During the plenary session on Tuesday morning of the ITE Technical Conference and Exhibit, attendees learned about transportation operations innovations in Austin TX, Salt Lake City, UT, the Los Angeles, CA metro area, and Arlington County, VA. One of the key questions for the panelists at the end was how did they go about obtaining funding for these operations projects.
The city of Austin decided to separate transportation operations from public works and then took projects directly to the voters, who supported funding people-centric transportation solutions that accommodated pedestrians and bicyclists.
Since Salt Lake City has no dedicated transportation funding, they have shovel ready activities prepared to go at all times for whenever any funding become available. They also work to stay in tune with the priorities of the elected officials, who approve the funding for projects. Timothy Harpst also recommended having larger scale projects adopted in a master plan, so that when there is the opportunity to compete for funds, you are able to show that your project has been approved by the public and is ready to go.
In Arlington County, projects are transportation projects are paid for with help from a commercial real estate tax. In LA County, there are three sales tax measures in place for revenue. The panelists explained that it is important that projects are transparent and committed to delivering the benefits that the tax payers are expecting.
The panelists also discussed the challenges of staffing operations efforts, noting that today many operations functions are fulfilled by contractors, and work load needs ebb and flow. Salt Lake City has found employing college interns, many of whom are pursuing Masters degrees, as a cost-effective strategy for obtaining high quality support at little to no cost. These interns often go on to become employees when positions become available.