 I Good morning everyone we've got about five minutes we'd like you to grab a seat You're going ready to clock five minute morning, please Can we all find a seat, please good morning? Can we all find a seat believe we're about to begin so The mayor has arrived any seats down front plenty of seats in the front Well, good morning everyone. I am Dan human a executive vice president for the Hall of Communications radio group here in Burlington Welcome to the annual BBA business summit Today's event is focused on transportation and conversation on what's the future of transportation for Burlington. So welcome to spring But it's seven and a half hours This morning's event is made possible by our presenting sponsors a Rp Vermont and the Chittin County Regional Planning Commission and our title sponsor Thank you to Palmer Lowe real estate and free press media. Thank you to cctv channel 17 right there They're recording the event today in this morning and also broadcasting it live So please check with cameraman and operator later to see when it will be rebroadcast also you can visit cctv.org for more detail so Thank you to our host this morning V I see catering from City Market and accommodations for a guest by Hotel Vermont a quick reminder that tonight at 5 30 citizen Cider will host an event an extension sort of of this morning's Beginning at 5 30 entitled future of how we move a community conversation about transportation of Burlington and Jeff Olson Who is our keynote speaker this morning? We'll be thrown back a few ciders later Jeff is that we're doing okay again Along with Han Van Leece from Hotel Vermont Chris Ly manager of Mission Impact of 7th generation It'll be a casual conversation With all enjoy complimentary appetizers by a citizen Cider and a cash bar tickets available at BB BT EBA BT.org or at the door also one housekeeping mention the restrooms are through the back door there Take a left and right you'll find them down that way. Okay Before we begin we'd like to hear from our keynote speaker Before we hear from our keynote speaker Jeff Olson from Alta planning and design We'll hear from Kelly divine executive director of the Burlington Business Association Kelly I want to just thank all the community leaders and members who came out this morning to join us I think we got lucky with the weather sounds like the worst is coming tomorrow This is our 15th annual business summit I was surprised to recognize that and every year we try to do a topic to focus on ideas and concepts that Support and further the BBA mission So for those of you don't know here's our mission How does transportation and transportation choice? Serve the BBA mission you can see very clearly we focus on economic vitality But we also build it out in a bunch of different categories I wonder if we should add transportation in there because it is such a vital part of the discussions We need to have and we want to grow our downtown Every time a new project comes along the BBA tends to get involved as folks know We were pretty strongly involved in the redevelopment of the mall We work a lot with Mayor Weiberger's administration to move new things forward We also work on things like the bike path and improving City Hall Park But specifically when you're doing downtown development or redevelopment, especially if a project includes housing Parking is the term we use that becomes part of the discussion and every project has to have a plan Here's the latest one But I'm asking the question today. Should we think of transportation plans rather than parking plans for our city Here's Cambrian Rise. That's a project. That's less than a mile outside of downtown. It's 900 homes roughly mayor is that correct? There's gonna be a lot of new people living there. Here's Eagles Landing. This is a Share Plain College downtown student apartment project on St. Paul Street Projects can sometimes struggle with moving forward on there. Is that not it? Moving forward with their parking plans. Eagles Landing for example Because of the close proximity to downtown and the number of students living there made a pledge to keep student cars out of the Downtown of this project and to bring give public parking back to the city Burlington City Places some folks may know in addition to the over 900 parking spaces that were included with the project through the appeal process had to add 200 more Even though Burlington studies show that we have avail available parking a lot of times this issue comes up when we're trying to redevelop our city Especially when we focus on density So we're bringing the transportation topic to you today because we think as we look forward and we think forward We want to be proactive about how we as a community solve these problems and we know that parking is emotional In 2014 when the BBA worked with the city of Burlington to try to make some improvements in parking seven days Asked readers on social media to describe parking in Burlington in one word. I always love to look at the slide again Here's what they came up with Our consultant loved the fact that Sisyphean ended up on there And it's a reflection that parking is emotional we want convenience Most people want whether they live or work or coming here to visit Want to be able to find parking easily and they want it to be close to where they're going But parking is just one example although it is the most common Predominantly of how we move around in Burlington So I'm gonna do the typical audience poll and it is January and it's been cold and snowy out, but how many folks walked to the event today You got we got three. All right, how many of you took public transit There's a couple how many bikes didn't have any hardy bikers today How many of you drove in your own personal car? That's pretty common We know that more than 75% of the people that come in and out of Burlington on a day-to-day basis choose to commute by car how many people Have the impression that Burlington is congested not too many that's good Most of us that talk about this a lot we come from major cities. We think that's nothing. I come from the Boston area That's congestion to me. How many people think they have a hard time finding this parking space when you come downtown. I Really happy really happy because As you can see we've been working with the City of Burlington since 2014 to create major change in our parking system This was a free press article that was run run. That was the cover when we started this project So we've tried to improve the parking system to make it a little bit easier to park but as we've been looking at parking we've also been looking at what other options we could bring to the table so that when people want to develop downtown they have choices people employees have choices and Employers have choices and people who live here have choices. We know that when more and more people live downtown They're going to want to have walkability and access to services And we also know that we're a community that loves to get outdoors and loves to do things So our solution for Burlington going forward. I think really needs to look at all of those options and all those choices Here's some of the things that we've done in the last couple of years and I'm gonna have my team member Derek Raise his hand and I know I know Chapin was supposed to be here today, but I don't see him yet Together our team and their team has really worked hard to improve Burlington Hopefully some of you have noticed some of these changes and what's that magic number? 505 that's the number of previously only privately available parking spaces that have been opened up Opened up for public use mainly nights and weekends. Those spaces are privately run and we often get a lot of questions about the rates The city doesn't set the rates for those spaces and they you know, they tend to have different amounts that they charge So be aware and I still think that even as we look transportation choice driving is still going to be the predominant choice that people make Not only for people that live downtown for our visitors and most of our people who live downtown will want some access to vehicles parking changed How is transportation change for Burlington over time? Let's take a look at Church Street over the past hundred fifty years. Can anybody see the streetcar? Remember the famous photo of the streetcar that ran down the center of Church Street. There's a photo somewhere I wasn't able to find it when the city lit it on fire You know, then we moved to this face. There was actually a bus running down Church Street. I found that interesting I got a little crazy and said, uh-oh, let's dig that whole thing up What the number one concern that downtown merchants had when this Church Street painting? The project to pedestrianized Church Street went in was their businesses are going to die because people can't pull up right belt Bill Trox is looking at me knowingly And then we did this crazy thing and look what we got We got an amazing vital space with cafes people like to walk around. It's really the heart and soul of Burlington We took chance and I think it worked out pretty well Today technology and transportation is moving very quickly and it's going to change how we move how fast that comes to northern Vermont can be debated How quickly it'll become part of our day-to-day lives a bit can be debated This is this is the latest news from gm 2019. They're going to put autonomous vehicles on the road in the city of phoenix Google's drives program, which is now called Waymo is actually Testing Thousands of vehicles in the street grid in phoenix autonomous vehicles in there They have a test ride program and you can actually as a family sign up and have one of those vehicles assigned to you How will autonomous vehicles when they come change things in Burlington? We don't know How will they change our? You know trucking and transportation as well. That's always been a big part of the discussion of Burlington is the impact on On trucking and transportation. We get a lot of trucks coming into town delivering stuff How about electric bikes? We get an electric bike over here BED program sponsored by By bd behind kelly there and those are going to sort of change how we move a little bit Our bike share is in the back. Well folks got to take a look at that. That's coming within this year How is that going to change things? Car share is here already And transportation is going to move quickly So today i'm asking you to listen and think about tomorrow's Burlington and what kind of city it will be We've been working hard to grow downtown and we've been working hard To Look at growing the grand list. We want to add more density downtown. We want to add more housing What are all the things we need to think about from an infrastructure perspective as we begin to begin to support those changes And what do the people who move here the folks who we want to attract? What do they want from Burlington? They definitely are still going to want parking on some level But we hear increasingly and studies show that they also want walkability living Livability and a safe and healthy lifestyle. This is part of the uh, the reason why the city is talking about the great streets program This is a graphic and I know that this is controversial and bba members have concerns about it because in some cases You replace parking with other street uses. I don't know what the answer is But I think it's good for us to come together and have a discussion about it Now we also water track more employees downtown We do have a semi rural location here. I live 10 miles outside of town and I'll tell you when I get to buy house It's a very different place In terms of density. That's tough for me to use transportation choice where I live So like me many people will continue to come downtown by car and so most of our visitors So I think we need to think about the balance Today Burlington has over 8,000 parking spaces in our downtown about half of them are privately owned and operated Even at peak times you've done studies that show that hundreds of them sit in We're working with dpw and collecting data on parking every month And the slide that I zip by is our new interactive map on park Burlington dot com People come to the city. They can look here and find their parking one of the ways to uh deal Deal with an upfront congestion is giving people a parking destination before they show up We've been working with events like discovered jazz and organizations like the flin and others to Get this information out to people that are coming to visit So Some up parking is emotional parking a car coming downtown a parking car is one form of Transportation parking is changing rapidly with new technology and so is transportation in general I've asked you today to come here to discuss a topic I think is a critical piece of being able to grow the Burlington economy What will our future look like including what will it look like from a transportation perspective We've invited our keynote speaker jeff olson speak to you about that We also have the mayor here to talk about his vision for Burlington as it moves forward Jeff's going to tell us a little bit about what other cities are doing to address this me I'm a big believer in change. I think that you're either changing and moving forward I like this quote from john fennedy I want to thank the mayor for being here and believing our efforts to move from Burlington forward I want to ask you to stick around today be a part of our discussion and our panel presentation I want you to bring your concerns because I know they're out there your dreams and your ideas meet Together look forward towards the future of Burlington And I have to end with this guy and if anybody was at our summit last year and may remember him This is Horatio Nelson Jackson. He's a famous firm honor And I don't know if the mayor knows this enough, but right next to his house is a plaque on on summer street dedicated to this guy This was a guy who looked forward He made a bet in san francisco at a men's club for $50 that he could ride a car across the united states in less than 90 days There were no roads at the time. It was a famous journey He made it That was when people were mainly still getting around by horse or foot We're a city of risk takers We've created amazing things together in Burlington Thank you for coming today to help us figure out what's next Those of you nobody raised your hand when they had trouble finding a parking spot So my key is I go to the same spot every time how many people do that? Seriously, that can take what my spot is Uh, there are blue folders On your chairs and in there are index cards that will ask you to write some questions down We'll have a slide presentation coming up a little bit later on after after we get together in groups Right now let's bring up the mayor. Mayor Murrow Weinberger. Welcome. One of your slides All right, good morning everyone. Thanks Uh, thank you to Kelly for including me this morning. Thank you to BBA for hoping to host you this great event Um, I really look forward to this summit every year Kelly always brings in a great speaker and makes it an interesting thought-provoking morning And this is going to be she's done it again. It is great to have Jeff Olson back in Burlington You know, I met Jeff in I can't quite place it. Maybe you can. It was in the early the first handful of days That I was in office or maybe I hadn't even taken office yet. It was like I was mayor-elect and We had a conversation about Turning Burlington into an even better city for walking and biking Jeff at the time as I think we might hear a little bit today Feels that we're doing a lot of things right here and But uh, you know, we There were some standards that we talked about then and ways to push the envelope further and You know six years later What um Getting ready for this talk Remind me of is just how much progress we've made on a whole range of areas, you know, a lot of times We don't too often sit in it with transportation as the frame A lot of the times is sort of Kelly was suggesting we We look at our housing policy and how transportation impacts that or we look at We look at walking and biking we look at Isolated elements of this overall transportation picture. I appreciate this chance to really look as a holistic system and I hope you all Leave this short talk Feeling that we've come a long way in the last six years and optimistic about where we're headed from a transportation perspective So let me say more about what I mean by that. I I'm going to sort of break it down into The kind of different elements of transportation first So talk about what we've been doing with respect to cars what we've been doing with respect to walking and biking Mass transit and then try to tie it all together Clearly, I mean, let me just kick it off by agreeing with Kelly's kind of promise that This is an area we um I need to be thinking about going forward in that certainly I buy into the idea that we Must continue this conversion of these underutilized downtown spaces the parking lots The properties like the mall property and there's a long list of them as Kelly pointed out with the map from Plan B TV. We have a surprising amount of underutilized Lots in our downtown that represent Easy opportunities in some sense to create more jobs create more housing in our downtown without You know in a way that is completely consistent I think with what the great majority of world Tony's would like to see for the future the infill of these lots for these higher and better uses and You know, I think it's I think it's our key Opportunity and challenge that what you know the future of Burlington as I see it We have must We must do that if we're going to remain what Burlington has been for 150 years, you know the place in vermont where People of all backgrounds all ages can make a living and make a home and That I think was a vision of Burlington that was at risk six years ago. We had Essentially had a broken housing market where we had created almost no new housing for more than a dozen years And that is a big part of what we have turned around over the last six years is that market is working again We have thousands of homes that are currently under construction And I think as those homes start to come online and that's you know, they're they're starting We see the Grove Street project already starting to come online the Champlain College Brown's Eagle's landing project will be online by this fall and I think you will start to see some Positive movement in the pressure on the housing market as those come online So the this this metric that we've got you know, probably everyone in this room Let me say that the average Burlingtonian is spending 44 percent of their income on red You know, I think that that that is that is unusual. That is one of the highest ratios of its type in the country if you compare Uh, rents to incomes and I think it really That that means that that's on the average Burlingtonian So it's an even higher percentage if you're not making the average salary and that is very threatening I think to our vision of Burlington is an equitable and inclusive place If you have that kind of housing pressure means you are forcing people out. You are putting up walls Uh to people who want to live here and that's not what Burlington is and uh, We are so we're doing something about that as we do something about that It does put more pressure on these transportation systems. So what are we doing on the transportation side? And I think it's a it's a long story. So let let me start with the car You know, it's a good place to talk about how we I know there's always a little skeptical of this but you know, if we we come back here And have this conference in Two two years the Champlain Parkway will we'll be able to look from this No, not this window right from the other side of the building and you'll be able to you'll be able to see A project under active construction. We are about a year out from starting this project that has been talked about for 60 years And And and when we build it we're going to build it in a way that's consistent with our values in the 21st century That was not the case with the design that we had inherited from uh, Steve good con at six years ago. Um, but we have Uh, we have made it much better. We have made it a project that Accommodates modern walking and biking Desires and that is much safer And we've worked very hard with the state and with the federal government to That and when we build it in a year, it will be a road. We can be proud of We are also putting significant resources into um, other aspects of our vehicular transportation system because you know Kelly's quite right. We are not overnight going to stop Uh Car is going to remain the dominant way we get around for a long for a long time So those roadways are critical. Um, and the bond that the voters passed a year ago Is more than doubling our historic level of annual investment in our roads so that we Keep them up the standards, which uh, which was which was a real challenge. Um, Until that vote Kelly talked a lot about the parking Progress that we're making. I see that as a critically related element. I mean, you know the essential Carry that is definitely part of the transportation network, although we don't always think of it that way And the progress we've been making there is is outstanding. I won't repeat what Kelly just said Something that in and of itself isn't going to relieve congestion or parking issues But I think it's a really exciting part about what's going on here that affects this whole vehicle fleet is You know, what's wrong with the fact that we have so many cars? Well, one of the big things that's wrong is uh, the congestion and the the parking pressures and the functioning of people getting around But you know, the more pressing issue is that Cars are part of what's You know road in the earth basically right of me that the uh the the um Particularly here it is the part of our climate change challenge that we have to struggle most To reign in we've actually been moving in the right direction Uh, certainly with our electricity, you know, we now have this remarkable milestone We hit in 2014 of sourcing 100 of our electricity from renewable generation and we should be able to sustain that So essentially Burlington's electricity is not part of the climate change problem Our heating of our buildings still is but we're getting better and better at that a lot of people in this room in this building On this floor are making sure of that and we come a long way in the building sector Um, and we have some very exciting possibilities on the the near horizon if we can get this Uh district heating plan implemented, which we are closer than we've ever been to that would Be a you know a big further step in the right direction there and I think that the day when we don't really see um Heating of the of our buildings driving Climate changes is not that far out Transportation's different like we we had the vehicle miles travel that go up and up and we're burning more more gasoline right now to do that There's a glimmer of hope on this front through strategic electrification The work bd has been doing over the last couple years to think really proactively about how we Transform our vehicle fleet both on the mass transit side where we've been experimenting with electric buses But even more promisingly on the personal vehicle side So that when people are getting in their car, they're getting in a car that is powered by electricity And that is and that electricity is sourced from renewable generation. I think it's a pretty exciting Um vision of the future that we are better positioned to pursue here in Burlington than just about anywhere else And you're starting to see it happen. I mean we are since we announced an incentive program at the beginning of the summer Uh at all local incentive program to go along with the state and federal and manufacturer incentives We have seen dozens of Burlington households get rid of their gas guzzling vehicles and buy Electric vehicles and every time we do that you are making a real transformation and you know My household is one of them and it's been a really exciting thing changes the way you think about driving them And uh, and I encourage anyone who's thinking about to consider it. Um, that the incentives are still out there That's that's what we're doing on cars. What are we doing on active transportation a lot that same bond that improved our streets is also leading to a Total turnaround in the way we take care of our sidewalks We have 130 miles of sidewalks in Burlington and we were only replacing about One mile of sidewalk a year until the bond passed If you do the math on that, um, uh, that's not a good that's not good, you know Sidewalks do not last 130 years We have in this first year of implementing the new bond We have more than tripled that historic output which gets you down into about the the right range You know because sidewalks do last if you take care of them right 30 or 40 years And so we we have you know if we can continue this and we will continue this for the next Um four years what happens beyond that will be another challenge, but we'll we'll get it done. I'm confident We will be responsibly taking care of our sidewalk system, which is critical if we want to you know encourage people to walk um biking, uh, we just opened The whole northern bike path, which is uh again in part from that bond Five miles of the eight mile lakefront bike path have now been rebuilt and enhanced But on both respects biking and walking just sort of replacing taking care of what we have is not enough And we know that and that's why a year and a half ago We with the city council passed with a really strong vote a walk bike master plan That really lays out what additional active transportation projects We will be pursuing over the next 15 years. Um, it was very detailed what we were going to try to do in the next five years and uh We got I've seen Nicole Losh is here with us today He's probably using the individuals most responsible for making sure we do that We've just finished our first year of implementing those projects and um, and it's a really exciting part about where we're headed as a city and You know, Nicole has to Which stands, you know, this is transformative and all stuff and it's sometimes controversial and she Takes a lot of flak for that, but um, I hope people in this room also give her a lot of credit for the leadership She's doing there. So let's have a quick applause We have the mass transit story as well. Which again, um Yeah, we've had progress on for for decades. We had hope to replace the church street uh bus shelter with something that was appropriate and Uh for the you know met the need and offered more dignity to people who were even were using the buses and we have done that with this Wonderful tricks Collins designed a downtown transit center Has everyone I'm curious does everyone know what I'm talking about here? All right, I see a lot of naughty, so I won't belabor it then great But it is uh, it is it is up. It is functioning. It still looks, you know, it looks great and And it's important that it look and feel great, right because something like two million trips either started or ended at that facility every year and By making it a better experience That doesn't we expect that number that combined with strengthening the bus system will will go up from there and uh The very important step to strengthening that that system Um, then there's this whole kind of other area of interesting stuff that's happened over the last few years that affects each of those three areas The Vermont public interest research group put out this report in 2015 that was sort of a challenge to us that said You know the way you make your transportation system better is by doing you know, it's not always by doing these big expensive capital intensive things where you're building new highways or new rail systems or whatever that sometimes what is involved is Making those systems work better and using modern technology to work better And you know what Burlington you're not doing so great at that was the message of their report. They They put us down towards the bottom of I think we're 56th on a 69 city list in terms of incorporating these 11 modern technologies Into our transportation systems and I'm you know, and we had four of the 11 and one of them we they were sort of giving us A gentleman see for for having it and that it was they were giving us credit for having uber at the time when it wasn't even really legal for uber to be Getting operating at the time if I've got my timing right. So, you know Since then we have we have made important changes to our ordinance so that uber and lyft are operating here and Um, and there's been an explosion of use of that type of technology I mean burlingtonians are voting with their feet on that and they are saying that this is a really important A new transportation length something like I meant to check the stats. It's a study number. I think we are um, I think it's amounting to almost 10,000 just shy of 10,000 rides a month of trips that are being done over that platform And It's uh seven days a year. Katie don't print that without me double checking the numbers, but it is uh, it is I'm pretty sure it's approaching that we can tell that because we get a quarter for every trip that starts or stops in burlington And we set that rate of a quarter not really knowing How much revenue would generate we um, we hoped it would generate enough to cover our costs That's how you set fees and it turns out it is almost, you know, it is generating almost exactly the 110,000 A year that we need to enforce that system well um We've also added uh, tax, you know in part because we were a lifter ride the taxis stepped up their game and they added Taxi handling technology the Something that we pushed hard for And that is up now is real-time transit data for mass transit riders so that you can look on your phone and And know where you're where your bus is and when it's coming we're And I were a coffee yesterday where uh, where we had a complaint that maybe it isn't working as well as it should But I was watching it through you know, I think we're we're we're still hiring out the kinks on some of these things But um, we have come a long way in terms of adding these technologies. Another one is on the near horizon, which is bike sharing uh, we There's catma and a number of people in the room are Are working hard to try to bring that to burlington soon So, you know, I I belabor this because I think this is really important if you the point of the v perk report is that if you get these technologies right you make much easier Car light or even car-free lifestyles for people living within the city. What does that mean? Well I look at my own life and I think this is what it means you know, we we are one car family even though we've got two working parents and and uh, two kids that need to be carted around the city and We are able to do that in large part because we have car share here and I see yannick warden Out there and the car share system has also gotten even stronger since since this this report. Um, we are able to do this Because uh, you know, uh, uber and left in in significant part as well And it's gonna, you know, and that gets even easier to do when you have when when you these things start working together When you have better and better walking and biking infrastructure working hand in hand with with these technologies You really move towards a place where people don't have to buy two cars and that that that is a huge Uh positive in terms of housing affordability is huge positive in terms of economic development The average, you know, this is a car share stat I think let me tell you any correct me if I get it wrong But the average household spend something the average vermont household spends $7,400 a year No Uh or what is it? It's now over 8,000 a year per Per vehicle, right? So if you so here's the way I think of that is, you know, we don't we're not spending that 8,000 a year with the second vehicle if we're spending a few hundred bucks a month on car share and and lift We are way ahead of the game Over where we could be and I think If we get this better and better more and more households, we'll start thinking that direction. So Where do we go from here? a couple of final things the One thing that's a charlie baker here or something that he and I have been talking about and others have been talking about I think we do need to be doing more with regional housing strategies tied to transportation These major arterials that come in, you know, radiate out from burlington. I think represent a real opportunity for Additional housing and job creation I think that's where we should be focusing in a way we have not been so intentional about That's where we should be focusing future sitting in county growth If we get that right and and we need to change some state And probably local land use policies to get it right um, you know that that kind of densification around transit lines is what strengthens a bus system is that you don't really get Improvement, you don't get a great bus system without density density And once you get outside of burlington and when you see you really don't have the densities you need to make it work right we could be doing more on that and I forget to keep working on these issues. That's one direction that that I'd be focused on in the next three issues three years and then finally How do we get that last image up there? You know, I I'm an optimist on Most things not that one. No, but you go back. Uh, I love that. I've never seen that before I do know the story What a great photo I love the dog the apartment keep going this one. All right, so here's Here's, you know, why so I'm an optimist on on on The future of burlington in so many ways What I think as we get our housing policy, right as we get our transportation policies, right as the World continues, you know, as the the technological advances continue at the spectacular rate. We've seen over recent decades There's some people who think that that is going to be bad for cities. I totally disagree. I think driverless vehicles which are coming autonomous vehicles will Have a chance to really I think that is very likely The futurists who say that it is going to decrease the parking need in the future. I think are going to be right I think we've hit peak parking demand. We see that with our You know, you hear about peak oil a lot. I think we hit keep parking You see that at our airport more and more people are coming through Other ways instead of parking there keeping their vehicle there for a long time That's actually a challenge for us financially in some ways, but we're sorting through those challenges. It is an opportunity for us in that we have the public right away right now is so dominated by asphalt for our Travel lanes and for our parking stalls that we miss out on these other important public values and As as things continue to evolve, I think you are going to see the possibility This is something again. If I if I get another three years. I really want to work hard on I think when we transform Main Street from Street that today in many blocks. We use 73 feet of the 99 foot right away for asphalt Just to support just two lanes of travel and diagonal parking on both sides We can transform that Loose just a handful a tiny drop of parking in the sea of parking we have in the downtown We have 8,000 Spaces that are never full in the downtown because of Kelly and her work and public works We're doing a better job telling people where those are um We can when we when we if we make that simple change We can add we can get street trees back that used to have on main street that you see in those old photos that made the park was part of making this a really kind of great downtown you can get protected bike lanes that Continue this this change the way people get around the city And you can do something about cleaning up Lake Champlain through what you're seeing there by the main street sign Which is what we call green infrastructure, which Basically would collect the water that is falling on the street and instead of sending it right out into the lake with the pollutants and the Uh in the phosphorus that it has today It will get filtered through this green infrastructure that also improves the quality of life of our streets I mean that is an image of what it might look like in front of ski rack in just a few years Which you know think about the times you've been there with your kids trying to get some kind of piece of equipment out of uh Or north star sports, you know and uh and and you and there's The sidewalks are totally over overloaded and You know, you're just in this sea of asphalt You know, we don't even get gotten used to it. It could be so much better And I think that's what this slide shows and I think that's where we're headed if we keep working on these issues together So, thank you Jeff Olson is our keynote speaker. He's the principal at Alta planning and design affirm committed to transforming communities One trip one step one street park trail intersection at a time Jeff's an architect planner and author who has been involved in greenways open space active living and alternative mobility projects for more than 25 years He has had a diverse career with national international and local experience in public private and nonprofit sectors Jeff is reluctantly not a resident of burlington But has drawn connections to the city including professional partnerships with burlington institutions such as uvm's department of transportation He's a frequent visitor here because uh, well now that his daughter is a uvm alumni He's now working hard on his son trying to get him to attend the queen city and uvm. Welcome Jeff Olson First of all, thanks for having me here. I have a quick question for all of you look into the future of burlington You do three categories. Why don't you raise your hand? Do you see burlington being ronds? Pretty good ronds You see burlington being sober not bad getting there How would you give us your burlington is gold? And how would people see it categorically not a pretty razor hand? So the rest of you have to assume we're either thinking platinum or diamond, right? One of the hardest things about coming to burlington as a speaker Personally is that I come here. This is the place. I've always come to the place Happy to be here. I live in the mountains here in Saratoga, New York And you know, I bring stuff back to Saratoga. We share so much in common In whether it's businesses like global foundries. We both have a very common connection Eric Hurt is lumber right down the street of Paulson spot, New York Uncommon grounds, a coffee shop owned by our friends and burpees These are all places that you know our businesses this year between our two communities But I have always looked at burlington as a place that is setting the bar higher That is taking things to that next level and I know that When we talk about moving forward we talk about transportation I wanted to spell a couple of myths before I even start one is I'm not here to solve all the problems And none of what I'm going to talk about is going to solve all the problems And I'm particularly interested in active mobility of walking and biking whether it's for transportation or recreation That's maybe a 10 percent solution for a lot of the things we work on Unless you're from one of those places that aren't platinum or diamond Some of us have a chance to get the answer that we're Copenhagen Copenhagen right now 51 percent is their target of all chairs by bicycle They're already 42 They're trying to get to 51. So there's the competition that is happening There are places actually doing that right now The challenge that we face is how do we get from here to there if that's where we really want to enter How do we accommodate all the modes of transportation and mobility equally especially knowing that there's technology that's going to change How do we help families that are spending $8,000 a year? What could be money for better housing could be money for better food for better health for all of those other issues By incrementally making those changes or more significantly making those changes So, uh, like I said, I don't want to make you think I in any way that what I can talk about is going to solve the entire problem But I do hope that at least can put us in the right direction Um, some of the solutions are fairly simple. I'm lucky enough to live in a place where Biking the lake champlain bikeway system is always one of my favorite things This photo was taken on a trip. I did around actually around lake Ontario through Ontario, Quebec And then back to Montreal and down to Burlington And this photo is taken. I'm sitting in one had been a single car parking space across the lake here in Plattsburg, New York If Plattsburg can do that in great cafe space at a street space Imagine somebody in Plattsburg right now is making you say that Burlington They are so excited This is main street Plattsburg right and this these cafes are thriving and it really very low cost Not a huge change and gave me a little spot to sit and start actually I was working on writing this book That was sort of my final editing phase while I was biking around the lake When we look at sort of the three phases of this quick presentation today, you're gonna be what so what now what that comes from Harry Truman Who basically said tell him what you're gonna tell him tell him and tell him what you told him These issues are important for the future and they're the issues that we're working on on many other ways Transportation mobility infrastructure are not necessarily things we always directly associate with these things But they help in every single one Economics as we just talked about that cost per household the cost of maintaining and building the infrastructure that we have The ability to attract and retain business and make sure that those of us here have our companies that want to grow I tell you if I could do one thing over again in life I'd start another company and I'd be in this building. This is just the greatest thing And who doesn't want to be up here talking in a place that's bringing wind and solar and clean energy to the future That's going to help make this place last for years to come Burlington has one of the greatest sets of advantages when you think about the bones of a place to be You have got the greatest bones. You know, you're right. You've got water You have the potential for energy. You have agriculture close to we're going to be able to have food here At a time times maybe when other places don't forest products Agriculture so important to be able to have a place that has what it takes to be able to exist We are in a rapidly changing world. There's lots of stuff going on outside there But we're not going to talk about that, right? Because Burlington is the place that can do all the things that the others can't The question is can we make mobility part of that solution? So free copy of my book. Uh, this is going to give you a little hint about where I'm from um, and and my favorite music, um This is a lyric from a song somebody can tell me Of what artist where that artist is from and which song gets a copy of the book But really someday we will look back on this and it will all seem funny How do people have seen this happen person for the dog out the window? All right, see I I have yet to show this image to any audience where from nobody had ever seen this happen This is not good for the dog It's not a big thing for the dog and while it is possible the driver may have some mobility need That is not met otherwise. And this is the only option available I don't think that's likely to be the case for a great many people. So how do we move beyond this point? Look, I drove here yesterday and it was one of the most beautiful afternoons Uh, it just how can you not love being here? And and the views of the mountains and it was a great drive right and I have three cars I actually really like them. I just don't use them all the time for everything I do And the space they take up in our community is an issue because that space could be used for other things So this is not a presentation. That's in any way saying the car is going to go away The question is how can we manage it and have it work to our advantage with all the technologies you use? That's going to be true whether we're talking about electric bikes or we're talking about next generation buses Or we're talking about any other infrastructure. How does it make our community a better place? It's really the question So no nobody's got that lurk yet. You can't just google We'll just search that I've got a winner back here First spring team Rosalina Fantastic, which state? That's the easy one What state? What state was the song written in? New Jersey All right, I don't know if it invented, but I am from New Jersey you can get a copy of it Like I said, I wish I lived in Burlington Brief history of transportation in America and I'm going to go through this really quick Anybody know where art from the great cartoonists from the 1970s? Now we started with this big college incredible landscape And we're somewhere now probably in the in the next to last row I really hope the last row is something we're going to skip entirely and we'll just go straight to Something closer back to the very beginnings the images of church street are right out of the story And I ask you as we think about the future and you deal with some of the Difficult and challenging conversations in this community. They're important conversations to have their emotional They are as much emotional as they are rational and that's true a lot of things in this country right now But to allow everyone to have the chance to not only think forward and think back I don't think it's possible to imagine the growing thing We're in now for the ones I first experienced in the 1980s But a good friend of mine lived right here on pine street and I spent a lot of time with a chicken bone And I gotta work with that It's gone now Those of you who are here will probably know what I'm talking about or possibly not remember. I can't tell the difference We don't really think if we were around then saying that growing can is going to be this growing All these businesses, innovation centers, new technologies happening, new companies happening Organizations like global foundry is coming to Burlington. Those are things we could not possibly have imagined and the forces that shape them are significant They are a societal scale. They're not all things that we control So just think back a little bit as we move forward I want to make this personal because I think the decisions we talk about involved people in so many levels of society And I'm very worried because this is one of the few times. I will tell this story in public I just rode a bike with my brother the other day. My older brother is disabled He now lives with my parents in south Florida another place I don't want to live but I do have to visit frequently as a result and when he moved there about a year ago My brother waited about 330 pounds about three years back When he moved to Florida and it was not a move of choice He said the one thing I want to do is be able to ride a bike I want to go back. I haven't ridden a bicycle in 20 years. So I bought him a bike. I bought him this bicycle My brother now has lost 130 pounds His his diabetes numbers are down to a level that his doctors are almost taking off his medicine His heart and blood pressure problems that he was experiencing or largely I think of him passed right now He rode that bike about 350 days last year Almost every day except for a couple hurricanes and the point I'm trying to make is that You know, look, that's also the brand new car. I just bought it as well and I don't want to say we're going to get rid of the things but what I want us to think about And I want you to think about my brother Is our community allowing someone like him to make that change in his life Even if we don't want to do it ourselves personally His ability to move to where he did made that change happen because the place he lived in before Did not allow him to ride a bike safely and now he's living in a place where he does Okay, that simple thing of creating a community where people have the choice to be able to do that Is going to save a lot of us a lot of money on his future healthcare bills I can tell you that and me personally talk about your family's safety So these things are personal. They're very human There's a story behind everyone and the choices that they make about how we choose to come here today How we choose to make it possible for our community to move For me, it's a little different and last night I set myself back on my personal diet I do try to ride about 10 miles a pint or ski a day for you know, something like that I've got some magic number It does work out by the way if you look at the craft gear index that your typical IPA pint is the equivalent number of calories 10 miles So 10 miles a pint. Hey, if I go out on a really good day, I can have a great weekend. You know, it's all a matter And if it all goes well, I get to be a pro-pay ball I want you to think about these issues in the broadest possible social sense of the union And I love that Broington is a place that uses terms like new americans You know, if we dealt with immigration policy the way some people would think my wife is here with me today Would have to go back to Canada. She's first generation And was born parents for another country here in the u.s I'm very happy. She's a citizen thing before that This image happens to be in Chicago in one of the you know, really one of the more challenged neighborhoods in the country And they are working with everyone at a personal level very much similar to what go Broington and others are doing here The many organizations that are working in this community to make that change at the grassroots level And to think about every person no matter what their age their race their economic status But all of us hopefully are going to be lucky enough to be able to live long lives and live here in place But not if we slip and fall and break a hip on the sidewalk, right? I walked here this morning and I can tell you a couple spots where most people Would have given up and in fact at one point since I was here a bus stop when the mother's coming I jumped on the bus so I answered your question this morning I both walked and took the bus the reason I took the bus was the sidewalk was just Completely not cleared for several blocks. It hasn't snowed in quite a while Right, that should be something we can take care of those 130 miles matter in this community They matter for the woman who was standing next to me at the bus stop They matter for all of us and every trip that's taken by any other mode of transportation makes it easier for those of us who choose to drive Okay, so you can be selfish. There's nothing wrong with that Um, when we get to so what you know, I want to you know frame this about the position that the city is in That the region is in to be able to stay at that leading edge. You are doing things that are extraordinary I really hope I'm not saying that just because I'm a guest here today That I really do get the sense from everyone here in this room and the organizations that are working here That you are very much on the path and moving forward and accelerating keep going That's all I can tell you but when you look around and see what others are doing Maybe it helps inspire you a little bit. So welcome to the global competition How many people have heard of Curitiba Brazil? Anybody been there? Okay, this street Okay, Curitiba Curitiba may be one of the more sustainable large cities on earth population of 2 million 50 of all trips taken on a bus rapid transit network that is fueled by biofuel that is growing in brazil This street is known as the 72 hour street because it was built in three days Through the four lane road through the middle of downtown Mayor Jaime Lerner decided he wanted to change that started on friday afternoon and opened the street to the public on monday 72 hours This image I took this photo it was late at night. I was definitely out in 10 10 30 And the street is absolutely full of people. That's happening. Okay. So, you know, maybe a little faster than was in six years I think something like that You know, maybe we can speed up the process a little bit But we can't overlook the need to have that engaging conversation in the community and to listen to all aspects of these issues Because every one of those perspectives matter. There are going to be their choice of getting around is going to continue to be the one that They're making now They're going to be others that we hope we can change by changing that built environment I urge you in the strongest possible sense to be careful of new technologies and the law of unintended consequences While you know, many of us grew up watching things like the Jetsons It is unclear where automated vehicles and new technology will take us The thing that you need to get right that we need to get right here in growing Is to make this a great city that technology serves Not the other way around we do not want to end up while yesterday I would have loved to dial in the program and have my car take video skiing and then bring me here in the afternoon Mark the car get rid of it and let me walk around that I like that idea But the opposite is also true. What happens if we don't get the city to be good enough Of high enough quality that people just live somewhere else push a button in the morning and make some coffee And it drives them to where they're going and they spend two hours in the car And you can live up in the northeast kingdom and work in here, right? Is that what we want? I'm not sure that we do because our agricultural lands our forest lands The surroundings that are here are as much a part of our future as any other issue that we deal with And that is a transportation issue. We don't want to repeat the suburban sprawl that the automated vehicle here created So just be careful what you ask for when you ask for new technology I love this stuff, but I want to make sure that we build the community first and then use technology to make it work We look at some of the data and since this is a business audience today, you know When you look at things like walkscore, I don't know how many people here have used walkscore to value a property recently This is coming from you know, Lincoln Institute and major portions of the real estate industry Ideally the score here in Burrowington for walkscore to be somewhere coming closer to 100 I'll be honest. I thought the number is lower than I expected And certainly could be higher by making those improvements. These are the factors that people are choosing nationally Where's the data is very significant about the generation that's currently getting into home buying And not necessarily all that we're owning but if you're buying renting choosing to locate businesses Value walkability so much that the real estate industry has created a online score sheet And there's also transit score bikes for etc. So let's get that 56 closer to 100 When we look at what some interesting communities are doing and I think you know growing to as much a winter town as any other season and Cards on the table on the skier family of skiers This is mammoth, california Where we've just laid out a plan for them to connect their ski infrastructure Into a new town center and reorganize their built environment around a live work play ski in ski out community They have never done anything like this before they're talking about a very significant investment They're looking at using automated technologies for things like the long drive from los angeles to mammoth That's a trip they'd like to get rid of people having to do themselves Using it for freight deliveries within the communities of truck traffic is reduced But focusing on walkability and the ability to change what right now is a drive of a short distance To get up to the hill get rid of that entirely and refocus where the development is So they're thinking about all those things and it's not just transportation. It's also recreation quality of life It's about mobility as a whole and rethinking the idea of how we move and how that can shape our communities There are other places doing some extraordinary things and I've been lucky enough to work in jackson hole for Well at least 15 years and and I just wanted another cautionary tale Most of what they've done started in tragedy and I can only hope that this doesn't happen anywhere else It's certainly not here in burlington It was the death of a 13 year old biking with her family in grantita national park That led to a very significant community movement Followed unfortunately by another death just shortly the same period of time in six months of a national park service ranger on the same road And that community like many others probably could have said all right, you know, this is just We should stop doing these things. These are unsafe. We should move away from that And instead the families involved helped create a movement that has led to one of the most extraordinary communities for active active mobility Transportation recreation innovation They have done projects that people told them we were completely Impossible and I was lucky enough this summer while we were out there During the time of the solar eclipse, which was a pretty amazing thing to see To be standing on a new bridge over the snake river That was a project. It was so impossible. We were told to take it out of the plan at the time Never talk about that bridge again. It was in the 25 year future long range plan It was outside the plan we were doing that was only seven years ago the bridge is now built So when people tell you that the things that you think you're going to do can't get done Just think about that bridge. It is totally possible and to stand there and watch the eclipse From that location is really Something I will never forget and particularly because how art it was to do that project There were people who lost their jobs over there are people who went to went to the mat time and time again It was not an easy thing to do It is now one of the most beloved parts of that community And after all that opposition all the people were opposed to it now They went through the three stages of every difficult project total opposition Roger acceptance by the opposition then the opposition claiming was their idea of the first person So that's where we're headed Places like memphis, Tennessee Who would imagine that in memphis you could crowdsource the money to build a new street over a long weekend? Okay, they took a page out of the kurechibo playbook This was funded by local businesses who Project that we were working on connecting two major parks together Didn't quite have enough money to get through this sort of about almost pine street like district And they wanted to do a facility like this well They went out and crowdsourced the funding raised 75 000 a weekend and were ready to start building the project just a couple weeks later That's memphis, Tennessee How people before now would have thought of memphis as an innovator in active mobility, right? If memphis can do this growing How about atlanta? There's a place that Somebody had told me 10 years ago that atlanta would restructure its entire economic development strategy And build a new kind of downtown that really does not exist Around a loop trail that was a former set of railroad lines that has now generated Hundreds of millions of dollars new economic development. I probably would have not have told you folks. You should go to atlanta Okay, that's not a place that would have been I all apologies to our friends in atlanta It's lined with public art new housing new economic development of all kinds new public markets This has become at lanta's main street The facility looks exactly like that Some of the biggest companies in the world and we have global foundries here We had staff embedded at google for several years Working on a new way of rethinking silicon valleys infrastructure And this story got reported out as silicon valley wants to become the next copenhay And and they're literally involved in helping to fund and make projects happen in a couple minutes I'm going to start asking all of you what role is it people want to play in doing this because if companies like google are doing that And if we have similar companies here and their employees want to live work and play these environments How do we play a role in making that happen? One of my favorite examples and I every time I talk about this project I still have to even think to myself that really happened We were approached by the walton family foundation Just about maybe five six years ago. I guess about the last time in the mayor and I first bet They were investing a small amount of money in buildings and trails in northwest arkansas And you have to picture northwest arkansas the same way I would picture The parts of new jersey that I grew up in just suburbia and no real centers of these towns Trying to become something that they weren't yet obviously home to the world the world's largest corporations And the family wanted to change that they wanted to see that change We developed a 30 mile spine greenway system helped them not only take the money They were using to leverage it and match it We then did a bike and walk action plan for every community at a complete streets plan All of which were adopted 32 different municipalities in two counties a safe routes to schools plan for every school And all that is built that's happening They just hosted the imba world mountain bike summit and they have a goal of putting a local kid into the olympics and mountain bike In two more olympic games and the way they're doing it is there's a mountain bike park at every school And every gym teacher has got a set of bikes and those bikes are there to get those kids out riding And every neighborhood is going to be connected to their network. They build six new major scale mountain bike parks All that happened in the last six years With leadership from the public private non-profit sector so again northwest arkansas can do that Um game changer for me personally those who you know my background a little bit In addition in addition to being a partner at out the playing design We started a little side company called out the bike share and we ran the largest bike share systems in north america about five years This is city bike number one Just wrap up a couple minutes here 001 city mall the day we launched the reason I use this image In the five years that we own our bike share company We went from zero trips in the united states to 30 million rides five years 30 million rides and zero fatalities We thought we were heroes. We really did and it was very exciting this whole company But here's the thing today in china From the same zero point just three years ago now. There will be 30 million rides taken in china bike share today We 30 million more tomorrow The chinese fleet has gone from nothing to 10 million bikes in just three years United states went from nothing to about 25 000 bikes in that same period of time So again, we go back to that global competition and the forces of change that are going to happen And the scale of things that we're going to see we need to be prepared to be part of that as well And some of these things are happening bigger and faster than even we can So now what I'm going to just a couple more minutes wrap up here I really do believe that we are sitting right now today At a moment in time one of the greatest places in the world not just in the united states I really do feel and I'm not just saying that make you guys feel good. I really think growington is unique Is a one of a kind unbelievably great place. I mean you just have to look out the window, right? The opportunity is here to get to that next level and I'm just going to throw out some ideas I mean as all of you do this thing. This is what our breakout sessions are going to be There are so many things that we could do some of them are really big I've always thought we should have a chairlift and that when it snows we possibly could not plow the streets You know Budweiser used to sponsor this day the Budweiser Urban Skinner, but anybody remember Budweiser Urban Ski? The state street in Albany, New York is from the state capital down to the waterfront at Slalom gates on We just walk up the street with your skis and ski. Why not? Right, why can't we rethink the way that we have our global environment? As the mayor said we've got streets where we're using that asphalt just to drive cars on There's so many other ways we could use that space and still be able to drive cars The great streets where we're working on possibly a loop greenway around the entire city to take the loop city bike route to a new level Really thinking about how we get downtown from where I'm staying at Hotel Vermont down to the waterfront And as the redevelopment starts to happen, maybe the ferries come back to be centered downtown There are a hundred different ideas out there And this is just a short list that I was kind of working up to begin to get everyone here to think about How do I play a role each one of us to making that change? And I want you to remember this diagram and start filling it in as we move to the breakout session Whether you're in public sector in private sector in the nonprofit sector There is a role that you and your organization can play to make this happen You've got leadership in many of these quadrants working together really really well Every one of them needs to be on the same page at the same time moving forward because change is not easy Change requires being organized being professional being involved being engaged putting the resources into making that change happen And listening in the community which I think you do a very good job here Of making sure that everybody feels that they are part of making that change happen, right? Again, I think Broenken does a better job of this than most places and you're on the right track So I want you right now if you can think about what's one thing you're going to leave here today That you or your organization or organization you can be involved in will help you to make Broenken more mobile To make it safer healthier and improve our quality of life So I ask you don't just dream dream big You know we have streets that look like this all over the place. Why can't they look like that? So Enjoy that dream and here's the second half of the photo I started off with Because there are places where someday we'll look back on this. It will all seem funny This is almost the same image, right? And yet this woman's having a great time and so is the dog. So everything that we talk about is possible I know we can get there. I really encourage you to do so My contact info is up there if you need to reach out to me later. I'll be around all day and this evening Copies of my book are available. Somebody's already got one And I just want to again just I can't thank you enough. It is such a Absolutely joy to be here. I feel strongly about the future of this community and I hope all of you as well Um, you've got the right pieces in place. You're on the right path. Just keep going forward. Thank you Okay, we're about ready to do some breakout groups Sarah. I can't get that to come back to the main screen so It could be my assistant here You I have a name tag and as a letter in the name tag a b c d Get ripped off the name tag. Look as I put it back on If you have a d, don't move. It's going to work right here. Uh, a is in the antioch Antioch meeting room b meant for a guy meeting room and the at classroom is c So I think we have some people that can direct you over there. Uh, and we'll do this till about, uh 1015 and then come back and uh look at our progress And we'll be able to have some q and a with jeff and our panel when we come back together Get groups a b c and d to come and sit down so we can do a wrap up here for the Burlington business association summit A b c d and we need jeff olson and we're looking for jim Jim bar he knows speaker jeff olson. Where are you? So I know we have group d right there right there Is group b here b B okay, how about c c Is a where did a go? Oh, so some of the a is here All right, we're just looking for jeff Jeff out riding his bike. Are we done? Okay, jeff is making his way down Um, the bba business summit today. I'll just thank some people right now Brought to you by our presenting sponsor a rp vermont and the schittner county regional planning commission and title sponsors Pomerola real estate and free press media Let's also thank our silver event sponsors ferrell distributing howverson's upstreet cafe td bank City market hilton garden in burlington telecom seventh generation city place burlington burlington electric department surex cullen's dincy also Champlain college jmm dark star lighting and production Reconciled at hilton burlington roadstone south burlington business association and the regional bike share pilot program And our sponsor host today v ic and catering sponsors city market. Thank you so much And our platinum members Comcast business r.a.m. Development castella bank of america merrill lynch People's united bank key bank ubea medical center pc construction Kramer hyper eglinton and kramer pc All right, we're going to get jeff olson seated here and we'll begin our program See what we learned So we have bba executive director kelly divine, of course We've got our keynote speaker jeff olson executive director of schittner county regional planning commission charlie baker And the director of transportation and parking services at ubm jim bar Thank you for participating and we're going to uh See what they think about some of the things you guys worked on so we'll start with group a And the beliefs of group a transit is intimidating and inviting and routes are complicated Belief by some that cyclists don't pay for roads and as a result roads should cater specifically to cars People that use public transportation aren't like me Infrastructure projects are expensive and take forever Kelly, what do you think about that? I'm gonna i'm gonna rely on a couple of my panel members to address that but i'm going to talk about number four infrastructure projects They are expensive and they do take a long time If you start looking at road miles that we have in a community like burlington I think that we as Members of the community need to continue to think about not only what that investment costs today But what it costs over the long term and you know burlington is not a big city our General fund budget is about 60 65 million dollars And I think it's a good part of the conversation to remember That that any kind of capital improvement or infrastructure work is our communal investment in our future So I have to agree with the statement and I think it's an important thing to really be thinking about when you think about Uh, and when you begin to talk about broader transportation policy, I'm going to turn it over to, um, jim barb runs fleet of buses up at uvm to talk about I'm going to have you do one and three You're assigning I don't get to pick my own You get to pick hero and I hear beliefs jim. They're their beliefs. So just comment So as I get a quick at my neck looking up there, um, transportation Intimidating and uninviting and routes are complicated and people using public transportation aren't like me So I can do both of those in one fell swoop. Everybody has a unique View of that they are the only ones that have all the challenges that they have children that they have to drop By daycare they have a dog that they uh needs to take care of they have an emergency during the day And if I take public transportation, I might not be able to get home And what they're missing is the ability to use multiple modes of transportation or there are many programs and incentive It's out there like the emergency ride home or you can use a cab There's many different ways car share is a perfect example being a member of car share and having that as a fall back Um, the public transportation people aren't like me. I guess I can go one step further And this might be a touchy subject But there's a lot of of folks who um are low income and can't afford a car And so if they're the ones that tend to ride the the public transportation all the time Then after a while they get it gets viewed of well That's for poor people and I I'm not poor or that's for somebody that There's just a stigma out there and we really need to do a better job of communication and marketing and Incentives and showing people that all of these opportunities Aren't as difficult as they seem to be Okay, so you were agreeing with some of the solutions. So let's have jeff finish it up with group with group A Um, how about that cyclist thing? Well, first of all, it's absolutely true. So We're done You know, I think the comment earlier about you know, when you look at what streets are for and what cities are for Why do we even you know live in the places that we're in cities or about getting people together about sharing culture About sharing commerce about human beings being social And our streets need to solve say serve that purpose. That's what they're there for They're not really about any particular mode of transportation or at any point in time But they're about providing all those purposes. So Transportation and and recreation and mobility fit in within that. So if our city is about culture about commerce About people being social then which of those modes provide that is really the question we should be answering Very good. All right, let's go to a group B Yeah Okay, so I just want to let folks know if it's in red. It's probably been covered by another group We had the the idea that transit isn't for me being pretty common theme Also, if you took your folder, there's a pen and an index card in there If you have another question you'd like to present to the panel feel free to Fill that out. You can let sarah or another member of our team know. We'll um We'll get that to you our ways to peter and somebody will collect it for the degree So group B beliefs active transportation is seen as a divisive issue in burlington, especially in the new north end Biking not yet safe in burlington. It's easy to get hit And generational difference in views about biking and walking charlie. Do you want to chime in on that? Maybe not So we've spent a lot of time trying to support the north af effort and I think I think we got to look at the broader issues Jeff started to to go here. I mean those those public rights of way are for the public to use And it's for all users walking biking and cars And I think what we're really trying to do with with those rights of ways trying to find the right balance Of use for them So we don't need 90 for cars if there isn't a lot of vehicle traffic on that road if there are Really we have that volume that requires four lanes of road or traffic. That's fine But where we don't we need to find the best use for that right away And so just to like go to another town, you know south burlington We looked at wilson road. There was a segment where we didn't need four lanes converted that to two lanes of traffic added bike lanes But then as you get closer to burlington you needed four lanes so the four lanes are still there so we did spend a lot of time trying to make sure that it was The right users and that means all the users so it's really I think it's a kind of false premise that it's kind of all or the other It's really it's a public right-of-way for all the users Okay, so jeff generational difference and views about biking and walking Yeah, this is a really great one and I think the example we just used in our breakout is Generational different views on smoking Um, you know there was a point in time when I was you know as a kid Where it was children who told their parents and smoking wasn't good for them And that's pretty much what changed behavior about smoking was that another generation realized that what the older generation wasn't doing You know was something that needed to be changed I listened to howard dean speech on npr Just last week I don't people got a chance to hear that about passing the torch and having a next generation come in And I quite honestly feel the same way I feel like right now There's a moment in time where it's my kid's generation that wants to be involved and wants to change things and Our ability to let that generation take that leadership role as fast as they possibly can Because there's two options one is they're going to feel alienated and not be involved If you go back to reading the book bowling alone, you know We're we're just all going to live on our own little private world and put the vr goggles on and just not even care about each other Or we're going to do exactly the opposite and we're going to create that way We're issues like this and this isn't the only one Our venue for people to get involved and active and make the change happen and we can help facilitate that I don't think we're quite done doing our work yet I hope everybody here in this room feels we have a lot to do But I do think that what that generation is seeing and doing and from a business perspective When you look at the places they're choosing to live in look at walk score and all those other measures About how walkable communities have become the most in-demand type of urban environment We're going to see a change that happens because of those bigger forces and it is I hate to have to say this personally, but it's the next generation that's going to figure it out Kelly you want to finish up on uh biking is not yet safe in burlington. It's easy to get here You know Transportation is a device of issue as someone who does advocacy work You know when a transportation issue comes up or we're going to lose parking I can tell you I get a lot of phone calls and Another part of the challenge for downtown is that biking is not As safe as it really needs to be to support the number of people who may choose that as a mode Given safer alternatives I wouldn't say that it's easy to get hit but I can understand why there's a broad base perception that biking is unsafe one of the things that's mentioned here in solutions is an education campaign and Talking to walk bike advocates. I think we've got to do education on both sides of the equation about that I think we all have seen bikers acting in an unsafe way and certainly the skate borders And we've also seen cars not paying attention. So we've got uh, you know We've got two sides of that issue that we can work on Also, I mean if you want to see what safe biking may look like in the future for burlington A lot of those ideas are in the walk bike master plan I think because I represent a business community and many of you here are members I'd love for more of our members to really think about If what they see in that plan is the future of burlington that they envision and what parts of that plan makes sense and what parts don't because These issues are going to continually come up in the public forum and in the public discussion There'll be votes on them and I'd like to have a more of a dialogue with our organization to see where we fall because Uh To the generational point and kelly started porous here from AARP. We know from data that they've collected It's both the boomers and the millennials that want I don't know what I did That wants safer. Uh, we're losing our screen here. Yeah, they want more options for transportation They want to live in dense downtowns. They want safer options Uh more of them both of those generations and For those of like me who's in the gen X. We're just stuck in between nobody nobody cares what we think Okay, we're back. Um He said it wasn't him so don't look at him. Okay, uh group c it's got a group c All right group c believes public transportation is not viewed as being a viable option for many residents, especially those who have a car Never enough parking could lose shoppers and visitors to other places with lots of parking and the perception of active transportation As being unsafe Jim, what do you think of that? Jim bar public transportation number one being viable is they have a car. Sure. That's a great great one to start with. Um Again, I'll go back to the multimodal. Um, having a car the savings as as morrow pointed out eight thousand dollars And it was you don't have to spend Um, and the the other idea is that you might not have to use public transportation solely You don't have to go all the way from one point to the next you incorporate bikes Corporate walking you can incorporate multimodal is really the key but That is that is something that is out there and I deal with it on a daily basis on our on our campus With people not understanding why I think they should park at gutters and take the bus in from there Why can't they park right outside their office space and the main reason is because there's not a space there for them, but Charlie you want to chime in on that on the end one of the other two? Well, I guess just in terms of, um How I think about this is really it's about providing options. I feel like there's kind of this Subtext of this of people being forced into a mode and that really that's a fault narrative, right? Nobody's forced nobody forced to ride your bike or take a bus You chose to do that and I think what we're really having a conversation about is how to make those choices easier Whether it's the bike network, you know, which we have pieces of a bike bike network We don't really have a full bike network yet It gets safer and easier to use the full art is the same thing on the bus network We have you know as good a bus network as they could design some years ago GMT is looking at redesigning that bus network right now So, you know, it's a kind of consistent constantly improving each one of these systems to make them better So that's easier to make the choice. That's right for you These are all individual choices that we look at collectively and but we're providing choices Jeff in your presentation you talked about using technology to make it easier you want to chime in and I also want to thank group C There's a whole list of actions over there and they really came up with some great ideas I think that you know a lot of it is about information and I think it's easier for people to do and to make that choice There's so much Else going on in our lives that the decision about how to move on a given day Or how to make an investment in our community to make it move differently over time are There's a lot elsewhere that has our attention So can we just simply make it easier and great examples of uber and lift being able to take the idea I need to go somewhere. I tap a button on my device and the vehicle shows up I know where it is. It's trackable. Can we make all forms of transportation that simple easy to use For anybody of any age and any ability? I think whether it's a kid going to school Or it's a senior that chooses to you know retire and live here in burlington We all need that ease of access to get over the the other barriers that we're going to find that just make it difficult To make those choices to begin with people will choose the easier thing to do and technology can help make that possible You want to end up kelly with one final comment? I want to talk about number two Never enough parking could lose shoppers and visitors to other places without lots of parking Um, as you can imagine in my position, this is a belief that I get presented with all the time And there are members of city council that are entrenched in this belief There are certainly members in our business community that are entrenched in this belief unless we actually study the population I don't know that any of us knows for sure. But if you anyone who has history in boston I in boston, that's my hometown in burlington Can remember the pyramid mall and the fear in burlington around that in the in the 90s And that's when they built the lake view garage. That was the solution Let's build another garage downtown and bring macy's to keep people here I'm going to put an idea out there that I have and I'd love to hear anybody's feedback on it If people are coming to burlington Only because the parking is convenient. We are missing What we are really marketing This city is Is much much more than free parking 20 years ago. It might have been a different story But we have created an incredibly vibrant downtown and there's so much we can do to make it more vibrant One I think of the key is development of the side streets. I think One of the reasons I was so supportive of the mall project is opening that street grid I think we need to start thinking that people are coming down here for an amazing experience And at a certain level they're willing to tolerate less convenience They may experience out at tafts corners because the experience is that much better Okay, you want to comment on that from somewhere Anybody else I just want to follow up on that is just the You know, we're talking about transportation, but transportation is just a service, right? None of us get up in the day to drive or bike We're going someplace to do something And so to me the fundamental issue in our community is really about that place making and making great places And that's what all of our towns and including burlington are talking about how to make burlington a better place How to make, you know south burlington trying to create a city center Why are they doing that because they know how important People desire to go to great places And so that's really the fundamental issue is that we should be focused on how to create great places Transportation is a part of that It's not a solution at the end in and of itself So I guess I just want to put that larger context here and you know the bus system The transit system the bike routes the paths They work because they're connecting places that people want to go to in front So it's about place making. All right, let's take that one question before we go to group D. Can you yell it out there, sir? Yeah, so that's that's ross sacks and he's with local motion and he's for those who couldn't hear him also think about Transportation as a means of adventure and I would say That's probably a big part of why I think our bike path and the renewal of our bike path is so critical because people actually When they go on vacation they seek out that amenity as part of them having fun Sometimes it is an adventure at five o'clock trying to get up main street Sorry group D All right beliefs lack of complete streets infrastructure makes activity active mobility seem inaccessible and unsafe Autonomous vehicles could help groups like the elderly that currently lack mobility rise in autonomous vehicles must Must meet I guess with infrastructure improvements physical and technological Yikes, who wants to tell you go jump it. I'm going to have jeff speak to the infrastructure piece Sure, I'm looking at the solutions line on the bottom about leveraging public and private and nonprofit involvement. I this Group of us here in this room today have the ability to make these change happen These changes happen every organization that's here every business every non-profit academic institutions that are here Has a chance to participate in making this change happen And I think probably the biggest challenge for growing to overcome going forward is that involvement The ideas are there people have really good sense of where we need to get to it's the effort that it's going to take to make it happen And so I really urge you all Everyone here to think about what can my company do? How can we participate? How can we benefit from this? How do we become the leaders that help make this happen in our community? To put that in scale when you look at say federal transportation policy The fact that the united states right now does not have A federal transportation program at this point first time in my life that the highway trust fund is basically bankrupt Years of money that we've been able to make these kinds of projects happen Whether it's been local projects here in burlington or larger projects around the country That needs to change in new york state where I live We're working now on the largest bike and pedestrian project I've ever seen 200 million dollar empire state trail to connect entirely across the state To give every community a path like the one that's here Buffalo to albany new york city to montreal that is being funded 100 with new york state money Because there is no ability to tap into that that larger resource that used to be there We're going to see that money again help of sector will come back around We will see that happen be ready for that opportunity by having the private sector your local bonds You're working on the non-profit and other organizations that are here all working together and the resources will find the good projects that happens every time I don't know whether charlie wants to but you want to talk about lack of Complete streets and infrastructure making active mobility seem inaccessible and unsafe Uh, I'll I'll just touch on I mean obviously we need to complete out that infrastructure the the bike and pet plans that we're talking about I actually want to talk more about the technology change that's coming Right. We're we're at the beginning of that technology change. I know we feel like we've been in the information age for years now Did the iphone turn 10 I don't know 20 I forget now This is what happens when you start to get old but um, but you know, I've been really struck just recently in the last maybe Two years the conversations that are going on in the transportation profession about the change that's coming from technology Is just it's going up a curve like this Um, it's so much so that's being compared in those conversations Um, I heard one gentleman a few years older than me talk about this work talking about the difference The same type of change in our community to happen going from horse and buggy to car We're talking about going from cars to what happens in this technology autonomous vehicles and everything that comes with it Um, and it's going it's going to there's going to be a lot of changes That happen mobility as a service where you know uber and lifter at the front of that It's going to keep changing You know think about if you didn't actually have to pay attention when you drove your car You know, what would you do with that time? Would you move that happening right now? Oh, apparently only on main street when you're stuck But um, but you know and you can go in a good direction with that You know, maybe you get useful time out of that. You could go in some negative direction Now you can live four hours away and spend four hours, you know doing netflix on your way in So Broadband will be certainly better But there's a lot of change coming in. Um, I guess I don't know the answers to how we all respond to that change You know, certainly nobody in 1920 envisioned the interstate highway system And I think you know, we're at one of those times now where we don't know how this technology change is going to impact us totally But um, I think let's keep focused on making great places And let's watch how this technology evolves Why don't we use the last two or three minutes anybody got a burning question? They need to ask one of our panelists somebody anybody There you go A directed to who you'd like to direct it to If people didn't hear that what are the one or two things to bend the curve to Make people use some of these options. That was pretty much what you Provide the policy support to make that happen Well, I think the number one thing and it has yet to happen is in our next federal transportation build a complete street To become an absolute That it is the way we do business in every street that we build every project we build the public infrastructure funds Accommodates all modes of that is what we do. So if I could write one piece of code, that's it Anybody else want to chime in on that kelly? No, we'll take another question Anybody got another question out there No brave souls So I would just say I mean I don't want to skip over autonomous vehicles help groups like the elderly I mean We are all going to have to explore what this new mode of transportation looks like and how it fits into our community It's going to come at some point. We just don't know when but I think it's It's an important point to not miss that when people become mobility challenged for a variety of reasons at a variety of ages This kind of service could be a game changer for folks that right now You know, not only do they have a hard time getting around but it's also, you know In some ways the community underwrites that cost to aid them with that mobility So I think it's important to keep those folks in mind as we think about the future and how it shaped Well going Jeff We are a conversation we had working on the boston 2030 transport plan of the mobility plan last year You know, boston defines itself as america's walking city and we got into this conversation That to me was the number one thing that boston needed to be able to say Even though we're looking at all this other technology Will that technology help make boston continue to be america's walking city? If it does it's a technology you want to use we should embrace it and make it work But if it doesn't and it leaves us in that opposite direction or in the law of unintended consequences Be really careful about new technologies. We've seen this happen so many times in our society about The things that we think are going to change all our problems for us, you know, it's going to still take an effort It's about making brook in a great city about this being a great community and then having technology in part of that Okay, with that said kelly's got some closing remarks about behalf of the brillington business association. Thank you to jim barron charlie maker and jeff olson for being part of this morning And thank all of you for coming out for the 15th annual hard to believe brillington business Association summit and our host ve ic. I honestly had never seen this building before it's spectacular and the view is even better So, uh, don't forget channel 17 cctv has recorded this and it will be played back So you can check with the gentleman there as to when that might happen and according to jeff If you intend to go to citizen cider tonight, you have to walk 4.2 miles To have a cider Kelly divine first round of applause for our panelists And at this event we couldn't do nearly Half of what we do without the help of great partners and and volunteers So I want to make sure I say a great big. Thank you to the members of our board who are here Our sponsor events that Together with jeff to set this program up. I know we had kathy and megan come in early this morning I don't know if they're still here helping with registration Everybody chips into the bba and that's what makes all this stuff possible If you want to continue the conversation and spend more time with jeff We were so excited to have him come and hear from him that we created a community event tonight where We've invited the larger community of burlington to come to citizen cider We're hoping more folks show up and it's going to be a less formal setup. You'll hear from jeff. We'll also get to hear from Hans van wies who is the general manager of a hotel vermont if people don't know They're doing a lot to offer more transportation biking transportation for their guests and tourism And he also comes from A background where they're in europe where there's a lot of walking and biking he'll talk about that and chris lyon who's here somewhere Who seventh generation is really leading The effort from an employer standpoint on how you help your employees Break down some of those barriers because one thing he may tell you tonight is and we didn't really talk about today When you want to If you want to provide Parking for every one of your employees and you have a business in burlington. It's a very expensive Like very expensive over time and all the companies that I talked to that are situated here remark on that I want to of course thank our amazing mc. Dan duvenay round of applause for dan So where is she sarah o'donnell and jack komo our staff member sarah did all the work for this together I'm not taking any of the credit. I want to Also mention that our next event is our bba annual dinner for those of you who like to attend that event It's on april 5th in the evening. We uh open for sponsorships. We'll be opening up registration shortly We're looking for nominations for our three awards business of the year business person of the year and our architectural awards So keep all that in mind Thank you so much for all of you that are members and support the bba We couldn't do what we do at all without you as well. Thanks and have a great day You