Planning Resource Library
For additional resources on planning essentials, planning topics, and case studies visit the Transportation Planning Capacity Building website, jointly administered with FHWA.
Financial Planning and Fiscal Constraint
Financial Planning and Fiscal Constraint for Transportation Plans and Programs Q&A
- FHWA guidance page for financial planning and fiscal constraint.
Fiscal Constraint in Long-Range Plans: Best Practice Case Studies
- A collection of fiscal constraint resources from the Transportation Planning Capacity Building Site.
Land Use
Context Sensitive Solutions and Transportation Planning
- This FHWA website explains the application of Context Sensitive Solutions principles to assist regions and communities in reaching their transportation goals by encouraging the integration of land use, transportation, and infrastructure needs.
Tool Kit for Integrating Land Use and Transportation Decision-Making
- This FHWA website offers information, tools, techniques, and examples and case studies to address the growing demand for delineating the interrelationships between land use and transportation.
Metropolitan, Statewide and Non-Metropolitan Planning
Best Planning Practices: Metropolitan Transportation Plans
- This report examines the critical role the Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) can play as the cornerstone of the metropolitan area transportation planning process, and describes how “best practice” MTPs meet planning challenges in different ways for different regions.
Census Urbanized Areas and MPO/TMA Designation
- FAQ Resources for MPOs that have recently crossed the 200,000-person threshold into Transportation Management Area (TMA) status.
Fact Sheet: Metropolitan, Statewide & Non-Metropolitan Planning
- Provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
Metropolitan & Statewide Planning and NonMetropolitan Transportation Planning - 5303, 5304, 5305
- Provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
FHWA Tribal Transportation Planning
- The FHWA Tribal Transportation Planning Program delivers products and services that provide information, training, and technical assistance to the transportation professionals responsible for planning for the capital, operating, and maintenance needs on tribal lands.
- FTA's Tribal Transit Program provides formula funding, tribal-only competitive funding, and technical assistance to tribal governments.
Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) Database
- Jointly maintained FTA-FHWA database of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs).
MPO Certification Review Primer
- This joint FTA-FHWA primer provides a basic understanding of the key concepts and expectations addressed through a certification review, along with references to pertinent laws, regulations, policies, and other resources.
- Resources for MPOs that have recently crossed the 200,000-person threshold into Transportation Management Area (TMA) status.
Performance-Based Planning and Programming Guidebook
- This Guidebook is designed to highlight effective practices to help transportation agencies in moving toward a performance-based approach to planning and programming.
Planning for Transportation in Rural Areas
- FHWA-FTA guide to transportation planning in rural areas.
Staffing and Administrative Capacity of Metropolitan Planning Organizations
- FHWA research report documenting how MPOs have structured their organizations and allocated staff resources.
- This report is a semi-popularized overview of transportation planning and provides a basic understanding of key concepts in statewide and metropolitan transportation planning, along with references for additional information. In addition, the report provides plain-English descriptions of key facets of transportation planning.
- Part I discusses transportation planning and its relationship to decision-making. This section is general, and provides a broad introduction to the planning process. Part II presents short descriptions of important policy and planning topics. This section includes more technical information than Part I, but is not intended to provide details of each policy issue.
Traffic Assignment and Feedback Research to Support Improved Travel Forecasting
- This research investigated the current traffic assignment and feedback practices in US MPO models, identified deficiencies, and recommended remedial action.
Transit at the Table I: A Guide to Participation in Metropolitan Decisionmaking
- The first Transit at the Table reports drawing upon case studies to identify processes, experiences, and results of transit participation in planning, this report focuses on transit participation in the metropolitan planning process for larger (>200,000) urban areas.
- The second Transit at the Table reports drawing upon case studies to identify processes, experiences, and results of transit participation in planning, this report focuses on transit participation in the metropolitan planning process for small- and medium-sized (50,000-200,000) urban areas.
- The third Transit at the Table reports drawing upon case studies to identify processes, experiences, and results of transit participation in planning, this report focuses on transit participation in statewide planning in rural areas.
Transportation Planning Implications of Transportation Management Area Designations
- This webinar describes the transportation planning activities required in transportation management areas (TMAs), anticipated outcomes, and the procedural steps to be taken by transit providers, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), and States to ensure that the new and changed planning responsibilities are met timely and effectively.
- The Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Resource Center, the FHWA Office of Planning, and the Federal Transit Authority’s (FTA) Office of Planning and Environment, regularly publish the Transportation Planning Update Newsletter which highlights important transportation planning activities occurring within both agencies and with our stakeholders and partners.
- Topics: Metropolitan Planning, Statewide and Non-Metropolitan Planning
Planning Grants
Areas of Persistent Poverty Program
- The Areas of Persistent Poverty Program awards grants to eligible applicants for planning, engineering, or development of technical or financing plans for projects eligible under Chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code to assist Areas of Persistent Poverty or Historically Disadvantaged Communities.
Formula Grants for Rural Areas - 5311
- The Formula Grants for Rural Areas program provides capital, planning, and operating assistance to states to support public transportation in rural areas with populations of less than 50,000, where many residents often rely on public transit to reach their destinations. The program also provides funding for state and national training and technical assistance through the Rural Transportation Assistance Program.
Metropolitan & Statewide Planning and NonMetropolitan Transportation Planning - 5303, 5304, 5305
- Provides funding and procedural requirements for multimodal transportation planning in metropolitan areas and states. Planning needs to be cooperative, continuous, and comprehensive, resulting in long-range plans and short-range programs reflecting transportation investment priorities.
Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development Planning – Section 20005(b)
- The Pilot Program for TOD Planning provides funding to local communities to integrate land use and transportation planning with a new fixed guideway or core capacity transit capital investment
- View and search all FTA programs. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law authorizes up to $108 billion to support federal public transportation programs, including $91 billion in guaranteed funding. The legislation reauthorizes surface transportation programs for FY 2022-2026 and provides advance appropriations for certain programs.
Public Involvement & Outreach
USDOT’s Promising Practices for Meaningful Public Involvement in Transportation Decision-Making
- This guide helps organizations develop strategies to better involve the public in transportation decision-making. The guide includes practices for transportation professionals to incorporate meaningful public involvement into each stage of the transportation decision-making process and project lifecycle, including operations and service.
Dots & Dashes: Piecing together Transit's Future
- This Public Transportation Participation (PTP) report was developed by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC); it describes the "Dots and Dashes" game, a process Delaware Valley residents and stakeholders used to discuss their priorities for future investments in public transportation.
- Frequently asked questions about environmental justice.
- This FHWA resource gives tips on how to engage low-literacy and limited-English-proficiency populations in transportation decision-making.
Public Transportation Participation Pilot Program
- In 2009 FTA sponsored applied research to develop innovative approaches to improving public participation in the planning of public transportation as part of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU).
- The Public Involvement topic area page is a one-stop shop for resources about public involvements in transportation planning on the Transportation Planning Capacity Building (TPCB) website.
Transportation Research Board Committee on Public Involvement
- The TRB Committee on Public Involvement in Transportation strives to provide meaningful opportunities for information development and exchange on public involvement for transportation agencies and other practitioners. This website provides the transportation community with information on research, conferences, publications, training, tools, and techniques related to public involvement in transportation.
TCRP Synthesis 99: Uses of Social Media in Public Transportation
- This Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) synthesis report explores the use of social media among transit agencies and documents successful practices in the United States and Canada.
TCRP Synthesis 170: Inclusive Public Participation in Transit Decision-Making
- This TRB Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) synthesis report documents current, effective, ongoing public participation mechanisms resulting in, and instilling participation from, communities of color, communities with limited English-language proficiency and low-income populations, and people with disabilities.
Scenario Planning
FHWA Scenario Planning and Visualization in Transportation: Visualization in Planning
- The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Visualization in Planning website, for information on noteworthy practices and innovative uses of visualization for transportation planning.
- The Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Scenario Planning website, for information about noteworthy practices and innovative uses of Scenario Planning applications for transportation planning.
Scenario Planning Capacity Building
- Joint FTA-FHWA resources and technical assistance for scenario planning.
- FHWA guidebook to assist transportation agencies in carrying out a scenario planning process from start to finish. Transportation agencies can use the guidebook as a framework to develop a scenario planning approach tailored to their needs.
Last updated: Wednesday, July 5, 2023