Regional tools

Current Regional TOols

Travel Model - Shasta County Regional Activity-based Travel Model (ShastaSIM)

The Shasta Regional Transportation Agency (SRTA) develops and maintains the regional travel demand model, which forecasts land use and corresponding travel behavior at least 20 years into the future for the Shasta County region. It is an important tool used for a variety of planning and programming activities at the agency.  Through modeling SRTA can estimate future traffic volumes, identify potential congestion points, evaluate traffic impacts related to future development projects or policies, and calculate related vehicle emissions.  

ShastaSIM is an advanced activity-based tour model that simulates the travel behavior of all residents in Shasta County over the course of a typical 24-hour weekday. ShastaSIM represents these travel activities as a series of "trip-legs" or "tours" connecting activities each person engages in, such as going to work, shopping or attending school.  The county population is represented by a "synthetic population" which is based on socio-demographic data collected by the US Census.  General land use information (such as residential, office or commercial) is represented at the parcel-level.  This level of detail allows SRTA to evaluate how changes in local/regional/state policies, completion of infrastructure projects or demographic changes of the population (e.g. an aging population) may impact transportation on our highways and local roads, the transit system and/or land use in the region.

ShastaSIM Model Development Report

ShastaSIM 2.0 Supplemental Documentation

Geographic Information System

GIS is a spatial analysis tool used for project development, public involvement and planning.

Regional Projects

Regional Projects

Regional Housing Need Allocation (RHNA)

The regional housing need allocation (RHNA) is a state required process that determines the number of housing units cities and counties must plan for in the Housing Element of their General Plan. This process currently takes place every five years in Shasta County and is conducted between the cities, Shasta County and the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

Transportation Planning Dictionary

Definitions to transportation planning's most curious acronyms and jargon

Future Regional TOols

Land Use Model - Shasta Land Use Model (shatsaLum)

To support the long-range transportation planning activities of the Shasta Regional Transportation Agency (SRTA), a new land use model the Shasta Land Use Model (hereafter abbreviated as ShastaLUM) has been developed.  This software tool can be used as an extension to the SRTA travel demand model to make predictions about how future development patterns might respond to transportation system investment strategies as well as land use regulations, taking near-term real estate development projects into account.  This analysis can be used to meet California state regulatory requirements such as:

  • Developing a Sustainable Communities Strategy through integrated transportation and land use planning, as required by SB 375;

  • Estimating the VMT impacts of transportation projects due to induced development, as required by SB 743; or

  • Estimating the VMT impacts of real estate development projects, taking into account their likely occupancy and impact on land use and transportation systems as a whole.

The ShastaLUM is part of a set of land use forecasting models developed for five regional planning agencies in California, led by the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG).  While not all of these land use models are based upon the same software stack, they share a common architecture and process flow, named the California Common Land Use Model (CCLUM) framework, since it shares many features with land use models built for other regions in California, such as Santa Barbara and San Diego. 

SRTA Planning Data Dashboard

The SRTA Planning Data Dashboard will serve as a unified platform for most of the current tools. This Dashboard will be simple to use, provide data that can be viewed and tracked over time, support regional partners in pursuing discretionary funds, and allow community members to provide feedback to SRTA on regional planning activities.