2. Resolut/MetroCog Trans Plan - Laserfiche WebLink

PREPARATION OF THE METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION PLAN (MTP) The overall preparation process for this Plan can be broadly defined through the following nine major components of the Plan. These components are important to the logical identification of transportation needs and to guiding the investment of transportation funds. INVENTORY OF THE EXISTING CONDITIONS An important component of developing the Plan was an assessment of the current transportation system. Chapter 3 of the Plan is an assimilation of existing information on roadways, bridges, railroads, airports, transit, bicycle facilities and pedestrian facilities. Chapter 3 also describes the freight characteristics within the metropolitan area. All of this information was valuable from a reference standpoint. Furthermore, the process of gathering this data was valuable because it helped to identify the need for preventive maintenance, the lack of continuity of some existing facilities, high crash locations, and other limitations of the existing transportation system that needed to be addressed by proposed future projects. ASSESSMENT OF TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS NEEDS Growth in travel demand is mainly the result of growth in households and jobs, combined with changes in the travel behavior of the residents in and around the study area. Therefore, it was very important to quantify future job and household growth and estimate their location. It was also important to determine whether there had been significant travel mode choice changes since the last Plan, such as increases or decreases in transit ridership, car-pooling, bicycling, pedestrian activity, etc. Chapter 4 ofthe Plan explains the process used to assess land use and demographic changes, to develop job and household projections at the metropolitan level, and to allocate that growth to traffic analysis zones (T AZ). A computer based modeling software referred to as TP+ was used to develop a traffic projection model for the Fargo-Moorhead area in 2000-2030. This model refined and improved previous COG modeling efforts. The Council's TP+ model was used to forecast travel demand in the years 20 I 0 and 2030, based on the projected job and household growth. The travel demand was assigned to the existing roadway system and this system included projects that were identified as "committed" by virtue of their inclusion in the 2004-2006 Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) or by their acknowledgement in local capital improvement programs. The model assigned future traffic to the existing plus committed/adopted roadway network to identify future system deficiencies. Chapter 4 also describes the modeling calibration effort in more detail, and presents the future traffic volumes and capacity deficiencies identified by the model. Executive Summary - Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Area Transportation Plan Update Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments June 2004 Page 3