Introduction to the MTP, Santa Fe, NM

Prioritizing transportation projects in Santa Fe, NM using the 2020-2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan as a guide

SFMPO

The Santa Fe Metropolitan Planning Organization (SFMPO) has been planning the transportation network in the Santa Fe area since 1982, after reaching a population exceeding 50,000 people.

The Metropolitan Planning Area includes the city, parts of the County, and the Pueblo of Tesuque. Click on underlined text to visit a linked page,  in this case the planning area map and more about the SFMPO. 

The Metropolitan Transportation Plan details this plan. This document guides investment of federal, state, and local transportation funds. It is updated every 5 years and covers a 25 year horizon.

Keep scrolling to find out how it influences transportation in the Santa Fe Metropolitan Area. Or click/slide through each photo gallery to find out more details about each topic.

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It's not only your destination motivating the MPO's design decisions.

Click and slide through each photo gallery to find out more about the topic.

New Mexico has the highest rate of Pedestrian Death in the United States of America

•A pedestrian is hit in New Mexico every 13 hours.

•A bicyclist is hit every 24 hours.

Santa Fe is not an exception.

In 2018, at least 74 pedestrians and bicyclists in Santa Fe County were involved in a crash. Most were injured and five died.

This map of intersection crashes (2010-2018) is interactive.

To use it, click any feature to see more info about that feature and use the arrow keys in the popup box for even more details.

Click the menu icon at the bottom left to view the legend. Zoom using the + or - to the bottom right.

Pedestrians and bicyclists are most likely to get hit within 30 m of an intersection here.

This map shows the number of pedestrian crashes at each intersection between 2010 and 2018.

We know that people sometimes prioritize crossing the street over their own safety.

Transportation must be safe for all types of travel.

There are many who can not, should not, or will not drive at all.

Children, older adults, people with permanent or temporary disabilities, carless households, homeless people, and DUI violators may not have access to a vehicle.

That is someone's parent, someone's friend

it could be you one day. In the US, 1 in 4 adults lives with a disability. This map shows the number of disabled in our area.

“At some point in their lives, most people will either have a disability or know someone who has a one.”

Colleen Boyle: Ph.D., director of CDC’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. 2018.

Young and inexperienced drivers also need to go places.

Teen drivers have a higher rate of fatal crashes than more experienced drivers. Providing youth alternative transportation options until they are really ready for the responsibility of driving may save a life.

Chapter 1 of the MTP summarizes these and other issues influencing the transportation plans.

This vision guides the Santa Fe Metropolitan Transportation Plan.

The Santa Fe Metropolitan Transportation Plan (MTP) is a document that reflects our community’s vision for the future transportation system

including roads, bridges, bikeways, and pedestrian facilities, transit/rail facilities, operations, and program support. The MPO Planning Area covers approximately 25% of Santa Fe County, 80% of its population, and 90% of its employment.

The MTP is required under federal code of regulations governing the MPO planning process. 

Essential to the planning process is public participation.

The next slideshow hints at what we learned, though you can see the summary in chapter 2 of the MTP, and access all the details in the MTP appendices.

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Public outreach is an essential piece of transportation planning.

For the 2020 MTP, the SFMPO reached out to citizens and community partners for insight.

From our outreach we know that the existing transportation system works well for those who use a vehicle.

Our public outreach is summarized in chapter 2 of the MTP.

We also know that

Most people who drive here are also multimodal some of the time.

Santa Fe citizens want choices.

Additionally, not everyone owns a car here. Not everyone wants one. This map shows the % of households here without a vehicle.

Santa Fe citizens recognize the impact of their choices on their health.

They weigh the increase in happiness associated with walking and biking against their risk of a crash.

We know that choices change with one's financial picture

Santa Fe MPA residents pay approximately 54% of their household income to cover the cost of their housing and transportation. This only exacerbates our concurrent housing crisis. This map shows the % of our population below the poverty level.

It's clear that our choices change with the world around us.

The threat of climate change motivated hundreds of students and citizens to march to the Round- House on Sept. 19, 2019, demanding stronger government action in addressing this crisis.

People in Santa Fe understand that their choices impact others.

These students and citizens were part of a global protest in which tens of thousands participated.

Citizens are asking for changes. They are asking for choice.

When asked in multiple ways, people in Santa Fe overwhelmingly responded that they want us to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

We must plan for choice

Planners understand that one size won't fit all when planning a system that works for everyone.

We need to plan for choice

The COVID pandemic has underlined our need for easily accessible outdoor spaces. Meanwhile, our transportation network is the most easily accessible public space that we have.

We want to plan for choice

Afterall, change is inevitable and versatility is fun.

These goals influence the prioritization of projects included in the MTP. Each project is evaluated and ranked according to how well they meet each of these goals, which can be found in chapter 6 of the MTP.

Our public outreach lead to the development of the goals guiding the MTP.

The goals expressed in the MTP overlap with state and federal transportation goals.

The identification of mutual goals is essential in working with our partners.

These goals overlap with the broader goals of our community.

Transportation affects so many aspects of our lives, our environment, our health, and our economy. We've aligned the MTP to overlap with the goals of many community partners.

Included in the MTP document are strategies, projects, and funding options to build the transportation network that best supports the vision and goals of the MTP.

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There are many innovative solutions to every transportation issue.

Click through this gallery to see some of these, with more details found in chapter 5.

In 2007, the City of Santa Fe passed a resolution to build complete streets.

Complete streets are comfortable for all uses. This is an example of an improvement supported by the MTP.

Impervious streets and sidewalks contribute to the pollution of our waterways.

But green infrastructure is one way to mitigate it. The Railyard Park showcases numerous innovative ways of slowing and capturing stormwater.

Higher-density development generates less traffic than low-density development per unit.

This makes walking and the use of public transit more feasible and creates opportunities for shared parking. This map shows 2012 population densities in Santa Fe.

We must value long-range, regional considerations over a short-term focus.

Land-use planning influences our transportation infrastructure needs.

Public transportation must go to where people live & their destinations.

Smart growth advocates compact, transit-oriented-development (TOD), walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, mixed-use development and “complete neighborhoods,” which have a close proximity between where we live or work and the destinations and services we access.

Micro-mobility can expand the utility of our transit system.

Scooters, bikeshares, ebikes, and skateboards can expand the reach of public transit by a mile. Compare the areas reached when we buffer Santa Fe transit stops by a quarter mile with a full mile.

Strategies

There are a number of strategies that can be pursued to increase our success. These can be found in chapter 8 of the MTP, and are much more specific than the concepts found in chapter 5.

Figure 4-12 in the Santa Fe 2020-2045 Metropolitan Transportation Plan

Traffic patterns are understood using long-term and short-term counts yielding data like these. These data are summarized in chapter 4 (figure 4-12 on page 4-28), and can also be found on the  SFMPO traffic count  page

Chapter 4 of the MTP details our existing infrastructure such as the road network, transit network and bike ways network. We have also illustrated the crash patterns, traffic patterns, and some of the identified gaps in the network.

Below you will see the Bikeways network that was first developed in the Bicycle Master Plan and supported in the MTP. Many projects included in the MTP have been developed and included in  other plans  pertinent to our transportation network.

2021 Bikeways and Trails

Through the understanding of the network, its gaps, and the needs and desires of the population whom we serve, through many years of work, and careful consideration of the trends, we are able to include a list of transportation projects that illustrate a potential future. This list does not include maintenance projects.

Projects included in the MTP are much more likely to receive federal and state funding than projects that are not included in a coordinated planning document such as the MTP.

The Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for example is a master list of near-term projects that have federal, state or local funding allocated to them. Each road or trail project MUST be included in the MTP to be federal funding. See  the SFMPO TIP page  to get a better understanding of current TIP projects and the processes involved.

The process of prioritizing projects is comprehensive and strives to identify those projects that will most effectively move our region’s transportation system toward fulfilling our vision and achieving our goals. Prioritization of regional projects is detailed in chapter 6 of the MTP.

We have identified that all of the projects on both of the maps are desirable. But ultimately the planning process identified the projects that are "fiscally constrained" meaning that funding projections for the next 25 years demonstrate these projects have a could be fully funded.

The illustrative map of projects (left) and the fiscally constrained map of projects (right). Both project sets are listed in chapter 7 of the MTP.

All amendments and projects included in the MTP must be considered by the Technical Coordinating Committee and then voted on by the Transportation Policy Board.  These committees  are essential to every piece of MPO business and meetings are always open to the public.

Still have questions about this important document?

Traffic patterns are understood using long-term and short-term counts yielding data like these. These data are summarized in chapter 4 (figure 4-12 on page 4-28), and can also be found on the  SFMPO traffic count  page

This vision guides the Santa Fe Metropolitan Transportation Plan.

These goals influence the prioritization of projects included in the MTP. Each project is evaluated and ranked according to how well they meet each of these goals, which can be found in chapter 6 of the MTP.