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37 C H A P T E R 5 Airports are essential components of state and regional transportation systems, often serving markets that extend across state lines. Effective airport access depends on the regional transpor- tation system. In most cases, however, airports have not been active participants in statewide and metropolitan transportation planning. There are many reasons for this. Airport owners/ managers often have a different view of airport access, which tends to be focused on the airport, than MPOs/public transit agencies, which tend to have a regional focus on the movement of people and goods. In many cases, transportation planning that occurs regionally and locally is not linked to or integrated with airport planning. This limited collaboration has often led to challenges with transportation investment when transportation development involves airport assets. On the other hand, examples such as MinneapolisâSt. Paul (MSP) show that true col- laboration, including an institutional process for airport and surface transportation planning, can yield positive results. (MSP is also an example of where significantly expanding parking was done in concert with investment in transit access.) With many air travelers expecting high-quality airport access via different transportation modes, research was needed on how different planning organizations could work collaboratively in providing the most effective airport access. With evolving transportation technology, such as self-driving cars (which would likely lead to less demand for airport parking), the current business model for airports where parking revenues constitute a large share of total revenue might require airports to rethink their business plans and how they integrate their plans with the transportation plans of surrounding jurisdictions. With respect to transit, not only will improved transit access to an airport provide benefits to air travelers, but enhanced service will be mutually beneficial to the region, business interests, and the community at large. This guidebook has presented a systematic and comprehensive approach to (1) understanding where there are gaps in collaborative planning among airports and public planning agencies and (2) identifying strategies for enhancing such collaboration. The basic point of departure for the assessment guide is that the strategies for enhancing collaboration among the many different agencies involved with airport access will depend on the level of maturity in the collaboration process that exists today. Thus, it is difficult to generalize for every institutional situation what steps should be taken to enhance collaboration. However, assuming that Maturity Level 4 reflects an effective collaborative environment, it seems that looking at that level as a goal for efforts to improve collaboration would be the first step in identifying overarching principles of good practice. Therefore, the following actions are offered as best practices in successful collab- orative airport access planning: 1. Maintain and update strategic airport access planning goals across agencies involved in plan- ning; make sure internal agency goals and the benefits of effective airport access continue to be a focus of planning staff. Conclusions
38 Guidebook for Assessing Collaborative Planning Efforts Among Airport and Public Planning Agencies 2. Ensure that staff and senior leadership are committed to collaborative airport access planning, including succession planning and knowledge transfer for new staff. 3. Maintain and update collaborative airport access planning processes, making sure institu- tional mechanisms being used to foster collaboration (e.g., a task force or technical advisory committee) are still considered to be effective and worthwhile. 4. Airport and regional planning agencies conduct many of their planning efforts on cycles, often with well-defined steps. For example, the regional transportation plan must be updated at least every 4 years, with this update often following a well-structured set of steps. Thus, participants in a collaborative airport access planning effort need to know the planning cycles of the respective participating agencies. It might be useful to schedule workshops or other participatory events to identify key issues and possible alternatives/strategies ahead of, or as part of, the planning process/cycle. 5. Assign a dedicated representative from each agency to be a liaison who would spend time at the other agency to understand the operations/goals/planning process/projects and how that agency approaches analysis and the definition of project benefits. 6. Establish collaborative arrangements among staff members where the benefits of interaction are clear. For example, data-sharing arrangements should be established (and updated when necessary) for travel modeling purposes. (Regional models are often focused on employment centers and do not account for airport passengers unless they are specifically included in the model formulation.) 7. There are many governing regulations that provide mandatory requirements and guidelines for airport access planning and project development. Although such planning should not be aimed to simply satisfy the rules, a good starting point in developing an effective collaborative process for airport access planning would be understanding the legal and regulatory actions that must occur, followed by a discussion with planning partners on how these actions can be best achieved. Every institutional context is the outcome of numerous steps that have been made over time to structure and guide the relationships that exist now. Thus, it is difficult to develop a self-assessment tool that can be applied to every situation without some changes to make the tool more relevant for a particular assessment. This was shown in the five scenarios that illus- trated how the tool could be used. However, even with these minor changes, the tool identified strategies and actions that could be taken to enhance the capability of participating agencies of participating in collaborative undertakings.
