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TPO technical committee recommends Mobility Plan 2050, finds air-quality conformity
Summary
The Knoxville Transportation Planning Organization technical committee voted to recommend adoption of the Mobility Plan 2050 and its air quality conformity determination after staff presented the plan, modeling approach and public outreach status.
The Transportation Planning Organization Technical Committee voted to recommend adoption of the Mobility Plan 2050 and the associated air quality conformity report, TPO staff said during the committee’s April meeting.
The recommendation advances a long-range plan that organizes projects to the year 2050, ties individual projects to performance measures and includes an air quality conformity analysis required for areas that have previously been in nonattainment. Mike Conger, TPO staff, told the committee the item was before members for action and summarized the schedule: federal review through April 17, a public comment period open until April 22 and final plan adoption scheduled for the TPO executive board on April 30.
The plan includes an executive-summary-level document and technical appendices, an interactive ArcGIS public tool and a projects table that lists individual projects by county. ‘‘All that’s remaining is the final Federal Highway review, which they have until April 17 and our 30 day public comment period, which runs until April 22,’’ Conger said. He added the TPO’s web site and interactive project map (knoxmobility.org) as places to review the plan and public comments.
On air quality, Conger described the technical steps used to show conformity. The TPO’s travel demand model produces vehicle-miles traveled estimates that are combined with emission rates from EPA’s MOVES model to produce on-road emissions, which are compared with motor-vehicle-emission budgets for ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5). He said the region currently meets the applicable budgets and remains designated a maintenance area for the standards, and that the conformity analysis shows emissions ‘‘well below that budget level’’ for the required analysis years.
The committee’s vote was recorded as a voice vote; the committee chair said ‘‘Ayes have it.’’ The motion and second were made on the record but the meeting transcript does not name the mover or the seconder and no roll-call tally was given.
The TPO will accept public comments through April 22 and hold a virtual public meeting at noon the same day. The executive board’s April 30 meeting is scheduled to consider final adoption.
Why it matters: the mobility plan sets the region’s long-range project priorities, performance targets and a fiscally constrained project list through 2050. The air quality conformity determination is required before federally funded projects can proceed in areas subject to the Clean Air Act conformity rules.
What’s next: staff will incorporate public comments received during the comment period, complete the Federal Highway review and present the final plan to the executive board on April 30.
