Page:MPO Regional Transit Advisory Committee · Lawrence-Douglas County 2012-2015-TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM-Revision-2.pdf/7

 The purpose of developing this TIP is to provide the Lawrence - Douglas County Area with a continuing, comprehensive and cooperative program to improve the area’s transportation system. The TIP is one of several management tools that planners and engineers use to better manage transportation programs and make needed improvements to the region’s multi-modal transportation system. It is essentially a short-range scheduling and budgeting program that relates the present transportation system improvement needs to the longer range MTP. The TIP is an important document that sets short-term priorities for transportation improvements in the region. All regionally significant projects (even those not using federal funds) must be programmed in the TIP.

The TIP strengthens the connections between the area’s long-range transportation and land use plans, the operation and maintenance of the existing transportation system with its management for future improvements, and all of the various financial processes related to funding major transportation projects. The TIP is the end product of the planning stage of transportation system development and the beginning of the implementation stage.

The TIP symbolizes the end of the planning stage and the beginning of the implementation stage for projects.

Projects listed in the TIP move forward toward construction through a process that involves planning, programming, budgeting, and project development. This progression proceeds as the project moves forward in the TIP from the last year to the first year. By looking at the TIP from year to year you can see the progress being made to implement recommended projects from the MTP and other local plans that propose transportation improvements (e.g., capital improvement plans, corridor studies, etc.). In this way the TIP is used as a progress report for the transportation plan as well as a programming document for projects.

Projects that end up being federally funded and/or are regionally significant are often specified as recommended system improvements in the MTP. Those projects must be programmed in the TIP. These improvements are then added to the regional traffic demand model and used to analyze the regional transportation needs during the creation of the next MTP. Therefore, the MTP and the TIP are part of the same cyclical process for transportation system improvement. These two important MPO documents are posted on the MPO web site at http://www.lawrenceks.org/mpo.

Improvements to the major street/highway system and transit operations in the region facilitate and support other community developments including the urbanization of land as the region’s population grows. The regional transportation planning process, including TIP development, allows capital improvement needs to be anticipated in advance and for government agencies to respond more effectively to growth and development pressures in the region.

=II. DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM=

Federal transportation funding assistance is provided through the MPO process to the City of Lawrence (including transit funds for the T), Douglas County, the three small cities in Douglas County (Baldwin City, Lecompton, and Eudora), and local paratransit providers for the improvement of the regional transportation system. Projects listed for funding in the TIP are designed to address mobility concerns raised in the MTP, and as such the TIP acts as the shortrange implementation tool for the region’s transportation planning process. Page 3 of 57