Littleton Public Works planners Shane Roberts and Kenna Davis told the Environmental Stewardship board on a recent meeting that staff will begin a 2026 update of the city's Transportation Master Plan (TMP) with a kickoff anticipated in 2026 and an overall timeline of roughly 18 to 20 months.

The 2019 TMP set a 20-year horizon and five goal areas (Connected, Healthy, Inclusive, Prosperous and Sustainable) and documented mode split data showing nearly 82% of commuter travel was by personal vehicle. Roberts said the original plan introduced new tools including "street types" that incorporate land use into roadway classification and a High Injury Network that maps intersections and segments with the most fatal and injury crashes.

Staff told the board the update will keep a long-range vision while adding an "actionable framework" with fiscally constrained, prioritized projects and measurable performance tracking. Kenna Davis said the Transportation Mobility Board (TMB) has advised staff on five focus areas for the update: funding, culture/behavior change, connectivity, communication and street types. The update will also include baseline benchmarking, improved data tools such as GIS dashboards, and clearer five-year implementation steps tied to estimated budgets.

On safety and active transportation, presenters said the 2019 plan already identified a High Injury Network and that 11 of 14 intersection priorities have been addressed to varying degrees through completed projects, designs or upcoming construction. The update will reassess locations and crash data and fold in pedestrian and bike level-of-traffic-stress metrics to identify gaps between facilities and comfortable conditions for walking and biking.

Presenters also addressed transit and regional coordination. Roberts noted historic parking and capacity pressure at Mineral Station and said the city is participating in an Arapahoe County-led countywide transit and micromobility study to explore regional options. Staff discussed microtransit and local circulator models as potential supplements to RTD service and said some nearby jurisdictions are piloting such services.

The presentation described technology and operations elements the TMP will address: grants to install fiber along Broadway and a city fiber ring to connect Littleton to neighboring jurisdictions and CDOT, and considerations for a future traffic management center. Roberts said those communications investments would improve signal operations and regional coordination.

Staff also reviewed work completed since 2019 that will be integrated into the update. They cited a 2023 Broadway corridor study that recommended bus rapid transit (BRT) with five-minute headways and design concepts such as off-street bike facilities and widened sidewalks; staff described those recommendations as visionary and part of longer-term, regional implementation conversations.

Public engagement will be separate from the comprehensive plan this cycle, staff said, and will include in-person and online outreach, focus groups, stakeholder working groups and targeted outreach to underrepresented populations. The TMB ran a survey that returned about 150 responses; Davis said the survey showed residents want more options to walk and bike, clearer implementation steps and prioritization of safety and congestion reduction.

Next steps: staff will complete internal scoping, run a consultant selection process over the winter, and request stakeholder representatives from boards and commissions to serve on working groups during the update. Laura (sustainability staff) said she will coordinate climate modeling with ICLEI and will seek to integrate greenhouse gas scenarios and a climate risk assessment into the TMP update.

The timeline staff presented anticipates substantial public engagement through 2026 and 2027 and a final plan that pairs a 2040 vision with a fiscally constrained near-term implementation program.