HD10 - VTrans 2025: Virginia's Statewide Multimodal Long-Range Transportation Plan - Phase One


Executive Summary:
VTrans2025, Virginia's statewide multimodal long-range transportation plan, will be developed by the Secretary of Transportation through the four state transportation modal agencies - Department of Aviation (DOAV), Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT), Port Authority (VPA), and the Department of Transportation (VDOT). The plan's development will be guided by § 33.1-23.03 of the Code of Virginia and Section 1204(e) of the Transportation Equity Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21). In general, a summary of transportation issues facing the Commonwealth and an evaluation of transportation policies will be used to develop a series of alternative future transportation scenarios as well as a vision statement, goals, and objectives for the plan. These scenarios will illustrate various long-term transportation visions for the Commonwealth. Concurrently, criteria will be developed for establishing multimodal priorities, an inventory and evaluation of the existing system will be conducted, and a trend analysis and forecast completed. Each mode will complete a needs assessment, which identifies mode-specific transportation needs. A single future transportation scenario will be identified and applied with the multimodal prioritization criteria to the modal needs assessments to derive a multimodal transportation plan and final report.

While the Code of Virginia specifically identifies the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) as the party responsible for developing the plan, the CTB has no jurisdiction over aviation and ports. The Virginia Aviation Board (VAB) and the VPA Board of Commissioners will be briefed on the status of VTrans2025 deliverables and staff from DOAV and VPA are involved as equal partners in the development of the multimodal plan.

House Bill 771 (see Appendix A) identifies specific deliverables associated with each of three phases of the plan's development. This report to the General Assembly summarizes the status of each of the Phase 1 deliverables. A short summary of each deliverable is included in this Executive Summary and the entire report for each deliverable follows in the corresponding chapter as noted below:

• Chapter 2 Interagency Coordination Plan
• Chapter 3 Stakeholder Involvement Plan
• Chapter 4 Stakeholder Involvement to Date
• Chapter 5 Vision, Goals, and Objectives
• Chapter 6 Criteria for Establishing Priorities
• Chapter 7 Identification of Major Needs
• Chapter 8 Status Report on Modal Needs Assessments
• Chapter 9 Evaluation and Recommendation of a Highway Needs Assessment Tool

Summary of Chapter 2 Interagency Coordination Plan

Development of a statewide multimodal long-range transportation plan is both a federal (i.e., Federal Highway Administration - FHWA) and state legislative requirement. State legislation requires that the plan be truly multimodal, avoiding the aggregation of separately derived local, district, regional, or modal plans. In order to meet both the spirit and intent of the legislation, it is imperative that the transportation modal agencies work together closely throughout the development of the plan. The purpose of the Interagency Coordination Plan (ICP) is to describe the relationship between the transportation agencies and their respective boards, and Secretary's Office, and the committees responsible for developing and implementing VTrans2025. The ICP was developed by the Steering Committee with input from the Deputy Secretary of Transportation for Intermodal Issues.

The ICP describes the committees that have been and will be established to develop VTrans2025. Additionally, the ICP describes how these committees will interact with each other, the transportation modal agencies, and the Secretary's Office. In general, the Steering Committee, made up of planning staff from the four transportation modal agencies will be responsible for developing the plan. The Phase 1 Stakeholder Group, an advisory group made up of representatives of various stakeholder groups, will provide feedback to the Steering Committee, as requested. The Policy Committee, made up of representatives from the governing boards of each agency, the director of each modal agency, and the Deputy Secretary of Transportation for Intermodal Issues, provides policy-level guidance to the Steering Committee and facilitates interagency coordination. Products and reports will flow from the Steering Committee to the Policy Committee for final approval before presentation to the CTB, Governor, and General Assembly. The Virginia Aviation Board (VAB) and the VPA Board of Commissioners will also be briefed on the status of VTrans2025 deliverables.

Implementation of the ICP will ensure development and implementation of a statewide transportation plan that is a model for the rest of the nation. The ICP will be reviewed and revised as circumstances change, more information becomes available, or key decision points are reached, and should, therefore, be regarded only as a reference.

Summary of Chapter 3 Stakeholder Involvement Plan

Stakeholder outreach is a key component of the statewide transportation planning process. Each transportation agency involved in the development of VTrans2025 is committed to extensive stakeholder involvement throughout the planning process. In recognition of the fact that the statewide plan must be built upon a solid foundation of stakeholder input that ensures well-rounded representation, a Stakeholder Involvement Plan workgroup was formed to identify strategies for stakeholder outreach, feedback, and participation. The workgroup was made up of public affairs staff from each of the transportation agencies. To develop the Stakeholder Involvement Plan, the workgroup reviewed the stakeholder outreach processes used by other states in support of their statewide transportation plans. In addition, federal, state, and transportation agency guidelines for public involvement were used to develop the Stakeholder Involvement Plan. The resulting plan was reviewed by each of the transportation agencies as well as other stakeholders.

In addition to describing stakeholder outreach activities that will support development of VTrans2025, the Stakeholder Involvement Plan briefly identifies the key affected stakeholders and major issues to be addressed. The decision-making process and anticipated budget are also summarized. In general, the Stakeholder Involvement Plan is based on four goals:

1. Inform stakeholders
2. Create opportunities for participation
3. Provide feedback
4. Create informed consensus

For each goal, the activities, tools, and desired outcomes are identified by phase and task. A distinction is made between ongoing activities related to each goal and activities tied to specific tasks. The Stakeholder Involvement Plan focuses mainly on activities and deliverables associated with Phase 1 of the plan's development. While a framework is provided for stakeholder involvement in Phases 2 and 3, more detail will be provided at a later date to ensure that the most effective means of reaching stakeholders is used. As such, the Stakeholder Involvement Plan is meant only as a reference, and will be reviewed and revised as circumstances change, more information becomes available, or key decision points are reached. Implementation of this involvement plan will ensure development of a statewide transportation plan that is built on a solid foundation of stakeholder input.

Summary of Chapter 4 Stakeholder Involvement to Date

The nature of the stakeholder input to date has been centered on the visioning process drafting vision, goal and objective statements and identifying issues to be considered and evaluated in the plan. At this time, most stakeholder involvement has been through a series of Discussion Group Meetings and surveys. Stakeholder input received thus far has identified the need for more coordinated multimodal planning, more transportation alternatives in both urban and rural areas, more coordination among the transportation agencies, and more coordination between transportation and land use. Ongoing and future outreach efforts will provide feedback to stakeholders on how their input was used, seek validation of the conclusions drawn from that input, and build upon previous input to continue development of VTrans2025.

While the input from the visioning process identified a broad spectrum of issues, for the most part, it mainly reflects the views of highway, environmental, and other advocacy groups. For this reason, additional outreach is being done now to target specific stakeholder groups, including state agencies, the business community, local governments and elected officials, transportation operators, and the transportation-challenged community.

The summary of Stakeholder Involvement to Date identifies the outreach activities undertaken thus far in the process and describes the nature of the resulting input. Additionally, an analysis of the visioning process participants and an evaluation of the effectiveness of the outreach activities are included.

Summary of Chapter 5 Vision, Goals, and Objectives

Vision, goal, and objective statements establish the framework around which VTrans2025 will be built. These statements were drafted to guide the development of the plan based on input from Discussion Group Meetings and Transportation Vision Surveys. These statements also reflect input from the VTrans2025 Phase 1 Stakeholder Group, the VTrans2025 Steering Committee, and the Deputy Secretary of Transportation for Intermodal Issues. Additionally, the statements reflect a review of other state and regional transportation plans and the mission and goal statements developed by the four transportation modal agencies. Finally, the vision, goal, and objective statements are consistent with the planning factors identified in TEA-21 and § 33.123.03 of the Code of Virginia. The vision, goals, and objectives will provide the basis for many policy recommendations in the statewide transportation plan.

Summary of Chapter 6 Criteria for Establishing Priorities

The criteria for establishing priorities are based on a review of case studies, current business practices, professional judgment, and other relevant information. The criteria are tied to the VTrans2025 goals and the associated performance measures are based on the VTrans2025 objectives and other information. In general, the criteria are intended for use in scoring and ranking multimodal networks.

As a significant amount of work remains to complete the multimodal prioritization system, these criteria for establishing priorities should be viewed as a work in progress. The performance measures associated with the criteria may be refined and expanded as metrics are identified and point values are assigned.

Summary of Chapter 7 Identification of Major Needs

Major generic modal needs were identified for each mode by the four transportation modal agencies. DOAV identified major aviation needs. VPA identified major port needs. VDRPT identified major rail and public transit needs. VDOT identified major highway, bicycle, and pedestrian needs. These needs have not been prioritized or approved by the governing boards of these agencies.

Summary of Chapter 8 Status Report on Modal Needs Assessments

Each modal agency is required to complete a needs assessment for their respective mode. Modal needs assessment status reports were subn1itted by each of the four transportation modal agencies and compiled into a single report. While the status of the modal needs assessments varies considerably, all of the modal needs assessments will be completed by July 2005.

Summary of Chapter 9 Evaluation and Recommendation of a Highway Needs Assessment Tool

Two separate and distinct purposes were identified for conducting needs assessments. First, needs assessments can provide an aggregate non-project specific report of highway construction needs. This type of needs assessment is used to identify disparities and establish efficient and equitable highway construction funding formulae (referred to as a Funding Allocation Analysis). This purpose was echoed in the report released by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission of the Virginia General Assembly (JLARC) entitled "Equity and Efficiency of Highway Construction and Transit Funding." Second, needs assessments can provide a list of disaggregate needs with detailed project specific information (referred to as a Highway Project Needs Assessment). This purpose was outlined in the recent recommendations of the Auditor of Public Accounts (APA) as well as the legislation (House Bill 771) guiding this process. With these two distinct purposes in mind, potential needs assessment tools were identified and evaluated, including the Highway Economic Requirement System State Version (HERS-ST) developed by FHWA and the Statewide Planning System (SPS) developed by VDGT's Transportation and Mobility Planning Division.

The Highway Project Needs Analysis, which uses SPS, would address both the requirements of the APA Recommendations to identify specific projects as well as have the capability of aggregating the project listings by jurisdiction or system, resulting in aggregate analysis, as is recommended by JLARC. The Highway Project Needs Analysis approach is recommended for conducting a comprehensive assessment of highway construction. Such an analysis will consist of a combination of the following data and applications: SPS, Bridge Deficiencies, Safety Indices, and a Secondary Road Tolerable/Non-Tolerable Analysis. This approach allows for the most efficient use of state resources by accomplishing the purpose and intent of providing an aggregate system-wide needs assessment and a project-specific needs assessment under one unified effort.

Summary of Chapter 10 Looking Ahead

Significant progress has been made in developing Virginia's statewide multimodal long-range transportation plan. As described in this report Phase 1 involved setting vision, goals, and objectives, conducting background research and analysis, and establishing the framework upon which the plan will be built. Subsequent work during Phase 2 will involve the development of a Vision Plan that builds upon the broad goals and objectives established in Phase 1 to include performance measures, an inventory and evaluation of the existing system, a trend analysis, and an evaluation of policies, practices, and procedures that impact transportation. Also during Phase 2, the VTrans2025 Policy Committee will be established to ensure appropriate policy direction and oversight throughout development of the statewide transportation plan. This committee will be made up of representatives from the Commonwealth Transportation Board, Virginia Aviation Board, Virginia Port Authority Board of Commissioners, the Deputy Secretary of Transportation for Intermodal Issues, and the directors of the four modal agencies. Finally, Phase 3 will involve completion of the modal needs assessments and application of multimodal prioritization criteria to develop the final multimodal plan.