
whether it's correct or not,
is there's a lot of folks that get off onto geist,
like within a half a mile of getting on to the Parks Highway.
So the standard practice when turning on to the park's highway is to pull all the way into the far lane
Which is not what you're supposed to do or to immediately change lanes
And I'm seeing a barrier between lanes two and one
So how does that barrier extend very far or will it be?
And how high is that barriers? So in other words, how easy is it going to be for traffic to transfer over to
Be prepared to Immediately exit back off the parks
to the co-chair. So if you're familiar with what the striping looks like now, that solid
white line that we added in 2011-2012, and that's about where the, it's a curbed median.
It's something, because of the speed of road,
it has to be something that is traversable. You should not traverse it, but it
has be traversible.
So, it's fairly similar to what's there now, only it is adding a signal to the mix.
There is still plenty of room beyond the end of that raised median to safely merge over
and get off at Geist.
Also a regular user of the intersection.
So we've seen it all there.
But, you know, what's a continuous green tea, for those who aren't familiar,
northbound parks traffic, sorry, it's technically eastbound here, but it is highway north bound.
Fairbanks bound traffic will never have to stop. It's just the turning traffic that has to
stop, and that same treatment is coming here next summer to Vanderbilt Hill and Egan,
so that traffic coming in from the valley will have that
it will be in two locations across the state, this this type of intersection.
Oh, so you're saying here in Juneau that the exit off of the highway out to the valley on
to Mendenhall Loop Road? To the co-chair of Vanderbilt. So yeah, Vanderbilt is closer to downtown.
To go to, yes, I think of it as the road you have to take to get to Home Depot. Yeah, yeah. But
We might want to meet offline just about this intersection. I'm actually very excited about
this project. It is a problem, but I just want understand it a little bit better. Same
with, I think, a recurring theme with this whole presentation today. But thank you.
I'm going to go through some safety projects that we have in the Matt Subaru.
The first three projects listed are all intersection improvement projects.
They are also all single-lane roundabouts that were recommending, single lane round
abouts compared to signalized intersections have about 90% reduction in fatalities, a
overall crashes. The first project is the image you actually see on there. It's a
good representation of what the downside of a roundabout is. While it is
generally safer than a signalized intersection, it takes more space.
The green hatched area shows the area that we need for the project. So they tend
green forest drive intersection. It's kind of an interesting problem where the
existing roadways forest-drive and inksdrum don't quite line up. They're about
200 feet apart. This project would be lining those up and putting them at the
roundabout.
Right now we are going through some right-of-way acquisitions that are proving a little bit
challenging. Our goal is to get this one obligated this fiscal year. It's possible we'll see construction
late this year, but in reality the bulk of it would probably start next year the next project
is vine road at Hollywood Road intersection improvements. This project we have just started
We're looking at a 2028 construction.
It is grouped together with the Vine Road reconstruction project.
We'll have a continuous path from Knit Goose Bay Road,
all the way up to the elementary school with this project and continuous lighting as well.
And then the next project was still a fish hook road in Spruce Avenue,
Peck Street Roundabout. That's in a pretty similar spot where we're finishing up the design.
We still have some right away we need to get to we are hoping to obligate this year.
the bulk of the construction will likely be next year, maybe the end of this year.
Next project's Pitman Road, shoulder widening and slope flattening.
That one goes from Zander Road to Church Road so it's about 6.5 miles.
That section of Pitmen has 0 to 2 feet shoulders throughout it and very steep slopes.
This project is widening the shoulders to 6 feet and flatten some of those slopes to make them recoverable.
And that one's looking at a 2028 construction.
We are working to reduce the right-of-way impacts
as much as possible,
which may mean not flattening the slopes
as we'd like.
And then the last two projects are actually grouped together
with a CTP project.
So it's all one sort of a Frankenstein type project
that actually goes from
trunk road to ink strum. So about four miles and in that project we're looking
at adding pedestrian pathway, doing drainage improvements, adding turn lanes.
We're look at different options for a two-way left turn lane versus median
left-turn lanes, some intersection treatments within that section as well.
And that one, we're currently looking at a 20-32 construction date.
With the widening of that road, there are a right-of-way impacts throughout.
We're potentially considering also phasing that to get one phase out to
get some improvements sooner rather than later.
Representative McCabe, far be it from us to leave the Matt Sioux slide without
sitting by here.
There you go. Perfect.
is the main street KGB intersection versus the rail road, frankly.
It seems to me there's been an inordinate number of crashes there.
There is no real turn lane to get from the parks southbound onto KGB.
And so they end up in the shoulder, especially when the train is there,
sometimes they ended up on the shoulders all the way back to Lucille or even further back.
And so you have a line of 60-70 cars that are on the shoulder, but not quite on
the shoulders because it's not very wide. And I suspect it all has to do with the
railroad right away and I'm wondering if there's
not a way to access the at-grade crossing safety funds that the federal
railroad administration has and see if we can't put a barrier up and create a
if you will for those cars for when the train is there and backing up traffic.
For the record, Pam Golden, through the co-chair of Representative McCabe,
the Section 130 funds that you're talking about, it's like less than $2 million a year,
so it probably doesn't scratch that. I just wanted to put that out there. We can definitely
initiate some conversations with the railroad. And I believe that is now in the boundaries of
He's nodding yes, okay, and so sometimes just being within the MPOs helps us facilitate those conversations with the railroad a little better
so it's definitely something we can take back and and
And have some further discussion about you know what that might take to do something there
And I know there's there bustle is gonna make a one way one
I'm just gonna be one-way and they're gonna
Make another road the other the another direction it makes them oneway traffic, but I think that
turning from onto KGB from the park southbound is still going to be an issue unless we
Accomplish something at the same time as they do the one-way thing maybe and just I mean even if it
even, if there was a turn lane there an extended turn Lane or some way of of
protecting those cars that
Right now they're kind of half in and half out of traffic and anyways pet peeve of mine, so
I would encourage you to look at it through the chair represent of McCabe
improvements that intersection are part of the Main Street project
So that that is already included with Main street good. Thanks. Yeah, sorry
Representative Nelson
Thank you madam co-chair is uh in the matt suit the
Work that's happening right now on Palmer fish up to trunk where there's the gas station is that fall under this same program
Correct. That is an HSIP project. Yeah, okay. Thank you
Seeing no further questions we can continue
So I just wanted this is Shannon McCarthy for the record
I just wanted to highlight some of the exciting things
that are happening across Alaska.
Some big, some small.
One of things that we were able to accomplish in 2025
was that, we found one-time funding,
and we bought extrication equipment
for 14 different volunteer fire and rescue departments
across to Alaska, about a week and a half ago,
these have been delivered, and about
a weekend and half go, Del Tana reported
that they used it for the first time.
Well, the crash was not fortunate the fact that they had the equipment was
the people were uninjured, but they were trapped in their car, so they weren't able to get in there and
get people extricated in
their dog and we were really excited that that we had gotten them the
Equipment in time and they have trained on it. So they're able
to use it
Another thing that were we've been doing in 2025 is for the first time we have been
distributing reflective gear
We started off with the Tanadaw Valley State Bear
Providing reflective gear to fair goers. We went on to the Palmer Fair.
We also partnered with the
anchorage coalition to end homelessness. We went to their connect event and provided about 400
people with reflective gear. we've also partnered with the municipality of anchridge transit center
gave them a couple boxes of gear so that they can distribute that to
their patrons because we know that those folks are walking two bus stops and from bus stop.
So there's exactly the folks that we want to have reflective gears at their fingertips.
and through a couple legislative offices.
So we would like to continue this effort into 2026
and kind of change the culture of Anchorage
in that if you're going to go for a walk,
we just want you to throw on something
that has a reflective element to it.
Another thing that was actually through an idea that came up through the Vision Zero Task Force
and that we, and actually Pam could address this, but we now have kind of quick project funds, quick release funds.
And this is the intersection of C Street in Benson was an area of two fatalities.
The team of this group of people were able to look at it and then we're going to make some changes to the intersections
pedestrians that are crossing and cars that
are turning.
To go on, Egan Drive, many of you have probably
traveled already this session down to the Fred Meyer area.
This actually has a seasonal speed reduction.
And that seems to be working.
We can pull the numbers on that if you're interested.
And then a couple things.
We're doing these safety audits, PAM referred to them earlier, we were able to do the fieldwork
on Geist Road and College Road up in Fairbanks this last summer, and then they're
doing the animalization this winter.
The ones that are starting in Anchorage this year are Muldoon from 36 to Glen and from
Tudor and Minnesota Drive to Kingston Drive.
And this is where we bring people from outside of the community so they can look at an intersection
And then also we for the first time we did a full pedestrian and work zone outreach
We started workzone in August because we have a demonstrated crash history of Alaskans crashing in work zones in
August it seems a little unusual
We thought we would have seen that them crashing more in kind of May when when workzones are new. It's not the case
and then we also
Obviously how have pedestrian crash problem in all of our cities in September and in
I'm sorry in august
I'm sorry, September and October.
There we go.
September, October, so we actually produced several ads
that addressed behaviors that we know are connected
with crashes, many of them driver behaviors,
a couple of then pedestrian behaviors.
So we tried that for the first time.
We felt we would actually receive fairly positively
by the public and we're going to be expanding that effort
in the coming year and then of course seatbelt outreach
campaigns were adding to the mix.
And then also, in 2025, we put up a crash data dashboard,
rather, that you can look at.
It is at public.alaskadata.net.
And you could look
at the last five years of crash
data in our cities.
Oh, and I forgot.
Yes, thank you, Pam.
We also have a community request to reduce the speed from 45 to 35
on Tudor and Muldoon roads.
We're conducting a hearing on that in the first quarter of 2006,
and that's per our speed policy.
So lots of things that are happening, some of them, like I said,
you know, fairly low cost, but if there's any questions on
that, I can pause.
We have couple questions, Representative Stuitz.
Thank you.
Thank You, Madam Chair.
thought about putting anything like cameras up or anything.
I have been to Anchorage and I
have never ever and i'm not a spring chicken
been in a community where as many people run
yellow and red lights as I had in Anchorage. I mean
it was unbelievable. You start to slow down because the light turns
yellow, and the guy behind you goes around you and runs through the red
I look at all these pedestrian, I mean even if they're fake cameras, you would think that it
would be some sort of deterrent for these people when the light turns yellow to start to slow down.
For the record Pam Golden through the future at Representative Stutes, so there are actually a
couple of projects in Anchorage to address some of this. There are some camera projects,
so not all of the intersections have the pan tilt zoom cameras. It looks like a
bubble basically sitting up there and so that is getting that infrastructure out there so the
APD has access to that. Mostly they're looking at that for sort of like dealing with hit and run
and how they respond to it but then there is that availability to collect data about that sort
of thing. One of the newer signal projects is also for what's called a red light indicator
program and that's just a light that sits on top of
It goes on basically when the light turns red.
So you don't need two officers to have one confirm that the
light was red, one officer can confirm
that light is red so if they do see a red light runner,
they have that ability with that confirmation
because right now it's a two officer issue.
Thank you, coach Kirk. Through the coach here, I love hearing about the work being done
related to distributing reflective gear, love the creation crash data. I think that's awesome
for transparency and just helping the public know where our hotspots are. Could you tell me
more about that C Street and Benson Boulevard improvement? Because, you know, a tragedy that
there was a fatality there. Um, and I just would love to learn more. Yeah, uh, through the
Southbound on sea and you want to turn left on Benson right now. It is
Left a through left and I believe two or three throughs. There's a lot there's not going on there
and
Because it's it a pair of one-way streets the the pedestrian has a green or a white walk person at the same time
the left turns have a
their left turning movement and so what we're going to do with that rapid response money is
make it so that conflict doesn't exist anymore and we'll have to convert the signal heads to
turn arrows and then we are going implement what's called a leading pedestrian interval there
so this will be I believe the first in Anchorage I'm not 100% confident on that but the pedestrian
will get it's three to seven seconds it depends on how the timing works out head start
if we go that way, but we really want to make sure that the pedestrian is not given the same
green, if you will, as the car, so that we're not putting two people in the
same space potentially at the time. So it's really sort of taking that conflict and removing it.
It will introduce a little delay into the signal,
which then has to be coordinated.
We would have gone faster,
but that is one of the oldest signal controllers
in the entire state.
So we had to get a controller cabinet
that fits on that foundation that's out there.
So it was pretty old stuff.
Thank you.
Co-chair eyeshadow.
Thank you, co-chair Kerry and through my co chair just mostly a comment so if I
heard you correctly there's going to be a public hearing on reducing a speed
limit on one of the state roads in Anchorage and I'm very pleased to hear
that because you know first of all I believe in the public process you
know there are a lot of unintended consequences unless you ask folks
on the ground. And the other is, you know, I did do a
low research, neo-national highway traffic safety
administration, which is part of DOT, cited six studies in their
opening page on whether, essentially, this higher speed
create safety issues.
And it's pretty clear that slower speeds do result in a
reduction of proper damage and reduction on number of accents
as well as injuries because you have
faster you go, less reaction time, and faster
you the higher the impact forces.
So I'm pleased, I am very pleased that you're having that
because I understand the lane reductions take some time.
That made a lot of sense to me, but this is something,
reducing speeds is a community and a state can do
to address those hotspots where warranted.
So just wanna thank you for that.
Representative McCabe. Thanks and yet I've waited almost 18 months now for speed reductions on the Talketon of spur on
the Trapper Creek spur. I know there's a road in Homer that's been waiting about three years now
for the study for Speed Reduction, so I'm curious
Maybe you guys would be better at doing that than wherever there whoever is working on it right now
the community councils, so the public input,
community council's in Trapper Creek,
as well as Telquetna and Upper Susitna,
have clearly requested that we lower the speed limit
10 miles an hour within a mile on either side, I think.
I know you guys had a sign out there by Trappor Creek.
At one point, the flashing, your speed is,
because folks go cooking through there pretty fast,
and since we don't have a Telqetina trooper post,
There's not much enforcement up there and everybody knows it.
So, the mix of the kids coming out of
the Talkeaton High School, which is right there,
and the 18 wheelers or doubles coming up
there at 60 miles an hour or 65,
slowing down to 55 right
there by the spur, I get it, but they need to go slower.
I think it's a recipe there for an issue.
And so anyways, hopefully you can
work on that for us maybe please. Through the co-chair to representative
McCabe noted. I think we have just a couple slides left so maybe we'll go
through those and see what questions remain.
For the record Shannon McCarthy DOT
This is a bit of a sobering slide, but we wanted to share it.
These are our top five fatal and injury crash locations, as we know, oftentimes an urban
density of people is causes or leads to or is associated with, rather, higher crash rates.
And so that's what we see here is Anchorage, the Matt Sioux, Fairbanks, Kenai Peninsula
In terms of the percentage of Alaska population,
there's a correlation of
the total fatal and serious injured crashes.
So you can see Anchorage is just below
40 percent of
the population and 35 percent.
So it's kind of, it correlates 35% of
the Total Fatal and Serious Injury Crashes.
But as you move over, you
vulnerable road users, so pedestrians, bikers, anyone who rolls, they are overrepresented
in those fatality and serious injury statistics.
Another thing I wanted to point out, which caught our attention when we were putting this presentation together, was the Keene Ibero, they have 8% of the population, but they had 15%
of fatal and serious injury crashes, so something that I know Pam's team will be looking at in the coming future.
We do have a mistake on the slide.
On the lower, the last row, all the way to the bottom on right, it should say 14.4%, not 84%.
Someone was just, I think, maybe not paying attention.
corrected and provide the new copy to the committee.
All right, so seeing no questions on that last slide,
we wanted to end with this.
This is actually something that we've been kind of excited
about every day that's been passing, but.
From November 22nd to January 21st, which was yesterday, we've had zero pedestrian fatalities.
If you look at 2025 and 2024,
we had a pedestrian fatality about every 20 days.
And so we have gone 61 days, so I can show you the 2025 statistics, not positive,
have stopped and even with vehicle fatalities we had a period of time from the 25th to the
21st which was just yesterday with zero vehicle fatalities and so we went on to emphasize that
we know that zero is possible it does take all of us working together it takes safer infrastructure
it take safer drivers safer people oh education enforcement exactly so
There are some positive things happening.
We have a long way to go and working together.
We know that we can do a lot of good.
Representative Mina.
Thank you, Coach Carrick.
Through the chair, it's really great to see
the zero pedestrian fatalities over the past few months.
I do want to note that there was a bicycle fatality
in Anchorage last summer.
The chair represents MINA.
We'll get that corrected.
Thank.
I don't see any additional questions looking around the table.
Oh representative Nelson.
Sorry one more thank you madam coach here.
Back to the beginning so pardon me for going all the way back talking about
lane drops and road diets all that stuff but correct me if I'm wrong that the goal the main
player for increased pedestrian safety is essentially to narrow the space that pedestrians have to cross
Is that accurate?
For the record, Pam Golden, through the co-chair,
Representative Nelson, that is one of two pieces.
So the crossing distance, of course, is 1.
And then what you do with the reallocated space
is sort of where that other piece comes in.
It could be a variety of things.
It can be an increased buffer between a travel lane
and a pedestrian.
It's really creating those separate spaces.
One quick follow-up. Sorry, let me just add a little bit to that for the record Alex Reed
You also see decreased speeds frequently. There's a good example Spenard Road
The Miss Potty has already done two projects on Sponard
Before and after we saw about a five mile an hour reduction in speeds not even changing the posted speed just the average speed people were driving
Yep, thank you, and then the follow up you had mentioned that you've read a plethora of
crash reports essentially
and I know that this is hard probably to quantify, but how often do people get it, is there a way
to quantify if people are getting hit as they start to cross the traffic versus when they
get to the end of the lane? You know what I'm saying? The other side. Yeah, for the record
Pam Golden through the co-chair representative, Melvin Plathra is also one of my favorite words,
We've read a lot of crash narratives and, you know,
crash narrative is something that,
you you we we're getting with the law enforcement who officer who is there.
And I will tell you, it is all over the place.
It is people beginning to cross.
It's people waiting on the curb.
It has people crossing when they shouldn't cross and they have the red hand.
The car has the green light.
It you at signals.
Then the mid block is you
know it's everybody,
you wait for so long and then we all have that little bit of like.
higher level of risk we're willing to take the longer we are waiting.
So there's the peekaboo problem, you know, and I describe that we, the Vision Zero Task
Force, we got to see a video that was available from one of the signal cameras where the first
car stopped.
Second car didn't know why the 1st car stop went around and hit the pedestrian who was
crossing mid-block.
It is everything and that's why we go back to it's a safe system.
It's the driver, it is also the person, you know, the vulnerable user.
It has the whole safety network of things out there.
Thank you.
Co-chair eyeshite. Yeah, thank you. Co chair kerrykin through the co-chare just
Two comments one on the bicycle fatality last it was last June on C Street
Thank you, there was an impaired driver struck a bicyclist
died on this scene and then I did want to
mention a follow-up to representative Stutes
accurate assertion about red light running in Anchorage, so yes I've noticed that
whenever we have guests from outside, we say when you rent your car and you're
driving through Anchorage when we come to a redlight, when it turns green, look
both ways and just be super careful, but I did have a chance to tour the
And what they do is they tie into those traffic intersection
cameras, not for enforcement, but to do follow-up
investigations.
So if a red light runner were to have a crash, follow up,
it's also used when there is, say, somebody's identified
in the community as doing something bad.
and they can actually use those cameras to see where they are on public streets and direct
APD personnel to those sites. So real-time crime center, it's not used for active enforcement,
but is used to assist enforcement and follow up investigations and I was quite impressed to
see what they do.
And I just have a question as well.
I kind of want to go back to the very first slide
that we had here.
So I know the updated 2026 Anchorage funding is 30 million.
What was it anticipated to be previously
before this most recent decision?
For the record, Pam Golden to The Co-Chair,
it was in the neighborhood of nine to 10.
I don't know, the exact number, but it's...
In that neighborhood and just as a follow-up are the is the difference in those funds?
Through advanced construction is that how we're getting between nine and thirty million?
To the co-chair yes
I don't representative me. Thank you co chair kerrick through the coach here. I just have a last
Just split some thoughts
thinking through the pedestrian barrier on 15th.
So I'm primarily a pedestrian.
I don't have a car in Juneau.
I really drive in Anchorage.
I usually bike around in the summer.
I've been biking around on, on 1 15.
I use the bus stops and I walk over in Minnesota.
So, I have experienced all of those different roads
and those sidewalks.
And.
Part of what makes those pedestrian barriers uncomfortable for me is it has a pedestrian I do
like being seen. I have my little reflector on my bag right now and what I wouldn't want is for
people to drive faster on 15th and to treat it.
like a highway and so my first ask is I would love to see that Minnesota crash data because I
appreciate that the HSIP projects are data-driven and I want to I'm a little skeptical about
whether these pedestrian barriers do reduce crashes so I I wanna see what that data is so far.
we're going to experience a repeat of what happened with that Minnesota barrier where there was a
big community backlash and I know you're restricted because of the process where you have a cart
before cart before the horse situation and you were you had to do the public input after
and so I I'll do my part to share about this project with my district and my community councils
If DOT is exploring other ways to better engage with the public on the HSIP projects, so we
don't have the situation where the Public feels that DOT
is pushing projects on them that they don t want.
Yeah, through the chair, Representative Mina, I agree with you completely.
HSIP just does not have the same level of its engagement as other projects, so many of
our projects may have a.
a public involvement specialist with the design group
that they've hired, the consultant.
So in many times I've acted as the PI professional
for the specific projects and we will continue doing that
and will up our game on that
because I do think that HSAP is such a critical component.
There's a lot of education that really needs to go with it
for me to make it effective.
And so it's certainly, I know that working with
Pam and her team has been really valuable for me in terms of I tell Pam this all the time that
that traffic engineering is so different than just regular engineering because there's a lot
of human behavior involved, so you need to take that into account and that includes ensuring
that we're engaging with the public, explaining what we are doing, talking about different
options.
Because there are some options available to us, you know, for example, the pedestrian
So there's some options and we'll definitely, we'd made that commitment
to Anchorage that we would engage on aesthetics and talk about what we were doing
and were committed to that.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Great.
Thank
you.
So much, I also just wanted to acknowledge this whole hearing,
I think, but I just noticed it we did have Lauren Little from DOT's chief
engineer in Fairbanks.
That was online for questions.
I want to just think.
Lauren for being available for questions too, but thank you very much, Miss McCarthy,
Miss Golden, Mr. Reed. It's really informative to get to have this conversation with you.
Our next house transportation meeting is on Tuesday, January 27th at 1 p.m. here in room 124.
At that hearing, we are going to be hearing from the commissioner and some staff on the
$70 million in supplemental funding that the legislature needs to provide to ensure we capture
all available federal funds.
Next Thursday we are a little bit flexible on schedule right now but we anticipate covering
winter road maintenance generally and potentially a first bill hearing on representative Holland's
Whittier transfer bill. So that's what's on the agenda for next week and with nothing else coming