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Santa Fe MPO briefs BPAC on MTP update, signal changes, and Surrios Road funding shortfall
Summary
The Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization told the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee it is updating its Metropolitan Transportation Plan and recalibrating models to place more emphasis on walking, biking and transit.
The Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization on Thursday told the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee it is updating the Metropolitan Transportation Plan and is recalibrating forecasting models to give greater weight to walking, bicycling and transit.
Eric (Santa Fe MPO) described the MPO as a joint powers organization created by a joint powers agreement among the city, county, state DOT and the Pueblo of Tesuque. He said the MPO is federally funded and that staff are “reverse engineering” some forecasting assumptions so the travel-demand model will better represent bicycle, pedestrian and transit modes rather than assuming growth in vehicle trips.
“Every MPO pretty much across the nation is scriptically, required to forecast for good reason,” Eric said. “The forecasts are designed for driving, period. So we we're blowing that up. . . we’re gonna be asking the question instead of, oh, assuming x percentage of growth in vehicles over the next years, we wanna target a reduction.”
Eric also described recent local projects and outcomes. He urged committee members to visit a lane-reduction project at Rios/Llano and Saint Michael’s (referred to as St. Mike's) and said the city’s traffic engineer retimed signalization and completed infrastructure that improved operations there. He noted the downtown signal at Sandoval and Montezuma was removed following a study that tested signal warrants.
The MPO reported disappointing news on a major corridor: the Surrios Road reconstruction project (a roughly $30 million project described by the MPO) was not funded by the state legislature this session; staff said construction that had been planned for this summer will not proceed as scheduled without additional funding.
The MPO said the Metropolitan Transportation Plan update will close this work in the next six weeks and will include updated demographics and project chapters; staff invited BPAC members to review the document once it is available. The MPO also noted personnel changes and that the policy board and transit advisory board would meet jointly on Thursday, May 22.
Why it matters: The MTP directs which projects receive MPO and federal funding; changes to forecasting assumptions could shift priorities toward active-transportation projects but the loss of state funds for Surrios Road means a major corridor reconstruction will be delayed.
Committee follow-up: MPO staff offered to return with a more formal briefing at a later meeting and to share the MTP draft when it is complete.
