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Raleigh Urbanized Area and Wake County Locally Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan Update
Bret Martin, MPO Staff
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The Raleigh Urbanized Area and Wake County Locally Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan (LCHSTP) is a federally-required plan that sets regional priorities for transportation investments and initiatives that support public transportation coordination for human services. The plan intends to guide funding and service development for transportation projects supporting older adults, persons with disabilities and individuals with low incomes, with a focus on identifying strategies to address service gaps. The scope of the plan covers Wake County and the entirety of the Raleigh Urbanized Area, which includes a sizable portion of Johnston County and small portions of Harnett, Franklin and Granville Counties. The plan update serves as a federally required update to the 2013 LCHSTP and will serve as the official plan that informs the distribution of federal Section 5310 (Enhanced Mobility of Seniors and Individuals with Disabilities) funding throughout the Raleigh Urbanized Area. The plan will be used to inform funding recommendations for the applications received in response to the 2019 Raleigh Urbanized Area Section 5310 call for projects. The plan was completed in concert with the Wake Bus Plan and will also be used to direct Wake Transit funding to human service transportation needs within Wake County.
In the Raleigh Urbanized Area, as in many locales, multiple federal, state and local programs such as the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, etc. fund or support transportation services for their clients. Many of these human service transportation funding programs are entirely separate and distinct from transportation funding and service provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Due to a variety of differing rules, regulations, and processes, human service and public transportation programs are not always mutually supportive or coordinated. The lack of coordination means some systems and programs are duplicative, overly complex, expensive, and difficult to understand and use. The goal of coordination planning is to untangle the separate systems and encourage them to complement each other and work toward an accessible, easy-to-use system.
The draft Raleigh Urbanized Area LCHSTP was posted for a 30-day public comment period running from February 18th through March 19th. A couple of comments have been provided to date in response to the draft plan and will be shared with the Executive Board at its March 20th meeting. A public hearing for the draft plan is scheduled to occur on March 20th before the CAMPO Executive Board, and the Executive Board will be asked to consider approval of the draft plan at its March 20th regular meeting following the public hearing. The draft plan is provided as Attachment A.
Requested Action: Action Consider approval of the Raleigh Urbanized Area and Wake County Locally Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan