Capital District

Capital District November 8, 2006

Transportation Committee

2007-12 TIP UPDATE

CMAQ PROGRAMMING DISCUSSION

PART ONE: BACKGROUND

Programming Considerations

CDTC’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) update appears to provide Congestion Mitigation / Air Quality (CMAQ) funds for programming to new commitments. As with the decisions made for the 2005-10 TIP, three considerations are discussed below.

1. Existing CMAQ Program Balance

CDTC’s CMAQ emphasis on operations is very high, in contrast to national practice. Approximately half of CDTC’s CMAQ program is committed to Transportation Management Center operations and the HELP patrol. Nationwide, only a small portion of “Traffic Flow” expenses is used for similar efforts. CDTC’s CMAQ commitment to bike/ped projects is also high, relative to national practice. Relatively speaking, CDTC’s use of CMAQ for transit is low relative to national practice.

2. Draft TIP Balance and New Visions Balance

A second reference point is the comparison of expenditures in the draft TIP against the budgets in the New Visions 2025 plan. CDTC typically uses this comparison as a starting point in “dedicating” the first round of programming to project categories that are under-funded in the TIP, relative to the plan.

Not surprisingly, the New Vision project category most under-funded in the TIP is pavement and bridge rehabilitation on the priority system. Recent work by the Transportation Finance Task Force and recent experience with high bid prices reinforce the conclusion that highway and bridge infrastructure needs face the biggest funding gaps. However, CMAQ is not an effective tool to fill that gap.

Of those project categories that can be helped by the available CMAQ balance, both ITS deployment / operations and “supplemental” bike and pedestrian actions (beyond those improvements made in the context of infrastructure rehab projects) are under-funded in the TIP, relative to the plan.

3. Air Quality Benefits

A third reference point for the CMAQ discussion is emission reductions. This aspect must be considered carefully. Nationwide, various studies have attempted and failed to document the absolute amount of emissions reductions achieved by the CMAQ program. The conclusion is that the CMAQ program is important to achieving air quality standards, but estimation methodologies and before-and-after measurement are too inconsistent from state to state to reach numeric results.

CDTC has long asserted that CMAQ makes a critical contribution to the achievement of clean air, despite the fact that vehicle technology will contribute to a far greater reduction in emissions over time than any combination of CMAQ projects can achieve. In CDTC’s case, the argument is that the overall New Visions plan – including regional and local land use planning and design; demand management; system management and technology; and strategic highway and transit projects will reduce future rates of vehicular travel and congestion from the “no build.” CMAQ funds a noticeable portion of some of these strategies (such as traffic operations) and complements many others (such as bike projects complementing land use strategies).

CDTC’s air quality conformity assessment indicates that Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) have already dropped by 35% and Nitrous Oxide emissions by 20% from 1990 levels primarily due to vehicle technology. A further 77% reduction in VOC and 87% reduction in NOx is forecast by 2025. Financially-constrained implementation of CDTC’s New Visions plan will drop VOC another 17% and NOx another 10% from the no-build 2025 levels. CMAQ projects contribute a portion of that additional reduction.

Calculations from projects obligated in New York State over a two-year period (FFY03 and FFY04) give the following crude relative impacts:

Demand Management

and Shared Ride 1027 kg VOC /day $6.050 M 0.14 kg/day per $

Ped/Bike Facilities 15.9 kg VOC/day $0.676 M 0.02 kg/day per $

Traffic Flow 1886 kg VOC/day $44.9 M 0.04 kg/day per $

Transit 1094 kg VOC/day $144 M 0.008 kg/day per $

The average cost effectiveness over the first 13 years of New York’s CMAQ program has been 0.05 kg/day per $.

Emissions reductions and cost-effectiveness in the CMAQ program were paramount in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee language included in SAFETEA-LU to require states and MPOs to give “priority” to diesel retrofits in distributing CMAQ funds, and extend CMAQ eligibility to off-road retrofits. In 2002, FHWA stated in reference to off-road emissions:

The emissions performance of off-highway mobile sources has been even more troubling. For volatile organic compounds (VOC), on-road emissions were down 59 percent from 1970-1999, but non-road engines-many of which are diesel-registered an increase of 72 percent over the period. While on-road emissions of NOx increased a modest 16 percent during this same period, the off-road inventory rose 186 percent. These increases pose significant challenges for areas to reach their emissions reduction targets. In addition, much of this fleet is at least indirectly linked to transportation programs, e.g. highway construction vehicles, port handling equipment, and other off-road mobile sources. Source: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/cmaqpgs/retrowhi.htm

On an emissions reduction efficiency basis, diesel retrofits appear to have merit.

Programming Implications

The implications of the three considerations above are mixed. Given its starting point of a balanced TIP and a broad array of CMAQ commitments, CDTC could choose to emphasize one or two project categories or fund a number of initiatives and support the decision on the basis of air quality and the benefits of integrated transportation planning and operations. National practice, New Visions’ funding needs and air quality cost-effectiveness provide slightly different inferences.

PART TWO

Introduction

At its October 4, 2006 meeting, the CDTC Planning Committee agreed to consider alternative program-level packages for the use of available CMAQ funds for the 2007-12 TIP, rather than try to compare disparate project candidates head to head. At its November 1, 2006 meeting, the Planning Committee agreed on one “bundle” of categorical funding commitments to forward to the CDTC Policy Board for public review and comment.

After review and comment, the Planning Committee will take action at its February meeting to reaffirm or revise this recommendation and incorporate it into the draft 2007-12 Transportation Improvement Program for consideration by the Policy Board.

The Recommended Bundle

Alternative funding bundles were considered by the Planning Committee. Some emphasize operations, other have a heavy emphasis on transit vehicle replacement with cleaner engines. Another would put a great emphasis on intersection improvements such as roundabouts. An estimate of the maximum feasible commitment of CMAQ funds to the various categories summed to over $100 million; approximately $24 M is expected to be available to program.

Discussion at the November meeting led the Planning Committee to agree to a bundle that balances commitments of additional funds to operations, transit vehicle replacement and intersection (roundabout) improvements with modest additional funding to bike/pedestrian projects and a fleet / off-road diesel retrofit pilot effort. This last entry is a direct response to Congressional intent and language of SAFETEA-LU.

For public review and comment, the Planning Committee recommends that CDTC release the following bundle of categorical commitments with the intention that they be incorporated into the 2007-12 TIP.

Recommended Bundle of CMAQ Categorical Commitments

for Consideration for the 2007-12 Transportation Improvement Program

Category	Existing 7-year TIP Budget ($M)	Recommended Additional / Total ($M)	Notes
Operations	21.527	8.000 / 29.527	Continued growth in effort, cost of regional operations. Resources to respond to direction established by new Regional Operations Committee. New Traffic Management Center planned; budget uncertain.
Travel Demand Management / Vanpool	3.846	0 / 3.846	Additional pilot programs, large vanpool seed effort possible. Without additional funding, will rely on current commitments and more modest efforts.
Bus Replacements	3.350	8.000 / 11.350	CDTA is initiating new fleet replacement cycle. CMAQ funds focused on diesel-electric hybrid benefits. Initial plan is to cover incremental cost.
Vehicle Inspections	0	0 / 0	No current need
Alt fuel, retrofit: transit vehicles, facilities	0	0 / 0	Could cover cost of clean diesel retrofit as part of CDTA bus overhauls (60-120 vehicles). Discussion led to focus on new vehicles only for CMAQ participation.
Alt fuel, retrofit: other fleets and off-road vehicles	0	2.000 / 2.000	New program established in response to SAFETEA-LU priority would provide assistance in retrofitting fleets and off-road (construction, etc.) equipment cost-effectively with clean diesel or other equipment.
Bus Service	1.000	0 / 1.000	Could expand current program to support operating costs of new transit service during pilot period.
Amtrak Service / Stations	0	0 / 0	Possible source to expand service.
Bike/Ped Network	4.530	1.000 / 5.530	Provides for implementation of recommended actions in Linkage studies.
Trails	3.140	0 / 3.140
Traffic Signal / TSP	11.050	0 / 11.050	Could expand current program for systematic signal upgrades, integration, and transit prioritization.
Intersection / Queue Jumper / Roundabouts	1.230	5.000 / 6.230	Provides resources to implement some of the many roundabout candidates regionwide.
Park & Ride Lots	1.792	0 / 0	Existing program could be expanded modestly.
Marketing/ Planning	0.795	0 / 0.795	Transit-oriented Corridor Management Initiative planning efforts could be expanded.
ITS Set-aside	5.710	0 / 5.710	Regional set-aside could be expanded to leave room for new initiatives that come up between updates.