What is the Long-Range Transportation Plan?
The Long-Range Transportation Plan, or LRTP, serves as the blue print for the region’s transportation development and identifies all regionally significant transportation projects and programs for the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. The LRTP has a planning horizon of twenty years and is updated every four years to reflect changing conditions such as new planning priorities, population projections, economic change, as well as anticipated travel demand.
There are 3 basic phases to the development of the LRTP:
1) Develop a model that will be used to project future travel demand
2) Identify broad transportation needs and available funding options
3) Determine a list of projects that are financially feasible
To update the Plan, staff examines how the region may develop over the next 20 years based upon projected population and employment growth, current and future transportation needs, and financial capacity. Regional needs are then identified through forecasting travel demand, evaluating system alternatives, public participation and regional cooperation. The end product will identify regionally significant transportation projects and programs.
The LRTP must meet several federal requirements related to Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), the federal transportation authorization bill passed in 2005. Federal law requires the LRTP to conform to air quality goals for the region, satisfy financial constraints such that all proposed projects can be reasonably funded, and undergo extensive public review.
The agency responsible for updating the LRTP is the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization (formerly the Hampton Roads Metropolitan Planning Organization-HRMPO).
