by Susan Gibbs
Published: May 8, 2008

Fed up with traffic in and around Greene?
You can do something about it Saturday morning in Charlottesville.
That’s when the authors of United Jefferson Area Mobility (UnJAM) 2025 - a regional transportation plan completed in 2004—will be holding a Regional Summit prior to writing an update.
“The public is invited, even encouraged to attend. Local input is necessary to achieve the right ideas for our locality,” says Greene’s Zoning Administrator Bart Svoboda.
It is now five years since the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission (TJPDC) joined forces with the Metropolitan Planning Area (MPO) Policy Board to ask for citizen input into a plan they say could, literally, un-jam traffic in the region.
A year later the United Jefferson Area Mobility (UnJAM 2025) Plan was adopted. It captured local visions for land use and transportation growth and development while achieving a regional consensus on priority projects and strategies—was adopted.
UnJAM 2025 combined the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Transportation Plan for the MPO area with the Rural Area Transportation Long-Range Plan for TJPDC’s district - which includes, in addition to Greene, the City of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson.
The MPO CHART plan is a listing of the most important projects for the Charlottesville-Albemarle MPO area over the next 20 years. To extend that plan, each of the local jurisdictions in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District identified a broad vision.
The goal was to create a balanced, multi-modal transportation network by: improving connections throughout the region; improving mobility within neighborhoods, towns and counties; and, making transportation choices that help foster livable communities. Factors required to meet those goals include:
• Completion of a well-connected network of roadways parallel to major highways; with better connections within and between neighborhoods
• Re-engineered intersection and corridor design, along with added lanes and capacity improvements, to improve operational efficiency and safety
• Development of new roadway designs for balanced, multi-modal performance
• Fast, frequent, dependable transit service with seamless connections throughout the region
• A terrain-modified grid of smaller streets serving more compact development forms in the suburban and rural developments
• Well-executed design details for pedestrian-friendly streets, bike lanes and trails, transit stops, safer intersections and pedestrian crossings.
A regional consensus on priority projects and strategies was reached.
U.S. Route 29 was recognized as the major north-south automobile and truck route.
The Plan recommended that U.S. Route 29’s capacity for through travel be enhanced through a coordinated strategy of operational improvements. Those improvements include: additional lanes, grade-separated or other intersection improvements; improvements to signal timing and synchronization; removal of any unnecessary signals; more defined through and local service lanes; access management and improved connections; and completion of a parallel road network to serve surrounding neighborhoods and businesses.
The Plan also suggested that a Transit Corridor Analysis investigate various transit technologies and specific priority transit routes and stations, including the West Main-Emmet-29 North Corridor and potential “Transit Targets” such as shopping centers and proposed mixed use development on Route 29 North.
For example: JAUNT could utilize new technology to provide greatly enhanced service to rural counties; Travel Demand Management (TDM) strategies like RideShare, Guaranteed Ride Home, SchoolPool and other commuter information could provide viable transportation choices.
Public-private options for building the multi-modal system on a faster track included a Public-Private Transportation Authority or Community Development District, with the ability to gather funding from a variety of sources to build the projects in cooperation with VDOT. Localities should be given the option to generate additional funding, to be used locally to expedite project delivery.
And suggested policy and regulatory changes included: the amendment of codes and standards that allow for more flexible roadway and development designs; the adjustment of funding options to deliver a truly multi-modal system; and, the expansion of modeling and forecasting to coordinate land use planning.
Now, says Svoboda, that plan needs to be updated. 
“Traffic issues in Greene County and the solutions for Greene County are expressed best by the users - the residents of Greene County. Their input is vital to the process,” Svoboda says.
Before that update - to be called UnJAM 2035 - is written, TJPDC wants to be informed of changes in priorities or of new issues that have arisen.
At the Summit - to be held at the Monticello High School Cafeteria at 1400 Independence Way from 8:30 a.m. until noon—.basic concepts will be introduced that include innovative, cost-effective solutions to consider the integration of land use, economy and environment into the transportation network planning.
Dr. Reid Ewing of the National Center for Smart Growth, University of Maryland will be the keynote speaker. Ewing is associate editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association, a columnist for Planning Magazine, Fellow of the Urban Land Institute, and co-author of Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change, a book about the effects transportation and urban development are having and will continue to have on our climate.
Participants will work in groups to discuss issues and illustrate their suggestions and concepts on maps. They will be able to submit individual ideas
The content of UnJAM 2025 and information about the Regional Summit is available on line through TJPDC’s website at http://www.tjpdc.org. Those unable to attend the Summit can access information and express themselves online via UnJAM.org.
Charlottesville.