Draft Memorandum for the Record

Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization Congestion Management Committee Meeting

December 17, 2020, Meeting

9:00 AM–10:00 AM, Zoom Video Conferencing Platform

Chairperson

Jay Monty (City of Everett), Chair

Decisions

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Congestion Management Committee (CMP) agreed to the following:

• Approve the minutes of the meeting of January 17, 2019
• Approve the federal fiscal years (FFYs) 2020–21 CMP Work Plan

Materials

Materials for this meeting included the following:

• January 17, 2019, meeting minutes
• 2017–18 Inventory of Park-and-Ride Lots at MBTA Facilities
• CMP Work Plan FFY 2020–21

Meeting Agenda

Introductions

See attendance on page 4.

Approval of Minutes from January 17, 2019, CMP Committee Meeting

The meeting minutes were approved by the CMP committee.

Presentation of the 2017–18 Park-and-Ride Dataset and Dashboard—Ryan Hicks, MPO Staff

R. Hicks began his presentation by introducing himself and providing some background information on the CMP. He then explained the purpose of collecting automobile park-and-ride data and bicycle parking data at Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) stations. He mentioned that this was the latest effort to collect park-and-ride data, and the data were collected in 2017 and 2018. He stated that this presentation will focus mostly on automobile parking, with the bicycle parking data being summarized at a future meeting. 

Summary of presentation

The purpose of the presentation was to provide the results of the collection of parking utilization and capacity data at MBTA stations. Amenities and other features were also recorded. The data were collected on Tuesdays through Thursdays in the spring and fall, after the last inbound peak period train had left the station. In recent years, there have been several factors that have affected MBTA parking utilization, including parking fare changes, boarding fee changes, parking capacity changes, the economy, and the arrival of bicycle sharing and ridesharing.

The entire MBTA system reached a parking utilization peak in 2005–06. Utilization dropped between the 2005–06 and 2009–10 inventories, paralleling the decrease of travel during the great recession. Since the 2012–13 inventory, utilization increased nine percent. The commuter rail utilization largely echoed the pattern of the entire MBTA system. The rapid transit and commuter ferry utilization has fluctuated over the years, partially due to the closing of the parking lots near stations. A map showing parking utilization for every station was presented by R. Hicks, and it showed that most terminal stations are underutilized. One solution mentioned during the presentation was to use intelligent transportation systems to alert the public as to what stations have empty spaces, in real time.

R. Hicks then demonstrated the new park-and-ride dashboard. This dashboard was created by Margaret Atkinson and Ben Krepp, MPO staff. The dashboard has both a MassGIS and Open Street Map display. Every single MBTA commuter rail and rapid transit station is represented in this dashboard. All stations have bicycle parking data and where parking is available, automobile parking information is provided. This includes capacity, utilization, and vehicles parked in locations other than parking spaces or bicycle racks. The dashboard has detailed data for each parking lot (there may be multiple parking lots near a station) and displays general, private, and accessible parking. The entire dataset is available for download on the dashboard.

Committee members mentioned that it would be great if real-time monitoring can occur where users could check their phones to see which parking lots have available spaces. This, however, would be a project that should be done on a state department of transportation level, rather than an MPO level, as a real-time live data feed would be required. Additionally, the Boston Region MPO would like to share park-and-ride data with other MPOs.

FFYs 2020–21 CMP Work Plan

The FFYs 2020–21 CMP Work Plan consists of three tasks:

• Task 1 includes supporting the CMP committee, completing TIP evaluations, and working with certification activities to make sure the CMP is federally compliant.
• Task 2 is an update to the congestion management report. This update will be a summary of congestion for all modes to be displayed in an interactive dashboard. This will largely coincide with Chapters 3, 4, and 5 of the 2013 CMP report. The Boston Region MPO currently has most of the data, but performance metrics will need to be applied. Congested corridors will be determined from the data.
• Task 3 includes website updates and processing license plate data. This will result in creating an interactive dashboard that shows where people are commuting to stations by traffic analysis zone. Archived data dating back to the 2000 inventory can be added to the dashboard.

The CMP committee made a motion to approve the FFYs 2020–21 Work Plan.

Other Business

There was none.

Members’ Items

There were none.

Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:55 AM.

Attendance