Committee advances wildlife signage and evacuation-route planning; microtransit and AV limits noted

The committee discussed a two-track approach to wildlife-awareness signage: a short-term interim sign at a known wildlife corridor and a longer-term locally designed sign project coordinated with the conservation committee and community artists. Members emphasized eye-catching design and pledged to produce a project plan and roles for the work; legal constraints under the Brown Act mean any subcommittee to prepare binding decisions must avoid forming a quorum.

Committee members also described new cross-committee coordination with the Environmental/Preparedness Committee (EPC) on evacuation-route safety. Craig Herber (EPC chair, referenced) is reported to be organizing a subcommittee to work on evacuation routes; committee members suggested a town-led survey of pinch points using volunteer knowledge rather than immediately contracting consultants, and discussed the idea of improving corridor capacity or marking three-lane outbound configurations for emergency egress.

On alternative transportation, members reported a Whimo test run to a mall (roughly $22 each way in one report) and raised questions about autonomous-vehicle reliability (the transcript cited incidents where autonomous vehicles failed to interpret school-bus stop signs). A presenter noted the large cost of expanding microtransit hours — an estimated $1.35 million to add two hours per day in one nearby jurisdiction — and cautioned that Portola Valley’s small population makes a fixed shuttle financially challenging without external funding.

Committee members agreed to keep the wildlife-signage project and evacuation-route work on future agendas, to prepare a project plan with assigned roles, and to coordinate further with EPC and town staff on volunteer surveying and grant opportunities.