Sacramento Regional Transit District representatives were on campus today to present the new transit master plan, a plan that which officials said will help ease traffic congestions caused by Sacramento’s growth growing population.

The open house forum was held to solicit feedback from the Sacramento State community, as many students rely on public transportation to get to school and work.

The Sacramento Area Council of Governments, which provides transportation, planning and funding for the region, created a 50-year land use scenario called the blueprint.

The blueprint was created to help predict the development of the Sacramento region over the next 50 years and was the basis for the creation of the updated transit master plan.

Paul Marx, director of planning for Regional Transit, said the new plan is a reflection of the needs of the community and of the growing Sacramento region.

“The transit master plan is a re-examination of the transit philosophy and it reflects all the demographic changes that have taken place since then,” Marx said, comparing the new plan to the 1993 version.

The transit philosophy is the examination of the basis or structure around which Regional Transit is going to provide transit service to the community.

The plan projects a doubling in growth of Sacramento’s population and is structured to meet the growing population’s needs.

“There is a projected increase in population of over 900,000 and an increase of 800,000 jobs in the Sacramento region,” Marx said. “If we continue to develop in a suburban pattern with family housing, it’s going to make continued transit service very expensive.”

To develop the new transit plan and improve the current transit service, the Regional Transit is going to ask the community for a quarter-cent tax increase to help fund the work on the new transit plan.

Kevan Shafizadeh, professor of civil engineering, was at the forum to talk to Regional Transit.

“I think most people are looking at the accessibility of it, how it will serve them and if it’s worth the additional tax,” Shafizadeh said.

Erika Miner, junior parks and recreation major, was at the forum to learn more about the future of transit service in the Sacramento area.

“I would like to use mass transit but it doesn’t extend to where I need to go,” Miner said. “By providing more routes, the new plan will offer more stops to people.”

For more information on the new transit plan, visit www.sacrt.com.

Isela Reyes can be reached at [email protected].