Proposed Policy Guidance on Metropolitan Planning Organization Representation |
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Victor M. Mendez
Federal Highway Administration
September 30, 2013
[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 189 (Monday, September 30, 2013)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60015-60017]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-23780]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Federal Transit Administration
Federal Highway Administration
[Docket No. FTA-2013-0029]
Proposed Policy Guidance on Metropolitan Planning Organization
Representation
AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA) and Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA), DOT.
ACTION: Proposed policy guidance; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The FTA and FHWA are jointly issuing this proposed guidance on
implementation of provisions of the Moving Ahead for Progress in the
21st Century Act (MAP-21), Public Law 112-141, that require
representation by providers of public transportation in each
metropolitan planning organization (MPO) that serves a transportation
management area (TMA) no later than October 1, 2014. The purpose of
this guidance is to assist MPOs and providers of public transportation
in complying with this new requirement.
DATES: Comments must be received by October 30, 2013. Any comments
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received beyond this deadline will be considered to the extent
practicable.
ADDRESSES: Comments. You may submit comments identified by the docket
number (FTA-2013-0029) by any of the following methods:
Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to http://www.regulations.gov and
follow the online instructions for submitting comments.
DOT Electronic Docket: Go to http://dms.dot.gov and follow the
instructions for submitting comments.
U.S. Mail: Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room W12-140, Washington,
DC 20590.
Hand Delivery or Courier: Docket Management Facility, U.S.
Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, Southeast, Room
W12-140, Washington, DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday
through Friday, except Federal Holidays.
Fax: 202-493-2251.
Instructions: You must include the agency names (Federal Transit
Administration and Federal Highway Administration) and docket number
(FTA-2013-0029) for this notice at the beginning of your comments. You
must submit two copies of your comments if you submit them by mail. If
you wish to receive confirmation that FTA and FHWA received your
comments, you must include a self-addressed, stamped postcard. Due to
security procedures in effect since October 2001, mail received through
the U.S. Postal Service may be subject to delays. Parties submitting
comments may wish to consider using an express mail firm to ensure
prompt filing of any submissions not filed electronically or by hand.
All comments received will be posted, without change and including any
personal information provided, to http://www.regulations.gov, where
they will be available to Internet users. You may review DOT's complete
Privacy Act Statement published in the Federal Register on April 11,
2000, at 65 FR 19477. For access to the docket to read background
documents and comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov at
any time, or to the Docket Management Facility, U.S. Department of
Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Room W12-140, Washington,
DC 20590, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except
Federal Holidays.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dwayne Weeks, FTA Office of Planning
and Environment, telephone (202) 366-4033 or Dwayne.Weeks@dot.gov; or
Harlan Miller, FHWA Office of Planning, telephone (202) 366-0847 or
Harlan.Miller@dot.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Introduction
The FTA and FHWA are jointly issuing this proposed policy guidance
on the implementation of 23 U.S.C. 134(d)(2)(B) and 49 U.S.C.
5303(d)(2)(B), which require representation by providers of public
transportation in each MPO that serves an area designated as a TMA. The
FTA and FHWA anticipate issuing a joint notice of proposed rulemaking
to amend 23 CFR part 450 to implement 23 U.S.C. 134(d)(2)(B) and 49
U.S.C. 5303(d)(2)(B) as amended by sections 1201 and 20005 of MAP-21.
These United States Code sections now require representation by
providers of public transportation in each MPO that serves an area
designated as a TMA. A TMA is defined as an urbanized area with a
population of over 200,000 individuals as determined by the 2010
census, or an urbanized area with a population of fewer than 200,000
individuals that is designated as a TMA by the request of the Governor
and the MPO designated for the area.\1\ As of the date of this
guidance, of the 384 MPOs throughout the Nation, 184 MPOs serve an area
designated as a TMA.
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\1\ 23 U.S.C. 134(k)(1); 49 U.S.C. 5303(k)(1).
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The FTA conducted an On-Line Dialogue on this requirement from
March 5 through March 29, 2013. Through this forum, FTA received input
from MPOs, local elected officials, transit agencies, and the general
public, with over 3,000 visits to the Web site. Over 100 ideas were
submitted from 340 registered users who also provided hundreds of
comments and votes on these ideas. Participants discussed the complex
nature of MPOs and the advantages of providing flexibility for MPOs and
transit providers to decide locally how to include representation by
providers of public transportation in the MPO.
To increase the accountability and transparency of the Federal-aid
highway and Federal transit programs and to improve project decision-
making through performance-based planning and programming, MAP-21
establishes a performance management framework. The MAP-21 requires
FHWA to establish, through a separate rulemaking, performance measures
and standards to be used by States to assess the condition of the
pavements and bridges, serious injuries and fatalities, performance of
the Interstate System and National Highway System, traffic congestion,
on-road mobile source emissions, and freight movement on the Interstate
System.\2\ The MAP-21 also requires FTA to establish, through separate
rulemakings, state of good repair and safety performance measures, and
requires each provider of public transportation to establish
performance targets in relation to these performance measures.\3\
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\2\ 23 U.S.C. 150(c).
\3\ 49 U.S.C. 5326(b), (c), 5329(b), (d).
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To ensure consistency, an MPO must coordinate to the maximum extent
practicable with the State and providers of public transportation to
establish performance targets for the metropolitan planning area that
address these performance measures.\4\ An MPO must describe in its
metropolitan transportation plans the performance measures and targets
used to assess the performance of its transportation system.\5\
Statewide and metropolitan transportation improvement programs (STIPs
and TIPs) must include, to the maximum extent practicable, a
description of the anticipated effect of the program toward achieving
the performance targets established in the statewide or metropolitan
transportation plan, linking investment priorities and the highway and
transit performance targets.\6\ These changes to the planning process
will be addressed in FHWA and FTA's anticipated joint rulemaking
amending 23 CFR part 450.
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\4\ 23 U.S.C. 134(h)(2); 49 U.S.C. 5303(h)(2).
\5\ 23 U.S.C. 134(i)(2)(B); 49 U.S.C. 5303(i)(2)(B).
\6\ 23 U.S.C. 134(j)(2)(D); 49 U.S.C. 5303(i)(2)(D) (TIPs) and
23 U.S.C. 135(g)(4); 49 U.S.C. 5304(g)(4) (STIPs).
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As part of its performance management framework, MAP-21 assigns
MPOs the new transit related responsibilities described above, i.e., to
establish performance targets with respect to transit state of good
repair and transit safety and to address these targets in their
transportation plans and TIPs. Representation by providers of public
transportation in each MPO that serves a TMA will better enable the MPO
to define performance targets and to develop plans and TIPs that
support an intermodal transportation system for the metropolitan area.
Including representation by providers of public transportation in each
MPO that serves an area designated as a TMA is an essential element of
MAP-21's performance management framework and will support the
successful implementation of a performance-based approach to
transportation decisionmaking.
The FTA and FHWA seek comment on the following proposals in this
guidance: the determination of specifically designated representatives,
the eligibility of representatives of providers of public
transportation to
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serve as specifically designated representatives, and the cooperative
process to select a specifically designated representative in MPOs with
multiple providers of public transportation. There is wide variation in
transit agency representation among MPOs and in the governance
structure of MPOs throughout the country. To accommodate the many
existing models of transit agency representation on MPO boards, this
proposed guidance proposes flexible approaches for MPOs and providers
of public transportation to work together to meet this requirement.
II. Specifically Designated Representatives
MAP-21 requires that by October 1, 2014, MPOs that serve an area
designated as a TMA must include local elected officials; officials of
public agencies that administer or operate major modes of
transportation in the metropolitan area, including representation by
providers of public transportation; and appropriate State officials.\7\
The requirement to include ``representation by providers of public
transportation'' is a new requirement under MAP-21. The FHWA and FTA
construe that the intent of this provision is that representatives of
providers of public transportation, once designated, will have equal
decision-making rights and authorities as other members listed in 23
U.S.C. 134(d)(2)(B) and 49 U.S.C. 5303(d)(2)(B) that are on the policy
board of an MPO that serves a TMA. This expectation reflects the long-
standing position of FHWA and FTA with respect to statutorily required
MPO board members.\8\
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\7\ 23 U.S.C. 134(d)(2); 49 U.S.C. 5303(d)(2).
\8\ While this guidance specifically addresses the new
requirement for representation by providers of public
transportation, all MPOs that serve a TMA must consist of local
elected officials; officials of public agencies that administer or
operate major modes of transportation in the metropolitan area,
including representation by providers of public transportation; and
appropriate State officials by October 1, 2014. 23 U.S.C. 134(d)(2);
49 U.S.C. 5303(d)(2). Only those MPOs acting pursuant to authority
created under State law that was in effect on December 18, 1991,
that meet the requirements of 23 U.S.C. 134(d)(3) and 49 U.S.C.
5303(d)(3), are exempt.
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A public transportation representative on an MPO board is referred
to herein as the ``specifically designated representative.'' A
specifically designated representative should be an elected official or
a direct representative employed by the agency being represented, such
as a member of a public transportation provider's board of directors,
or a senior transit agency official like a chief executive officer or a
general manager.
III. Providers of Public Transportation
This guidance proposes that only representation by providers of
public transportation that operate in a TMA and are direct recipients
\9\ of the Urbanized Area Formula Funding program \10\ will satisfy 23
U.S.C. 134(d)(2)(B) and 49 U.S.C. 5303(d)(2)(B).
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\9\ A direct recipient is defined as a public entity that is
legally eligible under Federal transit law to apply for and receive
grants directly from FTA.
\10\ 49 U.S.C. 5307.
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IV. Process for the Selection of Specifically Designated
Representatives
The FTA and FHWA's Metropolitan Transportation Planning rule at 23
CFR 450.314 provides for metropolitan planning agreements in which
MPOs, States, and providers of public transportation cooperatively
determine their mutual responsibilities in carrying out the
metropolitan transportation planning process. This guidance proposes
that MPOs that serve an area designated as a TMA should cooperate with
providers of public transportation and the State to amend their
metropolitan planning agreements to include the cooperative process for
selecting the specifically designated representative(s) for inclusion
on the MPO board and for identifying the representative's role and
responsibilities.
V. Role of the Specifically Designated Representative
To the extent that an MPO has bylaws, the MPO should, in
consultation with transit providers in the TMA, develop bylaws that
describe the establishment, roles, and responsibilities of the
specifically designated representative. These bylaws should explain the
process by which the specifically designated representative will
identify transit-related issues for consideration by the full MPO
policy board and verify that transit priorities are considered in
planning products to be adopted by the MPO. In TMAs with multiple
providers of public transportation, the bylaws also should outline how
the specifically designated representative(s) will consider the needs
of all eligible \11\ providers of public transportation and address
issues that are relevant to the responsibilities of the MPO.
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\11\ Eligible transit agencies are those that are direct
recipients of the Urbanized Area Formula Funding program, 49 U.S.C.
5307, and operate in a TMA.
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VI. Restructuring MPOs To Include Representation by Providers of Public
Transportation
Title 23 U.S.C. 134(d)(5)(B) and 49 U.S.C. 5303(d)(5)(B) provide
that an MPO may be restructured to meet MAP-21's representation
requirements without having to secure the agreement of the Governor and
units of general purpose government as part of a redesignation.
There are multiple providers of public transportation within most
TMAs. In large MPOs that include numerous municipal jurisdictions and
multiple providers of public transportation, FTA and FHWA expect that
it would not be practical to allocate separate representation to each
provider of public transportation. Consequently, this guidance proposes
that an MPO that serves an area designated as a TMA that has multiple
providers of public transportation should cooperate \12\ with the
eligible providers to determine how the MPO will include representation
by providers of public transportation.
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\12\ Cooperation means that the parties involved in carrying out
the transportation planning and programming processes work together
to achieve a common goal or objective. 23 CFR 450.104.
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There are various approaches to meeting this requirement. For
example, an MPO may allocate a single board position to eligible
providers of public transportation collectively, providing that one
specifically designated representative must be agreed upon through the
cooperative process. The requirement for specifically designated
representation might also be met by rotating the board position among
all eligible providers or by providing all eligible providers with
proportional representation. However the representation is ultimately
designated, the MPO should provide specifics of the designation in its
bylaws, to the extent it has bylaws.
Apart from the requirement for specifically designated
representation on the MPO's board, an MPO also may allow for transit
representation on policy or technical committees. Eligible providers of
public transportation not given decision-making rights on the MPO's
board may hold positions on policy or technical committees.
The FHWA and FTA encourage MPOs, State Departments of
Transportation, local stakeholders, and transit providers to take this
opportunity to determine the most effective governance and
institutional arrangements to best serve the interests of the
metropolitan planning area.
Peter Rogoff,
FTA Administrator.
Victor M. Mendez,
FHWA Administrator.
[FR Doc. 2013-23780 Filed 9-27-13; 8:45 am]
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