San Francisco County Transportation Authority
Moving the City

The goal of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority is to provide a community-minded, proactive voice for transportation planning and management in San Francisco, and create a sustainable vision for the City's future transportation needs. We provide project oversight for many transportation improvements, and lead studies for future projects identified in the San Francisco Transportation Plan. We also work with multiple agencies to coordinate efforts on other transportation enhancements citywide and within the region.

See Project Oversight and Projects and Studies for details on specific projects.

SAN FRANCISCO TRANSPORTATION PLAN

We're launching an update to the City's long range transportation plan! See our San Francisco Transportation Plan pages to learn more and give us your feedback.

The San Francisco Transportation Plan (SFTP) is the City’s 25-year plan to identify goals, needs, and investment priorities for our transportation system. It will help shape the next generation of transportation projects and enhancements to improve the way people travel in and around San Francisco.

The first plan was adopted by the Authority Board in July 2004, and established the City's investment strategy and policy initiatives for the sector through a technical and community-based planning process. Today the city faces many challenges—how best to grow chief among them. The decisions that we make today about investing in our transportation system will have a significant effect on helping to maintain San Francisco’s vitality and quality of life well into the future. The SFTP update will guide our city's investment strategy, and input into key regional and statewide planning efforts, so that we can preserve the city's livability, and improve mobility and accessibility in ways that keep San Francisco vibrant.

REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION PLAN

The Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) is a 25-year plan that establishes the 9-county Bay Area region's vision for transportation with supporting policies and investment strategies, including a list of specific projects and programs. Inclusion of projects and programs in the RTP is a prerequisite for receiving state and federal transportation grants, as well as a requirement for capacity expanding projects that may have air quality impacts. In April 2009, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) adopted the Transportation 2035 Plan.   The Authority coordinated San Francisco's inputs into the 2009 RTP.

Among other initiatives, it:

• Doubled funding levels for the Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) grant program which funds projects that provide for a range of transportation choices, support connectivity between transportation investments and land uses, and are developed through an inclusive community planning effort. The RTP commits to focusing TLC funds in Priority Development Areas (PDAs) around the region (more info on San Francisco PDAs here)
• Created a Climate Initiatives grant program to address statewide goals for greenhouse gas reductions from the transportation sector
• Adopted a regional Express Lane network concept (pending legislative approval) to convert the region's carpool lanes to High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes. The revenue generated would be used to build out the rest of the planned carpool network and make complementary multi-modal corridor improvements such as increased express bus service.
• Created the Freeway Performance Initiative (FPI) to increase system efficiency through technology improvements such as ramp metering and traffic monitoring to detect and clear traffic incidents.

The 2013 RTP update process is now underway. Dubbed "One Bay Area," the next RTP will encompass a new integrated transportation, housing, and land use approach called the Sustainable Communities Strategy, which must meet a greenhouse gas reduction target set by the Air Resources Board. The SFTP update is an important opportunity to participate in this regional planning effort, making the case for focusing transportation investments in core parts of the region, and defining the needs San Francisco will advocate for at the regional level.