Report #4: The Preliminary Transportation Plan

Defined & Study Projects THE PLANNING PROCESS TRENDS & PROJECTIONS TRANSPORTATION VISION TRANSPORTATION POLICIES SURFACE TRANS.PLAN BICYCLISTS & PEDESTRIANS AVIATION> FUTURE PROJECTS PLAN AMENDMENT> PLAN IMPLEMENTATION AIR QUALITY IMPACTS EVALUATION OF PLAN FUTURE REPORTS

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC) is preparing the Year 2025 Land Use and Transportation Plan to guide the future direction of the region's transportation network as well as to link investment decisions with land use. This report presents the Preliminary Transportation Plan for the Delaware Valley and is the fourth of five reports being published during a two-year planning process.

The planning process has and will continue to incorporate extensive public involvement opportunities, including community workshops, newsletter updates, special mailings, public and business surveys and DVRPC web site bulletins. Your interest and participation are welcome, and we particularly are seeking your opinion of our overall policies and project listings for 2025.

If you are interested in additional information, please contact DVRPC's Public Affairs Office at 215-238-2875 or visit our web site at www.dvrpc.org.

Overview

The Preliminary 2025 Transportation Plan for the Delaware Valley envisions a comprehensive long-range blueprint for moving people and goods safely and efficiently. It also represents the contribution of transportation projects to advance and support the region'sland use plans and policies, and proposes strategies to carry out those policies. Further,it lists specific transportation improvement projects that are consistent with the policies. Some of the projects are well on their way to being constructed, while others are planned but may change before they reach the construc-tion phase. This Transportation Plan also lists sites of congestion that must be studied. Finally, there are also some illustrative projects which follow from the land use plan and transportation policies. They, too, require more study before they can be included among the formalized list of projects.

Previous Plans

Since its founding in 1965, DVRPC has prepared plans for the horizon years of 1975, 1985, 2000, 2015 and 2020. Recent federal guidance has required more frequent updates of plans; hence, the Year 2025 Transportation Plan can be described as a minor update. The more detailed Year 2020 Plan continues to be effective, except to the degree that specific recommendations of the 2025 Plan supercede corresponding ones in the 2020 Plan. A more extensive Plan update will follow publication of the 2000 Census.

The Role of DVRPC and Others

The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is the metropolitan planning organization, or MPO, for the city and county of Philadelphia and eight surrounding suburban counties. The MPO has a mandated responsibility to determine how federal transportation funds will be spent within its jurisdiction. In conjunction with this role is the need to develop and adopt a long-range plan. The Plan will demonstrate if the projects recommended for inclusion in the more detailed, shorter-range Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) are consistent with long-term goals for the transportation system.

This publication is financed in part through grants from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Departments of Transportation, and DVRPC’s member governments.