Review of Long-Range Transportation Plans of Florida’s Metropolitan Planning Organizations

1998 ◽  
Vol 1617 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward A. Mierzejewski ◽  
Margaret A. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Advisory Council ◽  
Metropolitan Regions ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Metropolitan Planning ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Planning Models ◽  
Transportation Research

On behalf of the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council, the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) conducted a review of each of the state’s 25 metropolitan planning organization (MPO) long-range transportation plans and the state’s 2020 Florida Transportation Plan (FTP), to compare the policy directions of the documents and suggest areas for consideration and inclusion in future plan updates. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the issues and concerns facing MPOs in Florida, each of the state’s 25 MPO long-range transportation plans was reviewed, and telephone interviews were conducted with each of the MPO executive directors or designated staff members. Following the telephone interviews, the plans were reexamined to determine the extent to which the issues or problems stated in the interviews were described in the plans. CUTR identified the concerns common to the majority of metropolitan regions, including funding shortfalls, determination of innovative financing strategies, involvement of the public, maintenance of a mobility/livability balance, and air quality conformance. Many of the metropolitan regions also identified the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act’s planning factors, the consideration of alternative land use scenarios, differences in project selection criteria, and intergovernmental coordination as other areas of importance during plan development. The study offered suggestions to improve integration of the various MPO plans with the FTP, and to suggest improvements to the MPO long-range plans. Items for future consideration include placing greater emphasis on policy trade-offs and less reliance on transportation planning models; applying the principles of strategic planning to the transportation planning process; and incorporating a strong visioning process. Additional recommendations include incorporating current issues and problems into the long-range plans; streamlining the reporting of performance measures; standardizing when plans are updated, as well as how costs and revenues are reported; and reporting financial information by responsible agency and facility type.

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.

scholarly journals Understanding complete streets at the ground level: a look into how a complete street project is defined and influenced within the Greater Golden Horseshoe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Winters
Keyword(s):  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Complete Streets ◽  
The Public ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Planning Experts ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Project Level

The Complete Streets movement has become popular throughout North America as street renewal projects have begun to re-prioritize road users within the public right-of-way (ROW). Although the concepts and overall objectives of a Complete Street are becoming increasingly recognized in the transportation-planning field, a level of ambiguity exists when defining such projects through the existing built infrastructure. This major research paper has collected and presented data gathered from local transportation planning experts through the means of telephone interviews and a focus group, to understand how a Complete Street can be defined at the project level, and what factors might influence this definition. The findings of this paper show that the definition of a Complete Street can be largely dependent on surrounding context, as well as various considerations taken during the Complete Street's planning process.

How Transportation Planners and Decision Makers Address Risk and Uncertainty

2000 ◽  
Vol 1706 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shomik Raj Mehndiratta ◽  
Daniel Brand ◽  
Thomas E. Parody
Keyword(s):  
Cross Section ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Management Plan ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Risk And Uncertainty ◽  
The Public ◽  
Real Options Approach ◽  
Transportation Projects ◽  
Metropolitan Planning

A wide cross section of transportation planners was interviewed to understand how issues related to risk and uncertainty are presently addressed in the metropolitan transportation planning process. The results and insights from these interviews are reported. It was found that many of the current responses to risks in making decisions on transportation investments could usefully be explained and improved upon by the new options approach. The examples and the analyses of the interviews show that metropolitan planning organization planners and more senior transportation executives and decision makers are certainly aware of the risks they face in investing in major transportation projects. Furthermore, they already are capable of responding to those risks in ways that can be better appreciated and explained by the options approach. What is missing in metropolitan transportation planning, and in the public-sector investment community at large, is an appreciation that there are advantages to identifying and analyzing risks early in the planning process, and that investments involving risk can be systematically analyzed in a risk management plan that uses the real-options approach. This may result in (much) higher value investments to accomplish the stated investment goals, while avoiding serious mistakes in investing in projects that may fall far short of the investment goals.

Implementing Integrated Transportation Planning in Metropolitan Planning Organization: Procedural and Analytical Issues

1996 ◽  
Vol 1552 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Reinke ◽  
Daniel Malarkey
Keyword(s):  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Public Involvement ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Puget Sound ◽  
Benefit Cost Analysis ◽  
Metropolitan Planning ◽  
Total Social Cost ◽  
Benefit Cost ◽  
Integrated Transportation Planning

Integrated transportation planning is an emerging transportation planning concept that is intended to help seek those policies, programs, and projects that meet a given set of transportation goals and objectives for the minimum total social cost. Its elements include analysis of a full range of alternatives, the use of benefit-cost analysis to compare alternatives, public involvement in the development and evaluation of alternatives, analysis of uncertainties in forecasts of future conditions, and continuous monitoring of transportation system performance. The theory and methods of integrated transportation planning for implementation by a metropolitan planning organization developed for the Puget Sound Regional Council are discussed. The discussion includes how integrated transportation planning fits into the strategic planning process, the similarities and differences between integrated transportation planning and the current transportation planning process, and the analytic issues raised by implementing integrated transportation planning.

scholarly journals Understanding complete streets at the ground level: a look into how a complete street project is defined and influenced within the Greater Golden Horseshoe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Winters
Keyword(s):  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Complete Streets ◽  
The Public ◽  
Telephone Interviews ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Planning Experts ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Project Level

The Complete Streets movement has become popular throughout North America as street renewal projects have begun to re-prioritize road users within the public right-of-way (ROW). Although the concepts and overall objectives of a Complete Street are becoming increasingly recognized in the transportation-planning field, a level of ambiguity exists when defining such projects through the existing built infrastructure. This major research paper has collected and presented data gathered from local transportation planning experts through the means of telephone interviews and a focus group, to understand how a Complete Street can be defined at the project level, and what factors might influence this definition. The findings of this paper show that the definition of a Complete Street can be largely dependent on surrounding context, as well as various considerations taken during the Complete Street's planning process.

Regional Place-Systems Analysis Applied to Long-Range Transportation Planning

1996 ◽  
Vol 1518 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-21
Author(s):  
Leonard Voellinger ◽  
Claudia Oakes
Keyword(s):  
Long Range ◽  
Transportation Planning ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Project Planning ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Data Types ◽  
Transportation Projects ◽  
Environmental Considerations ◽  
Environmental Element ◽  
Cultural Similarity

The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) requires the integration of environmental considerations into transportation planning. Although previous legislation has required the consideration of environmental elements during project planning, ISTEA necessitates a different approach. During project-specific planning, each environmental element is researched to determine baseline conditions, and project plans are superimposed to determine potential impacts and the need for mitigative measures. This approach is appropriate for project-specific planning, but it presents only a snapshot of existing conditions because environmental data are changing constantly. The integration of environmental considerations into long-range plans requires a much broader focus. It must allow dynamic systems to change without affecting the plan's validity. A case study is presented of the Oklahoma statewide intermodal transportation plan, which uses recent geographic theory to integrate planning and human activity at varying scales. This theoretical framework is based on ecological and societal units of interaction called bioregions or place-systems. The environmental baseline and analysis for Oklahoma begin with the identification of place-systems in the state: areas of biophysical and cultural similarity and context. The delimitation of such regional place-systems is sufficiently generalized and flexible to accommodate many data types and sources, yet rigid enough to be useful for planning. Both quantitative data and descriptive information are included in an analytical framework suitable to relational data bases and geographic information systems applications. These are used to create a series of map and data overlays to project potential environmental impacts and constraints, as well as opportunities for developing future transportation projects. The methods used to delineate regional place-systems in Oklahoma and their subsequent use in environmental analyses and planning are described.

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