WILMAPCO Meetings
All meetings are open to the public. Unless otherwise noted, meetings are held in the WILMAPCO Conference Room.
Air Quality Subcommittee November 8, 10 a.m.
Congestion Management Subcommittee November 8, 1 p.m.
WILMAPCO Council November 8, 6:30 p.m.
Technical Advisory Committee November 15, 10 a.m.
Thanksgiving Holiday
WILMAPCO Closed
November 22-23
In case of inclement weather, please call (302) 737-6205, or toll free from Cecil County at (888) 808-7088 for cancellations or postponements.
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For updates or more information on upcoming WILMAPCO meetings, please visit
www.wilmapco.org.
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Transportation news and events from the
Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO).
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In this issue
National News
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2050 RTP Virtual Workshop
The
2050 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) is a fundamental planning document for New Castle County, DE and Cecil County, MD. Not only does it outline the long-range transportation goals, it also lists the expected transportation projects for the next 20 to 30 years.
Now is your opportunity to influence the document that will guide transportation decision-making for the next twenty years!
To kick-off the plan, WILMAPCO is holding a
Virtual Public Meeting this Friday, November 2 from 12-1pm
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2050 RTP Online Survey
In order to better solicit your feedback on the 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, WILMAPCO has developed a highly interactive online survey. We want to hear your thoughts on the type of transportation system you'd like to see, now and in the future. To participate in the brief survey, please visit https://2050rtp.metroquest.com/.
Participate in a Federal Review of WILMAPCO
Federal regulations stipulate that WILMAPCO must undergo a federal certification review every four years. Conducted jointly by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), the review ensures that the transportation planning process for the region is being satisfactorily implemented by WILMAPCO.
As part of the review, a
Public Meeting will be held on Wednesday, November 7, 2018, from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., at WILMAPCO's office, 850 Library Ave., Suite 100, Newark. You are encouraged to share your thoughts with FHWA and FTA representatives about WILMAPCO's transportation planning process.
Those who cannot attend are encouraged to submit comments. Written comments may be submitted directly to FHWA and FTA via the addresses below:
U.S. Federal Highway Administration
Lindsay Donnellon
31 Hopkins Plaza, Suite 1520
Baltimore, MD 21201
U.S. Federal Transit Administration
Timothy Lidiak
1760 Market Street, Suite 500
Philadelphia, PA 19103-4124
Memorial Drive Safety Improvement Project Public Workshop
Safety improvements are proposed for Memorial Drive between between Route 13 and Route 9, just outside of Wilmington, as recommended in the Route 9 Master Plan. This project includes:
- Converting Memorial Drive to a single lane in each direction
- Slowing cars while maintaining traffic flow
- Adding bike lanes
- Adding safer pedestrian crosswalks
You are invited to review and provide feedback during a Public Open House on Tuesday, November 13. Stop in anytime from 4-7pm at the Route 9 Library and Innovation Center's multipurpose. Don't miss a chance to have your say!
Please share this information with your friends and neighbors. To share on social media, please visit
Feedback Sought on How Bus Service can be Improved in the Newark Area
DART First State, City of Newark, Cecil Transit, and the University of Delaware - along with WILMAPCO, have formed the Newark Transit Improvement Partnership (Newark TrIP) to consolidate and coordinate to be more customer friendly and efficient.
A Public Workshop will be held on Tuesday, November 13, at the City of Newark Municipal Building (200 South Main Street) where attendees can provide input on how bus service could be improved in the Newark area. Attendees may stop by any time from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Community Visioning Workshop for the Concord Pike Corridor
New Castle County, DelDOT, and WILMAPCO have been working on a Master Plan for the Concord Pike (US 202) Corridor, encompassing the area between the City of Wilmington and the Pennsylvania state line. The Master Plan will provide a 20-year vision that identifies cohesive land use and transportation strategies to ensure that Concord Pike will continue to be a safe, accessible, and economically thriving place for all. Your input will help guide the future of the corridor.
Please join us for a
Public Visioning Workshop
Wednesday,
November 14 from 6 to 8:30pm
Concord High School, cafeteria
2501 Ebright Road,Wilmington
WILMAPCO is Moving
After more than twenty years at our current location, as of December 1, WILMAPCO is moving to the University of Delaware Star Campus. WILMAPCO's new address is 100 Discovery Boulevard, Suite 800, Newark, 19713. The phone number will remain the same (302) 737-6205. WILMAPCO staff is looking forward to having the much needed extra office space and increased opportunities for collaboration with the University of Delaware.
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Maryland Department of Transportation's (MDOT) Draft 2040 MTP is out for Review
MDOT's draft 2040 long-range Maryland Transportation Plan is currently available for public review, and comment through November 15. Every five years, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) develops a 20-year mission for transportation in the state. The MTP outlines Maryland's overarching transportation priorities and helps create a larger context for transportation decision-making. You can learn more about the effort, read the plan, and discover how to comment by visiting the
2040 Maryland Transportation Plan at
http://www.mdot.maryland.gov/newMDOT/Planning/Maryland_Transportation_Plan.
Maryland Bicycle Pedestrian Master Plan
The Maryland Bicycle Pedestrian Master Plan(BPMP) establishes a 20-year vision for bicycling and walking as an integral part of Maryland's transportation system. It serves as a guide for state, regional, and local partners on issues related to bicycle and pedestrian policy, accessibility, planning, and investment strategies. There is a 30-day public comment period that ends on November 15, 2018. Please submit comments utilizing the following link:
www.mdot.maryland.gov/BikePedPlanUpdate , or email comments to:
BikePedPlanUpdate@mdot.state.md.us.
The final Plan is slated for a January 2019 release.
DART's 21st Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive
DART announced their 21
st year of partnering with the Food Bank of Delaware for the annual "Stuff The Bus" Thanksgiving Food Drive. The food drive starts on Monday, November 5, and ends Saturday, November 10. DART will be at the ShopRite at Wilmington's Riverfront on Wednesday, November 7. To see more locations throughout the state, please visit
www.dartfirststate.com.
Cecil Transit Smartphone App in Development
According to the Cecil Whig, "Cecil Transit is on its way to developing a smartphone app that will revolutionize how passengers pay for fares, and, county transportation officials hope, ultimately ease the process of using public transportation by late 2019.
In mid-2019, Cecil Transit will hold outreach meetings and trainings for partner agencies' staff and the general public. Several outreach events will be held throughout the community to educate the public on fare options and assist with creating customer accounts. Cecil Transit is hoping to roll out the smartphone app by December 2019 at the latest." To view the source article, please visit https://www.cecildaily.com/news/local_news/state-funds-make-cecil-transit-smartphone-app-possible.
Mass Transit Around Middletown Getting a Boost
According to the News Journal, "A $3.4 million federal grant will help the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC) expand park-and-ride facilities at U.S. 301 and North Middletown. DTC will also expand its mid-county maintenance facility in Delaware City to handle more buses that will be needed in the Middletown area once U.S. 301 and the park and ride infrastructure are completed. The transit agency believes the projects will help it manage truck traffic on U.S. 301, reduce congestion by promoting public transportation enhance the region's ability to compete for economic development and improve access to the Northeast Corridor's other transit services." To view the source article, please visit
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2018/09/28/mass-transit-around-middletown-gets-federal-boost/1421267002/.
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Safety Board Responds to Ped Crash Crisis
According to StreetsBlog USA, "Cars need better headlights. Cars need to be better designed. Cars need less space. These are some of the recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board after examining the 50-percent spike in pedestrian crashes since 2009. It's the agency's first serious examination of pedestrian deaths in two decades. The full report isn't out yet, but a summary [
PDF] offers 11 recommendations for the CDC, the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, such as:
- States must pay more attention and provide more money to pedestrian planning.
- Better headlights. Three quarters of pedestrian fatalities occur at night and any suburban areas do not have adequate street lighting.
- Better data on pedestrian activity and crashes. NTSB says it is difficult to study pedestrian crashes and injuries because of gaps in the federal data"
Ford, Uber, and Lyft commit to Share Data and Collaborate
According to the National Association of City Transportation Officials, "Ford Motor Company, Uber and Lyft announced an unprecedented commitment to
SharedStreets, a new data platform designed to make it easier for cities to leverage data to improve urban mobility. The groundbreaking public-private partnership is the result of a collaboration with the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), the Open Transport Partnership and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the consortium behind the innovative SharedStreets data platform." To view the source article, please visit
https://nacto.org/2018/09/26/ford-uber-lyft-share-data-through-sharedstreets-platform/.
Improving Safety in School Zones
According to Smart City Dive, "Distracted driving is a leading cause of safety issues in school zones. Driving analytics company Zendrive examined that factor near more than 125,000 schools across the country. The study used cell phone sensors to determine if the more than 9 million individual drivers were making calls, texting, or otherwise using their phones while their vehicle was in motion near schools. Zendrive found 4.6 billion unsafe driving events and created a
nationwide map ranking the safety of roads surrounding each school. The analysis highlights a point of major concern: Drivers did not reduce their potentially dangerous behaviors in 90% of the school zones." To view the source article, please visit
www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/safety-cities-school-zones/532631/.
Systemic Pedestrian Safety Analysis to ID Risky Sites
According to the Transportation Research Board (TRB), "TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Research Report 893: Systemic Pedestrian Safety Analysis provides a safety analysis method that can be used to proactively identify sites for potential safety improvements based on specific risk factors for pedestrians. A systemic approach, as opposed to a "hot-spot" approach, enables transportation agencies to identify, prioritize, and select appropriate countermeasures for locations with a high risk of pedestrian-related crashes, even when crash occurrence data are sparse. The guidebook also provides important insights for the improvement of data collection and data management to better support systemic safety analyses." To view the report, please visit
www.trb.org/main/blurbs/178087.aspx.
Mobile App that Guides Pedestrians along the Safest Route is Being Developed
According to Science Daily, "Maths and computer science experts have devised a way of scoring the safety of any given area using sophisticated mathematical algorithms, which they believe could easily be implemented into a navigation mobile app to help reduce road traffic casualties. At the moment, apps such as Google Maps do not account for pavements and will only give people the quickest route to their destination. These apps do not take into account the characteristics of pavements and roads and the dangers associated with them. The computer algorithm takes into account a number of factors, such as the types and number of crossings, the type of street, the possibility of jaywalking, and the speed limits of each road in a given area. The researchers believe this novel system could be of great value to city planners and developers, specifically when assessing how changes to a city's infrastructure may affect road safety. In the near term, the team is looking at developing an app which people could use to tell them the safest possible route to their destination." To view the source article, please visit
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180918110917.htm.
UN Climate Report Warns we have 12 years to Limit Climate Change Catastrophe
The Guardian reports, "The world's leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. The authors of the landmark report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) say urgent and unprecedented changes are needed to reach the target, which they say is affordable and feasible although it lies at the most ambitious end of the
Paris agreement pledge to keep temperatures between 1.5C and 2C. The half-degree difference could also prevent corals from being completely eradicated and ease pressure on the Arctic, according to the study." To view the source article, please visit
www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report.
EPA to Disband a Key Scientific Review Panel on Air Pollution
According to the New York Times, "An Environmental Protection Agency panel that advises the agency's leadership on the latest scientific information about soot in the atmosphere will not continue its work next year. The 20-person
Particulate Matter Review Panel, made up of experts in microscopic airborne pollutants known to cause respiratory disease, is responsible for helping the agency decide what levels of pollutants are safe to breathe. Agency officials declined to say why the E.P.A. intends to stop convening the panel next year, particularly as the agency considers whether to
revise air quality standards." To view the source article, please visit
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/climate/epa-disbands-pollution-science-panel.html.
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