The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is currently working on a mandated plan to give state and federal agencies a rough sketch of what transportation projects are desired in the next 25 years.
Public engagement began this summer on the “Moving Toward 2050” plan with a goal toward prioritizing the many possibilities.
“We’re trying to find out where the opportunities for improvement are in the network,” said Sandy Shacklelford, transportation and planning director for the TJPDC. “We’ve asked a lot about questions about ‘where do you see problems or opportunities and what kind of problems and opportunities do you see? Are you having trouble getting places? Why are you having trouble getting places? How are you trying to get there?”
There was an open house at the Downtown Transit Center on June 21. A survey is currently live and had 250 responses as of July 26 with more on the way. Shackleford shared preliminary results with the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Policy Board.
“The highest priority is safety followed by the environment,” Shackelford said. “Based on the comments we got just from the transit center, the highest was actually efficiency and economic development.
This round of public engagement is expected to wrap up at the end of the month. There’s still time to fill out the survey. (fill out the story)
Albemarle Supervisor Ned Gallaway expressed skepticism that enough was being done to educate the community about the process. He wanted the TJPDC to make presentations to Albemarle’s Community Advisory Committees.
“I don’t think that the average citizen… truly understands how the long range transportation plan impacts transportation priorities and projects over two jurisdictions,” Gallaway said.
Since this story was posted in the August 4 newsletter, Shackelford wrote me to say the TJPDC has engaged another 123 people since the MPO meeting.
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