Planners Hoping To Solve Congestion Issues At Lake Tahoe

A new five year plan being considered for Lake Tahoe, calls for expanding local transit service to solve some congestion and environmental concerns. 

It includes free and more frequent bus service, and seamless connections between North and South Shore.

Tom Lotshaw is with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, the organization behind the plan.

He says the federal government didn't used to include tourists when considering funding for the local transit system.

That's now changed, increasing the budget by roughly $3 million a year.

"That's not going to be enough to make the level of investments that we need to really bring Lake Tahoe's transportation system up to par and where it needs to be, but we think we can get creative," says Lotshaw.

Lotshaw says his agency hopes to work with communities around the lake as well as the two state transportation departments. He says the goal is to make the whole transportation system more efficient.

"So that we can really build out a functioning, reliable, free, easy-to-use transit system that links all of our community centers around the lake to those high-use recreation areas," says Lotshaw.

The draft proposal is currently up for public comment, and will be the focus of a public hearing Wednesday.