Technical Memorandum

DATE:   February 2, 2023

TO:         Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization

FROM:   Michelle Scott, Boston Region MPO Staff  

RE:         Revisions to the Draft Destination 2050 Planning Framework

This memorandum discusses the Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) staff’s revisions to the draft planning framework for Destination 2050, the MPO’s next Long-Range Transportation Plan (LRTP). This draft planning framework—which is made up of a vision, goals, and objectives—was presented at the December 15, 2022, MPO meeting. Since that time, MPO staff have held MPO and Regional Transportation Advisory Council workshop sessions and continued to collect feedback through an LRTP Vision and Priorities survey. Based on this stakeholder feedback and additional MPO staff ideas, staff have revised this framework to clarify details and refine or enhance elements of the December 15, 2022, draft. Staff request that at its February 2, 2023, meeting, the MPO board discuss these revisions and any other changes to this proposedplanning framework and concur with a framework that can be used to finish developing the Destination 2050 plan.

1          Collecting INPUT AND Feedback on the Draft FRamework

The December 15, 2022, memorandum titled “Initial Ideas for the Destination 2050 Planning Framework” describes how the MPO’s planning framework supports decision-making and the approach that MPO staff took to create a draft of framework for the Destination 2050 plan.1 To produce this draft, MPO staff conducted workshops with and distributed surveys to the MPO board and the Regional Transportation Advisory Council. Staff also reviewed partners’ plans and policies; past public input from events and comments on MPO documents; and feedback collected through Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) subregional council meetings and an LRTP Vision and Priorities survey.

Following the presentation of this draft at the December 15, 2022, MPO meeting, staff mentioned the availability of the draft Destination 2050 planning framework via the Destination 2050 website at MPO meetings and at the regularly scheduled Inner Core Committee Transportation meeting on January 11, 2023.

Staff activities to collect feedback on the draft planning framework included the following:  

• A December 2022 MPO member workshop to collect feedback about the draft Destination 2050 planning framework. MPO staff also released a survey to MPO members to gather additional comments.
• A January 2023 Regional Transportation Advisory Council workshop to collect feedback about the draft Destination 2050 planning framework.

MPO staff also continued to review responses to the MPO’s public LRTP Vision and Priorities Survey, which was open from November 21, 2022, until January 20, 2023. This survey included questions asking respondents to rank their transportation priorities; identify words and phrases that describe their ideal transportation system; and describe aspects of the Boston region’s transportation system that need to be improved. It was shared via the MPO’s website social media accounts and mailing list; direct emails to stakeholder organizations asking them to share the survey; the MAPC Matters newsletter produced by MAPC; and meetings hosted or attended by MPO staff during the survey period. Staff reviewed the demographics and geographic distribution of survey respondents throughout the time the survey was live, and adjusted engagement strategies to prioritize outreach to underrepresented audiences. Overall, 982 people answered some or all of the survey questions. Staff incorporated details from these responses into both the initial and revised Destination 2050 planning frameworks. Staff will continue to refer to these results when working on other aspects of the Destination 2050 process, such as when proposing updates to the MPO’s investment programs.

2          REVISIONS TO THE DRAFT DESTINATION 2050 PLANNING FRAMEWORK

Attachment 1 displays the revised planning framework for Destination 2050. Also attached is the initial draft Destination 2050 planning framework presented at the December 15, 2022, MPO meeting (Attachment 2) and the MPO’s current planning framework, which was adopted in 2019 as part of the Destination 2040 plan development process (Attachment 3).

The December 15, 2022, memorandum titled “Initial Ideas for the Destination 2050 Planning Framework” describes the approach that MPO staff used to create the draft framework. The revised version of the framework shown in Attachment 1 keeps the structure of the initial version, which includes a vision, goals, and objectives organized in each goal area. The six goal areas—Equity, Safety, Mobility and Reliability, Access and Connectivity, Resiliency, and Clean Air and Healthy Communities—have stayed the same, and equity themes continue to be integrated into the objectives in each goal area. The differences between the December 15, 2022, draft and this February 2, 2023, revised version primarily appear at the goal statement and objective level. These changes are meant to clarify definitions and concepts, incorporate more people-centered language in the wording of the goals and objectives, and to expand upon or refine ideas from the December 15, 2022, draft.

            Vision Statement

MPO staff responded to suggestions to condense the wording of the vision and added the word “easily” to describe the experience of using this ideal transportation system. The vision statement now reads as follows:

“The Boston Region envisions an equitable, pollution-free, and modern transportation system that gets people to their destinations safely, easily, and reliably, and that supports an inclusive, resilient, healthy, and economically vibrant Boston region.”

The sections that follow describe changes in each of the goal areas.

            Equity

Goal Statement

In response to Regional Transportation Advisory Council member feedback and internal ideas, MPO staff changed the verb “maintain” to “facilitate” and added “transparent” as a descriptor of the MPO’s planning process. The statement is now worded to say “eliminate” rather than “address” disparities.

Objectives

• Staff split the first objective related to the MPO’s engagement process into two objectives, with one focused on facilitating an inclusive and transparent process and the other focused on providing people with meaningful opportunities to express needs and priorities and influence MPO decision-making.
• In response to public feedback, staff strengthened language about the presence of harmful effects from the transportation system and the MPO’s intent to eliminate these effects on people in disadvantaged communities.
• Staff clarified the meaning of improving transportation outcomes for people in disadvantaged communities, referring to providing high-quality transportation options to fully meet residents’ needs.   

Other Changes

Staff visually emphasized the definition of disadvantaged communities in the Destination 2050 planning framework graphic by including this definition in a call-out box and explaining that this definition applies to all Destination 2050 goal areas.

            Safety

Goal Statement

In response to feedback from a Regional Transportation Advisory Council member, MPO staff added the phrase “and improve safety for all users of the transportation system” to the end of the goal statement.

Objectives

• In response to MPO member feedback, staff changed “reduce” to “eliminate” in the objective related to fatalities, injuries, and safety incidents to better align with this goal’s Vision Zero orientation. Staff also provided more detail about the users of the transportation system rather than referring to transportation modes.
• Staff split the equity-related objective into two objectives:
• The first of these objectives define vulnerable roadway users, explaining that the MPO should prioritize investments that improve safety outcomes for these users.
• Staff focused the second of these objectives on eliminating disparities in safety outcomes for people in disadvantaged communities.
• Staff removed the text that reads “people in areas overburdened by transportation-related fatalities, injuries, and safety incidents” based on feedback from a Regional Transportation Advisory Council member, focusing instead on eliminating disparities for disadvantaged populations. 

            Mobility and Reliability

Goal Statement

MPO staff changed the goal statement to “Support easy and reliable movement of people and freight” to better define the term “mobility” in response to feedback from an MPO member and other stakeholders.

Objectives

• Staff removed references to “non-recurring sources of congestion” and “avoidable delay” in the objectives to make them clearer and more comprehensive. 
• Staff added an objective to “Prioritize investments that reduce delay on the region's transit network” to parallel to the objective related to reducing delay on the roadway network.
• In the objective related to modernization, staff emphasized electric-vehicle technology as an example of a technology that supports the MPO’s goals.
• Staff created a separate equity objective related to prioritizing infrastructure state of good repair, electrification, and modernization in disadvantaged communities.

            Access and Connectivity

Goal Statement

MPO staff added the phrase “to support economic vitality and high quality of life" to the goal to incorporate mention of economic vitality. Several MPO members emphasized the importance of this theme during discussions about the planning framework, and this goal area includes many concepts that are part of the Destination 2040 Economic Vitality goal area.

Objectives

• Staff updated the destination access objective to emphasize multimodal access.
• Staff added an objective that prioritizes investments that support regional and state goals for housing production, land use, and economic growth, in response to ideas from MPO members. 
• Staff edited the objective about access to transportation options to indicate that these should support travel choices and opportunities.
• Staff split the objective related to closing transportation gaps and addressing transportation barriers into two objectives.
• The first of these objectives focuses on closing transportation network gaps and mentions supporting interorganizational coordination to accomplish this objective.
• The second of these objectives focuses on removing barriers and mentions that these should be removed to make it easier for people to travel regardless of method or ability. Staff made this change to better incorporate accessibility themes into the planning framework in response to feedback from the public.

            Resiliency

Goal Statement

MPO staff added the phrase “that supports sustainable environments” because themes associated with negative impacts from transportation on the environment have been moved to this goal area.

Objectives

Staff moved the objective related to nature-based design from the Clean Air and Healthy Communities goal area to the Resiliency goal area. Staff also provided examples of nature-based solutions and negative transportation impacts on the environment to clarify the objective. 

            Clean Air and Healthy Communities

Goal Statement

MPO staff removed the phrase “that supports sustainable environments” because themes about negative impacts from transportation on the environment have been moved to the Resiliency goal area.

Objectives

• Staff moved the objective related to nature-based design to the Resiliency goal area.
• Staff combined objectives related to encouraging mode shift, reducing vehicle-miles traveled (VMT), and reducing transportation-related greenhouse gases and air pollutants into one objective to show the linkages between these themes.
• Staff changed references to “reducing VMT” to “reduce VMT growth” in response to suggestions from an MPO member.  
• Staff added an objective related to supporting electrification, particularly for transit vehicles, to reduce transportation-related pollutants.

3          Requested Action AND Next Steps

MPO staff request that at its February 2, 2023, meeting, the MPO board discuss these revisions and any other changes to the proposed Destination 2050 planning framework. At the conclusion of this discussion, staff request that MPO members concur with a framework that can be used to finish developing the Destination 2050 plan. The goals and objectives in this framework will guide updates to the MPO’s investment programs and serve as the basis for LRTP project-selection criteria. They will also help staff to organize Destination 2050 plan material. Once Destination 2050 is complete, this planning framework will help to guide future updates to Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) project-selection processes and the MPO’s performance-based planning and programming process.

Attachments:

Attachment 1: Revised Destination 2050 Planning Framework (February 2023)

Vision Statement

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization envisions an equitable, pollution-free, and modern regional transportation system that gets people to their destinations safely, easily, and reliably, and that supports an inclusive, resilient, healthy, and economically vibrant Boston region.

GoaLS

Equity

Facilitate an inclusive and transparent transportation-planning process and make investments that eliminate transportation-related disparities borne by people in disadvantaged communities.

Equity Objectives

• Facilitate an inclusive and transparent engagement process with a focus on involving people in disadvantaged communities.*
• Ensure that people have meaningful opportunities to share needs and priorities in a way that influences MPO decisions.
• Eliminate harmful environmental, health, and safety effects of the transportation system on people in disadvantaged communities.
• Invest in high-quality transportation options in disadvantaged communities to fully meet residents' transportation needs.

* Disadvantaged communities are those in which a significant portion of the population identifies as an MPO equity population—people who identify as minority, have limited English proficiency, are 75 years old or older or 17 years old or younger, or have a disability—or has low income.

Safety

Achieve zero transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries and improve safety for all users of the transportation system.

Safety Objectives

• Eliminate fatalities, injuries, and safety incidents experienced by people who walk, bike, roll, use assistive mobility devices, travel by car, or take transit.
• Prioritize investments that improve safety for the most vulnerable roadway users: people who walk, bike, roll, or use assistive mobility devices.
• Prioritize investments that eliminate disparities in safety outcomes for people in disadvantaged communities.

Mobility and Reliability

Support easy and reliable movement of people and freight.

Mobility and Reliability Objectives

• Enable people and goods to travel reliably on the region's transit and roadway networks.
• Prioritize investments that address disparities in transit reliability and frequency for people in disadvantaged communities.
• Reduce delay on the region's roadway network, emphasizing solutions that reduce single-occupancy-vehicle trips, such as travel demand management.
• Prioritize investments that reduce delay on the region's transit network.

• Support reliable, safe travel by keeping roadways, bridges, transit assets, and other infrastructure in a state of good repair, and prioritize these investments in disadvantaged communities.
• Modernize transit systems and roadway facilities, including by incorporating new technology that supports the MPO's goals, such as electric-vehicle technologies.

Access and Connectivity

Provide transportation options and improve access to key destinations to support economic vitality and high quality of life.   

Access and Connectivity Objectives

• Improve multimodal access to jobs, affordable housing, essential services, education, logistics sites, open space, and other key destinations.
• Prioritizing transportation investments that support the region's and the Commonwealth's goals for housing production, land use, and economic growth.
• Increase people's access to transit, biking, walking, and other non-single-occupancy-vehicle transportation options to expand their travel choices and opportunities.   
• Prioritize investments that improve access to high quality, frequent transportation options that enable people in disadvantaged communities to easily get where they want to go.
• Close gaps in walking, biking, and transit networks and support interorganizational coordination for seamless travel.
• Remove barriers to make it easy for people of all abilities to use the transportation system, regardless of whether they walk, bike, roll, use assistive mobility devices, or take transit.

Resiliency

Provide transportation that supports sustainable environments and enables people to respond and adapt to climate change and other changing conditions.

Resiliency Objectives

• Prioritize investments to make the region's roadway and transit infrastructure more resilient and responsive to current and future climate hazards, particularly within areas vulnerable to increased heat and precipitation, extreme storms, winter weather, and sea level rise.
• Prioritize resiliency investments in disadvantaged communities and in areas that bear disproportionate climate and environmental burdens.
• Prioritize investments in transportation resiliency that improve emergency access and protect evacuation routes.
• Prioritize investments that include nature-based strategies such as low-impact design, pavement reduction, and landscape buffers to reduce runoff and negative impacts to water resources, open space, and environmentally sensitive areas.

Clean Air and Healthy Communities

Provide transportation free of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants and that supports good health.

Clean Air and Healthy Communities Objectives

• Reduce transportation-related greenhouse gases, other air pollutants, and growth in vehicle-miles traveled by encouraging people and goods to move by non-single-occupancy-vehicle modes.
• Support transit vehicle electrification and use of electric vehicles throughout the transportation system to reduce greenhouse gases and other air pollutants.
• Prioritize investments that address air pollution and environmental burdens experienced by disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.
• Support public health through investments in transit and active transportation options and by improving access to outdoor space and healthcare.

Attachment 2: Draft Destination 2050 Planning Framework (December 2022)

Vision Statement

The Boston Region MPO envisions an equitable, pollution-free, and modern regional transportation system that enables people to safely and reliably reach where they need and want to go. This system supports an inclusive Boston region that is healthy, resilient, and economically vibrant.

GoaLS

Equity

Maintain an inclusive transportation planning process and make investments that address and redress past transportation-related burdens and disparities that disadvantaged communities have experienced.

Equity Objectives

• Maintain an inclusive engagement process that helps people meaningfully share their needs, preferences, concerns, and priorities to inform MPO decision-making, and that focuses on engaging disadvantaged communities.*
• Reduce potential harmful effects from the transportation system on the environment, health, and safety of disadvantaged communities.

• Improve transportation outcomes in disadvantaged communities.

* Disadvantaged communities are those communities where a significant portion of the populations identifies as an MPO equity population: people who identify as minority, have limited English proficiency, are 75 years old or older or 17 years old or younger, or have a disability; or have low incomes.

Safety

Achieve zero transportation-related fatalities and serious injuries.

Safety Objectives

• Reduce fatalities, injuries, and safety incidents for all modes.
• Eliminate disparities in safety outcomes for disadvantaged communities; areas overburdened by transportation-related fatalities, injuries, and safety incidents; and vulnerable roadway users.

Mobility and Reliability

Support excellent and reliable mobility for people and freight.

Reliability and Mobility Objectives

• Improve travel reliability on the region's transit systems and roadway network, including by improving responses to nonrecurring sources of congestion.
• Prioritize investments that address disparities in transit reliability and frequency for disadvantaged communities.
• Reduce avoidable delay on the region's roadway network, emphasizing solutions that reduce single-occupancy-vehicle trips such as travel demand management.
• Support reliable, safe travel by keeping roadways, bridges, transit assets, and other infrastructure in a state of good repair, and prioritize these investments in disadvantaged communities.
• Modernize transit systems and roadway facilities, including by incorporating new technology, such as communications and electric-vehicle technologies, that support the MPO's goals.

Access and Connectivity

Provide transportation options and improve access to key destinations for people and goods.  

Access and Connectivity Objectives

• Improve access to jobs, housing, essential services, education, logistics sites, open space, and other key destinations.
• Expand the availability of and people's access to transit, active, and non-single-occupancy-vehicle transportation options.
• Improve access to high quality, frequent transportation options that serve disadvantaged communities and the places residents want to go.
• Close network gaps and address barriers affecting regional bicycle, pedestrian, and transit travel.

Resiliency

Provide transportation that enables people to respond and adapt to climate change and other changing conditions.

Resiliency Objectives

• Prioritize investments to make the region's infrastructure more resilient and responsive to current and future climate hazards, particularly within areas vulnerable to increased heat and precipitation, extreme storms, winter weather, and sea level rise.
• Prioritize resiliency investments in disadvantaged communities and in areas that bear disproportionate climate and environmental burdens.
• Prioritize investments in transportation resiliency that improve emergency access and protect evacuation routes.

Clean Air and Healthy Communities

Provide transportation free of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants, and transportation that supports sustainable environments and good health.

Clean Air and Healthy Communities Objectives

• Encourage people to shift trips from single-occupancy-vehicle travel to transit, active, or other non-single-occupancy-vehicle modes, and explore alternatives for moving goods by rail or water.
• Reduce regional vehicle-miles traveled, particularly from single-occupancy vehicles.
• Reduce transportation-related greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
• Prioritize investments that address air pollution and environmental burdens experienced by disadvantaged and vulnerable communities.
• Support public health through investments in transit and active transportation, and improve access to outdoor space and healthcare.
• Make transportation investments that reduce negative impacts to the natural environment and support low-impact, nature-based design.

Attachment 3: Destination 2040 Planning Framework
(August 2019)

Vision Statement

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization envisions a modern, well-maintained transportation system that supports a sustainable, healthy, livable, and economically vibrant region. To achieve this vision, the transportation system must be safe and resilient; incorporate emerging technologies; and provide equitable

access, excellent mobility, and varied transportation options.

GoaLS

Safety

Transportation by all modes will be safe

Safety Objectives

• Reduce the number and severity of crashes and safety incidents for all modes
• Reduce serious injuries and fatalities from transportation
• Make investments and support initiatives that help protect transportation customers, employees, and the public from safety and security threats

System Preservation and Modernization

Maintain and modernize the transportation system and plan for its resiliency

• Maintain the transportation system, including roadway, transit, and active transportation infrastructure, in a state-of-good repair
• Modernize transportation infrastructure across all modes
• Prioritize projects that support planned response capability to existing or future
• extreme conditions (sea level rise, flooding, and other natural and security-related man-made impacts)

Capacity Management and Mobility

Use existing facility capacity more efficiently and increase transportation options

• Improve access to and accessibility of all modes, especially transit and active transportation
• Support implementation of roadway management and operations strategies to improve travel reliability, mitigate congestion, and support non-single-occupant vehicle travel options
• Emphasize capacity management through low-cost investments; prioritize projects that focus on lower-cost operations/management-type improvements such as intersection improvements, transit priority, and Complete Streets solutions
• Improve reliability of transit
• Increase percentage of population and employment within one-quarter mile of transit stations and stops
• Support community-based and private-initiative services and programs to meet first- and last-mile, reverse commute, and other non-traditional transit/transportation needs, including those of people 75 years old or older and people with a disability
• Support strategies to better manage automobile and bicycle parking capacity and usage at transit stations
• Fund improvements to bicycle/pedestrian networks aimed at creating a connected network of bicycle and accessible sidewalk facilities (both regionally and in neighborhoods) by expanding existing facilities and closing gaps
• Increase percentage of population and places of employment with access to facilities on the bicycle network
• Eliminate bottlenecks on freight network; improve freight reliability
• Enhance freight intermodal connections

Transportation Equity

Ensure that all people receive comparable benefits from, and are not disproportionately burdened by, MPO investments, regardless of race, color, national origin, age, income, ability, or sex

• Prioritize MPO investments that benefit equity populations*
• Minimize potential harmful environmental, health, and safety effects of MPO-funded projects for all equity populations*
• Promote investments that support transportation for all ages (age-friendly communities)
• Promote investments that are accessible to all people regardless of ability

* Equity populations include people who identify as minority, have limited English proficiency, are 75 years old or older or 17 years old or younger, or have a disability; or are members of low-income households.

Clean Air and Sustainable Communities

Create an environmentally friendly transportation system

• Reduce greenhouse gases generated in Boston region by all transportation modes
• Reduce other transportation-related pollutants
• Minimize negative environmental impacts of the transportation system
• Support land use policies consistent with smart, healthy, and resilient growth

Economic Vitality

Ensure our transportation network provides a strong foundation for economic vitality

• Respond to mobility needs of the workforce population
• Minimize burden of housing/transportation costs for residents in the region
• Prioritize transportation investments that serve residential, commercial, and logistics targeted development sites and “Priority Places” identified in MBTA’s Focus 40 plan
• Prioritize transportation investments consistent with compact-growth strategies of the regional land-use plan

The Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) operates its programs, services, and activities in compliance with federal nondiscrimination laws including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, and related statutes and regulations. Title VI prohibits discrimination in federally assisted programs and requires that no person in the United States of America shall, on the grounds of race, color, or national origin (including limited English proficiency), be excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity that receives federal assistance. Related federal nondiscrimination laws administered by the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, or both, prohibit discrimination on the basis of age, sex, and disability. The Boston Region MPO considers these protected populations in its Title VI Programs, consistent with federal interpretation and administration. In addition, the Boston Region MPO provides meaningful access to its programs, services, and activities to individuals with limited English proficiency, in compliance with U.S. Department of Transportation policy and guidance on federal Executive Order 13166.

The Boston Region MPO also complies with the Massachusetts Public Accommodation Law, M.G.L. c 272 sections 92a, 98, 98a, which prohibits making any distinction, discrimination, or restriction in admission to, or treatment in a place of public accommodation based on race, color, religious creed, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability, or ancestry. Likewise, the Boston Region MPO complies with the Governor's Executive Order 526, section 4, which requires that all programs, activities, and services provided, performed, licensed, chartered, funded, regulated, or contracted for by the state shall be conducted without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, creed, ancestry, national origin, disability, veteran's status (including Vietnam-era veterans), or background.

A complaint form and additional information can be obtained by contacting the MPO or at http://www.bostonmpo.org/mpo_non_discrimination.

To request this information in a different language or in an accessible format, please contact

Title VI Specialist
Boston Region MPO
10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150
Boston, MA 02116
civilrights@ctps.org

By Telephone:
857.702.3700 (voice)

For people with hearing or speaking difficulties, connect through the state MassRelay service:

• Relay Using TTY or Hearing Carry-over: 800.439.2370
• Relay Using Voice Carry-over: 866.887.6619
• Relay Using Text to Speech: 866.645.9870

 For more information, including numbers for Spanish speakers, visit https://www.mass.gov/massrelay.