The Metropolitan Topeka Planning Organization (MTPO), along with the consulting team of RDG Planning & Design, WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff and Venice Communications, Inc., is developing Futures2040, the Topeka Regional Transportation Plan. Futures2040
will guide major transportation decisions for the Topeka region in the coming years by forecasting future travel demand. It will ultimately include a list of transportation projects proposed for local/state/federal funding that are regionally significant. Futures2040 will be completed by April 2017.
In order to engage the public to determine priorities, two public open houses will be held Thursday, Aug. 18, at the Topeka Public Library, 1515 S.W. 10th Ave. in the Marvin Auditorium, Room 101B. The first will be held between Noon and 2:00 p.m. and the second will be held between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The consultants will share a quick presentation at the start of each open house, and the rest of the time will be an informal setting where the public can ask questions of the consulting team and share their comments via the online survey or comment forms available at the meeting.
There are two primary purposes for developing Futures2040 for the metropolitan Topeka region. The first is to plan for and provide a balanced transportation network that accommodates all modes of transportation: walking, bicycling, riding transit and driving cars and trucks. The second is to consider how transportation impacts land use, social justice, economic development, urban design and the environment.
Futures2040 should reflect the desires of the people who live, work, shop and play in the metropolitan Topeka region.