The State Transportation Improvement Program, or STIP, is a five-year investment plan for state transportation money.
To keep the plan fresh, the STIP is updated every two years.
The most recent STIP was adopted in 2014 and development of the 2016 STIP is now underway.
Any capital project — from a new roadway or new bike path to a highway expansion or rail line extension — may be included in the STIP to receive state funding.
RTIP + ITIP = STIP
Regional spending plans — developed by MTC for the Bay Area and by other agencies elsewhere in California — account for 75 percent of the STIP.
These are known as Regional Transportation Improvement Programs, or RTIPs.
The remaining 25 percent of the STIP is a statewide spending plan known as the Interregional Transportation Improvement Program, or ITIP. The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) develops the ITIP to fund projects that connect metro areas or cross regional boundaries.
Together, the ITIP and the various RTIPs make up the STIP.
Bay Area Investments
MTC submitted its RTIP proposal for the 2016 STIP in late 2015.
MTC, in cooperation with County Congestion Management Agencies (CMAs) and Caltrans, prepared the 2016 RTIP. The 2016 RTIP provides no new project capacity to the nine-county MTC region. The lack of new project capacity is mainly due to lower-than-anticipated revenues from the price-based excise tax on gasoline.
The Commission approved the 2016 RTIP Policies and Procedures on September 23, 2015, and approved the 2016 RTIP on December 16, 2015. MTC submitted the adopted RTIP to the California Transportation Commission (CTC) in late 2015. The CTC revised the Fund Estimate in January 2016, calling for a major reduction in funding due to lower-than-anticipated revenues from the gas tax. MTC will consider an updated 2016 RTIP on March 23, 2016, and CTC will consider adoption the 2016 STIP (of which the 2016 RTIP is a part) on May 19, 2016.
Questions? Contact Kenneth Kao at kkao@mtc.ca.gov or (510) 817-5768
The following documents and links provide further information on the 2016 RTIP:
- 2016 RTIP Amendment, March 23, 2016
- Final 2016 RTIP Web Document, December 16, 2015
- Final 2016 RTIP Policies and Procedures, September 23, 2015
- Resolution of Local Support
- Project Programming Request (PPR) Form
- Caltrans 2016 STIP Development Resource Page
2016 STIP – State Documents
Every California county receives a designated amount of STIP funding — known as a county share.
MTC receives STIP investment proposals from the congestion management agency in each of the nine Bay Area counties, and reviews them for consistency with the goals of Plan Bay Area, the region's long-range plan that charts a course for transportation investment and land-use priorities through the year 2040.
If all the county proposals pass muster, MTC compiles them into a single Bay Area RTIP.
Once MTC assembles the Bay Area RTIP, it then forwards the proposal to the California Transportation Commission for review.
The CTC must either accept the RTIP in its entirety or send it back to MTC for revision. The CTC similarly reviews the ITIP proposal submitted by Caltrans.