§ 51.404 - Content of transportation plans.

(a) Transportation plans adopted after January 1, 1995 in serious, severe, or extreme ozone nonattainment areas and in serious carbon monoxide nonattainment areas. The transportation plan must specifically describe the transportation system envisioned for certain future years which shall be called horizon years.

(1) The agency or organization developing the transportation plan may choose any years to be horizon years, subject to the following restrictions:

(i) Horizon years may be no more than 10 years apart.

(ii) The first horizon year may be no more than 10 years from the base year used to validate the transportation demand planning model.

(iii) If the attainment year is in the time span of the transportation plan, the attainment year must be a horizon year.

(iv) The last horizon year must be the last year of the transportation plan's forecast period.

(2) For these horizon years:

(i) The transportation plan shall quantify and document the demographic and employment factors influencing expected transportation demand, including land use forecasts, in accordance with implementation plan provisions and § 51.402;

(ii) The highway and transit system shall be described in terms of the regionally significant additions or modifications to the existing transportation network which the transportation plan envisions to be operational in the horizon years. Additions and modifications to the highway network shall be sufficiently identified to indicate intersections with existing regionally significant facilities, and to determine their effect on route options between transportation analysis zones. Each added or modified highway segment shall also be sufficiently identified in terms of its design concept and design scope to allow modeling of travel times under various traffic volumes, consistent with the modeling methods for area-wide transportation analysis in use by the MPO. Transit facilities, equipment, and services envisioned for the future shall be identified in terms of design concept, design scope, and operating policies sufficiently to allow modeling of their transit ridership. The description of additions and modifications to the transportation network shall also be sufficiently specific to show that there is a reasonable relationship between expected land use and the envisioned transportation system; and

(iii) Other future transportation policies, requirements, services, and activities, including intermodal activities, shall be described.

(b) Moderate areas reclassified to serious. Ozone or CO nonattainment areas which are reclassified from moderate to serious must meet the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section within two years from the date of reclassification.

(c) Transportation plans for other areas. Transportation plans for other areas must meet the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section at least to the extent it has been the previous practice of the MPO to prepare plans which meet those requirements. Otherwise, transportation plans must describe the transportation system envisioned for the future specifically enough to allow determination of conformity according to the criteria and procedures of §§ 51.410 through 51.446.

(d) Savings. The requirements of this section supplement other requirements of applicable law or regulation governing the format or content of transportation plans.