The year 2035 plan, adopted in June 2006, served as the regional transportation plan for the Region until it was superseded in July 2016, with the completion and adoption of the year 2050 regional land use and transportation plan which is set forth in SEWRPC Planning Report No. 55, VISION 2050: A Regional Land Use and Transportation Plan for Southeastern Wisconsin.
The year 2035 regional transportation plan was intended to provide a vision for, and guide to, transportation system development in the Region for 20+ years into the future. It was a multimodal plan of recommended transportation actions designed to address existing and anticipated future transportation problems and needs. The plan consisted of four principal elements:
- Public Transit
- Systems and Demand Management
- Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities
- Arterial Streets and Highways
All future needs for transit, street and highway, and other transportation improvements considered in the regional transportation planning process were derived from the future growth proposed in the year 2035 regional land use plan.
The 2035 regional transportation system plan was developed under the guidance of the Advisory Committee on Regional Transportation Planning. The Advisory Committee was responsible for proposing to the SEWRPC, after careful study and evaluation, a recommended regional transportation plan. The Advisory Committee was intended to promote intergovernmental and interagency coordination, and to serve as a direct liaison between the SEWRPC planning effort and the local and State governments that will be responsible for implementing the recommendations of the plans. The 2035 plan is set forth in SEWRPC Planning Report No. 49, A Regional Transportation System Plan for Southeastern Wisconsin: 2035 and was adopted by SEWRPC in June 2006.
Every four years, the Commission conducts an interim review and update of the regional transportation plan, in part to address Federal requirements. In 2010, SEWRPC completed the first quadrennial interim review and update of the year 2035 regional transportation plan. This interim review re-examined the forecasts, measured transportation system performance, assessed the implementation to date of the regional transportation plan recommendations, and made minor modifications and updates to the year 2035 plan. The 2010 interim review and update is set forth in SEWRPC Memorandum Report No. 197, Review, Update, and Reaffirmation of the Year 2035 Regional Transportation Plan.
In 2014, the Commission completed the second interim review and update of the year 2035 regional transportation plan which included an assessment of the implementation to date of the year 2035 regional transportation plan, a review of the year 2035 forecasts underlying the plan, and a monitoring of current transportation system performance. The review and update also examined whether it remains reasonable for the recommendations in the year 2035 regional transportation plan to be accomplished over the next 20 years, given the existing and reasonably expected to be available funding. This assessment of available funding also considered the restrictions and limitations of existing funding.
In 2014, the existing, and outlook for future, available revenue was far more constrained than in 2005 during development of the year 2035 regional transportation plan and in 2010 during its first update. As a result, it was no longer possible to conclude with the 2014 plan update that the plan was reasonably consistent with existing and reasonably expected revenues, and the current limitations of those revenues. As such, it was necessary to consider the year 2035 plan as a “vision” plan, outlining the desirable transportation plan to address the current and future needs of the Region. It was further necessary to identify a “fiscally constrained” year 2035 regional transportation plan which includes those elements of the 2035 plan which can be achieved within the restrictions of the amounts and limitations of existing and reasonably expected revenues. The effect of the funding gap on the highway element was a deferral or delay in capital projects being implemented, specifically a reduction in the amount of freeway that was expected to be reconstructed and the amount of surface arterials to be reconstructed with additional traffic lanes or newly constructed by the year 2035 included within the “fiscally constrained” plan. The principal effect of the funding gap on the transit element was a lack of the transit improvement and expansion as identified under the vision plan, and as well reductions in current transit service and an increase in transit fares above inflation being included in the “fiscally constrained” plan.
The 2014 interim review and update of the year 2035 regional transportation system plan is documented in SEWRPC Memorandum Report Number 215, Review and Update of the Year 2035 Regional Transportation Plan.
The most recent demonstration of the conformity of the 2035 plan to the State of Wisconsin Air Quality Implementation Plan may be found here.