The Congestion Mitigation Air Quality (CMAQ) program was created to support all areas of non-attainment that did not meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). Currently under MAP-21, the Federal Highway Administration has provided funding to state and local transportation governments for projects which will reduce traffic congestion and vehicular emissions. MAP-21 requires that MPOs with a transportation management area of more than one million in population representing a nonattainment or maintenance area, develop and update biennially, a performance plan to achieve air quality and congestion reduction targets. For the purpose of carrying out the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, USDOT has established measures for States to use to assess traffic congestion and on-road mobile source emissions.

The most recent federal guidance for the CMAQ Program indicates that Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) need to develop procedures for assessing emission reduction benefits for proposed CMAQ projects. In the downstate New York region, a committee, chaired by New York Metropolitan Transportation Committee (NYMTC), which includes the five boroughs of New York City and Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Putnam, and Rockland counties, evaluates projects proposed for funding under the CMAQ program.

During the past three years the City College of New York (CCNY) under the UTRC consortium assisted NYMTC in the development of an application and guidance form to evaluate projects submitted for CMAQ funding. The application was created by combining three separate applications under the direction of the directors of NYMTC sub regions (NYC, Lower Mid-Hudson and Long Island). A secondary resource of reference was also used to create the application by CCNY. CCNY team reviewed approximately ten different CMAQ applications from MPO’s around the nation. The CCNY team is qualified to perform the requested tasks of this project to develop the CMAQ Performance Plan for NYMTC. The project team will work with the PFAC Operating Procedures Working Group, which will guide the development of the plan, and act as the steering committee for this project.