Integrating Safety into the Transportation Planning Process

2005 ◽  
Vol 1922 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-89
Author(s):  
Camelia Ravanbakht ◽  
Samuel S. Belfield ◽  
Keith M. Nichols
Keyword(s):  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Congestion Management ◽  
Safety Study ◽  
Hampton Roads ◽  
Crash Data ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
The Right ◽  
High Crash Locations

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century requires metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to incorporate safety and security into the transportation planning process as one of the seven planning factors. The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC) is the designated MPO for Southeastern Virginia. In 2001, as part of its congestion management system (CMS) program, the HRPDC staff initiated a comprehensive regional safety study, which included collecting comprehensive crash data and creating a regional database for 151 Interstate segments and 13,000 intersections. The crash severity method was used to analyze, rank, and determine the top high-crash locations for Interstate segments as well as the CMS intersections. This regional safety study was designed to help local communities understand safety-related problems and issues. Congestion, failure to yield the right-of-way, following too closely, driver inattention, and disregarding traffic signals were found to be the main causes of traffic crashes in Hampton Roads between 1998 and 2000. Rear-ends and right angles were the predominant crash types during the period. The study analyzed and recommended a series of safety-related countermeasures and solutions for the top-10 high-crash locations throughout the region. Some common countermeasures that were recommended were adding roadway capacity, adding turn lanes at intersections, improving signal timing, improving signage, increasing enforcement, and providing additional driver education.

Toward the Development of a Unified Process and Methodology Guide for Environmental Justice Analysis in Planning and Programming

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110288
Author(s):  
Eliot Benman ◽  
David Aimen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
South Central ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Analytical Approaches

Federal Environmental Justice directives require transportation agencies responsible for planning and programming federal funds, including state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), to identify and address disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental impacts on minority and low-income populations. Despite issuance of federal and state guidance and training programs, many MPOs nationwide continue to seek clarity on effective environmental justice (EJ) approaches and procedural considerations. The South Central Pennsylvania Unified EJ Process and Methodology study was a year-long effort undertaken by a consortium of MPOs in Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) District 8 to identify a unified and replicable approach to implementing EJ in transportation planning. PennDOT, Federal Highway Administration PA Division, and Federal Transit Administration Region III provided technical assistance and support to the effort. The consortium engaged a technical assistance consultant to facilitate a collaborative process to identify a process framework, a set of analytical methodologies, and effective strategies for advancing EJ in the regional transportation planning process. The study demonstrated a model for convening regional, state, and federal partners to reach consensus around an effective EJ process and methodology. This paper provides an overview of the study process, findings related to the concerns of the participating MPOs, and a brief description of the recommended analytical approaches. The paper discusses lessons learned during the course of the study and considers additional work required to further enhance the EJ process.

Integrating Transportation and Environmental Planning: Extending Applicability of Corridor and Subarea Studies and Decisions on Design Concept and Scope

1996 ◽  
Vol 1552 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Douglas S. McLeod
Keyword(s):  
Management System ◽  
Environmental Planning ◽  
Congestion Management ◽  
Design Concept ◽  
National Environmental Policy Act ◽  
Combined Process ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Task Team ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
System Task

FHWA and FTA have proposed a combined process for integrating transportation and environmental planning. A major feature of the process is conducting corridor and subarea studies to reach a decision on design concept and scope in planning before a project enters a preliminary engineering phase. These corridor and subarea studies facilitate decisions by metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and refinement of their long-range plans, analyses of alternatives, and analyses of demand reduction and operations required of congestion management systems. As developed to date, the combined process is seen primarily as applying to major investment studies. As part of its congestion management system, Florida (the Department of Transportation, MPOs, and others) addressed corridor and subarea studies, major investment studies, and the proposed combined process. Furthermore, the Florida congestion management system task team found that the combined process may have many beneficial aspects, addressed state and MPO institutional roles in reaching decisions on design concept and scope, and is evaluating the extension of the combined process to arterial investments and interchange justification analyses. By extending the process to these other projects and reaching a decision on design concept and scope in planning, the needs and alternatives analyses required by the National Environmental Policy Act could be obtained earlier, possibly improving and shortening the decision-making process. Overviews of the combined process and Florida actions that may lead to extending the process beyond major investment studies are presented. Florida actions include supporting pilot arterial investment studies to be coordinated by MPOs with funding provided by the state.

Intercity Transportation Planning in China

2015 ◽  
Vol 2512 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiawen Yang ◽  
Xiongbin Lin ◽  
Ying Xie
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Transportation Accessibility ◽  
Road Projects ◽  
The Pearl River

As a response to the emergence of multicity urban areas, Chinese governments began to adopt the American concept of a metropolitan area to frame strategies for spatial development and planning. Chinese metropolitan areas, however, lack U.S.-style metropolitan planning organizations that can engage multiple municipal governments in metropoliswide policy making, planning, and investment. With the Pearl River Delta's Guangzhou–Foshan metropolitan area in China as the example, this paper examines how a governing arrangement has emerged in the process of transportation planning and assesses its effectiveness in addressing the metropolitanwide need for transportation accessibility. The successes of metro transit and an annual toll pass are in contrast with limited progress in taxi management and arterial road projects, which points to the need for fine-tuning the governing arrangement.

scholarly journals Equity-oriented Criteria for Project Prioritization in Regional Transportation Planning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustina Krapp ◽  
Jesus Barajas ◽  
Audrey Wennink
Keyword(s):  
Transportation Planning ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Transportation Projects ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Planning Processes ◽  
Equity Evaluation

Transportation inequities, consequences of decades of auto-oriented planning alongside discriminatory land-use and transportation planning and policy decisions resulting from structural racism, severely impact opportunities for people of color and other marginalized populations. While a growing body of work has examined inequities with respect to long-range transportation planning, less research examines how equity is incorporated in short-term planning processes via the Transportation Improvement Program. This research reviewed how the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that serve the 40 largest US urbanized areas used equity-based criteria for transportation project prioritization in regional planning. Just over half deployed at least one equity criterion for allocating transportation funds, which fell into one of six categories with varying degrees of complexity and potential for impact. While most MPOs included equity in their prioritization criteria, the methods could be improved to better align with more complete definitions of transportation equity, focusing on how targeted groups are defined, more comprehensive methods for equity evaluation, and an increase in the weight that equity is given in prioritization. MPOs and other agencies implementing transportation projects should adopt a justice-oriented framework for project prioritization that ensures that projects first affirmatively remedy historical inequities and work with affected communities to adopt appropriate and meaningful solutions

Innovations in Long-Range Transportation Planning: Observations and Suggestions

2003 ◽  
Vol 1858 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Kramer ◽  
Edward A. Mierzejewski
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Urban Transportation ◽  
Comprehensive Understanding ◽  
Technical Approach ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Metropolitan Planning ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Transportation Research ◽  
Innovation And Change

In 1997, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the issues and concerns facing metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in Florida, the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) thoroughly reviewed the long-range transportation plans of each of the state’s 25 MPOs. The study made some substantial recommendations about technical approach and structure for improvements to MPO long-range plans. In 2002, CUTR again reviewed the state’s 25 MPO long-range transportation plans, following completion of the subsequent update cycle. The recent updates of Florida’s 25 MPO long-range plans are compared with the versions completed 3 to 5 years earlier. There has been much innovation and change in long-range transportation-planning practice across the state. These findings will be of interest to MPOs nationwide.

Relationships Between Airport Activity and Ground Transportation Needs

1998 ◽  
Vol 1622 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip S. Shapiro ◽  
Marcy Katzman
Keyword(s):  
Planning Process ◽  
Federal Aviation Administration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Metropolitan Planning Organizations ◽  
Metropolitan Planning ◽  
Federal Highway ◽  
Surface Transportation ◽  
Planning Organizations ◽  
Airport Access ◽  
Planning Guide

Shortly after the passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration recognized that there was very little guidance available for airport operators and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to use for planning intermodal access to airports in the United States. As a result, the Intermodal Ground Access to Airports: A Planning Guide was developed. This Guide is designed to provide guidance to states, MPOs, and airport operators on the types of analyses that should be performed when airport access is being planned. It describes the airport access planning process and procedures for performing analyses. During the development of the Guide, relationships were developed between the level of originating passengers at American airports and the characteristics of airport access and landside facilities. The types of characteristics that were related to originating passengers included public parking, vehicle trips, terminal curbside design, and mode of access. Some of the relationships that were developed, how they were derived, and their importance to airport access planning are now presented. In addition, some additional relationships that should be developed are suggested.

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