HARRISBURG AREA TRANSPORTATION STUDY
TCRPC serves as the lead staff agency for the Harrisburg Area Transportation Study.
HATS was created as a result of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which mandated regional planning as a condition of receiving federal funds for transportation projects. To this day, the planning must be supported through a continuing, comprehensive, coordinated (3C) process.
HATS is a designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), an organization of federal, state and local agencies, as well as officials from Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry Counties, the City of Harrisburg and Capital Area Transit, all of whom are accountable for the 3C process.
ABOUT HATS ––
In this role, HATS develops a Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), which documents the current status of transportation projects and programs, identifies long-term needs and recommends projects to meet those needs. The long-range RTP sets a framework and priorities for the expenditure of federal transportation funds over a 25-year period.
HATS serves 103 municipalities in all, covering almost 1,700 square miles in South-Central Pennsylvania, including Cumberland, Dauphin and Perry counties.
HATS COMMITTEES ––
HATS is comprised of two committees: the Coordinating Committee and the Technical Committee (see below).
The Technical Committee oversees analyses and preparation of plans and studies, reviews transportation items brought before HATS to consider, and makes recommendations to the Coordinating Committee.
The Coordinating Committee is the policy body, which formally takes action based on Technical Committee input, and adopts transportation plans and improvement programs.
A Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and a Secretary lead the Technical and Coordinating Committees, each designated by election from the voting membership to one-year terms. Voting representation on the HATS Committees is as follows:
*The HATS Coordinating Committee signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the York Area MPO (YAMPO) and Lancaster County Transportation Coordinating Committee (LCTCC) on April 26, 2013, which established that the planning and programming activities for the Harrisburg Urbanized Area within these counties are now the responsibility of YAMPO and LCTCC respectively. HATS signed a similar agreement with Lebanon County MPO (LEBCO) on April 24, 2009. Ex-officio status on the HATS Technical Committee for both YAMPO and LEBCO was approved on June 25, 2010.
The HATS Technical Committee includes ex-officio/non-voting members for major transportation providers in the region: Amtrak, Norfolk Southern Railroad, the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority (SARAA), Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association (PMTA), and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC). The York Area MPO (YAMPO) and Lebanon County MPO (LEBCO) were approved as ex-officio members of the Technical Committee on June 25, 2010.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP), and Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development (PA DCED) are ex-officio members of both the Technical Committee and Coordinating Committee as well. This allows HATS to incorporate the expertise availed by these providers and agencies in its multi-modal decisions.
