|
|
| Note
From the Director
Making the Case for Regional Transportation Operations Collaboration and Coordination The Practice of Regional Transportation Operations Collaboration and Coordination: A Self-Assessment—Where Are You in Regional Collaboration and Coordination? |
Overview
The framework creates structures through which processes occur that result in products. It implies a commitment of resources needed to initiate and sustain regional collaboration and coordination and for implementing agreed upon solutions and procedures. The collaborative spirit is motivated by a desire for measurable improvement in regional transportation system performance. The five elements of the framework are interactive and evolving. A brief description of each element follows. The regional structure that supports collaboration and coordination within a region is the set of relationships, institutions, and policy arrangements that shape the activity. It provides the “table” at which operators and service providers sit with public safety and other key transportation constituencies. This “regional table” may range from an ad hoc loose confederation to a formal entity with legal standing and well-defined responsibilities and authorities. It may be facilitated by or emerge from existing entities or be newly formed. Processes are the formal and informal activities performed in accordance with written or unwritten, but collaboratively developed and accepted, policies involving multiple agencies and jurisdictions in a region. Processes describe how the “regional table” works to achieve its objectives. The products of collaboration and coordination are the results of processes. They include a regional concept of operations, baseline performance data, current performance information, and operating plans and procedures that inform regional entities (public and private sector) about how the regional transportation system must operate over time (including planned improvements). Resources govern what is available within the region for sustaining and implementing the regional concept of operations and other operations plans on an ongoing basis, not just plans for special events, issue resolutions, or the completion of specific projects. The resources include staff, equipment, and dollars. The performance element comprises how performance will be measured, and individual and collective responsibilities for monitoring and improving regional transportation system performance. Regional performance objectives, which are established collaboratively, most commonly address public safety, mobility, security, economic development, and environment. This document includes a self-assessment tool in which all of the elements are summarized, so that the reader can shape collaboration and coordination operations in a regional context with a better understanding of what already exists to build on and what is needed to move forward. Structure: The Table for Regional Operations Collaboration and Coordination
These mechanisms range from ad hoc/informal relationships to formal structures with legal standing. They include personal relationships among leaders and staff members of key operating agencies and neighboring jurisdictions who recognize common problems and opportunities and agree to work together to improve regional transportation systems performance. These structures may evolve into a broad-based regional partnership among public and private sector interests across multiple jurisdictions. Several examples illustrate the variety of structural approaches to regional collaboration and coordination:
To be effective, the regional operations collaboration and coordination effort must be linked to the regional transportation planning process. Often, what passes for regional transportation operations collaboration is directed primarily or solely toward installing a project, solving a problem, or preparing for a special event. For regional collaboration and coordination to work, it must be part of an ongoing, intentional, focused effort to improve system performance by identifying needs and opportunities and collaborating on strategies and solutions that lead to strategic investments.
At one level, the question of who participates refers to institutions, agencies, and organizations that initiate, facilitate, convene, and support regional collaboration and coordination activities. Within a metropolitan area, this will likely vary—it may be the State, the MPO, or even a city or a county agency, depending on factors like the scope of need, the range of responsibility, desired outcomes, and availability of resources. At another level, that same question refers to the collective representatives of collaborating agencies and organizations (e.g., traffic, transit, police, fire, emergency management). Together, they address problems and opportunities of regional significance that demand improved information sharing, effective communications, integrated systems, and efficient use of resources. Nontraditional stakeholders also need a voice in regional transportation operations. These stakeholders can include chambers of commerce, boards of trade, tourism and visitor agencies, the towing and recovery industry, major shippers and carriers, and major employers (or groups). These stakeholders may serve on advisory boards, task forces, or other entities that provide input to regional collaboration and coordination activities. Participants must find value in the improvements to regional transportation system operations and performance that result from their collaborations, or they are unlikely to continue their efforts. The owners and operators of transportation system elements, in particular, must perceive individual or collective value in working together in such an effort while simultaneously retaining control of the systems that they own, operate, or manage. Experience shows that little happens unless someone or some group of people is committed to making it happen. The initiators of the kind of regional collaboration needed may be elected officials or senior agency officials. Often, planning for a special event, incident management, or major disaster provides the initial incentive for elected officials and agency leaders to champion regional collaboration. Such champions then become catalysts for bringing others together around the benefits realized through prior experience. They provide the motivational spark to keep individuals, agencies, and private sector entities from falling back into functional and jurisdictional stovepipes.
Determining the most appropriate organizational approach for regional collaboration and coordination depends on the needs of the region, existing institutional relationships and processes, and the vision of regional transportation operating agencies and service providers. The organizational structure will vary, but may begin as an ad hoc arrangement among a few people or organizations and evolve to more formal arrangements. Table 1 illustrates this range of approaches. Table 1. Range of Organizational approaches. 
|
