Appendix A—Policies Guiding the MPO

POLICY FRAMEWORK

The MPO operates under a variety of laws, regulations, guidance and policies. This appendix presents information about those that affect and influence MPO activities in the metropolitan transportation planning process most extensively, and reports how they relate to the LRTP goals. Table A1, on page 11, correlates the MPO goals with the laws, regulations, mandates, and guidance they address. The MPO’s goals are:

• Safety
• System preservation
• Capacity management and mobility
• Clean air and clean communities
• Transportation equity
• Economic vitality

FEDERAL LAWS, REGULATIONS, MANDATES, AND GUIDANCE

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (Title II)

Conformity determinations must be performed for capital improvement projects that receive federal funding and for those that are considered regionally significant, regardless of the funding source. These determinations must show that the MPO’s LRTP and TIP will not cause or contribute to any new air quality violations, will not increase the frequency or severity of any existing air quality violations in any area, and will not delay the timely attainment of the air quality standards in any area.

Transportation control measures (TCMs) identified in the State Implementation Plan (SIP) for the attainment of air quality standards are federally enforceable and must be given first priority when using federal funds. Such projects include the parking-freeze program in Boston, the statewide rideshare program, rapid transit and commuter rail extension programs, park-and-ride facilities, residential parking-sticker programs, and the operation of high-occupancy-vehicle lanes.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed:  capacity management and mobility, clean air and clean communities

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 40 CFR Parts 51 and 93—Conformity Regulation

The regulation implements the federal Clean Air Act with respect to the conformity of transportation plans, programs, and projects that use federal funding. It sets the policy, criteria, and procedures for demonstrating air quality conformity in the MPO region.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: capacity management and mobility, clean air and clean communities                                                                                                            

The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century Act (MAP-21)

This legislation requires all MPOs to carry out the 3C (continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive), metropolitan transportation planning process. Activities the MPOs must perform to meet this requirement include producing the LRTP, TIP, and the Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP). MPOs also are responsible for conducting an inclusive public participation process, and for maintaining transportation models and data resources to support air quality conformity determinations, as well as ongoing programs, such as (in some MPO regions) a congestion management process, and long- and short-range planning work and initiatives.

The MAP-21 legislation establishes national goals for federal highway programs, which include:

1. Safety—To achieve a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads
2. Infrastructure condition—To maintain the highway infrastructure asset system in a state of good repair
3. Congestion reduction—To achieve a significant reduction in congestion on the National Highway System
4. System reliability—To improve the efficiency of the surface transportation system
5. Freight movement and economic vitality—To improve the national freight network, strengthen the ability of rural communities to access national and international trade markets, and support regional economic development
6. Environmental sustainability—To enhance the performance of the transportation system while protecting and enhancing the natural environment
7. Reduced project delivery delays—To reduce project costs, promote jobs and the economy, and expedite the movement of people and goods by accelerating project completion through eliminating delays in the project development and delivery process, including reducing regulatory burdens and improving agencies’ work practices

MAP-21 also establishes performance-based planning as an integral part of the metropolitan planning process. Performance-based planning and programming refers to practices that apply performance-management principles to transportation system policy and investment decisions. In other words, a system-level, data-driven process is used to make decisions about strategies and investments.

MAP-21 requires that each MPO establish performance measures and targets that track progress toward attainment of priority outcomes for its region and stipulates that these targets are coordinated with those of relevant state agencies and public transportation providers to ensure consistency.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed:  safety, system preservation, capacity management and mobility, clean air and clean communities, economic vitality

Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU)

SAFETEA-LU’s federal planning factors are maintained by MAP-21. These planning factors are:

1. Support the economic vitality of the metropolitan area, especially by enabling global competitiveness, productivity, and efficiency
2. Increase the safety of the transportation system for all motorized and nonmotorized users
3. Increase the ability of the transportation system to support homeland security and to safeguard the personal security of all motorized and nonmotorized users
4. Increase accessibility and mobility of people and freight
5. Protect and enhance the environment, promote energy conservation, improve the quality of life, and promote consistency between transportation improvements and state and local planned growth and economic development patterns
6. Enhance the integration and connectivity of the transportation system, across and between modes, for people and freight
7. Promote efficient system management and operation
8. Emphasize the preservation of the existing transportation system

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed:  safety, system preservation, capacity management and mobility, clean air and clean communities, economic vitality

United States Department of Transportation 23 CFR Parts 450 Subpart C—Metropolitan Transportation Planning and Programming Regulation

This regulation provides the planning and process requirements for working toward the goals established in MAP-21 and addressing the planning factors established in SAFETEA-LU in the MPOs’ LRTPs and TIPs. This is done through a performance-driven, outcome-based approach to planning. The LRTP and TIP’s development process must:

1. encourage and promote safe and efficient development, management, and operation of surface transportation systems to serve the mobility needs of people and freight (including accessible pedestrian walkways and bicycle transportation facilities)
2. foster economic growth and development, while minimizing transportation-related fuel consumption and air pollution
3. encourage continued development and improvement of metropolitan transportation planning processes as guided by the SAFETEA-LU planning factors

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: safety, system preservation, capacity management and mobility, clean air and clean communities, economic vitality

Partnership for Sustainable Communities

This initiative is a federal policy directive for three federal agencies, the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to work together to promote and implement policies and programs that help address climate change and protect the environment while advancing the federal goals for transportation and housing. This partnership is a recognition that these areas are interrelated and should be addressed in mutual consideration.

The Partnership for Sustainable Communities promotes a set of livability principles to generate and support planning and investments needed to evolve transportation and housing patterns that improve access to affordable housing and transportation options. MPOs are asked to use livability principles to guide the development of their regional vision. These include: providing more transportation choices, enhancing economic competitiveness, and targeting resources to existing developed areas.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: capacity management and mobility, economic vitality

The Americans with Disabilities Act

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires all transportation projects, plans, and programs to be accessible to people with disabilities. At the MPO level, this means that public meetings must be held in accessible buildings and be conducted in a manner that provides for accessibility. MPO materials—both paper and electronic—also must be made available in “accessible” formats. It also means that the MPO must consider the mobility needs of persons with disabilities and the elderly when programming federal funding for studies and capital projects.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed:  capacity management and mobility, transportation equity

Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

This statute requires that no person be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin, under any program or activity provided by an agency receiving federal financial assistance. The MPO takes many steps in its communication practices and planning processes to provide for and facilitate participation of all persons in the region, including those protected by Title VI. The MPO also considers equitable effects (positive and negative) to these populations when deciding how to program federal funding.

Associated Boston Region MPO goal addressed: Transportation equity

Executive Order 13166

This Executive Order, dated August 11, 2000, extends Title VI protections to persons who, because of national origin, have limited English proficiency (LEP). Specifically, it calls for improved access to federally conducted and federally assisted programs and activities and requires MPOs to develop and implement a system by which LEP persons can meaningfully participate in the transportation-planning process. Other executive orders further expand upon and reinforce Title VI.

Associated Boston Region MPO goal addressed: Transportation equity

State Requirements, Policy Directives, and Planning Frameworks

Accelerated Bridge Program (ABP)

The $3 billion ABP represents a monumental investment in Massachusetts bridges. This program has greatly reduced the number of structurally deficient bridges (deterioration has reduced the load-carrying capacity of the bridge) in the state system, while creating thousands of construction jobs. Over the course of the eight-year ABP program, more than 200 bridges will be replaced or repaired.

Associated Boston Region MPO goal addressed: System preservation

Global Warming Solutions Act

The Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA), signed into law in August 2008, makes Massachusetts a leader in setting aggressive and enforceable greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets and implementing policies and initiatives to achieve these targets. In keeping with this law, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EOEEA), in consultation with other state agencies and the public, developed the Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2020. This implementation plan, released on December 29, 2010, establishes the following targets for overall, statewide GHG emissions:

• By 2020: Twenty-five percent reduction below statewide 1990 GHG emission levels
• By 2050: Eighty percent reduction below statewide 1990 GHG emission levels

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: System preservation, clean air and clean Communities

GreenDOT Policy

MassDOT’s approach to supporting implementation of the Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Plan for 2020 is presented in its GreenDOT policy directive, a comprehensive sustainability initiative that sets three principal objectives:

• Reduce GHG emissions.
• Promote the healthy transportation modes of walking, bicycling, and taking public transit. Use multimodal, “complete streets” design standards. MPOs are asked to prioritize and program a balance among projects that serve drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit riders.
• Support smart-growth development. MPOs are asked to make transportation investments that make denser, smart-growth development patterns.

The GreenDOT Implementation Plan includes the MassDOT statewide mode-shift goal, which aims to triple the current level of bicycling, public transit, and walking mode shares by 2030.

The Commonwealth’s 13 MPOs are integrally involved in helping to achieve the GreenDOT objectives and supporting the GHG reductions mandated under the GWSA. GHG emissions are taken into account. 

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: System preservation, capacity management and mobility, clean air and clean communities

Healthy Transportation Compact (HTC)

The HTC is an interagency initiative that will help ensure that the transportation decisions made by the Commonwealth balance the needs of all transportation users, expand mobility, improve public health, support a cleaner environment, and create stronger communities. The Transportation, Health and Human Services, Energy and Environment agencies and the Public Health Department work together to achieve positive health outcomes by coordinating land use, transportation, and public health policy.

MassDOT adopted the Healthy Transportation Policy directive that provides that all MassDOT projects are designed and implemented in ways that would provide all customers with access to safe and comfortable walking, bicycling, and transit options.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: Capacity management and mobility, clean air and clean communities

MassDOT Mode Shift Goal

In the fall of 2012, MassDOT announced a statewide mode shift goal: to triple the share of travel in Massachusetts that uses bicycling, transit, and walking. The mode shift goal aims to foster improved quality of life by enhancing our environment and preserving the capacity of our highway network. In addition, positive public health outcomes will be achieved by providing more healthy transportation options. The statewide mode-shift goal is an important part of MassDOT’s strategy for meeting the Commonwealth’s commitments under the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2008.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: Capacity management and mobility, clean air and clean communities

weMove Massachusetts (WMM)

WMM is MassDOT’s statewide strategic multimodal plan. The initiative is a product of the transportation reform legislation of 2009 and the youMove Massachusetts (YMM) civic engagement process. In December 2013, MassDOT released WMM: Planning for Performance, a single, multimodal long-range transportation plan. WMM: Planning for Performance incorporates performance management into investment decision making to calculate the differences in performance outcomes resulting from different funding levels available to MassDOT. The MPO will develop performance measures and targets in coordination with MassDOT.

Associated Boston Region MPO goal addressed: Capacity management and mobility

youMove Massachusetts (YMM)

YMM, a statewide initiative designed as a bottom-up approach to transportation planning, developed 10 core themes derived from a broad-based public participation process that articulated the expressed concerns, needs, and aspirations of Massachusetts residents related to their transportation network. These themes formed the basis for the YMM interim report (2009).

Associated Boston Region MPO goal addressed: Capacity management and mobility

Massachusetts Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP)

The SHSP identifies the state's key safety needs and guides investment decisions to achieve significant reductions in highway fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads. It is a state-driven way to establish statewide goals, objectives and key safety emphasis areas. The SHSP brings together all highway safety partners in the state and draws on their strengths to align and leverage resources to address the state’s safety challenges collectively. Statewide goals and safety programs are coordinated to reduce highway fatalities and serious injuries on all public roads most effectively.

Associated Boston Region MPO goal addressed: Safety

Massachusetts Planning Ahead for Growth Strategy

MassDOT, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development (EOHED), and EOEEA joined to highlight their common strategy and commitment to the Commonwealth’s sustainable development and the “Planning Ahead for Growth” strategy. This strategy calls for identification of priority areas where growth and preservation should occur.

Associated Boston Region MPO goal addressed: Economic vitality

Regional Plans and Programs

Coordinated Human–Services Transportation Plan (CPTHST)

The Coordinated Public Transit–Human Services Transportation Plan documents the MPO region’s unmet human-service transportation needs, describes the MPO region’s current transportation network, and provides ideas for improving transportation services. The CPTHST plan is prepared by the MPO to allow organizations in the region to be eligible to receive funding in the Federal Transit Administration’s Section 5310 transit funding program. This program provides capital and operations funding for services for the elderly and persons with disabilities.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed:Capacity management and mobility, transportation equity

Congestion Management Process (CMP)

The purpose of the CMP is to 1) monitor and analyze performance of facilities and services; 2) develop strategies to manage congestion based on the results of monitoring; and 3) move those strategies into the implementation stage by providing decision makers in the region with information and recommendations to improve the transportation system performance. The CMP monitors roadways and park-and-ride facilities in the MPO region for safety, congestion, and mobility, and identifies “problem” locations. It is an important source of information about needs of the transportation network.

Associated Boston Region MPO goal addressed: Capacity management and mobility

MetroFuture

MetroFuture, which was developed by MAPC and adopted in 2008, is the long-range plan for land use, housing, economic development, and environmental preservation in the Boston region. It includes a vision for the region’s future and a set of strategies for achieving that future. It was adopted as the future land-use scenario for the MPO’s current LRTP, Paths to a Sustainable Region and is the foundation for land use being developed for Charting Progress to 2040, the next LRPT.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: Capacity management and mobility, economic vitality

The MBTA’s Program for Mass Transportation (PMT)

The MBTA periodically prepares the PMT, a long-range capital plan for transit operated in the MBTA service area.  The PMT is not fully fiscally constrained, so it includes the major transit projects and programs the MBTA would construct if the resources were available. The current PMT, which was adopted in 2009, was developed with extensive public involvement. The PMT is the foundational source of information about needs of the transit system.

Associated Boston Region MPO goals addressed: System preservation, capacity management and mobility

TABLE A-1

Long-Range Transportation Plan Goals and Policy Framework

Source: Central Transportation Planning Staff.