Regional Transportation Plan

The Regional Transportation Plan will improve water quality, air quality, scenic resources, noise levels, and recreation resources across the Tahoe Region. According to TRPA, Tahoe’s transportation system should meet the daily needs of transit-dependent riders and employees, make it easier for recreational travelers to use transit, and assure visitors they can get around without their cars.

The plan focuses on:

  • Transit: Adding services to provide 15-minute service between town centers and recreation destinations, 30-to 60-minute service between neighborhoods and town centers, and inter-regional service for commuters and visitors from neighboring regions.
  • Technology: Connecting people with information about the many ways to travel around the Region, providing better data and analysis, and ensuring charging facilities are available for electric vehicles.
  • Trails: Increasing trips by foot and bike by providing walking and biking routes.
  • Communities and Corridors: Bringing plan elements together with a corridor planning framework connecting workers to jobs, visitors to recreation, and residents to town centers, housing, and recreation.

Supporting Transportation Plans

The Regional Transportation Plan is supported by a variety of specific transportation plans that align with transit, trails, technology, and communities. Each of these plans inform the development of the RTP and projects that are implemented.

Corridor Plans

Corridor planning is the bridge between the RTP’s goals and policies, the implementation and long-term operation of multi-benefit projects, and the Region’s approach to comprehensively addressing its largest challenges. The Corridor Planning Framework was developed to increase collaboration and accelerate transportation improvements that often cross jurisdictional boundaries.

Corridor planning considers and integrates different travel options, solves implementation challenges, incorporates multiple stakeholder perspectives, and aligns related projects to maximize their benefits, effectiveness, and funding opportunities. Corridor plan projects are incorporated into the RTP project list to advance toward implementation; project champions are key to moving corridor plans and projects to construction and to ensuring partners commit to long-term operations and maintenance.

The Tahoe Region is divided into six corridors based on the unique transportation, recreation, and quality of life needs of each. Corridor planning allows TRPA to leverage its transportation and land use policies to create synergies and maximize the cost efficiencies and benefits of projects. The approach to each corridor is adaptive to recognize and respond to localized needs, but planning always includes active transportation, sustainable recreation, housing, and transit-oriented development within town centers.

Learn more about each of the corridor plans:

Active Transportation Plan

The draft 2024 Active Transportation Plan (ATP) is available for review and public comment through Sunday, March 24, 2024. The public can submit comments to Ryan Murray at rmurray@trpa.gov or by phone at (775) 589-5244.

2024 Active Transportation Plan

2024 ATP Appendices

Improving transportation options for bicyclists and pedestrians is one of the most effective ways to conserve and restore Lake Tahoe’s environment, revitalize the economy, enhance access to recreation opportunities, and improve public health. With your input, the plan update seeks to recommend a range of bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements that both support and encourage folks to reduce their reliance on the personal automobile.

Building a project or want to see routes up close? Check out our Transportation Web Map. 

Transit Plans

The Tahoe Transportation District Short Range Transit Plan and Placer County TART Short Range Plan identify existing and proposed transit infrastructure, operations, and maintenance. The Linking Tahoe: Lake Tahoe Basin Transit Master Plan provides the long term vision for transit throughout the Tahoe Region, including the important connections to our neighbors. The Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan shows how human service agencies work with transportation providers to address the needs of seniors, the disabled, and low-income residents.

Both transit operators produce a Transit Asset Management (TAM) plan every four years to inventory and rate assets, describe support tools used, and produce a prioritized list of investments. View the Tahoe Transportation District TAM Plan and Tahoe Truckee Area Regional Transit TAM Plan. Commitments to the safety are further detailed in TTD Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan and Placer County Transit & TART Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan.

 

Technology

The Intelligent Transportation Systems Strategic Plan identifies opportunities for technology to increase transportation efficiency, safety, and balance. Changeable message signs and online apps are just two examples of how technology can improve our transportation system by giving people the real-time information they need.

Electric Vehicles

The Tahoe Truckee Electric Vehicle Readiness Plan is the blueprint to accelerate transportation electrification in the region. TRPA partnered with the Truckee-Donner Public Utility District and a cross-regional Coordinating Council with the release of an action-oriented readiness plan, providing a road map to strategically deploy electric vehicle infrastructure and user-friendly toolkits. Learn more about the Electric Vehicle Readiness Plan here.

Vision Zero Strategy

Increasing safety and security for all users of the transportation system is one of the 6 major transportation goals, established by the 2020 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The Vision Zero Strategy supports the RTP by providing recommendations for data-derived roadway safety investment projects. This strategy is a comprehensive update to the 2019 Lake Tahoe Region Safety Strategy, with a focus on the Vision Zero approach. Vision Zero is an approach to traffic safety that seeks to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries, while providing safe and equitable transportation for all modes of travel. The TRPA Governing Board endorsed a goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries on Tahoe’s roadways by 2050; this strategy is how we will work towards that goal. The strategy evaluates Tahoe region safety performance and identifies opportunities to reduce the likelihood and risk of crashes on Tahoe roads through strategies, countermeasures, and projects.

Read the 2024 Vision Zero Strategy or learn more about the strategy at the project website.

Public Participation Plan

TRPA’s public participation process gives residents, visitors, and commuters ample time for early, meaningful, and continued involvement in transportation planning and project review. Diverse public input helps TRPA determine what types of projects meet public needs and desires and also ensures that public funds are directed to the areas of highest need. Transparent and inclusive processes increase public participation and ensure well-prepared and publicly-supported plans and projects. Learn more about our public participation process by reading our 2019 Public Participation Plan and 2015 Community Outreach Report (Executive Summary).

Equity and Environmental Justice

TRPA completed the first ever Transportation Equity Study for the Lake Tahoe Region in 2023. The Equity Study and TRPA’s environmental justice initiatives seek to identify the needs, concerns, and vulnerabilities of all those living, working, and visiting the Tahoe Basin and to ensure transportation programs, policies, and activities do not disproportionately and adversely affect identified priority communities. Equity-centered transportation policies seek to equitably distribute transportation benefits and burdens for Tahoe residents, visitors, and commuters with a focus on improving mobility for priority communities:

  • Persons without private transportation (zero vehicle households): Lack of a personal vehicle is a significant factor for transit need. In 2022, 80 percent of Tahoe transit riders did not have access to a personal vehicle.
  • Seniors (individuals 65 years and older): Elderly individuals may choose not to drive or can no longer drive due to age.
  • Persons living below the poverty line: Purchasing and maintaining a personal vehicle might be difficult for households with limited income.
  • Individuals with a disability: Disability status may impact an individual’s ability to live independently, including driving a personal vehicle.
  • Youth (individuals under 18 years old): Most people under 18 do not drive and even those with driver’s licenses often do not have the means to purchase or maintain a personal vehicle.
  • BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color): People of color are more likely to live in densely populated areas, are less likely to have access to a car, and are more likely to bike, walk, and use public transportation to commute to work.

Lea el Estudio de Equidad en el Transporte.

View the project website to learn more.

Historic Regional Transportation Plans

2012 Regional Transportation Plan

The TRPA Governing Board and Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization Governing Board approved an update to the plan on December 12, 2012 in conjunction with the 2012 Regional Plan Update. Mobility 2035 includes a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS) in accordance with California Senate Bill 375 (Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act). The SCS demonstrates how integrated transportation, land use, and housing strategies will help Lake Tahoe meet environmental thresholds and greenhouse gas targets for cars and light trucks on the California side of the Basin.

2012 Regional Transportation Plan

Mobility 2035 RTP/SCS Final EIR/EIS Volume 1
Mobility 2035 RTP/SCS Final EIR/EIS Volume 2