What strategies can you use to balance short-term and long-term goals in transportation planning?

1 Understand the context

The first step is to understand the context of your transportation planning project. What are the existing conditions, needs, and preferences of the people, places, and systems that will be affected by your project? What are the relevant policies, regulations, and standards that guide your project? What are the current and future trends, opportunities, and threats that shape your project? By conducting a comprehensive and participatory analysis of the context, you can identify the key issues, objectives, and stakeholders for your project.

3 Develop the alternatives

The third step is to develop the alternatives for your transportation planning project. What are the different ways that you can address the issues, objectives, and stakeholders of your project? What are the advantages, disadvantages, and trade-offs of each alternative? How do they align with the short-term and long-term goals of your project? By developing the alternatives for your project, you can explore the potential impacts, benefits, and costs of your project.

4 Evaluate the alternatives

The fourth step is to evaluate the alternatives for your transportation planning project. How do you compare and rank the alternatives based on their performance, feasibility, and acceptability? What are the criteria, methods, and tools that you use to evaluate the alternatives? How do you involve the stakeholders, experts, and decision-makers in the evaluation process? By evaluating the alternatives for your project, you can identify the preferred option or combination of options for your project.

5 Implement the plan

The fifth step is to implement the plan for your transportation planning project. How do you translate the preferred option or combination of options into a detailed and actionable plan? What are the roles, tasks, and resources that are required to implement the plan? How do you monitor, control, and communicate the progress and performance of the plan? By implementing the plan for your project, you can execute the short-term and long-term actions of your project.

6 Review the plan

The sixth step is to review the plan for your transportation planning project. How do you measure and evaluate the outcomes and impacts of your plan? How do you compare the actual results with the expected results? How do you identify the lessons learned, best practices, and areas for improvement? How do you update and revise the plan based on the feedback and changes? By reviewing the plan for your project, you can ensure the continuous improvement and adaptation of your project.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?