Cover Letter
Dear Colleague,
The Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Office of Planning, Environment, and Realty, and Office of Operations, and the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) Office of Planning and Environment have developed two complementary documents: An Interim Guidebook on the Congestion Management Process in Metropolitan Transportation Planning, and Management & Operations in the Metropolitan Transportation Plan: An Interim Guidebook for Creating an Objectives-Driven, Performance-Based Approach. These two companion guidebooks reflect strong, continuing collaboration among FHWA, FTA, and professionals in the planning and operations communities nationwide.
These interim guidebooks are intended to be viewed as one integral package that promotes effective approaches to integrating management and operations strategies into metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes, including the Congestion Management Process (CMP) requirement in larger metropolitan areas. They stand as products of our on-going effort to provide assistance in implementing key provisions of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU). These documents present both a policy basis and the business case for stronger coordination and cooperation between planners and those managers of day-to-day transportation system operations on a multi-modal, area-wide basis. These documents do not create new requirements, but merely provide suggested approaches for addressing operations in the planning process.
We are designating these documents as “interim” at this time to enable the opportunity for a greater understanding of the approaches suggested. Based upon the input received from an extensive outreach and marketing effort, the documents will be revised and presented as final versions of the guidebook to be published at a later date. We look forward to receiving your feedback, reactions, and experiences in implementing these concepts. Please direct any comments, questions, and suggestions on these guidebooks to any of the following members of our staff:
Wayne Berman at wayne.berman@dot.gov and 202.366.4069;
Charlie Goodman at charles.goodman@dot.gov and 202.366.1944; or,
Harlan Miller at harlan.miller@dot.gov and 202.366.0847.
Sincerely,
Gloria M. Shepherd
Associate Administrator
Office of Planning, Environment and Realty, FHWA
Jeffrey F. Paniati
Associate Administrator
Office of Operations, FHWA
Susan Borinsky
Associate Administrator
Office of Planning and Environment, FTA
