MVPC’s Transportation Program has been conducting public engagement for MV Vision 2050 – the Metropolitan Transportation Plan – a plan that includes goals, projects, and strategies for creating a multimodal transportation network out to the year 2050. The planning effort takes place every 4 years and seeks many different perspectives on transportation to plan for a transportation network that works for all people. A large focus of transportation planning in the past decade has been on active transportation – such as walking, biking, and taking transit – due to its environmental, health, and economic benefits to communities. As the Transportation Program conducted engagement with the public over the summer and with municipalities during the fall, a focus on active transportation and safety for all modes of transportation continues to be top of mind.

Public Engagement Events the MVPC Transportation Program Attended.

Over the summer and into the fall, the Transportation Program attended 10 public events where we had conversations with people about their experience with transportation in the Merrimack Valley and how it could be improved. Over the 10 public events, we heard from 145 people and cataloged 155 comments. At events such as the Andover and Haverhill Farmers’ Markets, we set up a table and tent with boards prompting people to allocate funding to areas of the transportation network where they want to see improvements. We also conducted public education on transportation planning concepts, such as the 15-minute city which promotes the ability to get to essential destinations within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. These events were great for engaging with people who might not have ever heard of a regional planning agency before and introducing them to our role in making improvements to the transportation network.

We also launched a survey and had our regional partners help us circulate the survey link via social media and posters in public places, such as on MeVa buses. We ended the survey on September 30 and collected over 200 responses. The survey gave us a broad view of major barriers to transportation, how people want to prioritize transportation funding, and what would incentivize people to shift from driving to another mode of transportation. We also received many open-ended responses through the survey which we combined with the comments we received from the public engagement events and categorized the comments into themes. The top three themes that came out of the comments were transit, safety issues, and bike and pedestrian access.

As we wrapped up our first phase of public engagement, we scheduled meetings with each municipality to talk with staff from public works, planning, and leadership about projects and services that they want to see included in our planning efforts. The information we gathered over the summer helped inform these meetings and we were able to relay what we heard from people to the municipal staff. The projects that were discussed in these meetings fulfilled the desires that we heard from the public in phase one and will be vital as we build our project list for MV Vision 2050.

We recently held a meeting with the Merrimack Valley Transportation Committee which provided us with a perspective of where we need to improve our engagement effort going forward and helped us build partnerships to make those improvements. We also met with regional environmental stakeholders to discuss how projects in the MTP can have a environmental focus.

Now, we are writing the plan and will soon have a draft that will be available for public review. Our aim is to have a finalized plan ready for adoption in June 2023.