The 2023 Regional Transportation Plan PASSED!

Our collaborative endeavors have yielded remarkable achievements within the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP):

Transparency in Funding: A successful “unbundling” of $1.2 billion of ODOT safety and operations project funding has been achieved. This means ODOT must now provide detailed information on individual projects in this category and allow regional input on their prioritization.
Reforming Project Selection: The initiation of a process to reform the Call for Projects will help future investments and project lists align with regional policies and goals, rather than undermining them.
Accountability for Mega Projects: Commitments have been secured to hold mega projects accountable to Metro policies and ODOT’s promises regarding climate, safety, and equity outcomes. ODOT will need to demonstrate compliance with these commitments to access federal funding.

Positive Developments:

Apart from these wins, several other developments deserve attention:

Major Policy Update: The passage of the most significant update to regional mobility policies in two decades has been accomplished. These new standards focus on system completeness, Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) reductions, and reliability, moving beyond the sole concern for driver mobility and road capacity expansion.
Improved Climate Analysis: Shortcomings in Metro’s tools for climate analysis have been identified, and a plan to address them has been developed. Metro will create more accurate methods to assess the climate impacts of transportation plans and advocate for rectifying faulty assumptions.