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2008 Awards
AMPO Awards Seven MPOs and One Individual for their Outstanding Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning
This year, the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) and an MPO Selection Committee, comprised of former AMPO Annual Award winners, chose to honor seven organizations and one individual for their excellence in and advancement of metropolitan transportation planning. All of the winners demonstrated creative approaches to their work and have acted as models for other MPOs. They were successful in their roles as conveners and because of this, were able to build momentum and implement their goals. The Awards were handed out at Seattle City Hall in Seattle, Washington on October 29th, 2008 during the AMPO Annual Conference. See below for a listing of the winners and their accomplishments.
Honorable Mention Award for Excellence in Metropolitan Transportation Planning
Recipient: Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG)
The Honorable Mention Award for Outstanding Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning was presented to the Sacramento Area Council of Governments or SACOG for their Metropolitan Transportation Plan for 2035. SACOG is an association of local governments in the six-county Sacramento Region. The Plan, also known as MTP2035 is the first transportation plan for the Sacramento region that purposely links transportation to a smart growth land use pattern. SACOG used state of the art modeling technology and robust public outreach to develop a plan to invest $42 billion into travel options for the region. In conjunction with hosting 17 regional workshops to work with the community on important transportation issues, SACOG also partnered with their local NBC-affiliate, KCRA 3. This station provided an opportunity to inform and engage and unprecedented number of residents in planning with a one-hour program, a five-part news series, and a KCRA 3 web survey. Projects identified through these public participation processes were run through travel performance modeling software and the resulting plan represented regional priorities and well-performing projects.
National Award for Innovative Practice in Metropolitan Transportation Planning
Recipient: Cheyenne MPO
The National Award for Innovative Practice in Metropolitan Transportation Planning is presented to the Cheyenne MPO for their Transportation Safety Management Plan. The Cheyenne MPO is the planning agency located in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The MPO has taken a leadership role as one of the first MPOs in the country to develop a regional transportation safety plan. The mission of this Plan is to eliminate preventable traffic-related deaths and injuries and the goal is to reduce fatal and injury crashes by 10 percent by 2020. To achieve this, the Cheyenne region needs to eliminate an average of 3.5 fatal and injury crashes every year for the next 13 years. A key step in the development of this plan was a Transportation Safety Summit, convened by the MPO earlier this year, where participants reviewed current safety strategies, identified nationally proven strategies for consideration, and developed new safety approaches. As a result of this Plan, the MPO is seeking grants to implement three strategies of the Plan. The first is for a summit on safety belt enforcement, the second is for prioritization of hazardous locations and road safety audits, and the third is for saturation patrols to reduce DUI crashes.
National Award for Technical Merit in Metropolitan Transportation Planning
Recipient: Atlanta Regional Commission
The National Award for Outstanding Technical Merit in Metropolitan Transportation Planning was presented to the Atlanta Regional Commission for their Freight Mobility Plan. The Atlanta Regional Commission or ARC is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the 10-county metropolitan area. The development of this data-driven, policy-based Regional Plan was essential to the identification and prioritization of improvements that accommodate mobility of both people and goods while mitigating the negative impacts of freight movement on congestion, safety, and communities. A lot of the success of this plan relied on the dialogue between public decision makers and private sector freight stakeholders. For part of the study, Class 1 Railroads, local distributors, retail representatives, and developers worked with county and city planners on understanding the implication of local regulations, ordinances and permitting processes for freight mobility and freight transportation facilities. Another success of the study was that it identified project prioritization criteria and performance measures that can be applied in project selection, ensuring that freight mobility becomes fully integrated into the agency’s planning process.
National Award for Outstanding Collaboration in Metropolitan Transportation Planning
Recipient: Wasatch Front Regional Council, Mountainland Association of Governments, Cache MPO and Dixie MPO
The National Award for Outstanding Collaboration in Metropolitan Transportation Planning was presented to the Wasatch Front Regional Council, Mountainland Association of Governments, Cache MPO and Dixie MPO for Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan. This plan is a compilation of the four MPOs regional transportation plans and Utah DOT’s (UDOT) Long Range Transportation Plan. UDOT played a key role in coordinating the statewide transportation plan with the MPO regional plans. These individual plans all utilized common timing, phasing of projects, identical financial assumptions, the same travel demand model, common project cost estimation, and a similar public involvement process. The agencies recognized that planning and providing transportation in the state was a monumental task that could not be done alone, so the Plan examines current and projected transportation conditions STATEWIDE and recommends solutions. To keep the momentum going, the four MPOs and DOT now meet monthly to discuss coordination, funding of projects and implementation strategies.
National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning
Recipient: Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission
The National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning was presented to the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission for their Smart Transportation Guidebook for Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission or DVRPC is the interstate, intercounty and intercity agency that serves the Greater Philadelphia, Camden, Trenton, and Chester areas. The New Jersey Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation commissioned DVRPC to prepare this report, thus joining two DOT’s and a bi-state MPO to prepare common planning tools and design guidelines that could be used in both states. The Guidebook was developed to help agencies, local governments, developers and others plan and design roadways that fit within the existing and planned context of the community through which they pass. The end goal was to incorporate transportation solutions into the community that were context-sensitive, affordable, supported by the public, and linked land use with transportation.
Recipient: Champaign County Regional Planning Commission
The National Award for Outstanding Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning was presented to the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission for the Urbana Bicycle Master Plan. The Champaign County RPC is the planning agency located in Urbana, IL.
The City of Urbana contracted with the RPC to create a master bicycle plan for the city that made bicycling a safe, efficient, and practical travel option for recreational and commuter purposes. The process for creating the bicycle plan involved working with existing land and transportation plans, gathering public input on preferred bike routes, creating a Bicycle Level of Service model, and formulating a realistic implementation plan. One of the key technical tools that helped with the acceptance and implementation of this Plan was the Bicycle Level of Service model. It was used to evaluate existing streets in the city recommended for bicycle use, and provided a level of both technical and qualitative data that helped the elected officials make sound investment decisions.
National Award for Outstanding Regional Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning
Recipient: Puget Sound Regional Council
The National Award for Outstanding Regional Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning was presented to the Puget Sound Regional Council or PSRC for their regional achievements over the past year. PSRC is the regional planning organization for the 3.5 million people in the greater Seattle region. This past year, the regions Plan, called VISION 2040 was adopted. It serves as a model for other MPOs looking to integrate transportation, environment, land use, and the economy into one Plan. It also includes actions to achieve the region’s planning goals to sustain the region’s overall quality of life as 1.4 million more people live in the region by 2040. This year, PSRC was selected by the Federal Highway Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to pilot the application of models and data into development of regional climate change policies and demonstrate best regional practices. Another accomplishment among the many was PSRC’s partnership with the State of Washington, King County, and USDOT on a successful $154 million Urban Partnership grant to demonstrate innovative tolling and technologies on vital connections across Lake Washington, which over 300,000 people rely on daily. PSRC was also tasked by the state legislature to lead the regional dialogue on next-stage tolling because they wanted leadership that could handle the complex technical task as well as engage people in a meaningful way.
National Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning
Recipient: Jane Hayse, Transportation Planning Division Chief, Atlanta Regional Commission
The National Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement in Metropolitan Transportation Planning was presented to Jane Hayse, the Transportation Planning Division Chief for the Atlanta Regional Commission. Jane was nominated for this award by her co-workers at the Atlanta Regional Commission because of her ability to show leadership in addressing regional transportation issues and particularly her ability to bring attention to policy issues associated with finance and project implementation. In early 2006, Jane took the first step towards increasing awareness among local, regional, and state MPO officials that funding shortfalls were on the horizon and would lead to future project cuts. With this insight, she directed her staff to educate policy makers on the impending crisis. Because of this, officials acknowledged the problem and were thus prepared for the multi-billion dollar shortfall. Ms. Hayse also recognized that slow project implementation was a major issue in the transportation crisis. Under her direction, the MPO staff took the unprecedented step of measuring the regions progress toward meeting TIP implementation commitments. By demonstrating that nearly 60% of programmed projects were delayed each year in the TIP, attention was focused on this major challenge. Jane’s leadership and willingness to address difficult issues and engage her staff on so many levels, demonstrated why her staff nominated her for this award.
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