| Issue 272 | June 5, 2000 |
| The Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit
Administration issued their triennial review of the downstate New York
metropolitan transportation planning process last week. The review is mandated
by law and evaluates the performance of the NY Metropolitan Transportation
Council (NYMTC), the "metropolitan planning organization" comprising
major transportation departments and the forum for allocating federal transportation
funds to projects and agencies in the lower Hudson Valley, NYC and Long
Island.
The review is the topic of a public meeting on June 13 in lower Manhattan (see calendar). As they did in 1996, the federal agencies have conditionally re-certified NYMTC, and will revisit their review in a year to evaluate progress in specific areas. Technical problems the feds want addressed promptly are inadequate staffing and deficiencies in the transportation demand computer model NYMTC uses for a variety of purposes, including analysis of the transportation sector's contribution to regional air pollution. The 80-page federal report contains a wealth of detailed recommendations and valuable insight into topics from freight planning to public involvement. We will try to look at these in more detail in future issues. The 1996 federal review of NYMTC was broadly critical of the regional planning process, but only required action on a few technical issues. Little or no institutional change at NYMTC has been seen in the interim. Thus, it remains to be seen whether the federal agencies will try to exact any real progress in the areas outlined above or not. History suggests that the NYMTC member agencies will not make such changes without concerted external pressure. Six members of the U.S. House of Representatives from NYC recently wrote to U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater asking that U.S. DOT require changes at NYMTC like those listed above (MTR #268). The Tri-State Campaign and its member organizations have
been critical of the NYMTC planning process, contending that it is primarily
an exercise in the paperwork needed to obtain federal funds, and urging
changes like those backed by the House members.
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Additionally, the report calls for progress within one year in seven areas:
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