Northern Colorado setting up traffic management group

As more people arrive and more jobs are created along the U. S. 34 corridor, traffic on the highway becomes more congested.

With growth expected to continue in northern Colorado, the U.S. 34 Coalition, which includes community leaders from Greeley, Windsor, Weld County and other area communities, has set out to create an organization to promote multimodal options and reduce congestion along the highway, according to Alex Gordon, a transportation planner with the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization.

The Colorado Department of Transportation’s Office of Innovative Mobility recently awarded more than $600,000 in grants to communities across the state, including $100,000 for the development of a transportation management organization on the U.S. 34 corridor. Transportation management organizations are key in transportation demand management, which promotes different modes of travel to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips.

The North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, a non-voting member of the U.S. 34 Coalition along with CDOT, in December adopted a transportation demand management action plan with five goals:

• Enhance collaboration between local communities, businesses regional and state agencies and other parties.

• Create and enhance regional transportation demand management programming.

• Improve data collection, supporting new and expanded investments and programming.

• Invest in infrastructure and resources for additional options and to help people make informed transportation choices.

• Communicate the purpose, benefits and successes of different mobility options.

The plan describes transportation demand management as “a toolbox of strategies” that can include “rewards, subsidies, additional investments, and individualized travel trainings and educational opportunities.”

The plan lists the development of a transportation management organization among its strategies. The U.S. 34 Coalition’s organization would be northern Colorado’s first. There are nine such organizations across the state, eight of which are in the Denver area and one along Interstate 70.

Transportation management organizations, or TMOS, are responsible for implementing transportation demand management programs. They use programming, outreach and marketing to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips. This means getting more people to walk, bike, use transit, vanpool, carpool and telecommute.

The U. S. 34 Coalition’s TMO will focus on marketing and memberships, advocacy and legislation and transportation programs and services, all of which are under development.

Local communities will provide a local match to the CDOT grant, in addition to an existing $112,500 funding promise from the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Planning Council. The funds are expected to support the program for its first two years. After that, it will need additional funding sources to continue operating.

The North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization identified recent state legislation setting greenhouse gas reduction goals and other rule-makings as drivers for the development of a regional transportation demand management program. A website for CDOT’S Strategic Transportation Demand Management Grant Program says the programs also help maintain the reliability of the travel network, make the most out of the existing transportation network and reduce ozone and pollutants from traffic.

The North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization is also developing its 2050 Regional Transportation Plan. Members of the public are invited to participate through the corridor visioning activity through the end of the month. For more information, go to nfrmpo.org/ rtp/2050-rtp.