18:05:11 Good evening. My name is Gary Roo. I'm a transportation staff at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and the purpose of our meeting tonight is to give an overview of the draft.
18:05:24 2024 update to the regional transportation plan for the Pioneer Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization with me this evening is also another transportation staff member Andrew McCall.
18:05:36 This meeting is being recorded. Please notify the PVPC staff if you are also recording this meeting.
18:05:44 All participants are muted upon entrance to the meeting. The name change function has been disabled. MPL staff will begin the meeting with a short presentation.
18:05:57 Approximately 20 to 25 min. We'd ask that you please hold your questions and comments until the end of the presentation.
18:06:02 If you do wish to speak at the end of the participation or at the end of the presentation, please click the participants icon on the lower toolbar and then click raise hand.
18:06:14 Somebody will unmute you and then we ask that you identify yourself with your name, title and affiliation.
18:06:21 And ask your question or give your comment. All comments that we receive as part of this meeting will be entered into the public record for the draft, 2,024 regional transportation plan.
18:06:34 We also ask at, telephone participants. Press star 9 to indicate that they would like to speak.
18:06:44 Again, the purpose of our presentation tonight is to give an overview of the 2024 update to the regional transportation plan or RTP for the Pioneer Valley Metropolitan Plan or RTP for the Pioneer Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization.
18:06:58 This plan is updated on a schedule of every 4 years. It's a requirement from the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration.
18:07:09 And it's something that we have currently released for draft. Review and comment. A link to the document has been placed in the chat function and will include in this slide show presentation as well.
18:07:23 And we ask that all comments if are they are made after this presentation Be made in writing and will have information on how to do that later on.
18:07:35 So exactly what is the regional transportation plan? It's a long range planning document. And in this case, our Horizon year for this document is the year 2050.
18:07:47 This document outlines the level of transportation improvements that we expect to see over the life of the plan. Are proposed to alleviate those needs for the system.
18:08:05 We also have to demonstrate conformity for air quality greenhouse gas conformity environmental justice and title 6 equity We have to demonstrate that the plan is financial constrained or that there is sufficient money to pay for the projects that are included as part of the document.
18:08:24 And this graphic is also a means to illustrate that the plan not only advances transportation improvement projects, but it also advances transportation studies.
18:08:34 So the regional transportation plan being our highest level plan from the recommendations of that document, we can advance studies through our annual unified planning work program which identifies transportation studies such as our top 100 crash locations and congestion studies transit route studies performance based studies to identify how well the money that's been spent on improvement
18:09:01 projects has been, used to date. And also to advance projects through the regional transportation improvement program or the TIP for short.
18:09:10 So this document. Can also. Be used in terms of tracking our performance measures and statistics.
18:09:20 When we say our plan is performance based it means we're looking at historic data to see how well we've done in selected areas.
18:09:30 In terms of improving the identified performance metrics for the region.
18:09:37 The plan is a requirement of the infrastructure investment and jobs act. Which is also referred to as the bipartisan infrastructure law or BILL for short.
18:09:49 This is the most recent transportation legislation and replaces the FAST Act. Was signed into law in November of 2021 it identifies almost 570 billion dollars for infrastructure improvements over 5 years.
18:10:06 350 billion are for highway program improvements. There are also many new improvements one of which is the carbon reduction program which is encouraging projects that would reduce carbon impacts on the transportation system such as electrification of vehicles and providing infrastructure for electrification of vehicles.
18:10:27 But this also is unique in that it is providing more funding opportunities for local governments. One example is a grant.
18:10:34 Entitled The Safer Streets and Roads for Hall. That is something that our local communities are eligible to apply for.
18:10:42 This is not something that has happened. In the past. The plan also incorporates complete streets or the ability to accommodate all roadway users as part of the street.
18:10:55 This is something that is not new in Massachusetts, but is new on the federal level and something that we feel like we're doing quite well in advancing the requirements associated with complete streets.
18:11:10 And then finally, new as well is the requirement to address housing considerations specifically and how they connect the transportation system connects to housing and employment.
18:11:24 We are a metropolitan planning organization. An MPO is a federally mandated transportation policy organization.
18:11:33 Our MPO, the Pioneer Valley MPO, is comprised of 11 voting members.
18:11:38 They include the secretary and CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the, highway administrator for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, but also the chair of the Pioneer Valley.
18:11:51 Planning Commission, the chair of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority and then you'll see, some mayors and, select board chairs.
18:12:02 Also, Rick Sullivan from the, Economic Development Council of Massachusetts.
18:12:06 We have a unique NPO in that if the voting member is not able to attend, they are not able to send a representative but in fact they have set representatives or alternates that would attend and vote on their behalf.
18:12:21 This is a map of the Pioneer Valley region and shows the NPO sub areas. We have 5 sub areas that are represented by the NPO representative.
18:12:35 The idea was to have both a regional fit for the sub area but also to have a sense of similar population size to the best that we could.
18:12:47 And, we've had this form in place for, many years now.
18:12:54 As part of the development of this long range plan, we've had a significant level of public outreach.
18:13:01 This started last fall in September and October where we went out to many farmers markets and as part of that effort we had a short survey we had some questions for people in terms of how transportation impacts them and the changes they might like to see in the regional transportation system.
18:13:22 And as we proceeded into November and December of last year, we went into 5 regional focus groups that focused on the development of needs and strategies and content for the document.
18:13:35 We did a little bit more outreach in January. This was some joint outreach with, the state, our state partners@mass.and also with our regional partners at the Franklin Regional Council of Governments are the planning region to the north of us.
18:13:51 And now that we are further along into the draft development of the plan and we have a draft out, we've been out again.
18:13:58 We've attended a few events. Tomorrow will be at the Westfield Farmers Market. We have another event in Holyoke later this month and, We'll have 2 more online.
18:14:10 Sessions, in July. We'll have more information on that later in this presentation.
18:14:17 As part of the. Initial outreach we had asked people a simple question. What does transportation mean to you?
18:14:27 And the intent was to give a one word response and this is a summary word cloud of a lot of the responses that we received and this simple question was a great icebreaker and really got people to interact with us and ask our staff questions in terms of the transportation process.
18:14:44 You'll see in this work, cloud, a lot of people took the question in terms of, well, it means car because I drive a car or a bus because I take a bus.
18:14:52 But if you look more closely, you'll see a lot of, comments such as expensive and convenient.
18:15:01 Lacking connectivity. There were a lot of people that gave serious thought to the simple one word answer and really took the opportunity to identify exactly what they like or dislike about the regional transportation system.
18:15:20 One of the other things we did was we had a short survey and so a simple question of What do you what mode of travel do you most frequently use?
18:15:31 No surprise over 80% responded a car. And, we're getting the remaining percentage looking at buses, trains, bicycles and walking.
18:15:43 We also like to ask people, what they believe the current condition of transportation. Is in the region.
18:15:50 Most people felt it was fair. About a quarter felt it was good. Only 3%, little over 3% felt it was excellent and 15% about 15 felt it was in poor condition.
18:16:04 One of the questions that we got a great response to and found some good information was we wanted to get a general sense of how working from home has changed since we developed the last plan in 2019.
18:16:17 And you'll see that. Quite a few people are reporting that they're working from home daily, 20% and many more are reporting.
18:16:27 Well, no, I'm at least doing some remote work a few days a week or a few days a month, only about 26 and a half percent said they're never working from home.
18:16:37 Dramatic change in trends from, what was happening just a few years ago.
18:16:43 And lastly, we asked people If they had the ability to fund the transportation improvements, if they could take a large scale improvement.
18:16:54 To fund through the regional transportation planning funds How would they rank those? How would they prioritize those?
18:17:02 And we had identified 6 projects. I feel like, most of the projects with the exception of the last choice, which is a project that would remove the elevated portion of interstate 91 in Springfield.
18:17:18 We're pretty equally, waited in terms of selection. And, it, shows that people have a desire for, a different type of transportation improvement.
18:17:29 These are really the bigger ticket, items and needs that we've identified in our region. But it really shows from a general public standpoint what people's preference might be.
18:17:44 Our regional transportation plan is laid out into 17 chapters. The first 2 chapters are identifying the regional vision and goals as well as what the transportation planning process is.
18:17:58 Then we move into chapters that are identifying public participation. And equity is an analysis of how exactly that, how equitable our transportation process is.
18:18:11 And how we meet the current requirements for environmental justice and Title 6 in our regional planning process. Then we get into several chapters on existing conditions, including safety, congestion, pay front, climate change.
18:18:30 And then we identify the performance of our transportation system. So, performance measures. That grading system that I had talked about earlier, how are we doing based on historic, data trends in, select areas, forecasting future growth in terms of population and employment.
18:18:49 And then finally, identifying the needs strategies and transportation projects included as part of this document. And finally, our financial element shows, the estimated revenue and the maintenance needs and on both the highway and transit side.
18:19:06 For the long range plan. We demonstrate air quality conformity and then we have environmental consultation which is a form of public participation that is targeted to environmental agencies so they can get a sense of how projects included in the plan might potentially have impacts on sensitive areas such as wetlands.
18:19:31 So the updated vision for our plan is the Pioneer Valley region strives to develop. And maintain a safe, dependable, resilient, environmentally sound and equitable transportation system for all using performance based strategies that promote sustainability, health and economic vitality.
18:19:51 That vision is broken down into 12 goal areas. Those 12 goal areas are further. Broken down into 5 emphasis areas.
18:20:04 And these 5 emphasis areas are the building blocks of the needs and strategies that we have developed this part of this long range plan.
18:20:12 The emphasis areas are a way to identify that. Goals can be addressed in many different ways and that many different strategies can, perhaps address multiple goals.
18:20:27 So we broke them down into the. Sub area of an emphasis area to try to make it a little bit more user friendly.
18:20:38 We have a total of 49 transportation needs and 66 associated strategies in the long range plan.
18:20:48 We've identified these as either in immediate future or ongoing. An immediate definition means it's something of high importance that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
18:20:58 Future means it's something that's more of a medium importance but it should be on our radar over the next 3 to 5 years.
18:21:05 And ongoing is just that. It's something that we're doing already and we would call it routine maintenance that we need to keep doing.
18:21:13 Like I mentioned before, needs and strategies are summarized by emphasis area. Those are all identified in chapter 14 and, are something that, we have gone through this process in order to link.
18:21:29 Things to really identify what specific goals they might address as part of implementation of the plan.
18:21:39 The projects that are included as part of the regional transportation plan have been developed in in a way that can enhance the transportation system in a manner that's consistent with the regional vision and goals.
18:21:53 We have a preferred scenario. On how we would develop our funding, this, pie chart that you're seeing on this slide is identifying.
18:22:03 6 categories of improvement projects. And in an ideal world how we would allocate the funding. Towards these types of improvements.
18:22:14 This, was developed in consultation with our focus groups. And also with the Pioneer Valley Joint Transportation Committee.
18:22:23 And then finally, approved by the Pioneer Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization.
18:22:28 So over the life of the document, we are showing in the financial section. How, much money would be potentially allocated towards roadway maintenance projects based on the, dedicated funding in revenue that's available.
18:22:43 We also, included in the RTP, a, well, it's a link to an interactive map that identifies each project that's included in the RTP and then allows the user to select the various layer that might be of interest.
18:23:03 To show how it may or may not be impacted by a potential project included as part of the plan.
18:23:10 That link is shown on this slide, but it can also be accessed through the RTP link that we've been posting in the chat.
18:23:20 This is the transportation evaluation criteria. We won't go through every single piece of this, but it's a means to show that we've also developed dedicated scoring for every project that is considered for funding in the region.
18:23:34 And this criteria was developed. Based on the goals of the regional transportation plan. And we identify, every year we score the projects and we use this to help prioritize projects.
18:23:49 And advanced projects through our transportation improvement program. But this was developed with recognition that we need a guidebook in order to make sure that we're advancing projects that are consistent with the vision and goals of the long range plan.
18:24:07 So now we'll move into some existing conditions for the pioneer valley region. We're considering, Horizon years in the document of 2030, twenty- and 2050.
18:24:22 We consider changes in population households and employment And these are used for purposes for air quality conformity and to identify potential traffic impacts into the future using what we call our regional transportation model.
18:24:38 These projections were. Developed by the US Donahue Institute and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.
18:24:47 And it was coordinated by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. If you look at the table down below, you'll see that our population grew slightly from 2010 to 2020 but the projections are actually showing significant declines in population.
18:25:03 Based on the information produced by Nasty OT. So the population in the households follow the same trends.
18:25:14 Employment is showing. A little bit different where we're seeing some growth out to 2030 and then some declines after that.
18:25:22 We also as a region. Wanted to identify our own. A scenario for growth on population employment. So the 2 charts that you see on this slide, the line in orange is showing the regional population projections.
18:25:39 And the line in blue is showing the state population projections. And the slide on the right is also showing the employment projections and, for both the state and the region.
18:25:53 We're using this regional scenario as part of our regional transportation model. And we we liking this scenario better because it does show us a little bit more of the potential for optimism, the potential for, the impacts of growth and if we're able to see.
18:26:14 Some major projects and improvements that we hope will take place over the next few years that we believe will have positive impacts on.
18:26:23 Population and employment. So our regional scenario adds another 16,000 people and almost 6,500 more households in 2030 over the statewide populations.
18:26:34 And you'll notice if you look at the slide on, excuse me, the chart on the right, the regional employment populations.
18:26:41 We're actually a little bit lower than what mass DOT projected for employment, but we're also not showing a decline in.
18:26:51 Estimated employment out into the future. We're showing more of a. Slow steady increase in employment.
18:26:58 And we believe this is more reflective of current trends that we've been seeing in the region.
18:27:04 And, is probably, more consistent. And in terms of analyzing impact of future traffic is something that we prefer to use, in terms of.
18:27:16 For R analysis.
18:27:20 The pandemic. That occurred, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, had a significant impact on trends in the region.
18:27:29 Prior to 2020 our transportation Growth remained fairly steady. If we look at a daily vehicle miles traveled the slide and the upper on the upper left of the slide that chart that line chart.
18:27:44 You'll see it's fairly consistent and but again, in the last year and 2020 we see a huge dip in vehicle miles traveled.
18:27:55 The next chart in the top right of the slide is showing traffic volumes on interstate 91 and again as we get further to the right of the slide you'll see all of these locations have a sharp decline in traffic from 2019 to 2020 reflecting less people driving.
18:28:14 Same result in transit that would, be the table in the lower left of the slide.
18:28:21 You'll see in between 2020 and 2021. These statistics are presented by the fiscal year.
18:28:28 So you see the huge drop in ridership from 2020 to 2021. When there was, for a while no transit service and then quite limited transit service and encouragingly we're seeing some recovery in those numbers when you look at 2022.
18:28:43 And the same occurred on rail when we look by station it from 2019 to 2020 we see a huge drop in rail ridership at each of the stations in our region.
18:28:56 Again, reflective of the state of our transportation system during the pandemic. Recovery is, has been slow, but, you'll see it's the state of our transportation system during the pandemic.
18:29:08 Recovery is, has been slow, but, you'll see it's beginning.
18:29:09 In some cases, it's actually improved and is exceeding, the numbers from 2019 and 2022.
18:29:17 We've had an alarming increase in motor vehicle fatalities and serious injuries in the region. The total fatalities in our region have been increasing over the last few years.
18:29:32 This information is presented by, both the total number of fatalities for the region and also for the state of Massachusetts.
18:29:42 That number is presented as a 5 year average and that is the columns on the top chart. We, have seen an increasing rate in our average, number of fatalities in the region over the last several years.
18:29:58 But more importantly, when we compare that rate of fatalities, now we move to the line chart. That rate has increased quite steeply, which is the dotted blue line.
18:30:10 Compared to the dotted red line, which shows the same. A statistic for the entire state of Massachusetts.
18:30:17 So something we're quite concerned about and we're in the process of developing some planning studies and working with our joint transportation committee to develop, some potential recommendations to improve safety in the region.
18:30:37 All the projects that come from the RTP. They must be so anything included in transportation improvement program must come from a conforming regional transportation plan in order to be eligible for federal transportation dollars.
18:30:54 The RTP therefore must demonstrate what we call financial constraint. Showing that there is sufficient revenue to pay for the estimated cost of the projects that are included in the plan.
18:31:07 One of the difficulties in doing this is that as inflation rises, the cost to construct a transportation project also continues to rise.
18:31:15 In our federal fiscal year, 2024 highway portion of the transportation improvement program we have approximately 33 million dollars to dedicate towards transportation improvements.
18:31:29 However, this really it will show in a future slide doesn't really get you that many projects. We also account for a inflation plan, at a rate of 4% per year.
18:31:46 Although we know from recent experience our inflation has been closer to 6 to 7% per year. And our estimated revenue over the life of the plan out to 2050 is approximately 8.8 billion dollars and we were breaking that down both by highway and transit in the tables and then also in 5 year ranges showing the
18:32:11 estimated regional discretionary spending. This is the actual dollar amount that we anticipate we will be able to program as part of future transportation improvement programs.
18:32:25 Again, we're talking about the impact of inflation. One of the things that we're seeing is if you look at the red columns is that We're constructing less projects in each year of the transportation improvement program, but that blue line is the average cost to constructive project and you can see how it's increased
18:32:47 rather steeply going out to 2023. This is something that, we are concerned about and, we are doing our best to identify the projects that we think are.
18:33:01 Is going to advance the vision of the long range plan. But we also acknowledge that we have a significant backlog of projects and we estimate it would take at least 10 years to fund all of the current projects that we have in our backlog.
18:33:18 We also are demonstrating in the document that there is a gap in the need for funding the regional transit system.
18:33:27 The estimated capital needs of the system are just over 1.3 billion dollars and I anticipated revenue is approximately 840 million dollars.
18:33:38 So a gap of almost 500 million dollars. And this again is something that we're demonstrating to show that there is a need for additional funding in order to properly.
18:33:49 Maintain our regional transportation system.
18:33:54 We also have included several visionary projects as part of this long range plan. The visionary projects include projects that aren't currently in the financial constrained portion of the RTP.
18:34:08 The visionary projects are included because we believe they are important but they either have an advanced far enough in the design process or they aren't.
18:34:18 Able to have enough information. To be included at this point in, the long range plan in order to amend in order to include a project and be considered for future federal funds we would need to do an amendment to this document.
18:34:35 And identify the appropriate funding source that would be available to construct. These projects. So these include, region wide high speed rail, East West Rail from Pittsfield to.
18:34:48 Boston, and improved intermodal facility in the city of Northampton. A improvements to the I.
18:34:56 91 viaduct in Springfield and also the electrification of the PVTA bus system.
18:35:04 Few slide next few slides will give you a little bit more specific information on a few of these projects.
18:35:11 This is a conceptual drawing of the I. 91 corridor, right by the Springfield.
18:35:16 And long metal line. This is improving the Aguam root 5 57 rotary. It would eliminate the rotary and proposed a, more efficient intersection.
18:35:29 It would propose a redesign of the existing ramp system from the Julia Buxton or South End Bridge at interstate 91 and it would also improve the area that is infamously known as the long metal curve where you have a lane drop.
18:35:45 On I 91 heading northbound and a tough weaving section from the on and off ramps from Root 5 and Long Meadow as they enter the, roadway.
18:35:56 So this is something that we would like to see advanced in the future and we're including in the document as a visionary project too.
18:36:05 Basically identify its importance. Passenger rail and specifically East West passenger rail is a very popular. Improvement project that many residents would like to see in the Pioneer Valley region.
18:36:22 This, is addressing the fact that we currently have one train per day that is provided, from east to west and it's serving Boston that travels through Springfield.
18:36:34 In 2022 mass DOT submitted an expression of interest for further rail corridor development to the federal railroad administration.
18:36:44 They have submitted funding for a 108 million dollar improvement project and we're also recognizing the Massachusetts state legislature has established the Western Mass passenger rail commission and we expect recommendations from that commission later in 2,023 but we are in favor of increasing.
18:37:06 Not only the number of trains, but the frequency of service and availability of service from the east to west through our region.
18:37:15 We have a number of problems statements that we've identified as part of this long range plan. We are, addressing these statements in order to Identify the biggest needs that we feel we need to be aware of as we continue to develop the transportation system into the future.
18:37:34 The first is that we don't believe we have existing resources to support the state of good repair of the system.
18:37:40 And, like we explained early, we're not seeing a proper compensation for inflation as part of those resources.
18:37:49 Second there's an urgent need to decrease the number of motor vehicle crashes that result in a serious injury fatality particularly for bicycles and pedestrians.
18:37:58 Number 3, existing passenger rail and transit service does not meet the needs of residents in the Pioneer Valley.
18:38:05 Expanded passenger rail and transit connectivity, particularly to eastern Massachusetts is integral to education, economic development and workforce development.
18:38:15 Number 4, there's a need for innovative, cost-effective intermodal connections independent of the regional transit authorities that support and enhance transportation options for downtown areas, village centers, and rural areas.
18:38:29 Number 5, increased in comprehensive resources and policies to improve sustainability in the transportation sector are necessary. The region is to meet its fair share of national and state greenhouse gas reduction goals.
18:38:42 We have 5 more problem statements. Number 6, the built environment for walking, bicycling and transit is hampered by significant barriers that include narrow road and bridge cross sections.
18:38:53 Disjointed, unconnected off road trail networks, a lack of sidewalks, uniformity and signs and markings transit access point and maintenance issues.
18:39:03 Number 7, the regional transportation system is not prepared to adequately support future change. The system must be prepared for the safe and seamless integration of concerns such as autonomous vehicles, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and climate change.
18:39:18 Number 8 people use the regional transportation system differently based on their age ability income occupation and residence. Regional transportation system must continue to evolve to safely meet the needs of all.
18:39:31 Number 9, there are inconsistencies in how cities and towns regulate development and their requirements to reduce single occupant vehicle use and encourage in alternative forms of transportation.
18:39:43 And finally, the regional transportation infrastructure particularly a lack of dedicated freight parking. Hinders the movement and distribution of freight.
18:39:53 So I'd like to thank those of you that hung in there for all of this presentation. We have recorded this and we will make it available for others that weren't able to attend today.
18:40:04 This slide is giving you the information on our draft project website. So the draft plan by chapter, can be, viewed through this link.
18:40:16 We also, are making people aware that our 21 day public comment period started yesterday on June, the 20 seventh and we will continue to take comments and into July 20 first.
18:40:29 We, are having 2 more sessions online. With what we're calling virtual hours we will not do the presentation again but we will be available to address questions.
18:40:40 And any comments that people might like to address during these 2 times. We anticipate, requesting endorsement for this long range plan at our MPO meeting on July 20 fifth and again we'd like to encourage comments in writing those can be addressed to me at the following.
18:41:02 Those can be addressed to me at the following email address.org or at the mailing address that appears on the screen.
18:41:13 Like the thank those of you and at this point in time, I'm going to see if there are any questions or comments that we can answer as part of this presentation.
18:41:25 So please use your raise hand function if you'd like to comment or ask a question.
18:41:41 Hi, thank you very much for that. I don't know if I may be the only one here still.
18:41:49 Perry Hall from Goshen. Thank you so much for putting this together. Are the slides available?
18:41:54 Well, this is a slide presentation available on either on the website link or to download.
18:42:03 Thanks.
18:41:59 We can make the slides available. We'll convert the slides to a PDF and we'll upload those to the website that appears on the screen.
18:42:07 I would Hope that we can have that done by the end of this week.
18:42:11 That would be great. Thank you. It's a very thorough presentation. It's a good summary.
18:42:16 Cloud through part of the document, but I didn't get through all the chapters yet. So this is a good overview.
18:42:21 Thank you.
18:42:21 Welcome.
18:42:27 Okay, unless you had any other questions and comments, we'll, conclude the meeting.
18:42:35 I'd like to thank everybody that attended tonight and for those of you that are seeing the recording of this, please feel free to submit your comments and writing through the information that you see on this slide.