CDTC's New Visions plan has
already positively changed the Capital District. Since its adoption in March 1997, the actions of many parties to
incorporate the plan's principles and strategies into programs and projects has
produced commendable results. By early
2000, CDTC's review determined that 38 of the short-range recommendations in the
New Visions plan had been implemented
in part or in whole. CDTC's
Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) efforts in 1997 and 1999 followed the
budget guidance and priorities set in the New
Visions plan, assigning nearly $100M in funds to new projects that create a
healthy project balance and implement the policies of the plan. Planning, programming and project
development efforts in the past three years have continually refined and
reaffirmed the concepts of the New
Visions plan.
Today, it is widely accepted across the Capital District that
transportation investments can add significantly to community quality of life;
that transit, bike, pedestrian, goods movement and aesthetic features are
equally as important as motor vehicle accommodation in highway design; that
technology can be used to assist the traveler; and that ensuring economic and
environmental health is an important objective of the transportation
system. In 1997, these were bold
assertions by the members of CDTC.
The growth in the base of support for the tenets of the New Visions plan provided a strong
foundation upon which to pursue a new
regional transportation plan. The
updated plan, now extended to cover the period to 2021, reaffirms the original New Visions approach. Since 1997, not only has plan implementation
proceeded at a healthy pace but federal and state funding commitments have
grown at a rate consistent with the plan's recommendations. In 2000, the Capital District was able to
adopt a plan that goes further than the 1997 plan in committing to, and
budgeting for, desired improvements.
As with the 1997 plan, full implementation of the new plan means steady
progress with physical and technological improvements to the region's
transportation system, coupled with significant land use and demand management
actions that dampen the rate of travel growth by one-third to one-half that
anticipated as the trend growth in the mid-1990's. The plan focuses on managing and redesigning existing facilities,
services and ways of doing business more than on physically expanding the
system. When linked to national, state
and industry actions that produce safer, cleaner, more intelligent and more
fuel-efficient vehicles, the plan will fully achieve CDTC's broad goals. Specifically, the updated New Visions 2021 Plan will:
¨
Reduce the percent deficient bridges by over
one-half from levels of the mid 1990's.
¨
Eliminate all poor pavements on the
Interstate system, nearly all poor pavements on the National Highway System,
and improve other pavement conditions.
¨
Continually refine design practices to
routinely incorporate pedestrian, bicycle and goods movement features; driveway
and signal spacing and signal control; economic vitality; context-sensitive
design; and environmental enhancement; whenever roads are reconstructed and
when sites are developed.
¨
Reconstruct over 500 lane-miles of priority
non-state streets and highways, many within city borders, to appropriate
design, in addition to continued improvement of State highway design.
¨
Complete bike and pedestrian accommodations
on the highest priority 300 centerline miles of highways and on much of the
rest of a 1,100 mile priority network as well as continued progress with
stand-alone bike and pedestrian projects.
¨
Implement region-wide incident management,
traveler information, intelligent traffic signal control and other
technological improvements known as Intelligent Transportation System
components.
¨
Test commuter rail, implement "Bus
Rapid Transit" in the NY 5 corridor and complete the re-design the transit
system to meet 21st Century needs.
¨
Maintain an environmentally-sensitive modern
fleet of low-floor transit buses and expand the bus fleet modestly, mostly with
smaller feeder buses.
¨
Integrate special transportation services
into the regional system.
¨
Increase the percentage of trips that have
an attractive transit option.
¨
Engage employers in demand management.
¨
Eliminate at-grade crossings on the high-speed
Amtrak system and eliminate 25% of grade crossings on freight main lines.
¨
Redesign of suburban arterials in the region
to improve access design, consolidate driveways, accommodate deliveries better,
and improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.
¨
Double the annual investment in spot safety
actions from 1995 levels and raise the investment in accident reduction efforts
on local roads to the level on state highways.
¨
Fully coordinate land development and
transportation planning processes throughout the region, including completion
of comprehensive community master plans, corridor plans and an update to the
"Regional Development Plan."
¨
Complete major improvements to surface
access to the Albany International Airport.
¨
Complete redevelopment of the Albany
International Airport, the Albany-Rensselaer Amtrak station and upgrades of all
intermodal facilities in the region.
¨
"Creatively" complete Congestion
Management System actions to address critical congestion along NY 50
(Glenville), Balltown Rd. (Niskayuna and Clifton Park), NY 85 (Bethlehem) and
similar locations. Demand management,
appropriate private contributions and designs that are compatible with the
surrounding community and environment are critical to successful
implementation.
¨
Complete a limited number of strategic
"Economic Development and Community Compatibility" actions, such as
the Selkirk Bypass, I-90 Exit 8 Phase 2, downtown projects, and canal corridor
projects. These projects are driven not
by congestion but rather by desires for community development and
transportation / community compatibility.
¨
Reduce exposure to congestion, increase
access to alternative modes and improve dependability of the transportation
service compared to 1996 levels.
¨
Preserve the Northway's vital function, once
alternatives are fully examined -- without major expansion of the roadway over
at least the next decade.
CDTC has enjoyed a long and successful history carrying out
the "3C" planning process required by federal law. CDTC's planning process has included
consideration of a wide range of issues in order to maintain modal and
geographic balance, seek innovative solutions and recognize regional
needs. The ISTEA reinforced
long-standing federal requirements (23 CFR §450.110(b)) that the TIP adopted by
CDTC be derived from CDTC's continuing planning process and related to CDTC's
long-range plan. Because the ISTEA, and
subsequently TEA-21, has provided increased federal transportation
authorizations and because it also provided greater programming flexibility to
the states and MPO's, the importance of the relationship between the long range
plan and TIP has increased.
An objective of the CDTC TIP is to make progress in meeting the goals and
objectives of the New Visions
plan. Within the context of broader
national, state, regional and local public and private actions to meet the
economic, social, educational and other needs of the region, CDTC's long-range
transportation system goals are:
¨
Transportation Service
·
Maintain or improve overall service quality
from current conditions.
·
Enhance the quality of life in the region.
¨
Resource Requirements
·
Reduce the per-capita resource requirements
related to provision, operation, use and mitigation of the impacts of the
transportation system from current per capita costs.
·
Reduce the per capita cost of accidents.
¨
External Effects
·
Build strong urban, suburban and rural
communities.
·
Knit them together into a cohesive
metropolitan area.
·
Support economic and social interactions
that accommodate population, household, employment and commercial and
industrial growth while improving environmental quality and enhancing the
natural and built environment.
The New Visions plan goes
further than stating these broad goals: Programming principles and a budget
that calls for "comparable progress" across multiple project types is
stated. The planning and programming
principles are organized under four broad themes:
1.
Preserve and Manage.
CDTC's highest priority is preserving and managing existing investment
in the region's transportation system.
Specific policies direct investment based on function and need; the
priority for improved design and condition of major facilities should not
depend on facility ownership.
2.
Develop the Region's Potential. The Capital Region is a single economic unit
containing a rich heritage, historic communities that cannot be replicated
elsewhere, vibrant suburban areas, abundant open space and recreational
opportunities, great natural resources and a highly educated work force. This region can grow into a uniquely
attractive, vibrant and diverse metropolitan area. CDTC will consider community development and regional development
plans as key factors in making transportation investment decisions.
3.
Link Transportation and Land Use. Local land use decisions impact the function
of the transportation system -- and vice versa. This relationship is paramount to all transportation planning and
programming decisions. Achieving the
plan's goals is as much dependent upon achieving unprecedented success in the
land use area as it is on improving the transportation system.
4.
Plan and Build for All Modes. Transportation planning and project design need
to consider and accommodate more than cars.
Pedestrians, bicyclists, delivery vehicles, long-distance trucks, rail
crossings and intermodal terminal access are among the modes and modal
considerations elevated by the plan.
The principles state when and how CDTC believes transportation investment
is warranted, and when it believes such investment is not warranted. New
Visions budgetary guidance is stated as follows:
1.
CDTC desires full implementation of all plan elements.
For example, reducing the percentage of
deficient bridges to 20% (one element of the plan) and improving bike and
pedestrian accommodations on a priority network (another element) are both
important and complete implementation success is desired for both.
2.
Under constrained budgets, preserving the existing transportation system
has a higher priority than making improvements or additions.
CDTC's existing principles and the New
Visions effort have repeatedly emphasized the need to maintain what we
currently have as a priority.
3.
Even under constrained budgets, making some degree of progress with
improvements is essential.
It is realistic and appropriate
to assume that some amount of highway or bridge improvement, bike accommodation
or access management redesign will be included in CDTC's and members' action
agendas -- even if budgets are reduced from historic levels.
4.
Availability of funds dedicated to a particular mode, system or purpose
frees up "flexible" funds.
Sources with a tightly defined
list of eligible purposes are a reality.
These benefit specific purposes directly, and other purposes
indirectly. Practically speaking, if
CDTA receives a discretionary Section 5309 capital grant for bus replacement,
or if State Dedicated Funds for state highway projects are increased, this
increase reduces the load on other, flexible fund sources.
5.
Priority for the use of flexible funds is not to be based on ownership.
This statement emphasizes CDTC's historic perspective, on funding, reaffirmed
through the New Visions effort --
funding availability and project design should be based on function and
location, not on issues of jurisdiction.
Based on these
principles, CDTC's approach to TIP development is based upon the conclusions
that:
1.
Flexible funds can be broadly targeted to
specific project categories based on relative funding need -- after accounting
for the availability of dedicated funds and after assigning extra weight to the
funding requirements of preserving the existing system; and,
2.
Project priority within a project category
can be determined based on need, cost effectiveness, urgency and other factors.
The budgets for
various project types established in New
Visions were used explicitly as a reference in assessing TIP balance and
influenced the mix of projects chosen for programming. Using New
Visions budgets to target funding to various project categories was treated
broadly during TIP development, as a guide in developing a balanced program
rather than a rigid funding sub-allocation.
Partly this recognizes the fact that the full implementation budget
estimates are imperfect and will be refined in coming years. Broad treatment will also keep this potentially
valuable tool from becoming a hindrance to CDTC's effective decision-making
process. CDTC is not a project sponsor
or builder, and flexibility is necessary to respond to those aspects of the
plan which are implemented.
The New Visions budgets were particularly
valuable in selecting a large number of new projects in developing the 1997-02
TIP. During the 1999-04 TIP and 2001-06
development, most new funding was dedicated to implementing the existing
project set. Only a handful of new
projects were added. But despite the
limited opportunity for new projects, the New
Visions principles and budget helped in project selection.
In addition to the
direct budgetary link between the New
Visions plan and the TIP, there are a number of policy linkages as
well. Integration of the planning and
investment principles adopted in New Visions
influenced every aspect of TIP development, from the types of projects
solicited from sponsors to the evaluation criteria used. Implementation of the projects in the TIP
will continue to rely heavily on a multimodal performance-based approach to project
development that takes into account community compatibility and economic
development concerns.
New Visions budgets include
all fund sources (federal, state and local) over twenty years. TIP commitments, complemented by non-federal
sources total to about $438M per year in the Capital District. This compares to the 21-year budget
averaging $501M per year. The two pie
charts (in the TIP document but not on this web site) compare annualized New
Vision budget targets by project type with the overall transportation-funding
picture for the 2001-06 period. The
contribution of the federal-aid program to meeting important regional goals in
transportation is highlighted. While
federal-aid provides for less than 25% of the total expenditures, it provides
for significantly larger share of system improvements.
The categories
within "Improvements" are directly related to the budget categories
established in New Visions. "Supplemental Actions" includes
bicycle and pedestrian accommodations, safety improvements, and goods
movement. Using the federal-aid program
to fund these types of projects was a major factor in the achievement of a high
degree of correlation between the long range budget targets and the short-range
capital program.