The Valley Flyer new passenger rail service between Greenfield and New Haven with stops in Holyoke and Northampton has started. Tickets can be purchased on the Amtrak website https://www.amtrak.com/home.html. Enter code V459 to get 25% off full fares for trips to/from Greenfield, Northampton, & Holyoke through the end of October.
The FRCOG has released the draft 2020 Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) for public comment. Comments on the Draft UPWP will be accepted from Friday, June 28, until Thursday, July 18, 2019.
Franklin 2020 UPWP revised draft
For more information, to submit comments, or to request a hard copy of the UPWP, please contact Megan Rhodes, Senior Transportation and Land Use Planner at mrhodes@frcog.org or (413) 774-3167 extension 132.
The FRCOG has released the draft 2020 Long Range Regional Transportation Plan for public comment. Comments on the Draft Plan will be accepted from Friday, June 28, until Thursday, July 18, 2019. The Draft 2020 Regional Transportation Plan can be viewed here. A summary of the Plan can be viewed here.
There will be 2 public forums on Tuesday, July 16th at the JWO Transit Center in Greenfield (12 Olive Street) at 12:00 pm and 5:00 pm to review the draft recommendations of the Plan and to gather public comments.
For more information, to submit comments, or to request a hard copy of the Plan, please contact Megan Rhodes, Senior Transportation and Land Use Planner at mrhodes@frcog.org or (413) 774-3167 extension 132.
Vision Zero/Distracted Driving Report
In recent years, a movement has grown that aims to achieve a highway system with no fatalities or serious road traffic injuries; this movement is known as Vision Zero. Vision Zero urges communities and policymakers to embrace new methodologies to eliminate roadway injuries and death. The current Massachusetts Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) adopts the Vision Zero principle with its long-range goal of zero traffic fatalities.
Distracted driving is a particular focus area of Vision Zero, as it is a problem that may be solved by technology, including the driver assist features of new cars on the road today, and the driverless, autonomous vehicles of the future. In 2019, the FRCOG completed a report on distracted driving crashes in Franklin County. The report found that distracted driving was a factor in 105 of motor vehicle crashes in Franklin County; it identified the most common sources of driver distractions and makes recommendations to support messaging about the dangers of distracted driving and support infrastructure improvements that will accommodate the adoption of driver-assistance technology and other autonomous vehicle systems, known as self-driving cars.
Distracted Driving Crashes Report FINAL
For further information please contact Laurie Scarbrough at LScarbrough@frcog.org.
MassDOT is currently preparing the next five-year Capital Investment Plan (CIP). The CIP is a spending plan that will guide investments in our transportation system between 2020 and 2024. The CIP prioritizes all transportation projects across the Commonwealth, including highways, municipal projects, regional airports, bike, pedestrian, rail, and transit projects (including the MBTA and Regional Transit Authorities).
MassDOT is holding a series of public meetings and looking for input about priorities for transportation projects both local and statewide. Please attend one of the meetings listed below and record your input about your transportation needs and capital priorities.
CIP Public Meeting Schedule
If you are unable to attend a meeting, you will be able to post ideas on the CIP website, www.mass.gov/cip or email comments to masscip@state.ma.us
On April 23, 2019, the Franklin County Transportation Planning Organization released a Draft Amendment #1 to the 2019-2023 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) as well as a Draft 2020-2024 TIP. There will be a 21-day public comment period on the draft TIP documents from Monday, April 29 through Monday, May 20, 2019. Comments may be submitted in writing via email to lscarbrough@frcog.org or via mail to Franklin Regional Council of Governments, 12 Olive Street, Suite 2, Greenfield MA 01301. Links to the draft TIP documents are below:
Draft Amendment #1 2019-2013 FCTPO TIP (Full Text)
Draft Amendment #1 2019 FCTPO TIP Highway Project List
Draft 2020-2024 FCTPO TIP (Full text)
Draft 2020-2024 FCTPO TIP Highway Project
Draft 2020-2024 FCTPO TIP Transit Project List
The Town of Erving’s draft Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness (MVP) Resiliency Plan is available for public review and comment. Click here to read the MVP Plan and/or attend the Erving MVP public meeting, held in conjunction with the Erving Select Board meeting on March 25th at 6:35 pm at Erving Town Hall. Public comments will be accepted during the meeting as well as during a public comment period from March 18th through April 1st. You may hand in your comments at the public meeting or submit them online at www.erving-ma.gov/emergency-management/pages/municipal-vulnerability-preparedness.
You may also mail comments to:
Franklin Regional Council of Governments
12 Olive Street, Suite 2
Greenfield, MA 01301
Attention: Kimberly Noake MacPhee
A Framework for Resilience is the first watershed-based climate change resiliency plan in the Commonwealth. The Deerfield River Watershed includes all or a portion of fourteen Franklin County towns: Ashfield, Buckland, Bernardston, Charlemont, Colrain, Conway, Deerfield, Greenfield, Hawley, Heath, Leyden, Monroe, Rowe and Shelburne. A watershed can provide a framework for understanding the interconnectedness of natural systems and the built environment as well as how climate change stressors can affect several towns simultaneously. FRCOG’s report provides the 14 towns of the Deerfield River Watershed with information about how the climate change stressors – Changes in Precipitation, Rising Temperatures and Extreme Weather – will likely impact three important sectors – Natural Resources & Habitat, Human Health & Welfare, and Local Economy & Infrastructure. The recommendations described in FRCOG’s Plan were designed to be:
The reality of private land holdings and fourteen town boundaries in the Deerfield River Watershed require watershed-scale approaches to climate resiliency. Working in partnership with their watershed neighbors, towns can build a coalition of resilience that improves not only the climate resiliency of each watershed town, but over time, creates a more resilient Deerfield River Watershed. FRCOG will be reaching out to stakeholders and convening a Resilient Deerfield River Watershed (Resilient DRW) coalition to work across town boundaries to build resiliency at the watershed scale. This project was completed with grant funding received from the Baker-Polito administration’s FY17 Community Compact Program’s Efficiency & Regionalization Grant Program. For further information contact Kimberly Noake MacPhee at kmacphee@frcog.org.
Framework for Resilience in the Deerfield River Watershed
The Massachusetts State Bicycle Plan is currently out for public review and is accepting comments until January 31, 2019. Please visit the MassDOT website for further information and links to the full version of the Plan.
MassDOT is focused on making the Commonwealth’s transportation system more sustainable – to make it safe for people to choose to walk, bike, and take transit for more of their daily trips. The Plan is important because residents, members of the business community and visitors choose to use a bicycle for daily trips, choosing bike to work, to school, to run errands, for recreation or to reach transit locations.
The Draft Plan defines a vision for Massachusetts in which all people have a safe and comfortable cycling option for short trips. The goal is to have a plan which presents an action-oriented strategy which will lead to increased use of trails for short trips made by bicycling. Travel on designated bike and pedestrian thoroughfares will also lead to safer conditions, helping to prevent injuries and fatalities. The draft plan goes into further detail about the state of biking today.
In addition to the Plan, a companion document was created, called the Municipal Resource Guide for Bikeability, in recognition of the important role local cities and towns play. The purpose of the guide is to support cities and towns in their efforts to improve bikeability as the vast majority of roadways and shared use paths statewide are under local ownership. A draft guide was released in November of 2018 and an updated version will be published with the final Bicycle Plan early next year.
For more information on the Bicycle Plan and to provide feedback: https://www.mass.gov/service-details/bicycle-plan.
The Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) intends to use a portion of Transportation Enhancements funding originally approved in the 2009 Transportation Improvement Program for the Mohawk Trail and the Connecticut River Scenic Byway, on the Route 112 Scenic Byway instead. The funding will be used for land protection as originally intended. This notice invites all interested parties who wish to comment on this change to submit them to the FRCOG during the public comment period running from December 21, 2018 to January 14, 2019. For further information, or to submit comments, please contact the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, located at 12 Olive Street, Suite 2, Greenfield, MA, by calling (413) 774-3167 ext. 125, or emailing giannini@frcog.org.
