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by Harold Tull, Transportation Director

KIPDA is preparing to undertake an update of the long range Transportation Plan. Due to our area’s air quality status, federal regulations require plan updates every three years. With the release of the 2000 Census Transportation Planning Package, the availability of information from a household travel survey, and access to other significant data infrequently collected, the effort is considered a “major update.” While the update will include the standard transportation planning activities of reviewing goals and priorities, conducting capacity/operational deficiency, safety, financial, and air quality analyses, and facilitating public involvement activities, additional efforts will be made to further address evolving interpretations of federal planning regulations and best planning practices. 

In many ways the requirement to complete a plan update on such a short time frame undermines the goal of developing a comprehensive and representative Transportation Plan. It has been our experience that producing a transportation plan has essentially become a continuous activity. This has several implications upon the planning process, some of which include:

1. The quality of the Transportation Plan is compromised. The time pressure of avoiding a plan lapse can result in some issues receiving less attention than they deserve.

  2. Too few resources are available to address non-Plan activities. Staff time, materials, and funds now dedicated to frequent plan updates could be more productively spent on other aspects of transportation planning.

3. The frequency of plan updates undermines long-range thinking and commitment.  Implementation of most significant projects in a 20-plus year transportation plan requires political and financial commitments far beyond the three-year update time frame.  Frequent revisiting of the plan contributes to the attitude that no single update is very important.

4. Some members of the public become disillusioned and frustrated. Citizens can become confused about why they are being requested to provide input and review draft planning documents so soon after they have done so during the prior Transportation Plan update.  This contributes to public apathy or cynicism about the planning process in general and the Transportation Plan in particular.

A recent Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations survey indicated that 85% of the MPOs responding considered the 3 year update schedule too short. With the imminent passage of the next federal transportation act, now is the time to support the proposed planning provision to extend the schedule for Transportation Plan updates in non-attainment and maintenance areas. I encourage you to contact your Washington delegation and seek their support for an extension to five years.