CMS PROGRAM: BACKGROUND

The impetus for developing and operating a Congestion Management System began with the federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) in 1991. ISTEA required state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to implement a CMS. The metropolitan planning provisions of the successor legislation to ISTEA, the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), adopted in 1998, continued to require transportation management areas with a population of over 200,000 to maintain a CMS as part of their planning process.

The federal government wanted CMSs to continue playing a role in ensuring comprehensive, multimodal transportation planning. According to the metropolitan planning regulations:

An effective CMS is a systematic process for managing congestion that provides information on transportation system performance and on alternative strategies for alleviating congestion and enhancing the mobility of persons and goods to levels that meet State and local needs. The CMS results in serious consideration of implementation of strategies that provide the most efficient and effective use of existing and future transportation facilities. (23 CFR 500.109a)

CMS findings must be considered in the development of a region’s Regional Transportation Plan and its Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

ÿ