Screening local and collector facilities

Transportation Analysis under CEQA (TAC) includes a list of project types that may be screened as unlikely to induce travel (Sec. 5.1.1). In two instances, the term “local” has created some confusion: 

• Addition of roadway capacity on local or collector streets provided the project also substantially improves conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, and, if applicable, transit.

• Local and collector roads in rural areas that don’t include sidewalks where there would be no pedestrian traffic to use them. 

The words “collector” (class 5 and 6) and “local” (class 7) refer to functional classification, not ownership. New capacity on class 5-7 roads can be screened as unlikely to induce travel, if other conditions in the description above apply. New capacity on freeways and arterials (classes 1-4) is not screened, even if the facilities are locally owned. In other words, when state- or locally-owned class 1-4 facilities are being added or expanded in a project involving the SHS – as part of a new or wider interchange project, for example – the new capacity on those facilities should be evaluated for induced travel.