Executive Summary
Unified Planning Work Program
Federal Fiscal Year 2025
Boston Region MPO
Metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) are responsible for providing forums for making decisions about how to allocate federal transportation funds for capital projects and planning studies in a metropolitan area through a continuing, comprehensive, and cooperative (3C) planning process. Each metropolitan area in the United States with a population of 50,000 or more—also known as an urbanized area—is required by federal legislation to establish an MPO.
The Boston Region MPO’s planning area extends across 97 cities and towns from Boston north to Ipswich, south to Marshfield, and west to Interstate 495. Figure ES-1 shows the map of the Boston Region MPO’s member municipalities.
The MPO’s board has 22 voting members. Several state agencies, regional organizations, and the City of Boston are permanent voting members, while 12 municipalities are elected as voting members for three-year terms. Eight municipal members represent each of the eight subregions of the Boston region, and four represent at-large municipal seats. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) participate on the MPO board as advisory, nonvoting, members.
The MPO is supported by the Central Transportation Planning Staff, a group of planners, data analysts, engineers, and other professionals.
Figure ES-1
Municipalities in the Boston Region
The MPO’s work is guided by a 20-year vision for a modern, safe, equitable, accessible, reliable, resilient, and sustainable transportation system for the region. This vision is described in the MPO’s current Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), Destination 2050. The transportation planning work funded through the UPWP is integral to achieving this regional vision.
The UPWP is a one-year planning document and financial plan that explains how the Boston region will spend its federal transportation planning funds in a given federal fiscal year (FFY) in alignment with its long-term vision, goals, and objectives.
The development of the UPWP involves the prioritization of all potential tasks in the MPO’s ongoing transportation planning programs, studies, and technical analyses that could be undertaken to benefit the region in a given year. The scopes and budgets of the prioritized work are documented in the UPWP. The aim is to ensure that the work undertaken by the MPO supports the region’s transportation goals.
In addition to MPO-funded work, CTPS performs planning analyses and studies funded by state transportation agencies, including MassDOT, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), and the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport).
The total amount of funding (inclusive of federal funding and matching funds) programmed in this UPWP is $7,537,395. These funds come from both FHWA and FTA with MassDOT providing the required matching funds. Federal funds originating from FHWA, known as FHWA 3C Planning (PL) funds, are distributed across MPO regions using a formula developed by the Massachusetts Association of Regional Planning Agencies. All federal funds programmed in the UPWP are allocated to the Boston Region MPO by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) as FHWA 3C PL funds. Federal funds originating from the FTA are known as FTA 3C Planning (Section 5303) funds. Both FHWA 3C PL funds and FTA 3C Planning funds programmed in this UPWP include a state match. Since 2019, MassDOT has transferred Section 5303 funds from FTA to FHWA to be administered as a Consolidated Planning Grant.
The MPO uses funding to conduct the following programs and plans:
The LRTP guides transportation investments for the Boston region for at least the next 20 years and is updated every four years. It serves as the MPO’s guiding document by establishing the regional transportation vision, goals, objectives, and investment approaches that the MPO operates under. The MPO adopted the current LRTP, Destination 2050, in 2023, and expects to adopt the next LRTP in 2027.
The TIP is a five-year, financially constrained program of planned investments in the metropolitan area’s transportation system guided by the goals and objectives established in the LRTP and is updated annually.
The UPWP is developed annually and includes descriptions and budgets for work that MPO staff will conduct to support the MPO’s goals and objectives during the upcoming FFY.
The MPO engages the public in the transportation planning process to improve decision-making by helping to illuminate the social, economic, and environmental impacts of transportation planning decisions. Staff coordinates public engagement efforts with the MPO’s Transportation Equity Program and the Regional Transportation Advisory Council to ensure that all members of the public have meaningful opportunities to participate in the transportation planning process that shapes the Boston region.
CTPS’s PBPP work involves using data to develop performance targets for roadway and transit safety, highway and transit assets, congestion management, travel time reliability, and air quality and emissions, in annual, two-year, and four-year horizons for the region's transportation system.
The equity program ensures that the needs of populations underserved by the transportation system and traditionally not represented in the transportation planning process are addressed throughout the planning process. These populations include minority populations, low-income populations, people with limited English proficiency, older adults, youth, and people with disabilities.
The air quality program ensures that the MPO complies with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 and provides expertise and support in air quality and climate matters.
The CMP program is responsible for monitoring the congestion, mobility, and safety needs of the transportation system.
The resilience program assesses vulnerabilities and coordinates resilience improvements to address risks to the region posed by flooding, sea level rise, and rising temperatures.
The freight program plans for the policies and infrastructure that enable the movement of freight and goods by road, rail, water, and air.
This program supports the research and development that leads to improvements to the regional travel demand model maintained by the MPO.
The data program leads strategic efforts to improve how data are used, developed, and shared at the MPO.
This program uses data collection, analysis, and technical assistance to improve safety and comfort for people walking, bicycling, or using mobility-assisted devices.
This program conducts studies of roadways, corridors, and intersections to address regional and community transportation needs.
Under this program, staff implement MPO policies, plan and coordinate the delivery of information for MPO decision-making, and support the operation of the MPO and its committees. It also involves providing support for MPO meeting management and agenda planning.
The Boston Region MPO is creating a Vision Zero Action Plan for the 97 cities and towns in the Boston region. This work is funded by a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) planning grant from the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT). In developing the Vision Zero Action Plan, the MPO will adopt the Safe System approach that deems deaths and serious injuries unacceptable, focuses on safety for people, acknowledges that humans make mistakes, and builds redundancies to prevent severe crashes. The Vision Zero Action Plan will include analysis of crash data to identify trends and high-risk corridors, engagement with communities disproportionately impacted by roadway safety issues, and the formulation of evidence-based, data-driven policy and project recommendations.
In addition to the above programs and studies, the MPO funds and conducts technical assistance work through the Community Transportation Technical Assistance program and the Regional Transit Service Planning Technical Support program.
MPO staff will apply an analytical framework to examine the effect of transit service disruptions on Bluebikes usage, with the aim of understanding to what extent did regular transit users opt for Bluebikes when transit was either unavailable or perceived to be too difficult to use.
MPO staff will build on a recent Roadway Pricing study to look more closely at vehicle miles traveled at the municipality level and aim to provide estimates of revenue generated by different pricing strategies. Staff will also examine the disparate impacts of roadway pricing policies on Environmental Justice communities.
MPO staff will explore the potential for establishing neighborhood freight hubs and using e-cargo bikes for first-/last-mile freight deliveries across the Boston region. This system could address the urgent need to decarbonize the freight sector.
Table ES-1 contains the budget allocated for the MPO’s 3C planning activities in FFY 2025. The table reflects the FHWA metropolitan PL funds and FTA Section 5303 funds, which CTPS and Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) expect to spend in FFY 2025. The table also reflects the work that CTPS will conduct with funds provided by other transportation agencies. The new studies chosen for funding in FFY 2025 are summarized below in Table ES-2.
Table ES-1
Unified Planning Work Program Budget for FFY 2025
| 3C Studies and Programs by Budget Categories | Proposed FFY 2025 CTPS Budget |
| Resource Management and Support Activities | $400,000 |
| MPO Certification Requirements | $4,922,017 |
| Ongoing MPO-Funded Technical Analyses | $148,500 |
| New MPO-Funded Discrete Studies | $150,000 |
| MassDOT-Directed PL Funds* | $352,367 |
| Direct Support | $175,000 |
| Total FFY 2025 CTPS Budget | $6,147,884 |
| 3C Studies and Programs by MAPC Budget Categories | Proposed FFY 2025 MAPC Budget |
| MAPC Planning Studies and Technical Analyses | $817,511 |
| MAPC Administration, Resource Management, and Support Activities | $572,000 |
| Total MAPC FFY 2025 UPWP Programmed Funds | $1,389,511 |
| Agency Supporting MPO/3C Work | Proposed FFY 2025 Budget |
| CTPS | $6,147,884 |
| MAPC | $1,389,511 |
| 3C Budget Subtotal | $7,537,395 |
| FFY 2025 UPWP Budget | $7,537,395 |
Note: This budget includes salary, overhead, and direct support costs.
* Projects in this category are conducted on behalf of MassDOT but funded through the MPO 3C contract.
Table ES-2
New Discrete Funded Studies in FFY 2025
| Universe ID | Project ID | Study or Program | Proposed FFY 2025 CTPS Budget |
| M-2 | 13819 | Bluebikes and MBTA Connections | $60,000 |
| M-4 | 13820 | Roadway Pricing: Balancing the Need for a Transition to Sustainable Mobility with Equity Considerations | $50,000 |
| F-1 | 13821 | Decarbonizing the Freight Sector: Exploring the Potential for Using E-cargo Bikes for First-/Last-mile Freight Deliveries | $40,000 |
| Total for New Discrete Studies | blank | blank | $150,000 |
The annual process of creating the UPWP includes both generating and evaluating ideas for discrete studies, as well as updating the scopes and anticipated deliverables for ongoing programs, technical analysis activities, certification requirements, and administrative support activities.
Ideas for studies, technical analysis activities, and deliverables for ongoing programs come from the following sources:
Toward the end of the document development process, the MPO votes to release for public review a draft UPWP. MPO staff posts the document on the MPO’s website (www.bostonmpo.org) and publicizes its release via an email distribution list that includes municipal contacts, interested members of the public, and other stakeholders in the region, and via social media. MPO staff also solicit public input during open houses, meetings with stakeholders, and at public events. MPO staff compile comments received during the public review period and present them to the MPO board. The public comment period for the FFY 2025 UPWP began on [ ] and ended on [ ].
The MPO monitors the progress of programs and studies by performing the following tasks: