7 00:12:42.940 --> 00:12:55.600 CZI-The Think Tank: Thank you so much, everyone, for being here today, spending your Tuesday with us. I'll just introduce myself, because I'll be emceeing, so you know who I am. My name is Mia Candy, I am a Senior Planner with Tool Design. 8 00:12:55.600 --> 00:13:07.810 CZI-The Think Tank: I work out of our Oakland office, and I run our planning team. I know some of you, some really great familiar faces, so nice to see everyone again, and nice to meet everyone who's… who I have not met. Yeah, I think Dee's gonna kick us off, and then we'll get into it. 9 00:13:11.260 --> 00:13:24.979 CZI-The Think Tank: Great, thanks, Mia. Hi everybody, I'm Dee Dome, I'm the principal planner for the Active Transportation Team at MTC. So great to see everybody here, we're really excited to see everybody. 10 00:13:24.980 --> 00:13:25.929 CZI-The Think Tank: We… 11 00:13:25.930 --> 00:13:48.579 CZI-The Think Tank: I want to give a special thank you to our partners, CCAG, SMCTA staff, thank you guys. You helped us a lot on really developing today's workshop, so, thank you guys for that, and especially want to give a thank you to our consultant team led by Tool Design Group, supported by Alta Planning and Design. 12 00:13:48.780 --> 00:14:13.749 CZI-The Think Tank: We also want to especially give our heartfelt thanks to our host, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, who helped us scramble at the last minute to find a new location, because they unfortunately had some flooding in their other building. So, we hope that you have a speedy recovery on your building. We know that there are a lot of events over there, so we want to say thank you. 13 00:14:13.750 --> 00:14:15.720 CZI-The Think Tank: Thank you for all of that, too. 14 00:14:15.890 --> 00:14:40.579 CZI-The Think Tank: So today's workshop, was developed from feedback that we had from our peer exchange, in Sonoma County in December. So, a lot of you in the room today were at that peer exchange, and we heard really great discussions between the jurisdictions of challenges and successes that you're seeing in your cities, and today's workshop is developed from 15 00:14:40.580 --> 00:15:04.179 CZI-The Think Tank: all of your feedback that we heard at that peer exchange, and also from the survey that you completed afterwards. And at that peer exchange, there were more than 40 people who were representing more than 20, local agencies across San Mateo County, including Caltrans partners as well, so it was really great to have such a great representation of everyone. 16 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:27.720 CZI-The Think Tank: And today's workshop, just to give you a little background, this… I'm sure Mia will also talk about this, but this is part of our, five-year federally funded project, the Active Transportation, and Vision Zero Regional Coordination Project. So, we're really excited to be here. We're doing peer exchanges and workshops in every single county over the next few years. 17 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:36.759 CZI-The Think Tank: And this is our first workshop that we're doing as part of this contract. We do have another workshop that occurred in 2024 in Santa Clara County. 18 00:15:36.760 --> 00:15:59.050 CZI-The Think Tank: That was the Green Streets Workshop. If you didn't have a chance to attend that, don't worry, we recorded it, we have it on our website, you can watch it at any time, download the slides, etc. So if you go on the MTC webpage and just do a search for Active Transportation or Vision Zero, at some point, it'll pop up in the feed, and you'll be able to find that project webpage. 19 00:15:59.110 --> 00:16:23.860 CZI-The Think Tank: And lastly, just want to mention that, you know, the goal of today is really to provide a training to all of you on how to address common misconceptions, how to clearly communicate project benefits. We know we have lots of challenges out there, and to build public understanding and support for our projects. So, we're really excited to have everyone here today. 20 00:16:23.860 --> 00:16:38.439 CZI-The Think Tank: I also want to say that we have a very special guest. Our own MTC Commissioner, Gina Pappin, is here today to open it up and welcome everyone, so I will pass it over to Commissioner Pappin. Thank you! 21 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:48.899 CZI-The Think Tank: Good morning, everyone. And she covered a lot of what I had to say, so this is gonna be even faster. 22 00:16:48.900 --> 00:17:05.030 CZI-The Think Tank: So, yes, my name is Gina Pappin. I am the MTC Commissioner for all 20 cities. If you haven't met me yet, and you're from one of the cities, please come see me. I would really like to meet you all. I guess there's two cities not here, we'll talk about them later. 23 00:17:05.030 --> 00:17:13.770 CZI-The Think Tank: If you don't show up, we talk about you. Again, these workshops are very important. The project… 24 00:17:13.900 --> 00:17:26.980 CZI-The Think Tank: It aims at supporting you, our local partners, achieving safe, accessible, connected, all ages and abilities, achieving active transportation network. 25 00:17:27.130 --> 00:17:35.960 CZI-The Think Tank: For the Vision Zero goals here. I'm gonna mention some of the goals that we already have going, so if you don't know about them yet. 26 00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:54.370 CZI-The Think Tank: This is what we want to build on here. San Mateo County Transportation Authority's Active 101 program that identified critical improvements to the U.S. 101 freeway crossing and CCAG's countywide local roadway safety plan. 27 00:17:54.790 --> 00:17:59.529 CZI-The Think Tank: Another one we have, Bay Area SFO Gap Closure. 28 00:17:59.860 --> 00:18:18.160 CZI-The Think Tank: The project will fill in the critical gap in the trail network between San Bruno and Millbrae in northern San Mateo County, linking two major transit centers. The effort was reinvigorated by MTC's Bay Trail SFO Gap Study. 29 00:18:18.220 --> 00:18:31.170 CZI-The Think Tank: And now is being continued for the environmental clearance and preliminary engineering that will be helped from our San Mateo County Transit Authority and funding from MTC. 30 00:18:31.170 --> 00:18:38.309 CZI-The Think Tank: Another project we have is the coordinated efforts to transportation El Camino throughout the county. 31 00:18:38.310 --> 00:18:58.449 CZI-The Think Tank: Including the right-of-way in Redwood City here. As the MTC Commissioner, I'm thrilled that our Active Transportation Technical Assistance Program is able to support Colma and South San Francisco in competing community engagement and final design plans for the El Camino Real, and 32 00:18:58.450 --> 00:19:00.320 CZI-The Think Tank: And their communities here. 33 00:19:00.340 --> 00:19:16.210 CZI-The Think Tank: recently completed, like the S… Like the East Palo Alto University Avenue interchange, bicycle-pedestrian overcrossing, and the Burlingame, California Drive two-way separation bike path project. 34 00:19:16.210 --> 00:19:24.399 CZI-The Think Tank: Let's see here, we just have… those are just a handful of the projects we have, but this puts you in the mindset 35 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:30.649 CZI-The Think Tank: that there are many projects out there. I know, because I also served on CCAG, too, we… 36 00:19:30.650 --> 00:19:50.450 CZI-The Think Tank: have… can't fund them all, we want to, but with this initiative here, and going to all the Bay Area counties, we learn from one another. So your feedback is important. What you do here, listening and seeing what's happening in the projects overall, I want to encourage you. 37 00:19:50.570 --> 00:20:07.119 CZI-The Think Tank: Please, take advantage of what you're learning here, and bring them back to your cities. Bring them to CCAG, so we can build on that. It's the safety for all modes of transportation that is so important. It's about putting the pieces 38 00:20:07.120 --> 00:20:11.939 CZI-The Think Tank: Together, whether it's roads, bikes, pedestrians. 39 00:20:11.940 --> 00:20:24.619 CZI-The Think Tank: We are growing as a county. We see that every day, and getting people to and from, home, work, school, jobs, is so important. It must be safely done. 40 00:20:24.620 --> 00:20:33.769 CZI-The Think Tank: So it's a pleasure to be here as your MTC Commissioner. I look forward to the program today. I'm going to be learning, too. 41 00:20:33.810 --> 00:20:38.469 CZI-The Think Tank: Thank you so much for coming, and let's do it. Thank you. 42 00:20:50.650 --> 00:21:03.140 CZI-The Think Tank: All right, good morning, everyone. I'm Khaki Chung, I'm the Interim Executive Director for the City and County Association of Governments for San Mateo County, CCAC. I know, that's a mouthful. 43 00:21:03.140 --> 00:21:11.810 CZI-The Think Tank: Imagine saying it 10 times fast, right? So, for those who are unfamiliar with CCAG, we are San Mateo County's transportation agency. 44 00:21:11.820 --> 00:21:30.650 CZI-The Think Tank: And, we bring together the county and 20 of our local partners together to tackle issues across jurisdictional boundaries, whether it's congestion relief, transportation planning, or climate initiatives, stormwater management, and energy initiatives. 45 00:21:30.650 --> 00:21:40.570 CZI-The Think Tank: One thing that I've learned working in the transportation space in the last 20 years is that designing a project or building a project sometimes is the easier part. 46 00:21:40.730 --> 00:22:00.389 CZI-The Think Tank: The more difficult part is really to build, an understanding with our community, getting their trust, and getting their support to move forward. We probably all experience something like this, where you think a project gets quite straightforward and simple, whether it's a bike lane project, safety improvement. 47 00:22:00.390 --> 00:22:13.100 CZI-The Think Tank: But somehow it just turned into hours long of meeting, lots of emails, and, you know, getting into debates or things that you didn't even know that was part of the project. 48 00:22:13.100 --> 00:22:20.410 CZI-The Think Tank: So, you know, we've probably all experienced something like that, and that's why I think today's workshop is really important. 49 00:22:20.410 --> 00:22:41.019 CZI-The Think Tank: I want to thank, our partners at MTC, Commissioner Gina Pappin, our partners at the San Mateo County TA, Tool Design, Ulta, Kittelson, Eleanor Leisure, our speakers and panelists today, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative for helping to make today's workshop possible. 50 00:22:41.140 --> 00:22:58.800 CZI-The Think Tank: I think everyone in this room really brings a great amount of experience and expertise and lessons learned from projects across the Bay Area, and I just very much look forward to learning from every one of you, sharing what works, and trying to become better communicators. 51 00:22:58.800 --> 00:23:10.549 CZI-The Think Tank: better listeners, and then ultimately better partners in the project and the communities that we serve. So, thank you so much for being here, and I hope you enjoy the workshop. Thank you. 52 00:23:15.820 --> 00:23:21.290 CZI-The Think Tank: Actually, a question for Tech. Is it possible to pull up the other presentation that was up, the one that had the main slide? 53 00:23:21.650 --> 00:23:22.460 CZI-The Think Tank: Sorry. 54 00:23:24.070 --> 00:23:46.370 CZI-The Think Tank: I think, most of what I wanted to cover has been covered, but, just a couple things to reiterate. So, we, the consultant team, are working with MTC to roll this project out. Perfect, thank you so much. Over the next 5 years, and so it's really to help local agencies kind of get information, and tackle tricky problems to implement active transportation and Vision Zero programs. 55 00:23:46.430 --> 00:24:11.329 CZI-The Think Tank: Today, what we're gonna do is we have two main sessions. The first is around myths and messaging, so we have, folks, technical experts from across the industry, including private sector and public sector, who will talk about what are the most common myths, or if not myths, objections that you might be hearing when you're trying to implement safety and active transportation projects, and what types of messaging and data and storytelling really works to address some of those. 56 00:24:11.330 --> 00:24:11.900 CZI-The Think Tank: those. 57 00:24:11.990 --> 00:24:13.260 CZI-The Think Tank: Then we'll have lunch. 58 00:24:13.260 --> 00:24:36.010 CZI-The Think Tank: And then after lunch, our second session is about effective communication. What actually works when you have a project, you've done your analysis, you have your design, and now you want to communicate that either with the public, or with, you know, elected officials, or you're getting community pushback, things like that. And so, we'll have some folks talk about that. And then we have a very special closing plenary from a virtual guest who will close out the day. 59 00:24:36.010 --> 00:24:38.130 CZI-The Think Tank: So that's our plan for today. 60 00:24:38.130 --> 00:24:47.709 CZI-The Think Tank: The only thing… we kind of talked about the goals of the program. One thing I just want to share is just the sheer scope of this program. So, as I mentioned, it's 5 years. 61 00:24:47.710 --> 00:25:12.689 CZI-The Think Tank: And it's basically, every quarter for the next 5 years, we have a workshop. So every kind… every one of the nine Bay Area counties gets a peer exchange. That's kind of a smaller event, just between public agencies, where we get to, share with one another what are the main challenges that we're facing. And then 6 months later, we come back and we have a workshop where we actually talk about how to address some of those things. So, a lot of you were at our December San Mateo peer 62 00:25:12.690 --> 00:25:21.899 CZI-The Think Tank: Exchange, and this is our follow-up, best practice workshop. If you're not from San Mateo County, you're in luck, because there are many workshops coming up for all the other counties. 63 00:25:23.070 --> 00:25:34.960 CZI-The Think Tank: And I think with that, I think we're gonna just kick it off and, turn it over to our first set of presentations. So, Amalia Leighton-Cody from Tool Design, which is our Western Engineering Director, is gonna give us the first presentation. 64 00:25:36.020 --> 00:25:36.759 CZI-The Think Tank: An eye. 65 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:39.759 CZI-The Think Tank: Tech is coming back. Thanks, Molly. Thank you. 66 00:25:40.310 --> 00:25:49.109 CZI-The Think Tank: We will do, we'll do, we'll do four presentations, and then a Q&A, and then lunch, so if you do have questions, just hang on to them, we will have time for Q&A. 67 00:25:51.610 --> 00:26:15.929 CZI-The Think Tank: Hello, everyone. As Mia said, my name is Amalia Layton Cody, and I am here to talk about congestion and parking. And at first, I have to say I was a little miffed, because I have… this is, like, my least favorite topic, but then I realized that I actually do have some calls. I have had to testify about parking for environmental, considerations in front of a hearing examiner, and I have gone out and done parking audits, and so… 68 00:26:16.080 --> 00:26:29.190 CZI-The Think Tank: I really put myself back in that position, and I said, how can we effectively talk about parking and congestion? And we have all in this room been involved with conversations where 69 00:26:29.190 --> 00:26:38.029 CZI-The Think Tank: Someone is so angry, and so frustrated, and you have the data, and you have the designs, and they're beautiful, and they cannot hear you. 70 00:26:38.130 --> 00:26:51.520 CZI-The Think Tank: And so, it really is an emotional conversation, and I think about the person who tells me their story, that they have exactly 10 minutes to pick their kid up from daycare, or it closes, and they have to pay a certain amount of… 71 00:26:51.760 --> 00:27:10.380 CZI-The Think Tank: money per minute. Or I think about my father who had a stroke, and he needs ADA parking, and it's really hard for him to get out of the car into his doctor's office visit. So, in those cases, it really is emotional. And so, as I put together this presentation, they're not going to reason with data, right? They're going to want to have a different conversation. 72 00:27:10.380 --> 00:27:12.089 CZI-The Think Tank: So keep that in, in mind. 73 00:27:12.090 --> 00:27:25.269 CZI-The Think Tank: We all know about curb space management, we all know about the impacts of parking in the space, we know that there's even some environmental concerns that you're allocating pollution-generating surfaces to these types of uses. 74 00:27:25.270 --> 00:27:35.769 CZI-The Think Tank: And we know that when people are looking for parking, it causes congestion, and these things are so interrelated, and we all have goals about VMT reduction. And it's more and more pronounced. 75 00:27:35.820 --> 00:27:53.509 CZI-The Think Tank: We all know that, on-street parking should not be prioritized, other over active transportation facilities. But then you have these conversations, and they go to their elected officials, and they go to their appointed officials, and they tell their really powerful stories. And projects get stopped, or projects get removed. 76 00:27:54.580 --> 00:28:06.560 CZI-The Think Tank: We can show everyone facts about car-oriented streets, and how adding active transportation can make things more predictable, it can provide more options, it can provide a better quality. 77 00:28:06.560 --> 00:28:19.250 CZI-The Think Tank: And having images and different things for different audiences is a really core part of this, to bust the myths and to have the conversations and to get past the emotion, to hear someone out and unpack what they really need to know. 78 00:28:20.220 --> 00:28:36.579 CZI-The Think Tank: There are plenty of streets that look like this in our communities where we have not had the opportunity, the funding, the project, the need to complete the street, and to provide the space, and allocate it, and make it more organized, and to have things operate more efficiently. 79 00:28:36.580 --> 00:28:53.569 CZI-The Think Tank: And these things are all interconnected. And so we can design streets, and we can talk to the community about, do you want your street to look like this, and allocate all of that purple space to vehicles, or do you want to allocate space to other uses? And we can have these tools at our avail to have those conversations. 80 00:28:53.570 --> 00:29:16.729 CZI-The Think Tank: We can talk about safety, we can talk about near misses, we can say, have you sat at a corner and not been able to be seen because there was a parked car there? And did that make you feel uncomfortable? If you have low vision, and there was a really quiet Prius that came up and snuck and tried to park and was in your way, we've all had conversations around that. So we can show how having 81 00:29:16.730 --> 00:29:21.730 CZI-The Think Tank: Parking management can really help support those types of conversations. 82 00:29:21.980 --> 00:29:36.560 CZI-The Think Tank: We can also talk about access management. A lot of times, we hear, well, if I don't have parking in front of my business, no one will come. If I do not have people have the signage that I need to show them where the parking is off-site. 83 00:29:36.560 --> 00:30:01.559 CZI-The Think Tank: Will they be able to find it? Even just today, Cindy and I were trying to park, and we went into the employee-only parking area and had to back up, and almost ran into Mauricio at the driveway, so we were experiencing that full time. We were flustered because we were trying to get in there, but we can really talk about safety outcomes and safety benefits for all the users. These things don't need to cost a lot of money, they can be temporary, and a huge part of the messaging 84 00:30:01.560 --> 00:30:22.940 CZI-The Think Tank: which I know is a huge effort that we've all been doing, is demonstration or pilot projects, and putting in cheaper, cost-effective, whatever words are appropriate for our community to say, we're gonna try this out, and we can always take it away if it isn't working. And that has been such a powerful tool in the last few years that we've had at our avail to do those things. 85 00:30:22.940 --> 00:30:34.320 CZI-The Think Tank: And then also, I wanted to highlight that safety comes with co-benefits. Even, again, walking around out here, the curb bulbs have stormwater planters in them, and so we can talk about how we can reallocate that space 86 00:30:34.320 --> 00:30:47.269 CZI-The Think Tank: partner, have mutual benefits. We can say, well, we actually have to treat the water from the parking areas anyway. We can do that in a way that really claims that space and delineates things, again, to make them more predictable, more consistent. 87 00:30:48.250 --> 00:31:13.229 CZI-The Think Tank: And then we can talk about it and celebrate it. I had to put that in there. So, one of the things that has also been really powerful in hearing people's concerns is to say, when do you need to park? When do you need to unload? And so we've worked with a lot of communities around thinking about the different land uses, and I have 3 quick slides here, about what do you need to do at certain times of the day with those curb spaces. So sometimes it's a business that, well, I get all my 88 00:31:13.230 --> 00:31:36.369 CZI-The Think Tank: my deliveries on Saturday mornings from 6 to 9. Okay, great, we can work with that. And then someone says, I need to pick up my kid from daycare at 5 o'clock. I want to be able to just hop right out of my car and put my kid in my car seat without having a car go past me really quickly. So these things are tools that we've been using that have been very effective about thinking about how can these spaces be used differently throughout the day. 89 00:31:37.840 --> 00:31:50.280 CZI-The Think Tank: different land uses. So downtown is going to be really different than a residential area, which is going to be extremely different from an industrial area that we have in many of our communities that are really the backbone of economic, 90 00:31:50.590 --> 00:32:15.499 CZI-The Think Tank: or economic engines. And the other thing that we use is, again, we can use graphics and images to better depict this. So when we're talking about dynamic curb management, what does that mean? And so instead of just saying, we're gonna put up the same sign every single street, we're gonna maybe think about programming those different spaces, thinking about ADA, thinking about loading and unloading. One of the cool things, I live in Seattle. 91 00:32:15.500 --> 00:32:35.190 CZI-The Think Tank: but I like coming down here, but they just instituted… they're trying to bring back music to downtown, and they've had some music, buses and for bands to unload their equipment, so there's special music loading and unloading curb space management that they're doing, as an example of something that they heard back from… from the community. So… 92 00:32:35.610 --> 00:32:51.800 CZI-The Think Tank: People are… people love their cars. I have a car, I drive my car, and I like this photo because this person has elected to remove their car from the road because the cars are probably gonna hit their side mirrors. 93 00:32:51.800 --> 00:33:09.230 CZI-The Think Tank: And so we have to think that when we're talking about parking management and congestion, the… the enforcement, there's program… there's programmatic aspects to all of these things that also need to be coupled just by reallocating that space. And so these things have to be looked at in tandem, and if we're going to be talking about these things, we have… 94 00:33:09.230 --> 00:33:19.860 CZI-The Think Tank: to enforce them. I've worked with a lot of cities that said, well, we can't enforce them. People will very quickly figure out that you are not enforcing any sort of parking, and then that 95 00:33:19.940 --> 00:33:36.620 CZI-The Think Tank: exacerbates some of the circulation and some of that microcongestion that happens as a result of that. So I just want to go through a really quick story of a project that I've had, an opportunity to work on in some form since 2008. 96 00:33:36.620 --> 00:33:46.059 CZI-The Think Tank: And it's a project in the City of Seattle and downtown, it's called Pike Pine Corridor, and I want to talk about how the city approached it with programs, pilots, and predictability. 97 00:33:46.060 --> 00:33:57.639 CZI-The Think Tank: So this is a two-way couplet in downtown Seattle. In 2008, it was identified as the premier pedestrian corridor connecting one of the densest neighborhoods in Seattle to the waterfront. 98 00:33:57.640 --> 00:34:07.980 CZI-The Think Tank: And in 2015, the City Center Bike Network had an all ages and Ability facility also go into that space, so all of a sudden, it's the premier 99 00:34:07.980 --> 00:34:31.169 CZI-The Think Tank: pedestrian route, it's the premier bicycle route, it has transit, it has parking, it has loading, it has some… it has our convention center, it has music venues, it… it terminates at the Pike Place Market, one of the key tourist destinations. 2024, Seattle redid their transportation plan and talked about all the things that our transportation network has to do to us. 100 00:34:31.170 --> 00:34:55.480 CZI-The Think Tank: To serve… to serve the community. And so this was happening towards the end of this project. But what I wanted to highlight is this was a very car-oriented, through the financial center, through the retail core of Seattle, and so the city wanted to say, how can we translate this policy and these programmatic approaches to this corridor in a way that's going to test it out? 101 00:34:55.480 --> 00:35:20.149 CZI-The Think Tank: And so, the image on the right was this interim bike facility that was just with planters and striping, and it got to test access, it got to test parking removal, and one of the key takeaways also during this time was that they monitored the transit use, and because the street was more predictable, the transit service actually became more reliable and was not adversely impacted, as everyone said was going to be 102 00:35:20.250 --> 00:35:28.779 CZI-The Think Tank: the catastrophic failure of doing anything along this corridor. And it made people know that they could get their bus on time. 103 00:35:28.970 --> 00:35:53.880 CZI-The Think Tank: And so I'm just gonna go through a couple photos. On the left, you'll see some before, some interim, and some rendering, and then this project just finally got constructed. So, as I mentioned, in 2008, it was identified as this premier corridor. It finally, with a little blip of COVID, was, was opened, was opened this summer. And there was some complications with bridges and, and having the connectivity. This bridge, this before. 104 00:35:53.930 --> 00:36:18.330 CZI-The Think Tank: see this before is indicative, like, there was a lot of parking spots on it, before, and so people were really concerned about parking, particularly you can see in the loading for the convention center on the left, and we were able to reallocate space to create a much wider pedestrian facility and a fully separated, bicycle facility on there, and really showcase some of the core parts. 105 00:36:18.470 --> 00:36:36.039 CZI-The Think Tank: And then the last piece is that, the Pike Place Market, everyone thought they had to drive to the Pike Place Market. People still try to take a left in there. And the city, deemed the street in front of the market, if any of you have been there, they've called it Festival Street, they've done some closures. 106 00:36:36.040 --> 00:37:00.840 CZI-The Think Tank: And so this 100 block of pike is the most western edge of this project, and again, you can see that there were cars, there's a Target there, God forbid the Target couldn't have a load zone, there's a Hard Rock Cafe, those still exist. And so, over time, this is a image where they kept one of the travel lanes, but still very much looking like a street. 107 00:37:01.060 --> 00:37:21.559 CZI-The Think Tank: And again, tested all of the movements and made sure that all of the, access could happen. And then the rendering of the street was to make it more of a shared street. But the city said, well, we absolutely still have to let buses on it. We absolutely still have to let loading and loading, we have to allocate parking. 108 00:37:21.780 --> 00:37:46.759 CZI-The Think Tank: And then, when it was finally constructed, you can see they decided to close the street now, and it has been showcased that it is a place that makes people feel differently. So now we have people mixing, there is color, it has completely transformed, and has become an extension of the Pike Place Market. And I'll end with this slide that we had a little… we've been having a little event called the World Cup, and it's been so great. 109 00:37:46.760 --> 00:38:11.589 CZI-The Think Tank: that we've had, people who are able to go, and this image on the left is one of my daughter's best friends from… it's not my daughter, but it's her best friend, and it was so great for me to say, her mom, sent this photo, and I said, that's a street that I designed. And the fact that she could stand in the middle of it with her friend and experience something like World Cup, and for these other people to have a different feeling than frustration 110 00:38:11.590 --> 00:38:31.249 CZI-The Think Tank: and angst and anger, and say that, yes, we hear you, and we're going to work through these things, but hearing your concerns, and knowing that we want to have all of these different emotions happening in the street, and reminding that we can have fun, is pretty pivotal. So, I wanted to end on that, and thank you very much, and I will pass it to Calvin. 111 00:38:41.830 --> 00:38:44.860 CZI-The Think Tank: Alright, good morning, everyone. 112 00:38:46.730 --> 00:39:11.630 CZI-The Think Tank: So, my name's Calvin Thigpen. I'm the new mobility practice lead at Tool, so two Tool speakers back to back. A lot of the work that I lead at Tool focuses on bike share or e-bikes, and so that's what I'm going to talk about today, is about e-bikes and busting some myths around e-bikes. I'll note that I previously worked at Lime for 7 years as policy research 113 00:39:11.630 --> 00:39:34.070 CZI-The Think Tank: lead and lead of public partnerships as well. What I hope you will come away, from my session, my presentation, is just a better understanding of what makes an e-bike an e-bike as opposed to an e-modo, a sense of what the sort of e-bike stats are around safety. 114 00:39:34.070 --> 00:39:39.639 CZI-The Think Tank: And then how to get past some of those common misperceptions and myths around, around e-bikes. 115 00:39:39.950 --> 00:39:41.520 CZI-The Think Tank: So… 116 00:39:42.080 --> 00:39:56.439 CZI-The Think Tank: First off, I really want to make sure that we're all sort of on the same page about e-bikes. Not everyone necessarily is up to speed on e-bikes or has used one yet. e-bikes help riders overcome 117 00:39:56.440 --> 00:40:03.869 CZI-The Think Tank: A variety of different barriers, and it means you can take a lot of different types of trips without breaking a sweat. 118 00:40:03.870 --> 00:40:12.389 CZI-The Think Tank: And as a result, e-bikes are a really great tool to bring more people to bike lanes and onto two wheels. 119 00:40:12.590 --> 00:40:25.890 CZI-The Think Tank: Contrary to maybe perceptions and myths around e-bikes, e-bikes also yield a lot of, sort of, physical activity and public health benefits. Riders do get a workout, a little bit of a workout, from e-bikes. 120 00:40:25.890 --> 00:40:33.370 CZI-The Think Tank: And they're a very… a really good tool to help shift people out of their cars and… and onto two wheels. 121 00:40:33.470 --> 00:40:44.029 CZI-The Think Tank: But unfortunately, there's a variety of different sort of myths and misperceptions that potentially stand to get in the way of greater e-bike adoption. 122 00:40:45.640 --> 00:40:56.679 CZI-The Think Tank: So, over the next few minutes, I'm gonna do some interactive Q&A, try to get the audience involved a little bit, wake us all up again, and… 123 00:40:56.680 --> 00:41:11.320 CZI-The Think Tank: The first thing I want to get at is, something you've probably heard today, heard many times before, perhaps in public meetings, certainly in media coverage, you know, the idea that 124 00:41:11.320 --> 00:41:19.760 CZI-The Think Tank: e-bikes are dangerous. And I really placed emphasis on e-bikes, in particular in this instance. 125 00:41:19.760 --> 00:41:31.009 CZI-The Think Tank: Because I really want to get at what makes an e-bike an e-bike, because it can be really hard to tell just by looking at one. So… with that in mind… 126 00:41:31.950 --> 00:41:42.870 CZI-The Think Tank: Raise, raise of hand for the first question. You know, who can answer what are the three key factors that define a legal e-bike? 127 00:41:43.030 --> 00:41:44.640 CZI-The Think Tank: In the state of California. 128 00:41:47.210 --> 00:41:53.180 CZI-The Think Tank: Feel free to… you can just say one, yeah. 129 00:41:54.990 --> 00:42:03.049 CZI-The Think Tank: Right? And what's the… what's the last bit? You've got… that was great. I'm surprised you said pedals first. That was impressive. 130 00:42:03.950 --> 00:42:20.550 CZI-The Think Tank: Yes, yes. Top speed of… 20, e-assist, kick, kick, cuts out at 20 miles an hour. So, that sort of answers that sort of second question, right? What distinguishes an e-bike from other e-devices seen on the roads? 131 00:42:20.550 --> 00:42:38.079 CZI-The Think Tank: you know, an e-moto is something that doesn't have pedals, or it has a motor that exceeds 750 watts, or it can go far faster than the three classes, that we'll go over in just a second. So they're higher speed devices. 132 00:42:38.080 --> 00:42:45.340 CZI-The Think Tank: Anyone want to, venture to answer that, that second question about the three, three e-bike classes? 133 00:42:46.190 --> 00:42:52.099 CZI-The Think Tank: We've got some knowledgeable folks here. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, Class 1 is, up to 20 miles an hour. 134 00:42:52.860 --> 00:43:02.940 CZI-The Think Tank: No throttle pedal assist. Pedal assist only up to 20 miles an hour is Class 1. What's Class 2? I'm gonna ask somebody else, just to keep it moving. Class 2, anyone? 135 00:43:04.610 --> 00:43:05.470 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah. 136 00:43:06.050 --> 00:43:14.410 CZI-The Think Tank: That's right, so Class 2 is up to 20 miles an hour, but you can just use a throttle, either sort of a twist throttle or a thumb throttle, up to 20 miles an hour. 137 00:43:14.750 --> 00:43:18.560 CZI-The Think Tank: And then Class 3… Yeah. Emblem assist. 138 00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:33.580 CZI-The Think Tank: 28 miles an hour. Pedal assist up to 28 miles an hour. So, that… this is gonna help you when you're talking to people about e-bikes, what makes an e-bike an e-bike, what makes it different from an Emoto. 139 00:43:33.640 --> 00:43:42.530 CZI-The Think Tank: Alright, so now that we know, sort of, the basics of how to define an e-bike, I wanted to talk about, sort of, the real… 140 00:43:42.550 --> 00:43:59.430 CZI-The Think Tank: and perceived, safety of e-bikes compared to other transportation options, because again, there's a lot of misperceptions around, around the safety of e-bikes. And so, I wanted to say, you know, get into what the data actually has to say about 141 00:43:59.580 --> 00:44:00.880 CZI-The Think Tank: E-bikes. 142 00:44:01.620 --> 00:44:04.360 CZI-The Think Tank: So again, a raise of hands. 143 00:44:04.650 --> 00:44:08.810 CZI-The Think Tank: Who would say that e-bikes are safer 144 00:44:08.960 --> 00:44:12.879 CZI-The Think Tank: than traditional pedal bikes, raise your hand if you feel like they're safer. 145 00:44:14.690 --> 00:44:16.550 CZI-The Think Tank: How about more dangerous? 146 00:44:17.590 --> 00:44:19.980 CZI-The Think Tank: How about about the same? 147 00:44:20.910 --> 00:44:44.270 CZI-The Think Tank: Alright, that's more like it. It's about the same. So, injury data from the NEISS, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, you can pull the data from that, and there's coding for e-bikes and pedal bikes, and what researchers have found is that when you compare the injury rates, coming out of that system, which is a nationwide system. 148 00:44:44.270 --> 00:44:48.449 CZI-The Think Tank: It's a very, very small difference. It's 16%. 149 00:44:48.450 --> 00:44:55.109 CZI-The Think Tank: Of e-bike patients who get hospitalized versus 13% on a traditional pedal bike. 150 00:44:55.160 --> 00:45:07.719 CZI-The Think Tank: And that difference actually disappears when you exclude all the people riding e-bikes on private property or things like that. When you only focus on trips being made on the road, the difference disappears in terms of hospitalization rates. 151 00:45:08.290 --> 00:45:11.910 CZI-The Think Tank: And then the second question, this one maybe is more of a layup. 152 00:45:12.620 --> 00:45:19.039 CZI-The Think Tank: What is the most common way e-bike riders get seriously injured? 153 00:45:19.240 --> 00:45:33.650 CZI-The Think Tank: By a car, yeah. Most injuries, and by far the vast majority of fatalities, e-bike fatalities, are caused by crashes with motor vehicles. Alright, round of applause, well done! We busted some myths, well done. 154 00:45:34.240 --> 00:45:52.029 CZI-The Think Tank: Okay, so what can, you do to bust these myths in, your communities? I'm gonna briefly first touch on some of the more, sort of, traditional approaches, the tried and true approaches to addressing e-bikes, e-bike safety. 155 00:45:52.030 --> 00:45:56.010 CZI-The Think Tank: There's policy for the policymakers in the room, 156 00:45:56.270 --> 00:46:09.079 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, I think one thing to keep in mind, and one thing that has shown to be effective, is really when crafting policy, especially at the state level, is to avoid conflating e-bikes 157 00:46:09.300 --> 00:46:22.479 CZI-The Think Tank: and emotos. Emotos are faster, they are… they… many believe that they should be treated differently, they should be subject to, stricter reg… Regulations around 158 00:46:22.480 --> 00:46:29.429 CZI-The Think Tank: age restrictions, helmet use, etc, etc. And so, we've seen states 159 00:46:29.430 --> 00:46:45.579 CZI-The Think Tank: take very different approaches to e-bike legislature. New Jersey took one approach. Oregon took a more, I would say, progressive approach that really did try to disentangle, e-bikes, and they were very encouraging around e-bike usage among youth. 160 00:46:45.580 --> 00:46:49.710 CZI-The Think Tank: While introducing new restrictions on eModos. 161 00:46:50.260 --> 00:47:05.440 CZI-The Think Tank: For planners, the planners in the room, I think one thing I'd really emphasize is the importance of data. You know, we… there's a lot we still don't know about e-bikes, because our data collection efforts are still playing catch-up. 162 00:47:05.440 --> 00:47:14.859 CZI-The Think Tank: So for the planners in the room, you know, check that your local active transportation sort of counting effort is distinguishing between 163 00:47:14.910 --> 00:47:16.469 CZI-The Think Tank: Pedal bikes… 164 00:47:16.500 --> 00:47:35.299 CZI-The Think Tank: e-bikes? Is it a cargo bike? E-bike? Make sure you're distinguishing between the different types of vehicles. And then also, I would really encourage you to work with local hospitals, ERs, etc, to make sure that they, too, are using that same coding approach, so that we can start to disentangle some of these questions about e-bike safety. 165 00:47:35.860 --> 00:47:54.670 CZI-The Think Tank: And then for engineers, I think there's, still a lot to be done around the evolution of design guidance for bike facilities, really taking into account e-bikes, you know, the faster speeds, and therefore the greater need for passing distances. 166 00:47:54.670 --> 00:48:01.130 CZI-The Think Tank: When you're going around, people biking on a traditional pedal bike. So that could mean. 167 00:48:01.130 --> 00:48:11.880 CZI-The Think Tank: guidance that, leads to wider facilities. I think on a lot of trails, there's a lot of concerns around e-bike usage, and e-moto usage. 168 00:48:11.880 --> 00:48:16.769 CZI-The Think Tank: And so, thinking even about traffic calming, to slow speeds. 169 00:48:17.040 --> 00:48:27.120 CZI-The Think Tank: And then finally, also physical separation of different uses. So, physically separating, on high-volume corridors, pedestrians, and, e-bike users. 170 00:48:27.890 --> 00:48:47.479 CZI-The Think Tank: So those are the more traditional examples, but what I'm a little bit more excited to talk about is a little bit more on the messaging and framing and engagement side. So I'm gonna conclude by pointing to a case study from work that we did, with some folks down in Orange County at the Transportation Authority. 171 00:48:47.480 --> 00:48:58.009 CZI-The Think Tank: Orange County, kind of like Marin in a lot of ways, really saw a really rapid early uptake of e-bike usage, and so… 172 00:48:58.010 --> 00:49:14.219 CZI-The Think Tank: they've been very much at the forefront of trying to think about how to make sure that people are using e-bikes safely in their community. And so, I think there's a lot of lessons to be learned from communities that are just now starting to see e-bikes be… and e-motos be an issue in their communities. 173 00:49:15.410 --> 00:49:23.080 CZI-The Think Tank: So, last year, my colleagues, helped write, OCTA's e-bike Safety Action Plan. 174 00:49:23.330 --> 00:49:29.869 CZI-The Think Tank: And we're actually now following up on that plan and helping implement some of the recommendations. And… 175 00:49:30.330 --> 00:49:48.989 CZI-The Think Tank: We're now helping to convene quarterly strategy area groups. These are meetings that are basically a venue to take some… a lot of those recommendations and start to put them into action. And I think one of the things, one of the recommendations that I would… I would make to folks in this room 176 00:49:48.990 --> 00:50:05.440 CZI-The Think Tank: is really to convene a diverse group of stakeholders, because that's where all the different perspectives, and experiences, can really come to play, and a lot can be learned. So, not only just bringing the city staff and law enforcement, but… 177 00:50:05.680 --> 00:50:15.079 CZI-The Think Tank: Bringing in school staff, bringing in ER doctors so that more can be learned, and they can, you know, they're gonna be learning from each other. 178 00:50:15.100 --> 00:50:23.680 CZI-The Think Tank: Another, recommendation is really targeting the right message to the right audience. 179 00:50:23.680 --> 00:50:34.400 CZI-The Think Tank: And so we've taken a couple different approaches to this in Orange County. The first is really, you know, out of that e-bike safety action plan, we identified parents. 180 00:50:34.400 --> 00:50:44.090 CZI-The Think Tank: as a really important group to target, since they're the ones, at least ostensibly, buying these devices for their kids. 181 00:50:44.390 --> 00:50:58.209 CZI-The Think Tank: And so, we just went through an interactive exercise. Many, many people at Tool, I think some in this room, didn't necessarily know the different e-bike classes, right? And that's okay. But if we don't know it. 182 00:50:58.290 --> 00:51:06.820 CZI-The Think Tank: it's a lot to expect a parent to know it, right? They've got busy lives, transportation is not their day-to-day. And so… 183 00:51:06.980 --> 00:51:16.809 CZI-The Think Tank: not only is there that sort of knowledge gap, but there's also all sorts of ways that, you know, teenagers are smart, they're creative, they're on Reddit, they're on TikTok. 184 00:51:16.810 --> 00:51:29.210 CZI-The Think Tank: They're learning all the different ways that they can also take what's maybe sold as a legal Class 2 or Class 3 e-bike, and they can find ways to hack it to make it go faster. 185 00:51:29.240 --> 00:51:45.489 CZI-The Think Tank: And so what we're actively working on right now with OCTA is to put together a parent's buyer's guide to educate them on the issues, and help them know how to recognize what's an e-bike, what's an e-moto, and make safe purchasing decisions, for their kids. 186 00:51:47.150 --> 00:52:03.160 CZI-The Think Tank: The other piece is also meeting the right message to the right audience, also making sure that we're targeting, messaging to youth to help encourage safe riding behaviors. We worked with a local social media influencer in Orange County. 187 00:52:03.160 --> 00:52:12.279 CZI-The Think Tank: you should look it up, or I'll… we can share it out maybe afterwards. But it's a pretty entertaining video, and it… it went viral. 188 00:52:12.280 --> 00:52:30.079 CZI-The Think Tank: last year. And then there was also sort of a tongue-in-cheek video that we put together with OCTA, you know, with… about a dad having the proverbial talk, with his son, and of course, the joke being that the talk is about, e-bikes. 189 00:52:30.300 --> 00:52:39.620 CZI-The Think Tank: And then the final piece, sort of recommendation I'll make is just about getting people on e-bikes. How many people have ridden an e-bike? 190 00:52:40.480 --> 00:52:41.820 CZI-The Think Tank: Okay, most people. 191 00:52:42.210 --> 00:52:52.330 CZI-The Think Tank: So, there's a lot of power in busting those myths and those misconceptions about e-bikes by just getting somebody on them, right? 192 00:52:52.610 --> 00:53:12.809 CZI-The Think Tank: you know, it can be as simple as just inviting a policymaker, another planner, on an e-bike ride with you. You know, this is something we did with the steering committee for the OCTA E-bike Safety Action Plan as part of our very first meeting to, again, sort of set that ground floor of understanding what an e-bike is. 193 00:53:14.930 --> 00:53:33.530 CZI-The Think Tank: So, I know I went through a lot of content very quickly, so here's a very brief summary. You know, e-bikes have a lot of benefits, but one of the most common myths that I think we all collectively busted today is that, in e-moto. 194 00:53:33.650 --> 00:53:47.159 CZI-The Think Tank: is not an e-bike, right? Yeah, it's more powerful, or it goes faster, or it lacks operable pedals. So I think that's one myth that we can all work together, to bust in our communities. 195 00:53:47.390 --> 00:54:04.390 CZI-The Think Tank: And I think, as I noted, you know, traditional planning, engineering work can go a long way towards making e-bikes a safe auction in our communities. But there's also a really important role that education and engagement has to play in breaking through with these misconceptions. 196 00:54:06.740 --> 00:54:22.700 CZI-The Think Tank: And so, I will leave you with a few resources, again, to help you bust bus myths in your community around e-bikes. The first on the left is a report that was commissioned by the California State Legislature, and was published late… 197 00:54:22.700 --> 00:54:27.760 CZI-The Think Tank: in 2025, by some researchers from Mineta Transportation Institute. 198 00:54:27.860 --> 00:54:43.829 CZI-The Think Tank: If you want data on e-bikes, if you want… you know, this is a 150-page report, that they presented to the state legislature. It is chock-full of great information. I highly recommend that you read it. If e-bikes are at all part of the work that you do. 199 00:54:43.830 --> 00:54:53.110 CZI-The Think Tank: And then, again, I mentioned the OCTA e-bike Safety Action Plan several times. If you're interested in looking at that work, you can also scan 200 00:54:53.170 --> 00:54:58.360 CZI-The Think Tank: that QR code. And finally, you can also reach me if you ever have any questions. 201 00:54:58.430 --> 00:54:59.419 CZI-The Think Tank: Thanks so much! 202 00:55:05.930 --> 00:55:23.819 CZI-The Think Tank: I was so in a rush to get our speakers started, I forgot to make a few announcements. So, restrooms. If you go out the store, there are two restrooms, single-store restrooms, but there are also restrooms on the other side of the building, so you can go out that back door, follow the corridor, and I think there's a security guard that will show you where it is. 203 00:55:23.820 --> 00:55:42.870 CZI-The Think Tank: A lot of folks have asked about water, sorry that there isn't any water at the back. If you go out this door and then go around the corner to their kitchen, there is a very fancy-looking drink dispense machine, and it has a water button, which you have to hold down. Water, restrooms… Lindsay, was there something else? 204 00:55:43.390 --> 00:55:49.719 CZI-The Think Tank: Wi-fi. If you still need the Wi-Fi, I believe it's, CZIGUEST, and the password is… 205 00:55:49.850 --> 00:55:58.279 CZI-The Think Tank: everyone. Is it everyone? It's everyone, all lowercase. And with that, we'll turn it over to Charlie. 206 00:56:05.480 --> 00:56:07.270 CZI-The Think Tank: Everyone stay hydrated. 207 00:56:09.490 --> 00:56:23.659 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah, my name's Charlie Rehm, hi, thanks for having me across the bay from the City of Oakland. I'm here to bust some myths and talk about my work at the City of Oakland, and in the past at the City of San Francisco, coordinating with the Fire Department. 208 00:56:23.950 --> 00:56:26.640 CZI-The Think Tank: I… 209 00:56:27.400 --> 00:56:34.500 CZI-The Think Tank: I guess the fire department has been one of the most important, frustrating, and also gratifying relationships I've… 210 00:56:34.870 --> 00:56:48.640 CZI-The Think Tank: forged across my 13 years or so coordinating with fire departments on street design in San Francisco and Oakland. I guess to start off, who's ever had the fire department object and cause substantial design change to your project? 211 00:56:48.770 --> 00:56:51.109 CZI-The Think Tank: Let's say, like, 35% design. 212 00:56:51.360 --> 00:56:54.110 CZI-The Think Tank: Okay, how about $65.95? 213 00:56:54.340 --> 00:57:11.880 CZI-The Think Tank: How about 100%? How about after construction? Yeah, yeah. During construction, during and after. So, my goals with this presentation are just to discuss the myths I've uncovered in collaborating with the fire department, illustrate how 214 00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:24.470 CZI-The Think Tank: I guess if there's one myth I want to bust the most, is that the fire code, and by proxy, the judgment of the fire marshal, is some scientific, fact-based, you know, totally objective. 215 00:57:24.580 --> 00:57:38.839 CZI-The Think Tank: tool that is monolithic and can never be, you know, subject to any pressure or, you know, political whim. It's not, it's not, that's not the case. The fire code and the judgment of the fire marshal is a political decision-making process 216 00:57:38.890 --> 00:57:45.789 CZI-The Think Tank: It is not scientific, it is not specific, it is open to interpretation and argument, and it's open to political pressure from both sides. 217 00:57:46.200 --> 00:57:51.250 CZI-The Think Tank: I can walk through a few recent case studies to illustrate how this has worked and not worked for me in the past. 218 00:57:52.580 --> 00:58:04.310 CZI-The Think Tank: I guess the first myth is that everyone must agree, like, I've had panic attacks before meeting with the fire department, where I've had to, like, literally go into another room and calm myself down because it's so upsetting. 219 00:58:04.430 --> 00:58:06.879 CZI-The Think Tank: I'm getting a little feedback here. 220 00:58:08.160 --> 00:58:31.920 CZI-The Think Tank: I no longer have that happen, and I think that's because I've accepted that we don't need to convince the fire department to buy small Japanese fire trucks. We don't need to convince the fire department that our street designs are going to make their trucks go faster. We have different goals and different objectives, and we are pushed into conflict, and that is natural, and we should accept that, and we should not assume that there's ever going to be a day where that conflict goes away. 221 00:58:31.940 --> 00:58:50.239 CZI-The Think Tank: There's never gonna be a time where we convince the fire department that they should stop objecting or throwing up different ideas for why our projects won't work. And similarly, they should never expect that we're gonna stop pushing to make streets safer, smaller, and slower. So, how do we meet in the middle? How do we compromise? That is a fascinating… 222 00:58:50.980 --> 00:58:55.920 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, endlessly fascinating debate that we deal with on a day-to-day basis. 223 00:58:57.210 --> 00:59:00.540 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, we think differently about roads. Here's some, you know. 224 00:59:00.980 --> 00:59:22.159 CZI-The Think Tank: case studies of the City of Oakland, you know, flex posts, we had trucks going out there talking about how these flex posts are gonna damage their precious vehicles that they spend a ton of money on, you know? This is a fire truck parked in a brand new protected bike lane because they need to get to City Hall to speak at a council meeting in downtown Oakland. You know, we think differently about roads, that's okay, you know, we don't have to agree, we just have to work together. 225 00:59:24.140 --> 00:59:40.710 CZI-The Think Tank: The second myth is that it really, you know, we have this idea of the fire code is this really scary thing, you know, they throw up a figure, a quote from the fire code, 501 Section 2.3, and you're like, oh, shit, my project's dead, I have to go away, I have to tell all these people, like, I had all these great ideas, and they're not gonna happen anymore. 226 00:59:40.710 --> 00:59:45.049 CZI-The Think Tank: That's not true. Like, the fire code is a blunt instrument with blunt 227 00:59:45.130 --> 00:59:53.450 CZI-The Think Tank: measurements that apply to a broad spectrum of roads across the nation, world even, and the state of California. 228 00:59:53.450 --> 01:00:05.700 CZI-The Think Tank: It is not well-written, it is not specific, and it is open to interpretation. I just highlighted some of the most common places that we run into opposition with the fire code with our various street designs. 229 01:00:05.700 --> 01:00:11.830 CZI-The Think Tank: And it really, like, boils down to these simple numbers. Like, what does this even mean? 20 feet, 26 feet. Is this… 230 01:00:12.100 --> 01:00:24.909 CZI-The Think Tank: Does this space in the roadway need to be contiguous? Can it be broken up into two zones that are 10 feet each? What do you use this space for? Is it for passing? Is it for staging? Is it for throughput? Is it congestion-based? 231 01:00:24.910 --> 01:00:35.370 CZI-The Think Tank: So many different ways that you can interpret this, so my message is to dive into the details behind these numbers to achieve some key compromises with the fire department for your projects. 232 01:00:36.480 --> 01:00:49.540 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, the real questions are not, like, how do we meet the 20 feet clear, or how do we meet the 26-foot clear? It is, what is the operational underpinnings of these figures and these numbers in the code? 233 01:00:49.540 --> 01:00:58.340 CZI-The Think Tank: How can we dive into the details of how you need to stage at this particular location to meet your needs to, you know, keep people safe in our city? 234 01:00:58.460 --> 01:01:20.280 CZI-The Think Tank: Lastly, how can we get out into the field to meet operations staff, who we don't really get to meet in the professional setting, view their concerns and their challenges and their gripes and their successes in the real world, and how do we just gain a better understanding of their real-world experience? And by proxy, they gain a better understanding of what we're trying to do. 235 01:01:20.280 --> 01:01:23.339 CZI-The Think Tank: hopefully… Calm some emotions on either side. 236 01:01:23.990 --> 01:01:39.849 CZI-The Think Tank: This is a case study I'd love to point out. This is just something I've gleaned over various conversations with fire officials over the years. I'm not sure if this is even the basis for the 20 feet, but this is how I've come to understand why the fire department needs 20 feet clear in the roadway. 237 01:01:39.920 --> 01:01:44.239 CZI-The Think Tank: Which is that there's a fire on the north side of the street, fire truck pulls up. 238 01:01:44.530 --> 01:02:06.619 CZI-The Think Tank: you have space to pass, right? This seemed like such an inane and silly thing to agree on over the course of the decade's worth of work, but just having this as an understanding between transportation agencies and fire departments opens up a ton of possibilities for understanding how to design streets to allow the fire department to operate, and also to allow key safety elements to be installed. 239 01:02:06.650 --> 01:02:26.359 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, here, in this case, you can install a pedestrian safety island at this crosswalk, you got 10 feet clear on either side, a truck can stop like it needs to, and another vehicle can pass around it. This meets the operational underpinnings of the code, but technically is not 20 feet of unobstructed clear width by some fire marshal's definitions of that fact. 240 01:02:27.940 --> 01:02:44.759 CZI-The Think Tank: Case study two is diving into the details. You know, like, we actually… I run a monthly meeting with the fire department, where we bring all the street designs in the city of Oakland for discussion and review. We talk very little, actually, anymore about the code. I think that's a success story, because we've realized that the code is a… 241 01:02:44.760 --> 01:02:50.439 CZI-The Think Tank: An imperfect tool, we really need to talk about how we can meet operational requirements with street design. 242 01:02:50.440 --> 01:03:09.770 CZI-The Think Tank: So in this case, we have some protected bike lanes, you know, we're always building more, or iterating on the design. The pumper truck needs to get to within 12 feet of a fire hydrant. This is not spelled out in the code. The code has a broad, prescriptive thing, about 26 foot clear in front of the fire hydrant. It doesn't say anything about hose length or pumper truck location. 243 01:03:09.770 --> 01:03:32.219 CZI-The Think Tank: So diving into the details, we've developed this profile for an island that can be mounted partially, that can allow the truck to pull up. We have these awesome turn template figures showing how this can actually happen in the field. Again, this is not a code requirement, this is an operational understanding that we've built with the fire department, and we've developed a specific design 244 01:03:32.290 --> 01:03:50.740 CZI-The Think Tank: treatment to deal with this situation in the field. So this allows us to build a protected bike lane island in front of a fire hydrant, in most cases in the city. Something that caused concern and consternation is now just a, okay, we have this design detail, this is how we're gonna deal with this situation on this and future projects. 245 01:03:52.510 --> 01:04:17.499 CZI-The Think Tank: Myth number 3 is people will stay employed at the City of Oakland, and if they leave, they will pass on that knowledge to future generations of planners, or the fire marshal's office, or whatever. I mean, in 2023, this is a great example. We… they bought a new fire truck, we went out to measure it, we conducted a bunch of field tests, you know, how… how far is the optimal distance from this 7-story building on Telegraph? You see the protected bike lanes 246 01:04:17.500 --> 01:04:18.250 CZI-The Think Tank: there. 247 01:04:18.250 --> 01:04:22.779 CZI-The Think Tank: And then people come and go. Like, by 2026, we're arguing about this 248 01:04:22.780 --> 01:04:33.860 CZI-The Think Tank: exact same thing again, with just a new crop of people. And this is something that we could have solved by probably documenting things a little bit better, but I think the message here is you gotta write things down. 249 01:04:34.340 --> 01:04:41.900 CZI-The Think Tank: We have been trying to craft these memos with the fire department. This is a key memo that we crafted and signed in 2024. 250 01:04:41.900 --> 01:04:52.449 CZI-The Think Tank: It basically outlines that figure I had before, saying that if you have 10 feet on one side of a pedestrian safety island and 10 feet on the other, it meets the requirements of the fire department. 251 01:04:52.450 --> 01:05:06.509 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, it's not a binding document, it's only an agreement if we both agree, but the fact that the fire department has signed this, and that we've used it as a basis for design decisions, means it's much harder for them to now say, we no longer agree with that meeting. 252 01:05:06.510 --> 01:05:20.790 CZI-The Think Tank: or that memo. It makes them have to say that publicly. It's a communications tool more than anything else. We can say, like, hey, we've been working together on this complex issue, we have this agreement, we can now build pedestrian refuge islands, and it's really… 253 01:05:20.970 --> 01:05:30.659 CZI-The Think Tank: It's been a pretty pivotal thing in the city for building, you know, protected bike lanes, streets with medians, you know, a lot of things, deal with this issue. 254 01:05:32.270 --> 01:05:34.780 CZI-The Think Tank: And then results, you know, so these are some… 255 01:05:35.060 --> 01:05:49.649 CZI-The Think Tank: Islands in the center are very narrow roadways that split up this contiguous 20 feet clear into two zones, and it's great to be able to show these to the public, saying, hey, you know, we've worked on this issue, we've solved this, and then this is a really important tool for future project reviews. 256 01:05:51.290 --> 01:05:55.589 CZI-The Think Tank: Myth number four. CAD can solve everything, you know, like… 257 01:05:55.910 --> 01:06:12.179 CZI-The Think Tank: This is just so many turning templates. We deal with turning templates so much, and turning templates are a funny thing, because they're a way for us to show our work. It's an important internal design tool, but it also just ups the level of scrutiny for every single vehicle movement 258 01:06:12.370 --> 01:06:22.480 CZI-The Think Tank: with the fire department. I mean, it's crazy the amount of time that we spend going over these turning templates. I mean, it's like, you can't solve everything with CAD, this is… 259 01:06:22.690 --> 01:06:31.490 CZI-The Think Tank: it goes both ways, it cuts both ways. Like, we can show our work, but we also open ourselves up to just a ton of scrutiny and questions on what is really just a modeling tool. 260 01:06:31.950 --> 01:06:39.849 CZI-The Think Tank: So, my takeaway here is that you can't solve everything in design review meetings and submittals and comments on PDFs. 261 01:06:39.930 --> 01:06:44.259 CZI-The Think Tank: This is a great case where I learned something from a field test. 262 01:06:44.280 --> 01:07:02.110 CZI-The Think Tank: On the right, you see our turning template. This is 14th and MLK, protected intersection in downtown. Importantly, this is a route that the Fire Station 1 takes to get to emergencies in West Oakland, so they always make this right turn, like, 3 times a day. And the turn works in the field. 263 01:07:02.270 --> 01:07:16.320 CZI-The Think Tank: Barely, right? So if the car is stopped at the limit line, if the opposing traffic is on the right side of the road, if there's nothing else going on at the intersection, if this fire truck operator makes the right decisions on the lead up to the turn, it does work. 264 01:07:16.670 --> 01:07:25.970 CZI-The Think Tank: And that's not good enough, because we should have known that this is an important turn, this is a high-volume movement, we should have given a little more flexibility in this case. 265 01:07:26.040 --> 01:07:42.319 CZI-The Think Tank: This is, you know, one of those projects where after construction, we're doing these tests, fire department's asking us to rip it out, we're having to move limit lines around, do change orders with the construction contractor at the very last second, try to get them to field test, and this is a situation where CAD showed that it worked. 266 01:07:42.320 --> 01:07:47.509 CZI-The Think Tank: And a little more operational understanding would have smoothed the way for us, in this case. 267 01:07:50.310 --> 01:08:03.500 CZI-The Think Tank: And, you know, this is another good example of working in the field. You know, flex posts are just a constant bone to pick with the fire department. They say that flex posts rip out the brake lines in their trucks. They say that they can't, 268 01:08:03.500 --> 01:08:19.709 CZI-The Think Tank: you know, maneuver around them, that they cause vehicles to not be able to merge out of the way when they have their siren on. You know, we want to be able to install these as lane delineation devices, as, you know, hardened daylightings around the city. So we needed to come up with a placement 269 01:08:19.880 --> 01:08:31.940 CZI-The Think Tank: scheme that the fire department could agree with. So this is a… we did a series of tests, this is a key kind of picture that we use all the time. It shows that the outrigger has this steel plate. You can see the… 270 01:08:32.010 --> 01:08:44.589 CZI-The Think Tank: the person carrying it right there, that steel plate has to lie flush to the asphalt. So the plastic bases do, in some cases, mess up the ability for these outriggers to land on solid ground. So we came up with a drawing that says, okay. 271 01:08:44.670 --> 01:08:59.069 CZI-The Think Tank: as long as we leave 6.5 or 6 feet clear in between the hard plastic bases, we can put these wherever we want. They do not count as an obstruction in the… per the fire code language, and as long as we can agree on this drawing, we can put them out there. So this is… 272 01:08:59.100 --> 01:09:13.379 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, I wouldn't say this has been very successful over the years. They still object to, flex posts in certain cases, but, you know, this is a good example of working out in the field to identify, you know, a very niche issue, and then developing an engineering drawing to solve it. 273 01:09:15.310 --> 01:09:17.319 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah, one other… 274 01:09:17.319 --> 01:09:36.310 CZI-The Think Tank: way that we've achieved some success with this kind of real-world testing, or this real-world modeling. This is a diverter. This is in East Oakland, it's part of the Calm East Oakland Streets project. There's a traffic circle existing, and we wanted to put in a diagonal diverter. So we actually built it with first water-filled barriers that were quickly destroyed, and then concrete K-rail. 275 01:09:36.310 --> 01:09:53.859 CZI-The Think Tank: This allowed for us both to test, you know, the community's reaction to this device, and also the fire department's reaction to this device. So we had before and after meetings on-site with the fire department. We got to talk to operational staff in the field, how this interacted with their operations in the area. 276 01:09:53.859 --> 01:09:59.700 CZI-The Think Tank: And then later, we got them to run a GIS analysis that says, okay, if this diagonal diverter is permanent. 277 01:09:59.700 --> 01:10:15.490 CZI-The Think Tank: and you want to get to this house, what does that do to your response time? And this is my favorite email I've ever received from the fire department, because it says, okay, it does increase our response time, but it's below 4 minutes, so it's okay. So I, like, danced around my office when I got this, because this means… 278 01:10:15.490 --> 01:10:21.690 CZI-The Think Tank: that we can ask them to do this similar analysis in the future. You know, they did it once, let's do it again. 279 01:10:21.720 --> 01:10:45.419 CZI-The Think Tank: as long as it's below 4 minutes, we're in the clear. So just getting to this level of conversation with the fire department, versus just saying, this is gonna block traffic, you can't do this. This level of detail and conversation is what you need, because you always have to ask them to justify why this can't happen. It's not enough to just throw up a code requirement, or throw up a simple statement, like, this is gonna block a response route. 280 01:10:45.490 --> 01:10:53.550 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, get them to, you know, tell you more detail, tell you more about what the needs are in the neighborhood. Maybe there's a hotspot on this corner that you don't know about. 281 01:10:53.680 --> 01:11:02.269 CZI-The Think Tank: detail, it's all in the details. And by forcing the questions and forcing the responses, that's how we get to a… 282 01:11:02.610 --> 01:11:05.580 CZI-The Think Tank: A higher level of understanding and a higher level of compromise. 283 01:11:07.450 --> 01:11:19.740 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah, just how… this is kind of like how to maintain momentum and focus. You know, I think one thing is that a lot of transportation engineers and designers, myself included, would like projects to proceed apace 284 01:11:19.740 --> 01:11:29.410 CZI-The Think Tank: to meet the community's demands and needs, and then you kind of deal with the fire department later, right? Like, I've now learned that you really need to do it from day one. 285 01:11:29.470 --> 01:11:44.489 CZI-The Think Tank: And you need to build these constraints in when you're talking to the public from the earliest possible outset. This is actually a design open house we had two weeks ago for a project on East 21st Street. We had this open house event where people can put out, like, different traffic 286 01:11:44.490 --> 01:12:01.339 CZI-The Think Tank: calming features on their block or their intersection. We actually printed out fire truck turning templates as a design tool in the charrette so that people could slap this template down and say, okay, this is a great idea, but this isn't gonna work, right? Like, this is just an elementary way 287 01:12:01.340 --> 01:12:14.480 CZI-The Think Tank: of showcasing this important design constraint, you know, at the pre-concept level, even when you're talking to the public about different types of toolkit items, this comes into play. So I really love this as an idea. 288 01:12:15.640 --> 01:12:31.610 CZI-The Think Tank: And then how do you build a shared understanding amongst internal folks? You know, so we have these monthly meetings where we meet with the fire department, hash things out, schedule field visits, schedule follow-up meetings. I also build from those meetings an internal cheat sheet for our internal design teams. 289 01:12:31.610 --> 01:12:40.139 CZI-The Think Tank: So I, as the kind of chief, coordinator of this conversation, I track various threads of conversations, like the hydrant issue is one. 290 01:12:40.140 --> 01:12:59.439 CZI-The Think Tank: I put that in the cheat sheet, you know, at the top of each section is, like, the current state of the conversation for each of these various elements. Most of them are not code-related, things like hose length or, you know, traffic calming devices like speed cushions and speed tables and, you know, a bunch of stuff. It's, like, 15 pages long. 291 01:13:00.310 --> 01:13:03.980 CZI-The Think Tank: And yeah, what's up next? You know, I think… 292 01:13:04.210 --> 01:13:19.550 CZI-The Think Tank: just a constant evolution of the conversation, you know, it's never gonna end, and that's okay. Like, we're gonna have these monthly meetings until I retire or get a new job, the fire department people are gonna come and go, I'm gonna come and go. It's just a constant, evolving, kind of gamesmanship… 293 01:13:19.770 --> 01:13:37.749 CZI-The Think Tank: give and take, compromise, it's like a battleground, you know? I think local government, I think, often as a battleground, and this is just one, you know, front in the battle. And you just have to be ready for these conversations, you have to be ready to lose, be ready to give up, and be ready to really dig in where it counts. 294 01:13:38.060 --> 01:13:51.460 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, more learning, you know, I've had a really great time learning about the operational requirements of emergency operations staff in the field. I mean, it is an important job, they are passionate about it in the same way that we are passionate about it, right? It's not… 295 01:13:51.540 --> 01:14:03.949 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, it's not a lack of compassion or empathy or drive that is causing these debates, it's just the fact that we have opposing viewpoints on a really central issue. And it's important to understand that and respect it. 296 01:14:04.680 --> 01:14:21.500 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, more lengthy and detailed design discussions, you know, I love getting out in the field. A, it forces everyone to really devote their energy to a topic, and if it's not important, they're not going to devote the time. So you invite them out to the field. If it's important, they'll come. If it's not important, you move on. 297 01:14:23.170 --> 01:14:41.850 CZI-The Think Tank: And then more of writing things down, you know, more memos, I'm trying to write a memo on what is a mountable median, super fun. And, like, the cheat sheet, you know, it's not a memo, it's just a cheat sheet for internal staff. It's like a state of play, kind of like where things stand, and that's been… that's been super helpful for us. 298 01:14:42.580 --> 01:14:48.789 CZI-The Think Tank: And yeah, that's all I got. Happy to talk more, answer any questions after the fact. Thank you. 299 01:14:53.770 --> 01:15:08.189 CZI-The Think Tank: And then our last speaker for today is, Malahut from Redwood City, and I just want to say, this one's a little bit different, because up until now, you've heard about myths and messaging, and Malahut's really going to talk about kind of a local San Mateo County success story. Thank you so much. 300 01:15:08.510 --> 01:15:09.559 CZI-The Think Tank: Thank you. 301 01:15:09.760 --> 01:15:12.080 CZI-The Think Tank: Hi. 302 01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:22.720 CZI-The Think Tank: Which one goes forward? The one with the big green Okay. That was very simple. 303 01:15:22.860 --> 01:15:40.160 CZI-The Think Tank: Hi, I am Ala Dorang, I'm Transportation Manager for City of Revo City. Welcome to our city today. My case study today is right there, like, one minute walk from this location. I'm going to talk about Vero Bicycle Boulevard Project. 304 01:15:41.760 --> 01:16:00.190 CZI-The Think Tank: The smiley face shows where you are right now, right in the middle of, Revo City. Just a background, in 2018, Revo City adopted its first transportation plan. We call it Revo City Moves, and Revo City Moves came up with. 305 01:16:00.360 --> 01:16:07.540 CZI-The Think Tank: A network of bicycle backbone that is proposed, and that's what you see on this screen. 306 01:16:07.640 --> 01:16:16.069 CZI-The Think Tank: And, this was the base for us for any planned, bicycle corridor improvement in the future. 307 01:16:17.770 --> 01:16:23.489 CZI-The Think Tank: What happened after 2018, 308 01:16:23.690 --> 01:16:47.960 CZI-The Think Tank: So we had this idea of creating, bicycle boulevards in Revo City. It's, it was a new concept, and, in 2019, we had a school consolidation in Revo City, so the population changed in Revo City, and a school district couldn't, run the schools with half population, so they ended up closing four elementary schools. 309 01:16:48.360 --> 01:16:55.170 CZI-The Think Tank: And transferred about Probably close to 1,500, 2,000 kids to other schools. 310 01:16:55.250 --> 01:17:06.830 CZI-The Think Tank: One of the schools that received, about 400 or 500 new students, was Roosevelt Elementary School, and after the school consolidation and 311 01:17:06.850 --> 01:17:19.689 CZI-The Think Tank: parents had to go around different areas of Rebu City to take their kids to school. There was a desire and community request from us, the city staff and transportation team. 312 01:17:19.690 --> 01:17:27.280 CZI-The Think Tank: To start the Vero Bicycle Boulevard project, and that's, what triggered creation of this project. 313 01:17:28.210 --> 01:17:35.520 CZI-The Think Tank: The idea was, so Vera starts from El Camino Real, it goes through, Redmorton Park, which is the 314 01:17:35.640 --> 01:17:43.009 CZI-The Think Tank: like, main community destination in Rebu City. It has community center, it has all the sport facilities. 315 01:17:43.010 --> 01:18:07.360 CZI-The Think Tank: We have a new, beautiful senior center that just opened last month, in that area, and we are going to have a YMCA. So, that truly is the main community destination in Redwood City. And then after Red Morton, it goes all the way to Alameda de las Pugos. So it's a long corridor, and towards the end, close to Alameda, is where the Roosevelt Elementary School is. So this project. 316 01:18:07.360 --> 01:18:13.089 CZI-The Think Tank: was, basically the first bike boulevard we wanted to create in Redwood City. 317 01:18:16.830 --> 01:18:22.150 CZI-The Think Tank: So, what was the challenge? Selling the idea of creating a bicycle boulevard? 318 01:18:23.560 --> 01:18:34.329 CZI-The Think Tank: So, basically, creating a lower stress bikeway that is parallel to, two other streets that have higher volume and higher speed. 319 01:18:34.330 --> 01:18:47.859 CZI-The Think Tank: And just saying that, hey, we have design flexibility, we can work with the community to come up what community prefers on this bike boulevard, and it really helps to create a safe. 320 01:18:47.860 --> 01:18:59.840 CZI-The Think Tank: and convenient, corridor for all community members going from west of the city to, to downtown and central part of the city. So that was what, we were trying to sell. 321 01:19:01.240 --> 01:19:19.140 CZI-The Think Tank: So we started the project in, 2019, and, started, designing the project. Tool Design was our designer. And back then, I was, taking Caltrain from Mountain View, and there was a street parallel to Castro that it had. 322 01:19:19.140 --> 01:19:26.699 CZI-The Think Tank: all these circles and speed humps, and every morning, I would see lots of kids on bikes and walking to school. 323 01:19:26.700 --> 01:19:43.200 CZI-The Think Tank: So I asked Tool, Joel was the project, he's in MTC now, but back then he was with Tool, and I was like, hey, Joel, can we create something like that one in Mountain View? So we started this, designing the project, I started from the concept. 324 01:19:43.630 --> 01:19:46.879 CZI-The Think Tank: And, COVID happened. 325 01:19:47.530 --> 01:19:58.489 CZI-The Think Tank: Jessica Manzi, who was my manager back then. When COVID happened, we came up with this idea of slow street, which is basically closing some neighborhood streets. 326 01:19:58.560 --> 01:20:18.069 CZI-The Think Tank: To true traffic, to allow for, residents to have, like, do social distancing while they have physical activity. So there were about 12 streets in, Rebu City. We closed off completely to true traffic. We did signs first, then we transitioned these signs to more, like. 327 01:20:18.100 --> 01:20:21.660 CZI-The Think Tank: Semi-permanent looking, like, bolted to the ground. 328 01:20:21.660 --> 01:20:38.779 CZI-The Think Tank: So, my manager back then, Jessica, said, hey, let's test VERA for a slow street, let's close it and see how community reacts. So, during COVID, I believe the first 3-4 months, we closed VERA to true traffic. 329 01:20:38.840 --> 01:20:43.470 CZI-The Think Tank: With the goal to test it, and then transition it to a bike boulevard. 330 01:20:44.120 --> 01:21:02.239 CZI-The Think Tank: At the same time, we did apply for a TDA3 grant through CCAG, to build it with QuickBuild materials. So about, a year later, we implemented the QuickBuild project. It cost us about $200,000 back then. 331 01:21:02.260 --> 01:21:06.440 CZI-The Think Tank: And, I will give you a story about the project. 332 01:21:07.630 --> 01:21:25.580 CZI-The Think Tank: Cool things. One thing we did, everything for this project ended up being virtual. Community workshops, it was, like, in the, like, right when the COVID has started. One thing we, did, to encourage more, like, neighborhood residents to 333 01:21:25.590 --> 01:21:39.410 CZI-The Think Tank: like, learn about the project, get involved, like the project, to basically sell the idea of bicycle bouvar to the community. We actually, in the design, we had some 5 or 6, 334 01:21:39.410 --> 01:21:46.270 CZI-The Think Tank: Neighborhood traffic circles that we were about to build it with, like, rubber curbs and equipment materials. 335 01:21:46.270 --> 01:21:58.649 CZI-The Think Tank: We had some curb extensions, so we did send these postcards to the community and asked them, hey, do you want to come up with some design ideas for, inside the circles and curb extensions? 336 01:21:58.680 --> 01:22:06.510 CZI-The Think Tank: And I did, so we did send this, I remember I did present different designs, maybe I show you. 337 01:22:06.510 --> 01:22:21.119 CZI-The Think Tank: the designs, to Arts Commission, so we work with Arts Commission to pick some of these designs, so our, QuickBuild contractor can actually, build what people submitted. So, after that, 338 01:22:21.270 --> 01:22:37.699 CZI-The Think Tank: this, like, what we ask, community members to send us. We received about 30 designs for, mostly for inside the traffic circle. So these are a few of those. Look at these, and then in the next few slides, you'll see, some of these were actually built. 339 01:22:38.740 --> 01:22:46.240 CZI-The Think Tank: So these are some of the, designs that are submitted by, the area residents, to be 340 01:22:46.750 --> 01:22:58.560 CZI-The Think Tank: implemented inside the traffic circles. So we tried to make, this project a fun project, especially because it was during COVID, and people were, like, everything was very virtual. 341 01:22:58.720 --> 01:23:18.360 CZI-The Think Tank: So through, going through a few rounds of… so our, arts commission ended up picking two of these designs to be implemented inside the traffic circles, and these are what was built. And, basically, the, the project elements had, 342 01:23:18.590 --> 01:23:32.789 CZI-The Think Tank: 5 or 6 traffic circles to reduce the speed, and to slow traffic at the intersections, and provide a safe space for the community, and then space for community art. 343 01:23:33.880 --> 01:23:52.219 CZI-The Think Tank: So this is, another, so our Arts Commission picked two designs to be implemented inside the circles, and this is, as you see, was built, with the TDA3 fund through CCAG as part of the QuickBuild project back in 2021, 2022. 344 01:23:52.620 --> 01:24:00.969 CZI-The Think Tank: And, our, deputy fire chief, actually, he gave me a sketch of dimensions. 345 01:24:01.610 --> 01:24:18.059 CZI-The Think Tank: speed humps, speed cushions should be. So, you see as a part of the quick build, we did probably around 11 or 12 sets of these, rubber, speed cushions that works for our fire trucks to go through those gaps. 346 01:24:18.210 --> 01:24:27.899 CZI-The Think Tank: Our, and the QuickBill had pavement markings. We worked with, 347 01:24:27.970 --> 01:24:43.989 CZI-The Think Tank: with a vendor, and they did this custom design wayfinding throughout Vera Bike Boulevard, and as you can see, all the, like, some of the corners, they had, quick-built curb extension and RFP. Everything was built with quick-built materials. 348 01:24:44.120 --> 01:24:51.329 CZI-The Think Tank: After we did the QuickBuild installation, because that's… these sets of circles were basically the… 349 01:24:51.400 --> 01:25:06.500 CZI-The Think Tank: First, traffic circles, we had one before, but this was… these sets were first… almost first traffic circles, our community, saw in Revote City, so, we worked with a graphic designer, tried to, like. 350 01:25:06.590 --> 01:25:20.399 CZI-The Think Tank: educate community how to go around traffic circles, so this is one of the examples of, like, graphics we created, postcards, and mail it to the residents in the area, and put it on our social media, 351 01:25:20.400 --> 01:25:31.599 CZI-The Think Tank: platforms to educate people how to go around traffic circles. And that was basically one of the most repeated complaints I've received after we did the QuickBuild installation. 352 01:25:34.790 --> 01:25:52.909 CZI-The Think Tank: One thing that, I heard, about this project was, why do you want to spend this much money do a bike boulevard? Vera is already low traffic, and why do you want to do that? So, we always… 353 01:25:53.300 --> 01:26:17.259 CZI-The Think Tank: the way we advocated for the project, we said, yes, it is very low traffic, but based on an actual design guide, that is why it makes it a very good candidate to be a bikeboard. So that is why we want to add more traffic calming elements to make it a true bikeboard, and give priority to bikes. So after the quick pill installation, we ended up doing some 354 01:26:17.270 --> 01:26:21.050 CZI-The Think Tank: minor modifications to the design. One of them was 355 01:26:21.100 --> 01:26:35.969 CZI-The Think Tank: Probably a few weeks after we've completely done with the, quick-built traffic circles, our police department said, hey, I cannot keep going there for complaints about cars parking around circles. You need to read carefully. 356 01:26:35.970 --> 01:26:51.679 CZI-The Think Tank: So that was the first thing we did. So we added some red curbs, so people don't block, the areas around, traffic circles. And the other thing we did, probably one year after quick wheel installation, and that was the. 357 01:26:51.680 --> 01:27:09.580 CZI-The Think Tank: Hard… hardest change was, in River City, if you want to make any changes to a stop sign, change it, or add a new one, you have to go to City Council with a resolution to justify it. Either, use MUTCD warrant analysis, or 358 01:27:09.580 --> 01:27:13.929 CZI-The Think Tank: Come up with some way of justifying it based on the safety, 359 01:27:13.980 --> 01:27:26.170 CZI-The Think Tank: concerns. So this was the first one that, we tried to justify based on what NACTO Design Guide told us, to give priority to bikes on a corridor. 360 01:27:26.170 --> 01:27:44.249 CZI-The Think Tank: So I believe a year after implementation of the project, back then, our city engineer was very nervous. He was like, this is a very big deal, why do you want to change? Like, basically what we took to City Council is switching stop signs from Vera to crossing a street. 361 01:27:44.360 --> 01:27:47.929 CZI-The Think Tank: And justifying that based on what NACTO, 362 01:27:48.380 --> 01:27:56.610 CZI-The Think Tank: prefers or, directs for a bike boulevard. So that was another modification we did after the quick bill installation. 363 01:27:56.610 --> 01:28:08.740 CZI-The Think Tank: The QuickBuild project was in place for… I'm almost done… for 3 years. I'm very impressed that it actually lasted 3 years, maybe because it was already a very low volume. 364 01:28:08.740 --> 01:28:26.199 CZI-The Think Tank: street. As I, showed in previous slide, I probably should have put this here. One thing about the project is not just design, it's not just construction. Funding is another part of the project. So this project was funded through three different grants. 365 01:28:26.360 --> 01:28:41.560 CZI-The Think Tank: And, I'm very proud that I did, like, apply for all three different grants, and we received those. The second round of the grant, when we asked the community members, hey, do you want this project to be permanent? 366 01:28:41.610 --> 01:28:48.680 CZI-The Think Tank: And a majority of people voted yes. People who live, one block at two sides of the corridor. 367 01:28:48.830 --> 01:29:02.399 CZI-The Think Tank: We started the design for the project, we applied for a grant through San Mateo County Transportation Authority, we finished that, and then right after, that, like, 2 years after, we received a grant for construction. 368 01:29:02.490 --> 01:29:27.239 CZI-The Think Tank: The project is currently heavily under construction. It will be done… these are construction photos from probably last week, two weeks ago. It will be complete… completed in around September. We are transitioning. There is not that much change compared to the quick build. We removed all the rubber circles. They're becoming permanent rubber circles. Our fire department reviewed the traffic circle design. 369 01:29:27.240 --> 01:29:37.620 CZI-The Think Tank: And approved them. We are making, we are doing pavement overlay, we are doing lots of, ADA curriculum improvements as a part of the project. 370 01:29:37.620 --> 01:29:48.360 CZI-The Think Tank: So it's going to be our first bike boulevard project. Hopefully community can see benefits of the project and support more bike boulevards in Rail City. Thank you! 456 02:28:29.630 --> 02:28:54.480 CZI-The Think Tank: All right, so, okay, so session… our next session is, about communication and what works. We've talked a lot about what are the different, issues, myths, messages that you want to try and communicate, so now we're going to talk about how do you actually communicate those things. So Cindy will talk about visualizing design decisions, and then Mauricio is going to talk about, kind of data… data visualization and what is effective, and then 457 02:28:54.480 --> 02:29:02.479 CZI-The Think Tank: We have a, our kind of case study is Bobby from SFMTA, so we'll end with that, and then we'll do Q&A. All right, hand it over to you guys. 458 02:29:03.020 --> 02:29:03.810 CZI-The Think Tank: Thanks. 459 02:29:04.380 --> 02:29:08.260 CZI-The Think Tank: All right. Well, hopefully you all had a nice lunch. 460 02:29:08.260 --> 02:29:33.229 CZI-The Think Tank: Got a little time in the sun, it was beautiful out there, if you did. So, nice to meet you all. I'm Cindy Zerger, I'm the, Director of Design for Tool Design. I'm trained in, both landscape architecture and urban planning, and, but have really focused my career on, communication and work in the transportation space, so I'm excited to be here and chatting with you today. Talking about visualizi- visualizing, design decisions. 461 02:29:33.230 --> 02:29:42.180 CZI-The Think Tank: So, to keep us a little interactive, maybe I'll ask a question to the audience. How many of you guys know how to read a graphic like this? 462 02:29:43.550 --> 02:29:47.330 CZI-The Think Tank: pretty much everyone in the room, right? How about the public? 463 02:29:47.620 --> 02:30:12.620 CZI-The Think Tank: Really hard, right? And I think, also, there are hundreds of decisions, you know, that we're making in these processes when we come up with a cross-section like this. Every project contains hundreds of decisions, and as experts who work on this stuff day in and day out, of course we can generally understand it, but it's really hard for the public to do so, as you all just indicated, but it's also harder for them to then contribute to the conversation. 464 02:30:12.620 --> 02:30:25.359 CZI-The Think Tank: And actually, when we ask them, you know, in public engagement to really help us make design decisions, this can be really hard and really intimidating. So lots of different decisions that we're making. Oh, thank you. That's great. 465 02:30:25.820 --> 02:30:28.590 CZI-The Think Tank: The green arrow, right? 466 02:30:28.680 --> 02:30:41.799 CZI-The Think Tank: The big one. Okay, so I'm gonna go through, four insights, I would say. They're not rules of… or I guess there are some rules of thumbs that I'm gonna talk about here, but really four insights, as I've been working on this work, and our team has. 467 02:30:41.800 --> 02:31:04.639 CZI-The Think Tank: for years. These kind of are things that we follow in thinking about how we visualize design decision-making process. So the first one, like any good street, visual communication should really be multimodal. So we think about how people consume information. These are just some rules of thumb. So each of these insights, I'm gonna couple with some rules of thumb. So, establish this idea of a consistent graphic. 468 02:31:04.640 --> 02:31:20.320 CZI-The Think Tank: language. Different audiences, of course, need different ways into the same conversation. Like we said, not everyone dreams in cross-section. I think repeating key ideas across multiple, formats is really, really important. 469 02:31:20.580 --> 02:31:45.570 CZI-The Think Tank: And the goal, again, is about understanding to make informed decisions. That's ultimately the goal of all of the different kind of graphics that we produce in our projects. They're fun to produce, but they're certainly most important that they need to help you, make decisions. So, when we think about consistency, or building clarity, it's about being consistent in what we are doing. And so I'm going to walk through a couple of steps that we do as a team. When we have a project that's working with 470 02:31:45.570 --> 02:32:01.900 CZI-The Think Tank: different agency, we start with really the client's visual language and brand. You have a lot of projects going on in all of your communities, and if you don't sort of set up that consistency in how you're delivering your projects, people get disoriented in what you're doing in different locations. So, you know, kind of consistency in that language. 471 02:32:01.900 --> 02:32:26.199 CZI-The Think Tank: We use a consistent graphic system across plans, sections, and perspectives, and I'll talk about that a little bit more. The way you differentiate, of course, is through content, not different graphic styles. So your cross-section shouldn't look very different than your plan graphic, shouldn't look very different than your perspective, or your animations, if you're doing that these days. Consistency, again, helps that audience really focus on the decisions that you're trying to ask them to help you with, not the drawings. 472 02:32:26.510 --> 02:32:49.530 CZI-The Think Tank: So, and where the variety should be is in your vantage point. So, I think we all consume, again, graphics differently. People really can understand a plan graphic. Others feel better with section graphics, and then perspectives or animations, at some times, too. And what… what do they really help us with? So, I've kind of break this down into three different ideas of, like, the plan graphic really helps us answer, where does it go? 473 02:32:49.530 --> 02:33:09.400 CZI-The Think Tank: It really reveals how we're talking about the context, and how this project is fitting into that. It shows what stays the same and what changes. So, the context really matters, and showing some of the context that, you know, the orientation of where the houses are in this graphic, and maybe the fields to the south, really important for people to nest themselves in where this 474 02:33:09.500 --> 02:33:16.000 CZI-The Think Tank: is… is located. It helps people really understand the movement and the access. We can all read these and, and kind of… 475 02:33:16.000 --> 02:33:33.040 CZI-The Think Tank: understand where people might be in the scenarios where the people are. When you add people to a graphic, also really helpful, even in plan views, just so they can understand, here's where cyclists go, here's where bikes go, here's where cars go. And it's best for, again, discussing those systems, that network, and the big picture. 476 02:33:33.190 --> 02:33:56.529 CZI-The Think Tank: Section graphics are all about how does it fit. So it reveals how our space is allocated, shows trade-offs in competing priorities, and helps people understand, really, that dimension. So when we, you know, some people, it's really interesting when we're in conversation, we all know, right, what the minimum bikeway should be, but a lot of the public doesn't, and so being able to convey that in kind of consistent manage… 477 02:33:56.530 --> 02:33:58.310 CZI-The Think Tank: Manner makes a big difference. 478 02:33:58.310 --> 02:34:02.769 CZI-The Think Tank: It's best for discussing, again, those choices and the design decisions. 479 02:34:02.830 --> 02:34:25.559 CZI-The Think Tank: perspective graphics, and I would say I put animations in this bucket as well. They really help us nest, nest people in in the experience. So really thinking about it from a human perspective, it shows how those technical decisions of where we might be putting the transit lane, the priority lane, where we might be putting the crossings, it really helps people understand how that shapes experience. 480 02:34:25.560 --> 02:34:38.150 CZI-The Think Tank: And it helps, I think you're hopeful in your projects, right, that you're imagining a better future, and it really helps people, jump into and step into that future. So it's really helpful for building that understanding and support. 481 02:34:38.150 --> 02:34:39.669 CZI-The Think Tank: As well. 482 02:34:39.760 --> 02:34:50.759 CZI-The Think Tank: I'm not going to read through this graphic, but basically kind of set these side by side. I think you get this presentation at the end. So… just to sum up, kind of how we think about. 483 02:34:50.760 --> 02:35:04.229 CZI-The Think Tank: our different graphics. The insight number two is about making sure you match the level of detail, with your decision making. Sometimes we get very complex too early, and sometimes we get, we don't get complex enough 484 02:35:04.230 --> 02:35:29.220 CZI-The Think Tank: till later in the project. So, thinking about matching your resolution of your graphic to the decision being made. I like to say use the simplest graphic to answer the question that answers the question, excuse me. And more detail isn't always more clarity. Sometimes we love to put in the face of curb and the back of curb, and then sort of the grades of different things, and some… and sometimes that's just too complex and too much for people to really consume. 485 02:35:29.780 --> 02:35:40.450 CZI-The Think Tank: And again, that idea of the maturity of a project, you know, sketch ideas really invite the conversation, so early in your process, thinking about sketches, hand sketch. 486 02:35:40.450 --> 02:35:58.879 CZI-The Think Tank: Or different types of graphic sketching, and I'll show some examples, and detail plans really invite that scrutiny, and so that should really happen toward the end of a project, more toward the end. So, when we think about our design phases of a project, right, we go from pre-design through concept, schematic, design development, construction documents, 487 02:35:58.880 --> 02:36:22.199 CZI-The Think Tank: Here's maybe what we're doing at concept level. So we're thinking about spatial allocation, and even just a diagram, like is shown on the upper left. Very simple, it doesn't tell you dimensions at all, but it's sort of telling you where things are gonna go along a corridor. The graphic to the right, again, just kind of thinking about some crossings. It's okay to get sketchy. I think we all are fearful of not… we don't… we have to be an artist, but you don't. 488 02:36:22.200 --> 02:36:45.550 CZI-The Think Tank: You just have to be able to convey the idea, and it can be really easy to do that, through graphics like this. And it, again, invites the public into conversation, and you can kind of draw with them sometimes. It's very helpful. Things like the graphics on the bottom, also very sketchy in detail, but they have some precedent imagery. I think that's always really helpful for people to really conceptualize, oh, what are you talking about when you talk about this change? 489 02:36:45.560 --> 02:36:51.449 CZI-The Think Tank: There are other examples in the world that you can show them in that process, so another, another, 490 02:36:51.530 --> 02:36:55.680 CZI-The Think Tank: tool we use. From schematic to design development, that's really, like. 491 02:36:55.860 --> 02:37:10.270 CZI-The Think Tank: pre-30ish, 2.30ish, we're talking about now how we're getting a little bit more real with what that street might look like, or a concept might look like. This is where we want to get a little bit more detailed, and maybe we're sharing also the idea of experience. 492 02:37:10.270 --> 02:37:35.269 CZI-The Think Tank: What is the materiality that we're selecting? Maybe how the tree regime might work along a corridor. So even in bikeways, you know, what is that bikeways gonna have, thermoplastic with it? Is it going to be striped through the… what is your standard that you're going to use and apply here? So some of those graphics, really, again, very important at this stage. And in final design, of course, we're doing what you see on the right, which is very technical, but no one can read this, right? I mean, most of the public really 493 02:37:35.270 --> 02:37:38.689 CZI-The Think Tank: They can't consume that and understand what you're really doing, so it's best 494 02:37:38.690 --> 02:38:01.129 CZI-The Think Tank: to communicate, more like the graphic on the left, which still is very technical in showing kind of what's happening in the utilities and the stormwater management, what's going on underground as well as above ground, but you're doing it in a way that's really, public-oriented. So even at final design, I would encourage us to be still very visual, if we can, in the process. 495 02:38:01.790 --> 02:38:11.809 CZI-The Think Tank: So, the third insight is about, you know, again, visualizing those trade-offs, not just the outcomes in your process, really, really important. 496 02:38:11.810 --> 02:38:31.280 CZI-The Think Tank: in the process as well. So, compare options using a consistent framework, and I'll show an example of that. And you really want to make sure that people can quickly digest the, the trade-offs in the different alternatives. We're always coming up with 3 to 4 alternatives in a project, so how do you kind of really digest that and make them easy to compare? 497 02:38:31.280 --> 02:38:38.550 CZI-The Think Tank: And help people understand what's being gained in the new project, what's being removed, and balanced, so you can have those hearty conversations. 498 02:38:38.550 --> 02:38:45.980 CZI-The Think Tank: And… and daylight that in your public meetings. And use… this last one is about using as much space as the idea requires. 499 02:38:45.980 --> 02:39:10.480 CZI-The Think Tank: what I mean by that is, we often want to distill things into the quickest soundbites. I think that's a very common, instinct we have right now, is to just, like, what's the TLDR? You know, what's the too-to-long-didn't read, the quick hit? But I would argue it's better to kind of actually take the time you need to really communicate the design, in… and if that takes three 500 02:39:10.480 --> 02:39:14.989 CZI-The Think Tank: boards versus one. Take the time to do that, take the space that you need. 501 02:39:15.180 --> 02:39:18.129 CZI-The Think Tank: So here's an example of just 3 comparisons. 502 02:39:18.130 --> 02:39:43.049 CZI-The Think Tank: And I think what works about these is, again, the illustrative nature of the cross-section at this point of the project, we're really talking about that spatial allocation, but also what's very helpful is, it's not just option A, option B, option C. We gave it a name. That can be really helpful, so people can, when they come to you and they say, oh yeah, you know, it was option A, but I think it was about improvement, you know, you have some ways in which to kind of dialogue about a concept. 503 02:39:43.170 --> 02:40:05.250 CZI-The Think Tank: That is… that is very important. Gives them… it's memorable to them. Quick little things. You guys probably all know of this, but I'm sort of reinforcing how important, clear, clearly, using the text at the bottom of the graphic in a way that… that really compares the… the alternatives similarly. So, we're always talking about parking in the first. 504 02:40:05.250 --> 02:40:14.820 CZI-The Think Tank: bullet. We're talking about what are we doing to the sidewalk. Then we're talking about what is the bikeway doing, and then we're talking about opportunities for green infrastructure in this project, as an example. 505 02:40:14.820 --> 02:40:19.000 CZI-The Think Tank: So, really important aspects, because it's, like, kind of wayfinding to your graphics as well. 506 02:40:19.000 --> 02:40:32.679 CZI-The Think Tank: And then simply… simply calling out what you want them to focus their attention on. In this instance, we were really talking about, you know, are we talking about bikeway, is it protected? Or are we talking about stormwater? What is most important to you in this project? 507 02:40:32.680 --> 02:40:51.769 CZI-The Think Tank: And that was… people were able to then vote, and they said, I liked, you know, in this instance, of course, you're seeing the color. Some people might not be able to see the color if they have any kind of color blindness, but the dashed line was really important, and then the color on top of it. Same thing with this… this example, where we just were calling out then what was happening on the other side. 508 02:40:52.810 --> 02:41:04.049 CZI-The Think Tank: I know Mauricio's gonna talk a little bit more about data visualization, and maybe you're getting into some of these types of things, but some… some things that we find are really important as well. This graphic on the… on the right is not… 509 02:41:04.050 --> 02:41:20.320 CZI-The Think Tank: beautiful, but it does the job, right? It keeps, what we're talking about is decision matrix, so as we're thinking about different alternatives for a project, in this instance, we had 3 different alternatives. You can do a quick squint test to see which one maybe performs the best relative to some of the… some of the project goals. 510 02:41:20.320 --> 02:41:27.279 CZI-The Think Tank: So in our… kind of a best practice around decision matrices matrices is keeping the ranking really simple and intuitive. 511 02:41:27.280 --> 02:41:50.089 CZI-The Think Tank: I think the aspect of defining performance measures clearly, we nested each of the performance measures that you see in the kind of the second column with the project goals, so people could really see, okay, we know that this is the… a project goal is around economic development. Here are the four criteria that we're using, and here's how these projects rank. So again, being very clear about how this 512 02:41:50.090 --> 02:41:56.890 CZI-The Think Tank: Works from the initial part of the project, where you're goal setting to how you're then evaluating concepts is really important. 513 02:41:56.970 --> 02:42:06.009 CZI-The Think Tank: And what this does is not saying… we don't have a clear winner here, but that we went through the process of thinking through the trade-offs in this process. 514 02:42:06.010 --> 02:42:26.280 CZI-The Think Tank: A different way of going about that is something, like this, where still a decision-making process, but we're using, kind of, like, instead of colors, we're using hardy balls, and I think this has been a very effective way to think through, to really do a quick squint test and go, yeah, the one on the left is probably the one that's going to perform best when it comes to the criteria set up by the project goal. 515 02:42:26.280 --> 02:42:51.029 CZI-The Think Tank: I think another aspect of the graphic that I have in the middle here, is just really these kind of slab graphics are very easy for people to read. We find that those are best, actually better than cross-sections when we've done some tests of preference, visual preference, and then you can clearly call out what is similar between the two with these arrows, just very simple diagrams that can be very easy for people to read. 516 02:42:53.360 --> 02:43:16.639 CZI-The Think Tank: The last insight I'll leave you with is, you know, to think about, you know, experience. We're all… I had a great conversation, at lunch, with someone who was mentioning, you know, like, before, when he first got in, I'm trying to… I'm scanning the audience. yeah, we were talking earlier, yes, yes, about, when we first got into the industry, how important it was for us to kind of talk about. 517 02:43:16.640 --> 02:43:41.630 CZI-The Think Tank: oh, well, it, you know, it has this level of service, and it's, it's performing in these ways with some real data-rich information. That's not unimportant, but we know, and we were talking about how frequent it is that we go through that information, but really, when it comes down to it, people are making decisions based on emotion and experience of place. So, they don't experience the project, really, they really experience what the benefits that you're bringing to. So, make as… 518 02:43:41.630 --> 02:43:56.850 CZI-The Think Tank: as visible as you can those benefits early in a project. So, again, showing those benefits, not just the features. What does a bikeway actually get you? Translate this data into, again, a human experience. How can I relate to that? 519 02:43:56.850 --> 02:44:21.550 CZI-The Think Tank: show the outcomes that people feel, can see, feel, and imagine, and connect, I think, today's decisions really to tomorrow's experiences. That's really an important aspect of this. So, simple things, you know, the power of a before and after. Sometimes, I think, in our projects, we think about renderings, illustrative renderings, as too expensive, but I would argue that it's too expensive not to do it, because your process can languish if you don't do them. 520 02:44:21.550 --> 02:44:46.529 CZI-The Think Tank: And these don't take as much effort as they did at one point in time, especially if we're designing, you know, kind of the roadway geometry well. Those can easily come into other software programs that allow us to do these renderings pretty quickly. So this example at the bottom, you know, it's nice to say it's a 10-foot travel lane, or what are we changing? But more importantly is the kind of the information underneath. 521 02:44:46.750 --> 02:45:09.939 CZI-The Think Tank: Which is communicating, then, the benefit of the corridor that changes. So, you know, the 10-foot travel lanes in this instance, if we're reducing to that, that really creates a calming effect in this road. Maybe not this one exactly, but, you know, down the road, it can narrow… have an optically narrowing effect, especially with that landscape buffer, which is also going to manage our stormwater better, and on-site. 522 02:45:10.010 --> 02:45:17.880 CZI-The Think Tank: And this new trail that you see on the right that is going to create a regional connection. So things like that are really important to the graphics. 523 02:45:17.880 --> 02:45:42.189 CZI-The Think Tank: And just an example, also, of another kind of project that we work on, where when you do the before and concept, you can also communicate, when you build it, what it looks like. And I think this is a great example of after you go back to the community, and you say, here's what we originally said we were going to do, here was the concept, and then here's how it was built. It's a nice way to kind of remind people of the kind of the change that you've been able to 524 02:45:42.190 --> 02:45:43.950 CZI-The Think Tank: To advance in your community. 525 02:45:45.100 --> 02:45:58.969 CZI-The Think Tank: Communicate benefits, really in a way that is, again, that emotional connection. People can understand it, and they can get behind it. So, you know, we do a lot of transfer, change to our roadways where we're repurposing space. 526 02:45:58.970 --> 02:46:10.960 CZI-The Think Tank: And, we talked about parking, and that people feel that that's a loss, and there's some tension around that. But talk about communicating other benefits that you're doing. So, graphic on the right is a good one from, actually, some 527 02:46:10.960 --> 02:46:11.860 CZI-The Think Tank: some 528 02:46:11.860 --> 02:46:34.270 CZI-The Think Tank: partners we've partnered with at Smith Group, but I think what's really interesting about this is they're talking about, like, the heat, impact by some of the change that they're bringing to the corridor. So, you can see, if they… if we introduce trees and shrubs, what a… what a wonderful effect that has on the urban heat island effect. So, some people love the graphic on the right, on the left. 529 02:46:34.270 --> 02:46:57.529 CZI-The Think Tank: They're gonna get really into that data around, how you're gonna, you know, kind of address stormwater issues or address urban heat island effect, and some people are gonna love the graphic on the right, where it's gonna talk a little bit more, it's more emotional, it brings you into the area, but there's some nice call-outs here that communicate all the benefits. You're not just getting a bike lane, but there's these other things that are really happening along the corridor. 530 02:46:57.530 --> 02:46:59.869 CZI-The Think Tank: And that can be really, really important. 531 02:47:00.100 --> 02:47:10.020 CZI-The Think Tank: And last, you know, this idea of your design decisions now have a longer-term effect. When we talk about trees on our corridor, you know, the first 532 02:47:10.020 --> 02:47:27.669 CZI-The Think Tank: This example of graphics is one where we were trying to communicate, we need to put the trees in now in order to get the canopy that you want in 10 years' time. And also some conversations around… we were talking also about structural soils or silva cells underneath the… 533 02:47:27.670 --> 02:47:34.610 CZI-The Think Tank: Sidewalks here, and we have a whole other series of graphics where if… that was comparing, 534 02:47:34.610 --> 02:47:49.909 CZI-The Think Tank: typical soils, and just a kind of a small soil area, soil void, and then if we were to actually bring in silva cells, and there's a big difference in that, so communicating those trade-offs in a way that people can understand what it's going to age into in the future is really important. 535 02:47:51.070 --> 02:47:58.339 CZI-The Think Tank: So, I shared 4 insights, and I'm not going to read through these again, but I think what I would just, you know, sort of some insights from our years of doing this. 536 02:47:58.340 --> 02:48:16.550 CZI-The Think Tank: I would… I would just, you know, kind of leave you with the fact that the power of visualizations in our projects are so vital, and can't be understated. I think we spend a lot of time, you know, now I was thinking about this, we spend a lot of time in developing, public engagement plans. You know, they're lengthy, and they say, this is… we're going to chart out our course. 537 02:48:16.550 --> 02:48:33.320 CZI-The Think Tank: for how we're going to engage with the public, but I think we should also be thinking about, how we think about the visualization of a project, or how are we going to bring people through the process, and what are the different visualization tools that we're going to use. Very simple to do, and it goes hand-in-hand with public engagement, of course. 538 02:48:33.320 --> 02:48:42.200 CZI-The Think Tank: But thinking about how that's embedded into project costs is really important. So, that's all I have. I think the next, I'm going to hand it off to Mauricio. 539 02:48:46.610 --> 02:48:49.550 CZI-The Think Tank: Graphics. I remember some of those graphics. 540 02:48:51.640 --> 02:49:09.300 CZI-The Think Tank: Alright, buenas tardes, todo el mundo. Yo hablo espanol, y voy a trans… I'm just gonna speak English, because, you know. Anyway, Mauricio Hernandez, I'm a Senior Planning Associate for Alta Planning, I also manage the planning team for Northern California, and I'm here to talk to you all about 541 02:49:09.300 --> 02:49:14.640 CZI-The Think Tank: Data, and how we tell our story, and tell the story to folks that 542 02:49:14.940 --> 02:49:24.959 CZI-The Think Tank: not… are not as nerdy as we are, and folks that are actually… talk English, rather than what we do. Which is sometimes, super, super, super… 543 02:49:25.390 --> 02:49:28.740 CZI-The Think Tank: Wonky. I need some notes, I apologize. 544 02:49:30.480 --> 02:49:47.939 CZI-The Think Tank: Anyway, so I'm gonna provide you with a little bit of a context, and then I'm gonna talk about a couple of examples. One is really gonna look about how we use data at the full network and full citywide level, and the other one's gonna talk a little bit about more on a contextual and corridor level. 545 02:49:48.130 --> 02:50:03.710 CZI-The Think Tank: So, to start, really, we've been working on network analysis for a long, long, long, long time, since I started my profession. We really have been working on BLOS, and then we switched to Becky and Pecky, good old Becky and Pecky. 546 02:50:03.710 --> 02:50:13.509 CZI-The Think Tank: Then we started working on BLTS and LTS, and nowadays, we've started working on active trip potential. Now, I'll go a little bit deeper on all of that stuff. 547 02:50:13.510 --> 02:50:28.600 CZI-The Think Tank: With BLTS, really focus on comfort of people, and we really can communicate those ideas, but we really can't really tell when… where folks are going, so that's where ActiveTrip Potential is really telling us a little bit better story. 548 02:50:28.870 --> 02:50:32.710 CZI-The Think Tank: Green means go. 549 02:50:33.030 --> 02:50:47.089 CZI-The Think Tank: Alright, so from the California perspective, we have a really great resource in Tim's and Switters. Not every county or, I should say, not every state in the U.S. has this resource. 550 02:50:47.090 --> 02:51:06.539 CZI-The Think Tank: While we may not have as much data, we have really good resources on collision data or crash data. That being said, as many of you know, we don't always account for all of the myths or collisions that happen. Sometimes those are not counted there. So, we've seen a few of our different partners on the public health side of things. 551 02:51:06.540 --> 02:51:11.470 CZI-The Think Tank: Partnering with hospitals and trying to, kind of count for those places. 552 02:51:11.470 --> 02:51:19.270 CZI-The Think Tank: But we're also starting to, include predictive risk analysis using AI, and yes, I know it's… 553 02:51:19.270 --> 02:51:38.539 CZI-The Think Tank: third rail, I… I'll have another word for that later on. But, yeah, we've been actually using predictive risk analysis to propose improvements at specific locations, kind of at the corridor level, and really bringing and tying all that data so that we can communicate, better communicate the ideas of change. 554 02:51:38.540 --> 02:51:39.960 CZI-The Think Tank: with the public. 555 02:51:40.210 --> 02:51:46.449 CZI-The Think Tank: So on the storytelling analysis, really, we want to focus who the audience is. Right now. 556 02:51:46.680 --> 02:52:04.700 CZI-The Think Tank: I'm speaking very bluntly with you all, you all… some of you may know me, very blunt. For other folks, we definitely want to change a little bit of what we, talk about and how we tell this story, and what the story that we need to tell. Some of the, slides that I have, 557 02:52:04.780 --> 02:52:19.769 CZI-The Think Tank: Next, we'll be telling that particular story, particularly related to grants. We're all in pursuit of grants, so, it is how we tell the story to the… how we communicate to the public, but also how we communicate to our grantors. 558 02:52:19.770 --> 02:52:29.770 CZI-The Think Tank: So, keys to Success is really telling… letting the graphics and the maps, this one will be all maps, tell the story, just, 559 02:52:30.090 --> 02:52:37.449 CZI-The Think Tank: Also, we want to try to use, and this is what we've been doing for the last, few years in these two projects, is… 560 02:52:37.450 --> 02:52:57.500 CZI-The Think Tank: Using very, very difficult data to understand, to validate all the lived experiences that we hear from the public. Cindy talked about that public engagement plan. We want to try to marry the data with what we heard from the public. And of course, we want to not just overcomplicate things, but uncomplicate with the complicated things and making them simple. 561 02:52:57.500 --> 02:53:14.430 CZI-The Think Tank: So I'm gonna talk about two stories again, one at the, high level. Citywide level for Cupertino, we're still working on this project, which is, really network analysis at the jurisdictional level. And some quick background on this particular project, 562 02:53:14.780 --> 02:53:17.289 CZI-The Think Tank: Really, all of the improvements started… 563 02:53:17.550 --> 02:53:32.930 CZI-The Think Tank: moving really fast, after 2014 with a few different collisions and certainly, fatalities for people walking and people bicycling. And that catalyzed the momentum for improved infrastructure, but it moved really, really fast, and so… 564 02:53:32.930 --> 02:53:42.209 CZI-The Think Tank: While they were implemented, some of the projects were… had a lot of, kind of, backlash, and so what the city wanted to do starting in the 2020s was 565 02:53:42.210 --> 02:53:57.140 CZI-The Think Tank: use data to tell the story, to communicate to the community, but also make the case in a data perspective, for better infrastructure, more connected infrastructure, and move these through. So, really, the new approach emphasizes on innovation, again. 566 02:53:57.140 --> 02:54:10.659 CZI-The Think Tank: Cupertino, being the house of Apple, really wants to use that innovation and data analytics so that we can tell the story, and really relying on data-driven, objective, making decisions. 567 02:54:10.800 --> 02:54:29.840 CZI-The Think Tank: So what we did in this project, we really started with the LTS, level of traffic stress, which really helped us measure the perception of walking and biking for folks. Many of you have already completed some of these. Some of you guys were our clients. So, it does really assign the travel cost to the network 568 02:54:30.840 --> 02:54:36.770 CZI-The Think Tank: And we really wanted to focus on speed. Again, this is very data-driven, so… 569 02:54:36.880 --> 02:54:51.990 CZI-The Think Tank: While we may have some good data, sometimes we don't have all of the data, so we try to make it as easy as possible to convey the ideas. Using speed, road widths, and of course, the type of infrastructure, whether it is a sidewalk, 570 02:54:52.010 --> 02:54:57.039 CZI-The Think Tank: Pedestrian-level traffic stress, or existing bicycle facilities here. 571 02:54:57.540 --> 02:55:07.150 CZI-The Think Tank: We tied that all together, and, not a big surprise, your higher stress roadways are those arterial roadways. How many of you have basically the same findings? 572 02:55:07.590 --> 02:55:09.380 CZI-The Think Tank: Everybody? Right, okay, cool. 573 02:55:09.530 --> 02:55:20.480 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah, and the local roadways are those that are a little bit stress… Less stressed, so not a huge finding. Community, easy, they understand it's not… when the roadway is comfortable and when it's not. 574 02:55:20.680 --> 02:55:31.510 CZI-The Think Tank: So we try to tie this all together to the active trip potential, which really focuses on identifying where people go to, so origins and destination, and this really uses 575 02:55:31.550 --> 02:55:45.829 CZI-The Think Tank: big data analytics to understand where those OD locations are. This used to be a nice little GIF, or GIF. This is a PDF, so sorry, it doesn't move. So, from an activity-based 576 02:55:45.830 --> 02:55:53.779 CZI-The Think Tank: model. It really focuses on where people are going directly as their growth lies. So we brought that tie together, and we found, again. 577 02:55:53.780 --> 02:56:11.909 CZI-The Think Tank: 30% of all car trips, are… that are ending in Cupertino are less than 5 miles, which, as you know, are, you know, easy to do in a e-bike, going back to the e-bikes. Or, 3 miles. So, these are our findings from the Active Direct Potential. You can see at the top. 578 02:56:12.180 --> 02:56:31.630 CZI-The Think Tank: Left, that's vehicle trips. The next one over is, sorry, bike trip potential and e-bike potential, as well as walk potential. So, a little bit of everything, kind of situating the heat in those core areas. So, we made some assumptions for these analyses. 579 02:56:32.070 --> 02:56:46.800 CZI-The Think Tank: that a normal pedestrian trip would be easily completed within a mile, or those trips within miles would be easily completed by people walking. Those trips within 3 miles would be bike trips, people bicycling, and 3 to 5 anywhere for e-bikes. 580 02:56:47.000 --> 02:56:50.519 CZI-The Think Tank: Or the other kind that I shall not touch, because it's a third rail. 581 02:56:51.190 --> 02:57:07.550 CZI-The Think Tank: Alright, so we did a little bit of a stress adjusted to tell the story. So again, we grabbed the LTS, we grabbed the active trip potential to really understand where people are going and what people are… and what routes people are going. 582 02:57:07.650 --> 02:57:15.310 CZI-The Think Tank: But as you can tell, the graphic on the bottom right, normal public would not understand this pretty easily. They're just… 583 02:57:15.310 --> 02:57:32.799 CZI-The Think Tank: OD pairs that are just telling us where people are going. So we try to translate that into better terms that people could use, and this is… we really wanted to push a little bit, and one of the things that we do with our team is really trying to translate our civic analytics that deals with all the daily 584 02:57:32.930 --> 02:57:39.999 CZI-The Think Tank: All of their findings, we try to translate them in normal people terms. So we wanted to, develop a map that 585 02:57:40.030 --> 02:57:53.730 CZI-The Think Tank: Go, green means go, red means very, very difficult, and so we… this map really helped us, find those trips, or where, the locations where the best improvements and the most. 586 02:57:53.910 --> 02:58:02.259 CZI-The Think Tank: Sorry, I'm losing my… so the higher scores, greater unmet, potential active travel. So, in the red and yellow, 587 02:58:02.710 --> 02:58:09.659 CZI-The Think Tank: Hexagons, that's where you probably would want to invest more to improve conditions for people walking, and people bicycling. 588 02:58:09.810 --> 02:58:15.639 CZI-The Think Tank: So that's at the network level. Some of the takeaways and lessons learned, really, it's… 589 02:58:15.730 --> 02:58:23.759 CZI-The Think Tank: trying to make the case for, combining that community feedback. We heard from folks that those… red means back. 590 02:58:23.760 --> 02:58:36.370 CZI-The Think Tank: Those locations in red and yellow were the hardest ones to go through, and that really validated everything that we found through the data. And so the gap scores really aligned with what we heard from the community. 591 02:58:36.460 --> 02:58:51.220 CZI-The Think Tank: We certainly, with AI and big data, we confirmed that the community identifies destinations were the ones that people were going, not just locally, but regionally. And it really showed us that many of these destinations really do require, 592 02:58:51.470 --> 02:58:58.839 CZI-The Think Tank: For you to go on a very, very stressful route if you're just starting as a bicyclist, or a not-as-confident bicyclist. 593 02:58:58.980 --> 02:59:13.590 CZI-The Think Tank: Also, it really, really reinforces that any top-ranked projects will deliver the greatest impact. Currently, we're going through our prioritization, and we're very much using this map to help us rank some of those projects. 594 02:59:13.720 --> 02:59:19.430 CZI-The Think Tank: This plan has not been completed, so just want to give you a heads up, we are still in the works. 595 02:59:19.770 --> 02:59:38.849 CZI-The Think Tank: But I did want to talk a little bit about what we did in Hayward, and this is a little bit more new to me. I've done the other folks… the other portion of things, but this was a really cool project, where we did near-miss analysis to propose new improvements at the corridor level, particularly at intersections. 596 02:59:38.890 --> 02:59:53.210 CZI-The Think Tank: Again, on the background, this is based, or this is built on the Vision Zero network, focusing on a few different corridors. We did also hear from the community that there was a lot of, stoplight running, or some red… 597 02:59:53.310 --> 03:00:05.720 CZI-The Think Tank: my running, sorry. And they really wanted to, use data from the, PD and really understand what the PD was missing, or police department was missing, so… 598 03:00:06.040 --> 03:00:14.050 CZI-The Think Tank: With that said, we worked with a vendor, and you can see their logo here. Again, this was a video, sorry, I apologize. 599 03:00:14.400 --> 03:00:26.249 CZI-The Think Tank: This really told us, at specific intersections, we focused on 9 different intersections, and this really told us what the paths for people walking were, and the paths for people bicycling were. 600 03:00:26.250 --> 03:00:41.469 CZI-The Think Tank: The cross in the bottom, you can see that the bikes… you can tell that there is a bike lane on both sides, as there are, kind of tracks in the middle, but you can also tell that some folks really do not feel comfortable crossing at the tracks where 601 03:00:41.470 --> 03:00:58.369 CZI-The Think Tank: you know, the bikes would go. There was a lot of sidewalk and crosswalk biking, and of course, there are also really weird tracks for pedestrians kind of in the middle. That was kind of an interesting one. We also saw, through the video, I really wish there was 602 03:00:58.970 --> 03:01:04.169 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah, through the video, we saw that, we could document all of those, misses, 603 03:01:04.520 --> 03:01:21.439 CZI-The Think Tank: At the same time, so this is the data that we got. We got a bunch of spreadsheets that looked like this. We really understood, that A Street had the highest volumes and, rates of red light running. Based on the data, it's almost a quarter of, the red light, 604 03:01:21.440 --> 03:01:24.879 CZI-The Think Tank: Running, particularly on the weekends. 605 03:01:25.070 --> 03:01:34.230 CZI-The Think Tank: I believe. And so we really wanted to focus on what specific improvements can we do, and what case can we build with this data. 606 03:01:34.430 --> 03:01:42.620 CZI-The Think Tank: With the use of this data and a little bit of AI, which really told us, hey, these are the pathways and these are where our people are going. 607 03:01:42.750 --> 03:01:58.240 CZI-The Think Tank: We visualized the results, and as you can tell, again, focusing on that specific intersection on A Street, we really, understood that people were going east-west, the vehicle movements, but also what time of the day, those red light camera. 608 03:01:58.240 --> 03:02:06.269 CZI-The Think Tank: running happened, and that was basically kind of in the middle of the day and afternoon. Those were the highest ones. 609 03:02:06.310 --> 03:02:10.960 CZI-The Think Tank: So, some of the recommendations were very much data-driven, 610 03:02:11.470 --> 03:02:24.630 CZI-The Think Tank: So some of the, there were no collisions at that specific location, but there was a lot of pet-like running. If we had just used sweaters or tins for improvements, or the development of improvements, we would not have been able to, like, understand 611 03:02:24.630 --> 03:02:36.330 CZI-The Think Tank: This particular intersection really does need some improvements, and what we called for is the development of some pedestrian bulb-outs, in particular, as well as implementing some red light cameras as well. 612 03:02:36.980 --> 03:02:54.069 CZI-The Think Tank: On the near-miss results, again, the multiple locations were 10-15% of the pedestrians and bicyclists experienced near-misses. Again, this is the data that we do not get from Tim's or Switters, but through this project, we were able to tell where these happened. 613 03:02:54.270 --> 03:03:12.080 CZI-The Think Tank: And based on that, the utilization and the visualizing all of these results, we used AI to really figure out what all of these are. As you can tell, again, midday running, seems like people going from lunch to work, they're in a hurry and they just want to go through the intersection. 614 03:03:12.080 --> 03:03:19.339 CZI-The Think Tank: So there's a moderate to high risk, kind of, in that afternoon as well, for people bicycling. 615 03:03:20.360 --> 03:03:24.750 CZI-The Think Tank: For that particular intersection, there were some, 616 03:03:24.810 --> 03:03:43.279 CZI-The Think Tank: collisions that we documented, both for pikes, for people walking and people bicycling, and so there were a few different improvements that we wanted to make, but we were able to make the case that very data-driven, case for improvements along the corridor, and specifically at that Tennyson Road intersection. 617 03:03:43.570 --> 03:04:03.379 CZI-The Think Tank: So some of the, lessons learned for this particular project is really we wanted to supplement the data. We didn't want to just discount the TIMS data, we wanted to supplement it in additional findings. We certainly, as with every project that we do, we want to validate people's, experiences in the streets as, 618 03:04:03.380 --> 03:04:17.640 CZI-The Think Tank: Cindy mentioned, some folks experience it differently, and some folks, see it differently, so want to validate that lived experience and build a case for better improvements and stronger improvements in interventions, I should say. 619 03:04:17.640 --> 03:04:33.719 CZI-The Think Tank: Through the use of data, we were able to make the case for additional no ride on red, restrictions, as well as, implementing, leaning pedestrian intervals, which some… in some places it's a little bit harder to implement. 620 03:04:33.720 --> 03:04:43.399 CZI-The Think Tank: We also built a case for protected intersections at these two specific locations, and of course, building on automated enforcement programs, which the city now has. 621 03:04:43.400 --> 03:04:59.259 CZI-The Think Tank: the, knowledge on how to use the data, moving forward. And I think that's it, and if you have any questions, that's my email. We certainly want to continue working on data and really translating all of the data that we get, because we really like data. 622 03:04:59.430 --> 03:05:00.200 CZI-The Think Tank: Thanks. 623 03:05:09.580 --> 03:05:34.570 CZI-The Think Tank: Thanks both. So our final, kind of, in-person speaker for the day, is Bobby, and he is the public relations officer for San Francisco. So, as you can imagine, is on the receiving end of a lot of the, kind of, questions and concerns and things that we hear about on all of our projects, and so, we really have him here today to talk about some, I don't know, maybe success stories, but also maybe some challenges as 624 03:05:34.570 --> 03:05:38.760 CZI-The Think Tank: So yeah, give a round of applause for Bobby. Thank you. 625 03:05:43.220 --> 03:06:03.429 CZI-The Think Tank: Alright, thank you. Yeah, once again, I'm Bobby, I'm Public Relations Officer at the SFMTA in their Louisville Streets Division, so our bike ped safety, traffic calming, a little bit of Vision Zero as well. We've got about 50 or so active projects that we're working on right now in San Francisco. Just a quick show of hands, how many folks are working on a streetscape or multimodal project right now? 626 03:06:04.020 --> 03:06:15.730 CZI-The Think Tank: And how many folks, have you heard from the plug… has someone said to you, how come I didn't hear about this project until now? Well, I'll get some tactics on how to address that in just a moment here. 627 03:06:17.350 --> 03:06:32.730 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah, exactly right. So I'll talk about two projects that, that I worked on most recently. The Folsom Streetscape Project, which is a 1.4-mile-long streetscape project in the heart of the Soma District. It has freeway-like characteristics as a cut-through to the lower deck of the Bay Bridge. 628 03:06:32.730 --> 03:06:49.619 CZI-The Think Tank: And then I'll also talk about the infamous, Valencia Bikeway Pilot Project. About 1 mile long, collected commercial corridor, bustling nightlife bike corridor. I'll get to that in a second. And at the end, I'll save the lessons learned, I'll combine them at the very end, and we'll talk about that towards the end of the presentation. 629 03:06:49.930 --> 03:07:06.079 CZI-The Think Tank: So, Folsom Streetscape, it's a green line here. The goal here is to improve safety for all modes of transportation. This is on our high injury network, the 12% in city streets that has 68% of our serious or fatal collisions. Just in the last 4 months, we had 2 pedestrian fatalities here. 630 03:07:06.080 --> 03:07:16.759 CZI-The Think Tank: It is a very, very dangerous, high speed in some areas, and again, towards the 2nd Street side, getting on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge, it is a, basically a metered, on-ramp. 631 03:07:16.950 --> 03:07:39.400 CZI-The Think Tank: We wanted… this community has changed. There's a directive to put 10,000 new residents down here, so we want to improve the public realm, let folks know this is really a community now, not just a cut-through. So, what did we do? Well, we did biking improvements, we did a two-way bikeway, some protected corners. For pedestrians, we did decorative crosswalks, pedestrian-scale lighting. 632 03:07:39.400 --> 03:07:41.560 CZI-The Think Tank: Raised crosswalks as well. 633 03:07:42.180 --> 03:08:05.550 CZI-The Think Tank: We did, transit boarding islands, floating transit boarding islands, as well as a bus-only lane that, we're hoping will be able to triple frequency on this, on this, corridor, once everything's done at the end of the year. And then for vehicles, we did do a road diet. We did sort of reallocate curb space, changed up parking, improved signal, signal, larger signal heads, lenses, so on and so forth. 634 03:08:05.560 --> 03:08:16.310 CZI-The Think Tank: And we also upgraded a 135-year-old high-pressure water system and a 100-year-old brick sewer system. 635 03:08:16.860 --> 03:08:28.800 CZI-The Think Tank: Yes, part of our Dig Once philosophy in SF, we worked with the PUC and our Public Works Department to work together to do this project. It's been about two and a half years so far. 636 03:08:28.950 --> 03:08:37.549 CZI-The Think Tank: So, what are the challenges? Well, this is, three distinct neighborhoods along this corridor. We have Western Soma with nightclubs and bars, and an LGBTQ heritage district. 637 03:08:37.550 --> 03:09:02.429 CZI-The Think Tank: They felt left out in a lot of the economic booms. They feel ignored by the city, and they operate late. They're not open until 9pm, they stay open until 2 a.m. or 4 a.m. We have Central Soma, there's, social services, Filipino Heritage District, schools, park and rec, there's a lot of residential. We have to manage disruptions to major traffic routes, and a lot of the schools, you know, playgrounds are across the street, they have to bring the whole school across. 638 03:09:02.430 --> 03:09:25.819 CZI-The Think Tank: Folsom to get to the playground. On the eastern side of Soma, we have the Moscone Convention Center, a lot of commercial, a lot of office, a lot of AI companies moved in, and a lot of high-density residential. So we had to work around big, big events that shut down streets, and a daily gridlock. So, what are our goals with communication for this project? We want to tell the big picture story, which is this is a once-in-a-lifetime transformation from a cut-through 639 03:09:25.820 --> 03:09:50.820 CZI-The Think Tank: to a thriving community. We want to explain the design and what we're trying to do and the construction impacts, and because we partnered with Public Works to do the construction, I worked alongside their PIO to work with the community to get that information across. We wanted it to involve the community in design and construction, arrangements and scheduling and get everyone's input. And we also need to navigate some sensitive states 640 03:09:50.820 --> 03:10:01.930 CZI-The Think Tank: stakeholders as well. One of the longest conversations we had, actually, is with the Folsom Street Fair, and they took up four blocks, you know, once a year, as well as with Moscone. 641 03:10:01.930 --> 03:10:06.520 CZI-The Think Tank: We want to, of course, promote the cultural heritage districts and celebrate this change. 642 03:10:07.340 --> 03:10:30.560 CZI-The Think Tank: So how do we do that? Well, of course, beyond the mailers and the noticing and the A-frames and the sandwich boards, we did the, meet with community stakeholders, we met with all the community business districts, the community-based organizations, as many as we could, influential stakeholders, advocates, and we did it multiple times, and we even held, you know, town halls and meetings at City Hall with these elected officials and the community members together. 643 03:10:30.560 --> 03:10:54.879 CZI-The Think Tank: open houses and tabling at community events, of course, plan views, photo simulations, and photos as well. Door-to-door visits. I participate in these as well. This is exhausting to walk this corridor multiple times, and it's a lot of work. We did parking and loading surveys, color curb changes and parking changes wherever possible. 311s, I'm getting about 6 or 8 a day. 644 03:10:54.880 --> 03:11:01.740 CZI-The Think Tank: I'm responding to you as well, about this project, as well as our Public Works Department, coordinating with other city agencies, as I mentioned. 645 03:11:01.740 --> 03:11:07.160 CZI-The Think Tank: We are creating escalation paths for, concerns from our elected officials and the constituents they talk to. 646 03:11:07.160 --> 03:11:28.770 CZI-The Think Tank: And most interestingly, I created this merchant working group. We had a set-aside in our budget, about six figures worth of money, to help market this corridor during construction and to mitigate the construction impact. So we let the business owners guide how to invest this money in a marketing campaign, and they came up with something called Flavors of Folsom. 647 03:11:28.770 --> 03:11:52.229 CZI-The Think Tank: to, to promote the restaurants on the, on the corridor. And it was a really great campaign with bus card ads and social media, a city website, and posters they designed as well. And right now, we're in the middle of producing, four videos on this project. So this is how we're trying to communicate on the project, before, during, and after. Valencia Bikeway, a little bit of a different story. 648 03:11:52.230 --> 03:11:56.770 CZI-The Think Tank: Before COVID, two serious bike collisions a month. 649 03:11:56.770 --> 03:12:15.050 CZI-The Think Tank: We had to do something. It's chaotic. No one was following any lane markings. Some of you who have been there may remember people park in the middle of the center lane. You know, there were… it just didn't work for anybody. Parking didn't work for anybody, the roadway wasn't… the circulation wasn't moving, it just, it wasn't great. 650 03:12:15.050 --> 03:12:32.510 CZI-The Think Tank: So where this… where I'm gonna pick up this story is we have already installed the center-running bike lane, the infamous one, and then we had decided, based on community feedback, to move it back to a side-running bike lane, a more traditional design. 651 03:12:32.510 --> 03:12:39.200 CZI-The Think Tank: And so what we needed to do was to talk with business owners and the community about, parklets. 652 03:12:39.990 --> 03:12:50.980 CZI-The Think Tank: So, before, before COVID, that's a top photo, you can see people double parking. We installed that, that center-running bike lane, that's what it looked like, in the pilot, then we took it out. 653 03:12:51.250 --> 03:12:58.679 CZI-The Think Tank: And so, we were proposing a curbside protected bike lane, protected by parking, or, by safe-hit posts. 654 03:12:58.940 --> 03:13:06.559 CZI-The Think Tank: And what we needed to talk to business owners about in the community was that, you know, there are these parklets, we have 30 of them on the corridor, and we had to do something with them. 655 03:13:06.700 --> 03:13:15.570 CZI-The Think Tank: And, in the center-running Bikeway Pilot, you can see there's ample parking, they can park around the parklets, but… 656 03:13:15.690 --> 03:13:30.020 CZI-The Think Tank: if we change the side running, and we leave the park that's in place, that takes out all the parking on that, on the top level, on that, what is that, the, the south, south, southerly, southbound direction, of Valencia, and for the transitions as well. Or… 657 03:13:30.020 --> 03:13:46.969 CZI-The Think Tank: We could float the parklets and get some parking back, but now you have the problem of having to walk across a bike lane, waiters, waitresses, customers, and how do we solve that? There's still some parking elimination, but less than the previous example. So this is what we had to communicate. 658 03:13:47.320 --> 03:14:11.369 CZI-The Think Tank: So what were the goals? Well, we had to say, again, the center running didn't work, we were pivoting to a traditional side running based on feedback. There were the trade-offs, loss of parking, the parklets needed to be moved, the new… the way we're gonna get pedestrians there, that we had to close every block for at least, you know, 3 to 5 days to do the actual construction work to, repave, to grind out the, the striping, and so on. 659 03:14:11.440 --> 03:14:27.459 CZI-The Think Tank: We were requesting design feedback. We were, we were surveying and figuring out if business owners wanted to move their parklets, how much would it cost them to do that, or did they want to remove it completely? And we were trying to, trying to figure this out with basically 30 parklet owners. 660 03:14:27.900 --> 03:14:35.909 CZI-The Think Tank: We needed to know the best time of the year, the day, and the day of the week, and the time of day to do this construction work. 661 03:14:36.000 --> 03:14:43.269 CZI-The Think Tank: And we also had to counter a narrative that you've… I'm sure you've heard in the media, if you're familiar with the project, we ended up in international media as well. 662 03:14:43.270 --> 03:15:03.920 CZI-The Think Tank: You know, there's this, this, this theme that bike lanes, were a negative economic impact to, to the corridor, and in general, and, and our goal was to look at that and see whether it was true, and to also, talk about the positives of, of having a bike lane on Valencia. 663 03:15:04.890 --> 03:15:12.020 CZI-The Think Tank: So how did we do that? Well, the top half, all the same from Folsom. We did all the same things for that top half. 664 03:15:12.030 --> 03:15:27.760 CZI-The Think Tank: But we also held open houses. We used, charrettes. So, I don't know if any of you have ever tried this, but we had, block by block, we invited business owners into an open house. We laid out, the plan view documents, we just blew it up on a long table. 665 03:15:27.760 --> 03:15:32.869 CZI-The Think Tank: And we, we organize, business owners, we put neighbors together. 666 03:15:32.870 --> 03:15:53.539 CZI-The Think Tank: And so, before they… maybe these independent business owners would come to us and say, well, I need my white zone, I need my 5-minute zone. You can't take that away. But once we put neighboring business owners together, we said, could you come to a compromise? And what we found in a lot of these conversations was, it could be a liquor store and a restaurant next to each other, and the liquor store says. 667 03:15:53.540 --> 03:16:01.979 CZI-The Think Tank: I have beverage deliveries before 12, and the restaurant says, I don't open till 6, I take deliveries from 12 to 3, maybe we can share this commercial loading zone. 668 03:16:01.980 --> 03:16:02.760 CZI-The Think Tank: And… 669 03:16:02.760 --> 03:16:27.650 CZI-The Think Tank: we had this conversation, we had about, I would say about 80% of our Liverville Street staff out helping with these. It was very labor-intensive, but these conversations helped us to fine-tune, the color curb, and parking regulations along this 7 or 8 block corridor, and it was, yeah, it was quite intense. But, but it also, side effect, it was a great networking event for all the business owners to get to know each other. They may have been together next door for 30 years and may not have spoken before. 670 03:16:27.650 --> 03:16:34.420 CZI-The Think Tank: So it was a great opportunity. We had, how many, how many of you know Road Guy Rob on YouTube? 671 03:16:34.420 --> 03:16:58.930 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah, he's a former Minnesota public radio journalist. He does a lot of great… go to his YouTube channel, he does a lot of great videos on roadway design. We had him come out and do a video on our project here. We did media roundtables, so we gathered the Chronicle and all the TV stations at every step of the way to let them know what's happening. I know that's not feasible in every situation, that's one of the steps we took. 672 03:16:58.940 --> 03:17:19.969 CZI-The Think Tank: And my, my favorite one, to counter that narrative about negative, economic impact, we decided to, take a look at our sales tax revenue through the tax assessor's office, the tax office, leasing activity, working with, with MLS data, credit card receipts, working with Visa, MasterCard, and American Express to figure out what 673 03:17:20.120 --> 03:17:27.889 CZI-The Think Tank: was the true economic impact before the project, during the project, and a little bit towards the end of the project. Unfortunately, 674 03:17:27.890 --> 03:17:40.840 CZI-The Think Tank: this data costs money. It's very, very hard to get this data. So, it was a great exercise, we think we know what we need to do if we want to get it next time, but of course, we weren't budgeted for this, so we couldn't finish, or even really get started with that analysis. 675 03:17:41.100 --> 03:17:57.369 CZI-The Think Tank: So, a lot of text, but key takeaway and advice. So, sort of foundational stuff here, you know, build and reassess your communications plan. If you aren't following IAP2, which is the International Association of Public Participation, their best practices, definitely go through the training, I recommend that. 676 03:17:57.370 --> 03:18:21.799 CZI-The Think Tank: work… if you have outreach consultants on your projects, work alongside them. You know, that's how you're going to counter this. How come I have never heard of this? I have never ever heard of this project? You know, you've got to work it as a team together, and that's one thing that we found in both these projects. Being responsive during construction and after the project is complete, so looking at post 677 03:18:22.010 --> 03:18:31.639 CZI-The Think Tank: Project evaluations. You know, reaching out to the same folks that have messaged you after the project is complete and see how they feel about it, you know, 6 months, 12 months after. 678 03:18:31.640 --> 03:18:45.270 CZI-The Think Tank: So tactics and conversation. So, I know we're all very avoidant sometimes of trying to… we get anxiety talking to the public, oftentimes, because I'm sure many of us have had very interesting experiences, but… 679 03:18:45.270 --> 03:19:05.209 CZI-The Think Tank: Here's some things to think about. Take a customer service mindset. Be a connector and help direct that frantic energy. So, this may be the first time that a constituent, a resident, a business owner, has connected with a city employee in 10 or 20 years. They may want to talk to you about water and garbage and sewage and everything under the sun. 680 03:19:05.230 --> 03:19:19.099 CZI-The Think Tank: Take that in, help direct that. Then you can be a responsive city partner. Explain those acronyms and concepts at an 8th grade reading level. If you can't… if you have a hard time slipifying, use AI. 681 03:19:19.230 --> 03:19:23.410 CZI-The Think Tank: have AI help you break it down at a more simplistic level. 682 03:19:23.780 --> 03:19:47.770 CZI-The Think Tank: When you explain, I think Cindy was talking about this earlier, when you explain concepts, you know, tell them what you're gonna tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them. And then, you know, that famous saying, and then when they ask those follow-up questions, just keep asking why. Get to the… get to what the context is. What are they trying to really get to? Because they may not have the vernacular to be able to ask you precisely in the way that you may understand off the bat. 683 03:19:48.270 --> 03:20:06.970 CZI-The Think Tank: Explain the whole process. So, Cindy did a great job explaining, you know, concept of design to execution, right? Most of the public, they don't know what 35% design is. They don't know about 3-week look-aheads on construction. Explaining these concepts are really, really helpful. 684 03:20:06.970 --> 03:20:16.299 CZI-The Think Tank: And building relationships. Bring folks along, and have, because they will likely participate in your next project. I have one merchant that is on both of these projects. 685 03:20:16.420 --> 03:20:41.420 CZI-The Think Tank: And, and he sends me his profit and loss statements. And he talks to me about a lot of ideas. But I was able to turn that relationship around… relationship around. I was able to connect him with our leasing folks in our SFMT. We lease our retail spaces underneath our garages, our parking garages, connect him with those folks, and connect him with the CBD to help him lease out a new space. 686 03:20:41.420 --> 03:20:43.269 CZI-The Think Tank: in a new location, and he's expanding. 687 03:20:43.270 --> 03:20:51.979 CZI-The Think Tank: So these are, great… now he's a great champion for the work that we do, and I, and I'm able to use him for, for, as a testimonial for other projects. 688 03:20:53.750 --> 03:21:17.269 CZI-The Think Tank: Oh, sorry, wrong button there. Everybody loves photos, videos, and illustrations. Of course, as we heard about, show example, corridors, neighboring cities, thank you to Oakland. We used Telegraph Avenue a lot in our photos, if you can afford it. Photo simulations, fly-through videos, the plan view diagrams, help folks orient themselves, things that you heard already. Drone shots. 689 03:21:17.270 --> 03:21:27.839 CZI-The Think Tank: This is a one that everyone loves. Just make sure you're getting someone that has an FAA license, so you don't get dinged for that. But, everybody loves a drone shot. 690 03:21:27.840 --> 03:21:37.780 CZI-The Think Tank: Everybody wants to see what it looks like in context, and, yeah, luckily we have, folks at our cable access channel, SFGovTV, that are licensed. 691 03:21:37.780 --> 03:21:42.299 CZI-The Think Tank: And, affordable. And we were able to get them out to do the corridor. 692 03:21:43.040 --> 03:21:49.759 CZI-The Think Tank: And help everyone get to that aha moment. So, the big thing here is that, 693 03:21:49.810 --> 03:22:04.830 CZI-The Think Tank: everybody moves at a different speed, when they think, and everybody has a different thing that kind of wakes them up to, like, oh, this is what you're trying to do. And so you're gonna have to work with everybody at a different speed, and you're gonna have to be available at every 694 03:22:04.830 --> 03:22:27.450 CZI-The Think Tank: moment of discovery. So help guide them to that aha moment, so they can really envision the project in their mind's eye. You know, they may be using familiar references, you may have to start using familiar references, like that liquor store on the corner that is open till 4am, that restaurant that serves tacos. They're not gonna know, you know, the southeast corner or the northeast corner, that kind of thing. 695 03:22:28.360 --> 03:22:45.390 CZI-The Think Tank: and ensuring your materials are accessible in person and online. I put this in here because I just was attending our accessibility committee meeting and got an earful about accessibility. There are a lot of folks who are differently abled. 696 03:22:45.390 --> 03:22:53.289 CZI-The Think Tank: And really want to see all these, all of this information, accessible, and it's very, very important to make it accessible for them. 697 03:22:53.290 --> 03:23:11.220 CZI-The Think Tank: Just, just a couple last points I'll make here, and I didn't put this up on the slide here, but, so, you know, there are a lot of… there's a lot of… everybody has an opinion, right? There are a lot of folks who, are armchair experts, or who, are very passionate advocates. 698 03:23:11.220 --> 03:23:17.139 CZI-The Think Tank: And oftentimes, that anxiety is, oh my gosh, I'm gonna get that fire hose information, what am I gonna do with that? 699 03:23:17.260 --> 03:23:26.280 CZI-The Think Tank: When you get that, just listen for… there's very often times things that you can take away from that fire hose information that can help improve your project. 700 03:23:26.280 --> 03:23:44.019 CZI-The Think Tank: I had a landscape architect speak to me on the Folsom Street project, who actually was talking to me a lot about the shrubbery, and said, actually, that one plant that you decided on is non-native, and it'd be better if you went with a different plant. It was something I never would have thought someone would say to me, and lo and behold, we were able to make the change. 701 03:23:44.020 --> 03:23:52.770 CZI-The Think Tank: And the corridor is better for that. So you'll hear things, that, that you can take away and help improve your project. 702 03:23:54.000 --> 03:24:09.070 CZI-The Think Tank: social media, someone mentioned social media earlier as well, this conversation about your projects is happening online, on Reddit, on TikTok, on Instagram. If you go on Reddit right now, both the Folsom and the Valencia projects are still talked about. And even if you don't participate. 703 03:24:09.180 --> 03:24:20.030 CZI-The Think Tank: Read the comments so you understand what folks are talking about. They will not always be right, they may be inflammatory, but it lets you know what the, feeling is. 704 03:24:20.030 --> 03:24:30.190 CZI-The Think Tank: And online is a little bit more negative than in person, but it helps you to get a feeling of the community. And lastly, I'll say. 705 03:24:30.340 --> 03:24:49.910 CZI-The Think Tank: you know, get creative with your tactics. This is your opportunity to test things out for your next project, right? The public doesn't know if you're testing things, tactics, or maybe a new graphic, or a new video, but use this as an opportunity to improve your own skills, but also to improve, how you build the next project. 706 03:24:50.510 --> 03:24:57.139 CZI-The Think Tank: So yeah, so that's all I got. I appreciate your time, thank you so much. 757 03:34:10.400 --> 03:34:35.249 CZI-The Think Tank: Oh, okay. We have a special guest speaker, who unfortunately, she is based in Oakland, but couldn't be here, is not in the Bay Area today, but otherwise would have had her in person. So I'm gonna shift gears a little bit. So, we in the room, most folks here, we all work in transportation, we're steeped in it, we think in it, someone said we dream in cross-section. And so, when we have these conversations, we can really lose sight of the forest for the trees, like, just, we're really in the details. 758 03:34:35.300 --> 03:34:59.849 CZI-The Think Tank: And so, to end today, we're gonna zoom out, and we're gonna kind of talk about what is at the heart of all the presentations that you heard, which is really the power of storytelling. So this is really Ramya, Ramya's area of expertise. She's not… does not have a transportation background, which I think is great. We… we… I think we all need to hear from non-transportation folks. So yeah, Ramya will do about a 15-minute virtual presentation with Ramya, and then I'll do 5 minutes to close out. 759 03:35:00.010 --> 03:35:04.199 CZI-The Think Tank: And then we'll let y'all go. So, yeah, Ramia, can you test your sound? 760 03:35:04.960 --> 03:35:06.839 Ramya Mahalingam: Hi everyone, can you hear me okay? 761 03:35:06.980 --> 03:35:09.090 CZI-The Think Tank: We don't yet hear you, one second. 762 03:35:17.090 --> 03:35:19.340 CZI-The Think Tank: Oh, try again? Say something? 763 03:35:20.070 --> 03:35:20.820 Ramya Mahalingam: Hey, everyone! 764 03:35:20.820 --> 03:35:21.779 CZI-The Think Tank: Yes! Happy Tuesday! 765 03:35:21.780 --> 03:35:22.370 Ramya Mahalingam: Yay. 766 03:35:22.370 --> 03:35:26.539 CZI-The Think Tank: We hear you. Alright, I'm gonna get out of the way, and I'll let you… yeah, get away with it. Yep. 767 03:35:27.800 --> 03:35:46.209 Ramya Mahalingam: Amazing. Thank you so much, and thanks everyone for having me. I'm so delighted to be here with you. I am a resident of Oakland. I benefit dramatically from the Thomas Skull active transportation, projects and the work there, so I'm really thrilled, to be with you today. And, I'm thrilled to be talking about storytelling. 768 03:35:46.280 --> 03:36:02.869 Ramya Mahalingam: Storytelling has had a huge impact on my own life, personally. I was an associate partner at McKinsey for almost 7 years, and I went into, you know, it's a big management consulting firm, kind of very, sort of, top talent, very cutthroat environment, and I went in thinking that all of the 769 03:36:02.880 --> 03:36:14.679 Ramya Mahalingam: skills that I'd learned, through my mechanical engineering background and industrial design training and these hard skills were gonna be the things that kind of got me through. But actually, the things that really mattered were, 770 03:36:14.720 --> 03:36:16.380 Ramya Mahalingam: Skills like storytelling. 771 03:36:16.500 --> 03:36:35.040 Ramya Mahalingam: prior to joining the firm, I'd spent a bunch of time, working on a group called Charlotte Storytellers. It was kind of a public group, open to everyone in Charlotte, North Carolina, where I lived for a while. And, we'd have storytelling workshops, and put on shows, and it was really this kind of amazing community. 772 03:36:35.040 --> 03:36:53.139 Ramya Mahalingam: thing, we'd have, like, 200, 300 people show up at our shows, and I learned all these skills there that turned out to be exactly the same things that I would pull on when in a room in front of clients, especially clients who were kind of hard to work with, or didn't want to, you know, do the work that we were getting into. 773 03:36:53.280 --> 03:36:57.629 Ramya Mahalingam: And so, it was this really amazing toolkit that I discovered. 774 03:36:58.460 --> 03:37:03.289 Ramya Mahalingam: But I was not the first person to discover the power of storytelling. 775 03:37:03.680 --> 03:37:23.289 Ramya Mahalingam: Storytelling has actually been around for a really long time. Since before we even had written communication, people have used stories to pass down traditions, ways of thinking, ways of organizing, and ways to kind of get things done, kind of tribal knowledge around where food was stored, or how to do certain things. 776 03:37:23.610 --> 03:37:38.669 Ramya Mahalingam: And as we developed as a civilization, and we developed the written language, stories continued to play a huge part in how we communicated with each other, through myths and legends, to how we communicated, kind of, core values or core beliefs. 777 03:37:39.230 --> 03:37:48.699 Ramya Mahalingam: And even today, stories remain an incredibly powerful tool for communicating information and really moving people, not just intellectually, but emotionally. 778 03:37:49.020 --> 03:37:54.220 Ramya Mahalingam: Especially in the age of AI, where content has become really cheap to produce. 779 03:37:54.560 --> 03:38:06.500 Ramya Mahalingam: Stories are one of the most effective ways to cut through the sort of bloat and noise in kind of meaningless content, and really touch someone else with something that really matters. 780 03:38:07.870 --> 03:38:16.250 Ramya Mahalingam: There's a couple experiments I want to share with you, to really demonstrate the power of storytelling. So, at Stanford, in a graduate class. 781 03:38:16.360 --> 03:38:28.330 Ramya Mahalingam: two people conducted an experiment. They're the authors of Made to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath, and they had a bunch of students go up and tell a story, or give a speech. 782 03:38:28.590 --> 03:38:30.020 Ramya Mahalingam: And, 783 03:38:30.830 --> 03:38:43.469 Ramya Mahalingam: while the students had the option, only 1 in 10 opted to tell a story. And they had everyone do their speeches, and then they went off and did other things for 10 minutes, and then they came back, and they tested the students on what they remembered. 784 03:38:43.740 --> 03:38:47.439 Ramya Mahalingam: 63% of the students remembered a story. 785 03:38:47.960 --> 03:38:59.440 Ramya Mahalingam: And only 5% remembered any one detail from all of the speeches in comparison. So using a story in their speech made a student 10 times more memorable to the audience. 786 03:38:59.840 --> 03:39:19.459 Ramya Mahalingam: There was another experiment conducted by a non-profit where they sent out two versions of a fundraising brochure. One version had a bunch of factual information about the shortage of food at Zempia, which was the cause they were fundraising for. And then the second version had a story about a 7-year-old girl named Rokia and her kind of day-to-day experience. 787 03:39:20.150 --> 03:39:34.610 Ramya Mahalingam: And on average, when people received the first version, they gave $1.14, but when they received the second version, they gave $2.38. So stories effectively doubled the fundraising amount by emotionally connecting with their audiences. 788 03:39:35.010 --> 03:39:46.699 Ramya Mahalingam: There's also some research that's shown that storytelling is really helpful, in a conflict, based environment. So there's a neuroscientist at Princeton, Zumab Yuri Hassun. 789 03:39:46.700 --> 03:40:02.549 Ramya Mahalingam: And, what he did is put storytellers and audience members through fMRI machines. And what he found was that when folks were telling a story, the listener's brain was actually neurally synchronizing with the storyteller's brain. 790 03:40:02.550 --> 03:40:08.799 Ramya Mahalingam: So the same neural patterns that are firing for the storyteller are the same ones that are actually firing for the listener. 791 03:40:08.820 --> 03:40:25.260 Ramya Mahalingam: And so, that is a direct experience of empathy that someone who's hearing a story is experiencing, where it just becomes a lot harder to kind of, take a highly conflict-based approach when you're sort of in this place where you're receiving such a direct sense of empathy. 792 03:40:26.100 --> 03:40:30.360 Ramya Mahalingam: So I want to share a little bit about why I think stories are so powerful. 793 03:40:31.170 --> 03:40:42.189 Ramya Mahalingam: In our day-to-day world, we kind of go around in a sort of exterior, fact-based environment. It's a, you know, the sky is blue today, I am 5 feet and 3 inches tall. 794 03:40:42.370 --> 03:40:49.429 Ramya Mahalingam: But our living really happens in this interior world, where we start to assign meaning to what we perceive. 795 03:40:49.570 --> 03:40:55.280 Ramya Mahalingam: It's gonna be a beautiful day outside. I'm tall for Asia, but just average in the US. 796 03:40:56.250 --> 03:41:00.470 Ramya Mahalingam: And it's through this process of interior meaning-making 797 03:41:00.540 --> 03:41:19.040 Ramya Mahalingam: that you, when you tell a story, are inviting others in to making that shared meaning. So when you're articulating that perspective, you're creating this pathway to others really coming to the same conclusion as you are through making meaning, not just internally, but externally in front of your audience. 798 03:41:19.600 --> 03:41:23.169 Ramya Mahalingam: So, why does this matter in kind of a work context? 799 03:41:24.010 --> 03:41:36.820 Ramya Mahalingam: When you don't tell a story, your audience is still making meaning of what you're putting out there. Whatever you're showing up with, they are drawing their own conclusions and making meaning and creating their own stories about what's happening. 800 03:41:36.910 --> 03:41:47.079 Ramya Mahalingam: And so, when you are not getting ahead of the work of storytelling, you're leaving so much on the table. You're letting people walk away with a misaligned interpretation of your ideas, make 801 03:41:47.080 --> 03:41:57.169 Ramya Mahalingam: Decisions or assume things about what you're trying to say, and run off into a different direction where you've missed this opportunity to really get on the same page and get to a shared understanding. 802 03:41:57.550 --> 03:42:15.069 Ramya Mahalingam: But when you do do that work of stepping ahead of your storytelling and inviting others into your meaning-making, you can really guide your audience or help kind of get on the same page to get to a shared understanding, ensure clarity, create more of a sense of empathy with each other, and really accelerate trust in decision making. 803 03:42:16.630 --> 03:42:26.669 Ramya Mahalingam: So, how do you do that? And how do you do that in an environment where you're also, you know, you're not just sort of sitting around a campfire telling stories, but you're trying to get something done, or achieve a shared outcome? 804 03:42:27.080 --> 03:42:32.640 Ramya Mahalingam: So there's really two skills I want to talk about here, and they're very complementary, and they're both learnable. 805 03:42:32.870 --> 03:42:48.530 Ramya Mahalingam: We talk about the first one a lot in the sort of corporate environment, business communication. So this is the skill of synthesizing information into a clear, kind of, so what, where you have a key message, and you're supporting that message with concrete, backup points. 806 03:42:48.530 --> 03:42:54.740 Ramya Mahalingam: So this is a really critical skill, you know, and it sounds like we've been talking a lot about this skill over the course of today. 807 03:42:56.460 --> 03:43:01.830 Ramya Mahalingam: everyone sees this as learnable. This is something that you're sort of expected to, you know, no one thinks you're born with it. 808 03:43:01.910 --> 03:43:19.060 Ramya Mahalingam: Storytelling, on the other hand, is talked about as this, like, magical skill, where it's really about making your message compelling by building this emotional connection with your audience to externalize your meaning-making, to invite others in. And it is talked about as this thing that some people are just born with, and if you don't have it, you know, too bad for you. 809 03:43:19.160 --> 03:43:27.259 Ramya Mahalingam: But I really, I really kind of want to emphasize the fact that both of these are just skills that are very complementary and both very learnable. 810 03:43:28.050 --> 03:43:30.739 Ramya Mahalingam: So, let's talk about what goes into each one. 811 03:43:31.330 --> 03:43:45.600 Ramya Mahalingam: With the kind of first, the sort of business communication approach, this is really about leading with your conclusion. So you have a main message, for example, something like, adding protected bike lanes and 19th Avenue will make this corridor safer, and it's not going to make your commute that much worse. 812 03:43:45.810 --> 03:43:59.400 Ramya Mahalingam: You might have then supporting messages, this redesign addresses three things, you know, here's why we need to do it, 200 collisions, there's zero safe blah blah blah cycling options, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and then here's further details on each one. So very structured, very logical. 813 03:43:59.840 --> 03:44:01.179 Ramya Mahalingam: So this is great. 814 03:44:01.490 --> 03:44:06.510 Ramya Mahalingam: But it doesn't really do the work of creating an emotional connection with your audience. 815 03:44:06.640 --> 03:44:09.450 Ramya Mahalingam: And that's where storytelling fits in. 816 03:44:10.350 --> 03:44:22.450 Ramya Mahalingam: And this is the kind of key thing that I want to kind of land around these two skills, is this idea of the micro-story. So once you have your structured communication, or you have the key thing that you're trying to say, and you're supporting messages. 817 03:44:22.520 --> 03:44:34.179 Ramya Mahalingam: You can look at it and really start to identify, okay, what is the real thing that I want someone to walk away with and remember in a week, or a month, or when they're kind of going to the next meeting or placing their vote? 818 03:44:35.130 --> 03:44:46.019 Ramya Mahalingam: And that's where you can then weave a micro story around that. So let's say your key point to land here is that this Delaware Street Protected Bike Lane is critical to help more kids get to school safely. 819 03:44:46.790 --> 03:45:00.089 Ramya Mahalingam: A possible microstory around that point could look something like, last October, on a crisp Tuesday morning, I went by Delaware Street for a site visit, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and I turned to find a man with a school backpack with one shoulder and car keys in his hand. 820 03:45:00.390 --> 03:45:15.770 Ramya Mahalingam: He said, my son desperately wants to bike to school. I've said no for 3 years because I just can't let him on the street. We live 4 blocks away, but I have to drive him to school every day. Every time he pictured his son biking, he saw cars merging, trucks, the unprotected intersection, he was just too scared to let his son bike. 821 03:45:15.770 --> 03:45:28.860 Ramya Mahalingam: And that's what the street without bike infrastructure means for this family. Threes are driving, just four blocks, and child-sensitive independence, and that's why we need to do this project. And here's more… then you go into your kind of supporting… supporting arguments here. 822 03:45:30.280 --> 03:45:39.380 Ramya Mahalingam: So, this is one example of a micro-story, and there could be, you know, many more, many more perspectives. It could be a first-person perspective, a third-person perspective. 823 03:45:39.710 --> 03:45:47.269 Ramya Mahalingam: And I want to quickly talk you through some of the elements that make a story really compelling versus kind of land on the surface. 824 03:45:47.600 --> 03:45:50.049 Ramya Mahalingam: So the first one is specificity. 825 03:45:50.530 --> 03:45:59.480 Ramya Mahalingam: Specificity really helps anchor what you're saying in a mental image for your audience's mind. So as opposed to, 826 03:45:59.770 --> 03:46:19.460 Ramya Mahalingam: the intersection on the corner of 40th and A Street. Something like, the intersection with three lanes that curves off in that weird way where the light falls at 3 p.m. is much more memorable and leaves a real sort of visceral mental image for your audience's mind. 827 03:46:19.740 --> 03:46:29.390 Ramya Mahalingam: The second is very complementary to that, it's character. So, every opportunity you have to, instead of talking about a kind of general public. 828 03:46:29.390 --> 03:46:44.099 Ramya Mahalingam: talking about a specific person, or a specific group of people, like, this person whose name was Frederico, talked to me about this one issue, again, makes it so much more memorable and really sort of stand out viscerally in your audience's mind. 829 03:46:44.400 --> 03:46:50.969 Ramya Mahalingam: Painting the settings, or really giving your story a place and a time. A narrative arc, having a kind of, 830 03:46:51.190 --> 03:46:55.679 Ramya Mahalingam: A conflict kind of escalation arc, and then a resolution can be very helpful. 831 03:46:55.780 --> 03:47:07.469 Ramya Mahalingam: The perspective, are you speaking from the first person, so it's your direct experience? The third person, someone else's direct experience? Or the second person? You know, imagine a world in which you, XYZ, things happen. 832 03:47:07.870 --> 03:47:25.750 Ramya Mahalingam: So you have some options there. And then finally, showing, not telling. So really bringing your story to life, not by labeling what you want your audience to feel. It was really scary, but really, bringing in the details that evoke the feeling of fear. My hands went clammy. 833 03:47:25.820 --> 03:47:31.160 Ramya Mahalingam: The… the, pores on the back of my neck stood up. My hair was at its end. 834 03:47:31.760 --> 03:47:38.150 Ramya Mahalingam: So really details that kind of show and not tell the kind of emotional qualities that you're trying to evoke with your story. 835 03:47:41.790 --> 03:47:44.799 Ramya Mahalingam: And then finally, I want to leave you with one thought. 836 03:47:45.280 --> 03:48:00.520 Ramya Mahalingam: Telling a story, especially in a kind of work context, takes a lot of bravery. You know, one of the reasons it is, so… such a driver of empathy is that it's also quite vulnerable to share a direct personal experience. It can feel really different from the sort of 837 03:48:00.520 --> 03:48:05.420 Ramya Mahalingam: Tone and tenor of what conversations in a work setting normally feel like. 838 03:48:05.760 --> 03:48:12.820 Ramya Mahalingam: But it is incredibly worth it. The connection you can build with your audience when you tell a story is like nothing else. 839 03:48:13.190 --> 03:48:14.320 Ramya Mahalingam: And so… 840 03:48:14.550 --> 03:48:29.000 Ramya Mahalingam: I want to leave you with this sort of inspiring thought of even telling a microstory, could be two sentences or three sentences, that really highlight the direct experience of one character. It can really change the quality of the conversation you're having. 841 03:48:29.040 --> 03:48:41.310 Ramya Mahalingam: And we all have our own unique ways of doing it. You know, how I tell a story might be really different from how someone else tells a story, and they're both really sort of right and appropriate for who we are as individuals. 842 03:48:41.390 --> 03:48:49.420 Ramya Mahalingam: And so, I'd love to encourage you to play with the idea, try out a few microstories, find your own way of doing it, and have fun. 843 03:48:50.740 --> 03:48:51.970 Ramya Mahalingam: Thanks so much. 844 03:48:59.280 --> 03:49:08.519 CZI-The Think Tank: Thank you so much, Ramya, and thanks for making the effort to be with us remotely, and hopefully you'll be with us in person next time. We don't have time for Q&A, but if you do have any questions for Romeo, we can… 845 03:49:08.810 --> 03:49:15.510 CZI-The Think Tank: Maybe share her contact information, I'll check with her. We have 5 minutes left, 4 minutes left, 846 03:49:15.820 --> 03:49:21.830 CZI-The Think Tank: Tech… Sorry. Can we pull up the first presentation that we had? 847 03:49:23.320 --> 03:49:40.310 CZI-The Think Tank: So yeah, just want to say final, huge thank yous. Does anyone from MTC or CCAG or SMCTA want to say any final words of thank you, anything? I think we all said it at the beginning. Just, like, really, really appreciate your time. A huge, huge, huge thank you, to Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, who… 848 03:49:40.310 --> 03:50:01.309 CZI-The Think Tank: I mean, I can't tell you the stress when we heard a week before the event that we no longer had an event space for 100 people. Very stressful, but they were extremely wonderful to work with, and made finding us an alternative space a priority, so a huge thank you there. We do have a post-event survey with a QR code, which I'll bring up on the slide… 849 03:50:01.890 --> 03:50:20.209 CZI-The Think Tank: Yeah. Oh, sorry, here it comes. There's also a piece of paper at the check-in desk with the QR code. We would love to hear your feedback, because as we mentioned, there are 7 more of these across the nine Bay Area counties to come, so we want to keep making them better. We'll bring up the QR code in a second. 850 03:50:25.760 --> 03:50:43.009 CZI-The Think Tank: Will we get copies of the slides? Yes, so we're gonna post, all of the presentation slides online. We will also post recordings of the whole day. So, if there were folks who couldn't make it today, or other folks in your agency that you'd think would benefit from actually seeing the presentations themselves, those will be available. 851 03:50:44.440 --> 03:50:45.510 CZI-The Think Tank: Oh, sorry. 852 03:50:53.060 --> 03:50:56.880 CZI-The Think Tank: Thanks, sorry. Gotta just end with a couple tech issues, thank you, that's perfect. 853 03:50:59.590 --> 03:51:23.229 CZI-The Think Tank: There are some resources that MTC has available. There are… there's a project fact sheet, as well as a flyer, if you didn't get one. These are also digitally available about all of MTC's Active Transportation and Vision Zero resources, including how to sign up for either the Active Transportation Working Group or the Vision Zero Working Group, if you are not yet part of those groups. I think both of them meet roughly quarterly, if that's alright? Yeah. 854 03:51:23.230 --> 03:51:40.170 CZI-The Think Tank: And I know if you're… the folks that are part of those know it's an incredible space to hear about what other agencies across the whole Bay Area are doing. Dee, Brian, and Fabian are amazing MTC folks. Give a wave, so if you ever want anything from MTC, this is their thank you guys, and, reach out to them. 855 03:51:40.530 --> 03:51:51.940 CZI-The Think Tank: And then, finally, thank you so much, and if you can do our online survey, it would be much appreciated, so I'll leave this up as you exit the room. We're around, we'll be cleaning up if you have questions. But again, thank you so much, everyone.