MoDOT's Regional Planning Partners asking for YOUR feedback on $8 billion in proposed spending: Suggestions and advice for filling out surveys, giving best feedback to your local planning agency

MoDOT's 25 regional planning partners across Missouri are now taking public input and suggests for how to prioritize projects for a proposed $8 billion in state transportation spending over the next ten years.  For the first time in history, MoDOT is taking proposals for bicycle, pedestrian, and trails projects. 

Missouri's 19 Regional Planning Commissions

MoDOT's transportation planning partners across Missouri are meeting and  collecting citizen surveys to decide their priorities. This represents our best opportunity in a lifetime to encourage MoDOT create better safety and access for people like us who bicycle and walk.

 

While we are encouraged to see these efforts, the surveys we've seen can be a bit confusing and intimidating to the average person. They may be designed more with transportation professionals and experts in mind. But MoDOT and the planning agencies do genuinely want your input.

 

Don't worry if you're not sure which information goes in which box. Someone will read everything and get all the input in the right place. 

 

If you don't know all the answers, leave those boxes blank. The surveys tend to ask for cost estimates and supporting data. If you don't know how much your project would cost, leave it blank.

 

A general suggestion is fine. The survey is designed for specific projects but you can suggest something more general, such as "sidewalks on highways that pass through towns", or "wide, paved shoulders on highways". MoDOT will accept "$X for wide, paved shoulders on highways" from the planning partners without requiring more specific information than that. If that makes the final list, the region can then prioritize which stretches of which highways will get wide, paved shoulders first.

 

If the survey is closed, contact your MPO/ RPC. It's not too late and your opinion still matters. Try to get your input in before the deadline and attend any public input meetings, but even if it's past the deadline this is still a good time to put your two cents in.