Transportation Management Association (TMA)
The recently released MassDOT report: “Congestion in the Commonwealth” recommended several approaches to deal with congestion, improve travel- time reliability and address climate change by curbing air pollution.
The Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission’s (CMRPC) is conducting a research study to explore the desirability, feasibility and viability of a Transportation Management Association in the Central Massachusetts region.
The Central Massachusetts region is host to multiple larger employers in the health and manufacturing industries. Along with other industries such as biosciences, food service insurance, and other professional occupations, make up the region’s overall workforce environment.
Map of Major Employers in Central Massachusetts
What is a Transportation Management Association (TMA)?
A TMA is an entity, private, public or a combination of both, that provides transportation services in a specific area tailored to facilitate access to jobs. A TMA can also provide the institutional support for the implementation of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) strategies.
TDM strategies include ridesharing, parking management strategies, commute trip reduction strategies (like telecommuting), pedestrian and bicycle improvements, and land use planning and coordination with residential complexes, among other strategies.
TMA’s in MA
There are 17 TMA’s in the Commonwealth, servicing about 400 businesses in 52 cities and towns. The Central Massachusetts region benefits marginally from the TMA’s servicing the I-495 Corridor. Notwithstanding, initial data analysis when looking at the region’s commuting patterns, the Route 9 Corridor shows great potential.
Why this is important?
The “Central MA Regional Workforce Blueprint 2018-2022” published by the Central Mass Workforce Investment Board, identifies limited transportation options as one of the major challenges that the region’s businesses face to attract new employees. Moreover, access to jobs, i.e. transportation, was one of the pressing needs identified during the public outreach process of the recently endorsed “Mobility2040: The Update for 2020”, the region’s long-range transportation plan.
What are the benefits of a TMA?
A TMA could help improve air quality by reducing the number of single-occupancy vehicle trips. By reducing congestion and providing new mobility options for current employees and job seekers. A TMA can help increase the job attraction rate of the region’s employers and support their sustainability programs on one hand, and in the other helps to counteract the commute-related attrition.
Overall, a TMA can promote the region’s economic development. We believe, however, that stakeholders need to have an opportunity to ideate, evaluate and buy-in on a mobility solution that will address their needs as well as the needs of the region. Another major benefit, sometimes overlooked, is by addressing spatial disparities that result from low-income commuters travelling longer distances or encountering more barriers to access jobs.
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