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MetroFuture is founded on the principle that growth should be focused in areas where transportation infrastructure already exists, and transportation investments should be similarly focused to support that growth.  Meanwhile, slower growth in low-density areas will reduce the demand for roadway expansion projects in those areas.  As a result, new growth will have the transportation infrastructure it needs, and there will be less competition between building new infrastructure and maintaining and improving existing facilities.  The region will be able to capitalize on past investments, the development community will have more certainty that projects in smart growth locations will have adequate infrastructure, and existing residents will see more benefits as their local transportation system is improved and diversified.  

Unfortunately, the region often takes the opposite approach to making transportation investments.  Dispersed growth creates a demand for roadway widening projects and new interchanges, which in turn stimulates additional development, especially in low-density areas.  Uncontrolled growth, dispersed land use patterns, and the lack of transit accommodations create additional traffic that quickly overtaxes the capacity of the new capacity.  The result is that scarce transportation resources were spent on a project that does not reduce congestion or increase mobility.  Scarce resources are also inefficiently used when spent on transit extensions into areas where land use controls prohibit the compact transit-oriented development needed to maximize utilization of the new service.  

Aligning land use and transportation requires public officials and stakeholders to take a broader view of individual projects.  One immediate way that this can be done is to implement comprehensive corridor planning in areas where major investments are planned or will be needed as a result of anticipated major development.  Corridor planning coordinates transportation improvements with a plan for development that will use the capacity most efficiently.  

Even in the absence of a comprehensive corridor plan, proposed improvements should be rigorously evaluated to ensure that they are coordinated with and supportive of sustainable land use plans.  Establishing and enforcing stronger land use criteria for the region’s Transportation Improvement Program will allow resources to be focused on those projects that will use capacity most efficiently.  Effective project evaluation demands more comprehensive and robust data analysis and modeling, including better information about travel patterns and development, new computer models, and a set of evaluation measures that measure project performance to create a “feedback loop” that will inform future investment decisions.  

In order to conduct coordinated planning, land use and transportation planning organizations should be structured so they are responsive to regional concerns and fully independent of state government.  Diversified membership of the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization will support decisions that are responsive to concerns about land use, equity, economic development, and environmental justice.  When transportation and land use analysis are both fully integrated with each other and functionally independent of state agencies, the problem-solving capacity of the planning process is increased.  

Because not all transportation planning decisions occur at the regional level, there is also a need to build capacity at the local level and to reform state and federal earmarking practices.  Local officials and staff need support to evaluate the transportation impacts of land use plans and development proposals and to apply innovative tools to mitigate those impacts through design and enforceable developer commitments.  At the state level, an earmark reporting process will be an important first step to eliminating the process of using legislative appropriations to fund transportation projects without regard for sustainable land use plans.  

1)    Implement a comprehensive corridor planning process

2)    Strengthen Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) evaluation criteria

3)    Improve data modeling and analysis to support transportation decision-making

4)    Ensure that the MPO structure promotes accountability and diversity of opinion

5)    Conduct regional transportation and land use planning as an integrated, regionally-controlled activity

6)    Build local capacity to integrate land use and transportation planning

7)    Reform federal and state legislative earmarking systems