TRPC presents draft "Moves You 2050" plan to Rainier; public comment set for April 11'May 9

Katrina Van Every, transportation manager for the Thurston Regional Planning Council, told Rainier council members that TRPC has completed a draft update to the regional transportation plan covering a 25-year horizon and all travel modes.

"So every 5 years, TRPC works on updating the regional transportation plan," Van Every said, explaining the plan's role as a regional road map that accounts for cars, bicycles, pedestrians, transit and freight. She said the plan is constrained by a financial forecast that prioritizes projects the region can realistically fund.

Van Every discussed regional targets and goals, including a safety target "to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries to 0," and acknowledged current trends make that goal challenging. "Our goal is to get to 0 by 2030," she said, while noting the region will need to prioritize projects that most effectively reduce fatalities and serious injuries.

She said the draft includes roughly 80 projects, from trail connections to highway improvements. Examples noted for the Rainier area included the Gate Balmore Trail, the Yelm Prairie Line Trail connection toward Roy and McKenna, and a Yelm'Rainier extension. The draft also lists studies such as I-5 hard-shoulder running and a series of roundabouts on SR 507.

Van Every outlined the schedule for public review: the Transportation Policy Board may recommend release for public comment at its meeting the next day; if that occurs, the public comment period would run April 11 through May 9, followed by revisions in June and a request to local councils to adopt the plan in July.

The presentation also described TRPC's regional trails program, a move toward a multimodal level-of-service metric that looks beyond vehicle delay, and a regional transportation safety action plan and resiliency strategy to prioritize projects for safety and disaster recovery.