Ames MPO presents draft 2050 Metropolitan Transportation Plan and Safety Action Plan; planners propose fiscally constrained projects and public engagement next

Metropolitan-planning staff presented a draft Metropolitan Transportation Plan and an aligned Comprehensive Safety Action Plan to the Ames-area policy committee on June 17, outlining how the region will guide multimodal transportation investments through 2050.

The draft MTP looks “at least 20 years” ahead, staff said, and is renewed every five years. It combines multimodal project planning — including bicycle, pedestrian, vehicle, freight and transit investments — with a safety-focused CSAP funded through the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program.

The plans matter because they set priorities used to distribute limited federal formula funds such as the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) and the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP), and because CSAP projects can make jurisdictions eligible for future USDOT discretionary grants. Staff said the MPO currently estimates roughly $2 million per year in STBG funding and about $200,000 per year in TAP funding for the region, and that those amounts shaped a fiscally constrained project list.

Staff outlined how planners combined technical analyses (traffic operations, crash history, pavement and bridge conditions, freight movement, transit access) with a robust public-engagement program. Kyle, staff member, said the MPO used in-person pop-ups, an online presence and a statistically valid household survey of just over 400 households to weigh local priorities. “That tells us what the…