DATE:            December 17, 2015

TO:                 Draft Memorandum to File

FROM:           Ryan Hicks, Central Transportation Planning Staff

RE:                 Congestion Management Committee (CMP) of the Boston Region 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

Vacant seat

Decisions

Follow-up tasks cited on next page.

Meeting Agenda

Introductions

All present introduced themselves (see last page for attendance list).

Approval of April 2, 2015, CMP Committee Meeting Minutes

The minutes of the prior meeting were approved.

Discussion of CMP Committee Chair

This item was deferred until a future date, pending the potential addition of new members.

Discussion of CMP Committee Membership Status

The CMP committee began in 2012 with eight members; since then, two members have left. In addition, the former chair, Lourenço Dantas, no longer serves on the Boston Region MPO.

Ideally, the CMP committee would like to restore its membership to eight members. The committee recommended that Lourenço announce to the MPO that the CMP committee is actively seeking a chair and two additional members. As stated above, the committee will wait to select a new chair until it has more members.

One objective of the CMP committee is to help provide direction to the intersection improvement program. Bryan Pounds of MassDOT noted that many MPO members are interested in this program, but might not be aware that it is being monitored by the CMP committee. Members suggested that the CMP committee meet more often, and that CMP staff report more frequently to the full MPO board. Work that could be presented to the MPO in the future includes the CMP’s congestion scans, and a comparison of the vehicle probe datasets.

Other suggestions include having CMP staff make a presentation to the MPO to illustrate the importance of the CMP, if time allows; if not, then staff could provide a brief update on CMP activities every couple of months. It was noted that, in fact, CMP staff would be giving a presentation at the next MPO meeting about results of comparing the INRIX, HERE and MassDOT datasets in order to make a case for acquiring another dataset for MPO activities. This presentation also could be used to demonstrate the CMP’s importance and show how it affects other MPO work, such as the Long-Range Transportation Plan and the Transportation Improvement Program.   

Discussion of Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2016 CMP Tasks

In previous years, CMP staff discussed potential tasks for the upcoming federal fiscal year. Following the discussion, CMP staff would submit them to the CMP committee, which then would relate which tasks are best suited for CMP work. (The committee then referred to a handout.) The suggestion was made that CMP “Task 2: Analyze the Regional Economic Costs of Congestion”—which is a holdover from last year—be considered for the upcoming FFY. It also was recommended that we select two or three additional tasks from the list. The decision to select FFY 2016 CMP tasks was postponed until the next meeting.

Follow-Up Tasks

• Lourenço will announce at the MPO meeting that the CMP committee is seeking a chair and two additional members.
• Staff will add Tegin Bennett to the CMP committee email list.
• Staff will ask David Mohler, MPO Chair, about whether the CMP committee should be restored to eight members.
• Ryan Hicks will email the list of tasks to CMP committee members so that they may review and comment on comment on them.
• The CMP committee will meet again on January 21, 2016, at 9:00 AM. 

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 9:50 AM.

Attendance