Linking the Transportation Planning and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Processes

摘要

For 40 years, Congress has directed that Federally-funded highway and transit projects must flow from metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes (pursuant to 23 U.S.C. 134135 and 49 U.S.C. 5303-5306). Despite this statutory emphasis on transportation planning, the environmental analyses produced to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4231 et seq.) have often been conducted de novo, disconnected from the analyses used to develop long-range transportation plans, statewide and metropolitan Transportation Improvement Programs (STIPs/TIPs), planning-level corridor/subarea/feasibility studies, or FTA's planning Alternatives Analyses. The purpose of this guidance is to change this culture, by supporting Congressional intent that statewide and metropolitan transportation planning should be the foundation for highway and transit project decisions. This guidance was crafted to recognize that transportation planning processes vary across the country. This document provides guidance and information (both conceptually and through some illustrative 'current practice' examples) on how information, analysis, and products from transportation planning can be incorporated into and relied upon in NEPA documents under existing laws.