Memorandum
Date October 5, 2017
TO Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
FROM Karl H. Quackenbush, Executive Director
RE Work Program for Community Transportation Program Development
Review and approval
That the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) vote to approve the work program for Community Transportation Program Development presented in this memorandum
Planning Studies and Technical Analyses
13288
Boston Region MPO
Principal: Annette Demchur
Manager: Andrew Reker
MPO Planning Contract #101725
MPO §5303 Contract #98873 and subsequent contract
This is MPO work and will be carried out in conformance with the priorities established by the MPO.
In order to support a range of improvements that aim to increase use of non-motorized and shared-ride modes of travel, including transit, the MPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), Charting Progress to 2040, designates a transportation-investment program—the Community Transportation / Parking / Clean Air and Mobility (CT) investment program. The objectives of the CT investment program are similar to those of the MPO's previous Clean Air and Mobility Program. Because many of the transportation projects and services funded under this expired program were found to be financially unsustainable without Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) funding assistance, the MPO wants to ensure that services funded by the CT program are able to continue without ongoing TIP funding assistance.
The CT investment program includes three categories of projects:
While MPO staff has studied similar projects as part of the Regional Transit Service Planning Technical Support Program and the First-Mile-and-Last-Mile Connections Study, we have found that maintaining some of these services has proven difficult for a variety of institutional, operational, and financial reasons. Therefore, a major component of this study is to develop a means of selecting and implementing financially sustainable projects that address CT investment program objectives.
The purpose of this work is to establish an ongoing process for identifying and selecting the most promising project candidates to include in future TIPs under the Community Transportation investment program by meeting the following objectives:
This work will be completed in the five tasks described below:
MPO staff will conduct a review of recent transportation planning literature in search of case studies of efforts that sustainably address public transportation mobility issues, including partnership models for first- and last-mile transit connection services and other approaches to offering better connections to existing and future infrastructure and public and private transportation options. Staff will focus on examining literature created by other MPOs, transit operators, municipalities, transportation management associations, and transportation network companies. Staff will look to organizations within Massachusetts and throughout the nation to learn best practices and insights on program administration and identification of effective and financially sustainable community mobility projects. Staff will use the findings from the literature review to develop a list of potential contacts to use in the next subtask.
Using the findings from the literature review, staff will develop a survey on the following topics for organizations that have experience with financially sustainable models for community mobility projects and programs:
MPO staff will use the list of contacts developed in Subtask 1.1 and the survey developed in Subtask 1.2 to survey staff at organizations that have developed financially sustainable community mobility projects and programs including first- and last-mile shuttles to transit. In addition to the list of contacts from the literature review, MPO staff will use a “snowball” methodology, asking survey participants to provide contacts for colleagues that may be willing to share their experience or insight.
MPO staff will summarize findings from the literature review and survey in a memorandum.
Memorandum summarizing literature and survey findings about financially sustainable community mobility projects and programs
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has undertaken several initiatives and funding programs for mobility management and community transportation that are also potential funding sources for community transportation projects. During the development of this work program, MPO staff has coordinated with MassDOT and other staff members responsible for these programs. To continue to coordinate efforts, MPO staff will convene and/or participate in meetings with MassDOT and other transportation planning agencies in the Boston region who are working on mobility management, sustainability, travel choice, transportation demand management, first- and last-mile transportation issues, and mode shift. Participants will include the following:
MPO staff will coordinate with the transportation planning agencies administering these programs to:
Based on the findings from the community transportation literature review and nationwide survey conducted in Task 1, and participation in statewide mobility coordination meetings and coordination with staff from other agencies in Task 2, MPO staff will develop a plan for the Community Transportation Program that includes a set of proposed methodologies to administer and identify, evaluate, and select projects in the CT investment program.
MPO staff will develop a model for administering the Community Transportation Program, including the following components:
MPO staff will establish evaluation strategies, evaluation criteria, and a rubric for evaluating projects, including needs assessments, demand estimates, and expected project effectiveness and financial sustainability.
Proposed Community Transportation Program
Using the results of Task 3, MPO staff will develop a presentation of the proposed Community Transportation investment program for the MPO Board. This presentation will include the recommended project intake, program outreach, assessment, and partnership models for this program that is first funded in federal fiscal year (FFY) 2021. MPO staff will lead a discussion with the board to solicit their feedback and to further define the direction of the CT investment program.
MPO staff will refine the Community Transportation investment program, incorporating the board’s feedback.
MPO staff will present a summary of the final Community Transportation investment program to the MPO Board. This presentation will include the refined project intake, program outreach, project assessment, and partnership models for this program.
Two presentations to MPO Board
Given the schedule for this study (Exhibit 1), during August and September 2018, MPO staff will use the refined methodology developed in Task 4 to recommend projects for funding in the CT investment program in FFYs 2021–24 of the FFYs 2020–24 TIP. CT investment program funding first begins in FFY 2021; however, MPO staff will begin development of the FFYs 2020–24 TIP in the fall of 2018. As implied in Exhibit 1, this task will occur in August and September of 2018. Therefore, for the first year of the CT investment program, MPO staff will be identifying projects for programming in the FFYs 2020–24 TIP well ahead of intersection, corridor, and other categories of TIP projects. In the initial years of the CT investment program, MPO staff expects to focus on projects that have been identified through previous studies funded by the MPO technical assistance programs that would be ready for funding. It is also possible that, in that first year of the program, MPO staff could instead amend CT projects into the FFYs 2019–23 TIP after it takes effect on October 1, 2018. This second option assumes that the CT investment program remains intact throughout the development of the FFYs 2019–23 TIP. In subsequent years of the CT investment program, the MPO may need to decide how to meld the project solicitation and evaluation process pertaining to this program with that of the overall TIP process.
Presentation to MPO Board
It is estimated that this project will be completed 12 months after work commences. The proposed schedule, by task, is shown in Exhibit 1.
The total cost of this project is estimated to be $85,000. This includes the cost of 28.5 person-weeks of staff time, overhead at the rate of 105.66 percent. A detailed breakdown of estimated costs is presented in Exhibit 2.
KQ/AR/ar
Task |
Month | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
|
1.
Review of Best Practices for Identifying Financially Sustainable Community Mobility Projects |
From month 1 to 5.
Deliverable A, Memorandum delivered by Month 5
| |||||||||||
|
2.
Participate in Statewide Mobility Coordination Meetings |
From month 1 to 13.
| |||||||||||
|
3.
Develop Community Transportation Program |
From month 2.5 to 9.
Deliverable B, Proposed Community Transportation Program delivered by Month 9
| |||||||||||
|
4.
Present Proposed Program to the MPO |
From month 9 to 11.
Deliverable C, Presentation to MPO Board delivered by Month 11
| |||||||||||
|
5.
Recommend Projects for Funding in the FFYs 2020–24 TIP |
From month 11 to 13.
Deliverable D, Presentation to MPO Board delivered by Month 13
| |||||||||||
Task |
Person-Weeks | Direct Salary |
Overhead (105.66%) |
Total Cost |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M-1 | P-5 | P-4 | P-3 | Total | ||||
|
1.
Review of Best Practices for Identifying Financially Sustainable Community Mobility Projects
|
1.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 6.6 | 9.4 | $12,989 | $13,724 | $26,713 |
|
2.
Participate in Statewide Mobility Coordination Meetings
|
1.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 3.2 | $4,586 | $4,846 | $9,432 |
|
3.
Develop Community Transportation Program
|
3.0 | 0.7 | 1.5 | 4.5 | 9.7 | $14,542 | $15,365 | $29,906 |
|
4.
Present Proposed Program to the MPO
|
0.6 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 3.7 | $5,556 | $5,870 | $11,426 |
|
5.
Recommend Projects for Funding in the FFYs 2020–24 TIP
|
0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.0 | 2.4 | $3,658 | $3,865 | $7,523 |
|
Total
|
6.4 | 2.7 | 3.5 | 15.9 | 28.5 | $41,331 | $43,670 | $85,000 |