Community Based Transportation Plans

The Community Based Transportation Plan is a collaborative planning process that involves residents in minority and low-income Bay Area communities, community and faith-based organizations that serve them, transit operators, county congestion management agencies (CMAs) and MTC.  Launched in 2002, the MTC regional Community-Based Transportation Planning Program evolved out of two reports completed in 2001 — the Lifeline Transportation Network Report and the Environmental Justice Report.

The Lifeline Report identified travel needs in low-income Bay Area communities and recommended community-based transportation planning as a way for communities to set priorities and evaluate options for filling transportation gaps. Likewise, the Environmental Justice Report identified the need for MTC to support local planning efforts in low-income communities throughout the region.

The outcome of each transportation planning process is a community-based transportation plan that includes locally-identified transportation needs, as well as solutions to address them. Each plan reflects the objectives of the program, which are to:

• emphasize community participation in prioritizing transportation needs and identifying potential solutions;
• foster collaboration between local residents, community-based organizations, transit operators, CMAs and MTC;
• build community capacity by involving community-based organizations in the planning process.

TAM received funds from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to develop a transportation plan for disadvantaged communities in Marin.  The two communities in Marin identified as disadvantaged communities from the Lifeline Transportation Network Report and the Environmental Justice Report are:

• Canal Neighborhood of San Rafael
• Marin City