Community weighs in on Lake Tahoe transportation issues

There is a balancing act needed to provide quality transportation, protect Lake Tahoe, keep clean air and meet the needs of the communities around the lake, but that is what Tahoe Transportation District is trying to accomplish with a series of pubic outreach efforts.

On Tuesday night in South Lake Tahoe, staff from the TTD, Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization (TMPO) and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) held an open house at the Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel to get a pulse on the feelings of the public about transportation.

This was the second open house held, the first being on the North Shore on May 17 where about 50 people attended. About 100 people visited the South Shore's event on Tuesday.

There are three goals of the open houses and upcoming online survey, to assist TD in identifying the problems near participant's homes and around the lake, to gather input on potential solutions like preliminary plans to connect Tahoe’s transportation corridors and to inform the public on the new transportation system data.

"We are sharing and getting long range and corridor transportation plans that will go into the next Regional Transportation Plan at the end of 2016," said Carl Hasty, TTD District Manager. The regional plan is required every four years, with the last one being done at the end of 2012.

Of the community members attending Tuesday were a group of students from Jamie Greenough's A.P Environmental Science class at South Tahoe High. The students engaged with the plans and added their own contributions to problems and solutions of the area's transportation issues.

During the open house the public was able to fill out a questionnaire on transportation. This will soon be available in an online version in order to get more participation. It will be available on their website, www.linkingtahoe.com soon.

It is projected that annual visits to Lake Tahoe will increase by up to 20 percent in the next 20 years. With trips defined as travel between two points, there were over 8.5 million trips in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin in February of 2014, over 16 million in July of that same year. If these numbers are expected to drastically increase, a new transportation plan is being looked at to protect the lake while also getting people from Point A to Point B. Getting people out of their cars will drastically reduce the trips during any single visit, including resident travel.

"We had good solutions on State Route 28," said Hasty. "Now we need to look at the rest of Tahoe. It can't be just a plan and we need to improve implementation."

The three participating agencies all have a different role. TRPA establishes environmental thresholds for Lake Tahoe, thereby protecting our environment. TMPO is involved with overview planning for the transportation system within the Tahoe Basin, and with program funding. TTD is responsible for implementing specific projects, plans and transit services that have regional significance.