State DOTs, Smart Growth Group Highlight How to Stretch Transportation Funds

A national study was jointly released today by the State Smart Transportation Initiative in collaboration with Smart Growth America, which provides a handbook and best practices for innovative DOTs.  We hope that FDOT will make use of this great resource.  It also has timely information for us at the local level, especially the chapters on improving options for mobility and access (with a focus on complete streets), and the chapter on integrating transportation and land use decision-making.  Below is an article about today's release, along with links to the full report or chapter by chapter links.

Governing Magazine Sept. 11, 2012

excerpts from article:

Posted By Ryan Holeywell | September 10, 2012

A group of state Department of Transportation directors has teamed up with the smart growth movement to release a new best-practices report that offers recommendations and case studies on how to stretch limited transportation dollars....

....The report's goal is to highlight ways that transportation departments can get the most bang for their buck, and it highlights innovative techniques across the country....

The study, “The Innovative DOT,” was produced along with the State Smart Transportation Initiative. That organization’s membership includes 19 state departments of transportation. It gets funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Rockefeller Foundation. The report (available here on Tuesday morning) will be formally released this week at an SSTI meeting of state DOT executives in Detroit.

SSTI managing director Eric Sundquist explains that the transportation field lacks “a thorough, systematic account of innovative policy and practice” that the report could help fill.

The report still emphasizes the smart growth movement's traditional goals. But it also touches on the value of collaboration between state agencies and local partners; “right-sizing” transportation projects; and finding innovative ways of securing funds for transportation projects.

“DOTs must change their strategic approaches to make smarter investments, to wring more and better performance out of our existing system, and to critically evaluate the full range of possible future investments. We must focus on those that do the most good for the least money,” former Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Secretary Al Biehler said in a statement.

On the revenue side, the study highlights innovative funding mechanisms, like special taxing districts used to pay for the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco and a special levy on property owners to pay for a transit stop in Washington, D.C.'s up-and-coming NoMa neighborhood.

It also gets into the specifics of transportation policy, showcasing, for example, a computer-based pavement management system used in the San Francisco area to help to more efficiently target maintenance funds.

The report also pushes new ways for DOTs to prioritize projects and highlights the role local jurisdictions should play in the process, giving high marks to the state of Maryland for allowing municipalities to submit proposed project lists. It also touts competitive transportation grants, like those in Washington state, as a way to spark innovation.

Download the handbook

The Innovative DOT: A handbook of policy and practice
Click here to download the full handbook.
The Innovative DOT by section
Click on the links below to download The Innovative DOT by section.
Introduction
User’s Guide to This Handbook
Focus Area 1: Revenue Sources
Focus Area 2: Revenue Allocation and Project Selection
Focus Area 3: Pricing
Focus Area 4: Increasing Transportation System Efficiency
Focus Area 5: Improving Options for Mobility and Access
Focus Area 6: Providing Efficient, Safe Freight Access
Focus Area 7: Integrating Transportation and Land Use Decision-Making
Focus Area 8: Improving DOT Processes