How to Establish Goals and Objectives
Jurisdiction staff formulate and articulate project goals and objectives at the very start of a TSP project. Those who participate in this process—in particular, advisory committee members—further refine goals and objectives as one of the initial tasks of the planning process. The goals should reflect the character and vision of the community and be consistent with other comprehensive plan objectives as well as the TPR and regional, state, and federal plans and policies. OAR 660-012-0135 requires a city or county in a metropolitan area to engage with members of underserved populations, as identified in OAR 660-012-0125, to develop key community outcomes as part of the development of goals and objectives.
This section provides guidance on how to develop or update goals and objectives organized under broad topic areas.
To help cities and counties get started on formulating goals and objectives, ODOT has identified 10 topic areas that describe the state's vision for the transportation system::
- Communication, Collaboration, and Coordination
- Safety and Security
- Health
- Mobility
- Accessibility and Connectivity
- Equity
- Community and Economic Vitality
- Environmental Sustainability
- Strategic Investment
- Land Use
These topic areas and how they relate to statewide modal and topic plans can be better understood by using
OR-Plan. This online tool is an easy way to find policies and strategies related to specific issues, modes, or plans. Whether creating, updating, or replacing existing goals and objectives, the topic areas are a good starting point. Sample goals and objectives are provided below under Resources to ensure that the topic areas, methodologies, and approaches for the planning process are documented and can serve as a solid basis for evaluation criteria.
For jurisdictions that have an adopted TSP, there are two approaches to creating updated goals and objectives: (1) update and modify or (2) replace. Either approach entails a review of existing goals and objectives to assess how well they reflect the reasons for undertaking the planning project, including up-to-date community priorities and new approaches to transportation planning. This review should consider adopted comprehensive plan policies; current community objectives; new transportation-related policy objectives; and modeling, management, and design techniques and approaches that were not prevalent or known during the last TSP process. A full update works well for agencies completing their first equitable engagement process on the TSP.
The update-and-modify method works best when the following is true:
- The TSP is relatively up-to-date (less than 10 years old)
- The goals and objectives already reflect integrated multimodal planning (i.e., the goals are organized by topic area, not by mode)
- Community circumstances (e.g., urban growth boundary, city limits, population) have not changed drastically since plan adoption, and the existing goals and objectives generally reflect the community vision and expectations for the transportation system
- For TSPs within metropolitan areas, if the previous process to develop goals and objectives centered voices of underserved populations, as required by the TPR
Resources
Sample Goals and Objectives