Urban Partnership Agreement

The Urban Partnership Agreement (UPA) is an effort of the United States Department of Transportation and agencies in four metropolitan areas across the country which are testing out several technologies as an effort to reduce congestion in urban areas. The metro areas of Miami, Florida, Minneapolis, Minnesota, San Francisco, California, and Seattle, Washington are participants. The technologies being used include bus rapid transit (BRT), high-occupancy toll lane (HOT) lanes and other congestion pricing, dynamic message signs, and other lane management signage.

The federal Department of Transportation sent out requests for cities willing to participate in December 2006. The cities with the most aggressive plans to mitigate congestion were to be selected. Five participants were announced in August 2007, which included the regions listed above as well as New York City, but New York eventually failed to meet the terms of the agreement they had struck, and was removed from the program.

The UPA is focused on using what it calls "the 4Ts" to reduce congestion: tolling, transit, telecommuting, and technology.

In Miami, the primary UPA project is the "95 Express" program, which added high-occupancy toll lanes to Interstate 95 that can be used by registered carpools, hybrid cars, and buses, in addition to toll-paying customers using SunPass. Ramp metering was also installed.

The UPA projects in Minneapolis extend from the city's central business district south along Interstate 35W. In downtown, a project called "Marq2" has been undertaken to rebuild Marquette Avenue South and Second Avenue South with two-lane busways and a system using lettered gates to allow express buses to flow through the downtown region more quickly. Gates on Marquette Avenue are lettered A, B, C, and D, while gate letters E, F, G, and H are used along Second Avenue. "NexTrip" real-time LED message signs indicating bus arrival times are also installed at each gate. Marq2 began operation in December 2009.

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