"NEW DIRECTIONS" YEAR 2030 TRANSPORTATION PLAN

New DirectionS…   What does this mean?

The Bi-State Year 2030 Transportation and Mobility Plan; Transportation Investments for Mobility and Efficiency (TIME for New Directions) which was adopted in the Summer of 2006 articulated the elements of a new transportation planning process for the Bi-State MPO. During the Plan update in 2005 the Bi State MPO Staff recommended to the Bi-State MPO Board that a new vision for transportation planning and investments become the foundation for out transportation planning process. This new vision incorporates a series of management systems and initiatives to maximize and better utilize the region’s transportation investments.

As a non Transportation Management Agency (TMA), the Bi-State MPO receives no attributed federal funding nor do we receive any federal pass through funding from the State. The State of Arkansas currently does not sub-allocate its federal transportation improvement to non TMA MPOs.  As a result, the Bi-State MPO’s New Directions planning initiative has been designed to facilitate coordinated transportation improvements among the local jurisdiction through their respective capital improvement programs.  New Directions is an action oriented planning process that is built upon seven specific planning management systems.  Our new process is only in its second year but we have, to date, initiated five of the seven systems.  We anticipate full integration of the management systems in the next two years so that we may further the concepts, actions, and results prior to the update of the Metropolitan Transportation Plan scheduled to begin in 2010.