| Joe Crossett spoke about the evaluation of the Metropolitan Washington Transportation Planning Board/Council of Governments (TPB/COG's) TCSP project to develop plans for circulation systems and green space in the metropolitan area. TPB/COG recently undertook a two-year process to develop a vision for transportation within the region. Two elements of the vision document are frequently overlooked by regional agencies when making programming and funding decisions: 1) designing circulation systems within regional core and activity centers for transit, pedestrian, and bicycle travel; and 2) integrating greenways into a connected regional greenways system. The objective of the TCSP project is to produce two reports with recommendations on how to implement these elements.
Critical implementation challenges include visibility - getting attention for projects; building consensus - especially difficult with three "states," seven counties, and numerous cities; and securing implementation, since the MPO is a planning body, not an implementation body. How do you build support with state and local agencies to allocate funds and turn concepts into actual projects?
The approach taken by TPB/COG was to establish a different and innovative process. For each of the two projects, a committee was established chaired by stakeholders (high-level elected officials) who run meetings with assistance from COG staff and consultants. Each committee undertook a five-step process to: 1) inventory existing projects; 2) inventory proposed projects (by talking with local jurisdictions to identify high-priority/good candidate projects); 3) select eight to 10 regional priority projects; 4) develop persuasive profiles for each project, which translate the project into something that is meaningful to create interest in moving forward; and 5) take the projects to the TPB board for final endorsement. The committees met four times; because it was a quick process, people did not lose interest, and most people kept attending most meetings.
The evaluation component, which received 17 percent of the project budget, is being conducted by Mr. Crossett, an independent consultant. The consultant sat in on meetings, met with members of committees and discussed their perceptions of the project, and reviewed documents. Since the timeframe of the project is too short to measure outcomes, the final report will focus on describing the planning process and products as well as what's being learned. The next measure of success will be whether recommended projects are actually included in transportation plans next year and in subsequent years. TPB/COG would like to apply this new process to other COG issues, such as environmental justice.
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