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The United States depends on a safe and efficient transportation system to strengthen communities, provide access to jobs, services, and centers of trade, and, retain and enhance our economic competitiveness in the global marketplace. Transportation affects almost every aspect of our lives. The statewide transportation planning process is a forum through which transportation decisions are made to address these issues. States are required to conduct continuing, comprehensive and collaborative intermodal statewide transportation planning that facilitates the efficient, economic movement of people and goods in all areas of the state, including metropolitan areas.
Statewide and metropolitan transportation planning processes are governed by Federal law (23 USC 134 and 135). Applicable state and local laws are required if Federal highway or transit funds are used for transportation investments. Federal planning regulations are codified in 23 CFR 450.
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Training and Education
Technical Resources
Peer Programs
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 Related Topics
Legislation, Regulations, and Guidance
Detailed information on the federal laws, regulations, and guidance pertaining to transportation planning may be found at the FHWA Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty site for Legislation, Regulations, and Guidance and at the FTA Office of Planning site for Planning Statutes and Regulations.
MPO SAFETEA-LU Listening Session Web Conference — FHWA and FTA conducted a SAFETEA-LU Listening Session in a web conference format for Metropolitan Planning Organizations on November 29, 2005. The purpose of the listening session was to solicit feedback and input on the planning provisions in SAFETEA-LU that Metropolitan Planning Organizations thought needed regulation, guidance or clarification. The Listening Session was devoted to listening to participant thoughts on how FHWA/FTA should proceed to implement SAFETEA-LU.
Public Transportation Participation Pilot Program — The Federal Transit Administration is seeking proposals for research that will develop innovative approaches to improving public participation in the planning of public transportation. Research will be sponsored through the Public Transportation Participation Pilot Program, created as part of SAFETEA-LU.
SAFETEA-LU: Interim Guidance for Implementing SAFETEA-LU Provisions on Planning, Environment, and Air Quality for FHWA Authorities — FHWA interim guidance is intended for the use of FHWA and FTA field offices in working with their State/local planning partners and grantees in implementing SAFETEA-LU.
SAFETEA-LU: Interim Guidance for Implementing Key SAFETEA-LU Provisions on Planning, Environment, and Air Quality for Joint FHWA/FTA Authorities — FHWA/FTA interim guidance is intended for the use of FHWA and FTA field offices in working with their State/local planning partners and grantees in implementing SAFETEA-LU.
SAFETEA-LU: Transition and Implementation of SAFETEA-LU Planning Provisions — Additional "clarifying information/guidance" on the transition and implementation of the SAFETEA-LU planning provisions.
Local Officials Consultation
Non-Metropolitan Local Officials Consultation- TEA-21 legislation provides for States to consult with and consider the concerns of non-metropolitan officials, when making transportation decisions in their Statewide Transportation Planning and Programming duties. The final rule on local official consultation was published in the Federal Register on January 23, 2003 with a correction to the final rule published on February 14, 2003. The Final Rule clarifies the role of non-metropolitan local officials in the statewide transportation planning process. The final rule requires States to document their consultation process with non-metropolitan local officials that provides for their participation in statewide transportation planning and programming and that is separate and discrete from the public involvement process. The States are required to review and solicit comments regarding this process in order to ensure that the process is continually effective. All required States have documented and implemented their processes.
St Louis Non-Metropolitan Local Official Consultation Workshop — AASHTO, with support from the FHWA, sponsored a workshop to discuss experiences and suggestions on implementing a Final Rule on Non-Metropolitan Local Consultation. Specifically, the workshop provided a forum for representatives from states, the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO), the National Association of Counties (NACO) and other key stakeholders to foster mutual learning by sharing their experiences in implementing consultation processes with non-metropolitan local officials and to offer suggestions of how to enhance effective collaboration. This report provides a preliminary overview of the workshop proceedings.
Understanding the Communications and Information Needs of Elected Officials for Transportation Planning and Operations (Word) — The objective of this document is to enhance FHWA's communications capabilities and approaches with local elected officials (as well as senior appointed officials), with an emphasis on the linkages between transportation planning and transportation systems management and operations.
Briefing Notebook
 The Transportation Planning Process: Key Issues
A Briefing Notebook for Transportation Decisionmakers, Officials, and Staff (PDF)
The Briefing Notebook is a primer for transportation decisionmakers and stakeholders. It provides government officials, planning board members, transportation service providers, and the public at large with an overview of transportation planning in metropolitan settings. Along with a basic understanding of the key concepts, the notebook provides references for additional information. Part I discusses transportation planning and its relationship to decisionmaking. Part II presents short discussions of the following policy and planning topics:
- Air Quality
- Asset Management
- Financial Planning and Programming
- Freight Movement
- Land Use and Transportation
- Models and Their Use
- Performance Measures
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- Project Development and the NEPA Process
- Public Involvement
- Safety
- System Management and Operations
- Title V1/Environmental Justice
- Transportation Demand Management
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Training and Education
Formal training courses provide a rigorous background in the substance and methods of the planning process. The TPCB Program includes formal training in a broad range of transportation planning subjects. These sessions are geared to the needs of decisionmakers, transportation officials, professional staff, and FHWA and FTA field staff. New courses are being developed based on feedback from transportation professionals.
Transportation planning training courses are offered by the National Highway Institute (NHI) , the National Transit Institute (NTI), the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the Travel Model Improvement Program (TMIP) , and other organizations offering NHI, NTI, and FHWA recognized courses.
A number of planning courses are available from the FHWA, FTA, and other resources that relate directly and indirectly to Metropolitan planning issues. For more information go to the TPCB Training and Education page.
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Technical Resources
Publications
A Citizen's Guide to Transportation Decisionmaking
Evaluation of Statewide Long Range Transportation Plans — This report is the result of a comprehensive review of statewide plans available at the time of the review. The review also produced a database with detailed information on major characteristics of the statewide plans. We will eventually make this data available on this page. The goals of the research were to assess how individual states approach a series of important transportation planning themes in their plans; to identify national planning trends from this analysis; and to highlight "noteworthy practices." The noteworthy practice sections of the report provide short case studies of innovative approaches to the themes by individual states. The report and data base are intended to provide insights and references for state planning stakeholders as they develop future plans that are increasingly informative and useful for decisionmaking.
Examples of Statewide Transportation Planning Practices — Presents some innovative and unique planning approaches used by a number of States that may be of interest and benefit to other States.
Feasibility Study Procedural Guidelines — a guide to developing work statements for highway feasibility studies in which there are funds administered by the FHWA and to managing these funds.
FHWA’s State Practices Used to Report Local Area Travel provides survey information on promising and innovative State practices used to estimate local area travel in rural, small urban, and urbanized areas. The report may be useful to MPO and state planners.
Financing the Statewide Plan: A Guidebook — State requirements for a financial component of the long-range planning process have been much less stringent than those for metropolitan planning organizations. Questions have arisen, like why should state departments of transportation develop a thorough financial planning process as part of their long-range plans? What should they contain? What strategies are there to bridge the ubiquitous gap between projected revenues and perceived needs? What are the pitfalls and success factors planners developing statewide, multimodal, long-range transportation plans should consider? The guidebook is designed to help answer these questions.
Florida DOT/CUTR Long Range Transportation Plan Review (PDF)
Guidebook on Statewide Travel Forecasting — This guidebook reviews the state-of-the-practice of statewide travel forecasting. It focuses on those techniques that have been considered essential to good statewide travel forecasting. In addition, this guidebook presents specialized and advanced techniques of potential interest to persons involved in statewide travel forecasting.
How to Engage Low-Literacy and Limited-English-Proficiency Populations in Transportation Decisionmaking (PDF)
Land Use and Economic Development in Statewide Transportation Planning — This report provides an overview of land use activities of state departments of transportation.
The National Academy for Public Administration, under contract to FHWA, studied the effectiveness of state consultations with local officials that occur during transportation planning and programs. This report discusses the history of relations between state and local officials and presents information on practices commonly used by the states during their consultations. The report also describes principles of effective consultation that could be used to help formulate and evaluate state practices.
The supplemental report contains state-by-state summaries
of the processes used and local views on them. The Report,
Rural Transportation Consultation Processes,
(May 2000) and the Supplemental Report, State-by-State Summaries of the Processes Used and Local Views on Them, (April 2001),
are stored at the National Academy of Public Administration.
Performance Measures and Targets for Transportation Asset Management — TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 551: Performance Measures and Targets for Transportation Asset Management describes the research effort associated with production of the report and provides the current state of practice on the use of performance measures, principally in the context of transportation asset management. In addition, the report introduces a framework for identifying performance measures and setting target values. The report appendixes contain examples of performance measures and targets. The report is designed to help transportation agencies apply the concepts of performance management to their asset management efforts.
Security planning includes activities and products developed in response to identified criminal threats to high value, vulnerable elements of the transportation system. Preparedness planning includes activities and products developed in response to the threat of environmental hazards and natural occurrences. Four state and metropolitan planning organizations where researched for this report, which found numerous activities that can be characterized as contributing to the integration of security and emergency preparedness into the transportation planning process including: chartering committees and organizations; establishing liaisons or otherwise designating planning staff resources; establishing project categories and program funding; and conducting vulnerability and threat assessments. The four planning organizations investigated were: Houston-Galveston Area Council (PDF), San Diego Association of Governments (PDF), Oregon State Department of Transportation (PDF), and the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (PDF). Reports available in PDF format only. To request a printed version of a report, email kenneth.petty@dot.gov
Surface Transportation Policy Partnership Report and Guidebook — The Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP), released two new reports on the Federal transportation law. The Guidebook — A Guide to Transportation Opportunities in Your Community — reviews how Federal surface transportation law can be used to support local and statewide efforts to build more livable communities and expand travel options. The Workshop Report — Using the Federal Transportation Law to Meeting the Mobility Needs of Your Community: Report on Workshop Discussions, Findings and Next Steps — describes key findings from the STPP Partners workshop series, which were held in seven locations from January - June 2006.
Summary of Meeting on Statewide Planning Capacity Building (October 24-25, 2002) Chicago, Illinois — Staff from FHWA and FTA, AASHTO and a cross-section of State DOTs met for facilitated discussions to discuss planning capacity building in Statewide, multimodal transportation planning.
Transit at the Table: A Guide to Participation in Metropolitan Decisionmaking (PDF) and Executive Summary (PDF) — This report presents the observations, perspectives, and recommendations of a cross-section of transit agencies from large metropolitan areas on how to secure strategic positions in the metropolitan planning process. More importantly, the report can be a guide on how to use those positions to win policy and program support for priority transit services. The challenges to achieving full decisionmaking partnerships in regional settings, the most effective strategies for addressing these challenges, and the rewards of partnerships are presented by transit industry leaders using their own experiences. (January 2005)
Transportation Planning and Asset Management (PDF) — As transportation planners and metropolitan planning organizations evaluate current system conditions and alternate future scenarios to make informed decisions on allocating resources, they must balance funding realities with mobility needs; public expectations; and community, legislative, and environmental considerations. Transportation asset management provides a valuable tool to maximize system performance, improve customer satisfaction, and minimize life-cycle costs. New 08/09/06
Case Studies
Alaska: Evaluation Through Public Engagement Case Study
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT) began in 1996 to redefine the agency's relationship to the public. Through self-assessment, the ADOT determined that its communication was too oriented to public relations, resulting in a one-way flow of information to the public. They saw the requirement for proactive outreach to the public in ISTEA as an opportunity to create a two-way communication process and better define the role of the public in agency decision making.
ESTIP Case Study: ARC Interactive Map The primary goal the Atlanta Region Commission had for developing an interactive map was to make project information available in a way that the public could understand and easily access.
ESTIP Case Study: California Transportation Improvement Program System (CTIPS) The CTIPS is a database system that stores California’s federally required statewide transportation improvement program projects in a central location.
ESTIP Case Study: NMDOT Desktop STIP The New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) Desktop State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) is a web-based database enabling NMDOT, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, Regional Planning Organizations, and district offices to submit projects for amendments and adjustments for approval electronically. It allows the NMDOT STIP to be available to all the state's stakeholders and customers in a close to real time atmosphere.
Florida DOT Case Study on Public Involvement (MS Word, PDF)
The Florida Department of Transportation launched an ambitious statewide public involvement effort in 1994 to solicit the participation of Florida’s citizens, visitors, and businesses in developing the 2020 Florida Transportation Plan (FTP). FDOT recognized the need to more actively engage the public in transportation decision-making. Outreach associated with the plan consisted of more than 50 separate public events in 33 towns and cities. Locations for the meetings included airport terminals, FDOT offices, shopping centers and turnpike plazas. Over 3,000 residents, travelers and shoppers participated in the process.
Incident Management and Response (Incident Management Task Force, Chattanooga Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency): Most cities have some form of incident management activity. Typically, public agencies focus on carrying out their own responsibilities with relatively little interagency cooperation or public dialogue. Coordination between agencies and public stakeholders on a shared set of incident management goals can lead to increased effectiveness of an incident management program.
Major Facility Reconstruction (Blanchette Bridge Reconstruction Project, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT)): Major reconstruction impacts a wide variety of groups: nearby residents and businesses, weekday commuters, shippers, and public transportation providers and their customers. Working with the public and stakeholder groups early on to avoid and mitigate construction related impacts can result in less controversy, reduced project delay and improved public trust.
Minnesota Department of Transportation Case Study (MS Word, PDF)
Over the years, Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) has placed considerable emphasis on the need to continually evaluate the way it interacts with the public. Recognizing the need to involve as diverse a range of voices as possible to arrive at optimal planning and project development decisions, the DOT launched a study to examine ways to enhance the involvement of individuals traditionally under represented in the transportation decision-making process.
Neighborhood Traffic Management (Central Arcata California Traffic Task Force): Transportation facilities are aging and becoming more heavily used. When traffic impacts local neighborhoods, engaging the public about their concerns can assist public officials in deciding how to manage traffic more effectively and balance improved traffic flow with community livability.
Non-Traditional Performance Measures — The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials' Standing Committee on Planning has released a report that explores how state departments of transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, and public transportation agencies use non-traditional performance measures in their transportation planning and decision-making processes.
Public Involvement in the Development of Long Range Transportation Plans: Benchmarking Final Report (PDF)
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), a benchmarking study entitled "Public Involvement in the Development of the Long-Range Transportation Plan." The study was designed to provide metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) with new tools and innovative techniques to enhance their public participation and outreach during the long-range transportation plan development process.
Public Involvement and the Sagadahoc Bridge, Maine Department of Transportation
The MDOT chose design-build over the traditional design/bid/build process because of the need to expedite the project. Using design-build would move the completion date up by 18-24 months. The use of the design-build method presented challenges to MDOT and the local community regarding public involvement. As MDOT's first design-build project, there was no framework for public participation in a design-build context. The expedited project schedule gave rise to early community concerns about aesthetics, thus necessitating a forum for involving the public. Among the initiatives to meet these challenges were the creation of a local advisory committee, MDOT's hiring of a public relations firm and the use of a design charrette to elicit public involvement in the aesthetics of the project.
Public Involvement and the SR500/Thurston Way Interchange Design-Build Project
Washington State Department of Transportation
In April 1999, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) initiated a project to construct a new grade-separated interchange at the intersection of Washington State Route 500 and Thurston Way, approximately one mile from Interstate 205 in the city of Vancouver. The SR 500/ Thurston Way interchange is the first design-build project in the state of Washington, and is serving as a demonstration project to evaluate the use of this contracting method.
Links
FTA Welfare-to-Work (Job Access and Reverse Commute Initiative)
Links to FTA Welfare-to-Work documents, including The Welfare-to-Work Information Notebook, the Job Access and Reverse Commute Discussion Center, and TEA-21 information on Job Access and Reverse Commutes.
Planning & Operations —
This website contains numerous resources to help planners and operators gain insight into the links between the two fields. This site has a resource library of documents, presentations, and reports on current practices. It also contains a toolbox that gives examples of best practices, a calendar of upcoming relevant events, as well as a listing of courses that span the two disciplines.
Statewideplanning.org is a website of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Standing Committee on Planning. The website identifies and shares resources and best practices on statewide transportation planning practice.
Visualization can provide the public and decision makers a clear idea of the proposed policies, plans and Transportation Improvement Programs and the impacts to the human and natural environment. Visuals can make information instantly or intuitively understandable. The new technology has made it possible to communicate what the proposals may look like when implemented.
Other Resource Links of Interest
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Peer Programs
The Transportation Planning Capacity Building Peer Program is one of the most important pieces of the overall Transportation Planning Capacity Building vision. By providing opportunities for sharing solution-based experiences throughout the professional planning community, the Peer Exchange Program seeks to recognize, support, and promote good metropolitan, statewide, rural, and tribal transportation planning practices nationwide. Sharing ideas, noteworthy and solution-based experiences between Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), regional planning organizations, transit operators, state departments of transportation (SDOTs), and tribal governments not only strengthens transportation planning practices, but also builds relationships and reinforces cooperation between these agencies. The people who depend on the transportation system ultimately benefit from this peer exchange in the form of a more efficient multi-modal system that provides mobility and access for passengers and freight.
For more information go to the Peer Programs page.
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