Genesee Transportation Council

Location

Suite 101, 65 West Broad St, Rochester NY 14614

Telephone

585 232 6240

Website

http://www.gtcmpo.org/

We've all seen how new pavement ends on one side of the county line and potholes begin on the other. We've also seen how train stations, bus links, and airports fail to connect. To minimize problems just like this between jurisdictions, in 1991 Congress enacted the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), which mandated all metropolitan areas with a population over 50,000 have a metropolitan planning organization to qualify for federal highway and transit funds and to coordinate their programs. The Governor of New York State designated the Genesee Transportation Council as that organization responsible for planning in the nine-county Genesee-Finger Lakes region including Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, and Yates counties.

Because of the size of the nine-county region, the primary focus of the Council's planning centers on the developed area surrounding the City of Rochester known as the Rochester Transportation Management Area, and includes all of Monroe County plus the adjacent developed areas of Livingston, Ontario, and Wayne counties.

The Council produces and maintains three major products, including the Long Range Transportation Plan, the Transporation Improvement Program, and a project by project Unified Planning Work Program. A smaller state-administered, federal Transportation Enhancements Program provides federal funding for non-traditional transportation projects such as bicycle, pedestrian, and trail facilities; historic preservation; landscaping; streetscaping; and other scenic beautification projects.

In recent years, the Transporation Equity Act for the 21 Century (TEA-21) has superceded ISTEA and now governs federal transportation spending. Of note, it recommends one cent of each dollar spent on transportation, a huge portion of federal discretionary spending, go to non-motor vehicle programs like the very paths we skate and bicycle, the Erie Canalway Trail, the Genesee Valley Greenway, the River Trails, and roadways explicitly marked and unmarked, as found on Rochester's newly reconstructed Avenues. These Acts helped create and maintain these paths we like and use.

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