Urban transportation planning
process
Urban Transportation Planning
• Vital to an area’s economic and social health
by moving people and goods (sometimes also
used to revitalize the economic activity of an
area)
• Conflicting goals/agenda for areas in the same
region, represented by different groups
• Funds are limited
Urban transportation planning is a regional
process cooperated by all levels of
government as required by federal regulation,
a political process, and an analytical process
Federal laws require regional transportation
planning (long-range planning) for large- and
medium-sized urban areas in order to qualify
for federal highway and transit funding
Early highway planning
• Federal-aid highway act of 1925
• Federal-aid highway act of 1934
• First manual on uniform traffic control devices
published by BPR in 1935
• A study of toll roads and free roads in 1937
ordered by President Roosevelt
• First version of highway capacity manual in
late 1940s.
After the war
• Highway revenue act of 1956: creation of
highway trust fund
• Federal-aid highway act of 1956 formally
kicked off the interstate highway construction
program
• 1960s: oppositions to freeways
• Robert Eyre on the history of I-90 planning
• William Merry, automobile club of
Washington
• Ed Banks, Center area resident
The environment and citizen
development
• Two-hearing process for highway projects
– Corridor public hearing before the route location
decision was made and was designed for citizens
to comment on the need and location of the
project
– Highway design public meeting on specific
location and design features
• This was later deemed inadequate and the 3C
planning process required public participation
throughout all phases of a planning process
Federal highway act of 1963 (3C)
• Continuing: the need to periodically reevaluate
and update a transportation plan
• Cooperative: to include not only cooperation
between the federal, state, and local levels of
government but also among the various
agencies within the same level of government
• Comprehensive: to include the basic ten
elements of a 3C planning process for which
inventories and analyses were required.
Ten basic elements of 3C process
1. economic factors affecting development
2. population
3. land use
4. transportation factors including those for mass transportation
5. travel patterns
6. terminal and transfer facilities
7. traffic control features
8. zoning ordinance, subdivision regulation, building codes etc
9. financial resources
10. social and community value factors such as preservation of
open space, park& recreat. facilities etc
As early as in 1960s,
Steps were defined in a 3C planning process:
• Establish an organization to carry out the planning process
• Development of local goals/objectives
• Surveys and inventories of existing conditions and facilities
• Analysis of current condition and calibration of forecasting
techniques
• Forecasting of future activities and travel
• Evaluation of alternative transportation networks resulting
in recommended transportation plan
• Staging of transportation plan
• Identification of resources to implement the plan
Transit planning
• In the early days, transit operators also did
transit planning and federal assistance was
not available,
• Creation of Chicago Transit Authority, Boston’s
Metropolitan Transit Authority, and NYC
Transit Authority
• Urban mass transportation act of 1964
Urban mass transportation act of 1970
• 2nd landmark in federal financing for mass
transportation
• Provided long-term federal commitment
• Established 2% of the capital funds and 1.5%
of the research funds be set aside to serve the
disadvantaged (elderly, handicapped)
Federal-aid highway act of 1973
• Federal-aid funds can be used for capital expenditures
on urban mass transportation projects
• Funds for highway could be relinquished and replaced
by an equivalent amount from the general fund and
spent on mass transportation projects
• Raised federal share on mass transportation projects to
80% share
• Permitted highway funds for bus related facilities such
as park and ride
• For the first time, urban transp. Planning was funded
separately: ½ of 1% of all federal-aid funds
National mass transportation
assistance act of 1974
• Authorized for the first time the use of federal
funds for transit operating assistance