DVRPC News - Summer 2000

CONGESTION CONFERENCE TARGETS TRAFFIC INCIDENTS

DVRPC Executive Director, John Coscia, presents framed copies of the Cooperative Accord to, (L-R) James Weinstein, Commissioner of New Jersey's Dept. of Transportation, (DOT) Gene Donaldson, ITS Administrator for Delaware DOT, and Michael Ryan, Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania DOT.

Citing traffic incidents as a major culprit in highway delay, state department of transportation (DOT) officials from Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania vowed to band together to combat incidents that disrupt auto and truck travel. That pledge resounded before more than 150 approving officials and transportation professionals gathered at a one day conference aptly titled Clearing the Road for Success.

The dramatic signing of the Delaware Valley Tri-State Area Incident Management Cooperative Accord by the three states and conference participants highlighted the day's proceedings. The accord stresses the need to work together to minimize the adverse impacts of traffic incidents. New Jersey DOT Commissioner James Weinstein commended the Tri-State agreement, while Christine Johnson, Program Manager with the Federal Highway Administration, declared it "an impressive initiative that can serve as a showcase for the rest of the country." The conference also featured panel discussions of experts and practitioners. Many of the speakers were police and emergency responders who related first-hand experiences. They dissected the different phases of incident management (detection, verification, response, and clearance) and discussed a wide range of incidents (the crash of Senator John Heinz's plane, Hurricane Floyd, and the current closure of I-95 in Delaware for reconstruction purposes). The conference showcased many state-of-the-art technologies and coordination activities which are already in place in the region. They include highway cameras and satellite trucks, and pre-planned diversion routes and Highway Operations Groups (HOGs).

An exciting new proposal announced at the conference is a nationally uniform N11 number that will ultimately convey accurate information on operating conditions to the motoring public. Economic development specialists noted that congestion robs 34 hours a year from the average commuter, resulting in lengthier commute times, increased fuel consumption and pollution, and safety concerns. As incidents account for 60% of highway delay, they are the rightful target of congestion reduction efforts. These initiatives will be critical for the Delaware Valley to remain a good place to live and work.

DVRPC's Executive Director, John Coscia, warned that the Delaware Valley will have a 43% increase in vehicle miles of travel and a million more cars by the year 2025. At the same time, he stated, there will be little opportunity to build new highways. Thus, improved practices spawned by the cooperative accord could not arrive at a more opportune time.

While DVRPC hosted the conference, co-sponsors included the Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey DOTs and police, AAA Mid-Atlantic, the American Trucking Associations, the City of Philadelphia, the Delaware River Port Authority, the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Incident Management Coalition.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2025

No one can predict exactly what the future will bring, but it would be nearly impossible for DVRPC to plan for our future without an "educated guess" of what's in store for the region. That is why timely demographic and employment forecasts play such an important role in DVRPC's transportation and regional planning activities. To reflect changes that have occurred within the Delaware Valley region since the 1990 Census, DVRPC has revised and extended its Year 2020 municipal forecasts (completed in 1993) to the year 2025. In February, the DVRPC Board adopted population and employment forecasts, at five year intervals, to the year 2025 for all municipalities in the nine-county region.

The world is constantly changing and DVRPC must keep up with these changes by using standard methodology along with the best, most current, demographic and economic information available at the regional, county and municipal levels to develop its forecasts. These forecasts are used both for current planning activities and to inform the long-range planning process, where policy targets may be defined.

These forecasts serve as inputs in sophisticated transportation models which, in turn, are used to estimate future travel demand and evaluate individual highway and transit projects. They are also used to guide our long-range Land Use and Transportation Plan, and as indicators of municipal trends. In addition, the forecasts will serve in DVRPC's ongoing regional air quality evaluation as required to measure progress toward the goals of the Clean Air Act Amendments.

A View of the Future

	Due to the aging of "baby boomers", the Delaware Valley will be home to over 1.1 million people age 65 and older by 2025. The largest percentage increase in the elderly will be in the fastest-growing suburban counties of Bucks, Burlington, Chester and Gloucester.
	Bucks County will gain the most residents between 2000 and 2025. Individual municipalities forecast to experience the greatest increase in population include Gloucester and Winslow townships in Camden County, Mount Laurel Township in Burlington County, and Monroe Township in Gloucester County.
	The region's aging population and slow growth rate of new residents will combine to limit the available labor force over the next 25 years, and could serve to slow job growth in the region.
	All counties are forecast to experience positive, yet slower job growth to 2025. Montgomery County is forecast to have the greatest job growth in the period. The greatest local employment growth is forecast in Center City Philadelphia, Mount Laurel Township in Burlington County and West Windsor Township in Mercer County. After many years of decline, Philadelphia is forecast to stabilize its employment base. These forecasts represent what is believed to be the most likely future scenario, based not only on past trends, but also on current market demand, and an analysis of the available land and infrastructure to accommodate growth. Using these municipal forecasts as a baseline, DVRPC is developing Traffic or Transportation Analysis Zone (TAZ) level forecasts, which are expected to be available in Summer, 2000.
	To obtain a copy of the detailed forecasts, please contact DVRPC's Information Services Center at 215-238-2828.

NEW JERSEY AWARDS $600K TO DVRPC FOR WATERSHED PLANNING

NJ Governor, Christine Whitman, presents a check to DVRPC Executive Director, John Coscia for watershed planning.

New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman gathered with state environmental officials, by the Cooper River, to present an initial check to DVRPC for $300,000 to draft a watershed preservation and improvement plan for 391 square miles of the lower Delaware River Region. The Commission will receive a total of $600,000 for this work over a four-year period.

A committee will be formed to guide the process and will include members from a variety of areas, including state and local government, the business community and environmental groups.

"This grant will marry sound land use planning with sound water resource planning," said DVRPC's Executive Director, John Coscia. "The impact of development is often analyzed in terms of a town's employment and schools, but not its natural resources." DVRPC will focus on the land development impact on water resources on a watershed basis.

The Commission plans to center this work on limiting non-point source pollution, such as agricultural and residential fertilizers and pesticides, oils and residues from streets and parking lots, and 'floatables', which include plastics, trash and aluminum cans.

The plan itself is estimated to take more than two years to complete and hearings will be scheduled to solicit input from the public. DVRPC also plans to establish a public education and outreach program to encourage the public to take action to improve water quality.

DVRPC is proud to have assisted the Bureau of the Census with preparing the Year 2000 Census. Census geography for the Delaware Valley had not received a comprehensive review since 1980. This year, DVRPC worked with the Census Bureau and member governments to completely update geography through the Statistical Areas program. With the assistance of member county agencies, DVRPC revised the delineation of Census Tracts, Block Groups and Census Designated Places (CDP's) to meet Census guidelines. To round out the review process, a thorough redelineation of Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZ's) was completed. The redesign of these small areas provides a sound statistical geography for local analysis and decision making.

Recent activities have concentrated on providing a local viewpoint regarding Census geography and the enhancement of the Journey-to-Work base files which are essential to the transportation planning program. DVRPC, with the aid of member governments, worked with the Bureau of the Census to enhance the Journey-to-Work database by identifying the proper addresses for thousands of businesses that could not be located by the Bureau's automated matching programs. This information is necessary to properly identify work travel destinations for answers to the Census long form question on place of work.

In its role as an affiliate to the Pennsylvania and New Jersey State Data Centers, DVRPC actively monitored nearly all activities of the Year 2000 Census. .The time period for return of Census forms by mail recently ended. Nationally, 65% of households responded by mail, ending two decades of declining returns. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and most DVRPC member governments exceeded the national rate. However, traditionally hard to count populations in the cities of Chester, Philadelphia, Camden and Trenton contributed to lower responses. Non-response follow-up has begun and will continue through early July.

All Census program activities are communicated to member governments, affiliated agencies and non-profit organizations through quarterly meetings of the Information Resources Exchange Group (IREG). For more information on DVRPC's continued work with the Census Bureau, contact Mike Ontko at 215-592-1800.

DVRPC SELECTS PROJECTS FOR ENHANCEMENTS FUNDING

T he DVRPC Board recently approved 23 Pennsylvania projects for more than ten million dollars of PennDOT's Transportation Enhancement funds and SEPTA's Transit Enhancement funds. A total of 77 projects were submitted from throughout the region. Projects ranged from streetscape beautification in commercial districts to construction of multi-use trails, and restoration of old train stations and canals.

Transportation Enhancements (TE) is a 10 percent set-aside of each state's Surface Transportation Program (STP) dollars. TE was mandated by Congress in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA 21) for the funding of non-traditional projects designed to enhance the transportation experience, to mitigate the impacts of transportation facilities on communities and the environment, and to enhance community character through transportation-related improvements. Pennsylvania is in the midst of the second of three rounds of funding totaling approximately $120 million. Applications for the current round were due in November 1999; awards were announced in May, 2000.

In the past, TE projects were selected at the state level through an advisory committee comprised of representatives from environmental, historic preservation, rails-to-trails, bicycling interests and other stakeholders. Regional planning organizations were requested to recommend one third of the projects from within their regions for priority consideration. Responding to concerns voiced by DVRPC and other regional planning organizations across the Commonwealth, PennDOT agreed to sub-allocate TE funds by region according to a formula based in part on population. Beginning with the current round of funding, regional planning organizations are empowered to select projects directly, resulting in a program which more closely reflects regional priorities.

In addition, SEPTA offered its $2 million Transit Enhancements obligation (a one percent set-aside of the FTA Urbanized Area Formula Grants mandated in TEA-21 for projects similar to those eligible for TE funds) to the region's $8.3 million TE sub-allocation, effectively merging the two programs.

Once the projects receive final approval from Pennsylvania's Secretary of Transportation, DVRPC will take on a new role administering the projects under contract from PennDOT.

DVRPC directly involved the counties and the City of Philadelphia in the evaluation of applications. The Pennsylvania subcommittee of the Regional Transportation Committee, with advice from the Regional Citizens Committee and technical assistance by staff, made difficult choices in arriving at a list of projects constrained to the available funds. Among those selected is one regionwide project, submitted by DVRPC, for a bicycle safety public information campaign. In addition, the subcommittee recommended five projects, for a total request of $2.4 million, to compete for a statewide discretionary TE set-aside. For more information on the TE project selection process, please contact John Madera at 215-238-2854.

DVRPC PROPOSES $4.8 BILLION TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM
From May 22 through June 23, 2000, Delaware Valley residents had a unique opportunity to influence the region's future. Those dates marked the 30-day public review period for DVRPC's Draft Fiscal Year (FY) 2001 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for the New Jersey and Pennsylvania portions of the Delaware Valley region.

Most citizens of this region, however, are not aware of the importance of the TIP which serves as the implementation tool that funnels federal and state funds into this area for highway, transit, bicycle, pedestrian and freight projects. DVRPC's Board votes each year to approve this priority list of regional projects. Where and when the projects are built can impact county and municipal economic development, highway safety, sprawl, individual mobility and regional air quality.

Required by federal law, the TIP not only lists specific projects, but also documents anticipated schedule and cost for each project phase (preliminary engineering, final design, right-of-way or equipment acquisition, and construction). Although it is not a final schedule of project implementation, inclusion of a project phase in the TIP means that it is seriously expected to be implemented during the TIP time period.

The production of the TIP is the culmination of the transportation planning process and represents a consensus among state and regional officials as to what near term improvements to pursue. Consensus is crucial because the federal and state governments want assurances that all interested parties have participated in developing the priorities before committing significant sums of money.

The TIP covers four years in Pennsylvania (Fiscal Years 2001-2004) and three years in New Jersey (Fiscal Years 2001-2003.) In Pennsylvania, the TIP is updated every other year. In New Jersey, it is updated annually. The current draft TIP totals $995 million for the New Jersey portion of the region, and $3.8 billion for DVRPC's Pennsylvania subregion.

The New Jersey portion of the TIP contains about 160 projects and includes $582 million in projects primarily addressing the highway system with $413 million for transit. The TIP provides a wide variety of projects that will improve the entire transportation system in New Jersey, such as the I-295/NJ 42/I-76 Interchange Improvements, Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit project, NJ Route 41 Operational Improvements, replacement of eight bridges, and the Delaware River Pedestrian and Bicycle Path.

The Pennsylvania portion of the TIP includes over 500 projects and contains $1.8 billion in projects primarily focusing on the highway system, and $2.0 billion for transit projects. This TIP list includes the Reconstruction of PA-309, PA-413 Corridor Improvements, PA-291 Industrial Highway Widening, I-95 Airport Ramp Revisions, Intelligent Transportation Systems on I-476, Reconstruction of the South Street Bridges, the Schuylkill Valley Metro, the Chester Valley Trail, and the On-Road Bicycle Mobility Program.

The complete TIP document that has been available for public review contains three volumes. Volume I provides a general overview of the TIP and the TIP development process, as well as summary charts and tables. Volumes II and III (for New Jersey and Pennsylvania respectively) contain individual county maps of the highway projects and a regional map of the transit projects, and a detailed list of the projects including project descriptions, costs and anticipated schedules.

DVRPC always encourages the public to pose questions and make comments about the TIP and specific projects to state, county, transit, and DVRPC staff through its ongoing public involvement process. Seven public meetings were scheduled (Trenton, Camden, and Willingboro in New Jersey and Philadelphia, Pottstown, Upper Moreland, and Media in Pennsylvania) to allow the public to ask questions and present their comments. In its public outreach efforts, DVRPC also posted legal notices in The Inquirer, The Courier Post, The Tribune, La Actualidad and The Trenton Times; issued media releases to cable television and area newspapers; worked with regional neighborhood groups and agencies to broadcast the availability of the TIP; and placed the TIP document in a wide variety of libraries throughout the Delaware Valley and the DVRPC website (www.dvrpc.org) for easy access by regional citizens.

The DVRPC Board will adopt the FY 2001 TIP for southwestern New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania at its meeting on July 27, 2000.