In a time where both state and federal efforts are pointing toward sustainable planning, Lauren Michele had a unique opportunity to integrate her M.S. Thesis research under the Urban Land Use and Transportation Center (ULTRANS) at UC Davis into the California Interregional Blueprint Phase I Narrative.
Caltrans partnered with ULTRANS to develop a narrative analysis as an initial baseline assessment of the relationship between current plans for the statewide transportation system and regional land use visions. This Phase I Report focuses on regional transportation plans and regional blueprint plans from the State’s four largest metropolitan planning organizations and the eight metropolitan planning organizations working collaboratively in the San Joaquin Valley.
The California Department of Transportation is expanding the State’s transportation planning process to include the development of a state level transportation blueprint focused on interregional travel needs. The California Interregional Blueprint (CIB) will articulate the State’s vision for an integrated, multimodal interregional transportation system that complements regional transportation plans and land use visions. The CIB when fully developed will become the foundation of the 2040 update to the State’s long-range transportation plan, the California Transportation Plan (CTP).
The CIB will help evaluate how well our collective plans (both State and regional) will address future demand for interregional travel, while meeting our goals for a sustainable transportation system. It will strengthen and add relevance to the existing CTP policy plan and will expand the understanding of the interactions between land use and transportation investments, especially those related to greenhouse gas emissions. This understanding will position us to respond to new legislative requirements (SB 391) for the next CTP update that require the plan to define the statewide transportation system that meets our climate change goals under AB 32 and SB 375. The ultimate benefit of this effort will be stronger partnerships, with regional and local agencies and tribal governments, and better data for improved decision-making at the State, regional, and local level.
The California Interregional Blueprint will integrate proposed interregional highway, transit, rail (including high-speed and intercity rail), intelligent transportation system, and goods movement and other transportation system and strategic plans into a common framework for analysis. The CIB will be completed in two phases. As part of Phase I, the Department compiled project data from the State’s long range planning documents – as well as projects from Regional Transportation Plans (RTPs) developed by the State’s Metropolitan Planning Organizations and Regional Transportation Planning Agencies – to define the future interregional transportation system. Using regional growth and land use projections in regional blueprint plans and RTPs, the resulting system will then be analyzed to determine how well it will meet projected demand. As more advanced tools and data become available, the project concepts and strategies along with growth and land use projections will be modeled, and their impact on various outcomes, including greenhouse gas emissions, will be quantified.
The report is broken into sections below for easier download, but only viewable in Internet Explorer:
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Phase I: California’s Multimodal Transportation System – Integrating Statewide Plans
- Integrating Statewide Programs Overview
- Phase II: Measuring Performance of the California Interregional Blueprint
- Stakeholder Workshop Results
- Next Steps
- Appendix A: Maps
Appendix B: Work Plan - Appendix C: Acronyms
- Project Team
- Full Report
**Size 16.7 mb. Large file. Please be patient while file loads.**