WRATS 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan

Purpose of Project

The WRATS 2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) identifies the transportation needs for roads, bridges, public transportation, bicycles, pedestrians, and freight movement through the year 2045, based on the anticipated growth in the MPO area. WRATS is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the 127.6-square-mile region including the entirety of Houston County and a northeastern portion of Peach County, in addition to the cities of Byron, Centerville, Perry, and Warner Robins, Georgia. Goals for the 2045 MTP focused on economic vitality; safety and security, accessibility, mobility, and connectivity; environment and quality of life; multimodal system; management and preservation of existing system; resilience and reliability; and travel and tourism. The fiscally constrained plan included 22 projects, which were prioritized into short-, mid-, and long-term timeframes, totaling $457 million. Additional “aspirational” projects were identified but not included within the fiscally constrained plan. The 2045 MTP was adopted by the WRATS Policy Committee in October 2020.

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Our Role on the Project

As a subconsultant, Modern Mobility Partners (MMP) led the development of performance measures and the analysis of Environmental Justice/Title VI, crash data, congestion and travel reliability, and bridge conditions. MMP also supported socioeconomic data development by performing reasonableness checks on draft data sets, as well as supporting public outreach efforts for the MTP. Specifically:

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• The performance measures support the plan's goals and objectives and align with the State's performance measures and targets. MMP was also responsible for identifying the necessary data to support the performance measures

• The Environmental Justice/Title VI analysis incorporated GIS mapping based on American Community Survey (ACS) demographic data, along with written summaries for each location, including statistics, regional averages, and percentages above regional averages for each population group by census tract

• For the crash data analysis, MMP conducted an extensive review of GDOT's crash data for the most recent available 5-year period across a variety of measures, including total crashes, bicycle and pedestrian crashes, crash rates per 100M Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), rate of injuries, rate of fatalities, and summaries of high-crash intersections and segments. The data was visualized using heat maps and maps indicating crash locations by type

• MMP mapped and summarized the locations of all bridges, highlighting those not meeting performance measure targets and those eligible for rehabilitation or replacement funding

• In leading the congestion and travel time reliability analysis, MMP evaluated volume to capacity (V/C) ratios and levels of service (LOS), identified hotspot locations related to traffic congestion, and reviewed travel demand model results for the 2015 base and 2045 future years, summarizing by segments

 

The WRATS 2045 MTP was adopted by the Policy Committee in October 2020.

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Problem Solvers

MMP addressed WRATS' need for comprehensive technical analysis to support the 2045 MTP by conducting detailed assessments across multiple planning areas—from identifying environmental justice communities and crash patterns to evaluating bridge conditions and congestion hotspots—providing the data-driven foundation necessary for prioritizing transportation investments that address both equity and operational performance challenges across the region.