State Long Range Transportation Database

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Purpose of Database:
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), with the assistance of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), has developed the State Long-Range Transportation Plan Database as a technical resource for State DOTs and other stakeholders.

For comments or questions on the database or accompanying report, please contact Lorrie Lau, FHWA project manager (Lorrie.Lau@dot.gov), or William Lyons, Volpe Center project manager (William.Lyons@dot.gov).

Overview:
The information in the database is based on the Volpe team’s review of 51 state long-range transportation plans from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. An accompanying report (available here) provides analysis from the review and summarizes detailed findings. A nine-member project advisory group advised the research team on priority topics of interest for the review of statewide long-range transportation plans. The advisory group included representatives of the Transportation Research Board’s Statewide Multimodal Planning Committee, other State DOTs, and representatives of stakeholder organizations.

Topics in Database:
The database presents information on how individual plans address the following ten transportation planning topics:

• Plan type: identifies a plan’s primary focus or orientation. The seven major plan types are described below:
  • Policy-based plans primarily focus on outlining transportation policy directions for the state.
  • Performance-based plans are organized around a set of performance measures, targets, or timeframes to guide planning, project development, maintenance, and operations decisions.
  • Needs-based plans focus on analyzing transportation needs for the state by considering available or alternative revenue sources or through reference to demographic or travel demand projections.
  • Project-based plans identify specific projects to be undertaken to meet the plan’s transportation policies or goals.
  • Fiscally realistic/constrained plans set long-term directions for the state’s transportation system through reference to projected capital and operating costs and revenues.
  • Vision-based plans identify an ideal future state transportation system, often through incorporating public input on a preferred vision.
  • Corridor-based plans focus on specific transportation corridors (e.g., multimodal and intermodal transportation networks within a specific geographic area) through description of major corridors, consideration of corridor conditions, or description of potential corridor projects.
• Transportation modes addressed: identifies transportation modes addressed within the plan.
• Financial analysis: identifies whether a plan includes certain elements of financial planning or analysis, such as estimates for needs, revenues, costs, and budget shortfalls, as well as funding scenarios or innovative funding methods.
• Statewide plans referenced: identifies whether plans reference other statewide planning products, such as modal or climate change action plans.
• Performance measures: identifies performance measures included in plans as well as examples of specific measures and their applications in the plans.
• Guiding principles: identifies overarching policy categories that frame the plan and the state’s transportation direction.
• Climate change: identifies plans that include references to climate change mitigation/greenhouse gas reductions or impacts/adaptation, along with a description of how each topic is discussed within the plan.
• High speed rail: identifies plans that reference high-speed rail, along with a description of how the topic is discussed within the plan.
• Visualization/land use and transportation scenario planning: identifies plans that include a visualization component, or utilize land use or transportation scenario planning.
• Sustainability/livable communities: identifies plans that reference sustainability or livability concepts, with a description of how the topic is addressed within the plan.

Contact:
To provide updates or modifications to the database, please contact Alisa Fine of the Volpe Center at Alisa.Fine@dot.gov.

Note: the information provided in the database is not intended as an exhaustive representation of how a topic was addressed in a state’s transportation planning process. The review was completed in winter and spring 2010 and focused on the information included in a state’s long-range transportation plan that was available at the time the review was conducted.

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