Draft 2017 Regional Transportation Plan released

Stateline, Nevada – The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) on Wednesday released its Draft 2017 Regional Transportation Plan. TRPA updates the long-term plan every four years as a blueprint to prioritize and guide investments that will improve Lake Tahoe’s transportation system over the next 20-plus years.

The major focus of this 2017 update is providing seamless, more frequent, and free-to-the-user bus transit service throughout the Lake Tahoe Region, as well as major improvements to Lake Tahoe’s active transportation network of trails, bike lanes, and sidewalks. TRPA produced the plan through significant collaboration with the Tahoe Transportation District and other local, state, and federal transportation partners, as well as public input from stakeholder groups and hundreds of Lake Tahoe residents.

“Improving the Lake Tahoe Region’s transportation system is important for quality-of-life for residents and quality-of-experience for visitors, as well as air and water quality,” said Joanne S. Marchetta, executive director of TRPA. “This regional transportation plan will help TRPA and its partners make continued progress on widely shared goals for the environment, the economy, and our communities.”

New data show that upwards of 24 million people and 10 million vehicles travel to Lake Tahoe each year. This amount of visitation puts significant pressures on Lake Tahoe’s limited roadways and causes traffic congestion during times of peak visitation as people drive up to the lake from nearby metropolitan areas such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Reno.

Managing that traffic congestion will take time and a phased approach to transportation improvements that focus on providing more travel options, not major roadway expansions. The 2012 Regional Transportation Plan focused on the creation of walkable, bikeable, and transit-served community centers at Lake Tahoe. Five years later, significantly more residents and visitors are using these non-automotive travel options for shorter trips within community centers.

The Draft 2017 Regional Transportation Plan builds on that phased approach, now focusing intensely on transit, trail, and technology improvements that can work together to provide non-automotive travel options throughout the Lake Tahoe Region, particularly between community centers and high-use recreation destinations.

The goal is a more efficient transportation system with improved transit services and trail networks that give residents, visitors, and commuters new travel options to get to, from, and around the Lake Tahoe Region. Implementing the regional transportation plan will help the Lake Tahoe Region meet mandatory greenhouse gas reduction targets. Other major deliverables in the plan include:

Transit:
Free-to-the-user transit service
Increasing transit frequency from 60-minute to 30-minute intervals on all main routes
Seamlessly connecting North Shore and South Shore transit services
New transit services to heavily-visited recreation sites at Echo Summit, Emerald Bay, and Zephyr Cove
New or enhanced transit services to Meyers and Truckee
Enhanced, but limited, inter-regional transit services to and from Sacramento and Reno

Trails:
Continued completion of Lake Tahoe’s active transportation network to fill critical gaps in the system, with 20 miles of new shared use path for bicyclists and pedestrians built by 2021

Technology:

Real-time information on bus arrival times available at major transit stops and through applications for personal digital devices
Real-time information on parking availability at high-use recreation sites, available through applications for personal digital devices
Optimized signalization on U.S. Highway 50 to improve traffic flow and prioritize the passage of transit and emergency response vehicles

The draft regional transportation plan is now out for a 30-day public comment period that ends on Friday, March 24. The draft is available online at www.trpa.org/regionaltransportationplan. Comments can be sent to Morgan Beryl, senior transportation planner at TRPA, by email to mberyl@trpa.org or by mail to TRPA, P.O. Box 5310, Stateline, NV, 59559.

People can also submit comments at upcoming public hearings for the draft plan:

March 8: TRPA Advisory Planning Commission, public hearing on draft plan
March 10: Tahoe Transportation Commission, public hearing on draft plan
March 22: TRPA Governing Board/Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization, public hearing on draft plan
April 12: TRPA Advisory Planning Commission, recommendation on potential plan approval for the TRPA Governing Board
April 14: Tahoe Transportation Commission, recommendation on potential plan approval for the TRPA Governing Board
April 26: TRPA Governing Board/Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization, potential plan approval by the TRPA Governing Board