Planning agencies across Missouri deciding on projects for $8 billion, ten year plan - How you can help

For the first time in history, MoDOT is fully including bicycle and pedestrian projects and needs in its transportation planning process--a process that will decide $8 billion in spending over the next 10 years across Missouri. 

Missouri's 8 Metropolitan Planning Organizations
Missouri's 8 Metropolitan Planning Organizations

How can you get involved to make your community better and safer for bicycling and walking?

We've been talking about it for year, but now it's really happening: MoDOT's transportation planning partners across Missouri are meeting and collecting citizen surveys to decide their priorities for spending the funds in the proposed $8 billion, 10 year Missouri transportation plan.

Whether or not the proposed new funding passes, these sessions will set future priorities for MoDOT across the state for years to come.

And--this represents our best opportunity in a lifetime to encourage MoDOT create better safety and access for people like us who bicycle and walk.

What can you do?

  • Look up your local planning agency in the chart below.  Note that people in or near larger cities may have two agencies--one for your immediate metro area and another for the rural area surrounding it. Whether you'll want to contact one or both depends on where you live, work, travel, etc.
     
  • Follow the links to fill out public surveys or attend meetings
     
  • If your agencies don't have a survey or meetings listed, contact them to ask what their plan is and indicate your support for including biking, walking, and trails in their transportation priorities 
     
  • Check your area's deadlines--some are very soon!--and get feedback to them before the deadline if possible.
     
  • Most agencies will be posting their proposed lists of project priorities on their main websites soon. Check back and be ready to give feedback on their proposed priorities.  Do proposed plans and priorities provide the safe, connected, convenient bicycle and pedestrian networks Missouri communities need? Biking and walking is 5-10% of trips in Missouri and 14% of roadway injuries. Are biking and walking receive the priority needed to make Missouri a healthy, livable, and economically competitive state?
     
  • Even if your area's public meetings and/or surveys are finished, it is still very worthwhile to contact your agency. Lists are being created this spring and finalized by summer--so there may still time to be involved in the process, suggest a specific project, receive updates as the process moves forward, or get involved in future work.
     
  • What should you ask for?  We have created a guide to working with your agency and list of ideas for bike/ped project suggestions.  We have also created a list of helpful suggestions for completing the survey and project request forms that many RPCs and MPOs have created.
     
  • What if I don't support the tax increase! Any tax increase in Missouri is a controversial issue and many people, organizations, cities, and agencies will oppose it.  But Missouri's statewide transportation funding system is facing a very serious crisis right now, and some funding plan is almost certain to be passed either this year or some time in the near future.  The priorities we are setting now are going to set a precedent for any future solution to Missouri's transportation funding problem.

    If biking, walking, and trails are left out of this new Missouri transportation funding plan--as they have been from out statewide transportation funding for the past century--it will be another generation before we have another chance to remedy the situation.

    So we suggest: Whatever your position on the tax increase, please still get involved in letting our planning agencies know our real bicycle and pedestrian needs across the state, because these set the stage for this and all potential future funding proposals.

Metropolitan Planning Organizations

Metro Area Metropolitan Planning Organization & Link to Main Website Specific links:
Cape Girardeau
Southeast Metropolitan Planning Organization (SEMPO) Survey - meetings - contact
St. Louis
East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG) Contact
St. Joseph
Greater St Joseph Area Metropolitan Planning Organization  Contact
Jefferson City
Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) Survey - suggest projects - meetings - contact
Columbia
Columbia Area Transportation Study Organization (CATSO) Contact
Kansas City
Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) Public input/plan update - contact
Springfield
Ozarks Transportation Organization (OTO) Suggest projects - suggest  bike/ped projects - public meetingscontact
Joplin
Joplin Area Transportation Study Organization (JATSO) Contact

 

Missouri's 19 Regional Planning Commissions - find your agency by number, then find their contact information on the chart below.
Missouri's 19 Regional Planning Commissions

 

Regional Planning Commissions

Number on Map Regional Planning Commission & Link to Main Website Specific links:
1
Boonslick Regional Planning Commission Survey/suggest a project - transportation planning
2
Bootheel Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission Survey/suggest a project - contact
3
East-West Gateway Council of Governments (EWG, St Louis) Contact
4
Green Hills Regional Planning Commission Survey/suggest a project - contact
5
Harry S Truman Coordinating Council Survey - contact
6
Kaysinger Basin Regional Planning Commission Contact
7
Lake of the Ozarks Council of Local Governments Survey/suggest a project - contact
8
Mark Twain Regional Council of Governments Planning process - Transportation Advisory Committee members - contact
9
Meramec Regional Planning Commission Meetings/plan - contact
10
Mid-America Regional Council (MARC, Kansas City) Public input/plan update - contact
11
Mid-Missouri Regional Planning Commission (Columbia, Jefferson City) Public input plan - general contact - transportation contact: transportation@mmrpc.org
12
Mo-Kan Regional Council Transportation planningContact
13
Northeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission Meetings Mar 26th in Kirksville & Canton - SurveyTransportation planning - contact
14
Northwest Missouri Regional Council of Governments Transportation planningcontact
15
Ozark Foothills Regional Planning Commission Meetingstransportation planning - contact
16
Pioneer Trails Regional Planning Commission (Warrensburg, Concordia) Survey - meeting Apr 10thtransportation planning - contact
17
South Central Ozark Council of Governments (SCOCOG) Transportation planning - suggest projects (doc) - contact
18
Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission Project selection process - survey/suggest a project - 
19
Southwest Missouri Council of Governments Submit needs/project suggestions - transportation planning

 

Your list of bicycle, pedestrian, and trails project ideas

What should you ask for when talking with your transportation planning agency?

We have created a guide to working with your local planning agency.

And we have worked with our Statewide Advisory Commission and bicycle, pedestrian, and trails groups across the state to create a suggested list of bicycle, pedestrian, and trails projects that can and should be implemented in local planning agency's region in Missouri.  

Take this list and adapt it, refine it, and make it work for your part of Missouri.  Then, submit the final result to your MPO and/or RPC:

  • First, think of every street that needs a sidewalk, every road that needs a shoulder, every intersection that needs a crosswalk--every other specific bicycle, pedestrian, or trails project you can. Ask that these project ideas be added to your regional project list. 
    MoDOT is working with its regional planning partners to program $8 billion.
    MoDOT is working with its regional planning partners to program $8 billion in new transportation funding--including, for the first time, the opportunity to include bicycling, walking, and trails.
     

    Brainstorm with your friends, walking, running, and hiking buddies, neighbors, and others.  You know your area better than anyone--and you know what people who walk, bicycle, or use trails need the most to improve safety and access.
     
  • Ask agencies to add shoulders to roads and highways - shoulders wide enough to safely use for bicycling and walking, where needed.  MoDOT and agencies don't often think of shoulders as something meeting bike/ped needs.  But bicycleable shoulders are often the top request of area cyclists.
     
  • Create a regional bicycle, pedestrian, and trails plan.  The region should have a plan and so should city and every county.  Right now, most don't.
     
  • Incorporate routine accommodation of biking and walking in every transportation project built over the next ten years, wherever needed and as appropriate to the location and situation.
     
  • Create a dedicated bicycle and pedestrian transportation fund for each regional planning commission and metropolitan planning organization in the state, to support much-needed bike, ped, transit, and shoulder projects.
     
  • Create a Walk & Bike to School Safety & Connectivity Fund for each region and metropolitan area in the state, to support much-needed projects that help connect neighborhoods and communities to schools, so kids can walk and bike to school safely.
     
  • Create a prioritized list of roads needing shoulders in every region of the state, and devote a percentage of new funds to systematically adding needed shoulders.
     
  • Incorporate safe bicycle and pedestrian access into every major river bridge that is built or reconstructed
     
  • Refine, mark, and officially adopt into the U.S. National Bicycle Route System all current national bicycle routes in Missouri; consider creating and marking a regional on-road bicycle route system.

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