Transportation planning provides a foundation for making good decisions. Transportation planners analyze information on existing and future travel patterns, problems, and needs; develop and evaluate alternative solutions to meet these needs; and develop short and long range plans and programs to implement transportation improvements. Transportation planners work for and with a variety of stakeholders including local, regional, and state governments and agencies; transportation planning, funding, and operating entities; and the private sector. Transportation planners are further engaged in a number of technical analyses, including travel forecasting; capital, operations, and maintenance costing; environmental, social, land use, and other impacts analyses; project, program, and systems performance measurement and evaluation; and financial planning.
FTA supports transportation planners and the transportation planning practice in a number of ways. FTA administers metropolitan planning (49 USC §5303) and statewide planning (49 USC §5304) grant programs to help fund the multimodal transportation planning efforts of metropolitan planning organizations and state departments of transportation. FTA formula funding (49 USC §5307) may also be used by grantees to support their planning needs. FTA also provides technical assistance on a broad range of planning topics including regional and statewide planning and programming; corridor planning for major capital investments; environmental project reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) and related laws; travel demand forecasting and analysis; capital costing; operations planning and costing; financial planning and analysis; land use planning; and public involvement.
In cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, FTA provides a variety of assistance and resources on planning and environmental procedures and methods, including the joint Transportation Planning Capacity Building Program; support of the transportation planning certification review process; implementation of the conformity provisions of the Clean Air Act as amended in 1990; and travel demand forecasting through the Travel Model Improvement Program.
FTA planning assistance is organized within the following three areas: transportation systems planning, project planning and development, and environmental review of proposed projects.
