Last month Metro invited the public to submit comments on the draft 2035 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The plan lays out goals and outcomes-based processes for addressing climate change, connecting affordable housing with transportation options, creating more opportunities for healthy and active living, and addressing equity and environmental issues.

However, the BTA finds that the RTP project list fails to meet the recommendations of Metro's own goals and guiding principles as they were stated in the Making the Greatest Place report, which contains recommendations from local leaders and regional partners on managing growth and investing in sustainable, healthy communities. Of the approximately $20 billion project list, 58% are roadway projects. These include increasing the number of lanes and interchanges on existing roads and building new ones.

In our official comments to Metro on the RTP, the BTA wrote:
There are also many strong elements to the RTP, and the BTA believes that Metro is making incremental progress towards achieving a balanced and healthy transportation system. However we must again stress that this incremental progress, on the whole, is not sufficient towards changing the overall reliance on automobiles and the associated consequences, including poor environment, high system and user costs, increased travel time and predictability, inactive and unhealthy population, and inequity of access for the total population.

Further, a study on RTP performance measures shows the region would get closer to meeting greenhouse gas emission goals by not building out the RTP project list.

Chart from an October 12 presentation on performance targets.

The study also predicted that vehicle miles traveled per capita would be slightly worse with a full-build vs. no-build, and congestion would be comparable in all three. The only performance target in which the full-build option significantly outperforms the no-build is in hours of delay on the regional freight network (and all projections are far above 2005 levels). Click here to download a full slideshow from the presentation (pdf).

Bicycle Element
The RTP lays out a vision for a seamless network of bicycle facilities that is interconnected with pedestrian and transit networks. The BTA strongly supports the concept of a Bike Parkway as the backbone of this mobility network.

However, the BTA is skeptical of roadway projects classified as "multimodal" that mention bicycle, pedestrian and/or transit improvements without information about specific elements and project costs. A more detailed breakdown of the project would reveal to what extent these bike and pedestrian improvements go beyond the legally required minimum, and whether the project is truly multimodal.

Additional BTA recommendations:

• Provide much more rigorous screening criteria which projects from local jurisdictions must pass to make the RTP project list
• JPACT and/or MPAC should convene subcommittees on equity and global warming
• Emphasize maintaining our existing transportation infrastructure, rather than just building more roadway projects
• Steer away from using "congestion" as a negative performance target. All successful cities have congestion. "Travel time" and "reliability" are more direct measurements of progress toward meeting transportation goals.

Click here to read the full letter with comments from Executive Director Scott Bricker.

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