At the center of the transportation planning process is the Regional Transportation Plan. The RTP is a long-term (20-year) general plan for the region’s transportation network, and encompasses projects for all types of travel, including aviation and freight movement. The plan assesses environmental impacts of proposed projects, and establishes air quality conformity as required by federal regulations. The document also discusses inter-modal and multi-modal transportation activities.
The Federal Transportation Improvement Program is a plan for the incremental implementation of the long-range Regional Transportation Plan. The FTIP presents to federal funding agencies manageable components for the funding of long-term plans.
Kern COG maintains and runs a regional travel demand forecast model or transportation model for the Kern County region. The model is used to forecast the demand for future transportation infrastructure by predicting future travel patterns based on a variety of factors including locally approved general plan land use entitlements, input from local planning departments on socio-economic growth areas, and state and federal data sources. Some of the forecast input variables include populations, households, employment, school enrollment, income, traffic counts, speeds, intersection configuration, existing and planned transportation networks.
As the federally-designated Metropolitan Planning Organization and the state-designated Regional Transportation Planning Agency for Kern County, Kern COG is responsible for developing and updating a variety of transportation plans and for allocating the federal and state funds to implement them.
Although regional transportation planning is its primary role, Kern COG also functions as the state-designated Census Data Center Affiliate for the Kern Region and the Kern Motorist Aid Authority, which operates emergency call boxes on county highways and Kern 511; and provides leadership in the development of Geographic Information Systems in local government.
Following Board direction, staff coordinates between local, state, and federal agencies to avoid overlap or duplication of programs. This intergovernmental coordination enables staff to work with many public agencies to ensure that planning and implementation of programs proceed in a coordinated manner.
A description of tasks to be performed by Kern COG and the costs associated with them can be found in our Overall Work Program (OWP) and Annual Financial Plan.
The following documents contain high level background information on the regional planning process from a variety of sources. For the latest version of these documents, perform a web search of the website for the organization that originally prepared each document.
- Federal Aid Essentials for Local Public Agencies (topical videos)
- A Guide to Transportation Decision Making 2015, FHWA (24 pages)
- Transportation Funding in California 2018, Caltrans (40 pages)
- California Mobility Investment Opportunities 2017, CTC (82 pages)
- Transportation/Air Quality Conformity—A Basic Guide for State and Local Officials 2017, FHWA (24 pages)
- Regional Planning & Climate Change – Understanding SB 375, (8 pages)
- A Guide to Performance Based Planning, 2014 (188 pages)
- The Transportation Planning Process Briefing Book for Transportation Decision Makers, Officials and Staff, 2019 (90 pages)
- Kern COG 101 Presentation, with Bonus Slides, 2025 (89 pages)
