Developing Long-Range Transportation Plans for Small Urbanized Areas in the ISTEA Era: Tallahassee 2020 Plan Update

Passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) has resulted in a number of new requirements for the development of long-range transportation plans sponsored by metropolitan planning organizations. Many of the published ISTEA discussions have revolved around large urbanized areas with significant air quality problems, large congested freeway systems already in place, and fixed-guideway transit systems either operating now or planned for the future. The Tallahassee–Leon County MPO is responsible for transportation planning activities for an area with a 1993 population of 206,000. Tallahassee has no significant air quality problems, only one Interstate facility (which does not even serve the downtown core), and a limited bus transit system. With this backdrop, the Tallahassee 2020 Transportation Plan Update has been conducted with an eye toward the ISTEA goals of providing for intermodal connectivity, developing multimodal solutions, evaluating the link between transportation and land use, and enhancing the public participation process. ISTEA consistency has been addressed in the Tallahassee 2020 Plan Update through a variety of means, including the following: (a) complete model calibration based on recently collected origin-destination data; (b) use of the 15 ISTEA as a framework for the adopted goals and objectives; (c) public presentations to a variety of civic groups and committees; (d) model testing and deficiency analysis of alternative future land use scenarios; (e) recommendations of improvements that provide for preferential treatment of high-occupancy vehicles; (f) identification of locations of future bicycle, pedestrian, and park-and-ride facilities; and (g) coordination with a separate study on the effects of enhanced transportation demand management software implementation.