The Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission (SEIRPC) has produced several transportation-related plans, including the Greater Burlington Bike & Pedestrian Plan (2020) to the Region 16 Passenger Transportation Plan (2021). This capstone project for students in Urban Planning and Sustainable Development will build upon these efforts to sustain recent momentum around multi-modal transportation options and identify new opportunities to increase mobility for residents, particularly for residents without reliable access to transportation. 

The built environment around transportation infrastructure guides how residents and visitors access work, recreation, education, and other basic needs within a community. Whereas recent decades have focused significantly on infrastructure for personal automobiles, communities are increasingly recognizing the importance of multimodal transportation options to enhance quality of life, create a stronger sense of place, and emphasizing transportation equity to meet the diverse needs of residents.

Along with updating and enhancing planning efforts around bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, this plan will focus particularly on complete street policy development and implementation, an area that has not received as much planning attention.  Additionally, this plan will review and update policies and programming related to enhancing transportation alternatives, identify more granular, neighborhood-scale transportation needs (e.g. sidewalks, bus shelters, etc.), and consider how each community might prepare for the increasing use of micro-mobility (i.e. e-bikes and e-scooters) and the rapid advancement in technology, such as electric vehicle charging stations.