ACTION REQUESTED: Approval
2018 Household Travel Survey Update
Congestion Management Process (CMP) Update
Safety Data Update
The next Surface Transportation Committee meeting is scheduled for February 5, 2019 at 9 a.m. in the Lake Michigan Room at the NIRPC office.
Surface Transportation Committee Meeting NIRPC Lake Michigan Room
December 4, 2018
Tom Schmitt called the meeting to order at 9:09 a.m. with the Pledge of Allegiance and self-introductions. Present were Tom Schmitt, Town of Schererville; Mark O’Dell, Town of Chesterton; Jeff Huet, Town of Schererville; Mark Gordish, City of Hammond; David Wright, GPTC; Dennis Cobb, First Group Engineering; Jake Dammarell, Butler, Fairman & Seufert; and Ron Wiedeman, Robinson Engineering.
NIRPC staff present were Eman Ibrahim, Scott Weber, Peter Kimball and Mary Thorne. There was no public comment.
Jeff Huet referenced the paragraph in the November 8, 2018 minutes regarding the 2020-2024 Transportation improvement Programmatic Approach and Scoring. He commented that the description does not adequately describe the comments that were made in objection to the multiplier scoring sheet and that the goals and targets of the Surface Transportation Committee are not reflected adequately in the 2050 Plan. He said the 2050 Plan was developed by urban planners and environmentalists and it does not reflect the targets of the transportation of the general membership of NIRPC. He motioned to approve the November 8, 2018 minutes amended with his text. Mark O’Dell seconded the motion to approve as amended. Motion carried.
2050 Plan Draft Strategies Identification – Eman Ibrahim presented on the 39 mobility strategies for the connected, renewed, united and vibrant vision statements. Jeff Huet reiterated that transportation experts have been passed up in the development of the 2050 Plan because those efforts need to be identified in the strategies so that the scoring is more fairly distributed. The critical paths need to be modified so that it is reflected of these ideals. Tom Schmitt added that a lot of members of the NIRPC board expressed their thoughts that the transportation aspect wasn’t a higher priority. Ms. Ibrahim said she will take these comments to the senior staff for consideration and the 2050 Plan is a plan for the future when new technology will change things.
Changes were made live as follows: Connected:
It was agreed by the committee to add:
Strategy Type: Add “roadway” after “sidewalk”.
Technical Assistance - Program/Plan: Add “inter/intra” after “road/block”
Sustained Effort: Remove “analyze”
Data: This paragraph would be better under “Renewed”
Education & Awareness – Program/Plan: “add “Maintain and update the Regional Corridor Study”
Partnership – Policy: Move policy 1 from “Connected” to “Renewed”
Partnership – Policy 2: Move to Program/Plan
Partnership - Program/Plan: Move to Technical Assistance.
Renewed:
Under Technical Assistance, add a New Policy on a Transition Plan.
Delete the first Program: improve freight reliability by identifying non-truck routes within local and state roads.”
Under Sustained Effort: add “utilize LTAP work”
Under Data, add “increasing mode share” before “flex”
Under Education and Awareness – Policy: “Maximize the life of pavements and bridges.” Delete the remaining text.
Under Sustained Effort, add “Improve drainage/maintain proper drainage.”
Under Funding and Finance: Delete the Program/Plan. Applies more to INDOT.
Under Legislative Initiative: Delete Policy, add “encourage Legislators to look at prior Community Crossings funding and community needs state wide.”
Due to time constraints, Jeff Huet motioned to continue at the next meeting which was decided to be held on January 3 at 9 a.m. The motion was seconded by Mark O’Dell.
The meeting adjourned at 11:40 a.m.
Implementation Action | STC Committee- Mobility | |||
Connected | Renewed | United | Vibrant | |
Expand bicycle, sidewalk, and transit networks across municipal and county lines to enhance safe and efficient access to opportunities for all. | Improve roadway, bicycle, sidewalk, and transit networks to revitalize existing urban and rural centers and enhance equity or reverse burdens. | Prioritize transformative investments collectively to elevate the position of the region to attract a diversity of residents and high-quality economic opportunity. | Adopt technological innovation that enhance the safe and fluid movement of people and goods to enable a flourishing economy. | |
Influences | ||||
Existing infrastructure | Economic & business climate | Economic & business climate | E-commerce (shipping) | |
Shared mobility (Increase Access) | The aging population | Proximity to Chicago | Connected vehicles (CVs) | |
Existing infrastructure | Autonomous vehicles (AVs) | |||
Jobs and personal income | Shared mobility | |||
Technical Assistance | ||||
- Policy | Improve roadway connectivity by examining and later adopting design standards. | Assist communities in including bus stops in their ADA Transition Plans. | Make travel more user-friendly and accessible to all users by using Intelligent Transportation Systems including advanced digital communication techniques including other languages to better communicate congestion, service wait times, parking availability, and other travel attributes. | |
Improve resiliency and reduce congestion by sharing data and plans with local Emergency Planning Committees to help them with decision- making and improving evacuation plans. | Improve transportation network reliability and reduce congestion by creating, updating, and maintaining travel demand models that forecast travel for all modes including non-motorized travel as well as E-Commerce. | |||
- Program/ Plan | Improve access to freight funding by establishing and updating critical urban and rural freight corridors. | Improve safety, efficiency, and regional interoperability of the transportation system by developing, maintaining and communicating the Intelligent Transportation Systems Regional Architecture. | ||
Improve transportation network reliability, reduce congestion, and modernize the transportation network by accommodating E-Commerce and mitigating its effects on pavement and bridge deterioration. | ||||
Improve network connectivity in Northwest Indiana by periodically reevaluating road/block inter-/intra-connectivity of communities as was done in the NIRPC Creating Livable Communities program, and incorporate a scoring evaluation framework into future Notices of Funding Availability. | Reduce traffic speed in areas that are heavily used by pedestrians and bicyclists. | |||
Improve road design options for areas have high crash rate. | ||||
- Sustained Effort | Compile and map roadway crash data to identify priority crash corridors and Highway Safety Improvement Program funding opportunities. | Utilize the data that the Local Technical Asssitance Program (LTAP) has been collecting about regional asset management to better inform, and where appropriate coordinate, project decisionmaking. | ||
- Data | Improve transportation reliability by compiling, analyzing and mapping reliability data for roadways in order to prioritize funding. | |||
Reduce congestion and identify opportunities for targeted improvements such as increasing transit mode share, highway flex lanes, etc. by compiling, analyzing and mapping congestion data for all modes on roadways and bottlenecks in order to prioritize funding. | ||||
Promote alternative forms of transportation to driving alone by surveying employers in the region about existence of Transportation Demand Management Strategies such as transit passes, carpooling, flexible scheduling, and telecommuting incentives. | ||||
- Other | ||||
Education and Awareness | ||||
- Policy | Maximize the life of pavements and bridges through proper pavement and bridge treatment processes with the right treatments at the right times. | |||
Program/ Plan | Maintain and update the Regional Corridors Study. | Improve accessibility to the transportation system for all users by expanding shared mobility awareness and opportunities regionally. | ||
- Sustained Effort | Educate local law enforcement on the importance of location accuracy and consistency in recording crash data. | Maximize the life of pavements by maintaining proper drainage. | Increase transparency and awareness of the transportation network performance by publishing a Performance-based Planning data dashboard that shows visually how the region's transportation assets are performing, and promote this dashboard to the business community. | Improve accessibility to the transportation system for all users and identify future transportation network needs by tracking the increased use of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). |
- Data | ||||
- Other | ||||
Funding & Finance |
- Policy | Prioritize funding for roadway connectivity projects based on pre- and post-project Functional Classification. | Use asset management data from pavement and bridge conditions to pursue projects that address needs. | Increase tourism and improve impression of the transportation system by working with major employers and tourism centers on securing local match and/or private funding for gateway enhancement projects (streetscape improvements, non-motorized enhancements, repavement programs, etc.) to those locations. | |
Maximize connectivity and improve the regional transportation network by pursuing funding opportunities for NIRPC Regional Corridors Study corridor development, key roadway gaps that if constructed would improve connectivity and mobility throughout the region. | Modernize the transportation network and maximize the life of pavements by exploring other funding opportunities such as the INDOT Community Crossings Grant Program. | Improve air quality and reduce the dependence on fossil fuels by convening stakeholders to regionally collaborate on, seek grants for, and apply for funding for alternative fuel and electric vehicle and infrastructure projects. | ||
Improve the regional transportation network by pursuing funding opportunities to ensure congestion relief in key regional corridors. | ||||
- Program/ Plan | Improve major regional centers by pursuing funding opportunities to improve connectivity and access for all users to major employment and retail centers such as implementing the NIRPC US 30 Safety Study. | Increase roadway safety through traffic calming techniques and ensure utilization of safety design standards | ||
- Sustained Effort | Keep bridges in a safe and good condition by having periodic inspections and standalone funding for bridges. | |||
- Data | ||||
- Other | ||||
Legislative Initiative | ||||
- Policy | Implement Transportation Demand Management programs by working with employers to establish policies for their employees to use transit passes, carpooling, flexible scheduling, and telecommuting. | Encourage legislators to look at asset management needs statewide and match those to future funding opportunities such as the Community Crossings Grant Program. | ||
- Program/ Plan | ||||
- Sustained Effort | ||||
- Data | ||||
- Other | ||||
Partnership | ||||
- Policy | Improve roadway connectivity by communities working together on projects affecting shared corridors. | Improve emergency response times and reduce congestion by convening a regional stakeholder group to plan signal preemption and signal coordination projects. | Improve transportation network reliability and reduce congestion by supporting efforts to implement Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) projects in order to provide the traveling public more information to make route decisions. | |
- Program/ Plan | Reduce congestion by developing a regional railroad crossing improvement plan with a focus on highway-rail grade separations. | |||
Work with intermodal facilities and freight carriers to identify locations with high levels of freight movement and to plan strategies for alleviating freight-related congestion. | Coordinate with private sector development of E- commerce facilities that will heavily utilize public infrastructure, and seek information regarding their transportation needs to improver the overall efficiency | |||
Develop a plan for multi-modal and intermodal hubs to improve connectivity which will allow for more efficient, reliable, and environmentally friendly movement of freight throughout the region. | Engage large private sector entities who heavily rely on public infrastructure for funding opportunities. | |||
- Sustained Effort | ||||
- Data | ||||
- Other | ||||