Integrating Transit Into Statewide Transportation Planning

Following the passage of the Intermodal Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), each state was required to develop a statewide multimodal transportation plan. Colorado developed a “bottom up” planning process. The state is divided into 15 Transportation Planning Regions made up of the five Metropolitan Planning Organizations and 10 rural Regions. Each Region prepares a Regional Transportation Plan and these are then integrated into the Statewide Transportation Plan. During preparation of the first state plan under this process, there was limited or no participation in the process by public transportation agencies outside of the Metropolitan Planning Organizations. For preparation of updated plans during the next cycle, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) made efforts to encourage the involvement of local public transportation providers. In some Regions, public transportation providers were very active and contributed directly to the development of the plan. In other Regions, there was still very little participation by the local public transportation providers, and the plans contained very generalized transit elements. This paper reports on the efforts of CDOT to identify an approach to more fully integrate transit into the statewide transportation planning process. Within urban areas, public transportation is integrated through the metropolitan transportation planning process. In rural areas and small communities, there is no similar mandate. CDOT contacted State Departments of Transportation and state transit associations in 13 states to determine the processes used by those states. An extensive questionnaire was sent to each state to determine characteristics about their planning process. Responses were obtained from seven states. A key finding was that local participation in the statewide transportation planning process was greatest when the planning process had a direct relationship to funding. In those states where there was a direct relationship between planning and funding, local agencies had much greater participation in the process. From the responses received, a number of recommendations were made to CDOT to enhance local participation during the next update of the Statewide Transportation Plan.