Downtown Salinas, California

Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG)

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Metropolitan Planning Organization for the Monterey Bay Area

The Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG), located on California’s Central Coast, is the federally-designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the three-county, 18-city Monterey Bay metropolitan region and is the transportation planning agency responsible for developing and implementing the long-range metropolitan transportation plan, known as the Metropolitan Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (MTP/SCS). The MTP/SCS, combines the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) contributions from three different county transportation planning agencies that represent San Benito, Santa Cruz, and Monterey Counties.

AMBAG’s 2018 MTP/SCS encourages more focused growth in high quality transit corridors.  If implemented, it would expand transit, roadways, and the active transportation network to provide more travel choices and improve residents’ access to jobs and education.  It also aims to address jobs-housing imbalances via job creation and economic development.  With SCS implementation, AMBAG projects a substantial increase in the portion of households and jobs that are within ½ mile of transit stations and stops in 2035. Bus rapid transit operation miles and total daily transit service hours would double from their 2015 levels.  These strategies, together with transportation system management, transportation demand management, active transportation, telecommuting, and an increase in zero-emission vehicles, are projected to reduce transportation-related GHG emissions in the region.

2018 MTP/SCS

Past evaluations are available on request, contact sustainablecommunities@arb.ca.gov.