May 8, 2014--The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission is seeking feedback from members of the public about proposed changes to the Transportation Evaluation Criteria (TEC), which is the system used by the Pioneer Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) to determine the regional impact of federal aid-eligible transportation improvement projects. The current Pioneer Valley TEC has been in use since 2004.

Every project is ranked by TEC score, and projects are funded based on score, project readiness, and the availability of funding for the current federal fiscal year. Scoring is based on a range from negative 18 to positive 18.

TEC criteria are divided into two categories: Transportation Criteria and Other Impact Criteria.

Transportation Criteria consists of three sub-categories; Condition, Mobility, and Safety. The Transportation Criteria section of the TEC allows for up to 9 points or 50% of the total TEC score.
Other Impact Criteria consists of three sub-categories: Community Effects and Support, Land Use and Economic Development, and Environmental Effects. Other Impact Criteria allows for up to 9 points or 50% of the total TEC Score.

The proposed TEC scoring system modifies a number of categories to address new federal and state regulations while promoting regional equity. Scoring has also been adjusted to reflect a point scale from 0 to 100 distributed across eight categories:

System Preservation, Modernization and Efficiency – 30 possible points

Livability – 9 possible points
Mobility – 21 possible points
Smart Growth and Economic Development – 4 possible points
Safety and Security – 19 possible points
Environment and Climate Change – 9 possible points
Quality of Life – 5 possible points
Environmental Justice – 3 possible points

We are interested in your comments on the proposed new TEC and how it functions to evaluate potential transportation improvement projects. Please see the proposed TEC at http://www.pvpc.org/content/proposed-changes-transportation-evaluation-c.... The public comment period will end on Monday, June 16, 2014.  Written comments and questions may be submitted to Gary Roux at gmroux@pvpc.org, or by mail at 60 Congress Street, Springfield, MA, 01104.