Cape Cod MPO adopts revised TIP evaluation criteria that increase safety and add equity scoring

The Cape Cod Metropolitan Planning Organization voted to adopt revised evaluation criteria for its Transportation Improvement Program that raise the weight on safety, add an equity scoring category and change how project costs are assessed.

Colleen Maderos, transportation program manager at the Cape Cod Commission, told the MPO staff had worked with the Joint Transportation Committee and proposed a scoring system out of 100 that gives more points to safety — including a new subcategory for systematic, preventative safety measures tied to the region’s Vision Zero planning — while reducing the relative weight on raw project cost. "The scoring mechanism is out of a hundred, and based on discussions with the joint transportation committee, they wanted to give a higher weight to safety," Maderos said.

Maderos said staff moved to reduce cost’s raw dollar weighting because construction prices have fluctuated markedly in recent years; instead, staff will compare project costs among peer projects and use average‑based benchmarks. She added that cost scoring would only apply where a cost estimate is recent (staff suggested two years as a working threshold but said the window could be flexible).

The revised criteria also add transit elements under system preservation and a new equity scoring component that awards points for projects in environmental justice or Title VI communities. Steve (Cape Cod Commission staff) clarified that the numeric equity criterion will supplement, not replace, the Commission’s existing Title VI and environmental justice analyses.

Harold Mitchell made the motion to adopt the revisions; Judith McLeod Froman seconded. The roll call vote recorded the present members’ approvals and the motion passed.

The MPO staff said the revised criteria will be used beginning in January for TIP programming and project scoring and will be applied in the region’s upcoming TIP development cycle.