Review of the transportation planning process in the Portland, Orgeon, metropolitan area

This report is the seventh in a series produced for the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center). This formal, comprehensive review of the planning process in the Portland metropolitan area was conducted by Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA), with the assistance of Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center). The federal review team met with representatives of the Metropolitan Service District (Metro) and the Southwest Washington Regional Transportation Council (RTC), which are the metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) for the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area; the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT); and the Tri-County Metropolitan Transit District of Oregon (Tri-Met) and Clark County Public Transportation Benefit Area (C-Tran), the regional transit operators. The meetings focused on the Oregon portion of the metropolitan area and addressed planning within the Washington State portion primarily with regard to issues of bi-state coordination. The federal team concluded that Metro and other area agencies performing transportation planning conduct a competently managed and organized continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive (3-C) planning process, produce adequate planning products, and use acceptable planning tools. Efforts are being made to implement a multi-modal planning approach, and the transit operators are involved in the process. The federal team developed a series of observations and suggestions to strengthen each aspect of the transportation planning process.