The plan, Texas SMPTP 2050 (download below), builds on existing local, regional, and other statewide plans, including the Active Transportation Plan and Connecting Texas 2050, and “aims to identify actions necessary to increase mobility and connectivity, account for anticipated population and economic growth, and address congestion through 2050.”
Through stakeholder and public outreach efforts, TxDOT says, Texas SMTP 2050 “identifies needs, gaps, challenges, strategies and initial steps for implementation that increase mobility and connectivity options for all Texans, support economic development and address congestion in regional and intercity corridors through 2050.” Texas SMTP 2050 includes current and emerging forms of public transportation and supporting technologies “for a safe, accessible and integrated network of transit mobility options,” the agency noted.
According to a report by The Texas Tribune, “Texas is projected to add more than 9 million residents by 2050. The number of drivers on the road has vastly outpaced the state’s ability to build highway capacity. Meanwhile, there’s generational forces afoot. Millennials and Zoomers in the state’s major urban areas want more transit options, while older Texans in rural parts of the state may increasingly need it owing to the rising cost of car ownership.”
Texas SMTP 2050 engagement efforts, TxDOT says, have been crucial in shaping the draft plan and understanding public priorities and needs. The input provided helped identify how Texans use transit, where opportunities and gaps lie, and what value transit brings to Texans and the state economy. The following are key engagement activities completed during TxDOT’s 18-month statewide engagement efforts:
- Collected more than 2,900 public survey responses.
- Engaged with 2,000 people at in-person events throughout Texas at libraries, community centers, fairs, festivals, farmers markets, athletic events and other locations.
- Held multiple meetings with the Texas SMTP 2050 Steering Committee, TxDOT districts, metropolitan transit authorities, urban and rural transit operators and the Public Transportation Advisory Committee (PTAC)
- Kicked off six Emphasis Area Working Groups in spring 2024..
- Rolled out spring 2024 public awareness campaign.
- Held pop-up events in all 25 TxDOT districts.
- Digital outreach of 24,000 views, more than 460 likes, shares and comments and 2,900 visits to the Texas SMTP 2050 web page.
According to The Texas Tribune report, TxDOT has “increasingly gestured at ways to travel around the state without a car in recent years. During the Biden administration, the agency applied for federal planning grants for intercity rail between the state’s major urban areas, a bid to give travelers ways to bypass the state’s increasingly congested highways. TxDOT is implementing an ‘active transportation plan’ that lays out strategies to make it easier for people to walk and ride a bicycle.”
Transit advocates, according to the report, “say the plan is a major step that could help lay the groundwork for at least a statewide conversation about the state’s public transit needs.”
The report, according to The Texas Tribune, also comes as several suburban cities in the Dallas-Fort Worth region threaten to pull out of Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART). “Farmers Branch, Highland Park, Irving and Plano have signaled their intent to ask voters to allow the cities to leave the system on the grounds that they don’t get enough in services for how much they invest.”
There are signs, The Texas Tribune reports, “Texans already feel the need for expanded public transit, though whether they’d support efforts to do so is to be determined. In a poll commissioned by the agency, some 86% of Texans in 2023 said it’s at least somewhat important to improve the state’s public transportation network. At the same time, three-quarters of Texans said the state needs to boost funding for highways, and about 94% said it’s important to improve the state’s existing roadways.”
TxDOT is holding the last pair of meetings seeking public input in San Antonio on Wednesday and in Auston on Thursday. The public may also submit feedback on the plan until Nov. 20. A final plan is expected by the end of the year.
