Title
ConnectCOS-Colorado Springs Transportation Master Plan Update
Presenter:
Tim Roberts, Transportation Planning Program Manager, Public Works Department
Todd Frisbie, P.E., P.T.O.E, City Traffic Engineer, Public Works Department
Ted Ritschard, Olsson
Body
Summary:
The City of Colorado Springs’ Public Works Department is leading a major revision to the City of Colorado Springs’ Master Transportation Plan (Intermodal Transportation Plan) adopted in 2001. The current major update is referred to as ConnectCOS and will build upon the original transportation plan multimodal implementation efforts. ConnectCOS will provide a blueprint for the next 20 years of transportation planning, infrastructure development, and program improvements in Colorado Springs to bring to life the goals, ideas, and community values established in PlanCOS.
Background:
The City of Colorado Springs has experienced significant change since the adoption of the Intermodal Transportation Plan over 20 years ago. It is time to review the current transportation system and develop a new plan (ConnectCOS) to ensure an efficient, accessible, safe, and well-connected transportation network for our citizens who drive, walk, bike, and utilize public transit.
PlanCOS, the City’s Comprehensive Plan adopted in 2019, outlined ideas to shape the future of the city. PlanCOS identified six major goal areas for the community which ConnectCOS carries forward. These community goals inspire the development of the transportation plan and are an area of focus throughout the plan. The resulting actions from these goals will help create a transportation system that is more safe, equitable, sustainable, efficiently reliable, accessible, and connected. These goals help identify and prioritize transportation investments across the community.
ConnectCOS Goals:
Safe - This goal reflects the community’s desire to have a safe transportation system, a system of minimal fatalities and injuries and a system that provides personal safety for those accessing or using roadways, transit stops, bike lanes, sidewalks, and trails.
Equitable - This goal captures the concept that transportation investments should enhance mobility for everyone. It recognizes that people, neighborhoods, and communities have different levels and types of needs and as a result, different areas of the city will necessitate different transportation investments.
Sustainable - The Sustainable goal reinforces the need to ensure the transportation system supports the economy, protects and enhances the environment, and provides a social benefit in the form of improving the quality of life, health, and overall well-being of our citizens.
Efficiently Reliable - This goal recognizes the balance needed between having a perfectly reliable transportation system and being efficient with limited community resources. It acknowledges that costs associated with providing a roadway with no delay or crashes needs to be balanced with community impacts for public right-of-way, implementation costs, and comparable alternatives.
Accessible - The Accessible Goal reflects the desire for the Colorado Springs citizenry to have transportation choices by which to travel and that these options have intuitive interconnectivity. It recognizes that transportation options should be comfortable, safe, and efficient.
Connected - This goal recognizes a connected transportation system enables all users to move between our homes, work, services, shopping, and recreation areas. It acknowledges that Colorado Springs needs to be connected to the larger economy beyond the Pikes Peak Region and that connectivity with our military installations is essential.
Community engagement has been challenging but an important element in the development of the transportation plan. The team has worked to develop a web page clearly informing the community, providing links to important materials and survey results that help lay the groundwork used in developing the plan. The site also provides a method for people to access live surveys or share input when the project team is seeking feedback from the larger community.
Although the pandemic changed the approach to citizen engagement, there has still been significant interest in the plan. During a one-month period between August and September of 2020, over 1,700 citizens responded to our initial transportation survey requesting feedback from respondents on the transportation system. A more recent survey in the fall of 2021 requesting feedback on draft recommendations from the plan received over 800 responses. The project also has a large Community Advisory Committee (CAC) with 30 stakeholders representing many interests across the community. The project team has held meetings with neighborhood representatives, conducted virtual Community Office Hour meetings, virtual Open House meetings, and CAC meetings for every milestone in the development of the plan.
ConnectCOS has been a multi-year study that has involved a significant amount of technical analysis, in addition to the robust community engagement, to identify and prioritize short and long-term transportation needs. State-of-the-art analysis using cell phone/blue tooth information through a third-party vendor was used to identify how the system is performing and to identify trends for origin and destination travel patterns. The PPACG Travel Demand Model was used to project travel patterns in the future and crash data from 2015-2020 was analyzed with COVID-era crash data extrapolated from the analysis. The analysis efforts from the consultant are reflected in a detailed Transportation System Assessment with a link provided on the project web page. These efforts have resulted in Critical Corridor Portraits for 29 of the City’s priority corridors and may also be found on the project web page.
Moving forward, the project team will further refine the list of projects and other actions to implement the 20-year vision identified through public process and analysis. The team will also develop other key elements to help guide implementation, including updating the Major Thoroughfare Plan. The plan will take into consideration future growth and logical extensions of the Truck Route Plan in collaboration with neighboring municipalities such as El Paso County, City of Manitou Springs, and the City of Fountain. The plan will also contain a new element identifying enhanced transit corridors for Mountain Metro Transit so staff can plan for appropriate transit service. This will also allow City planners to facilitate best land development practices and maximize land use that is supportive of transit.
The ConnectCOS Community Goals, public input, and data analysis provided key elements required to develop potential projects for consideration in the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority (PPRTA) capital project lists. Since August of 2021, staff has been collaborating with the Citizens Transportation Advisory Board (CTAB) about the proposed PPRTA project list, including project ranking(s). City Council will then endorse a list of capital projects for the City to the PPRTA Board for consideration on the November 2022 ballot.
Previous Council Action:
On April 10, 2001, City Council adopted the current Intermodal Transportation Plan via Ordinance 01-58.
The current item is a ConnectCOS progress presentation to City Council and precursor for the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority Extension Work Session agenda item.
Financial Implications:
N/A
City Council Appointed Board/Commission/Committee Recommendation:
The CTAB and Planning Commission have not acted on the ConnectCOS Master Transportation Plan.
Stakeholder Process:
The development of the ConnectCOS Master Transportation Plan includes a major community outreach effort and stakeholder engagement process. A large Community Advisory Committee with 30 stakeholders has been established for the study. Open ended community office hours were made available for citizens to attend, along with two major survey opportunities to provide direct input into the study. Two virtual public meetings have been held along with a video presentation followed up with an opportunity to provide feedback on Corridor Portraits. Community engagement has been an adaptive process as COVID has impacted the initial public outreach plan. Additional community outreach opportunities are planned prior to bringing the plan back to City Council for adoption.
Alternatives:
N/A
Recommended Action
Proposed Motion:
N/A
Summary of Ordinance Language
N/A