plan process
 

The Plan

Transportation plays a vital role in today’s economy, providing jobs and income, and supporting economic activity throughout the country. Travel is also an integral part of our mobile society. However, convenient travel options and movement of people and goods would not be possible without an advanced multi-modal transportation network, linking all regions, connecting small and large cities, as well as urban and rural areas.

Not only is it a federal requirement, but it also makes good sense to plan for future regional transportation needs, rather than waiting for a lack of maintenance and gridlock to set in. For those reasons, local governments in the Oklahoma City Area Regional Transportation Study (OCARTS) area have been continuously engaged in region-wide transportation planning since 1965.

The Encompass 2035 – also known as the 2035 OCARTS Plan – is the comprehensive, long-range transportation plan for the Central Oklahoma area. The plan will use current (Year 2005) and forecasted (Year 2035)

to model and analyze present and future transportation needs.

The Encompass 2035 will be developed in compliance with the current federal transportation law – SAFETEA-LU – the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, which was passed in August 2005. The development of the long-range plan will be based on a cooperative local, state, and federal effort, designed to preserve as well as expand the multi-modal transportation system.

Adoption of the Encompass 2035 is anticipated for the summer of 2010.

 

Process

Approximately every six years, the U.S. Congress develops a surface transportation act to authorize transportation funding programs, funding levels and planning requirements for states and metropolitan areas throughout the country. The current legislation, due to expire September 30, 2009, is the Safe Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU).

As part of SAFETEA-LU, the Federal Highway and Federal Transit Administrations require that all metropolitan areas conduct a comprehensive, coordinated and continuing transportation planning process that includes development of long- and short-range plans and programs. The long-range plan must include a forecast period of at least 20 years and is to be updated every five years. In areas designated as nonattainment for national air quality standards, the plan must be updated every four years and demonstrate that planned improvements will not worsen air quality conditions.

Metropolitan transportation planning is a continuous process. It involves a number of steps that begin with the monitoring of current, base year conditions including population, employment and travel patterns. Future population and employment growth are then forecasted to identify projected land uses and major growth corridors in the region that will influence future travel. This information is used by planners to identify transportation problems and needs, and to establish goals and strategies to mitigate anticipated problems. By analyzing a number of scenarios or alternatives and their costs, a long-range plan is developed that includes capital and operational improvements for moving people and goods that can be paid for with transportation revenues expected to be available through the plan’s forecast year. The plan is also evaluated in relation to its potential environmental and social impacts upon the region. Once the plan is adopted, it is implemented by state and local government entities using the federal funds provided through federal surface transportation legislation (SAFETEA-LU) and state and local funds. Short-range transportation improvement programs establish local priorities for funding specific improvements called for by the long-range plan.

The transportation planning process is illustrated in the chart below:
(Note: Unsure about needed format… please see chart in Holly’s file (on page 3) - Encompass 2035 Web Page Text-HM.docx)

Anticipated Document


The Encompass 2035 will describe how the region will manage, operate and invest in its multimodal transportation network over the next 25 years, based on cooperatively defined regional transportation goals and objectives, as well as supporting policies and implementation recommendations. The plan considers the movement of people as well as goods, takes into account all available modes of transportation, and evaluates potential social, economical, and environmental impacts.

The document itself will first describe the current socioeconomic characteristics of the OCARTS area and how the region is anticipated to grow over the next quarter century; then follow the mode specific chapters, which will give a brief description of the current state of each individual mode, discuss the relationship between the modes, list existing issues and potential future challenges, as well as identify improvements needed to efficiently and cost-effectively meet regional access and mobility needs.

The plan will also contain the discussion of several different future transportation scenarios or alternatives, associated benefit-cost analyses, and related potential negative impacts, along with a detailed description of the chosen transportation network alternative.

Throughout the Encompass 2035, references will be made to task reports that describe the data sources, methodologies, and analysis results in greater detail for those seeking a glimpse of the “behind-the-scenes” work that flowed into the development of the regional transportation plan.