National Association of Regional Councils

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National Association of Regional Councils

• National Waterways Conference
• New Orleans, LA
• November 6, 2008
• Erika Young, Transportation Director, NARC

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About NARC

• National voice for regionalism
• Represents multi-jurisdictional governments
  large and small, urban and rural  
• Advocates for regional cooperation with Congress,
  Federal officials, etc.
• Provides technical assistance to members through
  research on key national policy issues, and best
  practices
• Conducts training sessions, conferences,
  workshops and webinars

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Regional Councils

• Called many different names
• Councils of Government
• Planning and Development Commissions
• Regional Planning Organizations
• Regional Planning Commissions
• Voluntary association of local governments
• Over 500 of these type of organizations
  throughout the country

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Metropolitan Planning Organizations

• Federally-mandated transportation planning
  organizations in areas of 50,000 or greater
• Majority of funding is through a small percentage
  of money derived from the highway authorization
• Also from local sources of income
• Overseen by a board of locally elected officials

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Why Regional Councils?

• NARC membership
• Local elected officials and regional
  transportation planning organizations
• Responsible to their regions for advancing the
  health of the community
• Economic
• Environment
• Secure
• Mobile

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Why Regional Councils?
East-West Gateway Council of Governments visual
representation of average travel times in the St.
Louis region
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Why Regional Councils?
Downtown St. Louis, Mississippi River
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Why Regional Councils?

• NARC members
• Plan for the safe and efficient movement of both
  people and goods
• Across all modes
• Market Efficiencies in transportation planning
• Silo-ed thinking is beginning to be broken down
• Regional planners are looking for cleanest, least
  expensive method of transport

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VAs Marine Highway

• Richmond, VA MPO and VA Port Authority
• Conducted analysis of
• Containerized projections
• Cargo that leaves vs. stays VA
• Economic costs and benefits
• Emissions between barge, truck, rail
• MPO incorporated the project into its formalized
  process and was able to secure 2.25 million for
  marine highway

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Successful Partnerships

• Richmond as prime example
• Defined goal
• Early inclusion of public and private partners
• Incorporation of maritime infrastructure needs
  into the regional transportation planning process
• Produced results for both parties

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Successful Partnerships

• Richmond Marine Highway project has opened doors
  for this type of collaboration
• Volume of goods moved projected to grow over the
  next several years
• Transportation planners seeking out ways to
  mitigate congestion and environmental impacts

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Model Elasticity?

• Increasing freight volumes
• Increasing passenger and freight demand on the
  current system
• Existing capacity on the inland waterways system
• Changing role of project financing
• Increasing private sector role contributing to
  breakdown of silo mentality

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NARCs Efforts

• Recognizes the changing nature of public and
  private sector involvement in transportation
  planning
• Seeks to smooth regional-level economic
  development and transportation planning

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NARCs Efforts

• Launched an initiative in 12/07 to develop
  planning capacity between public and private
  freight planning partners
• Working with AAR, AAPA, FHWA thus far
• Held two workshops this year
• Chicago, IL
• Tacoma, WA

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NARCs efforts

• Lessons learned
• Ways in which regional transportation planners
  can engage the private sector
• Ways the private sector can work with regional
  transportation planners to engage the general
  public

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NARCs Efforts

• Next steps
• Expand the partners to encompass more private
  sector goods movement partners
• Including the National Waterways Alliance
• Determine if lessons learned thus far are
  transferable

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Questions? Erika Young Transportation
Director National Association of Regional
Councils 202-986-1032x212 erika_at_narc.org