Transportation Master Plan (TMP)

vision | key principles | priority actions | purpose | update | implementation | measuring progress

VISION

A connected community

• Land use and transportation will be fully integrated, both locally and regionally, to create an affordable, accessible, low energy, low impact, and efficient transportation system.
  
• Multiple modes of safe, affordable, easy, and convenient travel will ensure mobility for people of all ages and abilities. Multiple travel modes will make it easy to choose transportation options that support a healthy lifestyle. Innovative travel modes will be accommodated through flexibility in the transportation system.
  
• The transportation system will provide safe, reliable, convenient, and effective vehicular mobility and access.
  
• Travel infrastructure will be high quality and recognized as world class by residents, visitors, and peers.
  
• People will be aware of the impact that their travel choices have on the transportation system, the environment, and the community. They will have travel options to choose that help Fort Collins achieve its overall vision of being a world class community.
  
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KEY PRINCIPLES

Integrated Land Use and Transportation

• Transportation planning decisions, management strategies, and investments will support and be coordinated with the City's land use vision.
  
• Investments in Enhanced Travel Corridors and within Activity Centers will encourage infill and redevelopment.
  
• Land use planning decisions, management strategies, and incentives will support and be coordinated with the City's transportation vision.
• Transportation infrastructure will be designed to be sensitive to the surrounding land use context.
  
• Coordinated regional transportation solutions will be pursued.
  
• The City will be a responsible steward of transportation resources by integrating land use and transportation to create and affordable, accessible, low energy, low impact, and efficient transportation system.

Mobility Options

• Design standards, policies, and operational strategies will be flexible to accommodate new and innovative transportation modes.
  
• Transportation that provides opportunities for residents to lead healthy and active lifestyles will be promoted.
  
• Enhanced Travel Corridors will contain amenities and designs that specifically promote walking, the use of mass transit, and bicycling.
  
• Using transit will be a safe, affordable, easy, and convenient mobility option for all ages and abilities.
  
• Bicycling will be a safe, easy, and convenient mobility option for all ages and abilities.
  
• The pedestrian network will provide a safe, easy, and convenient mobility option for all ages and abilities.
  
• Driving will be a safe, easy, and convenient mobility option.
  
• The City will be a responsible steward of transportation resources for multiple modes of travel, making it easy to choose transportation options that support a healthy lifestyle.

Traffic Flow

• The transportation system will be managed to provide predictable travel conditions.
  
• The transportation system will be managed to minimize environmental impacts.
  
• The transportation system will be managed to provide effective automobile mobility and access.
  
• The transportation system will be managed to provide safe travel conditions.
• The transportation system will be adequate for the movement of goods and people.
• Regional mobility will be safe, reliable, convenient, and effective.

Quality Travel Infrastructure

• The City will be a responsible steward of transportation resources to provide safe, reliable, convenient, and effective vehicular mobility and access.
  
• Capital projects will support the goals of City Plan, the Transportation Master Plan, Master Street Plan, and the modal plans.
  
• Maintenance of transportation infrastructure will ensure safe operation and long term preservation of the asset.
  
• Transportation infrastructure will be designed and constructed to a level of quality commensurate with community values.
  
• Transportation infrastructure will ensure the provision of high quality facilities for the movement of goods, people, and information.
  
• The City will be a responsible steward of transportation resources, ensuring that travel infrastructure will be high quality and recognized as world class by residents, visitors, and peers.

Increasing Awareness

• Programs that establish awareness of automobile travel impacts and affect travel choices will be promoted.
  
• Programs that establish awareness of healthy transportation options and affect travel choices will be promoted.
  
• Programs that establish awareness of transportation safety will be promoted.
  
• The City will be a responsible steward of transportation resources to increase awareness and provide travel options.
  
• Programs that establish awareness of the environmental and energy use impacts of transportation choices and affect travel choices and behavior will be promoted.

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PRIORITY ACTIONS

The following is a partial list of implementation actions identified as priorities in the Action Plan. Please refer to the Action Plan for a complete list of implementation actions.

Near Term (2011-2012)

• Convene an inter-departmental team to explore new opportunities to partner on acquiring and managing various open lands for multiple uses (e.g., trails, natural areas, recreation, stormwater, agriculture, etc.)
  
• Leverage the Urban Renewal team (existing) o address cross cutting redevelopment and infill challenges and explore new means of addressing the challenges inherent in this type of development
  
• Convene an inter-departmental team to explore options for addressing new vehicle types and fuel sources
  
• Developing a Citywide Capital Improvement Plan
  
• Develop the Harmony Travel Corridor Master Plan and update the Harmony Corridor Plan and Standards
  
• Update the Downtown Parking Plan
  
• Update the Master Street Plan Classifications and Larimer County Urban Area Street Standards
  
• Amend the land use code to address adequate public facilities requirements and transportation Levels of Service for infill and redevelopment, Transit Oriented Development (TOD) overlay zone standards in the Midtown area, reduce barriers to infill and redevelopment, and revise design standards for the River Downtown Redevelopment zoning district.
  
• Identify and begin the planning and design process for a “green street” demonstration project

Longer Term (2013 and beyond)

• Implement the 5-year Transportation Capital Improvement Plan to the extent possible
  
• Update the 2009 Transfort Strategic Plan
  
• Pursue funding opportunities to construct and implement the “green street” demonstration project

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PURPOSE OF THE TMP

The Transportation Master Plan (TMP) serves to document a bold vision for the long-term multimodal transportation system that will support the Fort Collins community well into the future. The plan provides policy direction for decisions regarding the implementation of the transportation system to achieve the City’s vision, mission, and values as a world class community. The TMP sets the vision planning horizon at 2035, with the understanding that the plan will be updated in approximately five years.

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THE 2010-11 TMP UPDATE

Both the Transportation Master Plan (TMP) and City Plan were updated through a process called Plan Fort Collins. This integrated process allowed the City to maximize efficiency and share resources for public events and presentations. The 2010-11 update was also prepared with extensive involvement from the City’s Utilities department, leading to close integration of a variety of topics – energy, water, stormwater – that previous City Plan efforts had incorporated in a more cursory manner. Re-branding these two efforts as Plan Fort Collins, a more simplified, recognizable name, afforded even greater public awareness and understanding of the two projects. Like the shared name, the process to update the two plans was unified around the tenants of innovation, sustainability, and connections so that the long range visions and policies for City Plan and the Transportation Master Plan would be mutually supportive and comprehensive. This unique approach for the 2010-11 TMP update includes an inter-disciplinary staff team from throughout the City organization. Additionally, an evaluation process using a systems-based, triple bottom line approach applied more broadly to include environmental, economic, and human factors is added to the traditional transportation planning process.

The Transportation Master Plan process also includes updates to the City’s Master Street Plan (MSP), multimodal transportation Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), and Pedestrian Plan. The TMP also includes the Transfort Strategic Plan (2009) and the Bicycle Plan (2008) elements as well as other modal plans.

The updated TMP includes updated vision, principles, and policies as well as proposed implementation strategies and performance measures. The TMP is organized by subject areas to align with the City’s Budgeting for Outcomes transportation goals based on the transportation results map:

• Integrated Land Use and Transportation
  
• Mobility Options
  
• Traffic Flow
  
• Quality Travel Surfaces and Infrastructure
  
• Increase Awareness
  

Plan Fort Collins and the Transportation Master Plan incorporated three overarching themes for the effort – innovate, sustain, and connect.

Innovate
The citizens of Fort Collins wish to advance their future in a positive and vital way, and City government, educational, and other institutions as well as the private sector have always been willing to lead and serve as a model for other communities. The City of Fort Collins reflects a desire to remain innovative, world class leaders.

Sustain
The basic tenets of sustainability serve as the guiding principles for the vision and serve as a foundation underpinning all components of each plan. Fort Collins finds these tenets to be as follows:

• A focus on the future with a long-term perspective (an outlook for the generations to come)
  
• An understanding that the community is bounded by the limits of the natural world and its resources
  
• A systems perspective that recognizes the economic, human, and environmental implications of policies, decisions, and outcomes
  
• Performance measures to guide continuous improvement strategies
  

Connect
Being a “connected community” extends beyond the physical connections implied by our transportation system. It encompasses a community that is connected technologically and socially as well. Fort Collins’ vision has long embraced a City that provides safe and efficient facilities for all modes of travel. It should also encourage expansion of technology infrastructure to serve and connect the community, increasing access to information and fostering better communication between residents, businesses, institutions, and local government. Finally, the vision should support social connectivity through ongoing support of community organizations and volunteerism as well as by encouraging development patterns and creating gathering places that attract people and promote social interaction.

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Implementation

In order to be effective, planning must not be static. The City and Fort Collins community has a great track record of implementing long range plans and a philosophy of continuous improvement already in place, but Plan Fort Collins establishes stronger links between monitoring tools, ongoing plan refinements, and implementation. The Transportation Master Plan (TMP) implementation strategies tie directly to the vision, principles, and policies to ensure that the short-term actions are helping to achieve the long-term vision of the TMP and the City.

Implementation is broad; it’s about how Fort Collins as a community plans and moves forward. Implementation of the plan will require on-going maintenance of the existing transportation system as well as implementation of new improvements and services described in the TMP and Master Street Plan (MSP) and Capital Improvement Plan. Implementing the TMP is a long term commitment of the City. This is not only a role that the City plays but a collaborative effort of community and agency partners.

The implementation section of the TMP includes the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), Funding Strategies, Measuring Progress, and a list of Priority Actions and Strategies. The recommendations in this section will help the City set its course to achieve the vision, principles, and policies of the TMP.

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MEASURING PROGRESS

The concept of measuring progress towards the desired future is integral to the Plan Fort Collins process. The TMP must be monitored regularly to determine whether the implementation of the plan is occurring and whether it is achieving desired results. The updated TMP includes recommendations for action steps and strategies to evaluate, monitor, and report progress on plan implementation over time. The intent of these performance measurement strategies is to help guide the City’s progress toward the TMP vision and serve as useful tools for future plan updates. These action steps, strategies, and evaluation measures are integrated with the overall Plan Fort Collins process to ensure alignment with City Plan and city-wide goals.

These performance measures will be used to determine how well the City organization and community are doing to accomplish the TMP goals and highlight if/when any modifications are necessary to respond to new/future challenges.

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