WRATS 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan

Purpose of Project

The WRATS 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) identifies the transportation needs for roads, bridges, public transportation, bicycles, pedestrians, and freight movement through the year 2045, based on the anticipated growth in the MPO area. WRATS is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the 127.6-square-mile region including the entirety of Houston County and a northeastern portion of Peach County, in addition to the cities of Byron, Centerville, Perry, and Warner Robins, Georgia. Goals for the 2045 MTP focused on economic vitality; safety and security, accessibility, mobility, and connectivity; environment and quality of life; multimodal system; management and preservation of existing system; resilience and reliability; and travel and tourism. The fiscally constrained plan included 22 projects, which were prioritized into short-, mid-, and long-term timeframes, totaling $457 million. Additional “aspirational” projects were identified but not included within the fiscally constrained plan. The 2045 MTP was adopted by the WRATS Policy Committee in October 2020.

​

Our Role on the Project

As part of a team, Modern Mobility Partners (MMP) led the development of performance measures and the analysis of Environmental Justice/Title VI, crash data, congestion and travel reliability, and bridge conditions. MMP also supported the socioeconomic data development by performing QC reasonableness checks on draft data sets, as well as supporting public outreach efforts and final documentation for the MTP. Specifically:

​

• The performance measures support the plan’s goals and objectives and align with the State’s performance measures and targets. MMP was responsible for the identification of needed data supporting the performance measures.
   

• The Environmental Justice/Title VI analysis included GIS mapping based on American Community Survey (ACS) demographic data and written summaries for locations and statistics including regional averages and the percent above the regional average for each population group by census tract.
   

• For the crash data analysis, MMP conducted an extensive review of the Georgia DOT’s crash data for the most recent available 5-year period for a variety of measures, such as total crashes, bicycle and pedestrian crashes, crash rates per 100M Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), rate of injuries, rate of fatalities, and created summaries of high-crash intersections and segments. The data was visualized using heat maps and maps indicating crash locations by type. 
   

• MMP mapped and summarized the locations and conditions of all bridges, highlighting those not meeting the performance measure targets and those eligible for rehabilitation or replacement funding.
   

• In leading the congestion and travel time reliability analysis, MMP evaluated volume to capacity (V/C) ratios and levels of service (LOS), identified “hotspot” locations related to traffic congestion, and reviewed the travel demand model results for the 2015 base and 2045 future years, summarizing by segments.
   

Ultimately, the WRATS 2045 MTP was adopted by the Policy Committee in October 2020

​

Problem Solvers

Respondents to the WRATS 2045 MTP online survey ranked “reduce congestion on existing roads/streets” as their top priority for project funding. MMP’s and travel time reliability analysis informed congestion-related project recommendations for the fiscally constrained plan, and MMP was instrumental in incorporating feedback from stakeholders to achieve a tiered fiscally constrained plan that met the identified goals, objectives, and priorities.

​

When the COVID-19 pandemic occurred during the planning process, the project team was unable to host a final public open house to present the plan. MMP created a self-guided open house document that was posted on the WRATS website, allowing visitors to understand the key takeaways from the MRP and provide their feedback.