U.S. Dept. of Transportation Commends MTC For Public Outreach, Inter-regional Partnership

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration and Federal Transit Administration this spring jointly recertified the San Francisco Bay Area’s transportation planning process through May 2020, noting that the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has “made satisfactory progress in implementing federal planning requirements.”

FHWA and FTA specifically commended MTC for its 2013 evaluation of the Plan Bay Area Public Outreach and Participation Program; and for its development of an agreement with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments and the San Joaquin Council of Governments to coordinate and communicate on transportation issues affecting the Northern California mega-region that stretches from the Pacific to Lake Tahoe, and from the Sutter Buttes to the Stanislaus River. USDOT highlighted a number of areas where coordination with the Central Valley was paying dividends to residents and strengthening the economy of Northern California, including passenger and freight transportation, balancing jobs and housing, and Sustainable Communities Strategies for the Bay Area, Sacramento and San Joaquin regions.

The certification review identified no corrective actions to be taken by MTC or its partner agencies over the next four years. FHWA and FTA, however, did recommend that MTC and other Bay Area transportation agencies focus on improving a number of areas including travel demand modeling for air quality assessment, and project cost estimation. The complete report may be viewed here.

MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.