Planning and conservation › Transportation › Regional Transportation Plan › 2035 RTP update
Learn about the region's plans for completing an integrated, multi-modal transportation system from now through 2035.
A third and final 45-day public comment period on the completed 2035 RTP and the associated air-quality conformity analysis will open at noon on Monday, March 22, 2010, and close at midnight on Thursday, May 6. These documents will be available through links on this web page when the comment period opens.
5 p.m. Thursday, May 6
Metro Council Chamber
600 NE Grand Ave., Portland
Testimony time will be limited to three minutes per person. You will need to either bring a summary of your remarks for the public record, or be prepared to summarize them on comment forms that will be available at the hearing.
Written comments will be accepted anytime during the comment period.
RTP CommentsOn Dec. 17, 2009, the Metro Council voted to accept the draft 2035 Regional Transportation Plan. The plan recommends how to invest more than $20 billion in anticipated federal, state and local transportation funding in the Portland metropolitan area during the next 25 years. Looking ahead to 2035, this RTP update has been shaped by anticipated 21st century needs and outcomes the region is trying to achieve:
Download a presentation on the new RTP
The new RTP focuses on outcomes and achieving the region's 2040 Growth Concept – a publicly supported vision for directing growth toward centers, corridors and employment areas. The plan invests in the region's downtowns, main streets, employment areas and major travel corridors to help attract growth in these areas. The investments aim to fix safety problems; address growing congestion; reduce the region's carbon footprint; provide real options for walking, biking and riding transit; and make travel more affordable and reliable for everyone – including businesses and freight shippers. Proposed projects include new sidewalks, bicycle facilities and trails; technology to make travel safer and more efficient; new roads; expanded transit service and high-capacity transit connections; improved interchanges and more capacity on the region's highway system.
The plan will reduce per capita greenhouse gas emissions and per capita vehicle miles traveled, improve freight reliability and provide for record amounts of investment in bicycle, transit and pedestrian modes of transportation.
Well-developed centers and corridors manage growth in a way that makes daily life more convenient for residents by minimizing the distances they must travel to work. They also create centers of activity that can be served by multiple transportation options. These compact communities also result in lower greenhouse gas emissions and lower costs for providing roads and utilities.
The first step produced an RTP that met federal timelines, fiscal requirements, and new requirements in the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). That RTP was approved on Dec. 13, 2007, by the Metro Council and the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation and, with an approved air-quality analysis, by the U.S. Department of Transportation on Feb. 29, 2008.
Read the Federal RTP
Read an executive summary of the Federal RTP
Read the SAFETEA-LU
The second step, which is currently underway, will produce a final RTP that meets regional and state as well as federal planning requirements. The final RTP will include:
Key actions that remain for the 2035 RTP update include completion of the air-quality conformity analysis in February, public review and comment on the air-quality conformity report and the final RTP in March and April, discussion and recommendations by Metro advisory committees May, and consideration of approval of a final RTP by the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation and the Metro Council on June 10, 2010.
More on milestones and decisions
Metro regional transportation planning
503-797-1735
rtp@oregonmetro.gov
To view PDF files, download free Adobe Reader. To translate PDF files into text to assist visually-impaired users, visit Access.Adobe.com.
Find out when the Metro Council and their advisory committees make key decisions on the 2035 Regional Transportation Plan.
The Regional Freight Plan will present policies and strategies for moving freight that complement the region's multi-modal transportation system and support regional land use goals.
Download a study examining the relationship between investments in transportation and the economy.
To understand the underlying values and beliefs of the people in the region about quality of life and growth management principles, Metro commissioned extensive public opinion research in 2006 and 2009.
(http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/safetealu/)
(http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/TD/TP/ortransplanupdate.shtml)
(http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/transplan.shtml)
