CONCLUSIONS OF THE FHWA AND FTA 2009 CERTIFICATION REVIEW TEAM Subject to the completion of the corrective actions identified in this report, FHWA and FTA conditionally approved the NIRPC's transportation planning process in Northwestern Indiana until November I, 2010. We offer the following summary of corrective actions, recommendations, and noteworthy practice to enhance the transportation planning process in this region: Corrective Action: In order to meet the minimum requirements of23 CFR 450.320, the region must establish a congestion management process that contains the elements defined in the requirements portion of this section. Specifically, USDOT advises that the following steps be taken to meet these requirements: Establish a congestion management subcommittee, consisting of representatives from at least the following entities: State DOT (INDOT LaPorte District and Headquarters) MPO (NIRPC) County highway departments or equivalent agency (Lake, Porter, LaPorte) City highway departments or equivalent agency (Gary, Hammond, others) Transit operator (NICTD, Regional Bus Authority, others) Private bus operators (Greyhound, etc.) Regional freight operators, if available (truck and rail) Emergency responders, if available (police, fire, ambulance) Determine performance measures2 Highway performance measures (VIC, travel times, travel speeds, Level of Service, etc.) Transit performance measures (on-time %, passenger boarding counts, etc.) Mode-neutral performance measures (benefit/cost, person throughput, hours of delay, customer satisfaction) Non-recurring performance measures (crash statistics, incident response time, etc.) Other regionally-specific performance measures - to be determined from available data Identify data sources Intelligent Transportation Systems (CCTV cameras, traffic loops, enhanced traffic signals) Corrective Action: The FHWAIFTA federal review team finds the MPO's compliance with the EJ Executive Order to be a corrective action. This decision is warranted due to the need for additional EJ analysis to be conducted during the current 2040 Plan update cycle and based on verbal and written comments received at our meeting with the public. Several serious concerns with the metropolitan planning process were identified by stakeholders. Two workshops on EJ and Transportation Planning should be scheduled; one with affected stakeholders and one with NIRPC staff and planning partners. FHW A and FTA can be instrumental in working with NIRPC to plan these opportunities for training and dialogue. Also, work activities underway to update the Long Range Transportation Plan should be amended to add several
CONCLUSIONS OF THE FHWA AND FTA 2009 CERTIFICATION REVIEW TEAM Subject to the completion of the corrective actions identified in this report, FHWA and FTA conditionally approved the NIRPC's transportation planning process in Northwestern Indiana until November I, 2010. We offer the following summary of corrective actions, recommendations, and noteworthy practice to enhance the transportation planning process in this region: Corrective Action: In order to meet the minimum requirements of23 CFR 450.320, the region must establish a congestion management process that contains the elements defined in the requirements portion of this section. Specifically, USDOT advises that the following steps be taken to meet these requirements: Establish a congestion management subcommittee, consisting of representatives from at least the following entities: State DOT (INDOT LaPorte District and Headquarters) MPO (NIRPC) County highway departments or equivalent agency (Lake, Porter, LaPorte) City highway departments or equivalent agency (Gary, Hammond, others) Transit operator (NICTD, Regional Bus Authority, others) Private bus operators (Greyhound, etc.) Regional freight operators, if available (truck and rail) Emergency responders, if available (police, fire, ambulance) Determine performance measures2 Highway performance measures (VIC, travel times, travel speeds, Level of Service, etc.) Transit performance measures (on-time %, passenger boarding counts, etc.) Mode-neutral performance measures (benefit/cost, person throughput, hours of delay, customer satisfaction) Non-recurring performance measures (crash statistics, incident response time, etc.) Other regionally-specific performance measures - to be determined from available data Identify data sources Intelligent Transportation Systems (CCTV cameras, traffic loops, enhanced traffic signals) Corrective Action: The FHWAIFTA federal review team finds the MPO's compliance with the EJ Executive Order to be a corrective action. This decision is warranted due to the need for additional EJ analysis to be conducted during the current 2040 Plan update cycle and based on verbal and written comments received at our meeting with the public. Several serious concerns with the metropolitan planning process were identified by stakeholders. Two workshops on EJ and Transportation Planning should be scheduled; one with affected stakeholders and one with NIRPC staff and planning partners. FHW A and FTA can be instrumental in working with NIRPC to plan these opportunities for training and dialogue. Also, work activities underway to update the Long Range Transportation Plan should be amended to add several
final_upwp_13_14.docx