Spokane Regional Transportation Council (SRTC) is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and state designated (under the Washington State Growth Management Act) Regional Transportation Planning Organization (RTPO) for Spokane County, Washington. SRTC is also the designated Transportation Management Association (TMA) for the Spokane, WA urbanized area (UZA).
The primary purpose of a travel demand model is to “help in making well-informed transportation policy decisions by showing the likely effects of policy changes on the transportation network. They can also show how changes in employment, population, land use, and development patterns, as well as investments in transportation infrastructure, might affect travel in a region.”1 The SRTC model is used to answer transportation planning questions and inform policy decisions in the Spokane region. Some of these include:
The 2010 Census population for Spokane County was just over 471,000 (approximately 187,000 households) and is forecasted to grow 35% to 636,000 by the year 2040. Current population growth of 2.8% over the last four years is slow compared to Washington State which grew by 5%. The SRTC jurisdiction is 1,764 square miles with 267 persons per square mile. Spokane is not a dense area but is becoming more dense in core areas. The median household income for Spokane is $50,432 which is lower than the National average of $53,046.
The SRTC region has very little traffic congestion. A small amount of delay occurs on Interstate 90 (I-90) and on some arterials during the AM and PM peak hour. As shown on Figure 1, I-90 is the main East-West corridor traversing the region. Most of the congestion that does occur in the region is during non-recurring and unplanned events such as inclement weather.
Figure 1 SRTC Regional Boundary
(Source: SRTC, November, 2015.)
