Chapter 15: Long-Term Planning

The goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of the transportation planning process, highlighting the considerations inherent in effective long-term planning. Long-term transportation planning assesses existing conditions, identifies the future demand for travel, generates alternative strategies to support the projected demand, evaluates those alternatives and recommends to decision-makers a practical portfolio of policies, programs, and investments that would maintain and improve the mobility of people and the movement of goods, while supporting the area's goals and objectives.^a To be effective, a long-term transportation plan must be grounded in the community's vision, reflect early and frequent public involvement, have a comprehensive systems perspective, be developed with strong technical methods and the cooperation of the host of transportation agencies, and rest on realistic financial projections.