Officials from the Kentucky and Indiana division offices of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Region 4 Office of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), and the Region 4 and 5 Offices of the Environmental Protection Agency have found that the Kentuckiana Regional Planning and Development Agency’s (KIPDA) 2011-2015 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) and the Horizon 2030 Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) both meet the federal conformity guidelines.
The MTP provides a comprehensive vision for the transportation infrastructure over the upcoming 20 years for KIPDA’s five-counties and its policy committee. Transportation projects seeking federal funding must be included in the MTP.
The TIP is a short-range funding document for the five-county KIPDA area. Projects advance from the MTP to the TIP when they are ready for funding.
The updated documents, which were approved by the KIPDA Transportation Policy Committee on October 8, 2010, are the short-range and long-range transportation planning documents for Bullitt, Jefferson and Oldham counties in Kentucky and Clark and Floyd counties in Indiana. The policy committee is made up of elected and appointed officials from the five-counties.
The TIP is a four-year planning and funding document and the MTP is a 20-year planning document.
The federal agencies found that KIPDA’s documents met the five criteria of the Transportation Conformity Rule, which includes: use of the latest planning assumptions, use of the latest emission model, use of appropriate consultation procedures, consistency with the mobile source emission budgets in the State Implementation Plan (SIP), and provisions for the timely implementation of the transportation control measures in the SIP.
Both the MTP and the TIP went into a lapse in December of 2009, which essentially prevented projects from being added to or deleted from the documents. The current MTP was set to expire December 8, 2010, and this approval of both documents allows the expenditure of Federal transportation funding to continue in the region without interruption.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Holiday travelers warned to "Click It or Ticket"
“No one wants to start off the holidays with a ticket,” said Transportation Cabinet Secretary Mike Hancock. “Save your money for turkey and buying presents for loved ones – don’t throw it away simply because you failed to buckle up.”
While seat belt use is at a record high of 84 percent nationwide, Kentucky lags behind with an 80 percent usage rate. Statistics for 2009 indicate 398 (61.3 percent) of the 649 people who were killed in motor vehicles last year in Kentucky were not wearing a seat belt.
“Sadly, the holidays, which for many are the happiest time of the year, is also one of the deadliest and most tragic,” said KOHS Executive Director Chuck Geveden. “Clearly this is an indication that people are just not aware of the huge risk taken by not buckling up.”
In Kentucky last year there were 1,120 crashes over the Thanksgiving holiday, resulting in 330 injuries and seven fatalities. Of those fatalities, five were unrestrained.
Regular seat belt use is the single most effective way to protect people and reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes, according to NHTSA. Research has shown that when lap and shoulder belts are used properly, the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants is reduced by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury is reduced by 50 percent.
For more information about the Click It or Ticket seat belt enforcement campaign for highway safety during Thanksgiving, please visit www.trafficsafetymarketing.gov and http://highwaysafety.ky.gov.
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Monday, November 8, 2010
2010 Census Participation Numbers Available - Nationally 74% Participated
The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that 74 percent of households in the United States filled out and mailed back their 2010 Census questionnaire, matching the final mail participation rate achieved in the 2000 Census. Twenty-two states, 1,553 counties, and 278 cities and townships of 50,000 or more met or exceeded their 2000 Census participation rates. The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico also exceeded their rates.
The final 74 percent mail participation rate includes an additional 2 percent of households that mailed back their forms after April 27, when the U.S. Census Bureau announced a 72 percent participation rate. While these forms were received too late to prevent a visit by a census taker, they were included in the final tally.
Approximately 47 million households that did not mail back a census form by the deadline were visited by census takers in person as part of a series of operations and methods to ensure as complete a count as possible. The Census Bureau either received a form or attempted repeated visits to 100 percent of the identified housing units in the country.
The final mail participation rates for the nation, states, counties, cities, towns and even the neighborhood level can now be found on the 2010 Census's Web site (http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/2010textview.php).
Here is a break down of counties in the KIPDA region:
Indiana State-wide Percentage—79%
By county:
Clark County—79%
Floyd County—80%
Kentucky State-wide Percentage—77%
By county:
Bullitt County—80%
Henry County—76%
Jefferson County—76%
Oldham County—82%
Shelby County—79%
Spencer County—81%
Trimble County—69%
The final 74 percent mail participation rate includes an additional 2 percent of households that mailed back their forms after April 27, when the U.S. Census Bureau announced a 72 percent participation rate. While these forms were received too late to prevent a visit by a census taker, they were included in the final tally.
Approximately 47 million households that did not mail back a census form by the deadline were visited by census takers in person as part of a series of operations and methods to ensure as complete a count as possible. The Census Bureau either received a form or attempted repeated visits to 100 percent of the identified housing units in the country.
The final mail participation rates for the nation, states, counties, cities, towns and even the neighborhood level can now be found on the 2010 Census's Web site (http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map/2010textview.php).
Here is a break down of counties in the KIPDA region:
Indiana State-wide Percentage—79%
By county:
Clark County—79%
Floyd County—80%
Kentucky State-wide Percentage—77%
By county:
Bullitt County—80%
Henry County—76%
Jefferson County—76%
Oldham County—82%
Shelby County—79%
Spencer County—81%
Trimble County—69%
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
TARC awarded $9 million in federal grants
The Transit Authority of River Cicty (TARC) will receive $9 million to buy eight hybrid buses, install an electronic fare collection system and make energy efficiency improvements at its historic Union Station headquarters in Louisville thanks to federal grants approved in October.
The grant is the most TARC has ever received in competitive grant funding in a single year and will create 96 full-time jobs for a year including up to 40 local jobs.
Louisville workers take more than 7.8 million trips on TARC each year to get to and from their jobs, based on a recent TARC survey of ridership. Students take more than two million trips a year on TARC to get to or from school.
“This is a huge win for TARC and all of Louisville,” Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson said.
TARC Executive Director J. Barry Barker said TARC “is deeply appreciative of Congressman Yarmuth’s work on behalf of TARC and his support and Mayor Abramson’s support. TARC is well on its way to major service improvements in the next year with these grants and with other developments in the works. We are excited about the improvements and intend to see ridership increase,” Barker said.
In addition to the grants awarded this month, a new TARC radio communications system will be in operation next year and more bus service is scheduled to begin in February on two heavily traveled routes - #23 Broadway, which also includes Bardstown Road, and #18 Preston-18th which includes Dixie Highway. A previous $1 million grant provided funding for adding buses to the two routes so that arrivals will be every 12-15 minutes at stops during rush hours.
Grants approved this month are:
The grant is the most TARC has ever received in competitive grant funding in a single year and will create 96 full-time jobs for a year including up to 40 local jobs.
Louisville workers take more than 7.8 million trips on TARC each year to get to and from their jobs, based on a recent TARC survey of ridership. Students take more than two million trips a year on TARC to get to or from school.
“This is a huge win for TARC and all of Louisville,” Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson said.
TARC Executive Director J. Barry Barker said TARC “is deeply appreciative of Congressman Yarmuth’s work on behalf of TARC and his support and Mayor Abramson’s support. TARC is well on its way to major service improvements in the next year with these grants and with other developments in the works. We are excited about the improvements and intend to see ridership increase,” Barker said.
In addition to the grants awarded this month, a new TARC radio communications system will be in operation next year and more bus service is scheduled to begin in February on two heavily traveled routes - #23 Broadway, which also includes Bardstown Road, and #18 Preston-18th which includes Dixie Highway. A previous $1 million grant provided funding for adding buses to the two routes so that arrivals will be every 12-15 minutes at stops during rush hours.
Grants approved this month are:
- Electronic Fare Collection System: $2.5 million. Onboard fares can be paid with cash or a new option of using a card and paying electronically. The system, funded with a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) State of Good Repair grant, is expected to be operating by 2012.
- Eight new hybrid buses: $3.9 million. TARC’s fleet of environmentally-friendly buses will increase to 29 with the arrival of eight new hybrid-electric buses funded through the FTA’s Clean Fuels Bus and Bus Facilities Program. The buses will replace diesel-fueled buses that are 12 years old and have traveled an average of 475,000 miles. Hybrid buses are more fuel efficient, easier to maintain and offer a smoother ride than older diesel-fueled buses. A hybrid bus saves on average 2,000 gallons of fuel a year compared to older buses. At current diesel prices the fuel savings would total $36,000 a year.
- Window restoration/weatherization and geothermal heating and cooling system at Union Station, TARC’s headquarters: $2.6 million. The grant from the federal Department of Transportation’s TIGGER II program will create savings in operating costs and help preserve the 120-year old Union Station, one of Louisville’s historic architectural gems. Annual savings in energy use with the geothermal system and window restorations are estimated at $58,000 a year. All 278 windows at Union Station including 40 made of stained glass are to be restored.
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