New Visions and the TIP

 

 

Development of New Visions

 

CDTC's New Visions plan has 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 have produced commendable results.  The vast majority of short-range recommendations in the New Visions plan had been implemented in part or in whole by the time CDTC adopted an updated New Visions 2021 plan in October 2000.  The plan was updated through the New Visions 2025 Amendment in August 2004.

 

CDTC's Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) efforts since 1997 have followed the budget guidance and priorities set in the New Visions plan, assigning nearly $100M in funds in 1997 alone to new projects that create a healthy project balance and implement the policies of the plan.  Planning, programming and project development efforts over the past six 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.

 

As with the 1997 plan, full implementation of the current New Visions 2025 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. 

 

Critical to the TIP development, CDTC uses the plan's principles and strategies to guide the screening of TIP candidates.  The seventeen budget categories in plan play a central role in prioritizing candidates for funding, as well.  The interconnectedness of CDTC's plan and its TIP is quite firm.

 

CDTC recognizes that issues left unresolved in the existing New Visions 2025 plan require additional attention.  Efforts to complete a New Visions 2030 plan have included substantial work by five working groups, addressing the following:

 

¨      The effects of alternative growth scenarios

¨      Expressway management issues

¨      “Big idea” and “big ticket” initiatives

¨      Larger-than-regional policy issues

¨      Enhanced local planning in a regional context.

 

A Quality Region Task Force is specifically directed at certain unresolved issues related to regional settlement patterns and their relationship to quality of life and "visionary" transportation investments.  A Finance Task Force will review the funding needs of CDTC's plan.

 

 

Meeting Regional Goals through TIP Programming

 

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.

 

 

Programming Principles

 

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. 

 

For the 2003-08 TIP, CDTC again undertook a full solicitation and evaluation of projects.  As in 1997, the New Visions principles, strategies and budgets played a central role in project prioritization.

 

The 2005-10 TIP update included a “focused” solicitation limited to HBRR, NHS and CMAQ-eligible candidates.  Projects added to the TIP (after screening, evaluation and programming decisions) again help the TIP reflect the balance of initiatives shown in the plan.  Projects added fall into the following New Visions funding categories:

 

¨      Highway Rehab and Reconstruction (priority system)

¨      Bridge Rehab and Reconstruction

¨      ITS capital

¨      ITS operating

¨      Travel Demand Management (TDM)

¨      Supplemental bike and pedestrian accommodations

 

Each of these funding categories was under-represented in the 2003-08 funding distribution; focusing new projects in these categories helps move the 2005-10 TIP closer to reflecting the funding distribution by category contained in the New Visions budget.

 

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 long-range budget averaging $502M per year.  The two pie charts on the next page compare annualized New Vision budget targets by project type with the overall transportation-funding picture for the 2005-10 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. 

 

"Supplemental Actions" includes stand-alone bicycle and pedestrian accommodations, safety improvements, and goods movement actions, beyond those improvements incorporated into other projects.  Using the federal-aid program to fund these types of projects is a major factor in the achievement of a high degree of correlation between the long range budget targets and the short-range capital program.