WA: Public invited to comment on Thurston County Regional Transportation Plan

The Thurston County Regional Planning Council (TRPC) is seeking public comment on the updated draft of the Regional Transportation Plan, which functions as a blueprint for the future of the Thurston region's transportation system.

TRPC updates the plan every five years.

Community members are invited to learn more about the plan through TRPC's online open house at https://tinyurl.com/3tnh8tus. A comment form is available for those interested in submitting their feedback at https://tinyurl.com/s8ek3s79, and TRPC also welcomes comments sent by email to [email protected]. The public comment period runs through May 9.

TRPC is responsible for updating the Regional Transportation Plan as part of its duties as a state-designated regional transportation planning organization and federally designated metropolitan planning organization.

State and federal requirements for the plan differ with some overlap that includes requirements to address all modes of travel, preserve the existing transportation system, model future travel demand and address environmental impacts.

Over the next 25 years, the Thurston region's population will increase to approximately 407,400 people, according to the Washington state Office of Financial Management. TRPC estimates this growth will spur 52,000 more jobs and 58,000 more housing units as compared to 2022.

The Thurston region is not on track to meet its regionally adopted goals and targets, which include reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero, reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 45% below 2015 levels by 2030, and reducing the average number of miles that a person travels by car annually to 30% below 1990 levels by 2035.

To work toward regional goals and address the needs of the county's growing communities, the Regional Transportation Plan makes the following recommendations:

• Safe system: The region should prioritize projects that reduce conflicts between different transportation modes, and projects that eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes.
• Greenhouse gas emissions reduction and climate change resilience: The region should target future investments in ways that help people make low-emission transportation choices — such as bicycling, walking and riding public transportation — and increase the resilience of the transportation system to climate-related impacts.
• Maintenance and preservation: The region should invest in preservation and maintenance activities that ensure transportation infrastructure can dependably perform and reduce the need for costly rebuilds.
• Regional projects: The region should complete 80 regional projects that emphasize transportation system efficiency, strategically expand the system and plan for local and state roads as a cohesive system.

By 2050, it is anticipated that those regional projects will produce 18 miles of new roadways, more than 36 miles of new traffic lanes, more than 65 miles of new or rebuilt bicycle and pedestrian paths, and more than 29 miles of new multi-use trails.

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