Dear Commissioner Dominguez,

Regional Plan Association (RPA) is the nation’s oldest metropolitan planning, research, and advocacy organization. RPA is an independent, non-profit civic organization that develops and promotes ideas to improve the economic health, environmental resiliency, and quality of life of the New York metropolitan area. Approximately every 25 years, RPA publishes a long-term planning document called the Regional Plan. The Fourth Regional Plan was published in 2017 and centers strategies that advance our values of health, equity, sustainability, and the prosperity of our region.

With these four values in mind, we are compelled to provide comments on the draft NYSDOT Transportation Master Plan 2050. While RPA supports the draft plan’s vision for a community-centered transportation system, we call on NYSDOT to include more specificity on the following elements as part of the final plan:

• Accountability: Through more publicly accessible websites or other platforms to support easier analysis of project data
• Clarity of Goals: Through a publicly accessible roadmap to success in achieving goals, including clear statements on how highway projects conform to broader goals
• Transparency: Through a publicly accessible platform that outlines project progress and metrics
• Climate Change Consciousness: Through project alignment with the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA)
• Micromobility: To be prioritized more as part of inclusionary multimodal transportation planning

Accountability: NYSDOT should provide more publicly accessible and easy-to-find information on how projects are meeting (or missing) project goals, construction timelines, and budget allocations in relation to the goals as stated by the Transportation Master Plan. By creating a simple dashboard, updating current project websites, or utilizing other platforms that allow for easier analysis of information, New Yorkers would have better insight as to how project dollars are allocated, and progress is made towards the goals identified in the plan.

Clarity of Goals: Although the Transportation Master Plan is intended as a future-focused plan, NYSDOT has a responsibility to clarify the alignment between the plan’s goals and capital projects outlined in chapter six and currently in progress by the agency. For example, the plan mentions that capital projects are aimed at ​“reconnecting communities across the state with various projects from the Bronx to Buffalo [and] converting Route 17 to I-86 in Orange and Sullivan Counties,” yet plans for these projects may include highway and infrastructure expansions that disrupt rather than reconnect communities. Regarding the current proposal for the Cross Bronx Bridges Project, RPA encourages NYSDOT to focus on Option 2, which would mitigate disruption to Bronx communities by making necessary repairs without imposing additional environmental harm.

In addition to clarifying the goals of capital projects, NYSDOT should demonstrate its commitment to already-stated plan goals by adopting a Fix-It-First approach to highway construction, bringing assets to a state of good repair and halting the construction of new highways and highway expansions across the state unless they are critical to driver safety.

According to TRIP, a transportation research non-profit, 61% of New York’s roads are in poor to fair condition, with 25% of roads in poor condition, while 10% of bridges are in poor condition (as of January 2025), and NYSDOT’s own 2022 Pavement Condition Report stated it would cost $6.89 billion to bring all existing roads to good repair.

Clarifying alignment between plan goals and capital projects would not only help New Yorkers understand NYSDOT’s policies and priorities, but would also highlight areas where capital projects, such as highway expansions, do not actually advance the ambitious goals stated in the draft Transportation Master Plan.

Transparency: The plan lacks more specific information about what metrics will be used to measure success and how NYSDOT will achieve the goals as stated in the plan. On the road to the year 2050, understanding year-over-year changes and making comparisons to investments throughout various political administrations is necessary in understanding if needs are being met equitably across the state. Creating a user-friendly platform or dashboard to track these metrics is an important addition.

Climate Change Consciousness: While the draft plan acknowledges the serious impact that climate change has on our transportation infrastructure, the plan is short in detail on what aspects of NYSDOT projects will conform with CLCPA guidance. We applaud NYSDOT’s initial efforts to respond to the CLCPA, as noted in the draft plan by ​‘amending design manuals, building new bridges higher and right-sizing culverts for increased stream flows after strong rainfalls’ but more specificity is needed on how future transportation projects will be adjusted to reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT). By investing in reliable public transportation, multimodal transportation systems, and fixing existing roads first, NYSDOT would be taking important steps to achieve VMT reduction statewide. Combined with more transparency of a project dashboard, New Yorkers would better understand how their travel decisions and tax dollars are contributing towards the larger goal of GHG reduction in our region.

Micromobility: RPA supports elements in the draft Transportation Master Plan that encourage multimodal connections, recognizing that the people of New York have diverse needs in how to get around. However, the plan mentions micromobility only seven times throughout. Today and even more so in the future, more people have adopted micromobility as a primary way of moving. In line with NYSDOT’s goals to promote active transportation options, we urge NYSDOT to expand infrastructure for multimodal transportation such as bikes, e-bikes, and e-scooters. As these technologies become more common, riders are subsequently in greater danger of collisions due to lack of protected bike lanes, signage, and infrastructure such as charging stations. We urge NYSDOT to prioritize active and multimodal transportation and provide funding and guidance to local MPOs to do so. Multimodal transportation is cheaper and healthier for most New Yorkers to get around without a car. Using elements of micromobility to move goods has also become increasingly popular. Companies who choose to use this mode of transportation to reduce their impact on the environment would also benefit.

Overall, RPA is encouraged by the vision of a community-centered transportation system and the Plan’s public engagement process, which has increased accessibility through virtual meetings and surveys to reach people in all regions of the State. Because of this, RPA supports the Plan’s emphasis on community-responsiveness and reconnecting communities that have been negatively impacted by transportation infrastructure. However, there is more to be desired from the plan, especially on project transparency, accountability in meeting future goals, reducing impacts from climate change, and inclusive planning for different modes.

Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on the Draft Transportation Master Plan 2050. We look forward to working together with NYSDOT, elected officials and community stakeholders to promote the health, equity, sustainability, and the prosperity of our region for current and future generations.