§ 10b - Statement of policy; general
§ 10b. Statement of policy; general
(a) The agency shall be the responsible agency of the state for the development of transportation policy. It shall develop a mission statement to reflect state transportation policy encompassing, coordinating, and integrating all modes of transportation, the need for transportation projects that will improve the state's economic infrastructure, as well as the use of resources in efficient, coordinated, integrated, cost-effective, and environmentally sound ways. The agency shall coordinate planning and education efforts with those of the Vermont climate change oversight committee and those of local and regional planning entities:
(1) to assure that the transportation system as a whole is integrated, that access to the transportation system as a whole is integrated, and that statewide, local, and regional conservation and efficiency opportunities and practices are integrated; and
(2) to support employer or local or regional government-led conservation, efficiency, rideshare, and bicycle programs and other innovative transportation advances, especially employer-based incentives.
(b) In developing the state's annual transportation program, the agency shall, consistent with the planning goals listed in 24 V.S.A. § 4302 as amended by No. 200 of the Acts of the 1987 Adj. Sess. (1988) and with appropriate consideration to local, regional, and state agency plans:
(1) Develop or incorporate designs that provide integrated, safe, and efficient transportation and promote economic opportunities for Vermonters and the best use of the state's environmental and historic resources.
(2) Manage available funding to:
(A) give priority to preserving the functionality of the existing transportation infrastructure, including bicycle and pedestrian trails regardless of whether they are located along a highway shoulder; and
(B) adhere to credible project delivery schedules.
(c) The agency of transportation, in developing each of the program prioritization systems schedules for all modes of transportation, shall include the following throughout the process:
(1) The agency shall annually solicit input from each of the regional planning commissions and the Chittenden County metropolitan planning organization on regional priorities within each schedule, and those inputs shall be factored into the prioritizations for each program area and shall afford the opportunity of adding new projects to the schedules.
(2) Each year the agency shall provide in the front of the transportation program book a detailed explanation describing the factors in the prioritization system that creates each project list. (Added 1989, No. 121, § 1, eff. June 22, 1989; amended 1989, No. 246 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; 1993, No. 89, § 20; 2005, No. 175 (Adj. Sess.), § 48; 2007, No. 75, § 34, eff. June 7, 2007; 2007, No. 209 (Adj. Sess.), § 7.)