Overview: This Practitioner's Handbook is intended to help transportation planners and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) practitioners improve linkages between the planning and NEPA processes, while also complying with recent legislative changes that require increased consideration of environmental issues in the planning process.

Thoughtful consideration of environmental needs during the planning process can shorten the environmental review process. Moreover, it can lead to better program and project decisions, for both transportation and the environment, meeting the public's desire for improving both transportation and the environment.

The Background section summarizes key requirements related to the linkage of transportation planning and the NEPA process, including recent changes to federal legislation (23 U.S.C. 134 and 135) and recent changes to the statewide and metropolitan planning regulations (23 C.F.R. 450). It also summarizes key points from guidance issued by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regarding planning-NEPA linkage.

The Practical Tips section reviews a range of possible approaches to linking the planning and NEPA processes, starting with organizational linkages and including opportunities to define broad goals; define corridor-level goals and a project-specific purpose and need; eliminate unreasonable alternatives; identify affected resources and potential impacts; and consider potential environmental mitigation activities.