As the designated metropolitan planning organization for the Salt Lake and Ogden-Layton Urban Areas, the Wasatch Front Regional Council (WFRC) leads the development of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP). The RTP is the long-term blueprint for our regional transportation system with consideration for how our communities are growing and changing. The plan guides investments across Davis, Salt Lake, Weber, and southern Box Elder Counties and is updated every four years. With input from local governments, transportation agencies, community-based organizations, local stakeholders, and residents, the RTP prioritizes projects that address the Region’s needs over the next 20 years and beyond. The RTP aims to make transportation more convenient, reliable, healthy, and safe. The 2027-2055 RTP will outline investments for all modes of transportation and will form the transportation element of the Wasatch Choice Vision.

The 2027-2055 RTP will be informed by research, discussions, and technical screening and model forecasting to help us understand how the RTP might help us collectively achieve regional quality of life goals (described below). The RTP acknowledges that the Region will not be able to afford all our transportation needs – we must prioritize maintaining a good state of repair, improving safety, and constructing and operating new roadways, transit services, and active transportation facilities. Therefore, the RTP is fiscally constrained within a reasonably anticipated budget using a performance-based planning approach. 

This planning process is coordinated with statewide transportation partners to develop common goals, planning time horizons, performance measures, and financial assumptions, which collectively form Utah’s Unified Transportation Plan.

Utah’s rapid growth heightens the importance of strategic decisions made now and in the coming decades. The RTP addresses growth patterns and the movement of people and goods, focusing on issues like air quality, cost of living, and roadway congestion. It looks to the future to consider how transportation infrastructure can work with land and economic development decisions to maximize overall quality of life. Further, this RTP creates a framework for understanding and responding to future uncertainties that have the potential to alter our transportation, land use, and economic systems. By doing so, WFRC hopes to foster resilience in the Region that helps cities and counties respond and adapt to future challenges and changes.

WFRC has increasingly emphasized the integration of transportation, land use, and economic development, leading to the adoption of the Wasatch Choice Vision – a shared vision for regional transportation investments, development patterns, and economic opportunities that aim to improve quality of life. The RTP informs this Vision, developed in partnership with agencies including the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT), the Utah Transit Authority (UTA), county and city governments, the Mountainland Association of Governments (MAG), other agencies, stakeholders, and the public.

Ten goals form the foundation for the development of the Wasatch Choice Vision and the 2027-2055 Regional Transportation Plan. These goals were adopted by the Wasatch Front Regional Council in October 2016.