Congestion Management Program

Every year, Alameda CTC collects and analyses systemwide data on the multimodal transportation system and demand to produce a Performance Report that identifies important regional and countywide trends. The 2022 Performance Report, shared with the Commission in February and May 2023, draws on the latest data available to better understand rapidly emerging trends in transportation.

The annual Performance Report is supplemented by Countywide Fact Sheets, which provide an overview of the county's Transportation System, as well as the state of Transit, Freeways, Arterials, Goods Movement, and Active Transportation in Alameda County more specifically. The Fact Sheets below were updated in June 2023. Detailed source information for all Performance Report fact sheets can be found in this reference document.

Previous Performance Reports are available on Alameda CTC's Reports webpage, under Performance Report.
Every two years Alameda CTC collects and analyses detailed multimodal data on a 553-mile network of bridges, freeways, highways, and arterials. This includes average speed and congestion data on major roads and managed lanes (carpool and express lanes), transit speed and performance on roads, and biking and walking activity within Alameda County.

2022 Multimodal Monitoring Report
The 2022 Multimodal Monitoring Report includes state-required reporting of auto speeds and level-of-service along with transit speeds and active transportation data summaries. Speed data were collected in Spring 2022, representing a transitional period as Covid-19 era restrictions were lifting at different rates throughout the county. Active transportation data were collected in fall 2022. The full 2022 Multimodal Monitoring Report and Technical Appendices were published in May 2023 and are available below:

For the 2022 cycle, a new interactive web map, the Alameda County Congestion Tool, displays driving and transit speed data for roads throughout Alameda County, as well as historic congestion data back to 2010.

Previous Monitoring Reports
Previous Multimodal Monitoring Reports, formerly known as Level of Service Monitoring Reports, can be found here.
2023 Congestion Management Program
Alameda County's 2023 Congestion Management Program (CMP) was approved at Alameda CTC's October 2023 Commission meeting. Previous versions can be accessed below.

Previous CMP Updates
What is the CMP?
State legislation regarding CMPs, initially passed in 1991, aims to encourage coordination between agencies to effectively manage congestion, prioritize multimodal solutions to improve air quality and support economic objectives, and further integrate land use planning and development with the transportation system.

In order to address these objectives, the legislation required every urbanized county in the state to establish a Congestion Management Agency (CMA) that conducts CMP activities on a two-year cycle, culminating in adoption of the CMP itself. Current CMP legislation defers considerable authority to CMAs to develop and update CMPs, but mandates that a CMP incorporate the following five key elements:

  1. Biennial monitoring of congestion on a designated roadway network
  2. A multimodal performance element
  3. A travel demand management element
  4. A land use analysis program
  5. A capital improvement program

As the state-designated CMA for Alameda County, Alameda CTC is required to update the CMP every two years. The CMP itself is a short-range plan that includes a variety of congestion and travel demand management strategies, programs, and projects that support long-range planning efforts, including the Countywide Transportation Plan, the Regional Transportation Plan, and the Sustainable Communities Strategy. Alameda County’s CMP meets, and often exceeds, legislative requirements by describing efforts to monitor and improve the performance of every mode of travel. This includes monitoring not only roadway congestion and major land use developments as mandated, but transit performance, bicycle and pedestrian activity throughout the county.

The CMP and SB 743
Current CMP legislation is in conflict with SB 743. The metric used to measure performance is at the heart of this conflict. CMP legislation requires use of a delay-based metric, Level of Service, to measure roadway performance. However, recently amended CEQA guidelines based on SB 743 require vehicle miles-traveled (VMT) as the primary metric for traffic impacts. This move away from LOS to VMT supports Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction goals, multimodal performance measurement, and is in line with the Complete Streets practice. Alameda CTC is evaluating strategies to resolve this legislative conflict.
The Alameda Countywide Travel Demand Model is an essential tool for transportation planning in Alameda County. The model allows Alameda CTC and its partner agencies to anticipate and forecast the potential impacts of local land development decisions and changes to infrastructure on travel patterns in the county. The model is periodically updated to be consistent with the most recent land use and socio-economic database of the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and assumptions of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)’s regional travel demand model.

The most recent Alameda Countywide Travel Demand Model was completed in May 2019 and includes land use and transportation assumptions updated to be consistent with Plan Bay Area 2040. For more information on Plan Bay Area 2040, please go to https://www.planbayarea.org/plan-bay-area-2040.

Alameda CTC is working on a new model that will be consistent with Plan Bay Area 2050 and that will be a version of the activity-based model that MTC has developed. This new model is a joint effort with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) for use in both Alameda and Contra Costa counties. This new model is anticipated to be ready for use by the end of 2022.

Key features of the current model

Information on SB 743, including the Alameda CTC VMT Reduction Estimator Tool and VMT Mapping Tool, can be found on the SB 743 webpage here.