Keypoints

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CONSIDERATIONS IN TRANSPORTATION PLANNING

• Economic growth can be linked to targeted investments in transportation infrastructure
• It is essential to the state's economic vitality to have a high performing transportation system by ensuring adequate maintenance of the existing infrastructure and by providing adequate capacity
• The state's connection to the global marketplace plays an increasingly vital role in the state's economic success
• Regional input is required but the planning process is largely dominated by federal and ConnDOT funding priorities
• An emphasis on regional fairness and regional preference can sometimes diminish ConnDOT's ability to address critical statewide needs
• The main focus of ConnDOT's investments is on maintaining the system
• A lack of funding for on-going operating costs of alternative transportation options, such as transit, can affect the project selection process
• The potential economic impacts of alternative development scenarios are either not calculated or considered in ConnDOT's planning process and the planning outcomes tend to focus on fiscal impacts
• Neither DECD nor ConnDOT have systematically considered the relationship between transportation investments and the strategic economic needs of the state
• Coordination between ConnDOT and DECD is mostly on a project-by-project basis
• The main revenue engine for the state's transportation fund is the motor fuel tax, which accounts for about 56 percent of the fund's revenues; this tax has been cut three times over the last four years
• Overall capital expenditures and state bonding for transportation declined in the last eight years

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