2017 Regional Transportation Plan approved

Stateline, Nevada – The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board on Wednesday unanimously approved the 2017 Regional Transportation Plan, Linking Tahoe. The long-term transportation plan is reviewed and updated every four years as a blueprint to prioritize investments to improve Lake Tahoe’s transportation system over the next 20-plus years.

“We appreciate the enormous public response and involvement in the plan and about the topic of transportation,” said Morgan Beryl, senior transportation planner at TRPA. “We are looking forward to continuing to work with all our partners to transform transportation at Lake Tahoe.”

The 2017 update focuses on providing seamless, frequent, and free-to-the-user bus transit service throughout the Lake Tahoe Region, as well as continued improvements to its network of trails, bike lanes, and sidewalks, to better link community centers and high-use recreation destinations with non-automotive travel options.

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. Targeted improvements in the plan include:

Transit:

- Free-to-the-user transit service
- Seamlessly connecting North Shore and South Shore transit services
- Increasing transit frequency from 60-minute to 30-minute intervals on all main routes
- 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 Reno and Sacramento

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 complete 2017 Regional Transportation Plan, Linking Tahoe, is available online at http://www.trpa.org/regionaltransportationplan/