On October 21, October 28-29, and November 12, 2020, Christina Watson attended the virtual Rail~Volution Conference. Christina attended sessions covering a range of timely issues including confronting systemic racism in transportation planning, new approaches to Transit Oriented Development, equity in housing and transportation, transit ridership in the era of COVID, and a session on community outreach and engagement. Christina's report on the conference is included as a Web Attachment. Her report includes informative cartoon renderings produced by an artist hired for the conference.
On November 16-17, 2020, Debbie Hale, Todd Muck and Mike Zeller attended the virtual Focus on the Future conference organized by the Self-Help Counties Coalition. This annual conference is an opportunity for for counties with voter-approved local transportation sales taxes to learn best practices, share information on our projects and programs with state transportation officials, and build relationships with state leaders, other sales tax agencies and members of the consultant community. Executive Director Hale and Deputy Executive Director Muck each served on panels providing the opportunity to share and receive information directly related to the Transportation Agency's projects. A report summarizing key information and ideas from the conference is attached.
During the week of November 16, 2020, Caltrans held its first ever Innovations EXPO. The virtual Expo, attended by Caltrans staff and partner agency representatives, showcased presentations on innovations in five targeted areas: Safety, Modality, Innovation, Efficiency, and Partnerships. Several TAMC staff members tuned in to various Expo presentations during the week. TAMC Principal Engineer Rich Deal presented on a panel with Ron Boyle of GHD, Inc., entitled Using Roundabouts at Interchange Approaches to Reduce Cost and Improve Safety. Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s engineer, Sarah Christensen, presented information on their bus-on-shoulder/auxiliary lanes project on Highway 1. The attached report summarizes key takeaways from the Expo and provides links to recorded content.