BMC’s Transportation Planning Division provides technical support to the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB), the federally-recognized Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Baltimore region. The BRTB is comprised of the BMC Board and representatives of the City of Annapolis and the Maryland Departments of Transportation, Planning and the Environment. The BRTB is charged with updating the long-range transportation plan every four years.

Transportation Outlook 2035 is the most current update to the Baltimore region’s long-range transportation plan. The federally-mandated plan outlines capital investments that seek to address the region’s transportation needs for the next 25 years. The plan is fiscally-constrained and tested to ensure compliance with federal air quality standards. All future capital transportation investments must be included in the plan in order to receive federal aid.

The BRTB initiated the two-year planning process to create Transportation Outlook 2035 by first developing the goals of the plan. The goals were compared with best practices of other MPO plans, and evaluated to ensure congruence with new federal standards.

After the goals were developed and endorsed by the BRTB in January 2007, the BRTB with technical support from Maryland Department of Transportation, indentified the fiscal constraints of Outlook 2035. Federal law requires that future revenue must be sufficient to fund the estimated cost of transportation investments outlined in the plan. Revenue projections were based on historic patterns of federal, state and local transportation funding for the Baltimore region. The BRTB concluded that projected revenues will not adequately meet the region’s transportation needs over the next 25 years.

The BRTB fiscal analysis estimated that a total of $33.4 billion would be available to operate, maintain and expand the region’s transportation system through the year 2035. This included the estimated $17.9 billion needed for operations and $6.8 billion needed for system preservation, leaving only $8.7 billion for new capital expansion investments that were outlined in Transportation Outlook 2035.

"A common misconception about the constrained long-range plan is that it is a detailed picture of all future transportation needs and priorities. Not so. The focus of the plan, as required by federal law, is to detail future expansion projects, which account for only one quarter of estimated future transportation spending, or about $8.7 billion," said Harvey S. Bloom, BMC’s Director of Transportation Planning.

"The truth is, most future transportation dollars will be spent on operations—most significantly, transit operations—and system preservation, totaling about $25 billion." Bloom concluded.

In addition, funding to support system preservation, operations and new capital expansion projects has not kept pace with increasing costs for materials and labor. Overall costs of transportation improvements have gone up 42 percent since 2004 and are projected to increase due to the worldwide demand for materials such as concrete and steel.

"Inflation, the rising cost of materials and the need to maintain and replace the region’s aging infrastructure all limit our ability to build new transportation facilities," Howard County Executive Ken Ulman wrote in a letter during the Transportation Outlook 2035 public comment period.

Combined with funding shortfalls, the region faces a number of other challenges that the BRTB sought to address in Transportation Outlook 2035. Anticipated changes in the age of the region’s population and the numbers and locations of households and jobs will create mobility challenges.

After developing the fiscal constraints of the plan, the BRTB used a process called "prioritization" to select the capital investments outlined in the plan that collectively respond to current and future transportation challenges.

The BRTB developed criteria and a subsequent list of six "Regionally Significant" projects that are of critical importance to all users of our transportation system. BRTB members worked to identify future transportation projects that were consistent with local priorities. Over 130 highway, transit, bicycle, pedestrian and management and operations projects were submitted for consideration. The Prioritization process allowed for a collaborative review of both the policy and technical merits of each project.

Throughout this process the BRTB relied, in part, on technical expertise and tools developed by BMC staff. These tools included:

Travel Demand Model: BMC staff maintains a complex multimodal travel demand forecasting model of the region’s transportation network. The model is used to estimate travel demand and behavior in future years. This allows planners to test various "what if" scenarios.

Socio-Economic Projections: BMC staff works with local planning agencies to collaboratively develop socio-economic projections, including population, households, and employment for the Baltimore region.

These tools, among others, were invaluable to the prioritization process and helped ensure that selected projects will address regional goals and promote viable transportation choices.

During the course of developing Transportation Outlook 2035, the BRTB, with staff support from the BMC, proactively engaged various stakeholders, which brought many points of view to the planning process.

A Citizens Advisory Committee meets regularly and provides feedback to the BRTB. A draft of Transportation Outlook 2035 was released for public review using the best practices for public outreach and participation. Public outreach events were held throughout the region. Technologies such as electronic newsletters, frequent updates on the Baltimore Metropolitan Council’s web site and digital imagery were also used to better engage the public.

Ultimately, the expansion projects that were outlined in the plan do not reflect all the investments the BRTB believes are necessary to meet the future mobility needs of the region. Rather, the plan was an effort to balance the region’s needs with fiscal reality and prioritize the capital investments, in accordance with federal requirements.

"This plan is not a wish list, but a carefully selected set of projects for which funding is expected to be available," Ulman wrote.

The BRTB was forced to exclude needed highway capacity investments and significant capital expansion of the region’s transit network from Transportation Outlook 2035 due to lack of funding.

However, based on significant public input on the need for additional capital transit expansion projects, the BRTB, led by County Executive Ulman, worked to reduce the number of highway projects outlined in the draft plan and shift those funds into transit expansion as outlined in the final plan.

The BRTB voted to adopt the final plan in November 2007.