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Transportation for Communities - Advancing Projects Through Partnerships


Applications- Integrated Planning

Reference Links

Transportation decision making does not occur in a vacuum. There are public as well as private agencies that invest in data-driven community or regional planning. The resulting plans represent a substantial asset and data source for better transportation decision making. The integration of these external processes will help ensure that important values and goals are recognized and accommodated early in the transportation decision making process.

subapplication chart

Source: FHWA Office of Planning

The Decision Guide supports the integration of six specific external processes within transportation decision making: air quality, conformity, land use, fiscal constraint, natural environment, human environment, capital improvement, and safety/security. Each has its own individual relationship to transportation. The individual applications of Integrated Planning identify the data, analysis, or decisions that support collaboration. The key decision information within the Integration tab provides greater depth of understanding.

The Decision Guide identifies key decisions where information from each of these external processes should be integrated with transportation decision making. Click on any of the integrated planning processes below to learn more about this topic and its relationship to transportation decision making

  • Land Use
  • Air Quality Conformity
  • Natural Environment
  • Human Environment
  • Capital Improvement
  • Safety and Security

Land Use Air Quality Natural Environment
Land use and transportation directly affect each other. The consideration of both access and mobility represents the foundation of transportation planning. The location and density of land development affects the demand for travel (the number of trips. The location and number of access points (driveways, intersections, exit ramps, etc.) affects traffic flow. Therefore, land use planning is essential in order to identify and plan for future transportation needs. However, land use decisions are not made by transportation agencies. Collaboration with land use partners can greatly enhance transportation decisions. Areas designated as air quality non-attainment or maintenance areas have special meaning to transportation professionals. Transportation improvements projects in these areas must undergo a rigorous analytical process to demonstrate that they do not negatively impact air quality. The Decision Guide integrates Eco-Logical into transportation decision making. Eco-Logical is an ecosystem approach to integrating transportation and land use decision making with the natural environment. It has been endorsed by FHWA and all of the federal resource agencies that have a role in transportation decision making. This federally endorsed approach to integrated planning supports the linkage of planning decisions to NEPA/permitting and enhances compliance with regulatory requirements in the Environmental Review/Permitting process.
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Capital Improvement Safety and Security Human Environment
Capital improvement planning identifies and prioritizes investments for local infrastructure such as utilities, sidewalks and bike ways, schools, transit capital, and locally funded roads. Collaboration with this local planning effort has many benefits. It ensures that long range and corridor planning and funding decisions are coordinated with local funded investments. In addition, it can help stretch limited funding through partnering to meet common needs and goals. Safety and security are high priorities for all transportation agencies, and should be integrated with all phases of transportation decision making. Explicitly integrating these considerations as early as long range planning ensures safety and security are built into the foundation of every project. Human Environment encompasses the issues of community characteristics, values, and vision. Integration of human environment data and information helps ensure local support for plans and projects.
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