Transportation

These transportation projects -- rural planning, transit, safety, scenic byways, GIS mapping and rail -- validate the benefits that occur when regional development organizations administer local transportation planning and implementation.

Alabama Scenic Byways Marketing Plan, an Alabama Association of Regional Councils’ initiative, is encouraging communities to pursue more preservation and enhancement projects. The councils are developing marketing strategies and outreach tools, such as a Web site and marketing materials, to educate local leaders about byways benefits like additional tourism dollars, resource preservation and building community pride. Funding sources come from the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) Scenic Byways program, administered by Alabama’s Department of Transportation.

The Northwest Alabama Council of Local Governments, its transit departments and local advertising firm, established the Transit Advertising Program to generate local revenue via increasing rural and urban transit use. They created and implemented a low-cost regional advertising campaign, using transit bus exteriors (wraps) and interiors for advertisement placement. The resulting transit revenues are used as a match to attract additional federal transit funding. The project funding sources have included the Federal Transit Administration and contract revenues.

The Central Savannah River Area Regional Development Center was the lead planning agency in the Citizen Empowerment Regional Planning Project, which resulted in the 2003 designation of Georgia’s Historic Piedmont Scenic Byway and new tourism opportunities. Four local jurisdictions, two regional planning commissions, and three state agencies collaborated, using a variety of methods, such as a listserv and teleconferencing, to ensure the participation of residents, especially rural residents. This is Georgia’s fifth Scenic Byway designation and will serve as a public participation model for future state byway planning.

Southwest Georgia Regional Development Center established a Regionally Coordinated Community Transit project in order to offer rural transit system choices and allow for coordination of federal, state and local programs. By coordinating two major state transportation contracts, Southwest Georgia RDC has instituted a cost-effective regionally based rural system. One contract with the Georgia Department of Transportation supports the basic infrastructure like vehicles and equipment. The other contract with the Georgia Department of Human Resource allows for coupling transit services and guaranteed revenue for rural transit systems.

The Perry County Port Authority Rail Improvement project spearheaded by Indiana 15 Regional Planning Commission provided the river-port facility with needed infrastructure. In the past two decades, the county experienced several business facility closures, layoffs and job loss. The Port Authority was formed for economic diversification and job creation, but the port needed many repairs. Together, EDA, USDA, and Indiana 15, assisted in purchasing a rail scale, rail spur construction and 11 railroad crossings improvements. Port improvements have stimulated local business development and created approximately 200 new jobs.

Kentucky’s Green River Area Highway Safety Program’s mission is to organize and implement a regional effort to reduce highway crashes, fatalities and injuries, especially on two-lane rural roads. In 2001, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet began working with Green River Area Development District (ADD) and the other 15 ADDS to initiate Highway Safety Programs. Local task forces were formed, “high crash” locations and causes were identified. Regional safety plans were then developed. Green River ADD’s plan focused on safety education and has hosted over 50 safety events, such as mock crashes.

The Regional Transportation Advisory Committee – In-kind Transportation Planning Grant Program offered by Minnesota’s Arrowhead Regional Development Commission provides transportation planning to small communities that otherwise could not afford it. Arrowhead RDC uses a state transportation-planning grant to support the planning services that its Regional Transportation Advisory Committee (RTAC) gives to small communities, which competitively apply to the RTAC for the in-kind grants. The planning time can be used to develop transportation enhancements, parking studies, regional infrastructure plans and others.

Southern Tier West Regional Planning and Development Board’s Southern Tier Extension Rehabilitation Project is aimed at rehabilitating mostly dormant former mainline rural railroads and returning them to active service as a primary rural transportation corridor. The results or impacts have been great: 1,710 jobs, $20.7 million in investments, infrastructure investments leveraged is $4 million from the private sector and $19.9 million from the public sector. The projected additional future infrastructure investments (three to five years) are $15 million. The funding ($5 million) was provided by EDA and state DOT.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) sponsored the creation of 20 Rural Planning Organizations (RPOs) covering the state’s rural areas and now sponsors the North Carolina Rural Planning Organizations Using GIS initiative. In 2003, the NCDOT Public Transportation Division made funding available to each RPO for GIS, furthering their capabilities to incorporate GIS into their daily transportation planning and decision making process. In turn, this advocates continuous data sharing, a faster process and better overall communication among RPOs, NCDOT and environmental resource agencies.

Leadership from Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties in South Carolina recognize that non-driving residents have difficulty with basic daily routines, like getting to work and to medical appointments. In addition, a growing population is increasing traffic congestion. Based on these issues, a request was made to the South Carolina Appalachian Council of Governments to perform the Tri- County Regional Transportation Study, which addresses the feasibility of creating a Regional Transportation Authority. While this study has just been completed, it is the first step toward the creation of a Regional Transit System by increasing the awareness of service needs, identifying common goals, and outlining steps for proceeding.

The Lower Savannah Council of Governments’ Regional Transportation Management Association (RTMA) is building cooperation and coordinating independent public transit providers to produce more effective and improved transportation services region-wide. The association’s members included elected officials and public and private transit operators. Their objective is to coordinate mapping and routing and sub-contract among transit operators for increased efficiency, group purchasing and training, communications and group advocacy. The South Carolina DOT designated the RTMA’s coordination effort as a virtual transit enterprise pilot site to test route-matching/ dispatching software.

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