Rural Long Range Transportation Plan

In 2010 the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission adopted its first Rural Specific Long Range Transportation Plan. The 2010 Plan was developed in conjunction with the States’ development of the VTRANS 2035 statewide multimodal long-range plan. Prior to the 2010 plan, the TJPDC had developed a set of comprehensive transportation plans known as the United Jefferson Area Mobility Plans (UnJAM). The first of these plans was adopted by the PDC and MPO in 2004 (UnJAM 2025) and subsequently updated in 2009 (UnJAM 2035).

The 2040 Rural Long Range Transportation Plan serves as an update to the 2035 Rural Long Range Transportation Plan and incorporates new data and relies on the most recent trends in transportation, including adopting a performance-based approach that mirrors the approach used by the State for prioritizing funding of transportation projects known as Smart Scale. The Plan is designed to serve as a tool to help rural localities prioritize transportation projects and prepare for Smart Scale.

The transportation system within each rural county was evaluated, and a range of transportation improvements – roadway, rail, transit, air, bicycle, and pedestrian – were then developed into recommendations that would help address expected existing and future needs. Some of the PDCs contain urbanized areas whose transportation needs are coordinated by a metropolitan planning organization. In the case of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission’s region, only the rural portion of the region was analyzed and is addressed in this report. The Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) conducts the transportation planning for the urban portion of Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville.