Planning Tools

Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) maintains several tools to support its transportation planning and growth management activities. These tools are also used to develop our Countywide Transportation Plan (CTP), the implementation of Measure J and more detailed corridor and project studies. Local jurisdictions and agencies also use this information in the analysis of general plan amendments and other major developments.

Comprehensive Transportation Project List (CTPL)

To support its planning, programming and modeling efforts, CCTA maintains a database of transportation projects called the Comprehensive Transportation Project List (CTPL). This database lists transportation projects for which jurisdictions and agencies are seeking federal or State funding.

CCTA has used the CTPL to create the required seven-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the Congestion Management Programs (CMPs) and to define the “universe of projects” used in the Countywide Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP). More recently, CCTA used the CTPL to support the decennial update of its travel demand model and the Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan (CBPP).

The database now contains over 1,200 projects in both Contra Costa and the Tri-Valley portions of Alameda County. The CTPL includes the location of the projects, the project type, project sponsor, a short description and costs and funding (where available).

If you are staff of a project sponsor and would like a user name and password so you can make these edits, please contact Matt Kelly, Senior Transportation Planner, by phone at (925) 256-4730 or by email at mkelly@ccta.net.

Travel Demand Model

Both the Measure C Growth Management Program (GMP) and the State congestion management legislation require CCTA to develop and maintain a travel demand model. These models use information on current and future population and employment, transit ridership, expected roadway improvements, and observed travel behavior to forecast traffic on the regional transportation system. The travel demand model is used in several ways:

Local agencies use it to analyze the effects of new development and changes in their general plans.
Various agencies, including CCTA and Caltrans, use it to analyze the effects on new transportation improvements.
CCTA uses the model to analyze the effects of its plans and programs, including the Countywide Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) and the Congestion Management Program (CMP).

CCTA’s Decennial Model Update, completed in 2003, represents a major upgrade in modeling capabilities. The new model adds greater detail, in both the number of traffic analysis zones and the extent of the transportation network included, and is now integrated with geographic information systems, improving the geographical accuracy and display capabilities of the model.

For more information on the Travel Demand Model, please click here.

Land Use Information System (LUIS)

Estimates of land use and demographics, both current and future, are essential parts of travel forecasting. CCTA maintains a detailed database of land use and demographics, known as the Land Use Information System (LUIS), for use in its Countywide Travel Demand Model.

The LUIS lists the existing and forecast number of households and jobs by Traffic Analysis Zones (TAZs). CCTA developed these detailed forecasts from census-tract-level forecasts prepared by the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). ABAG usually prepares a new set of forecasts every other year and CCTA uses those forecasts to update the LUIS. The LUIS then goes through extensive local review to refine the forecasts to better correspond to expected growth in the different parts of the county.

CCTA’s Countywide Travel Demand Model is currently based on ABAG’s Projections 2013 and incorporates considerable refinements from local jurisdictions. Forecasts are available for the years 2010, 2020, 2030 and 2040. CCTA is transitioning to ABAG’s Projections 2017 (P-2017), based on the land use inputs for the Bay Area’s Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS), part of Plan Bay Area 2040 – the current Regional Transportation Plan (RTP).

The summary tables are available which contain the households and jobs forecasts for cities, towns and unincorporated areas within Contra Costa and the Alameda County portions of Tri-Valley for the LUIS data.

System Monitoring

As part of its transportation planning and growth management responsibilities, CCTA periodically monitors the performance of the transportation system in Contra Costa. Two of the main efforts are the monitoring of the Multimodal Transportation Service Objectives (MTSOs) in the Measure C Growth Management Program (GMP) as part of updates of the Action Plan for Routes of Regional Significance and the Countywide Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP), along with the monitoring of level-of-service standards as part of the Authority’s biennial Congestion Management Program (CMP).

Multimodal Transportation Service Objectives

The Authority monitors the achievement of the objectives for Regional Routes established in the Action Plans and the CTP as part of the periodic update of those plans. The most recent monitoring of these objectives was conducted in 2013. The results are contained in the following reports below:

CMP Level-of-Service Standards

The Authority has monitored the achievement of the level-of-service standards established in the Authority’s Congestion Management Program since the first CMP in 1991. The results of the most recent CMP monitoring report are available for download.Earlier reports can be reviewed at the Authority’s offices.

Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Mitigation Program Study

In order to support the implementation of Senate Bill (SB) 743 in Contra Costa County, the Authority has been developing the framework for a VMT Mitigation Program since 2021. The Study is intended to determine the feasibility of a cost-efficient way to mitigate VMT impacts from land use development and transportation improvements. The Study was funded by a Caltrans Sustainable Communities Transportation Planning Grant.