DATE:            February 18, 2016

TO:                 Draft Memorandum to File

FROM:           Ryan Hicks, Central Transportation Planning Staff

RE:                 Congestion Management Committee (CMP) of the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)—Meeting Minutes

Meeting Time/Location

9:00 AM-9:50 AM, State Transportation Building, Conference Rooms 2 and 3, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, MA

Chairperson

The chairperson’s seat is currently vacant. (Jay Monty was named chair of the CMP committee during this meeting).

Decisions

Follow-up tasks are cited on page four.

Meeting Agenda

Introductions

All present introduced themselves. (See the attendance list on the last page.)

Approval of December 17, 2015, CMP Committee Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the prior meeting were approved.

Intersection Improvement Program

The MPO’s Intersection Improvement Program was established in federal fiscal year (FFY) 2015 and has continued in FFY 2016. One of the goals of the program is to implement low-cost signal re-timings and other low-cost improvements at intersections in the Boston region. Signal re-timings identified through the program will be implemented by the consulting firm Howard Stein Hudson, but other recommended improvements will be left to communities to implement.

Ryan gave a brief update of the program, noting that signals in nine intersections in four different communities have been re-timed and that the consultant is working to implement eight other signal re-timings. MPO staff sent fourteen letters, containing recommended prospective intersections for the program, to fourteen different communities. Ryan then recommended sending letters to another twelve communities that had yet to be contacted as the next step in the project.

The consultants indicated that most of the re-timed intersections have shown decreases in delay and most of the intersections that were recommended for the program were suitable for re-timings. Per request, Ryan then listed the criteria necessary for an intersection to be selected for this program: the signals at the intersections must be locally owned; the intersection must not be at the location of any planned Transportation Improvement Program projects; and there must be high incidences of crashes at the intersection.

Members were curious about pedestrian level-of-service (LOS) studies and how they could potentially be incorporated into this study in the future, as well as feedback that could be gathered to fine-tune the program. Lourenço and Mark then noted that this program could be a big help for communities without the budget or manpower to update their current intersection signal timings.

Election of CMP Committee Chair

Jay was unanimously elected as CMP Committee Chair.

Discussion of CMP Committee Membership Status

Mark encouraged those in attendance to reach out to fellow MPO members and inform them about the opportunity to join the committee. He also recommended presenting CMP results to the MPO directly to make the full board aware of the CMP activities. Ryan noted that two vacancies exist on the committee.

A discussion of the committee meeting schedule then ensued. Members agreed that a specific date should be set for the meetings to take place bi-monthly or every third month. Staff should provide an agenda two weeks prior the meeting and give two weeks’ notice in the event of a cancellation.

Discussion of FFY 2016 CMP Tasks

The committee was given a list of items that could potentially be completed before the end of the FFY 2016. Tasks will be selected from the list and a formal work program created in the following weeks. Members discussed the various tasks of the work program. Task 1 was described as supporting the CMP committee by doing various tasks such as monitoring the Intersection Improvement Program. Regarding Task 2 (Regional Economic Costs of Congestion), member’s recommended studying land use characteristics that are present in Boston. They also recommended that the committee should consider how to invest dollars to relieve congestion. Recommendations were also made to change the name of the work program to include the term “Building Methodology” to reflect the true nature of the project.

Task 3 (Transit Bus Performance Monitoring) was born from a recommendation by the Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration to study the transit element of congestion monitoring. It was noted that the MBTA already has data that could be useful for this study, while other forms of data acquisition could be investigated. Task 4 (Expansion of Coverage Routes of 2012 Express Highway Performance Dashboard and Arterial Performance Dashboard) has already been completed. Task 5 (Build Arterial and Express Highway Performance Dashboards for 2014 or 2015) may not be suitable for implementation this year as a data source has not yet been selected for updating the performance dashboards. Task 6 will enhance the interactive CMP congestion scan application. This task will make on-demand congestion scans available for planning studies. The following data collection efforts have been combined to form Task 7: MBTA Bicycle Parking, MBTA Vehicle Parking, and Park and Ride Vehicle Capacity Analysis. Tasks 8-10 are not expected to be undertaken in FFY 2016.

Follow-Up Tasks

• Jay will give a CMP committee update at the MPO meeting.
• Staff will set up and send out a regular schedule of committee meetings for the remainder of FFY 2016.
• Staff will review Task 2 to include recommendations.
• Staff will email the list of tasks to CMP committee members so that they may review and comment on them.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 9:50 AM.

Attendance