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Planning Activities

The Bi-State Year 2030 Long Range Transportation & Mobility Plan [pdf] is a regional plan for the Fort Smith/Van Buren metropolitan area. The Plan contains transportation proposals and projects planned or programmed for implementation over the next twenty years that will use, all or in part, federal funding in their implementation. The Plan is developed through a cooperative effort coordinated by the Bi-State Metropolitan Planning Commission, MPO, the Arkansas and Oklahoma Departments of Transportation, Federal Highway and Federal Transit Administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Although complete, the Plan is continually monitored in order to maintain an accurate and current representation of street and highway improvement needs. An annual review of these needs is part of the Bi-State transportation planning process; an update of the Plan is conducted every three to five years.

The Bi-State TIP (Transportation Improvement Program) [pdf] is a four year document that lists all the transportation projects within the Bi-State study area that are anticipated to be implemented over a four year period. The TIP provides information relative to project cost, sources of funding, and any matching requirements of each project.

GIS. The Bi-State MPO is currently involved with the two eastern most planning and development districts in Oklahoma, the Kiamichi Economic Development District in Oklahoma (KEDDO) and the Eastern Oklahoma Development District (EODD), to develop a complete set of base maps and other map displays for the Bi-State Area within LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties. This GIS/GPS project will be coordinated with the development of the same map products within Crawford and Sebastian Counties in Arkansas. The relationship between the Bi-State MPO and the two Oklahoma Districts will be ongoing, and materials developed through this relationship will be utilized in the preparation of the Year 2030 Long Range Bi-State Transportation Plan.

Traffic Counts. The Bi-State MPO has purchased a number of traffic counters over the last two years that are being used in intersection analyses, providing selected counts for local governments, determining turning movements, trip generation analyses and reports, and assisting local governments in developing capital improvement programs. Three different types of counters have been purchased allowing the Staff to conduct these studies. The first type of counters that were purchased were programable counters that will yield five, ten, or fifteen minute counts and hourly counts. These are utilized in preparing peak hour traffic estimates and annual average daily traffic estimates. They also render directional and static counts. The second type of counters purchased were classification counters and these were also programmable. These counters are used in determining truck percentages of the total traffic steam and in identifying individual lane counts on multi-laned facilities. The third type of counters that were purchased were 24 hour counters that yield raw counts for a 24 hour period. The MPO was fortunate to procure these type of counters through the State's excess property offices where they had been obtained from the State DOT. The Bi-State MPO purchased over 50 of these counters and distributed over half of them to the member local governments at a traffic counting class sponsored by the MPO.

The Bi-State Staff utilizes these counters in identifying trip generation rates for land uses based on local and regional land uses. The MPO believes that the rates generated by these studies provides more reasonable and a appropriate trip generation rates than the other national estimates since they reflect regional trip characteristics and behavior. The local governments tend to accept these rates more readily than the national rates because of their regional origins. Staff has done comparative analyses of the regional and national rates and the findings are not significant enough to cast extensive doubts on the use of the regional trip generation rate basis. For further information see Trip Generation Rate Study.

Bi-State staff offer local communities assistance in the development and review of annual capital improvement programs with respect to street and/or transportation related projects, and work with local planning commissions and local legislative bodies in the development of plans, programs, and ordinances to improve transportation and transportation services. Upon request by local governments, state governments, non-profits, or school districts, staff conducts special studies relative to transportation systems and capacity issues.