Transportation Planning 101
Virtually every aspect of modern life is dependent on a strong transportation system. How we meet our transportation needs has far-reaching consequences. For example, good highways help attract industry and generate jobs, which strengthens our area. But we don’t want highways to spoil our natural areas, encourage development that detracts from our landscape, or draw shoppers away from our Main Streets. Done well, transportation planning balances issues such as economic development and environmental preservation and makes life better overall.
Why Get Involved?
Have you ever:
…been slowed down by heavy traffic?
…had to walk in the road because there was no sidewalk?
…felt like you were playing “chicken” driving across a narrow bridge?
…been late because you had to take a detour around a closed road or bridge?
…been without a car and had trouble running errands?
…thought transportation planning didn’t affect your life?
Transportation planning affects your whole life—not only your commute
Virtually every aspect of modern life is dependent on a strong transportation system. How we meet our transportation needs has far-reaching consequences. For example, good highways help attract industry and generate jobs, which strengthens our area. But we don’t want highways to spoil our natural areas, encourage development that detracts from our landscape, or draw shoppers away from our Main Streets. Done well, transportation planning balances issues such as economic development and environmental preservation and makes life better overall.
It’s your money!
Government money spent on transportation improvements ultimately comes from private taxpayers. You and your family and neighbors have worked hard to earn that money—don’t you want a say in how it is spent?
More viewpoints make a better system
The objective of transportation planning isn’t only to improve specific roads, bridges, sidewalks, bicycle lanes, bus routes, rail lines, airports, or waterways. It is to make transportation in our region and beyond work better as a system. That requires coordination and partnership to ensure individual projects make sense as part of the bigger picture—thinking globally, planning regionally, and acting locally.
Transportation planning requires a broad range of viewpoints to produce the best results.
Transportation planning matters
Whether you jot us an e-mail or lead a steering committee in developing a new major project, your ideas will be heard and your time will be well spent.
10 Tips for Getting Involved
- Tell us what you think: Complete a survey to contribute ideas for improving our area. Also feel free to call, e-mail, or write us regarding broad transportation issues or specific project questions or ideas.
- Stay informed: Sign up for e-mail notifications of the NTRPDC newsletter, which provides an overview of transportation and other community development activities in the Northern Tier.
- Seize the power of good timing: Understanding state and regional planning and programming cycles and proposing ideas or showing support for a project at the right time makes it possible for those projects to be considered sooner.
- Consider the big picture: Becoming familiar with state and regional long-range transportation plans helps you understand what broad issues and opportunities transportation leaders are working to address, and helps you make the case for why your proposed project is important in fulfilling the plans’ goals. Even better, become involved in developing the plans themselves.
- Attend public meetings: Open houses and other project meetings are a great opportunity to learn more about specific projects, interact one-on-one with project managers, and provide feedback. You’re also welcome to attend an RTAC meeting. You can just observe the meeting or speak up during the public comment segment.
- Voice your support: Help prioritize projects by expressing your support for those you think should be pursued soonest. Local, regional, and state officials are representatives working for the public. Projects with significant public support tend to move toward the top of the list.
- Speak up early: If you have concerns about a proposed project or ideas on how to develop a better solution, don’t wait! The sooner you speak up, the more influence you can have on the outcome.
- Commit local resources: When local money or labor can be added to the mix, much more can be accomplished much sooner. For example, if a municipality is trying to advance a highway expansion, they might agree to conduct the traffic studies, secure right-of-way, support environmental studies, or pay for a portion of the total project cost. A project with local momentum that is ready to go in terms of environmental or other requirements will tend to be funded before a project that may encounter delays and tie up already limited funds.
- Build partnerships: With so much at stake and finite funding, the transportation development process can become contentious or turn into a tug-of-war between communities. Really, though, we’re all trying to do what is best for our community, region, and state. We can accomplish much more by finding common ground and working together than we can individually.
- Be patient: There is just so much money to go around, so not every good project can be started immediately. Also, making smart, balanced choices and building quality infrastructure—while adhering to state and federal requirements—takes time.
People: Who Does What?
Plans: The Method Behind The Madness
Planning is done at the state, regional, and local levels. Certain plans are long-range, establishing a general direction for where we want to head over the next two decades. Other plans are very specific “programs”—lists of actual projects that are funded and in progress or due to be under way soon. Here are the major transportation plans and programs that affect our region:
PennDOT’s Twelve-Year Program is a compilation of the Twelve-Year Programs of NTRPDC and the state’s other rural and metropolitan planning organizations. It is approved by the State Transportation Commission and allocates funding for projects over the next 12 years. It is updated every two years.
The STIP is the first four years of PennDOT’s Twelve-Year Program, and contains all the projects in Pennsylvania to be funded by state and federal money over the next four years. It is approved by the State Transportation Commission and updated every two years.
Processes: How It's Done and Why It Takes So Long
Money is not the only cost to consider with regard to transportation improvements. We need to be careful about how much open land we consume, what our transportation habits are doing to the environment, and how our communities are being shaped by the transportation facilities we build. To ensure these issues are properly considered and money is well spent, federal and state government have numerous requirements that must be met and formal processes that must be followed depending on the type and size of a project.
At its most basic level, the project development process boils down to this:
Of course, it’s not really that simple, and every project is unique. The development process varies according to mode, funding source, location, and myriad other variables. For a major federally-funded project, the typical development process looks more like this:
A transportation need—such as the need to reduce congestion and improve safety on a stretch of highway—is identified by a member of the general public, county or municipal officials, planning or engineering consultants, or PennDOT. An idea may be informally discussed as part of a long-range plan decades before it is the right time to pursue the idea in more detail.
The county or other responsible entity assesses what it would take to address the need. For example, should the highway be widened and straightened? What would the project cost? This step may take a few months to a few years as various solutions are explored.
The proposed project is presented to the RTAC (led by NTRPDC), which considers the relative importance and urgency of the project, and evaluates whether there is a less expensive way to address the transportation need. With dozens of important projects being evaluated at any given time, and certain planning cycles to follow, this process also takes time.
If the project advances the region’s long-range vision and goals, it is included in the NTRPDC Long-Range Transportation Plan as a candidate project. The plan typically lists dozens of worthwhile projects, and is updated every four years.
If the project is determined to be necessary in the near- to medium-term and eligible for federal and state funding, it is added to NTRPDC’s TIP/TYP. That means that based on anticipated funding the project is expected to be launched sometime in the next 12 years. It still has to wait its turn, and it’s not always first come, first served. Projects are updated and rearranged depending on changing funding, availability of local resources, and the relative urgency of all needed projects. It can be years before near-term funds can be committed to a particular project.
The project finally starts! More detailed information is gathered on how the transportation issue can be addressed in the most beneficial, economical, and environmentally responsible way. Environmental studies are conducted as required and public outreach helps determine which option best suits the area’s needs and residents. This phase may take a year or more. Soon, preliminary studies may be undertaken earlier in response to guidance on “Linking Planning and NEPA” (the National Environmental Policy Act) established as part of SAFETEA-LU federal legislation.
After the “locally-preferred alternative” is identified and environmental requirements are satisfied, in-depth engineering is undertaken and the details of the design are worked out. If any new land will be required to complete the project, the process of acquiring the needed right-of-way begins. Depending on the complexity of the project, this step may take a year or more.
The construction contractor begins work, which may be executed in phases and needs to accommodate the weather, unexpected site conditions, and other considerations. Major bridges and highways take a few years to construct.
Finally the project becomes reality! The orange cones and bulldozers disappear and the highway or other transportation facility is opened to traffic. Certain benefits, such as improved safety and reduced congestion, are experienced immediately. Others, such as economic development, may take years to unfold.
Even after a highway or other transportation project is completed, it still requires money for upkeep. In fact, 80 percent of federal and state transportation funds are used to maintain our existing highways, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure. No wonder it takes so long to get a project built!