City, County, School and Regional Plans

A safe routes to school plan is a blueprint for a local or regional strategy to make walking and bicycling to and from school safer and a more attractive travel choice for families. A school or school district can use a safe routes to school plan to initiate support for broader adoption of these important routes into general plans or regional transportation plans. A safe routes to school plan includes strategies to support local communities in establishing new safe routes to school programs as well as sustaining and enhancing existing efforts. A safe routes to school plan will also ensure that tools and resources are focused in areas across the region with the greatest need for assistance.

Schools and school districts can develop school travel plans to encourage safe, efficient and sustainable travel to and from school. Individual goals within school travel plans may include reducing car trips, increasing active transportation and making active transportation safer. Some school travel plans involve the gathering and use of data. School travel plans can help prioritize needs for Safe Routes to School programs.

A bicycle plan (or bicycle master plan) is a document that describes a local agency’s long range plans for bicycle infrastructure and programs. The plan emphasizes designating and expanding bicycle routes, fostering a safe environment for bicycling and promoting bicycling as a viable transportation option.  Bicycle plans are often combined with pedestrian plans. 

The general plan is a guiding document developed by local governments that puts forth a vision for future development.  It helps inform local land use decisions and policies in a manner consistent with a community’s values.  All cities and counties in California are required to create and routinely update a general plan. California law requires that general plans address seven elements: (1) land use, (2) circulation, (3) housing, (4) conservation, (5) open space, (6) noise and (7) safety.

A specific plan is a tool to help implement the general plan. A city or county may prepare a specific plan for an area within its jurisdiction to provide a greater level of detail than is typically included in the general plan.

Local governments use capital improvement plans to identify funding allocations and specific capital projects in the near term (four to 10 year span). Capital improvement plans are often adopted around the same time as annual municipal budgets and are therefore closely aligned with what the municipality’s priorities are and what it will be able to fund in the coming year(s).

Metropolitan planning organizations prepare both regional transportation plans and sustainable communities strategies, both of which are tied together by state law.  Regional transportation plans describe how transportation revenues across the region will be spent over the next 25 years and the sustainable communities strategy explains how a region will integrate land use, housing and transportation planning to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the California Air Resources Board.