PURPOSE AND GOALS
The regional transportation plan serves two basic functions. First, it is an authoritative statement by the Housatonic Valley Region's chief elected officials, serving since 1975 as the area’s federally recognized regional agency for transportation planning, as to what is needed to improve mobility within the Region.

Secondly, it increases the public's awareness of transportation matters and provides them with a point of contact with transportation investment decisions. The public is invited to react to, and help shape, the Plan. In cooperation with state and federal transportation planning agencies, the resultant Regional Transportation Plan serves as a focus for setting transportation priorities and securing federal funding.

Although many types of planning are best left at the local level, transportation is so obviously intermunicipal in scope that the federal and state governments have found it to be in the public's best interest to look for regional solutions to transportation problems.

SAMPLE OF THE TYPES OF TRANSPORTATION POLICY
THAT WILL BE DETAILED IN LATER SECTIONS
OF THIS TRANSPORTATION PLAN

Green (lighter gray in hard copy) ) designates existing
four lane roadways, while red (darker gray in hard copy) indicates
two lane roadways proposed for expansion to four lanes.
See full region on larger image.

Since 1975, each urbanized area in the United States, including ten of the fifteen regional planning areas in Connecticut, have followed federal guidelines to maintain a continuing, cooperative and comprehensive transportation planning process. This is required in order to be eligible for federally funded transportation improvements.

Federal law gives HVCEO and similar regional councils the designation of “Metropolitan Planning Organization” (MPO). The purpose of the MPO designation is to incorporate regional thinking and priorities into each state’s transportation investment strategy. The MPO designation is tied to the presence of an urbanized area, as shown on this map of federally defined urbanized areas in Connecticut.

To give the MPO designation some real meaning, HVCEO and the other qualifying regional groups are granted partial control over the fiscal decisions made by state transportation agencies in their regions. This is achieved through control by the MPO’s of inclusion of projects on a federal financial programming list known as the "Statewide Transportation Improvement Program" (STIP).

In most cases, federal funds cannot be used for transportation purposes within the Region unless they first appear on the more localized regional TIP adopted by HVCEO when acting as the MPO. To insure the democratic nature of this power, voting MPO members must be chief elected officials of local governments.

The state and the Region know that federal law requires them to work together, and do so to mutual advantage. Since 1975 this inclusive process has served Connecticut well.

The goals that guide the HVCEO in establishing transportation priorities on the TIP in the Regional Transportation Plan are:

GOAL 1. Use transportation planning and implementation to support the economic vitality of the region, especially by enabling business competitiveness, productivity and efficiency. Coordinate the transportation system with local and state goals for enhancing economic vitality.

GOAL 2. For the Region’s transportation system as a whole, enhance physical and modal integration and connectivity, increase safety and security, and promote efficient system management and operation. Work to maximize the productivity of existing transportation systems before such systems are expanded.

GOAL 3. Develop a transportation network for our growing region that is consistent with well planned patterns of land development and that effectively integrates energy conservation, air quality goals, environmental quality and environmental mitigation into transportation system management and growth. Coordination of such elements within thorough inter-agency consultation shall be a fundamental feature of HVCEO's transportation planning.

GOAL 4. Increase accessibility and mobility options for people and freight. Promote a shift away from the one person per car situation and toward increased vehicle occupancy via continuous advocacy of public transit, car and van pooling.

GOAL 5. Continue to develop both formal and informal working relationships with local officials, private citizens and organizations having transportation concerns either in common with or contrary to HVCEO's, for the purpose of dealing effectively with interrelated transportation problems and opportunities. Special efforts will be made to identify the potential benefits and burdens of proposed transportation projects upon lower income and minority groups.

OVERVIEW OF KEY PLANNING DATA
The recommendations of this Regional Transportation Plan are based on the best available data. The key demographic data items that officials and the public need in order to best understand the Region's transportation needs are maintained and updated regularly in an HVCEO web site section known as Area Information. An overview summary of the data is available.

Details as to the journey to work component of total trips, often characterized as about 25% of total daily travel, are also available from HVCEO.

Fundamentally, the demand for transportation services of all kinds is correlated with the size and characteristics of the population. This relationship makes forecasts of population growth one of the transportation planner's basic tools. Inaccurate estimates of future population growth can, in turn, produce a transportation system that cannot cope with the demands placed upon it.

The Region's population grew rapidly between 1990 and 2000, with an overall increase of 13%. This rate of increase was over three times greater than the Statewide average of 3.6%.

The result has been a roadway network that shows increasing traffic congestion, especially during peak hours. Demand for bus and rail commuter services has grown.

Projections of future traffic trends are not solely dependent upon population figures and economic indicators. Certain population characteristics that affect mobility must also be used to modify volume estimates.

One of the more important limitations on transportation mobility is the proportion of the population that is either under 18 or over 65 years of age. People in these two age groups can be assumed to be under-represented among drivers in relation to their share of the total population.

The 2000 census indicates that most suburban towns have two or three percent of households with no vehicle available as of that time, with eight percent in Danbury. Another twenty to thirty percent in each municipality had only one vehicle available.

Clearly then, there are significant numbers of people in the Region who are actual or potential users of public transit services and whose needs must be addressed by transportation planning and funding.

And in order to fight any possible illegal discrimination, the HVCEO planning program maintains census summaries of minority and lower income populations. For the Housatonic Valley Planning Region, demographic data shows that the only concentrated area of lower income and black minority and hispanic minority populations is in Danbury.

As Danbury transportation projects are developed, in cooperation with the Conn DOT planning process special attention will be paid to determine if there are any adverse impacts to these populations. Towards this end a map of relative incomes by neighborhood identifies lower income areas of special concern to transportation planning.

Historically, increased dependence upon automobiles and trucks led to a "motor vehicle oriented" transportation system. The increased personal mobility made possible by the mass production of the automobile permitted the rapid spread of residential population into suburban areas such as the Housatonic Valley, and at relatively low densities. As a result of this spread pattern of development, trip origins and destinations have become widely dispersed.

However, it is the concentration of motorized travel during certain hours of the day and within certain transportation corridors of the Region that creates the most obvious congestion problems. The challenge of regional transportation planning is to provide sufficient transportation system capacity, balanced among all modes of transportation and reflecting current and future development patterns, to meet future travel needs.

CONSULTATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES TO
IMPROVE PLANNING AND MINIMIZE CONFLICTS
A goal of the regional transportation plan is to eliminate or minimize conflicts with other agencies plans that impact transportation. The objective is to compare plans, maps and inventories developed by these agencies with the Regional Transportation Plan and TIP to ensure compatibility.

It is important for HVCEO's transportation planning to have as input to the planning process the single factor data bases prepared by other agencies, to reduce impacts and conflicts, and indeed to determine the overall viability of some transportation proposals. Therefore HVCEO will maintain on an ongoing basis the following information and coordination:

--- TOWN AND CITY PLANS. Coordination with municipal planning commissions through their state required plans of conservation and development. These plans show via both mapped format and data inventories detailed environmental and cultural features of each community. This key data source provides HVCEO’s planning with valuable historic preservation, natural resource, land use management and environmental protection information that can directly affect the planning process.

To complete the exchange, HVCEO will provide review comments on each draft municipal plan as it is updated. The latest update of each comprehensive municipal plan will be placed on file at the HVCEO office.

--- CT DEP AND OTHER STATE AGENCY MAPPED DATA BASES. HVCEO has ready access through its GIS program to state agency data bases such as detailed wetlands maps, rare and endangered species map, archaeological resources map, etc. The CT DEP prepares this material for its own use, but also readily distributes it to regional planning organizations and others. HVCEO has a full time GIS Manager to properly manage and layer this material over project plans.

CT DEP is not seeking feedback on these maps. Rather, if the HVCEO transportation planning program makes full and effective use of these materials during transportation project planning, then greater coordination will have been achieved when CT DEP eventually reviews the draft improvement project.

--- RELATIONSHIP TO THE CT DOT MASTER PLAN. The Connecticut Department of Transportation maintains a State of Connecticut Long Range Transportation Plan for the improvement of transportation systems.

This plan utilizes a systems management approach to guide the State in its investment in transportation activities. It is an important influence upon future transportation investments within the Housatonic Valley Region.

HVCEO's Regional Transportation Plan reflects proposed State investments and is also designed to influence the Conn DOT Master Transportation Plan. The latest edition of the Conn DOT Plan is available for review at HVCEO.

A related policy setting process with a close relationship to the Conn DOT Master Plan is maintained by the CT Transportation Strategy Board.

--- RELATIONSHIP TO CT DOT PROJECT DEVELOPMENT UNIT. The initial ideas for local traffic and safety improvements by municipalities are submitted thru HVCEO to CT DOT’s Project Development Unit for review. It is within this DOT Unit that viability is largely determined.

During this process, CT DOT staff make extensive use of data bases from other state departments, including hazardous waste site data from CT DEP, historic homes and other locations from the State Historic Preservation Officer, etc.

In project by project review meetings with Development Unit staff, HVCEO staff and municipal officials discuss not just traffic but also the impact of cultural and environmental features upon the conceptual project. Then in the next project development phase, these factors are brought up with the public at a community meeting.

This cooperative HVCEO-DOT process is clearly in the spirit of federal regulations requiring consultation and use of non-transportation information in assessing project feasibility. Projects that fail here do not proceed to the TIP.

--- RELATIONSHIP TO THE CT OPM CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN. Another SAFETEA-LU planning requirement is that HVCEO's Regional Transportation Plan seek to promote consistency of its policies and suggested transportation improvements with state growth plans. These plans should be contrasted and dialogue encouraged so as to identify and narrow differences, especially regarding each plans growth policy map, which have close relationships to highway capacity investments.

Specific to Connecticut, this federally required process is already encouraged by and paralleled by 2005 state legislation. The 2005 legislation requires regional planning organizations to contrast their regional growth plans with the state plan maintained by the CT Office of Policy and Management. HVCEO has already begun this process.

Excerpt from State Plan legend, showing its category definitions.
The HVCEO Plan makes use of similar definitions, for
development and conservation categories.

In addition, and in coordination with the other regional agencies and timing requested by Conn DOT, HVCEO will submit its Regional Transportation Plan to CT OPM for review and comment, the goal being to identify any differences relating to transportation policy between the state and regional plan, and then seek to address those differences.

--- RELATIONSHIP TO HVCEO'S REGIONAL CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT POLICIES PLAN. Land use and transportation work together, and indeed are "two sides of the same coin." HVCEO’s draft Regional Plan is a guide for municipal and regional infrastructure growth and resultant land use change. Note that the plan category descriptions specifically include direct relationships to traffic and transit investment priority.

The regional growth plan supports this Regional Transportation Plan, and is coordinated with state plans as required by both state and federal regulations.

RELATIONSHIP OF TRANSPORTATION TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNING. Many studies have shown that economic growth and development depend heavily and positively on the growth and quality of regional transportation infrastructure. As most of this infrastructure is provided by the public sector, the effects of public investment on transportation systems and improvement lead to enhancement of private capital productivity.

An efficient transportation infrastructure not only facilitates economic growth, it influences business location decisions. Firms can reach their output market at lower cost and their workers enjoy lower transportation costs.

Workers in efficient transportation environments may not require premiums that compensate them for lost time and increased fuel consumption to induce them to commute to work.

Intermodal transportation is important in both business firm and worker location as well. Efficient transportation reduces costs for employers and workers and is complementary to the production process of firms and adds to the amenity value of households in the region.

The Housatonic Valley Region is one of the strongest economic growth centers in Connecticut. The area’s diversified economy is populated with corporate names such as Duracell, Boehringer Ingelheim, Pitney Bowes, Grolier, Kimberly Clark, GE Capital, Cedant Mobility, MCI, Raytheon and other high tech, research and development and manufacturing facilities well positioned to participate in the evolving world economic order.

The transportation systems serving the region have facilitated this economic development. Route 7 bisects the region from north to south, I-84 bisects from east to west, Metro North provides commuter rail service on the Danbury Branch Line and the Housatonic Railroad Company and Providence and Worcester Railroad provide rail freight services.

I-84 connects the regional economy to the New York and New Jersey markets. It also functions as the gateway to the I-84 corridor economies centered on Waterbury and the Greater Hartford and New Britain areas.

However, I-84 needs to be expanded to meet the demands of current growth and to facilitate future economic growth. Conn DOT has plans to significantly expand the carrying capacity of I-84. These plans enjoy strong local and multi-regional support.

HVCEO has adopted a comprehensive program of coordinated improvements for Route 7 north of Danbury and Route 7 south of Danbury.

These recommendations also call for expanding inter-regional mass transit connections and better connections between mass transit stations and employment sites, utilizing the combined resources of our area HART bus system, other bus systems and Metropool.

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