The Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council (GBNRTC), the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for Erie and Niagara Counties, is continuing the process of updating the GBNRTC Public Participation Plan (PPP) with an additional round of public survey opportunity.

The PPP guides the GBNRTC’s efforts to ensure that everyone has access to the transportation planning process. The PPP covers a full range of opportunities for members of the public and stakeholders to engage in the transportation decision-making in the region, from in-person and virtual MPO meetings, social media posts, and other public engagement events.

GBNRTC'S PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PLAN

View GBNRTC's Public Participation Plan (2017)

Public participation is a key component to the regional transportation planning process. The GBNRTC encourages public participation at all of its meetings and solicits input in all areas of transportation planning by providing a forum for plans and ideas as well as decisions about major capital investments.

The GBNRTC has a formal policy that guides the public participation process, which was approved in June 2017. The Public Participation Plan provides guidelines for public involvement activities to be conducted by the GBNRTC and contains the policies and procedures for actively engaging the public in the transportation planning process.

GBNRTC'S TITLE VI POLICY

The Greater Buffalo-Niagara Regional Transportation Council (GBNRTC) assures that no person shall on the grounds of race, color, national origin, or gender, as provided in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and related statutes, be excluded from participation in, or be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity for which GBNRTC receives Federal financial assistance.

Further, the GBNRTC incorporates the principles of environmental justice into its policies, planning, and project development activities. The fundamental principles of environmental justice are:

  • To avoid, minimize, or mitigate disproportionately high and adverse human health and environmental effects, including social and economic effects, on minority populations and low-income populations.

  • To ensure the full and fair participation by all potentially affected communities in the transportation decision-making process.

  • To prevent the denial of, reduction in, or significant delay in the receipt of benefits by minority and low-income populations.