GRTA
Calls for Regional Report Card
to Measure Transportation Investments
ATLANTA
- The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) announced this
week that it would ask state and regional transportation agencies and
the business community to join in an effort to measure progress in
relieving traffic congestions, increasing accessibility to jobs and
commerce and improving Metro Atlanta's quality of life with a
"Regional Report Card."
"We
have just approved a $5 billion investment in transportation
infrastructure, and it is more important than ever that we evaluate hot
that money is being spent to meet our objectives," said Dr.
Catherine L. Ross, GRTA executive director, referring to the $5.4
billion Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).
The
2003-2005 TIP was approved by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) and
GRTA last fall. This week the federal government approved it,
giving the region a green light to make historic investments in
transportation improvements. The TIP will fund 296 new roadway
miles, plus 142 new HOV miles and major new alternatives such as GRTA's
regional express bus service. About 63 percent of the direct
investments would improve 47 of the most congested corridors in the
region.
"These
historic investments require accountability," Ross said.
"We must have some cost benefit analysis that measures how the
dollars we are spending achieve our goals and objectives. We need
to measure progress because ultimately what gets measured gets
done. We need an annual Regional Report Card."
GRTA
and the ARC already have identified 16 performance measures to guage how
future TIPs compare with the current one in terms of new miles of
highway lanes, bike paths and transit route miles; hours of
traffic delays and other measures. But Ross said they need to
ratchet up that evaluation to a broader annual look back at how the
region is improving mobility, access, safety and quality of life.
"For
example, if our goal is to reduce congestion, and it must be, a mobility
target could be to reduce the number of additional congested miles of
key arterial roads during rush hours to no more than X per year until
2025. Each year we could measure the percent of freeway miles
under congested conditions to see how we are doing toward reaching that
goal."
"If
we want to improve access to jobs, recreation or commerce, one target
could be to locate X percent of new housing units and jobs close to or
within a quarter mile of an existing or planned transit station.
As far as 'quality of life,' we can measure progress to reduce air
pollution. Another quality of life measure could be the time spent
in traffic during rush hour - and away from our families and leisure
time. We could measure how our land use practices are contributing
(or aggravating) congestion relief, too."
Ross
said the report card should be a team effort with the ARC, the Georgia
Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Division,
the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Regional Business Coalition,
and MARTA all contributing.
"If
the transportation agencies in this region are going to be entrusted
with these billions and billions of dollars, our taxpayers need to show
whether we're passing or failing, or even just getting by on a
"C" average," Ross said.
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