Executive Director's Report

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR STEVE HEMINGER’S REPORT TO THE
COMMISSION MEETING OF OCTOBER 22, 2008

SUMMARY OF EVENTS:

CMA Directors Meeting
Petaluma, September 26

My quarterly get-together with directors of the nine Bay Area congestion management agencies featured discussion about SB 375 (Steinberg), which has since been signed into law, and the Transportation 2035 Plan.

TBPOC Inspection Visit
Hong Kong and Shanghai, September 29-October 3

Chair Bill Dodd and key BATA staff joined the three members of the Toll Bridge Program Oversight Committee (TBPOC) during a week-long trip to China. We met on Changxing Island in Shanghai to inspect fabrication of the self-anchored suspension (SAS) elements of the new east span and to meet with officials from the prime contractor (American Bridge/Fluor) and its Chinese supplier (ZPMC). While in China, we also visited the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge that is open to traffic over the Yangtze River near Shanghai (Sutong Bridge) and the second longest cable-stayed bridge that is under construction in Hong Kong harbor (Stonecutters Bridge).

Business Times Infrastructure Forum
San Francisco, October 7

Commissioner Worth joined me at an infrastructure forum sponsored by the San Francisco Business Times. I was joined in my panel presentation by Judge Quentin Kopp, chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority, Kathleen Brown from Goldman Sachs, and Jim Wunderman of the Bay Area Council.

Mobility 21 Summit
Los Angeles, October 20

In my role as a member of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission, I moderated a panel discussion on the future of the federal transportation program that included State Senator Alan Lowenthal and CTC Commissioner Lucy Dunn.

UCLA Transportation-Land Use-Environment Conference
Lake Arrowhead, October 19-21

I was one of two wrap-up speakers at this annual conference sponsored by the University of California at Los Angeles on the intertwined topics of transportation, land use, climate change, and other environmental issues.

Rail-Volution Conference
San Francisco, October 27-30

A friendly reminder that the Bay Area is host this year to the annual Rail-Volution conference, the nation’s premier discussion forum on transit oriented development (TOD) and livable communities. MTC is a major sponsor of the conference and several commissioners are expected to be in attendance. I will be delivering a brief address on Tuesday morning, and MTC and ABAG are unveiling a series of self-guided audio walking tours that conference attendees can download and use to explore a variety of TOD settings around the region.

Map of the Month

This month’s map depicts the transit service coverage for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area using data from the 511.org Regional Transit Database. Alameda County is served by the largest number of transit services (10); followed by San Francisco and Contra Costa County (8); and Santa Clara County (6). This depiction clearly illustrates the challenge of transit coordination and connectivity among the region’s transit agencies.

• Public Transit Footprint (PDF)
  

The monthly report on the performance of MTC’s operating programs:

• MTC Operational Statistics (PDF)
  
  

Upcoming Events

October 28-31 — AMPO Annual Meeting, Seattle

November 3 — Special Planning Committee Meeting on HOT Network, Oakland

November 16-20 — ITS World Congress, New York