Transportation solutions that work in San Francisco may not work for Sonoma County, and vice versa.
So Bay Area counties develop long-range plans to guide transportation decisions in their own communities.
These countywide plans serve as essential building blocks for the development of our larger regional transportation plan – or Plan Bay Area.
And like Plan Bay Area, countywide transportation plans are regularly updated to reflect new priorities and new financial projections.
One key difference is that while MTC is required by law to adopt a plan, county congestion management agencies – or CMAs – develop their plans voluntarily. And not all Bay Area counties choose to do so.
Get the guidelines that help CMAs perform this important volunteer work.
Congestion management agencies, or CMAs, in eight of the nine Bay Area counties have adopted countywide transportation plans:
- Alameda County Transportation Commission
- Contra Costa Transportation Authority
- Napa County Transportation and Planning Agency
- San Francisco County Transportation Authority
- City/County Association of Government of San Mateo County
- Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
- Solano Transportation Authority
- Sonoma County Transportation Authority
Because each county is unique, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to developing or adopting a Countywide Transportation Plan.
MTC's main interest is to promote consistency between the counties’ transportation planning work and Plan Bay Area.
We streamline the planning process by helping CMAs coordinate development of countywide transportation plans with related work on congestion management plans.
This reduces duplication of local planning efforts.
Seven of the nine Bay Area counties submit congestion management plans to MTC for approval.