Memorandum
Date October 15, 2015
TO Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
FROM Karl H. Quackenbush
CTPS Executive Director
RE Work Program for: Addressing Safety, Mobility, and Access on Subregional Priority Roadways: FFY 2016
Review and approval
That the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization vote to approve the work program for Addressing Safety, Mobility, and Access on Subregional Priority Roadways: FFY 2016, presented in this memorandum
Planning Studies
13270
Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization
Principal: Mark Abbott
Manager: Chen-Yuan Wang
MPO Planning Contract #89787
MPO §5303 Contract #84080 and subsequent MPO §5303 contract
This is MPO work and will be carried out in conformance with the priorities established by the MPO.
During MPO outreach for the development of its Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) and Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) subregional groups and other entities submit comments and identify transportation problems and issues that concern them. Often these issues are related to bottlenecks, safety, or lack of safe or convenient access to abutters along roadway corridors in their areas. Such issues can affect not only the mobility and crash incidence along a roadway and its side streets, but also livability and quality of life, including economic development and air quality.
To address these kinds of issues, MPO staff will identify and study roadway corridor segments in the MPO region that are of concern to them but that have not been identified in the LRTP regional needs assessment.1 The selected roadways will not be major arterials, but rather arterial or collector roadways that may carry fewer vehicles daily than major arterials, and some of them are maintained by a city or town. The study will emphasize the issues that are identified by relevant subregional groups and will develop recommendations for low-cost, short- and long-term improvements. In addition to safety, mobility, and access, other subjects that will be considered are transit feasibility, truck-related issues, and bicycle and pedestrian transportation.
The selection of the corridor segments to be studied will be based on criteria that include safety and mobility needs; agency, municipal, and MAPC subregional group input; and implementation feasibility, as described in Task 2. As many as two corridor segments will be selected; the number selected will depend on the lengths of the road segments and the nature of the issues that need to be addressed. A segment selected for study may span multiple towns, or it may be restricted to just a few intersections in a town center, shopping area, or office park.
A roadway corridor study is a logical way to address subregional multimodal transportation needs, since it evaluates a roadway corridor segment comprehensively: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, public-transportation users, and abutters are all considered, using a holistic approach to analyzing the issues and developing recommendations for improvements within the roadway’s right-of-way. This study will aim not only to improve transportation facilities and traffic operations, but also to increase safety and quality of life for all users. Pedestrians and bicyclists will be able to cross the street safely on their way to shops, schools, or recreation; buses will be able to run on time; and transit riders will be assured safe access to and from train stations.
The objectives of this study are to:
MPO staff will perform the following tasks:
MPO staff will review already-existing comments from LRTP, UPWP, and other outreach activities to begin constructing an initial list of roadway segments to consider. Subsequently, staff will invite municipal officials from the potential study areas; members of the MAPC subregional groups in the potential study areas; representatives from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) Office of Transportation Planning and Highway Division; and representatives of the MAPC to comment on the initial list of potential study segments. Participants will provide advice and input on data; help select study segments; identify transportation-related problems; and provide input into the development of potential multimodal transportation solutions and recommendations. The recommendations from this study will be fulfilled by the Highway Division or municipalities; therefore, it is important that the study recommendations reflect their experience and design standards.
Notes on participants’ advice, and input on: data, selection of study segments, identification of problems, and possible solutions
MPO staff will develop a ranking system similar to what they used for the “Addressing Safety, Mobility, and Access on Subregional Priority Roadways—FFY 2015” study, and will apply it to the candidate segments for this study in order to select up to two segments—only one if the roadway is particularly long or is challenging to study. The ranking system will use metrics for the following criteria:
The staff’s proposed selection of up to two segments, along with the list of candidate segments, will be presented to the MPO for discussion and approval.
Within each segment selected for this study, MPO staff, working in conjunction with agencies, municipalities, and subregional groups, will identify the problem subsegments and isolated locations that this study should focus on when developing multimodal transportation improvements. To this end, staff will examine, for each selected segment, the safety and mobility problems facing pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit users, as well as any transit-service deficiencies and connectivity problems. Staff also will identify truck-traffic issues, such as crash locations with an unusually high level of truck involvement, possible turning-radius issues at intersections along the corridor, heavy truck volumes contributing to congestion along the corridor, and points where trucks conflict with cars and pedestrians.
In addition, staff will review the Highway Division’s databases and the MPO’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) project information database, and will contact the municipalities to identify projects and studies that already have been planned or conducted that include the roadway segments selected for study. This information will not only guide the selection of problem locations within each segment, but will also enable staff to consider previous recommendations for incorporation into this study.
Documentation of:
Once the problem locations have been identified for each of the roadway segments selected for this study, corresponding recent and historical data will be gathered from existing sources, including studies performed by municipalities or proponents of private development projects and databases maintained by the MPO and MassDOT’s Highway Division. It is likely that some data would need to be collected in the field for various analyses in this work program, such as:
Based on the types of analyses performed in similar, past studies and the need to provide “complete streets”—where pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities are able to travel safely—the following types of analyses and evaluations will be performed:
Documentation of the results of Task 4 analyses, including crash-analysis tables, intersection-crash diagrams, delay-and-queue calculations, warrant analyses, bus-performance statistics, maps and other graphics showing pedestrian and bicyclist needs, and all other results of Task 4
Based on consultations with agency and municipal officials and with subregional group representatives, and on the analyses described above, staff will make recommendations of improvements that would address the following issues: pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorist safety; accommodation of pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users; and other traffic operations issues, including those related to trucks; and bus-service issues. Specific improvements may include geometric configuration; traffic-control devices; pavement rehabilitation; and other changes for improving traffic operations, including effective and safe accommodations for pedestrians and bicyclists. Staff will also make recommendations related to truck traffic, improving on-time performance of bus service, and increasing the safety of people walking or bicycling to and from bus stops and train stations.
Recommendations of improvements
MPO staff will produce a final technical memorandum documenting the study’s tasks and products. The final document will cover, for each segment studied, the following: study background; input from agencies, municipalities, and MAPC subregional groups; identification of problems; data collection; analyses; and recommendations. Wherever possible, the document will follow the MassDOT Highway Division guidelines for preparing functional-design reports, taking into consideration the study’s budget. A draft document will be made available for review by municipal officials, members of the subregional groups where the study segments are located, and MassDOT’s Highway Division and Office of Transportation Planning. Once their comments have been addressed, the memorandum will be presented to the MPO.
Final technical memorandum
It is estimated that this project will be completed 12 months after work commences. The proposed schedule, by task, is shown in Exhibit 1.
The total cost of this project is estimated to be $110,000. This includes the cost of 37.0 person-weeks of staff time, overhead at the rate of 98.88 percent, and travel. A detailed breakdown of estimated costs is presented in Exhibit 2.
KQ/MSA/cw
1 Charting Progress to 2040, the Long-Range Transportation Plan of the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization, July 30, 2015.
Task |
Month | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
1.
Solicit Agency, Municipal, and MAPC Subregion Input |
From month 1 to 2.5.
Deliverable A, Notes on stakeholder input delivered by Month 2.5
| |||||||||||
2.
Select Roadway Segments to Be Studied |
From month 2 to 3.
Deliverable B, Technical memorandum on the segment selection process delivered by Month 3
| |||||||||||
3.
Collect and Gather Data |
From month 2.5 to 7.1.
Deliverable C, List and files of data collected delivered by Month 7.1
| |||||||||||
4.
Analyze Data |
From month 3 to 8.5.
Deliverable D, Documentation of results of Task 4 analyses delivered by Month 8.5
| |||||||||||
5.
Recommend Improvements |
From month 5.5 to 11.5.
Deliverable E, Study recommendations delivered by Month 11.5
| |||||||||||
6.
Document Methodology, Findings, and Recommendations |
From month 1.1 to 13.
Deliverable F, Final technical memorandum delivered by Month 13
|
Task |
Person-Weeks | Direct Salary |
Overhead (98.88%) |
Total Cost |
|||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
M-1 | P-5 | P-4 | P-2 | Temp | Total | ||||
1.
Solicit Agency, Municipal, and MAPC Subregion Input
|
0.5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 3.0 | $4,578 | $4,527 | $9,104 |
2.
Select Roadway Segments to Be Studied
|
0.5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 4.0 | $5,559 | $5,496 | $11,055 |
3.
Collect and Gather Data
|
0.2 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 7.2 | $7,805 | $7,718 | $15,523 |
4.
Analyze Data
|
0.3 | 3.5 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 6.8 | $10,543 | $10,425 | $20,968 |
5.
Recommend Improvements
|
2.0 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 9.5 | $14,860 | $14,693 | $29,553 |
6.
Document Methodology, Findings, and Recommendations
|
1.0 | 5.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 6.5 | $11,762 | $11,630 | $23,391 |
Total
|
4.5 | 17.5 | 5.5 | 7.0 | 2.5 | 37.0 | $55,106 | $54,489 | $109,594 |